David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :
'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)
(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.
(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.
Commenting on the previous post, correspondent D reminds us that the French have always been rather adventurous in their scataLOGOS/HA HA
Of course! All those old postcards that exclaim
Ah! T'en as un oeil!
It's something like
O m(y e)y(e)!
Here is one such, a tableau vivant by Theatre of The Actors of Regard. Note the curtain and the old, heavy framed, dark portrait on the wall behind.
"Here's looking at you, kid!"
and on the other side...
Here's looking at you, Monsieur sous rature
Why then were they so surprised to encounter again
click image to enlarge
detail
A Person Looks At A Work Of Art/
someone looks at something ...
LOGOS/HA HA
