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Dower   Listen
noun
Dower  n.  
1.
That with which one is gifted or endowed; endowment; gift. "How great, how plentiful, how rich a dower!" "Man in his primeval dower arrayed."
2.
The property with which a woman is endowed; especially:
(a)
That which a woman brings to a husband in marriage; dowry. (Obs.) "His wife brought in dower Cilicia's crown."
(b)
(Law) That portion of the real estate of a man which his widow enjoys during her life, or to which a woman is entitled after the death of her husband. Note: Dower, in modern use, is and should be distinguished from dowry. The former is a provision for a widow on her husband's death; the latter is a bride's portion on her marriage.
Assignment of dower. See under Assignment.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Dower" Quotes from Famous Books



... and open fields, which, though not belonging to the cottage, were not forbidden to the children; and they formed a wonderland of delight in spring, summer, and fall. Must she take her active, restless boy Jamie, the image of his father, into a crowded tenement? Must golden-haired Susie, with her dower of beauty, be imprisoned in one close room, or else be exposed to the evil of corrupt association just ...
— Taken Alive • E. P. Roe

... musical score excerpt, sung to the words "The Spring with her dower of bird and flower, brings hope ...
— A Second Book of Operas • Henry Edward Krehbiel

... of one Williams, a Counsellour at lawe in Deuon: his father, a younger branch of the ancient stocke, planted in Somerset shire, tooke to wife the widdowe of Courtney, and daughter and heire to Trethurffe; by whose dower, and his owne indeuour, he purchased and left to his sonne, faire possessions, but not vnencumbred with titles, which draue this Gentleman to salue them all by new compositions with the pretenders: and for compassing the same, to get an extraordinary experience in husbandry. ...
— The Survey of Cornwall • Richard Carew

... shaved his beard, Eleanor, his consort, found him, with this unusual appearance, very ridiculous, and soon very contemptible. She revenged herself as she thought proper, and the poor shaved king obtained a divorce. She then married the Count of Anjou, afterwards our Henry II. She had for her marriage dower the rich provinces of Poitou and Guienne; and this was the origin of those wars which for three hundred years ravaged France, and cost the French three millions of men. All which, probably, had never occurred ...
— Curiosities of Literature, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Isaac D'Israeli

... of my clan: 5 Take up the mare of my father's gift—by God, she has carried a man!" The red mare ran to the Colonel's son and nuzzled against his breast, "We be two strong men," said Kamal then, "but she loveth 10 the younger best. So she shall go with the lifter's dower, my turquoise-studded rein, My broidered saddle and saddlecloth, and ...
— Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year • E.C. Hartwell

... the old squire outlived his son and his grandson, and when he died had three or four great-grand-children playing about the lawns of Bragton Park. The peer's daughter had lived, and had for many years drawn a dower from the Bragton property, and had been altogether ...
— The American Senator • Anthony Trollope

... let Time see Its flowering crest impearled and orient. A Sonnet is a coin; its face reveals The soul,—its converse, to what Power 'tis due:— Whether for tribute to the august appeals Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue, It serve; or 'mid the dark wharfs cavernous breath, In Charon's palm it pay ...
— Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti - 1883 • T. Hall Caine

... proper time to obtain it, neither was Mr. Hunt a proper person to obtain it for them.— Sir John Cox Hippisley, who was a needy briefless lawyer, had married a widow lady of the name of Cox, who was possessed of a good fat dower, consisting of some very fine estates, which were left her by her late husband, a gentleman of character and fortune, one of the old aristocratical families of this county, and who, I believe, had been ...
— Memoirs of Henry Hunt, Esq. Volume 2 • Henry Hunt

... daughter of Warwick, Isabel, the young widow of the Lord de Chaworth, and the mother's mother of Alianora of Lancaster. Thou and thy father's wife, therefore, are near akin. This Isabel (after whom thy mother was named) was a famed beauty, and brought moreover a very rich dower. My grandfather and she had many children, but I need only speak ...
— The Well in the Desert - An Old Legend of the House of Arundel • Emily Sarah Holt

... cried Madame Desvarennes, whose voice was at once raised two tones. "And that is where we do not agree. You are responsible for what has occurred. I know what you are going, to tell me. You wished to bring laurels to Micheline as a dower. That is all nonsense! When one leaves the Polytechnic School with honors, and with a future open to you like yours, it is not necessary to scour the deserts to dazzle a young girl. One begins by marrying her, and celebrity comes afterward, at the same time as the children. ...
— Serge Panine, Complete • Georges Ohnet

... negotiation which was thus opened, Marguerite had, as we have said, lost all confidence in her own influence over her husband; and accordingly, without giving any intimation of her design, she left Nerac and retired to Agen, one of her dower-cities, where she established herself in the castle; but her unbridled depravity of conduct, combined with the extortions of Madame de Duras, her friend and confidante, by whom she had been rejoined, soon rendered her ...
— The Life of Marie de Medicis, Vol. 1 (of 3) • Julia Pardoe

