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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Alfred Tennyson Tennyson 1809-1892 John Bartlett

1
This laurel greener from the brows Of him that uttered nothing base.
To the Queen.
2
And statesmen at her council met   Who knew the seasons, when to take   Occasion by the hand, and make The bounds of freedom wider yet.
To the Queen.
3
Broad based upon her people’s will, And compassed by the inviolate sea.
To the Queen.
4
For it was in the golden prime   Of good Haroun Alraschid.
Recollections of the Arabian Nights.
5
Dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, The love of love.
The Poet.
6
A still small voice spake unto me, “Thou art so full of misery, Were it not better not to be?”
The Two Voices.
7
This truth within thy mind rehearse, That in a boundless universe Is boundless better, boundless worse.
The Two Voices.
8
Tho’ thou wert scattered to the wind, Yet is there plenty of the kind. 1
The Two Voices.
9
No life that breathes with human breath Has ever truly longed for death.
The Two Voices.
10
Like glimpses of forgotten dreams.
The Two Voices.
11
Across the walnuts and the wine.
The Miller’s Daughter.
12
Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,— These three alone lead life to sovereign power.
Œnone.
13
Because right is right, to follow right Were wisdom in the scorn of consequence.
Œnone.
14
I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house,   Wherein at ease for aye to dwell.
The Palace of Art.
15
Her manners had not that repose   Which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere. Stanza 5.
16
From yon blue heaven above us bent, The grand old gardener and his wife 2    Smile at the claims of long descent.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere. Stanza 7.
17
Howe’er it be, it seems to me,   ’T is only noble to be good. 3  Kind hearts are more than coronets,   And simple faith than Norman blood.
Lady Clara Vere de Vere. Stanza 7.
18
You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; To-morrow’ll be the happiest time of all the glad New Year,— Of all the glad New Year, mother, the maddest, merriest day; For I ’m to be Queen o’ the May, mother, I ’m to be queen o’ the May.
The May Queen.
19
Ah, why Should life all labour be?
The Lotus-Eaters. iv.
20
A daughter of the gods, divinely tall,   And most divinely fair. 4
A Dream of fair Women. Stanza xxii.
21
God gives us love. Something to love   He lends us; but when love is grown To ripeness, that on which it throve   Falls off, and love is left alone.
To J. S.
22
Sleep sweetly, tender heart, in peace!   Sleep, holy spirit, blessed soul, While the stars burn, the moons increase,   And the great ages onward roll.
To J. S.
23
Sleep till the end, true soul and sweet!   Nothing comes to thee new or strange. Sleep full of rest from head to feet;   Lie still, dry dust, secure of change.
To J. S.
24
More black than ash-buds in the front of March.
The Gardener’s Daughter.
25
Of love that never found his earthly close, What sequel? Streaming eyes and breaking hearts; Or all the same as if he had not been?
Love and Duty.
26
The long mechanic pacings to and fro, The set, gray life, and apathetic end.
Love and Duty.
27
Ah, when shall all men’s good Be each man’s rule, and universal peace Lie like a shaft of light across the land, And like a lane of beams athwart the sea, Thro’ all the circle of the golden year?
The golden Year.
28
I am a part of all that I have met. 5
Ulysses.
29
How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnished, not to shine in use,— As tho’ to breathe were life!
Ulysses.
30
Much have I seen and known; cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments; And much delight of battle with my peers Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
Ulysses.
31
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles whom we knew.
Ulysses.
32
Here at the quiet limit of the world.
Tithonus.
33
In the spring a livelier iris changes on the burnished dove; In the spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.
Locksley Hall. Line 19.
34
Love took up the harp of Life, and smote on all the chords with might; Smote the chord of Self, that, trembling, passed in music out of sight.
Locksley Hall. Line 33.
35
He will hold thee, when his passion shall have spent its novel force, Something better than his dog, a little dearer than his horse.
Locksley Hall. Line 49.
36
This is truth the poet sings, That a sorrow’s crown of sorrow is remembering happier things. 6
Locksley Hall. Line 75.
37
Like a dog, he hunts in dreams.
