Ramblings & ephemera
From Steve Marsh’s “Homage to Mister Berryman” (Mpls St Paul Magazine: September 2008):
Berryman’s last words to Kate came on that January morning—he told her he was going to campus to clean his office. He had never said that before, she says, but Kate, who was attending Al-Anon meetings at the time, was trying “not to [...]
Posted on September 28th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, history, language & literature | No Comments »
From Claudia Roth Pierpont’s “The Florentine” (The New Yorker: 15 September 2008): 92:
… the rules by which conspirators must proceed: confide in absolutely no one except when absolutely necessary, try to leave no one alive who might be able to take revenge, and, above all, never put anything in writing.
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The Chinese Internet [...]
Posted on September 19th, 2008 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, business, history, language & literature, security | No Comments »
From Ask Yahoo (5 March 2007):
There are only so many ways to construct a story.
Writers who believe there’s only one plot argue all stories “stem from conflict.” True enough, but we’re more inclined to back the theory you mention about seven plot lines.
According to the Internet Public Library, they are:
1. [wo]man vs. [...]
Posted on July 26th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: art, commonplace book, language & literature, on writing, writing ideas | No Comments »
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):
LUCY:
But where’s the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,
Created, for his rare success in arms,
Great Earl of Washford, Waterford and Valence;
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,
Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield,
The thrice-victorious Lord of [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):
BURGUNDY:
Doubtless he would have made a noble knight;
See, where he lies inhearsed in the arms
Of the most bloody nurser of his harms!
inhearsed: laid as in a coffin
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Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
1 Henry VI: Talbot says farewell to his son
John Berryman’s suicide note
Another awful poet
1 Henry [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):
JOAN LA PUCELLE:
Once I encounter’d him, and thus I said:
‘Thou maiden youth, be vanquish’d by a maid:’
But, with a proud majestical high scorn,
He answer’d thus: ‘Young Talbot was not born
To be the pillage of a giglot wench:’
giglot: A wanton; a lascivious or light, giddy girl.
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1 Henry [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):
TALBOT:
Where is my other life? mine own is gone;
O, where’s young Talbot? where is valiant John?
Triumphant death, smear’d with captivity,
Young Talbot’s valour makes me smile at thee:
When he perceived me shrink and on my knee,
His bloody sword he brandish’d over me,
And, like a hungry lion, did commence
Rough [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 6):
TALBOT:
If I to-day die not with Frenchmen’s rage,
To-morrow I shall die with mickle age:
mickle: Great.
(If I don’t die today in battle, I’ll die tomorrow from old age.)
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Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
1 Henry VI: Talbot’s deer metaphor
1 Henry VI: Talbot threatens Bourdeaux with destruction unless it [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 5):
TALBOT:
Then here I take my leave of thee, fair son,
Born to eclipse thy life this afternoon.
Come, side by side together live and die.
And soul with soul from France to heaven fly.
(Talbot’s son refuses to flee & leave his father, even though it likely means his death in [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 4):
SOMERSET:
It is too late; I cannot send them now:
This expedition was by York and Talbot
Too rashly plotted: all our general force
Might with a sally of the very town
Be buckled with …
buckled: encountered; To give way; collapse
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Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
1 Henry VI: Talbot’s deer metaphor
1 [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 2):
TALBOT:
If we be English deer, be then in blood;
Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch,
But rather, moody-mad and desperate stags,
Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel
And make the cowards stand aloof at bay:
moody-mad: furious with anger
Related posts
1 Henry VI: Talbot’s deer metaphor
Talbot describes his [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 2):
TALBOT:
He fables not; I hear the enemy:
Out, some light horsemen, and peruse their wings.
O, negligent and heedless discipline!
How are we park’d and bounded in a pale,
A little herd of England’s timorous deer,
Mazed with a yelping kennel of French curs!
If we be English deer, be then in blood;
Not [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 2):
TALBOT:
English John Talbot, captains, calls you forth,
Servant in arms to Harry King of England;
And thus he would: Open your city gates;
Be humble to us; call my sovereign yours,
And do him homage as obedient subjects;
And I’ll withdraw me and my bloody power:
But, if you frown upon this proffer’d [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 1):
EXETER:
Well didst thou, Richard, to suppress thy voice;
For, had the passions of thy heart burst out,
I fear we should have seen decipher’d there
More rancorous spite, more furious raging broils,
Than yet can be imagined or supposed.
But howsoe’er, no simple man that sees
This jarring discord of nobility,
This shouldering of [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 1):
With other vile and ignominious terms:
In confutation of which rude reproach
And in defence of my lord’s worthiness,
I crave the benefit of law of arms.
confutation: evidence that refutes conclusively
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1 Henry VI: repugn
1 Henry VI: Astraea
Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
1 Henry VI: Talbot’s deer metaphor
1 Henry VI: [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 1):
BASSET:
… When stubbornly he did repugn the truth
About a certain question in the law
Argued betwixt the Duke of York and him;
repugn: To oppose or contend against.
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1 Henry VI: confutation
1 Henry VI: Astraea
Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
1 Henry VI: Talbot’s deer metaphor
1 Henry VI: Talbot threatens [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 1):
GLOUCESTER:
What means his grace, that he hath changed his style?
No more but, plain and bluntly, ‘To the king!’
Hath he forgot he is his sovereign?
Or doth this churlish superscription
Pretend some alteration in good will?
churlish: Of, like, or befitting a churl; boorish or vulgar.
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1 Henry VI: Gloucester castigates [...]
Posted on January 16th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (III: 4):
Scene: Paris - The Palace
BASSET:
Villain, thou know’st the law of arms is such
That whoso draws a sword, ’tis present death,
Or else this blow should broach thy dearest blood.
Blackstone in his Commentaries (IV. 124): “By the ancient law … fighting in the king’s palace … was punished with [...]
Posted on January 15th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: history, language & literature, law | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (III: 1):
GLOUCESTER:
The presence of a king engenders love
Amongst his subjects and his loyal friends,
As it disanimates his enemies.
disanimates: To deprive of spirit; to dishearten.
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Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
1 Henry VI: Talbot’s deer metaphor
1 Henry VI: Talbot threatens Bourdeaux with destruction unless it capitulates
1 Henry VI: Talbot [...]
Posted on January 15th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off
From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (III: 1):
KING HENRY VI:
Stoop then and set your knee against my foot;
And, in reguerdon of that duty done,
I gird thee with the valiant sword of York:
Rise Richard, like a true Plantagenet,
And rise created princely Duke of York.
reguerdon: To reward.
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Talbot describes his son’s valiant death
1 Henry VI: Talbot’s [...]
Posted on January 15th, 2007 by Scott Granneman
Filed under: language & literature, word of the day | Comments Off