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Scott, Walter, Sir, 1771-1832

"With a Life of the Author"


FOOTNOTES:
[1] In "Repartees between Cat and Puss at a caterwauling, in the modern
heroic way:"
"_Cat_. Forbear, foul ravisher, this rude address;
Canst thou at once both injure and caress?
_Puss_. Thou hast bewitched me with thy powerful charms,
And I, by drawing blood, would cure my harms.
_C_. He that does love would set his heart a tilt,
Ere one drop of his lady's should be spilt.
_P_. Your wounds are but without, and mine within:
You wound my heart, and I but prick your skin;
And while your eyes pierce deeper than my claws,
You blame the effect of which you are the cause.
_C_. How could my guiltless eyes your heart invade,
Had it not first been by your own betrayed?
Hence 'tis, my greatest crime has only been
(Not in mine eyes, but yours) in being seen.
_P_. I hurt to love, but do not love to hurt.
_C_. That's worse than making cruelty a sport.
_P_. Pain is the foil of pleasure and delight,
That sets it off to a more noble height.
_C_. He buys his pleasure at a rate too vain,
That takes it up beforehand of his pain.
_P_. Pain is more dear than pleasure when 'tis past.
_C_. But grows intolerable if it last," etc.
[2] Life of Lope de Vega, p. 208.
[3] Dryden was severely censured by the critics for his supernatural
persons, and ironically described as the "man, nature seemed to make
choice of to enlarge the poet's empire and to complete those discoveries
others had begun to shadow.


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