Your face, my Thane. Macbeth, I. 5.
Tyrrel and Forrest. In King Richard III.
[189]. Thick and slab. Macbeth, IV. 1.
Snatched a [wild and] fearful joy. Gray’s Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College.
The great pestilence of Florence. In 1348. The plague forms but the artificial framework of the tales; to escape it certain Florentines retire to a country house and, in its garden, they tell the tales that form the book.
The course of true love never did run even [smooth.] A Midsummer Night’s Dream, I. 1.
The age of chivalry. ‘The age of chivalry is gone ... and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.’ Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolution. Select Works, ed. Payne, II. 89.
The gentle Surrey. Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey (c. 1517–1547) whose Songs and Sonnets are in Tottel’s Miscellany (1557).
Sir John Suckling, 1609–42. Besides writing A ballad upon a wedding Sir John was the best player at bowls in the country and he ‘invented’ cribbage.
Who prized black eyes. The Session of the Poets, Ver. 20.