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
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