"Kirtle" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... Her kirtle should be of clean constance, Laced with lesum[7] love; The mailies[8] of continuance, For never ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan
... part with her faithful attendant under an attempt at playfulness; "and against we meet again, reform me, Janet, that precise ruff of thine for an open rabatine of lace and cut work, that will let men see thou hast a fair neck; and that kirtle of Philippine chency, with that bugle lace which befits only a chambermaid, into three-piled velvet and cloth of gold—thou wilt find plenty of stuffs in my chamber, and I freely bestow them on you. Thou must be brave, Janet; for though thou art now but the attendant of a distressed ...
— Kenilworth • Sir Walter Scott
... side Its jetty tip is seen to glide; Till from thy centre starting far, Thou sidelong veer'st with rump in air Erected stiff, and gait awry, Like madam in her tantrums high; Though ne'er a madam of them all, Whose silken kirtle sweeps the hall, More varied trick and whim displays To catch the admiring stranger's gaze. Doth power in measured verses dwell, All thy vagaries wild to tell? Ah, no! the start, the jet, the bound, The giddy scamper round and ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol 3 • Various
... they had well supped, the day was done. Robin then bade his men strip the sheriff of his fine clothes, his hose and his shoes, his kirtle, and the large handsome coat all trimmed with fur—and to give him in their place a green mantle to wrap himself in. He further bade his sturdy lads all to lie round the sheriff in a circle under the greenwood tree, so ...
— The Junior Classics, V4 • Willam Patten (Editor)
... her husband said laughing, "you would not think, to hear her talk, that there is not a feast or a show that Dorothy would stay away from. She never misses an opportunity, I warrant you, of showing herself off in her last new kirtle and gown. But I must be going down; there is no one below, and if a customer comes and finds the shop empty he will have but a poor idea of me, and will think that I am away gossiping instead of attending ...
— By England's Aid or The Freeing of the Netherlands (1585-1604) • G.A. Henty
... mauve-pink roses, and grapes that were already being pressed by gleeful cupids in a riotous Arcadian vintage, stood out on its woven texture. The same note was struck in the beflowered satin of the lady's kirtle, and in the pomegranate pattern of the brocade that draped the couch on which she was seated. The artist had called his picture "Recolte." And after one had taken in all the details of fruit and flower and foliage that earned the composition its name, one noted ...
— The Unbearable Bassington • Saki
... smock frock, claw coat, hammer coat, Prince Albert coat^, sack coat, tuxedo coat, frock coat, dress coat, tail coat. cloak, pall, mantle, mantlet mantua^, shawl, pelisse, wrapper; veil; cape, tippet, kirtle^, plaid, muffler, comforter, haik^, huke^, chlamys^, mantilla, tabard, housing, horse cloth, burnoose, burnous, roquelaure^; houppelande [Fr.]; surcoat, overcoat, great coat; surtout [Fr.], spencer^; mackintosh, waterproof, raincoat; ulster, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... long spit, held by a page for the guest to help herself. Whether by her awkwardness or that of the boy, it so chanced that the bird made a sudden leap from the impalement, and deposited itself in the lap of Lady Whitburn's scarlet kirtle! The fact was proclaimed by her loud rude cry, "A murrain on thee, thou ne'er-do-weel lad," together with a sounding box ...
— Grisly Grisell • Charlotte M. Yonge
... lord! Here's a fellow calls himself the captain of a ship, and her majesty's servant, and talks about failing, as if he were a Barbican loose-kirtle trying to keep her apple-squire ashore! Blurt for him, ...
— Westward Ho! • Charles Kingsley
... the chimney; for Aschenputtel had been very quick, and had jumped out of the pigeon-house again, and had run to the hazel bush; and there she had taken off her beautiful dress and had laid it on the grave, and the bird had carried it away again, and then she had put on her little gray kirtle again, and had sat down in the kitchen among ...
— Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm • Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm
... himself seen her. "He (Richard III.) caused," says More, "the Bishop of London to put her to an open penance, going before the cross in procession upon a Sunday, with a taper in her hand; in which she went in countenance and face demure, so womanly, and albeit she were out of all array save her kirtle only, yet went she so fair and lovely, namely while the wondering of the people cast a comely red in her cheeks (of which she before had most miss), that her great shame was her much praise among those who were more ...
— Old and New London - Volume I • Walter Thornbury
... Stuffe wilt thou haue a Kirtle of? I shall receiue Money on Thursday: thou shalt haue a Cappe to morrow. A merrie Song, come: it growes late, wee will to Bed. Thou wilt forget ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare
... Holyfell, the next it would be at Frodis Water; and Alf of the Fells was there, and Thongbrand Ketilson, and Hall the Fair. Aud went early to her bed-place, and there she pored upon these fineries till her heart was melted with self-love. There was a kirtle of a mingled colour, and the blue shot into the green, and the green lightened from the blue, as the colours play in the ocean between deeps and shallows: she thought she could endure to live no longer and not wear it. There ...
— The Waif Woman • Robert Louis Stevenson
... estate, covered with gold. His Majesty was attended by seven henchmen, clothed in doublets of crimson satin, with gowns of white cloth of gold. The Queen appeared with equal splendour, "wearing a round circle of gold, set with pearls and precious stones, arrayed in a kirtle of white damask cloth of gold, furred with miniver pure, garnished, having a train of the same, with damask cloth of gold, furred with ermine, with a great lace, and two buttons and tassels of white silk, and gold at the breast above." And the royal apartments were kept with ...
