From envious hints and ill reports, the slanders cast on innocence.
Whom may not scandal hit? those shafts are shot at a venture:
Who standeth not in danger of suspicion? that net hath caught the noblest.
Cæsar's wife was spotless, but a martyr to false fame;
And Rumour, in temporary things, is gigantic as a ruin or a remedy:
Many poor and many rich have testified its popular omnipotence,
And many a panic-stricken army hath perished with the host of the Assyrians.
Nevertheless, if opportunity be nought, let a man bide his time;
So the matter be not merchandise nor conquest, fear thou less for character.
If a liar accuseth thee of evil, be not swift to answer;