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Compiler: William Deedes
Online: CELM LibCat FolgerFirstLines

Judgment is more essential in a General
than courage
By Morat, in The Sophy (1.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 33r

'Tis the Fate of Princes, that no knowledge
Comes pure to them, but passing through the eyes
And ears of other men, it takes a tincture
From every channel; and still bears a relish
Of Flattery or private ends.
By Abdall, in The Sophy (1.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 33r

'Tis with our souls
As with our eyes, that after a long darkness
Are dazzled at the approach of sudden light:
When in the midst of fears we are surprised
With unexpected happiness: the first
Degrees of joy are mere astonishment.
By Erythea, Princess of Persia, in The Sophy (1.2), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 33r

Grief concealed like hidden fire consumes;
Which flaming out would call in help to quench it.
By Mirvan, in The Sophy (1.2), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 33r

The reputation
Of virtuous actions past, if not kept up
With an access and fresh supply of new ones,
Is lost and soon forgotten: and like Palaces,
For want of habitation and repair,
Dissolve to heaps of ruin.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (2.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 33r

Actions remote in time, like objects
Remote in place, are not beheld at half their greatness,
And what is new finds better acceptation
than what is good or great.
By Haly, in The Sophy (2.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 33r

Princes are then themselves, when they arise
More glorious in mens thoughts than in their eyes.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (2.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r

Sir, where Subjects want the privilege to speak;
There Kings may have the privilege to live in ignorance.

By Haly, in The Sophy (2.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r

Ambition is like love, impatient
Both of delays and rivals.
By Haly, in The Sophy (2.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r

As unconcern'd; and thus appearing friends
To either side, on both may work our ends.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (2.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r

there's no such way
To avoid a blow as to strike first and sure.
By Abbas, King of Persia, in The Sophy (3.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r

even in all religions,
Their learnedst, & their seeming holiest men, but serve
To work their Masters ends; & varnish over
Their actions with some specious pious color.
By Abbas, King of Persia, in The Sophy (3.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r

Ambition, the disease of Virtue, bred
Like surfeits from an undigested fullness,
Meets Death in that which is the means of life.
By Caliph, in The Sophy (3.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r

Those Kings whom envy ,or the peoples murmur
Deters from their own purposes, deserve not,
Nor know not their own greatness;
The peoples murmur, 'tis a sulphurous vapour
Breathed from the bowels of the basest earth;
And it may soil & blast things near itself:
But e're it reach the region we are placed in,
It vanishes to air.
By Abbas, King of Persia, in The Sophy (3.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r

This to Tyranny belongs
To forget service, but remember wrongs.
By Haly, in The Sophy (3.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 34r

Greatness we owe to fortune or to fate;
But wisdom only can secure that state.
By Haly, in The Sophy (3.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

That man deserves it less that guilty bears
A punishment, than he that guiltless fears.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (3.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

Destruction overtakes as often those that fly,
As those that boldly meet it.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (3.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

The greatest heights are near the greatest precipice
By Abdall, in The Sophy (4.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

Poor Princes, how are they misled!
While they whose sacred office ‘tis to bring
Kings to obey their God, and men their King;
By these mysterious links to fix and tie
Them to the footstool of the Deity;
Even by these men, Religion, that should be
The curb, is made the spur to tyranny.
They with their double key of conscience bind
The Subjects souls, & leave Kings unconfined;
While their poor vassals sacrifice their bloods
To Ambition, and to Avarice, their goods:
Blind with Devotion. They themselves esteem.
Made for themselves, & all the world for them;
While heavens great Law, given for their guide appears
Just or unjust, but as it waits on theirs:
Used but to give the echo of their words,
Power to their wills; & edges to their swords.
To varnish all their errors, & secure
The ills they act, and all the world endure.
Thus by their arts Kings are the world while they
Religion, as their Mistress, seem to obey;
Yet as their slave command her: while they seem
To rise to Heaven, they make Heaven stoop to them.
By Abdall, in The Sophy (4.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

Nor is this all, where feigned devotion bends
The highest things to serve the lowest ends:
For if the many headed beast hath broke
Or shaken from his neck the royal yoke,
With popular rage, Religion doth conspire,
Flows into that, and swells the torrent higher;
Then powers first pedigree from force derives,
And calls to mind the old prerogatives
Of free-born man; and with a fancy eye
Searches the heart and soul of Majesty:
Then to a strict account, & censure brings
The actions, errors, & the end of Kings;
Treads on authority, & sacred Laws;
Yet all for God & his pretended cause,
Acting such things for him, which he in them
And which themselves in others will condemn,
And thus engaged nor safely can retire,
Nor safely stand, but blindly bold aspire,
Forcing their hopes even through despair, to climb
To new attempts; disdain the present time, The Sophy. Denham.
Grow from disdain to threats,from threats to arms;
While they (though sons of peace) still sound th' Alarms:
Thus whether Kings or people seek extremes
Still conscience and religion are the Themes:
And whatsoever change the State invades
The pulpit either forces, or persuades,
Others may give the fuel, or the fire;
But they the breath, that makes the flame, inspire.
By Morat, in The Sophy (4.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

More gallant actions have been lost, for want of being
Completely wicked; then have been performed
By being exactly virtuous. 'Tis hard to be
Exact in good, or excellent in ill;
Our will wants power, or else our power wants skill.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (4.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

If you happen to be State fools, then 'tis
But fooling on the right side, and all’s well; then
you shall at least be
Wise mens fellows, if not wise mens masters.
By Solyman, in The Sophy (4.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

Accursed opportunity!
The Midwife and the Bawd to all our vices,
That work'st our thoughts into desires, desires
To resolutions, those being ripe & quickened
Thou giv'st'em birth, & bring'st'em forth to action.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (4.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

Every Pilot
Can steer the ship in calms, but he performs
The skillful part, can manage it in storms.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (4.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

Passions without power,
Like seas against a rock, lose their fury.
By Haly, in The Sophy (5.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f. 35r

O happiness of poverty! That rests
Securely on a bed of living turf,
While we with waking cares, & restless thoughts,
Lye tumbling on our down, courting the blessing
Of a short minutes slumber, which the Plough-man
Shakes from him, as a ransomed slave his fetters
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (5.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f.38r

Somnus the humble God, that dwells
In Cottages and smoky Cells
Hates gilded roofs, and beds of down
And though he fears no Princes frown
Flies from the circle of the crown

Come, I say, thou powerful God,
And thy leaden charming rod
Dipt the Lethean Lake,
O're his wakeful temples shake,
Lest he should sleep & never wake.

Nature (alas) why art thou so
Obliged to thy greatest Foe?
Sleep that is thy best repast,
Yet of death it bears a taste,
And both are the same thing at last.
By Mirza, Prince of Persia, in The Sophy (5.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f.38r

They that are past all hope of good, are past
All fear of ill.
By Abbas, King of Persia, in The Sophy (5.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f.38r

And 'tis a fatal sign when Kings hear truth
Especially when flatterers dare speak it.
By Abbas, King of Persia, in The Sophy (5.1), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f.38r

Death thou art he that will not flatter Princes,
That stoops not to authority, nor gives
A specious name to tyranny; but shows
Our actions in their own deformed likeness.
By Abbas, King of Persia, in The Sophy (p. 49), John Denham
in Folger MS V.a.226 vol. 1, f.39r