— Christmas: Its Origin and Associations - Together with Its Historical Events and Festive Celebrations During Nineteen Centuries • William Francis Dawson
... shoes and a little cotton cap, and a gray kirtle—linen in summer, serge in winter; but the little feet in the shoes were like rose leaves, and the cap was as white as a lily, and the gray kirtle was like the bark of the bough that the apple-blossom parts, and peeps out of, to ...
— Bebee • Ouida
... I make thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroider'd all ...
— English Songs and Ballads • Various
... chamber high, And I'll embroider cap and kirtle: I'll pass my time so mournfully E'en like the ...
— Axel Thordson and Fair Valborg - a ballad • Thomas J. Wise
... quarters, readily undertook to carry their share of the burthen, and, though he growled and muttered a little, he at length was won over to consent, chiefly, as it seemed, by Christina's obliging readiness to leave behind the bundle that contained her holiday kirtle. ...
— The Dove in the Eagle's Nest • Charlotte M. Yonge
... with something of his former heartiness. "She was here when the man brought news of your arrival, Wulf, but she fled away like a startled deer, and has, I suppose, gone to put on her best kirtle ...
— Wulf the Saxon - A Story of the Norman Conquest • G. A. Henty
... Childe Harold, who remarks the similarity betwixt the Highland and Grecian costume,[II-3] and the company, dispensing with the difference of colour, voted the Captain's variegated kilt, of the MacTurk tartan, to be the kirtle of a Grecian mountaineer,—Egeus to be an Arnout, and the Captain to be Egeus. Chatterly and the painter, walking gentlemen by profession, agreed to walk through the parts of Demetrius and Lysander, the two Athenian lovers; ...
— St. Ronan's Well • Sir Walter Scott
... with eager haste, And all attain what they pursue, And touch her pretty apron fresh and new, And the linen kirtle round her waist. ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... flowing kirtle of deep blue, bebound with a belt bebuckled with a silvern clasp, while about her waist a stomacher of point lace ended in the ruffled farthingale at her throat. On her head she bore a sugar-loaf hat shaped like an extinguisher and pointing backward ...
— Nonsense Novels • Stephen Leacock
... shoulder of Earl Sigvald of Askland, a bluff old warrior, long the king's most faithful counsellor and companion in arms. Before them stood his son Estein, a tall, auburn-haired, bright-eyed young man, gaily dressed, after the fashion of the times, in red kirtle and cloak, and armed as yet only with a gilded helmet, surmounted with a pair of hawk's wings, and a sword girt to his side. His face, though regular and handsome, would have been rather too grave and reserved but for the keenness of his eyes, and a very pleasant smile which at times lit ...
— Vandrad the Viking - The Feud and the Spell • J. Storer Clouston
... thee beds of roses And a thousand fragrant posies; A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroidered all with ...
— The Home Book of Verse, Vol. 2 (of 4) • Various
... with a smile Or with a frown; Her bed seemed never soft to her, Though tossed of down; She little heeded what she wore, Kirtle, or wreath, or gown; We think her white brows often ached Beneath her crown, Till silvery hairs showed in her locks That used ...
— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti
... red skirt of stoutly woven cloth, a white bodice and kirtle, a yellow silk turban wound low over her brown curls, and long coral pendants in her ears. Her ears had been pierced against a piece of cork by her great-aunt when she was seven years old. In those germless days ...
— O Pioneers! • Willa Cather
... thine own gear, such as thou wilt need till we light at Minster Lovel, for there can we shift our baggage. Thy black beaver hat thou wert best to journey in, for though it be good, 'tis well worn; and thy grey kirtle and red gown. Bring the blue gown, and the tawny kirtle with the silver aglets [tags, spangles] pendant, and thy lawn rebatoes, [turn-over collar] and a couple of kerchiefs, and thy satin hat Thou wert best leave out a warm kerchief for ...
— It Might Have Been - The Story of the Gunpowder Plot • Emily Sarah Holt
... Central in the group, flushed with her hard gallop through the wintry air, a young girl of fifteen, tall and trim in figure, sat her horse with the easy grace of a practised and confident rider. Her long velvet habit was deeply edged with fur, and both kirtle and head-gear were of a rich purple tinge, while from beneath the latter just peeped a heavy coil of sunny, golden hair. Her face was fresh and fair, as should be that of any young girl of fifteen, but its expression was rather that of high spirits and ...
— Historic Girls • E. S. Brooks
... her eyes were like flowers in the pallor of her face. She had a witching mouth, a dainty nose, and an open brow. Her eyebrows were brown, and her golden hair parted in two soft waves upon her head. She was clad in a shift of spotless linen, and above her snowy kirtle was set a mantle of royal purple, clasped upon her breast. She carried a hooded falcon upon her glove, and a greyhound followed closely after. As the Maiden rode at a slow pace through the streets of the city, there was none, neither great nor small, youth nor sergeant, ...
