love-in-idleness

Teems with virgin's-bower, with forget-me-nots, with rue-and all over the place, purple and yellow as hickeys, a prevalence of love-in-idleness.

Gravity's Rainbow Pynchon, Thomas 1978

To maintain it in its vestal candor and proud sincerity is not always an easy task in a land where every careless student and idle nobleman is eager to tumble it with his fingers or to pin among its frills the blossom named love-in-idleness: Mimi Pinson has to wear her cap very close to her wise little head.

Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 12, No. 33, December, 1873 Various

The prettiest view of Amiens was from the banks of the Somme outside the city, on the east side, and there was a charming walk along the tow-path, past market-gardens going down to the river on the opposite bank, and past the gardens of little chalets built for love-in-idleness in days of peace.

Now It Can Be Told Philip Gibbs 1919

I remember also that I ate at table opposite a pretty girl, with a wanton's heart, who prattled to me, because I was an Englishman, as though no war had come to make a mockery of love-in-idleness.

The Soul of the War Philip Gibbs 1919

"It would serve you right," said she, truculently, "if some one were to rub your eyes with love-in-idleness, to make you dote upon the next live creature that you see."

My Friend Prospero Henry Harland 1883

Maidens call it love-in-idleness, 58. caught by glare, like moths, 540. fair are commonly fortunate, 33. smiles of other, 677. withering on the stalk, 477.

Familiar Quotations A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature John Bartlett 1862

And the flower is called "love-in-idleness," to signify her listlessness of heart during the Earl's absence; as the Poet elsewhere uses similar terms of the pansy, as denoting the love that renders men pensive, dreamy, indolent, instead of toning up the soul with healthy and noble aspirations.

Shakespeare: His Life, Art, And Characters, Volume I. With An Historical Sketch Of The Origin And Growth Of The Drama In England Henry Norman Hudson 1850

Do you think that maidens 'eyes are no longer touched with the juice of love-in-idleness!

Hyperion Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1844

Do you think that maidens 'eyes are no longer touched with the juice of love-in-idleness!

Hyperion 1839

“Yet mark’d I where the bolt of Cupid fell:It fell upon a little western flower,Before, milk-white, now purple with love’s wound, —And maidens call it love-in-idleness.”

Midsummer « Fairegarden 2009