Hyperboles, though ne'er so great,
Will still come short of self-conceit.
_The Painter who pleased Nobody and Everybody_. J. GAY.
'Tis an old maxim in the schools,
That flattery's the food of fools;
Yet now and then your men of wit
Will condescend to take a bit.
_Cadenus and Vanessa_. J. SWIFT.
He loves to hear
That unicorns may be betrayed with trees,
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
Lions with toils, and men with flatterers.
But when I tell him he hates flatterers,
He says he does, being then most flattered.
_Julius Caesar, Act ii. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.
Ne'er
Was flattery lost on Poet's ear:
A simple race! they waste their toil
For the vain tribute of a smile.
_Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto IV_. SIR W. SCOTT.
Why should the poor be flattered?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,
And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee,
Where thrift may follow fawning.
_Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 2_. SHAKESPEARE.
His nature is too noble for the world:
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for 's power to thunder.
_Coriolanus, Act iii. Sc. 1_. SHAKESPEARE.
FLOWERS.
No daintie flowre or herbe that growes on grownd,
No arborett with painted blossoms drest
And smelling sweete, but there it might be fownd
To bud out faire, and throwe her sweete smels al arownd.
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