"Hymen" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... fact, a marriage-settlement, of which the three beautifully engrossed copies were to be signed and sealed by all the parties in interest, and each was to possess a copy. Frank Sterling read over the paragraphs which settled enormous masses of funds around the sacred altar where Hymen was so soon to apply his torch, with great professional coolness, as well as commendable rapidity; but when he came to the conclusion, and, looking at both father and daughter, said, that all that remained, ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 4, No. 21, July, 1859 • Various
... hour, Sannie," he said, "shall have arrived, when, panting, I shall lead thee, lighted by Hymen's torch, to the connubial altar, then upon thy fair amaranthine finger, my joyous bride, shall ...
— The Story of an African Farm • (AKA Ralph Iron) Olive Schreiner
... fevers and other acute diseases. Chronic suppression may be either a consequence of the acute, or caused by delicate health; also, from diseases of the ovaries or womb. It may also be occasioned by an imperforate hymen, in which case it must be cut open by ...
— The Ladies Book of Useful Information - Compiled from many sources • Anonymous
... several Senators and generals, and even the Minister Chaptal. But she has politely declined all their offers, preferring her liberty and the undisturbed right of following her own inclination to the inconvenient ties of Hymen. A gentleman, whom she calls, and who passes for, her brother, Chevalier de M de T——, a Knight of Malta, assists her in doing the honours of her house, and is considered as her favourite lover; though report and the scandalous chronicle say that she bestows her ...
— Memoirs of the Court of St. Cloud, Complete - Being Secret Letters from a Gentleman at Paris to a Nobleman in London • Lewis Goldsmith
... years gone by, And for the friends I've lost; When no warm feeling of the heart Was chill'd by early frost. If these be Hymen's vaunted joys, I'd have him shun my door, Unless he quench his torch, and live Henceforth ...
— The Modern Scottish Minstrel, Volume VI - The Songs of Scotland of the Past Half Century • Various
... of the door has Hymenaeus quenched, and hath torn to shreds the bridal crown, and Hymen no more, Hymen no more is the song, but a new song ...
— Theocritus, Bion and Moschus rendered into English Prose • Andrew Lang
... ardent and the lofty. We are beyond earth's story as 'tis told, sir. All's shallower than the heart of man.... Indeed, 'twas one more shattered altar to Hymen." ...
— Henry Brocken - His Travels and Adventures in the Rich, Strange, Scarce-Imaginable Regions of Romance • Walter J. de la Mare
... of Love in 'As You Like It.' Examples of love at first sight in Shakespeare. Note Orlando's surprise at the suddenness of Oliver's and Celia's love. Was his own less sudden? Consider Hymen's song and Jaques's remarks in the last scene as descriptive of the various couples. Does the comic element of the play, as represented by Touchstone, discredit sentiment in the play? Notice the madrigal in Lodge's novel (given in Poet-lore, Vol. III., ...
— Shakespeare Study Programs; The Comedies • Charlotte Porter and Helen A. Clarke
... he swallowed, but his own hard heart into the bargain. The thing will not do. In the meantime, Miss Long hath become quite cruel to Wellesley Pole, and divides her favor equally between Lords Killeen and Kilworth, two as simple Irishmen as ever gave birth to a bull. I wish to Hymen that she were fairly married, for all this pother gives one a disgusting picture of ...
— Memoirs of Mr. Charles J. Yellowplush - The Yellowplush Papers • William Makepeace Thackeray
... was very large, and in the form of the letter B. The service was magnificent; in the centre stood a sugar pyramid four feet high; a French cook had been at work upon it for two weeks; it represented the temple of Hymen, adorned with allegorical figures, and surmounted by the united arms of Krasinski and Swidzinski, encircled by French inscriptions. There were, besides, quantities of other fancy articles: porcelain figures, gold and silver baskets, etc.; indeed, the table was so crowded that our dwarf Peter ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. 4, No 3, September 1863 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... power to close her eyes; Eyes which so far all other lights control, They warm our mortal parts, but these our soul! Let her free spirit, whose unconquer'd breast Holds such deep quiet and untroubled rest, Know that though Venus and her son should spare Her rebel heart, and never teach her care, Yet Hymen may in force his vigils keep, And for another's joy ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham
... jockeys, Greenwich pensioners, Jew clothesmen, flunkies, and others more illustrious, chained to the chariot wheels of Cupid, who, preceded by cherubic acolytes and banner-bearers, winds round the top of the picture towards an altar of Hymen on the table. When, by the aid of a pocket-glass, one has mastered these swarming figures, as well as those in the foreground, it gradually dawns upon one that all the furniture is strangely vitalised. Masks laugh round the border of the tablecloth, the markings ...
— The Library • Andrew Lang
... Love are smiling round, And lead the Bridegroom on, And Hymen has the Altar crown'd. While all thy sighing ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn, Vol. III • Aphra Behn
... strains of Rule Britannia bring patriotic tears to his eyes. Of late, (like myself,) he has become an Imperialist. His intentions are always strictly honourable, and he would not kiss the tip of a woman's fingers except Hymen gave him the strictest rights to do so. If he became enamoured of a lady with whom such tender sentiments should not be harboured, he would invariably remember his duty at the psychological moment, and with many moving expressions renounce her: in fact he is a devil at ...
— The Land of The Blessed Virgin; Sketches and Impressions in Andalusia • William Somerset Maugham
... "Do thou of many names and many temples, golden Aphrodite, be propitious to this bridal! Now let him first compute the glittering stars of midnight and the grasshoppers of a summer day who would count the joys this bridal shall bring about! Hymen, O Hymen, rejoice ...
— Domnei • James Branch Cabell et al
... of my destiny," said the Count, "mysterious forebodings that with a secret impulse urge me to foreign lands and to unwonted deeds. I confess that to-day I wished in honour of Telimena to light the flame on the altars of Hymen, but this youth has given me too fair an example by tearing off his marriage wreath of his own free will and rushing to test his heart amid the hindrances of changeful fortune and amid the bloody chances of ...
— Pan Tadeusz • Adam Mickiewicz
... he was worth more'n an assistant bartender and almost as much as a fourth-rate movie actor. Then, too, Myra's father had something lingerin' the matter with him, and wouldn't let anybody manage him but her. Hymen hobbled by both hind feet, ...
— Wilt Thou Torchy • Sewell Ford
... turned the corner of the Rue Vanneau and the Rue de Babylone, he looked back at the Eden whence Hymen had expelled him with the sword of the law. Valerie, at her window, was watching his departure; as he glanced up, she waved her handkerchief, but the rascally Marneffe hit his wife's cap and dragged ...
— Poor Relations • Honore de Balzac
... as beautiful! But theirs was love in which the mind delights To lose itself, when the old world grows dull. And we are sick of its hack sounds and sights, Intrigues, adventures of the common school, Its petty passions, marriages, and flights, Where Hymen's torch but brands one strumpet more, Whose husband only knows ...
