"Wist" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Glasgow, and, revisiting the scenes made beautiful to me by Walter Scott, I was at last able to think of something beside the sorrow and disappointment which had beset me. Memorable to me still is a sermon heard at the old Church of St. Giles, in Edinburgh. The text was, "He wist not that his face shone," and the argument, while broad and liberal, was deeply religious. One thought struck me forcibly. The preacher likened theological controversies to storms on the coast which result only ...
— Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White Volume II • Andrew Dickson White
... a summer sea; that she might bring My bride, who wist not that I loved her so— This is no bitter day ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... America owes to Washington, must be named this one of pushing Thomas Jefferson, the scholar and man of peace, into the political embroglio and shutting the door. Then it was that Hamilton's taunting temper awoke a degree of power in Jefferson that before he wist not of; then it was that he first fully realized that the "United States" with England as a sole pattern ...
— Little Journeys To the Homes of the Great, Volume 3 (of 14) • Elbert Hubbard
... And the loved books that younger grow with years; 230 To country rambles, timing with my tread Some happier verse that carols in my head, Yet all with sense of something vainly mist, Of something lost, but when I never wist. How empty seems to me the populous street, One figure gone I daily loved to meet,— The clear, sweet singer with the crown of snow Not whiter than the thoughts that housed below! And, ah, what absence feel I at my side, Like Dante when he missed his laurelled ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell
... a great rout,[98] Which fast did write by one assent; There stood up one and cried about "Richard, Robert, and John of Kent!" I wist not well what this man meant, He cried so thickly there indeed. But he that lacked ...
— English Satires • Various
... wist f. being, existence: well-being, abundance, plenty: provision, nourishment, subsistence, food, meal, feast, delicacy, ...
— A Concise Anglo-Saxon Dictionary - For the Use of Students • John R. Clark Hall
... bowed her head again; She wist 'twas God's own Bride, As, worshipful she cried: 'O Lady, Full of Grace, Whence do I see ...
— Our Lady Saint Mary • J. G. H. Barry
... he said he never knew him till that time, nor wist what was said to him, nor wist where he had been, while he had been sick, till now; and he asked who were the godfathers, and the queen told him, and he was ...
— Margaret of Anjou - Makers of History • Jacob Abbott
... before the rest, Hard upon noble Maggie prest, And flew at Tam wi' furious ettle; But little wist she Maggie's mettle— Ae spring brought off her master hale, But left behind her ain grey tail: The carlin claught her by the rump, And left poor Maggie scarce ...
— Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, Vol. 7 • Various
... you and I were young, we knew To shout and laugh, to work and play, And night was partner to the day In all our joys. So swift time flew On silent wings that, ere we wist, The fleeting years had fled unmissed; And from our hearts this cry was wrung— To fill with fond regret and tears The days of our remaining years— "When you and I were young, my boy, When you and I ...
— The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar • Paul Laurence Dunbar
... gloom for sight of her and hearkened eagerly for sound of her; but finding this vain, arose and, creeping stealthily, presently espied her where she lay, face hidden in the dewy grass. Thus stood he chin in hand disquieted and anxious-eyed and wist ...
— The Geste of Duke Jocelyn • Jeffery Farnol
... another, and that is like to be full of guile and contrariousness. And many will tell it to win favour of those in high place, and so shall but the half be told. Thou hast lived through it, and wist all the inwards thereof, at least from thine own standing-spot. Let there be one tale told just as it was, of one that verily knew, and had no purpose to win gold or favour, but only to ...
— In Convent Walls - The Story of the Despensers • Emily Sarah Holt
... then become a delight, because the world is always crying for workers who know how to do their work. The other kind is always to be found but never wanted. The demand is for the ones who know how. It is a significant fact that the first recorded words of Jesus Christ are, 'Wist ye not that I must be about my father's business?' This makes of Jesus a Business boy, and it was God's work ...
— Crayon and Character: Truth Made Clear Through Eye and Ear - Or, Ten-Minute Talks with Colored Chalks • B.J. Griswold
... which distinctly come out in various places in the Gospels as His motives for such unresting sedulousness and continuance of toil. The first is conveyed by such words as these: 'I must work the works of Him that sent Me.' 'Let us preach to other cities, also: for therefore am I sent.' 'Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?' 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.' All these express one thought. Christ lived and toiled, and bore weariness and exhaustion, and counted every moment as worthy to be garnered ...
— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. Mark • Alexander Maclaren
... remained, they were couered with broome or thatch: but as for any abbey or monasterie, not one was left in all the countrie, neither did any man (for the space of two hundred yeares) take care for the repairing or building vp of any thing in decaie, so that the people of that countrie wist not what a moonke ment, and if they saw any, they woondered at the strangenesse ...
— Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland (2 of 6): England (1 of 12) - William the Conqueror • Raphael Holinshed
... thou turn From summer land to Eden walls? "The man Belike, ne'er loved thee. So is it young Eve can His pulses sway. Is she not passing fair? Her fancies wild, it is her daily care To bend beneath his ever fickle will. Red-lipped and soft, she deftly rules him still, Though he wist not. Yet sweeter Lilith's frown Than archest smile she wears. Great Soul! The crown Thou bearest of fadeless life. For fleeting dreams In Paradise, beside the winding streams, Wilt thou resign such boon? Thou ...
— Lilith - The Legend of the First Woman • Ada Langworthy Collier
... I wist all their sport in the Park is but a shadow to that pleasure I find in Plato. Alas! good folk, they never felt what ...
— The Guide to Reading - The Pocket University Volume XXIII • Edited by Dr. Lyman Abbott, Asa Don Dickenson, and Others
... Elle he hied him thence, I wist he stood not still, And soon he met fair Emmeline's page ...
— The Book of Brave Old Ballads • Unknown
... her face with an expression of affection and solace; while she is represented with downcast eyes, fatigued and "pondering in her mind" the import of the words he had addressed to her, "How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" And even here we can almost excuse the introduction of the little dog, who, running before the group, is looking back, giving a bark of joy at their having found the object of ...
— Rembrandt and His Works • John Burnet
... but being sorely demented with the tragical end of the godly old man," replied my grandfather, "and seeing that I could do the Earl no manner of service, I wist not well what course to take, so after meickle tribulation of thought and great uncertainty of purpose I e'en resolved ...
— Ringan Gilhaize - or The Covenanters • John Galt
... uncanny Phantom, wist!... Whose is that towering form That tears across the mist To where the shocks are sorest?—his with arm Outstretched, and grimy face, and bloodshot eye, Like one who, having done his deeds, ...
