colours

"I find in Chronicles, that Purple hath ben used in Rome time out of mind. Howbeit, king Romulus never ware it but in his roiall habite or mantell of estate, called Trabea. And well known it is, Tullus Hostilius was the first Romane king, who after he had subdued the Tuscanes, put on the long purple robe named Pretexta, and the cassock broched and studded with scarlet in broad guards. Nepos Cornelius who died in the daies of Augustus Cæsar the Emperour, When (quoth he) I was a young man, the light violet purple was rife and in great request, and a pound of it was sold for a hundred deniers: and not long after the Tarentine red purple or skarlet was much called for, and of the same price. But after it, came the fine double died purple of Tyros, called Dibapha: and a man could not buy a pound of it for a thousand deniers, which was the price of ten pound of the other. P. Lentulus Spinther in his Ædileship of the chaire, first ware a long robe embrodered with it, and was checked and blamed therefore. But now adaies (quoth Nepos) what is he that will not hang his parlour and dining chamber therewith, and have carpets, cushins, and cup-bord clothes thereof?"

"I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it."

"Beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow Across that angry or that glimmering sea."

"And then is it thought to have a most commendable and excellent die, when it is as deepe a red as bloud that is cold and setled, blackish at the first sight, but looke betweene you and the light, it carieth a bright and shining lustre. And hereupon it is, that Homer calleth bloud, Purple."

"Now Fancy, empress of a purpled realm, Awakes with brow caressed by poppy-bloom,"

"O that I were lying under the olives! So should I see the far-off cities Glittering low by the purple water, Gleaming high on the purple mountain; See where the road goes winding southward. It passes the valleys of almond blossom, Curves round the crag o’er the steep-hanging orchards, Where almond and peach are aflush ’mid the olives— Hardly the amethyst sea shines through them— Over it cypress on solemn cypress Lead to the lonely pilgrimage places."

"His azure glowed as a cloud worn thin, Deep as the blue of the king-whale’s lair:"

"Mad maidens, tender as blue seas."

"And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple robe,"

"Purples live ordinarily seven yeares. They lie hidden for thirtie daies space about the dog daies, like as the Murices or Burrets doe. They meet together by troupes in the spring, and with rubbing one against another, they gather and yeeld a certaine clammie substance and moisture in manner of waxe. The Murices doe the like. But that beautifull colour, so much in request for dying of fine cloth, the Purples have in the midst of their neck and jawes. And nothing else it is, but a little thin liquor within a white veine: and that is it which maketh that rich, fresh, and bright colour of deepe red purple roses. As for all the rest of this fish, it yeeldeth nothing. Fishers strive to take them alive, for when they die, they cast up and shed that precious teinture and juice, together with their life. Now the Tyrians, when they light upon any great Purples, they take the flesh out of their shels, for to get the bloud out of the said vein: but the lesser, they presse and grind incertainem illes, and so gather that rich humour which issueth from them. The best purple colour in Asia is this, thus gotten at Tyros. But in Affricke, within the Island Merinx, and the coast of the Ocean by Getuliia. And in Europe, that of Laconica. This is that glorious colour, so full of state and majestie, that the Roman Lictors with their rods, halberds, and axes, make way for: this is it that graceth and setteth out the children of princes and noblemen: this maketh the distinction betweene a knight and consellor of state: this is called for and put on when they offer sacrifice to pacifie the gods: this giveth a lustre to all sorts of garments: and to conclude, our great Generals of the field, and victorious captaines in their triumphs weare this purple in their mantels, enterlaced and embrodered with gold among. No marvell therefore if Purples be so much sought for: and men are to be held excused, if they runne a madding after Purples."

"From purple glory to scarlet pomp;"

"Weave purple for his shrunken hips! and purple for his barren loins!"

"Then went up Moses, and Aaron, and Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and as it were the very heaven for clearness."

"Then went Moses and Aaron, Nadab ad Abihu and the seventy elders of Israel uppe, and sawe the God of Israel, and under his fete as it were a brycke worke of Saphir and as it were the facyon of heaven when is it cleare,"

"You see the broad blue sky every day over your heads; but you do not for that reason determine blue to be less or more beautiful than you did at first; you are unaccustomed to see stones as blue as the sapphire, but you do not for that reason think the sapphire less beautiful than other stones. The blue colour is everlastingly appointed by the Deity to be a source of delight; and whether seen perpetually over your head, or crystallised once in a thousand years into a single and incomparable stone, your acknowledgment of its beauty is equally natural, simple, and instantaneous."

"Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments, throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: ... that ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God."

"Blue! ’Tis the life of heaven,—the domain Of Cynthia,—the wide palace of the sun,— The tent of Hesperus, and all his train,— The bosom of clouds, gold, gray, and dun. Blue! ’Tis the life of waters—ocean And all its vassal streams: pools numberless May rage, and foam, and fret, but never can Subside, if not to dark-blue nativeness. Blue! Gentle cousin of the forest-green, Married to green in all the sweetest flowers— Forget-me-not,—the blue-bell,—and, that queen Of secrecy, the violet: what strange powers Hast thou, as a mere shadow! But how great, When in an Eye thou art alive with fate!"

"Skies from her eyes catch their heavenly blue."

"In the spectrum we ought to be able to recognise both blue and indigo, though many people find difficulty in recognising the indigo ray. Blue belongs to the cooling end of the spectrum, and thus it is right and fitting that symbolically it should be the colour of Truth, which is the result of calm reflection and never of heated argument."

"Thine head upon thee is like Carmel, and the hair of thine head like purple;"

"And then beneath a shapely chin Let every Grace fly out and in About a marble throat; the rest Be in a chastened purple drest, But let her flesh peep here and there The lines of beauty to declare."

"In grave beginnings, and great things profest You have oft-times, that may out-shine the rest, A purple piece, or two stitch'd in: ..."

"O for a beaker full of the warm South! Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene, With beaded bubbles winking at the brim, And purple-stainèd mouth;"

"That purple-linèd palace of sweet sin,"

"For consider, first, the difference produced in the whole tone of landscape colour by the introductions of purple, violet, and deep ultramarine blue, which we owe to mountains. In an ordinary lowland landscape we have the blue of the sky; the green of grass, which I will suppose (and this is an unnecessary concession to the lowlands) entirely fresh and bright; the green of trees; and certain elements of purple, far more rich and beautiful than we generally should think, in their bark and shadows (bare hedges and thickets, or tops of trees, in subdued afternoon sunshine, are nearly perfect purple, and of an exquisite tone), as well as in ploughed fields, and dark ground in general. But among mountains, in addition to all this, large unbroken spaces of pure violet and purple are introduced in their distances; and even near, by films of cloud passing over the darkness of ravines or forests, blues are produced of the most subtle tenderness; these azures and purples passing into rose-colour of otherwise wholly unattainable delicacy among the upper summits, the blue of the sky being at the same time purer and deeper than in the plains. Nay, in some sense, a person who has never seen the rose-colour of the rays of dawn crossing a blue mountain twelve or fifteen miles away, can hardly be said to know what tenderness in colour means at all; bright tenderness he may, indeed, see in the sky or in a flower, but this grave tenderness of the far-away hill-purples he cannot conceive."

"And I charged you with extortions On the nobler fames of old,— Ay, and sometimes thought your Porsons Stained the purple they would fold."

"All Turkes do detest the colour of blacke, and thinke those that weare it, shall never enter into Paradise: But the colour of greatest request among them is greene; wherewith if any Christian be apparrelled, he shall be sure of Bastinadoes, and other punishments."

"The grass is always greener on the other side"

"The trees are coming into leaf Like something almost being said; The recent buds relax and spread, Their greenness is a kind of grief."

"[After the Queen's latest practical joke, Edmund returns to his house to find it filled with smoke.] Blackadder: My God! This place stinks like a pair of armoured trousers after the Hundred Years War. Baldrick, have you been eating dung again?! [Percy comes out of the den, frazzled and slightly burnt] Percy: My lord! Success! Blackadder: What? [Percy leads Edmund into the den, where alchemical apparatus has been arranged on the table, with Baldrick pumping the bellows] Percy: After literally an hour's ceaseless searching, I have succeeded in creating gold! Pure gold! Blackadder: Are you sure? Percy: Yes, my lord! Behold... [Edmund and Baldrick look at the main pot as Percy opens it, revealing its contents and bathing the room in its light] Blackadder: Percy, it's green. Percy: That's right, my lord! Blackadder: Yes, Percy, I don't want to be pedantic, but the colour of gold is gold. That's why it's called 'gold'. What you have discovered, if it has a name, is some 'green'. [Amazed, Percy takes the green out of the pot and holds it reverently in his hands] Percy: Oh, Edmund, can it be true? That I hold here, in my mortal hand, a nugget of purest green? Blackadder: Indeed you do, Percy. Except it's not really a nugget, but more of a splat. Percy: Well, yes, a splat today, but tomorrow, who knows, or dares to dream! Blackadder: So we three alone in all the world can create the finest green at will? Percy: Thus so. [aside] Not sure about counting in Baldrick, actually. Blackadder: Of course, you know what your great discovery means, don't you, Percy? Percy: Perhaps, my lord... Blackadder: That you, Percy, Lord Percy, are an utter berk. Baldrick, pack my bags. I'm gonna sell the house. Baldrick and Percy: What? Blackadder: There's nothing else for it. I mean, I shall miss the old place. I've had some happy times here, when you and Percy have been out, but needs must when the devil vomits into your kettle. Baldrick, go forth into the street and let it be known that Lord Blackadder wishes to sell his house. Percy, just go forth into the street."

