Give not a windy night a rainy morrow
To linger out a purposed overthrow.

But in the onset come; so shall I taste
At first the very worst of fortune's might.
Sonnet 90.

MONTAIGNE, Livre II, 17.1

J'ayme les malheurs tous purs, qui ne m'exercent et tracassent plus aprés l'incertitude de leur rabillage, et qui du premier saut me jettent droictement en la souffrance.

AUTHOR UNKNOWN

To die is all as common as to live;

The one in choice, the other holds in chase:
For from the instant we begin to live

We do pursue and hunt the time to die.

The Reign of King Edward the Third (IV, iv). 1596.

MONTAIGNE, Livre I, 20 (19).

Le premier jour de vostre naissance vous achemine à

mourir comme à vivre.

1 I give the French here, because Florio's translation of this passage is peculiarly bad; and as my purpose is not to point out anything akin to imitation, but only similarity of feeling, the English is not needed.

Aprés here indicates, not time but aim (the Irish "after"). The sentence is a difficult one, but the first clause may, perhaps, be freely rendered: "I prefer complete misfortunes that rouse me to no further exertion toward the uncertainty of bettering them."

I will not give a penny for a life,

Nor half a halfpenny to shun grim death,
Since for to live is but to seek to die,

And dying but beginning of new life.

Let come the hour when he that rules it will!

To live, or die, I hold indifferent.

MONTAIGNE, Livre I, 20 (19).

See citation under Bacon (Apophthegm 221), p. 44.

SIR HENRY WOTTON (1568-1639)

Ib.

Now for the inside (of a house), here grows another doubt, wherein Grotesca (as the Italians) or Antique work (as we call it) should be received; against the express authority of Vitruvius himself lib. 7, cap. 5 where Pictura (saith he) fil ejus, quod est, seu potest esse; excluding, by this severe definition, all Figures composed of different natures or sexes; so as a Syrene or a Centaure had been intolerable to his eyes But what was more common and familiar among the Romans themselves than the Picture and Statue of Terminus, even one of their deities? which yet if we well consider is but a piece of Grotesca; I am for these reasons unwilling to impoverish that art, though I could wish such medlie and motlie designes confined only to the ornament of Freezes and Borders, their properest place. Elements of Architecture.

MONTAIGNE, Livre I, 28 (27).

Considerant la conduite de la besongne d'un peintre que j'ay, il m'a pris envie de l'ensuivre. Il choisit le plus noble endroit et milieu de chaque paroy pour y loger un tableau élabouré de toute sa suffisance; et le vuide tout au tour, il le remplit de crotesques, qui sont peintures fantasques n'ayant grace qu'en la varieté et estrangeté.

Lord of himself, though not of lands,
And having nothing, yet hath all.

MONTAIGNE, Livre I, 42.

Un tel homme est cinq cens brasses au dessus des royaumes et des duchez: il est luy mesmes à soy son empire et ses richesses; il vit satis-fait, content et allegre. Et, à qui a cela, que luy reste il à desirer?1

BEN JONSON (1573-1635)

For what is life, if measured by the space
Not by the act?

To the immortal memory of Sir Lucius Cary and Sir Henry Morison.

MONTAIGNE, Livre I, 20 (19).

L'utilité de vivre n'est pas en l'espace, elle est en usage. Tel a vescu long temps, qui a peu vescu.

Ny les hommes ny leurs vies ne se mesurent à l'aune.

1 Cf. Horace, Sat. II, vii, 83 — quoted by Montaigne. Cf. Racan (1589-1670):

"Roi de ses passions, il a ce qu'il désire,

Son fertile domaine est son petit empire."

Hear (with Alexander) the answer the musician gave him, Absit, ô rex, ut tu melius haec scias, quàm ego. Discoveries (Modestia-Parrhesia).

See citation under Bacon (Advancement of Learning, I, vii, 6), p. 14.

They say princes learn no art truly, but the art of horsemanship. The reason is, the brave beast is no flatterer. He will throw a prince as soon as his groom. Ib. (Illiteratus princeps).

MONTAIGNE, Livre III, 7.

Carneades disoit que les enfans des princes n'apprennent rien à droict qu' à manier des chevaux, d'autant que en tout autre exercice chacun fleschit soubs eux et leur donne gaigné: mais un cheval, qui n'est ny flateur ny courtisan, verse le fils du roy à terre comme il feroit le fils d'un crocheteur.

If men did know what shining fetters, gilded miseries, and painted happiness, thrones and sceptres were, there would not be so frequent strife about the getting or holding of them: there would be more principalities than princes.

MONTAIGNE, Livre I, 42.

Ib. (Character principis).

Si c'est un habile homme et bien né, la royauté n'adjoute rien [peu: 1595] à son bon'heur: . . . il voit que ce n'est que biffe et piperie, voire à l'adventure il sera de l'advis du roy Seleucus, "Que qui sçauroit le pois d'un sceptre ne daigneroit l'amasser, quand il le trouveroit à terre:" il le disoit pour les grandes et penibles charges qui touchent un bon roy.

JOHN MARSTON (1575-1634)

I was a scholar: seven useful springs Did I deflower in quotations

Of cross'd opinions 'bout the soul of man;

The more I learnt, the more I learnt to doubt.
Delight, my spaniel, slept, whilst I baused leaves,
Toss'd o'er the dunces, pored on the old print
Of titled words; and still my spaniel slept.

Still on went I; first, an sit anima;

Then, an it were mortal. O hold! hold! at that
They're at brain buffets, fell by the ears amain
Pell-mell together; still my spaniel slept.
Then whether 't were corporeal, local, fix'd,
Ex traduce, but whether 't had free will
Or no, hot philosophers

Stood banding factions, all so strongly propp'd,
I stagger'd, knew not which was firmer part,
But thought, quoted, read, observ'd and pry'd,
Stuff'd noting-books; and still my spaniel slept.
At length he waked and yawn'd; and by yon sky,
For aught I know, he knew as much as I.

MONTAIGNE, Livre II, 12.

What You Will. 1607.

Les extremitez de nostre perquisition tombent toutes en

esblouyssement.