| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dark Lady of the Sonnets by George Bernard Shaw: passages. But the general vocabulary of the sonnets to Pembroke (or
whoever "Mr W. H." really was) is so overcharged according to modern
ideas that a reply on the general case is necessary.
Shakespear's alleged Sycophancy and Perversion
That reply, which Mr Harris does not hesitate to give, is twofold:
first, that Shakespear was, in his attitude towards earls, a
sycophant; and, second, that the normality of Shakespear's sexual
constitution is only too well attested by the excessive susceptibility
to the normal impulse shewn in the whole mass of his writings. This
latter is the really conclusive reply. In the case of Michel Angelo,
for instance, one must admit that if his works are set beside those of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: Shall will in others seem right gracious,
And in my will no fair acceptance shine?
The sea, all water, yet receives rain still,
And in abundance addeth to his store;
So thou, being rich in 'Will,' add to thy 'Will'
One will of mine, to make thy large will more.
Let no unkind 'No' fair beseechers kill;
Think all but one, and me in that one 'Will.'
CXXXVI
If thy soul check thee that I come so near,
Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy 'Will',
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: "I ce'tainly got mine good and straight just like Reddy got his.
But what in time was it all about? And me thinkin' I was a
graduate in the study of the ladies. I reckon I never did get
jarred up so. It's plumb discouraging."
If he could have caught a glimpse of Nora at that moment, lying
on her bed and crying as if her heart would break, Mac might have
found the situation less hopeless.
CHAPTER 21. THE SIGNAL LIGHTS
In a little hill-rift about a mile back of the Lazy D Ranch was a
deserted miner's cabin.
The hut sat on the edge of a bluff that commanded a view of the
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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 Gambara by Honore de Balzac: a mania as a spectacle for so much vulgar shrewdness. It was with no
base reservation that he kept up a desultory conversation, in the
course of which Signor Giardini's nose not infrequently interposed
between two remarks. Whenever Gambara uttered some elegant repartee or
some paradoxical aphorism, the cook put his head forward, to glance
with pity at the musician and with meaning at the Count, muttering in
his ear, "/E matto/!"
Then came a moment when the /chef/ interrupted the flow of his
judicial observations to devote himself to the second course, which he
considered highly important. During his absence, which was brief,
Gambara leaned across to address Andrea.
Gambara |
