"Methought" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... (I knew your far-famed Areopagus) Sits Justice, and permits not vagrant folk To stay within your borders. In that faith I hunted down my quarry; and e'en then I had refrained but for the curses dire Wherewith he banned my kinsfolk and myself: Such wrong, methought, had warrant for my act. Anger has no old age but only death; The dead alone can feel no touch of spite. So thou must work thy will; my cause is just But weak without allies; yet will I try, Old as I am, to answer ...
— The Oedipus Trilogy • Sophocles
... the ground). Methought King Mark had paid thy jests with whips and had Then driven thee away; and yet thou sitst Here in the self-same place and starest still With blear'd and fish-like eyes. Dost thou not know That day is come? Fool, if thou hast a heart Through which the warm ...
— The German Classics, v. 20 - Masterpieces of German Literature • Various
... surgeon!' he cried; then dropping the light, he ran out of the room followed by my mother; I remained alone, supporting the senseless form of my father; the light had been extinguished by the fall, and an almost total darkness reigned in the room. The form pressed heavily against my bosom—at last methought it moved. Yes, I was light, there was a heaving of the breast, and then a gasping. Were those words which I heard? Yes, they were words, low and indistinct at first, and then audible. The mind of the dying man was reverting to former ...
— The Pocket George Borrow • George Borrow
... longer ambitious? Once I was, but 'twas when I was young and foolish. Then methought "It were an easy leap to pluck bright honour from the pale-faced moon;" but now I am old and fat, and there is something in fat which chokes or destroys ambition. It would appear that it is requisite for the body to be active and springing as the mind; and if it is not, it weighs the ...
— Newton Forster • Frederick Marryat
... that you paid me first—that I owe unto you mine own self and my very life? From the time we came hither I have seen pretty clearly which way Aubrey was going; and having failed to stay him, methought my next duty was to save all I could, that you should not at some after-time be cumbered with his debts. Mr Rookwood's and Patrick's, whereof I knew, have I discharged; and the other, for which I have a sufficiency, will I deal withal to-morrow, so that you can tell Aubrey ...
— It Might Have Been - The Story of the Gunpowder Plot • Emily Sarah Holt
... phantom of False morning died, Methought a Voice within the Tavern cried, "When all the Temple is prepared within, "Why nods the drowsy ...
— Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam • Omar Khayyam
... Celestial she; And like a Cedar, others so surmount, That but for shrubs they did themselves account. Then saw I France and Holland say'd Cales won, And Philip and Albertus half undone, I saw all peace at home, terror to foes, But oh, I saw at last those eyes to close. And then methought the clay at noon grew dark, When it had lost that radiant Sunlike Spark; In midst of griefs I saw our ...
— Anne Bradstreet and Her Time • Helen Campbell
... Act, hope to see your Town once more ungarrisond, in which I should be glad and happy to be instrumentall to the uttermost. For I can not but remember, though then a child, those blessed days when the youth of your own town were trained for your militia, and did, methought, become their arms much better than any soldiers that I haue seen there since. And it will not be amisse if you please (now that we are about a new Act of regulating the Militia, that it may be as a standing strength, but not as ill as a perpetuall Army to the ...
— Andrew Marvell • Augustine Birrell
... king, thy noble words! My trust and candour wilt thou thus repay? Thou seem'dst, methought, prepar'd to ...
— Iphigenia in Tauris • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
... lord, no mortal should deny on oath, Judgement is still belied by after thought When quailing 'neath the tempest of your threats, Methought no force would drive me to this place But joy unlook'd for and surpassing hope Is out of bound the best of all delight, And so I am here again,—though I had sworn I ne'er would come,—and in my charge this maid, Caught in the act of caring for the dead Here was no lot throwing, ...
— The Seven Plays in English Verse • Sophocles
... earth, Of each new horror which each hour gives birth, Of sins that scar and cruelties that blight Life's little season, meant for man's delight, Methought those monstrous and repellent crimes Which hate engenders in war-heated times, To God's great heart bring not so much despair As other sins which flourish everywhere And in all times—bold sins, bare-faced and proud, Unchecked by college, and by ...
— Hello, Boys! • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... crowded with aged paupers, who each well knew that his carcass would undergo what laceration the scalpel of my friend and his comrades chose to inflict upon it. But the thought seemed not to affect them so much as it did us. Methought the business of dissecting dead subjects might have been carried on more remote from the living candidates; but I was wrong, for mystery and ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 19, Issue 546, May 12, 1832 • Various
... am a little in the dark about this new work of yours: what is to become of me afterwards? You say carefully - methought anxiously - that I was no longer me when I grew up? I cannot bear this suspense: what is it? It's no forgery? And AM I HANGIT? These are the elements of a very pretty lawsuit which you had better ...
— Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - Volume 2 • Robert Louis Stevenson
... "Methought they did mee beate and binde, And tooke my bow mee froe; Iff I be Robin alive in this lande, Ile be ...
— The Book of Old English Ballads • George Wharton Edwards
... of things, but in themselves but poor and absurd. The show being done, we got to Paul's with much ado, and went on foot with my Lady Pickering to her lodging, which was a poor one in Blackfryars, where she never invited me to go in at all, which methought was very strange. Lady Davis is now come to our next lodgings, and she locked up the lead's door from me, which puts me in ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury
... has been this passionate episode in a life which, methought, had done with passion. It has lasted hardly so many hours as I have lived years; and yet, were I to live on into the next century, it would never cease to influence me in all I think and do. I can not solve to my satisfaction this problem—why two lives should be wasted as ours have been. ...
— David Poindexter's Disappearance and Other Tales • Julian Hawthorne
... back, Captain, because a man from one of the ships in the Pool landed and said there was a great light in the sky, and that it seemed to him it was either a big fire in the Temple, or in one of the mansions beyond the walls; so methought I would come in and ask Cyril if he would like to go with me to see what ...
