Yea, leave that labour to great Hercules, And let it be more than Alcides’ twelve.
— from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

As these all contained alcohol, or some other stimulant, she found that they all did her good while she took them; and so she was always chasing the phantom of good health, and losing it because she was too poor to continue.
— from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

He gave her a large income but he has never lived with her since, and she has never been out here, though every one knows she is still alive.
— from The Claw by Cynthia Stockley

As of Oetas and Ephialtes, who were said to be nine orgies or paces in heigth, and foure in bredth, which are taken for so many cubits, bicause there is small difference betwéene a mans ordinarie pace and his cubit, and finallie of our Richard the first, who is noted to beare an axe in the wars, the iron of whose head onelie weighed twentie pound after our greatest weight, and whereof an old writer that I haue seene, saith thus: This king Richard I vnderstand, Yer he went out of England, Let make an axe for the nones, Therewith to cleaue the Saracens bones, The head in sooth was wrought full weele, Thereon were twentie pound of steele, And when he came in Cyprus land, That ilkon axe he tooke in hand, &c. I could speake also of Gerards staffe or lance, yet to be seene in Gerards hall at London in Basing lane, which is so great and long that no man can beweld it, neither go to the top thereof without a ladder, which of set purpose and for greater countenance of the wonder is fixed by the same.
— from Holinshed Chronicles: England, Scotland, and Ireland. Volume 1, Complete by William Harrison

[130] Then Postmaster General Hitchcock also let it be generally known that it was remote from his intentions to add a mail-rate penalty to any religious, educational, fraternal or scientific periodical.
— from Postal Riders and Raiders by W. H. Gantz

I wish Mary would come down," he added, with a yawn; "I could give her another lesson in billiards, at any rate.
— from John Marchmont's Legacy, Volume 2 (of 3) by M. E. (Mary Elizabeth) Braddon

"If he cares to join me at racing when he returns I'll give him a look in, but he will not make much at that game." After dinner Barry Tuxford placed his plans before them.
— from The Second String by Nat Gould

I think he tried to be kind, an' he gin her a lil ivory book he had on his watch-chain, but you see he didn't feel it.
— from The Cromptons by Mary Jane Holmes

"I'll give him a lift," interposed Blue Wolf.
— from Mooswa & Others of the Boundaries by William Alexander Fraser

Mr. Hinchford came home early to give her a lesson in backgammon, and was sadly disappointed to find Mattie on full duty in the shop that evening.
— from Mattie:—A Stray (Vol 2 of 3) by F. W. (Frederick William) Robinson