Any nose

May ravage with impunity a rose.

Robert Browning (1812-1890): Sordello. Book vi.

The big round tears

Coursed one another down his innocent nose

In piteous chase.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): As You Like It. Act ii. Sc. 1.

Ful wel she sange the service devine,

Entuned in hire nose ful swetely;

And Frenche she spake ful fayre and fetisly,

After the scole of Stratford atte bowe,

For Frenche of Paris was to hire unknowe.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1328-1400): Canterbury Tales. Prologue. Line 122.

He would not, with a peremptory tone,

Assert the nose upon his face his own.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Conversation. Line 121.

Nose, nose, nose, nose!

And who gave thee that jolly red nose?

Sinament and Ginger, Nutmegs and Cloves,

And that gave me my jolly red nose.

Ravenscroft: Deuteromela, Song No. 7. (1609.)

Ho! why dost thou shiver and shake, Gaffer Grey?

And why does thy nose look so blue?

Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809): Gaffer Grey.

O jest unseen, inscrutable, invisible,

As a nose on a man's face, or a weathercock on a steeple.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Act ii. Sc. 1.

All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players.

They have their exits and their entrances;

And one man in his time plays many parts,

His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,

Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel

And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,

Sighing like furnace, with a woful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,

Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard;

Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,

Seeking the bubble reputation

Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,

In fair round belly with good capon lined,

With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,

Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts

Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;

His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide

For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history,

Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

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

Another tumble! That's his precious nose!

Thomas Hood (1798-1845): Parental Ode to my Infant Son.

Those who in quarrels interpose

Must often wipe a bloody nose.

John Gay (1688-1732): Fables. Part i. The Mastiffs.