"Wench" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... here's a small trifle of wives: Alas, fifteen wives is nothing; eleven widows and nine maids, is a simple coming in for one man: and then, to 'scape drowning thrice; and to be in peril of my life with the edge of a feather-bed,[56] here are simple 'scapes! Well, if fortune be a woman she's a good wench for this gear.—I'll take my leave of the Jew in the ...
— The Merchant of Venice [liberally edited by Charles Kean] • William Shakespeare
... hour's time, the servant appeared with a little paper parcel for me. It had been left by a stranger with an English accent and a terrible face. He had announced his intention of calling a little later. The servant, a bouncing fat wench, trembled as she repeated the message, and asked if there was anything amiss between me and the ...
— Poor Miss Finch • Wilkie Collins
... Curtius interrupts and forbids, Salvator, father to Laura and Lorenzo, promptly turns the quondam lover out of the house. Lorenzo himself is idly pursuing Clarina, wife to a certain Antonio, an abortive intrigue carried on to his own impoverishment, but the enrichment of Isabella, Clarina's woman, a wench who fleeces him unmercifully. Antonio being of a quaint and jealous humour would have his friend Alberto make fervent love to Clarina, in order that by her refusals and chill denials her spotless conjugal fidelity may be proved. However, Ismena, Clarina's ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume IV. • Aphra Behn
... must be born again; prior to the departure of George Liele for Jamaica, he came up from Tybee River, where departing vessels frequently lay ready for sea, and baptized our Brother Andrew, with a wench of the name Hagar, both belonging to Jonathan Bryan, Esq.; these were the last performances of our Brother George Liele in this quarter. About eight or nine months after his departure, Andrew began to exhort his black hearers, with a few whites. Edward Davis, ...
— The Journal of Negro History, Vol. I. Jan. 1916 • Various
... best paved, nor the most celebrated for fine edifices, we so cherish its age and dignity that we would not for the world change its provincial name, or molest one of the hundred old tottering buildings that daily threaten a dissolution upon its pavement, or permit a wench of doubtful blood to show her head on the "north sidewalk" during promenade hours. We are, you see, curiously nice in matters of color, and we should be. You may not comprehend the necessity for this scrupulous regard to caste; others ...
— Justice in the By-Ways - A Tale of Life • F. Colburn Adams
... useful to Mr. Halsey that the weight of the business fell entirely on him; and while Edmund was canvassing the borough and visiting the viscountess, Ralph Thrale was getting money both for himself and his principal: who, envious of his success with a wench they both liked but who preferred the young man to the old one, died, leaving him never a guinea, and he bought the brewhouse of Lord and Lady Cobham, making an excellent bargain, with the money ...
— Autobiography, Letters and Literary Remains of Mrs. Piozzi (Thrale) (2nd ed.) (2 vols.) • Mrs. Hester Lynch Piozzi
... accident that has happened during my illness. You must know that my eldest boy, finding your manuscript upon the table in the dining-room, where I used to read it, carried it into the kitchen, and leaving it there, a negligent wench of a cook-maid, mistaking it for waste paper, has expended it but a few leaves in singing fowls upon the spit. But I hope the misfortune is not irreparable, since, no ...
— The Adventures of Roderick Random • Tobias Smollett
... and we both heard it, sometimes like a bairn crying and sometimes like a wench in pain. I've been seventeen years to the country and I never heard seal, old or young, make a sound like that. As we were standing there on the foc'sle-head the moon came out from behind a cloud, and we both saw a sort of white figure moving across ...
— The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Tales • Arthur Conan Doyle
... thing well done!" breathed the knight, when he found himself once more alone, "and done easier than I had looked for. Well, well, it is a happy thing the wench has found her right senses. Methinks good Peter must have been setting his charms to work, for she never could be brought to listen to him of old. He has tamed her to ...
— In the Days of Chivalry • Evelyn Everett-Green
... 'It is written in the legend of St. Bernard,' we are told, 'that a pretty wench that had the use of Incubus his body by the space of six or seven years in Aquitania (being belike weary of him for that he waxed old), would needs go to St. Bernard another while. But Incubus told her ...
— The Superstitions of Witchcraft • Howard Williams
... their mouths, unable to swallow it. Others gorged themselves to the full, and then lay along the steps, supine as satisfied brutes. Only a few sat and ate like rational human beings; and there was but one, the little, shrill-voiced man, who asked me if he might "tak a bit o' bread to the old wench at home?" ...
— John Halifax, Gentleman • Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
... the middle of the nose. "What a devil!" he said, and he looked at her with admiration, for she had inspired him with a feeling of respect and of a very different kind of admiration, which was the beginning of real love for that tall, strong wench. ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Volume II (of 8) • Guy de Maupassant
... of his own easy-chair and looked gratefully around the room. The storm had not disturbed it, neither had a wench's duster. Since his mother's death he had loved this room with a more grateful affection than any mortal had inspired, well as he loved his aunt, Hugh Knox, and Neddy. But the room did not talk, and the men who had written the great ...
— The Conqueror • Gertrude Franklin Atherton
... generals, and he dispatched a party with cannon and petards to reduce the place, whilst he marched on to join Cromwell in enterprises of more importance. The detachment of Roundheads summoned the place. The royalist, to show his respect for their authority, made his kitchen wench squeak a defiance from an upper window, from which she bolted with great rapidity as soon as she had thus represented the valor of the establishment, and when next seen it was in the cellar, wedged in between two barrels of beer. The men went at it hammer and tongs, and in twenty-four ...
— A Perilous Secret • Charles Reade
... is dangerous, and who knows? If aught went wrong, you might be wanted nearer home. Christopher, you shall never have my girl; she's not for you. Yet, perhaps, if need were, you would strike a blow for her even if it made you excommunicate. Get hence, wench. Why do you stand there gaping on us, like an owl in sunlight? And remember, if I catch you at more such tricks, you'll spend your days mumbling at prayers in a nunnery, and much good may they ...
— The Lady Of Blossholme • H. Rider Haggard
... brave young knight, and would willingly have had him for his son-in-law, if his fair little daughter Diliana had not resisted his entreaties, bis dalo; the news came, I say, now that Diliana had run away from her father, and gone to play the serving-wench to Sidonia. So the knight seized his good sword, and went forth, like another Perseus, to save his Andromeda, and deliver her from the dragon, even if his own life were to pay the cost. He knew not that the damning ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold
... "you brazen wench, who are so eager to leave a king's side for a nameless vagrant's care! And you, sir," turning to me, and fairly trembling with rage and dread, "I will not gainsay that you have done the errand set you, but it might this once be chance that got you that cursed ...
— Gulliver of Mars • Edwin L. Arnold
... are," Ben answered. "The boy bach who loses the key of his house breaks into his house. Does an old wench bar the ...
