King William IV

Famous quotes containing the words king william and/or king:

    “When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had been forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, “Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can” —and walked out of the room.”
    —Horace Walpole (1717–1797)

    “The firelight of a long, blind, dreaming story
    Lingers upon your lips; and I have seen
    Firm, fixed forever in your closing eyes,
    The Corn King beckoning to his Spring Queen.”
    —Randall Jarrell (1914–1965)