"Feign" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... thy wonted arts, And arts of every woman false like thee, To break all faith, all vows, deceive, betray, Then as repentant to submit, beseech, And reconcilement move with feign'd remorse, Confess and promise wonders in her change; Not truly penitent, but chief to try Her husband, how far urg'd his patience bears, His virtue or weakness which way to assail: Then with more cautious and instructed skill Again transgresses, ...
— The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, In Nine Volumes - Volume the Third: The Rambler, Vol. II • Samuel Johnson
... sour-visaged soldiers called me Jonah, and I did well to escape ducking in a horse-pond. Soft, here be some of them coming. Yestere'en I committed sacrilege in a knapsack, and stole a small Bible from amid great plunder for my salvation. Now will I feign to read it, and I doubt not the sin will be pardoned, for self-preservation is the second law of nature, as I have generally observed fornication ...
— Cromwell • Alfred B. Richards
... your friend displayed," said Berkley, "to feign utter unconsciousness of the green tables, and see nothing but ruins ...
— Lippincott's Magazine. Vol. XII, No. 33. December, 1873. • Various
... me, cruel one, what makes me so sad, and what will kill me? Is it not malicious to feign ignorance of what you have done to me? The gentleman whose conversation made you pass me ...
— The Bores • Moliere
... there are schools of physical culture which are much better adapted to the development of health and grace, and much less to the development of vile passions and depraved natures. What I have said before will be no surprise to those who waltz, though, of course, they will feign great surprise, ignorance, ...
— From the Ball-Room to Hell • T. A. Faulkner
... you act unjustly therein. You feign false grounds for discord, that you may live with her when you have got rid of this witness {of your actions}; your wife has perceived it too; for what other reason had she for ...
— The Comedies of Terence - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Notes • Publius Terentius Afer, (AKA) Terence
... fed and nursed it for several weeks. It never made a sound, or showed the least uneasiness or sign of suffering, that I was aware of, in all that time. By day it slept curled up in its nest. If disturbed, it did not "play possum," that is, did not feign sleep or death, but opened its mouth and grinned up at you in a sort of comical, idiotic way. At night it hobbled about the study, and ate the meat and cake I had placed for it. Sometimes by day it would come out of the corner and eat food under the ...
— Squirrels and Other Fur-Bearers • John Burroughs
... terrier, had not only betrayed, but emphasised, the fact that the sailor's arrival was very much to our taste. Clearly, if we did not wish to pay through the nose for what we purchased, our only course was to feign disappointment ...
— Jonah and Co. • Dornford Yates
... you think, madame, of a woman who should take a fancy to some poor and timid child full of the noble superstitions which the grown man calls 'illusions;' and using all the charms of woman's coquetry, all her most delicate ingenuity, should feign a mother's love to lead that child astray? Her fondest promises, the card-castles which raised his wonder, cost her nothing; she leads him on, tightens her hold upon him, sometimes coaxing, sometimes scolding him for his want of confidence, ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac
... civilised place, whence I might find the means of reaching Italy. I waited for an occasion when Zappa should have gone on one of the piratical expeditions he was in the habit of taking, and when, according to custom, he would have compelled me to accompany him. To avoid this I had planned to feign illness, and, as soon as I saw the preparations making for embarking, I pretended to be seized with a dangerous sickness. He expressed great regret, and so convinced me that he regarded me with affection, ...
— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston
... Come to my breast, for by its hopes thou look'st Lovelily dreadful, and the fate of Venice Seems on thy sword already. Oh, my Mars! The poets that first feign'd a god of war, Sure prophesied ...
— Venice Preserved - A Tragedy • Thomas Otway
... hear it. But on other terms?—no. If you will not rise to us, we cannot stoop to you. The living lord may assume courtesy, the living philosopher explain his thought to you with considerate pain; but here we neither feign nor interpret; you must rise to the level of our thoughts if you would be gladdened by them, and share our feelings, if you would ...
— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various
... we proceeded to the poop together, the chief mate expressing his surprise that Marcel should have called me instead of him. Of course I had a very shrewd idea as to the reason, but it was my cue to feign ignorance, and I ...
— A Middy of the Slave Squadron - A West African Story • Harry Collingwood
... evade the vigilance of his guards, and to make his way from Hyrcania towards the frontiers of his own kingdom; but each time he was pursued and caught without effecting his purpose. The Parthian monarch was no doubt vexed at his pertinacity, and on the second occasion thought it prudent to feign, if he did not even really feel, offence: he banished his ungrateful brother-in-law from his presence, but otherwise visited his crime with no severer penalty than ridicule. Choosing to see in his ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 6. (of 7): Parthia • George Rawlinson
... rescued. If not, and I own that I have not much hope of it, we could at least go down to Lima some time or other. I can talk Spanish now very fairly, and we shall have such a lot of adventures to tell that, even if they do not take us for Spanish sailors, as we can try to feign, they will not be likely to put us to death. They would do so if we were taken in arms as buccaneers; but, coming in peaceably, we might be kindly treated. At any rate, if we get on well with the Indians we shall have ...
— Under Drake's Flag - A Tale of the Spanish Main • G. A. Henty
... youths approach their sweethearts, one can see that these young ladies hold their lovers within strict bounds and cause themselves to be treated by them with the greatest respect. I have not seen looseness and impudence, even among prostitutes. Many of the girls feign resistance, and desire to be conquered by a brave arm. This is the way, they say, among the beautiful sex in Filipinas. In Manila no woman makes the least sign or even calls out to a man on the street, or from the windows, as happens in ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 - Volume 40 of 55 • Francisco Colin
... that it may be a Lawful one; the Devil told Esau, You'll dye if you don't sell your Birthright; the Devil told Aaron, You'll pull all the people about your ears, if you do not countenance their superstitions; and then they comply'd immediately. Yea, sometimes if the Devil do but Feign a Necessity, he does thereby Gain the Hearts of Men; he did but feign a Need, when he told Saul, the Cattel must be spared, and the sacrifice must be precipitated, & he does but feign a Need, when he tells many a man, if you do no servile work on the Sabbath-day, ...