— My Recollections of Lord Byron • Teresa Guiccioli
... light green and gilded in the cornices, while, surmounting the architrave, were three little statues—one held a torch, another a bow, and a third a bag; they were therefore rumoured, I know not with what justice, to be the artistical representatives of Hymen, Cupid ...
— Night and Morning, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... girls perpetuate the ancient but absurd emphasis on the virginal significance of the hymen; and a recent book from a prominent publisher goes so far as to try to frighten girls into remaining chaste by stating that a physician could discover if they have been unchaste. This is far from being always true, for ...
— Sex-education - A series of lectures concerning knowledge of sex in its - relation to human life • Maurice Alpheus Bigelow
... thou hast seen Satyron the Socratic, think of either Eutyches or Hymen, and when thou hast seen Euphrates, think of Eutychion or Silvanus, and when thou hast seen Alciphron think of Tropaeophorus, and when thou hast seen Xenophon, think of Crito or Severus, and when thou hast looked on thyself, think of any other Caesar, and in the case of every one ...
— The Thoughts Of The Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus • Marcus Aurelius
... gesture bold and ogling eye, Obtrusive speech and pert reply, And brazen front and stubborn tone, Show all her native virtue's flown. By her the thoughtless youth is ta'en, Impoverished, disgraced, or slain: Through her the marriage vows are broke, And Hymen proves a galling yoke. Diseases come, destruction's dealt, Where'er her poisonous breath is felt; Whilst she, poor wretch, dies in the flame That ...
— Cottage Poems • Patrick Bronte
... into sunshine, and it withers and ends. Strephon and Chloe languish apart; join in a rapture: and presently you hear that Chloe is crying, and Strephon has broken his crook across her back. Can you mend it so as to show no marks of rupture? Not all the priests of Hymen, not all the incantations to the ...
— Henry Esmond; The English Humourists; The Four Georges • William Makepeace Thackeray
... secondary sexual character. In this sense, and in this sense only, we may say, with Colin Scott, that "the feeling of shame is made to be overcome," and is thus correlated with its physical representative, the hymen, in the rupture of which, as Groos remarks, there is, in some degree, a disruption also of modesty. The sexual modesty of the female is thus an inevitable by-product of the naturally aggressive attitude of the male in sexual relationships, and the naturally ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis
... spark Of pity in that steel-grey glance which gleamed At the poor hoof's protesting as it stamped Idly the granite? Let me glide unseen From thy proud presence: well may'st thou be queen Of all those strange and sudden deaths which damped So oft Love's torch and Hymen's taper lit For happy marriage till the maidens paled And perished on the temple-step, assailed By—what except to envy must man's wit Impute that sure implacable release Of life from warmth and joy? But death ...
— An Introduction to the Study of Browning • Arthur Symons
... larger animals. The different features that should be noted are the clitoris, a small erectile organ located at the inferior portion of the opening, the meatus urinaris, the external opening of the urethra, situated in a depression in the floor of the vulva, and the hymen, an incomplete membranous partition that may be found separating ...
— Common Diseases of Farm Animals • R. A. Craig, D. V. M.
... in these days of reform and disestablishment, of hereditary and other conservative grievances, something ought to be done to abolish the persons in question, or at least handicap them so that other deserving young men might have a fair chance in the race for beauty's smile and Hymen's chain. They have an enormous advantage, at present, over outside men-folk. Girls like to have a sort of good-natured lap-dog about them, to play with occasionally and run their errands, "do this" and "that" for the ...
— She and I, Volume 1 • John Conroy Hutcheson
... Frenchman could possibly catch it. Swinburne could fit the metres, I dare say, but he couldn't fit the feeling. It shall be a song without words, unless I write some Italian lines for it myself. Animula, blandula vagula—that's the sort of ring for it, but Latin's mostly too heavy. Io, Hymen, Hymenae, Io; Io, Hymen, Hymenae! What's that? A wedding song of Catullus—absit omen. I must be in love with her indeed.' He got up from the piano, and paced quickly and feverishly ...
— Philistia • Grant Allen
... the glance that sweeps From out those sea-blue gates, Till heart down treacherous deeps The hymen consummates. ...
— Enamels and Cameos and other Poems • Theophile Gautier
... And Hymen shook his fragrant torch on high, Till all its waves of smoke and tongues of flame, Like clouds of rosy gold fulfill'd the sky; And all the Nereids from the waters came, Each maiden with a musical sweet name; Doris, and Doto, ...
— Helen of Troy • Andrew Lang
... him, and the doctor says that he cannot last much longer. Ten years have I been his slave—ten years have I been engaged to be married to Sergeant-Major O'Callaghan of the Blues—ten years has he kept me waiting at the porch of Hymen,—and what thousands of couples have I seen enter during the time! Oh dear! it's enough to drive a widow mad. I think I have managed it;—he has now quarrelled with all his relations, and Doctor Gumarabic intends this day to suggest the ...
— Olla Podrida • Frederick Marryat
... the presence of thy friend prevail, Nor hope expel these sullen fits? Cannot mirth wring if but a forged smile From those sad drooping looks of thine? Rely on hope, whose hap will lead thee right To her, whom thou dost call thy heart's delight: Look cheerly, man; the time is near at hand, That Hymen, mounted on a snow-white coach, Shall tend on ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various
... place both into your hands, my dear Gorman. I leave them there. I shall put my foot on the bill if you buy and the price is moderate. I shall toe the scratch if you arrange that I lead the American to the altar of Hymen. Settle, arrange, fix down ...
— The Island Mystery • George A. Birmingham
... you who, as I hear, are about to follow the flutes of Aphrodite into a temple where Hymen gilds the horns of the victims {17}—you, I am sure, will hurry to my rescue. You may not have the specie actually in your coffers; but with your prospects, surely you can sign something, or make over something, or back something, say a post obit or post vincula, ...
— Old Friends - Essays in Epistolary Parody • Andrew Lang
... and your mayors, Your registrars and proctors! We'll live without the lawyer's cares, And die without the doctor's. No discontented fair shall pout To see her spouse so stupid: We'll tread the torch of Hymen out, And live content ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 15, - No. 87, March, 1875 • Various
... whispered; "it's a matter of four thousand francs, a hundred and sixty pounds, eight hundred dollars, a new ceiling for the Cafe de l'Univers, the dream of a woman's life, and the happiest omen for my wedded felicity. The fair goddess Hymen invites you with uplifted torch. ...
