The Black Tulip Quotes
"The more beautiful the flower is, the more does one offend God in despising it."
"The tulip is the most beautiful of all flowers."
"Therefore, he who despises the tulip offends God beyond measure."
"Eat, drink, and spend your money, if you wish to know what life really is."
"This innocent magic, the fruit at the same time of childlike musings and of manly genius."
"The inventor genius of his rival at work."
"Not one of the four tulips which the latter had meant to destroy was injured at all."
"God commands man to do all that is in his power to preserve his life."
"The most curious part of the operations was not performed in the garden."
"For, strange to say, the love and interest of horticulture had not deadened in Isaac his fierce envy and thirst of revenge."
"But it is time that we should connect with this epoch of the operations of the one, and the espionage of the other, the visit which Cornelius de Witt came to pay to his native town."
"De Witt, although being very little of a horticulturist or of an artist, went over the whole mansion, from the studio to the greenhouse, inspecting everything, from the pictures down to the tulips."
"All this hubbub excited the attention of Boxtel, who was just taking his meal by his fireside."
"Van Baerle, therefore, passed the whole winter in his laboratory, in the midst of his books and pictures."
"Cornelius admitted only the inoffensive broom of an old Frisian housekeeper, who had been his nurse, and who from the time when he had devoted himself to the culture of tulips ventured no longer to put onions in his stews, for fear of pulling to pieces and mincing the idol of her foster child."
"The envious spy was watching more intently than ever."
I shall find the black tulip," said Cornelius to himself, whilst detaching the suckers. "I shall obtain the hundred thousand guilders offered by the Society.
"Cornelius, in mute stupefaction, embraced his old nurse, who was in a swoon; shook hands with his servants, who were bathed in tears, and followed the magistrate."
"Cornelius, startled, laid his hands on his bulbs, and turned round."
"The younger Cornelius, bowing assent, said aloud - 'Would you now, sir, please to see my dry-room?'"
"Cornelius van Baerle was about one o’clock in the day, gathering from the border the young suckers raised from tulips of the colour of roasted coffee."
"Van Baerle’s letter would have fallen into his hands and not the nurse’s: in which event the poor prisoner, like the raven of the Roman cobbler, would have thrown away his time, his trouble, and his hope."
"The dog, on his part, went up to the prisoner, and, growling, smelled about his legs just as though to ask him what right he had still to be alive, after having left the prison in the company of the Recorder and the executioner."
"‘I assure you, Master Gryphus,’ replied Cornelius, ‘that if I have entertained the idea of escaping, I most decidedly have it no longer.’"
"Cornelius stretched out his arms, and, looking to heaven, uttered a cry of joy - ‘Oh, Rosa, Rosa!’"
"‘Father,’ said Rosa, ‘here is the famous prison from which Mynheer Grotius escaped. You know Mynheer Grotius?’"
"‘It’s books that helped Mynheer Grotius to get off.’"
"‘Well, then, sir, this money cannot belong to me. I shall never love anyone; neither shall I marry.’"
"‘Only be quick; there, my father is regaining his breath, one minute more, and he will open his eyes, and it will be too late. Do you hesitate?’"
"‘Ah! so Grotius; and that’s the chamber from which he escaped. Well, I’ll answer for it that no one shall escape after him in my time.’"
"‘I said, ‘Nay, as long as I can make the sign of the cross with that arm’ (Gryphus was a Roman Catholic), ‘I laugh at the devil.’’"
"‘But if you laugh at the devil, Master Gryphus, you ought with so much more reason to laugh at learned people.’"
"‘The Stadtholder has a country-house, one league distant from Leyden, properly speaking a kind of large dairy, and my aunt, who was his nurse, has the management of it.’"
"‘Oh, Rosa, my beautiful Rosa, do you love me a little?’"
"‘A little?’ she said, ‘you make no great pretensions, Mynheer Cornelius.’"
"‘It’s very fortunate that we used such speed in having justice done to that great villain John, and to that little rogue Cornelius, otherwise his Highness might have snatched them from us, just as he has done this fellow.’"
Why, then," said Cornelius, "the pigeons which a merciful Father in Heaven has lent to me.
"First of all you should catch them, Master Gryphus. You won’t allow these pigeons to be mine! Well, I vow they are even less yours than mine."
Omittance is no acquittance," growled the jailer, "and I shall certainly wring their necks before twenty-four hours are over: you may be sure of that.
"Envy urged Boxtel on in his criminal pursuits."
"Boxtel reflected upon his criminal plan, contemplating its execution and consequences."
"The deep-laid scheme of Boxtel was both cunning and sinister."
"Gryphus, drunk and vulnerable, became an easy target for Boxtel's devious plan."
"In a moment of despair, Rosa reveals the theft to Cornelius, leading to her collapse."
"Cornelius, overwhelmed by the loss and Rosa's distress, vows to pursue the thief."
"Gryphus's anger and accusations intensify the tragedy for Rosa and Cornelius."
"Rosa's daring journey, driven by love and determination, showcases her courage."
"Van Systens, engrossed in his report, dismisses Rosa's claim without proper consideration."
"Rosa's plea to Van Systens, driven by desperation and injustice, falls on deaf ears."