promise-crammed

So when His Royal Highness _Hamlet_ has what he considers "a good thing" to say, Mr. TREE places the novice in jesting near himself, and pointedly speaks at him; as e.g., when, in reply to the King's inquiry after his health, he tells him that he "eats air promise-crammed," adding, with a sly look at the Court Fool, "you cannot feed capons so."

Punch, Or the London Charivari, Volume 102, April 16, 1892 Various

Not only was the delicious day promise-crammed, but the night, loud with the chirp of the cricket and the cry of the sentinel owl, seemed the realization of some splendid dream.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 15, No. 87, March, 1875 Various

And that I have a fair amount of wits my creditors will attest, who have lived promise-crammed for the last year or two, feeding upon air like chameleons.

The Cords of Vanity A Comedy of Shirking James Branch Cabell 1918

Excellent, i’ faith; of the chameleon’s dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed; you cannot feed capons so.

Act III. Scene II. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 1914

"Of the chameleon's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed," it would be as idle to assume a reminiscence of a passage of Montaigne on the chameleon [55] as it would be to derive Hamlet's phrase "A king of shreds and patches" from Florio's rendering in the essay [56] OF THE INCONSTANCY

Montaigne and Shakspere 1894

If finance could have gone on forever promise-crammed, things would have been all right.

A History of the Four Georges, Volume I (of 4) Justin McCarthy 1871

Excellent, i 'faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 1600

Excellent, i 'faith; of the chameleon's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.

Hamlet William Shakespeare 1590

Excellent, i'faith; of the cameleon's dish: I eat the air, promise-crammed: you cannot feed capons so.

Hamlet William Shakespeare 1590

Both cue and speech become promise-crammed repositories of meaning and movement, and of individually discoverable space and time.

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