Through thick and thin, both over bank and bush,

In hope her to attain by hook or crook.

Edmund Spenser (1553-1599): Faerie Queene. Book iii. Canto i. St. 17.

Made still a blund'ring kind of melody;

Spurr'd boldly on, and dashed through thick and thin,

Through sense and nonsense, never out nor in.

John Dryden (1631-1701): Absalom and Achitophel. Part ii. Line 413.

Through thick and thin, both over hill and plain.

Du Bartas (1544-1590): Second Week, Fourth Day, Book iv.

Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks

In Vallombrosa, where th' Etrurian shades

High over-arch'd imbower.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Lost. Book i. Line 302.

A woman moved is like a fountain troubled,—

Muddy, ill-seeming, thick, bereft of beauty.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): The Taming of the Shrew. Act v. Sc. 2.

  Doct.      Not so sick, my lord,

As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,

That keep her from her rest.

  Macb.        Cure her of that.

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseas'd,

Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,

Raze out the written troubles of the brain,

And with some sweet oblivious antidote

Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff

Which weighs upon the heart?

  Doct.        Therein the patient

Must minister to himself.

  Macb.  Throw physic to the dogs: I 'll none of it.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Macbeth. Act v. Sc. 3.

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,

And blown with restless violence round about

The pendent world.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Measure for Measure. Act iii. Sc. 1.

The olive grove of Academe,

Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird

Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long.

John Milton (1608-1674): Paradise Regained. Book iv. Line 244.