— The Joyous Adventures of Aristide Pujol • William J. Locke
... to bed a white kerchief with which she staunches the blood and next morning the stains are displayed in the Harem. In Darfour this is done by the bridegroom. "Prima Venus debet esse cruenta," say the Easterns with much truth, and they have no faith in our complaisant creed which allows the hymen-membrane to disappear by any but ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton
... of Ithaca, and dowered With charms that in the Greek less fully flowered, The charms of talent and of character, Which blend in her Who, won, long waited, and who, waiting, won The virile, valiant son Of our adventurous England. May the bays Blend well with Hymen's roses, and long days Of happiness and honour crown the pair For whom to-day loud plaudits rend the air. "Hymen, Io Hymen, Hymen, they do shout,"— Health to ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 99, July 12, 1890 • Various
... measuring six feet and a half from tip to tip of his wings.—Crops suffering for want of rain [Always just so. "Dry times, Father Noah!"] The editors had received a liberal portion of cake from the happy couple whose matrimonial union was recorded in the column dedicated to Hymen. Also a superior article of [article of! bah!] steel pen from the enterprising merchant [shopkeeper] whose advertisement was to be found on the third page of this paper.—An interesting Surprise Party [cheap theatricals] had transpired [bah!] on Thursday evening last at the house of the Rev. Mr. ...
— The Guardian Angel • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
... "Should I seek Hymen's tie, As a poet I die - Ye Benedicks, mourn my distresses! For what little fame Is annexed to my name Is derived from ...
— Rejected Addresses: or, The New Theatrum Poetarum • James and Horace Smith
... If 'tis your age alone retards your love, You may with ease that groundless fear remove; For if you're older, you are wiser too, Since few in wit must hope to equal you. You may securely, therefore, crown a joy, Not all the plagues of Hymen can destroy, For tho' in marriage some unhappy be, They are not, sure, so fair, so ...
— History of English Humour, Vol. 2 (of 2) • Alfred Guy Kingan L'Estrange
... as Fritz is an inveterate bachelor receives from the latter a loan of 1200 francs which is to enable a poor girl to marry her lover. Fritz gives it very graciously, congratulating himself, that he is free from hymen's bonds. ...
— The Standard Operaglass - Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas • Charles Annesley
... chains to unite forever Austria and Gaul. Peoples shed tears, but tears of enthusiasm and gratitude. Long live Louise and Napoleon!" In every street, in every square, there were transparencies, mottoes, flags, mythological emblems, temples of Hymen, angels of peace and ...
— The Happy Days of the Empress Marie Louise • Imbert De Saint-Amand
... sons, my king Have suffered? or my city, or daughters shamed? Or my despair, my day of slavery? Oh, the grim fates have caught me in a net Of manifold ills! O child, they have spun for thee Dread weird of unimagined misery! They have thrust thee away, when near was Hymen's hymn, From thine espousals, marked thee for destruction Dark, unendurable, unspeakable! For lo, a dead man's heart, Achilles' heart, Is by our blood made warm with life to-day! O child, dear child, that I might die with thee, That earth might swallow me, ere I see thy doom!" So cried she, ...
— The Fall of Troy • Smyrnaeus Quintus
... cette belle Trouve l'hymen un noeud fort doux Le peintre nous la peint fidelle A suivre le ...
— Six Centuries of Painting • Randall Davies
... hand, as if in menace. "Know, Christopher, that little Hymen tolerates no man who has secrets from his wife. You tried to be silent, but betrayed yourself in your sleep. You do not know how often during the night you have called Eurydice in tones of plaintive music. Nor do you know how, ...
— Joseph II. and His Court • L. Muhlbach
... paintings of St. Peter represent him in a yellow mantle. The Venuses were clothed in saffron-colored tunics; Roman brides of an early day wore a veil of an orange tinge, called the flameum, a flame—a flame which, kindled at Hymen's torch, it is to be hoped was ever burning, never consuming. As every good has its antipodal evil, so every color has its bad sense, which is contrary or opposite to ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 6, No 2, August, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... and from oogly German husbands in particular may Hymen defend me! Never again will I attempt to select "echt Amerikanische" clothes for a woman who must not weary her young husband. But how was I to know that the harmless little shopping expedition would resolve itself into a domestic tragedy, with Herr Nirlanger as the villain, ...
— Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed • Edna Ferber
... sorry to say that there seemed no likelihood of its realisation. In spite of sacrificing many comforts to dress expenses, and frequenting the promenades, and the Quinones' balls with a regularity deserving success, the precious gifts of Hymen ...
— The Grandee • Armando Palacio Valds
... Rosalind is imagined by the rest of the company to be brought by enchantment, and is therefore introduced by a supposed aerial being in the character of Hymen. ...
— Johnson's Notes to Shakespeare Vol. I Comedies • Samuel Johnson
... the god Hymen merely for the sake of being married. As soon as they leave the school-room, sometimes before, they begin their search for a husband, and look out for him in the person of every man they meet. No matter who it is so long as they are married before So-and-So, and ...
— Lazy Thoughts of a Lazy Girl - Sister of that "Idle Fellow." • Jenny Wren
... please you. Who ever thought that bridge would be opened for my girl's wedding? Well! I am glad that it was not finished before. But we must be silent' You will notice that part about the bridge; it is in the fifth verse, I am told, beginning with something about Hymen, and ending with something ...
— Vivian Grey • The Earl of Beaconsfield
... gale, and our exulting sight Marks it afar.—From waning Life she flies, Wrapt in a mist, covering her starry eyes With her fair hand.—But now, in floods of light, She meets thee, SYLVIA, and with glances, bright As lucid streams, when Spring's clear mornings rise. From Hymen's kindling torch, a yellow ray The shining texture of her spotless vest Gilds;—and the Month that gives the early day The scent od[o]rous[1], and the carol blest, Pride of the rising Year, enamour'd MAY, Paints its ...
— Original sonnets on various subjects; and odes paraphrased from Horace • Anna Seward
... fragments in the saloon, the visitor has yet to notice a fine torso of a nude Venus; a statue of Discobolus, who is throwing a quoit, found in Hadrian's Villa Tiburtina; part of a statue of Hymen; and at the ends of the saloon the visitor should notice some specimens from the old temple of Selinus, which are valued as probably representing some of the earliest extant specimens of Greek art. Among the subjects represented are Perseus killing the Gorgon Medusa, and ...
— How to See the British Museum in Four Visits • W. Blanchard Jerrold
... more deeply wound, 100 Nor Dian's self escapes him now untried, Nor even Vesta9 at her altar-side; His mother too repairs her beauty's wane, And seems sprung newly from the Deep again. Exulting youths the Hymenaeal10 sing, With Hymen's name roofs, rocks, and valleys ring; He, new attired and by the season dress'd Proceeds all fragrant in his saffron vest. Now, many a golden-cinctur'd virgin roves To taste the pleasures of the fields ...
— Poemata (William Cowper, trans.) • John Milton
... opening of the vagina is situated just back of the meatus urinarius, also within the folds of the labia. In the virgin it is partly closed by a membranous fold called the hymen or maidenhead. The shape and size of the hymen varies greatly in different individuals, sometimes being entirely absent. After marriage it usually persists as notched folds. The presence of an intact hymen ...
— Herself - Talks with Women Concerning Themselves • E. B. Lowry
... Yakutsk as hospitable, kind, and gay. He was at several balls; found the belles well-mannered, and their dress, like that of their fair countrywomen farther west, an object of peculiar study. He describes the ceremonies of a Siberian wedding, which may amuse the votaries of Hymen, whose matrimonial customs are varied by half ...
