Oscar Fay Adams

“ Thou liest, Peter Quince. I am but plain Robin Starveling, but you are become a very monster.
Re-enter Snout, with a deer’s head and horns.
Quince. Good masters three, you are enchanted, and pity o’ my life it is. ’Tis I alone that doth remain as much mankind as I was ever.
Snout. An’ you count yourself the proper likeness of a man you are most horribly mistook, and so it is, Peter Quince. ”

“ The strength of her novels lies in their wonderful delineations of character, their subtle analysis of motive as acted on by circumstance, and the lofty wisdom that infuses the whole. They awaken the best impulses of humanity, and appeal to all the finer sympathies. Her style is strongly marked, often picturesque, and her descriptions clear and distinct. Her poems, though containing many beautiful passages, do not, with one or two exceptions, take a high rank. ”

“ Links to Author Name first letters
PREFACE.
This brief handbook is intended simply for every-day use, when reference to larger works of the kind may not be convenient. Experience has proved that the small book which can be readily taken up is consulted far more frequently than the ponderous volume that requires great muscular exertion to lift.
In the world of letters as in the world of society conventionality plays no unimportant part, as every student of literature knows. That there is such a thing as "conventional immortality" every biographical dictionary yields abundant evidence. ”

“ Falstaff. What be these folk that forswear sack? Why, lean anatomies with not so much blood in their bodies as would suffice for a flea’s breakfast. The skin hangs upon their bones for all the world like a loose garment. You may feel the wind blow through their bodies. ’Twere a simple abuse of terms to call such starvelings men: 24 your poor forked radish would become the name better.
Miranda. This stout knight hath a nimble wit, in sooth,
But yet he doth not please me, for his eye
Bespeaks wanton desires, intemperate loves,
That ill do company his thin grey hairs. ”

“ A novelist of Philadelphia, and the first of native authors who adopted literature as a profession. In his novels probability plays a very small part, the local colour is faint, though the scenes are American, and all are overshadowed by an overpowering element of mystery. In spite of extravagances and faults, his work possesses undeniable power of a very high order, and does not deserve the neglect into which it has fallen. ”

“ What gives the lover whereby to gain the hand of his mistress? Why, sack! What gives the young man a merry heart and the old man a sanguine favour? Why, sack! What gives the soldier courage in the day of battle? Why, sack! Marry, then, he that hath his bellyful of sack hath discretion, courage, a ruddy visage, a merry heart and a nimble tongue. ”

“ An Episcopal clergyman of New York and Connecticut who held professorships in several colleges, and was at one time a journalist in New York city. Moral and Philosophical Essays; Satan as a Moral Philosopher; About Men and Things; Dr. Oldham at Greystones and his Talk There; Social Welfare and Human Progress; Household Liturgy; The Endless Future of the Human Race; Epitome of the History of Philosophy. He was the translator of Guizot’s History of Civilization and other works. ”

“ A statesman who ranks as the ablest political writer of his day in America. In 1789 he became the first secretary of the United States Treasury, and his first Report on the Public Credit was one of the most notable of national state papers. He was the principal contributor to The Federalist, 51 of its 85 articles being by him alone, and he assisted Washington in preparing the latter’s Farewell Address. ”

“ Exeunt Duke and train with Antonio and
friends. Lorenzo and Jessica come forward.
Jessica. How now, good father Cristofero; what a pair of Christians are we both. Only there’s this difference betwixt us, good father. I am a Christian for love of a husband and you have turned a Christian for love of your ducats.
Shylock. Ungrateful daughter; Why did’st thou go forth from my house by night and rob thy grey-haired father of his treasure?
Jessica. Why? That’s most easy of answer. ”

“ A robust, dignified writer, more popular in his day than Shakespeare. Volpone, Silent Woman, Alchemist, Every Man in his Humor, and Every Man out of his Humor are his best comedies: Catiline and Sejanus his only tragedies. His pastoral drama, The Sad Shepherd, is graceful and sweet. See Cunningham's edition of Johnson, 1870, and Schlegel's Dramatic Literature. ”

“ A Presbyterian clergyman who retired from the ministry, and, living at Cornwall-on-the-Hudson, devoted himself to novel-writing. His stories, which are nearly all of a semi-religious character, have been extraordinarily popular, but it must be admitted that their literary merit is very slight, the style being weak and inflated and the construction poor. The best that can be said in their favour is that they are well-intentioned. ”

