Page 287

Tom Brown. (1663–1704) (continued)

your irregular appetites, you must expect to receive your reward in a certain place which ’t is not good manners to mention here.” 1

Laconics.

Matthew Prior. (1664–1721)

3103

All jargon of the schools. 2

I am that I am. An Ode.

3104

Our hopes, like towering falcons, aim
At objects in an airy height;
The little pleasure of the game
Is from afar to view the flight. 3

To the Hon. Charles Montague.

3105

From ignorance our comfort flows.
The only wretched are the wise. 4

To the Hon. Charles Montague.

3106

Odds life! must one swear to the truth of a song?

A Better Answer.

3107

Be to her virtues very kind;
Be to her faults a little blind.

An English Padlock.

3108

That if weak women went astray,
Their stars were more in fault than they.

Hans Carvel.

3109

The end must justify the means.

Hans Carvel.

3110

And thought the nation ne’er would thrive
Till all the whores were burnt alive.

Paulo Purganti.

3111

They never taste who always drink;
They always talk who never think. 5

Upon a passage in the Scaligerana.

3112

That air and harmony of shape express,
Fine by degrees, and beautifully less. 6

Henry and Emma.

Note 1.
Who never mentions hell to ears polite.—Alexander Pope: Moral Essays, epistle iv. line 149. [back]

Note 2.
Noisy jargon of the schools.—John Pomfret: Reason.

The sounding jargon of the schools.—William Cowper: Truth, line 367. [back]

Note 3.
But all the pleasure of the game
Is afar off to view the flight.
Variations in a copy dated 1692. [back]

Note 4.
See Davenant, Quotation 2. [back]

Note 5.
See Jonson, Quotation 24. Also Dryden, Quotation 14. [back]

Note 6.
Fine by defect, and delicately weak.—Alexander Pope: Moral Essays, epistle ii. line 43. [back]