Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Tongue
They say the tongues of dying men
Enforce attention, like deep harmony;
When words are scarce, they’re seldom spent in vain:
For they breathe truth that breathe their words in pain.
Shakespeare.—King Richard II., Act II. Scene 1. (Gaunt to York.)
And makes his tongue the midwife of his mind.
Carey.—Chrononhotonthologos, Scene 1.
The tongue the ambassador of the heart.
Lyly.—Euphues, Page 406. (Reprint 1868.)
With blandish’d parleys, feminine assaults,
Tongue batteries, she surceased not.
Milton.—Samson Agonistes.
The artillery of words.
Swift.—Ode to Sancroft.
Wine, that makes cowards brave, the dying strong,
Is a poor cordial ’gainst a woman’s tongue.
Somerville.—The Wife, Line 27.
And, though you duck them ne’er so long,
Not one salt drop e’er wets their tongue:
’Tis hence they scandal have at will,
And that this member ne’er lies still.
Gay.—The Mad Dog, last four Lines.
1.Her clam’rous tongue
Strikes pity deaf.
2.Then only hear her eyes.
Dryden.—Don Sebastian, Act II. Scene 1.
Oh, learn to read what silent love hath writ!
To hear with eyes belongs to love’s fine wit.
Shakespeare.—Sonnet XXIII. last Lines.
Think you a little din can daunt mine ears?
Have I not in my time heard lions roar?
Have I not heard the sea, puff’d up with wind,
Rage like an angry boar, chafed with sweat?
Have I not heard great ordnance in the field,
And heaven’s artillery thunder in the skies?
Have I not in a pitched battle heard
Loud ’larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets clang?
And do you tell me of a woman’s tongue?
Shakespeare.—Taming of the Shrew, Act I. Scene 2. (Petruchio to Grumio.)
Is there a tongue, like Delia’s o’er her cup,
That runs for ages without winding up?
Dr. Young.—Satire I. Line 281.
The tongue is a world of iniquity.
St. James, Chap. iii. Ver. 6.
Tongues I’ll hang on every tree,
That shall civil sayings show.
Shakespeare.—As You Like It, Act III. Scene 2. (Celia reading a paper.)
Tongues that syllable men’s names.
Milton.—Comus, Line 208.
A maiden hath no tongue but thought.
Shakespeare.—Merchant of Venice, Act III. Scene 2. (Portia to Bassanio.)
My dear Propria quæ maribus hold your tongue, or I’ll depose you.
Colley Cibber.—The Rival Fools, Act I. Scene 1.
Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
For it hath cow’d my better part of man!
And be these juggling fiends no more believed,
That palter with us in a double sense;
That keep the word of promise to our ear,
And break it to our hope.
Shakespeare.—Macbeth, Act V. Scene 7. (Macbeth to Macduff.)