#midsummernd2026 Oberon: But I might see young Cupid’s fiery shaft Quenched in the chaste beams of the watery moon, And the imperial votaress passèd on, In maiden meditation, fancy-free. (II.1.165-168)

#midsummernd2026 Fairy: Those that “Hobgoblin” call you, and “sweet Puck,” You do their work, and they shall have good luck. Are not you he? (II.1.40-42)

#NYRBWomen26 The Sweet Dove Died "Leonora quickly recovered, deciding that Miss Culver was obviously one of those eccentric women who live alone and don’t always realize what they are saying."

#NYRBWomen26 "‘I suppose I’d have a lot in common with Phoebe, and not only English literature,’ said Ned, giving James a sideways look." 👀

#MidsummerND2026 Bottom: That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I do it, let the audience look to their eyes. I will move storms. I will condole in some measure. To the rest. Yet my chief humor is for a tyrant. (I.2.21-24) I wonder if Sh. wrote this with a real actor in mind.

#NYRBWomen26 My favourite line this week from The Sweet Dove Died: "She herself preferred crème de menthe; she had changed into a green chiffon dress which gave her a feeling for that drink."

#MidsummerND2026 Is this the most musically poetic play we've read? Hermia: I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. Helena: Oh, that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill! Hermia: I give him curses, yet he gives me love. Helena: Oh, that my prayers could such affection move! (I.1.198-201)

#MidsummerND2026 (I.1.32-37)

#MidsummerND2026 Egeus: Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung With feigning voice verses of feigning love, And stol'n the impression of her fantasy With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gauds, conceits, Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats—messengers Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth.

#NYRBWomen26 "Although they had parted abruptly she (Phoebe) had been very careful to write down her address, almost like Eve presenting Adam with the apple."

#NYRBWomen26 "A woodland seduction scene between two middle-aged protagonists could only end in disaster." I'm liking Pym's saucy, sharp humour and enjoying Humphrey's arrogant oblivion.

#BalzacTogether "The fifteen boarders started chatting away as if nothing had happened. The clashing of forks and spoons, the laughter and banter, the expressions that flickered across those greedy and unconcerned faces, their indifference, made Eugene and Biachon shudder with disgust."

#AsYou2026 Duke Senior: I do remember in this shepherd boy Some lively touches of my daughter’s favor. (V.4.29-30)

#BalzacTogether "...not even the highest-ranking members of society are exempt from the laws of the heart and do not live free of all sorrows, as those who pay court to the common people would have them believe." Interesting way to phrase this.

#SundaySarton Writings on Writing

#NYRBWomen26 #BarbaraPym The Sweet Dove Died "Naturally the thought of death came into one’s mind occasionally but one tried to be sensible about it, not getting into a panic, not pushing it away."

#BalzacTogether "If only I were God, I'd throw the universe at your feet."

#SundaySarton "Of course, one of the springs of poetry is our strained relations with our own immediate past, the warring nations within the self; then the poem itself becomes a device by means of which this electric charge discharges itself."

#AsYou2026 Oliver: 'Twas I, but ’tis not I. I do not shame To tell you what I was, since my conversion So sweetly tastes, being the thing I am. (IV.2.164-166)

#AsYou2026 Rosalind: She calls me proud, and that she could not love me Were man as rare as phoenix. 'Od’s my will, Her love is not the hare that I do hunt. (IV.3,39-41)

#BalzacTogether "The old landlady had the tragic air of Marius among the ruins of Carthage."

#AsYou2026 Jacques: Let’s present him to the duke like a Roman conqueror. And it would do well to set the deer’s horns upon his head for a branch of victory.—Have you no song, forester, for this purpose? (IV.2.3-6) *Finally caught up*

#BalzacTogether "To paint a true picture of this Christ of Paternity, one would need to draw comparisons with those images created by princes of the palette to show the suffering endured by the Saviour of mankind for the sake of the world." ** Finally caught up! **

Tattoo Day. Short day. Finished the left arm and added some shading.

#AsYou2026 Rosalind: I would thou couldst stammer, that thou might’st pour this concealed man out of thy mouth as wine comes out of a narrow-mouthed bottle— either too much at once, or none at all. I prithee take the cork out of thy mouth, that I may drink thy tidings. (III.1.189-193)

#BalzacTogether "Our happiness, dear friend, will always fit between the soles of our feet and the crown of our head; and whether it costs us a million a year or a hundred louis, we all, inside, have the same intrinsic perception of it."