— The Wonders of the Invisible World • Cotton Mather
... pushed aside his curtain. Such an unusual method of communication could not fail to bring him to the window with a rush. When he saw me, he trembled like a guilty thing, his countenance fell, and, no longer able to feign absence, he unlocked his door and let me ...
— A Brace Of Boys - 1867, From "Little Brother" • Fitz Hugh Ludlow
... King consented, yet found not in it the help he hoped; for, on hearing that he was to go to Montorio, leaving his Blanchefleur at home to tend her mother, who, like Master Gaidon, was commanded to feign herself sick, Fleur became so frantic with grief that, to calm his transports, the King and Queen were fain to promise that, in two weeks' time, Blanchefleur should ...
— Fleur and Blanchefleur • Mrs. Leighton
... these base favorites I have chastised. Let the magician be brought to me presently." The grand vizier immediately sent for her, and as soon as she was brought Schaibar said, at the time he fetched a stroke at her with his iron bar: "Take the reward of thy pernicious counsel, and learn to feign sickness again." ...
— The Blue Fairy Book • Various
... wife. Foster had of late years made a precarious livelihood by occasional engagement on the stages, and a few weeks since had strayed to this city. Being well known to Sefton, the latter had promised him ample provision if he would feign illness, induce my wife to visit him from motives of charity, and subsequently, when called upon for testimony, allege that her visits were the renewal of an old licentious intimacy. To these disgraceful propositions Foster's degradation ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I. February, 1862, No. II. - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... everywhere! The babe that sees with pain The look of feign'd displeasure on the face Of doting mother; and the mother who Lays down the babe to rest—no more to wake; The youth and maiden fair who tempt the stream Of love that never brings them to the goal Their fancy pictured; hearts that droop and break: Upon ...
— The Death of Saul and other Eisteddfod Prize Poems and Miscellaneous Verses • J. C. Manning
... the honor of a noble benefactor—the happiness of my dear mistress and her children. I owe them everything in life, my lord; and would lay it down for any one of them. What brings you here to disturb this quiet household? What keeps you lingering month after month in the country? What makes you feign illness, and invent pretexts for delay? Is it to win my poor patron's money? Be generous, my lord, and spare his weakness for the sake of his wife and children. Is it to practise upon the simple heart of a virtuous lady? You might as well storm the ...
— The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. • W. M. Thackeray
... we choose to be so, more wise. His art is so great that we almost forget its presence,—almost forget that the Macbeth and Othello we have seen and heard were Shakspeare's, and that he MADE them; we can scarce conceive how he could feign as if felt, and retain and reproduce such a play of emotions and passions from the position of spectator, his own soul remaining, with its sovereign reason, and all its powers natural and acquired, far, far above all its creations,—a spirit ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 3, No. 20, June, 1859 • Various
... should see there the Duke de Nemours, and that she could not conceal from her husband the disorder she should be in upon seeing him, and being sensible also that the mere presence of that Prince would justify him in her eyes and destroy all her resolutions, thought proper to feign herself ill. The Court was too busy to give attention to her conduct, or to enquire whether her illness was real or counterfeit; her husband alone was able to come at the truth of the matter, but she was not ...
— The Princess of Cleves • Madame de La Fayette
... frontless woman, who, buoyed up by her own rage and sense of wrong, faced him, and did not cower. She, the faithless governess, had presented to her pupil this convict's son in another name; she owned it—she had trepanned into the snares of so vile a fortune-hunter an ignorant child: she might feign amaze—act remorse—she must have been the man's accomplice. Stung, amidst all the bewilderment of her anguish, by this charge, which, at least, she did not deserve, Arabella tore from her bosom Jasper's recent letters to herself—letters all devotion and passion—placed ...
— What Will He Do With It, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... may (as all men do) speak boldlier, better In their friends cause still, than in your own; But speak your utmost, yet you cannot feign, 274] I will stand by, and blush to witness it. Tell him, since I beheld him, I have lost The happiness of this life, food, and rest; A quiet bosome, and the state I went with. Tell him how he has humbled the proud, And made the living ...
— The Laws of Candy - Beaumont & Fletcher's Works (3 of 10) • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher
... Hair, &c. and shaving every Day, he was sufficiently disguis'd; all Things being now concerted with Theodora's Confident, Philetus was admitted to wait upon Theodora and Amaryllis, with a feign'd Message from a Lady of their Acquaintance at Rome, and was entertain'd with the utmost Respect and Grandeur, with occasion'd frequent Visits between Philetus and Theodora, and at length there ...
— Tractus de Hermaphrodites • Giles Jacob
... under an administration like that of Oude, whatever efforts the Resident may make to obtain it for them; and where one is satisfied, four become discontented; while the dishonest and idle portion of their brother soldiers, who have no real wrongs to complain of, and feign them only to get leave of absence, throw all the burthen of their duties upon them. Others again, by fraud and collusion with those whose influence they require to urge their claims, often obtain more than they have any ...
— A Journey through the Kingdom of Oude, Volumes I & II • William Sleeman
... acquaintance was M. de Bernires, a gentleman of high rank, great wealth, and zealous devotion. She wrote to him, explained the situation, and requested him to feign a marriage with her. His sense of honor recoiled: moreover, in the fulness of his zeal, he had made a vow of chastity, and an apparent breach of it would cause scandal. He consulted his spiritual director and a few intimate friends. All agreed that the glory of God was concerned, ...
