The assembled souls of all that men held wise.
“Gondibert,” Book II, Canto v. Stanza 37,—Sir William Davenant.
Sir William Davenant, a celebrated English poet, was born at Oxford, in 1606, and died April 7, 1668. He wrote numerous poems and plays, and succeeded Ben Jonson as poet laureate of England. Besides his poetical works, he wrote an epic, “Gondibert,” and an opera, “The Siege of Rhodes.”
’Tis expectation makes a blessing dear;
Heaven were not heaven if we knew what it were.
“Against Fruition,”—Sir J. Suckling.
Sir John Suckling, a noted English poet, was born at Whitton, Middlesex, in 1608, and died in Paris, about 1642. He is noted for his love poems. A complete edition of his works appeared in 1874.
When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war!
—Nathaniel Lee.
Nathaniel Lee, a celebrated English dramatist, was born in 1653 (?), and died in 1692. Among his plays are: “Nero, Emperor of Rome,” “Theodosius,” “The Rival Queens, or the Death of Alexander the Great,” etc.
He that imposes an oath makes it,
Not he that for convenience takes it;
Then, how can any man be said
To break an oath he never made!