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John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.

Page 494

 
 
Sir Walter Scott. (1771–1832) (continued)
 
5175
    The happy combination of fortuitous circumstances. 1
          Answer to the Author of Waverley to the Letter of Captain Clutterbuck. The Monastery.
5176
    Within that awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries!
          The Monastery. Chap. xii.
5177
    And better had they ne’er been born,
Who read to doubt, or read to scorn.
          The Monastery. Chap. xii.
5178
    Ah, County Guy, the hour is nigh,
  The sun has left the lea.
The orange flower perfumes the bower,
  The breeze is on the sea.
          Quentin Durward. Chap. iv.
5179
    Widowed wife and wedded maid.
          The Betrothed. Chap. xv.
5180
    Woman’s faith and woman’s trust,
Write the characters in dust.
          The Betrothed. Chap. xx.
5181
    I am she, O most bucolical juvenal, under whose charge are placed the milky mothers of the herd. 2
          The Betrothed. Chap. xxviii.
5182
    But with the morning cool reflection came. 3
          Chronicles of the Canongate. Chap. iv.
5183
    What can they see in the longest kingly line in Europe, save that it runs back to a successful soldier? 4
          Woodstock. Chap. xxxvii.
5184
    The playbill, which is said to have announced the tragedy of Hamlet, the character of the Prince of Denmark being left out.
          The Talisman. Introduction.
 
Note 1.
Fearful concatenation of circumstances.—Daniel Webster: Argument on the Murder of Captain White, 1830.

Fortuitous combination of circumstances.—Charles Dickens: Our Mutual Friend, vol. ii. chap. vii. (American edition). [back]
Note 2.
See Spenser, Quotation 8. [back]
Note 3.
See Rowe, Quotation 2. [back]
Note 4.
Le premier qui fut roi, fut un soldat heureux;
Qui sert bien son pays, n’a pas besoin d’aïeux
(The first who was king was a successful soldier. He who serves well his country has no need of ancestors).—Francis M. Voltaire: Merope, act i. sc. 3. [back]