John Halifax, Gentleman on Robinson Crusoe: “"What books have you got through?" "All you sent--Pilgrim's Progress, Robinson Crusoe, and the Arabian Nights.”
John Halifax, Gentleman on Romeo and Juliet: “We finished the morning by reading Shakspeare--Romeo and Juliet--at which the old folio seemed naturally to open.”
John Halifax, Gentleman on The Purple Island: “And though he himself, and his father before him, had both been working men, still, I think, Abel Fletcher never forgot that we originally came of a good stock, and that it pleased him to call me, his only son, after one of our forefathers, not unknown--Phineas Fletcher, who wrote the "Purple Island."”
John Halifax, Gentleman on Lyrical Ballads: “…in fact, a collection of Lyrical Ballads, brought out that year by a young man named Mr. William Wordsworth, and some anonymous friend, conjointly.”
John Halifax, Gentleman on Inferno: “For a single instant they gazed at one another--besotted husband, dishonoured, divorced wife--gazed with horror and fear, as two sinners who had been each other's undoing, might meet in the poetic torments of Dante's "Inferno," or the tangible fire and brimstone of many a blind but honest Christian's hell.”
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm on John Halifax, Gentleman: “My mother's name is Aurelia Randall; our names are Hannah Lucy Randall, Rebecca Rowena Randall, John Halifax Randall, Jenny Lind Randall, Marquis Randall, Fanny Ellsler Randall, and Miranda Randall.”