Was ever woman in this humour wooed?
Was ever woman in this humour won?

SHAKESPEARE, King Richard III, i, 2

She's a very tattling woman.

SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, iii, 3

Such duty as the subject owes the prince
Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
And not obedient to his honest will,
What is she but a foul contending rebel
And graceless traitor to her loving lord?

SHAKESPEARE, Taming of the Shrew, v, 2
Let still the woman take

An elder than herself: so wears she to him,
So sways she level in her husband's heart:
For, boy, however we do praise ourselves,
Our fancies are more giddy and unfirm,

More longing, wavering, sooner lost and worn [won],
Than women's are. SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night, ii, 4
That man that hath a tongue, I say, is no man,

If with his tongue he cannot win a woman.

SHAKESPEARE, Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii, 1

Nor ever yet was woman's life complete
Till at her breast the child of him she loved

Made life and love one name.

E. C. STEDMAN, The Blameless Prince, st. 134

Man for the field, and woman for the hearth;
Man for the sword, and for the needle she;
Man with the head, and woman with the heart;
Man to command, and woman to obey;

All else confusion.

TENNYSON, The Princess, v, lines 437-441

One half of woman's life is hope
And one half resignation.

M. A. TOWNSEND, Her Horoscope

A perfect woman, nobly planned,

To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a spirit still, and bright

With something of angelic light.

WORDSWORTH, She Was a Phantom of Delight, st. 3

Womanly. Touch her not scornfully;

Think of her mournfully,

Gently and humanly;
Not of the stains of her;

All that remains of her

Now is pure womanly.-HOOD, The Bridge of Sighs, st. 4

Women.- Alas! the love of women! it is known
To be a lovely and a fearful thing;
For all of theirs upon that die is thrown,
And if 't is lost, life hath no more to bring
To them but mockeries of the past alone,

And their revenge is as the tiger's spring,
Deadly, and quick, and crushing; yet as real
Torture is theirs what they inflict they feel.

BYRON, Don Juan, Canto ii, st. 199

Women are skeery, unless they have a home.

W. CARLETON, Betsey and I Are Out, st. 13

If women could be fair, and yet not fond,
Or that their love were firm, not fickle still,
I would not marvel that they make men bond
By service long to purchase their good will;
But when I see how frail those creatures are,
I muse that men forget themselves so far.
EDWARD DE VERE, EARL OF OXFORD,
A Renunciation, st. I

No cause is tried at the litigious bar,
But women plaintiffs or defendants are,

They form the process, all the briefs they write;
The topics furnish, and the pleas indite.

DRYDEN, Juvenal, Satire vi, lines 341-344

O, weary fa' the women fo'k,

For they winna let a body be!

JAMES HOGG, The Women Fo'k

There are some very pretty women who don't understand the law of the road with regard to handsome faces. Nature and custom agree in conceding to all males the right of at least two distinct looks at every comely female countenance, without any infraction of the rules of courtesy or the sentiment of respect. HOLMES, Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table, viii

I sometimes think women have a sixth sense, which tells them that others, whom they cannot see or hear, are in suffering. We draw our first breath in their arms, as we sigh away our last upon their faithful breasts!

HOLMES, Professor at the Breakfast-Table, xi

Nothing so true as what you once let fall,
"Most women have no characters at all.'
Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear,
And best distinguished by black, brown, or fair.

POPE, Moral Essays, Epistle ii, lines 1-4

If weak women went astray,

Their stars were more in fault than they.

MATTHEW PRIOR, Hans Carvel, lines 11, 12

Women are not

In their best fortunes strong.

SHAKESPEARE, Antony and Cleopatra, iii, 12[10]

The pleasing punishment that women bear.

SHAKESPEARE, Comedy of Errors, i, 1

Women are shrews, both short and tall.

SHAKESPEARE, King Henry IV, Part II, v,

3

Women's weapons, water-drops.

SHAKESPEARE, King Lear, ii, 4

I am ashamed that women are so simple
To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
When they are bound to serve, love, and obey.
Why are our bodies soft and weak and smooth,
Unapt to toil and trouble in the world,
But that our soft conditions and our hearts
Should well agree with our external parts?

SHAKESPEARE, Taming of the Shrew, v, 2

Women, not clothes, were loved
When this old flag was new.

