Hold their noses to the grindstone.

 

Hold their noses to the grindstone.
--
Blurt, Master-Constable (c.1601), Act iii. Sc. 3. Attributed to Middleton, but possibly written or edited by Thomas Dekker.. Compare: "Hold their noses to grinstone", John Heywood, Proverbes. Part i. Chap. v.

 

Thomas Middleton

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And hold one another's noses to the grindstone hard.

 

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