Translators From England

"He is older than the seas, Older than the plains and hills, And older than the light that spills From the sun's hot wheel on these. He wakes the gale that tears your trees, He sings to you from window sills."

"Kaisers and Czars will strut the stage Once more with pomp and greed and rage; Courtly ministers will stop At home and fight to the last drop; By the million men will die In some new horrible agony..."

"With a fork drive Nature out, She will ever yet return; Hedge the flowerbed all about, Pull or stab or cut or burn, She will ever yet return."

"Riding on the shell and shot. He smites you down, he succours you, And where you seek him, he is not."

"New beginnings and new shoots Spring again from hidden roots Pull or stab or cut or burn, Love must ever yet return."

"Children born of fairy stock Never need for shirt or frock, Never want for food or fire, Always get their heart's desire..."

"Every fairy child may keep Two strong ponies and ten sheep; All have houses, each his own, Built of brick or granite stone; They live on cherries, they run wild — I'd love to be a Fairy's child."

"Another War soon gets begun, A dirtier, a more glorious one; Then, boys, you'll have to play, all in; It's the cruellest team will win. So hold your nose against the stink And never stop too long to think. Wars don't change except in name; The next one must go just the same, And new foul tricks unguessed before Will win and justify this War."

"Immeasurable at every hour: He first taught lovers how to kiss, He brings down sunshine after shower, Thunder and hate are his also, He is YES and he is NO."

"Having now been in the trenches for five months, I had passed my prime. For the first three weeks, an officer was of little use in the front line... Between three weeks and four weeks he was at his best, unless he happened to have any particular bad shock or sequence of shocks. Then his usefulness gradually declined as neurasthenia developed. At six months he was still more or less all right; but by nine or ten months, unless he had been given a few weeks' rest on a technical course, or in hospital, he usually became a drag on the other company officers. After a year or fifteen months he was often worse than useless."

"She was employed by Charles II, in 1666, in a political negotiation at Antwerp, which she managed with much dexterity; but her intelligence (though well-founded) being disregarded, she renounced all state affairs, and amused herself some time with the gallantries of Antwerp; and, when she arrived at London, dedicated the rest of her life to pleasure and poetry."

"Nothing is more capable of troubling our reason, and consuming our health, than secret notions of jealousy in solitude."

"…that perfect Tranquillity of Life, which is no where to be found, but in retreat, a faithful Friend and a good Library…"

"Each moment of the happy lover's hour is worth an age of dull and common life."

"Faith, sir, we are here today, and gone tomorrow."

"Love ceases to be a pleasure when it ceases to be a secret."

"A brave world, sir, full of religion, knavery, and change: we shall shortly see better days."

"Oh what a dear ravishing thing is the beginning of an Amour!"

"He that knew all that ever Learning writ, Knew only this - that he knew nothing yet."

"One hour of right-down love is worth an age of dully living on."

"No friend to Love like a long voyage at sea."

"There's no sinner like a young saint."

"Patience is a flatterer, sir, and an ass, sir."

"Variety is the soul of pleasure."

"Come away; poverty's catching."

"Money speaks sense in a language all nations understand."

"There has never been a time when there has been no person in Cornwall without a knowledge of the Cornish language."

"Why should Cornishmen learn Cornish? There is no money in it, it serves no practical purpose, and the literature is scanty and of no great originality or value. The question is a fair one, the answer is simple. Because they are Cornish."

"The queen did fish for men's souls, and had so sweet a bait that no one could escape her net-work."

"Now, if ever any person had either the gift or the skill to winne the hearts of people, it was this Queene; and if ever shee did expresse the same, it was at that present, in coupling mildnesse with majesty as she did, and in stately stouping to the meanest sort. All her faculties were in motion, and every motion seemed a well guided action: Her eye was set upon one, her eare listened to another, her judgement rane upon a third, to a fourth shee addressed her speech: Her spirit seemed to be everywhere, and yet so entire in her selfe, as it seemed to bee no where else. Some she commended, some she pitied, some she thanked, at others she pleasantly and wittily jeasted, concerning no person, neglecting no office; and generally casting forth such courteous countenances, gestures and speeches, that thereupon the people againe redoubled the testimonies of their joy and afterwards, raising every thing to the highest straine, filled the cares of all men with immoderate extolling their Prince."

