Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
By
By and by is easily said.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act III. Scene 2. (Hamlet to his Friends.)
Let by-gones be by-gones.
Old Saying.
Let the past be past.
Homer.—The Iliad of Lord Derby, Book XVI. Line 72.
Let us not burden our remembrances with
A heaviness that’s gone.
Shakespeare.—The Tempest, Act V. Scene 1. (Prospero to Alonso.)