Woolen. It was Mrs. Oldfield, the actress, who revolted at the idea of being shrouded in woolen. She insisted on being arrayed in chintz trimmed with Brussels lace, and on being well rouged to hide the pallor of death. Pope calls her “Narcissa.”
“Odious! In woolen! ’Twould a saint provoke!”
Were the last words that poor Narcissa spoke.
“No, let a charming chintz and Brussels lace
Wrap my cold limbs and shade my lifeless face;
One would not, sure, be frightful when one’s dead!
And, Betty, give this cheek a little red.”
Pope, Moral Essays, i. (1731).
Wopsle (Mr.), parish clerk. He had a Roman nose, a large, shining, bald forehead, and a deep voice, of which he was very proud. “If the Church had been thrown open,” i.e., free to competition, Mr. Wopsle would have chosen the pulpit. As it was, he only punished the “Amens” and gave out the psalms; but his face always indicated the inward thought of “Look at this and look at that,” meaning the gent in the reading-desk. He turned actor in a small metropolitan theatre.--C. Dickens, Great Expectations (1860).
Work (Endless), Penelopê’s web; Vortigern’s Tower; washing the blackamoor white; etc.