The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

‘Circumspice, si Monumentum requiris’;
Which an erudite Verger translated to me,
‘If you ask for his Monument, Sir—come—spy—see!’
‘The Ingoldsby Legends’ (First Series, 1840) ‘The Cynotaph’.
What was to be done?—’twas perfectly plain
That they could not well hang the man over again;
What was to be done?—The man was dead!
Nought could be done—nought could be said;
So—my Lord Tomnoddy went home to bed!
‘The Ingoldsby Legends’ (First Series, 1840) ‘Hon. Mr Sucklethumbkin’s Story’
The Jackdaw sat on the Cardinal’s chair!
Bishop, and abbot, and prior were there;
Many a monk, and many a friar,
Many a knight, and many a squire,
With a great many more of lesser degree,—
In sooth a goodly company;
And they served the Lord Primate on bended knee.
Never, I ween,
Was a prouder seen,
Read of in books, or dreamt of in dreams,
Than the Cardinal Lord Archbishop of Rheims!
‘The Ingoldsby Legends’ (First Series, 1840) ‘The Jackdaw of Rheims’
And six little Singing-boys,—dear little souls!
In nice clean faces, and nice white stoles.
‘The Ingoldsby Legends’ (First Series, 1840) ‘The Jackdaw of Rheims’
He cursed him in sleeping, that every night
He should dream of the devil, and wake in a fright.
‘The Ingoldsby Legends’ (First Series, 1840) ‘The Jackdaw of Rheims’
Never was heard such a terrible curse!
But what gave rise
To no little surprise,
Nobody seemed one penny the worse!
‘The Ingoldsby Legends’ (First Series, 1840) ‘The Jackdaw of Rheims’
Heedless of grammar, they all cried, ‘That’s him!’
‘The Ingoldsby Legends’ (First Series, 1840) ‘The Jackdaw of Rheims’
Here’s a corpse in the case with a sad swelled face,
And a ‘Crowner’s Quest’ is a queer sort of thing!
‘The Ingoldsby Legends’ (First Series, 1840) ‘A Lay of St Gengulphus’ (in later editions: ‘a Medical
Crowner’s a queer sort of thing!’)
So put that in your pipe, my Lord Otto, and smoke it!