As dreadful as the Manichean god,

Adored through fear, strong only to destroy.

William Cowper (1731-1800): The Task. Book v. The Winter Morning Walk. Line 444.

Silence that dreadful bell: it frights the isle

From her propriety.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act ii. Sc. 3.

So comes a reckoning when the banquet's o'er,—

The dreadful reckoning, and men smile no more.

John Gay (1688-1732): The What d' ye call it. Act ii. Sc. 9.

Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first motion, all the interim is

Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:

The Genius and the mortal instruments

Are then in council; and the state of man,

Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act ii. Sc. 1.

I'm weary of conjectures,—this must end 'em.

Thus am I doubly armed: my death and life,

My bane and antidote, are both before me:

This in a moment brings me to an end;

But this informs me I shall never die.

The soul, secured in her existence, smiles

At the drawn dagger, and defies its point.

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself

Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;

But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,

Unhurt amidst the war of elements,

The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719): Cato. Act v. Sc. 1.

And when you stick on conversation's burrs,

Don't strew your pathway with those dreadful urs.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894): A Rhymed Lesson. Urania.