System of ___

Usage examples of adown.

This king of Faerie adown him set Upon a bank of turfes fresh and green, And right anon thus said he to his queen.

If any of you will of devotion Offer, and have mine absolution, Come forth anon, and kneele here adown And meekely receive my pardoun.

And he them laide well and fair adown, And bade the servant coales for to bring, That he anon might go to his working.

And ye warriors hearken and hasten, and dight the weed of war, And then to acre and meadow wend ye adown no more, For this work shall be for the women to drive our neat from the mead, And to yoke the wains, and to load them as the men of war have need.

I love--the lone wanderer will still unfurl his sail, and clasp the tiller--and, still obeying the breezes of heaven, for ever round another and another promontory, anchoring in another and another bay, still ploughing seedless ocean, leaving behind the verdant land of native Europe, adown the tawny shore of Africa, having weathered the fierce seas of the Cape, I may moor my worn skiff in a creek, shaded by spicy groves of the odorous islands of the far Indian ocean.

But its stupendous size was the least of the wonders of the place, for running in rows adown its length were gigantic pillars of what looked like ice, but were, in reality, huge stalactites.

So she lingered on the Hill, and the quenched candle fell from her hand, and presently she sank adown on the grass and sat there with the face of one thinking intently.

Her eyen caste she full low adown, Where Pluto hath his darke regioun.

For storm-rocked waves ye break evermore, Adown the shores and along the years, In the whitest foam of the saddest tears, And we, as ye, O waves, gray waves!

For, when she saw the Romans win the town, She took her children all, and skipt adown Into the fire, and rather chose to die, Than any Roman did her villainy.

For Godde's love come from the tree adown And, as I am a kinge's daughter true, If that I verily the causes knew Of your disease,* if it lay in my might, *distress I would amend it, ere that it were night, So wisly help me the great God of kind.

And on their bare knees adown they fall And would have kissed his feet there as he stood, Till at the last *aslaked was his mood* *his anger was (For pity runneth soon in gentle heart).

For whiche cause the lusty host, Which [stood] in battle on the coast, At once for sorrow such a cry Gan rear, thorough* the company, *throughout That to the heav'n heard was the soun', And under th'earth as far adown, And wilde beastes for the fear So suddenly affrayed* were, *afraid That for the doubt, while they might dure,* *have a chance of safety They ran as of their lives unsure, From the woodes into the plain, And from valleys the high mountain They sought, and ran as beastes blind, That clean forgotten had their kind.

Then will I be beneathe, by my crown, And see how that the meale falls adown Into the trough, that shall be my disport*: *amusement For, John, in faith I may be of your sort.

When Phoebus dwelled here in earth adown, As olde bookes make mentioun, He was the moste lusty* bacheler *pleasant Of all this world, and eke* the best archer.