Vanna Bonta (1958–2014) Italian-American writer, poet, inventor, actress, voice artist (1958-2014)
and it goes from there.
Vanna Bonta Talks About Quantum fiction: Author Interview (2007)
“As a wit, if not first, in the very first line.”
Source: Retaliation (1774), Line 96.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
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Oliver Goldsmith134
Irish physician and writer 1728–1774Related quotes
Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673) English aristocrat, a prolific writer, and a scientist
Description of a New World, Called The Blazing World (1666)
Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar-- a professor of English literature, a literary critic, and a …
Source: 1960s, The Gutenberg Galaxy (1962), p. 142
“The first of the
line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants.”
Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude
Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude
“For Wits are treated just like Common Whores;
First they're enjoy'd, and then kickt out of Doors.”
John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) English poet, and peer of the realm
ll. 38-39
A Satire Against Mankind (1679)
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
"Haiku and Englyn" in The Toronto Daily Star (4 April 1959), republished in The Enthusiasms of Robertson Davies (1979) edited by Judith Skelton Grant, p. 241.
Ayn Rand book The Romantic Manifesto
Source: The Romantic Manifesto (1969), Chapter 3 ("Art and Cognition")
Ann Lee (1736–1784) English Shaker leader
The Communistic Societies of the United States (1875)
Edmond Rostand (1868–1918) French writer
Act IV, scene 1, as translated by Getrude Hall
Cyrano de Bergerac (1897)
Context: Valvert: Villain, clod-poll, flat-foot, refuse of the earth!
Cyrano: [taking off his hat and bowing as if the Vicomte had been introducing himself] Ah? … And mine, Cyrano-Savinien-Hercule of Bergerac!
Valvert: [exasperated] Buffoon!
Cyrano: [giving a sudden cry, as if seized with a cramp] Aï! …
Valvert: [who had started toward the back, turning] What is he saying now?
Cyrano: [screwing his face as if in pain] It must have leave to stir … it has a cramp! It is bad for it to be kept still so long!
Valvert: What is the matter?
Cyrano: My rapier prickles like a foot asleep!
Valvert: [drawing] So be it!
Cyrano: I shall give you a charming little hurt!
Valvert: [contemptous] Poet!
Cyrano: Yes, a poet, … and, to such an extent, that while we fence, I will, hop!, extempore, compose you a ballade!
Valvert: A ballade?
Cyrano: I fear you do not know what that is.
Valvert: But …
Cyrano: [as if saying a lesson] The ballade is composed of three stanzas of eight lines each …
Valvert: [stamps with his feet] Oh!
Cyrano: [continuing] And an envoi of four.
Valvert: You …
Cyrano: I will with the same breath fight you and compose one. And, at the last line, I will hit you. Valvert: Indeed you will not!
Cyrano: No? … [Declaiming]
Ballade of the duel which in Burgundy house
Monsieur de Bergerac fought with a jackanape …
Valvert: And what is that, if you please?
Cyrano: That is the title.
[ … ]
Cyrano: [closing his eyes a second] Wait. I am settling upon the rhymes. There. I have them. [in declaiming, he suits the action to the word]
Of my broad felt made lighter,
I cast my mantle broad,
And stand, poet and fighter,
To do and to record.
I bow, I draw my sword …
En garde! With steel and wit
I play you at first abord …
At the last line, I hit! [They begin fencing] You should have been politer;
Where had you best be gored?
The left side or the right — ah?
Or next your azure cord?
Or where the spleen is stored?
Or in the stomach pit?
Come we to quick accord …
At the last line, I hit! You falter, you turn whiter?
You do so to afford
Your foe a rhyme in "iter"? …
You thrust at me — I ward —
And balance is restored.
Laridon! Look to your spit! …
No, you shall not be floored
Before my cue to hit! [He announces solemnly] Envoi Prince, call upon the Lord! …
I skirmish … feint a bit …
I lunge! … I keep my word!
[The Vicomte staggers, Cyrano bows. ]
At the last line, I hit!
