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Literary notes about harness (AI summary)

The term "harness" appears throughout literary works with a remarkable versatility. In many narratives it denotes the physical equipment used to attach horses or other beasts to a vehicle or burden, as seen when characters prepare for travel or duty in medieval epics and adventure tales ([1], [2], [3]). At the same time, writers employ the word metaphorically to suggest restraint, the imposition of order, or even a state of being drawn into inevitable obligations ([4], [5], [6]). Its usage extends into technical descriptions involving trade or craftsmanship, highlighting its practical significance in everyday life ([7], [8], [9]). This dual capacity of harness—as both a literal tool and a figurative device—reveals the richness with which authors have imbued the term across a wide range of genres and eras ([10], [11], [12]).
  1. Then Sir Tristram commanded his servant Gouvernail to bring his horse to the land, and dress his harness at all manner of rights.
    — from Le Morte d'Arthur: Volume 1 by Sir Thomas Malory
  2. I bought of Rodman M. Price a surveyor's compass, chain, etc., and, in San Francisco, a small wagon and harness.
    — from Memoirs of General William T. Sherman — Complete by William T. Sherman
  3. Thy horses shall be trapp’d, Their harness studded all with gold and pearl.
    — from The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare
  4. Suffering is necessary... the meaning of all... one must harness...
    — from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy
  5. * A fortnight passed; I was getting once more inured to the harness of school, and lapsing from the passionate pain of change to the palsy of custom.
    — from Villette by Charlotte Brontë
  6. "I'll go into harness again," he said, "and do my duty in that state of life in which it has pleased Heaven to place me.
    — from Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
  7. aparejo , m. , harness; apparatus, equipment in any trade; fish-hooks and tackle.
    — from Heath's Modern Language Series: The Spanish American Reader by Ernesto Nelson
  8. 3. Be able to dress a saddle, repair traces, stirrup leathers, etc., and know the various parts of harness.
    — from Boy Scouts Handbook by Boy Scouts of America
  9. 238. --Banner of the Harness-makers of Paris, with the Armorial Bearings of the Corporation.
    — from Manners, Customs, and Dress During the Middle Ages and During the Renaissance Period by P. L. Jacob
  10. "I wish I were you," sighed the Ass; "nothing to do and well fed, and all that fine harness upon you."
    — from The Fables of Aesop by Aesop
  11. ALL THE BEASTS TOGETHER Children of the Camp are we, Serving each in his degree; Children of the yoke and goad, Pack and harness, pad and load.
    — from The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
  12. The shaft had reached him, penetrated through his philosophical harness, to his very heart.
    — from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens

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