— The Dynasts - An Epic-Drama Of The War With Napoleon, In Three Parts, - Nineteen Acts, And One Hundred And Thirty Scenes • Thomas Hardy
... cradle-side and gave my mother choice of my gifts, I wish she had chosen rowth of real friends. I could be doing with more about me of the quality I mention; better than horse and foot would they be, more trusty than the claymores of my clan. It might be the slogan 'Cruachan' whenever it wist, and Archibald of Argile would be more puissant than he of Homer's story. People have envied me when they have heard me called the King of the Highlands—fools that did not know I was the poorest, weakest man of his time, surrounded by flatterers instead of friends. Gordon, ...
— John Splendid - The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn • Neil Munro
... asked me again, by my oath, where Master Garret was, and whither I had conveyed him. I said I had not conveyed him, nor yet wist where he was, nor whither he was gone, except he were gone to Woodstock, as I had before said. Surely, they said, I brought him some whither this morning, for they might well perceive by my foul shoes and dirty hosen that I had travelled with him the most ...
— The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) • James Anthony Froude
... then and there I know not well—I never knew— First came the loss of light, and air, And then of darkness too: I had no thought, no feeling—none— Among the stones I stood a stone,[21] And was, scarce conscious what I wist, As shrubless crags within the mist; For all was blank, and bleak, and grey; It was not night—it was not day; 240 It was not even the dungeon-light, So hateful to my heavy sight, But vacancy absorbing space, And fixedness—without a place; There ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Volume 4 • Lord Byron
... clothed him as with a garment, and his wits were wildered and he began to rub his eyes, lest they be dimmed or darkened, and to gaze intently; but at last he was certified that no trace of the pavilion remained nor sign of its being; nor wist he the why and the wherefore of its disappearance. So his surprise increased and he smote hand upon hand and the tears trickled down his cheeks over his beard, for that he knew not what had become of his daughter. ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton
... let none wist! Live, day by day, With little and with little swelling Thy tale of duty done—the way The ...
— Poems with Power to Strengthen the Soul • Various
... I wist, before I kist, That love had been sae ill to win, I had lockt my heart in a case of gowd, And pinnd it with a siller pin. And, oh! that my young babe were born, And set upon the nurse's knee, And I myself were dead and gane! And the green ...
— The Book of Old English Ballads • George Wharton Edwards
... fought on the Lancastrian side in the very battle referred to, Marmaduke felt somewhat uneasy; and turning to the Lady Anne, he said, with the gravity of wounded pride, "I owe more to my lord, your father, than I even wist of,—how much he ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... verily Never an answer looked should be. But it came to pass from shade Pacing to an open glade, Which the oaks a mighty wall Fence about, methought a call Sounded, then a pale thin mist Rose, a pillar, and fronted me, Rose and took a form I wist, And it wore a hood on 'ts head, And a long white garment spread, And I saw the ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume II. • Jean Ingelow
... seemed a little speck, And then it seemed a mist; 150 It moved and moved, and took at last A certain shape, I wist. ...
— Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Select Poems • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... Seem'd like a grove faire braunched over hed: Therein the hermit, which his life here led In streight observance of religious vow, Was wont his hours and holy things to bed; And therein he likewise was praying now, Whenas these knights arrived, they wist not where nor how." ...
— Castles and Cave Dwellings of Europe • Sabine Baring-Gould
... every other day; some fast three days together. Machari fasted all the Lenten-tide, save Sundays, and ate naught but raw leaves. Some take no heed when they eat, nor what they eat, flesh or fish: all tasted alike to them, so that afterwards, they wist not what they ate. Some, when they were set down to meat, and meat was brought before them, they forgot to eat, for so they spent the day and the night in holy speech, that they thought of naught else, till the undern-tide[8] of the second day, so that the brethren ...
— The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose Treatises • Richard Rolle of Hampole
... it was both loste and wonne, The sewe wente hame, and thatte ful soone, To Morton-on-the-Greene. When Raphe of Rokeby saw the rape, He wist that there had bin debate, Whereat the ...
— Ancient Poems, Ballads and Songs of England • Robert Bell
... came to the other side of the river, which was both wide and deep, then saw he a great company of folk riding after the knight who bare away the maiden by force, and thus misused her, but he wist not if it was to aid the knight that they thus followed him, or to wreak vengeance on him. He saw many men clad in hauberks, but they were as yet a good mile distant. Sir Gawain rode swiftly after the maiden who went afore, whom the knight thus mishandled, to avenge her wrong; ...
— The Romance of Morien • Jessie L. Weston
... more worlds the Macedonian cried, He wist not Thetis in her lap did hide Another yet; a world reserved for you, To make more great than that he ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham
... silently they rode home, - Rohtraut, Beauty Rohtraut! The boy was lost in his delight: 'And, wert thou Empress this very night, I would not heed or feel the blight; Ye thousand leaves of the wild wood wist How Beauty Rohtraut's mouth I ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... BARKET. Colonel Wist! The devils have sprung out of the ground. They're pouring over our lift flank like Noah's own flood. The Union Army has started back for Winchester, on its way to the North Pole; our own regiment, Colonel, is coming over the ...
— Shenandoah - Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911 • Bronson Howard
... of the king that he would have unto his wife Guenever his daughter. That is to me, said king Leodegrance, the best tidings that ever I heard, that so worthy a king of prowess and noblesse will wed my daughter. And as for my lands I will give him wist I it might please him, but he hath lands enough, him needeth none, but I shall send him a gift shall please him much more, for I shall give him the Table Round, the which Uther Pendragon gave me, and when it is full complete there is ...
— Song and Legend From the Middle Ages • William D. McClintock and Porter Lander McClintock
... the turn of the stairs. As the light fell mercilessly upon it, the general, white-haired, white-necktied, clean-shaven, and lean-faced, gazed at the portrait for a long time, and then said to his son Neal who stood beside him, "And Samson wist not that the Lord had departed ...
— A Certain Rich Man • William Allen White
... ever he began to speak. Maybe it was the moonlight that fell full upon George Fox's countenance, or maybe there was in truth visible there some faint reflection of the radiance that transfigured the face of Moses, when he too, coming down from a far mightier revelation on a far loftier mountain, 'wist not that the skin of ...