— When London Burned • G. A. Henty
... "Methought there seemed something of the gentle in him, though he was but meanly garbed. Yet the apparel doth not always make ...
— In Doublet and Hose - A Story for Girls • Lucy Foster Madison
... acquirement, in a great measure remains, through an interval of thirty years. A few days ago, in a journey I made to Davenport, being with my host at an arithmetical lesson given his children, I did (with pleasure, and without errors) a most complicated work. While setting down my figures, methought I was still at Chambery, still in my days of happiness—how far had I to look ...
— The Confessions of J. J. Rousseau, Complete • Jean Jacques Rousseau
... cheered, but Paul, methought, was sad. One evening as he sat upon his couch, Communing with himself as he was wont, I stood before him; looking in his face, I said, 'Pauline—her name is then, Pauline.' All of a sudden up ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon
... from off my couch serene, Woods, meadows, towns and seas have seen; And in one wood, beside a cave, A hermit kneeling by a grave:— The which I felt so touched to see I wept a shower of sympathy. And in one mead I saw, methought, A brave, dark-armored knight, who fought A shining-dragon in a mist, That, mixed with flames did roll and twist Out of the beast's red mouth—a breath Of choking, blinding, sulphurous death, On which I shot my thickest ...
— Thoughts, Moods and Ideals: Crimes of Leisure • W.D. Lighthall
... Methought I saw a grave and very venerable old man with a long white beard enter my chamber, and quietly seat himself opposite to me. Instead of asking who he was and how he came there, nothing seemed more natural and proper. We all know how easily in dreams the mind dispenses with all ceremony; ...
— The Eclipse of Faith - Or, A Visit To A Religious Sceptic • Henry Rogers
... him," she cried. "Oh, methought his form passed before me;—but it is gone!" She looked eagerly round the apartment; other eyes involuntarily followed,—but no living object could be distinguished through the chill and oppressive gloom that brooded over that chamber ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... grown to one vast drysaltery! So munch on, crunch on, take your nunchion, Breakfast, supper, dinner, luncheon!' And just as a bulky sugar-puncheon, All ready staved, like a great sun shone Glorious scarce an inch before me, Just as methought it said, 'Come, bore me!' —I found the ...
— The New McGuffey Fourth Reader • William H. McGuffey
... as I lay, shone the eternal stars, and there at my feet the impish marsh-born balls of fire rolled this way and that, vapour-tossed and earth-desiring, and methought that in the two I saw a type and image of what man is, and what perchance man may one day be, if the living Force who ordained him and them should so ordain this also. Oh, that it might be ours to rest year by year ...
— She • H. Rider Haggard
... me feel thy touch—thy breath! yes, yes, thou livest! We are not too late! That dread door methought would never yield! But thou livest! Thou livest yet!—and ...
— Standard Selections • Various
... 38. And, methought, they spake as if joy did make them speak; they spake with such pleasantness of scripture language, and with such appearance of grace in all they said, that they were to me, as if they had found a new world; as if they ...
— Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners • John Bunyan
... as I sat beside The gurgling flow of Kuhbach's little river, Methought how, even as I saw it glide, That stream had flowed and gurgled on forever. Yes, on the day when JOSHUA passed the flood Of ancient Jordan; when across the Nile CAESAR swam (hardly, doubtless, through the mud,) Yet kept his Commentaries dry the ...
— Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, March 1844 - Volume 23, Number 3 • Various
... you; correct your matrimony.—And methought, of a sudden this thief was turned to Mr Woodall; and that, hearing Mr Limberham come, he slipt for ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Vol. 6 (of 18) - Limberham; Oedipus; Troilus and Cressida; The Spanish Friar • John Dryden
... father drew The life he gave, and mix'd the big tear's dew. Nor was it thine th' heroic strain to roll With mimic feelings foreign from the soul: Bright in thy parent's eye we mark'd the tear; 25 Methought he said, 'Thou art no Actress here! A semblance of thyself the Grecian dame, And Brunton and Euphrasia ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge
... come to God, to learn to believe, to hope, to love; to trust to the boundless mercy; to take his rest in the paths of Heaven. And then she uttered a scream, tore the tresses of her dove-white hair, and cursed God. Methought it was the ...
— Debts of Honor • Maurus Jokai
... wild, unclaimed land, of which any one, who chose to clear it of its trees, might take possession. I figured myself in America, in an immense forest, clearing the land destined, by my exertions, to become a fruitful and smiling plain. Methought I heard the crash of the huge trees as they fell beneath my axe; and then I bethought me that a man was intended to marry—I ought to marry; and if I married, where was I likely to be more happy ...
— George Borrow - The Man and His Books • Edward Thomas
... meltingly upon me. Imagining myself still alone, my prayer gushed from my heart to my lips, and I wept as I prayed. I was startled in the midst of my devotions, however, by a deep sigh. I turned suddenly, and just behind me was a female. She had raised her veil also in prayer, and when our eyes met, methought a celestial ray shot from those dark and smiling orbs at once ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VI. • Various
... In good faith, sir, I'm heartily grieved, a beard of your grave length Should be so over-reach'd. I never brook'd That parasite's hair; methought his nose should cozen: There still was somewhat in his look, did promise The bane of ...
— Volpone; Or, The Fox • Ben Jonson
... about at my leisure, with my Sunday hat on, and a pair of clean white cotton stockings, in this heavenly mood, under the green trees, and beside the still waters, out of which beautiful salmon trouts were sporting and leaping, methought in a moment I fell down in a trance, as flat as a flounder, and I heard a voice visibly saying to me, "Thou shalt have a son; let him be christened Benjamin!" The joy that this vision brought my spirit thrilled through my bones, like the sounds ...
— The Life of Mansie Wauch - tailor in Dalkeith • D. M. Moir
... Methought they did me beat and bind, And took my bow me fro'; If I be Robin alive in this land, I'll be ...
