154

COURTIER-PARASITE.

These can lie,

Flatter, and swear, deprave, inform,

Smile and betray; make guilty men; then beg
The forfeit lives, to get the livings; cut

Men's throats with whisperings; sell to gaping suitors
The empty smoke that flies about a palace.

I have been told, virtue in courtiers' hearts
Suffers an ostracism, and departs.

BEN JONSON

DR. DONNE.

True courtiers should be modest, and not nice;
Bold, but not impudent; pleasure love, not vice.

Poor wretches, that depend

On greatness' favour, dream as I have done;
Wake and find nothing.

CHAPMAN

The caterpillars of the commonwealth,

Whom I have soon to weed and pluck away.

I hardly yet have learn'd

T'insinuate, flatter, bow, and bend the knee.

Those, that go up hill, use to bow

Their bodies forward, and stoop low,

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE

SHAKSPEARE

To poise themselves; and sometimes creep
When th' way is difficult and steep:

So those at court, that do address

By low, ignoble offices,

Can stoop at any thing that's base,
To wriggle into trust and grace,
Are like to rise to greatness sooner
Than those that go by worth and honour.

BUTLER'S Hudibras

See how he sets his countenance for deceit,
And promises a lie before he speaks.

DRYDEN

COURTSHIP.

'Tis the curse of kings,

To be surrounded by a venal herd
Of flatterers, that soothe his darling vices,
And rob their master of his subjects' love.

BROOK'S Earl of Warwick.

Curse on the coward or perfidious tongue
That dares not, even to kings, avow the truth.

To shake with laughter, ere the jest they hear,
To pour, at will, the counterfeited tear;
And, as their patron hints the cold or heat,
To shake in dog-days, in December sweat.

A lazy, proud, unprofitable crew,

155

THOMSON.

DR. JOHNSON.

The vermin gender'd from the rank corruption
Of a luxurious state.

A mere court butterfly,

That flutters in the pageant of a monarch.

CUMBERLAND.

BYRON'S Sardanapalus

And none did love him-though to hall and bower

He gather'd followers from far and near;

He knew them flatterers of the festal hour,

The heartless parasites of present cheer.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

COURTSHIP.

Bring, therefore, all the forces that you may,
And lay incessant battery to her heart;

Plaints, prayers, vows, ruth, and sorrow, and dismay,

These engines can the proudest love convert.

SPENSER'S Sonnets.

So well he woo'd her, and so well he wrought her,

With fair entreaty and sweet blandishment,
That at the length unto a bay he brought her,
So that she to his speeches was content

To lend an ear, and softly to relent.

I do not love

SPENSER'S Fairy Queen.

Much ceremony; suits in love should not,
Like suits in law, be rock'd from term to term.

There is, sir, a critical minute in

Every man's wooing, when his mistress may
Be won, which if he carelessly neglect.
To prosecute, he may wait long enough
Before he gains the like opportunity.

She is beautiful, therefore to be woo'd;
She is woman, therefore to be won.

SHIRLEY

MARMYAN.

SHAKSPEARE.

Flatter and praise, commend, extol their graces;
Though ne'er so black, say they have angels' faces.
That man that has a tongue, I say, is no man,
If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.

SHAKSPEARE.

Say that she rail; why then I'll tell her plain,
She sings as sweetly as the nightingale ;
Say that she frown; I'll say, she looks as clear
As morning roses newly wash'd with dew;
Say she be mute, and will not speak a word;
Then I'll commend her volubility,
And say, she uttereth piercing eloquence.

But tho' I lov'd you well, I woo'd you not;
And yet, good faith, I wish'd myself a man;
Or, that we women had men's privilege
Of speaking first.

SHAKSPEARE.

SHAKSPEARE

COURTSHIP.

In these ars of mine,

These credulous ears, he pour'd the sweetest words
That art or love could frame.

I am not form'd, by flattery and praise,
By sighs and tears, and all the whining trade
Of love, to feed a fair one's vanity,

To charm at once, and spoil her.

He that would win his dame, must do
As Love does when he draws his bow;
With one hand thrust the lady from,
And with the other pull her home.

For, you must know, a widow's won
With brisk attempt and putting on;
With ent'ring manfully, and urging,
Not slow approaches, like a virgin.

BEAUMONT

THOMSON

BUTLER'S Hudibras

157

BUTLER'S Hudibras.

AARON HILL.

To me he came; my heart with rapture sprung,
To see the blushes, when his faltering tongue
First said, I love. My eyes consent reveal,
And plighted vows our faithful passion seal.

ROWE

ROWE.

GAY's Dione,

So, with decorum all things carried,
Miss frown'd, and blush'd, and then was married.

GOLDSMITH.

She half consents who silently denies.

Mer. dream in courtship, but in wedlock wake.

OVID.

POPE'S Eloisa.

158

COURTSHIP.

Like a lovely tree

She grew to womanhood, and between whiles
Rejected several suitors, just to learn
How to accept a better in his turn.

BYRON'S Don Juan.

The gentle pressure and the thrilling touch.

BYRON'S Don Juan

To pick up gloves, and fans, and knitting-needles,
And list for songs and tunes, and watch for smiles,
And smile at pretty prattle, and look into

BYRON'S Mazeppa

Then thro' my brain the thought did pass,
Even as a flash of lightning there,
That there was something in her air
That would not doom me to despair.

Skill'd in the ogle of a roguish eye.

BYRON'S Mazeppa.

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

Not much he kens, I ween, of woman's breast,
Who thinks that wanton thing is won by sighs.
Do proper homage to thine idol's eyes,
But not too humbly, or she will despise :
Disguise even tenderness, if thou art wise.

In whispers low,

BYRON'S Childe Harold.

And sweet as softest music's gentle flow,

The lovers spoke.

MRS. HOWE

Whue the dimple and blush, starting soft to her cheek,
Told the tale that her tongue was too timid to speak.

MRS. OSGOOD.