— My Neighbors - Stories of the Welsh People • Caradoc Evans
... fact, I know already that my son has an affair with that wench, Philaenium, next door. Isn't ...
— Amphitryo, Asinaria, Aulularia, Bacchides, Captivi • Plautus Titus Maccius
... was a strapping Normandy wench, whose native rusticity had promptly acquired an aristocratic tinge amidst the elegancies of Parisian luxury and an idle life. She was styled Madame Seraphine, and was for the time being mistress of an incarnate rheumatism in the shape of a peer of France, ...
— Bohemians of the Latin Quarter • Henry Murger
... coney take to you, my Don Teniente; Ile none; and because you keepe such a wondering why my stomach goes against the wench (albeit I might find better talke, considering what ladder I stand upon) Ile tell you, signior, what kind of wife I must ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. II • Various
... a penny they kiss her yet!" he said to me presently, and for the second time I noticed the comedy—if you choose to call it so—for the wench was now struggling fiercely amid the ...
— The Hidden Children • Robert W. Chambers
... evanishment. Hath seen her? ... No?"—and the old man thumped his stick petulantly on the floor as Theos shook his head in the negative—"'Tis the only feminine creature I ever had patience to speak with,—a modest wench and a gentle one, and were it not for her idolatrous adoration of Sah-luma, she would be fairly sensible withal. No matter!—she has gone; everything goes, even good women, and nothing lasts save folly, of which there shall ...
— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli
... corner by Drury Lane, making for Catherine Street, and upset an early breakfast and periwinkle stall, by catching one corner of the fragile fabric with his toe, having ridden too near to the pavement. "Where are you for now? and bad luck to ye, ye boiled lobster!" roared a stout Irish wench, emerging from a neighbouring gin-palace on seeing the dainty viands rolling in the street. "Cut away!" cried Jorrocks to his friend, running his horse between one of George Stapleton's dust-carts and a hackney-coach, "or the Philistines will be upon ...
— Jorrocks' Jaunts and Jollities • Robert Smith Surtees
... sticks her slender nose In things whereon a lass doth ill to trench, An ever-widening breach my fancy shows, For this is but the thin end of the wench. ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 159, December 8, 1920 • Various
... to do everything, but love to do nothing but what is good. The philosophers themselves do not justify Callisthenes for forfeiting the favour of his master Alexander the Great, by refusing to pledge him a cup of wine. Let him laugh, play, wench with his prince: nay, I would have him, even in his debauches, too hard for the rest of the company, and to excel his companions in ability and vigour, and that he may not give over doing it, either through defect of power or ...
— The Essays of Montaigne, Complete • Michel de Montaigne
... quick secured, a green and gaudy bench, And paid my humble penny to a very buxom wench. The tide was running out amain, and slowly, bit by bit, She moved her back seats forward till she left me in the pit. Stout Mr. BIGGS, the hair-dresser, the Bond-Street mould of form, Sat next me with his family, and seemed to find it warm; And, while admiring Mrs. B. hung on her BIGGS's lips. He ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 103, September 3, 1892 • Various
... Donald, "the wench that bought us our supper is gone to bed, and the landlord's too drunk to carry anything upstairs. You go and fill the jug there with hot water in the kitchen, and I'll get some whisky ...
— The Northern Iron - 1907 • George A. Birmingham
... would have noticed anguish in her pleading tone, when she said: "Please, Massa Gordonmammon, don't say nothin' more 'bout it. I don't want to be married." But his spiritual ear was not delicate; and her voice sounded to him merely as that of a refractory wench, who was behaving in a manner very unseemly and ungrateful in a bondwoman who had been taken from the heathen round about, and brought under the guidance of Christians. He therefore assumed his sternest look when he said: ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 17, No. 101, March, 1866 • Various
... But ere thine hour no bard had chosen yet? Didst thou in masterly disdain of too much law Not only limn the truths no others saw But also, lord not slave of written word, Lend ear to what no other poet heard And, liberal minded on the Mermaid bench With bow for blade and chaff for serving wench Await from overseas slang-slinging Jack Who brought ...
— The Eye of Zeitoon • Talbot Mundy
... "The wench was plump," says Konev, "and panting for love; so we just got married, and brats began to come tumbling from her ...
— Through Russia • Maxim Gorky
... noon and worked during the dinner-hour. The first of the hands to return from dinner was a good-looking young wench, a twister-in. She thoughtfully asked if I had had my dinner. Of course I didn't think I had, as it was too far to go home to it. "Oh! but you shall have some dinner" says the big-hearted factory-lass; "for I'll go home and bring you something." "Thank you," said I, and ...
— Adventures and Recollections • Bill o'th' Hoylus End
... wench I showed thee now, or else some other seeke. What? can your choler no way be allayed But with Imperiall tytles? Will you more tytles[1] ...
— Old English Plays, Vol. I - A Collection of Old English Plays • Various
... Thorough both the gills. A wench is a rare bait, with which a man No sooner's taken, but he straight ...
— The Alchemist • Ben Jonson
... phantoms of personages of every degree, from the highest to the lowest, have the means necessary for assuming almost any character, you know. As 'costumier' of the troupe I am accustomed to make all sorts of transformations, and can turn a miserable vagabond into an Alexander, or a vulgar wench into a princess. Now, if you are not too proud, I will exercise my poor skill in your lordship's service. Since you have been willing to join our company for this journey, do not disdain to make use of our resources, such as they are, and put aside these ill-fitting garments, ...
— Captain Fracasse • Theophile Gautier
... knees, and humbly prayed him to let me just step down and bid my last sister farewell. But, instead of granting me this request, he grasped me by the neck, and in a commanding tone of voice, and with a violent oath, exclaimed, "Get up! You can do the wench no good; therefore there is no ...
— Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom • William and Ellen Craft
... Naturalists began blowing up the buildings. And then the Yardsticks had come with their weapons, hunting down the Naturalists. Or had it been that way, really? It didn't matter, now. That was in another country and besides, the wench was dead. ...
— This Crowded Earth • Robert Bloch
... to catalogue the heroine's "points" are past. Formerly it was possible. A man wrote perhaps some half-a-dozen novels during the whole course of his career. He could have a dark girl for the first, a light girl for the second, sketch a merry little wench for the third, and draw you something stately for the fourth. For the remaining two he could go abroad. Nowadays, when a man turns out a novel and six short stories once a year, description has to be dispensed with. It is not the writer's fault. ...
