Familiar Quotations / A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to / Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature

by Unknown

Marry, because you have drank with the King,

And the King hath so graciously pledged you,

You shall no more be called shoemakers;

But you and yours, to the world's end,

Shall be called the trade of the gentle craft.

Gentlemen of the French guard, fire first.

Lord C. Hay at the battle of Fontenoy, 1745. To which the Comte d'Auteroches replied, "Sir, we never fire first; please to fire yourselves."—Fournier: L'Esprit dans l'histoire.

Good as a play.

An exclamation of Charles II. when in Parliament attending the discussion of Lord Ross's Divorce Bill.

The king remained in the House of Peers while his speech was taken into consideration,—a common practice with him; for the debates amused his sated mind, and were sometimes, he used to say, as good as a comedy.—Macaulay: Review of the Life and Writings of Sir William Temple.