Matcham's Masterstroke.
On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 10:54:50 -0400
Hannibal Hamlin
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This reminds me too of the famous
>response to criticism attributed to
>Max
> Reger (though also, erroneously I
>think, to Shaw, and perhaps with more
> justification to the Earl of
>Sandwich):
>
> "Sir, I am sitting in the smallest
>room of my house. I have your review
> before me. In a moment it will be
>behind me."
>
> Hannibal
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 10:02 AM,
>Herron, Thomas <[log in to unmask]>
>wrote:
>
>> "jagged" as well, as in the rough
>>edges of the paper that would be
>>visible
>> when the central part, or wit, is
>>in-folded? These ragged edges would
>> themselves get "filthy" with time
>>and wear.
>>
>> I also wonder, given the
>>associations in the poem, at how the
>>jakes might
>> become a privy place for sharing of
>>messages by closeted
>>priests/recusants,
>> esp. given the propensity for
>>two-seaters in the day, thus making
>>such
>> places closets for whispering
>>messages of "martyrdom" as well as a
>>place of
>> filthy passing of true messages from
>>(filthy) hand to hand (the religious
>> message being written on mere rags
>>to begin with --as our flesh houses
>>the
>> spirit-- being the main point here).
>> I've heard stories of how messages
>> were also dropped into the jakes, so
>>as to challenge any intruder to find
>> them. Christ also crucified or
>>mauled in rags. (I'm likely reading
>>too
>> much into it.)
>>
>> Sincerely, Thomas
>> ________________________________________
>> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
>>[[log in to unmask]] On
>> Behalf Of Colin Burrow
>>[[log in to unmask]]
>> Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2011 5:03
>>AM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: Ragging paper
>>
>> I would guess that ‘Iagges’ is a
>>form (unrecorded by OED) of
>>‘jakes’—so the
>> best fruits of wit end up as
>>lavatory paper. The crap (so to
>>speak) rhyme is
>> quite good in the context of a poem
>>that so pointedly does not use the
>>word
>> ‘shit’.
>> Elevatedly,
>>
>> Colin Burrow,
>> Senior Research Fellow,
>> All Souls College,
>> Oxford
>> OX1 4AL
>>
>> From: Sidney-Spenser Discussion List
>>[mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> On Behalf Of ANNE PRESCOTT
>> Sent: 16 March 2011 18:35
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Ragging paper
>>
>> Dear list--I was distressed, when we
>>were discussing paper, by those bad
>> puns and by Beth Quitslund squeamish
>>response to my reminder that paper
>> (often? always?) came from rags and
>>that rags, often, came from discarded
>> old underwear (but not, I gather,
>>from underpants for women, which had
>>yet
>> to be invented--something relevant
>>to Donne's Elegy 19). What bad taste!
>> What fear of centuries old germs! So
>>to elevate the conversation and for
>> those interested in early modern
>>printing practices, I pass on a bit
>>from
>> John Davies' "The Muses Sacrifice"
>>(1612 edition--I don't know if it's
>>the
>> first) from his "Proper Appendix,"
>>on the redemption of paper by the wit
>>of
>> what is printed on it. sig. T4v. I'm
>>not sure what "lagges" are, though.
>> Enjoy:
>>
>> And as the Paper-mill, of rotten
>>Raggs
>> tane from the Dung-hill, by still
>>mauling it,
>> Makes so white Paper, as the filthy
>>Iagges
>> may now infold the purest part of
>>Wit,
>> Or purest things that come from
>>Heart, or Hand:
>> so, we by Martyrdome, are made most
>>fit
>> (How euer base) in glory still to
>>stand:
>> And made more apt (diuinely) to
>>comprise
>> Gods glorious Graces, and his
>>Rarities.
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Hannibal Hamlin
> Associate Professor of English
> Editor, Reformation
> Organizer, The King James Bible and
>its Cultural Afterlife
> http://kingjamesbible.osu.edu/
> The Ohio State University
> 164 West 17th Ave., 421 Denney Hall
> Columbus, OH 43210-1340
> [log in to unmask]
> [log in to unmask]
[log in to unmask]
James Nohrnberg
Dept. of English, Bryan Hall 219
Univ. of Virginia
P.O Box 400121
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4121
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