560 NONSENSE
Be noble! and the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.
Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,
But leave us still our old nobility.
Lord John Manners—England's Trust. Pt. III. L. 227.
Be aristocracy the only joy:
Let commerce perish—let the world expire.
Modern Gulliver's Travels. P. 192. (Ed. 1796)
His nature is too noble for the world:
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,
Or Jove for's power to thunder.
Coriolanus. Act III. Sc. 1. L. 255.
This was the noblest Roman of them all:
All the conspirators save only he
Did that they did in envy of great Caesar;
He only, in a general honest thought
And common good to all, made one of them.
Julius Caesar. Act V. Sc. 5. L. 68.
Better not to be at all
Than not be noble.
| author = Tennyson
| work = The Princess.
Pt.H. L. 79.
Whoe'er amidst the sons
Of reason, valor, liberty, and virtue
Displays distinguished merit, is a noble
Of Nature's own creating.
Thomson—Coriolanus. Act III. Sc. 3.
Titles are marks of honest men, and wise:
The fool or knave that wears a title lies.
Young—Love of Fame. Satire I. L. 145.
NONSENSE
A little nonsense now and then
Is relished by the wisest men.
Anonymous.
| seealso = (See also Walpole)
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| page = 560
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{{Hoyt quote
| num =
| text = <poem>He killed the noble Mudjokivis.
Of the skin he made him mittens,
Made them with the fur side inside,
Made them with the skin side outside. He, to get the warm side inside,
Put the inside skin side outside;
He, to get the cold side outside.
Put the warm side fur side inside.
That's why he put the fur side inside,
Why he put the skin side outside,
Why he turned them inside outside.
Given as Anon, in Carolyn Wells—Parody
Anthology. P. 120.
When Bryan O'Lynn had no shirt to put on,
He took him a sheep skin to make him a' one.
"With the skinny side out, and the wooly side in,
'Twill be warm and convanient," said Bryan
O'Lynn.
Old Irish Song.
NONSENSE
For blocks are better cleft with wedges,
Than tools of sharp or subtle edges,
And dullest nonsense has been found
By some to be the most profound.
Butler—Pindaric Ode. IV. L. 82.
'T was brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Lewis Carroll—Through the Looking-glass.
Ch. I.
To varnish nonsense with the charms of sound.
Churchill—The Apology. L. 219.
Conductor, when you receive a fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare.
A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare,
A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare,
A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare,
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
Chorus
Punch, brothers! punch with care!
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
S. L. Clemens
| cog = (Mark Twain)
| work = Punch, Brothers, Punch. Used in Literary Nightmare.
Notice posted in a car and discovered by
Mark Twain. Changed into the above jingle, which became popular, by Isaac Bromley and others. See Albert Bigelow
Paine—Biography of Mark Twain.
Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem:
Dulce est desipere in loco.
Mingle a little folly with your wisdom; a
little nonsense now and then is pleasant.
Horace—Carmina. FV. 12. 27.
How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!
Who has written such volumes of stuff!
Some think him ill-tempered and queer,
But a few think him pleasant enough.
Edward Lear—Lines to a Young Lady.
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{{Hoyt quote
| num = 15
| text = No one is exempt from talking nonsense; the
misfortune is to do it solemnly.
Montaigne—Essays. Bk. III. Ch. I.
<poem>There's a skin without and a skin within,
A covering skin and a lining skin, But the skin within is the skin without Doubled and carried complete throughout. Power of Atherstone.
<poem>From the Squirrel skin Marcosset
Made some mittens for our hero. Mittens with the fur-side inside, With the fur-side next his fingers So's to keep the hand warm inside. G. Strong ("Marc Antony Henderson">— Song of the MUgenwater. Parody of Hiawatha.
{{Hoyt quote
| num = | text = <poem>A careless song, with a little nonsense in it
now and then, does not misbecome a monarch. Horace Walpole—Letter to Sir Horace Mann. (1770)
