Middlemarch

FINALE. PRELUDE. Who that cares much to know the history of man, and how the mysterious mixture behaves under the varying experiments of Time, has not dwelt, at least briefly, on...

Since I can do no good because a woman, Reach constantly at something that is near it. —_The Maid’s Tragedy:_ BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. Miss Brooke had that kind ...

“‘Dime; no ves aquel caballero que hacia nosotros viene sobre un caballo rucio rodado que trae puesto en la cabeza un yelmo de oro?’ ‘Lo que veo y columbro,’ respondio Sancho, ‘no ...

“Say, goddess, what ensued, when Raphael, The affable archangel . . . Eve The story heard attentive, and was filled With admiration, and deep muse, to hear Of t...

1_st Gent_. Our deeds are fetters that we forge ourselves. 2_d Gent._ Ay, truly: but I think it is the world That brings the iron. “Sir James seems determined to do everything yo...

“Hard students are commonly troubled with gowts, catarrhs, rheums, cachexia, bradypepsia, bad eyes, stone, and collick, crudities, oppilations, vertigo, winds, consumptions, and al...

My lady’s tongue is like the meadow blades, That cut you stroking them with idle hand. Nice cutting is her function: she divides With spiritual edge the millet-seed, And makes inta...

“Piacer e popone Vuol la sua stagione.” —_Italian Proverb_. Mr. Casaubon, as might be expected, spent a great deal of his time at the Grange in these weeks, and the hindrance whic...

“Oh, rescue her! I am her brother now, And you her father. Every gentle maid Should have a guardian in each gentleman.” It was wonderful to Sir James Chettam how well he continued...

1_st Gent_. An ancient land in ancient oracles Is called “law-thirsty”: all the struggle there Was after order and a perfect rule. Pray, where lie such lands now? . . ....

“He had catched a great cold, had he had no other clothes to wear than the skin of a bear not yet killed.”—FULLER. Young Ladislaw did not pay that visit to which Mr. Brooke had in...

But deeds and language such as men do use, And persons such as comedy would choose, When she would show an image of the times, And sport with human follies, not with crimes. —BEN J...

He had more tow on his distaffe Than Gerveis knew. —CHAUCER. The ride to Stone Court, which Fred and Rosamond took the next morning, lay through a pretty bit of midland landscape,...

1_st Gent_. How class your man?—as better than the most, Or, seeming better, worse beneath that cloak? As saint or knave, pilgrim or hypocrite? 2_d Gent_. Nay, tell me how...

“Follows here the strict receipt For that sauce to dainty meat, Named Idleness, which many eat By preference, and call it sweet: _First watch for morsels, like a hound Mix well wit...

“Black eyes you have left, you say, Blue eyes fail to draw you; Yet you seem more rapt to-day, Than of old we saw you. “Oh, I track the fairest fair Through new haunts...

“All that in woman is adored In thy fair self I find— For the whole sex can but afford The handsome and the kind.” —SIR CHARLES SEDLEY. The question whether Mr. Tyke shoul...

“The clerkly person smiled and said Promise was a pretty maid, But being poor she died unwed.” The Rev. Camden Farebrother, whom Lydgate went to see the next evening, lived in an ...

“Oh, sir, the loftiest hopes on earth Draw lots with meaner hopes: heroic breasts, Breathing bad air, run risk of pestilence; Or, lacking lime-juice when they cross the Line, May l...

“L’ altra vedete ch’ha fatto alla guancia Della sua palma, sospirando, letto.” —_Purgatorio_, vii. When George the Fourth was still reigning over the privacies of Windsor, when th...

“A child forsaken, waking suddenly, Whose gaze afeard on all things round doth rove, And seeth only that it cannot see The meeting eyes of love.” Two hours later, Dorothea was...

“Hire facounde eke full womanly and plain, No contrefeted termes had she To semen wise.” —CHAUCER. It was in that way Dorothea came to be sobbing as soon as she was securely alone...

“Nous câusames longtemps; elle était simple et bonne. Ne sachant pas le mal, elle faisait le bien; Des richesses du coeur elle me fit l’aumône, Et tout en écoutant comme le coeur s...

“Your horses of the Sun,” he said, “And first-rate whip Apollo! Whate’er they be, I’ll eat my head, But I will beat them hollow.” Fred Vincy, we have seen, had a debt on h...

“The offender’s sorrow brings but small relief To him who wears the strong offence’s cross.” —SHAKESPEARE: _Sonnets_. I am sorry to say that only the third day after the propitiou...

“Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care But for another gives its ease And builds a heaven in hell’s despair. . . . . . . . Love seeketh only self ...

He beats me and I rail at him: O worthy satisfaction! would it were otherwise—that I could beat him while he railed at me.—_Troilus and Cressida_. But Fred did not go to Stone Cou...

Let the high Muse chant loves Olympian: We are but mortals, and must sing of man. An eminent philosopher among my friends, who can dignify even your ugly furniture by lifting it i...