— The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century • Francis Parkman
... monster Lag came up, and, as they lay on the ground under cloud of night, caused shoot them immediately, leaving their bodies thus all blood and gore. Nay, such was their audacious impiety, that he with the rest of his bon companions, persecutors, would over their drunken bowls feign themselves devils, and those whom, they supposed in hell, and then whip one another as a jest on that place of torment. When he could serve his master this way no longer, he wallowed in all manner of atheism, drunkenness, swearing and adultery, for which he was excommunicated ...
— Biographia Scoticana (Scots Worthies) • John Howie
... of it to the King; he reprimanded him in a fine fashion. "I gave you a condition so considerable," said he, "that the Queen, our mother, herself thought it exaggerated and dangerous in your hands. You have no liking for my children, although you feign a passionate affection for their father; the result of your misbehaviour will be that I shall grow cool to your line, and that your daughter, however beautiful and amiable she may be, ...
— The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, Complete • Madame La Marquise De Montespan
... be swarming with Solar Guardsmen once they discover I'm lost," said Astro. "Who are you and what are you holding me prisoner for?" The big cadet decided it would be better to feign ignorance of the existence of ...
— The Revolt on Venus • Carey Rockwell
... foolish, weak, and small, And fear to fall. If long he stay away, O frightful dream, wise Mother, What keeps me but that I, gone crazy, kiss some other!' 'The fault were his! But know, Sweet little Daughter sad, He did but feign to go; And never more Shall cross thy window-sill, Or pass beyond thy door, Save by thy will. He's present now in some dim place apart Of the ivory house wherewith thou mad'st him glad. Nay, this I whisper thee, Since none is near, Or, if one were, since only thou could'st ...
— The Unknown Eros • Coventry Patmore
... is much fonder of her than she is of him, for if she is wounded he will come to see what is the matter, whereas if he is hurt his base partner flies instantly off and seeks new wedlock, affording a fresh example of the superior fidelity of the male to the female sex. When they have young, they feign lameness, like the plover. I have several times been thus tricked by them. One soon, however, becomes an old bird oneself, and is not to be caught with such chaff any more. We look about for the young ones, clip off the top joint of one wing, and leave them; thus, in a few ...
— A First Year in Canterbury Settlement • Samuel Butler
... as I can to deliver myself from those fallacies which we are apt to put upon ourselves, by taking words for things. It helps not our ignorance to feign a knowledge where we have none, by making a noise with sounds, without clear and distinct significations. Names made at pleasure, neither alter the nature of things, nor make us understand them, but as they are signs of and stand for determined ideas. And I desire those who lay ...
— An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume I. - MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books I. and II. (of 4) • John Locke
... directly, and found him without the very least appearance of having moved, justice compels us to incline to the belief in Senor Stanley's suggestion—that he could scarcely have had sufficient time to rouse, depart, do murder, and feign sleep during Pedro ...
— The Vale of Cedars • Grace Aguilar
... by war, long baffled by the force Of fate, as fortune and their hopes decline, The Danaan leaders build a monstrous horse, Huge as a hill, by Pallas' craft divine, And cleft fir-timbers in the ribs entwine. They feign it vowed for their return, so goes The tale, and deep within the sides of pine And caverns of the womb by stealth enclose Armed men, a chosen band, drawn as ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil - Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor • Virgil
... if it suits you," cried the Queen gaily. "Only a few powerful drops from elsewhere have probably fallen into the potion. But how stupidly artless you can look when you feign ignorance, Luis! In this case, however, you need not let your breathing be oppressed by the mask. I bow to your masculine secrecy—but why did my worldly-wise brother mingle a petticoat in this delicate business if he ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... laugh and joke together and the mother tries to be Brave and sunny in her prison, and she thinks she's fooling me; And I do my bravest smiling and I feign a merry air In the hope she won't discover that I'm burdened down with care. But it's only empty laughter, and there's nothing in the grin When you're talking through the window of the home ...
— A Heap o' Livin' • Edgar A. Guest
... of marble bore a silken sky, While cords of purple and fine linen tie In silver rings, the azure canopy. Distinct with diamond stars the blue was seen, And earth and seas were feign'd in emerald green; A globe of gold, ray'd with a pointed crown, Form'd in the midst ...
— Calamities and Quarrels of Authors • Isaac D'Israeli
... highlands, Where the masters of the bow Skill to feign a flight, and, fleeing, Hurl their darts and pierce the foe; There the Tigris and Euphrates At one source[O] their waters blend, Soon to draw apart, and plainward Each its separate way to wend. When once more their waters mingle ...
— The Consolation of Philosophy • Boethius
... he do? If he greeted her, might she not turn her back upon him or utter some insulting remark? If he did not approach her, what would people think? He was so ill at ease that at one time he thought he should feign indisposition and ...
— Bel Ami • Henri Rene Guy de Maupassant
... to my song incline, The last that shall assail thine ear. None other cares my strains to hear, And scarce thou feign'st thyself therewith delighted! Nor know I well if I am loved or slighted; But this I know, thou radiant one and sweet, That, loved or spurned, I die before thy feet! Yea, I will yield this life of mine In every deed, if cause appear, Without another ...
— The World's Best Poetry, Volume 3 - Sorrow and Consolation • Various
... going to sally out, wearing the fireman's uniform and carrying you in my arms. You are to feign unconsciousness. The idea is that you have been badly hurt, and I am carrying you out of reach of the fire. I have some hope that in my fireman's garb and with my blackened face they will let ...
