376
Notes.
Constancy in love, even under scorns and repulses, is much extolled by Lord Surrey, as in the following lines:
No, thinke me not so lighte,
Nor of so churlish kinde,
Though it lay in my mighte,
My bondage to unbinde.
٭٭٭٭
The fire it cannot frese;
For it is not his kinde,
Nor true love cannot lese
The constancye of minde:
Yet as soon shall the fire,
Want heate to blaze, and burne,
As I in such desire,
Have once a thought to turne.
Nor of so churlish kinde,
Though it lay in my mighte,
My bondage to unbinde.
٭٭٭٭
The fire it cannot frese;
For it is not his kinde,
Nor true love cannot lese
The constancye of minde:
Yet as soon shall the fire,
Want heate to blaze, and burne,
As I in such desire,
Have once a thought to turne.
P. 193. This poem, I imagine, contains an allusion to the misfortunes and abdication of James II.
For 'tis a truth to be believed,
That more or less we're all deceived.
That more or less we're all deceived.
The opinion expressed in these lines, is well illustrated by the following passage from Swift: "Those entertainments and pleasures we most value in life, are such as dupe, and play the wag with the senses. For if we Lake an examination of what is generally understood by happiness, as it has respect either to the understanding, or the senses, we shall find all its properties and adjuncts will herd under this short definition: That it is a perpetual possession of being well deceived.[1]
- ↑ Johnson has somewhere defined happiness to be, A perpetual susceptibility of occasional pleasure.
