(From the account of the wooing of Desdemona. Shakespeare: Othello)

Towards the close of this gay repast, and when the party were about to yield their places to the attendants, who were ready to re-ship the utensils, John Effingham observed "I trust, Mrs. Hawker, you have been-duly warned of the catastrophe- character of this point, on which woman is said never to have been wooed in vain.

Even these you may woo with a little care into uncurbed fraternal abandon.

For at work of this sort the old Philistine knows that she is an adept; and she has rejoiced in the skill of her hands, with a sober workmanly joy, since Cain first went a-wooing in the Land of Nod.

There came a farmer's son a-wooing to her, A proper man: well-landed too he was, A man that for his wit need not to ask What time a year 'twere good to sow his oats, Nor yet his barley; no, nor when to reap, To plough his fallows, or to fell his trees, Well-experienc'd thus each kind of way; After a two months' labour at the most And yet 'twas well he held it out so long

They woo for him, but entreat my son Gloster may die for this, that he hath done. LEI.

" [Footnote 1: Chang K'een, a minister of the emperor Woo of Han (B.C. 140-87), is celebrated as the first Chinese who "pierced the void," and penetrated to "the regions of the west," corresponding very much to the present Turkestan.

The time hath been when a daughter of Venice, not more fair, was wooed to the bed of a sovereign.

Why, is it not good to woo by candle-light? PHIL.

And she, whom so many had wooed on bended knee, spake him' Yea'for that a woman's ways be beyond all knowledgeand therewith gave her beauty to his keeping.

She in loud and angry terms shewing him how justly she had gained the name of Shrew, while he still praised her sweet and courteous words, till at length, hearing her father coming, he said, (intending to make as quick a wooing as possible) "Sweet Katherine, let us set this idle chat aside, for your father has consented that you shall be my wife, your dowry is agreed on, and whether you will or no, I will marry you.

But like seeks like, and perhaps it was not wholly the fault of our astonishing diplomacy in Constantinople that Turkey, wooed like some desirable maiden, cast in her lot with the Power that by instinct and tradition most resembled her.

Giving her up then and there, he suddenly started from his seat as if he felt relieved, and drawing himself to his full height, looked down on the two ladies, one of whom, lifting her golden head, continued the wooing with her eyes, while the other said carelessly and with a dispassionate air

"I should like to know if it be really true that no woman was ever unsuccessfully wooed beneath these oaks?

Her face that night at the dancethat night in the boat, when they had talked almost not at all, had seemed to feel no need for talkingthings remembered blended with things desired until it seemed he could feel her hair brush his face, feel her breath upon his cheek, her arms about his neckvivid as if given by memories instead of wooed from dreams.

And if the woman he won for his wife in these latter days was not quite the fresh young beauty he had wooed under the walnut-trees in Captain Sedgewick's garden, she was still infinitely more beautiful than all other women in his eyes; she was still the dearest and best and brightest and purest of all earthly creatures for him.

Or, if Love comes, and he will not be gainsaid, a bit of wooing at the fountainthe soda-fountain.

"Not for ourselves is the suit, and 'tis delicate wooing for others.

To the last fine detail and exquisite touch was she, more here than elsewhere, softly, prettily, daintily feminine, her light heart idly set on wooing from its calm and abstracted aloofness this region of granite and lava, of rugged chasms and august ancient trees.

" Thus rebuffed, the Lieutenant was not encouraged to prolong his stay; and Milan was left, reassured, to bask in the smiles of the Princess and her lovely niece, and to pursue his wooing under the most favourable auspices.

Even a professional improver of land finds sleep difficult to woo at the beginning of such an enterprise.