Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Brain
The times have been,
That when the brains were out the man would die,
And there an end.
Shakespeare.—Macbeth, Act III. Scene 4. (Macbeth, at sight of Banquo’s ghost.)
O rare
The headpiece, if but brains were there.
Phædrus.—Book I. Fable 7.
Thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain,
Unmix’d with baser matter.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 5. (Hamlet, obedient to his father’s command.)
An excellent scholar: One that hath a head fill’d
with calves’ brains without any sage in them.
Webster.—The White Devil, Act I. Scene 1.
Cudgel thy brains no more about it; for your dull ass will not mend his pace with beating.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act V. Scene 1. (First Clown to the second Clown.)