| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen: Should be a tough one.
EXIT Chloe and Chorus.--
SCENE CHANGES TO THE INSIDE OF THE LION.
Enter Strephon and Postilion.
Streph:) You drove me from Staines to this place, from whence I
mean to go to Town to marry Chloe. How much is your due?
Post:) Eighteen pence.
Streph:) Alas, my freind, I have but a bad guinea with which I
mean to support myself in Town. But I will pawn to you an
undirected Letter that I received from Chloe.
Post:) Sir, I accept your offer.
Love and Friendship |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Simple Soul by Gustave Flaubert: mats so as to adorn the temporary altars in the street.
In church, she always gazed at the Holy Ghost, and noticed that there
was something about it that resembled a parrot. The likenesses
appeared even more striking on a coloured picture by Espinal,
representing the baptism of our Saviour. With his scarlet wings and
emerald body, it was really the image of Loulou. Having bought the
picture, she hung it near the one of the Comte d'Artois so that she
could take them in at one glance.
They associated in her mind, the parrot becoming sanctified through
the neighbourhood of the Holy Ghost, and the latter becoming more
lifelike in her eyes, and more comprehensible. In all probability the
A Simple Soul |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Hated Son by Honore de Balzac: acknowledge to herself, had already curled her hair and put on her
prettiest costume. Both were full of the eager desire to see each
other again,--mutually fearing the results of the interview. As for
Etienne, he had chosen his finest lace, his best-embroidered mantle,
his violet-velvet breeches; in short, those handsome habiliments which
we connect in all memoirs of the time with the pallid face of Louis
XIII., a face oppressed with pain in the midst of grandeur, like that
of Etienne. Clothes were certainly not the only point of resemblance
between the king and the subject. Many other sensibilities were in
Etienne as in Louis XIII.,--chastity, melancholy, vague but real
sufferings, chivalrous timidities, the fear of not being able to
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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 Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: the first bottle of champagne, Sarrasine read in his neighbor's eyes a
shrinking dread of the report caused by the release of the gas. The
involuntary shudder of that thoroughly feminine temperament was
interpreted by the amorous artist as indicating extreme delicacy of
feeling. This weakness delighted the Frenchman. There is so much of
the element of protection in a man's love!
" 'You may make use of my power as a shield!'
"Is not that sentence written at the root of all declarations of love?
Sarrasine, who was too passionately in love to make fine speeches to
the fair Italian, was, like all lovers, grave, jovial, meditative, by
turns. Although he seemed to listen to the guests, he did not hear a
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