— A Book of Quaker Saints • Lucy Violet Hodgkin
... Colin Clout is not everybody, and albeit his old companions, Master Cuddie and Master Hobinoll, be as little beholding to their mistress poetry as ever you wist: yet he, peradventure, by the means of her special favour, and some personal privilege, may haply live by Dying Pelicans, and purchase great lands and lordships with the money which his Calendar and Dreams have, ...
— Spenser - (English Men of Letters Series) • R. W. Church
... wept with her for their brother's fate; but they wist not how to comfort her; and, while they sat mingling their tears together, it was announced to them that a humble maiden, bearing a message from the captive laird, ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume 2 - Historical, Traditional, and Imaginative • Alexander Leighton
... and she began to afflict him, and his strength went from him. And she said, "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson." And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, "I will go out as at other times before, and shake myself." And he wist not that the ...
— Types of Children's Literature • Edited by Walter Barnes
... 30 And he shall stand with fear, and wist not what to say. And behold, he shall deny unto you; and he shall make as if he were astonished; nevertheless, he shall declare unto you that he ...
— The Book Of Mormon - An Account Written By The Hand Of Mormon Upon Plates Taken - From The Plates Of Nephi • Anonymous
... it remained a great while because no man wist what it meant, till Virgill opened the whole fraude by this deuise. He wrote aboue the same halfe metres this whole verse Exameter. Hos ego versiculos feci ...
— The Arte of English Poesie • George Puttenham
... destiny drives it should so be, Some men will have two wives, and some men three, In store. Some are woe that have any; But so far ken I, Woe is he who has many, For he feels it sore. But young men of wooing, for God that you bought, Be well ware of wedding, and think in your thought "Had I wist" is a thing it serves ye of nought; Mickle still mourning has wedding home brought, And griefs, With many a sharp shower, For thou may catch in an hour That shall serve thee full sour As long as thou lives. For as read I epistle, I have one ...
— Everyman and Other Old Religious Plays, with an Introduction • Anonymous
... opening of the saloon,[FN59] saw a woman, who had lit the lamp, and heard the little one crying. As we were peering, she heard our words and raising her head to us, said, "Are ye not ashamed to deal thus with us and bare our shame? Wist ye not that the day belongeth to you and the night to us? Begone from us! By Allah, were it not that ye have been my neighbours these many years, I would assuredly[FN60] bring down the house upon you!" We doubted not but ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton
... if in every parish there was such a minister as Dr. Gillespie, the civil magistrate would be compelled to take a very back seat indeed. But it was on Communion Sabbath days that the Doctor became, as it were, transfigured, the face of him shining, though he wist not ...
— The Dew of Their Youth • S. R. Crockett
... was jealous of the fame of his daughter. The passion of father for daughter, of mother for son—there is often something very loverlike in it—a deal of whimsy! Miss Barrett's darkened room had been illumined by a light that the gruff and goodly merchant wist not of. Loneliness and solitude and physical pain and heart-hunger had taught her things that no book recorded nor tutor knew. Her father could not follow her; her allusions were obscure, he said, wilfully obscure; ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 2 of 14 - Little Journeys To the Homes of Famous Women • Elbert Hubbard
... unworthy of, nay, necessary to, even the perfect humanity. But one thing stands out always: His was the consecrated life. It was all given to its purpose. "He was called Jesus because he should save his people from their sins." "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" "Behold we go up to Jerusalem and the Son of Man shall be betrayed." "To this end was I born and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." Everywhere the consecration, a life appointed ...
— The world's great sermons, Volume 8 - Talmage to Knox Little • Grenville Kleiser
... Olindo hight the youth, Both or one town, both in one faith were taught, She fair, he full of bashfulness and truth, Loved much, hoped little, and desired nought, He durst not speak by suit to purchase ruth, She saw not, marked not, wist not what he sought, Thus loved, thus served he long, but not regarded, Unseen, ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso
... of one book, so are there readers of one author—more than we wist. Children want the same bear story over and over, preferring it to a new one; so "grown-ups" often prefer the dog-eared ...
— Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 1 of 14 - Little Journeys to the Homes of Good Men and Great • Elbert Hubbard
... done more than ye wist, brave knights,' said the priest, when he had absolved them; 'for the evil knights that led these pagan thieves had plotted to gain this castle because of the great and holy treasures that are hidden here. And by a prophecy ...
— King Arthur's Knights - The Tales Re-told for Boys & Girls • Henry Gilbert
... at this strange sight Whose like before his eye had never seen, And, standing long astonished in sprite And rapt with pleasance, wist not what to ween, Whether it were the train of Beauty's Queen, Or Nymphs, or Fairies, or enchanted show With which his eyes might have deluded been, Therefore resolving what it was to know, Out of the woods he rose and toward ...
— Among My Books • James Russell Lowell
... thou in this perswaded by thy wife: No vallour bids thee cast away thy life. 1620 Caes. Tis dastard cowardize and childish feare, To dread those dangers that do not appeare: Cal. Thou must sad chance by fore-cast, wise resist, Or being done say boote-les had I wist. Caes. But for to feare wher's no suspition, Will to my greatnesse be derision. Cal. There lurkes an adder in the greenest grasse, Daungers of purpose alwayes hide their face: Caes. Perswade no more Caesar's resolu'd to go. Cal. The Heauens resolue that hee may safe returne, ...
— The Tragedy Of Caesar's Revenge • Anonymous
... then he said, "Lord God, I thank thee, for I am healed of this malady." Soo when the holy vessell had been there a great while, it went into the chappell againe, with the candlesticke and the light, so that Sir Launcelot wist not where it became, for he was overtaken with sinne, that he had no power to arise against the holy vessell, wherefore afterward many men said of him shame. But he tooke repentance afterward. Then the sicke knight dressed ...
— Marmion • Sir Walter Scott
... Hood has many a wild fellow, I tell you in certain; If they wist you rode this way, In faith ye ...
— Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws - Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Fourth Series • Frank Sidgwick
... That, yawning years after Our early flows Of wit and laughter, And framing of rhymes At idle times, At sight of her painting, Though she lies cold In churchyard mould, I took its feinting As real, and kissed it, As if I had wist it ...
— Late Lyrics and Earlier • Thomas Hardy
... be, take in trust Their names, their deeds, their dust, Who held life less than thou wert; be the least To thee indeed a priest, Priest and burnt-offering and blood-sacrifice Given without prayer or price, A holier immolation than men wist, A costlier eucharist, A sacrament more saving; bend thine head Above these many dead Once, and salute with thine eternal eyes Their lowest head that lies. Speak from thy lips of immemorial speech If but one word for each. Kiss but one kiss on each thy dead son's mouth Fallen dumb or ...
