Unwept.-UNWEPT, unhonoured, and unsung. SCOTT, Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto vi. st. 1. Urchin. The shivering URCHIN, bending as he goes COWPER, Truth, 1. 143. Urns. The dead, but scept'red sovereigns, who still rule Use. -USE can almost change the stamp of nature. SHAKESPERE, Hamlet, act iii. sc. 4. USE is the judge, the law, and rule of speech. Ibid., Henry VI., part 1, act iii. sc. 1. KEATS, Hyperion. Utterance. That large UTTERANCE of the early gods. V. Valet.-No one is a hero to his VALET. This phrase is commonly attributed to Madame de Sévigné. On the authority of Madame Aisse, it belongs to Madame Cornuel.-Lettres édit. J. Ravenal, 1853. Few men are admired by their servants.-MONTAIGNE, Essays, book iii. ch. 11. When Hermodotus in his poems described Antigonus as the son of Helios (the sun), "My valet-dechambre," said he, "is not aware of this."-PLUTARCH, De Iside et Osiride, ch. xxiv. Valour. As much VALOUR is to be found in feasting as in fighting; and some of our city captains and carpet knights will make this good. and prove it.-BURTON, Anatomy of Melancholy, part 1, sec. 2, mem. 2, subs. 2. Call old VALOUR from the grave. BLOOMFIELD, Banks of the Wye, book ii. My VALOUR is certainly going! it is sneaking off! I feel it oozing out, as it were, at the palm of my hands. SHERIDAN, The Rivals, act v. sc. 3. Vanille.-You flavour everything; you are the VANILLE of society. SYDNEY SMITH. Vanity. All is VANITY and vexation of spirit.- Eccles. i. 14. Vanity. And not a VANITY is given in vain. POPE, Essay on Man, Ep. ii. 1. 290. The fool of VANITY; for her alone He lives, loves, writes-and dies but to be known. CANNING, New Morality. VANITY of vanities, saith the preacher; vanity of vanities: all is vanity.-Eccles. i. 2, and xii. 8. Vanity Fair.-In Bunyan's spiritual allegory, "The Pilgrim's Progress," this is the name of a fair which was held all the year round in the town of Vanity. It beareth the name because the town where it is kept is lighter than vanity (Ps. lxii. 9), and also because all that is there sold, or that cometh thither, is vanity. Variety. Not chaos-like together crush'd and bruis'd, And where, though all things differ, all agree. VARIETY alone gives joy; POPE, Windsor Forest, 1. 13. The sweetest meats the soonest cloy. PRIOR, The Turtle and Sparrow, 1. 234. VARIETY'S the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavour. COWPER, The Task, book ii.; The Timepiece, 1. 606. Vase. You may break, you may shatter the VASE, if you will, MOORE, Farewell! But whenever you welcome the hour. *The origin and history of this fair are thus described: "Almost five thousand years ago there were pilgrims walking to the Celestial City, and Beelzebub, Apollyon, and Legion, with their companions, perceiving by the path that the pilgrims made, that their way to the city lay through this town of Vanity, they contrived here to set up a fair-a fair wherein should be sold all sorts of vanity, and that it should last all the year long. Therefore, at this fair, are all such merchandise sold, as houses, lands, trades, places, honours, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures, and delights of all sorts, as harlots, wives, husbands, children, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and what not. And, moreover, at this fair, there is, at all times, to be seen jugglings, cheats, games, fools, knaves, rogues, and that of every kind. Now, as I said, the way to the Celestial City lies just through this town where this lusty fair is kept; and he that would go to the city, and yet not go through this town, must needs go out of the world." Thackeray has made use of the name of Vanity Fair as the title of his satirical novel. Venice. Where VENICE sat in state, throned on her hundred isles. BYRON, Childe Harold, canto iv. st. 1. Venus.