Chapter RETIREMENT to RHYME AND REASON of Index by Grocott's Quotations - Alpha

RETIREMENT to RHYME AND REASON

RETIREMENT.—Had I the choice of sublunary good,
What could I wish that I possess not here?
Health, leisure, means to improve it, friendship, peace.

Cowper.—The Task, Book III. Line 689.

O blest retirement, friend to life’s decline—
How blest is he who crowns, in shades like these,
A youth of labour with an age of ease!

Goldsmith.—The Deserted Village, Lines 97—99.

RETORT.—I did dislike the cut of a certain courtier’s beard; he sent me word, if I said his beard was not cut well, he was in the mind it was: this is called the “Retort Courteous.”

Shakespeare.—As You Like it, Act V. Scene 4. (Touchstone to Jaques.)

RETREAT.—’Tis pleasant through the loopholes of retreat
To peep at such a world; to see the stir
Of the Great Babel, and not feel the crowd.

Cowper.—The Task, Book IV. Line 88.

In all the trade of war, no feat
Is nobler than a brave retreat.

Butler.—Hudibras, Part I. Canto III. Line 607.

REVEALS.—The maid who modestly conceals
Her beauties, while she hides, reveals;
Give but a glimpse, and fancy draws
Whate’er the Grecian Venus was.

Ed. Moore.—The Spider and Bee, Line 19.

REVELRY.—There was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium’s capital had gather’d then
Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men:
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when
Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes look’d love to eyes which spake again,
And all went merry as a marriage bell.

Byron.—Childe Harold, Canto III. Stanza 21.

REVELS.—The king doth keep his revels here to-night.

Shakespeare.—Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II. Scene 1. (Puck.)

Our revels now are ended: these our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp’d towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind: We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.

Shakespeare.—Tempest, Act IV. Scene 1. (Prospero.)

REVENGE.—Haste me to know it; that I, with wings as swift
As meditation, or the thoughts of love,
May sweep to my revenge.

Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 5. (Hamlet to the Ghost.)

REVERSION.—

Is there no bright reversion in the sky
For those who greatly think, or bravely die?