Literature Lover

Text It  had been hard for him that spake it to have put more truth and untruth together in few words than in that speech, "Whosoever is delighted in solitude, is either a wild beast or a god:" for it is most true, that a natural and secret hatred and aversation towards society, in any man, hath somewhat of the savage beast; but it is most untrue, that it should have any character at all of the divine nature, except it proceed, not out of a pleasure in solitude, but out of a love and desire to sequester a man's self for a higher conversation: such as is found to have been falsely and feignedly in some of the heathen; as Epimenides, the Candian; Numa, the Roman; Empedocles, the Sicilian; and Apollonius of Tyana; and truly and really in divers of the ancient hermits and holy fathers of the church. But little do men perceive what solitude is, and how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal where th...

Text  Fortune  is like the market, where many times, if you can stay a little, the prices will fall; and again, it is sometimes like Sibylla's offer, which at first offereth the commodity at full, then consumeth part and part, and still holdeth up the price; for occasion (as it is in the common verse) turneth a bald noddle after she hath presented her locks  in front, and no hold taken; or, at least, turneth the handle of the bottle first to be received, and after the belly, which is hard to clasp. There is surely no greater wisdom than well to time the beginnings and onsets of things. Dangers are no more light, if they once seem light; and more dangers have deceived men than forced them; nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch too long it is odds he will fall asleep. On the other side, to be deceived with too long shadows, (as some have been when the moon was...

Text Men  in great place are thrice servants; servants of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and servants of business; so as they have no freedom, neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in their times. It is a strange desire to seek power and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, and to lose power over a man's self. The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing: "Cum non sis qui fueris, non esse cur velis vivere." Nay, retire men cannot when they would, neither will they when it were reason; but are impatient of privateness even in age and sickness, which require the shadow: like old townsmen, that will be still sitting at their street door, though thereby they offer age to scorn. Certainly great persons had need to borrow other men...

Text Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning, by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men condemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradi...

Text What  is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness; and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain certain discoursive wits, which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labour which men take in finding out of truth, nor again, that when it is found, it imposeth upon men’s thoughts, that doth bring lies in favour, but a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself. One of the later schools of the Grecians examineth the matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies; where neither they make for pleasure, as with poet; nor for advantage, as with the merchant, but for the lie’s sake. But I cannot tell: this same truth is a naked and open daylight, that doth not s...

  Text LITTLE think'st thou, poor flower,    Whom I've watch'd six or seven days, And seen thy birth, and seen what every hour Gave to thy growth, thee to this height to raise, And now dost laugh and triumph on this bough,              Little think'st thou, That it will freeze anon, and that I shall To-morrow find thee fallen, or not at all.    Little think'st thou, poor heart,    That labourest yet to nestle thee, And think'st by hovering here to get a part In a forbidden or forbidding tree, And hopest her stiffness by long siege to bow,              Little think'st thou That thou to-morrow, ere the sun doth wake, Must with the sun and me a journey take.    But thou, which lovest to be    Subtle to plague thyself, wilt say, Alas ! if you must go, what's that to me? Here lies my business, and here I will stay You go to friends, whose love and...

Text     W onder, by my troth, what thou and I      Did, till we loved? Were we not weaned till then?      But sucked on country pleasures, childishly?      Or snorted we in the Seven Sleepers’ den?      ’Twas so; but this, all pleasures fancies be.      If ever any beauty I did see,      Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.        And now good-morrow to our waking souls,      Which watch not one another out of fear;      For love, all love of other sights controls,      And makes one little room an everywhere.      Let sea-discoverers to new worlds have gone,      Let maps to other, worlds on worlds have shown,      Let us possess one world, each hath one, and is one.             My face in thine eye, ...

Love’s Deity I long to talk with some old lover's ghost,       Who died before the god of love was born.      I cannot think that he, who then lov'd most,       Sunk so low as to love one which did scorn.      But since this god produc'd a destiny,      And that vice-nature, custom, lets it be,       I must love her, that loves not me.      Sure, they which made him god, meant not so much,       Nor he in his young godhead practis'd it.      But when an even flame two hearts did touch,       His office was indulgently to fit      Actives to passives. Correspondency      Only his subject was; it cannot be       Love, till I love her, that loves me.     ...

Question 1: Dr. Faustus reflects the spirit of Renaissance. Discuss. Introduction : The Renaissance gave birth a new age in England. It dispelled ignorance and superstition and made the way for new thoughts and new ideals. It developed the passion for knowledge and love for power. People of this age began to take interest in the exploration of new world and in the adventure. Literature, music, dance and mirth played a significant role in the general life of the people of this age. Interest in science, nature and geography stirred the people of the age. Dr. Faustus : The Renaissance inspired the writers of the age to give expressions to the values that the Renaissance had brought in its wake. Marlowe also showed his love for the Renaissance spirit. His  Dr. Faustus  reflects all the important features of the Renaissance. The hero of the play is a great Renaissance figure. His career may be described as the 'Microcosm of Renaissance humanism'. In fact, Marlowe's  Faustus ...

  Christopher Marlowe: A Great Playwright Christopher Marlowe is the greatest playwrights of Elizabethan period. He was a shining star among the University Wits. He is known in the entire world for establishing powerful dramatic blank verse. In a very short career of play writing, he achieved impressive place. Swinburne considered him ‘the first great English poet, the father of English tragedy and the creator of blank verse’. Christopher Marlowe was the son of John Marlowe who was a shoemaker of Canterbury. His early years were spent in Canterbury. He received his school education at King’s School Canterbury. He went to Cambridge in 1581 and obtained his degree in 1583. Christopher Marlowe was a versatile genius. His first play ‘Tamburlaine’ was published in 1590. This play was appreciated in entire England due to its impetuous force, its splendid command of blank verse and its sensitiveness to beauty. Marlowe did not live long. He was killed in 1593. During the short span...

  Text Stand still, and I will read to thee A lecture, love, in love's philosophy.         These three hours that we have spent,          Walking here, two shadows went           Along with us, which we ourselves produc'd.      But, now the sun is just above our head,          We do those shadows tread,          And to brave clearness all things are reduc'd.      So whilst our infant loves did grow,      Disguises did, and shadows, flow      From us, and our cares; but now 'tis not so.      That love has not attain'd the high'st degree,      Which is still diligent lest others see.        Except our loves at this noon stay,      We shall new shadows make t...

    True Worship           Text           ‘Go not to the temple to put flowers upon the feet of God,           First fill your house with the fragrance of love.           Go not to the temple to light candles before the altar of God.           First remove the darkness of sin from your heart.           Go not to the temple to bow down your head in prayer,           First learn to bow in humility before your fellow men.           Go not to the temple to pray on bended knees,           First bend down to lift someone who is down-trodden.           Go not to the temple to ask for forgiveness for your sins,           First forgive from h...

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening      Whose woods these are I think I know.         His house is in the village though;        He will not see me stopping here         To watch his woods fill up with snow.           My little horse must think it queer           To stop without a farmhouse near        Between the woods and frozen lake          The darkest evening of the year.             He gives his harness bells a shake           To ask if there is some mistake.          The only other sound’s the sweep            Of easy wind and downy flake.             The woods are lovely, dark and deep,    ...