— The Book of Brave Old Ballads • Unknown
... summer afternoon, in a distant country I met one of those orchids whose main idea consists in the imitation of a fly; this lie they dispose so plausibly upon their petals that other flies who would steal their honey leave them unmolested. Watching intently and keeping very still, methought I heard this person speaking to the offspring which she felt within her though ...
— The Note-Books of Samuel Butler • Samuel Butler
... thine, to him shalt bear Multitudes like thyself, and thence be called Mother of human race." What could I do, But follow straight, invisibly thus led? Till I espied thee, fair indeed and tall, Under a platane; yet methought less fair, Less winning soft, less amiably mild, Than that smooth watery image: Back I turned; Thou following cryedst aloud, "Return, fair Eve; Whom flyest thou? whom thou flyest, of him thou art, His flesh, his bone; to give thee being I lent Out of my side to ...
— Paradise Lost • John Milton
... young, methought; it is too hot to think of marching home at this hour. Now is the time, rather, for a pipe of kif—if only to demonstrate the difference that exists between man and the ape. For your monkey can be taught to eat and drink like a Christian; he can ...
— Fountains In The Sand - Rambles Among The Oases Of Tunisia • Norman Douglas
... these two are brought to the world two daughters, the elder named Pamela, the younger Philoclea, both beyond measure excellent in all the gifts allotted to reasonable creatures. When I marked them, methought there was more sweetness in Philoclea, but more majesty in Pamela; methought Philoclea's beauty only persuaded, but so persuaded as all hearts must yield; Pamela's beauty used violence, and such violence as no heart could ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VIII • Arthur Mee and J.A. Hammerton, Eds.
... upon this high ridge, or how he proposed to get down again, were more than I could fancy. Not far off upon my right was the famous Plan de Font Morte, where Poul with his Armenian sabre slashed down the Camisards of Seguier. This, methought, might be some Rip van Winkle of the war, who had lost his comrades, fleeing before Poul, and wandered ever since upon the mountains. It might be news to him that Cavalier had surrendered, or Roland had fallen ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition - Vol. 1 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... who bear that badge, by that same token shall ye yourself be one of King Arthur's knights. They would both cross over, and I ferried them to the further side. 'Twas to them an unknown land; that did I hear well from their speech. Methought that they were ill at ease, I wist not wherefore. I saw that the one wept so that the tears fell thick adown his face. And when I had brought them to the other side the knight, who was glad thereof, asked me if I knew where stood a hermitage wherein a ...
— The Romance of Morien • Jessie L. Weston
... pain it was to drown! What dreadful noise of waters in mine ears! What ugly sights of death within mine eyes! Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks, Ten thousand men that fishes gnawed upon, Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels, All scattered in the bottom of the sea: Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept, ...
— Familiar Quotations • John Bartlett
... feathered crest, Chooses much rather be his shot-free guest, To fare so freely with so little cost, Than stake his twelvepence to a meaner host. Hadst thou not told me, I should surely say He touched no meat of all this livelong day; For sure methought, yet that was but a guess, His eyes seemed sunk for very hollowness, But could he have—as I did it mistake— So little in his purse, so much upon his back? So nothing in his maw? yet seemeth by his belt That his gaunt ...
— English Satires • Various
... the brother came home from hunting the serpent hid himself, but the sister said, "I have dreamed a dream, dear brother. Methought thou didst go and fetch me wolf's milk, and I drank of it, and my health came back to me, for I am so weak that God grant I die not."—"I'll fetch it," said her brother. So he mounted his horse and set off. Presently ...
— Cossack Fairy Tales and Folk Tales • Anonymous
... few years ago, a large number arrived in St. Louis, and were cared for by the colored people of that city. They were sheltered in churches, halls and private houses, until such time as they could pursue their journey. Methought, I will find him in this motley crowd, of all ages, from the crowing babe in its mother's arms, to the aged and decrepit, on whom the marks of slavery were still visible. I piled inquiry upon inquiry, until after long and persistent search, ...
— From the Darkness Cometh the Light, or Struggles for Freedom • Lucy A. Delaney
... and methought she spread, Wrapped in a reddish haze that waxed and waned; But notwithstanding to myself I said— 'The stars are changeless; sure some mote hath stained Mine eyes, and her fair glory minished.' Of age and failing vision I complained, And I bought 'some vapor in the heavens doth swim, That makes ...
— Poems by Jean Ingelow, In Two Volumes, Volume I. • Jean Ingelow
... of my money, but falsely, as others do, who being rich, pretend to be poor, and being poor, pretend to be rich, dispensing their consciences from ever telling sincerely what they have: a ridiculous and shameful prudence. Was I going a journey? Methought I was never enough provided: and the more I loaded myself with money, the more also was I loaded with fear, one while of the danger of the roads, another of the fidelity of him who had the charge of my baggage, of whom, as some others that I know, I was never ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... Not long was I there, Not more than nine nights; But the howl of the wolf Methought sounded ill To the song ...
— Ten Great Religions - An Essay in Comparative Theology • James Freeman Clarke
... pounds sterling a year! Hard cash! Why, the thing fairly took my breath away. I sat down to grapple with the stupendous thought. Aha! where would the duns be now? What would those miserable devils say now, that had been badgering him with lawyers' letters? Wouldn't they all haul off? Methought they would. Methought! why, meknew they would—mefancied how they would fawn, and cringe, and apologize, and explain, and lick the dust, and offer to polish his noble boots, and present themselves for the honor of being ...
— The Lady of the Ice - A Novel • James De Mille
... Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor. "Wretch," I cried, "thy God hath lent thee—by these angels he hath sent thee Respite—respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore! Quaff, ...
— The Raven • Edgar Allan Poe
... sadly at the floor and said: "Methought none but Sigurd the Volsung could have dared those ...