... the marriage had betwixt you two was against the law of holy Church, and is therefore null and void. If thou wilt do the same, I am bid to tell thee, thou shalt have free liberty to come forth hence, and all lands of thy dower restored." ...
— The White Rose of Langley - A Story of the Olden Time • Emily Sarah Holt

... . . who of men can tell That flowers would bloom, or that green fruit would swell To melting pulp, that fish would have bright mail, The earth its dower of river, wood, and vale, The meadows runnels, runnels pebble-stones, The seed its harvest, or the lute its tones, Tones ravishment, or ravishment its sweet If human souls ...
— Pages from a Journal with Other Papers • Mark Rutherford

... living at this hour. England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters; altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again, And give us manners, virtue, ...
— Outlines of English and American Literature • William J. Long

... Bar to King Stanislaus; the latter formally renounced the throne of Poland, at the same time preserving the title of king, and resuming possession of his property; after him, Lorraine and the Barrois were to be united to the crown of France, as dower and heritage of that queen who had been but lately raised to the throne by a base intrigue, and who thus secured to her new country a province so often taken and retaken, an object of so many treaties and negotiations, and thenceforth so tenderly cherished ...
— A Popular History of France From The Earliest Times - Volume VI. of VI. • Francois Pierre Guillaume Guizot

... Timariot bands That won and well can keep their lands.[fn] Enough that he who comes to woo[fo] Is kinsman of the Bey Oglou:[135] His years need scarce a thought employ; I would not have thee wed a boy. And thou shalt have a noble dower: And his and my united power 210 Will laugh to scorn the death-firman, Which others tremble but to scan, And teach the messenger[136] what fate The bearer of such boon may wait. And now thou know'st thy father's will; All that thy sex hath need to know: 'Twas mine to teach ...
— The Works Of Lord Byron, Vol. 3 (of 7) • Lord Byron

... were—I will not say importunate—but were rather more particular about getting their money. When your father was alive, and you were about to be married, I contributed 100,000 sesterces towards your dower, in addition to the sum which your father assigned as your wedding portion, out of my pocket— for it had to be paid out of my money,—so you have ample proof of my leniency towards you in money matters, and you may boldly ...
— The Letters of the Younger Pliny - Title: The Letters of Pliny the Younger - - Series 1, Volume 1 • Pliny the Younger

... for our people and their welfare is my highest aim as a man, yours as a woman, and that is a strong bond. But I desired to have a still firmer one unite us, and since your parents are dead, and I cannot go with the bridal dower to Amram, to buy you from him, I now bring my suit to you in person, high-souled maiden. But ere you say yes or no, you should learn that my son and grandson are ready to pay you the same honor as head of our household that they render me, and your ...
— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... hall. The Wali entered, accompanied by the women of the family; the bride advanced, weeping bitterly, and knelt and kissed her father's feet. The poor man, with emotion, raised her and clasped a girdle of diamonds round her waist, which was before ungirdled; it was part of her dower. No one could unclasp it but her husband, and this concluded the ceremony. Shortly afterwards the bride was borne in procession to the congratulations of all the women present. After about half an hour she was conducted to a private room by a female relative, and the bridegroom to ...
— The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton Volume II • Isabel Lady Burton & W. H. Wilkins

... for there's treason in the wind. They'll keep her dower, and send her home with shame Before ...
— The Saint's Tragedy • Charles Kingsley

... said Monsieur Alain, continuing, "agreed with the Champignelles family to give a receipt for the legal dower of Mademoiselle Philiberte (this was necessary in those days); but in return, the Champignelles, who were allied to many of the great families, promised to obtain the erection of the little fief ...
— The Brotherhood of Consolation • Honore de Balzac

... but my sole and great grief is that not only I myself have been ill-treated, but that my fate has, contrary to the law, injured relations whom I love and respect. I have a mother-in-law, eighty years old, who has been refused the dower I had given her from my property, and this will make me die a bankrupt if nothing is ...
— The Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte • Bourrienne, Constant, and Stewarton

... looks at the landscape, and lo! the beauty has dropped out of it. The stream has lost its power, and the meadow its meaning. Summer has stopped. His next thought is: "But it is I who had lent the landscape this beauty. That landscape was myself, my dower, my glory, my birthright," and so he breaks out with "Give me back the light I threw upon you," and so on till the bitter word flung to the woman in the last line. The same clearness of thought and obscurity of expression and the same passion is to be found in the famous sonnet—"Non ...
— Emerson and Other Essays • John Jay Chapman

... that she should be his lawful wife, that he asked her hand of her parents and friends; which, after some slight difficulties that were quickly removed, was given, and the same hour they were betrothed, and security given by him for the dower he was to ...
— One Hundred Merrie And Delightsome Stories - Les Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles • Various

... may be sure 'T is not your dower I make this flowing verse on; In these smooth lays I only praise The glories[79] ...
— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall

... my destiny: thy song, thy fame, The wild enchantments clustering round thy name, Were my soul's heritage—its regal dower, Its glory, and its ...
— Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 22. October, 1878. • Various

