Midsummer Eve

Henry Stephen Ludlow (b. 1861)

Wood Engraving

Fun (23 January 1880): 247

Blanche. — “Delicious verses, aren’t they, Algy? Now tell me, what passage of all the poets do you like the best?”

Algy (who has long been wanting to change the subject to one more immediately interesting. — “Well, I think I prefer the one in Dante, where he says, ‘That night they read no more.’”

Since Algy, who seems to really know his poetry, refers to the famous passage in Dante (that Rossetti painted) in which Paolo and Francesca cease reading a romance and become lovers, he probably findd the idea of love-making “more immediately interesting.”

Source: Hathi Digital Library Trust web version of a copy in the University of Minnesota library.

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