26 October 2006 18:52
The Once and Future King by T.H. White. this is fairly late on the book, while the queen and Lancelot were alternating between running around and not running around behind Arthur's back--typical love triangle angst and all that...[Guinivere] said to herself that Lancelot had betrayed her, that she was the victim of Elaine's cunning, that her lover was sure to betray her again. She tormented herself with a thousand words of the same sort. But what she felt to herself, in the uncharted regions of her heart, was a different matter. Perhaps she was actually jealous, not of Elaine, but of the baby. Perhaps it was Lancelot's love for Arthur that she feared. Or it may have been a fear of the whole position, of its instability and the nemesis inherent in it. Women know, far better than men, that God's laws are not mocked. They have more cause to know it.i include the second paragraph simply for the humour. i include the first paragraph simply for the audaciousness of its last two sentences. the reference to Eve and the curse of painful childbirth is, i feel, clear enough (Gen 3:16). but is he correct? {shrugs}...
Arthur's feelings completed the misery of the court. He, unfortunately for himself, had been beautifully brought up. His teacher had educated him as the child is educated in the womb, where it lives the history of man from fish to mammal--and, like the child in the womb, he had been protected with love meanwhile. The effect of such an education was that he had grown up without any of the useful accomplishments for living--without malice, vanity, suspicion, cruelty, and the commoner forms of selfishness. Jealousy seemed to him the most ignoble of vices. He was sadly unfitted for hating his best friend or for torturing his wife. He had been given too much love and trust to be good at these things.
speaking of things Arthurian, an Agatha Christie novel i read recently drew its title from Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shalott. The Mirror Crack'd (as its called in the Miss Marple anthology i was reading) comes from the climax of the poem:
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
"The curse is come upon me," cried
The Lady of Shalott.
it's actually (this coming from a guy who has no great love for poetry) a readable enough poem. there's a full text version here, although i understand tennyson published two versions.But in her web she still delightsnow speaking of things non-arthurian...
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often through the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the Moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed.
"I am half sick of shadows," said
The Lady of Shalott.
Who is this? And what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they crossed themselves for fear,
All the Knights at Camelot;
But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, "She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott."
Costello: If I mentioned the third baseman's name, who did I say is playing third?
Abbot: No, Who's playing first.
Costello: What's on first?
Abbot: What's on second.
Costello: I don't know.
Abbot: He's on third.
Costello: There I go, back on third again!
Abbot: Now you've got it.
Costello: All we got is a couple of days on the team.
18:52 email me permalink / commentary (1)
Am I supposed to get that Abbot and Costello thing you've got going...well obviously not : ) 27 October, 2006 10:57 – 
Jenn Heatwole
