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124 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
There was in Elizabethan art a kind of picture known as “perspective,” or anamorphosis, a distorted projection so designed that when viewed from a particular point, or reflected in a mirror, it appears regular and correctly proportioned.In Richard II Bushy alludes to this art form in such a way as to make it clear that the audience would find it familiar, speaking of “perspectives, which, rightly gazed upon, / Show nothing but confusion; eyed awry, /Distinguish form” (2.2.18–20). One of the most famous examples of this painting practice in the early modern period is Hans Holbein the Younger's 1533 portrait The Ambassadors ....
And even if you cannot make our life the way you
want it,
this much, at least, try to do
as much as you can: don’t cheapen it
with too much intercourse with society,
with too much movement and conversation.
Don’t cheapen it by taking it about,
making the rounds with it, exposing it
to the everyday inanity
of relations and connections,
so it become like a stranger, burdensome.