“ God defends us, Peter Quince.
Quince. Masters, it ill becomes you as sober citizens of Athens to treat one of yourselves thus unseemly. Am not I a simple workman like the rest of you? Is it not my very own voice that you hear but now? ”

“ A writer whose fame as a wit has overshadowed his merits as a poet. His style, when not professedly humorous, is tender and graceful. For moral earnestness The Bridge of Sighs and The Song of the Shirt cannot be surpassed. See E. P. Sargent's edition, Pub. Apl.; also, F. J. Child's edition. Pub. Dut. Hon. Por. Put. Rou.
Hood, Thomas. 1835–1875. Miscellaneous writer. Son to preceding. Author of The Rhymster, etc.
Hook, Theodore Edward. 1788–1842. A writer of novels of fashion, inartistic in form, but full of humor. His power of extempore verse-making was remarkable. See Life, by Barham, 1848. ”

“ A colonial writer of Massachusetts, the friend of John Eliot, the “Indian apostle,” and a man far in advance of the general sentiment of his time and country in regard to the treatment of the Indians. For the last thirty years of his life he was superintendent of the Indians in Massachusetts. His writings include Historical Collections of the Indians in New England; Account of the Doings and Sufferings of the Christian Indians in New England. The first of these remained in manuscript until 1792, and the second until 1836. See Tyler’s American Literature. ”

“ Is not love what we poor maids are fool’d with? Thus have they told me, and therefore I’ll not listen to you, for indeed I never saw you before, that I remember, and yet there’s something not so strange lurks within your speech. But go your ways, sweet sir. My Hamlet he is dead, and so I care for none of mankind now. ”

“ Author of some 30 novels and tales, all bearing marks of genius and originality. He is widely read and admired, and his novels delight readers of all ages. His principal faults consist in elaborating and dwelling on the grotesque and unattractive side of humanity, and in overstraining the pathetic portions of his novels. Pickwick Papers, Nicholas Nickleby, Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, and the Christmas Carol are among the best of his works. See Fields's Yesterdays with Authors, and Lives by Forster and Mackenzie. ”

“ A Congregational clergyman of Hartford, who was one of the foremost thinkers in his denomination. He was a fearless reasoner, and his literary style exhibits both clearness and beauty. Christian Nurture; God in Christ; Christ in Theology; The Vicarious Sacrifice; Politics the Law of God; Nature and the Supernatural; Moral Uses of Dark Things, his ablest work; Sermons for the New Life; Sermons on Living Subjects; Forgiveness and Law; The Age of Homespun; Woman Suffrage; Moral Tendencies and Results of Human History; Building Eras in Religion; The Character of Jesus; Work and Play ”

“ A once famous writer of Boston whose personality was more than anything she ever wrote, and who is little more than a name to the present generation. She was a gifted woman, and as a teacher in Boston, editor of The Dial, and literary critic for The New York Tribune, was a prominent figure. In 1845 she went to Italy, and there was married to the Marquis d’Ossoli. Woman in the Nineteenth Century; Art, Literature, and the Drama ”

“ Nurse. Beshrew my heart. Then were my young mistress (who, to be sure, is no kind of a devil at all, saving your presences) , led straight to a fool’s paradise. She shall know, and presently, what a piece of man he is.
Mercutio [seeing Miranda and Ferdinand.
O Romeo the young; young Romeo,
Forget thy Juliet but a space, for here
A lady is, fairer than Juliet, [pointing to Miranda]
And mine eyes serve me truly.
Romeo.O how rare
One pearl’s esteem’d until another’s found,
While that becomes the chief, till straight a third
Shines forth. So is’t with me. ”

“ The first Protestant Episcopal bishop of Central New York. He was in earlier life a Unitarian clergyman, and in 1842 was professor of Christian morals in Harvard University. He entered the Episcopal ministry in 1860, and was consecrated bishop in 1864. Christian Believing and Living; Sermons for the People; Christ in the Christian Year; Steps to a Living Faith; Lessons on the Parables; Helps to a Holy Lent; Christ in the World; [Pg 202] Forty Days with the Master, The Fitness of Christianity to Man; Human Society, include the larger part of his works. ”

