| "Jam jam non domus accipiet te laeta, neque uxor Optima nee dulces occurrent oscula nati Praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent;" |
and Horace, Epod. ii. 39:
| "Quod si pudica mulier in partem juvet Domum atque dulces liberos * * * * * * * Sacrum vetustis exstruat lignis focum Lassi sub adventum viri," etc. |
Mitford quotes Thomson, Winter, 311:
| "In vain for him the officious wife prepares The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm; In vain his little children, peeping out Into the mingling storm, demand their sire With tears of artless innocence." |
Wakefield cites The Idler, 103: "There are few things, not purely evil, of which we can say without some emotion of uneasiness, this is the last."
[22.] Ply her evening care. Mitford says, "To ply a care is an expression that is not proper to our language, and was probably formed for the rhyme share." Hales remarks: "This is probably the kind of phrase which led Wordsworth to pronounce the language of the Elegy unintelligible. Compare his own
| 'And she I cherished turned her wheel Beside an English fire.'" |
[23.] No children run, etc. Hales quotes Burns, Cotter's Saturday Night, 21:
| "Th' expectant wee-things, toddlin, stacher through To meet their Dad, wi' flichterin noise an' glee." |