— Idle Ideas in 1905 • Jerome K. Jerome
... petulant flirt of the lines, he gives out, with tremendous explosive efforts, a series of blasts that are heard all down the street. Here and there a blind is coyly opened, and some old dame in ruffled cap peers out, or some stout wench at a back door stands gazing with her arms a-kimbo. The horn rattles back into its socket again; the lines are tightened, and the long lash smacks once more around the reeking flanks of the leaders. Yonder, in his sooty shop, stands ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 88, February, 1865 • Various
... in stormy weather, I joined this rogue and wench together, And none but he who rules the thunder, Can put ...
— Irish Wit and Humor - Anecdote Biography of Swift, Curran, O'Leary and O'Connell • Anonymous
... understood the situation very clearly, inquired suddenly whether that "wench" was going to keep them much longer in such a place. The Count, always courteous, realized that they could not expect such a painful sacrifice from a woman, and that the offer should originate from her. Monsieur Carre-Lamadon ...
— Mademoiselle Fifi • Guy de Maupassant
... host, "a woman was at the bottom of it, as usual. This Captain Merriman (who oweth me a pretty score for entertainment in this house), and this lad had a quarrel over a wench, and 'twas for that he pursued him as he did. Why, sirs, for six weeks the lad lay hidden in a cave, and for a week more lay quick in a grave, before Sir Captain, who had never ceased to hunt him, caught him, and ...
— Sir Ludar - A Story of the Days of the Great Queen Bess • Talbot Baines Reed
... is neither there nor here, For that my love of thee hath vanished, Seeing thee thus beprankt. Go pad thy calves! Thus mightst thou, just conceivably, with luck, Capture the fancy of some serving-wench. ...
— Seven Men • Max Beerbohm
... make a fuss about the wench now—it'll be all right. She'll like kissing well enough, and be only too glad to give me one ...
— Cord and Creese • James de Mille
... vows—love's love—and to tell truth, sir," (the Welsh blood of the Cardy peasant was now up,) "if any foreign, half Welsh, half wild Indian, sort of gentleman had sent his fine letters, asking my sweetheart's friends to turn me off, in my courting days, and prepare my wench to be his lady, instead ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol 58, No. 357, July 1845 • Various
... still well made Which she keeps too well hidden when about;— And she, no little pleased; that interlards, Between her exclamations at his figure, Reproof of gallantries half-laughed at hers. Anon she titters as he dons her dress Doubtless with pantomime— Head-carriage and hip-swagger. A wench, more conscious of her sex than grace, He then rejoined me, changed beyond belief, Roguish as vintage makes them; bustling helps Or hinders Chloe harness to the mule;— In fine bewitching both her age ...
— Georgian Poetry 1911-12 • Various
... now, and your man has not come. I don't believe in him, Guido. I think it is some wench who has set her eye at you; and, as I have followed you from Perugia to Padua, I swear you shall follow me to the nearest tavern. [Rises.] By the great gods of eating, Guido, I am as hungry as a widow is for a husband, as tired as a young maid ...
— The Duchess of Padua • Oscar Wilde
... to mask his chagrin under a show of contemptuous incredulity. 'The wench has too fine a conceit of herself!' he blurted out. 'Hark you, sir—this is a fable! I wonder you dare to put it about. A gentleman of the station of my lord Dunborough's son does not condescend ...
— The Castle Inn • Stanley John Weyman
... you shall have him: when can you tell? Much wench, or much son: 'sblood, when he has stay'd there three or four hours, travelling with the expectation of somewhat; and at the length be delivered of nothing: oh, the sport that I should then take to look on him if I durst; but ...
— Every Man In His Humour • Ben Jonson
... that interested me—an old negro wench. She was talking and laughing outside my door the other evening, but her laugh was so sweet and unctuous and musical—so full of breadth and goodness that I went outside and talked to her while she was ...
— Modern Prose And Poetry; For Secondary Schools - Edited With Notes, Study Helps, And Reading Lists • Various
... you a mighty good bargain for that wench, Clarenden. She might be worth a clare fortune in New Orleans. What d'ye say to a cool thousand?" another man declared, ...
— Vanguards of the Plains • Margaret McCarter
... all the sort of woman I admire—a great big strapping wench, the kind this marsh breeds twelve to the acre, like the sheep. Has it ever struck you, Martin, that the women on Romney Marsh, in comparison with the women one's used to and likes, are the same as the Kent sheep in comparison ...
— Joanna Godden • Sheila Kaye-Smith
... feeble and abandoned government than she was at that moment under the distaff of Henry III. Society was corrupted to its core. "There is no more truth, no more justice, no more mercy," moaned President L'Etoile. "To slander, to lie, to rob, to wench, to steal; all things are permitted save to do right and to speak the truth." Impiety the most cynical, debauchery the most unveiled, public and unpunished homicides, private murders by what was called magic, by poison, by hired assassins, crimes natural, ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley
... in his spirits, laughed at the matter, though not from the heart, as he that tooke great indignation at the dooings of the dutchesse, and pitied the case of the poore wench. But yet in fine (turning earnest to a iest) he pardoned all the parties, and aduanced the wench to high honor, farre aboue those that had rule of hir afore, so that she ruled them (willed they nilled they:) for he vsed hir as his paramour, till ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (6 of 8) - The Sixt Booke of the Historie of England • Raphael Holinshed
... upon that somewhat too frolicsome damsel we are not informed, but madam admits that it made herself ill, and adds that "if Silvy does not reform it is impossible to see what can be done for her, for she will not listen to remonstrance. Betsey is not strong enough to punish so strapping a wench, and it does not seem right that a man should be set to whip any woman or girl, even a wench, else Jack could ...
— Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, April 1875, Vol. XV., No. 88 • Various
... and left them crying had not Robaccia, the blowsy wench and good-for-naught, wailed aloud and caught ...
— Little Novels of Italy • Maurice Henry Hewlett
... we now must include the drama in such a designation). The democratic ideal has become at once an instinct, a principle and a fashion. Richardson in his "Pamela" did a revolutionary thing in making a kitchen wench his heroine; English fiction had previously assumed that for its polite audience only the fortunes of Algernon and Angelina could be followed decorously and give fit pleasure. His innovation, symptomatic of the time, by no means pleased an aristocratic on-looker ...
— Masters of the English Novel - A Study Of Principles And Personalities • Richard Burton
... of mine. I quibbled, I evaded, I was very enthusiastic and uncomfortable. It was with intense relief that I beheld the title-page of yet another volume which (silently, this time) he laid before me—The Country Wench. 'This of course I have ...
— And Even Now - Essays • Max Beerbohm
... demonstrations of modesty; a 'leer' was once a look with nothing amiss in it (Piers Plowman). 'Daft' was modest or retiring; 'orgies' were religious ceremonies; the Blessed Virgin speaks of herself in an early poem as 'God's wench.' In 'crafty' and 'cunning' no crooked wisdom was implied, but only knowledge and skill; 'craft,' indeed, still retains very often its more honourable use, a man's 'craft' being his skill, and ...
