Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Wife
I will fasten on this sleeve of thine:
Thou art an elm, my husband, I, a vine.
Shakespeare.—Comedy of Errors, Act II. Scene 2. (Adriana.) So, Moliere—Sganarelle i. 2. (Ramage’s Thoughts from the French, p. 137.)
So all those false alarms of strife
Between the husband and the wife,
And little quarrels often prove
To be but new recruits of love.
Butler.—Hudibras, Part III. Canto I. Line 903.
Body and soul, like peevish man and wife,
United jar, and yet are loth to part.
Dr. Young.—Night II. Line 175.
Who seeks secure to rule, be first her care
Each softer virtue that adorns the fair;
Each tender passion man delights to find,
The loved perfections of a female mind!
Collins.—Eclogue I. Line 39. (Selim.)
What is there in the vale of life
Half so delightful as a wife;
When friendship, love, and peace combine
To stamp the marriage-bond divine?
Cowper.—Love Abused, Line 1.
When fondly welcom’d to th’ accustom’d seat,
In sweet complacence wife and husband meet,
Look mutual pleasure, mutual pleasure share,
Repose from labours, but unite in care.
Bishop.—Domestic Happiness.
Come hither, gentle mistress;
Do you perceive in all this noble company
Where most you owe obedience?
Shakespeare.—Othello, Act I. Scene 3. (Brabantio to his Daughter.)
If she be not honest, chaste, and true,
There’s no man happy.
Shakespeare.—Othello, Act IV. Scene 2. (Emilia to Othello.)
Thy wife is a constellation of virtues; she’s the moon, and thou art the man in the moon.
Congreve.—Love in Love, Act II. Scene 6.
You are my true and honourable wife.
Shakespeare.—Julius Cæsar, Act II. Scene 1. (Brutus to Portia.)
The wife of Pompey cannot live conceal’d.
Rowe.—Lucan’s Pharsalia, Book V. Line 1139.
All other goods by Fortune’s hand are given,
A wife is the peculiar gift of Heaven.
Pope.—January and May, from Chaucer, Line 51.
But, of all the plagues, the greatest is untold;
The book-learn’d wife in Greek and Latin bold.
Juvenal.—Sat. VI. (Dryden.)
The man of law is nonpluss’d in his suit;
Nay, every other female tongue is mute.
Hammers and beating anvils, you would swear,
And Vulcan with his whole militia there.
Juvenal.—Sat. VI. (Dryden.)
When poor, she’s scarce a tolerable evil;
But rich and fine, a wife’s a very devil.
Juvenal.—Sat. VI. (Dryden.)
I know no business women have with learning;
I scorn, I hate, the mole-eyed half discerning;
Their wit but serves a husband’s heart to rack,
And makes eternal horsewhips for his back.
Peter Pindar.—Bozzi and Piozzi, Eclo. Part II.
Thou poor man’s encumbrance, thou rake of a wife,
At length put an end to this infamous life.
Francis’ Horace.—Book III. Ode 15, Line 1.
Wife’s pleasure causes husband’s pain.
Prior.—Hans Carvel.
You made me a wife, for which I am much obliged to you; and, if you have a wish to make me more grateful still, make me a widow.
Sheridan.—See his Life, by G. G. S., Page 57. (Bohn, 1857.)
Though, by wishing to part with your wife, you seem to have a spare-rib already—Bless my soul, that it should fall to my lot to pun upon pork-chops!
Dibdin.—The Jew and the Doctor, Act II. Scene 1.