Stock Characters

Famous quotes containing the words stock and/or characters:

    I’d rather I were dead and gone,
    And my body laid in grave,
    Ere a rusty stock o coal-black smith
    My maidenhead should have.
    Unknown. The Twa Magicians (l. 17–20)

    A criminal trial is like a Russian novel: it starts with exasperating slowness as the characters are introduced to a jury, then there are complications in the form of minor witnesses, the protagonist finally appears and contradictions arise to produce drama, and finally as both jury and spectators grow weary and confused the pace quickens, reaching its climax in passionate final argument.
    Clifford Irving (b. 1930)