1_st Gent_. All times are good to seek your wedded home Bringing a mutual delight. 2_d Gent_. Why, true. The calendar hath not an evil day For souls made one by love, ...

I found that no genius in another could please me. My unfortunate paradoxes had entirely dried up that source of comfort.—GOLDSMITH. One morning, some weeks after her arrival at L...

Qui veut délasser hors de propos, lasse.—PASCAL. Mr. Casaubon had no second attack of equal severity with the first, and in a few days began to recover his usual condition. But Ly...

How will you know the pitch of that great bell Too large for you to stir? Let but a flute Play ’neath the fine-mixed metal: listen close Till the right note flows forth, a silvery ...

They’ll take suggestion as a cat laps milk. —SHAKESPEARE: _Tempest_. The triumphant confidence of the Mayor founded on Mr. Featherstone’s insistent demand that Fred and his mother...

“Close up his eyes and draw the curtain close; And let us all to meditation.” —2 _Henry VI_. That night after twelve o’clock Mary Garth relieved the watch in Mr. Featherstone’s ro...

“1_st Gent_. Such men as this are feathers, chips, and straws, Carry no weight, no force. 2_d Gent_. But levity Is causal too, and makes the sum of weight. For power f...

“Non, je ne comprends pas de plus charmant plaisir Que de voir d’héritiers une troupe affligée Le maintien interdit, et la mine allongée, Lire un long testament où pales, étonnés O...

’T is strange to see the humors of these men, These great aspiring spirits, that should be wise: . . . . . . . . For being the nature of great spirits to love To be where they may ...

Thrice happy she that is so well assured Unto herself and settled so in heart That neither will for better be allured Ne fears to worse with any chance to start, But like a steddy ...

“C’est beaucoup que le jugement des hommes sur les actions humaines; tôt ou tard il devient efficace.”—GUIZOT. Sir James Chettam could not look with any satisfaction on Mr. Brooke...

“If, as I have, you also doe, Vertue attired in woman see, And dare love that, and say so too, And forget the He and She; And if this love, though placed so, From prop...

Wise in his daily work was he: To fruits of diligence, And not to faiths or polity, He plied his utmost sense. These perfect in their little parts, Whose work is all th...

By swaggering could I never thrive, For the rain it raineth every day. —_Twelfth Night_. The transactions referred to by Caleb Garth as having gone forward between Mr. Bulstrode a...

How much, methinks, I could despise this man Were I not bound in charity against it! —SHAKESPEARE: _Henry VIII_. One of the professional calls made by Lydgate soon after his retur...

“This figure hath high price: ’t was wrought with love Ages ago in finest ivory; Nought modish in it, pure and noble lines Of generous womanhood that fits all time That too is cost...

I would not creep along the coast but steer Out in mid-sea, by guidance of the stars. When Dorothea, walking round the laurel-planted plots of the New Hospital with Lydgate, had l...

It is the humor of many heads to extol the days of their forefathers, and declaim against the wickedness of times present. Which notwithstanding they cannot handsomely do, without ...

Pues no podemos haber aquello que queremos, queramos aquello que podremos. Since we cannot get what we like, let us like what we can get.—_Spanish Proverb_. While Lydgate, safely...

Was never true love loved in vain, For truest love is highest gain. No art can make it: it must spring Where elements are fostering. So in heaven’s spot and hour Springs the little...

Surely the golden hours are turning gray And dance no more, and vainly strive to run: I see their white locks streaming in the wind— Each face is haggard as it looks at me, Slow tu...

“A task too strong for wizard spells This squire had brought about; ’T is easy dropping stones in wells, But who shall get them out?” “I wish to God we could hinder Dorothea from ...

“This Loller here wol precilen us somewhat.” “Nay by my father’s soule! that schal he nat,” Sayde the Schipman, ‘here schal he not preche, We schal no gospel glosen here ne teche. ...

Party is Nature too, and you shall see By force of Logic how they both agree: The Many in the One, the One in Many; All is not Some, nor Some the same as Any: Genus holds species, ...

“His heart The lowliest duties on itself did lay.” —WORDSWORTH. On that June evening when Mr. Farebrother knew that he was to have the Lowick living, there was joy in the old fash...

It is but a shallow haste which concludeth insincerity from what outsiders call inconsistency—putting a dead mechanism of “ifs” and “therefores” for the living myriad of hidden suc...

“Negli occhi porta la mia donna Amore; Per che si fa gentil ciò ch’ella mira: Ov’ella passa, ogni uom ver lei si gira, E cui saluta fa tremar lo core. Sicchè, bassando il viso, tu...

Hath she her faults? I would you had them too. They are the fruity must of soundest wine; Or say, they are regenerating fire Such as hath turned the dense black element Into a crys...

“How happy is he born and taught That serveth not another’s will; Whose armor is his honest thought, And simple truth his only skill! . . . . . . . This man is freed from servile b...