R. H. STODDARD, When This Old Flag Was New, st. 9

Wonder. And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, That one small head could carry all he knew.

GOLDSMITH, The Deserted Village, st. 14

Gloucester. Ten days' wonder at the least.

Clarence. That's a day longer than a wonder lasts.
SHAKESPEARE, King Henry VI, Part III, iii, 2

Woo.- Time to dance is not to woo;

Wooing light makes fickle troth.

E. B. BROWNING, The Lady's Yes, st. 4

If fond love thy heart can gain,

I never broke a vow;

Nae maiden lays her skaith to me,
I never loved but you.

For you alone I ride the ring,
For you I wear the blue;

For you alone I strive to sing,

Oh, tell me how to woo.

GRAHAM OF GARTMORE, If Doughty Deeds My

Lady Please, st. 3

What is the greatest bliss

That the tongue o' man can name?

'T is to woo a bonnie lassie

When the kye comes hame!

JAMES HOGG, When the Kye Comes Hame, st. 1

1

Men are April when they woo, December when they wed: maids are May when they are maids, but the sky changes when they are wives.

SHAKESPEARE, As You Like It, iv, 1

We cannot fight for love, as men may do;
We should be wooed, and were not made to woo."
SHAKESPEARE, Midsummer-Night's Dream, ii, 1

Woodcock. So strives the woodcock with the gin.3

Woodland.

SHAKESPEARE, King Henry VI, Part III, i, 4

Now rings the woodland loud and long,
The distance takes a lovelier hue,
And drowned in yonder living blue
The lark becomes a sightless song.

TENNYSON, In Memoriam, cxv, st. 2

Woodman.- Woodman, spare that tree!

Touch not a single bough!

In youth it sheltered me,
And I'll protect it now.

G. P. MORRIS, Woodman Spare That Tree, st. 1

Woodpecker. The woodpecker tapping the hollow beech

tree.

T. MOORE, Ballad Stanzas, st. 2

Woods. There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep sea, and music in its roar.

BYRON, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto iv, st. 178

Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forespent, forespent.

Into the woods my Master came,
Forespent with love and shame.

1 Women are angels, wooing. SHAKESPEARE, Troilus and Cressida, i, 2

2 Her virtue. and the conscience of her worth,

That would be wooed, and not unsought be won.

3 Now is the woodcock near the gin. SHAKESPEARE, Twelfth Night, ii, 5

MILTON, Paradise Lost, VIII, lines 502, 503

CAMPBELL, The Beech-Tree's Petition, st. I

4 Spare, woodman, spare the beechen tree.

But the olives they were not blind to Him,
The little grey leaves were kind to Him:
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him

When into the woods he came.

LANIER, A Ballad of Trees and the Master, st. 1

Fresh woods and pastures new.

Wooer.

MILTON, Lycidas, line 193

Last May a braw wooer cam' down the lang glen,
And sair wi' his love he did deave [deafen] me;
I said there was naething I hated like men,—
The deuce gae wi'm to believe me!

BURNS, Last May a Braw Wooer, st. 1

The wooer who can flatter most will bear away the belle.
G. W. THORNBURY, The Jester's Sermon

Wooing. Never wedding, ever wooing,

Still a love-lorn heart pursuing,

Read you not the wrong you're doing
In my cheek's pale hue?

All my life with sorrow strewing,

Wed, or cease to woo.

CAMPBELL, The Maid's Remonstrance, st. I

If I am not worth the wooing, I surely am not worth the winning.

LONGFELLOW, Courtship of Miles Standish, iii, line 111

Word. A word and a blow.1

Word-catcher.

SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, iii, 1

Each wight, who reads not, and but scans and spells,

Each word-catcher, that lives on syllables,
Ev'n such small critics some regard may claim,
Preserved in Milton's or in Shakespeare's name.
Pretty! in amber to observe the forms

Of hairs, or straws, or dirt, or grubs, or worms!
The things, we know, are neither rich nor rare,
But wonder how the devil they got there.

Words.

POPE, Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, lines 165–172
He could coin, or counterfeit

New words, with little or no wit;
Words so debased and hard, no stone

Was hard enough to touch them on;

And when with hasty noise he spoke 'em,

The ignorant for current took 'em.

BUTLER, Hudibras, I, i, lines 109-114

1All words came first, and after blows.

CHARLES LLOYD, Speech of Courtney