Durst

Traditional rhyme Four and twenty tailors went to kill a snail; the best man among them durst not touch her tail.

Others, I am not the first, Have willed more mischief than they durst

Pretty soul! She durst not lie / Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.

That thou durst, Arcite!

Who durst defy th' omnipotent to arms.

And they durst not steal, for fear of the law, for such were punished; neither durst they rob, nor murder, for he that murdered was punished unto death.

Coming home, therefore, I sat me down secretly under the Shrine of St. Edmund, fearing lest our Lord Abbot should seize and imprison me, though I had done no mischief; nor was there a monk who durst speak to me, nor a laic who durst bring me food except by stealth.

Captain Smollett, the squire, and Dr. Livesey were talking together on the quarter-deck, and, anxious as I was to tell them my story, I durst not interrupt them openly.