Martin - You're right, of course, about "fatuous ecstasies anent Beatrice
Alighieri"...although I would have postulated my position as "simulated
ecstasies". As other members of this list have frequently commented, irony
does not - quite obviously - translate to email communication. Or, to quote
Iggy Pop, "I'm bored, I'm the Chairman of the Bored". Just trying to
stimulate a little "erudite" (??) fun on the list.
And you are correct, quoting from memory: Beatrice Portinari it is. I've
found on the bookshelves the volume of "The Divine Comedy" I bought when I
was 15 or 16. "Oxford Editions of Standard Authors", translated by H.F.Cary,
with 109 illustrations by John Flaxman (no publication date). I obviously
bought it on sale: the price on the flyleaf is a crossed out 15/6 to 5/-.
Circa 1961. five shillings was a lot for an adolecsent to spend on a volume
of poetry. Particularly when I read Cary's Preface and note that it is dated
February 1844! (that is, 100 years before I was born).
I haven't seen the Blake illustrations to the Divine Comedy, but the Flaxman
illustrations are decidedly in the Blake style. I can make this comment
because I've also taken from the bookshelves my Viking Press 1960 edition of
"The Portable Blake" - probably purchased contemporaneously with the Divine
Comedy.
Yes, Martin, I do not - to use a favourite word of contemporary
politicians - resile from my adolescent fantasies and interests. They formed
me (for better or worse). But I would have thought that my comment in my
last response to "Beatrice Alighieri" - about playing with identities etc. -
was a "dead give away" as to the position...
FUN, Martin. Fun, GOOD FUN (but perhaps not erudite).
Cheers,
Viv Kitson
Martin J. Walker wrote:
> Excuse me if I interrupt the fatuous ecstasies anent "Beatrice Alighieri"
> (sic), but it seems to me that you, Viv, and others perchance, have fallen
> for a gross deception, an instance of what certain neo-gnostic
commentators,
> later unfortunately suppressed, have designated the "false Beatrice"
> syndrome (so well known to Blake, vide his illustrations for the
> _Commedia_ ). Who knows what subtle fairy has foisted this deceit on you,
> ladies and gentlemen, but it is not, repeat NOT, the Beatrice Portinari (I
> am open to correction to the spelling of her family name, not having the
> relevant literature to hand in my sylvan retreat) of literary renown and
> august anima of both Dante Alighieri and the adolescent Viv Kitson, known
to
> us as otherwise sharp-witted and adult contributor to this poetry list.
> Another estimable contributor, Mairead by name, has suggested that
> "Beatrice" is "Henry" - but who is Henry? Henry Pussycat is no longer with
> us r.i.p. The dark wood grows curiouser and curiouser. Could the list have
> been infected by a very intelligent virus, perish the thought, albeit one
> that commits solecisms of the above-indicated kind and attempts to pull
the
> wool over our eyes with such patently fabricated misspellings as "hights"
> and "wispering"?
> Yours etc. Martin
>
>
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