He drew a dial from his poke;
And, looking on it with lack-lustre eye,
Says, very wisely, “It is ten o’clock:
Thus
we may see,” quoth he, “how the world wags.”
Shakespeare.—As You Like it, Act II. Scene 7. (Jaques to Duke S.)
The world is ashamed of being virtuous.
Sterne.—Tristram Shandy, Vol. VIII. Chap. XXVII.
WORLD.—I am one, my liege,
Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
Have so incens’d, that I am
reckless what
I do, to spite the world.
Shakespeare.—Macbeth, Act III. Scene 1. (The Second Murderer to Macbeth.)
Why, then, the world’s mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open.
Shakespeare.—Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II. Scene 2. (Pistol to Falstaff.)
A mad world, my masters.
Middleton.—A Play.
He who for scorn had daffed the world aside.
Ariosto.—Orlando Furioso, Canto XIV. Stanza 41. (Rose’s Transl.)
The world knows nothing of its greatest men.
Henry Taylor.—Philip Van Artevelde, Act I. Scene 5.
Ah! world unknown! how charming is thy view,
Thy pleasures many, and each pleasure new:
Ah!—world
experienc’d! what of thee is told?
How few thy pleasures, and those few how old!
Crabbe.—The Borough, Letter 24.
The world’s at an end—What’s to be done, Jasper?
Garrick.—Miss in her Teens, Act II.