It's the oldest temptation. Not gold or the power it can buy, not love, not even deep, drumming fires of lust: what we coveted first was knowledge. Not just any knowledge, either, but forbidden, more-than-mortal knowledge, as seductive and treacherous as a will-o'-the-wisp glimmering like unearthly fruit amid dark branches.
J.L. Carrell: The Shakespeare Curse
