John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
Sir William Davenant 1605-1668 John Bartlett
| 1 |
| The assembled souls of all that men held wise. |
| Gondibert, Book ii. Canto v. Stanza 37. |
| 2 |
| Since knowledge is but sorrow’s spy, It is not safe to know. 1 |
| The Just Italian. Act v. Sc. 1. |
| 3 |
| 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. |
| 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] |