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Erst   Listen
adverb
Erst  adv.  (Archaic)
1.
First.
2.
Previously; before; formerly; heretofore. "Tityrus, with whose style he had erst disclaimed all ambition to match his pastoral pipe."
At erst, at first; at the beginning.
Now at erst, at this present time.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Erst" Quotes from Famous Books



... a story to tell you all, so listen to what I have to say," quoth he; whereupon, without more ado, he told them all about Sir Richard, and how his lands were in pawn. But, as he went on, the Bishop's face, that had erst been smiling and ruddy with merriment, waxed serious, and he put aside the horn of wine he held in his hand, for he knew the story of Sir Richard, and his heart sank within him with grim forebodings. Then, ...
— The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood • Howard Pyle

... pitched in Hawarden's peaceful vale, And harmless shafts the platted targe assail; While now the bow (the archers more intent On making love than making war) is bent; Beneath those towers, where erst their fathers drew In deadly conflict bows of tougher yew; Lo! Charity, a native of the skies, Whose smile betrays her through a vain disguise, Mounts the steep hill, and 'neath th' o'erhanging wall, The canvass stretch'd in triumph, plants her stall; ...
— The Hawarden Visitors' Hand-Book - Revised Edition, 1890 • William Henry Gladstone

... the true lyric bard and all that kind of thing; And his failures arise, (though perhaps he don't know it,) From the very same cause that has made him a poet,— A fervor of mind which knows no separation 'Twixt simple excitement and pure inspiration, As my Pythoness erst sometimes erred from not knowing If 'twere I or mere wind through her tripod was blowing; Let his mind once get head in its favorite direction And the torrent of verse bursts the dams of reflection, While, borne with the rush ...
— Selections From American Poetry • Various

... see the plump and lusty dame, With high erected chest and vigorous mien, Was erst th' enamored knight Don Quixote's flame, The fair Dulcinea, ...
— Wit and Wisdom of Don Quixote • Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

... rise, o'er forms now mould'ring into dust, The "storied urn" and "animated West."— Beneath the fretted dome, aspiring high, Here monarchs, heroes, poets, sages, lie! "Deaf the prais'd ear, and mute the tuneful tongue," Here sleeps the bard with those whom erst he sung; And all consigned to one impartial doom, Lo! kings and subjects levelled ...
— Real Life In London, Volumes I. and II. • Pierce Egan

... Hadrian's warm hands, That now found them but cold! O hair bound erstwhile with the pressing bands! O eyes too diffidently bold! O bare female male-body like A god that dawns into humanity! O lips whose opening redness erst could strike Lust's seats with a soiled art's variety! O fingers skilled in things not to be named! O tongue which, counter-tongued, the throbbed brows flamed! O glory of a wrong lust pillowed on Raged ...
— Antinous: A Poem • Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa

... till on a night of October, toward the end thereof, the witch went a-night-tide to the Sending Boat, and Birdalone followed her as erst. This time the night was wild and windy, but the moon was high aloft and big, and all cloud save a few flecks was blown from off the heavens; so that the night was as light as could be; and even at the ...
— The Water of the Wondrous Isles • William Morris

... since coming to this land First in your sanctuary I bent the knee, Frown not on me or Phoebus, who, when erst He told me all my miseries to come, Spake of this respite after many years, Some haven in a far-off land, a rest Vouchsafed at last by dread divinities. "There," said he, "shalt thou round thy weary life, A blessing to the land wherein ...
— The Oedipus Trilogy • Sophocles

... ran round the low garden-fence to the back of the premises, where there was a little wooden gate, padlocked, but so low that he vaulted over it easily, and went in amongst the budding currant-bushes, the neat gravel-paths and strawberry-beds, that had been erst so cherished by the naval commander. Mr. Carter peered in at the back windows of the house, and through the little casement he saw a vista of emptiness. He listened, but there was no sound of voices or footsteps. The ...
— Henry Dunbar - A Novel • M. E. Braddon

... thane of AEthelred. There stood by his side a youth not grown, A boy in the fight, who very boldly Drew from the warrior the bloody spear, The son of Wulfstan, Wulfmaer the young; 155 He let the hard weapon fly back again; The point in-pierced, that on earth he lay Who erst his lord strongly had struck. Went then an armored man to the earl, He would the warrior's jewels fetch back, 160 Armor and rings and sword well-adorned. Then Byrhtnoth drew his sword from its sheath, Broad and brown-edged, and on byrnie he struck: Too ...
— Elene; Judith; Athelstan, or the Fight at Brunanburh; Byrhtnoth, or the Fight at Maldon; and the Dream of the Rood • Anonymous

... holding on by the ordinary trappings of the howdah, and reaching up as he raised himself on tiptoe, he almost whispered his terrible news, while the florid, erst happy-looking Doctor looked ...
— Trapped by Malays - A Tale of Bayonet and Kris • George Manville Fenn

... side, and scaled it well. The most left Love ship, hauling wealth Up Worm ship's side; While some few hollow-eyed Left either for the sack-sailed boat; But this, though not remote, Was worst to mount, and whoso left it once Scarce ever came again, But seemed to loathe his erst companions, And ...
— Poems • Christina G. Rossetti

... As erst, her little feet were naked—gleaming with roseate translucence against the green background of the herbage. She was standing when I first saw her: not in a position of rest, but with one foot pressing the turf, the other slightly retired, as if she had just paused in her steps. She was not ...
— The Wild Huntress - Love in the Wilderness • Mayne Reid

... neere, and with fayre pleasing shew, 720 Wellcome great Pompey as the Siren doth The wandering shipman with her charming song. Pom. O how it greeues a noble hauty mind, Framed vp in honors vncontrouled schoole, To serue and sue, whoe erst did rule and sway What shall I goe and stoope to Ptolomey, Nought to a noble mind more greefe can bring Then be a begger where thou wert a King, Ach. Wellcome a shore most great and gratious prince Welcome to AEgipt and to Ptolomey. 730 The King my Maister is at ...
— The Tragedy Of Caesar's Revenge • Anonymous

... his wench; Or make some sire acknowledge his lost son: Found, when the weary act is almost done.[30] Nor unto this, nor unto that our scene is bent; We only show a scholar's discontent. In scholars' fortunes, twice forlorn and dead, Twice hath our weary pen erst laboured; Making them pilgrims in Parnassus' Hill, Then penning their return with ruder quill. Now we present unto each pitying eye The scholars' progress in their misery: Refined wits, your patience is our bliss; Too weak our scene, ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. IX • Various

... juice.(111) And let the nymphs supreme in grace, And maidens of the minstrel race, Monkeys and snakes, and those who rove Free spirits of the hill and grove, And wandering Daughters of the Air, In monkey form brave children bear. So erst the lord of bears I shaped, Born from my mouth as wide ...
— The Ramayana • VALMIKI

... could be hid, and fondly think She had some jewels in the earth, but now ye dig Into her very bowels, to recover morsels sweet She erst with deglutition had drawn in. The rocks Your toils dissolve, to find perchance some treasure Lying there. Is yonder land of gold alone Your care? Observe along these shores The wheezing engine clank—the ...
— The Myth of Hiawatha, and Other Oral Legends, Mythologic and Allegoric, of the North American Indians • Henry R. Schoolcraft

