ON POLITICIANS, John Ford's View

So politicians thrive,
That with their crabbed faces, and sly tricks,
Legerdemain, ducks, cringes, formal beards,
Crisp'd hairs, and punctual cheats, do wriggle in
Their heads first, like a fox, to rooms of state,
Then the whole body follows.


Note:

John Ford was born in Ilsington, Devonshire, England in 1586. The date
of his death appears to be unknown. Ford, a pre-Restoration playwright,
is probably best known for his tragedy 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1633),
which is still occasionally produced at this time, being considered a
classic piece of English drama.

The Characteristics of Byron

He was anxious to show you that he possessed no Shakespeare or Milton; "because," he said, "I have been accused of borrowing from them!" He affected to doubt whether Shakespeare was so great a genius as he has been taken for, and whether fashion had not a great deal to do with it. Spenser he could not read--at least he said so. All the gusto of that most poetical of the poets went with him for nothing. I lent him a volume of the Faerie Queene, and he said he would try to like it. Next day he brought it to my study window, and said: "Here, Hunt, here is your Spenser. I cannot see anything in him;" and he seemed anxious that I should take it out of his hands, as if he was afraid of being accused of copying so poor a writer. That he saw nothing in Spenser is not likely; but I really do not think that he saw much. Spenser was too much out of the world, and he too much in it....

Leigh Hunt
Lord Byron and some of his Contemporaries
Leigh Hunt, born in Southgate, England, 1784; died in 1859.