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...
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.
design action fierce
Actions rare and sudden do commonly proceed from fierce necessity, of else from some oblique design, which is ashamed to show itself in the public road.
law innocence knows
Had laws not been, we never had been blam'd; For not to know we sinn'd is innocence.
ambition mind
Ambition is the mind's immodesty.
fate important doe
Small are the seeds fate does unheeded sow Of slight beginnings to important ends.
soul stills subjects
Generous souls Are still most subject to credulity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
army honor moral
Honor is the moral conscience of the great.
anger blood wrath
Anger is blood, poured and perplexed into froth; but malice is the wisdom of our wrath.