Locksley Hall. Line 79.
38
With a little hoard of maxims preaching down a daughter’s heart.
Locksley Hall. Line 94.
39
But the jingling of the guinea helps the hurt that Honour feels.
Locksley Hall. Line 105.
40
Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new.
Locksley Hall. Line 117.
41
Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.
Locksley Hall. Line 137.
42
Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers.
Locksley Hall. Line 141.
43
I will take some savage woman, she shall rear my dusky race.
Locksley Hall. Line 168.
44
I, the heir of all the ages, in the foremost files of time.
Locksley Hall. Line 178.
45
Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change.
Locksley Hall. Line 182.
46
Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay.
Locksley Hall. Line 184.
47
And on her lover’s arm she leant,   And round her waist she felt it fold, And far across the hills they went   In that new world which is the old.
The Day-Dream. The Departure, i.
48
And o’er the hills, and far away   Beyond their utmost purple rim, Beyond the night, across the day,   Thro’ all the world she followed him.
The Day-Dream. The Departure, i.
49
We are ancients of the earth, And in the morning of the times.
L’ Envoi.
50
As she fled fast through sun and shade The happy winds upon her played, Blowing the ringlet from the braid.
Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere.
51
For now the poet can not die,   Nor leave his music as of old,   But round him ere he scarce be cold Begins the scandal and the cry.
To ———, after reading a Life and Letters.
52
But oh for the touch of a vanished hand,   And the sound of a voice that is still!
Break, break, break.
53
But the tender grace of a day that is dead   Will never come back to me.
Break, break, break.
54
For men may come and men may go,   But I go on forever.
The Brook.
55
Mastering the lawless science of our law,— That codeless myriad of precedent, That wilderness of single instances.
Aylmer’s Field.
56
Insipid as the queen upon a card.
Aylmer’s Field.
57
Rich in saving common-sense, And, as the greatest only are, In his simplicity sublime.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 4.
58
Oh good gray head which all men knew!
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 4.
59
That tower of strength Which stood four-square to all the winds that blew.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 4.
60
For this is England’s greatest son, He that gained a hundred fights, And never lost an English gun.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 6.
61
Not once or twice in our rough-island story The path of duty was the way to glory.
Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington. Stanza 8.
62
All in the valley of death   Rode the six hundred.
The Charge of the Light Brigade. Stanza 1.
63
Some one had blundered: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.
The Charge of the Light Brigade. Stanza 2.
64
Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them. .    .    .    .    . Into the jaws of death, 7  Into the mouth of hell   Rode the six hundred.
The Charge of the Light Brigade. Stanza 3.
65
That a lie which is half a truth is ever the blackest of lies; That a lie which is all a lie may be met and fought with outright; But a lie which is part a truth is a harder matter to fight.
The Grandmother. Stanza 8.
66
O Love! what hours were thine and mine, In lands of palm and southern pine;   In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine!
The Daisy. Stanza 1.
67
So dear a life your arms enfold, Whose crying is a cry for gold.
The Daisy. Stanza 24.
68
Read my little fable:   He that runs may read. 8  Most can raise the flowers now,   For all have got the seed.
The Flower.
69
With prudes for proctors, dowagers for deans, And sweet girl-graduates in their golden hair.
The Princess. Prologue. Line 141.
70
A rosebud set with little wilful thorns, And sweet as English air could make her, she.
The Princess. Part i. Line 153.
71
Jewels five-words-long, That on the stretched forefinger of all Time Sparkle forever.
The Princess. Part ii. Line 355.
72
Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying! Blow, bugle! answer, echoes! dying, dying, dying.
The Princess. Part iii. Line 352.
73
O Love! they die in yon rich sky,   They faint on hill or field or river: Our echoes roll from soul to soul,   And grow forever and forever. Blow, bugle, blow! set the wild echoes flying! And answer, echoes, answer! dying, dying, dying.
The Princess. Part iii. Line 360.
74
