Maxioms by Ben Jonson
A pauper traveller will sing before a beggar.
A pauper traveller will sing before a beggar.
Hang sorrow, care 'll kill a cat.
Hang sorrow, care 'll kill a cat.
He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
He knows not his own strength that hath not met adversity.
This figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the graver had read more
This figure that thou here seest put,
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the graver had a strife
With Nature, to outdo the life:
Oh, could he but have drawn his wit
As well in brass, as he has hit
His face, the print would then surpass
All that was ever writ in brass;
But since he cannot, reader, look
Not on his picture, but his book.
