| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: of all remonstrance; followed it up by contempt of the king's mandates,
and by armed resistance to his power, in defiance of all authority;
and combined with it the resolute withholding of payment of certain moneys
to the abbot of Doncaster, in denial of all law; and has thus made himself the
declared enemy of church and state, and all for being too fond of venison."
And the knight helped himself to half a pasty.
"A heinous offender," said a little round oily friar,
appropriating the portion of pasty which Sir Ralph had left.
"The earl is a worthy peer," said the tall friar whom we have already
mentioned in the chapel scene, "and the best marksman in England."
"Why this is flat treason, brother Michael," said the little round friar,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Are errors of the blood, none of the mind;
Love made them not; with acture they may be,
Where neither party is nor true nor kind:
They sought their shame that so their shame did find;
And so much less of shame in me remains,
By how much of me their reproach contains.
'Among the many that mine eyes have seen,
Not one whose flame my heart so much as warm'd,
Or my affection put to the smallest teen,
Or any of my leisures ever charm'd:
Harm have I done to them, but ne'er was harmed;
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