... Manor House, Wimperton, Tavistock, Devon. They retired there at the accession of their brother to the title. It has been used as a dower house in the family for many years; and, pending the search for your father, I obtained permission for them to continue to reside there. I was not obliged to ask for an allowance for them, as they had an income, under their mother's marriage ...
— With Kitchener in the Soudan - A Story of Atbara and Omdurman • G. A. Henty

... or with an empty purse? Thy life more wretched, Cutler, was confessed, Arise, and tell me, was thy death more blessed? Cutler saw tenants break, and houses fall, For very want; he could not build a wall. His only daughter in a stranger's power, For very want; he could not pay a dower. A few grey hairs his reverend temples crowned, 'Twas very want that sold them for two pound. What even denied a cordial at his end, Banished the doctor, and expelled the friend? What but a want, which you perhaps ...
— Essay on Man - Moral Essays and Satires • Alexander Pope

... hold in my own right shall receive their freedom. To emancipate them during her life would, though earnestly wished by me, be attended with such insuperable difficulties, on account of their intermixture by marriage with the dower-negroes, as to excite the most painful sensations, if not disagreeable consequences, to the latter, while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor; it not being in my power, under the tenure by which the dower-negroes are held, to manumit them.[137] And whereas, ...
— Washington and the American Republic, Vol. 3. • Benson J. Lossing

... or friend to the priest for marriage; one of the many points by which the Church distinguished second marriages. A piece of silver and a piece of gold were also laid with the wedding ring upon the priest's book (where the cross would be on the cover), in token of dower to the wife. ...
— Routledge's Manual of Etiquette • George Routledge

... thrush: he sings each song twice over Lest you should think he never could recapture The first fine careless rapture! And though the fields look rough with hoary dew, All will be gay when noontide wakes anew The buttercups, the little children's dower —Far brighter ...
— The Evolution of Expression Vol. I • Charles Wesley Emerson

... in your race, So much that proves your power, Why not avoid my humble place? Why rob me of my dower? With your vast cellars, cavern deep, Packed tier on tier with treasures, You would not miss them should I KEEP My little ...
— Poems of Sentiment • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... and the wilderness that would then replace their rich and happy isle. The eloquence of some, and the threats of others, were equally successful. All the savings of years were brought to the chiefs; silver rings and chains—the dower and fortune of many a young maiden—were added to the newly spun shama of the matron: all were reduced to poverty, and were trembling; though they smiled whilst making the sacrifice of all their worldly goods. How they must have cursed, in the bitterness of their ...
— A Narrative of Captivity in Abyssinia - With Some Account of the Late Emperor Theodore, - His Country and People • Henry Blanc

... that she is beautiful—still beautiful—and her only art is subtle flattery. She flattered your grandfather 'to the bent of his humor,' with no deeper design than to marry him and gain a luxurious home and an ample dower, as well as an adoring husband. You see she has succeeded in marrying him, poor little devil! but she has gained nothing but a prison and a jailer and penal servitude. I repeat, there is no great harm in her; ...
— For Woman's Love • Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth

... fellow of sixty odd years had several concubines, of the kind to eat into house and fortune. The reversion of the pension, of course, went to the House. In all these years Cho[u]zaemon had never received the dower of O'Tsuyu; nor dared to press the rich man for it, too generous to his daughter to quarrel with. The funds eagerly looked for by Cho[u]zaemon were found to be non est inventus. Probably, if alive, Mizoguchi would have argued that the ...
— The Yotsuya Kwaidan or O'Iwa Inari - Tales of the Tokugawa, Volume 1 (of 2) • James S. De Benneville

... been unable to meet without quarreling since the match between Laurent and Angele was broken off, on account of a pig which Father La Vigne would not add to her dower. Angele had a blanket, three dishes, six tin plates, and a kneading-trough; at the pig her father drew the line, and for a pig Laurent's father contended. But now all the La Vigne pigs were roasted or scattered, Angele's dower was destroyed, ...
— The Chase Of Saint-Castin And Other Stories Of The French In The New World • Mary Hartwell Catherwood

... often when in repose expressed sadness and care unusual to his years, for he was still very young, though in reply to the king's solicitations that he would choose one of Scotland's fairest maidens (her dower should be princely), and make the Scottish court his home, he had smilingly avowed that he was ...
— The Days of Bruce Vol 1 - A Story from Scottish History • Grace Aguilar

... blinded? Sir Tristan gives thee Cornwall's kingdom; then, were he erst thy debtor, how could he reward thee better? His noble uncle serves he so: think too what a gift on thee he'd bestow! With honor unequalled all he's heir to at thy feet he seeks to shower, to make thee a queenly dower. ...
— Tristan and Isolda - Opera in Three Acts • Richard Wagner

... was every woman. I had power Over the soul of every living man, Such as no woman ever had in dower— Could what no woman ever could, or can; All women, I, the woman, still outran, Outsoared, outsank, outreigned, in hall ...
— Lilith • George MacDonald

