Page 174

Thomas Middleton. (1580–1627) (continued)

2016

Turn over a new leaf. 1

Anything for a Quiet Life. Act iii. Sc. 3.

2017

My nearest
And dearest enemy. 2

Anything for a Quiet Life. Act v. Sc. 1.

2018

This was a good week’s labour.

Anything for a Quiet Life. Act v. Sc. 3.

2019

How many honest words have suffered corruption since Chaucer’s days!

No Wit, no Help, like a Woman’s. Act ii. Sc. 1.

2020

By many a happy accident. 3

No Wit, no Help, like a Woman’s. Act ii. Sc. 2.

Sir Henry Wotton. (1568–1639)

2021

    How happy is he born or taught,
  That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armour is his honest thought,
  And simple truth his utmost skill!

The Character of a Happy Life.

2022

    Who God doth late and early pray
  More of his grace than gifts to lend;
And entertains the harmless day
  With a religious book or friend.

The Character of a Happy Life.

2023

Lord of himself, though not of lands;
And having nothing, yet hath all. 4

The Character of a Happy Life.

2024

    You meaner beauties of the night,
  That poorly satisfy our eyes
More by your number than your light;
  You common people of the skies,—
  What are you when the moon 5 shall rise?

On his Mistress, the Queen of Bohemia. 6

Note 1.
A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Servingmen (1598). Turn over a new leaf.—Thomas Dekker: The Honest Whore, part ii. act i. sc. 2. Edmund Burke: Letter to Mrs. Haviland. [back]

Note 2.
See Shakespeare, Hamlet, Quotation 28. [back]

Note 3.
A happy accident.—Madame de Staël: L’Allemagne, chap. xvi. Cervantes: Don Quixote, book iv. part ii. chap. lvii. [back]

Note 4.
As having nothing, and yet possessing all things.—2 Corinth. vi. 10. [back]

Note 5.
”Sun” in Reliquiæ Wottonianæ (eds. 1651, 1654, 1672, 1685). [back]

Note 6.
This was printed with music as early as 1624, in Est’s “Sixth Set of Books,” etc., and is found in many MSS.—Hannah: The Courtly Poets. [back]

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