[log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> A person I know is curious about the origin
> of the following French phrase: "rameau delabre d'une branche fletrie"
> ("rameau de/labre/ d'une branche fle/trie"). He believes it comes from a French
> translation of Shakespeare, but a search through a Shakespeare concordance in
> English hasn't helped. I looked up words such as ruin, wither, spoil, branch,
> leaf, flower, without coming on any very close parallels.
This is probably too obvious, but at least some of the words mentioned would
appear in Sonnet 73:
That time of year thou mayst in me behold,
When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
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