Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Melancholy
I am as melancholy as a gib cat.
Shakespeare.—King Henry IV., Part I. Act I. Scene 2.
As melancholy as an unbraced drum.
Mrs. Centlivre.—The Wonder, Act II. Scene 1.
Now, my young guest! methinks you are allycholly; I pray you, why is it?
Shakespeare.—Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV. Scene 2. (The Host to Julia in Boy’s clothes.)
I can suck melancholy out of a song.
Shakespeare.—As You Like It, Act II. Scene 5. (Jacques to Amiens.)
Pale melancholy sat retired.
Collins.—The Passions, Line 57.
Here rests his head upon the lap of earth,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown;
Fair science frown’d not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark’d him for her own.
Gray.—Elegy, Verse 30.