Holmes quotes with approval John Terraine ’ s verdict that French was the most distinguished English cavalry leader since Cromwell, and argues that although he did not achieve victory, his personality inspired the BEF in 1914, a fact acknowledged even by Robertson, marred by his “ undisciplined intellect and mercurial personality ”.

), is not typically deemed as problematic: The " problem " arises when mood changes are uncontrollable and, more importantly, volatile or " mercurial ".

While he became notorious for his " mumbling " diction and exuding a raw animal magnetism, his mercurial performances were nonetheless highly regarded, and he is widely considered as one of the greatest and most influential actors of the 20th century.

He is mercurial and temperamental.

The word mercurial is commonly used to refer to something or someone erratic, volatile or unstable, derived from Mercury's swift flights from place to place.

Fafhrd is a tall ( seven feet ) northern barbarian ; Mouser is a small, mercurial thief, once known as Mouse and a former wizard's apprentice.

* Canadian Poetry Online: bill bissett-biography and 9 poems ( a violent prson, they cut back sew much on th backs uv th poor, it usd 2 b, pavlovs dog 1, creem style garish, th kaptin sd he was mercurial, th breth heart uv th world, th futur uv salmon is us, hopra return 2 merlinonda amethyst voices )

This process, when skillfully carried out, produces gilding of great solidity and beauty, but owing to the exposure of the workmen to mercurial fumes, it is very unhealthy.

Meanwhile, he is also haunted by memories of his ex-girlfriend, the mercurial Dorrie ( Charlotte Rampling ).

Though Heaven is " more thoughtful, proceeds more deliberately, than the mercurial haste " of Tykwer's films, " it contains the same sort of defiant romanticism, in which a courageous woman tries to alter her fate by sheer willpower.

Cricket writer Colin Bateman noted, " it is a dull, practical structure which does little justice to their mercurial talents and indomitable spirits ".

Mr. Bowie's screen presence here is mercurial and arresting, and he seems to arrive at this effortlessly, though he manages to do something slyly different in every scene.

He is a mercurial personality given to extreme manifestations of anger, sadness, or joviality, depending on the power of the catalyst provoking them.

American strategists were mercurial about the outcome of the battle with one writing " the handwriting is on the wall.

Kosh consistently frustrated Sheridan with his seemly vague and mercurial answers, such as " You have always been here ," and " The avalanche has already started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote.

Mercutio's name is related to the word " mercurial ," meaning, " having an unpredictable and fast changing mood ," an accurate description of Mercutio's personality.

Dolly Sods is well known for its often extreme and mercurial climate.

One word, laute, has two contradictory meanings: “ quickly ” and “ slowly .” ( Similar to the problem encountered with the English word “ mercurial ,” which can mean either “ unhesitating ” or “ scatter-brained .”) The word is often accompanied with a quick or slow open-handed movement to indicate the meaning.

What they are instead is a much rarer thing [...] thoughtful, quirky, mercurial young adults skilled at transforming doubt into music.

Meanwhile, The Chiefs ' tactics get them into a great deal of legal trouble and make them a number of enemies, in particular, the Syracuse Bulldogs and their mercurial leader Tim " Doctor Hook " McCracken, who is determined to pummel Dunlop after a humiliating defeat.

Our visible sun is only a reflection, as is the moon, with the stars reflecting off seven mercurial discs that float in the sphere's center.

She is described as an unstable, mercurial woman.

The mercurial piano part is marked leggieramente, and the two main themes are clever and light-hearted.

Scott had a reputation for being moody and mercurial while on the set.

The mercurial Oudinot, who had been waiting for his orders to attack all morning, decided to wait no longer, despite the fact that he had not yet received his order.

Salamanca's relationship with the general only got worse, as the mercurial president ( then in his mid 60s ) tended to blame the military leadership for the continuing setbacks on the field.

In 1772 Jean-André Deluc studied the several substances then used in thermometers in the light of new theories of heat and came to the conclusion that mercurial thermometers were the best for practical use ; for example, if two equal amounts of water at x and y degrees were mixed, the temperature of the result was then the average of x and y degrees, and this relationship only held reliably when mercury was used.

Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, Macedonia's western neighbour, was a general of mercurial ability, widely renowned for his bravery, but he did not apply his talents sensibly and often snatched after vain hopes, so that Antigonus used to compare him to a dice player, who had excellent throws, but did not know how to use them.

Commercial boat dive operations, especially at offshore reefs or areas known for strong currents or mercurial weather, may require divers to carry safety sausages.

Far less protective of their masculinity than earlier film actors, they enacted emotionally wounded and vulnerable outsiders struggling for self-understanding, and their work shimmered with a mercurial neuroticism ... he Method-trained performers in films of the fifties added an enhanced verbal and gesture naturalism and a more vivid inner life.

On a sadder note the mercurial Thomas Castaignède, one of the most enduringly popular players at the club decided to bring his club rugby career to an end after providing many years of entertaining rugby at its best both for Saracens and France.

Other books included a biography of Robert F. Kennedy ;. 44 ( with Jimmy Breslin ), a fictionalized account of the hunt for Son of Sam killer David Berkowitz ; Turned On, about upper middle-class drug abuse ; An Illustrated History of the Olympics, a coffee-table book on the history of the modern Olympic Games ; The Perfect Jump, on the world record-breaking long jump by Bob Beamon in the 1968 Summer Olympics ; My Aces, My Faults with Nick Bollettieri ; Steinbrenner !, a biography of mercurial New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner ; and Bo Knows Bo with Bo Jackson.

However, it was a trade before the 1972 season to the Los Angeles Dodgers for mercurial slugger Dick Allen that began a skein of John's most famous years, first with the Dodgers and subsequently with the New York Yankees, where he posted a pair of 20-win seasons and was twice an All-Star.

He bears a striking resemblance to his father Yang Kang for his cunning and mercurial nature, but also shares traits of the kindness and devotion of his mother Mu Nianci.

Mansur was well known for his command over a large number of rare ( aprachalit ) ragas such as Shuddh Nat, Asa Jogiya, Hem Nat, Lachchhasakh, Khat, Shivmat Bhairav, Bihari, Sampoorna Malkauns, Lajawanti, Adambari Kedar and Bahaduri Todi, as well as his constant, mercurial improvisations in both melody and metre without ever losing the emotional content of the song.

Stefan Johansson's position at McLaren was considered by many as just a stop gap signing by team boss Ron Dennis who had failed to lure Ayrton Senna from Lotus due to him being under contract until the end of 1987 and always intended signing the mercurial Brazilian for.

Francis Bacon, who was particularly enthralled by her mercurial character, painted her at least sixteen times: in May 2002, Bacon's " Study for Portrait of Henrietta Moraes " was sold by Ernst Beyeler for $ 6. 7 million, and in February 2012 Bacon's 1963 " Portrait of Henrietta Moraes " sold for £ 21. 3 million.

Renowned for their beauty, cunning and grace, and their feats of architecture, they are inclined to be mercurial and vindictive if wronged.

James O ' Neill later became the model for James Tyrone, the frugal, mercurial, unseeing father character in Eugene O ' Neill's posthumous autobiographical play Long Day's Journey Into Night, which tells the story of the Tyrone family, which closely resembles the O ' Neill family.

" Two years later, at age five, he was referred to the family psychiatry department of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh, where he was considered to be highly aggressive and mercurial.

Very mercurial, he changes careers rapidly from cater waiter, Banana Republic and Barneys New York sales clerk, to acting teacher, to student nurse, to surfer, to back-up dancer for Jennifer Lopez and Janet Jackson.