Saturday, October 15, 2011

 

Mark of a True Man

Richard Mullen, Anthony Trollope: A Victorian in His World (London: Duckworth, 1990; rpt. Savannah: Frederic C. Beil, 1992), pp. 586-587:
One day an American acquaintance arrived shortly before noon and declined to join them at another breakfast. 'What,' asked Trollope, 'do you mean to say you are not man enough to eat two breakfasts?'


J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, chapter 2 (underlining added):
"Don't be a fool, Bilbo Baggins!" he said to himself, "thinking of dragons and all that outlandish nonsense at your age!" So he put on an apron, lit fires, boiled water, and washed up. Then he had a nice little breakfast in the kitchen before turning out the dining-room. By that time the sun was shining; and the front door was open, letting in a warm spring breeze. Bilbo began to whistle loudly and to forget about the night before. In fact he was just sitting down to a nice little second breakfast in the dining-room by the open window, when in walked Gandalf.

"My dear fellow," said he, "whenever are you going to come? What about an early start?—and here you are having breakfast, or whatever you call it, at half past ten!"
Pieter Claesz, Breakfast with Ham



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