part ii
. The Student's Tale."
JOHN TRUMBULL. 1750-1831.
But optics sharp it needs, I ween, To see what is not to be seen.
_M^cFingal. Canto i. Line 67._
But as some muskets so contrive it As oft to miss the mark they drive at, And though well aimed at duck or plover, Bear wide, and kick their owners over.
_M^cFingal. Canto i. Line 93._
As though there were a tie And obligation to posterity. We get them, bear them, breed, and nurse: What has posterity done for us That we, lest they their rights should lose, Should trust our necks to gripe of noose?
_M^cFingal. Canto ii. Line 121._
No man e'er felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law.
_M^cFingal. Canto iii. Line 489._
RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN. 1751-1816.
Illiterate him, I say, quite from your memory.
_The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2._
'T is safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion.
_The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2._
A progeny of learning.
_The Rivals. Act i. Sc. 2._
A circulating library in a town is as an evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge.
_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 1._
He is the very pine-apple of politeness!
_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 3._
If I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue, and a nice derangement of epitaphs!
_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 3._
As headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile.
_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 3._
Too civil by half.
_The Rivals. Act iii. Sc. 4._
Our ancestors are very good kind of folks; but they are the last people I should choose to have a visiting acquaintance with.
_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 1._
No caparisons, miss, if you please. Caparisons don't become a young woman.
_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 2._
We will not anticipate the past; so mind, young people,--our retrospection will be all to the future.
_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 2._
You are not like Cerberus, three gentlemen at once, are you?
_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 2._
The quarrel is a very pretty quarrel as it stands; we should only spoil it by trying to explain it.
_The Rivals. Act iv. Sc. 3._
You 're our enemy; lead the way, and we 'll precede.
_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 1._
There 's nothing like being used to a thing.[441-1]
_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3._
As there are three of us come on purpose for the game, you won't be so cantankerous as to spoil the party by sitting out.
_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3._
My valour is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palm of my hands!
_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3._
I own the soft impeachment.
_The Rivals. Act v. Sc. 3._
Steal! to be sure they may; and, egad, serve your best thoughts as gypsies do stolen children,--disfigure them to make 'em pass for their own.[441-2]
_The Critic. Act i. Sc. 1._
The newspapers! Sir, they are the most villanous, licentious, abominable, infernal-- Not that I ever read them! No, I make it a rule never to look into a newspaper.
_The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2._
Egad, I think the interpreter is the hardest to be understood of the two!
_The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2._
Sheer necessity,--the proper parent of an art so nearly allied to invention.
_The Critic. Act i. Sc. 2._
No scandal about Queen Elizabeth, I hope?
_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 1._
Certainly nothing is unnatural that is not physically impossible.
_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 1._
Where they _do_ agree on the stage, their unanimity is wonderful.
_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2._
Inconsolable to the minuet in Ariadne.
_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2._
The Spanish fleet thou canst not see, because--it is not yet in sight!
_The Critic. Act ii. Sc. 2._
An oyster may be crossed in love.
_The Critic. Act iii. Sc. 1._
You shall see them on a beautiful quarto page, where a neat rivulet of text shall meander through a meadow of margin.
_School for Scandal. Act i. Sc. 1._
Here is the whole set! a character dead at every word.
_School for Scandal. Act ii. Sc. 2._
I leave my character behind me.
_School for Scandal. Act ii. Sc. 2._
Here 's to the maiden of bashful fifteen; Here 's to the widow of fifty; Here 's to the flaunting, extravagant quean, And here 's to the housewife that 's thrifty! Let the toast pass; Drink to the lass; I 'll warrant she 'll prove an excuse for the glass.
_School for Scandal. Act iii. Sc. 3._
An unforgiving eye, and a damned disinheriting countenance.
_School for Scandal. Act v. Sc. 1._
It was an amiable weakness.[442-1]
_School for Scandal. Act v. Sc. 1._
I ne'er could any lustre see In eyes that would not look on me; I ne'er saw nectar on a lip But where my own did hope to sip.
_The Duenna. Act i. Sc. 2._
Had I a heart for falsehood framed, I ne'er could injure you.
_The Duenna. Act i. Sc. 5._
Conscience has no more to do with gallantry than it has with politics.
_The Duenna. Act ii. Sc. 4._
While his off-heel, insidiously aside. Provokes the caper which he seems to chide.
_Pizarro. The Prologue._
Such protection as vultures give to lambs.
_Pizarro. Act ii. Sc. 2._
A life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line,--by deeds, not years.[443-1]
_Pizarro. Act iv. Sc. 1._
The Right Honorable gentleman is indebted to his memory for his jests, and to his imagination for his facts.[443-2]
_Speech in Reply to Mr. Dundas. Sheridaniana._
You write with ease to show your breeding, But easy writing 's curst hard reading.
_Clio's Protest. Life of Sheridan_ (Moore). _Vol. i. p. 155._
FOOTNOTES:
[441-1] 'T is nothing when you are used to it.--SWIFT: _Polite Conversation, iii._
[441-2] See Churchill, page 413.
[442-1] See Fielding, page 364.
[443-1] He who grown aged in this world of woe, In deeds, not years, piercing the depths of life, So that no wonder waits him.
BYRON: _Childe Harold, canto iii. stanza 5._
We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths.--BAILEY: _Festus. A Country Town._
Who well lives, long lives; for this age of ours Should not be numbered by years, daies, and hours.
DU BARTAS: _Days and Weekes. Fourth Day. Book ii ._
[443-2] On peut dire que son esprit brille aux dépens de sa mémoire (One may say that his wit shines by the help of his memory).--LE SAGE: _Gil Blas,