... owne harte could devise; if not, to passe the tyme without any suspect or jealousie, protesting that there was nothing ment that tended to his indempnitie, what so ever was bruted abrode or conceyved to the contrary, as he should perceyve by the sequele erst it were long."[427] ...
— History of the Rise of the Huguenots - Volume 2 • Henry Baird

... nigh to breaking. She has given her affections to Clancy— in that last letter written, lavished them. And they have been trifled with—scorned! She, daughter of the erst proudest planter in all Mississippi State, has been slighted for a Creole girl; possibly, one of the "poor white trash" living along the bayous' edge. Full proof she has of his perfidy, or how should Darke know of it? More maddening still, the man so slighting her, has been making boast ...
— The Death Shot - A Story Retold • Mayne Reid

... the blossoms young, That erst on Flora's forehead hung; But round thy radiant temples twine, The flowers ...
— Poetic Sketches • Thomas Gent

... feet,—erst fleet and fast As Daphne's when a god pursued,— No more will dance like sunlight past The gold-green vistas of the wood, Where every quailing floweret Smiled into life where ...
— Poems • Madison Cawein

... stood up before Zayn al-Asnam and salamed to him with mighty great respect and entreated him with high regard and blessed him. Then said the Prince, "O assembly, I am in the presence of your worships, and be ye my witnesses. O Mubarak, thou art now freed and all thou hast of goods, gold and gear erst belonging to us becometh henceforth thine own and thou art endowed with them for good each and every. Eke do thou ask whatso of importance thou wouldst have from me, for I will on no wise let or stay thee in thy requiring it." With this Mubarak arose and kissed the hand of Zayn al-Asnam and thanked ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 3 • Richard F. Burton

... inhabitants expelled, trade and traffic decayed, maids deflowered, Virgines nondum thalamis jugatae, et comis nondum positis ephaebi; chaste matrons cry out with Andromache, [296]Concubitum mox cogar pati ejus, qui interemit Hectorem, they shall be compelled peradventure to lie with them that erst killed their husbands: to see rich, poor, sick, sound, lords, servants, eodem omnes incommodo macti, consumed all or maimed, &c. Et quicquid gaudens scelere animus audet, et perversa mens, saith Cyprian, and whatsoever torment, misery, mischief, hell itself, the devil, ...
— The Anatomy of Melancholy • Democritus Junior

... enough, dear Lord, to make me yearn For that celestial home, where yet my soul May be new made, and not, as erst, of nought: Nay, ere Thou strip her mortal vestment, turn My steps toward the steep ascent, that whole And pure before Thy face ...
— Renaissance in Italy Vol. 3 - The Fine Arts • John Addington Symonds

... thick round pillars between the nave and aisles; deep-sunken windows dim with fragmentary pieces of colored glass, and all more or less out of the perpendicular; a worm-eaten oak-screen separating the chancel and a solemn enclosure, erst a chapel, now the Fairfax pew; a loft where the choir sat in front for divine service, with fiddle and bassoon, and the school-children sat behind, all under the eye of the parson and his clerk, who was also ...
— The Vicissitudes of Bessie Fairfax • Harriet Parr

... without recalling to memory the tragic events of those days, (handed down as they have been by their fathers, who were eye-witnesses of the transaction,) and peopling the surrounding gloom with the shades of those whose life-blood erst crimsoned the once pure waters of that now nearly exhausted stream; and whose mangled and headless corpses were slowly borne by its tranquil current into the bosom of the parent river, where all ...
— Wacousta: A Tale of the Pontiac Conspiracy (Complete) • John Richardson

... tree, which has erst served others than themselves as a guide to the crossing-place, the nature of the ground hinders their going at great speed. Being soft and somewhat boggy, they are compelled to creep slowly ...
— Gaspar the Gaucho - A Story of the Gran Chaco • Mayne Reid

... result of his patience. Then he arose and sitting down on the king's throne, donned the royal dress and dispensed justice and equity, and affairs prospered; wherefore the lieges obeyed him and the subjects inclined to him and many were his soldiers. Now the king, who erst had plundered Abu Sabir's goods and driven him forth of his village, had an enemy; and the foe mounted horse against him and overcame him and captured his capital; wherefore he betook him to flight and came to Abu Sabir's ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... Erst when the service was ended came King Arthur to the knight as he lay, and said: "God give ye good-day, dear Sir Knight; tell me who hath wounded ye so sorely, and how came ye by your hurt? Did the knight who wrought such harm depart from ...
— The Romance of Morien • Jessie L. Weston

... lifts them up to high degree, And treads us down in grovelling misery! England affords these glorious vagabonds, That carried erst their fardels on their backs, Coursers to ride on through the gazing streets, Sweeping it in their glaring satin suits, And pages ...
— A Book of the Play - Studies and Illustrations of Histrionic Story, Life, and Character • Dutton Cook

... miserie. The Comets flaming through the scat'red clouds With fiery beames, most like vnbroaded haires: The fearefull dragon whistling at the bankes, And holie Apis ceaseles bellowing (As neuer erst) and shedding endles teares: Bloud raining downe from heau'n in vnknow'n showers: Our Gods darke faces ouercast with woe, And dead mens Ghosts appearing in the night. Yea euen this night while all the Cittie stoode Opprest with ...
— A Discourse of Life and Death, by Mornay; and Antonius by Garnier • Philippe de Mornay

... memory of the bygone year But growth in heart's and spirit's perfect ease: How hath our love, half nebulous at first, Rounded itself into a full-orbed sun! How have our lives and wills (as haply erst They were, ere this forgetfulness begun) Through all their earthly distances outburst, And melted, like two rays of light ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of James Russell Lowell • James Lowell

... up the barley meal. Then Chryses lifted up his hands and prayed aloud for them: "Hearken to me, god of the silver bow that standest over Chryse and holy Killa, and rulest Tenedos with might; even as erst thou heardest my prayer, and didst me honour, and mightily afflictest the people of the Achaians, even so now fulfil me this my desire: remove thou from the Danaans forthwith the ...
— The Iliad of Homer • Homer (Lang, Leaf, Myers trans.)

... Unterschied festgestellt zwischen '[a]l[)a]m, dem Status absolutus, 'Ewigkeit,' und '[a]lm[a] [[a]l^em[a]] dem Status emphaticus 'Welt.'—Sollte uebrigens die {259} Bedeutung Welt diesem Worte erst durch Einfluss griechischer Speculation zu Teil geworden sein? In der Zingirli-Inschrift bedeuted [Hebrew: BTSLM] noch bloss 'in ...
— The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism • Franz Cumont

... diviner airs, do you imagine I fast and pray for the celestial emanation? Tout au contraire! I have a glorious recipe; the very one that for his own use was invented by the Divinity of Healing and Poesy when erst he piped to the flocks of Admetus. I put myself in a regimen of admiring a fine woman; and in proportion to the adorability of her charms, in proportion you are delighted with my verses. The lightning of her eye is ...
— Robert Burns - How To Know Him • William Allan Neilson

