XXIX. Love defined by contraries. Fie, fie, how heavy is light Love in me!- Hath not his perfect shape. [Day. Humour out of Breath, Act iii., Sc. 2.] XXX. Good Faith. What are we but our words? when they are past, XXXI. Weeping for good news. I knew your eye would be first served; That's the soul's taster still for grief or joy. [Rowley and Middleton. A Fair Quarrel, Act i., Sc. 1. See p. 104.] XXXII. Forsaken Mistress. I thought the lost perfection of mankind [Crowne. The Married Beau, Act ii., p. 277. See p. 545.] XXXIII. Love surviving Hope. "Tis a vain glory that attends a Lover, Never to say he quits; and, when Hope dies, [Love and Revenge, by Settle. Act iv., Sc. 2.] 1 [Lamb attributes this to Crowne,] XXXIV. Warriors. I hate these potent madmen, who keep all [Crowne. The Ambitious Statesman, Act ii., p. 177. XXXV. Life. What is't we live for?-tell life's finest tale- And then to love no more! To talk of things we know not, and to know [Love in the Dark, Act iii., p. 52. See p. 565.] XXXVI. Brother, supposed dead, received by a Sister: she shews him a letter, disclosing an unworthy action done by him; at which he standing abashed, she then first congratulates him: -now I meet your love. Pardon me, my brother; I was to rejoyce at this your sadness, before I could share with you in another joy. [H. Killigrew. The Conspiracy, Act v., Sc. 1. See p. 447.] XXXVII. Person just dead. "Twas but just now he went away; I have not yet had time to shed a tear; And yet the distance does the same appear, As if he had been a thousand years from me. Time makes no measure in eternity. [Sir Robert Howard. The Vestal Virgin, Act v., Sc. 1.] XXXVIII. French Character. The French are passing courtly, ripe of wit; XXXIX. Love must die gently. I hoped, your great experience, and your years, Then since the first spring was so sweet and warm, [The Merry Devil of Edmonton, Act ii., Sc. 2. See p. 42.] XL. Poetic Diction. -worthiest poets Shun common and plebeian forms of speech, To clothe their matter; and together tye [Chapman. Revenge of Bussy D'Ambois, Act i., Sc. 1.] XLI. Author Vanity. -the foolish Poet, that still writ All his most self-loved verse in paper royal, Or parchment ruled with lead, smooth'd with the pumice, Bound richly up, and strung with crimson strings; Never so blest as when he writ and read The ape-loved issue of his brain; and never But joying in himself, admiring ever. XLII. [Ibid., Act ii., Sc. 1.] Good Wit to be husbanded. -as of lions it is said, and eagles, That when they go, they draw their seres and talons In vile and vulgar admirations. [Five lines omitted.] [Ibid., Act iii., Sc. 1.] XLIII. Impossibility of attaining, a Bar to Desire. Nothing is more ordinary, than for my Lady to love her Gentleman; or Mistress Anne, her father's man. But if a country clown coming up hither, and seeking for his lawyer in Gray's Inn, should step into the walks, and there should chance to spy some mastership1 of nature; some famed Beauty, that for a time hath been the name; he would stand amazed, perhaps wish that his Joan were such, but further would not be stirred. Impossibility would stop more bold desires, -And quench those sparks that else would turn to fires. XLIV. Theory of Men's choice in a Beauty. 1.-She has a most complete and perfect beauty; nor can the greatest critic in this sort find any fault with the least proportion of her face, but yet methought I was no more taken with it, than I should be with some curious well-drawn picture. 2. That is somewhat strange. 1.-In my mind, not at all; for it is not always that we are governed by what the general fancy of the world calls beauty; for each soul hath some predominant thoughts, which when they light on aught that strikes on them, there is nothing does more inflame. And as in music that pleaseth not most, which with the greatest art and skill is composed; but those airs that do resemble and stir up some dormant passion, to which the mind is addicted; so, I believe, never yet was any one much taken with a face, in which he did not espy aught that did rouse and put in motion some affection that hath ruled in his thoughts, besides those features which, only for the sake of common opinion, we are forced to say do please. [Ibid., Act iii., Sc. 3.2] 1 ["Masterpiece borne of nature."] [The arrangement of the Scenes is peculiar; this is numerically the 6th Sc.] |