In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold,

Alike fantastic if too new or old:

Be not the first by whom the new are tried,

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 133.

Where, where was Roderick then?

One blast upon his bugle horn

Were worth a thousand men.

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lady of the Lake. Canto vi. Stanza 18.

Who o'er the herd would wish to reign,

Fantastic, fickle, fierce, and vain!

Vain as the leaf upon the stream,

And fickle as a changeful dream;

Fantastic as a woman's mood,

And fierce as Frenzy's fever'd blood.

Thou many-headed monster thing,

Oh who would wish to be thy king!

Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832): Lady of the Lake. Canto v. Stanza 30.

In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold,

Alike fantastic if too new or old:

Be not the first by whom the new are tried,

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 133.

O, who can hold a fire in his hand

By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?

Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite

By bare imagination of a feast?

Or wallow naked in December snow

By thinking on fantastic summer's heat?

O, no! the apprehension of the good

Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard II. Act i. Sc. 3.

Sport, that wrinkled Care derides,

And Laughter holding both his sides.

Come and trip it as ye go,

On the light fantastic toe.

John Milton (1608-1674): L'Allegro. Line 31.

Seeks painted trifles and fantastic toys,

And eagerly pursues imaginary joys.

Mark Akenside (1721-1770): The Virtuoso. Stanza x.

But man, proud man,

Drest in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assured,

His glassy essence, like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven

As make the angels weep.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Measure for Measure. Act ii. Sc. 2.