"Circe" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... nature had never before been thoroughly aroused in this direction. Now, by reason of the tact and knowledge of my nature, possessed by the invisible party, and still more because of my state of mesmeric subjection, I was sighing like a furnace or a Romeo. Not Ulysses, Circe tempted—not Sintram seeking his Undine—not the hapless sailor wight pursuing the maiden of the mer, was more utterly enamored than was I. As a proof that I was no bad specimen of the 'gushing' persuasion, at this period, read ...
— Continental Monthly , Vol V. Issue III. March, 1864 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... to send a wire To the moon; And they'll set the Thames on fire Very soon; Then they learn to make silk purses With their rigs From the ears of LADY CIRCE'S Piggy-wigs. And weasels at their slumbers They'll trepan; To get sunbeams from cuCUMbers They've a plan. They've a firmly rooted notion They can cross the Polar Ocean, And they'll find Perpetual Motion If ...
— Songs of a Savoyard • W. S. Gilbert
... Sultana took Soliman into her chamber and gazed up into his eyes. The man was stunned by the immensity of the calamity which had befallen him and his kingdom, but his manhood availed him not against the wiles of this Circe. Ibrahim had been foully done to death in his own palace, and this woman clinging so lovingly around his neck now was the murderess. The heart's blood of his best friend was coagulating on the threshold ...
— Sea-Wolves of the Mediterranean • E. Hamilton Currey
... cause to cease The sound of war, our ears it shall not pierce; Thou wilt be Chancellor of the universe. Christina, that sweet nymph, no longer shall Detain thee; be thou careful not to fall, Prudent Ulysses, under those delights To which the learned Circe thee invites. Thy chaste Penelope doth call thee slow; Thy friends call for thee home; and they do know New embassies, affairs abroad, at home, Require thy service,—stay till thou dost come. Thou, Keeper of the Seal, dost take away Foreign contentions; thou dost ...
— A Journal of the Swedish Embassy in the Years 1653 and 1654, Vol II. • Bulstrode Whitelocke
... by a disappointed witch, and the prophecy that only after five hundred years will the curse be removed, suggest in a way the "Sleeping Beauty" cycle (Grimm, No. 50; and Bolte-Polivka's exhaustive notes); only here, too, the resemblance is but vague. There is no magic sleep in our story, but a Circe-like transformation of the prince and all his subjects into animals, the city itself being changed into a forest of trees. We have already met with stories in the Philippines based on the idea of animal-marriages (e.g., Nos. 18, 19, 29); but, ...
— Filipino Popular Tales • Dean S. Fansler
... forth among pavilions softly lighted, where the tinkle of the samosen is heard, and where O Taki San, immodest but bewitching, stands behind the beadwork curtain, her kimono parted at the knee,—this is the world of the Far East, the cup of Circe. ...
— The Great White Tribe in Filipinia • Paul T. Gilbert
... old days, when he had witnessed the desperate flirtation with Jos and the ludicrous end of that adventure. He and George had often laughed over it subsequently, and until a few weeks after George's marriage, when he also was caught in the little Circe's toils, and had an understanding with her which his comrade certainly suspected, but preferred to ignore. William was too much hurt or ashamed to ask to fathom that disgraceful mystery, although once, and evidently with remorse on his mind, George had ...
— Vanity Fair • William Makepeace Thackeray
... the change for a five uncomputed. Perhaps the brass-bound inaccessibility multiplies her charms—anyhow, she is a shirt-waisted angel, immaculate, trim, manicured, seductive, bright-eyed, ready, alert—Psyche, Circe, and Ate in one, separating you from your circulating medium after your ...
— Strictly Business • O. Henry
... remembered Tarascon and the promised lion skins... but they did not last for long, and to dispel these moments of sadness all that was needed was a look from Baia or a spoonful of her diabolic confections, scented and bewitching like some brew of Circe's. ...
