| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Allan Quatermain by H. Rider Haggard: climate of the uplands below Mt Kenia, the base of which is about
5,000 feet above the coastline level, already grown to imposing
proportions, and were positively laden with golden fruit. After
a stiffish climb of a quarter of a mile or so -- for the hillside
was steep -- we came to a splendid quince fence, also covered
with fruit, which enclosed, Mr Mackenzie told us, a space of
about four acres of ground that contained his private garden,
house, church, and outbuildings, and, indeed, the whole hilltop.
And what a garden it was! I have always loved a good garden,
and I could have thrown up my hands for joy when I saw Mr Mackenzie's.
First there were rows upon rows of standard European fruit-trees,
Allan Quatermain |
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: typified by Wotan and his wife Fricka, these minor antagonists
had to be dramatized also in the persons of Alberic, Mime,
Fafnir, Loki, and the rest. None of these appear in Night Falls
On The Gods save Alberic, whose weird dream-colloquy with Hagen,
effective as it is, is as purely theatrical as the scene of the
Ghost in Hamlet, or the statue in Don Giovanni. Cut the
conference of the Norns and the visit of Valtrauta to Brynhild
out of Night Falls On The Gods, and the drama remains coherent
and complete without them. Retain them, and the play becomes
connected by conversational references with the three music
dramas; but the connection establishes no philosophic coherence,
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: in each hand, was most valiantly fighting the wind on the
pinnacle of the barn. In the mean time, Ichabod would carry on
his suit with the daughter by the side of the spring under the
great elm, or sauntering along in the twilight, that hour so
favorable to the lover's eloquence.
I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won.
To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration.
Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or door of access;
while others have a thousand avenues, and may be captured in a
thousand different ways. It is a great triumph of skill to gain
the former, but a still greater proof of generalship to maintain
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow |
