Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Violets
Ye violets that first appeare,
By your pure purple mantles known
Like the proud virgins of the yeare,
As if the spring were all your own;
What are you when the rose is blown?
Sir Henry Wotton.—“You Meaner Beauties.” 2 Percy Relics, 334.