Bafe worldlings, that defpife all fuch as need;
Who to the needy beggar ftill are dumb,
Not knowing unto what themselves may come.
Heywood's Royal King.
For he that's born to be a beggar, know,
Howe'er he toils and trafficks, must die so.
Heywood and Rowley's Fortune by Land and Sea.
He makes a beggar first, that first relieves him ;
Not us'rers make more beggars where they live,
Than charitable men that use to give.
Heywood's Royal King.
1. What think you of turning beggars ?
Many good gentlemen have don't, or thieves.
2. That's the fame thing at court:
Begging's but a kind of robbing th'exchequer.
BENEFITS.
A benefit upbraided, forfeits thanks.
Lady Eliza. Carew's Mariam.
And 'tis not fure fo full a benefit,
Freely to give, as freely to require:
A bounteous act hath glory following it,
They cause the glory, that the act defire.
Lady Carew's Mariam,
Some benefits are odious, fo is this,
Where men are still afhamed to confefs
To have fo done, as to deserve to die;
And ever so defire, that men fhould guess,
They rather had receiv'd an injury
Than life; fince life, they know, in fuch a cafe,
May be re ftor'd to all, but not to grace.
Daniel's Philotas.
He that neglects a bleffing, though he want
A prefent knowledge how to use it,
Beaumont and Fletcher's Elder Brother.
When the receiver of a courtesy
Cannot fuftain the weight it carries with it,
E 6.
'Tis but a trial, not a prefent ac&t.
Beaumont and Fletcher's Prophetess.
If to receive a favour, make a fervant,
And benefits are bonds to tie the taker
To the imperious will of him that gives,
There's none but flaves will receive courtesy;
Since they must fetter us to our dishonours.
Can it be call'd magnificence in a prince,
'To pour down riches, with a lib'ral hand,
Upon a poor man's wants, if that must bind him
To play the foothing parafite to his vices?
Malfinger and Field's Fatal Dowry."
For the receiver of a benefit,
To offer, for his own ends, to prescribe
Laws to the giver's pleasure.
Mafinger's Great Duke of Florence.
There are fome natures
Which blush to owe a benefit, if not
Receiv'd in corners; holding it an impairing
To their own worth, fhould they acknowledge it.
To brag of benefits one hath bestown,
-Doth make the best feem less, and most seem none;
So oftentimes the greatest courtesy,
Is by the doer made an injury.
Richard Brome's Novella..
BIRTH.
True gentry ftandeth in the trade
Of virtuous life, not in the fleshly line,
For blood is brute, but gentry is divine.
Experience doth caufe me thus to fay,
And that the rather, for my countrymen,
Which vaunt and boast themselves above the day,
If they may ftrain their stock from worthy men :
Which let be true, are they the better then?
Nay, fare the worfe, if fo they be not good,
For why, they ftain the beauty of their blood.
How would we mock the burden-bearing mule,
If he would brag he were an horfe's fon,
To prefs his pride, might nothing else him rule,
His boaft's to prove no more, but bid him run.
The horse for fwiftness hath his glory won.
The bragging mule could ne'er the more afpire,
Though he should prove Pegasus was his fire.
Each man may crack of that which was his own,
Our parents good is theirs, and no whit ours:
Who therefore will of noble birth be known,
Or fhine in virtue like his ancestors,
Gentry confifteth not in lands and tow'rs:
He is a churl though all the world were his
Yea, Arthur's heir, if that he live amifs.
For virtuous life a gentleman doth make
Of her poffeffor, albeit poor as Job,
Yea, though no name of elders he can take: For proof, take Merlin father'd by an hob. For whofo fets his mind to fpoil and rob, Although he come by due defcent from Brute, He is a churl, ungentle, vile, and brute.
Dr. Thomas Phaer in the Mirror for Magiftrates. Why should my birth keep down my mounting spirit? Are not all creatures fubject unto time?
To time, who doth abule the world,
And fills it full of hotch-podge bastardy;
There's legions now of beggars on the earth,
That their original did spring from kings;
And many monarchs now, whose fathers were
The riff-raff of their age; for time and fortune
Wears out a noble train to beggary;
And from the dunghill minions do advance
To state; and mark, in this admiring world
This is the course, which in the name of fate
Is feen as often as it whirls about:
The river Thames that by our door doth pass,
His first beginning, is but small and shallow,
Yet keeping on his course grows to a fea.
Ifwear, 'tis better to be lowly born,.
And range with humble livers in content,
Than to be perk'd up in a glifl'ring grief,
And wear a golden forrow.
Shakespear's King Henry VIII.
Didft thou ne'er read in difference of good, "Tis more to fhine in virtue than in blood.
Johnfon's Cafe is alter'd.
'Tis but in vain of my defcent to boast,
When heav'n's lamp. fhines, all other lights be loft.
Falcons feem poor, the eagle fitting by,
Whose brood furveys the fun with open eye.
If not bafe-born, detracts not from the bounty.
Of nature's freedom, or an honest birth.
Nobility claim'd by the right of blood,
Shews chiefly, that our ancestors defir'd
What we inherit; but that man whose actions
Purchase a real merit to himself,
And ranks him in the file of praife and honour,
Creates his own advancement.
Beaumont and Fletcher's Fair Maid of the Inn.
Think not that your glories fall,
Derived from a mean original;
Since lights that may have pow'r to check the dark,
Can have their luftre from the smallest spark.
Not from nobility doth virtue fpring,
But virtue makes fit nobles for a king.
From higheft nefts are croaking ravens born,
When fweetest nightingales fit in the thorn.
1. Madam, you haply fcorn thevulgar earth
Of which I ftand compacted: And because.
I cannot add á fplendor to my name,
Reflective from a royal pedigree,
You interdict my language: but be pleas'd
To know, the afhes of my ancestors
If inter-mingled in the tomb with kings,.
Could hardly be distinguish'd. The stars fhoot:
An equal infl'ence on th'open cottage,
Where the poor fhepherd's child is rudely nurs'd,.
As on the cradle where the prince is rock'd
With care and whisper.
2. And what hence infer you ?
1. That no distinction is 'tween man and man,
But as his virtues add to him a glory,
Or vices cloud him.
2. But yet heaven hath made
Subordination, and degrees of men,
And ev'n religion doth authorize us
To rule; and tells the fubje&t 'tis a crime
And shall meet death, if he difdain obedience.
1. Kind heav'n made us all equal, till rude ftrength,
Or wicked policy, ufurp'd a pow'r,
And for religion, that exhorts t'obey
Only for its own ease.
Habbington's Queen of Arragon. Put off your giant titles, then I can
Stand in your judgments blank an equal man,
Though hills advanced are above the plain,
They are but higher earth, nor muft difdain
Alliance with the vale: We fee a fpade
Can level them, and make a mount a glade.
Howe'er we differ in the herald's book,
He that mankind's extraction fhall look
In nature's rolls, muft grant we all agree,
In our best parts, immortal pedigree.
Dr. Henry King, Bishop of Chichester..
1. This fhepherd fure is fprung from noble race,
What fweet behaviour does his perfon grace?
2. No matter how defcended from his birth,
The pureft gold itself was once but earth:
They wear the badge of honour, who are known,
Not by their father's actions, but their own.
Dover's Roman Generals..
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