"Лорд Дансени. The Lost Silk Hat (Потерянная шелковая шляпа) (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

There is a house where kind friends of mine have given
me that security and comfort that are a poet's
necessity. But there was a governess there and a
piano. It is years and years since I was able even to
see the faces of those friends without an inward
shudder.
:
Well, we'll have to think of something else.
:
You are bringing back to these unhappy days the romance
of an age of which the ballads tell us that kings
sometimes fought in no other armor than their lady's
nightshirt.
:
Yes, but you know first of all I must get my *hat*.
:
But why?
:
I cannot possibly be seen in the streets without a hat.
:
Why not?
:
It can't be done.
:
But you confuse externals with essentials.
:
I don't know what you call essentials, but being
decently dressed in London seems pretty essential to
me.
:
A hat is not one of the essential things of life.
:
I don't want to appear rude, but my hat is n't quite
like yours.
:
Let us sit down and talk of things that matter, things
that will be remembered after a hundred years. {They
sit} Regarded in this light one sees at once the
triviality of hats. But to die, and die beautifully
for a hopeless love, that is a thing one could make a
lyric about. That is the test of essential things --
try and imagine them in a lyric. One could not write a
lyric about a hat.
:
I don't care whether you could write a lyric about my
hat or whether you could n't. All I know is that I am
not going to make myself absolutely ridiculous by
walking about in London without a hat. Will you get it
for me or will you not?
: