“ Alack, alack the day!”

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  Lear .  If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.  I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester.  Thou must be patient; we came crying hither. Thou know’st, the first time that we smell the air,  We wawl and cry.  I will preach to thee; mark.  Glou .    Alack, alack the day!  Lear .  When we are born, we cry that we are come  To this great stage of fools . . .  ____________ Shakespeare, The Tragedy of King Lear. Act 4, Scene 6 (Shakespeare died April 23, 1616.)

“I Cried”

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Why say, “I cried” when you can say, “but when the strain of dulcet symphony express’d for me their soft compassion, more than could the words, “Virgin! why so consumest him?” then, the ice Congeal’d about my bosom, turn’d itself To spirit and water; and with anguish forth Gush’d, through the lips and eyelids, from the heart.”

— Dante (1265 - 1321), Canto 30 of “Purgatory, The Divine Comedy”. Spend 15 minutes in the Classics!

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