— Two Daring Young Patriots - or, Outwitting the Huns • W. P. Shervill
... happy, both of them, thank God, and as proud of their sons as if either had ever done anything to deserve it. Neither of them has much to say of Margarita, I have noticed, though both fondle her children, a little absently, perhaps, and feign to wonder what it is we see in Peggy that blinds us to the excellencies of the others—stouter children and more respectful, ...
— Margarita's Soul - The Romantic Recollections of a Man of Fifty • Ingraham Lovell
... a poor man on the road takes off his hat and asks charity, the horse immediately stands still, and will not stir till something is given to the petitioner; and as I had no money about me, I was obliged to feign giving something, in ...
— The Book of Three Hundred Anecdotes - Historical, Literary, and Humorous—A New Selection • Various
... of your ministry an art of cheating and imposture; you have converted religion into a traffic of cupidity and avarice. You pretend to hold communications with spirits, and they give for oracles nothing but your wills. You feign to read the stars, and destiny decrees only your desires. You cause idols to speak, and the gods are but the instruments of your passions. You have invented sacrifices and libations, to collect for your own profit the milk of flocks, and the ...
— The Ruins • C. F. [Constantin Francois de] Volney
... these debates overwhelm me." He tried to distract his thoughts from these subjects, and would feign to break the obsession, betake himself to Paris; but five minutes had not passed before his double returned ...
— En Route • J.-K. (Joris-Karl) Huysmans
... thick clothed with trees, the latter abounding with fruits and flowers, the whole watered by innumerable rivulets, and affording so pleasant an habitation that a finer or more delightful country fancy itself could not feign; yet he assures us, the Carthagenians, those great masters of maritime power and commerce, though they had discovered this admirable island, would never suffer it to be planted, but reserved it as a sanctuary to which they might fly, whenever the ruin of their ...
— Early Australian Voyages • John Pinkerton
... they still proceed, And feign forthwith a story To color o'er the murderous deed; Their conscience pricks them sorely. These saints of God e'en after death They slandered, and asserted The youths had with their latest breath Confessed and been ...
— The Hymns of Martin Luther • Martin Luther
... a Maid, must seldom come in her sight: But he that woos a Widow, must woo her Day and Night. He that woos a Maid, must feign, lye, and flatter: But he that woos a Widow, must down with his ...
— Hudibras • Samuel Butler
... father, knowing how strong was the Queen's desire to have a son, and seeing that God had not granted her one, told her that she herself was pregnant for a month; and she advised her to tell the King, and to publish it abroad, that she (the Queen) had been pregnant for a month, and to feign to be in that state, and said that after she (the Brahman woman) had been delivered she would secretly send the child to the palace by some confidant, upon which the Queen could announce that this boy was her own son. The advice seemed ...
— A Forgotten Empire: Vijayanagar; A Contribution to the History of India • Robert Sewell
... Scrooge in his accustomed voice, as near as he could feign it. "What do you mean by coming here ...
— Short Stories Old and New • Selected and Edited by C. Alphonso Smith
... that he had done well to feign ignorance of the sprain and to assume that Horrocleave had slipped, whereas in fact Horrocleave had put his foot through a piece of rotten wood. Everybody in the works, upon pain of death, would have to pretend that the employer had merely ...
— The Price of Love • Arnold Bennett
... while another man who never told a formal falsehood in his life may yet be himself one lie - heart and face, from top to bottom. This is the kind of lie which poisons intimacy. And, VICE VERSA, veracity to sentiment, truth in a relation, truth to your own heart and your friends, never to feign or falsify emotion - that is the truth which makes love possible ...
— Virginibus Puerisque • Robert Louis Stevenson
... swift as a bird, Ascends the neighboring beech; there whisks his brush, And perks his ears, and stamps, and cries aloud, With all the prettiness of feign'd alarm And anger ...
— The Essays of "George Eliot" - Complete • George Eliot
... stage, it is no longer possible for them to feign ignorance in order to avoid the trouble of thinking, and they are only touched, even by the most personal matters, to the extent that circumstances impose upon them the necessity of thinking or of acting with reference to the ...
— Poise: How to Attain It • D. Starke
... figure defined even under the rug she had drawn about her neck, the wind-blown little neck curls and the long fuller lock now plain against her fresh face, blown pale by the cool salt air that sang above us gently. I could no longer even feign an interest in any other woman in the world. So very unconsciously I chuckled to myself, ...
— The Lady and the Pirate - Being the Plain Tale of a Diligent Pirate and a Fair Captive • Emerson Hough
... proof of amity was now and then productive of altercation, Mr. Callythorpe, who was ha great patriot, had another and a nobler plea,—"Sir," he would say, putting his hand to his heart,—"sir, I'm an Englishman: I know not what it is to feign." Of a very different stamp was Sir Christopher Findlater. Little cared he for the subtleties of the human mind, and not much more for the disagreeable duties of "an Englishman." Honest and jovial, red in the cheeks, empty in ...
— The Disowned, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... that; but now that I have asked you, I am quite satisfied, for it seems impossible to mix the two things together. You can't flatter a person when you have agreed to tell him his faults; you can't feign a sentiment which is real. I knew I was right, though I could not argue it out; but for the future I sha'n't mind a bit when you say nasty things to me, for I shall feel they are a proof of friendship; and I shall find fault ...
— A Houseful of Girls • Mrs. George de Horne Vaizey
... that we were born to meet, That our hearts bear one common seal;— Think, Lady, think, how man's deceit Can seem to sigh and feign ...
