For good measure, in OED's etymology I particularly liked the Italian 'paper
coffin'.
P
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to
> poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Goodland, Giles
> Sent: 15 June 2005 13:20
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: snapshot wednesday15th june 05
>
> Before Napoleon! Here is Cotgrave (1611):
>
>
> the cornet of paper wherein grocers put the parcels they
> retaile; also, a Cartouch, or full charge, for a pistoll put
> vp within a little paper to be the readier for vse, etc
>
> it is OED's first sense. The Egyptian sense is not recorded
> until 1830.
>
> Ultimately from Latin carta, charta.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to
> poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Mark Weiss
> Sent: 15 June 2005 13:00
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: snapshot wednesday15th june 05
>
> Not a scroll, but the oval that surrounds the names of
> pharaohs and gods in hieroglyphic inscriptions. So-called
> because it presumably reminded Napoleon's scientists of a
> cartridge. The cartouche was the key to Champollion's
> deciphering of hieroglyphics. He knew what the proclamation
> on the Rosetta Stone meant, but he didn't know which
> hieroglyphs corresponded to which Greek words, until he
> intuited that the hieroglyphs inside the cartouche were the
> pharaoh's names and epithets, and that many of the
> hieroglyphs represented phonemes. He had already guessed that
> Coptic, still spoken in Egypt, was a modern form of the
> ancient language.
>
> To simplify a very complex story.
>
> Mark
>
>
> At 10:43 AM 6/15/2005 +0100, you wrote:
> > Cartouche is itself a pun: an Egyptian scroll, and the
> cartridge for
> >an old rifle shot.
> >
> >(Sorry to have to reveal its meaning), but H.D. uses I to
> good effect:
> >
> >
> > Thoth, Hermes, the stylus,
> >the palette, the pen, the quill endure,
> >
> >though our books are a floor
> >of smouldering ash under our feet;
> >
> >though the burning of the books remains the most perverse gesture
> >
> >and the meanest
> >of man's mean nature,
> >
> >yet give us, they still cry,
> >give us books,
> >
> >folio, manuscript, old parchment
> >will do for cartridge cases;
> >
> >irony is bitter truth
> >wrapped up in a little joke,
> >
> >and Hatshepsut's name is still circled
> >with what they call the cartouche.
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: Poetryetc provides a venue for a dialogue relating to
> poetry and
> >poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dominic Fox
> >Sent: 15 June 2005 10:34
> >To: [log in to unmask]
> >Subject: Re: snapshot wednesday15th june 05
> >
> >"...at which point, we are to understand, the defendant lost his
> >footing on the floor made slippery by the spilled beverage and,
> >reaching out to steady himself, accidentally placed his hand
> upon the
> >lady's - ahem - *cartouche*?"
> >
> >e. e. cummings does a good bilingual double-entendre in "My Love":
> >
> >thy thighs are white horses yoked to a chariot
> > of kings
> >they are the striking of a good minstrel between them is always a
> >pleasant song
> >
> >- "pleasant song" being, of course, "bel canto".
> >
> >Dominic
>
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