1597 W. R. in R. Parry Sinetes Passions sig. A5 Faire Philomele her rauishment hath song, But Parry rauisheth with musefull tunes.

1661 S. Pordage Mundorum Explicatio i. 8 I'le here not usher in with museful straines, Th'exuberant fancies of some witty braines, Who make the Moon a World to be, and who Make Worlds of all the starres of Heav'n too.

1801 G. Dyer Poems 133 Fancy..can create new scenes, Fresh, gay, ambrosial, such as purer sense Of museful bard sees, hears, and grows inspir'd.

1957 E. Blunden Poems of Many Years 280 I hear Goethe and Shelley, Melville and poor Clare... Beloved museful singers heard by me Through all the chequered years.

a1618 J. Sylvester tr. G. Fracastoro Maidens Blush (1620) sig. B In musefull care his Joseph calls hee quicke.

1653 Duchess of Newcastle Philos. Fancies (title) An epistle to my musefull thoughts.

1700 J. Dryden Chaucer's Palamon & Arcite i, in Fables 20 Full of museful Mopings, which presage The loss of Reason.

1767 W. J. Mickle Concubine ii. Introd. In musefull Stownd Syr Martyn rews His Youthhedes thoughtlesse Stage.

a1810 C. B. Brown Carwin (1822) II. 52 She was sitting in a museful posture.

1885 G. Meredith Diana of Crossways I. i. 13 She is apt to spin it out of a museful mind, at her toilette, or by the lonely fire.

1909 A. J. Lockhart Birds of Cross 44 Of all his brooding race The one most given to museful melancholy.

1984 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 8 Aug. (Home Forum) 38 Ebenezer in his gossipy yet museful way manages to give us the lives of everybody and his cousin.