Thir breeks o' mine, my only pair, That ance were plush, o' guid blue hair, I wad hae gi'en them off my hurdies, For ae blink o' the bonie burdies! But withered beldams, auld and droll, Rigwoodie hags wad spean a foal, Louping and flinging on a crummock, I wonder didna turn thy stomach!

my fine familiar Skink, Queen Beldam's minion? SKINK.

Still your own counsel, beldam policy!

Harlequin's Invasion followed; where, I remember, the transformation of the magistrates into reverend beldams seemed to me a piece of grave historic justice, and the tailor carrying his own head to be as sober a verity as the legend of St. Denys.

The wrinkled beldams involved themselves in their rusty cloaks as he passed by; even the mild-featured maidens seemed to dread contamination; and many a stern old man arose, and turned his repulsive and unheavenly countenance upon the gentle boy, as if the sanctuary were polluted by his presence.

She would live and die precisely the same bitter old beldam that she was, and nothing could ever assuage her.

[U.S.], cougar, jaguar, puma. hag, hellhag^, beldam, Jezebel. monster; fiend &c (demon) 980; devil incarnate, demon in human shape; Frankenstein's monster.

In the frontispiece of the old Beldam diurnal, like the contents of the chapter, sitteth the House of Commons judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

Brave the beldam's rude grimace; Ten to one 'twill yield its place, If you have the wit and grit Just to laugh a little bit.

I have her now, methinks, before me, blubberinghow odious does sorrow make an ugly face!Thine, Jack, and this old beldam's, in penitentials, instead of moving compassion, must evermore confirm hatred; while beauty in tears, is beauty heightened, and what my heart has ever delighted to see.

I lay in darkness, face down in the mire, And prayed that darkness might become my pall; The rabble rout roared round me like some quire Of filthy animals primordial; My heart seemed like a toad eternally Prisoned in stone, ugly and sad as he; Sweet sunlight seemed a dream, a mythic thing, And life some beldam's dotard gossiping.

Poor foolish beldam, you thought, indeed, when you had formed your masterpiece and named her Jannette, that unqualified admiration would be extorted from the lips of prejudice itself, and that, at least, till age had worn off the first dazzling lustre from your favorite, your sway would have been unlimited and your exultation immeasurable.

"My little sister is not beaten now," said the beldam.

It will be the ruin of us at last, I can see that!""Hold your tongue, beldam!" said he, with a stern significance of manner, "and fetch one of my best shirts, a waistcoat, and some dressings."

Go quick, and fetch a squill from some old beldam's tomb.

" So sang a wither'd Beldam energetical, And bann'd the ungiving door with lips prophetical.

And she call'd up her charge, and they came in hosts To do the old Beldam's bidding:

XXIX But the best of the sport was to hear his old Dam, Set up her shrill forlorn pipe How the wither'd Beldam hobbled about, And put the rest of the company out For she needs must try a horn-pipe.

260 He on the midst, the beldam at his side.

Upstarts the beldam, who was there unseen, 290 And, reverence made, accosted thus the queen:

The reader knows our pacific politics: we are of the pen, not of the sword; but we cannot be indifferent to a great political result, when Old men, and beldams, in the streets Do prophesy upon it.

After the philosopher takes his leave he will likewise take with him a vivid memory of the beldam's many wrinklesso many, indeed, that "a picture of old age in the abstract might have been taken from her countenance.

However, I was so diverted with this old beldam and her magnificence, that I made this epitaph for her: Four times the nuptial bed she warm'd, And every time so well perform'd, That when death spoil'd each husband's billing, He left the widow every shilling.

"Madam," he cried, "you are a wonderful and bewitching old lady"it was on the tip of his tongue to say "beldam.