— The American Quarterly Review, No. 17, March 1831 • Various
... virgin defence. "You shan't, Oh Percy, you'll ruin me, do get away; you'll kill me.—Oh—Ah-r-r-re!" as struggling and wriggling to resist me, her motions actually helped to accomplish the rape, for thrusting fiercely just as she heaved a little to throw me off, the hymen was broken, and my Cock triumphed over that stubbornly ...
— Forbidden Fruit • Anonymous
... seized the lover's breast, Bright honor call'd, and bright Lucinda prest:— And wilt thou leave me for that clangorous call? Traced I these deserts but to see thee fall? I know thy valorous heart, thy zeal that speeds Where dangers press and boldest battle bleeds. My father said blest Hymen here should join With sacred Love to make Lucinda thine; But other union these dire drums foredoom, The dark dead union of the eternal tomb. On yonder plain, soon sheeted o'er with blood, Our nuptial couch shall prove a crimson clod; For there this night thy livid corse must lie, I'll seek it there, ...
— The Columbiad • Joel Barlow
... fact, a human fact eternal among humanity, and of this fact he took account as of a fact observed and proved, saying if man is on one side a "fierce and lascivious gorilla," on the other side he is a mystic animal, and that in "a double nature, mysterious hymen," as Hugo wrote, lay the explanation of all the baseness in ideas and actions as well as all the sublimity in ideas and actions of humanity. Personally he was a Stoic and his practice was the continuous development of the intelligence ...
— Initiation into Philosophy • Emile Faguet
... texts of Blair, And singing the songs of Weber; Sir Harry will leave the Craven hounds, To trace the guilty parties— And ask of the Court five thousand pounds, To prove how rack'd his heart is: An Advocate will execrate The spoiler of Hymen's shrine— And the speech that did for ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 351 - Volume 13, Saturday, January 10, 1829 • Various
... to Scotland, as we reached the little town of Gretna Green. This town being on the line between England and Scotland, is noted as the place where a little cross-eyed, red-faced blacksmith, by the name of Priestly, first set up his own altar to Hymen, and married all who came to him, without regard to rank or station, and at prices to suit all. It was worth a ride through this part of the country, if for no other purpose than to see the town where more clandestine marriages have taken ...
— Three Years in Europe - Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met • William Wells Brown
... allowed to go on increasing—and if crinolines increase also. If every bride is to have twelve maidens, and each maiden to stand on no less than a twelve-yard circle, what modest temple will ever suffice for a sacrifice to Hymen? ...
— The Three Clerks • Anthony Trollope
... Reformation, by Samuel Rowley'; and, again, on October 29 of the same year 'for the Palsgrave players a new comedy called Hard Shifte for Husbands, or Bilboes the Best Blade, written by Samuel Rowley.' Another of our author's pieces, 'Hymen's Holiday, or Cupid's Fagaries,' is mentioned in a list of plays which belonged to the Cock-pit in 1639. None of these plays has come down; but in 1605 there was published 'When You See Me You Know Me; or the famous Chronicle Historic of King Henry VIII. with the Birth and virtuous Life of Edward ...
— Old English Plays, Vol. I - A Collection of Old English Plays • Various
... light Hymen's torch with some thriving tallow chandler, who would marry a domestic slave as a good speculation, without one spark of ...
— Dynevor Terrace (Vol. I) - or, The Clue of Life • Charlotte M. Yonge
... gave Emilia's hand. Smiled Venus, to behold her own true knight. Obtain the conquest, though he lost the fight; And blessed with nuptial bliss the sweet laborious night. Eros and Anteros on either side, One fired the bridegroom, and one warmed the bride; And long-attending Hymen from above ...
— Palamon and Arcite • John Dryden
... Hymen then ambassador divine, His mission, matrimonial and benign, The heart to counsel, ardor to incite, Convert the nun, rebuke the eremite? As if were this his mandate from the throne: "It is not good for them to be ...
— Poems - Vol. IV • Hattie Howard
... of the earth attained to the consummation of all earthly felicity. The captain and his nephew had a hint to retire in due time. Mrs. Kawdle conducted the amiable Aurelia, trembling, to the marriage-bed; our hero, glowing with a bridegroom's ardour, claimed the husband's privilege. Hymen lighted up his brightest torch at Virtue's lamp, and every star shed its happiest ...
— The Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves • Tobias Smollett
... diseases, as leading to the condition just named; (k) closure of the neck of the womb, temporarily by spasm or permanently by inflammation and induration; (l) closure of the entrance to the vagina through imperforate hymen, a rare, though not unknown, condition in the mare; (m) acquired indisposition to breed, seen in old, hard-worked mares which are first put to the stallion when aged; (n) change of climate has repeatedly been followed by barrenness; ...
— Special Report on Diseases of the Horse • United States Department of Agriculture
... their speedy flight, Dispers'd, and all involv'd in gloomy night; One cave a grateful shelter shall afford To the fair princess and the Trojan lord. I will myself the bridal bed prepare, If you, to bless the nuptials, will be there: So shall their loves be crown'd with due delights, And Hymen shall be present at the rites." The Queen of Love consents, and closely smiles At her vain project, and ...
— The Aeneid • Virgil
... Accordingly, they performed the marriage-ceremony and the Queen made a great bride-feast, to which she bade all the troops; and after they had eaten and drunken, he went in unto his bride and found her a maid virginal. So he did away her hymen and abode with her seven years in all joyance and solace and delight of life, till, one day of the days, he bethought himself of the forbidden door and said in himself, "Except there were therein treasures greater ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton
... were made one. Colney Durance (practically cynical when not fancifully, men said) stood by Skepsey at the altar. His published exercises in Satire produce a flush of the article in the Reviews of his books. Meat and wine in turn fence the Hymen beckoning Priscilla and Mr. Pempton. The forms of Religion more than the Channel's division of races keep Louise de Seilles and Mr. Peridon asunder: and in the uniting of them Colney is interested, because it ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... know? I cannot allow my friend Feeder to be married—especially to Mrs Feeder—without proposing their—their—Toasts; and may,' said Mr Toots, fixing his eyes on his wife, as if for inspiration in a high flight, 'may the torch of Hymen be the beacon of joy, and may the flowers we have this day strewed in their path, be ...
— Dombey and Son • Charles Dickens
... come to a deplorable state of depression, with regard to "matrimonial transactions;" it is now of vital importance to young ladies, who have an ambition to distinguish themselves at the altar of Hymen, that they take "masculine tastes," as the axis around which is to revolve, in graceful motion, the actions of their daily lives; but for this no one need think of censuring Ottawa's noble women, their conduct is not so servile or dependent as the unfair critic would ...
— Honor Edgeworth • Vera
... Henry's been entwin'd And love's soft voice had wak'd the sacred blaze Of Hymen's altar; while, with him combin'd, His cherub train prepar'd the ...
