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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