May 6, 2023 marks the 128th anniversary of Rudolph Valentino’s birth. My grandmother Rosina was born 151 years ago on May 6, 1872–a correct birth date according to her recently discovered official Italian birth record, although her gravestone reads “1873.”
And stepping westward seemed to be
A kind of heavenly destiny.
—Wordsworth, Stepping Westward (1803), st. 2
He capers, he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks holiday, he smells April and May.
Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor
–III, ii, 71.
On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;
No sleep til morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet.
Byron, Child Harold’s Pilgrimage,
–canto III, st. 22
Fame is the thirst of youth.
Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,
–canto III, st. 45.
To me it seems that youth is like spring, an over-praised season–delightful if it happen to be a favored one, but in practice very rarely favored and more remarkable, as a general rule, for biting east winds than genial breezes.
–Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, (1903), ch.5
Source of Quotations:
Bartlett, John. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. 14th ed. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1968.
Rudolph Valentino--Connections 