Who ftuck and fpangled you with flatteries,
Wafhes it off, and sprinkles in your faces
Your reeking villany. Live loath'd, and long;
Moft smiling. fmooth, detefted parafites ;`
Courteous destroyers, affable wolves, meek bears,
You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time-flies,
Cap-and-knee flaves, vapors, and minute-jacks;
Of man and beaft the infinite malady
Cruft you quite o'er!
Is a moft precious thing, drop'd from above;
Not bred 'mongst clods and clod-polls here on earth.
I mufe, the mystery was not made a science,
It is fo lib'rally profest! almoft
All the wife world is little elfe in nature,
But parafites, or fub-parafites. And, yet,
I mean not those that have your bare town-art,
To know who's fit to feed them; have no house,
No family, no care, and therefore mould
Tales for mens ears, to bait that sense; or get
Kitchen-invention, and fome ftale receipts
To please the belly, and the groin; nor those
With their court dog-tricks, that can fawn and fleer,
Make their revenue out of legs and faces;
Eccho my lord, and lick away a moth:
But your fine elegant rafcal, that can rife,
And stoop, almoft together; like an arrow
Shoot through the air as nimbly as a star:
Turn fhort, as doth a swallow; and be here,
And there; and here, and yonder, all at once;
Present to any humour, all occafion;
And change a vizor, swifter than a thought!
This is the creature had the art born with him;
Toils not to learn it, but doth practice it
Out of most excellent nature: and fuch sparks
Are the true paraíites, others but their zanies.
"Tis true, that fway'd by strong neceffity,
I am enforc'd to eat my careful bread,
With too much obfequy; 'tis true, befide,
That I am fain to fpin my own poor raiment,
Out of my mere obfervance, b'ing not born
To a free fortune: but that I have done
Base offices, in rending friends afunder;
Dividing families; betraying councils;
Whisp'ring falfe lies, or mining men with praise;
Train'd their credulities with perjuries;
Corrupted chastity; or am in love
With mine own tender ease, but would not rather
Prove the most rugged and laborious course,
That might redeem my present estimation;
Let me here perifh, in all hope of goodness.
Johnson's Volpone.
A taffell that hangs at my purfe ftrings; he dogs
Me, and I give him fcraps, and pay for his
Ordinary, feed him; he liquors himself
In the juice of my bounty; and when he
Hath fuck'd up ftrength of spirit, he squeaseth
It-in my own face: when I have refin'd
And sharpned his wits with good food, he cuts
My fingers, and breaks jefts upon me
I bear them, and beat him.
PARD ON.
Twice faying pardon, doth not pardon twain ;
But makes one pardon strong.
The word is fhort, but not fo fhort as fweet';
No word like pardon, for kings mouths fo meet.
Shakespear's K. Richard II.
The higher those great powers have rais'd you,
Prefs that which lies below, with gentler weight:
To pardon miferies is fortune's height.
When I call to mem'ry our long friendship,
Methinks it cannot be too great a wrong,
That then I fhould not pardon. Why fhould man, For a poor hafty fyllable or two,
And vented only in forgetful fury,
Chain all the hopes and riches of his foul,
To the revenge of that, die loft for ever?
For he that makes his laft peace with his maker
In anger; anger is his peace eternally:
He must expect the fame return again,
Whofe venture is deceitful.
Middleton and Rowley's Fair Quarrel.
But by his heralds first he pardons fent,
So Tamberlaine fent his white flag before.
Henry by lenitives, not corr'fives meant
Thofe ulcerated members to restore.
No foldier but a herald; nor a blow;
But strange, a pardon overthrew the foe.
The best of trophies; chiefly when the war
Is between king and fubject: those are best
'Complexion'd conquefts, which least fanguine are ;
And those moft modeft, which do blush the least.
Camillus, once was by Rome's fenate thought
Worthy to triumph, tho' he had not fought.
And greatest trophy too: they laid their hearts
At Henry's feet to be triumphed o'er,
And yielded their minds captive; which imparts
The bravest glory to the conqueror.
Aleyn's Henry VII.
When Kent was in commotion, I know,
Corr'fives did cure the ulcers of the state;
But should you use that course of phyfick now,
You might the patients more exasperate?
So the fame fimples, as th' experienc'd find,
Gather'd at fev❜ral times, do purge or bind,
If to be great, not good were your intent;
I have chalk'd out your way: 'twere a falfe aim, If by the ruins of the flain you meant,
To raise the pile and ftructure of your fame :
They which furvive will the best trophies be,
And living ftatues of this victory. -
Aleyn's Henry VII,
If Rome could pardon fins, as Romans hold;
And if fuch pardons might be bought with gold;
An eafy judginent might determine which
To chufe; to be religious, or elfe rich :
Nay, Rome does pardon; pardons may be fold :
We'll fearch no fcriptures; but the mines for gold.
Have you no words but what are only good,
Because their ill is quickly understood?
Difpofe of Claudio's life! Whilft cruel you
Seem dead, by being deaf to all that fue :
Till by long cuftom of forgiving none,
You're fo averfe to all forgiveness grown,
That in your own behalf you shall deny
To hear of abfolution, when you die.
Sir W. Davenant's Law against Lovers,
2223.PARENTS.
Unreasonable creatures feed their young;
And tho' man's face be fearful to their eyes,
Yet, in protection of their tender ones,
Who hath not feen them, even with thofe wings,
Which fometimes they have us'd with fearful flight,
Make war with him that climb'd unto their neft,
Off'ring their own lives in their young's defence?
Shakespear's Third Part of King Henry VI.
Parents are o'erfeen,
When with too ftrict a rein, they do hold in
Their child's affections; and controul that love,
Which the high pow'rs divine inftruct them with:
When, in their fhallow judgments, they may know,
Affection crofs'd, brings mifery and woe.
Robert Taylour's Hog hath loft his Pearl.
3. Fathers that deny their daughters lawful
Pleasures, when ripe for them; in fome kind, edge
Their appetites, to tafte of the fruit that
Beaumont and Fletcher's Elder Brother.
Oh, the blindness of a cov'tous wretched_
Father, that is led only by the ears,
And in love with founds! Nature had done well
To have thruft him into the world without
eye, that like a mole is fo affected
To bafe earth; and there means to dig for paradife.
Fathers their children, and themselves abute ;
That wealth, a husband, for their daughters chufe.
Shirley's School of Compliments.
Honour thy parents to prolong thine end;
With them, though for a truth, do not contend:
Though all fhould truth defend, do thou lofe rather
The truth a while, than lofe their loves for ever:
Whoever makes his father's heart to bleed;
Shall have a child that will revenge the deed.
229.
P ARTIN G.
And by the way, fhe fundry purpose found
Of this or that, the time for to delay;
And of the perils whereto he was bound,
The fear whereof feem'd much her to affray :
But allfhe did, was but to wear out day.
Full oftentimes the leave of him did take;
And eft again deviz'd somewhat to say,
Which the forgot; whereby excuse to make :
So loth she was his company for to forfake.
Parting is fuch sweet sorrow,
That I fhall fay good night, till it be morrow.
Skakefpear's Romeo and Juliet.
I would have thee gone,
And yet no further than a wanton's bird,
That lets it hop a little from her hand,
Like a poor pris'ner in his twifted gyves;
And with a filk-thread plucks it back again,
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