— Told by the Northmen: - Stories from the Eddas and Sagas • E. M. [Ethel Mary] Wilmot-Buxton
... hung over the lake as if ready to tumble into its waters. I broke away, too, from several "acts of contrition" to conjecture whether the dark, shadowy inequalities which terminated the horizon, and penetrated, methought, into the very skies far beyond the lake, were mountains or clouds: a dark problem, which to this day I have not been able to solve. Nay, I was taken twice, despite of the most virtuous efforts to the contrary, from a Salve Regina, ...
— The Station; The Party Fight And Funeral; The Lough Derg Pilgrim • William Carleton
... friends, methought, were coats of mail! And so they were, indeed, but on my foeman's part. Unerring shafts and true I deemed them; and they were Unerring shafts, indeed, alas, but ...
— The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night, Volume I • Anonymous
... hand among the flowers, 'Yea—for a dream. Last night methought I saw That maiden Saint who stands with lily in hand In yonder shrine. All round her prest the dark, And all the light upon her silver face Flow'd from the spiritual lily that she held. Lo! these her emblems drew mine ...
— Alfred Tennyson • Andrew Lang
... MACB. Methought, I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more! Macbeth does murther sleep,"—the innocent sleep; Sleep, that knits up the ravell'd sleeve of care, The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature's ...
— The Canadian Elocutionist • Anna Kelsey Howard
... Now, albeit that I fully put my trust in God and hope to be a saved soul by his mercy, yet no man is here so sure that without revelation he may stand clean out of dread. So I bethought me also upon the pain of hell, and afterward, then, I bethought me upon the Turk again. And at first methought his terror nothing, when I compared with it the joyful hope of heaven. Then I compared it on the other hand with the fearful dread of hell, casting therein in my mind those terrible fiendish tormentors, with the deep consideration of that ...
— Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation - With Modifications To Obsolete Language By Monica Stevens • Thomas More
... Methought there descended the Saints and the Sages, With grief-stricken aspect and wringing of hands, Till Dreamland seemed filled with the anguish of ages, The blots of Time's pages, the woes ...
— Voices for the Speechless • Abraham Firth
... (under the most gracious and happy government of a peerless princess, assisted with so prudent, politic, and learned Counsel) all good literature hath had free progress and flourished in no age so much: methought I owed this duty, to leave for my part also (after many others) some small memorial, that might give testimony another day what fruits generally this peaceable age of ours hath produced. Endeavored I have therefore to stand in the third rank, and bestowed those hours ...
— Early Theories of Translation • Flora Ross Amos
... sunk under ground. But, madam, I guess'd there would never come good, When I saw him so often with Darby and Wood.[7] And now my dream's out; for I was a-dream'd That I saw a huge rat—O dear, how I scream'd! And after, methought, I had lost my new shoes; And Molly, she said, I should hear some ill news. "Dear Madam, had you but the spirit to tease, You might have a barrack whenever you please: And, madam, I always believed you so stout, That for twenty denials you would not give out. If I had a husband ...
— Poems (Volume II.) • Jonathan Swift
... "Dear master, Methought we were to hunt to-day at Spessart, and I sent the wine thither. For the present we must go thirsty; another time I ...
— The Fall of the Niebelungs • Unknown
... ruminate on these things as I paced to and fro in the empty midnight streets of Brescia. Methought I could hear, in the silent night, the cry of the martyrs whose ashes sleep in the plains around, saying, "How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth!" Yes; God has judged, and is avenging; and the doom takes the ...
— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie
... was the sun, I wrapped myself in a cloak as if I were a shepherd In the habit of a hermit unholy of works, Abroad I wandered in this world wonders to hear. But on a May morning on Malvern Hills Me befell a wonder, a strange thing. Methought, I was weary of wandering, and went me to rest Under a broad bank by a burn side. And as I lay, and leaned, and looked on the waters I slumbered in a sleeping it sounded ...
— English Literature For Boys And Girls • H.E. Marshall
... fish. The way they do this is to hitch a line on behind the boat and let it drag through the water and catch what comes to it. And as our boat swep' on over the glassy surface of the water that lay shinin' so smooth and level, not hintin' of the rocks and depths below, I methought, "Here we be all on us, men and wimmen, fishin' on the broad sea of life, and who knows what will tackle the lines we drop down into the mysterious depths? We sail along careless and onthinkin' over rush and rapid, depth and shallow, the line draggin' along. Who knows what we may feel ...
— Samantha at Coney Island - and a Thousand Other Islands • Marietta Holley
... my relatives began to chide, Methought the voice of conscience said inside: "Why should you want a husband, when you have A cat who seldom will ...
— Threads of Grey and Gold • Myrtle Reed
... one may name him, were in this state. As for me, even before he came to the throne, it was foretold me in a way by his father that I should write this account. Just after his death methought I saw in a great plain the whole power of Rome arrayed in arms, and it seemed as if Severus were sitting [on a knoll there and] on a lofty tribunal conversing with them. And, seeing me standing by to hear what was said, he spoke out: "Come hither, Dio, to this spot; approach nearer, ...
— Dio's Rome, Vol VI. • Cassius Dio
... what pleased his erratic fancy best on this occasion was, not the great spectacle he had taken such trouble to survey, but a sight of my Lady Castlemaine, who stood over against him "upon a piece of Whitehall." The worthy clerk of the Admiralty "glutted" himself with looking on her; "but methought it was strange," says he, "to see her lord and her upon the same place walking up and down without taking notice of one another, only at first entry he put off his hat, and she made him a very civil ...
— Royalty Restored - or, London under Charles II. • J. Fitzgerald Molloy
... and now, methought, it was she who was white, and I thought there was fear in her eyes when she dropped them. But I turned away, and, passing Yvon's door, went ...
— Rosin the Beau • Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards
... got more familiar with it—they generally do. And the light of that moon I spoke on liquefies common sense and a state, putty soft, ensues; but cold weather hardens putty, and I knew that she would git over it. But even as I methought, Phila sez, "I must go to my seat, pa will be lookin' for me." I see Miss Meechim smotherin' a smile on her lace-edged handkerchief, and Dorothy's eyes kinder laughin' at the idee of a bride ...