— The Complete Poems of Sir Thomas Moore • Thomas Moore et al
... Which made the men with strongest anger rave. He then, most speedily, went down below, And found the box quite safe enough, I trow! He dragged it forth before their very eyes, And they thought best to feign complete surprise. The box secured, they bid the ship Adieu, Then with great joy their journey soon renew. By that conveyance they reach Montreal, Leave that by barges which had comfort small, And take the Ottawa, ...
— The Emigrant Mechanic and Other Tales In Verse - Together With Numerous Songs Upon Canadian Subjects • Thomas Cowherd
... out of the next one who happens in sight. Staten Island was a definite and convenient area, and when its population had been exterminated, the Indians could feel relieved from their obligation. Not long afterward an incident such as romancers love to feign actually took place; an Indian brave who, as a child years before, had seen his uncle robbed and slain, and had vowed revenge, now having become of age, or otherwise qualified himself for the enterprise, went upon the warpath, ...
— The History of the United States from 1492 to 1910, Volume 1 • Julian Hawthorne
... future, which never was, nor ever shall be; as when by seeing the image of the sun in water, we imagine the sun itself to be there; or by seeing swords, that there has been, or shall be, fighting, because it used to be so for the most part; or when from promises we feign the mind of the promiser to be such and such; or, lastly, when from any sign we vainly imagine something to be signified which is not. And errors of this sort are common to all things that have sense."—Computation or Logic, chap. v., ...
— A System Of Logic, Ratiocinative And Inductive • John Stuart Mill
... charity and compassion, but as a religions or propitiatory offering: for they are all considered to be armed by their apostle with a vicarious power of blessing or cursing; and as being in themselves men of God whom it might be dangerous to displease. They never condescend to feign disease or misery in order to excite feelings of compassion, but demand what they want with a bold front, as holy men who have a right to share liberally in the superfluities which God has given to the rest of the Hindoo ...
— Rambles and Recollections of an Indian Official • William Sleeman
... his commandments and doctrine, clothed righteously in his armour, and not in any feigned armour, as in a friar's coat or cowl. For the assaults of the devil be crafty to make us put our trust in such armour, he will feign himself to fly; but then we be most in jeopardy: for he can give us an after-clap when we least ween; that is, suddenly return unawares to us, and then he giveth us an after-clap that overthroweth us: this armour ...
— Sermons on the Card and Other Discourses • Hugh Latimer
... yet but had its subterfuges? One more wrestle, and he would have tamed her to his wish, wild falcon that she was. Then—pleasure and brave living! And she also should have her way. She should breathe into him the language of those great illusions he had found it of late so hard to feign with her; and they two would walk and rule a yielding world together. Action, passion, affairs—life explored and exploited—and at last—"que la mort me treuve plantant mes choulx—mais nonchalant d'elle!—et encore plus ...
— Marcella • Mrs. Humphry Ward
... I am sure of it now, for no one but a Jesuit could feign a swagger like that. Come, let's hang him ...
— Sir Ludar - A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess • Talbot Baines Reed
... Khalif and thou shalt do the like with the Lady Zubeideh, and we will take of them, in a twinkling, two hundred dinars and two pieces of silk." "As thou wilt," answered she; "but what thinkest thou to do?" And he said,"We will feign ourselves dead and this is the trick. I will die before thee and lay myself out, and do thou spread over me a kerchief of silk and loose [the muslin of] my turban over me and tie my toes and lay on my heart a knife, and a little salt.[FN35] Then let down thy ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne
... exercise of her mind and body, whilst she was discharging the duties of a daughter, wife, and mother, has allowed her constitution to retain its natural strength, and her nerves a healthy tone, is she, I say, to condescend, to use art, and feign a sickly delicacy, in order to secure her husband's affection? Weakness may excite tenderness, and gratify the arrogant pride of man; but the lordly caresses of a protector will not gratify a noble mind that pants for and deserves to be respected. ...
— A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Title: Vindication of the Rights of Women • Mary Wollstonecraft [Godwin]
... faces was allied in Lord John with a curious artlessness of disposition which made it impossible for him to feign a cordiality he did not feel. Once, at a concert at Buckingham Palace, he was seen to get up suddenly, turn his back on the Duchess of Sutherland, by whom he had been sitting, walk to the remotest part of the room, and sit down by the Duchess of Inverness. When questioned afterwards ...
— Collections and Recollections • George William Erskine Russell
... was alone in his own room he eagerly took it out. It was written on sugar paper, with the point of a sharpened coal, and contained this line—"Feign illness from ennui." ...
— The Regent's Daughter • Alexandre Dumas (Pere)
... night When I returned with water from the brook, I overheard the Villains—every word Like red-hot iron burnt into my heart. Said one, "It is agreed on. The blind Man Shall feign a sudden illness, and the Girl, Who on her journey must proceed alone, Under pretence of violence, be seized. She is," continued the detested Slave, "She is right willing—strange if she were not!— They say, Lord Clifford is a savage man; But, faith, to see him in his silken ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth - Volume 1 of 8 • Edited by William Knight
... absently, so well did he feign it, as if apparently on the verge of returning to a closer examination, ...
— Michael, Brother of Jerry • Jack London
... both, and great would have been his disgust and wrath. But the dignity of the speech, the simplicity of the description, impressed him with a belief that Baltic was speaking truly. The man was a rough sailor, and therefore not cunning enough to feign an emotion he did not feel, so, almost against his will, Brace was obliged to believe that he saw before him a Saul converted into a Paul. The change of Pagan Ben into Christian Baltic was little ...
— The Bishop's Secret • Fergus Hume
... as remember'd kisses after death, And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feign'd On lips that are for others; deep as love, Deep as first love, and wild with all regret; O Death in Life, the ...
