"Greaves" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... there was displayed on the ball at the center of the cupola a proud and spirited figure of Monarchy—armed gracefully but heavily with breastplate, shoulder-plate, greaves, cuisses, gorgets, and bracelets; and wearing skirts of bronze color edged with gold. Her head was encased in a morion surmounted by waving plumes and beautiful crests. Over her breast was a rich sash that hung loosely with airy grace and splendor. She was clad in a military ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume XXXVI, 1649-1666 • Various
... my way Amidst a thousand. Give me my steel cap, My sword and iron greaves, my vant-braces: I will array in proof. What is the shock Of living squadrons to the armed thoughts, Whose dark battalions I have just now quell'd? I would the clouds of battle roll'd around This moment. ...
— Cromwell • Alfred B. Richards
... aside. 385 Forth sprang the lot of Paris. They in ranks Sat all, where stood the fiery steeds of each, And where his radiant arms lay on the field. Illustrious Alexander his bright arms Put on, fair Helen's paramour. [17]He clasp'd 390 His polish'd greaves with silver studs secured; His brother's corselet to his breast he bound, Lycaon's, apt to his own shape and size, And slung athwart his shoulders, bright emboss'd, His brazen sword; his massy buckler broad 395 ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer
... the sword, strong Atina and proud Tibur, Ardea and Crustumeri, and turreted Antemnae. They hollow out head-gear to guard them, and plait wickerwork round shield-bosses; others forge breastplates of brass or smooth greaves of flexible silver. To this is come the honour of share and pruning-hook, to this all the love of the plough: they re-temper their fathers' swords in the furnace. And now the trumpets blare; the watchword for war ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil • Virgil
... bow, and a doubtful fight ensued. Tenderos was powerful of frame and superior in the use of his weapons, but the curse of treason seemed to paralyze his arm. He wounded Ataulpho slightly between the greaves of his armor, but the prince dealt a blow with his mace that crushed through helm and skull, and reached the brains; and Tenderos fell dead to the earth, his armor ...
— The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, April 1844 - Volume 23, Number 4 • Various
... thousand asses or more, he made eighty centuries, forty of seniors and forty of juniors. All these were called the first class, the seniors were to be in readiness to guard the city, the juniors to carry on war abroad. The arms enjoined them were a helmet, a round shield, greaves, and a coat of mail, all of brass; these were for the defence of their body; their weapons of offence were a spear and a sword. To this class were added two centuries of mechanics, who were to serve without arms; the duty imposed upon them ...
— The History of Rome, Books 01 to 08 • Titus Livius
... To shiver in the deep and voluble tones Rolled from the organ! Underneath my feet There lies the lid of a sepulchral vault. The image of an armed knight is graven Upon it, clad in perfect panoply— Cuishes, and greaves, and cuirass, with barred helm, Gauntleted hand, and sword, and blazoned shield. Around, in Gothic characters, worn dim By feet of worshippers, are traced his name, And birth, and death, and words of eulogy. Why should I pore upon them? This old tomb, This effigy, the strange disused ...
— Poems • William Cullen Bryant
... by Muller, and the property of Messrs. Moon, Boys, and Greaves, who, as the successors of the Alderman, retain his portrait as a kind of heirloom in connexion with the best ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 576 - Vol. 20 No. 576., Saturday, November 17, 1832 • Various
... go out with hobnailed sandals,(111) nor with one sandal when there is no sore on his other foot, nor with phylacteries, nor with an amulet unless it be of an expert, nor with a coat of mail, nor with a helmet, nor with greaves; but, if he go out, he is ...
— Hebrew Literature
... himself was wholly composed of steel, consisting of the casque, breast, and back plates, together with greaves, gauntlets, and cuissards, formed likewise of iron plates. Nor were inferior warriors less cumbrously defended; for though the arms of the earlier Francs were light, in comparison with this heavy ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 20, Issue 561, August 11, 1832 • Various
... carpet is spread on the floor,] [Sidenote C: and he steps thereon.] [Sidenote D: He is dubbed in a doublet of Tarsic silk, and a well-made hood.] [Sidenote E: They set steel slices on his feet, and lap his legs in steel greaves.] [Sidenote F: Fair cuisses enclose his thighs,] [Sidenote G: and afterwards they put on the steel habergeon,] [Sidenote H: well-burnished braces, elbow pieces, and gloves of plate.] [Sidenote I: Over all this ...
— Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight - An Alliterative Romance-Poem (c. 1360 A.D.) • Anonymous
... legionary infantry amounted to six thousand one hundred men. Their arms were uniform, and admirably adapted to the nature of their service: an open helmet, with a lofty crest; a breastplate, or coat of mail; greaves on their legs, and an ample buckler on their left arm. The buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet in length, and two and a half in breadth, framed of a light wood, covered with a bull's hide, and strongly ...
— The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Volume 1 • Edward Gibbon
... warrior rose; In the dire deeds of bleeding battle skill'd, The monster stalks the terror of the field. From Gath he sprung, Goliath was his name, Of fierce deportment, and gigantic frame: A brazen helmet on his head was plac'd, A coat of mail his form terrific grac'd, The greaves his legs, the targe his shoulders prest: Dreadful in arms high-tow'ring o'er the rest A spear he proudly wav'd, whose iron head, Strange to relate, six hundred shekels weigh'd; He strode along, and shook the ample field, While Phoebus blaz'd ...
— Religious and Moral Poems • Phillis Wheatley
... Ivy-lane[789] as survived, should meet again and dine together, which they did, twice at a tavern and once at his house[790]: and in order to insure himself society in the evening for three days in the week[791], he instituted a club at the Essex Head, in Essex-street, then kept by Samuel Greaves, an old servant of ...
— Life Of Johnson, Volume 4 (of 6) • Boswell
... are we demanding armour for the foot soldiers? No; the armour of the old times of Chivalry would be too heavy, and impede the activity of those movements, of which so much of military success depends. The defensive arms of the Roman soldier were simply a small light helmet, a light cuirass, and greaves, or boots bound with brass. Yet with these his average march was twenty miles a-day, carrying sixty pounds weight of provisions and baggage on his back. The weight of his sword, his two lances, and his intrenching tools and ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 364, February 1846 • Various
... hand that held the bridle; the cloak that floated from his shoulders was white wool; the tunic was the simple light garment that soldiers usually wear under armor; the shoes alone were mailed. It seemed that the young Roman had stripped off his helmet, breast-plate and greaves to ride less encumbered or to ...
— The City of Delight - A Love Drama of the Siege and Fall of Jerusalem • Elizabeth Miller
... loggia with Caesar's helmet and sword, snatched from Britannus, who follows her with a cuirass and greaves. They come down to Caesar, she to his left hand, Britannus ...
— Caesar and Cleopatra • George Bernard Shaw
... wholesale stationer in a very extensive way of business in Prospect Row. Forty or fifty years ago his firm was known all over the country, for they printed the bill-heads for nearly every grocer in the kingdom, the imprint, "Smith and Greaves, sc.," being prominent on every one. John was born in Prospect Row, in the year 1819. He was intended by his father for the medical profession, and spent some years in preliminary studies. He was exceedingly fond of chemistry, in which he became very proficient, ...
— Personal Recollections of Birmingham and Birmingham Men • E. Edwards
... to me "Sir Launcelot Greaves." Papa read "Anne of Geierstein."—I prepared Julian for acting Bluebeard; and Ellen Emerson lent me the gear. We worked hard all day.—We received the photographs of Una and myself. Mine of course uncomely.—Mr. Ticknor came to dine; and Mr. Burchmore [son of Stephen Burchmore, whose tales ...
— Memories of Hawthorne • Rose Hawthorne Lathrop
... watch him while he let His armourer just brace his greaves, Rivet his hauberk, on the fret The while! His foot . . . my memory leaves No least stamp out, nor how anon He pulled ...
— Browning's Heroines • Ethel Colburn Mayne
... alternating, in all ways, between Light and Dark; between joy and sorrow, between rest and toil,—between hope, hope reaching high as Heaven, and fear deep as very Hell. Not vapour Fantasms, Rymer's Foedera at all! Coeur-de-Lion was not a theatrical popinjay with greaves and steel-cap on it, but a man living upon victuals,—not imported by Peel's Tariff. Coeur-de-Lion came palpably athwart this Jocelin at St. Edmundsbury; and had almost peeled the sacred gold 'Feretrum,' or St. Edmund ...
