John Dryden on Death
1631–1700 England
← All quotes by John Dryden
8 quotes
Death in itself is nothing; but we fear
To be we know not what, we know not where.
Aureng-Zebe (1676)
Like a led victim, to my death I'll go,
And, dying, bless the hand that gave the blow.
The Spanish Friar (1681)
Welcome, thou kind deceiver!
Thou best of thieves! who, with an easy key,
Dost open life, and, unperceived by us,
Even steal us from ourselves.
Heaven gave him all at once; then snatched away,
Ere mortals all his beauties could survey;
Just like the flower that buds and withers in a day.
He was exhal'd; his great Creator drew
His spirit, as the sun the morning dew.
Of no distemper, of no blast he died,
But fell like autumn fruit that mellowed long —
Even wondered at, because he dropped no sooner.
Fate seemed to wind him up for fourscore years,
Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more;
Till like a clock worn out with eating time,
The wheels of weary life at last stood still.
Œdipus (1679)
So was she soon exhaled, and vanished hence;
As a sweet odour, of a vast expense.
She vanished, we can scarcely say she died.
Of no distemper, of no blast he died,
But fell like autumn fruit that mellow’d long;
Even wonder’d at, because he dropt no sooner.
Fate seem’d to wind him up for fourscore years;
Yet freshly ran he on ten winters more:
Till like a clock worn out with eating time,
The wheels of weary life at last stood still.
Disputed Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1880)