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And fight and die, is death destroying death;
Where fearing dying, pays death servile breath.

502

Time tedious to the afflicted.

17-iii. 2.

Short time seems long, in sorrow's sharp sustaining, Though woe be heavy, yet it seldom sleeps,

And they that watch, see time how slow it creeps.

Poems.

503

Guilt its own tormentor.
Better be with the dead,

Than on the torture of the mind to lie

In restless ecstasy.

504

15-iii. 2.

Hypocrisy.

Some, that smile, have in their hearts, I fear,

Millions of mischief.

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29-iv. 1.

Can vengeance be pursued farther than death?

506

A noble resolve.

35-v. 3.

Had I a dozen sons,-each in my love alike,-I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country, than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.

507

Sorrows eased by being imparted.

Why should calamity be full of words?

Windy attorneys to their client woes,
Airy succeeders of intestate joys,*

Poor breathing orators of miseries!

28-i. 3.

Let them have scope; though what they do impart

Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart.

508

Flattery.

He that's once denied, will hardly speed.

This

24-iv. 4.

Is the world's soul; and just of the same piece
Is every flatterer's spirit.

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My heart laments, that virtue cannot live
Out of the teeth of emulation.t

* Joys that are dead.

27-iii. 2.

29-ii. 3.

† Envy.

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Sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow

For debt, that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe.

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7-iii. 2.

A great perturbation in nature! to receive at once the benefit of sleep, and do the effects of watching. 15-v. 1.

512

The instability of human happiness.
This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope, to-morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him:
The third day, comes a frost, a killing frost;
And,-when he thinks, good easy man, full surely
His greatness is a ripening,-nips his fruit,*
And then he falls.

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25-iii. 2.

Then was I as a tree,

Whose boughs did bend with fruit: but in one night,
A storm, or robbery, call it what you will,

Shook down my mellow hangings, nay, my leaves,
And left me bare to weather.

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This gate

31-iii. 3.

Instructs you how to adore the heavens; and bows

you

To morning's holy office: The gates of monarchs
Are arch'd so high, that giants may jett through
And keep their impious turbands on, without
Good-morrow to the sun.

515

Town and country life contrasted.
Often, to our comfort, shall we find
The sharded beetle in a safer hold

31-iii. 3.

* Root is received by all the commentators, but evidently wrong; if fruit be taken, then the metaphor throughout is complete.-In confirmation of this, it may be observed that frosts do not nip the roots of trees and plants; they are so deep in the earth as to be protected from the influence of frosts. And it is therefore not to be thought that Shakspeare, who was so minute and accurate an observer of nature, should have written root.

↑ Strut, walk proudly.

Scaly-winged.

Than is the full-wing'd eagle. O, this life*
Is nobler, than attending for a check;t
Richer, than doing nothing for a babe ;‡
Prouder, than rustling in unpaid-for silk :
Such gain the cap of him, that makes them fine,
Yet keeps his book uncross'd.

Did you but know the city's usuries,

And felt them knowingly; the art o' the court,
As hard to leave, as keep: whose top to climb
Is certain falling, or so slippery, that

The fear's as bad as falling; the toil of the war,

A pain that only seems to seek out danger

I' the name of fame, and honour; which dies i' the And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph,

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As record of fair act; nay, many times,

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31-iiį. 3.

Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse,
Must court'sy at the censure.

516

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Secrecy.

Affairs, that walk at midnight, have

In them a wilder nature, than the business
That seeks despatch by day.

517

Death terrible to the wicked.
Death is a fearful thing,

25-v. 1.

And shamed life a hateful.
To die, and go we know not where;
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless) winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world, or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling!-'tis too horrible!
The weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment,
Can lay on nature, is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

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5-iii. 1.

† Command, control. § Invisible.

518 Greatness, the pain of separating from. The soul and body rive* not more in parting, Than greatness going off.

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30-iv. 11.

When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand; When the sun sets, who doth not look for night? Untimely storms make men expect a dearth.

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Before the days of change, still is it so :
By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust
Ensuing danger; as, by proof, we see

The water swelled before a boist'rous storm,
But leave it all to God.

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An habitation giddy and unsure

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.

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24-ii. 3.

24-ii. 3.

It hath been taught us from the primal state,
That he, which is, was wish'd until he were;

19-i. 3.

And the ebb'd man, ne'er loved, till ne'er worth love,
Comes dear'd by being lack'd. This common body,
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,

Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.

523

30-i. 4.

The effects of care on age and youth. Care keeps his watch in every old man's eye, And where care lodges, sleep will never lie; But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain. Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign. 35-ii. 3.

524

Impartiality to be shown in judging.

He, who the sword of Heaven shall bear,

Should be as holy as severe :

Pattern in himself to know,

Grace to stand, and virtue go;

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More nor less to others paying,
Than by self-offences weighing.
Shame to him, whose cruel striking
Kills for faults of his own liking!

525

Suspicion.

5-iii. 2.

Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
The thoughts of others!

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That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness?

527

Life.

Hold the world but as the world,

9-i. 3.

5-ii. 2.

A stage, where every man must play a part. 9-i. 1.

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In our own natures frail; and capable
Of our flesh, few are angels.

529

Ambition.

Glory is like a circle in the water,

Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,

25-v. 2.

Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to nought.

530

Pleasure, preferred to knowledge.

21-i. 2.

Who, being mature in knowledge,

Pawn their experience to their present pleasure,

And so rebel to judgment.

531

30-i. 4.

Mind uncultivated.

"Tis an unweeded garden,

That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature, Possess it merely.*

532

Opportunity personified.

Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring;

36-i. 2.

Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers; The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing;

* Entirely.

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