— French Mediaeval Romances from the Lays of Marie de France • Marie de France
... such a life is not for me. My nature is such that I do not like the gloomy songs you sing; nor do I care for green things, except to wear in my hair. And it seems to me that I should be spiritless and a coward if I should like such a life. I am no English girl, to tremble and hide under a mean kirtle. I am a Norse maiden, the kinswoman of warriors. I think I should not show much honor to my father and my brother were I to leave them unavenged and sit down here with you. No, I will go to my King and get ...
— The Ward of King Canute • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
... and joy of his old age. Her black eyes gleamed brightly from beneath the shade of her brown tresses and when, on Sunday mornings she walked down the village street to church, wearing her Norman cap, blue kirtle and earrings, all eyes turned to look at her with admiration, for she was without doubt the most beautiful girl in ...
— The Children's Longfellow - Told in Prose • Doris Hayman
... through the hedge of the war-shafts, a mighty man there came, One-eyed and seeming ancient, but his visage shone like flame: Gleaming grey was his kirtle, and his hood was cloudy blue; And he bore a mighty twi-bill, as he waded the fight-sheaves through, And stood face to face with Sigmund, and upheaved the bill to smite. Once more round the head of the Volsung fierce glittered ...
— Myths of the Norsemen - From the Eddas and Sagas • H. A. Guerber
... what she gave away; Yet she was blithe and she was gay. And now she has gone to the hunting green, All on this bright and sunshiny day, To fly her favourite peregrine, With her hunting coat of the baudykin, Down which there flowed her raven hair, And her kirtle of the red sendal fine, With an eagle's plume in her ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume XXIV. • Revised by Alexander Leighton
... she sate Upon the braes of Kirtle, Was lovely as a Grecian maid Adorned with wreaths of myrtle; Young Adam Bruce beside her lay, 5 And there did they beguile the day With love and gentle speeches, Beneath ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. II. • William Wordsworth
... beauty, though of a masculine and somewhat savage character, and with magnificent but fierce black eyes. Her skin was dark, and her hair raven black, contrasting strongly with the red band wound around it. Her kirtle was of murrey-coloured serge; simply, but becomingly fashioned. A glance sufficed to show her how matters stood with poor Ashbead, and, uttering a sharp angry cry, she ...
— The Lancashire Witches - A Romance of Pendle Forest • William Harrison Ainsworth
... soft, is my Lady Countess. Why, child, she should hardly say this kirtle were red, an' Dame Joan told her it were green. Thou mayest do aught with her, an' thou wist how to ...
— The White Rose of Langley - A Story of the Olden Time • Emily Sarah Holt
... a lass with pendent keys, and goatskin kirtle; married her to Karl. Snor was her name, under a veil she sat. The couple dwelt together, rings exchanged, spread ...
— The Elder Eddas of Saemund Sigfusson; and the Younger Eddas of Snorre Sturleson • Saemund Sigfusson and Snorre Sturleson
... I wil make thee beds of Roses, And then a thousand fragrant posies, A cap of flowers and a Kirtle, Imbroidered all with ...
— The Complete Angler 1653 • Isaak Walton
... up of the coming of the Nakonkirhirinons. There was no moon and the twilight had deepened softly, covering the post with a soft mantle of dreams, when there was a step on the hard earth and the factor turned sharply to behold a little figure in a red kirtle, its curly head hanging a bit as if in shame, and at its side the shadowy form ...
— The Maid of the Whispering Hills • Vingie E. Roe
... lace to be thus hidden away," commented an elderly harridan. "Now, would you believe it, my fine madam, but my legs are bare underneath my kirtle?" ...
— I Will Repay • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... Norman cap, and her kirtle of blue, and the ear rings, Brought in the olden time from France, and since, as an heirloom Handed down from mother to child, through ...
— Over the Border: Acadia • Eliza Chase
... come to hall, Ever at Yule-tide, when the great log flamed In chimney-place, and laugh and jest went round, And maidens strayed beneath the mistletoe, Making believe not see it, so got kissed— Of one that joined not in the morrice-dance, But in her sea-green kirtle stood at gaze, A timid little creature that was scared By dead men's armor. Nought there suffered change, Those empty shells of valor grew not old, Though something rusty. Would they fright her now Looked she upon them? Held she in her mind— 'T ...
— Wyndham Towers • Thomas Bailey Aldrich
... rol, girl," shouted the Prince with heartfelt joy. (Have you not remarked, dear friend, how often in novel-books, and on the stage, joy is announced by the above burst of insensate monosyllables?) "Tol lol de rol. Don thy best kirtle, child; thy husband will be here anon." And Helen retired to arrange her toilet for this awful event in the life of a young woman. When she returned, attired to welcome her defender, her young cheek was as pale as the white satin slip and orange ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray
... the high hill! The while my flock did feed thereby, The while the shepherd's self did spill, I saw the bouncing Bellibone, Hey, ho, Bonnibell! Tripping over the dale alone; She can trip it very well. Well decked in a frock of gray, Hey, ho, gray is greet! And in a kirtle of green say; The green is for maidens meet. A chaplet on her head she wore, Hey, ho, chapelet! Of sweet violets therein was store, She sweeter ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long
... brooch lay on her breast, the pin of fine bronze ran straight from one shoulder to the other. On her head was a lustrous tyre or leafy diadem shading her countenance, gold above and silver below. Her short kirtle was white below the rose-red mantle, and fringed with gold thread above her perfect and lightly stepping feet. Shoes she wore shining with brightest wire of findruiney. As she came up the dell, rejoicing in her freedom and the sweetness ...
