As record of fair act; nay, many times,
Doth ill deserve by doing well; what 's worse,
Must court'sy at the censure.

31-iii. 3.

204. Modern and present opinions contrasted.
In this, the antique and well-noted face
Of plain old form is much disfigured:
And, like a shifted wind unto a sail,

It makes the course of thoughts to fetch about;
Startles and frights consideration;

Makes sound opinion sick, and truth suspected,
For putting on so new a fashion'd robe.

16-iv. 2.

205. The act of opposing one thing to another.
Let us, like merchants, shew our foulest wares,
And think, perchance, they 'll sell; if not,
The lustre of the better shall exceed,
By shewing the worse first.

206.

Worldly opinion of things.

What things there are,

Most abject in regard, and dear in use!

What things again, most dear in the esteem,
And poor in worth!

26-i. 3.

26-iii. 3.

207. Things unavoidable not to be deplored.

Be you not troubled with the time, which drives
O'er your content these strong necessities;
But let determined things to destiny

Hold unbewail'd their way.

30-iii. 6.

Things at the worst will cease, or else climb upward To what they were before.

15-iv. 2.

Rumour is a pipe

19-Induction.

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.

211.

19-Introduction.

Rumour, its diffusiveness.

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-Introduction.

Though it be honest, it is never good

To bring bad news: Give to a gracious message
An host of tongues; but let ill tidings tell
Themselves, when they be felt.

213.

Unwelcome news, thankless.

The first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,

30-ii. 5.

Remember'd knolling a departing friend.

19-i. 1.

214.

Extenuation.

Speak of me as I am; nothing extenuate,
Nor set down aught in malice.

37-v. 2.

"T is better to be much abused,

Than but to know 't a little.

216.

Opportunity personified.

37-iii. 3.

Unruly blasts wait on the tender spring;

Unwholesome weeds take root with precious flowers;

The adder hisses where the sweet birds sing;

What virtue breeds, iniquity devours:

We have no good that we can say is ours;

But ill annexed opportunity

Or kills his life, or else his quality.

O, Opportunity! thy guilt is great:

"T is thou that execut'st the traitor's treason;
Thou set'st the wolf where he the lamb may get;
Whoever plots the sin, thou 'point'st the season;
"T is thou that spurn'st at right, at law, at reason;
And in thy shady cell, where none may spy him,
Sits Sin, to seize the souls that wander by him.

Thou mak'st the vestal violate her oath:
Thou blow'st the fire when temperance is thaw'd;
Thou smother'st honesty, thou murder'st troth;
Thou foul abettor! thou notorious bawd!
Thou plantest scandal, and displacest laud:
Thou ravisher, thou traitor, thou false thief,
Thy honey turns to gall, thy joy to grief!

Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame,
Thy private feasting to a public fast;
Thy smoothing titles to a ragged name;
Thy sugar'd tongue to bitter wormwood taste:
Thy violent vanities can never last.
How comes it then, vile Opportunity,
Being so bad, such numbers seek for thee?

When wilt thou be the humble suppliant's friend,
And bring him where his suit may be obtain'd?
When wilt thou sort an hour great strifes to end?
Or free that soul which wretchedness hath chain'd?
Give physic to the sick, ease to the pain'd?
The poor, lame, blind, halt, creep, cry out for thee;
But they ne'er meet with Opportunity.

The patient dies while the physician sleeps;
The orphan pines while the oppressor
feeds;
Justice is feasting while the widow weeps;
Advice is sporting while infection breeds;
Thou grant'st no time for charitable deeds:
Wrath, envy, treason, rape, and murder's rages,
Thy heinous hours wait on them as their pages.

When Truth and Virtue have to do with thee,
A thousand crosses keep them from thy aid;
They buy thy help: but Sin ne'er gives a fee,
He gratis comes; and thou art well appay'd,
As well to hear as grant what he hath said.

Guilty thou art of murder and of theft;
Guilty of perjury and subornation;
Guilty of treason, forgery, and shift;
Guilty of incest, that abomination:
An accessary by thine inclination
To all sins past, and all that are to come,
From the creation to the general doom.

217. The present opportunity to be taken.
Take the instant way;

Poems.

For honour travels in a strait so narrow,
Where one but goes abreast: keep then the path;
For emulation hath a thousand sons,

That one by one pursue: If you give way,
Or hedge aside from the direct forthright,
Like to an enter'd tide, they all rush by,
And leave you hindmost;-

Or, like a gallant horse fallen in first rank,
Lie there for pavement to the abject rear,
O'er-run and trampled on.

Within the infant rind of this small flower
Poison hath residence, and med'cine power:

26-iii. 3.

For this being smelt, with that part cheers each part;
Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart.
Two such opposed foes encamp them still
In man as well as herbs, grace and rude will;
And, where the worser is predominant,
Full soon the canker death eats up that plant.

35-ii. 3.

219. Good may be extracted from evil. There is some soul of goodness in things evil, Would men observingly distil it out;

Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn, Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness. 7-i. 1.

Let still the woman take

An elder than herself; so wears she to him,

So

sways she level in her husband's heart.
However we do praise ourselves,

Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,
More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn,
Than women's are.

4-ii. 4.

221.

Posthumous good and evil.

The evil, that men do, lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones. 29-iii. 2. Goodness often misinterpreted.

222.

To some kind of men,

Their graces serve them but as enemies.-
O, what a world is this, when what is comely
Envenoms him that bears it!

10-ii. 2.

Which buys admittance; oft it doth; yea, and makes Diana's rangers, false themselves, yield up

Their deer to the stand of the stealer; and 't is gold Which makes the true man kill'd, and saves the thief; Nay, sometimes hangs both thief and true man: What Can it not do, and undo?

224.

Gold

The mind contaminated by gold.

This yellow slave

31-ii. 3.

Will knit and break religions; bless the accursed ;
Make the hoar leprosy adored; place thieves,
And give them title, knee, and approbation,
With senators on the bench: this is it,
That makes the wappen'de widow wed again;
She, whom the spital-house and ulcerous sores
Would cast the gorge at, this embalms and spices
To the April day againf.

225.

The judgment corrupted by gold.

27-iv. 3.

O thou sweet king-killer, and dear divorce
Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler
Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars!

Thou ever young, fresh, loved, and delicate wooer,
Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow
That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god,

That solder'st close impossibilities,

And mak'st them kiss! that speak'st with every tongue,

f

• Sorrowful.

i. e. Gold restores her to all the sweetness and freshness of youth.