Come, civil night, Thou sober-suited matron, all in black, And learn me how to lose a winning match, Play'd for a pair of stainless maidenhoods.
— from The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

It is believed a large majority [etc.].
— from The American Occupation of the Philippines 1898-1912 by James H. (James Henderson) Blount

The second time I went, the member who was speaking, being interrupted by a laugh, mimicked it, as one child would in quarrelling with another, and added, ‘that he would make honourable gentlemen opposite, sing out a little more on the other side of their mouths presently.’
— from American Notes by Charles Dickens

Whereas Richard Gravesend, bishop of London, hath showed unto us, that by the Great Charter of England, the Church hath a privilege, that no clerk should be imprisoned by a lay man without our command, [170] and breach of peace, which notwithstanding some citizens of London, upon mere spite, do enter in their watches into clerks’ chambers, and like felons carry them to the Tun, which Henry le Walleys, sometime mayor, built for night walkers; wherefore we will that this our commandment be proclaimed in full hustings, and that no watch hereafter enter into any clerk’s chamber, under the forfeit of twenty pounds.
— from The Survey of London by John Stow

Had I been a literary man I might, perhaps, have moralised upon the futility of all ambition.
— from The Time Machine by H. G. (Herbert George) Wells

They were interrupted by a low murmur which seemed at no great distance from him.
— from The Monk: A Romance by M. G. (Matthew Gregory) Lewis

A WINTER DAY ON THE SEA-BEACH One bright December mid-day lately I spent down on the New Jersey sea-shore, reaching it by a little more than an hour's railroad trip over the old Camden and Atlantic.
— from Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman

And if, after that, you bend it back a little more every month, keeping it taut through the season, and from season to season, at length you will succeed in making it permanently straight.
— from Pushing to the Front by Orison Swett Marden

Comparison with the other side will show that the injured shoulder does not look like the other one, being longer, or shorter, and contrary to the case with fracture there will not be increased movement at the point of injury but a lessened movement.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook The First Edition, 1911 by Boy Scouts of America

So to dinner, then to my chamber all the afternoon, and in the evening my wife and I and Mercer and Barker to little Michell’s, walked, with some neats’ tongues and cake and wine, and there sat with the little couple with great pleasure, and talked and eat and drank, and saw their little house, which is very pretty; and I much pleased therewith, and so walked home, about eight at night, it being a little moonshine and fair weather, and so into the garden, and, with Mercer, sang till my wife put me in mind of its being a fast day; and so I was sorry for it, and stopped, and home to cards awhile, and had opportunity ‘para baiser’ Mercer several times, and so to bed.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

Even the scenery, when it becomes a little more hilly, has a certain likeness to Scotland, and the same charm of solitude and melancholy.
— from Empires and Emperors of Russia, China, Korea, and Japan Notes and Recollections by Monsignor Count Vay de Vaya and Luskod by Péter Vay

Oh, but, sir, I knew not that thou didst seek me in wedlock, or in very truth I should not have hearkened unto this man, for behold, he is but a lowly mariner, and very poor withal, whereas thou art a tiller of the land, and thou hast fat oxen, and many sheep and swine, a considerable dairy farm and much corn and oil! RICH.
— from The Complete Plays of Gilbert and Sullivan by Arthur Sullivan

Of boar and wolf-hunting we shall speak further on: my present object will be to give a description, not only of the woodcock-shooting in Burgundy and Le Morvan, but also of the habits, etc., of that bird.
— from Le Morvan, [A District of France,] Its Wild Sports, Vineyards and Forests; with Legends, Antiquities, Rural and Local Sketches by Henri de Crignelle

It was a great step from the reciprocating hand saw, worked painfully by one or two men, to the band saw, invented by a London mechanic, William Newbury, in 1808.
— from Inventions in the Century by William Henry Doolittle

Had it been a little more naturalistic, it would have looked too much like a painted picture; but as it is, the decoration is charming, and so universally admired that we cannot but wonder it has never been imitated.
— from Needlework As Art by Alford, Marianne Margaret Compton Cust, Viscountess

Make it earn its board and lodging, make it haul your private wain, for when once it slips its halter it will never work again.
— from Uncle Walt [Walt Mason], the Poet Philosopher by Walt Mason

The clouds were rolling in black and lowering masses, through which an occasional gleam of sunshine flickered for a moment on the towers and pinnacles of the cathedral, and glimmered in its rapid transit on the monuments and graves in the church-yard.
— from The Entail; or, The Lairds of Grippy by John Galt

For nearly two weeks thereafter there was a period of quiet and recuperation on the part of the Cubans, with the exception of a number of minor skirmishes, but on May 3 the belligerents again met in battle at Las Minas, when twelve hundred Spaniards, under the command of General Lesca, and a large Cuban force under General Quesada, fought in the most violent of hand to hand conflicts.
— from The History of Cuba, vol. 3 by Willis Fletcher Johnson

But if any change for the worse occurred in the lordships to which they belonged, they were quite ready to make the best of it, because a lordship must increase or decrease, according to power and fortune, according to the good right or the good pleasure of the holder; it may be dismembered by marriages, or gifts, or inheritance, or alienated by various contracts.
— from The Life of Joan of Arc, Vol. 1 and 2 by Anatole France