... married herself, thinking the first marriage void. Then her second husband died and evil times came. Blakeley was dead, but she came East. Since then she had been fighting to establish the validity of the first marriage and hence her claim to dower rights. ...
— The Treasure-Train • Arthur B. Reeve

... cloister; and though I own the mystery she has made to me of her flight confounds me; though it seems inconsistent with the friendship between us; I cannot forget the disinterested warmth with which she always opposed my taking the veil. She wished to see me married, though my dower would have been a loss to her and my brother's children. For her sake I will believe well of ...
— The Castle of Otranto • Horace Walpole

... marble view, Above the works and thoughts of man, What Nature could, but would not, do, And Beauty and Canova can! Beyond imagination's power, Beyond the bard's defeated art, With immortality her dower, Behold ...
— Life of Lord Byron, Vol. III - With His Letters and Journals • Thomas Moore

... evidence of wills. The enormous amount of miscellaneous information to be derived therefrom about the life of our forefathers can hardly be believed, save by those who have turned the pages of such a collection as the great Testamenta Eboracensia.[4] In wills you may see how many daughters a man could dower and how many he put into a nunnery, and what education he provided for his sons. You may note which were the most popular religious houses, and which men had books and what the books were, how much of their money they thought fit to leave for charitable purposes, and what they thought ...
— Medieval People • Eileen Edna Power

... I am very sensible, Husband, that Captain Macheath is worth Money, but I am in doubt whether he hath not two or three Wives already, and then if he should die in a Session or two, Polly's Dower would ...
— The Beggar's Opera - to which is prefixed the Musick to each Song • John Gay

... a man in it, and a great wave fell Within a stone's cast! Words may never tell The passion of the moment, when I flung All childish records by, and felt arise A thing that died no more! An awful power I claimed with trembling hands and eager eyes, Mine, mine for ever, an immortal dower.— The noise of waters soundeth to this hour, When I look seaward ...
— Robert Falconer • George MacDonald

... hast, By best advice of all our Cardinals, Today shall be enlarged till it be made Past all dissolving. Then to our council table Shall she be called, that read aloud, she told The church commands her quick return for Florence With such a dower as Spain received with her, And that they will not hazard heaven's dire curse To yield to a match unlawful, which shall taint The issue of the King with bastardy. This done, in state majestic come you forth, Our new crowned Queen in sight of all ...
— The Noble Spanish Soldier • Thomas Dekker

... on the same day, and by Allah's will they wife bear thee a son and my wife bear me a daughter, let us wed them either to other, for they will be cousins." Quoth Nur al-Din, "O my brother, Shams al-Din, what dower [FN365] wilt thou require from my son for thy daughter?" Quoth Shams al-Din, "I will take three thousand dinars and three pleasure gardens and three farms; and it would not be seemly that the youth make contract for less than this." When Nur al-Din heard such demand he said, "What manner of dower ...
— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 1 • Richard F. Burton

... dreams, I fashioned a flower; Nursed it within my heart, Thought it my dower. What wind is this that creeps within and blows Roughly away ...
— To Love • Margaret Peterson

... living at this hour: England hath need of thee: she is a fen Of stagnant waters; altar, sword, and pen, Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower, Have forfeited their ancient English dower 5 Of inward happiness. We are selfish men; Oh! raise us up, return to us again; And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power. Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart: Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like ...
— Selections from Wordsworth and Tennyson • William Wordsworth and Alfred Lord Tennyson

... reading one of the most glowing letters, "oh, was there really ever in any other man's arms but mine a woman who could say such things as these between kisses? O Nell, Nell, thank God that you haven't the dower of such a double fire in ...
— Saxe Holm's Stories • Helen Hunt Jackson

... do. They set aside a few of their most precious belongings to be stored, like Grandma's grandma's painted dower chest, full of treasures, and Grandpa's tall desk and Rose-Ellen's dearest doll. Next they chose the things they must use during their stay in Jersey. Finally they called in the second-hand man around the corner to buy the things ...
— Across the Fruited Plain • Florence Crannell Means

... glory of power, In the pride and the pleasure of wealth (For who dares dispute me my dower Of talents and youth-time and health?), I can laugh at the world and its sages - I am greater than seers who are sad, For he is most wise in all ages Who ...
— Poems of Cheer • Ella Wheeler Wilcox

... to humanity, and of love just as noble and true as she could attain in marriage. She is not fit to marry until she is fit to stand alone. Unless life has a purpose and meaning of its own to her as well as to her husband, she cannot bring him an equal dower, and she has no test of the new feeling which should take its value from the richness of the life that she is ready ...
— The Education of American Girls • Anna Callender Brackett

... Lord of Burgundie, We first addresse toward you, who with this King Hath riuald for our Daughter; what in the least Will you require in present Dower with her, Or cease your quest of Loue? Bur. Most Royall Maiesty, I craue no more then hath your Highnesse offer'd, Nor will you tender lesse? Lear. Right Noble Burgundy, When she was deare to vs, we did hold her so, But now her price is fallen: Sir, there she stands, ...
— The First Folio [35 Plays] • William Shakespeare