— Tartarin de Tarascon • Alphonse Daudet
... are all victims to Circe. Not willingly do they become flunkeys to Fido, bell boys to bull terriers, and toddlers after Towzer. Modern Circe, instead of turning them into animals, has kindly left the difference of a six-foot leash between them. Every one of those dogmen has been either cajoled, bribed, or commanded ...
— Sixes and Sevens • O. Henry
... hostilities in this novel (or none of importance), it is noticeable there is also no direct or indirect palinode as there is in most other cases. As for the play itself, it seems to me very good. Miss Gryll must have looked delightful as Circe (we get a more distinct description of her personality here than anywhere else), Gryllus has an excellent standpoint, and the dialogue, though unequal, is quite admirable at the best. Indeed there is a Gilbertian tone about the whole piece which I should be rather more surprised at being ...
— Gryll Grange • Thomas Love Peacock
... find none of these mysterious elements. The supernatural creations we meet with are innumerable, and no less strange in themselves. But there is nothing in Polyphemus, in Circe, in the Sirens, beyond their physical natures, which can make us look beyond ourselves to understand and fully sympathize with them. Once fully grasp their superhuman endowments, and you feel they act like men on a large scale. Not so with the Northern supernatural ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 2, No. 2, August, 1862 - Devoted to Literature and National Policy • Various
... French captain being sent on board the Crescent, they began to remove the prisoners and repair damages. When the action began, a ship had been seen under the land to the eastward, about four leagues distant; this was supposed to be an enemy: but it turned out to be the Circe, Captain Yorke, who joined four hours after the action, and took part of the prisoners. In the mean time the cutter made off towards Cherbourg, out of which harbour the wind and adverse tide prevented ...
— Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Vol. I • Sir John Ross
... momentary sensations; as the sweet sound of melodious words and cadences; or as something abstract, pattern-like, imposed from without,—a Procrustes-bed of symmetry and proportion; or as a view of life Circe-like, insidious, a golden languor, made of "the selfish serenities of wild-wood and dream-palace." All these, apart or together, are thought of as the "beauty," at which the artist "for art's sake" aims, and to that is opposed the nobler informing purpose. But the truer view of beauty ...
— The Psychology of Beauty • Ethel D. Puffer
... spring, but whose love is fatal, for after a few months the sun's power begins to wane. Gilgamesh, who in incantation hymns is invoked in terms which show that he was conceived as a sun-god, [117] recalls to the goddess how she changed her lovers into animals, like Circe of Greek mythology, and brought them to grief. Enraged at Gilgamesh's insult to her vanity, she flies to her father Anu and cries for revenge. At this point the episode of the creation of the bull is ...
— An Old Babylonian Version of the Gilgamesh Epic • Anonymous
... unfurled the flag of truce. With my game in sight, I decline to forego the chase. For your solicitude regarding my marriage, I tender my thanks; and the assurance, that no magnet can draw, not all the charms of Circe lure me across the Atlantic, until I have accomplished my purpose. The tardiness of your proposal is unerring appraiser of its costliness; and I were a monster of cruelty to debar you the sight of your idol, though ...
— At the Mercy of Tiberius • August Evans Wilson
... been cut, and unto Colchos borne, Would have allur'd the venturous youth of Greece To hazard more than for the golden fleece. Fair Cynthia wished his arms might be her Sphere; Grief makes her pale, because she moves not there. 60 His body was as straight as Circe's wand; Jove might have sipt out nectar from his hand. Even as delicious meat is to the tast, So was his neck in touching, and surpast The white of Pelops' shoulder: I could tell ye, How smooth his breast was, and how white his belly; And whose immortal fingers did imprint ...