— Two Nations • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... father of all things and the king of all things," was the word of Heraclitus the Wise. "It hath brought forth some as gods and others as men, and hath made some bond and others free. When Homer prayed that strife might depart from amongst gods and men, he wist not that he was cursing the birth of all things, for all things have their birth in war ...
— The Arena - Volume 4, No. 21, August, 1891 • Various
... right to call himself a child of God who does not work for Him. Was it not so with Christ himself? Did He not, even when a boy, say, "Wist ye not that I must be about My Father's business?" and the work of God is the delight of the heir of God. We do not join the church merely for what we can get, but for what we can do. How is it with you? Do you say, "What can I do?" That's the way Paul began—"Lord, ...
— Broken Bread - from an Evangelist's Wallet • Thomas Champness
... he hear confession, And pleasant was his absolution. He was an easy man to give penance, Whereso wist to have a good pittance; For unto a poor Order for to give, Is signe that a man is well y-shrive; For if he gave, he durste make a vaunt He wiste that a man was repentant. For many a man so hard is of his heart He can not weep although he sorely smart. Therefore instead of weeping and ...
— Chaucer • Adolphus William Ward
... wist I of a woman bold, Who thrice my brow durst sign, I might regain my mortal mould, As ...
— The Lady of the Lake • Sir Walter Scott
... back eagerly into her child life—rather into the life her childhood wist of, but missed—and would live it all over, now, with these little ones, taken already, before even they were seen or found, out of their strangerhood ...
— Faith Gartney's Girlhood • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... onbegrypelyk hoe de heer Kellar die door twee personen uit het publiek stevigwordt vast gebonden, zich in een oogwenk wist los te maken ...
— Preliminary Report of the Commission Appointed by the University • The Seybert Commission
... inherent in man, and yet there were thousands—nay, millions in the nation to-day in whose hearts was an intense and unsatisfied yearning, who perceived no meaning in life, no Cause for which to work, who did not know what Christianity was, who had never known what it was, who wist not where to turn to find out. Education had brought many of them to discern, in the Church's teachings, an anachronistic medley of myths and legends, of theories of schoolmen and theologians, of surviving pagan superstitions which could ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill
... questions, And we were all astonished at his quickness. And when his mother came, and said: Behold Thy father and I have sought thee, sorrowing; He looked as one astonished, and made answer, How is it that ye sought me? Wist ye not That I must be about my Father's business? Often since then I see him here among us, Or dream I see him, with his upraised face Intent and eager, and I often wonder Unto what manner of manhood he hath grown! Perhaps a poor mechanic like his ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... so, if one wants to live a life of perfect trust, there must be the perfect surrender of his life, and his will, even unto the very death. He must be willing to go all lengths with Jesus, even to Calvary. When a boy twelve years of age Jesus said: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" and again when He came to Jordan to be baptized: "It becometh us to fulfill all righteousness." So on through all His life, He ever said: "It is my meat and drink to do the will of my Father. ...
— The Master's Indwelling • Andrew Murray
... there a fame abroad of him, and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities; and he withdrew himself into the wilderness and prayed." With these quotations compare the following from Saint John: Chap. v. 13. "And he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in ...
— Evidences of Christianity • William Paley
... clocke, the ale wyfe brought him to bed with her chyldren. At mydnyghte Eulyn wente home, and thought no more of his chylde. As sone as he came home, his wyfe asked for her chyld. Whan she spake of the chylde, he loked on his shulder; and whan he sawe he was not ther, he said he wist nat where he was. Out vpon the, horson (quod she), thou hast let mi child fal in to the water (for he passed ouer the water of Dee at a brige). Thou list,[278] hore (quod he): for if he had fallen into the water, I ...
— Shakespeare Jest-Books; - Reprints of the Early and Very Rare Jest-Books Supposed - to Have Been Used by Shakespeare • Unknown
... and was covered with red samite, and upon that hung a bridle, not rich, and held within the fist a great candle that burnt right clear, and so passed afore them, and entered into the Chapel, and then vanished away, and they wist not where."[4] This seems to be an unintelligent borrowing from ...
— From Ritual to Romance • Jessie L. Weston
... better or a thriftier beast Nae honest man could weel hae wist, For, silly thing, she never mist To hae ilk year a lamb or twa': The first she had I gae to Jock, To be to him a kind o' stock, And now the laddie has a flock O' mair nor thirty head ava'; And now the ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... of merry go down, The best it is in all the town. But yet I would not for my gown, My husband wist. Ye may ...
— Froude's Essays in Literature and History - With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc • James Froude
... positive result would follow his life. This sense of a definite errand was expressed by him on numerous occasions; in some of them quite incidentally, and in others more directly. You remember how, as a boy in the temple, he said to his mother, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" You remember how, at the marriage in Cana, he said to her again, "My hour is not yet come." So with that precious phrase which on several occasions fell from his lips, "The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which is ...
— Joy in Service; Forgetting, and Pressing Onward; Until the Day Dawn • George Tybout Purves
... him go with good devotion touch the Cross. And as soon as that man had touched the Cross with his hand it was as whole as ever it was tofore. Then soon after there fell a great marvel, that the cross of the shield at one time vanished away that no man wist where it became. And then King Evelake was baptized, and for the most part all the people of that city. So, soon after Joseph would depart, and King Evelake would go with him whether he would or nold. And so by fortune they came ...
— A Knyght Ther Was • Robert F. Young
... have said him yea, albeit I liked him well; nor did I hide it from him; nay indeed, now and again I may have lent him courage, though truly with no evil intent, since I was not ill pleased with the tale his eyes told me. And I was but a young thing then, and wist not as yet that a maid who gives hope to a suitor though she has no mind to hear him, is guilty of a sin grievous enough to bring forth much sorrow and heart-ache. It was not till I had had a lesson which came upon me all too soon, that ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... utterance weak, Such as his feeble strength avail'd to speak, Recounts his piteous chance, his name, his home, How up the vessel's side ere while he clomb, And then sunk down in sleep; but who impell'd Its ebon keel, or tissued canvas swell'd, He wist not: faint, and lacking vital heat, He sought some needful aid from looks so sweet. "So brave a knight!—to yield of succour nought— What heart of flint could cherish such a thought? Yet where to harbour him, and how to hide?— The husband ...
