C.N. Douglas, comp. Forty Thousand Quotations: Prose and Poetical. 1917. Marston
A strong conceit is rich; so most men deem: If not to be, ’tis comfort yet to seem.
1 Fear is my vassal, when I frown he flies; A hundred times in life a coward dies.
2 He’s a king, A right true king, that dares do aught save wrong: Fears nothing mortal, but to be unjust; Who is not blown up with the flatt’ring puffs Of spongy sycophants; who stands unmov’d Despite the jostling of opinion.
3 Marry! no, faith; husbands are like lots in The lottery, you may draw forty blanks Before you find one that has any prize In him; a husband generally is a Careless domineering thing, that grows like Coral; which as long as it is under water Is soft and tender; but as soon As it has got its branch above the waves Is presently hard, stiff, not to be bow’d.
4 O calm, hush’d, rich content, Is there a being, blessedness, without thee? How soft thou down’st the couch where thou dost rest, Nectar to life thou sweet ambrosian feast.
5 See the dapple coursers of the morn Beat up the light with their bright silver hoofs, And chase it through the sky.
6 Speak, speak, let terror strike slaves mute, Much danger makes great hearts most resolute.
7 Much danger makes great hearts most resolute. 8 Sing of the nature of women, and then the song shall be surely full of variety,—old crotchets and most sweet closes. It shall be humorous, grave, fantastical, amorous, melancholy, sprightly,—one in all, all in one. 9
