Literary notes about Populace (AI summary)
The term "populace" is wielded by authors to evoke the collective character of the common people, serving as both a descriptor for a unified mass and a marker of its chaotic, sometimes contradictory nature. In some works it conveys admiration or reverence—for instance, depicting a prophet’s esteemed standing among his people [1] or celebrating communal honors in public festivities [2, 3]—while in others it underscores turmoil and unruliness, as when the masses attack authority figures or react with ungovernable fury [4, 5, 6, 7]. At times the word takes on a humorous or even ironic tint, suggesting a mixed or motley collection of figures [8, 9], and is employed in political or philosophical reflections on society’s temperament and the interplay between order and disorder [10, 11, 12]. This multifaceted use illustrates how "populace" functions both as a literal reference to everyday people and as a symbolic vehicle for exploring the complex dynamics of communal life.
- Such, if this be true, was the honour of our prophet among the populace of his own country.[7] 45.
— from The Travels of Marco Polo — Volume 1 by Marco Polo and da Pisa Rusticiano - The populace, however, both held a festival for two days and voted triumphal honors to the consuls.
— from Dio's Rome, Volume 1 by Cassius Dio Cocceianus - The populace met us with flowers—the daughter of the Prince, grateful to the deliverer, with tears fell into my embraces.
— from Pan Tadeusz; or, The last foray in Lithuania by Adam Mickiewicz - Those that were with John plundered the populace, and went out with zeal against Simon.
— from The Wars of the Jews; Or, The History of the Destruction of Jerusalem by Flavius Josephus - They narrowly escaped being burned alive by the infuriated populace. 126
— from Bacon's Essays, and Wisdom of the Ancients by Francis Bacon - During the execution of this order, he was treated with all manner of cruelties and indignities by the enraged populace.
— from Fox's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe - The populace were raised to a pitch of ungovernable fury.
— from Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds by Charles Mackay - Populace-hodgepodge: therein is everything mixed with everything, saint and swindler, gentleman and Jew, and every beast out of Noah’s ark.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - The populace, however—that meaneth, hodgepodge.
— from Thus Spake Zarathustra: A Book for All and None by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - How can a populace, unaccustomed to freedom in small concerns, learn to use it temperately in great affairs?
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - But the imagination of the populace is very apt to overlook this difference, which is so apparent to the minds of thinking men.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - No matter what the creed, whether Ancient or Modern, the main object of its exponents and supporters is to gain over the minds of the populace.
— from Ancient Pagan and Modern Christian Symbolism by Thomas Inman and M.R.C.S.E. John Newton
