A drunkard clasp his teeth and not undo 'em,

To suffer wet damnation to run through 'em.

Cyril Tourneur (Circa 1600): The Revenger's Tragedy. Act iii. Sc. 1.

And Chaucer, with his infantine

Familiar clasp of things divine.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1809-1861): A Vision of Poets.