The Roxburghe Ballads, Volume 2, Part 1

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Ballad society, 1883 - Ballads, English

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Page 179 - His house was known to all the vagrant train, He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain; The long-remembered beggar was his guest, Whose beard descending swept his aged breast; The ruined spendthrift, now no longer proud, Claimed kindred there and had his claims allowed...
Page 179 - What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, although puzzling questions, are not beyond all conjecture.
Page 244 - So may the outward shows be least themselves : The world is still deceived with ornament. In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt, But, being season'd with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil ? In religion, What damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text, Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
Page 244 - They never fail who die In a great cause : the block may soak their gore ; Their heads may sodden in the sun ; their limbs Be strung to city gates and castle walls — But still their spirit walks abroad. Though years Elapse, and others share as dark a doom, They but augment the deep and sweeping thoughts Which overpower all others, and conduct The world at last to freedom.
Page 357 - So live, that when thy summons comes to join The innumerable caravan, that moves To that mysterious realm, where each shall take His chamber in the silent halls of death, Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave, Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
Page 659 - He sought the storms; but, for a calm unfit, Would steer too nigh the sands to boast his wit. Great wits are sure to madness near allied And thin partitions do their bounds divide; Else, why should he, with wealth and honor blest, Refuse his age the needful hours of rest?
Page 658 - Of these the false Achitophel was first, A name to all succeeding ages curst : For close designs and crooked counsels fit, Sagacious, bold, and turbulent of wit...
Page 587 - Jotham of piercing wit, and pregnant thought; Endued by nature, and by learning taught To move assemblies...
Page 443 - AH, how sweet it is to love ! Ah, how gay is young desire ! And what pleasing pains we prove When we first approach love's fire ! Pains of love be sweeter far Than all other pleasures are. Sighs, which are from lovers blown, Do but gently heave the heart : Even the tears they shed alone, Cure, like trickling balm, their smart.
Page 148 - Michael blew his trump, and stilled the noise With one still greater, as is yet the mode On earth besides; except some grumbling voice, Which now and then will make a slight inroad Upon decorous silence, few will twice Lift up their lungs when fairly overcrowed; And now the bard could plead his own bad cause, With all the attitudes of self-applause.

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