Non Sequitur (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Non Sequitur

For a novelist the difl'iculty is fearful. Even in such a masterpiece as Redgauntlet Scott feels the difficulty of going on. How tame and flat, after the glorious adventure of Brokenbum, is Darsie's long ride disguised as a woman! Of maidens disguised as men the world is never weary. Shakespeare alone disguised them seven times over, and who could find it in his heart to say that Shakespeare uses disguise too often? It bored Mary Lamb when she was writing the Tales; she began to think that Shakespeare wanted imagination - or so her brother said; but this Opinion is not generally entertained. For men disguised as maidens, they are cumbersome. In stead of gracing an attire less beautiful than should be theirs by right, they dishonour gar ments to the grace of which they were never born. Their petticoats are too tempestuous; their dis order is not nice. Except with Achilles among the Maidens or with the Prince in The Princess, we come too near burlesque instead of comedy.

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