— Past and Present - Thomas Carlyle's Collected Works, Vol. XIII. • Thomas Carlyle
... sight. In turn he handles, and in turn surveys The helmet tall with fiery crest bedight, The fateful sword, the breastplate's brazen might, Blood-red, and huge, and glorious to behold As some dark cloud, far-blazing with the light Of sunset; then the polished greaves of gold, The spear, the mystic shield, too ...
— The Aeneid of Virgil - Translated into English Verse by E. Fairfax Taylor • Virgil
... circumstances, very applicable to the present purpose; For Goliath had "a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail, and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass, and he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders." In short he was like Mr. Wood, all over brass; And "he defied the armies of the living God." Goliath's condition of combat were likewise the same with those of Wood. "If he prevail against ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. VI; The Drapier's Letters • Jonathan Swift
... the Philistines a champion named Goliath, who was about ten feet tall. He had a helmet of bronze on his head and wore a bronze breastplate of scales which weighed one hundred and fifty pounds. He also had bronze greaves upon his legs and a bronze back-plate between his shoulders. The shaft of his spear was like a weaver's beam, and the head of his iron spear weighed about twenty pounds; and his shield-bearer ...
— The Children's Bible • Henry A. Sherman
... The expression is one of dreamy contemplation as he looks downwards on the spoils and proof of conquest. David hath slain his tens of thousands! Finally the quality of the statue is enhanced by the care with which the bronze has been chiselled. Goliath's helmet, and David's greaves, on which the fleur de lys florencee has been damascened, are decorated with unfailing tact. The embellishment is in itself a pleasure to the eye, but it is prudently contained within its legitimate sphere; for Donatello ...
— Donatello • David Lindsay, Earl of Crawford
... front fell, their heads cleft with the axes of the party, fresh ones sprang forward; and Cuthbert saw that in spite of the valor and strength of his men, the situation was well-nigh desperate. He himself had been saved from injury by his harness, for he still had on his greaves ...
— The Boy Knight • G.A. Henty
... Paris, lord of the fair-haired Helen, put on his beautiful armor. First he set the splendid greaves upon his legs, fastened round the ankles with silver clasps; then he donned the corslet, which he had borrowed from his brother Lycaon; and he threw over his shoulders the silver-studded sword-belt with his sword, ...
— The Children's Hour, Volume 3 (of 10) • Various
... greaves that covered their forelegs. These they made out of bean shells broken in two. For shield, each had a lamp's centerpiece. For spears they had the long bronze needles that they had carried out of the houses of men. So armed and so accoutered ...
— The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who Lived Before Achilles • Padraic Colum
... it not odd that some self-appointed individual should send out an edict, and that suddenly all organised modes of living among people should be put a stop to! Here's Tom not allowed to get a packet of greaves into his establishment unless he sends to Dublin ...
— The Landleaguers • Anthony Trollope
... soul. Trusting in this I will go, and face him in person. Who else could do so with better right? Leader against leader, brother against brother, foeman with foeman, shall I take my stand. Bring me with all speed my greaves, my spear, and my armor of defense ...
— Prometheus Bound and Seven Against Thebes • Aeschylus
... her bower-eaves, He rode between the barley-sheaves, The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves, And flamed upon the brazen greaves Of bold Sir Lancelot. A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd To a lady in his shield, That sparkled on the ...
— Book of English Verse • Bulchevy
... they found David putting himself forward, in a way which they thought absurd, but their taunts did not deter him from presenting himself to King Saul, who was pleased with the gallant boy, and proposed to arm him with his own armor, a coat of mail, greaves of brass and the like. But "no," said David, "I would feel clumsy and awkward in your accoutrements, I will meet the giant with my shepherd's sling and stone, in the name of the Lord God of Israel ...
— Holiday Stories for Young People • Various
... Mastor was accustomed to leave his master's bedroom before sunrise to prepare everything that Hadrian could need when he rose from his slumbers. There was the gold plating to clean on the narrow greaves and the leather straps which belonged to his master's military boots, his clothes to air and to perfume with the slight, hardly perceptible scent that he liked, but the preparations for Hadrian's bath were what took up most of his time. At Lochias there were not as yet—as there were in ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers
... addition of a splendid plume of long black feathers surmounting his helmet. Beneath his corselet appeared a sort of skirt of fine chain mail reaching to just below the knees, and his legs were protected by greaves made of the same metal as the rest of his armour. His feet were encased in buskins, a sash of black and yellow passed over his left shoulder and was knotted upon his right hip, while at his left dangled a short sword encased in a jewelled scabbard, supported by a jewelled belt or chain of ...