"And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about."

"Speak to the Israelites and say to them: Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. ... Then you will remember to obey all my commands and will be consecrated to your God."

"Above the vault over their heads was what looked like a throne of lapis lazuli, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him."

"Speake unto the childern of Ysrael and byd them that they make them gardes apon the quarters of their garmetes thorowout their generacions and let them make the gardes of ribandes of jacyncte ... that ye remembre and doo all my commaundmentes and be holy unto youre God."

"More lovely than the monarch of the sky In wanton Arethusa’s azur’d arms;"

"Sapphire produces peace of mind and equanimity. It chases out evil thoughts by establishing healthy circulation. It opens barred doors to the spirit. It produces a desire for prayer. It brings peace, but he who would wear it must lead a pure and holy life."

"Her blue-veined feet unsandal’d were;"

"A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;"

"There is no blue without yellow and without orange, and if you put in blue, then you must put in yellow, and orange too, mustn't you?"

"The sapphire-misted mountains,"

"One Wednesday when the blooming sun, Suffused with blue the sphere’s black dome, The King, victorious as the sun, Bright sky-like robes of turquoise donned, Went to the turquoise dome for sport; The tale was long, the day was short."

"Wednesday it was, the day of Mercury; the heavens were as clear and as blue and as smooth as a lake; not a cloud was to be seen. And in blue robes the king did dress himself and hastened forth, toward the turquoise pavilion. Swifter was he even than Mercury, as he thought eagerly upon the pleasures that awaited him there. “So sweet was my fourth bride, can the fifth be even sweeter?” he asked.The birds that soared against the azure sky sang out, “Yes, yes, oh king!” For in the turquoise pavilion was the princess Azarene, the daughter of the king of Maghreb. She was dressed in blue, from her headdress to her slippers, and she had adorned herself with many rings and bracelets set with turquoise, and all about, in bowls glazed blue, delicate blue flowers put their blossoms forth. But bluer than the flowers were the princess’ eyes. All that day Bahram Gur gazed into her eyes and lost himself in their blue depths, until, at last, night came, and one by one the stars appeared."

"Πορφυρογέννητος, Porphyrogénnētos"

"There is the sea—shall any stanch it up?— Still breeding, for its worth of silver weight, Abundant stain, freshly renewable, For purpling robes withal: nay, Heaven be praised, The house, my lord, affords us plenty such; ’Tis not acquainted yet with penury. I had vowed the trampling of a thousand robes, Had the oracles enjoined it when I sought Means for recovery of a life so precious!"

"... They weaved verie much Fine Purple that was dide in Tyre, ..."

"But for the Diva’s use bestrewn is the genial bedstead, Hidden in midmost stead, and its polisht framework of Indian Tusk underlies its cloth empurpled by juice of the dye-shell."

"The kynge must be thus maad. For he must sytte in a chayer clothyd in purpure, crowned on his heed, in his right hond a ceptre, and in the lift honde an apple of golde, for he is the most grettest and hyest in dygnyté above al other and most worthy. And that is signyfyed by the corone, for the glorie of the peple is the dygnyté of the kyng. And above al other the kyng ought to be replenysshed with vertues and of grace. And this signyfieth the purpure, for in like wyse as the robes of purpure maketh fayr and enbelissheth the body, the same wyse vertues makyth the sowle."

"Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of lapis lazuli, as bright blue as the sky."

"A vile Conceit in pompous words express’d Is like a clown in regal purple dress’d:"

"Homer: Donut? Lisa: No thanks. Do you have any fruit? Homer: This has purple stuff inside. Purple is a fruit."