Like
one,
Who having, unto truth, by telling of
it,
Made such a sinner of his memory,
To credit his own lie.
The Tempest, Act i. Sc. 2. SHAKESPEARE.
FAME.
Fame is the shade of immortality,
And in itself a shadow. Soon as caught,
Contemned; it shrinks to nothing in the grasp.
Night Thoughts, Night VII. DR. E. YOUNG.
And what is Fame? the meanest have their
day,
The greatest can but blaze, and pass away.
First Book of Horace, Epistle VI. A. POPE.
What’s Fame? A fancied life
in others’ breath,
A thing beyond us, e’en before our
death.
Essay on Man, Epistle IV. A. POPE.
What is the end of Fame? ’tis but
to fill
A certain portion of uncertain
paper:
Some liken it to climbing up a hill,
Whose summit, like all hills,
is lost in vapor:
For this men write, speak, preach, and
heroes kill,
And bards burn what they call
their “midnight taper,”
To have, when the original is dust,
A name, a wretched picture, and worse
bust.
Don Juan, Canto I. LORD BYRON.
Her house is all of Echo made
Where never dies the sound;
And as her brows the clouds invade,
Her feet do strike the ground.
Fame. B. JONSON.
What shall I do to be forever known,
And make the age to come my own?
The Motto. A. COWLEY.
The best-concerted schemes men lay for
fame
Die fast away: only themselves die
faster.
The far-famed sculptor, and the laurelled
bard,
Those bold insurancers of deathless fame,
Supply their little feeble aids in vain.
The Grave. R. BLAIR.
By Jove! I am not covetous for gold;
* * * * *
But, if it be a sin to covet honor,
I am the most offending soul alive.
King Henry V., Act iv. Sc. 3. SHAKESPEARE.
One touch of nature makes the whole world
kin,—
That all with one consent praise new-born
gawds,
* * * * *
And give to dust, that is a little gilt,
More laud than gilt o’er-dusted.
Troilus and Cressida, Act iii. Sc. 3.
SHAKESPEARE.
Thrice happy he whose name has been well
spelt
In the despatch: I knew a man whose
loss
Was printed Grove, although his
name was Grose.
Don Juan, Canto VIII. LORD BYRON.
Nor Fame I slight, nor for her favors
call:
She comes unlooked for, if she comes at
all.
* * * * *
Unblemished let me live, or die unknown;
O grant an honest fame, or grant me none!
The Temple of Fame. A. POPE.
It deserves with characters
of brass
A forted residence ’gainst the tooth
of time
And razure of oblivion.
Measure for Measure, Act v. Sc. 1.
SHAKESPEARE.