— Around the World with Josiah Allen's Wife • Marietta Holley
... his heel into the smoulder'd log, 65 That sent a blast of sparkles up the flue: And so to bed; where yet in sleep I seem'd To sail with Arthur under looming shores, Point after point; till on to dawn, when dreams Begin to feel the truth and stir of day, 70 To me, methought, who waited with a crowd, There came a bark that, blowing forward, bore King Arthur, like a modern gentleman Of stateliest port; and all the people cried, 'Arthur is come again: he cannot die.' 75 Then those ...
— Selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson • William Wordsworth and Alfred Lord Tennyson
... I believe it. Alas, 'tis ephemeral folly, Vain and ephemeral folly, of course, compared with pictures, Statues, and antique gems,—indeed: and yet indeed too, Yet methought, in broad day did I dream,—tell it not in St. James's, Whisper it not in thy courts, O Christ Church!—yet did I, waking, Dream of a cadence that sings, Si tombent nos jeunes heros, la Terre en produit de nouveaux contre vous tous prets a se battre; Dreamt of great indignations ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 5, March, 1858 • Various
... lighted my pipe, surrendered my whole being to the luxurious enjoyment of so charming a situation. I had scarcely finished smoking, when I fell into a sound and delicious sleep. And behold! I dreamed a dream; and methought: ...
— The Humourous Story of Farmer Bumpkin's Lawsuit • Richard Harris
... wrong, methought, to pass and look On others, yet myself, the while unseen, To my sage counsel therefore did I ...
— Dante: "The Central Man of All the World" • John T. Slattery
... sufferer's aspect moved my commiseration; he stood calm and collected among the musketeers, supporting a woman about his own age, who I trow was his wife. To do her justice she shewed no signs of terror, though she rolled her eyes on those around her with a look of disdain, less suited, methought, to her situation than the dignified patience of her companion. I asked him if he had been a bishop, and he answered, No; but was still a minister of the Christian church. 'Then,' said I, 'perhaps in your affliction ...
— The Loyalists, Vol. 1-3 - An Historical Novel • Jane West
... and better perhaps, For what had life for her but suffering? And then, we're only poor, sir, John and I, And she indeed was somewhat of a strain: O! yes, it's for the best for all of us. And still beneath all else methought I read 'What will the lodgers think, having the dead Within the ...
— English Poems • Richard Le Gallienne
... Methought I saw my late espoused saint Brought to me, like Alcestis, from the grave, Whom Jove's great son to her glad husband gave, Rescued from death by force, though ...
— Mosaics of Grecian History • Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson
... perhaps, than either. The King, most misfortunate Gentleman! who knoweth not which Way to turn, nor whom to trust. Last Time I saw him, methought never was there a Face ...
— Mary Powell & Deborah's Diary • Anne Manning
... of evil, By day I used to dread the devil, And trembling when 'twas night, Methought I saw thy horns and ears, They sung or whistled to my fears, And ran to chase ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton
... happen to the land, And how would look the sea, If in the bearded devil's path Our earth should chance to be? Full hot and high the sea would boil, Full red the forests gleam; Methought I saw and heard it all In ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... rattled their canicans after the Blacksmith had ended his story, and methought they liked it better than almost anything that had been told. Then there was a pause, and everybody was still, and as nobody else spoke I myself ventured to break the silence. "I would like," said I (and my voice sounded thin in my own ...
— Twilight Land • Howard Pyle
... him he should go to her again the next day. In the meantime, to pass away the tedious interval, he commanded a song which he loved to be sung; and he said: 'My good Cesario, when I heard that song last night, methought it did relieve my passion much. Mark it, Cesario, it is old and plain. The spinsters and the knitters when they sit in the sun, and the young maids that weave their thread with bone, chant this song. It is silly, yet I love it, for ...
— Tales from Shakespeare • Charles and Mary Lamb
... up round about A lustre over that already there, Of equal clearness, like the brightening up Of the horizon. As at an evening hour Of twilight, new appearances through heav'n Peer with faint glimmer, doubtfully descried; So there new substances, methought began To rise in view; and round the other twain Enwheeling, ...
— The Divine Comedy, Complete - The Vision of Paradise, Purgatory and Hell • Dante Alighieri
... this time I had a kind of consciousness that I had been the object of some person's observation; that eyes were fastened upon me from somewhere in the crowd. Sometimes I thought myself watched from before, sometimes from behind; and occasionally methought that, if I just turned my head to the right or left, I should meet a peering and inquiring glance; and indeed once or twice I did turn, expecting to see somebody whom I knew, yet always without success; though it appeared to me that ...
— Lavengro - The Scholar, The Gypsy, The Priest • George Borrow
... stood on the scattered planks which afford a precarious foothold amid the rapids of St. Anthony, methought these frail bridges of hewn timber accorded with the reminiscence of the missionary pioneer who discovered and named the picturesque waters more than an elaborate and ancient causeway. Even those long, inelegant structures which lead the pedestrian over our own Charles River, or the broad ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 74, December, 1863 • Various
... idle dream: Methought I walked about the mid of night Into a churchyard, where a goodly yew-tree Spread her large root in ground: under that yew, As I sat sadly leaning on a grave, Chequer'd with cross-sticks, there came stealing in Your duchess and my ...
— The White Devil • John Webster
... intervals, it arched forth its vast archangel wings, as if to embrace some holy ark. Wondrous flutterings and throbbings shook it. Though bodily unharmed, it uttered cries, as some king's ghost in supernatural distress. Through its inexpressible, strange eyes, methought I peeped to secrets which took hold of God. As Abraham before the angels, I bowed myself; the white thing was so white, its wings so wide, and in those for ever exiled waters, I had lost the miserable warping memories of traditions and of towns. Long ...
