John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Page 267
John Dryden. (1631–1700) |
2921 |
Above any Greek or Roman name. 1 |
Upon the Death of Lord Hastings. Line 76. |
2922 |
And threat’ning France, plac’d like a painted Jove, Kept idle thunder in his lifted hand. |
Annus Mirabilis. Stanza 39. |
2923 |
Whate’er he did was done with so much ease, In him alone ’t was natural to please. |
Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 27. |
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A fiery soul, which, working out its way, Fretted the pygmy-body to decay, And o’er-inform’d the tenement of clay. 2 A daring pilot in extremity; Pleas’d with the danger, when the waves went high He sought the storms. |
Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 156. |
2925 |
Great wits are sure to madness near allied, And thin partitions do their bounds divide. 3 |
Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 163. |
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And all to leave what with his toil he won To that unfeather’d two-legged thing, a son. |
Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 169. |
2927 |
Resolv’d to ruin or to rule the state. |
Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 174. |
2928 |
And heaven had wanted one immortal song. |
Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 197. |
2929 |
But wild Ambition loves to slide, not stand, And Fortune’s ice prefers to Virtue’s land. 4 |
Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 198. |
Note 1. Above all Greek, above all Roman fame.—Alexander Pope: epistle i. book ii. line 26. [back] |
Note 2. See Fuller, Quotation 2. [back] |
Note 3. No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness.—Aristotle: Problem, sect. 30. Nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiæ (There is no great genius without a tincture of madness).—Seneca: De Tranquillitate Animi, 15. What thin partitions sense from thought divide!—Alexander Pope: Essay on Man, epistle i. line 226. [back] |
Note 4. Greatnesse on Goodnesse loves to slide, not stand, And leaves, for Fortune’s ice, Vertue’s ferme land. Knolles: History (under a portrait of Mustapha I.) [back] |