... hard, unwaking sleep has overpowered Her limbs, and now the flowered Cool muslin and the ribbon snoods are bootless, The gilded girdles fruitless. My little girl, 'twas to a bed far other That one day thy poor mother Had thought to lead thee, and this simple dower Suits not the bridal hour; A tiny shroud and gown of her own sewing She gives thee at thy going. Thy rather brings a clod of earth, a somber Pillow for thy last slumber. And so a single casket, scant of measure, Locks ...
— Laments • Jan Kochanowski

... Indeed, I believe the worthy general, who was confoundedly hard up when he married, expected to have got a great fortune, and little anticipated the three chancery suits he succeeded to, nor the fourteen rent-charges to his wife's relatives that made up the bulk of the dower. It was an unlucky hit for him when he fell in with the old 'maid' at Bath; and had she lived, he must have gone to the colonies. But the Lord took her one day, and Major Dashwood was himself again. The Duke of York, the story goes, saw him at Hounslow during a review, was much struck with ...
— Charles O'Malley, The Irish Dragoon, Volume 1 (of 2) • Charles Lever

... love's blood, In view and opposite two cities stood, Sea-borderers, disjoin'd by Neptune's might; The one Abydos, the other Sestos hight. At Sestos Hero dwelt; Hero the fair, Whom young Apollo courted for her hair, And offer'd as a dower his burning throne, Where she should sit, for men to gaze upon. The outside of her garments were of lawn, The lining purple silk, with gilt stars drawn; Her wide sleeves green, and border'd with a grove, Where Venus in her naked ...
— Hero and Leander and Other Poems • Christopher Marlowe and George Chapman

... exercising only a very precarious authority as the boy's guardian; while the Dowager Margaret, the second wife of Charles the Bold, the lady whose hostility to the House of Lancaster has been already noted, possessed some dower-towns, and considerable influence. In 1486 Maximilian was elected "King of the Romans," in other words his father's ...
— England Under the Tudors • Arthur D. Innes

... Georgian house had been in the then Lady Bracondale's dower, and still retained its ...
— Beyond The Rocks - A Love Story • Elinor Glyn

... of a flower; White as the daisies that adorned the chancel; Borne like a gift, the young wife's natural dower, Offered to God ...
— Dreams and Days: Poems • George Parsons Lathrop

... or whether she would prefer to return to Soleure and live with the ambassador, which latter plan might bring them some profit. He ended by declaring that whatever she had would be for her sole use, and that he would give her a dower of a hundred thousand francs. He did not ...
— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... right of dower in his deceased wife's estate, and he could hold property in his own right, even after marriage. His wife could not even deed away her real estate without his consent. By this you see how carefully the men were shielded from the liability ...
— Daybreak: A Romance of an Old World • James Cowan

... earnest, and might possibly present them with a stepmother, above all, a comparatively young stepmother, and, so far as physique went, a magnificent animal, with promise of a long life—so long that her rights of dower would make a cut in the Van Tromp estates and treasures, which might well cause the old Admiral to rouse himself from his three-century sleep in Dordrecht Church and once more walk these glimpses of the moon in protest of the sacrilege. Then the scandal of a Countess-adventuress ...
— Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison - Fifteen Years in Solitude • Austin Biron Bidwell

... once the king is dead and sets her free, Edward the Sixth ascends the throne; and Catharine then is nothing more than the forgotten and disregarded widow of a king; while Elizabeth, the king's sister, may perhaps bring a crown as her dower to him whom ...
— Henry VIII And His Court • Louise Muhlbach

... had then become quite probable that John might not have issue. The will gives him and his heirs, but not his assigns, the Bishop farm. In the event of his death without issue, his widow would have her dower and legal life right in it, but the final heir would be Zerubabel. In 1662, the Governor, who had, some years before, removed to Boston, where he resided the remainder of his life, executed a deed, giving ...
— Salem Witchcraft, Volumes I and II • Charles Upham

... whose name was Aganippus, hearing of the beautie, womanhood, and good conditions of the said Cordeilla, desired to haue hir in mariage, and sent ouer to hir father, requiring that he might haue hir to wife: to whome answer was made, that he might haue his daughter, but as for anie dower he could haue none, for all was promised and assured to hir other sisters alreadie. Aganippus notwithstanding this answer of deniall to receiue anie thing by way of dower with Cordeilla, tooke hir to wife, ...
— Chronicles (1 of 6): The Historie of England (2 of 8) - The Second Booke Of The Historie Of England • Raphael Holinshed

... number of a leading musical journal, the long, high, prominent nasal organ of Sir Edward Elgar confronts us, whose peculiar cast of thought confirms the impression that spirituality, fine artistic conception and capacity to achieve are still the dower of those possessing this fast-disappearing feature. Ringfield belonged to the tribe of straight-nosed, grey-eyed thinkers—a finished contrast to Father Rielle, whose worn profile suggested the wormwood and the ...
— Ringfield - A Novel • Susie Frances Harrison

