| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: interpretation. People sometimes say that actors give us their own
Hamlets, and not Shakespeare's; and this fallacy - for it is a
fallacy - is, I regret to say, repeated by that charming and
graceful writer who has lately deserted the turmoil of literature
for the peace of the House of Commons, I mean the author of OBITER
DICTA. In point of fact, there is no such thing as Shakespeare's
Hamlet. If Hamlet has something of the definiteness of a work of
art, he has also all the obscurity that belongs to life. There are
as many Hamlets as there are melancholies.
ERNEST. As many Hamlets as there are melancholies?
GILBERT. Yes: and as art springs from personality, so it is only
|
The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: shall miss you too horribly!"
"So that you just put it to me as a definite request?"--oh how she
tried to divest this of all sound of the hardness of bargaining!
That ought to have been easy enough, for what was she arranging to
get? Before he could answer she had continued: "To be perfectly
fair I should tell you I recognise at Cocker's certain strong
attractions. All you people come. I like all the horrors."
"The horrors?"
"Those you all--you know the set I mean, YOUR set--show me with as
good a conscience as if I had no more feeling than a letter-box."
He looked quite excited at the way she put it. "Oh they don't
|
The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells: jerking motion, the tricycle he rode twisted round upon itself,
and he partly dismounted and partly fell off. He turned his
machine up hill again immediately and began to wheel it. Then the
burly gentleman dismounted, and with a courtly attentiveness
assisted the lady in grey to alight. There was some little
difference of opinion as to assistance, she so clearly wished to
help push. Finally she gave in, and the burly gentleman began
impelling the machine up hill by his own unaided strength. His
face made a dot of brilliant colour among the greys and greens at
the foot of the hill. The tandem bicycle was now, it seems,
repaired, and this joined the tail of the procession, its riders
|
