dry-as-dusts

Updated: May 6, 2025

Carlyle could be as in the Cromwell, where he sets himself and confines himself to the double task of elucidating his hero's rugged or crafty obscurities of speech and writing and of piecing them into a connected history, or where he wrestles with the huge accumulation of documents about Frederick as practical as the driest of Dry-as-dusts. But others could equal, though few surpass him, in this.

George Saintsbury - A History of Nineteenth Century Literature (1780-1895)

He took their feelings and set them on fire and juggled with them flaming. He had such caloric that he kindled actors and actresses to unsuspected brilliances. He made tinder of the dry-as-dusts, and he brought the warm-hearted to a white-hot glow. He dealt with primary emotions crudely but vigorously. A soldier saluting an officer became in a Ferriday picture a zealot rendering a national homage.

Rupert Hughes - We Can't Have Everything