... and tapestries, and melt down the ore they contain. How little of all that human skill and invention have carefully elaborated is now preserved to us! To gold and silver textiles their materials have been often a fatal dower. ...
— Needlework As Art • Marian Alford

... so will others respect us. The laws have been modified in our favor. The property of a woman is her own, whether married or single. It is subject to no invasion by her husband's creditors, yet her dower in ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 91, May, 1865 • Various

... shadowed love and beauty-veiled power, She feels her wings: she yearns to grasp her own, Knowing the utmost good to be her dower. ...
— The Poems of Emma Lazarus - Vol. I (of II.), Narrative, Lyric, and Dramatic • Emma Lazarus

... Raxton Grove: 'What should I do with fame, dear heart?' says he, 'You talk of fame, poetic fame, to me Whose crown is not of laurel but of love— To me who would not give this little glove On this dear hand for Shakespeare's dower ...
— Aylwin • Theodore Watts-Dunton

... trait, characteristic, which stands out above all the rest to make a climax of interest and charm. With the rose it is its perfume; with the bird, perhaps the scarlet or snowy feathers upon its breast. Among human beings who have the rare divine dower of clear individuality the crown and cap of distinction differs. In her—for me, at least—the consummate fascination is not in her eyes, though I am moved by the soft glory of their light, nor in the ...
— Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise • David Graham Phillips

... Come forth, ye drooping old men, look abroad, And see to what fair countries ye are bound! And if some traveller, weary of his road, Hath slept since noontide on the grassy ground, Ye genii, to his covert speed, And wake him with such gentle heed As may attune his soul to meet the dower Bestowed on this ...
— England's Antiphon • George MacDonald

... that rounded bliss, increased To one consummate hour! The marriage-robe, the stoled priest, The kisses when the rite hath ceased, And with her heart's rich dower She standeth by his shielding side, His wedded wife and his own ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 4, No. 23, September, 1859 • Various

... Father, crown with power, And all their utterance with Thy unction dower. And unto me, here in my house, be given Patient submission to the ...
— Welsh Lyrics of the Nineteenth Century • Edmund O. Jones

... it; get out of it as best you can. I have often told you to let her alone; she has sharp claws." The king was really tired of Catherine's sour frown before he married her. It was her dower of Spanish gold that brought her a second ...
— When Knighthood Was in Flower • Charles Major

... some hidden cares oppress, O'ertasking far our vain and feeble power. Clouds o'er each mountain summit ever lower, And gloom enwraps each hushed and quiet vale: Bright eyes grow dim, each rosy cheek grows pale, For change is earth's inevitable dower. Then the crushed soul, forgetful of its pride, Turns from itself to what it may not see But knows exists, for safety and for aid. And well it is that we may lay aside Our burdens thus, and in humility Pray at a shrine ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 5 November 1848 • Various

... on the statute books detrimental to women. No right of dower exists in the territory, and the legislators at their last session wholly refused to provide for it. There are no marriage laws—as the Mormons hold the ordinance as strictly a Latter Day Church prerogative. There are no ...
— The Bay State Monthly, Volume 3, No. 5 • Various

... me:—Upon a true contract I got possession of Julietta's bed: You know the lady; she is fast my wife, Save that we do the denunciation lack Of outward order;: this we came not to Only for propagation of a dower Remaining in the coffer of her friends; From whom we thought it meet to hide our love Till time had made them for us. But it chances The stealth of our most mutual entertainment, With character too gross, is writ ...
— Measure for Measure • William Shakespeare [Collins edition]

... marriage with Cleopatra, which had either been refused by herself or hindered by his rivals; and lastly Ptolemy, now that by the death of her nephews she brought kingdoms, or the love of the Macedonian mercenaries, which was worth more than kingdoms, as her dower, sent to ask her hand in marriage. This offer was accepted by Cleopatra; but, on her journey from Sardis, the capital of Lydia, to Egypt, on her way to join her future husband, she was put to death by Antigonus. The niece ...
— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 10 (of 12) • S. Rappoport

... little sail. The city looked dark to the south, while numerous lights along the near shores, and the beautiful aspect of the banks reposing in placid night, the waters keenly reflecting the heavenly lights, gave to this beauteous river a dower of loveliness that might have characterized a retreat in Paradise. Our single boatman attended to the sail; Raymond steered; Clara sat at his feet, clasping his knees with her arms, and laying her head on them. Raymond began ...
— The Last Man • Mary Shelley

... and tree and flower Unweave not Love's rich beauteous dower, All Danae again earth darkles Beneath His ceaseless ...
— Song-waves • Theodore H. Rand