— The Works of Edgar Allan Poe - Volume 5 (of 5) of the Raven Edition • Edgar Allan Poe
... and place?" she said, with a smile of sweet confusion and arch reproach. "And yet, Federico, best beloved, why should I feign indifference, or conceal that my ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 61, No. 379, May, 1847 • Various
... she feign happiness that her husband heard no change in her voice as she bade him welcome, and, having travelled far that day, he soon laid himself down on the couch and fell sound asleep. Then Psyche seized the lamp and snatched ...
— The Red Romance Book • Various
... more like to be feign'd; I pray you, keep it in. I heard you were saucy at my gates, and allow'd your approach rather to wonder at you than to hear you. If you be not mad, be gone; if you have reason, be brief; 't is not that time of moon with me to make one ...
— Twelfth Night; or, What You Will • William Shakespeare [Hudson edition]
... "as you move around among the apparently dead ones. Wolves are most treacherous brutes, and sometimes badly wounded ones will feign to be dead when very far from it. By doing this they hope to escape the extra bullet or fatal blow of the axe that would quickly finish them. Then when the hunters are off their guard, or night comes on, they hope to ...
— Three Boys in the Wild North Land • Egerton Ryerson Young
... negotiations. But Alencon was useless to England as a counterbalance to Spain unless France herself could be pledged as well, and Elizabeth considered it safest for the time, since that could not be done, to feign a ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol X • Various
... mercy on her, and on thyself. She will never know in Holland what thou dost in Rome; unless I be driven to tell her my tale. Come, yield thee, Gerar-do mio: what will it cost thee to say thou lovest me? I ask thee but to feign it handsomely. Thou art young: die not for the poor pleasure of denying a lady what-the shadow of a heart. Who will shed a tear for thee? I tell thee men will laugh, not weep over thy tombstone-ah!" ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade
... people's peculiar habits that one would believe she takes a real interest in them; but there is nothing certain about her. Although her sense is good, her heart is not. Notwithstanding her ambition, she seems at first as if she thought only of amusing and diverting herself and others; and she can feign so skilfully that one would think she had been very agreeably entertained in the society of persons, whom immediately upon her return home she will ridicule in ...
— Marguerite de Navarre - Memoirs of Marguerite de Valois Queen of Navarre • Marguerite de Navarre
... the books of ages paint, I have. What prayers and dreams of youthful genius feign, I daily dwell in, and am not so blind But I can see the elastic tent of day Belike has wider hospitality Than my few needs exhaust, and bids me read The quaint devices on its mornings gay. Yet Nature ...
— Poems - Household Edition • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... country folk believed her to be inspired. Cobb reported the matter to Richard Masters, the parish priest, who in turn acquainted Archbishop Warham. The girl having recovered, and finding herself the object of local admiration, was cunning enough, as she confessed at her trial, to feign trances, during which she continued her prophecies. Her fame steadily growing, the archbishop in 1526 instructed the prior of Christ Church, Canterbury, to send two of his monks to hold an inquiry into the case. One of these latter, Edward Bocking, obtained her admission as a ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 3 - "Banks" to "Bassoon" • Various
... the time his soul lay hot within him, at having so to humble himself before Flint; at being thus obliged to eat crow, and fawn and feign and creep. ...
— The Air Trust • George Allan England
... our long journey. I had some misgivings about his going, for I was afraid that the villagers might suspect his character, and might ill-treat him. For myself I had no fear as long as I could continue to feign dumbness, as my character was easily kept up. He had told the Sheikh's people that I was a Nazarene lad, who was ignorant of their language. Being dumb, they considered me under ...
— Salt Water - The Sea Life and Adventures of Neil D'Arcy the Midshipman • W. H. G. Kingston
... the first couple: "Adam and Eve shall stande nakede, and shall not be ashamed."[797] The proper time to be ashamed will come a little later. The serpent steals "out of a hole"; man falls: "Now must Adam cover himself and feign to be ashamed. The woman must also be seized with shame, and cover herself ...
— A Literary History of the English People - From the Origins to the Renaissance • Jean Jules Jusserand
... "gentleman," in the finest outer sense of the word. His inner life he kept concealed from us. I believe he had some method of communicating his ideas to Eugen, even if he never spoke. Eugen never could conceal his own mood from the child; it knew—let him feign otherwise never so cunningly—exactly what he felt, glad or sad, or between the two, and no acting could deceive him. It was a strange, intensely interesting study to me; one to which I daily returned with fresh avidity. He ...
— The First Violin - A Novel • Jessie Fothergill
... Thou layst on me a heavy load of passion and desire, On me that am too weak to bear a shift upon me dight. My love for thee, as well thou know'st, my very nature is, And that for others which I feign dissembling but and sleight. An if my heart were like to thine, I'd not refuse; alack! 'Tis but my body's like thy waist, worn thin and wasted quite. Out on him for a moon that's famed for beauty far and near, That for th' ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume III • Anonymous
... such was the depravity of human nature that no man knew how soon he might fall. At the same place he delivered a paper in which he much extenuated the crime for which he suffered, and from whence he would feign have insinuated that it was a rash action committed when in drink, and which he should certainly have set right again when he was sober. In this frame of mind he suffered, on the 29th of April, 1724, being then about fifty years ...
— Lives Of The Most Remarkable Criminals Who have been Condemned and Executed for Murder, the Highway, Housebreaking, Street Robberies, Coining or other offences • Arthur L. Hayward
... indifferently express my languages now: marry, then, if he shall fall out to be ignorant, it were both hard, and harsh. How else? step into some ragioni del stato, and so make my induction! that were above him too; and out of his element I fear. Feign to have seen him in Venice or Padua! or some face near his in similitude! 'tis too pointed and open. No, it must be a more quaint and collateral device, as—stay: to frame some encomiastic speech upon this our metropolis, or the wise magistrates thereof, in which politic number, 'tis odds ...