— The Coming of Cuculain • Standish O'Grady
... layeth in this reason, for her sake to put in twenty or thirty crownes in aduenture at Cardes or Dice: you know not (quoth she) what may be a womans lucke: if he refuse it, Lord how vnkindely she takes the matter, and cannot be reconciled with lesse then a gowne or a kirtle ...
— The Art of Iugling or Legerdemaine • Samuel Rid
... 'Look at your hair, Ellie—blown wild about your ears like a daft woman's, and your kirtle all over mortar and smut. My certie, you would be a bonnie lady to be Queen of Love and ...
— Two Penniless Princesses • Charlotte M. Yonge
... mother dear, In a kirtle red was clad: “The horse I fear will cost thee dear, And ...
— Grimmer and Kamper - The End of Sivard Snarenswayne and other ballads - - - Translator: George Borrow • Thomas J. Wise
... seized the king and queen as they were walking in the garden after the heat of the day, and carried them prisoners to a strong castle. Luckily, Una was at that moment sitting among her maidens on the top of a high tower embroidering a kirtle, or she would have shared the ...
— The Red Romance Book • Various
... straightway into the locked chamber where he was wont to sleep; and there he laid him down, and shot forth the bolt. No man dared speak a word to him. And thus it is said that Egil was clad when he laid Bodvar in the tomb. His hose were bound fast about his legs, and he had on a red linen kirtle, narrow above, and tied with strings at the sides. And men say that his body swelled so greatly that his kirtle burst from off him, and so did his ...
— Notes and Queries, Issue No. 61, December 28, 1850 • Various
... "Her kirtle is of kid-skin made, Her mantle of wadmal grey, Her locks, which shine like gleamy gold, Adown her ...
— Tord of Hafsborough - and Other Ballads • Anonymous
... had been a bit of statuary representing Hercules and Omphale. The mighty one was wearing the woman's kirtle and carrying her distaff, and the girl was staggering under the lion-skin and leaning on the bludgeon. Marie Louise always hated the group. It seemed to her to represent just the way so many women tried to ...
— The Cup of Fury - A Novel of Cities and Shipyards • Rupert Hughes
... from the mechanical toy, the last of the little crowd had disappeared, and she was alone in the booth with the woman in the dark kirtle and ...
— The Elusive Pimpernel • Baroness Emmuska Orczy
... Where Kirtle waters gently wind, As Helen on my arm reclined, A rival with a ruthless mind Took deadly aim at me. My love, to disappoint the foe, Rush'd in between me and the blow; And now her corse is lying low, ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volumes I-VI. - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... night, along with her William, and on horseback, to take their way across the Border for Cumberland. They had reached the parish of Kirkconnel about two o'clock in the morning, and were giving their horses a mouthful of water in the little stream called Kirtle, when a shot was heard in the immediate neighbourhood—it was heard, alas! by two only, for the third was dying, and in the act of falling from her seat in the saddle. She was caught by a servant, and ...
— Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 17 • Alexander Leighton
... maid, Whose sash of country blue Bound but a frock of home-spun hemp, And kirtle coarse ...
— Japanese Literature - Including Selections from Genji Monogatari and Classical - Poetry and Drama of Japan • Various
... if the sea had only recently been flowing over it, and on it he saw a pale girl with such lovely eyes. She wore a green kirtle, and round her body a broad silver girdle with figures upon it, such as the Finns use. Her bodice was of tar-brown skin, and beneath her stay-laces, which seemed to be of green sea-grass, was a foam-white chemise, like the feathery breast of ...
— Weird Tales from Northern Seas • Jonas Lie
... just now," snapped Peggy. "I saw the toady little villain sneak off. I'd ha' given my Sunday kirtle to my worst enemy if Johnnie had espied him and known that he and thee had been sitting cheek by ...
— Sea-Dogs All! - A Tale of Forest and Sea • Tom Bevan
... the green kirtle of May time, Again o'er the hill-tops is blown, I shall walk the wild paths of the forest, And climb the steep headlands alone— Pausing not where the slopes of the meadows Are yellow with cowslip beds, Nor where, by the wall of the garden, The hollyhocks ...
— The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 • Various
... is due for the malefactour. As for my part, though I cleare my selfe of the offence, my body shall feele the punishment: for no vnchast or ill woman, shall hereafter impute no dishonest act to Lucrece." Then she drewe out a knife, which she had hidden secretely, vnder her kirtle, and stabbed her selfe to the harte. Which done, she fell downe grouelinge vppon her wound and died. Whereupon her father and husband made great lamentation, and as they were bewayling the death of Lucrece, ...