— The Lay of Marie • Matilda Betham
... and type. Of the one hundred and forty-two stanzas in the poem, one hundred and six are the ordinary four-lined stanzas of popular poetry. The language, too, is not obtrusively archaic as it is in Chatterton and some of the Spenserians; at most an occasional "wist" or "eftsoons"; now and then a light accent, in ballad fashion, on the final syllable of a rime-word like mariner or countrie. There is no definite burden, which would have been out of place in a poem that is narrative and ...
— A History of English Romanticism in the Nineteenth Century • Henry A. Beers
... not be hidden; to wit, the sage and the fool, the richard and the pauper."[FN29] Now when Haykar had made an end of these injunctions and instances addrest to Nadan his nephew, he fondly deemed in mind that the youth would bear in memory all his charges, and he wist not that the clean contrary thereof to him would become manifest. After this the older Minister sat in peace at home and committed to the younger all his moneys and his negro slaves and his concubines; his horses and camels, his flocks and herds, and all other ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton
... actually done, to be the leader of the human race in religion and goodness—to lead it up to God? Yet those who will admit the mission in all other cases, question it in his case. But what was true in them was much more so in him. He was conscious from the first that he was selected. "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" "To this end I was born, that I might bear witness to the truth." "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world, through him, might be saved." "For ...
— Orthodoxy: Its Truths And Errors • James Freeman Clarke
... romantic pages wist What romance is in the look. Oh, that I could be so bold, So romantic as to bold Half an hour the pensive wrist, And ...
— Ionica • William Cory (AKA William Johnson)
... true to God and the life that the child shall leave his childhood and face the dawn of manhood as that One of old with the eager heart and heavenly vision, "Wist ye not that I must be ...
— The Unfolding Life • Antoinette Abernethy Lamoreaux
... solemn, soure, and full of fancies fraile, She woxe: yet wist she neither how nor why: She wist not, silly Mayd, what she did aile, Yet wist she was not well at ease, perdie; Yet thought it was not Love, but ...
— The Diary of an Ennuyee • Anna Brownell Jameson
... back to the first word from His lips which has been preserved to us: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?" Even at twelve years of age He already knew that there was a business entrusted to Him by His Father in heaven, about which His thoughts had to be occupied. We cannot perhaps say that then already ...
— The Trial and Death of Jesus Christ - A Devotional History of our Lord's Passion • James Stalker
... unsound, While Lubberkin sticks firmly to the last; O were his lips to mine but joined so fast! With my sharp heel I three times mark the ground, And turn me thrice around, around, around. As Lubberkin once slept beneath a tree, I twitch'd his dangling garter from his knee; He wist not when the hempen string I drew. Now mine I quickly doff of inkle blue; Together fast I tye the garters twain, And while I knit the knot, repeat the strain: Three times a true-love's knot I tye secure, Firm be the knot, firm may his love endure. With my sharp heel I three times mark the ...
— The Mysteries of All Nations • James Grant
... Sir Kay saw the sword, he wist well it was the sword of the stone, and so he rode to his father, Sir Ector, and said, "Sir, lo here is the sword of the stone, wherefore I must be king ...
— Children's Literature - A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes • Charles Madison Curry
... reports a zealous Protestant, "without which the ignorant can have no knowledge." The prelates who used the new Prayer Book were simply regarded as heretics. The Bishop of Meath was assured by one of his flock that, "if the country wist how, they would eat you." Protestantism had failed to wrest a single Irishman from his older convictions, but it succeeded in uniting all Ireland against the Crown. The old political distinctions ...
— History of the English People - Volume 4 (of 8) • John Richard Green
... Suddhodana wist not of this; The portents troubled, till his dream-readers Augured a Prince of earthly dominance, A Chakravartin, such as rise to rule Once in each thousand years; seven gifts he has The Chakra-ratna, ...
— The Light of Asia • Sir Edwin Arnold
... Not so, for then foote-men would have more land than their masters. P. He runnes far that never turnes. C. Not so, he may breake his necke in a short course. P. No man can call againe yesterday. C. Yes, hee may call till his heart ake, though it never come. P. Had I wist was a foole. C. No, he was a foole that ...
— Notes and Queries 1850.04.06 • Various
... Rahere is jealous of you," said he, smiling, to Nigel of Ely. He was one bishop; and William of Exeter, the other—Wal-wist the Saxons called him—laughed long. "Rahere is a priest at heart. Shall I make him a bishop, De ...
— Rewards and Fairies • Rudyard Kipling
... with sore weeping and said to him, "By Allah, I suspected not that passion had come to such a pass with thee, as to cast thee into the arms of death! Had I wist of this, I had been favourable to thy wish, and thou shouldst have had thy will." At this his tears streamed down even as the clouds rail rain, and ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... manner of doing, I pray thee, and let as thou wist not that there were any such means (I mean ordained for to get God by); for truly no more there is, if thou wilt be very contemplative and soon sped of thy purpose. And, therefore, I pray thee and other like unto thee, with ...
— The Cell of Self-Knowledge - Seven Early English Mystical Treaties • Various
... nigh that he touched the holy vessel and kissed it. And anon he was whole, and then he said:—Lord God, I thank thee for I am healed of this malady. So when the holy vessel had been there a great while, it went unto the chapel again with the candlestick and the light, so that Sir Lancelot wist not where it became, for he was overtaken with sin that he had no power to arise against the holy vessel. Wherefore afterwards many men said of him shame. ...
— Studies from Court and Cloister • J.M. Stone
... play four 'anded wist sometimes," said the mate, as he followed the skipper below to see what ...
— Sea Urchins • W. W. Jacobs
... but repetitions of older ones. Three times the writer of Judges tells of Samson that "the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him," and then is added the pathetic sentence—"but he wist not that the Lord was departed from him." And between the two occurs the story of an act of disobedience. Twice the same thing is recorded of King Saul, "the spirit of God came mightily upon him," and ...
— Quiet Talks on Power • S.D. Gordon
... short one, but painful. In an incautious moment, when I wist not wot I wotted, I accepted an invitation from the chief engineer to go below. We went below—miles and miles, I think—to where, standing on metal runways that were hot to the foot, overalled Scots ministered ...
— Europe Revised • Irvin S. Cobb
... a good many things first, I'm afraid, and it wasn't very easy to find you. Case of 'None could see Valerius, And none wist where he lay.' By the bye, Hal, should you say that those dangawalas[1] of Granthis were playing fair to-day, or not? Did they fire as ...