... flock and pass, With subdued and sober call, To the old year's funeral; Though October's crimson leaves Rustle at the gusty door, And the tempest round the eaves Alternate with pipe and roar; I sit, as erst, unharmed, secure, Conscious that my store is sure, Whatsoe'er the fenced fields, Or the untilled forest yields Of unhurt remembrances, Or thoughts, far-glimpsed, half-followed, these I have reaped and laid away, A treasure of unwinnowed grain, To the garner packed and gray Gathered without ...
— Lyrics of Earth • Archibald Lampman

... my days divine But flashes back some mystic sign; And every shape that erst was bright Sweeps by me ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 3 No 2, February 1863 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... they stand. For thee who would not weep? Well it beseems these men to weep for thee, Whose flags (as erst they own) control the deep, Whose ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. 17, - No. 97, January, 1876 • Various

... pray you let me joust, for ye had need to be reposed. Why sir, said the knight, seem ye that I am weak and feeble? and sir, methinketh ye proffer me wrong, and to me shame, when I do well enough. I tell you now as I told you erst; for an they were twenty knights I shall beat them, and if I be beaten or slain then may ye revenge me. And if ye think that I be weary, and ye have an appetite to joust with me, I shall find you jousting ...
— Le Morte D'Arthur, Volume II (of II) - King Arthur and of his Noble Knights of the Round Table • Thomas Malory

... Europe! where thy offspring wears All the chief crowns; where princes are thy heirs; As welcome thou to sea-girt Britain's shore, As erst Latona (who fair Cynthia bore) To Delos was; here shines a nymph as bright, By thee disclosed, with like increase of light. Why was her joy in Belgia confined? Or why did you so much regard the wind? ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham

... nights in the diligence, and be ferried at day-break over "ancient rivers." You shall tread the grass-grown streets of Ferrara, and the deserted halls of Bologna, where the wisdom-loving youth of Europe erst assembled, but whose solitude now is undisturbed, save by the clank of the Croat's sabre, or the wine-flagon of the friar. You shall visit cells dim and dank, around which genius has thrown a halo ...
— Pilgrimage from the Alps to the Tiber - Or The Influence of Romanism on Trade, Justice, and Knowledge • James Aitken Wylie

... beauty be through me displayed That few can rival, none surpass me quite. Only it grieves me when I understand What precious time in vanity I've spent- The wind it beareth man's frail thoughts away. Yet, since remorse avails not, I'm content, As erst I came, WELCOME to go one day, Here in the Flower of ...
— The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini • Benvenuto Cellini

... by the magic power of his art, fell prostrate, and wept. Under the Oriental trappings of this tale is concealed regretful anguish over the decay of old Hebrew song. The altar at Jerusalem was demolished, and the songs of Zion, erst sung by the Levitical choirs under the leadership of the Korachides, were heard no longer. The silence was unbroken, until, in our day, a band of gifted men disengaged the old harps from the willows, and once more lured the ancient melodies from ...
— Jewish Literature and Other Essays • Gustav Karpeles

... / and all her courtesy, Whene'er I think upon it, / full well it pleaseth me, How we did sit together / when erst I was thy spouse! Well in sooth with honor / might she the ...
— The Nibelungenlied - Translated into Rhymed English Verse in the Metre of the Original • trans. by George Henry Needler

... stop thy luckless way, And spread fell famine through the suffering crew, Canst thou endure th' extreme of raging Thirst 45 Which soon may scorch thy throat, ah! thoughtless Youth! Or ravening hunger canst thou bear which erst On its own flesh hath fix'd ...
— The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Vol I and II • Samuel Taylor Coleridge

... no audible response from the people;' and all his genteeler hearers, sympathizing with the worthy man, felt how pleasant a thing it would be were the congregation permitted to do for him in the church what the Rev. Mr. Macfarlane, erst of Stockbridge, does for him in the presbytery. Corporal Trim began one of his stories on one occasion, by declaring 'that there was once an unfortunate king of Bohemia;' and when Uncle Toby, interrupting him with a sigh, exclaimed, 'Ah, Corporal ...
— Leading Articles on Various Subjects • Hugh Miller

... word and clear. Of Argive race We come, from her, the ox-horned maiden who Erst bare the sacred child. My word shall give Whate'er can ...
— Suppliant Maidens and Other Plays • AEschylus

... a flat, prosaic routine of matter-of-fact; and sleep itself, erst so prolific of numerical configurations and mysterious stimulants to lottery-adventure, will be disfurnished of its figures and figments. People will cease to harp upon the one lucky number suggested in a dream, and which forms the exception, while they are scrupulously silent upon the ten thousand ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 84, October, 1864 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... For force superior to the race of man, 330 Brave Chiefs they were, and with brave foes they fought, With the rude dwellers on the mountain-heights The Centaurs,[23] whom with havoc such as fame Shall never cease to celebrate, they slew. With these men I consorted erst, what time 335 From Pylus, though a land from theirs remote, They called me forth, and such as was my strength, With all that strength I served them. Who is he? What Prince or Chief of the degenerate race Now seen on earth who might with these ...
— The Iliad of Homer - Translated into English Blank Verse • Homer

... ribbands, sheets with lead Ruled, and with pumice-powder all well polished. These as thou readest, seem that fine, urbane Suffenus, goat-herd mere, or ditcher-swain 10 Once more, such horrid change is there, so vile. What must we wot thereof? a Droll erst while, Or (if aught) cleverer, he with converse meets, He now in dullness, dullest villain beats Forthright on handling verse, nor is the wight 15 Ever so happy as when verse he write: So self admires he with ...
— The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus • Caius Valerius Catullus

... Were the women and the children; Till the crippled and the aged Were the guardians of the homesteads. * * * * * How the shadows of the picture Darken o'er the southern landscape! How the "Lost Cause" sheds a gloaming On the erst illumed horizon! All about the stricken region Hangs the doom of vanquished power; All throughout the conquered country Sounds the knell of fruitless bloodshed. Mothers mourn their slaughtered first-born, Wives lament their martyred husbands, Sisters guard the worn grey jackets, ...
— The Song of Lancaster, Kentucky - to the statesmen, soldiers, and citizens of Garrard County. • Eugenia Dunlap Potts

... is often so when maidens change and grow pale and dreamy, and sit brooding and thinking when erst they laughed and played. Kate is double the woman she was six months gone by. She will sit patiently at her needle now, when once she would throw it aside after one short hour; and she will seek to learn all manner of things in the still room ...
— The Lost Treasure of Trevlyn - A Story of the Days of the Gunpowder Plot • Evelyn Everett-Green

... mind turning suddenly to other things, she began to think of Marcel to whom she was going, and while running over the recollections reawakened by the name of her erst adorer, asked herself by what miracle the table had been spread at his dwelling. She re-read, as she went along, the letter that the artist had written to her, and could not help feeling somewhat saddened by it. But this only lasted a moment. Musette thought aright, that it was less ...
— Bohemians of the Latin Quarter • Henry Murger

... and personal pronouns, and in their frequent adverbial construction;"[8] and in a letter written me shortly before his death, he remarks, in speaking of the similarity of these three tongues: "Ich bin ueberzeugt dass diese [die Cariben] eine Elite der Tupis waren, welche erst spaet auf die Antillen gekommen sind, wo die alte Tupi—Sprache in kaum erkennbaren Resten uebrig war, als man sie dort aufzeichnete." I take pleasure in bringing forward this opinion of the great naturalist, not only because it is not expressed so clearly ...
— The Arawack Language of Guiana in its Linguistic and Ethnological Relations • Daniel G. Brinton

