Still to be neat, still to be drest,

As you were going to a feast.

Ben Jonson (1573-1637): Epicoene; Or, the Silent Woman. Act i. Sc. 1.

To the latter end of a fray and the beginning of a feast

Fits a dull fighter and a keen guest.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry IV. Part I. Act iv. 2.

Methought I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!

Macbeth does murder sleep!" the innocent sleep,

Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care,

The death of each day's life, sore labour's bath,

Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,

Chief nourisher in life's feast.

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

Enough is as good as a feast.

John Heywood (Circa 1565): Proverbes. Part ii. Chap. xi.

Enough is equal to a feast.

Henry Fielding (1707-1754): The Covent Garden Tragedy. Act v. Sc. 1.

Swinish gluttony

Ne'er looks to heav'n amidst his gorgeous feast,

But with besotted base ingratitude

Crams, and blasphemes his feeder.

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 776.

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.

Small cheer and great welcome makes a merry feast.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Comedy of Errors. Act iii. Sc. 1.

This day is called the feast of Crispian:

He that outlives this day and comes safe home,

Will stand a tip-toe when this day is named,

And rouse him at the name of Crispian.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Henry V. Act iv. Sc. 3.

How charming is divine philosophy!

Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose,

But musical as is Apollo's lute,

And a perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets

Where no crude surfeit reigns.

John Milton (1608-1674): Comus. Line 476.

There St. John mingles with my friendly bowl,

The feast of reason and the flow of soul.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Satires, Epistles, and Odes of Horace. Satire i. Book ii. Line 127.

Under the shade of melancholy boughs,

Lose and neglect the creeping hours of time;

If ever you have look'd on better days,

If ever been where bells have knoll'd to church,

If ever sat at any good man's feast.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 7.