What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood, of all the Howards.

What can ennoble sots, or slaves, or cowards?
Alas! not all the blood, of all the Howards.

It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, "O ancient house!
alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy read more

It is disgraceful when the passers-by exclaim, "O ancient house!
alas, how unlike is thy present master to thy former one."
[Lat., Odiosum est enim, cum a praetereuntibus dicatur:--O domus
antiqua, heu, quam dispari dominare domino.]

Say, when the ground our father Adam till'd,
And mother Eve the humble distaff held,
Who then read more

Say, when the ground our father Adam till'd,
And mother Eve the humble distaff held,
Who then his pedigree presumed to trace,
Or challenged the prerogative of place?
[Lat., Primus Adam duro cum vertet arva ligone,
Pensaque de vili deceret Eva colo:
Ecquis in hoc poterat vir nobilis orbe videri?
Et modo quisquam alios ante locandue erir?

I am a gentleman, though spoiled i' the breeding. The Buzzards
are all gentlemen. We came with the Conqueror.

I am a gentleman, though spoiled i' the breeding. The Buzzards
are all gentlemen. We came with the Conqueror.

Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves
achieved, we can scarcely call our own.
[Lat., read more

Birth and ancestry, and that which we have not ourselves
achieved, we can scarcely call our own.
[Lat., Nam genus et proavos et quae non fecimus ipsi
Vix ea nostra voco.]

Sence I've ben here, I've hired a chap to look about for me,
To git me a transplantable an' read more

Sence I've ben here, I've hired a chap to look about for me,
To git me a transplantable an' thrifty fem'ly-tree.

The brave are born from the brave and good. In steers and in
horses is to be found the read more

The brave are born from the brave and good. In steers and in
horses is to be found the excellence of their sire; nor do savage
eagles produce a peaceful dove.
[Lat., Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis;
Est in juvenis, est in equibus patrum
Virtus; nee imbellem feroces
Progenerant aquilae columbam.]

A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like
a turnip. There is nothing good read more

A degenerate nobleman, or one that is proud of his birth, is like
a turnip. There is nothing good of him but that which is
underground.

The nobler the blood the less the pride

The nobler the blood the less the pride