— Poetic Sketches • Thomas Gent
... keep these rites, ye widowed dames, The marriage time a purer season claims; Pause, ye fond mothers, braid not yet her hair, Nor the ripe virgin for her lord prepare. O, light not, Hymen, now your joyous fires, Another torch nor yours the tomb requires! Close all the temples on these mourning days, And dim each altar's spicy, steaming blaze; For now around us roams a spectred brood, Craving and ...
— Folk Lore - Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scotland within This Century • James Napier
... venture upon nothing that might frighten a young girl so ignorantly pure, so imprudent by virtue rather than from desire, postponed all further action to the future, relying on his beauty, of which he knew the power, and on this innocent ring-marriage, the hymen of the heart, the lightest, yet the strongest of all ceremonies. For the rest of that night, and throughout the next day, Juana's imagination was the accomplice of ...
— Juana • Honore de Balzac
... 4. "When men in Hymen's Bands unite, Our merry peals produce delight; But when Death goes his dreary Rounds, We send forth sad ...
— English Villages • P. H. Ditchfield
... choice of the Prince of Wales. The parents, both at Windsor and at Brunswick welcomed the avowal by the royal prodigal of the claims of lawful wedlock. The Duchess of Brunswick fell into raptures at the brilliant prospects thus opened out for her daughter; and it seemed that both Hymen and Mars, for once working in unison, conspired to bring from his inglorious retreat at Brunswick the man whom that age still acclaimed as ...
— William Pitt and the Great War • John Holland Rose
... thinks only of his pleasure or his convenience. To such lengths, indeed, does an intemperate love of pleasure carry some prudent men, or worn out libertines, who marry to have a safe companion, that they seduce their own wives. Hymen banishes modesty, and chaste love takes ...
— A Vindication of the Rights of Woman - Title: Vindication of the Rights of Women • Mary Wollstonecraft [Godwin]
... that another, Sailing far from Hymen's port, A forlorn, unmarried brother, Seeing, ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume I. (of X.) • Various
... my lords, let's now to court, Where we may finish up the joyfullest day That ever happ'd to a distressed king.[197] With mirth and joy and great solemnity We'll finish up these Hymen's rites ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VII (4th edition) • Various
... life and soul of society: he seems to be deeply smitten with this young Lady, Miss Mortimer, and promises fairly, by his manner, to prove a deserter from our standard, and to inlist under the banners of Hymen." ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan
... to say whether abortion has taken place or not. The history must be inquired into; the regular or exceptional use of drugs to promote menstruation is important, for in the former case no criminal intent may exist, although pregnancy be present. The state of the breasts, the hymen, and the os uteri, should all be carefully examined. Putting a few apparently unimportant questions as to the frequent use of purgatives, the presence or absence of constipation, will often assist the diagnosis as showing that the woman has acted in an unusual manner. Abortion may ...
— Aids to Forensic Medicine and Toxicology • W. G. Aitchison Robertson
... from smooth-faced ingle train (Anointed bridegroom!) hardly fain Hast e'er refrained; now do refrain! O Hymen Hymenaeus io, O ...
— The Satyricon, Complete • Petronius Arbiter
... on the way," cried Kallias, whose old cheerfulness had now returned. "Neither can we allow the niece of the greatest of Hymen's poets to be married without the sound of song and music. The young husband's house is, to be sure, too far off for our purpose, so we will suppose that ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... fair to see and busy with the hum of men. In the one were weddings and wedding-feasts, and they were going about the city with brides whom they were escorting by torchlight from their chambers. Loud rose the cry of Hymen, and the youths danced to the music of flute and lyre, while the women stood each at her ...
— The Iliad • Homer
... the elegant but idolatrous hymn of Catullus, on the nuptials of Manlius and Julia. O Hymen, Hymenaee Io! ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon
... confound Nature's sweet harmony. Well therefore by the gods decreed it is, We human creatures should enjoy that bliss. One is no number; maids are nothing, then, Without the sweet society of men. Wilt thou live single still? one shalt thou be, Though never singling Hymen couple thee. Wild savages, that drink of running springs, Think water far excels all earthly things; But they, that daily taste neat wine, despise it: Virginity, albeit some highly prize it, Compar'd with marriage, ...
— Hero and Leander and Other Poems • Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman
... will amuse you, and a new Court will make Florence lively, the only beauty it wants. You divert me with my friend the Duke of Modena's conscientious match: if the Duchess had outlived him, she would not have been so scrupulous. But, for Hymen's sake, who is that Madame Simonetti? I trust, not that old painted, gaming, debauched Countess from Milan, whom I saw at ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole - Volume I • Horace Walpole
... thy neck light hang the chain, For Hymen now hath bound ye, O'er thee and thine may pleasure reign, And smiling friends surround ye. Then fare ye well, and may each time The sun smiles, find ye wiser: Pray kindly take the well-meant rhyme ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, February 1844 - Volume 23, Number 2 • Various
... Hymen's gentle powers, We, who improve his golden hours, By sweet experience know That marriage, rightly understood, Gives to the tender and the good A paradise ...
— Elsie's Motherhood • Martha Finley
... virtue came. } Degenerate spirits are by fear betray'd, 20 } His soul, alas, what fortunes have essay'd; } What feats of war!—and in what words convey'd! Were it not fix'd, determin'd in my mind, That me no more the nuptial tye shall bind, Since Death deceiv'd the first fond flame I knew: 25 Were Hymen's rites less odious to my view, To this one fault perhaps I might give way; For must I own it? Anna since the day Sicheus fell, (that day a brother's guilt, A brother's blood upon our altars spilt); 30 He, none but he, my feelings could awake, Or with one doubt my wav'ring ...
— The Fourth Book of Virgil's Aeneid and the Ninth Book of Voltaire's Henriad • Virgil and Voltaire
... natty primness of your bachelor's apartment, you have your eyes feasted by that elegant confusion of the little sanctuary—the charm of which cannot, unseen, be apprehended, and is only known to those who are privileged to enter, by the passport of Hymen. A bit of bobbin here—a thread-paper there—here a hat feather—there a scrap of silk.—Besides," [drawing his chair closer to mine and looking very tender] "when you love her, you know—." He paused and ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, - Issue 275, September 29, 1827 • Various
... ii. 489; Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication, i. 469. If injuries are inherited, why has the repeated rupture of the hymen ...
— Are the Effects of Use and Disuse Inherited? - An Examination of the View Held by Spencer and Darwin • William Platt Ball
... flower of purity. You promise, indeed, to feel no resentment against me; but who can ensure me against the wrath of Nyssia, she who is so reserved and chaste, so apprehensive, fierce, and virginal in her modesty that she might be deemed still ignorant of the laws of Hymen? Should she ever learn of the sacrilege which I am about to render myself guilty of in deferring to my master's wishes, what punishment would she condemn me to suffer in expiation of such a crime? Who could place me beyond the reach of her ...
