NECESSITY.—Necessity—thou best of peacemakers,
As well as surest prompter of invention.
Scott.—Peveril of the Peak, Chap. XXVI.
Necessity invented stools,
Convenience next suggested elbow-chairs,
And luxury the accomplish’d sofa
last.
Cowper.—The Task, Book I. Line 86.
1. She must lie here on mere necessity.
2. Necessity will make us all forsworn.
Shakespeare.—Love’s Labour’s Lost, Act I. Scene 1.
Necessity’s sharp pinch.
Shakespeare.—King Lear, Act II. Scene 4.
I’ll rather dwell in my necessity.
Shakespeare.—Merchant of Venice, Act I. Scene 3.
Orpheus, who found no remedy,
Made virtue of necessity.
King.—Orpheus and Eurydice, Line 193.
NECESSITY.—Are you content to be our general?
To make a virtue of necessity,
And live, as we do, in
this wilderness?
Shakespeare.—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act. IV. Scene 1.
NECK.—A lover forsaken
A new love may get;
But a neck that’s once broken
Can never be set.
Walsh.—The Despairing Lover.
NEEDLE.—Nor peace nor ease the heart can know,
Turns at the touch of joy
or woe,
Mrs. Greville.—A Prayer for Indifference, Verses 5, 6.
True as the needle to the pole,
Or as the dial to the sun.
Barton Booth.—Song.
True as the dial to the sun,
Although it be not shin’d upon.
Butler.—Hudibras, Canto II. Part III. Line 175.
NEITHER.—Neither the praise nor the blame is our own.
Cowper.—From a Letter to Mr. Newton, Verse 6.
Neither here nor there.
Shakespeare.—Othello, Act IV. Scene 3.
But with some folks, ’tis labour lost to strive,
A reasoning mule will neither lead nor drive.
Mallet.—Epilogue to “The Brothers.”