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Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were To see thee in our water yet appear.

Ben Jonson

I feel my griefs too, and there scarce is ground Upon my flesh t’inflict another wound. Yet dare I not complain, or wish for death With holy Paul; lest it be thought the breath Of discontent; or that these prayers be For weariness of life, not love of thee.
BEN JONSON

Another Grief Prayer Weariness Wish Wound
Hang sorrow, care’ll kill a cat.
BEN JONSON

Care Cat Sorrow
Still to be neat, still to be drest, As you were going to a feast, Still to be powder’d, all perfum’d. Lady, it is to be presumed, Though art’s hid causes are not found, All is not sweet, all is not sound.
BEN JONSON

Art Causes Drest Near Sweet
Success hath made me wanton.
BEN JONSON

Hath Made Success Wanton
Woman, the more careful she is about her face, the more careless about her house.
BEN JONSON

Faces Home House
Follow a shadow, it still flies you, Seem to fly, it will pursue: So court a mistress, she denies you; Let her alone, she will court you. Say are not women truly, then, Styled but the shadows of us men?
BEN JONSON

Men Mistress Shadow
If men will impartially, and not asquint, look toward the offices and function of a poet, they will easily conclude to themselves the impossibility of any man’s being a good poet without first being a good man.
BEN JONSON

Good Man Men Office
My thoughts and I were of another world.
BEN JONSON

Another World Thoughts
I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing (whatsoever he penned) he never plotted out a line. My answer hath been, would he had blotted a thousand.
BEN JONSON

Answer Lines Mention Penend Player Writing
There is no bounty to be showed to such As have real goodness: Bounty is A spice of virtue; and what virtuous act Can take effect on them that have no power Of equal habitude to apprehend it?
BEN JONSON

Real Spices Virtue
Passions are spiritual rebels and raise sedition against the understanding.
BEN JONSON

Passion Spiritual Understanding
A prince without letters is a Pilot without eyes. All his government is groping.
BEN JONSON

Eye Government Letter
If you succeed not, cast not away the quills yet, nor scratch the wainscot, beat not the poor desk, but bring all to the forge and file again; turn it new.
BEN JONSON

Crafts Scratches Succeed
God wisheth none should wreck on a strange shelf: To him man’s dearer than to himself.
BEN JONSON

Men Strange Wrecks
It is an art to have so much judgment as to apparel a lie well, to give it a good dressing.
BEN JONSON

Art Giving Lying
Vice Is like a fury to the vicious mind, And turns delight itself to punishment.
BEN JONSON

Mind Punishment Vices

Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were To see thee in our water yet appear.

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Sweet Swan of Avon! What a sight it were To see thee in our water yet appear.

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