"Her mind was oftimes like the gentle air that cometh from the westerly point in a summer's morn; 'twas sweet and refreshing to all around her. Her speech did win all affections; and her subjects did try to show all love to her commands; for she would say, her state did require her to command what she knew her people would willingly do from their own love to her. Herein did she show her wisdom fully; for who did choose to loose her confidence; or who would withhold a show of love and obedience, when their sovereign said it was their own choice and not her compulsion? Surely she did play well her tables to gain obedience thus without constraint; again could she put forth such alterations, when obedience was lacking, as left no doubtings whose daughter she was."

"If where religion was concerned Elizabeth made "no windows into the hearts of men," she certainly left us the most unexpected window into her own soul. It is in the form of her own personal Book of Devotions... These prayers are far-and-away the most interesting of any that we have from Elizabeth's hand. They are written in a simple straightforward manner, and they reveal a deep personal faith which has every token of sincerity."

"On her throne, Elizabeth was the Virgin Queen; towards the Church she was a mother, with her nobles she was an aunt, to her councillors a nagging wife, and to her courtiers a seductress."

"In 1603, Elizabeth had seemed a foolish old woman, as men looked expectantly to a Stuart king. By 1630, when Stuart kings had proved rather a disappointment, she had become the paragon of all princely virtues."

"So the development of the galleon enabled the rich and powerful colonial empire of Spain to plot the destruction of Elizabeth’s reign and the restoration of a Catholic English state. In 1582, Spain began construction of a new Armada. In light of Spain’s new military project, and with no imminent Turkish threat to English soil, Elizabeth I made the daring move to send the first English ambassador to Constantinople to bargain with Sultan Murad III of the Ottoman Empire. William Harborne was chosen for the task, having travelled to Constantinople throughout the 1570s with British merchants in the Levant Trading Company. Through her ambassador, Elizabeth and Murad corresponded back and forth in Latin, each concerned with Spanish and Habsburg dominance. Murad was quite beguiling in his treatment of the sovereign of England, referring to Elizabeth as:The pride of women who follow Jesus, the most excellent of the ladies honored among the Messiah’s people, the arbitress of the affairs of the Christian community, who trails the skirts of majesty and gravity, the queen of the realm of Ingiltere, Queen Eliz’ade. Ambassador Harborne, in turn, referred to Murad as “the most august and benign Caesar”—illustrating Elizabeth’s view that England did not perceive the Ottomans as conquerors, while also diplomatically casting Murad as the rightful successor of the Byzantine Empire. Elizabeth’s ultimate goal was to persuade Murad to attack Spain as a diversion, so that England would have time to prepare for Spain’s assault of the English coast. While Elizabeth’s proposed Anglo–Ottoman alliance was never quite realized, trade between England and the Ottoman Empire flourished under the Levant Company."

"[T]he person of our Salomon her gratious Majesty, whome I feare not to pronounce to have received the same Heroicall spirit, and most honorable disposition, as an inheritance from her famous father."

"The Queen...presently undertakes Sir Philip; and (like an excellent Monarch) lays before him the difference in degree between Earls, and Gentlemen; the respect inferiors ought to their superiors; and the necessity in princes to maintain their own creations, as degrees descending between the people's licentiousness, and the annoynted Soveraignty of Crowns: how the Gentlemans neglect of Nobility taught the Peasant to insult upon both."

"The expansive notions of religious authority and godly activism that found expression in Knox and Goodman's resistance theories would also continue to shape Protestant thought and activism under Elizabeth. English Protestants literally saw Elizabeth's accession as a godsend, and when James Pilkington called for reformation in 1560, he depicted the monarch as playing an important and helpful role in establishing true religion. Rather than making the prince the necessary source of religious authority in England, however, he cast the monarch as a powerful partner in a task that God Himself laid upon all His people, a task that must proceed, with or without the monarch's assistance. Elizabeth completely rejected this limited view of her authority- just as she rejected the notion that even her most exalted subjects could demand that she name a successor or execute a fellow monarch- but to her great consternation, many of her most fervent subjects did not."

