Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

[Five Hundred Points of Good Husbandry continued. Except wind stands as never it stood, It is an ill wind turns none to good.1

A Description of the Properties of Winds.
All 's fish they get

That cometh to net.

[blocks in formation]

September's Abstract.

October's Abstract.

'T is merry in hall

Where beards wag

For buying or selling of pig in a poke.

Naught venture naught have.

Look ere thou leap, see ere thou go.*

Of Wiving and Thriving.

Dry sun, dry wind,

Safe bind, safe find.3 Washing.

1 See Proverbial Expressions.

2 On the authority of M. Cimber, of the Bibliothèque Royale, we owe this proverb to Chevalier Bayard, Tel maître, tel valet.

3 Merry swithe it is in halle, When the beards waveth alle.

Adam Davie (1312), Life of Alexander.

♦ See Proverbial Expressions.

5 Fast bind, fast find.

Heywood's Proverbs, 1546.

SIR EDWARD DYER. Circa 1540-1607.

My mind to me a kingdom is ;

Such present joys therein I find, That it excels all other bliss,

That earth affords or grows by kind:

Though much I want which most would have, Yet still my mind forbids to crave.1

From MS. Rawl. 85, p. 17. Hannah's Courtly Poets.

BISHOP STILL (JOHN). 1543-1607.

I cannot eat but little meat,
My stomach is not good;

But sure I think that I can drink

With him that wears a hood.

From Gammer Gurton's Needle? Act ii.

1 Mens regnum bona possidet.

Seneca, Thyestes, Act ii. Line 380.

My mind to me a kingdom is;

Such perfect joy therein I find,

As far exceeds all earthly bliss,

That God and Nature hath assigned.

Though much I want that most would have,

Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

From Byrd's Psalmes, Sonnets, &c., 1588.

My mind to me an empire is

While grace affordeth health.

Robert Southwell (1560-1595), Look Home.

2 Stated by Mr. Dyce to be from a MS. in his possession, and of older date than Gammer Gurton's Needle. -Skelton, Works, ed. Dyce, i. vii. –x., n.

[Gammer Gurton's Needle continued.

Back and side go bare, go bare,

Both foot and hand go cold;

But, belly, God send thee good ale enough,
Whether it be new or old.

Act ii.

SIR EDWARD COKE. 1549-1634. The gladsome light of jurisprudence.

First Institute.

Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason. . . . The law, which is perfection of reason.1 Ibid.

For a man's house is his castle, et domus sua cuique tutissimum refugium.2

Third Institute. Page 162. The house of every one is to him as his castle and fortress, as well for his defence against injury and violence, as for his repose. Semayne's Case, 5 Rep. 91. They (corporations) cannot commit treason, nor be outlawed nor excommunicate, for they have no souls.

Case of Sutton's Hospital, 10 Rep. 32.

Six hours in sleep, in law's grave study six, Four spend in prayer, the rest on nature fix. Translation of lines quoted by Coke.

1 Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason.- - Sir John Powell, Coggs vs. Bernard, 2 Ld. Raym. 911.

2 From the Pandects, Lib. ii. tit. iv. De in Jus vocando.

[blocks in formation]

The more thou stir it the worse it will be.

Ibid. Book iii. Ch. 8.

Every one is the son of his own works.

Ibid. Book iv. Ch. 20.

I would do what I pleased, and doing what I pleased, I should have my will, and having my will, I should be contented; and when one is contented, there is no more to be desired; and when there is no more to be desired, there is an end of it. Ibid. Ch. 23.

Every one is as God has made him, and oftentimes a great deal worse.

[blocks in formation]

[Don Quixote continued Sit thee down, chaff-threshing churl; for, let me sit where I will, that is the upper end to thee.1 Ibid. Ch. 14.2

Blessings on him who invented sleep, the mantle that covers all human thoughts, the food that appeases hunger, the drink that quenches thirst, the fire that warms cold, the cold that moderates heat, and, lastly, the general coin that purchases all things, the balance and weight that equals the shepherd with the king, and the simple with the wise.

Part ii. Book iv. Ch. 16.3

The painter Orbaneja of Ubeda- if he chanced to draw a cock, he wrote under it, This is a cock, lest the people should take it for a fox. Ibid. Book iv. Ch. 19.4

Don't put too fine a point to your wit for fear it should get blunted.

The Little Gypsy. (La Gitanilla.)

My heart is wax to be moulded as she pleases, but enduring as marble to retain.5

Ibid.

1 This is generally placed in the mouth of Macgregor, "Where Macgregor sits, there is the head of the table." Emerson quotes it, in his American Scholar, as the saying of Macdonald, and Theodore Parker as the saying of the Highlander.

31.

3 Ch. 68.

Ed. Lockhart. Part ii. Ch. 4 Ch. 71. 5 His heart was one of those which most enamour us,

Wax to receive, and marble to retain.

Byron, Beppo, St. 34.

« PoprzedniaDalej »