| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: leave to take my best horse, and Bet Bouncer into the bargain. Come
along. My boots, ho! [Exeunt.]
ACT THE FIFTH.
(SCENE continued.)
Enter HASTINGS and Servant.
HASTINGS. You saw the old lady and Miss Neville drive off, you say?
SERVANT. Yes, your honour. They went off in a post-coach, and the
young 'squire went on horseback. They're thirty miles off by this
time.
HASTINGS. Then all my hopes are over.
SERVANT. Yes, sir. Old Sir Charles has arrived. He and the old
She Stoops to Conquer |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: "The singer has the worst of it," said Gazza.
"But since you all sang!" I laughed.
"Miss Rieppe, she is cool," continued Gazza. "And she danced. It is not
fair."
John contributed nothing. He was by no means playing up now. He was
looking away at the shore.
Gazza hummed a little fragment. "But after lunch I will sing you good
music."
"So long as it keeps us cool," I suggested.
"Ah, no! It will not be cool music!" cried Gazza--"for those who
understand."
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: his instrument; he did not trouble himself over a false note now and
again (a /canard/, in the language of the orchestra), neither did the
dancers, nor, for that matter, did my old Italian's acolytes; for I
had made up my mind that he must be Italian, and an Italian he was.
There was something great, something too of the despot about this old
Homer bearing within him an /Odyssey/ doomed to oblivion. The
greatness was so real that it triumphed over his abject position; the
despotism so much a part of him, that it rose above his poverty.
There are violent passions which drive a man to good or evil, making
of him a hero or a convict; of these there was not one that had failed
to leave its traces on the grandly-hewn, lividly Italian face. You
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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 An International Episode by Henry James: His companion went into seventeen shops--he amused himself with
counting them--and accumulated at the bottom of the phaeton a pile
of bundles that hardly left the young Englishman a place for his feet.
As she had no groom nor footman, he sat in the phaeton to hold
the ponies, where, although he was not a particularly acute observer,
he saw much to entertain him--especially the ladies just mentioned,
who wandered up and down with the appearance of a kind of aimless
intentness, as if they were looking for something to buy, and who,
tripping in and out of their vehicles, displayed remarkably pretty feet.
It all seemed to Lord Lambeth very odd, and bright, and gay.
Of course, before they got back to the villa, he had had a great
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