William Davenant
William Davenant
Sir William Davenant, also spelled D'Avenant, was an English poet and playwright. Along with Thomas Killigrew, Davenant was one of the rare figures in English Renaissance theatre whose career spanned both the Caroline and Restoration eras and who was active both before and after the English Civil War and during the Interregnum...
rivers afar fame
Fame, like the river, is narrowest where it is bred, and broadest afar off.
hide lazy number peace
For I must go where lazy PeaceWill hide her drowsy head;And, for the sport of kings, increaseThe number of the dead.
hide increase lazy number peace
For I must go where lazy Peace Will hide her drowsy head; And, for the sport of kings, increase The number of the dead.
soul stills subjects
Generous souls Are still most subject to credulity.
art taught comfort
For in a dearth of comforts, we art taught To be contented with the least.
spring moving sloth
To be rich be diligent; move on Like heav'ns great movers that enrich the earth; Whose moment's sloth would show the world undone; And make the spring straight bury all her birth. Rich are the diligent who can command Time--nature's stock.
faith dark light
Faith lights us through the dark to Deity.
beautiful grief sorrow
How beautiful is sorrow when it is dressed by virgin innocence! it makes felicity in others seem deformed.
ambition tolls may
Ambition's monstrous stomach does increase By eating, and it fears to starve, unless It still may feed, and all it sees devour; Ambition is not tir'd with toll nor cloy'd with power.
wise children ambition
Be not with honor's gilded baits beguil'd, Nor think ambition wise, because 'tis brave; For though we like it, as a forward child, 'Tis so unsound, her cradle is the grave.
strong overcoming birth
All slander must still be strangled in its birth, or time will soon conspire to make it strong enough to overcome the truth.
running speed seems
Slow seems their speed whose thoughts before them run.
death wise dark
O harmless Death! whom still the valiant brave, The wise expect, the sorrowful invite, And all the good embrace, who know the grave A short dark passage to eternal light.
wise ambition thinking
Think not ambition wise, because 't is brave.