— The Palace of Pleasure, Volume 1 • William Painter
... of a fire, gleaming through a thicket, led him to the door of a low hut. It stood half open, as if there was nothing to fear, and within he saw his brother Scrub snoring loudly on a bed of grass, at the foot of which lay his own leathern doublet; while Fairfeather, in a kirtle made of plaited rushes, sat roasting pheasants' ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various
... Welsh Principality. The continual clacking of this unspeakable tongue told that the sons and daughters of the Cymri mustered strongest in the migration. Many of the latter wore their picturesque native costume— the red-hooded cloak and kirtle; and some were unspeakably fair, with the fine white teeth, fair complexion, and ruddy cheeks, common to other branches of the Celtic race, but nowhere so characteristic as among the fair maidens of Cambria. It was, no doubt, those sweet shining faces, wreathed with ...
— The Wild Huntress - Love in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid
... kilted her green kirtle A little aboon her knee, And she has broded her yellow hair A little aboon her bree, And she's awa' to Carterhaugh, As fast as ...
— Ballads of Mystery and Miracle and Fyttes of Mirth - Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Second Series • Frank Sidgwick
... Why, there was to be a May-pole and a morris-dance, and a roasted calf, too, in Master Wainwright's field, since Margery was chosen Queen of the May. And Peter Finch was to be Robin Hood, and Nan Rogers Maid Marian, and wear a kirtle of Kendal green—and, oh, but the May-pole would be brave; high as the ridge of the guildschool roof, and hung with ribbons like a rainbow! Geoffrey Hall was to lead the dance, too, and the other boys and girls would all be there. ...
— Master Skylark • John Bennett
... was the tent, still more lovely was the lady who stood before it—a maiden queen—crowned with an imperial diadem, and clothed in a robe of green, with the body formed of lace of gold, and her crimson kirtle bound with violet-coloured velvet, the wide sleeves being embroidered with flowers of gold and rich pearls. Around her stood her maiden attendants in comely attire, with silver coronets on their heads, and silver bows in their hands, while ...
— The Seven Champions of Christendom • W. H. G. Kingston
... on the right. At first, one was only a blur of gray and the other a flame of scarlet; they disappeared behind a grove of aspens, then reappeared nearer, and he could make out a white beard on the gray figure and a veil of golden hair above the scarlet kirtle. What hair for a boy, even the noblest born! It was the custom of all free men to wear their locks uncut; but this golden mantle! Yet could it be a girl? Did a girl ever wear a helmet like a silver bowl, and a kirtle that stopped at the knee? If it was a girl, she must be one of those ...
— The Thrall of Leif the Lucky • Ottilie A. Liljencrantz
... winter takes our love away For ashen hues of sober gray! So when the blooming, blushing May Comes out in bodice, cap, and kirtle, With arbutus her corsage laced, And roses clinging to her waist, We crown her charming queen of taste, Her ...
— Poems - Vol. IV • Hattie Howard
... is nought but darkness there. Those trees of yours exhale a poison which transforms men into beasts; your thickets are charged with the venom of vipers; your streams carry pestilence in their blue waters. If I could snatch away from that world of nature, which you extol, its kirtle of sunshine and its girdle of greenery, you would see it hideous like a very fury, a skeleton, rotting away with ...
— Abbe Mouret's Transgression - La Faute De L'abbe Mouret • Emile Zola
... I observed one fellow, as the landlord advanced, take the pipe out of his mouth, and gaze upon him with a kind of grin of wonder, probably much the same as his ancestor, the Saxon lout of old, put on when he saw his idol Thur dressed in a new kirtle. To avoid the press, I got into a corner, where, on a couple of chairs, sat two respectable-looking individuals, whether farmers or sow-gelders, I know not, but highly respectable-looking, who were discoursing ...
— The Romany Rye - A Sequel to 'Lavengro' • George Borrow
... night songs and candle-light; loudly sung clerks holy psalms of God. When it was day on the morrow, people gan to stir. His weapons he took in hand, Arthur the strong; he threw on his back a garment most precious, a cheisil shirt, and a cloth kirtle; a burny exceeding precious, embroidered of steel. He set on his head a good helm; to his side he suspended his word Caliburn; his legs he covered with hose of steel, and placed on his feet spurs ...
— Brut • Layamon
... burn Through those night-waters of thine hair, A flower from its translucid urn Poured silver flame more lunar-fair. These futile trappings but recall Degenerate worshippers who fall In purfled kirtle and brocade To 'parel the white Mother-Maid. For, as her image stood arrayed In vests of ...
— Poems • Francis Thompson
... Upon a ravenous wolfe, and still did chaw Between his cankred teeth a venemous tode, That all the poison ran about his jaw. All in a kirtle of discolourd say He clothed was, ypaynted full of eies, And in his bosome secretly there lay An hatefull snake, the which his taile uptyes In many folds, and mortall ...
— The Stones of Venice, Volume II (of 3) • John Ruskin
... her garments were of lawn, The lining purple silk, with gilt stars drawn; Her wide sleeves green, and bordered with a grove, Where Venus in her naked glory strove To please the careless and disdainful eyes Of proud Adonis, that before her lies; Her kirtle blue, whereon was many a stain, Made with the blood of wretched ...
