Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Tripod
Joint stools were then created; on three legs
Upborne they stood—three legs upholding firm
A massy slab, in fashion square or round.
On such a stool immortal Alfred sat.
Cowper.—The Sofa, Book I. Line 19.
As right as a trivet.
Old Saying.
Disposed apart, Ulysses shares the treat!
A trivet-table, and ignobler seat.
Pope’s Odyssey.—Book XX. Line 322.
A three-legg’d table, O ye Fates!
Francis’ Horace.—Book I. Sat. III. Line 18.
Doubt not her care should be
To comb your noddle with a three-legg’d stool,
And paint your face, and use you like a fool.
Shakespeare.—Taming of the Shrew, Act I. Scene 1. (Katherine to Hortensio.)
When on my three-foot stool I sit.
Shakespeare.—Cymbeline, Act III. Scene 3. (Belarius solus.)