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Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, Esquire / Shel
A very famous writer and critic whom Orlando first meets during the Elizabethan era. According to Greene, poetry is “dead” in England, and poets like Shakespeare and Marlowe only write for money. He claims they have no “divine ambition,” or “Glawr,” and he finds more to appreciate in the poetry of the ancient Greeks. Orlando asks Greene to read his original play, the Death of Hercules, but Greene is initially hesitant until Orlando offers to pay him a quarterly pension. Greene finds the Death of Hercules “wordy and bombastic in the extreme,” and he proceeds to write a satire based on a noble Lord who is obviously Orlando. Orlando is crushed but continues to pay Greene’s pension. Greene again meets Orlando during the Victorian era, and Greene again claims that poetry is “dead” in England. However, this time he claims that the Elizabethans, like Shakespeare and Marlowe, were the true talents. He also changes his opinion of Orlando’s work after he reads “The Oak Tree.” Greene claims Orlando’s poem reminds him of Addison and has nothing of the “modern spirit.” Greene only appreciates writing when it is reminiscent of traditional literature, and he represents literary critics who resist contemporary literature and favor only traditional forms. Greene’s hypocrisy makes critics, especially Victorian critics, appear incredibly hypocritical, and it is in this way that Woolf argues poets should write for themselves, not the critics, whose opinions are often meaningless.
Nicholas Greene Quotes in Orlando
The Orlando quotes below are all either spoken by Nicholas Greene or refer to Nicholas Greene. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
“Ah!” he said, heaving a little sigh, which was yet comfortable enough, “Ah! my dear lady, the great days of literature are over. Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson—those were the giants. Dryden, Pope, Addison—those were the heroes. All, all are dead now. And whom have they left us? Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle!”—he threw an immense amount of scorn into his voice. “The truth of it is,” he said, pouring himself a glass of wine, “that all our young writers are in the pay of booksellers. They turn out any trash that serves to pay their tailor’s bills. It is an age,” he said, helping himself to hors d’oeuvres, “marked by precious conceits and wild experiments—none of which the Elizabethans would have tolerated for an instant.”
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Nicholas Greene Quotes in Orlando
The Orlando quotes below are all either spoken by Nicholas Greene or refer to Nicholas Greene. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 6
Quotes
“Ah!” he said, heaving a little sigh, which was yet comfortable enough, “Ah! my dear lady, the great days of literature are over. Marlowe, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson—those were the giants. Dryden, Pope, Addison—those were the heroes. All, all are dead now. And whom have they left us? Tennyson, Browning, Carlyle!”—he threw an immense amount of scorn into his voice. “The truth of it is,” he said, pouring himself a glass of wine, “that all our young writers are in the pay of booksellers. They turn out any trash that serves to pay their tailor’s bills. It is an age,” he said, helping himself to hors d’oeuvres, “marked by precious conceits and wild experiments—none of which the Elizabethans would have tolerated for an instant.”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
