Originally Posted by vil Originally Posted by

Dear teachers,



Recently I note a strange for me expression in a common conversation.



"Will you kindly tell me what there is to laugh at? If you think it amuses me to stand here like patience on a monument and have my leg pulled you're mistaken."



Automatically I thought of the usage the same expression in the Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"



"pined in thought

and with a green and yellow melancholy

She sat like patience on a monument,

Smiling at grief."



I guess that the expression "patience on the monument" refers to statues of the allegorical figure of Patience, which often adorned Renaissance tombstones.



Would you tell me whether the mentioned above expression is a common occurrence nowadays?



V.