— Moby-Dick • Melville
... many a lonely glade, And fancied wanderings with a fair-hair'd maid? Have these things been? or what rare witchery, Impregning with delights the charmed air, Enlighted up the semblance of a smile In those fine eyes? methought they spake the while Soft soothing things, which might enforce despair To drop the murdering knife, and let go by His foul resolve. And does the lonely glade Still court the foot-steps of the fair-hair'd maid? Still in her locks the ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas
... of consequence, because I never heard of any one speaking ill of me, but I immediately saw how far short he came of the full truth. For, if he was wrong or exaggerated in his particulars, I had offended God much more in other matters that my detractor knew nothing about. And, methought, God favoured me much in not proclaiming my secret sins to all men. And, thus, I am very glad that my detractor should ever report a trifling lie about me, rather than ...
— Santa Teresa - an Appreciation: with some of the best passages of the Saint's Writings • Alexander Whyte
... head, and moved myself away; Then, from the copses, and from secret caves Hid in the wood, methought a ghostly voice Came forth and woke an echo in my souls As in the ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo
... contest. It was held first by one party, then by the other. Owing to this importance, it was natural that its name should come to be used as an exclamation.] said Ivanhoe, raising himself joyfully on his couch, "methought there was but one man in England that might do ...
— Journeys Through Bookland - Volume Four • Charles H. Sylvester
... no scorn, no bitterness to thee, I hid my wife's death and my misery. Methought it was but added pain on pain If thou shouldst leave me, and roam forth again Seeking another's roof. And, for mine own Sorrow, I was content to weep alone. But, for this damsel, if it may be so, I pray thee, Lord, let some man, not in woe Like mine, take her. Thou ...
— Alcestis • Euripides
... at night, methought, in dream A shape of speechless beauty did appear: It stood like light on a careering stream Of golden clouds which shook the atmosphere; A winged youth, his radiant brow did wear 500 The Morning Star: a wild dissolving bliss Over my frame he breathed, approaching near, And bent his eyes of kindling ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Volume I • Percy Bysshe Shelley
... I slept) methought I was back in torment. I seemed to hear again the crack of whips, the harsh cries of the drivers, the shrill screams and curses, the long, groaning breaths with the rattle and creak of the great oars as they swung ceaselessly back and forth; ...
— Black Bartlemy's Treasure • Jeffrey Farnol
... followed Ethelbert as I had been bidden, and passed into the council chamber, where Offa and his guest parted for the night, each going his own way. I thought Offa seemed heavy and moody, but in every wise friendly. Tired he was, methought, for it ...
— A King's Comrade - A Story of Old Hereford • Charles Whistler
... one there was, most beauteous to behold, A little one, with jewels set in gold; Ah! this methought, I can with comfort wear, For it will be ...
— Mary at the Farm and Book of Recipes Compiled during Her Visit - among the "Pennsylvania Germans" • Edith M. Thomas
... Why not a mother? When I said a mother, Methought you saw a serpent: what's in mother, That you start at it? I say, I am your mother: And put you in the catalogue of those That were enwombed mine: 'tis often seen, Adoption strives with nature; and choice breeds A native slip to us from foreign seeds. You ne'er ...
— Characteristics of Women - Moral, Poetical, and Historical • Anna Jameson
... shall we sail to-day?' Thus said, methought, A Voice—that could be only heard in dreams: And on we glided without mast or oars, A fair strange boat upon ...
— Chambers's Edinburgh Journal, No. 448 - Volume 18, New Series, July 31, 1852 • Various
... peculiar eloquence, "to a neighbouring town; and sat down upon a settle in the street, and fell into a very deep pause about the most fearful state my sin had brought me to; and, after long musing, I lifted up my head; but methought I saw as if the sun that shineth in the heavens did grudge to give me light; and as if the very stones in the street, and tiles upon the houses, did band themselves against me. Methought that they all combined ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... yet I was not with thee! And thou wert sick, and yet I was not near! Methought that joy and health alone could be Where I was not, and pain and sorrow here. And is it thus? It is as I foretold, And shall be more so; for the mind recoils Upon itself, and the wrecked heart lies cold, While heaviness collects the shattered spoils. ...
— Lady Byron Vindicated • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... most Christian King, took my Journey into France; where I fell into a mortal Distemper and remained some Time in the District of Paris, in the venerable Monastery of St. Denis the Martyr. And being now past Hopes of Recovery, methought I was one Day at Prayers in the Church of the same blessed Martyr, in a Place under the Bells: And that I saw standing before the great Altar our Master Peter; and that great Master of the Gentiles, our Master Paul; whom I knew very well by their Vestments. And ...
— Franco-Gallia • Francis Hotoman
... for a chance blow, as did Messire Patroclus, in the Romance of Troy, who slew a man in anger over the game of the chess, and many another knight, in the tales of Charlemagne and his paladins. For ever it is thus the story opens, and my story, methought, was beginning to-day ...
— A Monk of Fife • Andrew Lang
... flames Distributed, wine o'er the incense thrown, The entrails of the offer'd bulls consum'd As wont; the regal roof approach they all; And high on tapestry reclin'd, partake Of Ceres' gift, and Bacchus' flowing boon. Then good Anchises, thus—"O chosen priest "Of Phoebus! was I then deceiv'd? methought, "As far as memory aids me to recal, "When first mine eyes these lofty walls beheld, "That twice two daughters, and a son were thine." Old Anius shook his head, begirt around With snowy fillets, as in grief, he said:— "No, mighty hero! not deceiv'd ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid
... "And methought that beauty and terror were only one, not two; And the world has room for love and death, and thunder and dew; And all the sinews of Hell slumber in summer air; And the face of God is a rock; but the face of the rock ...
