Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Popularity
Their poet, a sad trimmer, but no less
In company a very pleasant fellow,
Had been the favorite of full many a mess
Of men, and made them speeches when half mellow;
And though his meaning they could rarely guess,
Yet still they deign’d to hiccup or to bellow
The glorious meed of popular applause,
Of which the first ne’er knows the second cause.
Byron—Don Juan. Canto III. St. 82.
Some shout him, and some hang upon his car,
To gaze in his eyes, and bless him. Maidens wave
Their ’kerchiefs, and old women weep for joy;
While others, not so satisfied, unhorse
The gilded equipage, and turning loose
His steeds, usurp a place they well deserve.
Cowper—The Task. Bk. VI. L. 708.
And to some men popularity is always suspicious. Enjoying none themselves, they are prone to suspect the validity of those attainments which command it.
Geo. Henry Lewes—The Spanish Drama. Ch. III.
There was ease in Casey’s manner as he stept into his place,
There was pride in Casey’s bearing and a smile on Casey’s face,
And when responding to the cheers he lightly doft his hat,
No stranger in the crowd could doubt, ’t was Casey at the bat.
Ernest L. Thayer—Casey at the Bat.
All tongues speak of him, and the bleared sights
Are spectacled to see him.
Coriolanus. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 221.
I have seen the dumb men throng to see him, and
The blind to hear him speak: matrons flung gloves,
Ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchers
Upon him as he passed; the nobles bended,
As to Jove’s statue, and the commons made
A shower and thunder with their caps and shouts.
Coriolanus. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 278.
The ladies call him sweet;
The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet.
Love’s Labour’s Lost. Act V. Sc. 2. L. 329.