Epitaph on George Moore
'Perfection was Moore's constant goal and his place in literature should eventually be secure, if for no other reason than his pioneer efforts in freeing English prose from Victorian inhibitions and the example he set of absolute devotion to his art.' So reads the last sentence in E. Gilcher's entry on him in the ODNB. Indeed, the inscription etched in stone over his crypt reads: 'He forsook his family and friends for his art'. On display is the death-mask of the man whom W. B. Yeats described as 'carved from a turnip, looking out of astonished eyes' (Yeats, 1935).