 |
 |
The only thing that comes to my mind at this point is a very dimly remembered passage in Blaise de Monluc's memoirs (as I recall) that describes a deformed man who was badly wounded in a battle; the doctors, who didn't know the man, tried to cure his wounds, reset his bones, and generally shape him up as though he had been of regular build to begin with. Needless to say, he suffered a lot. Anne P. > This is much later -- Margaret Cavendish in The World's Olio, 1655, > but I like it and you might too (she writes quite a lot about war, > unsurprisingly): > > Of the losse in Battles. > > Where history mentioneth battles, they make nothing to speak of a > hundred thousand killed in a battle; but it is sooner writ, then > fought; for let us imagine, fifty thousand should stand still, or > forced to do so until their throats were cut, and it will take up > some time, and when a man speaks of a battle, the longest is from sun > rising, to sun-set. I do not mean the dayes neer the Pole; but neer > the Line; for nature requires rest and food, and battles are to > return blows as well as to receive, wherefore fighting requires time, > before death, besides the quarrel; for they do not alwayes kill so > soon as they meet, neither can they fight all at once, for squadrons > are five and ten men deep; besides dead bodies of horses, and men > will hinder much their incounters, but some say most are killed in > execution, when one party runs away; it may be answered, that fear is > very swift: & oft times it gets from revenge, and I have hard a good > souldier say, that thirty thousand on each side, is as much as can > fight in one battle; for greater numbers make rather confusion then > an execution, but report kills more then a great Army can bury. >> >> >>Hi -- after reading posthumous poems on P. Sidney, I've suddenly >>become interested in the poetic treatment of war wounds in the >>early modern period, esp. with reference to him. I understand that >>War in the Renaissance is a critical genre unto itself, but has >>anybody written about the literary treatment of wounds, esp. as >>concerns (literally) deconstructive metaphors, phantom limbs, >>etc.? >> >>On that same note, why do we so rarely (ever?) read "CCCHA" in >>the context of the Sidneiana originally printed with it? --Tom H. > >