Yet hath Sir Proteus. . made use and fair advantage of his days; . . . . his years but young, but his experience old, his head unmellowed, but his judgment ripe. (Two Gen. Ver. ii. 3.)

Had you been as wise as old,

Young in years, in judgment old,

Your answer had not been inscrolled. (Mer. Ven. ii. 7.)

I am only old in judgment and understanding.

(2 H. IV. i. 2.) An aged interpreter though young in days. (Tim. Ath. v. 2.) Thou shouldst not have been old till thou hadst been wise. (Lear, i. 5.)

In dignity, and for the liberal arts,

Without a parallel: those being all my study.

(I) to my state grew stranger, being transported

And rapt in secret studies. .

Me, poor man, my library was dukedom large enough. .
Knowing I loved my books, he furnished me

From mine own library with volumes that

I prize above my dukedom.

(Temp. i. 2.)

154. Why hath not God sent you my mynd, or me

your means.

I look upon myself, and curse my fate,

Wishing me like to one more rich in hope,

Featured like him, like him with friends possess'd.

(Sonnet xxix.)

155. I think it my double good happ both for the

obtaining and for the means.

Ten times double gain of happiness.
A double blessing is a double grace.

(R. III. iv. 4.)

(Ham. i. 3.)

156. Shut the door, for I mean to speak treason.

An. Then give me leave that I may turn the key,

That no man enter till my tale be done.

(Aumerle locks the door.)

York (within.) My liege, beware; look to thyself;

Thou has a traitor in thy presence there. . . .

Open the door, secure, foolhardy king:
Shall I for love speak treason to thy face?
Open the door, or I will break it open, &c.

(See R. II. v. 3.)

Bid suspicion double lock the door. (Ven. Ad. 1. 448.)

A halter pardon him! . . . . I speak within door. (Oth. iv. 2.)

157. I wish one as fitt as I am unfitt.

158. I do not only dwell farre from neighbours, but near yll neighbours.

Our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers. (Hen. V. iv. 1.)
We fear the main intendment of the Scot,

. Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us. (Ib. i. 2.) England shook and trembled at the ill neighbourhood. (Ib.)

159. As please the paynter.

His face is as please the paynter. (Heywood.)

Oli. Have you any commission from your lord to negotiate with my face?... We will draw the curtain, and show you the picture. Look you, Sir; such a one I was this present: is't not well done?

Vio. Excellently done, if God did all.

Oli. "T is ingrain, Sir: 't will endure wind and weather.

(Tw. N. i. 5.)

(See R. Lucrece, 1. 1366-7, 1387-1414, and folio 126.)

160. Receperunt mercedem suam.-Matt. v. 16. (They have their reward.)

Duty never yet did want his meed. (Tw. G. Ver. ii. 4.)
Proffers not took, reap thanks for their reward.

Death's my fee. (Ib. 192.)

(All's W. ii. 1, 150.)

161. Secundum fidem vestram fiet vobis.-Matt. xvi. 28. (Be it unto you according to your faith.)

We will, according to your strengths and qualities, as we hear you do reform yourselves, give you advancement. (2 Hen. IV. v. 5.)

For your faithfulness we will reward you.

(Per. i. 1.)

I will use them according to their desert. (Ham. ii. 2.)

Would thou hadst less deserved,

That the proportion both of thanks and payment

Might have been more.' (Macb. i. 4.)

162. Ministerium meum honorificabo.-Rom. xi. 13. (I will magnify mine office.)

(Quoted in the Essay Of Praise.)

Folio 1866.

163. Beati mortui qui moriuntur in domino.—Rev. xiv. 13. (Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.)

Right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. (Ps. cxvi., quoted Advt. of L. vii. 1.) Dying so, death is to him an advantage. (See Hen. V. iv. 1.) (Compare No. 655.)

164. Detractor portat diabolum in linguâ. (The slanderer carries the devil in his tongue.)

As slanderous as Satan. (Mer. Wives W. v. 5.)

She is dead, slandered to death by villains,

That dare as well answer a man, indeed,

As I dare take a serpent by the tongue. (M. Ado, v. 1.)

'Tis slander

Whose edge is sharper than the sword, whose tongue

Outvenoms all the worms of Nile, whose breast. . . .