— In Search of El Dorado • Harry Collingwood
... one, that he would write a Don Quixote too. It maybe said of the Spaniard, according to Falstaff's boast, "that he is not only witty in himself, but the cause that wit is in other men;" and among the many attempts at imitation, to which the admirable original has given rise, Sir Launcelot Greaves is not one of the worst. That a young man, whose brain had been slightly affected by a disappointment in love, should turn knight-errant, at a time when books of chivalry were no longer in vogue, is not, indeed, in the first instance, ...
— Lives of the English Poets - From Johnson to Kirke White, Designed as a Continuation of - Johnson's Lives • Henry Francis Cary
... wasn't so you'd not be an Isbel," returned Colter, with a grim little laugh. "It's easy to see you ain't run into any Tonto Basin fellers yet. Wal, I'm goin' to tell you thet your old man gabbed like a woman down at Greaves's store. Bragged aboot you an' how you could fight an' how you could shoot an' how you could track a hoss or a man! Bragged how you'd chase every sheep herder back up on the Rim.... I'm tellin' you because we want you to git our stand right. We're goin' ...
— To the Last Man • Zane Grey
... some time before this event, when all seemed dark, her friend Mrs. Greaves of Sheffield had written to Mary Moffat kindly inquiring if there was anything of use which she could send. The reply returned was, "Send us a communion service, we shall want it some day." Communication between the Kuruman and England was ...
— Robert Moffat - The Missionary Hero of Kuruman • David J. Deane
... had scarcely hurried on his helm, cuirass, and greaves, when Gloucester entered, calm in the midst ...
— The Last Of The Barons, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton
... breastplayte into bits, And shattered all hys greaves; They fractured bothe hys myghtie armes Withynne hys chaynemayle sleeves, And wounde hys massyve ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume X (of X) • Various
... Studs, links, dress-suit, and plain and coloured shirts, And undervests—the articles, in short, That make a man in very truth a man? Did AGAMEMNON, when he rushed to war, And sought the dreadful fields of Ilium— Did he pack up, or trust the thing to slaves, Saying, "Put in my six best pairs of greaves, Four regal mantles, sandals for the shore, And fourteen glittering helmets with their plumes, And ten strong breastplates and a sheaf of swords, And crowns and robes and tunics, and of spears A goodly number, such as may beseem The office and the valour ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, August 5th, 1914 • Various
... on the armor. The breastplate seemed too big, and he was somehow unable to tighten the greaves on his shins properly. The helmet fit over his head like an ancient oil can, flattening his ears and nose and forcing him to squint to see through ...
— The Dueling Machine • Benjamin William Bova
... others prepared the stands for the saddles drenched with the horses' sweat; others, when you were about to put off your helmet, unbuckled the clasps of its plated chin-straps, or busied themselves with unlacing your greaves. Yet others counted the notches on the swords, blunted with slaughter, or measured with livid[72] fingers the rings of the corslets, slashed ...
— A Letter Book - Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing • George Saintsbury
... as lieutenant, in the Worcester of sixty-four guns, under Captain Mark Robinson. This meritorious officer, who afterwards distinguished himself in Admiral Keppel's memorable action of the 27th of July 1778; as well as in that of Admiral Greaves, off the Chesapeak, the 5th of September 1781, where he lost a leg; was then under sailing orders for Gibraltar, with a convoy. He had too much merit of his own, not soon to discover it in another; and was so well satisfied ...
— The Life of the Right Honourable Horatio Lord Viscount Nelson, Vol. I (of 2) • James Harrison
... this portion of David's life, the conflict with Goliath is familiar to every reader. The youth, armed with a pebble and a sling, slays the boastful champion, storming about in helmet and greaves and brazen target, and the victorious hosts of Israel pursue the defeated and flying Philistines hour after hour, till the sun goes down. Saul, apparently forgetful of his former favorite and armor-bearer, inquires whose son the stripling is, led proudly ...
— Great Men and Famous Women. Vol. 3 of 8 • Various
... would seem to be! Well, it should not be a victory. He began to stride up and down his study, his head up, his chest out. It was almost as though he were a great warrior of old, having his armour put on before he went out to the fight— the greaves, the breastplate, the ...
