| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Soul of Man by Oscar Wilde: Individualism that is false. It has debarred one part of the
community from being individual by starving them. It has debarred
the other part of the community from being individual by putting
them on the wrong road, and encumbering them. Indeed, so
completely has man's personality been absorbed by his possessions
that the English law has always treated offences against a man's
property with far more severity than offences against his person,
and property is still the test of complete citizenship. The
industry necessary for the making money is also very demoralising.
In a community like ours, where property confers immense
distinction, social position, honour, respect, titles, and other
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Taras Bulba and Other Tales by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: gull, and skimmed wantonly through blue waves of air. And now she has
vanished on high, and appears only as a black dot: now she has turned
her wings, and shines in the sunlight. Oh, steppes, how beautiful you
are!
Our travellers halted only a few minutes for dinner. Their escort of
ten Cossacks sprang from their horses and undid the wooden casks of
brandy, and the gourds which were used instead of drinking vessels.
They ate only cakes of bread and dripping; they drank but one cup
apiece to strengthen them, for Taras Bulba never permitted
intoxication upon the road, and then continued their journey until
evening.
Taras Bulba and Other Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Walking by Henry David Thoreau: tell us that an Indian had no name given him at first, but earned
it, and his name was his fame; and among some tribes he acquired
a new name with every new exploit. It is pitiful when a man bears
a name for convenience merely, who has earned neither name nor
fame.
I will not allow mere names to make distinctions for me, but
still see men in herds for all them. A familiar name cannot make
a man less strange to me. It may be given to a savage who retains
in secret his own wild title earned in the woods. We have a wild
savage in us, and a savage name is perchance somewhere recorded
as ours. I see that my neighbor, who bears the familiar epithet
Walking |
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 Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: One day, however, Mr. Willard wrote that he possessed a typewritten
fragment of a play which Wilde had submitted to him, and this he
kindly forwarded for my inspection. It agreed in nearly every
particular with what I had taken so much trouble to put together.
This suggests that the opening scene had never been written, as Mr.
Willard's version began where mine did. It was characteristic of
the author to finish what he never began.
When the Literary Theatre Society produced Salome in 1906 they asked
me for some other short drama by Wilde to present at the same time,
as Salome does not take very long to play. I offered them the
fragment of A Florentine Tragedy. By a fortunate coincidence the
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