Ourselves to be the flaves of chance, and flies
Of every wind that blows.
Shakespear's Winter's Tale.
Great works do oft yield grievous accidents, Which ftir up peoples rage beyond intents.
Good things, that come of course, far lefs do please, Than thofe, which come by fweet Contingencies.
If we confider accident,
And how repugnant unto sense,
It pays defert with bad event,
We all difparage Providence.
Sir William Davenant's Cruel Brother.
AC CLAMATION S.
Give me the cups;
And let the kettle to the trumpets speak,
The trumpets to the cannoneer without,
The cannons to the heav'ns, the heavn's to the earth, Now the King drinks to Hamlet.
Shakespear's Hamlet. 1. Give way, make place; room for the conful. 2. Hail!
Hail, great Sejanus! 1. Hail, my honour'd lord!
3. We fhall be mark'd anon, for our not-hail.
4. That is already done. 3. It is a note
Of upftart greatnefs, to obferve and watch
For these poor trifles, which the noble mind.
Neglects and fcorns. 4. Ay, and they think themfelves
Deeply dishonour'd, where they are omitted;
As if they were neceffities that help'd
To the perfection of their dignities;
And hate the men that but refrain them.
His fpeech was anfwer'd with a gen'ral noise Of acclamations, doubtlefs figns of joys Which Soldiers utter'd, as they forward went, The fure fore-runners of a fair event :
So when the winter, to the spring bequeaths
The rule of time, and mild Favonius breaths,
A choir of fwans, to that fweet mufick fings,
The air refounds the motion of their wings,
When over plains they fly in order'd ranks,
To sport themselves upon Caifter's banks.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS.
Noble fhe is by birth, made good by virtue,
Exceeding fair, and her behaviour to it,
Is like a fingular mufician
To a sweet inftrument, or elfe as doctrine
Is to the foul, that puts it into act,
And prints it full of admirable forms,
Without which 'twere an empty, idle flame.
Her eminent judgment to dispose those parts,
Sits on her brow and holds a filver scepter,
With which she keeps time to the feveral muficks,
Plac'd in the facred concert of her beauties:
Love's compleat armoury is manag'd in her,
To ftir affection, and the difcipline
To check and to affright it from attempting.
Any attaint might difproportion her,
Or make her graces less than circular;
Yet her even carriage, is as far from coyness
As from immodefty; in play, in dancing,
In fuffering courtship, in requiting kindness,
In ufe of places, hours, and companies
Free as the Sun, and nothing more corrupted;
As circumfpect as Cynthia in her vows,
And conftant as the center to observe them;
Ruthful, and bounteous, never fierce nor dull,
In all her courfes ever at the full.
George Chapman's Monfieur D'Oliv:.
She is of the best blood, yet betters it With all the graces of an excellent spirit: Mild as the infant rofe, and innocent
As when heav'n lent her us. Her mind, as well
As face, is yet a paradice untainted
With blemishes, or the fpreading weeds of vice.
Robert Baron's Mirza.
ACCUSATION.
1. You would grow unjust unto yourself, To own the error of your fate.
2. Fortune and fate are merely names,
For were they real pow'rs, they'd not endure,
That fools fhould prove them guilty of our ills.
1. Your paffion makes you fubject to mistake.
2. 'Tis a fad truth, and no mistake of rage;
If every ftar were guilty of thofe crimes
Of which fo fev'rally they've been accus'd,
By the long continu'd race of erring men,
They would have loft their hurtful influence
Ere this, for the fupreme juft power would
Then neglect them.
Sir William Davenant's Fair Favourite. Give me good proofs of what you have alledg'd. 'Tis not enough to say, in fuch a bush
There lies a thief, in fuch a cave a beaft,
muft fhew him to me ere I fhoot,
Elfe I may kill one of my ftraggling sheep:
I'm fond of no man's perfon, but his virtue.
Prove that the duke and loyalty are strangers,
And he and I will be as far afunder
As life and death; the grave fhall be betwixt us.
Crown's First Part of Henry VI, ACTION.
Away then, work with boldness, and with speed, On greatest actions greatest dangers feed.
Chriftopher Marlee's Luft's Dominion.
Grow in the veins of actions highest rear'd ;
As knots by the conflux of meeting fap
Ir fect the found pine, and divert his grain
Tortive and errant from his course of growth.
Shakespear's Troilus and Creffida.
Bring action hither;
A stirring dwarf we do allowance give,
Before a fleeping giant.
Shakespear's Troilus and Creffida
All their actions are govern'd by crude opinion,
Without reafon, or caufe; they know not why
They do any thing; but as they are inform❜d,
Believe, judge, praife, condemn, love, hate,
And in emulation one of another,
Do all these things alike, only they have
A natʼral inclination fways them generally
To the worst, when they are left to themselves.
Johnson's Silent Woman.
Yet is the office not to be defpis'd,
If only love should make the action priz'd.
Men find that action is another thing,
Than they do in difcourfing papers read:
The world's affairs require in managing
More arts than those wherein your clerks proceed :
Whilft tim'rous knowledge itands confidering,
Audacious ignorance hath done the deed.
For who knows moft, the more he knows to doubt;
The leatt difcourfe is commonly most stout.
Let not the least act now of his, at laft, Mar all his act of life, and glory past,
Daniel's Philotas. For good and well must in our actions meet; Wicked is not much worse than indiscreet.
Things of this nature sprung
When they mean action, muft ufe little tongue.
Middleton's and Rowley's Fair Quarrel. Good actions crown themselves with lafting bays,.. Who deferves well, needs not another's praise.
-The end of every act
Is to increase contentment and renown,
Both which, my love, fhall amply joy in you.
2. How can renown enfue an act of fhame.
1. No act hath any fhame within itself,
But in the knowledge and afcription.
Chapman's Blind Beggar of Alexandria.
Of every noble action, the intent
Is to give worth reward, vice punishment,
Beaumont's and Fletcher's Captain.
If thou doft ill, the joy fades, not the pains:
If well, the pain doth fade, the joy remains.
Be well advis'd, and wary council make,
Ere thou dost any action undertake.
Hav'ng undertaken, thy endeavours bend
To bring thy actions to a perfect end.
Time will be waited on by majefty;
'Tis proper to an action, as place
To bodies: When the winds are contrary,
Wife pilots change their courfe: When they are for❜t, They veer about, and make up to their port.
Charles Aleyn's Poitiers.
Actions are weakned with too hafty speed,
Thus predigeftion doth difeafes breed,
Heads are the wombs where actions must be
Conceiv'd, and fashioned in all their parts,
And ftay the time of juft delivery,
Or elfe the head mifcarries, and aborts.
A hudling hafte fhapes no productions right:
Jove could not get the mufes in a night.
Nothing our own, if they be deeds to come;
They're only our's when they are past and done.
Thomas Middleton's Mayor of Queenborough.
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