— The Great Amulet • Maud Diver
... edifice, and, passing into the close, penetrated through an arched passage into the crypt, which, methought, was in a better style of architecture than the nave and choir.... Thence we went into the cloisters, which are entire, but not particularly interesting. Indeed, this cathedral has not taken hold of my affections, except in one aspect, when it was ...
— Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume I. - Great Britain and Ireland • Various
... just, ye Gods, to punish me, and let the Traytor 'scape unknown too: Methought 'twas Silvio's Voice, or else a sudden thought of Jealousy come into my Head ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. I (of 6) • Aphra Behn
... a thin streak of light that came in through the narrow window at the stair. "Nick," said he, huskily, "last night I dreamed I heard thee singing; but 'twas where there was a sweet, green field and a stream flowing through a little wood. Methought 'twas on the road past Warwick toward Coventry. Thou'lt go there some day and remember Gaston Carew, wilt not, lad? And, Nick, for thine own mother's sake, do not altogether hate him; he was not so bad a man as he ...
— Master Skylark • John Bennett
... "Methought that Julli fair and mild Beneath the earth who long has rested, That I would help her hapless child ...
— Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg - a ballad • Thomas J. Wise
... decorations, the strange and delicious food, and the personalities both of the distinguished guests, the charming hostess and the noted host, never has Zenith seen a more recherche affair than the Ceylon dinner-dance given last evening by Mr. and Mrs. Charles McKelvey to Sir Gerald Doak. Methought as we—fortunate one!—were privileged to view that fairy and foreign scene, nothing at Monte Carlo or the choicest ambassadorial sets of foreign capitals could be more lovely. It is not for nothing that Zenith is in matters social rapidly becoming known as the choosiest inland city ...
— Babbitt • Sinclair Lewis
... behalf I do esteem a great deal more than they have reason to esteem a far better offer. In which respect I have returned my dutiful acknowledgement, which I beseech you to present, when you shall call a convocation, about some matter of greater moment. Because their letter was in Latin, methought it did enforce me not to show myself a truant, by attempting the like, with a pen out of practice: which yet I hope they will excuse with a kind construction of my meaning. And to the intent they may perceive that my good will is as forward to perform ...
— Bibliomania; or Book-Madness - A Bibliographical Romance • Thomas Frognall Dibdin
... raving, Yet, methought, I brooded still; Still I saw my country bleeding, Dying for a ...
— Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle • Clement K. Shorter
... hunter of hedgesparrows. Let me look at your face critically: your bill of fare is three slices of cold rare roast beef, a Welsh rabbit, a pot of stout, and a glass or two of sound tawny port, old in bottle—the right milk of Englishmen.' Methought there seemed a brightening in his eye and a melting about his mouth at ...
— St Ives • Robert Louis Stevenson
... went on thus, methought my chaise, the wreck of which look'd stately enough at the first, insensibly grew less and less in its size; the freshness of the painting was no more—the gilding lost its lustre—and the whole affair appeared so poor in my eyes—so sorry!—so contemptible! ...
— The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman • Laurence Sterne
... those things of common life which are thy joy. See, Leo, I veil myself that thou mayest not be tempted," and she flung the corner of her cloak about her head, then asked a sudden question through it—"Didst thou not but now return to the Sanctuary with Holly after I bade thee leave me there alone? Methought I saw the two of ...
— Ayesha - The Further History of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed • H. Rider Haggard
... though no rest was around me, Though mid wastes of the world were we twain all alone, For methought that I conquered and he knelt and he crowned me, And the driving rain ceased, and the wind ceased to moan, And through clefts of the clouds ...
— Poems By The Way & Love Is Enough • William Morris
... me, And by design I think, upon the street, And tried to win mine ear, which ne'er he got Save only by enforcement. Presents—gifts— Of jewels and of gold to wild amount, To win an audience, hath he proffered me; Until, methought, my silence—for my lips Disdained reply were question was a wrong— Had wearied him. Oh, sir, whate'er of life Remains to me I had foregone, ere proved The horror of this hour!—and you it is That have ...
— The Love-Chase • James Sheridan Knowles
... I sleeping lay; Methought Aurora, with crystal een, In at the window looked by day, And gave me her visage pale and green; And on her hand sang a lark from the splene, 'Awake ye lovers from slumbering! See how ...
— An Englishwoman's Love-Letters • Anonymous
... surprise. "Dear friend," I cried, "Dear generous friend forgive A troubled woman's weakness! As I live, In truth I meant to answer otherwise. From out its store, my heart can give you naught But honor and respect; and yet methought I would give willing answer, did you sue. But now I know 'twere cruel wrong I planned; Taking a heart that beat with love most true, And giving in exchange an empty hand. Who weds for love alone, may not be wise: Who weds without it, angels must despise. Love and ...
— Maurine and Other Poems • Ella Wheeler Wilcox
... to the rule of the Church, to receive the Sacrament. I shuddered as the venerable priest gave me the Sacred Host. What had I to do with the inward purity and peace this memento of Christ is supposed to leave in our souls? Methought the Crucified Image in the chapel regarded me afresh with those pained eyes, and said, "Even so dost thou seal thine own damnation!" Yet SHE, the true murderess, the arch liar, received the Sacrament with the face of a rapt angel—the ...
— Vendetta - A Story of One Forgotten • Marie Corelli
... followed a woman in the city here. Her face was veiled, but the back methought was Rosamund—his paramour, thy rival. I ...
— Becket and other plays • Alfred Lord Tennyson
... time I permitted my eyes to rest on the lithe figure of the girl in the doorway. Methought she inclined her head a little forward to catch my answer as if it had been a matter of ...
— Red Axe • Samuel Rutherford Crockett
... and raised, with tremulous hands, the sad face that had pressed itself on his bosom. Gazing thereon mournfully, he said, "Some new grief hath chanced to thee, my child. Methought I heard another voice besides thine in yonder room. Ah, ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... A pearly shell was in my hand; I stooped and wrote upon the sand My name, the year, the day. As onward from the spot I passed, One lingering look behind I cast; A wave came rolling high and fast And washed my lines away. And so, methought, 'twill shortly be With every mark on ...
