Here's a link to Isaac Disraeli's (nineteenth century) essay upon Tom
O'Bedlams:
http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/disraeli/isaac/curiosities/chapter190.html
On 10 September 2012 07:47, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> The visual image is of the morning star being embraced by the horned i.e.
> crescent moon which is then compared to the cuckolding of the blacksmith so
> a bit of Jacobean gender-swapping has happened in the transfer - the moon
> embraces 'her' shepherd. (Diana and Endymion) I think the licence rests on
> visual to symbolic transfer - I don't think there's an additional reference
> - and Tom is agitated enough to allow that I reckon.
>
>
> On 9 September 2012 23:36, Max Richards <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> and thanks, Uche, for this brilliant helpful comment
>>
>> On 10/09/2012, at 8:15 AM, Uche Ogbuji wrote:
>>
>> > Ever in awe of Robin's thoroughness, David! Please thank him heartily
>> from
>> > me as well.
>> >
>> > So many things always to sat about Tom o' Bedlam, but for now I'll just
>> > mention that one bit of the following always puzzled me:
>> >
>> > The moone embrace her shepherd
>> > And the queen of Love her warrior,
>> > While the first doth horne the star of morne,
>> > And the next the heavenly Farrier.
>> >
>> > Diana and Endymion (Renaissance schemers deciding Selene wasn't goddess
>> > enough for the sleeper), Venus and Mars, easily enough for the first two
>> > lines. But I lose the antecedents and referents in the cuckolding
>> stated
>> > in line 3, though of course line 4 is crystal clear with Vulcan the
>> > cuckolded. I wonder whether the yoking (unique sort of zeugma) of line
>> 3
>> > is set up to serve the (very lovely) verse, excused by the addle of the
>> > narrator, or whether I'm missing some variant mythic device of the
>> crescent
>> > moon's horns embracing the morning star.
>> >
>> > --Uche
>> >
>> > On Sun, Sep 9, 2012 at 2:03 PM, David Bircumshaw
>> > <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
>> >
>> >> Robin Hamilton asked me to forward this, in reply to Max, on the Tom a
>> >> Bedlam poems
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------
>> >> Max:
>> >>
>> >> I've been working on an edition of all of the various Tom a Bedlam
>> poems,
>> >> of which this is the earliest.
>> >> Below a transcription of the 1610 text, and some notes on the source
>> MSS.
>> >>
>> >> (Actually, it’s been so long since I last worked on this, that I’m not
>> >> quite sure how reliable the text below is. I think it’s someone else’s
>> >> edited and punctuated transcription of the 1610 Giles Earle His Booke
>> >> version that I was going to use as the basis of a version collated
>> with the
>> >> Harley MS and Le Prince d’Amour. I’m pretty sure that somewhere I
>> have a
>> >> facsimile of the 1610 MS, but curse me if I can find it at the moment.)
>> >>
>> >> Robin
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------
>> >>
>> >> A Tom a Bedlam Song (1610)
>> >>
>> >> From the hagg and hungry goblin
>> etc
>>
>
>
>
> --
> David Joseph Bircumshaw
> **
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
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>
>
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
**
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.com
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