— The Book-Bills of Narcissus - An Account Rendered by Richard Le Gallienne • Le Gallienne, Richard
... heirs, or conveying feodal lordships to their husbands, had, as early as the thirteenth century, the privilege of armorial seals. The variations were progressive and frequent; at first the female effigy had the kirtle or inner garment emblazoned, or held the escocheon over her head, or in her right hand; then three escocheons met in the centre, or four were joined at their bases, if the alliance admitted of so many. Dimidiation, accollation, and impalement succeeded each other at short intervals. But ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 210, November 5, 1853 • Various
... more inclined to grant Maya's prayer. She therefore told Maya all that was before her, and having put upon her tiny finger the fairy-ring, bade the tiring-woman take off her velvet robe, and the gold circlet in her hair, and clothe her in a russet suit of serge, with a gray kirtle and hood. King Joconde was gone to the wars. Queen Lura cried a little, the Princess Maddala laughed, and Maya went out alone,—not lonely, for the Spark burned high and clear, and showed all ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. I., No. 3, January 1858 - A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics • Various
... kilted her green kirtle,[A] A little abune her knee; And she has braided her yellow hair, A little ...
— Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, Vol. II (of 3) • Walter Scott
... that Ruth was not clad as she had been when we had left her. She stood in scanty kirtle that came scarcely to her knees, her shoulders were bare, her curly brown hair unbound and tangled. Her face was set with wrath hardly less than that which beat from Norhala. On Ventnor's forehead was a blood red scar, a line that ran ...
— The Metal Monster • A. Merritt
... Shakespeare, she said that one bright moonlight night she, in the company of two of her Gypsy playmates, Rhona Boswell and a girl called Sinfi, had visited this same Fairy Glen, when they saw the Fairy Queen alone on a ledge of rock, dressed in a green kirtle with a wreath of golden ...
— Aylwin • Theodore Watts-Dunton
... cried the outlaw, and young Robin's heart gave a throb and he made a movement to get down to go to the sweet-faced woman who came hurriedly out, wide-eyed and wondering, in her green kirtle, her long soft naturally curling hair rippling down her back, but confined round her brow by a plain silver band in which a few ...
— Young Robin Hood • G. Manville Fenn
... the procession to the castle were few, if any, comparable to this lowly damsel. Her dress—probably owing to the pride felt in her by her old relative was somewhat superior to her station. A tightly-laced green kirtle displayed to perfection her slight but exquisitely-formed figure A gown of orange-coloured cloth, sufficiently short to display her small ankles, and a pair of green buskins, embroidered with silver, together with a collar of the whitest and finest linen, though shamed by the neck it concealed, ...
— Windsor Castle • William Harrison Ainsworth
... for their fees, Will have twa ells beneath their knees. Kittock that cleckit[153] was yestreen, The morn, will counterfeit the queen: And Moorland Meg, that milked the yowes, Claggit with clay aboon the hows,[154] In barn nor byre she will not bide, Without her kirtle tail be syde. In burghs, wanton burgess wives Wha may have sydest tailis strives, Weel bordered with velvet fine, But followand them it is ane pyne: In summer, when the streetis dries, They raise the dust aboon the skies; Nane may gae near ...
— English Satires • Various
... any more, Yo San. I may decide to go away again—abroad perhaps. I am still very bored—give me a white kirtle and telephone Mr. Marchmont to call ...
— The Nest Builder • Beatrice Forbes-Robertson Hale
... the bolt of lisson lath; Fair Margaret in her tidy kirtle, Led the lorn traveler up the path, Through clean-clipped rows of box and myrtle: And Don and Sancho, Tramp and Tray, Upon the parlor steps collected, Wagged all their tails, and seemed to say, "Our ...
— The Humourous Poetry of the English Language • James Parton
... image at that distance with the naked eye, and our personal vision instruments had been taken from us. A slender, imperial figure—a young girl seemingly about Elza's age. Dressed in a shimmering blue kirtle, short after the Venus fashion, with long grey stockings beneath. A girl with flowing waves of pure white hair to her waist—a girl of the Venus Central State. She seemed, like ourselves, a prisoner. An aura or barrage ...
— Tarrano the Conqueror • Raymond King Cummings
... comes along the stream towards him. Her kirtle is composed of 'sute,' ornamented with pearls.] Perle[gh] py[gh]te of ryal prys, ere mo[gh]t mon by grace haf sene, Quen at frech as flor-de-lys, Dou{n} e bonke con bo[gh]e by-dene. 196 Al blysnande whyt wat[gh] hir beau ...
— Early English Alliterative Poems - in the West-Midland Dialect of the Fourteenth Century • Various
... moment, indeed, she was not a pleasing spectacle, for in the heat and excitement of her mad dance she had cast off her gold breast-plate or stomacher, leaving herself naked except for her kirtle and the thin, gold-spangled robe upon her shoulders over which streamed her black, disordered hair. Contrasting strangely in the silver moonlight with her glistening, copper-coloured body, the mask of Little Bonsa on her head glared ...
— The Yellow God - An Idol of Africa • H. Rider Haggard
... she was a maid More beautiful than ever twisted braid, Or sigh'd, or blush'd, or on spring-flowered lea Spread a green kirtle to the minstrelsy: A virgin purest lipp'd, yet in the lore Of love deep learned to the red heart's core: Not one hour old, yet of sciential brain To unperplex bliss from its neighbour pain; Define their pettish ...
