214

COUPLE.

COURAGE.

COUPLE.

We have still slept together;

Rose at an instant; learned, played, eat together;
And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,
Still we went coupled, and inseparable.

After this alliance,

Shakspere.

Let tigers match with hinds, and wolves with sheep, And every creature couple with its foe.

What greater ills have the heavens in store,

Dryden.

To couple coming harms with sorrows past.-Sidney.

COURAGE.

BUT screw your courage to the sticking place,

And 't will not fail.

Presence of mind, and courage in distress,
Are more than armies to procure success.

Shakspere.

Dryden.

True courage dwells not in a troubled flood
Of mounting spirits and fermenting blood.
Lodged in the soul with virtue overruled,
Inflamed by reason, and by reason cooled.—Addison.

Mere courage is to madness near allied

A brutal rage, which prudence does not guide.

Yet it may be more lofty courage dwells

Blackmore.

In one weak heart which braves an adverse fate, Than his whose ardent soul indignant swells,

Warmed by the fight, or cheered through high debate.
Mrs. Norton.

Think'st thou there dwells no courage but in breasts
That set their mail against the ringing spears,
When helmets are struck down? Thou little knowest
Of nature's marvels.

Mrs. Hemans.

COURT.

COURT-COURTIERS.

REVOLVE What tales I have told you Of courts, of princes, of the tricks in war: This service is not service, so being done, But being so allowed.

These can lie,

Flatter, and swear, deprave, inform,

215

Shakspere.

Smile and betray; make guilty men; then beg
The forfeit lives, to get the livings; cut

Men's throats with whisperings; sell to gaping suitors
The empty smoke that flies about a palace.

Ben Jonson.

I have been told, virtue in courtiers' hearts
Suffers an ostracism, and departs.

Dr. Donne.

True courtiers should be modest, and not nice;
Bold, but not impudent; pleasure love, not vice.

O happy they that never saw the court,
Nor ever knew great men but by report.

Chapman.

Webster.

Fly from the court's pernicious neighbourhood,
Where innocence is shamed, and blushing modesty
Is made the scorner's jest; whose hate, deceit,
And deadly ruin wear the mask of beauty,
And draw deluded fools with baits of pleasure.

Rowe.

Virtue must be thrown off, 't is a coarse garment, Too heavy for the sunshine of a court.

Dryden.

Young.

Courts can give nothing to the wise and good,
But scorn of pomp, and love of solitude.

Farewell court,

Where vice not only has usurped the place,
But the reward and even the name of virtue.

A mere court butterfly

That flutters in the pageant of a monarch.

Denham.

Byron.

216

COURTESY.

COVETOUSNESS.

COURTESY.

HE hath deserved well of his country;

And this ascent is not by such easy degrees,

As those who have been supple and courteous to the

people.

So gentle of condition was he known,

Shakspere.

Dryden.

That through the court his courtesy was blown.

This Florentine's a very saint, so meek
And full of courtesy, that he would lend

The devil his cloak, and stand i' the rain himself.

Sir W. Davenant.

Earl of Sterling.

What fairer cloak than courtesy for fraud.

COVETOUSNESS.

WHEN workmen strive to do better than well,
They do confound their skill in covetousness.

Shakspere.

The difference 'twixt the covetous and the prodigal!

The covetous man never has money,

And the prodigal will have none shortly.

When all sins are old in us,

And go upon crutches, covetousness
Does but then lie in her cradle.

Johnson.

Decker.

Oh, father, can it be that souls sublime,

Return to visit our terrestrial clime?

And that the generous mind released by death,

Can covet lazy limbs and mortal breath?

Dryden.

Be thrifty, but not covetous. Therefore give
Thy need, thine honour, and thy friend his due,
Never was scraper brave man. Get, to live;
Then live, and use it; else it is not true
That thou hast gotten. Surely, use alone

Makes money not a contemptible stone.-G. Herbert.

COWARDICE.

COWARDICE.

COWARDS die many times before their deaths;
The valiant never taste of death but once.

Cowards fear to die; but courage stout,
Rather than live in snuff, will be put out.

Let valiant fools

217

Shakspere.

Sir W. Raleigh.

Brag of their souls; no matter what they say,
A coward dares, in ill, do more than they.-Shirley.

All mankind

Is one of these two cowards;

Either to wish to die

When he should live, or live when he should die.

Sir Robert Howard.

The good we act, the ill that we endure,
Is all for fear, to make ourselves secure;
Merely for safety after fame we thirst,
For all men would be cowards if they durst.

Earl of Rochester.

Think not, coward, wit can hide the shame
Of hearts; which, while they dare not strike for fear,
Would make it virtue in them to forbear.

Lord Brooke.

But look for ruin when a coward wins;
For fear and cruelty were ever twins.

Aleyn.

What can ennoble sots, and slaves, and cowards?

Alas! not all the blood of all the Howards.

Pope.

Crabbe.

The coward never on himself relies,
But to an equal for assistance flies.

Fear is my vassal, when I frown he flies;
A hundred times in life a coward dies.

The coward wretch whose hand and heart

Can bear to torture aught below,

Is ever first to quail and start
From slightest pain, or equal foe.

Marston.

Eliza Cook.

218

COZENAGE.

сохсомв.

COZENAGE.

WHAT if I please to lengthen out his date
A day, and take a pride to cozen fate.

There's no such thing as that we beauty call.
It is mere cozenage all;

For though I have long ago

Liked certain colours mingled so and so,
That doth not tie me now from choosing new.

Dryden.

Suckling.

COXCOMB.

THIS is he

That kiss'd his hand away in courtesy,
This is the ape of form, Monsieur the nice,
That when he plays at tables, chides the dice
In honourable terms.

Shakspere.

A six-foot suckling, mincing in its gait:
Affected, peevish, prim, and delicate;
Fearful it seemed, tho' of athletic make,
Lest brutal breezes should too roughly shake
Its tender form, and savage motion spread,
O'er its pale cheeks, the horrid manly red.

Churchill.

Why should I vex and chafe my spleen
To see a gaudy coxcomb shine, when I
Have sense enough to sooth him in his follies
And ride him to advantage as I please?

A graver coxcomb we may sometimes see,
Quite as absurd though not so light as he:
A shallow brain behind a serious mask,
An oracle within an empty cask,
The solemn fop; significant and budge;
A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge;
He says but little, and that little said

Owes all its weight, like loaded dice, to lead.
His wit invites you by his looks to come,

Otway.

But when you knock it never is at home.-Cowper.