| The first excerpt represents the past or something you must release, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: Eighth and his friends gave several masques in the strange attire
of their visitors. Later on London saw, perhaps too often, the
sombre splendour of the Spanish Court, and to Elizabeth came envoys
from all lands, whose dress, Shakespeare tells us, had an important
influence on English costume.
And the interest was not confined merely to classical dress, or the
dress of foreign nations; there was also a good deal of research,
amongst theatrical people especially, into the ancient costume of
England itself: and when Shakespeare, in the prologue to one of
his plays, expresses his regret at being unable to produce helmets
of the period, he is speaking as an Elizabethan manager and not
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The second excerpt represents the present or the deciding factor of the moment, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: dank with dew. His clothes were huddled on with a careless
negligence, remarkable in a military man, whose real or supposed
duties are usually held to include some attention to the toilet;
and his looks were haggard and ghastly in a peculiar degree.
"So you have stolen a march upon us this morning, my dear
General," said Lord Woodville; "or you have not found your bed so
much to your mind as I had hoped and you seemed to expect. How
did you rest last night?"
"Oh, excellently well! remarkably well! never better in my
life," said General Browne rapidly, and yet with an air of
embarrassment which was obvious to his friend. He then hastily
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The third excerpt represents the future or something you must embrace, and is drawn from End of the Tether by Joseph Conrad: "See the palms now, Tuan."
Captain Whalley strode forward to the rail; but his
eyes, instead of going straight to the point, with the
assured keen glance of a sailor, wandered irresolutely
in space, as though he, the discoverer of new routes, had
lost his way upon this narrow sea.
Another white man, the mate, came up on the bridge.
He was tall, young, lean, with a mustache like a
trooper, and something malicious in the eye. He took
up a position beside the engineer. Captain Whalley,
with his back to them, inquired--
End of the Tether |
