ISBN: 9780217896306

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1910. Excerpt: ... THE … Mehr…

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1910. Excerpt: ... THE HOUSE ON THE BEACH CHAPTER I The experience of great officials who have laid down their dignities before death, or have had the philosophic mind to review themselves while still wielding the deputy sceptre, teaches them that in the exercise of authority over men an eccentric behaviour in trifles has most exposed them to hostile criticism and gone farthest to jeopardize their popularity. It is their Achilles'' heel; the place where their mother Nature holds them as she dips them in our waters. The eccentricity of common persons is the entertainment of the multitude, and the maternal hand is perceived for a cherishing and endearing sign upon them; but rarely can this be found suitable for the august in station; only, indeed, when their sceptre is no more fearful than a grandmother''s birch; and these must learn from it sooner or later that they are uncomfortably mortal. When herrings are at auction on a beach, for example, the man of chief distinction in the town should not step in among a poor fraternity to take advantage of an occasion of cheapness, though it be done, as he may protest, to relieve the fishermen of a burden; nor should such a dignitary as the bailiff of a Cinque Port carry home the spoil of victorious bargaining on his arm in a basket. It is not that his conduct is in itself objectionable, so much as that it causes him to be popularly 3 weighed; and during life, until the best of all advocates can plead before our fellow Englishmen that we are out of their way, it is prudent to avoid the process. Mr. Tinman, however, this high-stepping person in question, happened to have come of a marketing mother. She had started him from a small shop to a big one. He, by the practice of her virtues, had been enabled to start himself as a gentleman. He was a man of this ambition,... George Meredith, Books, History, The Works Of George Meredith (volume 22) Books>History Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE SENTIMENTALISTS Of this comedy Scenes vi.-viii. in blank verse were written probably forty years ago, or more; of Scenes i.-v. there are two MS. versions, differing in very slight degree the one from the other, and both written some ten or fifteen years ago. There also exist fragments of further Scenes. Mr. J. M. Barrie has assembled the alternative versions and somewhat rearranged the Scenes?to the text no change nor addition has been made. DRAMATIS PERSONS Homeware. Professor Spiral. Arden, . . .In love with Astraea. Swithin, Osier, Dame Dresden, . Sister to Homeware. Astraea, . . Niece to Dame Dresden and Homeware. Lyra, . . .A Wife. Lady Oldlace. Virginia. Winifred. THE SENTIMENTALISTS AN UNFINISHED COMEDY The scene is a Surrey garden in early summer. The paths are shaded by tall box-wood hedges. The time is some sixty years ago. SCENE I PROFESSOR SPIRAL, DAME DRESDEN, LADY OLDLACE, VIRGINIA, WINIFRED, SWITHIN, AND OSIER. (As they slowly promenade the garden, the professor is delivering one of his exquisite orations on Woman.) Spiral One husband! The woman consenting to marriage takes but one. For her there is no widowhood. That punctuation of the sentence called death is not the end of the chapter for her. It is the brilliant proof of her having a soul. So she exalts her sex. Above the wrangle and clamour of the passions she is a fixed star. After once recording her obedience to the laws of our common nature?that is to say, by descending once to wedlock?she passes on in sovereign disengagement? a dedicated widow. (By this time they have disappeared from view. Homeware appears; he craftily avoids joining their party, like one who is unworthy of such noble oratory. He desires privacy and a book, but is dis...<