— Cynthia's Revels • Ben Jonson
... the most holy inquisitor, who was a devotee of St. John Goldenbeard,[54] 'Then hast thou made Christ a wine-bibber and curious in wines of choice, as if he were Cinciglione[55] or what not other of your drunken sots and tavern-haunters; and now thou speakest lowly and wouldst feign this to be a very light matter! It is not as thou deemest; thou hast merited the fire therefor, an we were minded to deal with thee as we ought.' With these and many other words he bespoke him, with as menacing a countenance as if the poor wretch had been Epicurus denying the immortality of the ...
— The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio • Giovanni Boccaccio
... utmost power of his art, when he came to that of her father, he drew him with a veil over his face, meaning thereby that no kind of countenance was capable of expressing such a degree of sorrow. Which is also the reason why the poets feign the miserable mother, Niobe, having first lost seven sons, and then afterwards as many daughters (overwhelmed with her losses), to have been at last transformed into ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... words: except you would coin such ridiculous inkhorn terms, as you do in the New Testament, Azymes, prepuce, neophyte, sandale, parasceve, and such like."[236] "When you say 'evangelized,' you do not translate, but feign a new word, which is not understood of mere ...
— Early Theories of Translation • Flora Ross Amos
... as a spectator, who entertains himself with the grimaces of a jack-pudding, and banquets his spleen in beholding his enemies at loggerheads. That I may enjoy this disposition, abstracted from all interruption, danger, and participation, I feign myself deaf; an expedient by which I not only avoid all disputes and their consequences, but also become master of a thousand little secrets, which are every day whispered in my presence, without any suspicion of their being overheard. You saw how I handled that shallow politician at my ...
— The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, Volume I • Tobias Smollett
... again, Sit mother and sit daughter, And bless the good ship that sailed over the main, And the favoring winds that brought her; While still some new beauty they fable and feign For ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Jean Ingelow
... would come to me, Lionel!" she uttered. "I want to know a hundred things.—Decima, have the goodness to direct your reproachful looks elsewhere; not to me. Why should I be a hypocrite, and feign a sorrow for Stephen Verner which I do not feel? I know it is his burial-day as well as you know it; but I will not make that a reason for abstaining from questions on family topics, although they do relate to money and means ...
— Verner's Pride • Mrs. Henry Wood
... ages? Would this, think you, have enforced our Democritus to laughter, or rather made him turn his tune, alter his tone, and weep with [311]Heraclitus, or rather howl, [312]roar, and tear his hair in commiseration, stand amazed; or as the poets feign, that Niobe was for grief quite stupefied, and turned to a stone? I have not yet said the worst, that which is more absurd and [313]mad, in their tumults, seditions, civil and unjust wars, [314]quod stulte sucipitur, impie geritur, misere ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior
... to carry the bulletin to Domsie, and I learned what he had been enduring. It was good manners in Drumtochty to feign amazement at the sight of a letter, and to insist that it must be intended for some other person. When it was finally forced upon one, you examined the handwriting at various angles and speculated about the writer. Some felt ...
— Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush • Ian Maclaren
... have toiled most of the summer so they could feign riches by taking a few rides in the wheel chair. There are idle poor as well as idle rich and both should receive no commendation for not trying to better their ...
— See America First • Orville O. Hiestand
... my business whether it was a Madonna or a kodanna (young master), they let pose there any old way, but it was vulgar to feign assurance that one's subject is in no danger of being understood so long as others did not know the subject. Clown claims himself as a Yedo kid. I thought that the person called Madonna was no other than a favorite geisha of Red Shirt. ...
— Botchan (Master Darling) • Mr. Kin-nosuke Natsume, trans. by Yasotaro Morri
... tears were falling like rain all over my silk dress, and spoiling it; and I calculated and measured most accurately the space that my father would require to fall in, and moved myself and my train accordingly in the midst of the anguish I was to feign, and absolutely did endure. It is this watchful faculty (perfectly prosaic and commonplace in its nature), which never deserts me while I am uttering all that exquisite passionate poetry in Juliet's balcony scene, while I feel ...
— Records of a Girlhood • Frances Anne Kemble
... play, And sate there too. It is unmeet To shed on the brief flower of youth The withering knowledge of the grave; 445 From me remorse then wrung that truth. I could not bear the joy which gave Too just a response to mine own. In vain. I dared not feign a groan, And in their artless looks I saw, 450 Between the mists of fear and awe, That my own thought was theirs, and they Expressed it not in words, but said, Each in its heart, how every day Will pass in happy work and play, 455 Now he is ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... Father, they having both followed the women up to London, they were both taken and put into several prisons asunder. Whereupon shortly after the Boy confessed that he was taught and suborned to devise, and feign those things against them, and had persevered in that wickedness by the counsel of his Father, and some others, whom envy, revenge and hope of gain had prompted on to that devillish design and villany; and he also confessed, that upon that day when he said that they met at the aforesaid ...
— Discovery of Witches - The Wonderfull Discoverie of Witches in the Countie of Lancaster • Thomas Potts
... houses, and live in constant rioting on the means thus obtained. Among them are women who have or who hire the use of infant children; others, who are blind, or maimed, or deformed, or who can adroitly feign such infirmities; and, by these means of exciting pity, and by artful tales of woe, they collect alms, both in city and country, to spend in all manner of gross and guilty indulgences. Meantime many persons, ...
