"Besmear" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... book might make in England. "Not an Englishman of them all ever spared America for courtesy's sake or kindness; nor, in my opinion, would it contribute in the least to any mutual advantage and comfort if we were to besmear each other all over with butter and honey." I am far from intending to intimate that the vulgar instinct of recrimination had anything to do with the restrictive passages of Our Old Home; I mean simply ...
— Hawthorne - (English Men of Letters Series) • Henry James, Junr.
... against accidents from fire, or that they want the art of building. With them in truth, is unknown even the use of mortar and of tiles. In all their structures they employ materials quite gross and unhewn, void of fashion and comeliness. Some parts they besmear with an earth so pure and resplendent, that it resembles painting and colours. They are likewise wont to scoop caves deep in the ground, and over them to lay great heaps of dung. Thither they retire for shelter in the winter, and thither convey ...
— Tacitus on Germany • Tacitus
... and wither'd at her hand; A swift old age o'er all his members spread; A sudden frost was sprinkled on his head; Nor longer in the heavy eye-ball shined The glance divine, forth-beaming from the mind. His robe, which spots indelible besmear, In rags dishonest flutters with the air: A stag's torn hide is lapp'd around his reins; A rugged staff his trembling hand sustains; And at his side a wretched scrip was hung, Wide-patch'd, and knotted to a twisted thong. So looked the chief, so moved: to mortal eyes Object uncouth! ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer, translated by Alexander Pope |
