[541] Elements of Criticism, 6th ed., vol. i. p. 477.
[542] Ben Jonson's Elegy on the Marchioness of Winchester:
What gentle ghost besprent with April dew,
Hails me so solemnly to yonder yew?
And beck'ning woos me?—Warton.
[543] Johnson gives two meanings for "to gore,"—"to stab," "to pierce;" and "to pierce with a horn." The second, or special signification, has since superseded the general sense in popular usage, though, as with many other words, a sense which has become obsolete in conversation is occasionally revived in books. Formerly, the general sense of "to pierce," without reference to the mode of piercing, was the predominant meaning, and Milton, Par. Lost, vi. 386, employed the word to denote the gaps made in the ranks of a defeated army:
the battle swerved
With many an inroad gored.
[544] The third Elegy of Crashaw:
And I, what is my crime, I cannot tell,
Unless it be a crime t' have loved too well.—Steevens.
[545] Shakespeare, Henry VIII. Act iii. Sc. 2:
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;
By that sin fell the angels.
[546] Dryden, To the Duchess of Ormond: