Missed this when it was first posted but have to say a belated thanks for this post. Been much preoccupied by death myself lately and I already knew four of those texts (the Lewis's and the Trollope and I have to say even the Richard Adams - which your Disneyschmerz comment is so spot on about - as well) which have all meant a lot to me. I did once know the Shakespeare but only because I used to work in Staines and I had quite forgotten the hostess bit. Never encountered the de Beauvoir or the Housman though. Bleak though they are these fragments are what we have to shore against our ruins...