... then mightest thou live, among thy people. And if thou wilt not do so, thou shalt receive worse, for the emperor will come here, as king shall to his own, king most keen; and take thee with strength, lead thee bound before Rome-folk;—then must thou suffer what thou erst despisedest!" ...
— Brut • Layamon

... border of Eternity; and when the news of it was borne to my mother I have little doubt but that she imagined it to be a visitation—a punishment upon her for having strayed for that brief season of her adolescence from the narrow flinty path that she had erst claimed to tread in the ...
— The Strolling Saint • Raphael Sabatini

... Four were erst patrician keels (Names attest what families be), The Kensington, and Richmond too, Leonidas, and Lee: But now they have their seat With the ...
— John Marr and Other Poems • Herman Melville

... hot desire See, see, that flameless fire, Which erst your hearts so burned, Quick into ashes turned. ...
— Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age • Various

... you. To see the noble and joyous Sir Asinus grow melancholy—to see those legs, which erst glided through the minuet and reel, now dangling wearily—to see that handsome visage so drawn down; is ...
— The Youth of Jefferson - A Chronicle of College Scrapes at Williamsburg, in Virginia, A.D. 1764 • Anonymous

... with its first and sweetest literary food. The munificent Newbery, and the pious and loyal Hugh Gaine, and the patriotic Samuel Loudon are departed. Banks now abound and brokers swarm where Loudon erst printed, and many millions worth of silk and woolen goods are every year sold where Gaine vended his big Bibles and his little story-books. They are all gone; the glittering covers and their more brilliant contents, the tales of ...
— Forgotten Books of the American Nursery - A History of the Development of the American Story-Book • Rosalie V. Halsey

... thy bosom. No, but you women have such strange ideas, that you think all is well so long as your married life runs smooth; but if some mischance occur to ruffle your love, all that was good and lovely erst you reckon as your foes. Yea, men should have begotten children from some other source, no female race existing; thus would no evil ever have ...
— Primitive Love and Love-Stories • Henry Theophilus Finck

... the glittering effigy—"Hear thou, and be propitious! Thou, who didst all-triumphant guide a yet greater than Quirinus to deeds of might and glory; thou, who wert worshipped by the charging shout of Marius, and consecrated by the gore of Cimbric myriads; thou, who wert erst enshrined on the Capitoline, what time the proud patricians veiled their haughty crests before the conquering plebeian; thou, who shalt sit again sublime upon those ramparts, meet aery for thine unvanquished pinion; ...
— The Roman Traitor (Vol. 1 of 2) • Henry William Herbert

... couetousnesse: Siluius; the time was, that I hated thee; And yet it is not, that I beare thee loue, But since that thou canst talke of loue so well, Thy company, which erst was irkesome to me I will endure; and Ile employ thee too: But doe not looke for further recompence Then thine owne gladnesse, that ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... he cast his rueful eyes, He saw the thatched-roof cottage rise: The prospect touched his heart with cheer, And promised kind deliverance near. A stable, erst his scorn and hate, Was now become his wished retreat; His passion cool, his pride forgot, A ...
— Favourite Fables in Prose and Verse • Various

... which wont in two to be disperst, In one alone left hand[*] he now unites, 155 Which is through rage more strong than both were erst; With which his hideous club aloft he dites, And at his foe with furious rigour smites, That strongest Oake might seeme to overthrow: The stroke upon his shield so heavie lites, 160 That to the ground it doubleth him full low: What mortall wight could ever beare ...
— Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I • Edmund Spenser

... now conceive the aire and azure skie All swept away from Saturn to the Sunne, Which each is to be wrought by him on high. Then in this place let all the Planets runne (As erst they did before this feat was done) If not by nature, yet by divine power, Ne one hairs breadth their former circuits shun And still for fuller proof, th' Astronomer Observe their hights as in the empty ...
— Democritus Platonissans • Henry More

... a good deal of rivalry among our generals. This proved harmful to the service. The Goddess of Victory discovered this, and at times forsook us. Many possessions that were conquered had to be given up, and we had to bow before those whom erst we had humiliated. But Orange was never restored.—[This was ...
— The Memoirs of Madame de Montespan, Complete • Madame La Marquise De Montespan

... as grand, The wealth of wealth embarrasses; And yet this is not elfinland But great AUGUSTUS HARRIS's. The blase children vote it flat, When Mister Clown cries, "Here's a go!" Yes, there's the box where erst we sat And laughed so, ...
— Punch, or The London Charivari, Vol. 100., Jan. 17, 1891 • Various

... slipper's order, With all the rites thereon that border, Defender of the sylphic faith, Declare—and thus your monarch saith: Whereas there is a noble dame, Whom mortals Countess Temple name, To whom ourself did erst impart The choicest secrets of our art, Taught her to tune the harmonious line To our own melody divine, Taught her the graceful negligence, Which, scorning art and veiling sense, Achieves that conquest o'er the heart Sense seldom gains, and never art; This lady, 'tis our royal will Our laureate's ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole Volume 3 • Horace Walpole

... flaming Powers, and winged Warriours bright, That erst with Musick, and triumphant song First heard by happy watchful Shepherds ear, So sweetly sung your Joy the Clouds along Through the soft silence of the list'ning night; Now mourn, and if sad share with us to bear Your fiery essence ...
— The Poetical Works of John Milton • John Milton

... deck'd thy garland erst, Upon thy grave be wastefully dispersed? O trees, consume your sap in sorrow's source, Streams turn to tears your tributary course. Go not yet hence, bright soul of the sad year, The earth is hell ...
— A Select Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. VIII (4th edition) • Various

... of Jerusalem the Golden seen through tear-dimmed spectacles as she pores over the family Bible. He will meet her at the gates of death with a wonderful smile of love; and, as she walks upon the heavenly Jordan's shining waters, hand in hand with Him, she will see her erst-wrinkled face reflected from them in angelic beauty. Ah, but to tackle a Johann Wolfgang Goethe or a Gotthold Ephraim Lessing—what an ordeal for the celestial Professor of Apologetics! Perhaps that's what the Gospel means—only by becoming little children ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... and parted. Then (first knocking with his knuckles for leave) entered to Mr. Wilding from a door of communication between his private counting-house and that in which his clerks sat, the Head Cellarman of the cellars of Wilding and Co., Wine Merchants, and erst Head Cellarman of the cellars of Pebbleson Nephew. The Joey Ladle in question. A slow and ponderous man, of the drayman order of human architecture, dressed in a corrugated suit and bibbed apron, apparently a composite of ...
— No Thoroughfare • Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins

... erst he had been shaken The night before, but being sick of shaking, He first inclined to think he had been mistaken, And then to be ashamed of such mistaking. His own internal ghost began to awaken Within him and to quell his corporal quaking, Hinting ...
— Don Juan • Lord Byron