— The Cathedral • Hugh Walpole
... roof is decked on every side, In martial pride, With helmets ranged in order bright, And plumes of horse-hair nodding white, A gallant sight! Fit ornament for warrior's brow— And round the walls in goodly row Refulgent glow Stout greaves of brass, like burnished gold, And corselets there in many a fold Of linen foiled; And shields that, in the battle fray, The routed losers of the day Have cast away. Euboean falchions too are seen, With rich-embroidered belts between Of dazzling sheen: And gaudy surcoats piled around, ...
— Mosaics of Grecian History • Marcius Willson and Robert Pierpont Willson
... stood that day he parted from us, glittering in his brilliant armor, and his face just as brilliant with the light of a great and trusting spirit. As he turned from the last embraces of the weeping Portia, he seized me in his arms, who stood jingling his sword against his iron greaves, and imprinting upon my cheek a kiss, bade me grow a man at once, to take care of the household, while they were gone with the good Emperor to fight the enemies of Rome in Asia. He was, as I remember him, of a quick and ...
— Zenobia - or, The Fall of Palmyra • William Ware
... beam in an attitude as resolute and proud as if it were still filled with the soul of the brave man it had once decked for mighty adventures. The gauntlet grasped the lance in its ten iron fingers, while the shield rested against the plates of the greaves as if to prove that prudence is necessary to courage, and that the best fighter is armed as well for defence ...
— Honey-Bee - 1911 • Anatole France
... gold, while all the walls told painted stories of strange gods and kings, and of their loves and wars. The Queen sank back upon the embroidered cushions of a couch and bade the wise Odysseus to sit guard over against her, so near that her robes swept his golden greaves. This he did somewhat against his will, though he was no hater of fair women. But his heart misdoubted the dark-eyed Queen, and he looked upon her guardedly, for she was strangely fair to see, the fairest of all mortal women whom he had known, ...
— The World's Desire • H. Rider Haggard and Andrew Lang
... who abolished the inconveniently long robe of the second class of heavy-armed archers, and gave them leather greaves and boots. The first class, on the other hand, are now generally represented without sandals, and with an embroidered turban with lappets on the head. Sennacherib also established a corps of slingers, who were clad in helmet and breastplate, leather drawers, ...
— Babylonians and Assyrians, Life and Customs • Rev. A. H. Sayce
... Witig swore by the honour of his mother, a king's daughter, that never should the smith's hammer and tongs come into his hand. Thereupon Wieland gave him a coat of mail of hard steel, which shone like silver, and greaves of chain-armour; a white shield, on which were painted in red the smith's hammer and tongs, telling of his father's trade, and three carbuncles, which he bore in right of the princess, his mother. On his strong steel helmet a golden dragon gleamed and seemed to spit forth venom. Into his ...
— Theodoric the Goth - Barbarian Champion of Civilisation • Thomas Hodgkin
... armor of the Macedonians, both of brass and steel, all newly polished and glittering; the pieces of which were piled up and arranged purposely with the greatest art, so as to seem to be tumbled in heaps carelessly and by chance; helmets were thrown upon shields, coats of mail upon greaves; Cretan targets, and Thracian bucklers and quivers of arrows, lay huddled amongst horses' bits, and through these there appeared the points of naked swords, intermixed with long Macedonian sarissas. All these arms were ...
— The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch - Being Parts of The "Lives" of Plutarch • Plutarch
... by this time; and if you disregard that—even though there was no bad meaning in what you did say—you cannot fairly claim to have made no mistake; it is as though one should put a helmet on the shins, or greaves on the head. My dear sir (I reply), your simile would go on all fours if there were any season at all which did not require health; but in point of fact it is needed in the morning and at noonday and at night —especially by busy rulers like you Romans, to whom physical condition ...
— Works, V2 • Lucian of Samosata
... finish what I have begun And shirt you now invulnerable in the mail Of iron kisses, kisses linked like steel. Put greaves upon your thighs and knees, and frail Webbing of steel on your feet. So you shall feel Ensheathed invulnerable with me, with seven Great seals upon your outgoings, and woven Chain of my mystic will wrapped perfectly Upon ...