There sinks the nebulous star we call the sun.
The Princess. Part iv. Line 1.
75
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean. Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes, In looking on the happy autumn-fields, And thinking of the days that are no more.
The Princess. Part iv. Line 21.
76
Unto dying eyes The casement slowly grows a glimmering square.
The Princess. Part iv. Line 33.
77
Dear as remembered kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned On lips that are for others; deep as love,— Deep as first love, and wild with all regret. Oh death in life, the days that are no more!
The Princess. Part iv. Line 36.
78
Sweet is every sound, Sweeter thy voice, but every sound is sweet; Myriads of rivulets hurrying thro’ the lawn, The moan of doves in immemorial elms, And murmuring of innumerable bees.
The Princess. Part vii. Line 203.
79
Happy he With such a mother! faith in womankind Beats with his blood, and trust in all things high Comes easy to him; and tho’ he trip and fall, He shall not blind his soul with clay.
The Princess. Part vii. Line 308.
80
Let knowledge grow from more to more.
In Memoriam. Prologue. Line 25.
81
I held it truth, with him who sings 9    To one clear harp in divers tones,   That men may rise on stepping-stones Of their dead selves to higher things. 10
In Memoriam. i. Stanza 1.
82
But for the unquiet heart and brain   A use in measured language lies;   The sad mechanic exercise Like dull narcotics numbing pain.
In Memoriam. v. Stanza 2.
83
Never morning wore To evening, but some heart did break.
In Memoriam. vi. Stanza 2.
84
And topples round the dreary west A looming bastion fringed with fire.
In Memoriam. xv. Stanza 5.
85
And from his ashes may be made The violet of his native land. 11
In Memoriam. xviii. Stanza 1.
86
I do but sing because I must, And pipe but as the linnets sing. 12
In Memoriam. xxi. Stanza 6.
87
The shadow cloaked from head to foot.
In Memoriam. xxiii. Stanza 1.
88
Who keeps the keys of all the creeds.
In Memoriam. xxiii. Stanza 2.
89
And Thought leapt out to wed with Thought Ere Thought could wed itself with Speech.
In Memoriam. xxiii. Stanza 4.
90
’T is better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. 13
In Memoriam. xxvii. Stanza 4.
91
Her eyes are homes of silent prayer.
In Memoriam. xxxii. Stanza 1.
92
Whose faith has centre everywhere, Nor cares to fix itself to form.
In Memoriam. xxxiii. Stanza 1.
93
My own dim life should teach me this   That life shall live for evermore.
In Memoriam. xxxiv. Stanza 1.
94
Short swallow-flights of song, that dip Their wings in tears, and skim away.
In Memoriam. xlviii. Stanza 4.
95
Hold thou the good; define it well;   For fear divine Philosophy   Should push beyond her mark, and be Procuress to the Lords of Hell.
In Memoriam. liii. Stanza 4.
96
Oh yet we trust that somehow good   Will be the final goal of ill.
In Memoriam. liv. Stanza 1.
97
But what am I?   An infant crying in the night:   An infant crying for the light, And with no language but a cry.
In Memoriam. liv. Stanza 5.
98
So careful of the type she seems, So careless of the single life.
In Memoriam. lv. Stanza 2.
99
The great world’s altar-stairs, That slope through darkness up to God.
In Memoriam. lv. Stanza 4.
100
Who battled for the True, the Just.
In Memoriam. lvi. Stanza 5.
101
And grasps the skirts of happy chance, And breasts the blows of circumstance.
In Memoriam. lxiv. Stanza 2.
102
And lives to clutch the golden keys,   To mould a mighty state’s decrees, And shape the whisper of the throne.
In Memoriam. lxiv. Stanza 3.
103
So many worlds, so much to do,   So little done, such things to be. 14
In Memoriam. lxxiii. Stanza 1.
104
Thy leaf has perished in the green,   And while we breathe beneath the sun,   The world which credits what is done Is cold to all that might have been.
In Memoriam. lxxv. Stanza 4.
105
O last regret, regret can die!
In Memoriam. lxxviii. Stanza 5.
106
There lives more faith in honest doubt, 15  Believe me, than in half the creeds.
In Memoriam. xcvi. Stanza 3.
107
He seems so near, and yet so far.
In Memoriam. xcvii. Stanza 6.
108
Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky!
In Memoriam. cvi. Stanza 1.
109
Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow!
In Memoriam. cvi. Stanza 2.
110
Ring in the nobler modes of life With sweeter manners, purer laws. 16
In Memoriam. cvi. Stanza 4.
111
Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes, But ring the fuller minstrel in!
In Memoriam. cvi. Stanza 5.
112
