A proximis quisque minime anteiri vult.
No man likes to be surpassed by those of his own level.
Les envieux mourront, mais non jamais l'envie.
The envious will die, but envy never.
Moliere—Tartuffe. V. 3.
Pascitur in vivis livor; post fata quiescit.
Envy feeds on the living. It ceases when they are dead.
Ingenium magni detractat livor Homeri.
Envy depreciates the genius of the great Homer.
Ovid—Remedia Amoris. CCCLXV.
Summa petit livor: perflant altissima venti.
Envy assails the noblest: the winds howl around the highest peaks.
Ovid—Remedia Amoris. CCCLXIX.
Envy will merit as its shade pursue,
But like a shadow proves the substance true.
Envy, to which th' ignoble mind's a slave,
Is emulation in the learn'd or brave.
L'invidia, figliuol mio, se stessa macera,
E si dilegua come agnel per fascino.
Envy, my son, wears herself away, and droops like a lamb under the influence of the evil eye.
Sannazaro—Ecloga Sesta.
It is the practice of the multitude to bark at eminent men, as little dogs do at strangers.
Seneca—Of a Happy Life. Ch. XIX.
In seeking tales and informations
Against this man, whose honesty the devil
And his disciples only envy at,
Ye blew the fire that burns ye.
Henry VIII. Act V. Sc. 3. L. 110.
Such men as he be never at heart's ease
Whiles they behold a greater than themselves:
And therefore are they very dangerous.
Julius Caesar. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 208.
No metal can,
No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness
Of thy sharp envy.
Merchant of Venice. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 124.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon,
Who is already sick and pale with grief,
That thou her maid art far more fair than she:
Be not her maid, since she is envious.
We make ourselves fools, to disport ourselves;
And spend our flatteries, to drink those men
Upon whose age we void it up again,
With poisonous spite and envy.
Timon of Athens. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 141.
The general's disdain'd
By him one step below; he by the next;
That next by him beneath; so every step,
Exampled by the first pace that is sick
Of his superior, grows to an envious fever
Of pale and bloodless emulation.
Troiius and Cressida. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 129.
Base Envy withers at another's joy,
And hates that excellence it cannot reach.
Thomson—The Seasons. Spring. L. 28.
EPIGRAMS
What is an epigram? a dwarfish whole,
Its body brevity, and wit its soul.
Author unknown. See Brandeb Matthews
—American Epigrams. Harper's Mag., Nov., 1903.
| author =
| work =
| place =
| note =
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num = 15
| text = The diamond's virtues well might grace
The epigram, and both excel
In brilliancy in smallest space,
And power to cut as well.
George Birdseye. See Brander Matthews, Harper's Mag., Nov., 1903.
| seealso = (See also Yriarte)
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>Lumine Aeon dextre,—capta est Leonilla sinistre,
Et potis est forma vincere uterque dees:
Blande puer, lumen quod habes concede sorori,
Sic tu cEecus Amor, sic erit ilia Venus.
Aeon his right, Leonilla her left eye
Doth want; yet each in form, the gods out-vie.
Sweet boy, with thine, thy sister's sight improved:
So shall she Venus be, thou God of Love.
Epigram said to be the "most celebrated of
modern epigrams," by Warton, in his
Essay on Pope. I. P. 299. (Ed. 1772)
Trans, as given in a Collection of Epigrams.
Vol.1. No. 223.
Unlike my subject, I will make my song.
It shall be witty, and it shan't be long.
Chesterfield. See note by Croker in Boswell's Life of Johnson, July 19, 1763.
(When Sir Thomas Robinson asked for an
epigram on his friend Long.}})
| topic =
| page =
}}
{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>This picture, plac'd the busts between
Gives Satire all its strength;
Wisdom and Wit are little seen
While Polly glares at length.
Epigram on the portrait of Beau Nash placed
between the busts of Pope and Newton in the Pump Room at Bath, England.
Attributed to Lord Chesterfield by Dr.
Matthew Maty in his Memoirs of Chesterfield. Sec. IV, prefixed to second ed. of Miscellaneous Works of the Earl of Chesterfield. Locker-Lampson credits only four of the lines of the whole epigram to Chesterfield. Jane Brereton given credit for them.
(See poems. 1744.) A copy of the poems of
Henry Norms (1740) in the British Museum contains the lines. See Notes and
Queries, Feb. 10, 1917. P. 119; also Aug.,
1917. P. 379.
