Sunday, December 8, 2013

Daily Dose

From The Life of John Dryden, by Sir Walter Scott

IT IS LAMENTABLE

"It is lamentable that our biographical antiquaries, who are so very learned in epitaphs and extracts from parish registers, are seldom so lucky as to bring any thing to light, by which a man's character is distinguished.  How much has been written upon Shakespeare and Shakespere, -- what long pedigrees of the Halls, Harts, and Hathaways, -- while the reader, amidst the profusion of learning, searches in vain for a vestige of the manners and opinions of him, in whom he alone is interested!"

From a note in Section II

No comments:

Post a Comment