Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Festivities
On such an occasion as this,
All time and nonsense scorning,
Nothing shall come amiss,
And we won’t go home till morning.
John B. Buckstone—Billy Taylor. Act I. Sc. 2.
Why should we break up
Our snug and pleasant party?
Time was made for slaves,
But never for us so hearty.
John B. Buckstone—Billy Taylor. Act I. Sc. 2.
As much valour is to be found in feasting as in fighting, and some of our city captains and carpet knights will make this good, and prove it.
Burton—Anatomy of Melancholy. Pt. I. Sec. II. Memb. 2. Subsect. 2.
Let us have wine and woman, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda-water the day after.
Byron—Don Juan. Canto II. St. 178.
There was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium’s capital had gather’d then
Her Beauty and her Chivalry, and bright
The lamps shone o’er fair women and brave men.
Byron—Childe Harold. Canto III. St. 21.
The music, and the banquet, and the wine—
The garlands, the rose odors, and the flowers,
The sparkling eyes, and flashing ornaments—
The white arms and the raven hair—the braids,
And bracelets; swan-like bosoms, and the necklace,
An India in itself, yet dazzling not.
Byron—Marino Faliero. Act IV. Sc. 1. L. 51.
Then I commended mirth, because a man hath no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be merry.
Ecclesiastes. VIII. 15. See also Luke. XII. 19.
Neque pauciores tribus, neque plures novem.
Not fewer than three nor more than nine.
Quoted by Erasmus—Fam. Coll. The number for a dinner, according to a proverb.
The service was of great array,
That they were served with that day.
Thus they ate, and made them glad,
With such service as they had—
When they had dined, as I you say,
Lordis and ladies yede to play;
Some to tables and some to chess,
With other games more and less.
The Life of Ipomydon. Harleian Library. (British Museum.) MS. No. 2,252.
Non ampliter, sed munditer convivium; plus sails quam sumptus.
A feast not profuse but elegant; more of salt [refinement] than of expense.
Quoted by Montaigne—Essays. Bk. III. Ch. IX. From an ancient poet, cited by Nonnius Marcellus. XI. 19. Also from Cornelius Nepos—Life of Atticus. Ch. XIII.
This night I hold an old accustom’d feast,
Whereto I have invited many a guest,
Such as I love; and you among the store,
One more, most welcome, makes my number more.
Romeo and Juliet. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 20.
We keep the day. With festal cheer,
With books and music, surely we
Will drink to him, whate’er he be,
And sing the songs he loved to hear.
Tennyson—In Memoriam. CVII.
Oh, leave the gay and festive scenes,
The halls of dazzling light.
H. S. Van Dyke—The Light Guitar.
Feast, and your halls are crowded;
Fast, and the world goes by.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox—Solitude.