WIFE, WIVES-continued. In the election of a wife, as in A project of war, to err but once is 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 Is woman's happiest knowledge and her praise. Thy likeness, thy fit help, thy other self, Milton, P. L. IV. 634. Thy wish, exactly to thy heart's desire. Ib. VIII. 450. Nothing lovelier can be found Ib. Ix. 232. In woman, than to study household good, The wife, where danger or dishonour lurks, Who guards her, or with her the worst endures. Ib. Ix. 267. When you would give all worldly plagues a name, I look on wives, as on good dull companions Who lays my pillow for me. 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, Kissing to-day, to-morrow snarling. Prior. The man to Jove his suit preferr'd; Gay, Fable 39. Beauty and worth in her alike contend, Hammond. 686 WIFE, WIVES-continued. WIFE, WIVES. Lycoris of her friends still makes an end: Martial, IV. 24 (Wright). A wife becomes the truest, tend'rest friend, Savage, Sir Thomas Overbury. What so pure, which envious tongues will spare? Some wicked wits have libell'd all the fair, A night invasion, and a mid-day devil; Let not the wise these sland'rous words regard, Horses (thou say'st) and asses men may try, And all the woman glares in open day. Pope, Wife of Bath, 101. Who builds his house on sands, Pricks his blind horse across the fallow lands, 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, Young, L. F. sat. 5. When friendship, love, and peace combine To stamp the marriage bond divine ? Cowper, Love Abused. Lord Erskine, on woman presuming to rail, And fair Lady Anne, while the subject he carries on, 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. III. 8. WIFE, WIVES-WILFULNESS. WIFE, WIVES-continued. The wife was pretty, trifling, childish, weak; She could not think, but would not cease to speak. 687 Crabbe, Struggles of Conscience. 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! But no-they move not from my plate: God bless her! how I love, yet hate Her ever watchful kindness. "My dear! you know you're bilious-pray Avoid the turtle soup to-day, And do not touch the salmon; Just take a chicken wing, or leg, 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 Is the unclouded welcome of a wife. A courage to endure and to obey N. P. Willis (Am.). A hate of gossip parlance, and of sway, The queen of marriage-a most perfect wife. A man may spare, And still be bare, If his wife be nowt, if his wife be nowt; But a man may spend, 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). Simonides. 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; For what I will, I will-and there's an end. Sh. Two G. 1. 3. To wilful men, The injuries, that they themselves procure, Must be their schoolmasters. Sh. Lear, II. 4. Before Pope's Tusculum at Twickenham. Horace Smith, Poet among the Trees. Tree of the gloom, o'erhanging the tomb, 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? Seas are the fields of combat for the winds; Dryden, Rival Ladies. The winds come lightly whispering from the west, Many are the notes Which in his tuneful course the wind draws forth, From rocks, woods, caverns, heath, and dashing shore. 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 No name to be known by let us call thee devil! Sh. Oth. 1. 3. Three cups of wine a prudent man may take; The first of them for constitution sake; Athenœus, III. What cannot wine perform? It brings to light 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, Wine fills the veins, and healths are understood Wine makes Love forget its care, Butler, Sat. 2. Waller. Parnell, Anacreontic, II. From wine what sudden friendship springs! Gay, Fable 6. YY |