Ring out old shapes of foul disease,   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;   Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace!
In Memoriam. cvi. Stanza 7.
113
Ring in the valiant man and free,   The larger heart, the kindlier hand!   Ring out the darkness of the land, Ring in the Christ that is to be!
In Memoriam. cvi. Stanza 8.
114
And thus he bore without abuse   The grand old name of gentleman,   Defamed by every charlatan, And soiled with all ignoble use.
In Memoriam. cxi. Stanza 6.
115
Some novel power   Sprang up forever at a touch,   And hope could never hope too much In watching thee from hour to hour.
In Memoriam. cxii. Stanza 3.
116
Large elements in order brought,   And tracts of calm from tempest made,   And world-wide fluctuation swayed, In vassal tides that followed thought.
In Memoriam. cxii. Stanza 4.
117
Wearing all that weight Of learning lightly like a flower.
In Memoriam. Conclusion. Stanza 10.
118
One God, one law, one element,   And one far-off divine event To which the whole creation moves.
In Memoriam. Conclusion. Stanza 36.
119
Faultily faultless, icily regular, splendidly null.
Maud. Part I. ii.
120
That jewelled mass of millinery, That oiled and curled Assyrian Bull.
Maud. Part I. vi. Stanza 6.
121
One still strong man in a blatant land.
Maud. Part I. x. Stanza 5.
122
Gorgonized me from head to foot,   With a stony British stare.
Maud. Part I. xiii. Stanza 2.
123
Come into the garden, Maud,   For the black bat, night, has flown; Come into the garden, Maud,   I am here at the gate alone.
Maud. Part I. xxii. Stanza 1.
124
Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls.
Maud. Part I. xxii. Stanza 9.
125
Ah, Christ, that it were possible   For one short hour to see The souls we loved, that they might tell               us   What and where they be.
Maud. Part II. iv. Stanza 3.
126
In that fierce light which beats upon a throne.
Idylls of the King: Dedication. Line 629.
127
Large, divine and comfortable words.
Idylls of the King: The Coming of Arthur. Line 267.
128
Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the King— Else, wherefore born?
Idylls of the King: Gareth and Lynette. Line 117.
129
Eyes of pure women, wholesome stars of love.
Idylls of the King: Gareth and Lynette. Line 367.
130
A man of plots, Craft, poisonous counsels, wayside ambushings.
Idylls of the King: Gareth and Lynette. Line 422.
131
A damsel of high lineage, and a brow May-blossom, and a cheek of apple-blossom, Hawk-eyes; and lightly was her slender nose Tip-tilted like the petal of a flower.
Idylls of the King: Gareth and Lynette. Line 574.
132
I follow up the quest Despite of Day and Night and Death and Hell.
Idylls of the King: Gareth and Lynette. Line 865.
133
Ay, knave, because thou strikest as a knight, Being but knave, I hate thee all the more.
Idylls of the King: Gareth and Lynette. Line 994.
134
Victor from vanquished issues at the last, And overthrower from being overthrown.
Idylls of the King: Gareth and Lynette. Line 1230.
135
For man is man and master of his fate 17
Idylls of the King: The Marriage of Geraint. Line 355.
136
Our hoard is little, but our hearts are great.
Idylls of the King: The Marriage of Geraint. Line 374.
137
The useful trouble of the rain.
Idylls of the King: Geraint and Enid. Line 770.
138
The world will not believe a man repents; And this wise world of ours is mainly right.
Idylls of the King: Geraint and Enid. Line 899.
139
The whole wood-world is one full peal of praise.
Idylls of the King: Balin and Balan. Line 444.
140
Mere white truth in simple nakedness.
Idylls of the King: Balin and Balan. Line 509.
141
As love, if love be perfect, casts out fear, So hate, if hate be perfect, casts out fear.
Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien. Line 41.
142
It is the little rift within the lute That by and by will make the music mute, And ever widening slowly silence all.
Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien. Line 386.
143
Blind and naked Ignorance Delivers brawling judgments, unashamed, On all things all day long.
Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien. Line 662.
144
For men at most differ as heaven and earth, But women, worst and best, as heaven and hell.
Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien. Line 812.
145
I know the Table Round, my friends of old; All brave and many generous and some chaste.
Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien. Line 814.
146
I thought that he was gentle, being great; O God, that I had loved a smaller man! I should have found in him a greater heart.
Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien. Line 869.