They numbered scarce eight summers when a name Rose on their souls and stirred such motions there As thrill the buds and shape their hidden frame At penetration of the quic...

“For there can live no hatred in thine eye, Therefore in that I cannot know thy change: In many’s looks the false heart’s history Is writ in moods and frowns and wrinkles strange: ...

“They said of old the Soul had human shape, But smaller, subtler than the fleshly self, So wandered forth for airing when it pleased. And see! beside her cherub-face there floats A...

Good phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable. —_Justice Shallow_. A few days afterwards—it was already the end of August—there was an occasion which caused some excite...

“Inconsistencies,” answered Imlac, “cannot both be right, but imputed to man they may both be true.”—_Rasselas_. The same night, when Mr. Bulstrode returned from a journey to Bras...

He was a squyer of lowe degre, That loved the king’s daughter of Hungrie. —_Old Romance_. Will Ladislaw’s mind was now wholly bent on seeing Dorothea again, and forthwith quitting...

These little things are great to little man.—GOLDSMITH. “Have you seen much of your scientific phoenix, Lydgate, lately?” said Mr. Toller at one of his Christmas dinner-parties, s...

1_st Gent_. Where lies the power, there let the blame lie too. 2_d Gent_. Nay, power is relative; you cannot fright The coming pest with border fortresses, Or catch your c...

One of us two must bowen douteless, And, sith a man is more reasonable Than woman is, ye [men] moste be suffrable. —CHAUCER: _Canterbury Tales_. The bias of human nature to be slo...

’Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, Another thing to fall. —_Measure for Measure_. Lydgate certainly had good reason to reflect on the service his practice did him in counterac...

Now is there civil war within the soul: Resolve is thrust from off the sacred throne By clamorous Needs, and Pride the grand-vizier Makes humble compact, plays the supple part Of e...

What suit of grace hath Virtue to put on If Vice shall wear as good, and do as well? If Wrong, if Craft, if Indiscretion Act as fair parts with ends as laudable? Which all this mig...

“If thou hast heard a word, let it die with thee.” —_Ecclesiasticus_. Mr. Bulstrode was still seated in his manager’s room at the Bank, about three o’clock of the same day on whic...

“Our deeds still travel with us from afar, And what we have been makes us what we are.” Bulstrode’s first object after Lydgate had left Stone Court was to examine Raffles’s pocket...

_Clown_. . . . ’Twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where, indeed, you have a delight to sit, have you not? _Froth_. I have so: because it is an open room, and good for winter. _Clo_. Why...

Full souls are double mirrors, making still An endless vista of fair things before, Repeating things behind. Dorothea’s impetuous generosity, which would have leaped at once to th...

Pity the laden one; this wandering woe May visit you and me. When Lydgate had allayed Mrs. Bulstrode’s anxiety by telling her that her husband had been seized with faintness at th...

“Mercifully grant that we may grow aged together.” —BOOK OF TOBIT: _Marriage Prayer_. In Middlemarch a wife could not long remain ignorant that the town held a bad opinion of her ...

“Le sentiment de la fausseté des plaisirs présents, et l’ignorance de la vanité des plaisirs absents causent l’inconstance.”—PASCAL. Rosamond had a gleam of returning cheerfulness...

To mercy, pity, peace, and love All pray in their distress, And to these virtues of delight, Return their thankfulness. . . . . . . For Mercy has a human heart, Pity a ...

“And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot, To mark the full-fraught man and best indued With some suspicion.” —_Henry V_. The next day Lydgate had to go to Brassing, and told Ro...

“Would it were yesterday and I i’ the grave, With her sweet faith above for monument.” Rosamond and Will stood motionless—they did not know how long—he looking towards the spot wh...

“Now, I saw in my dream, that just as they had ended their talk, they drew nigh to a very miry slough, that was in the midst of the plain; and they, being heedless, did both fall s...

Stern lawgiver! yet thou dost wear The Godhead’s most benignant grace; Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face; Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, And frag...

Du Erde warst auch diese Nacht beständig, Und athmest neu erquickt zu meinen Füssen, Beginnest schon mit Lust mich zu umgeben, Du regst und rührst ein kräftiges Beschliessen _Zum h...

“My grief lies onward and my joy behind.” —SHAKESPEARE: _Sonnets_. Exiles notoriously feed much on hopes, and are unlikely to stay in banishment unless they are obliged. When Will...

“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.” —DR. DONNE....

“Though it be songe of old and yonge, That I sholde be to blame, Theyrs be the charge, that spoke so large In hurtynge of my name.” —_The Not-Browne Mayde_. It was just af...

“Then went the jury out whose names were Mr. Blindman, Mr. No-good, Mr. Malice, Mr. Love-lust, Mr. Live-loose, Mr. Heady, Mr. High-mind, Mr. Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hate...

“Le cœur se sature d’amour comme d’un sel divin qui le conserve; de là l’incorruptible adhérence de ceux qui se sont aimés dès l’aube de la vie, et la fraîcheur des vielles amours ...