... land, or Holland, seemed hardly deserving the arms of the all-accomplished Roman. Yet foreign tyranny, from the earliest ages, has coveted this meagre territory as lustfully as it has sought to wrest from their native possessors those lands with the fatal gift of beauty for their dower; while the genius of liberty has inspired as noble a resistance to oppression here as it ever aroused in ...
— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... of the first bits of India to belong to the English. The Portuguese held it before then, and gave it to our nation as part of the dower of Catherine of Braganza, the Portuguese princess who married Charles II. You know the old saying, "trade follows the flag," and it certainly did in Bombay, for the East India Company rented the city from the ...
— Round the Wonderful World • G. E. Mitton

... of Suicide..... Affairs of the Continent..... Meeting of the Parliament..... Address to the King touching the Spanish Depredations..... The Excise Scheme proposed by Sir Robert Walpole..... Opposition to the Scheme..... Bill for a Dower to the Princess Royal——Debate in the House of Lords concerning the Estates of the late Directors of the South-Sea Company..... Double Election of a King in Poland..... The Kings of France, Spain, and Sardinia, join against the Emperor..... The Prince of Orange arrives in England..... Altercation ...
— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... ambition, which seemed to the sober man of the world too apt to refine upon the means, and to cui bono the objects of worldly distinction. Besides, Cleveland was one who thoroughly appreciated the advantages of wealth and station; and the rank and the dower of Florence were such as would force Maltravers into a position in social life, which could not fail to make new exactions upon talents which Cleveland fancied were precisely those adapted rather to command than ...
— Ernest Maltravers, Complete • Edward Bulwer-Lytton

... (Vol. ii., p. 464.).—A. A. will find, from Blackstone's Commentaries, vol. ii. p. 135., that in feudal times a husband had the power of protecting his lands from the wife's claim to dower, by endowing her, ad ostium Ecclesiae, with specific estates to the exclusion of others; or, if he had no lands at the time of the marriage, by an endowment in goods, chattels, or money. When special endowments ...
— Notes and Queries, Number 77, April 19, 1851 • Various

... ripe for the consummation of so weighty a matter, who either rashly, of their own accord, or by the instigation of procurers or marriage-brokers, or else forced thereto by their parents who covet a large dower take upon them this yoke to their prejudice; by which some, before the expiration of a year, have been so enfeebled, that all their vital moisture has been exhausted; which had not been restored again without great trouble and the use of medicines. ...
— The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher • Anonymous

... dragon's wing, the magic ring, I shall not covet for my dower. If I along that lowly way With sympathetic heart may stray And with a ...
— Gossip in a Library • Edmund Gosse

... absorbing question. Our remarks had been evoked by the neat appearance of the children of the Moorfields Schools, who had just passed near where we stood, as they entered the church. One of us remarked in reference to the Tower close by, that it was the dower of the Lady Blanche, the daughter of John O'Gaunt, who, although occupying so eminently marked a place in history, was a man so narrow-minded that he would not allow any of his vassals to receive the least education ...
— Recollections of Old Liverpool • A Nonagenarian

... especially the convents for women that became the great breeding-beds of this disease. Among the large numbers of women and girls thus assembled—many of them forced into monastic seclusion against their will, for the reason that their families could give them no dower—subjected to the unsatisfied longings, suspicions, bickerings, petty jealousies, envies, and hatreds, so inevitable in convent life—mental disease was not unlikely to be developed at any moment. Hysterical excitement in nunneries took shapes ...
— History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom • Andrew Dickson White

... Brothers") was performed at the Funeral Games of Lucius AEmilius Paulus, who was surnamed Macedonicus, from having gained a victory over Perseus, King of Macedon. He was so poor at the time of his decease, that they were obliged to sell his estate in order to pay his widow her dower. The Q. Fabius Maximus and P. Cornelius Africanus here mentioned were not, as some have thought, the Curale AEdiles, but two sons of AEmilius Paulus, who had taken the surnames of the families into which ...
— The Comedies of Terence - Literally Translated into English Prose, with Notes • Publius Terentius Afer, (AKA) Terence

... he lived a single man on the patrimonial estate until he grew tired of living alone, and then he took to wife the daughter of a neighbouring gentleman with a dower of one thousand pounds. This good lady bore him two children, a son and a daughter, and when the son was about nineteen, and the daughter fourteen, as near as we can guess—impartial records of young ladies' ages being, before the passing of the new act, nowhere preserved in the registries ...
— The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby • Charles Dickens

... so that before matrimony shall be contracted, those who are near in blood to the heir shall have notice. 7. A widow, after the death of her husband, shall forthwith and without difficulty have her marriage and inheritance; nor shall she give anything for her dower, or her marriage, or her inheritance, which her husband and she held at the day of his death; and she may remain in the mansion house of her husband forty days after his death, within which time her dower shall ...
— Civil Government in the United States Considered with - Some Reference to Its Origins • John Fiske

... She occupied her own dower-rooms in the house, and rarely went outside them. All day long she sat in her great arm-chair by the window in her sitting-room, with the door wide open, so that she could see all that went on in the house and outside it; and in the sombre depths of her great black silk sun-bonnet—long since turned ...
— A Maid of the Silver Sea • John Oxenham

