Had the post for years, Patrick, but I've had enough of the diet.
On 8 February 2010 08:28, Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>wrote:
> This sounds the just the job for me but being a crabbed atheist may rule me
> out -but hang on perhaps it's a job for Dave Bircumshaw his cv is better
> P Defuncter
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Max Richards
> Sent: 08 February 2010 03:54
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: the sin-eater
>
> In the late 17th century, the Englishman John Aubrey described sin-eating
> like
> so:
> "When the Corps was brought out of the house, and layd on the Biere, a
> Loafe
> of
> Breade was brought out, and delivered to the Sinne-eater over the Corps . .
> . in
> consideration whereof he tooke upon him (ipso facto) all of the Sinnes of
> the
> Defunct, and freed him (or her) from walking after they were dead."
>
> In Aubrey's telling, the sin-eaters were poor people at society's margin,
> in
>
> particular "a long, leane, ugly, lamentable poor raskal" who lived alone,
> presumably surrounded by the many sins he had spent a lifetime taking on.
>
> [from David's Orr's NYT review of Frederick Seidel's CP]
>
> !!
>
>
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--
David Bircumshaw
"A window./Big enough to hold screams/
You say are poems" - DMeltzer
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
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blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
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