Careful Words

room (n.)

room (v.)

room (adj.)

Weave the warp, and weave the woof,

The winding-sheet of Edward's race.

Give ample room and verge enough

The characters of hell to trace.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): The Bard. II. 1, Line 1.

Rather your room as your company.

Every room

Hath blazed with lights and bray'd with minstrelsy.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Timon of Athens. Act ii. Sc. 2.

I cannot talk with civet in the room,

A fine puss-gentleman that's all perfume.

William Cowper (1731-1800): Conversation. Line 283.

Soul of the age,

The applause, delight, the wonder of our stage,

My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by

Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie

A little further, to make thee a room.

Ben Jonson (1573-1637): To the Memory of Shakespeare.

  Their heads sometimes so little that there is no room for wit; sometimes so long that there is no wit for so much room.

Thomas Fuller (1608-1661): Holy and Profane State. Of Natural Fools.

Infinite riches in a little room.

Christopher Marlowe (1565-1593): The Jew of Malta. Act i.

  No gilded dome swells from the lowly roof to catch the morning or evening beam; but the love and gratitude of united America settle upon it in one eternal sunshine. From beneath that humble roof went forth the intrepid and unselfish warrior, the magistrate who knew no glory but his country's good; to that he returned, happiest when his work was done. There he lived in noble simplicity, there he died in glory and peace. While it stands, the latest generations of the grateful children of America will make this pilgrimage to it as to a shrine; and when it shall fall, if fall it must, the memory and the name of Washington shall shed an eternal glory on the spot.

Edward Everett (1794-1865): Oration on the Character of Washington.

  Their heads sometimes so little that there is no room for wit; sometimes so long that there is no wit for so much room.

Thomas Fuller (1608-1661): Holy and Profane State. Of Natural Fools.

Grief fills the room up of my absent child,

Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,

Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,

Remembers me of all his gracious parts,

Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King John. Act iii. Sc. 4.

A servant with this clause

Makes drudgery divine;

Who sweeps a room as for Thy laws

Makes that and th' action fine.

George Herbert (1593-1632): The Elixir.

In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Moral Essays. Epistle iii. Line 299.