#AsYou2026 Duke Senior: What would you have? Your gentleness shall force More than your force move us to gentleness. (II.7.103-104)

#AsYou2026 Jaques Why, who cries out on pride That can therein tax any private party? Doth it not flow as hugely as the sea Till that the weary very means do ebb? (II.7.71-74)

#AsYou2026 Silvius: But if thy love were ever like to mine— As sure I think did never man love so— How many actions most ridiculous Hast thou been drawn to by thy fantasy? (II.4.24-27)

#BalzacTogether "But then, are not our noble feelings the poetries of the will?"

#BalzacTogether "I'll be in love with all women until I can devote myself to one alone." Tr. Olivia McCannon

#AsYou2026 Adam: Know you not, master, to some kind of men Their graces serve them but as enemies? No more do yours. (II.3.10-12)

#AsYou2026 Rosalind: A gallant curtal-axe upon my thigh, A boar-spear in my hand, and in my heart Lie there what hidden woman’s fear there will, We’ll have a swashing and a martial outside- (I.3.121-124)

#ForsyteSaga26 Ch. 2 "He (Val) went out with his head up and his hat cocked joyously, sniffing the air of Piccadilly like a young hound loosed into covert."

#ForsyteSaga26 Ch. 2 The scene between Dartie and Winifred is tremendously disturbing. Galsworthy wrote it as an almost slapstick, grotesque comedy; a disconcerting overlap between domestic menace and the mechanics of a farce. "Life had illused him; Winifred had never 'unshtood'm."

#ForsyteSaga26 Catching up after a crazy week. Some favs. P1Ch1 - Great opening sentence. "The possessive instinct never stands still. Through florescence and feud, frosts and fires, it followed the laws of progression even in the Forsyte family which had believed it fixed forever."

#AsYou2026 Orlando: Thus must I from the smoke into the smother, From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother. (I.2.273-274) When Antony becomes Duke Frederick, one day to the next.

#AsYou2026 Rosalind ...unmuzzle your wisdom. (I.2.65)

#BalzacTogether "Dear boy, if you don't want to be fooled by puppets, you have to get right inside the theatre and not be content with peering through holes in the scenery." Tr. Olivia McCannon

#AsYou2026 Orlando: Ay, better than him I am before knows me. I know you are my eldest brother, and in the gentle condition of blood you should so know me. (I.1.39-41)

#BalzacTogether "He found that the time passed slowly and would have left if he hadn't been blessed with that Southern tenacity which works wonders when it keeps a straight course." - McCannon -

#BalzacTogether "My poor tum has sunk usque ad talones." (all the way to the heels) Reminds me of the famous favourite puerile joke when I studied Latin in high school: Semper ubi sub ubi.

#AntonyandCleo_2026 Cleopatra: Now to that name my courage prove my title! I am fire and air, my other elements I give to baser life. (V.2.328-340)

#BalzacTogether '..they all cleared out a cock-croak' 'Speak properly please, Sylvie,' said Madame Vauquer reprovingly; 'one should say at the cock o' dawn.'

#AntonyandCleo_2026 Cleopatra: Now, noble Charmian, we’ll dispatch indeed, And when thou hast done this chare I’ll give thee leave To play till doomsday. (V.2.277-279)

#AntonyandCleo_2026 I couldn't resist picking this up from the local school fundraiser book sale.

#BalzacTogether "To feel ambitious enough to kick out imperiously on the tightrope along which you must walk with the confidence of a sure-footed acrobat who never falls, and to have found an attractive woman to be the best possible balancing pole!" - McCannon -

#AntonyandCleo_2026 Cleopatra: Rather a ditch in Egypt Be gentle grave unto me. Rather on Nilus’ mud Lay me stark naked and let the waterflies Blow me into abhorring. Rather make My country’s high pyramides my gibbet And hang me up in chains! (V.2.67-72)

#BalzacTogether "Inevitably, she took her aversions further than she had her attraction. The intensity of her loathing was proportionate to her thwarted expectations, rather than to her love." 1/2