Novelists From England

"So soon kills not the basilisk with sight, The viper's tooth is not so venomous, The adder's tongue not half so dangerous, As they that bear the shadow of delight, Who chain blind youths in trammels of their hair, Till waste brings woe, and sorrow hastes despair."

"When gods had fram'd the sweet of women's face, And lock'd men's looks within their golden hair, That Phœbus blush'd to see their matchless grace, And heavenly gods on earth did make repair; To 'quip fair Venus' overweening pride, Love's happy thoughts to jealousy were tied. Then grew a wrinkle on fair Venus' brow; The amber sweet of love is turn'd to gall; Gloomy was heaven; bright Phœbus did avow He could be coy, and would not love at all, Swearing, no greater mischief could be wrought Than love united to a jealous thought."

"Her paps are like fair apples in the prime, As round as orient pearls, as soft as down; They never vail their fair through winter's frown, But from their sweets Love sucks his summertime."

"Her body Beauty's best-esteemèd bower, Delicious, comely, dainty, without stain."

"The swain did woo; she was nice, Following fashion, nay'd him twice."

"Her cheeks like ripen'd lilies steep'd in wine, Or fair pomegranate-kernels wash'd in milk, Or snow-white threads in nets of crimson silk, Or gorgeous clouds upon the sun's decline."

"A penny for your thought!"

"Her maiden mount, the dwelling-house of Pleasure; Not like, for why no like surpasseth wonder: O, blest is he may bring such beauties under, Or search by suit the secrets of that treasure!"

"Her lips are roses over-wash'd with dew, Or like the purple of Narcissus' flower; No frost their fair, no wind doth waste their power, But by her breath her beauties do renew."

"Thus fair Samela Passeth fair Venus in her bravest hue, And Juno in the show of majesty, For she's Samela; Pallas in wit, all three, if you well view. For beauty, wit, and matchless dignity, Yield to Samela."

"How oft have I descending Titan seen His burning locks couch in the sea-queen's lap, And beauteous Thetis his red body wrap In watery robes, as he her lord had been!"

"As fair Aurora in her morning-grey, Deck'd with the ruddy glister of her love, Is fair Samela. Like lovely Thetis on a calmed day, Whenas her brightness Neptune's fancy move, Shines fair Samela."

"Not Jove or Nature, should they both agree To make a woman of the firmament, Of his mix'd purity could not invent A sky-born form so beautiful as she."

"And in a sable mantle of disgrace Sat he that is y-clepèd heaven's bright eye."

"Hangs in th' uncertain balance of proud time."

"Like to Diana in her summer-weed, Girt with a crimson robe of brightest dye, Goes fair Samela; Whiter than be the flocks that straggling feed When wash'd by Arethusa Fount they lie, Is fair Samela."

"Her locks are plighted like the fleece of wool That Jason with his Grecian mates achiev'd; As pure as gold, yet not from gold deriv'd; As full of sweets as sweet of sweets is full."

"Ah, were she pitiful as she is fair, Or but as mild as she is seeming so, Then were my hopes greater than my despair, Then all the world were heaven, nothing woe."

"Sovereign of beauty, like the spray she grows; Compass'd she is with thorns and canker'd bower. Yet, were she willing to be pluck'd and worn, She would be gather'd, though she grew on thorn."

"And yet Dorastus shame not at thy shepherd's weed: the heavenly gods have sometimes earthly thoughts: Neptune became a ram, Jupiter a bull, Apollo a shepherd: they gods, and yet in love; and thou a man appointed to love."

"O glorious sun, imagine me the west, Shine in my arms, and set thou in my breast!"

"Weep not, my wanton, smile upon my knee; When thou art old there’s grief enough for thee. Mother's wag, pretty boy. Father's sorrow, father's joy; When thy father first did see Such a boy by him and me, He was glad, I was woe; Fortune changed made him so, When he left his pretty boy, Last his sorrow, first his joy."

"In vain it is to strive against the stream."

"Time is...Time was...Time is past."

"The more the fox is curst, the better he fares."

"The wanton smil'd, father wept, Mother cried, baby lept; More he crow'd, more we cried, Nature could not sorrow hide: He must go, he must kiss Child and mother, baby bless, For he left his pretty boy, Father's sorrow, father's joy."

"Ah! what is love? It is a pretty thing, As sweet unto a shepherd as a king; And sweeter too, For kings have cares that wait upon a crown, And cares can make the sweetest love to frown; Ah then, ah then, If country loves such sweet desires do gain, What lady would not love a shepherd swain?"

"Sweet Adon, dar'st not glance thine eye— N'oserez vous, mon bel ami?— Upon thy Venus that must die? Je vous en prie, pity me; N'oserez vous, mon bel, mon bel, N'oserez vous, mon bel ami?"

"For kings have often fears when they do sup, Where shepherds dread no poison in their cup."

"I sit beside my lonely fire And pray for wisdom yet: For calmness to remember Or courage to forget."