-A VENUS rising from a sea of jet. WALLER, Lines to the Countess of Carlisle. Verbosity. He draweth out the thread of his VERBOSITY finer than the staple of his argument. SHAKESPERE, Love's Labour's Lost, act v. sc. 1. Verge. Give ample room and VERGE enough. Verse. And ever, against eating cares GRAY, The Bard, v. 4, 1. 3. Such as the meeting soul may pierce, In notes with many a winding bout Of linked sweetness long drawn out.-MILTON, L'Allegro, 1. 135. Curst be the VERSE, how well soe'er it flow, That tends to make one worthy man my foe. My unpremeditated VERSE. POPE, To Arbuthnot. MILTON, Paradise Lost, book ix. 1. 23. VERSE Sweetens toil, however rude the sound;. R. GIFFORD, 1807, Contemplation. Who says in VERSE what others say in prose. POPE, Horace, epistle i. book ii. 1. 202. Wisdom married to immortal VERSE. WORDSWORTH, The Excursion, book vii. Vibrates. Music, when soft voices die, Odours, when sweet violets sicken, SHELLEY. Vicar of Bray.—A name originally given to the Rev. Symon Symonds, who was twice a Papist and twice a Protestant in four successive reigns, between 1533 and 1558. It is now commonly applied to one who deserts his party when it is no longer for his safety or his interest to remain in it. Vice. Led by my hand, he saunter'd Europe round, And gather'd every VICE on Christian ground. POPE, The Dunciad, bk. iv. i. 311. Vice.-VICE gets more in this vicious world than piety. FLETCHER, Love's Cure, act iii. sc. 1. VICE itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness. ED. BURKE. VICE is a monster of so frightful mien, POPE, Essay on Man, epist. ii. 1. 217. Who called thee vicious was a lying elf; MARTIAL, Ad Zoïlum. Virtue itself turns VICE, being misapplied, SHAKESPERE, Romeo and Juliet, act ii. sc. 3. Vices. The gods are just, and of our pleasant VICES Make instruments to plague us.—Ibid., King Lear, act v. sc. 3. Victim.-Led like a VICTIM to my death I'll go, And dying, bless the hand that gave the blow. Attributed to DRYDEN. Victory. And either VICTORY, or else a grave. SHAKESPERE, Henry VI., pt. iii. sc. 2. "But what good came of it at last?" "Why that I cannot tell," said he; "But 'twas a famous VICTORY."—SOUTHEY, Blenheim. Thus far our fortune keeps an upward course, SHAKESPERE, King Henry VI., pt. iii. act v. sc. 3. Villain. My tables, my tables,-meet it is I set it down, Villanie. For VILLANIE maketh villanie, CHAUCER, Romaunt of the Rose, 1. 2180. Villany. And thus I clothe my naked VILLANY SHAKESPERE, King Richard III., act i. sc. 3. The abstract of all VILLANY.-COTTON, A Rogue. Nothing is sacred now but VILLANY. POPE, Epis. to Sat., L. 170. Violet.-A VIOLET by a mossy stone Fair as a star, when only one Is shining in the sky.-WORDSWORTH, She dwelt among, &c. Violets.-Weep no more, lady, weep no more: Thy sorrow is in vain : For VIOLETS plucked, the sweetest showers Will ne'er make grow again. PERCY, The Friar of Orders Gray. Virginity. Some say no evil thing that walks by night MILTON, Comus, 1. 432. Virtue.—A VIRTUE that was never seen in you. SHAKESPERE, King Henry IV., pt. i. act iii. sc. 1. Assume a VIRTUE, if you have it not. Ibid., Hamlet, act iii. sc. 4. If he does really think that there is no distinction between VIRTUE and vice, why, sir, when he leaves our house, let us count our spoons.-BOSWELL's Life of Johnson, an. 1763. Know then this truth (enough for man to know), POPE, Essay on Man, ep. iv. 1. 309. Oh, VIRTUE, I have followed you through life, and find you at last but a shade. EURIPIDES, Quoted by Brutus when dying at Philippi. Or if VIRTUE feeble were, Heaven itself would stoop to her.-MILTON, Comus. |