1654. 1. [BISSELLIUS.] The whole wench–how complete soe’er–was butA specious bait; a soft, sly, tempting slut;A pleasing witch; a living death; a fair,Thriving disease; a fresh, infectious air;A precious plague; a fury sweetly drawn;Wild fire laid up and finely dress’d in lawn. 2. [AUGURELLIUS.] Peter, when thou this pleasant world dost see,Believe, thou seest mere […]

1652. 1. [ANSELM.] Here holy Anselm lives in ev’ry page,And sits archbishop still, to vex the age.Had he foreseen–and who knows but he did?–This fatal wrack, which deep in time lay hid,‘Tis but just to believe, that little handWhich clouded him, but now benights our land,Had never–like Elias–driv’n him hence,A sad retirer for a slight […]

1654. 1. [INCERTI.] The naked man too gets the field,And often makes the armed foe to yield. 2. [LUCRETIUS, IV. 1012-1020.] [Some] struggle and groan as if by panthers torn,Or lions’ teeth, which makes them loudly mourn;Some others seem unto themselves to die;Some climb steep solitudes and mountains high,From whence they seem to fall inanely […]

1654. 1. [INCERTI.] Whose hissings fright all Nature’s monstrous ills;His eye darts death, more swift than poison kills.All monsters by instinct to him give place,They fly for life, for death lives in his face;And he alone by Nature’s hid commandsReigns paramount, and prince of all the sands. 2. [INCERTI.] The plenteous evils of frail life […]

1654. 1. [AUSONIUS. EPIST. XXIV. 115-16.] Let me not weep to see thy ravish’d houseAll sad and silent, without lord or spouse,And all those vast dominions once thine ownTorn ‘twixt a hundred slaves to me unknown. 2. [AUSONIUS. EPIST. XXIII. 30-1; XXV. 5-9, 14, 17.] How could that paper sent,That luckless paper, merit thy contempt?Ev’n […]

(1655) 1. [HORACE. EPIST. I. 1, 14-5.] Where’er my fancy calls, there I go still,Not sworn a slave to any master’s will. 2. [INCERTI.] There’s need, betwixt his clothes, his bed and board,Of all that Earth and Sea and Air afford. 3. [INCERTI.] With restless cares they waste the night and day,To compass great estates, […]

1661. 1. [CAMPION. EPIGR. I. 151.] Time’s-Teller wrought into a little round,Which count’st the days and nights with watchful sound;How–when once fix’d–with busy wheels dost thouThe twice twelve useful hours drive on and show;And where I go, go’st with me without strife,The monitor and ease of fleeting life. 2. [GROTIUS. LIB. EPIGR. II.] The untired […]

Sweet, harmless livers! on whose holy leisure Waits innocence and pleasure; Whose leaders to those pastures and clear springs Were patriarchs, saints, and kings; How happened it that in the dead of night You only saw true light, While Palestine was fast asleep and lay Without one thought of day? Was it because those first […]