— King Candaules • Theophile Gautier
... solace may be sweet, But Hymen's tenderness is sweeter; And though all virile love be meet, You'll find the poet's ...
— Echoes from the Sabine Farm • Roswell Martin Field and Eugene Field
... as to a Wedding, I have taken particular Care of that, for among the disorderly Persons that were Seized, by mistake, they have taken up a Gentleman that lives near May Fair, who waits in the Green Room to Sign the Passport of each loving Pair to The land of Hymen. And this, I think, is as much Love, Plot and Marriage, as is necessary in ...
— The Covent Garden Theatre, or Pasquin Turn'd Drawcansir • Charles Macklin
... him again. But this time, in spite of her harshness, La Briere thought he walked on air; the earth softened under his feet, the trees bore flowers; the skies were rosy, the air cerulean, as they are in the temples of Hymen in those fairy pantomimes which finish happily. In such situations every woman is a Janus, and sees behind her without turning round; and thus Modeste perceived on the face of her lover the indubitable symptoms of a love like Butscha's,—surely ...
— Modeste Mignon • Honore de Balzac
... been able to learn; nor how she has been able, with the vinegar of her disposition, to soften the stony heart of old Nimrod; so, however, it is, and it has astonished every one. With all her ladyship's love of match-making, this last fume of Hymen's torch has been too much for her. She has endeavoured to reason with Mrs. Hannah, but all in vain; her mind was made up, and she grew tart on the least contradiction. Lady Lillycraft applied to the squire for his interference. "She did not ...
— Bracebridge Hall • Washington Irving
... her as a femme covert. The old writers call the husband baron, and sometimes in plain English, lord.... The merging of her name in that of her husband is emblematic of the fate of all her legal rights. The torch of Hymen serves but to light the pile on which these rights are offered up. The legal theory is, that marriage makes the husband and wife one person, and that person is the husband. On this subject, reform is loudly called for. There is no foundation in reason or ...
— History of Woman Suffrage, Volume I • Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and Matilda Joslyn Gage
... de maint hymen force L'amant chiche, et la dame au coeur interesse; La troupe des censeurs, peuple a l'Amour rebelle; Ceux enfin dont les vers ...
— The Fables of La Fontaine - A New Edition, With Notes • Jean de La Fontaine
... IO HYMEN, refrain of an old Roman nuptial song. Hymen, the son of Apollo and the Muse Urania, was the god ...
— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser
... great ends: ourself have often tried Valkyrian hymns, or into rhythm have dashed The passion of the prophetess; for song Is duer unto freedom, force and growth Of spirit than to junketing and love. Love is it? Would this same mock-love, and this Mock-Hymen were laid up like winter bats, Till all men grew to rate us at our worth, Not vassals to be beat, nor pretty babes To be dandled, no, but living wills, and sphered Whole in ourselves and owed to none. Enough! But now to leaven play with profit, ...
— The Princess • Alfred Lord Tennyson
... The senseless splendour of the tawdry stage[2], The loud long plaudits of a trifling age, Where dost thou wander? Exil'd in disgrace, Find'st thou in foreign realms some happier place[3]? Or dost thou still though banish'd from the town, In Britain love to linger, though unknown? Light Hymen's torch through ev'ry blooming grove,[4] And tinge each flow'ret with the blush of love? Sing winter, summer-sweets, the vernal air, Or the soft Sofa, to delight the fair[5]? Laugh, e'en at kings, and mock each ...
— The Works of Charles and Mary Lamb, Vol. 5 • Edited by E. V. Lucas
... Hymen wave their torches high, Precursive of their joys: each hearth is heap'd With odorous incense: every roof is hung With flowery garlands: pipes, and harps, and lyres, And songs which indicate their festive souls, Resound aloud. Each portal open thrown, ...
— The Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidus Naso in English blank verse Vols. I & II • Ovid
... loud and strong, He blew a settlement along; And bravely drove his rivals down, With coach and six, and house in town. The bashful nymph no more withstands, Because her dear papa commands. The charming couple now unites: Proceed we to the marriage rites. Imprimis, at the Temple porch Stood Hymen with a flaming torch: The smiling Cyprian Goddess brings Her infant loves with purple wings: And pigeons billing, sparrows treading, Fair emblems of a fruitful wedding. The Muses next in order follow, Conducted by their squire, Apollo: ...
— The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume I (of 2) • Jonathan Swift
... Hymen and Cupids, skeletons raising the lids of their tombs to describe a V or an M, and huge borders of masks for theatrical posters became in turn objects of tremendous value through old Jerome-Nicolas' vinous eloquence. Old custom, he told his son, was so deeply rooted in the district ...
— Lost Illusions • Honore De Balzac
... maiden, and she abhorred the thought of loving. Her delight was in woodland sports and in the spoils of the chase. Many lovers sought her, but she spurned them all, ranging the woods, and taking no thought of Cupid nor of Hymen. Her father often said to her, "Daughter, you owe me a son-in-law; you owe me grandchildren." She, hating the thought of marriage as a crime, with her beautiful face tinged all over with blushes, threw arms around her father's neck, and said, "Dearest father, grant me this favor, ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch
... fact was probably kept hidden to gratify some whim of the poet. The very situation is tinged with the romantic, the old adage about stolen sweets was undoubtedly as true in that time as it is to-day, and the poet had a restless nature which could ill brook the ordinary yoke of Hymen. So long as he could live in the Via Mirasole, and Alessandra in the stately Casa Strozzi, Ferrara had charms for him, and his muse was all aflame. Would this have been true if ...
— Women of the Romance Countries • John R. Effinger
... into the United States and placed Utah on the flag. When a young man he became a strong anti-monogamist. Moved west with his wives. Utah increased in population and was admitted as a state. After building a great temple, dedicated to Hymen, he died, leaving a considerable family and a few widows. Heirs: See Utah census. Ambition: London and New York in Utah. Address: Utah. Clubs: Race Suicide. Epitaph: Like ...
— Who Was Who: 5000 B. C. to Date - Biographical Dictionary of the Famous and Those Who Wanted to Be • Anonymous
... blackguard the Lady Budur (vol. iii. 211), where also we find the pigeon slaughtered (p. 289). I have mentioned that the blood of this bird is supposed throughout the East, where the use of the microscope is unknown, and the corpuscles are never studied, most to resemble the results of a bursten hymen, and that it is the most used to deceive the expert eyes of midwives and old matrons. See note to vol. iii. ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 5 • Richard F. Burton
... mounted with silver. At the same time he gave Mrs Jenkins an Indian purse, made of silk grass, containing twenty crown pieces. You must know, this young lady, with the assistance of Mr Loyd, formed the third couple who yesterday sacrificed to Hymen. I wrote to you in my last, that he had recourse to my mediation, which I employed successfully with my uncle; but Mrs Tabitha held out 'till the love-sick Jenkins had two fits of the mother; then she relented, and those two cooing turtles were caged for life — ...
