Elizabeth I of England
“What, nephew,” said the king,
“is the wind in that door?”
SIR THOMAS MALORY
Le Morte d’Arthur
— Epigraph to
A Wind in the Door,
by Madeleine L’Engle
Vaine the ambition of Kings,
Who seeke by trophies and dead things,
To leave a living name behind,
And weave but nets to catch the wind.
— John Webster,
The Devil’s Law Case
From Eliot’s
The Waste Land,
Part II, “A Game of Chess”:
| I think we are in rats’ alley | 115 |
| Where the dead men lost their bones |
116 |
| “What is that noise?” | 117 |
| The wind under the door. | 118 |
| “What is that noise now? What is the wind doing?” |
119 |
| Nothing again nothing. | 120 |
Eliot’s note:
118. Cf. Webster: “Is the wind
in that door still?”
The line cited in Eliot’s note
is from John Webster’s
The Devil’s Law Case,
3.2.162.
BlueCollarGoddess
It’s all a game.