The man was noble,
But with his last attempt he wiped it out:
Destroy'd his country, and his name remains
To the ensuing age abhorr'd.
Though those that are betray'd
Do feel the treason sharply, yet the traitor
Stands in worse case of woe.
I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths;
Even in the presence of the crowned king.
Treason is but trusted like the fox
Who, ne'er so tame, so cherish'd and locked up,
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
Some guard these traitors to the block of death;
Treason's true bed and yielder up of breath.
Treason and murder ever kept together,
As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose,
Working so grossly in a natural cause,
That admiration did not hoop at them.
Smooth runs the water where the brook is deep;
And in his simple show he harbours treason.
To say the truth, so Judas kiss'd his master,
And cried "all hail!" whereas he meant all harm.
Henry VI. Pt. III. Act V. Sc. 7. L. 33.
Et tu Brule! Then fall, Cæsar!
Know, my name is lost;
By treason's tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit.
Tellest thou me of "ifs"? Thou art a traitor:
Off with his head!
Off with his head! so much for Buckingham!
As altered by Colley Cibber.
TREES AND PLANTS
Unclassified
The place is all awave with trees,
Limes, myrtles, purple-beaded,
Acacias having drunk the lees
Of the night-dew, faint headed.
And wan, grey olive-woods, which seem
The fittest foliage for a dream.
Stranger, if thou hast learned a truth which
needs
No school of long experience, that the world
Is full of guilt and misery, and hast seen
Enough of all its sorrows, crimes and cares,
To tire thee of it, enter this'wild wood
And view the haunts of Nature. The calm shade
Shall bring a kindred calm, and the sweet breeze
That makes the green leaves dance, shall waft a balm
To thy sick heart.
The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned
To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave,
And spread the roof above them,—ere he framed
The lofty vault, to gather and roll back
The sound of anthems; in the darkling wood,
Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down
And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks
And supplication.
The shad-bush, white with flowers,
Brightened the glens; the new leaved butternut
And quivering poplar to the roving breeze
Gave a balsamic fragrance.
Oh, leave this barren spot to me!
Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree!
As by the way of innuendo
Lucus is made a non lucendo.
Lucus a non lucendo.—Lucus (a grove), from
non lucendo (not admitting light).
No tree in all the grove but has its charms,
Though each its hue peculiar.
Some boundless contiguity of shade.
In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be.
Es ist dafur gesorgt, dass die Baume nicht in den Himmel wachsen.
Care is taken that trees do not grow into the sky.
Goethe—Wahrheit und Dichtunq. Motto to Pt. III.
Where is the pride of Summer,—the green prime,—
The many, many leaves all twinkling?—three
On the mossed elm; three on the naked lime
Trembling,—and one upon the old oak tree!
Where is the Dryad's immortality?
Hood—Ode. Autumn.
Nullam vare, sacra vite prius arborem.
Plant no other tree before the vine.
Horace—Carmina. I. 18. Imitation, in
sense and meter from Alcaeus.