— Georgian Poetry 1918-19 • Various
... the sorrel steed of sir Launcelot Greaves. The word means a "mettlesome sorrel."—Smollett, Sir Launcelot ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook • The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.
... leap!" It was Drusus who commanded now, and Caesar who obeyed. The Imperator tore off his greaves and helmet, caught his general's cloak in his teeth, that it might not fall as a trophy to the foe, and sprang down into the waves; it was all done in a twinkling. But, quick as the leap had been, ...
— A Friend of Caesar - A Tale of the Fall of the Roman Republic. Time, 50-47 B.C. • William Stearns Davis
... uncommon: a monster of nature appears, a giant, tall as a tree. Six ells will not suffice to measure his length; the high helmet of brass which he wears on his head makes him appear still taller; and the scaly coat of mail, the greaves of brass placed about his legs, together with the enormously heavy shield which he carries, also his strong spear, tipped with iron, like unto a weaver's beam, sufficiently show that he is of mighty strength, and that all these exceedingly heavy loads do not inconvenience him in the slightest. ...
— The Pianoforte Sonata - Its Origin and Development • J.S. Shedlock
... Henry come near, lest I should hurt him. Mind—mind that you take care of yourself too. But I shall not injure you; I know I shall not. Lock the chamber door against the surgeons; turn them out if they get in. Let neither the young nor the old MacTurk lay a finger on me; nor Mr. Greaves, their colleague; and lastly, if I give trouble, with your own hand administer to me a strong narcotic—such a sure dose of laudanum as shall leave no mistake. Promise ...
— Shirley • Charlotte Bronte
... aged Vainamoinen, "Wherefore take I not my journey, Where a mighty fight is raging, There to fight among my equals, Where the greaves with blood are spattered, Even to the ...
— Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) - The Land of the Heroes • Anonymous
... door, obedient to her touch, which displayed a chamber faintly misted by a solitary bar of moonlight. Farina perceived they were above the foundation of the castle. The walls gleamed pale with knightly harness, habergeons gaping for heads, breastplates of blue steel, halbert, and hand-axe, greaves, glaives, boar-spears, and polished spur-fixed heel-pieces. He seized a falchion hanging apart, but the lady stayed his arm, and led to another flight of stone ending in a kind of corridor. Noises of laughter and high feasting beset him at this point. The Lady of the Water sidled her head, ...
— The Shaving of Shagpat • George Meredith
... loud, And dropping bitter tears against a brow Striped with dark blood: for all his face was white And colorless, and like the wither'd moon Smote by the fresh beam of the springing east; And all his greaves and cuisses dash'd with drops Of onset; and the light and lustrous curls— That made his forehead like a rising sun High from the dais-throne—were parch'd with dust, Or, clotted into points and hanging loose, Mix'd with the knightly growth that fringed his lips. So like a shatter'd ...
— Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 5 • Charles Sylvester
... the merest child, he was sent as a day-scholar to Mr. Greaves, a shrewd Yorkshireman with a turn for science, who had been brought originally to the neighborhood in order to educate a number of African youths sent over to imbibe Western civilization at the fountain-head. The poor fellows had found as much difficulty ...
— Stories of Authors, British and American • Edwin Watts Chubb
... ... satisfaction. Addison is alluding to John Greaves, who journeyed to Egypt in 1638 and published ...
— The Coverley Papers • Various
... pointed helmets, with lappets protecting the ears, a coat of mail descending to the waist and also covering all the upper part of the arms, a tunic opening at the side, a phillibeg, close-fitting trousers, and greaves of the ordinary character. [PLATE XCIX., Fig. 3.] They carry a large convex shield, apparently of metal, which covers them almost from head to foot, and a spear somewhat less than their own height. Commonly they have a short sword at ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 2. (of 7): Assyria • George Rawlinson
... ridden out to the skirmishers, saw the whole force of the enemy on the point of engaging. First marched the Thracians, who, he himself tells us, inspired him with most terror; they were of great stature, with bright and glittering shields and black frocks under them, their legs armed with greaves, and they brandished, as they moved, straight and heavily-ironed spears over their right shoulders. Next the Thracians marched the mercenary soldiers, armed after different fashions; with these the Paeonians were mingled. ...