— Life and Literature - Over two thousand extracts from ancient and modern writers, - and classified in alphabetical order • J. Purver Richardson
... duke, at his bridle rides. "Say, sire, what grief doth your heart oppress?" "To ask," he said, "brings worse distress; I cannot but weep for heaviness. By Gan the ruin of France is wrought. In an angel's vision, last night, methought He wrested forth from my hand the spear: 'Twas he gave Roland to guard the rear. God! should I lose him, my nephew dear, Whom I left on a foreign soil behind, His peer on ...
— The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga - With Introductions And Notes • Various
... I cleared the decks after this lost engagement; had the necessary interview with my father, which passed off not amiss; paid over my share of the expense to the two little, active brothers, who rubbed their hands as much, but methought skipped rather less than formerly, having perhaps, these two also, embarked upon the enterprise with some graceful illusions; and then, reviewing the whole episode, I told myself that the time was not yet ripe, nor the man ready; and to work I went again with ...
— Memories and Portraits • Robert Louis Stevenson
... night, Silver clouds flew o'er us, Spring, methought, with splendor dight Led the ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various
... with the sea-breeze; divine the delight I drew from the heaving Channel waves, from the sea-birds on their ridges, from the white sails on their dark distance, from the quiet yet beclouded sky, overhanging all. In my reverie, methought I saw the continent of Europe, like a wide dream-land, far away. Sunshine lay on it, making the long coast one line of gold; tiniest tracery of clustered town and snow-gleaming tower, of woods deep massed, of heights serrated, of smooth pasturage and veiny stream, embossed the metal-bright ...
— Villette • Charlotte Bronte
... youth's conceit had waned, methought Answers to all life's problems I had wrought; But now, grown old and wise, too late I see My life is spent, and all my lore ...
— Book of Wise Sayings - Selected Largely from Eastern Sources • W. A. Clouston
... great Facility in repeating what he talks every Day of his Life; and, with the Ornaments of insignificant Laughs and Gestures, enforced his Arguments by Quotations out of Plays and Songs, which allude to the Perjuries of the Fair, and the general Levity of Women. Methought he strove to shine more than ordinarily in his Talkative Way, that he might insult my Silence, and distinguish himself before a Woman of Arietta's Taste and Understanding. She had often an Inclination ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... golden chariot; and for three days and three nights, I tasted no wine. When I had thus purified myself, I offered a white ram to Amphiaraus; and spreading the skin on the ground, I invoked the blessing of Phoebus and his prophetic son, and laid me down to sleep. Methought I walked in the streets of Athens. A lurid light shone on the walls of the Piraeus, and spread into the city, until all the Acropolis seemed glowing beneath a fiery sky. I looked up—and lo! the heavens were in ...
— Philothea - A Grecian Romance • Lydia Maria Child
... Methought my request was heard, for it seemed as though the stains of manhood were passing from me, and I were relapsing into the purity and simplicity of childhood. I was content to have been moulded into a perfect child. I stood still, as in a trance. I dreamed that I was enjoying a personal intercourse ...
— The Works of Charles Lamb in Four Volumes, Volume 4 • Charles Lamb
... I lay a-sleeping; there came a dream so fair;— I stood in old Jerusalem, beside the Temple there; I heard the children singing, and ever as they sang Methought the voice of Angels From Heaven in answer rang;— Methought the voice of Angels From Heaven in answer rang. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, lift up your gates and sing Hosanna in the highest! Hosanna ...
— De La Salle Fifth Reader • Brothers of the Christian Schools
... Bend. Methought I traced a lover ill disguised, And sent my spy, a sharp observing slave, To inform me better, if I guessed aright. He told me, that he saw Sebastian's page Run cross the marble square, who soon returned, And after him there lagged a puffing friar; Close wrapt ...
— The Works Of John Dryden, Vol. 7 (of 18) - The Duke of Guise; Albion and Albanius; Don Sebastian • John Dryden
... dream of the days of my childhood, And shake my silvery head. How haunt ye my brain, O visions, Methought ye forgotten ...
— The German Classics of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries: - Masterpieces of German Literature Translated into English, Volume 5. • Various
... was her all—her life— And proved, methought, her words by sighs; She long'd to hear me call her "wife," And fed on hope which love supplies. Ah! then I felt it had been sin To doubt that she could e'er belie Her vows!—I found 'twas only tin She sought, and love was all my eye! ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... of mind and body under those circumstances can be better imagined than described. Methought life held no more painful experience, but how impossible it is to gauge endurance and classify suffering ...
— Six Days on the Hurricane Deck of a Mule - An account of a journey made on mule back in Honduras, - C.A. in August, 1891 • Almira Stillwell Cole
... could wait no longer!" she cried, looking round with the tears in her lovely eyes, "we have been wed but an hour, and I have sat there praying 'twixt hope and fear, until methought ...
— The Honourable Mr. Tawnish • Jeffery Farnol
... startlin good-natur of my attitood, I concealed a heart that bet with dark despair. At that moment, when we in our wanderins had reached the furthest extremity that we attained onto, I tell you my blood friz, an my har riz in horror! Methought it were all up with Solomon; and when I see his hat, it seemed to me jest as though I was a regardin with despairin eye his tumestun whereon war graven by no mortial hand the solemn an despairin ...
— Lost in the Fog • James De Mille
... such impenetrable stuff as to be insensible to the hatred of even the most worthless wretch in the whole kingdom; and once, at a general assembly of the states, filled with an idea of such continued ingratitude, I spoke as pathetic as possible, not, methought, beneath my dignity, to make them feel for me: that the universal good and happiness of the people were all I wished or desired; that if my actions had been mistaken, or improper surmises formed, still I had no wish, no desire, but the ...
— The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen • Rudolph Erich Raspe |
