ANST - Period Quotes Discussing Books and Libraries

Fri Sep 19 02:52:42 PDT 1997

There was a request made by Carol at Small Churl Books on the SCA Arts list
for period quotes having to do with books, reading, writing, etc.  Here for
your enjoyment are a handful gleaned from Bartletts Familiar Quotations
which is available on-line in searchable format at:

http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/bartlett/

Chaucer (1328-1400)
   Troilus and Creseide. Book V, Line 1798.
	"Go, little BOOKE! go, my little tragedie!"

   The Assembly of Fowles. Line 22.
	"For out of the old fieldes, as men saithe, 
	Cometh al this new corne fro yere to yere; 
	And out of old BOOKES, in good faithe, 
	Cometh al this new science that men lere."

   The Flower and the Leaf. Line 59.
	"O little BOOKE, thou art so unconning, 
	How darst thou put thy-self in prees for drede?"

Mathew Roydon. Circa 1586.
   An Elegie; or Friend's Passion for his Astrophill.
	"A sweet attractive kinde of grace, 
	A full assurance given by lookes, 
	Continuall comfort in a face 
	The lineaments of Gospell BOOKES. 

(This piece (ascribed to Spenser) was printed in The Phoenix' Nest, 4to,
1593, where it is anonymous. Todd has shown that it was written by Mathew
Roydon.)

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
   Of Studies.
	"Some BOOKS are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, 
	and some few to be chewed and digested."

   Of Studies.
	"READING maketh a full man, conference a ready man, 
	and WRITING an exact man. 

   Proposition touching Amendment of Laws.
	"BOOKS must follow sciences, and not sciences BOOKS. 

Sir Henry Wotton. (1568-1639)
   The Character of a Happy Life.
	"Who God doth late and early pray 
	More of his grace than gifts to lend; 
	And entertains the harmless day 
	With a religious BOOK or friend. "

Thomas Dekker. (d. 1641)
   Old Fortunatus.
	"A wise man poor 
	Is like a sacred BOOK that 's never read,-- 
	To himself he lives, and to all else seems dead. 
	This age thinks better of a gilded fool 
	Than of a threadbare saint in wisdom's school."

Robert Burton. (1576-1640)
   Democritus to the Reader.
	"They lard their lean BOOKS with the fat of others' works."

William Walker. (1623-1684)
   The Art of Reading.
	"Learn to READ slow: all other graces 
	Will follow in their proper places."

Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire. (1649-1720)
   Essay on Poetry.
	"Of all those arts in which the wise excel, 
	Nature's chief masterpiece is WRITING well."

   Essay on Poetry.
	"READ Homer once, and you can read no more; 
	For all BOOKS else appear so mean, so poor, 
	Verse will seem prose; but still persist to READ, 
	And Homer will be all the BOOKS you need."

Sir Philip Sidney. (1554-1586)
   Astrophel and Stella, i.
	"Fool! said my muse to me, look in thy heart, and WRITE."

John Selden. (1584-1654)
   Learning
	"Few men make themselves masters of the things they WRITE or speak."

George Herbert. (1593-1632)
   Praise.
	"To WRITE a verse or two is all the praise 
	That I can raise."

Samuel Butler. (1600-1680)
   Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 647
	"Of Nature and their stars, to WRITE. 

   Hudibras. Part ii. Canto i. Line 23.
	"Some force whole regions, in despite 
	O' geography, to change their site; 
	Make former times shake hands with latter, 
	And that which was before come after. 
	But those that WRITE in rhyme still make 
	The one verse for the other's sake; 
	For one for sense, and one for rhyme, 
	I think 's sufficient at one time."

John Milton. (1608-1674)
   The Reason of Church Government. Introduction, Book ii.
	"By labour and intent study (which I take to be my portion 
	in this life), joined with the strong propensity of nature, I might
	perhaps leave something so WRITTEN to after times as they 
	should not willingly let it die. "

   Apology for Smectymnuus.
	"He who would not be frustrate of his hope to WRITE well 
	hereafter in laudable things ought himself to be a true poem. 

   The History of England. Book IV
	"Such bickerings to recount, met often in these our WRITERS, 
	what more worth is it than to CHRONICLE the wars of kites or
	crows flocking and fighting in the air?"