— The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) • Christopher Marlowe
... bodily enjoyment, animal gratification, hedonism, sensuality; luxuriousness &c adj.; dissipation, round of pleasure, titillation, gusto, creature comforts, comfort, ease; pillow &c (support) 215; luxury, lap of luxury; purple and fine linen; bed of downs, bed of roses; velvet, clover; cup of Circe &c (intemperance) 954. treat; refreshment, regale; feast; delice [Fr.]; dainty &c 394; bonne bouche [Fr.]. source of pleasure &c 829; happiness &c (mental enjoyment) 827. V. feel pleasure, experience pleasure, receive pleasure; enjoy, relish; luxuriate in, ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget
... dupes dealt Circe Life deals with hers, for she Reshapes them without mercy, And shapes them swinishly, To ...
— Chivalry • James Branch Cabell
... howls, and barks, and bites. Like agitations in his boiling blood Present like species to his troubled mind; His nature, and his actions all canine. So as (old Homer sung) the associates wild Of wandering Ithacus, by Circe's charms To swine transformed, ran grunting through the groves. Dreadful example to a wicked world! See there distressed he lies! parched up with thirst, 340 But dares not drink. Till now at last his soul Trembling escapes, ...
— The Poetical Works of Addison; Gay's Fables; and Somerville's Chase • Joseph Addison, John Gay, William Sommerville
... Troy, with sharp shrewd ken Explores the manners and the towns of men; On the broad ocean, while he strives to win For him and his return to home and kin, He braves untold calamities, borne down By Fortune's waves, but never left to drown. The Sirens' song you know, and Circe's bowl: Had that sweet draught seduced his stupid soul As it seduced his fellows, he had been The senseless chattel of a wanton queen, Sunk to the level of his brute desire, An unclean dog, a swine that loves the mire. But what are we? a mere consuming class, Just fit for ...
— The Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry • Horace
... which they held up, was a mere right FIST with a stuffed glove at the end of it,—SO help me Beelzebub (or whoever is the recording Angel here)! [Helden-Geschichte, v. 141-149: Preuss, ii. 145, iii. 578, iv. 477, &c.] And thus does Preussen, with astonishment, as by the spell of a Czarina Circe, find itself changed suddenly to Russian: and does not recover the old human form till four years hence,—when, again suddenly, as we shall see, the Circe and her wand chance to ...
— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. XVIII. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great—Seven-Years War Rises to a Height.—1757-1759. • Thomas Carlyle
... weary space has lain Lulled by the song of Circe and her wine In gardens near the pale of Proserpine, Where that AEaean isle forgets the main, And only the low lutes of love complain, And only shadows of wan lovers pine, As such an one were glad to know the brine Salt on his lips, ...
— Ballads in Blue China and Verses and Translations • Andrew Lang
... gives us a hint, slight but unmistakeable. At their first meeting the duchess was accompanied by another lady—a beautiful, alluring woman, with keen dark eyes, who smiled, some one said, "like Circe." Lady Spencer introduced her daughter to Miss Burney with warm pleasure, and then, "slightly and as if unavoidably," named the beautiful enchantress—Lady Elizabeth Foster. It is only necessary to add that in 1809, some three years after the death of ...
— The Diary and Letters of Madam D'Arblay Volume 2 • Madame D'Arblay
... one. Ulysses was wrecked off Circe's island and at other places. Rather let us be the Argonauts in search of ...
— Bay State Monthly, Vol. II, No. 1, October, 1884 - A Massachusetts Magazine • Various
... observer. He enjoys with rapture the panoramic splendor of the view from the summit of the Alban Hills—from the Monte Cavo—whence he could see the shores of St. Peter from Terracina and the promontory of Circe as far as Monte Argentaro, and the wide expanse of country round about, with the ruined cities of the past, and with the mountain-chains of Central Italy beyond; and then his eye would turn to the green woods in the hollows beneath and the mountain-lakes among them. ...
— The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy • Jacob Burckhardt
... jest, of the kind the Andalusians permit themselves so frequently to employ, does he ever indulge in. Hardly does he dare say to Pepita, "What beautiful eyes you have!" and, indeed, should he say so, he would only speak the truth, for Pepita's eyes are large, green as those of Circe, expressive, and well shaped. And what enhances their beauty is that she seems unaware of all this, for there is not to be detected in her the slightest wish to please or attract any one by the sweetness of her ...
— Pepita Ximenez • Juan Valera
... Persons in his Chaos. These Passages are astonishing, but not credible; the Reader cannot so far impose upon himself as to see a Possibility in them; they are the Description of Dreams and Shadows, not of Things or Persons. I know that many Criticks look upon the Stories of Circe, Polypheme, the Sirens, nay the whole Odyssey and Iliad, to be Allegories; but allowing this to be true, they are Fables, which considering the Opinions of Mankind that prevailed in the Age of the Poet, might possibly have been according to the Letter. The Persons ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
... all the best morsels, the subtle traits, the capital touches. 'Do you like Sterne?' 'Yes, to be sure,' he would say; 'I should deserve to be hanged if I didn't!' His repeating some parts of Comus with his fine, deep, mellow-toned voice, particularly the lines, 'I have heard my mother Circe with the Sirens three,' etc., and the enthusiastic comments he made afterwards, were a feast to the ear and to the soul. He read the poetry of Milton with the same fervour and spirit of devotion that I ...
— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt
... Jason, flattering her, "for your fame is spread over all the earth. Are you not the queen of all enchantresses, wiser even than your sister Circe, in her fairy island in ...
— Myths That Every Child Should Know - A Selection Of The Classic Myths Of All Times For Young People • Various
... hail! Come at the last, and make the work prevail, That the strong brewage may perform its part, No worse than that was made by Circe's art, By bold Medea, terrible as fair, Or Perimedea ...
— Saronia - A Romance of Ancient Ephesus • Richard Short
... too good to be lost! What exhilaration there is on seeing a human soul imbruted and grovelling hopelessly in the dirt or rather to have a body before you, without a soul for the time being—a coarse animal mass, swinish as those whom the wand of Circe smote, but with the human intelligence quenched besides, and the charactery of reason wiped away. Here, some ochre and lamp-black, quick! There—plaster it well about the whiskers and eyelids, and put a few patches on the hair! Magnificent!—he ...
— Julian Home • Dean Frederic W. Farrar
... only the right of conquest, which genius pretends,—the individual, demonstrating his natural aristocracy best of the best;—but less claims will pass for the time; for Fashion loves lions, and points, like Circe,[431] to her horned company. This gentleman is this afternoon arrived from Denmark; and that is my Lord Ride, who came yesterday from Bagdad; here is Captain Friese, from Cape Turnagain, and Captain Symmes,[432] from the interior of the earth; and Monsieur Jovaire, who ...
— Essays • Ralph Waldo Emerson
... Island of AEolus with heavy hearts. Next we came to the AEean Island, where we met with Circe, the Enchantress. For two days and two nights we were on that island without seeing the sign of a habitation. On the third day I saw smoke rising up from some hearth. I spoke of it to my men, and it seemed good ...
— The Adventures of Odysseus and The Tales of Troy • Padriac Colum
... my distress With all her cruel backwardness. She will not listen to my pain, But turneth from me in disdain. That fair Filamelle, Her disdain is now my hell. She hath bewitched me with her eyes, As Circe did the sailor wise, Or Egypt did the Roman Prince, Two thousand years agone. I've little else but weeping since, My heart is like ...
— A Legend of Old Persia and Other Poems • A. B. S. Tennyson
... every where, often accompanied by his fiancee. They seemed to be on the most ordinary footing of old acquaintances, though it was remarked that no one could be said to have succeeded to the post of grand vizier at the Bellasys court, vacated by Livingstone. I can not trace the threads of the web of Circe. She concealed them well at the time; and since—between the knowledge of them and me is drawn the veil of a terrible remorse, which I ...