147
There must be now no passages of love Betwixt us twain henceforward evermore.
Idylls of the King: Merlin and Vivien. Line 911.
148
But friend, to me He is all fault who hath no fault at all. For who loves me must have a touch of earth.
Idylls of the King: Lancelot and Elaine. Line 132.
149
Ye know right well, how meek soe’er he seem, No keener hunter after glory breathes.
Idylls of the King: Lancelot and Elaine. Line 154.
150
The fire of God Fills him. I never saw his like; there lives No greater leader.
Idylls of the King: Lancelot and Elaine. Line 314.
151
In me there dwells No greatness, save it be some far-off touch Of greatness to know well I am not great.
Idylls of the King: Lancelot and Elaine. Line 447.
152
I know not if I know what true love is, But if I know, then, if I love not him, I know there is none other I can love.
Idylls of the King: Lancelot and Elaine. Line 672.
153
The shackles of an old love straitened him, His honour rooted in dishonour stood, And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.
Idylls of the King: Lancelot and Elaine. Line 870.
154
Sweet is true love tho’ given in vain, in vain; And sweet is death who puts an end to pain.
Idylls of the King: Lancelot and Elaine. Line 1000.
155
He makes no friend who never made a foe.
Idylls of the King: Lancelot and Elaine. Line 1082.
156
Let love be free; free love is for the best And after heaven, on our dull side of death, What should be best, if not so pure a love Clothed in so pure a loveliness?
Idylls of the King: Lancelot and Elaine. Line 1370.
157
All the heavens Opened and blazed with thunder such as seemed Shoutings of all the sons of God.
Idylls of the King: The holy Grail. Line 507.
158
O great and sane and simple race of brutes That own no lust because they have no law
Idylls of the King: Pelleas and Ettarre. Line 471.
159
Strength of heart And might of limb, but mainly use and skill, Are winners in this pastime.
Idylls of the King: The last Tournament. Line 197.
160
I have had my day and my philosophies.
Idylls of the King: The last Tournament. Line 319.
161
The greater man the greater courtesy.
Idylls of the King: The last Tournament. Line 628.
162
The vow that binds too strictly snaps itself.
Idylls of the King: The last Tournament. Line 652.
163
For courtesy wins woman all as well As valor may.
Idylls of the King: The last Tournament. Line 702.
164
For manners are not idle, but the fruit Of loyal nature and of noble mind.
Idylls of the King: Guinevere. Line 333.
165
No more subtle master under heaven Than is the maiden passion for a maid, Not only to keep down the base in man But teach high thought and amiable words And courtliness and the desire of fame And love of truth and all that makes a man.
Idylls of the King: Guinevere. Line 475.
166
For why is all around us here As if some lesser god had made the world, But had not force to shape it as he would? 18
Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur. Line 13.
167
The old order changeth, yielding place to new; 19  And God fulfils himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.
Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur. Line 408.
168
I am going a long way With these thou seest—if indeed I go (For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)— To the island-valley of Avilion, Where falls not hail or rain or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns And bowery hollows crowned with summer sea, Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.
Idylls of the King: The Passing of Arthur. Line 424.
169
“I’ll never love any but you,” the morning song of the lark; “I’ll never love any but you,” the nightingale’s hymn in the dark.
The first Quarrel.
170
My God, I would not live Save that I think this gross hard-seeming world Is our misshaping vision of the Powers Behind the world, that make our griefs our gains.
The Sisters.
171
The golden guess Is morning-star to the full round of truth.
Columbus.
172
No sound is breathed so potent to coerce And to conciliate, as their names who dare For that sweet mother-land which gave them birth Nobly to do, nobly to die.
Tiresias.
173
A princelier-looking man never stept thro’ a prince’s hall.
The Wreck.
174
The shell must break before the bird can fly.
The ancient Sage.
175
Slav, Teuton, Kelt, I count them all   My friends and brother souls, With all the peoples, great and small,   That wheel between the poles.
Epilogue to The Charge of the heavy Brigade.
176
The song that nerves a nation’s heart Is in itself a deed.
Epilogue to The Charge of the heavy Brigade.