— On the Study of Words • Richard C Trench
... weary. This same eye could keep its watch, also, over the entire establishment, with no need of the huge body to which it was attached moving a hair's-breadth. Was it Nitouche, the head-cook, who was grumbling because the kitchen-wench had not scoured the brass saucepans to the last point of mirrory brightness? Behold both Nitouche and the trembling peasant-girl, together with the brasses as evidence, all could be brought at an instant's call, into the open court. ...
— In and Out of Three Normady Inns • Anna Bowman Dodd
... fleet in most circumstances, though there is some knowledge in the tops, as well as in the cabin. My ideas is, gentlemen, that, by casting to starboard on this ebb tide, we shall all have our heads off-shore, and we shall fetch into the offing as easily as a country wench turns in a jig. What we shall do with the fleet, when we gets out, will be shown in ...
— The Two Admirals • J. Fenimore Cooper
... knave with whom thou hast fallen in love, wench," growled the Chief Justice. "Out on ...
— Roger Willoughby - A Story of the Times of Benbow • William H. G. Kingston
... the fact of slavery persisted. When he was three weeks old he had an illness which left him totally blind. As soon as he was old enough to sit up alone and toddle about, another affliction, the nervous motion of his body, became apparent. His mother, a buxom young negro wench who was laundress for the d'Arnaults, concluded that her blind baby was "not right" in his head, and she was ashamed of him. She loved him devotedly, but he was so ugly, with his sunken eyes and his ...
— My Antonia • Willa Sibert Cather
... she suffered the indignity of sharing Charles's affection. To the high-born, blue-blooded daughter of centuries of French nobles (of whom her tradesman-father always affected a disconcerting ignorance) the very sight of her saucy and successful rival, the ex-orange-wench, was a contamination. She pretended to stifle in breathing the same air, and with high-tossed head sailed past Madame Nell (the mother of a duke), in the Court salons and corridors, ...
— Love Romances of the Aristocracy • Thornton Hall
... wench to look after the children's linen, and do other occasional work: Enquire of Mr. Twitch, ...
— The Academy Keeper • Anonymous
... are fond of Spanish wine, and some are fond of French, And some'll swallow tea and stuff fit only for a wench, But I'm for right Jamaica till I ...
— In the Sweet Dry and Dry • Christopher Morley
... the young wench who was at Trantridge awhile— young Squire d'Urberville's friend? I was there at that time, though I don't ...
— Tess of the d'Urbervilles - A Pure Woman • Thomas Hardy
... gate were asked if they had not seen a princess go out. To this they replied that they had seen nobody go out but a young girl, very meanly dressed, and who had more the air of a poor country wench than a gentlewoman. ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various
... says Thraso, 'lilies too! The wench, I find, would be a wit, Had she command of words eno', And on the right one chanced to hit: For pity, once, I'll set her clear: The laurels, you ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 183, April 30, 1853 • Various
... Now to see how habit and example corrupt one's manners. I am naturally the civilest spoken fellow in the world to the pretty prattling rogues; yet, following my master's humour, I've rudely driven this wench away. I must have a peep at her though. [Looking towards ...
— The Stranger - A Drama, in Five Acts • August von Kotzebue
... Rose, I will not have even you excuse him, I'll go and tell my lady how a poor faithful wench is served;" and away she ...
— The Pigeon Pie • Charlotte M. Yonge
... who opened the door greeted Macleod with a pleasant smile; she was a sharp wench, and had discovered that lovers have lavish hands. She showed the two visitors into the drawing-room; Macleod silent, and listening intently; the one-eyed major observing everything, and perhaps curious to know whether the house of an actress differed ...
— Macleod of Dare • William Black
... The wench I should have been courting now was journalism, that grisette of literature who has a smile and a hand for all beginners, welcoming them at the threshold, teaching them so much that is worth knowing, ...
— Margaret Ogilvy • James M. Barrie
... minute a tall, massive young woman in a white sun-bonnet came into view-actually a white sun-bonnet, such as a milkmaid or farming wench might have worn; but this was no rustic lass who walked so briskly through the woodlands—none but Elizabeth Templeton moved with that free, graceful step, or carried her ...
— Herb of Grace • Rosa Nouchette Carey
... start or the woman timed it so that I just missed getting my change. What an odd thing memory is, to be sure, to have kept such a triviality, and have lost so much that was invaluable! She is a crazy wench, that Mnemosyne; she throws her jewels out of the window and locks up straws and old rags ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)
... wife, whose stores seemed to consist of only oatmeal and whisky; and, coming down in his expectations and demands, and intimating that he was very hungry, and that anything edible would do, we heard the landlady inform, with evident satisfaction, a red-armed wench, dressed in blue plaiding, that "the lads would take porridge." The porridge was accordingly prepared; and, when engaged in discussing this familiar viand, a little before midnight—for we had arrived late—a tall Highlander entered the inn, dropping like a mill-wheel. ...
— My Schools and Schoolmasters - or The Story of my Education. • Hugh Miller
... The chamber wench, made prisoner with his prize, By the rapacious stripling, as I shewed, Who being trusted with that ill emprize, The poisoned draught of foul effect had brewed. From the others she and those solemnites Had kept away, suspecting what ensued: Yea, ...
— Orlando Furioso • Lodovico Ariosto
... Trebia, and the Ticinus, and Thrasymene and Cannae? Was Lentulus, the noblest of the noble, patrician of the eldest houses, a consular himself, expelled the less and stricken from the rolls of the degenerate senate, for the mere whining of a mawkish wench, because his name is Cornelius? Tush, Tush! these be but dreams of poets, or imaginings of children!—the commons be but slaves to the nobles; the nobles to the senate; the senate to their creditors, their purchasers, their consuls; ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) • Henry William Herbert
... Bill? The old wench calls Wright an angel," exclaimed one of the scamps, turning his head towards his companion as well ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes
... being challenged, however, she turned and looked, and then she saw that this was no ordinary tramp, but an itinerant musician well known along the south coast by the name of Singing Sal. She was a good-looking, trimly-dressed, strapping wench of five-and-twenty, with a sun-tanned face, brilliant white teeth when she laughed, and big brown eyes that were at once friendly and audacious in their scrutiny. She looked indeed more like a farmer's daughter dressed for market-day; but on one side of her, ...
— The Beautiful Wretch; The Pupil of Aurelius; and The Four Macnicols • William Black
... are title-bearing men and women in England who, had they an assured income of five-and-twenty, shillings per week, would have no right to call themselves poor, for their intellectual needs are those of a stable-boy or scullery wench. Give me the same income and I can live, but I am ...
