| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: pleasure. [Rises, and speaks to LORD WINDERMERE, laughing.] What
a bore it is to have to be civil to these old dowagers! But they
always insist on it!
LADY PLYMDALE. [To MR. DUMBY.] Who is that well-dressed woman
talking to Windermere?
DUMBY. Haven't got the slightest idea! Looks like an EDITION DE
LUXE of a wicked French novel, meant specially for the English
market.
MRS. ERLYNNE. So that is poor Dumby with Lady Plymdale? I hear
she is frightfully jealous of him. He doesn't seem anxious to
speak to me to-night. I suppose he is afraid of her. Those straw-
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: no appeal.
ERNEST. From the soul?
GILBERT. Yes, from the soul. That is what the highest criticism
really is, the record of one's own soul. It is more fascinating
than history, as it is concerned simply with oneself. It is more
delightful than philosophy, as its subject is concrete and not
abstract, real and not vague. It is the only civilised form of
autobiography, as it deals not with the events, but with the
thoughts of one's life; not with life's physical accidents of deed
or circumstance, but with the spiritual moods and imaginative
passions of the mind. I am always amused by the silly vanity of
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: Presume not on th;heart when mine is slain,
Thou gav'st me thine not to give back again.
XXIII
As an unperfect actor on the stage,
Who with his fear is put beside his part,
Or some fierce thing replete with too much rage,
Whose strength's abundance weakens his own heart;
So I, for fear of trust, forget to say
The perfect ceremony of love's rite,
And in mine own love's strength seem to decay,
O'ercharg'd with burthen of mine own love's might.
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