“ Falstaff. ’Tis no matter for Hercules, but, God’s pity for ’t, to be unacquainted with sack is to have lived as a dead man liveth. Sack, good Launce, is the prince of roystering blades; the pearl of price; the nonpareil of the world, the—nay, there’s no fit comparison to be made. Ambrosia and nectar together were but ashes i’ the mouth to ’t.
Trinculo [coming forward] You speak nothing aside the matter, sir, as I’m a true man. There’s nought to be named i’ the world before sack, and herein, of all places i’ the world, there’s no inn, no sack, no sack within. ”

“ A Congregational clergyman, professor in Andover Theological Seminary, 1829-53, and author of Life of Joseph Emerson, and translation of Wisgon’s Augustinianism and Pelagianism. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. Ms., 1803-1882. The most distinguished of American essayists, and by some critics ranked as the foremost American poet when the substance of his poetry is considered apart from its form. He was ordained in 1829 as a Unitarian minister in Boston, but retired from the profession in 1833, and the next year settled in Concord, Massachusetts, where the remainder of his life was spent. ”

“ Why, the Woman of Samaria would have plucked out her hair in pity of the twain, nay, so would I have done the same in her stead,—yet what say I, for there’s not so much hair on my head as my mother’s brass kettle has of its cover. A vengeance on ’t, now where was I? O, truly, I was e’en at the Woman of Samaria. Now, good sirs, and gentles all, the Woman of Samaria had for ruth plucked out her hair, but did not my dog Crab, who by your leaves is as hairy a dog as goes on one-and-twenty toes, shed even one hair in sorrow for the twain: not e’en the smallest hair on ’s nose. ”

“ A journalist and littérateur, now professor at the Roman Catholic University of Notre Dame, Indiana. His prose writings include That Girl of Mine; That Lover of Mine; A Garden of Roses; Stories of Duty; The Life Around Us; The Theatre and Christian Parents; Modern Novelists; Lectures on English Literature; The Disappearance of Mr. Longworthy; A Primer of English Literature; A Gentleman; A Marriage of Reason; The Success of Patrick Desmond; The Flower of the Flock. In verse he has published Preludes; Songs and Sonnets, and Other Poems. ”

“ Methinks, friend Bottom, you are not the sole wight in Athens esteemed worthy translation.
Robin Starveling. How an’ we be not translated either?
Peter Quince. Robin Starveling speaks well and to the centre of the matter. Know then, good bully Bottom, we are translated as yourself, but methinks you have lost more in the translating than have we; is’t not e’en so, masters all?
All. Right, good Peter Quince.
Bottom. I have lost nothing that should cause you envy, good friends all, and so I assure you. [Brays loudly] What say you then to my voice? Is my voice perished?
Tom Snout. No, Nick Bottom. ”

“ A philosophical writer, from 1874-87, president of Wisconsin University, subsequently professor of political science at Williams College. Elements of Psychology; Æsthetics; Political Economy for Colleges; Science, Philosophy, and Religion; Natural Theology; The Science of Mind; The Words of Christ; Philosophy of English Literature; Comparative Psychology; Problems in Philosophy; Sociology, Social Theory; Ethics; The New Theology; Historical Interpretation of Philosophy; A Philosophy of Religion. ”

“ The Democracy of Christianity; Slavery and Anti-Slavery; The Old and the New, or The Changes of Thirty Years in the East; The American Slave Code in Theory and Practice, American Slavery a Formidable Obstacle to the Conversion of the World. ”

“ Methinks that I could munch a savoury salad of thistles with much stomach to’t.
Quince. Your thistles be a thought too biting for my stomach.
Bottom. ’Tis but likely. I was ever a choice feeder. But, masters, was there not some matter toward, or have you assembled yourselves but to greet me, and, as ’twere, fittingly?
Quince. You speak quite to the matter, good Bottom. That is indeed the true end of our beginning. ”

“ Trinculo. Since the day when the old gentleman they call Prospero took it into his bald pate to disappear into air along with a most goodly company beside, there’s not a bottle to be found i’ this isle, as I am a good Christian, and, what is more, a good Christian man’s son.
Stephano. Bottle me no bottles, Trinculo. Had we ne’er shared a bottle betwixt us we had not been left to bide by ourselves in this whoreson isle in the hard service of the man-monster, Caliban, but might be in fair Naples at this very hour. ”