— The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft • George Gissing
... godlike folly; for Sidonia hath bewitched her poor father, and he grows worse and worse, and her prayers to the sorceress are of no avail to help him, so she hath privately left her father's castle, to offer herself as servant to Sidonia; for no wench, far or near, will be found who will take old Wolde's place, and she hopes, in return for this, that the sorceress will give her something from her herbal to cure her old father. Ha! what do I see? How her beautiful hair streams behind her upon the wind! How she runs like a deer over ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V2 • William Mienhold
... dead.' 'So it would,' said I; 'but I will give you a sheet to wrap the body in, and you may take off her upper garments, and any thing of value; but do not strip her to the skin for any thing.' 'Well said, wench!' said he; 'I will do as you say.' So I fetched a sheet, and by that time Robin was come back, and ...
— The Old English Baron • Clara Reeve
... he understands mathematics; upon these conditions promise them each ten pounds a year, (board, lodging, and washing) with eighteen-penny perquisites, and you are acquitted with credit; as to the wench, if she comes bare-foot, almost before the news-paper appears, rebuffs of this kind are so common, that you may say, without suspicion, you ...
— The Academy Keeper • Anonymous
... fair self from her window cast. Courteous Ulysses his long stay doth mourn; His chaste wife prayeth for his safe return; While Circe's amorous charms her prayers control, And rather vex than please his virtuous soul. Hamilcar's son, who made great Rome afraid, By a mean wench of Spain is captive led. This Hypsicratea is, the virtuous fair, Who for her husband's dear love cut her hair, And served in all his wars: this is the wife Of Brutus, Portia, constant in her life And death: this Julia is, who seems to moan, That Pompey loved best, when she was gone. Look here ...
— The Sonnets, Triumphs, and Other Poems of Petrarch • Petrarch
... excellent the victuals are there. The Red Horse is as well known for its morning dinners as for the abundance of horses and carriages which it has on hire. I convinced myself of it when I followed to the stables a certain wench who seemed to be rather pretty. But she was not; it would be a truer saying to call her ugly. But I illuminated her with the colours of my longings. Such is the condition of men when left to themselves; they err wretchedly. We are all abused by empty images; ...
— The Queen Pedauque • Anatole France
... a sound of scratching on the door, and a girl appeared,—a country wench, as broad as she was long, red-haired and bandy-legged, a wen hiding the left eye, the right so pale a blue it looked white, with monstrous thick lips and ...
— The Gods are Athirst • Anatole France
... Aroint thee, wench! I sorrow for the vagabond student of the Latin Quarter now, even more than formerly I envied him. Thus topples to earth another idol of ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... t'other side said, that he was one that run gadding along the streets at all hours of the night, a private drunken beast, a Spend-thrift, &c. so that she did not care for him neither. Whereupon his Grace smiling told them, well you fellow and wench; do you think that we do here so give and take away the consent of marriage? perhaps when you are married, it may be much better, for the marriage bed doth for the most part change the ten sences into five. But she answered, may it please your Grace, he is no such man to do that, ...
— The Ten Pleasures of Marriage and The Confession of the New-married Couple (1682) • A. Marsh
... content never to see Hazeldean Hall again, if I could save my son, my own son, from disgrace and misery; for miserable he will be, when he knows he has broken my heart and his mother's. And for a creature like that! My boy, a thousand hearty thanks to you. Where does the wench live? I'll go to her at once." And as he spoke, the squire actually pulled out his pocketbook, and began turning over and counting ...
— My Novel, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... "As regards that Tyrolese wench," said Fritz, as he lighted a fresh cigar, "are you sure we can persuade her to don the Germania costume? She seems to have some pretty crooked notions on some points, and the old woman, you know, is as ...
— Ilka on the Hill-Top and Other Stories • Hjalmar Hjorth Boyesen
... sleep on soft couches with boys for bedfellows (and past their prime at that), are slaves to a zither-player, yes, an inferior zither-player. Wherefore may this Domitia-Nero woman reign no more over you or over me: let the wench sing and play the despot over the Romans. They surely deserve to be in slavery to such a being whose tyranny they have patiently borne already this long time. But may we, mistress, ever look to thee ...
— Dio's Rome, Volume V., Books 61-76 (A.D. 54-211) • Cassius Dio
... you (for a last word) to hear that our precentress - she is the washerwoman - is our shame. She is a good, healthy, comely, strapping young wench, full of energy and seriousness, a splendid workwoman, delighting to train our chorus, delighting in the poetry of the hymns, which she reads aloud (on the least provocation) with a great sentiment of rhythm. Well, ...
— Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson - Volume 2 • Robert Louis Stevenson
... soon acquired such a dominion over him, that she was acquainted with all his schemes, and trusted with his most secret correspondence. As soon as this was known in England, all those persons of distinction who were attached to him were greatly alarmed: they imagined that this wench had been placed in his family by the English ministers; and, considering her sister's situation, they seemed to have some ground for their suspicion; wherefore, they dispatched a gentleman to Paris, where the prince then was, who had instructions to insist that Mrs. Walkinshaw ...
— Redgauntlet • Sir Walter Scott
... miss! I believe you; and for that matter the wench seemed fair-spoken enough, and gave me a drink of cider. 'Tis the matter of a debt, you see." He drew a scrap of dirty paper from his pocket. "Twelve-seventeen-six, for repairs done to Wroote Parsonage; new larder, fifteen; lead for window-casements, eight-six; new fireplace to ...
— Hetty Wesley • Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch
... Lightfoot, tartly. "If he ever gets clean again after a whole night in a common gaol, I must say I don't see how he'll manage it. But if you aren't satisfied I can only tell you that the affair was all about some bar-room wench, and that the papers will be full of it. Not that the boy was anything but foolish," she added hastily. "I'll do him the justice to admit that he's more of a fool than a villain—and I hardly know whether it's a compliment that ...
— The Battle Ground • Ellen Glasgow
... Tam kent what was what fu' brawlie: There was ae winsome wench and waulie That night enlisted in the core, Lang after ken'd on Carrick shore; (For mony a beast to dead she shot, And perish'd mony a bonie boat, And shook baith meikle corn and bear, And kept the country-side in ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns
... serving wench and all. Now will you be off about your business before some spying rascal lays an information ...
— The Master of Appleby • Francis Lynde
... son's nose and take him into your house.' It would be a pretty business, truly, to marry our Mary to some great count or knight, who, when the fancy takes him, would look upon her as some strange thing, and be calling her country-wench, clod-breaker's brat, and I know not what else. No, not while I live, husband; I have not brought up my child to be so used. Do you provide money, Sancho, and leave the matching of her to my care; for there is Lope Tocho, John Tocho's son, a lusty, hale young man, whom we know, and I am sure ...
— Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
... for anything. I adjourned court right on the spot, and we put on our coats and went out and took up a collection for her and her cubs, and sent them over the mountains to their friends. Ah, she was a spirited wench!" ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... me," said the Dwarf; "but that's not to-day, nor yet to-morrow. What are you doing here? Are you an ambassador, maybe come to propose a match for me? I'm not proud, I'll hear you. They say there's a rather well-looking wench in your parts, ...
— Prince Ricardo of Pantouflia - being the adventures of Prince Prigio's son • Andrew Lang
... than by the will of the speaker, whilst the kindly light in the eyes belied his assumed harshness; "and having done so thou hast the hardihood to come and tell us of it thine own self. Fie upon thee for a saucy wench! What better dost thou expect for thyself and thy lord than a lodging in the lowest dungeon ...
— The Lord of Dynevor • Evelyn Everett-Green
... shelter—and find a wench. He stood in the mud: long, thin, brown in his doctor's gown of fur, with his black flapped cap that buttoned well under his chin and let out his brown, lean, shaven and humorous face like a woodpecker's peering out of a ...
— The Fifth Queen • Ford Madox Ford
... and, chuckling and smacking his lips, stood looking at Newman's bowed figure. Then he said slowly and deliberately, actually lingering over the words. "I am going to make a strumpet of the wench for ...
— The Blood Ship • Norman Springer
... every country wench or servant girl who goes off with a lover. But I sit here waiting for ...
— The Dangerous Age • Karin Michaelis
... girl of Gibson's,' quoth he to himself. 'But what a tight hold the wench got of the notion of his marrying again! One had need be on one's guard as to what one says before her. To think of her never having thought of the chance of a step-mother. To be sure, a step-mother to a girl is a different thing to a second ...
— Wives and Daughters • Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell
... knight. "Could ye not see it was a wench? She in the murrey-coloured mantle—she that broke her fast with ...
— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. 8 (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson
... and bless God I finds you. You wanna ask me some questions? Well, here I is, more than glad to answer, if I can. Where I born? Strange as it seems, I born right here in Winnsboro. My name set down in a book: 'Alexander-boy-mother, Hannah, wench of James Stewart'. Dat de way it was read to me by Dr. Beaty, dat marry a Miss Cherry and live in Rock Hill. If slavery had never been done 'way wid, dat would be my master today, 'cause him lak hound ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves • Works Projects Administration
... Jennings and Sir John: a fig for bailiffs, and baronets, parsons, and prisons, and all," and again he roared Hooray! "I tell you what though, old 'ooman, we must just try the taste of our glorious golden luck, before we do any thing else. Bide a bit, wench, and hide the hoard till I return. I'm off to the Bacchus's Arms, and I'll bring you some stingo in a minute, old gal." So off he ran hot-foot, to get an earnest of the blessing of ...
— The Complete Prose Works of Martin Farquhar Tupper • Martin Farquhar Tupper
... Wench Venus's Girdle wear, Though she be never so ugly; Lilies and Roses will quickly appear, And her Face look wond'rous smugly. Beneath the left Ear so fit but a Cord, (A Rope so charming a Zone is!) The Youth in his Cart hath ...
— The Beggar's Opera • John Gay
... to be no end to this?" the giant had growled. "Will you spend your days moping and swilling 'cause a white-faced ninny in Port Royal'll have none o' ye? 'Sblood and 'ounds! If ye wants the wench, why the plague doesn't ...
— Captain Blood • Rafael Sabatini
... 'Only that wench in one of her tantrums!' the man who had come out answered, applying an epithet to her which I will not set down, but which I carried to his account in the event of our coming face to face presently. 'She is quiet now. She may hammer ...
— A Gentleman of France • Stanley Weyman
... to himself, "that must ha' been the little wench as me and the old woman took to. It was somewhere here away. I remember about the shoe as she'd lost. They must ha' found it. The old woman cut the other shoe, same as it says here. It were a bad thing of us to take the ...
— The Golden Shoemaker - or 'Cobbler' Horn • J. W. Keyworth
... Guelph, Admire repentant; reverently prostrate Her person unto the belly-god; of whom Is inward plenty and external bloom; Enough of pomp and state And carnival to quench The breast's desires of an intemperate wench, The head's ideas ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... diminutive of some personal name, is the Norman form of the famous name Poussin, i.e. Chick. Or, coming to native instances, le wenchel, a medieval prototype of Winkle, is explained as for "periwinkle," whereas it is a common Middle-English word, existing now in the shortened form wench, and means Child. The obsolete Swordslipper, now only Slipper, which he interprets as a maker of "sword-slips," or sheaths, was really a sword-sharpener, from Mid. Eng. slipen, cognate with Old Du. slijpen, to ...
— The Romance of Names • Ernest Weekley
... cab and rode home ourselves inside a 'bus. My mother was tired, so my father slipped his arm round her, telling her to lean against him, and soon she fell asleep with her head upon his shoulder. A coarse-looking wench sat opposite, her man's arm round her likewise, and she also fell asleep, her powdered face against ...
— Paul Kelver • Jerome Klapka, AKA Jerome K. Jerome
... heart! I must gi' un a kiss.—Here, Susannah, Susannah!" cries she, raising herself from the embrace, "come and see Mr. Benjamin and young Master Tom.—You minds our Sukey, Mr. Benjamin; she be growed a rare slip of a wench since you seen her, though her'll be sixteen come Martinmas. I do aim to take her to see madam to get her ...
— Tom Brown's Schooldays • Thomas Hughes
... Holdernesse, for want of anything else that he could think of to talk about, recapitulated it as he and Lois walked along. It was his way of showing sympathy with the emotion that made her grey eyes full of tears, as she started up from the pier at the sound of his voice. In his heart he said, 'Poor wench! poor wench! it's a strange land to her, and they are all strange folks, and, I reckon, she will be feeling desolate. I'll try and cheer her up.' So he talked on about hard facts, connected with the life that lay before her, until they reached Widow ...
— Curious, if True - Strange Tales • Elizabeth Gaskell
... merry fellow in his time, and he had as great a love as any man living in the world for neat wine and salt meat. When he came to man's estate he married Gargamelle, daughter to the king of the Parpaillons, a jolly wench and good looking, who died in giving ...
— The World's Greatest Books, Vol VII • Various
... course our Annie was not to grieve Sally, neither to let it appear for a moment that I suspected her kind views upon me, and her strong regard for our dairy: only I thought it right upon our part not to waste Sally's time any longer, being a handsome wench as she was, and many young fellows glad to ...
— Lorna Doone - A Romance of Exmoor • R. D. Blackmore
... say, "this is the last-st st-straw. A nigger wench made up to counterfeit a member of our family, and the part given her which that member of our family was to have played! ... Overlook—oh, good God, sir, we've done nothing but overlook, every hour of day and night since ...
