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Thomas Shelton's translation of _Don Quixote_ , Part 1.
The Author's Preface to the Reader
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'After all this, to show that thou art learned in human letters,
and a cosmographer, take some occasion to make
mention of the
RIVER TAGUS , and thou shalt presently
find thyself stored with another notable notation, saying,
"The
RIVER TAGUS was so called of a King of Spain;
it takes its beginning from such a place, and dies
in the ocean seas, kissing first the WALLS of the
famous City of Lisbon, and some are of opinion
that the SANDS thereof are of GOLD, etc."
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The 2nd Book VI. Wherein Are Rehearsed the Despairing VERsEs
of the Dead Shepherd , with Other Unexpected Accidents
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THE DOLEFUL ECHOes of so great confusion
Shall not resound o'er father
TAGUS? sands,
Nor touch the olive-wat'ring Betis? ears.
Of my dire pangs I'll only make effusion
'Mongst those steep rocks, and hollow bottom lands,
With mortified tongue, but living tears:
Sometimes, in hidden dales, where nought appears,
Or in unhaunted plains free from access;
Or where the sun could ne'er intrude a beam;
Amidst the venomous crew of beasts unclean,
Whose wants, with bounty, the free plains redress;
For, though among those vast and desert downs,
The hollow ECHO indistinctly sounds
Thy matchless rigour, and my cruel pain,
Yet, by the privilege of my niggard fates,
It will their force throughout the world proclaim.
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Christopher Marlowe: Ovid's Elegies
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Therefore when flint and iron wear away,
Verse is immortal, and shall ne'er decay.
Let kings give place to verse, and kingly shows,
And banks o'er which gold-bearing
TAGUS flows.
Let base-conceited wits admire vilde things,
Fair Phoebus lead me to the Muses' springs.
About my head be quivering myrtle wound,
And in sad lovers' heads let me be found.
The living, not the dead, can envy bite,
For after death all men receive their right:
Then though death rakes my bones in funeral fire,
I'll live, and as he pulls me down, mount higher.
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<<The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake, took place on November 1, 1755, at around 9:40 in the morning. The earthquake was followed by a tsunami and fire, which caused near-total destruction of Lisbon, Portugal, and adjoining areas. Geologists today estimate the Lisbon earthquake approached magnitude 9 on the Richter scale, with an epicenter in the Atlantic Ocean about 200 km (120 mi) west-southwest of Cape St. Vincent. Estimates place the death toll in Lisbon alone between 10,000 and 100,000 people, making it one of the most destructive earthquakes in history.>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1755_Lisbon_earthquake
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