Of all the affected, sapless, soulless,
beginningless, endless, topless,
bottomless, topsiturviest, scrannel- pipiest, tongs and
boniest doggerel of sounds I ever endured the deadliest
of, that eternityof nothing wasthe deadliest.
-John Ruskin Of Wagner's Die Meistersinger. Letter to Mrs
Burne-Jones, 30 Jun.