... divine, And amplitude of mind to greatest deeds. Therefore I am returned, lest confidence 140 Of my success with Eve in Paradise Deceive ye to persuasion over-sure Of like succeeding here. I summon all Rather to be in readiness with hand Or counsel to assist, lest I, who erst Thought none my equal, now be overmatched." So spake the old Serpent, doubting, and from all With clamour was assured their utmost aid At his command; when from amidst them rose Belial, the dissolutest Spirit that fell, 150 The sensualest, and, after Asmodai, The ...
— Paradise Regained • John Milton

... erst, whanne comen is the May, That in my bed ther daweth me no day, That I nam uppe and walkyng in the mede, To seen this floure agein the sonne sprede, Whan it up rysith erly by the morwe; That blisful ...
— The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth, Vol. II. • William Wordsworth

... Nell, ill can thy noble mind abrook The abject people, gazing on thy face With envious looks, laughing at thy shame, That erst did follow thy proud chariot wheels When thou didst ride in triumph through ...
— Tolstoy on Shakespeare - A Critical Essay on Shakespeare • Leo Tolstoy

... my worthy lord; The faithful love that did us two combine In marriage and peaceable concord, Into your hands here do I clean resign, To be bestowed unto your children and mine; Erst were ye father, now must ye supply The mother's part also; ...
— Froude's Essays in Literature and History - With Introduction by Hilaire Belloc • James Froude

... or unlearned, having the effrontery to bestow so outrageous an appellation upon such an exploit. Does not the second volume of Miscellaneous Tracts, in which the said treatise may be seen, explicitly admonish us to remember that Michael Geddes, LL.D., was erst a chancellor of the Church of Sarum? "Quid Romae faciam?" he upbraidingly asks in one ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 66, February 1, 1851 • Various

... sky sink 'neath the sea, And that shall o'er the earth out-stretch, Than with my love thou shalt not burn, Like pitch, which in these flames I throw." Not with mild words their bosoms stern To melt, as erst, the boy sought now; But madly reckless he began The direst curses forth to rave: "And do not think your sorceries can Yourselves from retribution save: Your curse I'll prove; my deathless hate By sacrifice ne'er sooth'd shall be; But when I perish, bid by fate, A night-ghost ye ...
— Targum • George Borrow

... maidens, erst they shunned the public eye, Blush nor shame suffused their faces as they ...
— Maha-bharata - The Epic of Ancient India Condensed into English Verse • Anonymous

... whispered to the withered flowers Pascal had loving given: "Dear nosegay, when I saw thee first, Methought thy sweetness was divine, And I did drink it, heart athirst; But now thou art not sweet as erst, Because those wicked thoughts of mine Have blighted all thy beauty rare; I'm sold to powers of ill, for Heav'n hath spurned my prayer; My love is deadly love! No hope on earth have I! So, treasure of my heart, flowers of the meadow fair, Because I bless the hand that gathered thee, good-bye! ...
— Jasmin: Barber, Poet, Philanthropist • Samuel Smiles

... glorify the guardian of heaven's realm, The Maker's might and the thought of his mind; The work of the Glory-Father, how He of every wonder, He, the Lord eternal, laid the foundation. He shaped erst for the sons of men Heaven, their roof, Holy Creator; The middle world, He, mankind's sovereign, Eternal captain, afterwards created, The land for ...
— Library Of The World's Best Literature, Ancient And Modern, Vol. 2 • Charles Dudley Warner

... with attempted cheerfulness. He said he never went there now. "No absinthe there," he muttered. It was the sort of thing that in old days he would have said for effect; but it carried conviction now. Absinthe, erst but a point in the "personality" he had striven so hard to build up, was solace and necessity now. He no longer called it "la sorciere glauque." He had shed away all his French phrases. He had become a ...
— Enoch Soames - A Memory of the Eighteen-nineties • Max Beerbohm

... It is no contemptible combination on a frosty morning. No wonder strong men forget the simple act of manslaughter they come there to achieve and sit sullenly down to be pandered to by him who was erst their torturer. ...
— Ma Pettengill • Harry Leon Wilson

... great Balder's Temple stood! Round it no palisade of wood Ran now as erst; A railing stronger, fairer than the first, And all of hammer'd iron—each bar Gold-tipp'd and regular— Walls Balder's sacred House. Like some long line Of steel-clad champions, whose bright war-spears shine And golden helms afar—so stood This glitt'ring guard within the ...
— Myths of the Norsemen - From the Eddas and Sagas • H. A. Guerber

... erst of Camden Town, installed as mistress of a house in Mayfair and reigning over Rivenoak. Inevitably, legends were rife about her; where the exact truth was not known, people believed worse. Her circle of society ...
— Our Friend the Charlatan • George Gissing

... nun das Geschick der Grossen fiier auf Erden, Erst wann sie nicht mehr sind; von ...
— The Art of Literature • Arthur Schopenhauer

... wieder in Ein Herze kommen. Ihnen ist Weg und Steg benommen: 20 Untreue liegt im Hinterhalt, Und auf der Strasse fhrt Gewalt; Friede und Recht sind beide wund, Die dreie finden kein Geleit, die zwei denn werden erst gesund. ...
— An anthology of German literature • Calvin Thomas

... such a man an enemy, whom I ought to trample under foot? What? There is a man who has become necessary to me—a man without whom I don't know how to live! You married, and I—in love! Four little months, and those two doves, whose wings erst bore them so high, have fluttered down upon the ...
— Letters of Two Brides • Honore de Balzac

... vision which my heart found boldness to approach! The wreath, which in the rays of the twin suns shows pale at once and green, tenderly and mildly she weaves about the consort's head. Into the breast of the poet—born erst to joy, now elect to glory,—Paradisal joy ...
— The Wagnerian Romances • Gertrude Hall

... King's Theatre," published in 1828, "the audience accustomed to the weighty metal and pearls of price of Handel's compositions found the 'Moses' as dust in the balance in comparison." "The oratorio having failed as completely as erst did Pharaoh's host," Ebers continues, "the ashes of 'Mose in Egitto' revived in the form of an opera entitled 'Pietro l'Eremita.' Moses was transformed into Peter. In this form the opera was as successful as it had been unfortunate as an oratorio.... ...
— A Second Book of Operas • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... that erst so seemly was to seen, Was all despoiled of her beauteous hew, And soote fresh flowers wherewith the summers queen, Had clad the earth, new Boreas blasts down blew And small fowls flocking in their songs did rew The winter's wrath, wherewith ...
— The Lives of the Poets of Great Britain and Ireland (1753) - Volume I. • Theophilus Cibber

... when recovered, he considered more, The man, his manner, and his message said; If erst he wished, now he longed sore To end that war, whereof he Lord was made; Nor swelled his breast with uncouth pride therefore, That Heaven on him above this charge had laid, But, for his great Creator would the same, His will increased: so ...
— Jerusalem Delivered • Torquato Tasso

... all I speak, And first I own my nation Greek: No; Sinon may be Fortune's slave; She shall not make him liar or knave, If haply to your ears e'er came Belidan Palamedes'* name, Borne by the tearful voice of Fame, Whom erst, by false impeachment sped, Maligned because for peace he pled, Greece gave to death, now mourns him dead,— His kinsman I, while yet a boy, Sent by a needy sire to Troy. While he yet stood in kingly state, 'Mid brother kings in council great, I too had power: but when he died, By false Ulysses' ...
— Journeys Through Bookland - Volume Four • Charles H. Sylvester

