Careful Words

tyrant (n.)

Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Romeo and Juliet. Act iii. Sc. 2.

The tyrant custom, most grave senators,

Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war

My thrice-driven bed of down.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Othello. Act i. Sc. 3.

Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast

The little tyrant of his fields withstood,

Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,

Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771): Elegy in a Country Churchyard. Stanza 15.