"Ducat" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... thousand dollars to be given to a cheap little man—that was hardest of all, for he had come to hate the sight of the sleek black head of Arthur Eldred. Yes, but he had saved the day. He had put in six hundred dollars when every dollar was a ducat. True, but the reward was too great. A hundred thousand dollars for ...
— The Spirit of Sweetwater • Hamlin Garland
... their murderous deeds of old, The grisly story Chaucer told, And many an ugly tale beside Of children caught and crucified; I heard the ducat-sweating thieves Beneath the Ghetto's slouching eaves, And, thrust beyond the tented green, The lepers ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... a dangerous one as the reader is already aware. In the infatuation of her strong, unconquerable, but not less guilty love for the handsome spendthrift Orsini, she had pledged her diamonds to Isaachar ben Solomon for an enormous sum of money, every ducat of which had passed without an hour's delay into the possession of the ...
— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds
... summo invenies?' I knew they were light in the balance of mortality; but I thought their living dust weighed more carats. Alas! this imperial diamond hath a flaw in it, and is now hardly fit to stick in a glazier's pencil:—the pen of the historian won't rate it worth a ducat. ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore
... tree perhaps was unknown, The opinionative islander turned the still vibrating scale by pulling' out a long purse and repeating his original theory, that the whole question was mercantile. "Quid damni?" said he, "Dic; et cito solvam." The podesta snuffed the gold: fined him a ducat for the duke; about the value of the whole tree; and pouched ...
— The Cloister and the Hearth • Charles Reade
... the British frum crowdin in They've gone un riz the teriff on tin. What'll we du fer pans un pails When the cow comes in un the old uns fails? Tu borrer a word frum Scripter, Hanner, Un du it, tu, in pious manner, You'll hev tu go down in yer sock fer a ducat, Er milk old Roan in a wooden bucket: Fer them Republikins—durn their skin— Hez riz sich a turrible teriff on tin. Tu cents a pound on British tin-plate! Why, Hanner, you see, at thet air rate, Accordin ...
— The Feast of the Virgins and Other Poems • H. L. Gordon
... Rolls House MS. Sir Thomas More gave her a double ducat to pray for him and his. BURNET'S Collectanea, p. 352. Moryson, in his Apomaxis, declares that she had a regular understanding with the confessors at the Priory. When penitents came to confess, they were detained while a ...
— The Reign of Henry the Eighth, Volume 1 (of 3) • James Anthony Froude
... what each of them vieghs and what the King ordaines them to passe for. First he showes us a great nombre of French peices of gold wt their shapes what they carry on both sydes: then the gold of Navarre that passes: then the Spanish and of Flanders, as the ducat and pistoles: then of Portugal, as St. Estienne: then the English Rosenoble passing for 10 livres 10 souse: the noble Henry of England for 9 liv. 10 souse: English Angelot for 7 livres: the Scotes and English Jacobuses, ...
— Publications of the Scottish History Society, Vol. 36 • Sir John Lauder
... (128). That the ideas of gold and offal lie very near each other is shown in numerous forms and variations in myth, fairy tale and popular superstition. I mention above all the figure of the ducat or gold-dropper which has probably been attenuated from a superstition to a joke, and around it are gathered such expressions as "he has gold like muck," "he must have a gold dropper at his house"; then the ...
— Hidden Symbolism of Alchemy and the Occult Arts • Herbert Silberer
... shoe. It was found at the soldier's, and the soldier himself, who at the entreaty of the dwarf had gone outside the gate, was soon brought back, and thrown into prison. In his flight he had forgotten the most valuable things he had, the blue light and the gold, and had only one ducat in his pocket. And now loaded with chains, he was standing at the window of his dungeon, when he chanced to see one of his comrades passing by. The soldier tapped at the pane of glass, and when this man came up, said to him, ...
— Household Tales by Brothers Grimm • Grimm Brothers
... thought we could make a profit, because the peril of the sea was to be encountered. The Lord, who, as I have said, takes care of the least of His children, so ordered it that we not only did not lose any thing by our Dutch money, which commonly brings not more than five shillings for a ducat; but we received for almost all that we used, five shillings and six pence, that is 67 stivers.[84] The reason of this was, that the man who took our money was about going to Norway, for timber, where he could pay it out at a ...
— Journal of Jasper Danckaerts, 1679-1680 • Jasper Danckaerts
... Christian has killed one lion with a club, he can kill another. Tell him that if he will knock down my grand lion with it, I will give him a thousand ducats"—quite a large sum in those days, a ducat being about ...