... floures in the mede Than love I most these floures white and rede Soch that men callen Daisies in our town, To hem I have so great affection, As I sayd erst, when comen is the Maie. That in my bedde there daweth me no daie, That I n'am up and walking in the mede To see this floure ayenst the Sunne sprede; Whan it up riseth early by the morrow, That blissful sight softeneth ...
— Language of Flowers • Kate Greenaway

... some beneath whose touch The coldest hearts expand, As erst the rocks gave forth their tears Beneath the prophet's hand; And colder than that rock must be The heart that ...
— Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, No. 276 - Volume 10, No. 276, October 6, 1827 • Various

... 4 Religion, erst so venerable, What art thou now but made a fable, A holy mask on folly's brow, Where under lies Dissimulation, Lined with all abomination. Sacred Religion, where ...
— Specimens with Memoirs of the Less-known British Poets, Complete • George Gilfillan

... mine end, here down in the mead-hall. To the wife those his words well liking they were, The big word of the Geat; and the gold-adorn'd wended, 640 The frank and free Queen to sit by her lord. And thereafter within the high hall was as erst The proud word outspoken and bliss on the people, Was the sound of the victory-folk, till on a sudden The Healfdene's son would now be a-seeking His rest of the even: wotted he for the Evil Within the high hall was the Hild-play bedight, ...
— The Tale of Beowulf - Sometime King of the Folk of the Weder Geats • Anonymous

... passeth in the passing of a day Of mortal life the leaf, the bud, the flower; Ne more doth flourish after first decay, That erst was sought to deck both bed and bower Of many a lady and many a paramour! Gather therefore the rose 'whilst yet is prime, For soon comes age that will her pride deflower; Gather the rose of love whilst yet is time, Whilst loving thou mayst loved ...
— Hazlitt on English Literature - An Introduction to the Appreciation of Literature • Jacob Zeitlin

... drinking deep Of her old life; and this has been, men say, But this we know not, who have only sleep To soothe us, sleep more terrible than day, Where dead delights, and fair lost faces stray, To make us weary at our wakening; And of that long lost path to the Divine We dream, as some Greek shepherd erst might sing, Half credulous, of easy Proserpine, And of the lands that lie ...
— Grass of Parnassus • Andrew Lang

... slanting school-boy hand of Jeffrey. The tone and style of review literature have changed greatly since its inception, when each quarterly gloried in the character of a literary ogre, and dead men's bones lay round its doors, as erst about the castle of Giant Despair. Authors are not now thrown to the wild beasts for the entertainment of the multitude, as in former days; and had John Keats, or even poor Henry Kirke White, written and published fifty years later, they would never have perished by the ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I., No. IV., April, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various

... adorable till winter, if then. As for you, I pity you not, seeing as how you have so good a succedaneum in M. G.; and, on the contrary, hope, not only that Edmonstone may roast you, but that Cupid may again (as erst) fry you on the gridiron of jealousy for your infidelity. Compliments to our right trusty and well-beloved Linton and Jean Jacques.[104] If you write, which, by the way, I hardly have the conscience to expect, direct to my father's care, who will forward ...
— Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Volume I (of 10) • John Gibson Lockhart

... Rolland the rear shall be his lot, To his step-father thus in wrath he speaks:— "Ah! traitor, evil man of race impure, Thou thought'st to see me here let fall the glove As thou erst dropped the staff before the ...
— La Chanson de Roland • Lon Gautier

... Farewell my pipe, and all those pleasing songs, whose moving strains Delighted once the fairest nymphs that dance upon the plains! You discontents, whose deep and over-deadly smart Have, without pity, broke the truest heart. Sighs, tears, and every sad annoy, That erst did with me dwell, And ...
— Pastoral Poems by Nicholas Breton, - Selected Poetry by George Wither, and - Pastoral Poetry by William Browne (of Tavistock) • Nicholas Breton, George Wither, William Browne (of Tavistock)

... to be revived. And under what new conditions? We live in a telescopic, microscopic, telegraphic universe, all the elements of which are brought together under the combined operation of fire and water, as erst, in primitive Nature, vulcanic and plutonic forces struggled together in the face of heaven and hell to form the earth. The long ranges of history have left with us one definite idea: it is that of progress, the intellectual passion of our time. All our science demonstrates ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 83, September, 1864 • Various

... winter over, and was in the closest friendship with Thorfinn; and for this deed he was now well renowned all over Norway, and there the most, where the bearserks had erst wrought the greatest ...
— The Story of Grettir The Strong • Translated by Eirikr Magnusson and William Morris

... up of nothing but precious stones and gold; Were all the world bought from it, and down the value told, Not a mark the less would there be left than erst there was, ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch

... ardour burn; Poison can breathe, that erst perfumed; There's many a white hand holds an urn With lovers' hearts to ...
— Tudor and Stuart Love Songs • Various

... this world, standing in that rule of faith, where Thou hadst showed me unto her in a vision, so many years before. And Thou didst convert her mourning into joy, much more plentiful than she had desired, and in a much more precious and purer way than she erst required, by having ...
— The Confessions of Saint Augustine • Saint Augustine

... die, he sought the pointed blade, Which erst his hand had cast into the shade, And see, proud Chance, fell Murthers chiefest frend, Had pitcht the blade right vpwards on the end, Which being loth from murther to depart, Stood on the hilt, point-blanke against his hart: At which he smil'd, and checkt ...
— Seven Minor Epics of the English Renaissance (1596-1624) • Dunstan Gale

... idolized Isaacs upon the altar, and, meekly submissive to what appears God's inexorable mandates, we unmurmuringly offer our heart's dearest treasure, the sacrificial knife is stayed, and our loathed and horrible Moriahs, that erst smelt of blood and echoed woe, become hallowed Jehovah-jirehs, all aglow, not with devouring flames, but the blessed radiance of God's benignant smile, and musical with thanksgiving strains. But Abraham's burden preceded ...
— Vashti - or, Until Death Us Do Part • Augusta J. Evans Wilson

... himseemed that a great light shone thence, and dazzled his eyes; and he went on a little way, and then fell on his knees; for there before him on the high-seat sat that wondrous Lady, whose lively image had been shown to him thrice before; and she was clad in gold and jewels, as he had erst seen her. But now she was not alone; for by her side sat a young man, goodly enough, so far as Walter might see him, and most richly clad, with a jewelled sword by his side, and a chaplet of gems on his head. They held each other by the hand, and seemed to be in dear converse together; ...
— The Wood Beyond the World • William Morris

... beauty of my queen, And all amazed, to wonder thus began: "Why dotes not Jove, as erst we all have seen, And shapes himself like to a seemly man? Mean are the matches which he sought before, Like bloomless buds, too base to make compare, And she alone hath treasured beauty's store, In whom all gifts and princely graces are." Cupid replied: "I posted with ...
— Elizabethan Sonnet Cycles - Phillis - Licia • Thomas Lodge and Giles Fletcher

... chault en nous membres." More hete in our membres." 4 "Arnoul, verses du vin, "Arnold, gyue us wyne Et nous donnes a boire." And gyue vs to drynke." "Non feray; ie poyle des aulx. "I shall not, I pylle the gharlyk. Alles ainchois[1] lauer; Goo erst wasshe; 8 Vous beuuries bien a temps." Ye shall drynke ...
— Dialogues in French and English • William Caxton

