55

Rumour, its diffusiveness.

Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures ;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,
That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it.

19—Induction. 56

The same.

Loud Rumour speaks: I, from the orient to the drooping west, Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold The acts commenced on this ball of earth : Upon my tongues continual slanders ride ; The which in every language I pronounce, Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.

19-Induction. 57

Companionship.

In companions That do converse and waste the time together, Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love, There must be needs a like proportion Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit. 9-iii. 4. 58

Friendship. Friendship is constant in all other things, Saye in the office and affairs of love : Therefore,* all hearts in love use their own tongues; Let every eye negotiate for itself, And trust no agent: for beauty is a witch, Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.t

6-ii. 1. 59

Happiness, where delusive. O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man's eyes !

10-v. ii. 60

The effect of show on weak minds. The fool multitude, that choose by show, Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach ; Which pries not to th' interior, but, like the martlet,

“Therefore.' Let, which is found in the next line, is understood here.

† Passion

Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
Even in the force* and road of casualty.

9-ü. 9. 61

True Modesty.
It is the witness still of excellency,
To put a strange face on his own perfection. 6—ii. 3.
62

Intellectual advancement.
For nature, crescent,t does not grow alone
In thews and bulk; but as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal.

36—i. 3. 63

Guile. O, what authority and show of truth Can cunning sin cover itself withal! 6-iv. 1. 64

Hypocrisy. The devil can cite scripture for his purpose. I An evil soul, producing holy witness, Is like a villain with a smiling cheek; A goodly apple rotten at the heart; O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! 9-i. 3. 65

Fear unfits for action. The guilt being great, the fear doth still exceed, And extreme fear can neither fight nor fly, But coward-like with trembling terror die. Poems. 66

Fame, the love of. Glory grows guilty of detested crimes; When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, We bend to that the working of the heart. 8-iv. 1. 67

Fickle-mindedness.

O perilous mouths,
That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,
Either of condemnation or approof!
Bidding the law make court'sy to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite,
To follow as it draws!

5-ii. 4.

* Power

| Increasing

| Matt. iv. 6.

68

Duplicity.
0, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side!
How may

likeness,*

* made in crimes, Making practice on the times, Draw with idle spiders, stringst Most pond'rous and substantial things ! 5-iii. 2. 69

Calumny.
Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow,

thou shalt not escape calumny.

36-iii. 1. 70

False praise.
When we for recompense have praised the vile,
It stains the glory in that happy verse
Which aptly sings the good.

27-i. 1. 71

Falsehood, its evil.

Will poor folks lie, That have afflictions on them; knowing 'tis A punishment, or trial? Yes; no wonder, When rich ones scarce tell true: To lapse in fulness Is sorer,s than to lie for need; and falsehood Is worse in kings, than beggars.

31-iii. 6. 72

Mercy.

0, it is excellent To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant.

5-ii. 2. 73

Authority. Could great men thunder As Jove himself

does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting,ll petty officer,

[der.Would use his heaven for thunder: nothing but thunMerciful Heaven ! Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt, Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled T oak,

* Appearance.

† False and feeble pretences. I Sorer, a greater or heavier crime. $ The poble saying of John of France. That if truth were banished all other places of the earth, she ought still to find a dwelling in the hearts of kings.'

# Paltry.

I Knotted.

/

Than the soft myrtle !–0, but man, proud man !
Drest in a little brief authority-
Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
His glassy essence,-like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep.

5–11. 2. 74

Divine Justice.

You are above,
You justicers, that these our nether crimes
So speedily can venge!

34-iv. 2. 75

Unseasonable comfort.
That comfort comes too late;
'Tis like a pardon after execution:
That gentle physic, given in time, had cured me;
But now I am past all comforts here, but prayers.

25-iv. 2. 76

Things to be valued by their worth. From the lowest place when virtuous things proceed, The place is dignified by the doer's deed : Where great additions* swell, and virtue none, It is a dropsied honour : good alone Is good, without a name; vileness is so:f The property by what it is should go, Not by the title.

11-ii. 3. 77

Fidelity.

We must not stinti
Our necessary actions, in the fear
To cope malicious censurers; which ever,
As ravenous fishes, do a vessel follow,
That is new trimm'd; but benefit no farther
Than vainly longing.

25-i. 2. 78 Judgment of weak minds not to be regarded.

What we oft do best,
By sick interpreters, oncell weak ones, is
Not ours, or not allow'd ;f what worst, as oft,

Titles. † Good is good independent of any worldly distinction, and so is vileness vile.

| Retard. § Encounter. | Sometime. 1 Approved.

Hitting a grosser quality, is cried up
For our best act.

25-i. 2. 79

Depravity.
Wisdom and goodness to the vile seem vile :*
Filths savour but themselves.

34-iy. 2. 80

Oppression.
In the fatness of these pursy times,
Virtue itself of vice must pardon beg;
Yea, curbf and woo, for leave to do him good.

36_iii. 4. 81

Traducement.
O wicked wit, and gifts, that have the power
To seduce !

36-i. 5. 82

Flattery.
O, that men's ears should be
To counsel deaf but not to flattery!

27-i. 2. 83

Virtue and Vice. Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall: Some run from brakest of vice, and answer none; And some condemned for a fault alone. 5-ii. 1. 84

Satan outwitting himself. The devil knew not what he did, when he made man politic; he crossed himself by't : and I cannot think, but, in the end, the villanies of man will set him clear.

27-iii. 3.

Carnality.
Ingrateful man, with liquorish draughts,
And morsels unctuous, greases his pure mind,
That from it all consideration slips. 27-iv. 3.
86

Mental deformity and virtue.
In nature there's no blemish, but the mind;
None can be call'd deform’d, but the unkind:

* Titus i. 15.

† Bend. I · Brakes of vice,' means the engine of torture. In Holinshed,

670, it is mer ned, 'the said Hawkins was cast into Tower, and at length brought to the brake,' &c. This engine is still to be seen in the Tower.