Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Stars
Stars receive their lustre from the sun.
Fenton.—To the Queen.
The stars in order twinkle in the skies,
And fall in silence, and in silence rise.
Broome.—Paraphrase on Job.
Look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold.
There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins.
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
Shakespeare.—Merchant of Venice, Act V. Scene 1. (Lorenzo, alone.)
This majestical roof, fretted with golden fire.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act II. Scene 2. (To Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.)
Those gold candles fix’d in heaven’s air.
Shakespeare.—Sonnet 21.
The stars of the night
Will lend thee their light,
Like tapers clear without number!
Herrick’s Hesp.—Night Piece, No. 42.
Give me my Romeo: and, when he shall die,
Take him and cut him out in little stars,
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night,
And pay no worship to the garish sun.
Shakespeare.—Romeo and Juliet, Act III. Scene 2. (Juliet alone.)
But who can count the stars of heaven?
Who sing their influence on this lower world?
Thomson.—Winter.
For ever singing as they shine,
The hand that made us is divine.
Addison.—An Ode.
The stars in their courses fought against Sisera.
Judges, Chap. v. Ver. 20.
The stars have fought their battles leagued with man.
Dr. Young.—Night IX. Line 1285.
Let all the number of the stars give light
To thy fair way!
Shakespeare.—Antony and Cleopatra, Act III. Scene 2. (Lepidus to Octavius.)
Witness, you ever-burning lights above!
Shakespeare.—Othello, Act III. Scene 3. (Iago swearing eternal service to the wrong’d Othello.)
You meaner beauties of the night,
That poorly satisfie our eies
More by your number than your light;
You common people of the skies,
What are you when the moon shall rise?
Sir Henry Wotton.—“You meaner Beauties,” 2 Percy Rel. 334.
Numerous as glittering gems of morning dew,
Or sparks from populous cities in a blaze,
And set the bosom of old night on fire.
Dr. Young.—Night IX. Line 1280.
At whose sight, like the sun,
All others with diminish’d lustre shone.
Yonge’s Cicero.—Tusculan Disp. Book III. Div. 18.
At whose sight, all the stars
Hide their diminish’d heads!
Milton.—Par. Lost, Book IV. Line 34.
Heaven looks down on earth with all her eyes.
Dr. Young.—Night VII. Line 1094.
Mine is the night, with all her stars.
Dr. Young.—Paraphrase on Job, Line 147.
The moon look’d out with all her stars.
Cunningham.—Ballad Poetry: Annie of Lochroyan.
What are ye orbs?
The words of God? the Scriptures of the skies?
Bailey.—Festus, Scene Everywhere.