— The Path to Honour • Sydney C. Grier
... to say against the faithful devotion of a wife, or the patient tenderness of a mother, which are corner-stones of the family, as the family is the corner-stone of all true civilization? But what is the origin of the wife's devotion and the mother's tenderness? These people, surely, are as wist as they are solid. They would have the ...
— From Jest to Earnest • E. P. Roe
... will answer you; this shield was given me, not desired, of Queen Morgan le Fay; and as for me, I can not descrive these arms, for it is no point of my charge, and yet I trust to God to bear them with worship. Truly, said King Arthur, ye ought not to bear none arms but if ye wist what ye bear: but I pray you tell me your name. To what intent? said Sir Tristram. For I would wit, said Arthur. Sir, ye shall not wit as at this time. Then shall ye and I do battle together, said King Arthur. Why, said Sir Tristram, will ye do ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume II (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory
... a good deal to pay for a 'cello," she said, yet conscious as she spoke that—even as Peter on the Mount—she had made the remark chiefly because she "wist not what ...
— The Upas Tree - A Christmas Story for all the Year • Florence L. Barclay
... halt, and the blind, and many with the leprosy," to preach in several tongues the glad tidings of the Kingdom to the heathen of England as well as of India, and all with a loving tenderness and patient humility learned in the childlike school of Him who said, "Wist ye not that I must ...
— The Life of William Carey • George Smith
... Luke Evangelist; For he it was (the aged legends say) Who first taught Art to fold her hands and pray. Scarcely at once she dared to rend the mist Of devious symbols: but soon having wist How sky-breadth and field-silence and this day Are symbols also in some deeper way, She looked through these to ...
— The House of Life • Dante Gabriel Rossetti
... eyes to have been voluntary and not cataleptic. At this moment we seem to pass into the region of the abnormal: "After this my sight began to fail; it waxed as dark about me in the chamber as if it had been night, save in the image of the cross, wherein I beheld a common light, and I wist not how. And all that was beside the cross was ugly and fearful to me, as it had been much occupied with fiends." Then the upper part of her body becomes insensible, and the only pain left is that of weakness and breathlessness. Suddenly she ...
— The Faith of the Millions (2nd series) • George Tyrrell
... the Burial Office, there was a play of light and shade upon this man of God who, like Moses, "wist not that his face shone." The majestic notes of faith and assurance which reverberate in the words of this service were, on his lips and in his sympathetic and superb reading, like the overtones and rich harmonies of an organ. There was no formalism ...
— Frank H. Nelson of Cincinnati • Warren C. Herrick
... might start As Mem'ry's elbow leans upon Time's Chart, Which shows, alas! how soon all men must glide Over meridians on life's ocean tide— Meridians showing how both youth and sage Are sailing northward to the zone of age: On to an atmosphere of gloom I wist, Where mariners are lost in melancholy mist. But gayer thoughts, like spring-tide swallows, dart Through youth's brave mind and ...
— A Wreath of Virginia Bay Leaves • James Barron Hope
... Worthy, I am not worthy, nor my soul Willing to rest without them. Ah, I burn, Now in glad heaven, with grief, bethinking me Of those my mother's words, what time I poured Death-water for my dead at Kurkshetra,— "Pour for Prince Karna, Son!" but I wist not His feet were as my mother's feet, his blood Her blood, my blood. O Gods! I did not know,— Albeit Sakra's self had failed to break Our battle, where he stood. I crave to see Surya's child, that glorious chief who fell By Saryasachi's hand, unknown ...
— Indian Poetry • Edwin Arnold
... fates allowed Me too room, and made me proud, Prouder name I have not wist, With the name of Wykehamist." ...
— The Charm of Oxford • J. Wells
... his clasp; when, rising, The bird—as if surmising - Bore due to southward, crossing by the Froom, And Durnover Great-Field and Fort, the soldier clear advising - Prompted he wist by Whom. ...
— Wessex Poems and Other Verses • Thomas Hardy
... brought only their greed with them. And still the struggle went on. The continent was taken; man abolished the wilderness. A new civilization rose. And because it was strong, the world said it was not of the old America, but of a new, soft, wicked order, which wist not that God had departed ...
— In the Heart of a Fool • William Allen White
... Edith," saith Milly in a demure voice. "For it standeth with reason, as thou very well wist, that I shall never see mine elders to make no ...
— Joyce Morrell's Harvest - The Annals of Selwick Hall • Emily Sarah Holt
... 'O guest, thine hands are heavy; now rest them for a while!' So I stretched out my hands, and the hand-gyves lay cold on either wrist: And the wood of the wolf had been better than that feast-hall, had I wist That this was the ancient pit-fall, and the long expected trap, And that now for my heart's desire I ...
— The House of the Wolfings - A Tale of the House of the Wolfings and All the Kindreds of the Mark Written in Prose and in Verse • William Morris
... his hands. And the angel said unto him, 'Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals.' And so he did. And he saith unto him, 'Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.' And he went out, and followed him, and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought ...
— Raphael - A Collection Of Fifteen Pictures And A Portrait Of The - Painter With Introduction And Interpretation • Estelle M. Hurll
... all shades, O Woman.—Winds wist not of the way they blow. Apart from your kindness, life's at best but a snare. Though a tongue now past praise this bitter thing doth say, I know What solitude means, and how, homeless, ...
— Collected Poems 1901-1918 in Two Volumes - Volume I. • Walter de la Mare
... green toad whose leg doth twist, Go to the corner of which you wist, And bring to ...
— The Yellow Fairy Book • Various
... beauty. 'Read not Propertius and Tibullus'—that is easily refrained from; but read what I will, in a minute the type passeth from my eyes, and I see but her face beaming from the page. Nay, cast my eyes in what direction I may wist, it is the same. If I looked at the stained wall, the indistinct lines gradually form themselves into her profile; if I look at the clouds, they will assume some of the redundant outlines of her form; if I cast mine eyes upon the fire in the kitchen-grate, the coals will glow and cool ...
— Jacob Faithful • Captain Frederick Marryat
... that his doom, For all his bright life's kindling bloom And light that took no thought for gloom, Fell as a breath from the opening tomb Full on him ere he wist or thought. For once a churl of royal seed, King Arthur's kinsman, faint in deed And loud in word that knew not heed, Spake ...
— The Tale of Balen • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... thou bonnie bird, That sings beside thy mate; For so I sat, and so I sang, And wist not ...
