Thomas Randolph (poet)

English poet and dramatist (1605–1635)

Thomas Randolph (15 June 1605March 1635) was an English poet and dramatist.

Quotes edit

  • Shepherd: Men are more eloquent than women made.
    Nymph: But women are more powerful to persuade.
    • Amyntas; or, The Impossible Dowry (1630; pub. 1638), Prologue

Poems (pub. 1638) edit

  • Think that is just; 'tis not enough to do,
    Unless thy very thoughts are upright too.
    • "Necessary Observations", Precept 2
  • First think, and if thy thoughts approve thy will,
    Then speak, and after, what thou speakest fulfil.
    • "Necessary Observations", Precept 18
  • Reprove not in their wrath incensed men,
    Good counsel comes clean out of season then;
    But when his fury is appeased and past,
    He will conceive his fault, and mend at last.
    • "Necessary Observations", Precept 22
 
There from the tree
We'll cherries pluck and pick the strawberry,
And every day
Go see the wholesome country girls make hay,
Whose brown hath lovelier grace
Than any painted face
That I do know
Hyde Park can show.
  • Come, spur away,
    I have no patience for a longer stay,
    But must go down
    And leave the chargeable noise of this great town.
    I will the country see,
    Where old simplicity,
    Though hid in grey,
    Doth look more gay
    Than foppery in plush and scarlet clad:
    Farewell, you city wits, that are
    Almost at civil war;
    'Tis time that I grow wise, when all the world grows mad.
    More of my days
    I will not spend to gain an idiot's praise;
    Or to make sport
    For some slight puny of the inns of court.
    Then, worthy Stafford, say,
    How shall we spend the day?
    With what delights
    Shorten the nights?
    When from this tumult we are got secure,
    Where mirth with all her freedom goes,
    Yet shall no finger lose;
    Where every word is thought, and every thought is pure.
    There from the tree
    We'll cherries pluck and pick the strawberry,
    And every day
    Go see the wholesome country girls make hay,
    Whose brown hath lovelier grace
    Than any painted face
    That I do know
    Hyde Park can show.
    • "An Ode to Master Anthony Stafford, to hasten him into the Country"
  • When age hath made me what I am not now,
    And every wrinkle tells me where the plow
    Of time hath furrowed; when an ice shall flow
    Through every vein, and all my head wear snow;
    When death displays his coldness in my cheek,
    And I myself in my own picture seek,
    Not finding what I am, but what I was,
    In doubt which to believe, this, or my glass;
    Yet though I alter, this remains the same
    As it was drawn, retains the primitive frame
    And first complexion; here will still be seen
    Blood on the cheek and down upon the chin:
    Here the smooth brow will stay, the lively eye,
    The ruddy lip, and hair of youthful dye.
    Behold what frailty we in man may see,
    Whose shadow is less given to change than he.
    • "Upon his Picture"

External links edit