“J’ay en mon cueur joyeusementEscript, afin que ne l’oublie,Ce refrain qu’ayme chierement,C’estes vous de qui suis amye.” JEHANE OF NAVARRE, AFTER A SHREWD WITHSTANDINGOF ALL OTHER ASSAULTS, IS IN A LONGDUEL WHEREIN TIME AND COMMON-SENSE ARE FLOUTED,AND TWO KINGDOMS SHAKEN, ALIKE DETHRONED ANDRECOMPENSED BY AN ENDURING LUNACY. In the year of grace 1386, upon the […]

“Dame serez de mon cueur, sans debat,Entierement, jusques mort me consume.Laurier souef qui pour mon droit combat,Olivier franc, m’ostant toute amertume.” KATHARINE OF VALOIS IS WON BY A HUNTSMAN,AND LOVES HIM GREATLY; THEN FINDS HIM, TOHER HORROR, AN IMPOSTOR; AND FOR A SUFFICIENT REASONCONSENTS TO MARRY QUITE ANOTHER PERSON, ANDNOT ALL UNWILLINGLY. In the year […]

“Selh que m blasma vostr’ amor ni m defenNon podon far en re mon cor mellor,Ni’l dous dezir qu’ieu ai de vos major,Ni l’enveya’ ni’l dezir, ni’l talen.” PHILIPPA OF HAINAULT DARES TOLOVE UNTHRIFTILY, AND BY THE PRODIGALITY OF HERAFFECTION SHAMES TREACHERY, AND COMMON-SENSE,AND HIGH ROMANCE, QUITE STOLIDLY; BUT, AS LOVINGGOES, IS OVERTOPPED BY HER […]

“Je suis voix au desert criantQue chascun soyt rectifiantLa voye de Sauveur; non suis,Et accomplir je ne le puis.” ANNE OF BOHEMIA HAS ONE ONLY FRIEND,AND BY HIM PLAYS THE FRIEND’S PART; ANDACHIEVES IN DOING SO THEIR COMMON ANGUISH, AS WELLAS THE CONFUSION OF STATECRAFT AND THE POULTICINGOF A GREAT DISEASE. In the year of […]

“Ainsi il avoit trouve sa mieSi belle qu’on put souhaiter.N’avoit cure d’ailleurs plaider,Fors qu’avec lui manoir et estre.Bien est Amour puissant et maistre.” BRANWEN OF WALES GETS A KING’S LOVEUNWITTINGLY, AND IN ALL INNOCENCE CONVINCESHIM OF THE LITTLENESS OF HIS KINGDOM; SO THAT HEBESIEGES AND IN DUE COURSE TRIUMPHANTLY OCCUPIESANOTHER REALM AS YET UNMAPPED. In […]

“In JOHN CHARTERIS appeared a man with an inborn sense of the supreme interest and the overwhelming emotional and spiritual relevancy of human life as it is actually and obscurely lived; a man with unmistakable creative impulses and potentialities; a man who, had he lived in a more mature and less self-deluding community–a community that […]

“Armatz de fust e de fer e d’acier,Mos ostal seran bosc, fregz, e semdier,E mas cansos sestinas e descortz,E mantenrai los frevols contra ‘ls fortz.” THE FIRST NOVEL.–ALIANORA OF PROVENCE, COMING INDISGUISE AND IN ADVERSITY TO A CERTAIN CLERK, IS BYHIM CONDUCTED ACROSS A HOSTILE COUNTRY; AND INTHAT TROUBLED JOURNEY ARE MADE MANIFEST TO EITHERTHE […]

“Plagues a Dieu ja la nueitz non falhis,Ni ‘l mieus amicx lonc de mi no s partis,Ni la gayta jorn ni alba ne vis.Oy Dieus! oy Dieus! de l’ alba tan tost ve!” ELLINOR OF CASTILE, BEINGENAMORED OF A HANDSOME PERSON, IS IN HER FLIGHT FROMMARITAL OBLIGATIONS ASSISTED BY HER HUSBAND, ANDIS IN THE END […]

“Leixant a part le stil dels trobados,Dos grans dezigs han combatut ma pensa,Mas lo voler vers un seguir dispensa;Yo l’vos publich, amar dretament vos.” MEREGRETT OF FRANCE, THINKINGTO PRESERVE A HOODWINKED GENTLEMAN, ANNOYS ASPIDER; AND BY THE GRACE OF DESTINY THE WEB OF THATCUNNING INSECT ENTRAPS A BUTTERFLY, A WASP, ANDTHEN A GOD; WHO SHATTERS […]

“Sest fable es en aquest monSemblans al homes que i son;Que el mager sen qu’om pot averSo es amar Dieu et sa mer,E gardar sos comendamens.” YSABEAU OF FRANCE, DESIROUS OFDISTRACTION, LOOKS FOR RECREATION IN THE TORMENTOF A CERTAIN KNIGHT, WHOM SHE PROVES TO BE NO MORETHAN HUMAN; BUT IN THE OUTCOME OF HER HOLIDAYHE […]

” But that sense of negation, of theoretic insecurity, which was in the air, conspiring with what was of like tendency in himself, made of Lord UFFORD a central type of disillusion. . . . He had been amiable because the general betise of humanity did not in his opinion greatly matter, after all; and […]

“But after SHERIDAN had risen to a commanding position in the gay life of London, he rather disliked to be known as a playwright or a poet, and preferred to be regarded as a statesman and a man of fashion who ‘set the pace’ in all pastimes of the opulent and idle. Yet, whatever he […]

“Though–or, rather, because–VANDERHOFFEN was a child of the French Revolution, and inherited his social, political and religious–or, rather, anti-religious–views from the French writers of the eighteenth century, England was not ready for him and the unshackled individualism for which he at first contended. Recognizing this fact, he turned to an order of writing begotten of […]

” It does not appear that the age thought his works worthy of posterity, nor that this great poet himself levied any ideal tribute on future times, or had any further prospect than of present popularity and present profit. So careless was he, indeed, of fame, that, when he retired to ease and plenty, while […]

” Dr. Herrick told me that, in common with all the Enlightened or Illuminated Brothers, of which prying sect the age breeds so many, he trusted the great lines of Nature, not in the whole, but in part, as they believed Nature was in certain senses not true, and a betrayer, and that she was […]

” Mr. Wycherley was naturally modest until King Charles’ court, that late disgrace to our times, corrupted him. He then gave himself up to all sorts of extravagances and to the wildest frolics that a wanton wit could devise. . . . Never was so much ill-nature in a pen as in his, joined with […]

” A critical age called for symmetry, and exquisite finish had to be studied as much as nobility of thought. . . . POPE aimed to take first place as a writer of polished verse. Any knowledge he gained of the world, or any suggestion that came to him from his intercourse with society, was […]

As Played at Ingilby, October 6, 1755 ” Though marriage be a lottery, in which there are a wondrous many blanks, yet there is one inestimable lot, in which the only heaven on earth is written. Would your kind fate but guide your hand to that, though I were wrapt in all that luxury itself […]

” These questions, so long as they remain with the Muses, may very well be unaccompanied with severity, for where there is no other end of contemplation and inquiry but that of pastime alone, the understanding is not oppressed; but after the Muses have given over their riddles to Sphinx,–that is, to practise, which urges […]

” For this RAIMBAUT DE VAQUIERAS lived at a time when prolonged habits of extra-mundane contemplation, combined with the decay of real knowledge, were apt to volatilize the thoughts and aspirations of the best and wisest into dreamy unrealities, and to lend a false air of mysticism to love. . . . It is as […]