John Denham

“ When Kings give Liberty and Subjects Love.
Therefore not long in Force this Charter stood;
Wanting that Seal, it must be seal’d in Blood.
The subjects arm’d, the more their Princes gave,
Th' advantage only took the more to crave.
Till King's by giving, gave themselves away,
And even that Power that should deny, betray.
"Who gives constrain'd, but his own Fear reviles,
"Not thank'd, but scorn’d; nor are thy Gifts, but Spoils. ”

“ Though with those streams he no resemblance hold,
Whose foam is Amber, and their Gravel Gold;
His genuine and less guilty wealth t' explore,
Search not his bottom, but survey his shore; ”

“ My great example, at it is my theme!
Though deep, yet clear, though gentle, yet not dull,
Strong without rage, without o're-flowing full.
Heaven her Eridanus no more shall boast,
Whose Fame is thine, like lesser Currents lost ”

“ SURE there are Poets which did never dream
Upon Parnassus, nor did taste the Stream
Of Helicon; we therefore may suppose
Those made not Poets, but the Poet those. ”

“ And free from Conscience is a slave to Fame. ”

“ But these Clouds being now happily blown over, and our Sun clearly shining out again, I have recovered the Relapse, it being suspected that it would have proved the Epidemical Disease of Age, which is apt to fall back into the Follies in Youth; yet Socrates, Aristotle and Cato did the same, and Scaliger saith that fragment of Aristotle was beyond any thing that Pindar or Homer ever wrote. ”

“ O happiness of sweet retir’d content!
To be at once secure, and innocent. ”

“ As well as that of Sounds, from Discord springs. ”

“ Or snows dissolv’d, o'erflows the adjoyning Plains,
The Husbendmen with high-rais'd banks secure
Their greedy Hopes, and this be can endure;
But if with Bays and Dams, they strive to force
His Chanel to a new or narrow Course;
No longer then within his Banks he dwells,
First to a Torrent, then a Deluge swells:
Stronger and Fiercer! by Restraint he roars,
And knows no Bound, but makes his Powers his Shores.
FINIS
↑ Edward Third, and the Black Prince. ”

“ And Doubt a greater mischief than Despair. ”