Word: sir
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...subject is the scandalous romance of the late 18th century's hottest couple: Lord Nelson, Britain's greatest naval hero, and Lady Emma Hamilton, the empire's most luscious pinup -- and wife of diplomat Sir William Hamilton. The story has usually been told from the straightforward missionary -- not to say colonial -- position. The Alexander Korda version, That Hamilton Woman, starring Vivien Leigh and Laurence Olivier, was Winston Churchill's favorite movie...
Royalty and privilege are threatened. So too is a genteel culture represented by Sir William, British envoy to the decadent Neapolitan court. A collector of antiquities and an amateur scientist, he occasions Sontag's heavier musings. Unfortunately, he is too underpowered to be the principal vehicle in a historical tour de force. Making a cameo appearance, Goethe dismisses him as "a simple-minded epicurean...
Eventually Sontag also sours on Sir William's detachment and bloodless pleasures. In fact, all three members of this famous love triangle are abruptly damned in an operatic epilogue about male-dominated class structures and the challenges of feminism. The message is unexceptionable but jarring. Perhaps Sontag, like Vesuvius, simply blew her top. More likely, the outburst was calculated to amplify an otherwise low-key narrative and convince readers that the author is not only postmodern but also politically correct...
From the moment he appears onstage, uniformed and martial, barking out "Now is the winter of our discontent" with the guttural fury of a drill sergeant, Sir Ian McKellen's Richard III is arrestingly cruel and humorless, all chill and absolutely no charm. Not for him the leisurely glories of the play's language or the seductions of direct address and droll comedy to woo an audience. In a role that can epitomize the concept of the villain one loves to hate, McKellen avoids anything lovable or even approachable. This production, which has won raves from London to Cairo...
Those anxious to scuttle the Maastricht agreement quickly pointed out that it cannot legally take effect in any of the 12 E.C. countries until approved by all of them. "The Danes' decision has blown a hole in the treaty below the waterline," argued British Conservative M.P. Sir Patrick McNair-Wilson, with scarcely suppressed glee. Still others hailed the plebiscite as a triumph for democracy, highlighting the abyss between voters and their political leaders who, in Denmark's case, had campaigned vigorously for the treaty's approval...