— St. Nicholas, Vol. 5, No. 2, December, 1877 • Various
... Princess Margaret, played cards with her suitor, James IV. of Scotland; and James himself kept up the custom, receiving from his treasurer, at Melrose, on Christmas Night, 1496, thirty-five unicorns, eleven French crowns, a ducat, a ridare, and a leu, in all about equal to L42 of modern money, to use at the card-table." Now, as the Scottish king was not married to the English princess until 1503, it is quite clear that he had learned to play cards long before his courtship with Margaret; for ...
— Christmas: Its Origin and Associations - Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries • William Francis Dawson
... upon the mirror and gave it back to the boy; and the barber marvelled yet the more to see the Fakir rising up and wending his ways.[FN153] The beggar ceased not coming every day and gazing at himself in the glass and laying down his ducat, whereat the barber said to himself, "By Allah, indeed this Darwaysh must have some object of his own and haply he is in love with the lad my prentice and I fear from the beggar lest he seduce the boy ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... she told him, "and don't let your master see it. Then to-morrow morning when you go down to the lake with him to see the nine peafowl slip it out and blow it on the back of his neck. Do this and I'll give you a golden ducat." ...
— The Laughing Prince - Jugoslav Folk and Fairy Tales • Parker Fillmore
... is none other king which hath them but he: if any other king hath one, hee will send vnto him for it. When any of these white elephants is brought vnto the king, all the merchants in the city are commanded to see them, and to giue him a present of halfe a ducat, which doth come to a great summe: for that there are many merchants in the city. After that you haue giuen your present you may come and see them at your pleasure, although they stand in the kings house. [Sidenote: The king of the white elephants.] This king in his title is called the king of the ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, - and Discoveries of The English Nation, Volume 10 - Asia, Part III • Richard Hakluyt
... favourable to every kind of intrigue and amusement; while the mild temper of the people and the watchfulness of the police prevented the public disorders that such license might have occasioned. These seeming anomalies abounded on every side. From the gaming-table where a tinker might set a ducat against a prince it was but a few steps to the Broglio, or arcade under the ducal palace, into which no plebeian might intrude while the nobility walked there. The great ladies, who were subject to strict sumptuary laws, and might ...
— The Valley of Decision • Edith Wharton
... saying. But I can't help thinking that this news from the War Office with regard to English gold in Belgium has something to do with these bank robberies, my friend. The two things seem to hang together in my mind, and a dollar to a ducat that in the long run they identify themselves thus.... Hello! Who's that?" as a tap sounded at the door. "I'll be off if you're expecting visitors. I want to look into this thing a little closer. ...
— The Riddle of the Frozen Flame • Mary E. Hanshew
... concerts with Grabau, a great violoncellist, at Merseburg, and at a Count Arnim's, a very rich nobleman near Merseburg, who had invited Liszt for one evening and paid him 100 ducats. This seemed at that time a very large sum, almost senseless. As a ducat was about nine shillings, it was after all only L45, which would not seem excessive at present for an artist such ...
— My Autobiography - A Fragment • F. Max Mueller
... the Moors and the pagans, and the people here say that it passes right on to Manicongo upon the Western Sea. This salt is dug from the mountain, it is said, in squared blocks.... At the place where they are dug, 100 or 120 such pieces pass for a drachm of gold ... equal to 3/4 of a ducat of gold. When they arrive at a certain fair ... one day from the salt mine, these go 5 or 6 pieces fewer to the drachm. And so, from fair to fair, fewer and fewer, so that when they arrive at the capital there will be only 6 or 7 pieces to the drachm." (Ramusio, I. 207.) Lieutenant Bower, in ...
— The Travels of Marco Polo, Volume 2 • Marco Polo and Rustichello of Pisa
... Spain, one hundred and fifteen; the half eagle of the United States, one hundred and sixteen; the gold lion of the Netherlands, and the double ounce of Sicily, one hundred and seventeen grains each; the ducat of Austria, one hundred and six; the twenty-franc piece of France, ninety; and the half imperial of Russia, ninety-one grains. A commissioner has been despatched by the United States Government to England, France, and other countries ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol 3 No 3, March 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... ducat was worth intrinsically $2.25, or nine shillings, at a time when money had a much greater purchasing power ...
— The Age of the Reformation • Preserved Smith
... this instant,' said Juechziger, scarcely trying to conceal his joy. 'It will be nothing but right if the Swedes have sent their poor prisoners a ducat or two that they may get me to buy them a few things. But mind you, don't say a word about it to a living soul; for if you do, the money will all be taken from them, and I shall be punished for my kindness into ...
