May 3, 1994
Hi Angel,
I bought an abridged version of Bartlett's Quotations at a used book store last week as I was coming through Portland.
I had it in my lap the whole bus ride.
The former owner, a Dorothy Willis, whereabouts unknown, had underlined with a pink highlighter many quotes; from Shakespeare: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks;" to Robert Lovelace: "Stone walls do not a prison make." Her signature was lacy and spidery, making me think she was either a schoolteacher or an octogenarian, making me think of you (the teacher, not the spinster).
The last pinked-in quote, from Milton, Paradise Lost: "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" ended her cribbing at page 40, with the book stretching another 80 pages to end on 126, with Joseph Fouche: "It was not a crime, it was a blunder."
Why did she stop at Milton?
It seems she lost her stomach for wading through the masters abruptly after reaching this moral fork-in-the-road. Robert Frost meets Rasputin. Even the pink line was tepid and sickly. Gone was the thick and confident swath of color with which she began her journey through the high grass.
Soul scorching observations and commentary from the ages, towering over her head, easy to get lost and lose one's wits - a lady in search of wisdom? Or a vain desire to appear well read with her bridge partners?
She also left, tucked inside the front cover, a yellowing photocopy of Marmions' Canto, home of the famous proclamation to the guilty and sinful throughout the ages: "Oh! What a tangled web we weave / when first we practice to deceive!"
Was the Ms. Willis seeking to hang a philandering husband from a hundred lines of prose? If so, I felt sorry for the soon to be bachelored Mr. Willis, and equally sympathetic to the prosaic Dorothy.
The book was fifty cents, and puzzling over the fate of the Willis' made the purchase very worthwhile.
However, the quote which caught my eye and made me buy the book, was Shakespeare, page 20, dutifully underlined by my long departed scribe: "There is a tide in the affairs of men / which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune / omitted, all the voyage of their life / is bound in shallows, and in miseries."
I read this and think: We're 25 now. I'm in Vancouver, you're in Quebec City. Where are we going with our lives and what lies in store for us?
Should I not be getting wrecked on the weekend? Eating more vegetables? Stop ignoring my Dad's calls?
Did you do the right thing by breaking off your thing with the IBM guy living in Tokyo?
Are we ever going to see Broadway? Paris? Universal Studios? Together - apart? I know I would feel sick to be on top of the Empire State building without you. Patrick, Angel, King Kong, Harry and Sally.
Money is still a problem for me - thanks for the loan (again). I'll pay you back as soon as am working (again).
I am jealous, still, you got your degree before I did, but I think my revenge will be sweet when you face your first day as an elementary schoolteacher in September...
Sorry - just poking fun -
Coing back to quotes. I think: three hundred years dead and the Bard already knows the house always wins. It's hard to catch a break, and always will be.
I'm going down to the Fraser tonight after the bar and watch the tide flood and ebb. Throw some pennies in and wish.
I really need to think on this - let me know what thoughts it draws up for you. It will make for an interesting exchange.
You'll be in my heart and hope we can still get together at Christmas.
See you soon, Angel
Patrick
