Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Face
In her face excuse came prologue, and apology too prompt.
Milton.—Paradise Lost, Book IX. Line 853.
It is not night when I do see your face.
Shakespeare.—Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II. Scene 2. (Helena to Demetrius.)
Your face, my thane, is as a book, where men may read strange matters.
Shakespeare.—Macbeth, Act I. Scene 5. (Lady Macbeth to her husband.)
Each man wears three nations in his face.
Dryden.—Prol. to Cæsar Borgia.
Can’t I another’s face commend,
And to her virtues prove a friend,
But instantly your forehead lours,
As if her merit lessen’d yours?
Edward Moore.—The Farmer, and Spaniel, and Cat, Line 5.
O, that deceit should dwell in such a gorgeous palace!
Shakespeare.—Romeo and Juliet, Act III. Scene 2. (Juliet on hearing that Romeo had slain Tybalt.)
Was ever book containing such vile matter
So fairly bound?
Shakespeare.—Romeo and Juliet, Act III. Scene 2. (Juliet on hearing that Romeo had slain Tybalt.)
O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
Shakespeare.—Merchant of Venice, Act I. Scene 3. (Antonio aside to Bassanio.)
A face without a heart.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act IV. Scene 7. (The King to Laertes.)
He lives to build, not boast a generous race;
No tenth transmitter of a foolish face.
Savage.—The Bastard, Line 7.
Her face was like an April morn,
Clad in a wintry cloud;
And clay-cold was her lily hand,
That held her sable shroud.
Mallet.—Margaret’s Ghost, 3 Percy Rel. 392.
Yet no cold vot’ress of the cloister she,
Warm her devotion, warm her charity;
The face the index of a feeling mind,
And her whole conduct rational and kind.
Crabbe.—Tales of the Hall, Book XVI.
’Tis not thy face, though that by nature’s made
An index to thy soul, though there display’d
We see thy mind at large, and through thy skin
Peeps out that courtesy which dwells within.
Churchill.—The Dedication.
Oh! could you view the melody
Of every grace,
And music of her face,
You’d drop a tear.
Lovelace.—(Orpheus mourning for his wife.)
Who cannot read that book?
Crabbe.—The Borough, Letter 14.
There’s no art
To find the mind’s construction in the face;
He was a gentleman on whom I built
An absolute trust.
Shakespeare.—Macbeth, Act I. Scene 4. (Duncan alluding to Cawdor, whom he had executed.)
Open, candid, and generous, his heart was the constant companion of his hand, and his tongue the artless index of his mind.
George Canning.—Microcosm, No. XIX. 19th March, 1797.
O, what may man within him hide,
Though angel on the outward side.
Shakespeare.—Measure for Measure, Act III. Scene 2. (The Duke on Angelo.)
So nature has decreed: so oft we see
Men passing fair, in outward lineaments
Elaborate; less, inwardly, exact.
J. Phillips.—Cider, Book I.
Eusthenes judged men by their features.
Theocritus.—Buckley, Page 160.
It strikes the eye more than the mind.
Seneca.—Epistle 5.
His face was of that doubtful kind,
That wins the eye but not the mind.
Scott.—Rokeby, Canto V. Stanza 16.
No more can you distinguish of a man
Than of his outward show; which, God he knows,
Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
Shakespeare.—King Richard III., Act III. Scene 1. (Richard to the Prince of Wales.)
Her face all red and white, like the inside of a shoulder of mutton.
Foote.—The Knights, Act I.
That same face of yours looks like the title-page to a whole volume of roguery.
Colley Cibber.—She Would and She Would Not, Act III.
To his eye
There was but one beloved face on earth,
And that was shining on him.
Byron.—The Dream, Sect. II.
All, all are gone, the old familiar faces.
Charles Lamb.—From one of his Letters.