Chief Secretaries For Ireland

"Odds life! must one swear to the truth of a song?"

"All jargon of the schools."

"Nobles and heralds, by your leave, Here lies what once was Matthew Prior; The son of Adam and of Eve: Can Bourbon or Nassau claim higher?"

"Venus, take my votive glass; Since I am not what I was, What from this day I shall be, Venus, let me never see."

"To John I owed great obligation; But John, unhappily, thought fit To publish it to all the nation: Sure John and I are more than quit."

"Till their own dreams at length decive 'em, And oft repeating, they believe 'em."

"His noble negligences teach What others' toils despair to reach."

"Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart, And often took leave, but was loth to depart."

"Cured yesterday of my disease, I died last night of my physician."

"He ranged his tropes, and preached up patience; Backed his opinion with quotations."

"Be to her virtues very kind; Be to her faults a little blind; Let all her ways be unconfined; And clap your padlock — on her mind!"

"A Rechabite poor Will must live, And drink of Adam's ale."

"Who breathes must suffer, and who thinks must mourn; And he alone is bless'd who ne'er was born."

"For hope is but the dream of those that wake."

"Abra was ready ere I called her name; And though I called another, Abra came."

"Who God doth late and early pray, More of his grace than gifts to send, And entertains the harmless day With a well-chosen book or friend."

"Lord of himself, though not of lands; And having nothing, yet hath all."

"You meaner beauties of the night, That poorly satisfy our eyes More by your number than your light; You common people of the skies, What are you when the sun shall rise?"

"I am but a gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff."

"Love lodged in a woman's breast Is but a guest."

"How happy is he born and taught, That serveth not another's will; Whose armor is his honest thought, And simple truth his utmost skill!"

"He first deceased; she for a little tried To live without him, liked it not, and died."

"Hanging was the worst use a man could be put to."

"An ambassador is an honest man sent to lie abroad for the commonwealth."

"The itch of disputing will prove the scab of churches."

"Hic jacet hujus sententiæ primus author: DISPUTANDI PRURITUS ECCLESIARUM SCABIES. Nomen alias quære."

"Advised a young diplomat "to tell the truth, and so puzzle and confound his enemies.""

"It became normal to have at each of the major courts a resident “ambassador”—a word defined by the English poet and diplomat Sir Henry Wotton in a punning epigram as “a man sent to lie abroad for his country’s good.” Given the time required for travel, and the hazards en route—especially in an age of dynastic and religious warfare—permanent ambassadors offered a convenient substitute for personal summitry. And their detailed reports required the attention of specialist secretaries who oversaw foreign affairs, such as Francis Walsingham in Elizabethan London or Antonio Perez at the court of Philip III. Day-to-day diplomacy tended to slip out of the hands of rulers."