— Guy Livingstone; - or, 'Thorough' • George A. Lawrence
... loss Befall thee on thy way, while thou perchance Shalt sleep secure on board the sable bark. Which when Ulysses heard, Hero renown'd, Adjusting close the lid, he cast a cord Around it which with many a mazy knot He tied, by Circe taught him long before. 550 And now, the mistress of the household charge Summon'd him to his bath; glad he beheld The steaming vase, uncustom'd to its use E'er since his voyage from the isle of ...
— The Odyssey of Homer • Homer
... simpler lyric region of the Haynes Bayley school. Taking for his model the favourite drawing-room ballad of the period, "She wore a wreath of roses the night that first we met," he made a parody of its rhythmical cadence the medium for presenting some leading incidents in the career of a Circe of "the ...
— The Bon Gaultier Ballads • William Edmonstoune Aytoun
... palace, but when Plato fell out of favour, and Dionysius gave up philosophy, and went back again headlong to wine and women and trifles and debauchery, then all the court was metamorphosed, as if they all had drunk of Circe's cup, for ignorance and oblivion and silliness reigned rampant. I am borne out in what I say by the behaviour of great flatterers and demagogues,[373] the greatest of whom Alcibiades, a jeerer and horse-rearer at Athens, and living a gay and merry life, wore his hair closely shaven at Lacedaemon, ...
— Plutarch's Morals • Plutarch
... CIRCE (2 syl.), a sorceress who metamorphosed the companions of Ulysses into swine. Ulysses resisted the enchantment by means of the herb ...
— Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama, Vol 1 - A Revised American Edition of the Reader's Handbook • The Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D.
... few francs, and there were long lines of men—English, Irish, and Scottish soldiers—who waited their turn to get that vile imitation of life's romance from women who were bought and paid for. Our men paid a higher price than a few francs for the Circe's cup of pleasure, which changed them into swine for a while, until the spell passed, and would have blasted their souls if God were not understanding of human weakness and of war. They paid in their bodies, if not in their souls, those boys of ours who loved life and beauty and gentle things, and ...
— Now It Can Be Told • Philip Gibbs
... kindness and masterly counsel, came like a large treasure upon me, while already glittering with riches. I was quite enchanted at Chester, so that I could with difficulty quit it. But the enchantment was the reverse of that of Circe; for so far was there from being any thing sensual in it, that I was all mind. I do not mean all reason only; for my fancy was kept finely in play. And why not?—If you please I will send you a copy, or an abridgement ...
— Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3 • Boswell, Edited by Birkbeck Hill
... Campbell, "I do think that, if you take this step, you will find yourself in the hands of a Circe, who will change you, make a ...
— Loss and Gain - The Story of a Convert • John Henry Newman
... in brown, from Flaxman's designs for the Odyssey.] madness so strong upon me, that I am out of my dear bed regularly at half-past seven in the morning, and never find it more than half an hour till breakfast time, so happy am I daubing. On one side I have Ulysses longing to taste Circe's cakes, but saying, "No, thank you," like a very good boy: and on the other side I have him just come home, and the old nurse washing his feet, and his queen fast asleep in her chair by a lamp, which I hope will not set her on fire, ...
— The Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 1 • Maria Edgeworth
... that he cared nothing for it, that it was nothing to him, that it never affected him, and all those things that young men always say when the cup of Circe is beginning its work with them. Friends were annoyed, became anxious, remonstrated; but he laughed at their fears, and insisted on knowing himself best. At last, with a sudden start and shiver of his moral nature, he was awakened to a dreadful perception of his danger, ...
— The May Flower, and Miscellaneous Writings • Harriet Beecher Stowe
... then hasteri'd to the bar, Where a glad priestess of the temple sway'd, The most obedient, and the most obey'd; Rosy and round, adorn'd in crimson vest, And flaming ribands at her ample breast: She, skill'd like Circe, tried her guests to move, With looks of welcome and with words of love; And such her potent charms, that men unwise Were soon transform'd and fitted for the sties. Her port in bottles stood, a well-stain'd ...
— The Borough • George Crabbe |