— The American Woman's Home • Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe
... affirmed, that this apparition agreed with the dream of the holy women, since the goddesses were now visibly joining in the expedition, and sending this light from heaven before them: Sicily being thought sacred to Proserpina, as poets feign that the rape was committed there, and that the island was given her in dowry when ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough
... coming, I show various forms, I feign vain fears, when there is no true conflict, But no one can see me till he ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 1 (of 2) - With an Introduction upon Ancient Humour • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange
... crossed herself with great fervour, forgetting that even a saint among womankind would hardly feign herself dumb. ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 (of 2) • John Roby
... But they will say, how then shall we set forth a story, which containeth both many places, and many times? And do they not know that a tragedy is tied to the laws of poesy, and not of history? not bound to follow the story, but having liberty, either to feign a quite new matter, or to frame the history to the most tragical convenience. Again, many things may be told, which cannot be showed, if they know the difference betwixt reporting and representing. As for ...
— English literary criticism • Various
... senseless in the roadway, and to be carried into him by a sympathising crowd, while the footman ran with a paragraph to the newspapers. But there was the likelihood that the crowd might carry me in to the rival practitioner opposite. In various disguises I was to feign fits at his very door, and so furnish fresh copy for the local press. Then I was to die—absolutely to expire—and all Scotland was to resound with how Dr. Cullingworth, of Avonmouth, had resuscitated me. His ingenious brain rang a thousand ...
— The Stark Munro Letters • J. Stark Munro
... involved in constant difficulties by his own pride and suspicion. We cannot, for example, imagine Athanasius turning two presbyters out of doors as 'spies.' But the ascetic is usually too full of his own plans to feel sympathy with others, too much in earnest to feign it like a diplomatist. Basil had enough worldly prudence to keep in the background his belief in the Holy Spirit, but not enough to protect even his closest friends from the outbreaks of his imperious temper. Small wonder if the great scheme ...
— The Arian Controversy • H. M. Gwatkin
... feign agreement. He watched the departing army—paddlers sitting on swathes of filched spears. Once Bosambo was out of sight, N'gori collected all the convertible property of his city and sent it in ten canoes to the edge ...
— Bones - Being Further Adventures in Mr. Commissioner Sanders' Country • Edgar Wallace
... tell them," said I; "at least, we must come to some arrangement with them. The question is whether we shall pretend to fall in with their wishes, or at least feign to have what they want. It will give us time, but ...
— Hurricane Island • H. B. Marriott Watson
... these two months. It is reported, that Muley Ismael was so rich in gold, that the bolts of the gates of his palaces, and his kitchen utensils, were of pure gold. Timbuctoo continued to carry on a most 483 lucrative trade with Marocco, &c.; during the Feign of the Emperor Muley Abd Allah, son and successor of Ismael, and also during the reign of Seedy[283] Muhamed ben Abd Allah, who died about the year 1795, a sovereign universally regretted, and hence aptly denominated the father of his people: since the decease of ...
— An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa • Abd Salam Shabeeny
... disease?" Blondel rose as he spoke. "The disease?" he repeated. He extended his trembling arms to the other. No longer, even if he wished it, could Basterga feign himself blind to the agitation which shook, which almost convulsed, the Syndic's meagre frame. "The disease? Is it not that which men call the Scholar's? Is it not that? But ...
— The Long Night • Stanley Weyman
... lone cabin, where the cane Hid the black mire before the lowly door, De Soto died—although they sought to feign By some pretended magic mirror's lore That still he lived, a gentleman of Spain,— And the dread flood rolled onward ...
— Days of the Discoverers • L. Lamprey
... tweedle-dee Upon his hunkers bended, [hams] An' pray'd for grace wi' ruefu' face, An' sae the quarrel ended. But tho' his little heart did grieve When round the tinkler prest her, He feign'd to snirtle in his sleeve, [snigger] When thus ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson
... existed, over in England; of that they were ready to take their oath, and the project which they had formed was as ingenious as it was diabolic: to feign a denunciation, to enact a pretended arrest, to place before the unfortunate girl the alternative of death or marriage with one of the gang, were the chief incidents of this inquitous project, and it was in the Cabaret de la Liberte that lots were ...
— The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel • Baroness Orczy
... little girl was taken ill. Anna began to look after her, but even that did not distract her mind, especially as the illness was not serious. However hard she tried, she could not love this little child, and to feign love was beyond her powers. Towards the evening of that day, still alone, Anna was in such a panic about him that she decided to start for the town, but on second thoughts wrote him the contradictory letter that Vronsky received, and without reading it through, ...
— Anna Karenina • Leo Tolstoy
... Design either to parry with the Sword or with the Hand, to lower the Body or to volt; therefore as in the other Guards you must make a false Time, or half Thrust, and if he parrys with the Sword, thrust where you see Light, if he parry with the Hand, you must feign a strait Thrust in order to bring his Left-hand to the Parade, at the same time raising your Point with a little Circle, pushing at the left Side with the Hand in Seconde, the Body low, whereby you baulk his Left-hand, ...
— The Art of Fencing - The Use of the Small Sword • Monsieur L'Abbat
... none believe the tale, Some impious man or gamesome faun dares feign In vile contempt of your most royal ears. Off with your crown, & ...
— Proserpine and Midas • Mary Shelley
... in his Journey, thus beautifully describes his situation here:—'I sat down on a bank, such as a writer of romance might have delighted to feign. I had, indeed, no trees to whisper over my head; but a clear rivulet streamed at my feet. The day was calm, the air soft, and all was rudeness, silence, and solitude. Before me, and on either side, were high hills, which, by hindering the eye from ranging, forced the mind to find entertainment for ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 5 • Boswell |
