Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Peacock
For everything seemed resting on his nod,
As they could read in all eyes. Now to them,
Who were accustomed, as a sort of god,
To see the sultan, rich in many a gem,
Like an imperial peacock stalk abroad
(That royal bird, whose tail’s a diadem,)
With all the pomp of power, it was a doubt
How power could condescend to do without.
Byron—Don Juan. Canto VII. St. 74.
To frame the little animal, provide
All the gay hues that wait on female pride:
Let Nature guide thee; sometimes golden wire
The shining bellies of the fly require;
The peacock’s plumes thy tackle must not fail,
Nor the dear purchase of the sable’s tail.
Gay—Rural Sports. Canto I. L. 177.
To Paradise, the Arabs say,
Satan could never find the way
Until the peacock led him in.
Leland—The Peacock.
“Fly pride,” says the peacock.
Comedy of Errors. Act IV. Sc. 3. L. 81.
Let frantic Talbot triumph for a while
And like a peacock sweep along his tail.
Henry VI. Pt. I. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 5.
Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock,—a stride and a stand.
Troilus and Cressida. Act III. Sc. 3. L. 251.
And there they placed a peacock in his pride,
Before the damsel.
Tennyson—Gareth and Lynette.