In spite of distance, seas, or weather;
And shut up in a single action
What cost whole years in its transaction.
So, ladies at a play or rout,
Can flirt the universe about,
Whose geographical account
Is drawn and pictured on the mount:
Yet when they please, contract the plan,
And shut the world up in a fan.
Shakespeare: An Epistle to Mr. Garrick. 1760, ll. 37-54.