— Gideon's Band - A Tale of the Mississippi • George W. Cable
... through all the day, like bells on harness, inspiriting the work, whether it were done well or ill." In the annotated volume of the son's memoir which belonged to Edward FitzGerald, the writer added the following detail as to his great-aunt's temper and methods:—"A wench whom Mrs. Tovell had pursued with something weightier than invective—a ladle, I think—whimpered out 'If an angel from Hiv'n were to come mawther'" (Suffolk for girl) "'to missus, she wouldn't ...
— Crabbe, (George) - English Men of Letters Series • Alfred Ainger
... of Pallas for a sign, By two sphere lamps blazoned like Heaven and Earth With constellation and with continent, Above an entry: riding in, we called; A plump-armed Ostleress and a stable wench Came running at the call, and helped us down. Then stept a buxom hostess forth, and sailed, Full-blown, before us into rooms which gave Upon a pillared porch, the bases lost In laurel: her we asked of that and this, And who were tutors. 'Lady Blanche' she said, 'And Lady Psyche.' 'Which was ...
— The Princess • Alfred Lord Tennyson
... first gained the favour of the town, and that, taken with your description of her, gave me no room for doubt. Yet I hoped that it might not be as I feared, or, at least, that the thing could be hidden. It seems, though, that the saucy wench has made no secret of it. Thus you are landed in this quarrel, and ...
— Simon Dale • Anthony Hope
... House wherein dwells the Mistress of my Heart; for she has Money, Boys, mind me, Money in abundance, or she were not for me—The Wench her self is good-natur'd, and inclin'd to be civil: but a Pox on't—she has a Brother, a conceited Fellow, whom the World mistakes for a fine Gentleman; for he has travell'd, talks Languages, bows with a bonne mine, and the rest; but, by Fortune, ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. III • Aphra Behn
... then, when you are with her, which Elliot shall not know, I will see that Elliot comes into the chamber, and so leave all to you, and to her, and to the Maid. For she hath great power with that silly wench of mine, who has no other desire, I trow, than a good excuse to be rid of her sudden anger. If she loved you less, she would be never ...
— A Monk of Fife • Andrew Lang
... a lad in all the parish That would go to the plough that day; But on his fore-horse his wench he carries, And ...
— Waverley, Or 'Tis Sixty Years Hence, Complete • Sir Walter Scott
... cunning wench began to weep, and said, her father had never allowed her to learn Christianity, though she wished to do so ardently, but always made a mock of it, and for this reason she had sought a refuge with her Grace, where she hoped to become a truly pious and believing Christian. ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V1 • William Mienhold
... is not upon my head that I do not wed this wench. You be my witness that I would wed; it gores my heart to see her look so pale. It tears my vitals to see any woman look pale. As Lucretius says, "Better the ...
— The Fifth Queen Crowned • Ford Madox Ford
... Wildair met And tossed a pot together— Burnt sack it was that Molly brewed, For it was nipping weather. 'Fore George! To see Dick buss the wench Set all the inn folk laughing! They dubbed him pearl of cavaliers At ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV. (of X.) • Various
... supper came up—(I cursed the maid again for her delay, though, poor wench, she was near run off her legs)—there were left but four of us in the room; the gentleman at the head of the table, a lean quiet man with a cast in his eye who sat opposite me, Mr. ...
— Oddsfish! • Robert Hugh Benson
... honourable man, a marshal and an ambassador of France, a cousin of the Duke of Brittany, a reigning sovereign. Moreover, am not I the Douglas? I am responsible to no man. William Douglas may wed whom he will—king's daughter or beggar wench. Why should he not join with the honourable daughter of an honourable house, and the one ...
— The Black Douglas • S. R. Crockett
... the water having been seen to, we went to the monastery, or, as it now is, the homestead. As we entered the farmyard we found two cows fighting, and a great strapping wench belabouring them in order to separate them. "Let them alone," said the padrone; "let them fight it out here on the level ground." Then he explained to me that he wished them to find out which was ...
— Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino • Samuel Butler
... yet risen, the night was dark, and for some time we met with nothing more diverting than a stumble over a dead dog, a word with a forward wench, or a narrow escape from one of those liquid douches that render the streets perilous for common folk and do not spare the greatest. Naturally, I began to tire, and wished myself with all my heart back at the Arsenal; but Henry, whose spirits a spice of danger never failed to raise, found ...
— From the Memoirs of a Minister of France • Stanley Weyman
... wine and women and often wept to think how miserable he was. But nobody ever bought anything of him, except articles on bacon-curing or attacks on vestrymen. He was a strange, wild creature, and the wench felt quite pretty under his ardent gaze. It almost hypnotised her, though, and she looked down at her new French ...
— The Grey Wig: Stories and Novelettes • Israel Zangwill
... neither the Devil, Thomas, nor any body else, but your own frighted imagination; you had lain with that wench, and being a young sinner of that kind, your Conscience terrified you, told you the Devil would fetch you away, and you would be damn'd; and you were so persuaded it would be so, that you at last imagin'd he was come for you indeed; that you saw him and heard him; whereas, you may depend ...
— The History of the Devil - As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts • Daniel Defoe
... see, my jewel, you yourself know what a fellow with women the lad is,—and he's handsome too, though I say it as shouldn't. Well, you know, he was living at the railway, and they had an orphan wench there to cook for them. Well, that same wench took ...
— Redemption and Two Other Plays • Leo Tolstoy et al
... "Ay, the wench as well. Oh, I'll break your spirit, my pretty one," answered Morgan savagely, flipping the young woman's cheek. "Wilt pay me blows for kisses? Scuttle me, you shall crawl at my feet before ...
— Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer - A Romance of the Spanish Main • Cyrus Townsend Brady
... child Of mine. She is a wench who lied and stole Repaid my love with treason. Broke my heart And left me weakened for mine enemies To ruin and to taunt. Tell me the rest, Leave not a portion out. Describe her pain, Her hunger, her remorse. I ...
— The Menorah Journal, Volume 1, 1915 • Various
... a wench's tongue nebber satisfy! What for tell a whole world, when Bonnie go to bed? He sleep for heself, and he no sleep for 'e neighborhood! Dere! A man can't t'ink of ebery t'ing, in a minute. Here a ribbon long enough to hang heself—take him, and den remem'er, Phyllis, dat you be 'e wife of a man ...
— The Water-Witch or, The Skimmer of the Seas • James Fenimore Cooper
... do ye wesh i' the beck, awd wench? Is it watter ye lack at heame?" It's nobbut a murderer's shrood, young man, A shrood ...
