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De Amerikaanse schrijfster Edith Wharton werd geboren op 24 januari 1862 in New York. Zie ook mijn blog van 24 januari 2007.xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Uit: The Age of Innocence
On a January evening of the early seventies, Christine Nilsson was singing in Faust at the Academy of Music in New York.
Though there was already talk of the erection, in remote metropolitan distances "above the Forties," of a new Opera House which should compete in costliness and splendour with those of the great European capitals, the world of fashion was still content to reassemble every winter in the shabby red and gold boxes of the sociable old Academy. Conservatives cherished it for being small and inconvenient, and thus keeping out the it new people" whom New York was beginning to dread and yet be drawn to; and the sentimental clung to it for its historic associations, and the musical for its excellent acoustics, always so problematic a quality in halls built for the hearing of music.
It was Madame Nilsson's first appearance that winter, and what the daily press had already learned to describe as "an exceptionally brilliant audience " had gathered to hear her, transported through the slippery snow streets in private broughams, in the spacious family landau, or in the humbler but more convenient "Brown coupe"' To come to the Opera in a Brown coupe was almost as honourable a way of arriving as in one 's own carriage; and departure by the same means had the immense advantage of enabling one (with a playful allusion to democratic principles) to scramble into the first Brown conveyance in the line, instead of waiting till the cold and--gin congested nose of one's own coachman gleamed under the portico of the Academy. It was one of the great livery-lstableman's most masterly intuitions to have discovered that Americans want to get away from amusement even more quickly than they want to get to it.
Edith Wharton (24 januari 1862 11 augustus 1937)
De Franse toneelschrijver Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais werd geboren op 24 januari 1732 in Parijs. Zie ook mijn blog van 24 januari 2007.
Uit: Le Mariage de Figaro
Ô bizarre suite dévénements ! Comment cela mest-il arrivé ? Pourquoi ces choses et non pas dautres ? Qui les a fixées sur ma tête ? Forcé de parcourir la route où je suis entré sans le savoir, comme jen sortirai sans le vouloir, je lai jonchée dautant de fleurs que ma gaieté me la permis ; encore je dis ma gaieté, sans savoir si elle est à moi plus que le reste, ni même quel est ce Moi dont je moccupe : un assemblage informe de parties inconnues ; puis un chétif être imbécile ; un petit animal folâtre ; un jeune homme ardent au plaisir, ayant tous les goûts pour jouir, faisant tous les métiers pour vivre ; maître ici, valet là, selon quil plaît à la fortune ! ambitieux par vanité, laborieux par nécessité, mais paresseux
avec délices ! orateur selon le danger ; poète par délassement ; musicien par occasion ; amoureux par folles bouffées, jai tout vu, tout fait, tout usé. "
De Beaumarchais (24 januari 1732 - 18 mei 1799)
De Engelse dichter en edelman Charles Sackville werd geboren op 24 januari 1638.
Tell Me, Dorinda, Why So Gay
Tell me, Dorinda, why so gay,
Why such embroid'ry, fringe, and lace?
Can any dresses find a way
To stop th'approaches of decay
And mend thy ruin'd face?
Wilt thou still sparkle in the box,
And ogle in the ring?
Canst thou forget thy age and pox?
Can all that shines on shells and rocks
Make thee a fine young thing?
So have I seen in larder dark
Of veal a lucid loin,
Replete with many a heatless spark,
As wise philosophers remark,
At once both stink and shine.
Charles Sackville (24 januari 1638 29 januari 1706)
De Engelse dichter John Donne werd ergens tussen 24 januari en 19 juni 1572 geboren in Londen. Zie ook mijn blog van 24 januari 2007 en ook mijn blog van 24 januari 2008.
HOLY SONNETS
XIII.
What if this present were the world's last night ?
Mark in my heart, O soul, where thou dost dwell,
The picture of Christ crucified, and tell
Whether His countenance can thee affright.
Tears in His eyes quench the amazing light ;
Blood fills his frowns, which from His pierced head fell ;
And can that tongue adjudge thee unto hell,
Which pray'd forgiveness for His foes' fierce spite ?
No, no ; but as in my idolatry
I said to all my profane mistresses,
Beauty of pity, foulness only is
A sign of rigour ; so I say to thee,
To wicked spirits are horrid shapes assign'd ;
This beauteous form assures a piteous mind.
John Donne (24 januari 1572 31 maart 1631)
De Poolse dichter en schrijver Stanisław Grochowiak werd geboren op 24 januari 1934 in Leszno . Hij werd wel eens gezien als vertegenwoordiger van het turpisme, een literaire stroming (met nadruk op het zware, lelijke, wrede) die echter geen lang leven beschoren was.
Mobile - from the Sonnets in White
O come into my sonnet - it's taut and golden,
As if Calder had cut the foliage and wind,
You move your hand and give it a hint -
New gardens for you to open.
O come into my sonnet - so taut from longing,
So golden on your steps' approach,
Look - the tiny bird has begun his song
See the furtive tinfoil butterfly take wing.
You walk through my sonnet - the dress of metal
Turns to you the cup of its every petal
To drink the energy of your breath's grace...
'Cause these are visions hardly named
'Cause these are forms barely marked;
What can they do? - just perish in haste...
Vertaald door Tomasz Gil
Stanisław Grochowiak (24 januari 1934 2 september 1976)
De Engelse schrijfster Frances Moore Brooke werd geboren op 24 januari 1724 in Claypole, Lincolnshire als dochter van een geestelijke. Eind jaren 1740 verhuisde zij naar Londen waar zij aan haar literaire loopbaan begon. In 1756 trouwde zij met Rev. Dr. John Brooke die een jaar later als militair predikant naar Canada vertrok. Haar eerste roman The History of Lady Julia Mandeville verscheen 1763. In datzelfde jaar vertrol Brooke zelf naar Canada om zich bij haar man te voegen. In 1769 verscheen"The History of Emily Montague", een roman die zij in Canada geschreven had en die geldt als de eerse Canadese roman.
Uit: The History of Emily Montague
After spending two or three very agreeable days here, with a party of friends, in exploring the beauties of the Island, and dropping a tender tear at Carisbrook Castle on the memory of the unfortunate Charles the First, I am just setting out for America, on a scheme I once hinted to you, of settling the lands to which I have a right as a lieutenant-colonel on half pay. On enquiry and mature deliberation, I prefer Canada to New-York for two reasons, that it is wilder, and that the women are handsomer: the first, perhaps, every body will not approve; the latter, I am sure, you will.
You may perhaps call my project romantic, but my active temper is ill suited to the lazy character of a reducd officer: besides that I am too proud to narrow my circle of life, and not quite unfeeling enough to break in on the little estate which is scarce sufficient to support my mother and sister in the manner to which they have been accustomd.
What you call a sacrifice, is none at all; I love England, but am not obstinately chaind down to any spot of earth; nature has charms every where for a man willing to be pleased: at my time of life, the very change of place is amusing; love of variety, and the natural restlessness of man, would give me a relish for this voyage, even if I did not expect, what I really do, to become lord of a principality which will put our large-acred men in England out of countenance. My subjects indeed at present will be only bears and elks, but in time I hope to see the human face divine multiplying around me; and, in thus cultivating what is in the rudest state of nature, I shall taste one of the greatest of all pleasures, that of creation, and see order and beauty gradually rise from chaos.
Frances Brooke (12 januari 1724 23 januari 1789)
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