... ye Earth's thanks to God; For Oh! what waters, slaking every thirst Of heart, mind, spirit, in long cascades burst From Plymouth Rock, when struck by Freedom's rod! No wanderer in the burning sand, unshod, Plods man with lolling tongue, dog-like, as erst; For lo! this fountain, deepening from the first, Floods Earth's old wells and greens Life's ...
— Freedom, Truth and Beauty • Edward Doyle

... gathers up his spright And begins to hunt for light; Now he gapes and breaths again: How the blood runs to the vein, That erst was empty! ...
— The Faithful Shepherdess - The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher (Vol. 2 of 10). • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... Lord Marmion's image bear, (Now vainly for its sight you look; 'Twas levell'd when fanatic Brook The fair cathedral storm'd and took; But, thanks to Heaven, and good Saint Chad, A guerdon meet the spoiler had!) There erst was martial Marmion found, His feet upon a couchant hound, His hands to heaven upraised: And all around, on scutcheon rich, And tablet carved, and fretted niche, His arms and feats were blazed. And yet, though all was carved so fair, And ...
— From John O'Groats to Land's End • Robert Naylor and John Naylor

... camped aloof Extolled Eurypylus the fierce and strong, As erst they had praised Hector, when he smote Their foes, defending Troy and all her wealth. But when sweet sleep stole over mortal men, Then sons of Troy and battle-biding Greeks All ...
— The Fall of Troy • Smyrnaeus Quintus

... fair, the Tyrian towers should one day overthrow, 20 That thence a folk, kings far and wide, most noble lords of fight, Should come for bane of Libyan land: such web the Parcae dight. The Seed of Saturn, fearing this, and mindful how she erst For her beloved Argive walls by Troy the battle nursed— —Nay neither had the cause of wrath nor all those hurts of old Failed from her mind: her inmost heart still sorely did enfold That grief of body set at nought in Paris' doomful deed, The hated race, and honour shed on heaven-rapt Ganymede— ...
— The AEneids of Virgil - Done into English Verse • Virgil

... did the murderess stand gazing on the corpse—the corpse of one erst so beautiful; and her countenance, gradually relaxing from its stern, implacable expression, assumed an air of deep remorse—of bitter, ...
— Wagner, the Wehr-Wolf • George W. M. Reynolds

... I am no actor here!" 'Tis real hangmen real scourges bear! Prepare Maria, for a horrid tale Will turn thy very rouge to deadly pale; Will make thy hair, tho' erst from gipsy poll'd, By barber woven, and by barber sold, Though twisted smooth with Harry's nicest care, Like hoary bristles to erect and stare. The hero of the mimic scene, no more I start in Hamlet, in Othello roar; Or, haughty Chieftain, 'mid the din of arms In Highland Bonnet, ...
— Poems And Songs Of Robert Burns • Robert Burns

... old yew, deck'd in even's parting beams, From his red trunk reflects a ruddier ray; While, flickering through the lengthen'd shadow, gleams Of gold athwart the dusky branches play. The jackdaws, erst so bustling on the tower, Have ceased their cawing clamour from on high; And the brown bat, as nears the twilight hour, Circles—the lonely tenant of ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine — Vol. 56, No. 346, August, 1844 • Various

... voice, that he responded to it with alacrity. The voice, of a smooth, oily timbre, as if the owner kept it well greased for purposes of amiable speech, was like an echo of the past, when jolly, irresponsible Baron de Batz, erst-while officer of the Guard in the service of the late King, and since then known to be the most inveterate conspirator for the restoration of the monarchy, used to amuse Marguerite by his vapid, senseless plans for the overthrow of the ...
— El Dorado • Baroness Orczy

... the calm and solemn night! A thousand bells ring out, and throw Their joyous peals abroad, and smite The darkness, charmed and holy now! The night that erst no name had worn, To it a happy name is given; For in that stable lay new-born The peaceful Prince of Earth and Heaven, In the solemn midnight ...
— The Ontario Readers: Fourth Book • Various

... of pistils to stamens in willows has been frequently remarked, as in Salix babylonica, silesiaca, cinerea, Caprea and nigricans. One of the most curious illustrations of this transformation in this genus is given by Henry and Macquart (Erst. Jahrb. des bot. Vereines am m. et n. Rhein., 1837). In the flowers in question the series of changes were as follows:—first, the ovary opened by a slit, and then expanded into a cup; next, anther-cells were ...
— Vegetable Teratology - An Account of the Principal Deviations from the Usual Construction of Plants • Maxwell T. Masters

... Venice of my youth and age, Its spell a void, its charm a vacancy. Rosy Romance, thou owest many a page, Ay, many that erst grew beneath mine eye, To what was once the loved reality Of this true fairy-land; but I refuse To deck with Art's fantastic wizardry A haunt of Trade. Mine is not Mammon's Muse, She will not sing for hire of Soaps, or ...
— Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 93, September 3, 1887 • Various

... land there once did dwell (How long ago it needs not I should tell) At the king's court a great astrologer, Ev'n such as erst was I, but mightier And far excelling; and it came to pass That he fell sick; and very old he was; And knowing that his end was nigh, he said To him that sat in sorrow by his bed, 'O master well-beloved and matchless king, Take thou and keep this lowly offering In memory of thy ...
— The Poems of William Watson • William Watson

... came pledge of perfect peace, This day to man came love and unity, This day man's grief began for to surcease, This day did man receive a remedy For each offence, and every deadly sin, With guilt of heart that erst he wander'd in. ...
— Notes and Queries, Issue No. 61, December 28, 1850 • Various

... Yielding to practical necessities, they renounced the traditions of the classical past, which now seemed to belong to another hemisphere, abandoned the attempt to realize pure forms, postponed high art; melody gave way to prose, the romance degenerated into the novel, and prose fiction, which erst had flitted only between the tongue and ear, entered, a straggling and reeling constellation, into the firmament of literature. Hence the novel is the child of human impotency and despair. The race thereby, with merriment and jubilee, ...
— Atlantic Monthly Volume 6, No. 34, August, 1860 • Various

... lieu of what was from thee ta'en, A noble a-day now thou shalt have, Sir Andrew's jewels and his chain. And Horseley thou shalt be a knight, And lands and livings shalt have store; Howard shall be earl of Surrey hight, As Howards erst ...
— The Book of Brave Old Ballads • Unknown

... be in some degree equal to your diviner airs—do you imagine I fast and pray for the celestial emanation? Quite the contrary. I have a glorious recipe; the very one that for his own use was invented by the divinity of healing and poesy, when erst he piped to the flocks of Admetus. I put myself in a regimen of admiring a fine woman; and in proportion to the adorability of her charms, in proportion are you delighted with my verses. The lightning of her eye is the godhead of Parnassus, and ...
— The Complete Works of Robert Burns: Containing his Poems, Songs, and Correspondence. • Robert Burns and Allan Cunningham