— The Entailed Hat - Or, Patty Cannon's Times • George Alfred Townsend
... "But had I wist, before I lost, That love had been sae ill to win; I had lockt my heart in a case of gowd And pinn'd it with a siller pin.... O waly! waly! but love be bonny A little time while it is new, But when 'tis auld, it waxeth cauld, And fades awa' ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy
... Mansoul, and it is only the part of a faithful Creator to provide for His creature her proper nourishment. What is it? asked the children of Israel at one another when they saw a small round thing, as small as hoarfrost, upon the ground. For they wist not what it was. And Moses said, Gather of it every man according to his eating, an omer for every man, according to the number of your persons. And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna, and the taste ...
— Bunyan Characters - Third Series - The Holy War • Alexander Whyte
... that was Sir Lucan de Butlere, and his brother Sir Bedivere: and they were full sore wounded. Jesu mercy, said the king, where are all my noble knights becomen? Alas that ever I should see this doleful day. For now, said Arthur, I am come to mine end. But would to God that I wist where were that traitor Sir Mordred, that hath caused all this mischief. Then was King Arthur ware where Sir Mordred leaned upon his sword among a great heap of dead men. Now give me my spear, said Arthur unto Sir Lucan, for yonder I have espied the traitor that all this woe hath wrought. ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... deemeth right." Reclined then the chieftain, and cheek-pillows held the head of the earl, while all about him seamen hardy on hall-beds sank. None of them thought that thence their steps to the folk and fastness that fostered them, to the land they loved, would lead them back! Full well they wist that on warriors many battle-death seized, in the banquet-hall, of Danish clan. But comfort and help, war-weal weaving, to Weder folk the Master gave, that, by might of one, over their enemy all prevailed, by single strength. In sooth 'tis told that highest God ...
— Beowulf • Anonymous
... and impartial judge of quick & dead—and when his poor Mother & her poor husband went to Jerusalem to keep the passover & he went with them, he disputed among the doctors, & when his Mother ask'd him about it he said "wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business,"—all this he said was a part of that wrighteousness for the sake of which a sinner is justafied—Aunt has been up stairs all the time I have been writeing & recollecting this—so no help from her. ...
— Diary of Anna Green Winslow - A Boston School Girl of 1771 • Anna Green Winslow
... But had I wist, before I kissed, That love had been sae ill to win; I had locked my heart in a case of gowd And pinned it with a siller pin. And, O! if my young babe were born, And sat upon the nurse's knee, And I mysel were dead and ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 2 (of 4) • Various
... onward, guided by the flames. The light was seen far off by many eyes; but little wist they at the time that there was consuming the last remnant of the ...
— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston
... of night their sails were filled, And onward each rejoicing steered: Ah, neither blame, for neither willed, Or wist, what first ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 9, No. 54, April, 1862 • Various
... Way of the Wind Had I Wist Recollections Time and Life A Dialogue Plus Ultra A Dead Friend Past Days Autumn and Winter The Death of Richard Wagner Two preludes Lohengrin Tristan und Isolde The Lute and the Lyre Plus Intra Change ...
— A Century of Roundels • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... country, and bid him shave him as he had done, and he should have perfect remedy. He did so, Aristagoras shaved him with his own hands, read his friend's letter, and when he had done, washed it out, that no man should perceive it else, and sent him home to buy him a nightcap. If I wist there were any such knavery, or Peter Bales's brachygraphy,[58] under Sol's bushy hair, I would have a barber, my host of the Murrion's Head, to be his interpreter, who would whet his razor on his Richmond cap, and give him the terrible cut like himself, but he ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various
... I wist, And Sermons, to thy mill bring grist; And then thou hast the Navy List, ...
— The Works of Lord Byron, Vol. 7. - Poetry • George Gordon Byron
... more bitterly they bewailed them, and the mariners were at their wits' end, as the gale grew hourly more violent, nor knew they, nor might conjecture, whither they went, they drew nigh the island of Rhodes, albeit that Rhodes it was they wist not, and set themselves, as best and most skilfully they might, to run the ship aground. In which enterprise Fortune favoured them, bringing them into a little bay, where, shortly before them, was arrived the Rhodian ship that Cimon had let go. Nor were they ...
— The Decameron, Vol. II. • Giovanni Boccaccio
... Sole harbinger of hope, a patch of sky, Of deep, clear, solemn sky, shrining a star Magnificent; that, with a holy light, Glowing and glittering, shone into the heart As 'twere an angel's eye. Entranced I stood, Drinking the beauty of that gem serene, How long I wist not; but, when back to earth Sank my prone eyes—I knew not where I was— Again the scene had shifted, and the time, From midnight to the hour when earliest dawn Gleams in the orient, and with inky lines The trees seem painted on ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 56, Number 349, November, 1844 • Various
... the King he was right glad, and greeted him with something like a malison.[1] The King answered not a word, as if he wist not what it behoved him to say. So Prester John ordered him to be taken forth straightway, and to be put to look after cattle, but to be well looked after himself also. So they took him and set him to keep cattle. ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... forsware all love. Many a happy day thereafter the maiden lived without that she wist any whom she would care to love. In after days she became with worship a valiant here's bride. He was the selfsame falcon which she beheld in her dream that her mother unfolded to her. How sorely did she avenge this upon her nearest kin, who slew him after! Through ...
— The Nibelungenlied • Unknown
... tears. Unnumber'd punctures small yet sore Full fretfully the maiden bore, 40 Till she her lily finger found Crimson'd with many a tiny wound; And to her eyes, suffus'd with watery woe, Her flower-embroider'd web danc'd dim, I wist, Like blossom'd shrubs in a quick-moving mist: 45 Till vanquish'd ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... shoulders, and in the fashion of a servant he went down into the wide-wayed city of the foemen, and he hid himself in the guise of another, a beggar, though in no wise such an one was he at the ships of the Achaeans. In this semblance he passed into the city of the Trojans, and they wist not who he was, and I alone knew him in that guise, and I kept questioning him, but in his subtlety he avoided me. But when at last I was about washing him and anointing him with olive oil, and had put ...
— DONE INTO ENGLISH PROSE • S. H. BUTCHER, M.A.
... ever the more must Sigurd dream of her; but of that wist no man. Now it befell one evening that there was a drinking-feast; and then swore that proud woman that no man should possess her save he who wrought a mighty deed, which she named. High beat Sigurd's heart for joy; for he felt within him the strength to do that deed; but Gunnar took him apart ...
