Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Funerals
But see! the well-plumed hearse comes nodding on, stately and slow;
But tell us, why this waste?
Why this ado in earthing up a carcass
That’s fallen into disgrace, and in the nostrils smells horrible?
Blair.—The Grave.
It is but waste to bury them preciously.
Chaucer.—The Wife of Bath, Prol. Line 6082.
The nodding plume,
Which makes poor man’s humiliation proud;
Boast of our ruin! triumph of our dust!
Dr. Young.—Night IX. Line 2128.
Why is the hearse with scutcheons blazon’d round,
And with the nodding plume of ostrich crown’d?
The dead know it not, nor profit gain;
It only serves to prove the living vain,
How short is life! how frail is human trust!
Is all this pomp for laying dust to dust?
Gay.—Trivia, Book III. Line 231. Parnell.—Night piece on Death, Line 71.
Thrift, thrift, Horatio! the funeral-baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage tables.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 2. (The Prince.)