Chiefly poet. [Appears late in 16th c.; ad. F. font or L. font-em on the analogy of mount, fountain, etc.] A spring, source, FOUNTAIN.
1593. Shaks., Lucr., 848.
| Why should the worme intrude the maiden bud? | |
| Or hatefull Kuckcowes hatch in Sparrows nests? | |
| Or Todes infect fair founts with venome mud? | |
| Or tyrant follie lurke in gentle brests? | |
| Ibid. (1613), Hen. VIII., I. i. 154. | |
| From sincere motions, by Intelligence | |
| And proofes as cleere as Founts in Iuly, when | |
| Wee see each graine of grauell. |
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 8. As naturall a fluxe and emanation forth of it, as the light in the ayre hath from that which is seated in the body of the Sun, or as the water in the rivelet hath from the fount.
1657. Milton, P. L., III. 357. And flours aloft shading the Fount of Life.
1725. Pope, Odyss., XIX. 562.
| Thy milky founts my infant lips have drain’d; | |
| And have the Fates thy babling age ordain’d | |
| To violate the life thy youth sustain’d? |
1728–46. Thomson, Spring, 397.
| High to their Fount, this Day, amid the Hills | |
| And Woodlands warbling round, trace up the Brooks. |
a. 1839. Praed, Poems (1864), II. 308, ‘The Ascent of Elijah.’
| By Kedron’s brook, or Siloa’s holy fount; | |
| Nor where the fragrant breezes rove | |
| Through Bethel’s dim and silent grove, | |
| Nor on the rugged top of Carmel’s sacred mount. |
b. transf. and fig.
1593. Drayton, Eclog., iv. 107. From this Fount did all those Mischiefs flow.
1833. Mrs. Browning, Prometh. Bound, Poems (1850), I. 144.
| Because I stole | |
| The secret fount of fire, whose bubbles went | |
| Over the ferule’s brim, and manward sent | |
| Art’s mighty means and perfect rudiment, | |
| That sin I expiate in this agony, | |
| Hung here in fetters, ’neath the blanching sky! |
1842. Tennyson, Locksley Hall, 188. Ancient founts of inspiration well thro’ all my fancy yet.
1874. Green, Short Hist., v. § 3. 235. The Archbishop turned fiercely upon Oxford as the fount and centre of the new heresies.
