| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: the virginals? It was at least something to have discovered that
Will Hews was an Elizabethan name. Indeed the name Hews seemed to
have been closely connected with music and the stage. The first
English actress was the lovely Margaret Hews, whom Prince Rupert so
madly loved. What more probable than that between her and Lord
Essex's musician had come the boy-actor of Shakespeare's plays?
But the proofs, the links - where were they? Alas! I could not
find them. It seemed to me that I was always on the brink of
absolute verification, but that I could never really attain to it.
From Willie Hughes's life I soon passed to thoughts of his death.
I used to wonder what had been his end.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Elizabeth and her German Garden by Marie Annette Beauchamp: brackets <> to facilitate proofreading and correction for subsequent
editions.
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ELIZABETH AND HER GERMAN GARDEN
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD.
1900
First Edition, September, 1898. Reprinted November, 1898:
December, 1898; March, May, and July, 1899 (twice); August
and October, 1899 (twice). New Edition with additions set up
Elizabeth and her German Garden |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: an officer who received us into the room where Weymouth waited.
The inspector greeted us briefly, nodding toward the table.
"Poor Cadby, the most promising lad at the Yard," he said;
and his usually gruff voice had softened strangely.
Smith struck his right fist into the palm of his left hand and swore
under his breath, striding up and down the neat little room.
No one spoke for a moment, and in the silence I could hear the whispering
of the Thames outside--of the Thames which had so many strange secrets
to tell, and now was burdened with another.
The body lay prone upon the deal table--this latest of the river's dead--
dressed in rough sailor garb, and, to all outward seeming, a seaman of
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Princess by Alfred Tennyson: Tenderness touch by touch, and last, to these,
Love, like an Alpine harebell hung with tears
By some cold morning glacier; frail at first
And feeble, all unconscious of itself,
But such as gathered colour day by day.
Last I woke sane, but well-nigh close to death
For weakness: it was evening: silent light
Slept on the painted walls, wherein were wrought
Two grand designs; for on one side arose
The women up in wild revolt, and stormed
At the Oppian Law. Titanic shapes, they crammed
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