— The Expedition of Humphry Clinker • Tobias Smollett
... trimming their jackets anew for the year: One and all they determined to seek for a mate, And thought it a folly for seasons to wait, So even agreed, before Valentine's day, To join hearts in love; but the ladies said, Nay! Yet each one consented at once to resign Her heart unto Hymen on St. Valentine; While Winter, who only pretended to go, Lapt himself out of sight in some hillocks of snow, That behind all the rest 'neath the wood hedges lay So close that the sun could not drive them away: Yet the gentlemen ...
— Life and Remains of John Clare - "The Northamptonshire Peasant Poet" • J. L. Cherry
... though self-suspected here for nought, Are highly styled With the thousands twelve times twelve of undefiled. Gaze and be not afraid Young Lover true and love-foreboding Maid. The full noon of deific vision bright Abashes nor abates No spark minute of Nature's keen delight. 'Tis there your Hymen waits! There where in courts afar, all unconfused, they crowd, As fumes the starlight soft In gulfs of cloud, And each to the other, well-content, Sighs oft, ''Twas this we meant!' Gaze without blame Ye in whom living Love yet blushes for dead shame. There of ...
— The Unknown Eros • Coventry Patmore
... nay, we must have all friendes, Jarring discords are no marriage musick; Throw not Hymen in a cuckstoole; dimple Your furrowed browes; since all but mirth was ment, Let us not then conclude in discontent, Say, shall we all In friendly straine ...
— A Collection Of Old English Plays, Vol. IV. • Editor: A.H. Bullen
... and dear divorce 'Twixt natural son and sire! thou bright defiler Of Hymen's purest bed! thou valiant Mars! Thou ever young, fresh, lov'd, and delicate wooer, Whose blush doth thaw the consecrated snow That lies on Dian's lap! thou visible god, That solder'st close impossibilities, And mak'st them kiss! that speak'st ...
— Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. • H. N. Hudson
... "you are as innocent as a girl of sixteen! you have this moment fallen headlong in love, and begin at once to think of the possibility of marriage, as if love had no other refuge than marriage, and yet I think I have read that the god of Love and the god of Hymen are rarely seen together, though brothers; in point of fact, they despise and flee from each other. But after all, young man, if your love is virtuous and requires the priest's blessing, I think that is possible. Only a few years since the widowed margravine, the aunt of the ...
— Berlin and Sans-Souci • Louise Muhlbach
... on verdurous Helicon Dweller, child of Urania, Thou that draw'st to the man the fair Maiden, O Hymenaeus, O Hymen, O ...
— The Poems and Fragments of Catullus • Catullus
... to possess so many virtues and such fame? What advantage have you derived from all your high deserts? O hapless king, great Agrican! if you could return to life, how would you endure to see yourself rejected by one who will bow to the yoke of Hymen in favor of a young soldier of humble birth? And thou, Ferrau, and ye numerous others who a hundred times have put your lives at hazard for this cruel beauty, how bitter will it be to you to see her sacrifice you all to the claims of ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch
... hymen is a circular, or semilunar membrane, which imperfectly closes the outer orifice of the vagina in the virgin. When of a semilunar shape, it usually occupies the lower or posterior portion of the canal, leaving an opening in the upper or anterior portion, varying from the size of a ...
— The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English • R. V. Pierce
... "does the choice beseem you upon whom the moon of your nuptials is beaming still. My beloved and I are riper in Hymen's lore by not less, I ween, than one fortnight. Prudence impels us towards the Palace ...
— The Twilight of the Gods, and Other Tales • Richard Garnett
... to youth the indulgence of those passions, those coquetries, love and its terrors, love and its delights, and that fascinating company which followed the coming of the Franks. At this vernal season of life no fault is irreparable, and Hymen will come forth from the bosom of experiences, armed with confidence, stripped of hatred, and love in marriage will be justified, because it will have had the ...
— Analytical Studies • Honore de Balzac
... the law, for her own sake, but most of all to make my happiness complete, I long to see my Renee content. Oh! tell me that you see a dawn of love for this Louis who adores you! Tell me that the solemn, symbolic torch of Hymen has not alone served to lighten your darkness, but that love, the glorious sun of our hearts, pours his rays on you. I come back always, you see, to this midday blaze, which will be my destruction, ...
— Letters of Two Brides • Honore de Balzac
... from the company, burst into her chamber, pushed out her confidante, and locked the door, and found her—O heaven and earth!—a feast a thousand times more delicious than my most sanguine hopes presaged! But, let me not profane the chaste mysteries of Hymen. I ...
— The Adventures of Roderick Random • Tobias Smollett
... he said slowly, 'these tuckets that they blow from the gate signify that the new Queen cometh with a great state.' He bit his under lip and looked at her meaningly. 'But a great state ensueth a great heaviness to the head of the State. Principis hymen, principium gravitatis.... 'Tis a small matter to me; you may make it a great one to your ...
— The Fifth Queen • Ford Madox Ford
... is to show. Your arrogance upon my shame will gloat,— Your eyes on your defeated slave will doat. I see the altar—Fo-hi's grand official Prepared to bind the victim sacrificial. My glory's dead—disgraced is Turandot! Condemned to wear the chain of Hymen's knot. ...
— Turandot: The Chinese Sphinx • Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller
... ascribed to the presence of the ancient jingling chain of bells which induced the mincing steps of the virgins of Judea,—an invention which confined the lower limbs within certain limits by being worn just below the knees, and calculated to prevent the rupture of the hymen by any undue length of step or violent exercise; hence a tinkling noise and a mincing step always denoted a virgin. In Du Bisson's cases, however, virgins were out of the question; they might be the victims of enforced ...
— History of Circumcision from the Earliest Times to the Present - Moral and Physical Reasons for its Performance • Peter Charles Remondino
... all, and, having bathed the three of them, made them part and parcel of her home. This was after the demise of the second husband, and at a time when Nora felt that she had done all a woman could be expected to do for Hymen. ...
— The Shape of Fear • Elia W. Peattie
... crowns and Hymen's band) Would neither man obey, nor man command; Great pleasure from rough seas to see the shore; Or, from firm land, ...
— Memoirs of Lady Fanshawe • Lady Fanshawe
... commands the Theban troops on the plains of Boeotia, Jupiter has taken his form, and assuaged his pains, in the possession of the sweetest of pleasures. The condition of the couple is propitious to his desire: Hymen joined them only a few days ago; and the young warmth of their tender love suggested to Jupiter to have recourse to this fine artifice. His stratagem proved successful in this case; but with many a cherished object a similar ...
— Amphitryon • Moliere
... Golden—by what name shall I call my goddess?" Hermione drew back a step. There was danger in his eyes. "I have loved you, loved you long. Before Glaucon took you in marriage I loved you. But Eros and Hymen hearkened to his prayers, not mine. You became his bride. I wore a bright face at your wedding. You remember I was Glaucon's groomsman, and rode beside you in the bridal car. You loved him, he seemed worthy ...
