Self-pity in its early stage is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable.

-Angelou, Maya originally MayaJohnson
  Gather Together In My Name, ch.6.

I sat through the first act and heard my lovely lines falling like cold porridge on a damp mattress.

-Bridie,James pseudonym of  Osborne Henry Mavor
  One Way of Living, alluding to a performance of his play Marriage is no Joke.

The fact is, that there was considerable difficulty in inducing Oliver to take upon himself the office of respirationöa troublesome practice, but one which custom has rendered necessary to our easy existence; and for some time he lay gasping on a little flock mattress, rather unequally poised between this world and the next: the balance being decidedly in favour of the latter. Now, if during this brief period,Oliver had been surrounded by careful grandmothers, anxious aunts, experienced nurses, and doctors of profound wisdom, he would most inevitably and indubitably have been killed in no time.

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^9  Oliver Twist, ch.1.