How blest is he who crowns in shades like these

A youth of labour with an age of ease!

Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774): The Deserted Village. Line 99.

An elegant sufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,

Ease and alternate labour, useful life,

Progressive virtue, and approving Heaven!

James Thomson (1700-1748): The Seasons. Spring. Line 1158.

Whate'er he did was done with so much ease,

In him alone 't was natural to please.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Absalom and Achitophel. Part i. Line 27.

Go boldly forth, my simple lay,

Whose accents flow with artless ease,

Like orient pearls at random strung.

Sir William Jones (1746-1794): A Persian Song of Hafiz.

I built my soul a lordly pleasure-house,

Wherein at ease for aye to dwell.

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892): The Palace of Art.

Fireside happiness, to hours of ease

Blest with that charm, the certainty to please.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855): Human Life.

O woman! in our hours of ease

Uncertain, coy, and hard to please,

And variable as the shade

By the light quivering aspen made;

When pain and anguish wring the brow,

A ministering angel thou!

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Marmion. Canto vi. Stanza 30.

A hard beginning maketh a good ending.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part i. Chap. iv.

Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iii. Sc. 3.

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,

As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.

'T is not enough no harshness gives offence,—

The sound must seem an echo to the sense.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 162.

Ye gentlemen of England

That live at home at ease,

Ah! little do you think upon

The dangers of the seas.

Martyn Parker (1600-1656): Song.

The mob of gentlemen who wrote with ease.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace. Epistle i. Book ii. Line 108.

Her air, her manners, all who saw admir'd;

Courteous though coy, and gentle though retir'd;

The joy of youth and health her eyes display'd,

And ease of heart her every look convey'd.

George Crabbe (1754-1832): The Parish Register. Part ii. Marriages.

Nor peace nor ease the heart can know

Which, like the needle true,

Turns at the touch of joy or woe,

But turning, trembles too.

Mrs Greville (Circa 1793): A Prayer for Indifference.

But still his tongue ran on, the less

Of weight it bore, with greater ease.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part iii. Canto ii. Line 443.

And duller shouldst thou be than the fat weed

That roots itself in ease on Lethe wharf.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act i. Sc. 5.

Studious of ease, and fond of humble things.

Ambrose Phillips (1671-1749): From Holland to a Friend in England.

I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,

His cuisses on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,

Rise from the ground like feather'd Mercury,

And vaulted with such ease into his seat

As if an angel dropp'd down from the clouds,

To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus

And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. Sc. 1.

O fair undress, best dress! it checks no vein,

But every flowing limb in pleasure drowns,

And heightens ease with grace.

James Thomson (1700-1748): The Castle of Indolence. Canto i. Stanza 26.

Ease would recant

Vows made in pain, as violent and void.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book iv. Line 96.

You write with ease to show your breeding,

But easy writing's curst hard reading.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816): Clio's Protest. Life of Sheridan (Moore). Vol. i. p. 155.