— A Victor of Salamis • William Stearns Davis
... to congratulate Lord John Russell on his approaching union with Lady Fanny Elliot. His lordship is such a persevering votary of Hymen, that we think he should ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various
... becomes a rival of the virgin Phoebe. A fillet tied together[74] her hair, put up without any order. Many a one courted her; she hated all wooers; not able to endure, and quite unacquainted with man, she traverses the solitary parts of the woods, and she cares not what Hymen,[75] what love, {or} what marriage means. Many a time did her father say, "My daughter, thou owest me a son-in-law;" many a time did her father say, "My daughter, thou owest me grandchildren." She, utterly abhorring ...
— The Metamorphoses of Ovid - Vol. I, Books I-VII • Publius Ovidius Naso
... since first I look'd on thee. But wherefore slur the perfect ceremony? The sovereign of Galatia weds his Queen. Let all be done to the fullest in the sight Of all the Gods. Nay, rather than so clip The flowery robe of Hymen, we would add Some golden fringe of gorgeousness beyond Old use, to make the day memorial, when Synorix, first King, Camma, first Queen o' the Realm, Drew here the richest lot from Fate, to live And die together. This pain—what is it?—again? I had a touch of ...
— Becket and other plays • Alfred Lord Tennyson
... her features blent. Again, as on that sunny morn, When white-winged angels stood, To see her, of bright water, born, Before the preacher good. Again within the chancel's gloom, She sweetly, gently stands; With marriage hymn, with rich perfume, With Hymen's happy bands; With wild-rose wreaths, with gayest bloom, And wreathed maiden's hands. But, now she stands with me even there, With sweetly downcast eyes, So purely white, so passing fair, Like one of Paradise. The preacher speaks the solemn words, Yet fraught with deepest bliss; We ...
— Lays of Ancient Virginia, and Other Poems • James Avis Bartley
... fond of dancing and singing; they are invisible and immortal; they prefer night, and midnight is their favourite hour; they fall in love with mortals, steal babies and leave changelings, and usurp the function of Hymen in blessing the marriage-bed. Oberon, "king of shadows," can apparently ...
— The Sources and Analogues of 'A Midsummer-night's Dream' • Compiled by Frank Sidgwick
... epithalamium, as is now done in England. These fresh young voices hailing the youthful couple would be in keeping with the child bridesmaids and the youthful brothers. Nay, they would suggest those frescoes of the Italian villas where Hymen and Cupid, two immortal boys, always precede the ...
— Manners and Social Usages • Mrs. John M. E. W. Sherwood
... been making love under the banner of Hymen, the great personages in the north have been making war under the inspiration, or rather under the infatuation, of Mars. Now, for my part, I humbly conceive that you have acted much the best and ...
— The Best of the World's Classics, Restricted to Prose, Vol. IX (of X) - America - I • Various
... Hymen or Hymenaeus, the son of Apollo and the muse Urania, was the god who presided over marriage and nuptial solemnities, and was hence ...
— Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome • E.M. Berens
... her to fidelity to her husband. Whereupon Mary answered me, with her accustomed smiling manner, 'There is but one fidelity which one must recognize, and that is to the god of gods—Love! Where he is not, I will not be. The god Hymen is a tedious, pedantic fellow, who burns to ashes all the fresh young love of the heart, and all the enthusiasm of the soul, with his intolerable tallow torch, for Love stands not at his side. I am faithful to the god Amor, therefore I can never be faithful to the ...
— Old Fritz and the New Era • Louise Muhlbach
... ocean; scarce he sees Spio with sparkling eyes, and Beroe Demure, and young Ione, less renowned, Not less divine, mild-natured; Beauty formed Her face, her heart Fidelity; for gods Designed, a mortal too Ione loved. These were the nymphs elected for the hour Of Hesperus and Hymen; these had strewn The bridal bed, these tuned afresh the shells, Wiping the green that hoarsened them within: These wove the chaplets, and at night resolved To drive the dolphins from the wreathed door. ...
— Gebir • Walter Savage Landor
... so inconsiderately damaged so prodigally thrown away: see disdain, joined to hatred, reign between those adulterous married couples, who have reciprocally violated the sacred vows they mutually pledged at the altar of Hymen; whose appetencies have rendered them the scorn of the world; the jest of their acquaintance; polluted tributaries to the surgeon. See the liar deprived of all confidence; the knave stript of all trust; the hypocrite fearfully ...
— The System of Nature, Vol. 2 • Baron D'Holbach
... Hymen's torch with some thriving tallow chandler, who would marry a domestic slave as a good speculation, without one spark of ...
— Dynevor Terrace (Vol. I) - or, The Clue of Life • Charlotte M. Yonge
... Hymen had, with his lighted torch, driven the boy Cupid out of doors, that is to say, in common phrase, when the violence of Mr. Wild's passion (or rather appetite) for the chaste Laetitia began to abate, he returned to visit his friend Heartfree, who was now in the liberties of the Fleet, and appeared ...
— The History of the Life of the Late Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great • Henry Fielding
... professed that she could not dream of being undutiful towards kind old Pa; and that, unless desperate measures were resorted to, quamprimum, in the twinkling of a bed-post she would be under the disagreeable necessity to bundle and go with the disabled man of war to the temple of Hymen. Sacrilegious thought! I could not permit it to enter my bosom, and (pardon me for a moment, sir) when I looked down, and caught a glance of my own natty-looking, tight little leg, and dapper Hessians, I recommended her strongly to act on the principle of ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Volume 12, No. 339, Saturday, November 8, 1828. • Various
... Hymen, in secret or overt guise, seemed to haunt Pierston just at this time with undignified mockery which savoured rather of Harlequin than of the torch-bearer. Two days after parting in a lone island from the girl he had so disinterestedly loved he met in ...
— The Well-Beloved • Thomas Hardy
... arrived at a period in my life, at which the novelist would pause,—believing the history of woman ceases to interest as soon as an accepted lover and consenting friends appear ready to usher the heroine into the temple of Hymen. But there is a life within life, which is never revealed till it is intertwined with another's. In the depth of the heart there is a lower deep, which is never sounded save by the hand that wears the wedding-ring. There is a talisman in its golden circle, more powerful than ...
— Ernest Linwood - or, The Inner Life of the Author • Caroline Lee Hentz
... Assure thyself thou com'st not in my sight. [Exeunt King Edward and Gaveston. Q. Isab. O miserable and distressed queen! Would, when I left sweet France, and was embarked, That charming Circe, walking on the waves, Had chang'd my shape! or at the marriage-day The cup of Hymen had been full of poison! Or with those arms, that twin'd about my neck, I had been stifled, and not liv'd to see The king my lord thus to abandon me! Like frantic Juno, will I fill the earth With ghastly murmur of my sighs and cries; ...
— Edward II. - Marlowe's Plays • Christopher Marlowe |
