WIFE, WIVES-continued. WIFE, WIVES. In the election of a wife, as in A project of war, to err but once is 685 To be undone for ever. Middleton, Anything for a Quiet Life. What thou bidd'st Unargued I obey; so God ordains : God is thy law; thou mine: to know no more Milton, P. L. IV. 634. Ib. VIII. 450. Ib. IX. 232. Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self, Has that poor wretch to come, that married yesterday? I look on wives, as on good dull companions Otway, Orph. Dryden, Rival Ladies. If I but hear wife nam'd, I'm sick that day; The sound is mortal, and frights life away. Dryden, Aurengz. Here lies my wife: here let her lie! Now she's at rest, and so am I. Dryden, suggested Epitaph. Sometimes my plague, sometimes my darling, The man to Jove his suit preferr'd; He begg'd a wife. His prayer was heard. Prior. Gay, Fable 39. Hammond. WIFE, WIVES-continued. Martial, Iv. 24 (Wright). A wife becomes the truest, tend'rest friend, spare Savage, Sir Thomas Overbury. What so pure, which envious tongues will Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair, With matchless impudence they style a wife, The dear-bought curse, and lawful plague of life; A bosom serpent, a domestic evil, A night invasion, and a mid-day devil; Let not the wise these sland'rous words regard, But curse the bones of ev'ry living bard. Pope, Jan. & May, 43. Horses (thou say'st) and asses men may try, And all the woman glares in open day. Pope, Wife of Bath, 101. Pricks his blind horse across the fallow lands, Or lets his wife abroad with pilgrims roam, Deserves a fool's-cap and long ears at home. Pope, Ib. 247. Is't not enough plagues, wars, and famines, rise To lash our crimes, but must our wives be wise? What is there in the vale of life Half so delightful as a wife, When friendship, love, and peace combine Young, L. F. sat. 5. To stamp the marriage bond divine ? Cowper, Love Abused. Lord Erskine, on woman presuming to rail, Calls a wife 66 a tin canister tied to one's tail;" And fair Lady Anne, while the subject he carries on, A canister's polish'd, and useful, and bright; That's the fault of the puppy to whom it is tied. Sheridan. Think you, if Laura had been Petrarch's wife, He would have written sonnets all his life. Byron, D. J. 111. 8. WIFE, WIVES-WILFULNESS. WIFE, WIVES—continued. 687 The wife was pretty, trifling, childish, weak; Oh! 't is a precious thing, when wives are dead, To find such numbers who will serve instead. And in whatever state a man be thrown, "Tis that precisely they would wish their own. Ib. Learned Boy. At home my wife will supervise Each meal I take. I wish her eyes Were sometimes touch'd with blindness! "My dear! you know you're bilious-pray And do not touch the salmon ; But no rich sauce-and let me beg You will not taste the gammon." Horace Smith, Answer to an Old Man's Praise. The world well tried-the sweetest thing in life A courage to endure and to obey N. P. Willis (Am.). A hate of gossip parlance, and of sway, A man may spare, And still be bare, If his wife be nowt, if his wife be nowt; And have money to lend, If his wife be owt, if his wife be owt. Tennyson. The Gipsy's Rhyme (N. & Q., Feb. 10, 1866). Of earthly goods, the best is a good wife; A bad, the bitterest curse of human life. WILFULNESS. Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed; Simonides. For what I will, I will-and there's an end. Sh. Two G. 1. 3. To wilful men, Must be their schoolmasters. The injuries, that they themselves procure, Sh. Lear, II. 4. 688 WILL-see Argument. WILL-WIND. In idle wishes fools supinely stay, Crabbe, Birth of Flattery. A willing heart adds feathers to the heel, Thou art to all lost love the best, Jo. Baillie, De Montford. Wherewith young men and maids distrest, Herrick, Amatory Ode, 108. Willow's a sentimental wood, Horace Smith, Poet among the Trees. Tree of the gloom, o'erhanging the tomb, 'Tis only the wretched that love thee then. The golden moth and the shining bee Will seldom rest on the willow tree. Eliza Cook, Willow Tree. WIND. Except wind stands as never it stood, It is an ill wind turns none to good. Thos. Tusser, Moral Reflection on the Wind. What wind blew you hither, Pistol? Not the ill wind which blows none to good. Sh. H. IV. 2, v. 3. But when they sweep along some flowery coast, Dryden, Rival Ladies. Which in his tuneful course the wind draws forth, From rocks, woods, caverns, heath, and dashing shore. The gentle wind, a sweet and passionate wooer, Wordsworth. Kisses the blushing leaf. Longfellow. Whose are Windsor and Hampton, the pride of the land, With their treasures and trophies so varied and grand? The Queen's, you reply: Deuce a bit! you and I Through their gates, twice a week, making privileg'd way, Tread their gilded saloons, View their portraits, cartoons, And, like Crusoe, are monarchs of all we survey. Horace Smith, Unpossessed Possessions. WINE-see Drinking, Nectar, Spirits. O thou invisible spirit of wine! if thou hast Athenæus, III. No name to be known by let us call thee devil! Sh. Oth. II. 3. A flow of words, and loftiness of thought? Even in th' oppressive grasp of poverty It can enlarge, and bid the soul be free. Horace, Francis, 1, v.23. So Noah, when he anchor'd safe on The mountain's top, his lofty haven, To plant, and propagate the vine, Which since has overwhelm'd and drown'd Than all the flood before had done. Wine fills the veins, and healths are understood Wine makes Love forget its care, Butler, Sat. 2. Waller. Parnell, Anacreontic, II. Gay, Fable 6. From wine what sudden friendship springs! YY |