Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Turnspit
But as a dog that turns the spit
Bestirs himself, and plies his feet
To climb the wheel, but all in vain,
His own weight brings him down again,
And still he’s in the self-same place
Where at his setting out he was.
Butler.—Hudibras, Part II. Canto III. Line 209.