| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: apply to the present case, adding, however, a trifle more softness to
the form.
"Madame la comtesse," he said, "you have turned me into a man who is
much to be pitied. I was cheerfully advancing to this marriage, and
you take all faith in it away from me. Suppose I break it off, what
use can I--with that great capacity you see in me--make of the liberty
I thus recover?"
"La Bruyere, if I am not mistaken, said that nothing freshens the
blood so much as to avoid committing a folly."
"That may be; but it is, you must admit, a negative benefit; and I am
of an age and in a position to desire more serious results. The
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde: pas profaner le temple du Seigneur Dieu.
SALOME. Tes cheveux sont horribles. Ils sont couverts de boue et
de poussiere. On dirait une couronne d'epines qu'on a placee sur
ton front. On dirait un noeud de serpents noirs qui se tortillent
autour de ton cou. Je n'aime pas tes cheveux . . . C'est de ta
bouche que je suis amoureuse, Iokanaan. Ta bouche est comme une
bande d'ecarlate sur une tour d'ivoire. Elle est comme une pomme de
grenade coupee par un couteau d'ivoire. Les fleurs de grenade qui
fleurissent dans les jardins de Tyr et sont plus rouges que les
roses, ne sont pas aussi rouges. Les cris rouges des trompettes qui
annoncent l'arrivee des rois, et font peur e l'ennemi ne sont pas
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: such a suspicion, I cannot but observe, that Mr. Vere seems to
believe that I have had some hand in the atrocious violence which
has been offered to his daughter. I request you, gentlemen, to
take notice of my explicit denial of a charge so dishonourable;
and that, although I can pardon the bewildering feelings of a
father in such a moment, yet, if any other gentleman" (he looked
hard at Sir Frederick Langley) "thinks my word and that of Miss
Vere, with the evidence of my friends who accompany me, too
slight for my exculpation, I will be happy--most happy--to repel
the charge, as becomes a man who counts his honour dearer than
his life."
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