| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: theme of Salome, wrote another music drama to accompany Wilde's
text. The exclusive musical rights having been already secured by
Dr. Strauss, Lieutenant Marriotte's work cannot be performed
regularly. One presentation, however, was permitted at Lyons, the
composer's native town, where I am told it made an extraordinary
impression. In order to give English readers some faint idea of the
world-wide effect of Wilde's drama, my friend Mr. Walter Ledger has
prepared a short bibliography of certain English and Continental
translations.
At the time of Wilde's trial the nearly completed MS. of La Sainte
Courtisane was entrusted to Mrs. Leverson, the well-known novelist,
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: roulette ball never slept. At such times his loneliness and
bankruptcy stunned him till he sat for hours in the same
unblinking, unchanging position. At other times, his long-pent
bitterness found voice in passionate outbursts; for he had rubbed
the world the wrong way and did not like the feel of it.
"Life's a skin-game," he was fond of repeating, and on this one
note he rang the changes. "I never had half a chance," he
complained. "I was faked in my birth and flim-flammed with my
mother's milk. The dice were loaded when she tossed the box, and
I was born to prove the loss. But that was no reason she should
blame me for it, and look on me as a cold deck; but she did--ay,
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: Look how he can, she cannot choose but love;
And by her fair immortal hand she swears, 80
From his soft bosom never to remove,
Till he take truce with her contending tears,
Which long have rain'd, making her cheeks all wet;
And one sweet kiss shall pay this countless debt.
Upon this promise did he raise his chin 85
Like a dive-dapper peering through a wave,
Who, being look'd on, ducks as quickly in;
So offers he to give what she did crave; 88
But when her lips were ready for his pay,
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