— Plutarch's Lives • A.H. Clough
... more, "Let there be light!"—Son of the South, Lift up thy honored head, Wear unashamed a crown by thy desert More than by birth thy own, Careless of watch and ward; thou art begirt By grateful hearts alone. The moated wall and battle-ship may fail, But safe shall justice prove; Stronger than greaves of brass or iron mail ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 117, July, 1867. • Various
... glittered at his waist, Where pistols unadorned were braced; 620 And from his belt a sabre swung, And from his shoulder loosely hung The cloak of white, the thin capote That decks the wandering Candiote; Beneath—his golden plated vest Clung like a cuirass to his breast; The greaves below his knee that wound With silvery scales were sheathed and bound. But were it not that high command Spake in his eye, and tone, and hand, 630 All that a careless eye could see In him was ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron
... him while he let His armorer just brace his greaves, Rivet his hauberk, on the fret The while! His foot ... my memory leaves No least stamp out, nor how anon He ...
— Standard Selections • Various
... knights, a puny race In stays, with locks en papillote, While cuirass, cuisses, greaves give place To silk-net Tights, and ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 487 - Vol. 17, No. 487. Saturday, April 30, 1831 • Various
... were fast giving place to the iron of the French; but they had not laid aside their shields of raw bison-hide, or of wood overlaid with plaited and twisted thongs of skin. They still used, too, their primitive breastplates and greaves of twigs interwoven with cordage. [ Some of the northern tribes of California, at the present day, wear a sort of breastplate "composed of thin parallel battens of very tough wood, woven together ...
— The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century • Francis Parkman
... warlike people of all that they passed through, and came to close combat with them. They had linen cuirasses, reaching down to the groin, and, instead of skirts, thick cords twisted. They had also greaves and helmets, and at their girdles a short falchion, as large as a Spartan crooked dagger, with which they cut the throats of all whom they could master, and then, cutting off their heads, carried them away with them. They sang and danced when the enemy were likely to see them. They carried ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Vol. 2 • Various
... could only be faced and honor won in a case of steel; not having learned that either against danger or for honor the naked heart is the fittest wear. So this man, whose name was Harding, kept his fires going for men's needs, and women's too; for besides making and mending swords and knives and greaves for the one, he would also make brooches and buckles and chains for the other; and tools for the peasants. They sometimes called him the Red Smith. In person Harding was ruddy, though his fairness differed from the fairness of the natives, and his speech ...
— Martin Pippin in the Apple Orchard • Eleanor Farjeon
... arms of bronze, and, unlike Virgil (as we shall see), they do not introduce the buckler worn on the left arm. They adhere conscientiously to the use of the vast Mycenaean shield, in their time obsolete. Yet, by the theory, in many other respects they innovate at will, introducing corslets and greaves, said to be unknown to the beginners of the Greek Epics, just as Virgil innovates in bucklers and iron weapons. All this theory seems inconsistent, and no ancient poet, not even Virgil, is an archaiser ...
— Homer and His Age • Andrew Lang
... across chest and abdomen, and embossed with bronze designs of ancient pattern and workmanship. The hem of the white tunic showed below the leathern pendants that hung a foot down from his girdle; the greaves were ornamented at the knees with lions' heads; an armour-bearer carried his master's bronze helmet with its crest of ...
— The Lion's Brood • Duffield Osborne
... himself, employ'd 270 Collecting thorns with which to fence the grove. In that umbrageous spot he found alone Laertes, with his hoe clearing a plant; Sordid his tunic was, with many a patch Mended unseemly; leathern were his greaves, Thong-tied and also patch'd, a frail defence Against sharp thorns, while gloves secured his hands From briar-points, and on his head he bore A goat-skin casque, nourishing hopeless woe. No sooner then the Hero toil-inured 280 Saw him age-worn and wretched, ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer
... signed by Prof. W. E. Dalby and F. S. Courtney, engineering; R. N. Greaves, engineering and agriculture; Robert W. Hobbs and Henry Overman, agriculture; Gilbert Greenall, honorary directors, and John E. ...
— My Life and Work • Henry Ford
... more than a linen corselet and leathern cap and gaiters, and on the other that the hero wore practically the complete panoply of the later Hellenic hoplite, the small round shield, the bronze helmet, with metal cuirass, belt, and greaves; while the question of whether the offensive weapons were of iron or of bronze has been debated with equal pertinacity. The discussion of such details is beyond our purpose, and it is sufficient ...
— The Sea-Kings of Crete • James Baikie |