— The Young Carpenters of Freiberg - A Tale of the Thirty Years' War • Anonymous
... Absolution for incest was afforded at thirty-six livres, three ducats. Perjury came to seven livres and three carlines. Pardon for murder, if not by poison, was cheaper. Even a parricide could buy forgiveness at God's tribunal at one ducat; four livres, eight carlines. Henry de Montfort, in the year 1448, purchased absolution for that crime at that price. Was it strange that a century or so of this kind of work should produce a Luther? Was it unnatural that plain people, who loved the ancient Church, should ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... thy shop irketh me and vexeth my heart. If thou wilt change it and write up the contrary thereof, I will deliver thee from thy predicament." And he answered, "This that thou seekest is easy. On my head and eyes be it." So saying, he brought out a ducat[FN264] and calling one of his mamelukes, said to him, "Get thee to such an one the scribe and bid him write us an inscription, adorned with gold and ultramarine, in these words, to wit, 'THERE IS NO ...
— Tales from the Arabic Volumes 1-3 • John Payne
... works, and then more probably be sought by the court than be obliged to seek it myself. Since my return here Herr Albert has a project in his head, the fulfilment of which does not seem to me impossible. It is this: He wishes to form an association of ten kind friends, each of these to subscribe 1 ducat (50 gulden) monthly, 600 florins a year. If in addition to this I had even 200 florins per annum from Count Seeau, this would make 800 florins altogether. How does papa like this idea? Is it not friendly? ...
— The Letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, V.1. • Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
... made in her little place, a goodly number of worn stockings were found in the straw of her bed and other hiding places, and in them, instead of her lean little legs, many a gulden and Hungarian ducat of good gold. Moreover she had a house at Nordlingen and a mill at Schwabach, and thus the inheritance that had come to Magister Peter was ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... as a Negro who sells his wife in the morning for a drop of brandy, and cries for her at night. He gave no thought to even the immediate future, and never asked himself what resources he would have when his last ducat was melted up. He pursued his work and continued his purchases, apparently unaware that he was now no more than the titular owner of his house and lands, and that he could not, thanks to the severity of the laws, raise another penny upon a property of which he was now, as it were, ...
— The Alkahest • Honore de Balzac
... would make of it. I understand enough of that language to comprehend the greatest part of it; and besides, I took with me a lady, that had the goodness to explain to me every word. The way is, to take a box, which holds four, for yourself and company. The fixed price is a gold ducat. I thought the house very low and dark; but I confess, the comedy admirably recompensed that defect. I never laughed so much in my life. It began with Jupiter's falling in love out of a peep-hole in the clouds, and ended with the birth of Hercules. But what was most pleasant, was the use Jupiter ...
— Letters of the Right Honourable Lady M—y W—y M—e • Lady Mary Wortley Montague
... days there were always people ready to act as sailors for pay. When Mur[a]d I. wished to cross from Asia to Europe to meet the invading army of Vladislaus and Hunyady, the Genoese skippers were happy to carry over his men for a ducat a head, just to spite their immemorial foes the Venetians, who were enlisted on the other side. It was not till the fall of Constantinople gave the Turks the command of the Bosphorus that Mohammed II. resolved to create for ...
— The Story of the Barbary Corsairs • Stanley Lane-Poole
... that Signer Benedetto offered the competition, not only to his own apprentices, but to any native of the duchy of Urbino. For who could tell what hero might not step forth from obscurity and gain the great prize of this fair hand of Pacifica's? And with her hand would go many a broad gold ducat, and heritage of the wide old gray stone house, and many an old jewel and old brocade that were kept there in dusky sweet-smelling cabinets, and also more than one good piece of land, smiling with corn and fruit trees, outside the gates in the ...
— Bimbi • Louise de la Ramee
... drew his purse-strings, and offered a golden ducat to him that would render this service to his dog, instantly so many were the competitors for the honour of delivering the excellent pilgrim in the shaggy coat, that none of them would resign a ladder to any of the rest: and thus, in this too violent zeal ...
— The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey, Vol. 2 - With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg • Thomas de Quincey
... manibus meritis, Meritam mercedem dare. Qui faxit, clam uxorem, ducat scortum Semper quod volet. Verum qui non manibus clare, quantum Potent, plauserit, Ei, pro ...
— A History of Pantomime • R. J. Broadbent
... herring is a favorite article of food in Germany and poor Sebastian was glad to pick up these bits to satisfy the cravings of hunger. What was his surprise on pulling the heads to pieces to find each one contained a Danish ducat. When he recovered from his astonishment, he entered the inn and made a good meal with part of the money; the rest ...
— The World's Great Men of Music - Story-Lives of Master Musicians • Harriette Brower
... so that when my enemies scoff and say, "all the wonderful things that were written of him had no truth in them, except only as they appeared on paper, I can, pointing to this hat, say: 'here's the ducat!'" ...
