The contemptuously respectful attitude of the younger men to the old man in his
dotage was expressed in the highest degree by the behavior of Chichagov, who knew of the accusations that were being directed against Kutuzov.
The least miserable among them appear to be those who turn to
dotage, and entirely lose their memories; these meet with more pity and assistance, because they want many bad qualities which abound in others.
Major Effingham, in declining the liberal offers of the British ministry, had subjected himself to the suspicion of having attained his
dotage, by all those who throng the avenues to court patronage, even in the remotest corners of that vast empire; but, when he thus voluntarily stripped himself of his great personal wealth, the remainder of the community seemed instinctively to adopt the conclusion also that he had reached a second childhood.
At first it made him angry, he told himself it was a sign of
dotage; but there was something in Philip that attracted him, and he found himself smiling at him he knew not why.
But, no, no; Porthos is not yet an invalid, nor is Aramis in his
dotage. The one with his arm, the other with his imagination, will find work for his majesty's soldiers.
People might say I was in my
dotage. To think of that gibberish in my note-book having a meaning in it, after all!
They looked as if they had never known what youth or pleasure was, but had been the offspring of Nature's
dotage, and always the gray, decrepit, sapless, miserable creatures, who now sat stooping round the doctor's table, without life enough in their souls or bodies to be animated even by the prospect of growing young again.
I am a rascal and in my
dotage; I am an unhappy wretch grown old; a tent-cord untwisted, a pierced cuirass, a boot without a sole, a spur without a rowel; -- but do me the pleasure to add one thing."
At the present moment they sat there silent, like two persons in their
dotage, gazing about them at things they did not see.
I may be an old woman, but I am not in my
dotage yet!
The horror of Pitt Crawley may be imagined, as these reports of his father's
dotage reached the most exemplary and correct of gentlemen.
I suppose the old gentleman was in his
dotage, for he manifested in various ways the characteristics which mark this particular stage of life.