John Bartlett (1820–1905). Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
John Byrom 1691-1763 John Bartlett
| 1 |
| God bless the King,—I mean the faith’s defender! God bless—no harm in blessing—the Pretender! But who pretender is, or who is king,— God bless us all!—that ’s quite another thing. |
| To an Officer of the Army, extempore. |
| 2 |
| Take time enough: all other graces Will soon fill up their proper places. 1 |
| Advice to Preach Slow. |
| 3 |
| Some say, compar’d to Bononcini, That Mynheer Handel ’s but a ninny; Others aver that he to Handel Is scarcely fit to hold a candle. Strange all this difference should be ’Twixt Tweedledum and Tweedledee. |
| On the Feuds between Handel and Bononcini. 2 |
| 4 |
| As clear as a whistle. |
| Epistle to Lloyd. I. |
| 5 |
| The point is plain as a pike-staff. 3 |
| Epistle to a Friend. |
| 6 |
| Bone and Skin, two millers thin, Would starve us all, or near it; But be it known to Skin and Bone That Flesh and Blood can’t bear it. |
| Epigram on Two Monopolists. |
| 7 |
| Thus adorned, the two heroes, ’twixt shoulder and elbow, Shook hands and went to ’t; and the word it was bilbow. |
| Upon a Trial of Skill between the Great Masters of the Noble Science of Defence, Messrs. Figg and Sutton. |
| Note 1. See Walker, Quotation 1. [back] |
| Note 2. Nourse asked me if I had seen the verses upon Handel and Bononcini, not knowing that they were mine.—Byrom’s Remains (Chetham Soc.), vol. i. p. 173. The last two lines have been attributed to Swift and Pope (see Scott’s edition of Swift, and Dyce’s edition of Pope). [back] |
| Note 3. See Middleton, Quotation 12. [back] |