... distinction between kindred of the whole and half blood; saving in all cases to the widow of the intestate, her third part of the real estate for life, and one-third part of the personal estate; and this law relative to descents and dower, shall remain in full force until altered by the legislature of the district. And until the governor and judges shall adopt laws as hereinafter mentioned, estates in the said territory may be devised ...
— The Fathers of the Constitution - Volume 13 in The Chronicles Of America Series • Max Farrand

... and was active in local politics, rising through the successive gradations of leet juror, constable, and alderman to high bailiff in 1568, although unable to write his own name. He married, in 1557, Mary Arden, the daughter of his father's landlord, who brought him as dower about sixty acres of land and the equivalent of $200 in money. His pride was apparently inflamed by political success, and he applied to the Herald's College for a grant of arms, which was refused. From this time his fortunes ...
— Great Men and Famous Women, Vol. 7 of 8 • Charles F. (Charles Francis) Horne

... was not a little pleased with the kind looks and glances I had from all the balconies and windows as I rode to the hall where the assizes were held. But when I came there, a beautiful creature in a widow's habit sat in court, to hear the event of a cause concerning her dower. This commanding creature (who was born for the destruction of all who behold her) put on such a resignation in her countenance, and bore the whispers of all around the court, with such a pretty uneasiness, I warrant ...
— The Coverley Papers • Various

... can produce. Need I name that one, gentlemen,' he said, with a courtly bow and kneeling as he kissed the Queen's hand, 'for she it is who has to-day been pleased to give, even to us, Four Children of Desire—defeated as we are—the meed of praise, which is, from her, a priceless dower.' ...
— Penshurst Castle - In the Days of Sir Philip Sidney • Emma Marshall

... importunate with me, that I was forced to engage that she should go no farther with me than Goa, which was in India, and where they could go to visit her; and that, if at any time I were to go to Portugal or elsewhere, I should then leave her with such a dower as is usual with the Portuguese when they die. But knowing that if my wife should chuse to go with me, all these might have no effect, I concerted with the Jesuits to procure me two seguros or passports; one giving me free permission and liberty of conscience to reside and trade at Goa, which ...
— A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels, Vol. VIII. • Robert Kerr

... and papa mad if I were to stay at home always. And what would become of me when Dolly was master of everything?' Lady Pomona, looking forward as well as she was able to the time at which she should herself have departed, when her dower and dower-house would have reverted to Dolly, acknowledged that Georgiana should provide herself with a home of ...
— The Way We Live Now • Anthony Trollope

... inheritance, things that bind countries more closely together than any laws or constitutions whatsoever. Is it right that a woman who marries into Ireland, and perhaps well purchases her jointure or her dower there, should not after her husband's death have it in her choice to return to her country and her friends without being taxed for it? If an Irish heiress should marry into an English family, and that great property in both ...
— The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. VI. (of 12) • Edmund Burke

... Calcutta are again rivals for supremacy. Bombay Island, upon which Bombay City stands, another of the keys of the world, was given to Britain by Portugal as part of the dower of Catherine of Braganza when she married Charles II. Think of a woman giving anything for the privilege of marrying such a wretch! but so little was it esteemed that the government gave it in 1688 to the East India Company for a rental of L10 per annum. It was subsequently made the principal ...
— Round the World • Andrew Carnegie

... been a wayward child, more neglected than petted, and had naturally developed a passion for having her own will, right or wrong. As she grew older, her extraordinary dower of beauty threatened to be a fatal one. It brought her attention continuous admiration and flattery from those who cared nothing for her personally. She had received in childhood but little of the praise which love prompts, the tender, indulgent idolatry which, although dangerous indeed to ...
— A Face Illumined • E. P. Roe

... Lord is then our brother In whom we may confide, The Church of God our mother, The Holy Ghost our guide; Our blest baptismal dower The bands of hell has riven And opened us God's heaven, This is ...
— Hymns and Hymnwriters of Denmark • Jens Christian Aaberg

... I., Duke of Savoy, did not live to see this, for he had died in 1490, and the Duchess, his widow, had left Chambery and retired to her dower house in the pleasant town of Carignano, in Piedmont, about seventeen miles to the south of Turin. This lady, Blanche Paleologus, had been a most kind friend to young Bayard, and when she heard that he ...
— Bayard: The Good Knight Without Fear And Without Reproach • Christopher Hare

... treasure of my lips would dower A mighty tribe, a mighty land, And as with a magician's power I'd rule, ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. VII. • Various

... marriages for the royal children in order to increase their own power and dominions, or for other reasons connected with the welfare of the country. Thus Henry II., by this marriage, obtained possession of lands in France, and the City of Gisors, given by Louis as a dower to Alice. The little girl and her lands were placed in the hands of Henry to be guarded for Richard until the boy should be old ...
— With Spurs of Gold - Heroes of Chivalry and their Deeds • Frances Nimmo Greene



Words linked to "Dower" :   life estate, benefice, gift, portion, present, dowery, endow, give



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