177
All the charm of all the Muses often flowering in a lonely word.
To Virgil.
178
That man’s the best Cosmopolite   Who loves his native country best.
Hands all round.
179
Love your enemy, bless your haters, said the Greatest of the great; Christian love among the Churches looked the twin of heathen hate.
Locksley Hall sixty Years after. Line 85.
180
Charm us, orator, till the lion look no larger than the cat.
Locksley Hall sixty Years after. Line 112.
181
You that woo the Voices—tell them “Old Experience is a fool”; Teach your flattered kings that only those who can not read can rule.
Locksley Hall sixty Years after. Line 131.
182
Authors—essayist, atheist, novelist, realist, rhymester, play your part, Paint the mortal shame of nature with the living hues of art.
Locksley Hall sixty Years after. Line 139.
183
Who can fancy warless men? Warless? war will die out late then. Will it ever? late or soon? Can it, till this outworn earth be dead as yon dead world the moon?
Locksley Hall sixty Years after. Line 172.
184
Yet the moonlight is the sunlight and the sun himself will pass.
Locksley Hall sixty Years after. Line 182.
185
Is there evil but on earth? or pain in every peopled sphere?
Locksley Hall sixty Years after. Line 197.
186
Follow you the star that lights a desert pathway, yours or mine. Forward, till you see the Highest Human Nature is divine.
Locksley Hall sixty Years after. Line 275.
187
Love will conquer at the last.
Locksley Hall sixty Years after. Line 280.
188
What use to brood? This life of mingled pains       And joys to me, Despite of every Faith and Creed, remains       The Mystery.
To Mary Boyle.
189
Be patient. Our Playwright may show In some fifth act what this wild Drama means. 20
The Play.
190
A mastiff dog May love a puppy cur for no more reason Than that the twain have been tied up together.
Queen Mary. Act i. Sc. 4.
191
To persecute Makes a faith hated, and is furthermore No perfect witness of a perfect faith In him who persecutes.
Queen Mary. Act iii. Scene 4.
192
In statesmanship To strike too soon is oft to miss the blow.
Queen Mary. Act iii. Scene 6.
193
My lord, you know what Virgil sings— Woman is various and most mutable. 21
Queen Mary. Act iii. Scene 6.
194
To do him any wrong was to beget A kindness from him, for his heart was rich— Of such fine mould that if you sowed therein The seed of Hate, it blossomed Charity.
Queen Mary. Act iv. Scene 1.
195
Remember that sore saying spoken once By Him that was the Truth, ’How hard it is For the rich man to enter into heaven!’ Let all rich men remember that hard word.
Queen Mary. Act iv. Scene 3.
196
Come out, my lord, it is a world of fools. 22
Queen Mary. Act iv. Scene 3.
197
Unalterably and pesteringly fond.
Queen Mary. Act v. Scene 1.
198
In our windy world What’s up is faith, what’s down is heresy.
Harold. Act i. Scene 1.
199
Old men must die, or the world would grow mouldy, would only breed the past again.
Becket. Prologue.
200
Ambition Is like the sea wave, which the more you drink The more you thirst—yea—drink too much, as men Have done on rafts of wreck—it drives you mad.
The Cup. Act i. Scene 3.
201
Sunset and evening star,   And one clear call for me! And may there be no moaning of the bar,   When I put out to sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep,   Too full for sound and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep   Turns again home.
Crossing the Bar.
202
Forget thee… Never— Till Nature, high and low, and great and small Forgets herself, and all her loves and hates Sink again into Chaos.
Foresters. Act i. Scene 3.
203
Whate’er thy joys, they vanish with the day: Whate’er thy griefs, in sleep they fade away,     To sleep! to sleep! Sleep, mournful heart, and let the past be past: Sleep, happy soul, all life will sleep at last.
Foresters. Song.
204
None can truly write his single day, And none can write it for him upon earth.
Life of Tennyson. Unpublished Sonnet.
205
A breath that fleets beyond this iron world And touches him who made it.
Life of Tennyson. Vol. i.
206
Like perfect music unto nobler words.
Life of Tennyson. Vol. i.
207
Death’s truer name Is “Onward,” no discordance in the roll And march of that Eternal Harmony Whereto the world beats time.
Life of Tennyson. Vol. i. 23
208
A good woman is a wondrous creature, cleaving to the right and to the good under all change: lovely in youthful comeliness, lovely all her life long in comeliness of heart.
Life of Tennyson. Vol. i.
209
The night with sudden odour reeled; The southern stars a music pealed.
The Rosebud. 24