Richard Bentley. (1662-1742)
   Monk's Life of Bentley. Page 90.
	"It is a maxim with me that no man was ever WRITTEN out of 
	reputation but by himself."

William Shakespeare
   Twelfth Night, Act III, Sc. 2
	"Let there be gall enough in thy INK; 
	though thou WRITE with a goose-PEN, no matter."

   The Tempest, Act I, Sc. 2
	"Knowing I lov'd my BOOKS, he furnish'd me 
	From mine own LIBRARY with volumes that 
	I prize above my dukedom."

   The Tempest, Act I, Sc. 2
	"My LIBRARY 
	Was dukedom large enough."

   The Tempest, Act V, Sc. 1
	"Deeper than did ever plummet sound 
	I 'll drown my BOOK."

   As You Like It, Act II, Sc. 1
	"Sweet are the uses of adversity, 
	Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, 
	Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; 
	And this our life, exempt from public haunt, 
	Finds tongues in trees, BOOKS in the running brooks, 
	Sermons in stones, and good in every thing."

   King Henry VI Part II, Act IV, Sc. 7
	"Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the 
	realm in erecting a grammar-school; and whereas, before, 
	our forefathers had no other BOOKS but the score and the tally, 
	thou hast caused PRINTING to be used, and, contrary to the king, 
	his crown and dignity, thou hast built a PAPER-MILL. "

   Romeo and Juliet, Act I, Sc. 3
	"That BOOK in many's eyes doth share the glory 
	That in gold clasps locks in the golden story. "

   Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Sc. 2
	"Was ever BOOK containing such vile matter 
	So fairly bound? O, that deceit should dwell 
	In such a gorgeous palace! 

   Romeo and Juliet, Act V, Sc. 3
	"One writ with me in sour misfortune's BOOK."

   The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I, Sc. 1
	"I had rather than forty shillings I had my BOOK of Songs and Sonnets here."

   Julius Caesar, Act IV, Sc. 3
	"All his faults observed, 
	Set in a NOTE-BOOK, learn'd, and conn'd by rote."

   Macbeth, Act I, Sc. 5
	"Your face, my thane, is as a BOOK where men 
	May read strange matters. To beguile the time, 
	Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye, 
	Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, 
	But be the serpent under 't."

   Hamlet, Act I, Sc. 5
	"Within the BOOK and VOLUME of my brain."

   Othello, Act I, Sc. 1
	"The BOOKISH theoric."

   Coriolanus, Act V, Sc. 6
	"If you have WRIT your ANNALS true, 't is there 
	That, like an eagle in a dove-cote, I 
	Flutter'd your Volscians in Corioli: 
	Alone I did it. Boy!"

   Much Ado About Nothing, Act I, Sc. 1
	"The gentleman is not in your BOOKS."

   Much Ado About Nothing, Act III, Sc. 3
	"To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; 
	but to WRITE and READ comes by nature."

   Loves' Labor's Lost, Act I, Sc. 1
	"Small have continual plodders ever won 
	Save base authority from others' BOOKS. 
	These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights 
	That give a name to every fixed star 
	Have no more profit of their shining nights 
	Than those that walk and wot not what they are."

   Loves' Labor's Lost, Act I, Sc. 2
	"Devise, wit; WRITE, PEN; for I am for whole VOLUMES in FOLIO."

   Loves' Labor's Lost, Act IV, Sc. 2
	"He hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a BOOK; 
	he hath not eat PAPER, as it were; he hath not drunk INK."

   Loves' Labor's Lost, Act IV, Sc. 2
	"You two are BOOK-men."

   Loves' Labor's Lost, Act IV, Sc. 3
	"From women's eyes this doctrine I derive: 
	They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; 
	They are the BOOKS, the arts, the academes, 
	That show, contain, and nourish all the world."

   Sonnet XXV
	"The painful warrior famoused for fight,
	After a thousand victories, once foil'd, 
	Is from the BOOKS of honour razed quite, 
	And all the rest forgot for which he toil'd."

Wæs Þu Hæl (Waes Thu Hael)

::GUNNORA::

Gunnora Hallakarva
Herskerinde
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Ek eigi visa þik hversu oðlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Aðal
(Ek eigi thik hversu odhlask Lofstirrlauf-Kruna heldr hversu na Hersis-Adhal)

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