Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Misery
Misery makes sport to mock itself.
Shakespeare.—King Richard II., Act II. Scene 1.
In misery’s darkest cavern known,
His useful care was ever nigh;
Where hopeless anguish pour’d his groan,
And lonely want retired to die.
Dr. Johnson.—On the death of Mr. Robert Levett, (Verse 5.)
Misery still delights to trace
Its semblance in another’s case.
Cowper.—The Castaway, Verse 10.
’Tis misery enough to be reduc’d
To the low level of the common herd,
Who, born to beggary, envy all above them.
Lillo.—Fatal Curiosity, Act I. Scene 2.
Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows.
Shakespeare.—The Tempest, Act II. Scene 2.
When a few words will rescue misery out of her distress, I hate the man who can be a churl of them.
Sterne.—Sentimental Journey, Calais, Line 22.
Misery doth part
The flux of company; anon, a careless herd,
Full of the pasture, jumps along by him,
And never stays to greet him: “Ay,” quoth Jaques,
“Sweep on, you fat and greasy citizens;
’Tis just the fashion: wherefore do you look
Upon that poor and broken bankrupt there?”
Shakespeare.—As You Like It, Act II. Scene 1.