Gesta Romanorum, Or, Entertaining Moral Stories: Invented by the Monks as a Fire-side Reacreation and Commonly Applied in Their Discourses from the Pulpit Whence the Most Celebrated of Our Own Poets and Others, from the Earliest Times, Have Extracted Their Plots, Volume 1

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Charles Swan

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Page 344 - The quality of mercy is not strained, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed: It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes...
Page 370 - Without a vain, without a grudging heart, To him who gives us all, I yield a part ; From him you come, for him accept it here, A frank and sober, more than costly cheer.
Page 372 - The Maker justly claims that world he made In this the right of Providence is laid ; Its sacred majesty through all depends On using second means to work his ends : 'Tis...
Page 363 - Here we discover those features of chivalry, so admirably ridiculed by Cervantes. But, in times of oppression, when every one followed " the simple plan, That he may take who has the power, And he may keep who can...
Page 371 - Celestial odours breathe through purpled air ; And wings, whose colours glitter'd on the day, Wide at his back their gradual plumes display. The form ethereal bursts upon his sight, And moves in all the majesty of light.
Page 365 - To clear this doubt, to know the world by sight, To find if books, or swains, report it right, (For yet by swains alone the world he knew, Whose feet came wandering o'er the nightly dew...
Page 135 - Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ; Or close the wall up with our English dead ! In peace, there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility : But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger...
Page 373 - Heaven can bless, if mortals will be kind. Conscious of wanting worth, he views the bowl, And feels compassion touch his grateful soul. Thus artists melt the sullen ore of lead, With heaping coals of fire upon its head; In the kind warmth the metal learns to glow, And, loose from dross, the silver runs below.
Page 371 - Confus'd, and struck with silence at the deed, He flies, but, trembling, fails to fly with speed. His steps the youth pursues : the country lay...
Page 368 - ... actions meet a base reward. While thus they pass, the sun his glory shrouds, The changing skies hang out their sable clouds ; A sound in air presag'd approaching rain, And beasts to covert scud across the plain. Warn'd by the signs, the wandering pair retreat, To seek for shelter at a neighbouring seat.

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