"In their political correspondence, the English and the Ottomans used the argument that they “were alike haters of the ‘idolatries’ practiced by the King of Spain”. Elizabeth I wrote a letter to Murad calling herself the “most mighty defender of the Christian faith against all the idolatry of those unworthy ones that live among Christians, and falsely profess the name of Christ”. So, in essence, Elizabeth framed her hopes of political alliance as being a partnership between the pious monotheists of England and Turkey against the idolatrous Spanish Habsburgs."

"So it was that in 1585, with the Anglo–Spanish War nearly upon Elizabeth’s shore, Elizabeth and Murad discussed an Anglo–Ottoman alliance against Catholic Spain grounded in religious commonality. Though the alliance never came to fruition, the resulting trade agreements between the two peoples gave England the impetus to become a worldwide empire of its own. Because England was a Protestant state, outside of papal authority, it was in a favored position to seek an alliance with the Ottoman Empire. Further, as a consequence of ignoring the 1578 papal ban on Christians dealing in arms with Muslims, England was in an ideal position to trade prosperously with the Ottomans—to the neglect of the Catholic states."

"Fixt in our hearts thy Fame shall live, And maugre all the Popish spight; To honour thee our Youth shall strive, And Yearly Celebrate this Night."

"Britannia's Figure once could Passion move, And Princes either fear'd or sought her Love. When fam'd Eliza gave one single Nod, The Spaniard bow'd, nay cring'd and fear'd her Rod"

"[On 23 March 1603 the] lord admirall put her mind of her speech, concerning the succession...and that they, in the name of all the rest of her councell, came unto her to knowe her pleasure who should succeede. Whereunto she thus replyed; “I told you my seat had been the seat of kings, and I will have no rascall to succeed me, and who should succeed me, but a king?” The lords not understanding this darke speech, and looking the one on the other, at length Mr Secretary boldly asked her, what she meant by these words, “That no rascall should succeed her?” whereunto she replyed, “That her meaning was, that a king should succeed her, and who,” quoth she, “should that be, but our cozen of Scotland.” They asked her whether that were her absolute resolution? whereunto she answered, “I pray you trouble me no more. I'll have none but him;” with which answer they departed."

"In Eighty Eight how she did fight Is known to all and some, When the Spaniard came, her courage to tame, But had better have stay'd at home: They came with Ships, fill'd full of Whips, To have lash'd her Princely Hide; But she had a Drake made them all cry Quake, And bang'd them back and side."

"On the 14th of January [1603] the late Queen who had two days before sickened with a cold...removed to Richmond. But a little before her going, even the same morning, the Earl of Nottingham, High-Admiral of England, coming to her...she fell into some speech of the Succession; and then she told him, “that her seat had ever been the throne of Kings, and none but her next heire of bloud and descent should succeed her.”"

"A Tudor! A Tudor! We've had Stuarts enough, None ever reign'd like old Bess in her ruff."

"[T]he most glorious Sun that ever shined in our Firmament of England (the never to be forgotten Queen Elizabeth, of happy memory)."

"Your Popish Plot and Smithfield Threat, We do not fear at all, For Loe! beneath Queen Besses feet, You fall, you fall, you fall."

"Queen Elizabeth, a princess, as ye wot, of no mingled blood of Spaniard or stranger, but born mere English here among us and therefore most natural unto us; of education, brought up and instructed in all virtuous qualities and godly learning, specially (that may be most comfort and joy to us all), in the sincere knowledge and following of God's Holy Word; of natural inclination, so godly disposed as without revenge she patiently suffered so much malice and wrong; of wisdom, so ware as she may shun the inconveniences and follies that her sister fell in."

"I acquiesce in the eulogy bestowed upon her by Thuanus, who concludes his enumeration of her great abilities by saying that she had those of a king, not merely as such, but of a very great king. I cannot bestow praises upon the Queen of England equal to the abilities which I discovered in her in this short time, both as to the qualities of her heart and of her understanding."