— The Vikings of Helgeland - The Prose Dramas Of Henrik Ibsen, Vol. III. • Henrik Ibsen
... Is scarce three seven years spending,—never caring What will ensue, when all their coin is gone, And all too late, then thrift is thought upon: Oft have I heard, that pride and riot kissed, And then repentence cries, 'for had I wist.' ...
— The London Prodigal • William Shakespeare [Apocrypha]
... What, shall my cousin hold fast that love of his, Her face and talk, when life ends? as God grant His life end late and sweet; I love him well. She is fair enough, his lover; a fair-faced maid, With gray sweet eyes and tender touch of talk; And that, God wot, I wist not. See you, sir, Men say I needs must get wed hastily; Do none point lips ...
— Chastelard, a Tragedy • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... my heart, thou bonnie bird That sings beside thy mate; For sae I sat, and sae I sang, And wist na o' my fate." ...
— Adventures in Criticism • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... men's eyes were lit With love and loving wonder: song that glowed Through cloud and change on souls that knew not it And hearts that wist not whence their comfort flowed, Whence fear was lightened of her fever-fit, Whence anguish of her life-compelling load. Yea, no man's head whereon the fire alit, Of all that passed along that sunset road Westward, no brow ...
— A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems • Algernon Charles Swinburne
... genius to be slow and sure and no wise "gleg at the uptak'," as a Scot would say. Yet for this once my good angel gave me a prompting and the wit to use it. In that clock-tick of benumbing despair when the success of the hazardous venture, and much more that I wist not of, hung suspended by a hair over the abyss of failure, I minded me of a boyish trick wherewith I used to fright the timid blacks in the old days at Appleby Hundred. So whilst the major was reaching for the packet—nay, when he had it in his hand—I started back with a warning cry, giving ...
— The Master of Appleby • Francis Lynde
... and falls in love with, a middle-aged savant, who is doing archaeological work for Government in the neighbourhood. He despises her as a frivolous feather-brain at first, but soon falls under the spell. Yet what has been called "the fear of the 'Had-I-wist'" and the special notion—more common perhaps with men than is generally thought—that she cannot really love him, makes him resist her advances. By rebound, she falls victim for a time to a commonplace Lovelace; but finds no satisfaction, languishes and dies, while the lover, who would not take ...
— A History of the French Novel, Vol. 2 - To the Close of the 19th Century • George Saintsbury
... mantles, with covered feet, softly as birds, and perform diligently for men the work of the day. Already often have they been privily watched, but one may not interrupt them, only let them, come and go at their listing. By such speeches was the herdsman made curious, and would fain have wist wherefore the Dwarfs hid so carefully their feet, and whether these were otherwise shapen than men's feet. When, therefore, the next year, summer again came, and the season that the Dwarfs did stealthily pluck the cherries, and bear them into the garner, the herdsman ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXLV. July, 1844. Vol. LVI. • Various
... of King Ban] Therewith a great passion of grief took hold upon him and shook him like to a leaf, and immediately after that he felt that something brake within him with a very sharp and bitter pain, and he wist that it was his heart that had broken. So being all alone there upon the hilltop, and in the perfect stillness of the night, he cried out, "My heart! My heart!" And therewith, the shadows of death coming upon him, he could not sit any longer ...
— The Story of the Champions of the Round Table • Howard Pyle
... my foes is chiefest bliss I wist, * And on the courser's back be borne a list; Comes promising tryst a messenger from friend * Full oft, when comes the friend ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 2 • Richard F. Burton
... revelation was to be made in respect to the breaking of the spell which had fixed upon him the frightful doom of the Wehr-Wolf! But little suspected Fernand Wagner that one morning, while he slept, his boat had borne him through the proud fleet of the Ottomans—little wist he that his beloved Nisida had caught sight of him as he was wafted rapidly past the stern of the kapitan-pasha's ship! For on that occasion he had slept during hours; and when he had awakened, not a bark nor sail save his own was visible on the ...
— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds
... "What wist Aunt Joyce thereabout?" murmurs Milly, so that I could just hear. "She never lacked nought ...
— Joyce Morrell's Harvest - The Annals of Selwick Hall • Emily Sarah Holt
... me a bough o' the willow sae green That waves by yon brook where the wild-flowers grow sheen; And braiding my harp wi' the sweet budding rue, It mellow'd its tones 'mang the saft falling dew; It whisper'd a strain that I wist na to hear, That false was the lassie my bosom held dear; Pride stirr'd me to sing, as I tore off the rue— If she 's got ae sweetheart, sure I can ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume III - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... in thee and in thy seed. And I shall be thy keeper wheresoever thou shalt go, and shall bring thee again into this land, and I shall not leave till I have accomplished all that I have said. When Jacob was awaked from his sleep and dreaming, he said: Verily God is in this place, and I wist not of it. And he said dreadingly: How terrible is this place, none other thing is here but the house of God and the gate of heaven. Then Jacob arose early and took the stone that lay under his head, and raised it for witness, pouring oil thereon, ...
— Bible Stories and Religious Classics • Philip P. Wells
... over the thought," said Randall, "but there was no way of living. I wist not whether the Ranger might not stir up old tales, and moreover old Martin is ill to move. We brought him down by boat from Windsor, and he has never quitted the house since, nor his bed for the last two years. You'll come and ...
— The Armourer's Prentices • Charlotte M. Yonge
... wherevpon drawing neerer, and enquiring who they were, answer was returned mee it was that notable Bandetto Esdras of Granado. O so I was tickled in the spleene with that word, my heart hopt & daunst, my elbowes itcht, my fingers friskt, I wist not what should become of my feete, nor knew what I did for ioy. The fray parted. I thought it not conuenient to single him out (being a sturdie knaue) in the street, but to stay till I had got him at more aduantage. To ...
— The Vnfortunate Traveller, or The Life Of Jack Wilton - With An Essay On The Life And Writings Of Thomas Nash By Edmund Gosse • Thomas Nash
... stone's shade on your divan Falls; it is longer than ye wist: It preaches, as Time's gnomon can, ...
— Ballads in Blue China and Verses and Translations • Andrew Lang
... hither I will that we seek St. Peter, all that to Rome cannot go." During these words the abbot desired that he would gant him his request. And the king granted it. "I have here (said he) some good monks that would lead their life in retirement, if they wist where. Now here is an island, that is called Ankerig; and I will request, that we may there build a minster to the honour of St. Mary; that they may dwell there who will lead their lives in peace and tranquillity." Then answered the king, and ...
— The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle • Unknown |
