Claudio Quotes

“Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die. More than our brother is our chastity.”

“I will encounter darkness as a bride, And hug it in mine arms.”

“O, death’s a great disguiser, and you may add to it. Shave the head, and tie the beard, and say it was the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his death. You know the course is common.”

“Thus stands it with me: upon a true contract I got possession of Julietta’s bed. You know the lady. She is fast my wife, Save that we do the denunciation lack Of outward order:”

“Be you content, fair maid. It is the law, not I, condemn your brother. Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, It should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow. ”

“If I see anything tonight why I should not marry her, tomorrow in the congregation where I intended to wed her, there will I shame her.”

This novel tells how Claudio slowly sorts though his intense feelings and comes to an uneasy peace with the fact of his friend’s death.

After the painter kills himself, leaving a note that does little to explain why he does not want to live any longer, Claudio can naturally think of nothing else except the infernal “Why?”

His question is partially answered by the man’s married mistress; he no longer wanted to live because “he would never be a great painter.”

His friend had lived upstairs, where Claudio had visited him almost every day; this man had encouraged Claudio’s artistic bent, and talked with him about about life, art, and politics. A

Claudio apparently accepts that this is all he’s going to get, that he is angry over his friend’s death, and that he will never really know why.

Written with remarkable, sustained intensity, this novel tells how Claudio slowly sorts though his intense feelings and comes to an uneasy peace with the fact of his friend’s death.