[…] the silver flow OfHero’s tears, theswoon of Imogen, Fair Pastorella in the bandit’s den, Are things to brood on with moreardency Than the death-day of empires.
If there had been in Tom Walsingham’s brain a flame or even a flicker of response toKit’s poeticardency or the cunning of his learning, then there would have been other linkings and knottings and the joy of discourse in the cool of after love[…]
1548,Hugh Latimer, sermon preached on 22 March, 1548 in27 Sermons, London: John Day, 1562, p. 46,[5]
He repayred to God with this prayer, and said nothinge. Yet wyth a greatardency of spirit, he pearsed Gods eares.
1650,John Milton, letter toJohn IV of Portugal dated 27 April, 1650, inLetters of State Written by Mr. John Milton, London, 1694, p. ,[6]
This, as we have earnestly desired in our former Letters, so now again with the greatestardency and importunity we request of your Majesty.
1912,Robert Louis Stevenson, chapter 2, inRecords of a Family of Engineers[7], London: Chatto & Windus, pages68–69:
I must try, by excerpts from his diary and correspondence, to convey to the reader some idea of theardency and thoroughness with which he threw himself into the largest and least of his multifarious engagements in this service.
1596,Francis Sabie, “David and Beersheba”Adams Complaint, London: Richard Johnes,[8]
Field-tilling Swains driue home their toiling teams,
Out-wearied withardencie of heat:
1752, John Williams, Parker Bennet,Essays on the Bilious Fever[9], London: T. Waller, page24:
The use ofclysters is so manifest, so obvious (especially during theardency of the fever) that I have no further occasion to insist on their being serviceable;
1908,Edith Wharton, “The Hermit and the Wild Woman”, inThe Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories[10], New York: Scribner, page35:
[…] theardency of the sun grew greater, and the Hermit’s cliff was a fiery furnace.
One could not look a moment, without a weeping of the sight, into the blindingardency of the western atmosphere, so charged was it with the ceaseless gushing of the crimson glory;
1914,Hudson Stuck, chapter 3, inTen Thousand Miles with a Dog Sled[12], New York: Scribner, page75:
I can shut my eyes now and see that incomparable sunrise; I can see again that vision of mountains filling half the sky with their unimaginableardency, and I think that this world never presented nobler sight.
