Belle de jour

“Elisabethan prose, for all its beauty and bounty, was a very imperfect medium. it was almost incapable of fulfilling one of the offices of prose which is to make people talk, simply and naturally about ordinary things... could speak magnificently, of course, about the great themes – how life is short, and death certain ; how spring is lovely, and winter horrid – perhaps indeed, the lavish and towering periods that it raises above these simple platitudes are due to the fact that it has not cheapened itself on trifles.”