Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Lily
Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
St. Matthew, Chap. vi. Verses 28, 29.
Observe the rising lily’s snowy grace,
Observe the various vegetable race:
They neither toil nor spin, but careless grow,
Yet see how warm they blush! how bright they glow!
What regal vestments can with them compare!
What King so shining! or what Queen so fair!
Thomson.—Paraphrase on St. Matthew.
And every rose and lily, there did stand
Better attir’d by Nature’s hand.
Cowley.—The Garden.
Yet neither spins, he cards, nor frets,
But to her mother nature all her care she lets.
Spenser.—Fairy Queen, Book II. Canto I.
Like the lily
That once was mistress of the field and flourish’d
I’ll hang my head and perish.
Shakespeare.—King Henry VIII., Act III. Scene 1. (Queen Catherine to Wolsey.)