The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations Preface

Old iron, old iron?
‘Any Old Iron’ (1911 song, popularized by Harry Champion; the second line often sung ‘Any any any old
iron?’)
3.146 Churton Collins (John Churton Collins) 1848-1908
To ask advice is in nine cases out of ten to tout for flattery.
In L. C. Collins ‘Life of John Churton Collins’ (1912) p. 316
3.147 Michael Collins 1890-1922
Think—what I have got for Ireland? Something which she has wanted these past seven
hundred years. Will anyone be satisfied at the bargain? Will anyone? I tell you this—early this
morning I signed my death warrant. I thought at the time how odd, how ridiculous—a bullet may
just as well have done the job five years ago.
Letter, 6 December 1921, in T. R. Dwyer ‘Michael Collins and the Treaty’ (1981) ch. 4
3.148 William Collins 1721-59
To fair Fidele’s grassy tomb
Soft maids and village hinds shall bring
Each opening sweet of earliest bloom,
And rifle all the breathing spring.
‘Dirge’ (1744) from Shakespeare’s ‘Cymbeline’
Now air is hushed, save where the weak-eyed bat,
With short shrill shriek flits by on leathern wing,
Or where the beetle winds
His small but sullen horn,
As oft he rises ’midst the twilight path,
Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum.
‘Ode to Evening’ (1747)
How sleep the brave, who sink to rest,
By all their country’s wishes blest!
‘Ode Written in the Year 1746’ (1748)
By fairy hands their knell is rung,
By forms unseen their dirge is sung.
‘Ode Written in the Year 1746’ (1748)
With eyes up-raised, as one inspired,
Pale Melancholy sate retired,
And from her wild sequestered seat,
In notes by distance made more sweet,
Poured thro’ the mellow horn her pensive soul.
‘The Passions, an Ode for Music’ (1747).
Love of peace, and lonely musing,