_Albion's England. Book x. chap. lix. stanza 68._
_The Buke of the Howlat._[38-4] _Stanza xxxi._
[38-4] The allegorical poem of _The Howlat_ was composed about the middle of the fifteenth century. Of the personal history of the author no kind of information has been discovered. Printed by the Bannatyne Club, 1823.
Treason doth never prosper: what 's the reason? Why, if it prosper, none dare call it treason.[39-1]
[39-1] Prosperum ac felix scelus Virtus vocatur (Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue).
As that the walls worn thin, permit the mind To look out thorough, and his frailty find.[39-2]
_History of the Civil War. Book iv. Stanza 84._
Sacred religion! mother of form and fear.
And for the few that only lend their ear, That few is all the world.
And who (in time) knows whither we may vent The treasure of our tongue? To what strange shores This gain of our best glory shall be sent T' enrich unknowing nations with our stores? What worlds in the yet unformed Occident May come refin'd with th' accents that are ours?[39-3]
Unless above himself he can Erect himself, how poor a thing is man!
_To the Countess of Cumberland. Stanza 12._
Care-charmer Sleep, son of the sable Night, Brother to Death, in silent darkness born.
[39-2] The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made.
[39-3] Westward the course of empire takes its way.--BERKELEY: _On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America._
Had in him those brave translunary things That the first poets had.
(Said of Marlowe.) _To Henry Reynolds, of Poets and Poesy._
For that fine madness still he did retain Which rightly should possess a poet's brain.
(Said of Marlowe.) _To Henry Reynolds, of Poets and Poesy._
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death, And innocence is closing up his eyes, Now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over, From death to life thou might'st him yet recover.
_Ideas. An Allusion to the Eaglets. lxi._
I 'm armed with more than complete steel,-- The justice of my quarrel.[40-3]
Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?[40-4]
Come live with me, and be my love; And we will all the pleasures prove That hills and valleys, dales and fields, Woods or steepy mountain yields.