Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Tears
A tear so limpid and so meek,
It would not stain an angel’s cheek;
’Tis that which pious fathers shed
Upon a duteous daughter’s head!
Scott.—Lady of the Lake, Canto II. Stanza 22.
The tear down childhood’s cheek that flows,
Is like the dewdrop on the rose;
When next the summer breeze comes by,
And waves the bush, the flower is dry.
Scott.—Rokeby, Canto IV. Stanza 11.
Oh! too convincing—dangerously dear—
In woman’s eye the unanswerable tear!
That weapon of her weakness she can wield,
To save, subdue—at once her spear and shield.
Byron.—The Corsair, Canto II. Stanza 15.
What lost a world, and bade a hero fly?
The timid tear in Cleopatra’s eye.
Byron.—The Corsair, Canto II. Stanza 15.
So bright the tear in beauty’s eye,
Love half regrets to kiss it dry;
So sweet the blush of bashfulness,
Ev’n pity scarce can wish it less.
Byron.—The Bride of Abydos, Canto I. Stanza 8.
None are so desolate but something dear,
Dearer than self, possesses or possess’d
A thought, and claims the homage of a tear.
Byron.—Childe Harold, Canto II. Stanza 24.
My father when our fortune smiled,
With jewels deck’d his eyeless child;
Their glittering worth the world might see,
But, ah; they had no charms for me;
A trickling tear bedew’d my arm—
I felt it—and my heart was warm;
And sure the gem to me most dear,
Was a kind father’s pitying tear.
Collet’s Relics of Lit. 67.
Tears such as tender fathers shed,
Warm from my aged eyes descend,
For joy, to think, when I am dead,
My son will have mankind his friend.
Handel.—Song.
Lorenzo! hast thou ever weigh’d a sigh?
Or studied the philosophy of tears?—
Hast thou descended deep into the breast,
And seen their source? If not, descend with me,
And trace these briny rivulets to their springs.
Dr. Young.—Night V. Line 516.
[Note.—The reader should descend the stream with Dr. Young, and he will be gratified by the perusal of the several gradations of tears.]
Her briny tears did on the paper fall.
Cowley.—To the Reader, Verse 2.
Here tears and sighs speak his imperfect moan,
In language far more moving than his own.
Cowley.—Constantia and Philetus, Verse 17.
When my charm’d eye a flood of joy express’d,
And all the father kindled in my breast.
Cawthorne.—On the Death of two Daughters.
Certain drops of salt.
Shakespeare.—Coriolanus, Act V. Scene 5. (Aufidius to Coriolanus.)
More tears are shed in playhouses than in churches.
Guthrie.—Gospel in Ezekiel, Chap. xv. p. 307.
The tears that stood considering in her eyes.
Dryden.—Meleager and Atalanta.
The tide is now: nay, not thy tide of tears,
That tide will stay me longer than I should.
Shakespeare.—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II. Scene 2. (Proteus to Julia.)
Let not women’s weapons, water-drops,
Stain my man’s cheeks.
Shakespeare.—King Lear, Act II. Scene 4. (Lear to Regan.)
There she shook
The holy water from her heavenly eyes,
And clamour moisten’d.
Shakespeare.—King Lear, Act IV. Scene 3. (A Gentleman to Kent.)
And all my mother came into mine eyes,
And gave me up to tears.
Shakespeare.—King Henry V., Act IV. Scene 6. (Exeter to King Henry.)
Beauty’s tears are lovelier than her smile.
Campbell.—Pleasures of Hope, Part I.
And now and then a sigh he stole;
And tears began to flow.
Dryden.—Alexander’s Feast, Verse 4. Goldsmith.—The Hermit, Verse 15. Pope.—The Odyssey, Book XI. Line 70.
The tear forgot as soon as shed,
The sunshine of the breast.
Gray.—Eton College, Stanza 5.
Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Shakespeare.—Romeo and Juliet, Act IV. Scene 1. (Paris to the Friar.)
My eyes are dim with childish tears.
Wordsworth.—The Fountain, Vol. V. Page 34.
The tears of penitents are the wine of angels.
St. Bernard.—Dr. Trench on the Lost Piece of Money, Page 370.
And, as she wept, her tears to pearl he turn’d,
And wound them on his arm, and for her mourn’d.
Marlowe.—Hero and Leander, 1st Sestiad.
I’ll decke her tomb with flowers,
The rarest ever seen,
And with my tears, as showers,
I’ll keepe them fresh and green.
Anonymous.—Corydon’s Doleful Knell, 2 Percy Rel. 281.
Upon her cheeks she wept, and from those showers
Sprang up a sweet nativity of flowers.
Herrick’s Hesperides.—Electra’s Tears, No. 142.
If words avail not, see my suppliant tears;
Nor disregard those dumb petitioners.
Garth.—Claremont, Line 257.
I have no orators,
More than my tears, to plead my innocence.
Ford.—The Lady’s Trial, Act II. Scene 2.
He has strangled his language in his tears.
Shakespeare.—King Henry VIII., Act V. Scene 1. (The King, after he had dismissed Cranmer.)
And sure his tongue had more exprest,
But that his tears forbad the rest.
Herrick’s Hesperides.—Leander, No. 139.
Thrice he essay’d, and thrice in spite of scorn,
Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth.
Milton.—Paradise Lost, Book I. Line 619.
The big round tears
Coursed one another down his innocent nose
In piteous chase.
Shakespeare.—As You Like It, Act II. Scene 1. (A Lord to the Duke.)
The big round tears run down his dappled face,
He groans in anguish.
Thomson.—Autumn, Line 451.
[This idea seems to be taken from the description given of the death of Actæon in Ovid’s Meta. Book III. Line 202. Riley’s Transl. 93.]
So looks the lily after a shower, while drops of rain run gently down its silken leaves, and gather sweetness as they pass.
Fielding.—The Grub Street Opera, Act III. Scene 9.