Literary notes about WEAL (AI summary)
The term weal is deployed with surprising versatility in literature, taking on meanings that range from individual welfare and public good to physical marks of injury. In many works it signifies the common benefit or prosperity of a community or nation, as seen when it is associated with notions of state and public interest [1][2][3]. Authors also use weal to denote personal well-being or fortune, often in conjunction with woe to underscore the balance of life’s fortunes [4][5]. At times, the word even appears in its more literal sense, indicating a bruise or swelling from injury [6], while in other contexts it is cleverly exploited as a play on words to evoke both material and immaterial benefits [7][8]. This thematic plurality makes weal a memorable and richly layered term in the literary tradition.
- Tenth in descent, since first my sires Waked for his noble house their Iyres, Nor one of all the race was known But prized its weal above their own.
— from The Lady of the Lake by Walter Scott - It would be wise, O king, to deal Some other way, or else I fear Much damage to the common weal."
— from Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan by Toru Dutt - According to this definition of ours, the Roman people is a people, and its weal is without doubt a commonwealth or republic.
— from The City of God, Volume II by Bishop of Hippo Saint Augustine - III All is change, woe or weal; Joy is Sorrow's brother; Grief and gladness steal Symbols of each other; Ah! welaway!
— from The Early Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson by Baron Alfred Tennyson Tennyson - When woe has reached its climax, weal supervenes.
— from Hung Lou Meng, or, the Dream of the Red Chamber, a Chinese Novel, Book I by Xueqin Cao - As her beautiful head fell upon her chest I saw the clear red weal of a whiplash across her neck.
— from The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle - Come, Pip,” said Joe, persuasively, “if there warn't no weal-cutlets, at least there was dogs?”
— from Great Expectations by Charles Dickens - Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal, And with him pour we, in our country's purge, Each drop of us.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
