They are no wrongs then; but his punishments:
If undeservedly, and he not guilty?
The doer of them, first should blush, not he.
The purpose of an injury; 'tis to vex
And trouble me now nothing can do that
To him that's truly valiant. He that is affected
With the leaft injury, is less than it.
It is but reasonable to conclude
That should be stronger ftill, which hurts, than that
Which is hurt now, no wickedness is stronger
Than what oppofeth it; not fortune's felf,
When the encounters virtue, but comes off
Both lame and lefs. Why fhould a wife man then
Confefs himself the weaker, by the feeling
Of a fool's wrong? There may an injury
Be meant me; I may chufe, if I will take it:
But we are now come to that delicacy
And tenderness of fenfe, we think an infolence
Worfe than an injury; bare words worse than deeds:
We are not fo much troubled with the wrong,
As with the opinion of the wrong: Like children,
We are made afraid with vizards. Such poor founds
As is the lie, or common words of spite,
Wife laws thought never worthy a revenge;
And 'tis the narrowness of human nature,
Our poverty, and beggary of fpirit,
To take exception at these things.
He broke a jeft a third took place of me! -
How moft ridiculous quarrels are all these?
Notes of a queafy, and fick ftomach, labouring
With want of a true injury! the main part
Of the wrong, is our vice of taking it!
Though I am tame and bred with my wrongs,
Which are my folter brothers; I may leap
F 5
Like a hand-wolf into my natural wildness,
Beaumont and Fletcher's Maid's Tragedy.
Men of ranks
your
Muft put up injuries, and render thanks.
2. He tells you true, it may be our cafe;
Shall we upon complaint of men fo base
Be queftion'd? no, cedars, are cedars ftill;
The valley muft not dare to climb the hill:
Poor men muft fuffer, rich do what they will.
Dauborne's Poor Man's Comfort.
For evils which are 'gainst another done,
Repentance makes no fatisfaction
To him that feels the fmart.
Wilkins's Miferies of enforced Marriage.
INNOCENCE.
The lion licks the fores of filly wounded sheep;
The dead man's corps may caufe the crocodile to weep;
The waves that wafte the rocks refresh the rotten reeds:
Such ruth the wrack of innocence in cruel creatures
Mirror for Magiftrates. What ftronger breast-plate than a heart untainted? Thrice is he arm'd, that has his quarrel juft; And he but naked, though lock'd up in fteel, Whose confcience with injuftice is corrupted.
Shakespear's Second Part of K. Hen. VI. 'Tis a knavish piece of work; but what of That? your majefty, and we that have free Souls, it touches us not: let the gall'd jade Winch, our withers are unwrung.
A just man cannot fear;
Not, though the malice of traducing tongues,
The open vaftnefs of a tyrant's ear,
The fenfeless rigour of the wrefted laws,
Or the red eyes of ftrain'd authority,
Should, in a point meet all, to take his life ;
His innocency is armour 'gainst all these.
O innocence the facred amulet
'Gainft all the poifons of infirmity,
Of all misfortunes, injury and death!
That makes a man in tune ftill in himself:
Free from the hell to be his own accufer,
Ever in quiet, endless joys enjoying
No ftrife, nor no fedition in his pow'rs:
No motion in his will against his reafon ;
No thought 'gainst thought, nor as 'twere in the confines
Of wifhing and repenting, doth poffefs
Only a wayward and tumultuous peace;
But all parts in him friendly and fecure:
Fruitful of all beft things in all worst feafons,
He can with ev'ry with, be in their plenty ;
When, the infectious guilt of one foul crime,
Destroys the free content of all our time.
Chapman's First Part of Byron's Confpiracy.
That innocence is not enough to fave,
Where good, and greatnefs, fear, and envy have.
Lord Brooke's Mustapha.
I have no other hope; who bears a spotless breast,
Doth want no comfort elfe, how e'er diftreft.
Dauborne's Poor Man's Comfort.
Shall fall on me, like brittle fhafts on armour,
That break themselves; or like waves against a rock
That leave no fign of their ridiculous fury
But foam and fplinters: My innocence like thefe
Shall ftand triumphant, and your malice ferve
But for a trumpet, to proclaim my conqueft;
Nor fhall you, though you do the worst fate can,
How e'er condemn, affright an honeft man.
Malfinger and Field's Fatal Dorury.
Innocence unmov'd
At a falfe accufation, doth the more
Confirm itself; and guilt is beft discover'd
By its own fears.
Nabbs's Bride.
We must have doves and ferpents in our heart;
But how they must be marfhall'd, there's the art:
They must agree, and not be far asunder;
The dove must hold the wily ferpent under :
'Their natures teach what places they must keep;
The dove can fly, the ferpent only creep.
Misfortune may benight the wicked; fhe
Who knows no guilt, can fink beneath no fear.
Habbington's Queen of Arragon.
'Tis modefty in fin to practice ev'ry
Difguife to hide it from the world:
But creatures free from guilt, affect the fun,
And hate the dark; because it hides their innocence.
Sir W. Davenant's Cruel Brother.
She ne'er faw courts, yet courts could have undone
With untaught looks, and an unpractis'd heart;
Her nets; the most prepar'd could never fhun;
For nature fpread them in the fcorn of art.
She never had in bufy cities been;
Ne'er warm'd with hopes, nor e'er allay'd with fears: Not feeing punishment, could guess no fin;
And fin not feeing, ne'er had use of tears.
Sir W. Davenant's Gondibert.
I'll rather to a punishment fubmit,
Than to the guilt of what may merit it.
Since ftill my duty did my actions steer,
I'll not difgrace my innocence by fear;
Left I the faving of my life repent:
I'll rather bear, than merit punishment.
E. of Orrery's Mustapha,
Innocence
Conceal'd, is the ftol'n pleasure of the gods;
Which never ends in fhame, as that of men
Doth oft-times do: But like the fun breaks forth,
When it hath gratify'd another world,
And to our unexpecting eyes appears
More glorious through its late obfcurity.
Fountain's Rewards of Virtue.
INSTRUCTION.
Our wanton humour with best council fits;
The fage inftructions of the wife man's mouth,
Do found harsh mufick in the ears of youth.
Mirror for Magifirates. If to do, were as easy as to know
What were good to do, chapels had been churches;
And poor mens cottages, princes palaces.
He is a good divine, that follows his
Own instructions; I can easier
Teach twenty what were good to be done, than
To be one of the twenty to follow
My own teaching: The brain may devife laws
For the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er
Shakespear's Merchant of Venice. Your voice, our mufick when you speak, we give To thofe who teach the mysteries above,
That their perfuafion we may foon believe;
For doctrines thrive, when we our teachers love.
Sir W. Davenant to the Queen. 70 r
Swooning deftruction, or fome joy too fine,
Too fubtle-potent, and too fharp in fweetness,
For the capacity of my rude pow's;
I fear it much, and I do fear befides,
That I fhall lofe diftinction in my joys;
As doth a battle, when they charge on heaps
The flying enemy.
Shakespear's Troilus and Creffida,
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