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

Page 217

 
 
Sir William Davenant. (1605–1668)
 
2417
    The assembled souls of all that men held wise.
          Gondibert, Book ii. Canto v. Stanza 37.
2418
    Since knowledge is but sorrow’s spy,
It is not safe to know. 1
          The Just Italian. Act v. Sc. 1.
2419
    For angling-rod he took a sturdy oake; 2
For line, a cable that in storm ne’er broke;
His hooke was such as heads the end of pole
To pluck down house ere fire consumes it whole;
The hook was baited with a dragon’s tale,—
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.
          Britannia Triumphans. Page 15. 1637.
 
Sir Thomas Browne. (1605–1682)
 
2420
    Too rashly charged the troops of error, and remain as trophies unto the enemies of truth.
          Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. vi.
2421
    Rich with the spoils of Nature. 3
          Religio Medici. Part i. Sect. xiii.
 
Note 1.
From ignorance our comfort flows.—Matthew Prior: To the Hon. Charles Montague.

Where ignorance is bliss,
’T is folly to be wise.
Thomas Gray: Eton College, Stanza 10. [back]
Note 2.
For angling rod he took a sturdy oak;
For line, a cable that in storm ne’er broke;
. . . . . .
His hook was baited with a dragon’s tail,—
And then on rock he stood to bob for whale.
From The Mock Romance, a rhapsody attached to The Loves of Hero and Leander, published in London in the years 1653 and 1677. Chambers’s Book of Days, vol. i. p. 173. Samuel Daniel: Rural Sports, Supplement, p. 57.

His angle-rod made of a sturdy oak;
His line, a cable which in storms ne’er broke;
His hook he baited with a dragon’s tail,—
And sat upon a rock, and bobb’d for whale.
William King (1663–1712): Upon a Giant’s Angling. (In Chalmers’s “British Poets” ascribed to King.) [back]
Note 3.
Rich with the spoils of time.—Thomas Gray: Elegy, stanza 13. [back]