— The Life and Adventures of Maj. Roger Sherman Potter • "Pheleg Van Trusedale"
... around her. The two old cronies held together a long discourse of which, most likely, I was the subject. At the end of the dialogue, which was carried on in the patois of Forli, the witch having received a silver ducat from my grandmother, opened a box, took me in her arms, placed me in the box and locked me in it, telling me not to be frightened—a piece of advice which would certainly have had the contrary effect, if I had had any wits about me, but I was stupefied. I kept myself quiet in a corner ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt
... Wood for the first time, although I have known him by sight, and known of him well, for months. Many officers of Wood's and Negley's divisions were present. After the review, and while the troops were leaving the field, Colonel Ducat, Inspector-General on General Rosecrans' staff, and Colonel Harker, challenged me for a race. Soon after, Major McDowell, of Rousseau's staff, joined the party; and, while we were getting into position for the start, General Wagner, who has a long-legged ...
— The Citizen-Soldier - or, Memoirs of a Volunteer • John Beatty
... factor. Our first interest, then, is to know Mendelssohn in his family.[78] Many years were destined to elapse, after his coming to Berlin, before he was to win a position of dignity. When, a single ducat in his pocket, he first reached Berlin, the reader remembers, he was a pale-faced, fragile boy. A contemporary of his relates: "In 1746 I came to Berlin, a penniless little chap of fourteen, and in the Jewish school ...
— Jewish Literature and Other Essays • Gustav Karpeles
... host to the person who made this fire, and requested him to teach me his method. He returned for answer, that he dare not, for that he should run great danger were it known; but there is nothing a man will not do for money. I offered him a ducat, which quieted his fears, and he taught me all he knew, and even gave me the moulds in wood, with the other ingredients, which I have brought to France.' ... When Constantinople was attacked, the Emperor Leo burnt the vessels ...
— James Cutbush - An American Chemist, 1788-1823 • Edgar F. Smith
... seul la cachette; Le fils de Witikind vieilli dans les combats, Othon, scella jadis dans les chambres d'en bas Vingt caissons dont le fer verrouille les facades, Et qu'Anselme plus tard fit remplir de cruzades, Pour que dans l'avenir jamais on n'en manquat; Le casque du marquis est en or de ducat; On a sculpte deux rois persans, Narse et Tigrane, Dans la visiere aux trous grilles de filigrane, Et sur le haut cimier, taille d'un seul onyx, Un brasier de rubis brule l'oiseau Phenix; Et le seul diamant ...
— La Legende des Siecles • Victor Hugo
... the woods of Dieulet. He was the favourite companion of Ducat, and along with Guillaume Sambuc formed part of the band which so greatly embarrassed the Prussians in the neighbourhood of Sedan. He took part in the execution of Goliath Steinberg, the ...
— A Zola Dictionary • J. G. Patterson
... Highness saw her! When that thief Hangs upon Lazarus' bosom, he'll be bidding A ducat for each drop of milk he's cost me, To ...
— The Vigil of Venus and Other Poems by "Q" • Q
... I wear every day. I had only dared to place one little branch of rosemary in my hair.... While I was dressing, I thought of Barbara's wedding, and could not refrain from weeping.... It was not my mother who prepared the ducat, the morsel of bread, the salt, and the sugar, which the betrothed should bear with her on her wedding day; and so, at the last moment, ...
— The Continental Monthly, Volume V. Issue I • Various
... father found her an excellent marriage in the person of a withered picture-dealer. She took the spouse, and very properly clapped the door in the face of the lover. I was not disheartened, Excellency; no, not I. Women are plentiful while we are young. So, without a ducat in my pocket, or a crust for my teeth, I set out to seek my fortune on board of a Spanish merchantman. That was duller work than I expected: but luckily we were attacked by a pirate; half the crew were butchered, the rest captured. ...
— Zicci, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... composition. He was in the seventh heaven. Here, at last, was a true genius, able to appreciate his talent as it deserved. Here was a master fit to teach such noble music, as it should really be sung. Ortensia should profit by the opportunity, even if Stradella asked a silver ducat for each lesson. For once, money was no object to the Senator. The triumph his young bride would certainly bring him, in singing his songs after being taught by Alessandro Stradella, would be worth ...
— Stradella • F(rancis) Marion Crawford
... our object was to get across the Danube, and luckily we found a large flat-bottomed boat used for cattle. The owner demanded a ducat (about nine shillings) for taking us across. I thought it a monstrous charge, but the fellow had us in his power. I do not think the Servians are much liked by those who have to do business with them. From all I heard, Canning's lines about the sharp practice of some nearer neighbours ...
— Round About the Carpathians • Andrew F. Crosse |