"Do you recall that night in June Upon the Danube River; We listened to the ländler-tune, We watched the moonbeams quiver."

"Thomas Hughes, the author of “Tom Brown at Rugby,” has written a little book called “The Manliness of Christ” It would be an excellent thing if our young men became sufficiently interested in this book to read it."

"Christ's whole life on earth was the assertion and example of true manliness — the setting forth in living act and word what man is meant to be, and how he should carry himself in this world of God — one long campaign in which the "temptation" stands out as the first great battle and victory."

"From behind the shadow of the still small voice — more awful than tempest or earthquake — more sure and persistent than day and night — is always sounding full of hope and strength to the weariest of us all, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.""

"The consciousness of the darkness in one and around one brings the longing for light. And then the light dawns; through mist and fog, perhaps, but enough to pick one's way by." He stopped a moment and then added, "and shines ever brighter unto the perfect day."

"Yes, that new world, through the golden gates of which they had passed together, which is the old, old world after all, and nothing else. The same old and new world it was to our fathers and mothers as it is to us, and shall be to our children — a world clear and bright, and ever becoming clearer and brighter to the humble, and true, and pure of heart, to every man and woman who shall live in it as the children of the Maker and Lord of it, their Father. To them, and to them alone, is that world, old and new, given, and all that is in it, fully and freely to enjoy. All others but these are occupying where they have no title; "they are sowing much, but bringing in little; they eat, but have not enough; they drink, but are not filled with drink; they clothe themselves, but there is none warm; and he of them who earneth wages earneth wages to put them into a bag with holes." But these have the world and all things for a rightful and rich inheritance; for they hold them as dear children of Him in whose hands it and they are lying, and no power in earth or hell shall pluck them out of their Father's hand."

"[I]n this life-long fight, to be waged by everyone of us as single-handed against a host of foes, the last requisite for a good fight, the last proof and test of our courage and manfulness, must be loyalty to truth — the most rare and difficult of all human qualities. For such loyalty, as it grows in perfection, asks ever more and more of us, and sets before us a standard of manliness always rising higher and higher."

"It was because you were out of sorts with the world, smarting with the wrongs you saw on every side, struggling after something better and higher and sympathizing with the poor and weak, that I loved you. We should never have been here, dear, if you had been a young gentleman satisfied with himself and the world, and likely to get on well in society."

"[W]hat will not a delicately nurtured British lady go through when her mind is bent either on pleasure or duty?"

"Heaven, they say, protects children, sailors, and drunken men; and whatever answers to Heaven in the academical system protects freshmen."

"Women, to be very attractive to all sorts of different people, must have great readiness of sympathy. Many have it naturally, and many work hard in acquiring a good imitation of it. In the first case it is against the nature of such persons to be monopolized for more than a very short time; in the second all their trouble would be thrown away if they allowed themselves to be monopolized. Once in their lives, indeed, they will be, and ought to be, and that monopoly lasts, or should last for ever; but instead of destroying in them that which was their great charm, it only deepens and widens it, and the sympathy which was before fitful, and, perhaps, wayward, flows on in a calm and healthy stream, blessing and cheering all who come within reach of its exhilarating and life-giving waters."

"Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but, above all, the power of going out of one's self and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another."

"[T]he least of the muscular Christians has hold of the old chivalrous and Christian belief, that a man's body is given him to be trained and brought into subjection, and then used for the protection of the weak, the advancement of all righteous causes, and the subduing of the earth which God has given to the children of men. He does not hold that mere strength or activity are in themselves worthy of any respect or worship, or that one man is a bit better than another because he can knock him down or carry a bigger sack of potatoes than he."

"For the credit of muscular Christianity, one must say that it was not her weight, but the tumult in his own inner man, which made her bearer totter. Nevertheless, if one is wholly unused to the exercise, the carrying a healthy young English girl weighing a good eight stone, is as much as most men can conveniently manage."

"Young men are pretty much like a drove of sheep; any one who takes a decided line on certain matters, is sure to lead all the rest."

"There's always a voice saying the right thing to you somewhere, if you'll only listen for it."

"His fiction – radical, satirical, polyvalent, sexually courageous, global – extended the mainstream novel, and led it somewhere else. Still not fully recognized, he was one of Britain's greatest late-twentieth-century writers."

"Youth is the time for loving, So poets often say."

"When was reviewing Doris Lessing's last two books from the Shikasta series, I found that she has discovered what I, to my great joy, had discovered a little earlier: that (a) if you're writing what they call science fiction, you're absolutely free-you can write anything you damn please, and (b) that if you take seriously the science fiction premise, you are furnished with an inexhaustable supply of absolutely beautiful and complex metaphors for our present situation, for who and where we are now, and I think it's not only women who have found this out. Angus Wilson was one of the first to do this with The Old Man in the Zoo years ago. That is a science fiction novel, if you look at it closely."

"April, April, laugh thy girlish laughter, and the moment after, Weep thy girlish tears, April."