Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Desert
Use every man after his desert, and who should ’scape whipping!
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2. (The Prince to Polonius.)
O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it to lock it in the wards of covert bosom.
Shakespeare.—Measure for Measure, Act V. Scene 1. (The Duke to Angelo.)