... corniculate beast whose tortuous horn Tossed to the clouds, in fierce vindictive scorn, The harrowing hound, whose braggart bark and stir Arched the lithe spine and reared the indignant fur Of Puss, that with verminicidal claw Struck the weird Rat, in whose insatiate maw Lay reeking malt, that erst in Ivan's courts we saw Robed in senescent garb that seems in sooth Too long a prey to ...
— English as She is Wrote - Showing Curious Ways in which the English Language may be - made to Convey Ideas or obscure them. • Anonymous

... I am thine now as erst, and my first love was ever—ever dear to me. Have I been near thee dying for a whole year, and didst thou make no effort to rescue thy Rowena? Have ye given to others—I mention not their name nor their odious creed—the heart that ought to be mine? I send thee my forgiveness from my dying pallet ...
— Burlesques • William Makepeace Thackeray

... stand— Woundless and well, may Heaven's high name be bless'd for't! As erst, ere treason couch'd a lance ...
— The Monastery • Sir Walter Scott

... the moment likely to have alarmed the sailor, he was about to turn off, but only to start the next minute, and stand clinging with both hands to the rail, for some fifteen or twenty yards away the erst calm, heaving sea began to be violently agitated, running as it were with the swiftness of a mill-stream; and then something dull and glistening and shining like a halo appeared just beneath the surface, rising till it was quite clear of the water, and passing the schooner in one broad ...
— The Ocean Cat's Paw - The Story of a Strange Cruise • George Manville Fenn

... thy death." Replied the governor, "O King of the Age, I may on no wise accept thy boons, for that I am not of mankind but of Jinn-kind; nor have I need of money or requirement of rule. Know thou, O my lord, that erst I sat as Kazi amongst the Jinns and I was enthroned amid the Kings of the Jann, whenas one night of the nights a Voice[FN385] addressed me in my sleep saying, 'Rise and hie thee to the Sultan Habib son of the Emir Salamah ruler of the tribes of the Arabs subject to the Banu Hilal and become ...
— Supplemental Nights, Volume 6 • Richard F. Burton

... tendrils clingingly around it—peeping in and out at the deserted windows, or climbing at will over the latticed porch, or trailing on the ground and looking up forlornly, as though it wondered where were the careful hands which erst nourished it so tenderly. The place seems very mournful—with the long grass growing rankly over the once carefully-kept pathway, and a few bright flowers, on either side, striving to uprear their beauteous heads above the tangled weeds which have well ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 3 September 1848 • Various

... seiner angeblichen Luftsiege nicht mehr angegeben. Ueber seine Kampfmethode haben gefangene franzoesische Flieger berichtet: Entweder liess er, als Geschwaderfuehrer fliegend, seine Kameraden zuerst angreifen un stuerzle sich dann erst auf den schwaechsten Gegner; oder er flog stundenlang in groessten Hoehe, allein hinter der franzoesischen Front und stuerzte sich von oben herab ueberraschend auf einzeln fliegende deutsche Beobachtungsflugzeuge. Hatte Guynemer beim ersten Verstoss ...
— Georges Guynemer - Knight of the Air • Henry Bordeaux

... was nevir sae reid, Edward, Edward, Your haukis bluid was nevir sae reid, My deir son, I tell thee O.' 'O I hae killed my reid-roan steid, Mither, mither, O I hae killed my reid-roan steid, That erst was sae fair and ...
— Ballad Book • Katherine Lee Bates (ed.)

... Oct. 14.-Wrote to my—erst—dearest friend, Mrs. Piozzi. I can never forget my long love for her, and many obligations to her friendship, strangely as she had been estranged ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume 3 • Madame D'Arblay

... the silver queen of night, Upon fair Wye's soft stream; Which throws a ray of heavenly light Reflected from her beam. Yet this smooth water, wide and clear, This scene of sweet repose; Erst filled the villagers with ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, - Volume 12, No. 329, Saturday, August 30, 1828 • Various

... abgeleitet and rein von Selbstsucht vertheidigt haben.—WEINGARTEN, Revolutionskirchen, 447. Wie selbst die Idee allgemeiner Menschenrechte, die in dem gemeinsamen Character der Ebenbildlichkeit Gottes gegrundet sind, erst durch das Christenthum zum Bewusstsein gebracht werden, wahrend jeder andere Eifer fur politische Freiheit als ein mehr oder weniger selbstsuchtiger and beschrankter sich erwiesen hat.—NEANDER, Pref. to Uhden's Wilberforce, p. v. The rights of individuals and the justice due ...
— Lectures on Modern history • Baron John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton

... could erst beyond us go! None such a lust for sordid avarice show! Was e'er the Die so worn in ages past? Purses, nay Chests, are now stak'd on ...
— The Female Gamester • Gorges Edmond Howard

... thou Achilles train'st, And new sworn soldiers' maiden arms retain'st, We, Macer, sit in Venus' slothful shade, And tender love hath great things hateful made. Often at length, my wench depart I bid, She in my lap sits still as erst she did. I said, "It irks me:" half to weeping framed, "Ay me!" she cries, "to love why art ashamed?" Then wreathes about my neck her winding arms, And thousand kisses gives, that work my harms: 10 I yield, and back ...
— The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Christopher Marlowe

... away amidst the cracklings of a familiar controversy. It was not unfitting that so quarrelsome a man as Pope should have been the occasion of so much quarrelsomeness in others. For long the battle waged as fiercely over Pope's poetry as erst it did in his own Homer over the body of the slain Patroclus. Stout men took part in it, notably Lord Byron, whose letters to Mr. Bowles on the subject, though composed in his lordship's most ruffianly vein, still make good ...
— Obiter Dicta - Second Series • Augustine Birrell

... the boy gazed long; Unheeded and unmarked a throng Might there have met, so fixed his soul On Memory's unfolding scroll. He knew not that the hours crept by, And sullen grew the deepening night; Again he met his mother's eye, As erst in joyous days and bright, And heard the accents clear and mild, Now hushed in death, breathe o'er her child A fervent blessing and a prayer; Again his father's silver hair Gleamed on his sight, although the tomb Had closed him in its ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXII No. 6 June 1848 • Various

... and speak healing words of forgiveness and reconciliation, so that we, like him, will dare in spite of our faithlessness, to fall at His feet and say, 'Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I, erst faithless and treacherous, love Thee; and all the more because Thou hast forgiven the denial and ...
— Expositions Of Holy Scripture - Volume I: St. Luke, Chaps. I to XII • Alexander Maclaren

... have brought for you; what is it?' To this he did not rap out 'salmon,' as we had all expected—good as it was to the smell, but 'erst riechen' (first let me smell it). This was a ruse on his part, and one to which I succumbed, for no sooner did I hold it nearer to his nose than he snatched it out of my hand! It was, however, promptly taken from him and he was told he would have ...
— Lola - The Thought and Speech of Animals • Henny Kindermann

... seeking her child, And in her rage has struck the land with blight; Trinacria mourns with her;—its fertile fields Are dry and barren, and all little brooks Struggling scarce creep within their altered banks; The flowers that erst were wont with bended heads, To gaze within the clear and glassy wave, Have died, unwatered by the failing stream.— And yet their hue but mocks the deeper grief Which is the fountain of these bitter tears. But who is this, that ...
— Proserpine and Midas • Mary Shelley



Words linked to "Erst" :   formerly, erstwhile



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