Remember that the narrator is relating this tale after it has happened. He recalls the "tall figures" taking him down into something. He adds that it is like an "interminableness of descent." The descent is completely silent and this adds to his horror and uncertainty. When his carriers reach the bottom, he struggles to regain his senses. He recalls his trial and sentencing (which happened prior to his descent). He then realizes he is lying on his back. Then he finally opens his eyes, but is unable to see anything because he is in complete darkness. He can only guess if he is dead or in some dungeon, awaiting his eventual execution. He has been carried into a subterranean area with a pit in the middle of it. He lies on the perimeter of the pit in total darkness. Evidently, this first attempt at his execution will succeed if he falls into the pit. He spends what little energy he has trying to determine the dimensions of the room/cave he is in. He miraculously avoids the pit, only to be taken to the next attempt at his execution: the pendulum.
Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...
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