Doth belie all corners of the world. . . . the secrets of the grave This viperous slander enters.

(Cymb. iii. 4; and see Cymb. i. 7, 142–148.)

Slander, whose sting is sharper than the sword. (W. T. ii. 3.)

Devil Envy, say Amen. (Tr. Cr. ii. 3.)

That monster envy, oft the wrack

Of earned praise. (Per. iv. 3.)

165. Frangimur heu fatis (inquit) ferimurque procellâ. -Virg. Æn. vii. 594. (We are wrecked, alas! by the fates and hurried on by the storm (of misfortune).

1 'More' in Mr. Collier's text.

But, lords, we hear this fearful tempest sing,
Yet seek no other shelter to avoid the storm;

We see the wind sit sore upon our sails,

We see the very causes of the wreck. (R. II. ii. 1.)

Bates. What thinks he of our estate?

King. Even as men wrecked upon a sand, that look to be washed off the next tide. (H. V. iv. 1.)

(See 3 H. VI. v. 4, 1-39, &c.)

(Oc

166. Nunc ipsa vocat res.-Virg. Æn. ix. 320. casion offers.-Dryden. More literally matter,' or ' occurrence.' There are in the plays and in Bacon's prose works a number of passages in which the advantages of seizing opportunities, or of profiting by occasions or occurrences, are set forth.)

(See Of Opportunity; Lucrece, 1. 874-935.)

I'll sort occasion. (R. III. ii. 3, 147.)

Advantage feeds him fat while men delay. (1 Hen. IV. iii. 3.) Advantage is a better soldier than rashness. (Hen. V. iii. 6.) How all occasions do inform against me,

And spur my dull revenge. (Ham. iv. 5.)

The honourablest part of talk is to give the occasion.

Other encounters so glib of tongue

(Ess. Of Discourse.

That give occasion1 welcome ere it comes. (Tr. Cr. iv. 5.)

Mer. Make it a word and a blow.

Tyb. You shall find me apt enough for that, sir, an' you give

me occasion.

Mer. Could you not take some occasion without giving?

(Rom. Jul. iii. 1, and ib. ii. 4, 161.)

A finder out of occasions. (Oth. ii. 1.) &c.

Occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a bald noddle after she hath presented her locks in front, and no hold taken; or, at least, turneth the handle of the bottle first, &c. (Ess. Of Delays.)

Take the saf'st occasion by the front. (Oth. iii. 1.)

1 Mr. Collier's text. Other editions read give a coasting welcome.'

Not one word of the consumed1 time,

Let's take the instant by the foremost top, &c. (All's W. v. 3.)

(And see M. Ado, i. 2, 13.)

167. Dii meliora piis errorem (que) hostibus illum.Virg. Georg. iii. 513.

(Ye gods to better fate good men dispose,
And turn that impious error on our foes.)

Now the fair goddess Fortune

Fall deep in love with thee; and her great charms
Misguide thy opposer's swords. (Cor. i. 5.)

(See No. 1159.)

168. Aliquisque malo fuit usus in illo.-Ovid. (And there was some use in that evil.)

Deceit bred by necessity. (3 H. VI. iii. 3.)

(Hen. V. iv. 1.)

(Rom Jul. ii. 3.)

There is some soul of goodness in things evil
Would men observingly distil it out.
Vice sometime 's by action dignified.
Instruct my daughter how she shall persever,
That time and place with this deceit so lawful
May prove coherent. . . .

Let us assay our plot: which if it speed,
Is wicked meaning in a lawful deed,
And lawful meaning in a lawful act,
Where both not sin, and yet a sinful fact.

Your title to him doth flourish the deceit.

(All's W. iii. 7.)

(M. M. iv. 1.)

169. Usque adeo latet utilitas.—Ovid.

degree does usefulness lie hidden.)

O mickle is the powerful grace that lies

In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities. .
Within the rind of this small flower

(To such a

Poison has residence, and medicine power. (Rom. Jul. ii. 3.)

1 Compare Essay Of Delays, where delays, like Sibylla's offer, are said to consume part by part, with the whole of the passage in All's Well, v. 3.