— Lamia • John Keats
... that came behind rode after the fashion of a squire, and carried a pack trussed behind her with a brachet thereupon, and at her neck she bore a shield banded argent and azure with a red cross, and the boss was of gold all set with precious stones. The third damsel came afoot with her kirtle tucked up like a running footman; and she had in her hand a whip wherewith she drove the two steeds. Each of these twain was fairer than the first, but the one afoot surpassed both the others in beauty. The first cometh before the King, there ...
— High History of the Holy Graal • Unknown
... shall come and poke their noses Into our churns as sweet as roses; And to quiz MAUDLIN in clean kirtle The toffs of ...
— Punch, Or The London Charivari, Vol. 99, October 18, 1890 • Various
... fire," replied the girl, with an offended look, "I am of half a mind not to pardon thee. See, my kirtle is destroyed by the shower thou didst bestow upon me ...
— Erling the Bold • R.M. Ballantyne
... the wise folk said, It never were right to miss, But my maid Joan has a kirtle red And a merry mouth to kiss. And I can fiddle and Joan can sing, And ...
— Cap and Gown - A Treasury of College Verse • Selected by Frederic Knowles
... large, and full of light, Her arms and neck were bare; No garment she wore save a kirtle bright, And ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
... shoes, and grey worsted stockings. The woman seemed many years older than the man; she was tall also, and strongly built, and dressed in the ancient female costume, namely, a kind of round, half Spanish hat, long blue woollen kirtle or gown, a crimson petticoat, and white apron, and broad, ...
— Wild Wales - Its People, Language and Scenery • George Borrow
... elder: "He is as now in Meadhamstead, and may be in this chamber in scant half an hour." So the King bade send for him, and there was silence in the chamber till he came in, clad in a scarlet kirtle and a white cloak, and with his sword by his side. He was a tall man, bigly made; somewhat pale of face, black and curly of hair; blue-eyed, thin-lipped, and hook-nosed as an eagle; a man warrior-like, ...
— Child Christopher • William Morris
... the dame readily enough, "a white kirtle the wench wears, to hide the dust of the mill, no doubt—and a blue hood, that might ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott
... those proud suitors who devour thy wealth Shall leave their brains, then, on thy palace floor. But come. Behold! I will disguise thee so 480 That none shall know thee! I will parch the skin On thy fair body; I will cause thee shed Thy wavy locks; I will enfold thee round In such a kirtle as the eyes of all Shall loath to look on; and I will deform With blurring rheums thy eyes, so vivid erst; So shall the suitors deem thee, and thy wife, And thy own son whom thou didst leave at home, Some sordid wretch obscure. But ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer
... Launcelot had thus done, and slain and put to flight all that would withstand him, then he rode straight unto Dame Guenever, and made a kirtle and a gown to be cast upon her; and then he made her to be set behind him, and prayed her to be of good cheer. Wit you well the queen was glad that she was escaped from the death. And then she thanked God and Sir Launcelot; and so he rode his way with the queen, ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume II (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory
... lady kilted her kirtle green A little aboon her knee, The lady snooded her yellow hair A little aboon her bree, And she's gane to the good greenwood As fast as ...
— Folk-Lore and Legends - Scotland • Anonymous
... Food. It churns my Old Heart now to think of that Beautiful Girl, sitting beside me in my dank Prison Room, the tears streaming from her mild eyes, calling me by Endearing names, and ever and anon taking my hand in hers, and sinking on her knees to the sodden floor (with no thought of soiling her kirtle), while with profound Fervour she prayed for the conversion of errant Me. Sure there are Hearts of Gold among those Broadbrims and their fair strait-laced Daughters. Many a Merchant's Money-bags I have spared for the sake of Mr. Barzillai Shapcott (late of Aylesbury). Many a Fair Woman have I intermitted ...
— The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 1 of 3 • George Augustus Sala
... the old duenna, 'do for me what I bid you, and quickly. Get me brown juice for my skin, and a ragged kirtle and bodice, such as the Egyptians wear. Give me money to line it, and then let me go.' All this was done. Jehane put on vile raiment which barely covered her, stained her fair face, neck, and arms brown, and let her hair droop all about her. ...
— The Life and Death of Richard Yea-and-Nay • Maurice Hewlett
... the same costume as does every other servant in the country: a skirt of black stuff, short enough to show a pair of very neat-set and well-turned ankles, clad in cloth shoes and knitted stockings that showed no wrinkles; over the skirt a bodice and a kirtle of lilac, made with a neatly gathered frilling about her round brown throat; above the frilling five or six rows of unpolished garnet beads fastened by a massive clasp of gold filigree, and on her head a spotless white cap tied with a neat bow under her chin—as neat, let me tell ...
— Stories By English Authors: Germany • Various
... Hymettus a-flower Neighbour a fountain consecrate. Yielding and green is the turf. In a bower Trees low-growing meet and mate; Arbutus shadeth the green grass kirtle, Sweet the scent of rosemary; Fragrant the bay and the bloom of the myrtle; Nay, nor fail thee here to see Tamarisks delicate, box-wood masses, Lordly pine and clover low. Legions of leaves and the top of the grasses Stir ...
— Roads from Rome • Anne C. E. Allinson
... Above the cries of greed and gain, The curbstone war, the auction's hammer; And swift, on Music's misty ways, It led, from all this strife for millions. To ancient, sweet-do-nothing days Among the kirtle-robed Sicilians. ...
— Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools - Edited With Notes, Study Helps, And Reading Lists • Various
... gladly have silk for a kirtle, an I may summon her to the courtyard," Anne ventured to whisper ...
— The Manor House School • Angela Brazil
... amusement with the customers during the time they were in waiting at the barbers' shops, as newspapers were not then at hand to sustain this difficult office. He was of a dainty person; clad mostly in a kirtle of light watchet-colour, thick set with loose points. His hosen were grey, mingled with black, and his shoes were belayed with knots and ornaments, of which, and his other stray gear, he ...
— Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 1 (of 2) • John Roby
... by the barber, and even dimly hints that some day he may appear in silken jerkin and tight hose, like a well-to-do burgess. No greater contrast perhaps, unless indeed we should compare his sweetheart, Lorenzo's beautiful Nenciozza, with her box full of jewels, her Sunday garb of damask kirtle and gold-worked bodice, her almost queenly ways towards her adorers, with the wretched creature, not a woman, but a mere female animal, cowering among her starving children in her mud cottage, and looking forward, in dull lethargy, after the morning full of outrages ...
— Euphorion - Being Studies of the Antique and the Mediaeval in the - Renaissance - Vol. I • Vernon Lee
... of Blacket House; that she favoured the first but her people encouraged the second; that she was thus constrained to tryst with Fleming by night in the churchyard, 'a romantic spot, almost surrounded by the river Kirtle'; that they were here surprised by the rejected suitor, who fired at his rival from the far bank of the stream; that Helen, seeking to shield her lover, was shot in his stead; and that Fleming, either there ...
— Lyra Heroica - A Book of Verse for Boys • Various
... paletot[obs3], habit, gown, coat, frock, blouse, toga, smock frock, claw coat, hammer coat, Prince Albert coat[obs3], sack coat, tuxedo coat, frock coat, dress coat, tail coat. cloak, pall, mantle, mantlet mantua[obs3], shawl, pelisse, wrapper; veil; cape, tippet, kirtle[obs3], plaid, muffler, comforter, haik[obs3], huke|, chlamys[obs3], mantilla, tabard, housing, horse cloth, burnoose, burnous, roquelaure[obs3]; houppelande[Fr]; surcoat, overcoat, great coat; surtout[Fr], ...
— Roget's Thesaurus
... from the Swan's Bath, Death Gods grip the Dead Man's hand. Look where lies her luckless husband, Bolder sea-king ne'er swung sword! Asmund, keep the kirtle-wearer, For last night the Norns were crying, And Groa thought they told of thee: Yea, told of ...
— Eric Brighteyes • H. Rider Haggard
... from Vincenzo, and lifting it in her little hands, was endeavoring bravely to imitate his strong and telling stroke; he meanwhile stood aside with an air of smiling superiority, mingled with a good deal of admiration for the slight active figure arrayed in the blue kirtle and scarlet bodice, on which the warm rays of the late sun fell with so much amorous tenderness. Poor little Lilla! A penknife would have made as much impression as her valorous blows produced on the inflexible, gnarled, ...
— Vendetta - A Story of One Forgotten • Marie Corelli
... head, and gold on her feet, And gold where the hems of her kirtle meet, And a golden girdle round my sweet; Ah! qu'elle est ...
— The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems • William Morris
... make thee beds of roses, And a thousand fragrant posies; A cap of flowers, and a kirtle Embroider'd o'er with leaves ...
— Old Ballads • Various
... Hallgerda, and she came thither, and two women with her. She had on a cloak of rich blue woof, and under it a scarlet kirtle, and a silver girdle round her waist, but her hair came down on both sides of her bosom, and she had turned the locks up under her girdle. She sat down between Hrut and her father, and she greeted them all with kind words, and spoke well and ...
— Njal's Saga • Unknown Icelanders
... himself as he dropped from the window to the ground. "Whatever would she say were she to see the state of her kirtle and petticoats!" ...
— In Freedom's Cause • G. A. Henty
... wherein were four golden birds and little, bright gems of purple carbuncle in the rims of the basin. A mantle she had, curly and purple, a beautiful cloak, and in the mantle silvery fringes arranged, and a brooch of fairest gold. A kirtle she wore, long, hooded, hard-smooth, of green silk, with red embroidery of gold. Marvellous clasps of gold and silver in the kirtle on her breasts and her shoulders and spaulds on every side. The sun kept shining upon her, so that the glistening ...
— The Harvard Classics, Volume 49, Epic and Saga - With Introductions And Notes • Various
... bolt of lissom lath; Fair Margaret, in her tidy kirtle, Led the lorn traveller up the path, Through clean clipt rows of box and myrtle. And Don and Sancho, Tramp and Tray, Upon the parlour steps collected, Wagg'd all their tails, and seem'd to say, "Our master knows you; ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 13, No. 362, Saturday, March 21, 1829 • Various
... tried a many times. So let me say only that she was the prettiest creature on God's earth (which, I hope, will satisfy her); that she had chestnut curls and a mouth made for laughing; that she wore a kirtle and bodice of grey silk taffety, with a gold pomander-box hung on a chain about her neck; and held out a drinking glass toward us ...
— The Splendid Spur • Arthur T. Quiller Couch |