— Yorkshire Dialect Poems • F.W. Moorman
... Ay, sir, there you shall have him. [Exit Knowell.] Yes— invisible! Much wench, or much son! 'Slight, when he has staid there three or four hours, travailing with the expectation of wonders, and at length be deliver'd of air! O the sport that I should then take to look on him, if I durst! But now, ...
— Every Man In His Humor - (The Anglicized Edition) • Ben Jonson
... blossoms and the variegated colours of shawled women who passed their lives on its margin engaged in the commerce of flowers. Edward Henry bought an aster from a fine bold, red-cheeked, blowsy, dirty wench with a baby in her arms, and left some change for the baby. He was in a very tolerant and charitable mood, and could excuse the sins and the stupidity of all mankind. He reflected forgivingly that Rose Euclid and her friends had perhaps not displayed an abnormal fatuity in discussing the ...
— The Regent • E. Arnold Bennett
... "Excellent wench! Perdition catch my soul! but I do love thee, Molly!" says the good Colonel; "but, then, mind you, your father never did me; and if ever ...
— The Virginians • William Makepeace Thackeray
... chaplain to a knight of Burgundy who was enamoured of the wench of the said knight, and of the adventure which happened on account of his amour, as ...
— One Hundred Merrie And Delightsome Stories - Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles • Various
... fit to wake the dead. Billy Fish saunters round and gets as close to Daniel as he could, and behind him stood his twenty men with matchlocks. Not a man of them under six feet. I was next to Dravot, and behind me was twenty men of the regular Army. Up comes the girl, and a strapping wench she was, covered with silver and turquoises but white as death, and looking back every minute at ...
— Indian Tales • Rudyard Kipling
... species.[30] Their point is mainly this: A man of birth and education, generally a dweller in the town, goes abroad into the fields, lured by fair spring weather, and makes love among trees to a country wench. ...
— Wine, Women, and Song - Mediaeval Latin Students' songs; Now first translated into English verse • Various
... fetch—my cloak and bonnet. Why, if the wench hasn't got them on her arm. What, you made up your mind that I ...
— It Is Never Too Late to Mend • Charles Reade
... his time, I tell you, the coxcomb! It's no manner of use his poaching round our way and making sheep's-eyes at the wench.... The coverts are watched! If he comes too near, it means a ...
— The Eight Strokes of the Clock • Maurice Leblanc
... Then those who did consent to come, what lies they would tell, to be sure! They would protest that they didn't want to look in the glass, that they never had been in the habit of looking in the glass, and all the while that very wench would have her looking-glass of some kind or another, hid away among her clothes up-stairs. Sooner or later, she would bring it out too, and leave it about somewhere or other (just like the cook), where it was as likely as not that master might see ...
— Mugby Junction • Charles Dickens
... me, when I was free, to go work where I was born, on de Martin place. I married Mary Douglas, a good-lookin' wench. A Yankee took a fancy to her and she went off wid de Yankee. She stayed a long time, then come back, but I'd done got Preacher Rice to marry me to Louvinia then. Dis second wife was a good gal. I raised ten chillun by her, but I's outlived them all but Manuel, Clara and John. When Louvinia ...
— Slave Narratives Vol. XIV. South Carolina, Part 2 • Works Projects Administration
... I cannot tell, but herein the sexe feminine is at no very great disaduantage: for first for the lawfulnesse; If it be in no other regard lawfull to beat a man's wife, then because the poore wench can sve no other action for it, I pray why may not the Wife beat the Husband againe, what action can he haue if she doe: where two tenants in Common be on a horse, and one them will trauell and vse this horse, hee may keepe it from his Companion a yeare two or ...
— Atlantic Monthly Vol. 3, No. 16, February, 1859 • Various
... called "The Cavern of Montesinos." Don Quixote descended part of the way down this cavern, and fell into a trance, in which he saw Montesinos himself, Durandart[^e] and Belerma under the spell of Merlin, Dulcin'ea del Toboso enchanted into a country wench, and other visions, which he more than half believed to be realities.—Cervantes, Don Quixote, II. ii. 5, ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook, Vol. 3 • E. Cobham Brewer
... father's daughter' and 'your father's son'! Faith, but it was a shrewd and nimble phrase, And left me with no fitting word at tongue. The wench hath wit and matter of her own, And beauty, that doth seldom mate with wit, Nature hath painted her a proper brown— A russet-colored wench that knows her worth. And mincing, too—should have her ruff propt up ...
— Wyndham Towers • Thomas Bailey Aldrich
... snare, By hands that used their country's ark to bear? This hateful truckling to misguided power, Combined in palace, temple, hall, and bower, To crush an outcast Queen, with evidence By facts refuted, ridiculed by sense?— Tales that would merit but an equal fate, Told of the veriest wench in Billingsgate! FATHERS! and BRITONS! whence this alien band Of miscreant lechers bribed from sea and land?— By England spurn'd, yet plied with England's gold, Till every scoundrel's stock of oaths was sold; Then hither ...
— The Ghost of Chatham; A Vision - Dedicated to the House of Peers • Anonymous
... pretty picture in the dining-room Saturday evening after tea. The powerful, middle-aged man, with the strongly marked features, sits in his deep leather-covered arm-chair at the right-hand corner of the ruddy fire-place, with the head of the 'little wench' between his knees. The child turns over the book with pictures which she wishes her father to explain to her, or that perhaps she prefers explaining to him. Her rebellious hair is all over her eyes, much vexing the pale, ...
— Home Life of Great Authors • Hattie Tyng Griswold
... remember, child," says the foolish woman in the Spectator to her husband, "that the pigeon-house fell the very afternoon that our careless wench spilt the salt upon the table?" "Yes, my dear," replies the gentleman, "and the next post brought us an account of the battle of Almanza." The approach of disaster in Spain had been for some time indicated by omens much clearer than the mishap of the salt-cellar; an ungrateful prince, an undisciplined ...
— Critical and Historical Essays Volume 2 • Thomas Babington Macaulay
... whose true love I am; I'm more than true to you, For I'll ne'er wed a shepherd wench,— Although I came ...
— Life and Remains of John Clare - "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" • J. L. Cherry
... indignation of an enlightened and refined character, is not only expressed in a different language, but is in itself a different emotion from the love, or grief, or anger, of a clown, a tradesman, or a market-wench. The things themselves are radically and obviously distinct; and the representation of them is calculated to convey a very different train of sympathies and sensations to the mind. The question, therefore, comes ...
— Famous Reviews • Editor: R. Brimley Johnson
... If any Wench Venus's Girdle wear, Though she be never so ugly; Lilies and Roses will quickly appear, And her Face look wond'rous smugly. Beneath the left Ear so fit but a Cord, (A Rope so charming a Zone is!) The Youth in his Cart hath the Air of ...
— The Beggar's Opera - to which is prefixed the Musick to each Song • John Gay |
