I give this heavy weight from off my head, And this unwieldy sceptre from my hand, The pride of kingly sway from out my heart; With mine own tears I wash away my balm, With mine own hands I give away my crown, With mine own tongue deny my sacred state, With mine own breath release all duty's rites. ABSENCE. Shakespeare, Ric. II. IV. 1. What! keep a week away! Seven days and nights? Eight score eight hours? and lover's absent hours, More tedious than the dial eight score times? O weary reckoning! It so falls out, That what we have we prize not to the worth Sh. Oth. III. 1. Sh. M. Ado, IV. 4. T. May, Henry II. Absence not long enough to root out quite Though lost to sight, to memory dear. Michael Drayton. The authorship of this familiar saying is unknown, but it partakes very much of the preceding couplet. Fly swift, ye hours, you measure time in vain, Till you bring back Leonidas again: Be swifter now; and, to redeem that wrong. When he and I are met, be twice as long. Dry. Mar. a la M. Love reckons hours for months, and days for years; And every little absence is an age. All flowers will droop in absence of the sun Dry. Amphitrion. Dry. Aurengzebe. Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore, * Overrate. Pope, Eloisa. B 2 ABSENCE-continued. ABSENCE-ABSTINENCE. No happier task these faded eyes pursue; Pope, Elcisa. Pope, Eloisa. Pope. Goldsmith, Traveller, 7. Cowper, Task, VI. Not to understand a treasure's worth Byron, Bride of Ab. Byron, Don Juan, 111. 22. O tell him I have sat these three long hours, Jo. Baillie, Raynor, 1. 1. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Oh! couldst thou but know With what a deep devotedness of woe ABSTINENCE. Moore, Lalla Rookh. Yet abstinence in things we must profess, Herrick, Aph. 331. He is deformed, crooked, old, and sere, Ill-faced, worse-bodied, shapeless every where ; Stigmatical in making, worse in mind. Sh. Com. Er. IV. 2. Thou yard, three-quarters, half-yard, quarter, nail, I have shot mine arrow o'er the house, As the unthought-on accident is guilty Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies ACCOUNT. No reckoning made, but sent to my account Sh. T.S.IV.3. Sh. Ham. V. 2. Sh. Wint. T. IV. 3. Sh. Ham. 1. 5. And how his audit stands, who knows, save Heaven? Ib.111.3. ACHIEVEMENTS. Great things thro' greatest hazards are achiev'd, ACTION- -see Promptitude. Beaumont, Loy. Sub. Away, then; work with boldness and with speed; On greatest actions greatest dangers feed. Marlowe, Lust. D. Daniel, Phil. Sh. Jul. C. III. 3 For who knows most, the most he knows to doubt; Is to give worth reward-vice punishment. Donne Heath, Clar. B. & F. Capt * A beautiful vale eighteen miles from Florence. Some place the bliss in action, some in ease, Those call it pleasure, and contentment these. Pope, E. M. 1v.21. The body sins not; 'tis the will That makes the action good or ill. Herrick, Aphor. ACTIVITY—see Decision, Despatch, Energy, Promptitude. Wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, Sh. Mac. 1. 7. Sh. Hen. VI. pt. 3, v. 4. For emulation hath a thousand sons, Celerity is never more admired Sh. Troil. & Cress. III. 3. Sh. Ant. & Cleop. III. 7. The wise and active conquer difficulties, Rowe, Amb. Stepm. Run if you like, but try to keep your breath: Work like a man, but don't be worked to death. ACTORS-see Players. Look to the players; see them well bestow'd: Holmes. They are the abstract and brief chroniclers of the times. They say we live by vice; indeed 'tis true, Only to cure them. Boldly I dare say, There have been more by us in some one play Sh. Ham. II. 2. Randolph. By twenty tedious lectures drawn from sin, And foppish humours; hence the cause doth rise, Randolph. If we do meet again, why, we shall smile ; ADIEU- —see Farewell, Parting. If not, why then this parting was well made. Sh. Jul. C. v. 1. ADIEU-continued. ADIEU-ADVERSITY. Then came the parting hour, and what arise The night-winds sigh, the breakers roar, And shrieks the wild sea-mew. Yon sun that sets upon the sea We follow in his flight; Farewell awhile to him and thee, My native land-good night. ADMONITION—see Advice. 5 Crabbe, Tales. Byron, Ch. H. 1. 13. Sum up at night what thou hast done by day; Dress and undress thy soul. Watch the decay, Most surely judged, make thy accounts agree. Herbert, Temp. I warn'd thee, I admonish'd thee, foretold The danger, and the lurking enemy That lay in wait; beyond this had been force, And force upon free-will hath here no place. Be wise with speed; A fool at forty is a fool indeed. ADULTERY. [76. Milton, VII. 77. Young, Sat. II. 282. What men call gallantry, and gods adultery, ADVERSITY-see Affliction. Byron, Don Juan, 1. 63. 'Tis strange how many unimagin'd charges when once the lid Can swarm upon a man, Of the Pandora box of contumely Is open'd o'er his head. So noble a master fallen! all gone! and not Shakespeare, Poems. Such a house broke ! Sh. Timon, 11. 2. Sh. Timon, v. 3. This is in thee a nature but affected; From change of fortune. The great man down, you mark his favourite flies, The poor advanced makes friends of enemies. Sh. Ham. 111.2. |