Note 1. FitzGerald: Omar Khayyám (1868). And fear not lest Existence closing your Account should lose or know the type no more:   The Eternal Sáki from that Bowl has poured Millions of Bubbles like us and will pour. In the edition of 1889 the second line reads:   Account and mine, should know the like no more. [back]

Note 2. This line stands in Moxon’s edition of 1842,— “The gardener Adam and his wife,”— and was restored by the author in his edition of 1873. [back]

Note 3. See Chapman, page 37. [back]

Note 4. See Pope, page 340. [back]

Note 5. See Byron, page 543. [back]

Note 6. See Longfellow, page 648. [back]

Note 7. Jaws of death.—Shakespeare: Twelfth Night, act iii. sc. 4. Du Bartas: Weekes and Workes, day i. part 4. [back]

Note 8. See Cowper, page 422. [back]

Note 9. The poet alluded to is Goethe. I know this from Lord Tennyson himself, although he could not identify the passage; and when I submitted to him a small book of mine on his marvellous poem, he wrote, “It is Goethe’s creed,” on this very passage.—Rev. Dr. Getty (Vicar of Ecclesfield, Yorkshire). [back]

Note 10. See Longfellow, page 643. [back]

Note 11. See Shakespeare, page 144; also FitzGerald, Rubáiyát, xix. [back]

Note 12. I sing but as the linnet sings: Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt   Der in den Zweigen wohnet. Goethe: Wilhelm Meister, book ii, chap. xi. [back]

Note 13. See Crabbe, page 444. Arthur Hugh Clough: Peschiera. What voice did on my spirit fall,   Peschiera, when thy bridge I crost?   ’T is better to have fought and lost Than never to have fought at all. Congreve: The Way of the World, Act ii. Scene i. Say what you will, ’t is better to be left Than never to have loved. [back]

Note 14. Whittier: My Triumph, page 651. [back]

Note 15. Bailey: Who never doubted never half believed. [back]

Note 16. Kingsley: Purer science, holier laws. [back]

Note 17. W. E. Henley, page 829. I am the master of my fate I am the captain of my soul. J. B. Kenyon: A Challenge: Be the proud captain still of thine own fate. [back]

Note 18. FitzGerald: Omar Khayyám (1859) xcix. Ah Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,   Would we not shatter it to bits—and then Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire! [back]

Note 19. Also in Coming of Arthur, line 508. [back]

Note 20. FitzGerald: Omar Khayyám. He’s a good Fellow and ’t will all be well. [back]

Note 21. Varium et mutabile femina. Aen. iv. l. 569. Donna è mobile. Rigoletto. [back]

Note 22. Boileau: Tous le hommes sont fous. See Carlyle, page 584. [back]

Note 23. See also, Death of Duke of Clarence. [back]

Note 24. Unpublished. [back]