Immoderate Reactions
1. Fresh from a war where he has behaved conspicuously, our young gentleman becomes smitten by the governor of Messina’s daughter and pledges to marry her; this will be a society wedding, war-hero to demure upper-crust bride. But when all convene at the altar, brattishly our champion jilts his girl, “this rotten orange”, because report is abroad that she has lived unchastely. The girl herself, decent as we know her to be, is astonished at the charge, protests her innocence, then swoons from shock at this infamy levelled at her. Where on earth does it spring from? How, if he loves, can this well-recommended Florentine lack simple trust to see the aspersion trounced? Our gentleman and his party withdraw from the church, while daddy, standing over his inert and only child, fervently hopes her swoon betokens her death because, if not, he’ll kill the slut himself, guilty as she must be until proven innocent in a community where female shame may be relied on as a touchpaper to…
Madam: Archbishop Fisher (July-August 2024) does not resist the attacks on his church by the political, social or scientific atheists and those who insist on not being told what to do.
Aug 29 2024
6 mins
To claim Aborigines have the world's oldest continuous culture is to misunderstand the meaning of culture, which continuously changes over time and location. For a culture not to change over time would be a reproach and certainly not a cause for celebration, for it would indicate that there had been no capacity to adapt. Clearly this has not been the case
Aug 20 2024
23 mins
A friend and longtime supporter of Quadrant, Clive James sent us a poem in 2010, which we published in our December issue. Like the Taronga Park Aquarium he recalls in its 'mocked-up sandstone cave' it's not to be forgotten
Aug 16 2024
2 mins