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FICKLENESS - FIGHTING, &c.

FICKLENESS.

1. Of constancy no root infix'd,

That either they love nothing, or not long.

PRIOR.

2.

We in vain the fickle sex pursue,
Who change the constant lover for the new.

PRIOR.

3. She was fair-and my passion begun; She smil'd-and I could not but love; She is faithless-and I am undone.

SHENSTONE.

4. Inconstant as the passing wind,
As winter's dreary frost unkind;
To fix her, 't were a task as vain
To count the April drops of rain.

SMOLLETT.

5. Ladies whose love is constant as the wind.

YOUNG.

6. She will, and she will not-she grants, denies, Consents, retracts, advances, and then flies.

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1. The hounds shall make the welkin answer them, And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth.

SHAKSPEARE.

2. If all the year were playing holiday,
To sport would be as tedious as to work.

3. I saw him beat the surges under him,

And ride upon their backs; he trod the water
Whose enmity he flung aside, and breasted
The surge most swoln that met him.

4. The torrent roar'd; and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews, throwing it aside,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.

5. In wrestling, nimble, and in running, swift;

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

In shooting, steady, and in swimming, strong;
Well made to strike, to leap, to throw, to lift,
And all the sports that shepherds are among.

SPENSER'S Astrophel.

6. Listening how the hounds and horn
Cheerly rouse the slumbering morn,
From the side of some hoar hill,
Through the high wood echoing shrill.

7. Far up the stream the twisted hair he throws,

MILTON.

Which down the murmuring current quickly flows,
When, if or chance or hunger's powerful sway
Directs the roving trout this fatal way,

He greedily sucks in the twining bait,
And tugs and nibbles the fallacious meat.

Now, happy fisherman, now twitch the line!
How the rod bends!

Behold the prize is thine.
GAY'S Rural Sports.

8. With what delight the rapid course I view!
How does my eye the circling race pursue!
He snaps deceitful air with empty jaws,
The subtle hare darts swift beneath his paws;

272

FISHING-HUNTING, &c.

She flies, she stretches now with nimble bound;
Eager he presses on, but overshoots his ground;
She turns; he winds, and soon regains the way,
Then tears with gory mouth the screaming prey.
GAY'S Rural Sports.

9. See how the well-taught pointer leads the way!
The scent grows warm; he stops; he springs the prey;

The fluttering coveys from the stubble rise,

And on swift wings divide the sounding skies;
The scattering lead pursues the certain sight,
And death in thunder overtakes their flight.

GAY'S Rural Sports.

10. Soon as Aurora drives away the night,

11.

And edges eastern clouds with rosy light,
The healthy huntsman, with the cheerful horn,
Summons the dogs, and greets the dappled morn.
The jocund thunder wakes the enliven❜d hounds,
They rouse from sleep, and answer sounds for sounds;
Wide through the furzy fields their course they take,
Their bleeding bosoms force the thorny brake:
The flying game their smoking nostrils trace,
No bounding hedge obstructs their eager pace.
The distant mountains echo from afar,
The hanging woods resound the flying war;
The tuneful noise the sprightly courser hears,
Paws the green turf, and pricks his trembling ears;
The slacken'd rein now gives him all his speed,

Back flies the rapid ground beneath the steed;

Hills, dales and forests, far behind remain,

While the warm scent draws on the deep-mouth'd train.
GAY'S Rural Sports.

-High in air

He waves his varied plumes, stretching away
With hasty wing. Soon from the uplifted tube
The mimic thunder bursts; the leaden death

O'ertakes him, and with many a giddy whirl
To earth he falls, and at my feet expires.

12. In genial spring, beneath the quiv'ring shade,
Where cooling vapours breathe along the mead,
The patient fisher takes his silent stand,
Intent, his angle trembling in his hand :
With looks unmov'd he hopes the scaly breed,
And eyes the dancing cork and bending reed.

SOMERVILE.

POPE'S Windsor Forest.

13. Ye vig'rous swains! while youth ferments your blood,
And purer spirits swell the sprightly flood,
Now range the hills, the gameful woods beset,
Wind the shrill horn, or spread the waving net.
When milder autumn summer's heat succeeds,
And in the new-shorn field the partridge feeds,
Before his lord the ready spaniel bounds,
Panting with hope, he tries the furrow'd grounds;
But when the tainted gales the game betray,
Couch'd close he lies, and meditates the prey;
Secure they trust th' unfaithful field beset,
Till, hovering o'er them, sweeps the swelling net.

POPE'S Windsor Forest.

14. He thought, at heart, like courtly Chesterfield,
Who, after a long chase o'er hills, dales, bushes,
And what not, though he rode beyond all price,
Ask'd next day "if men ever hunted twice?"

15.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

-With a swimmer's stroke

Flinging the billows back from my drench'd hair,
And laughing from my lip the audacious brine,
Which kiss'd it like a wine-cup, rising o'er
The waves as they arose, and prouder still
The loftier they uplifted me.

BYRON'S Two Foscari.

274

FLAG-FLATTERY, &c.

FLAG. (See Banner.)

FLATTERY-SYCOPHANT - PRAISE.

1. Or who would ever care to do brave deed,
Or strive in virtue others to excel,

If none should yield him his deserved meed,
Due praise, that is the spur of doing well?
For if good were not praised more than ill,

None would choose goodness of his own free will.

2. That, sir, which serves and seeks for gain,

And follows but for form,

Will pack when it begins to rain,

And leave thee in the storm.

3. He would not flatter Neptune for his trident; Or Jove for his power to thunder.

4.

You play the spaniel,

SPENSER.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE.

And think with wagging of your tongue to win me.

5. Of all wild beasts, preserve me from a tyrant ; And of all tame-a flatterer.

6. The firmest purpose of a woman's heart To well-tim'd, artful flattery may yield.

SHAKSPEARE.

BEN JONSON.

7. 'Tis an old maxim in the schools, That flattery's the food of fools,

Yet, now and then, your men of wit
Will condescend to take a bit.

LILLO.

SWIFT.

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