“Woord is but wynd; leff woord and tak the dede.”
Secrets of Old Philosophers, line 1224.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
John Lydgate22
monk and poet 1370–1450Related quotes
“They can tak' oour lives but they canna tak' oour troousers!”
Terry Pratchett book The Wee Free Men
Source: The Wee Free Men
“He felle dede doun colde as ony stone.”
Robert Mannyng (1275–1338) English chronicler
Thomas Hearne (ed.) Peter Langtoft's Chronicle, as Illustrated and Improv'd by Robert of Brunne (1725) vol. 1, p. 56.
“For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll tak a cup o' kindness yet
For auld lang syne!”
Robert Burns (1759–1796) Scottish poet and lyricist
Auld Lang Syne, chorus (1788)
Margery Kempe (1373) English saint
On a night, as this creature lay in her bed with her husband, she heard a sound of melody so sweet and delectable, that she thought she had been in Paradise, and therewith she started out of her bed and said: "Alas, that ever I did sin! It is full merry in Heaven."
Source: The Book of Margery Kempe, Ch. 3; p. 5.
William Caxton (1422–1491) English merchant, diplomat, writer and printer
Certaynly it is hard to playse every man, by-cause of dyversite and chaunge of langage.
For we Englishmen are born under the domination of the moon, which is never steadfast but ever wavering, waxing one season and waning and decreasing another season. And that common English that is spoken in one shire varies from another, so that in my days it happened that certain merchants were in a ship on the Thames to sail over the sea to Zealand, and for lack of wind, they tarried at Foreland, and went to land to refresh themselves. And one of them named Sheffelde, a mercer, came to a house and asked for food, and especially he asked for egges, and the good woman answered that she could speak no French. And the merchant was angry, for he also could speak no French, but wanted to have egges, and she did not understand him. And then at last another said that he wanted eyren. Then the good woman said that she understood him well. Lo, what should a man in these days now write, egges or eyren? Certainly it is hard to please every man, because of diversity and change of language.
Preface to the Eneydos, 1490.