NOV. 11, 2005. Illustrations of Chaucer's England revamped with better footnote system and
Mac MSIE friendly now. (So there, Torey and Pauline!)
Some more stories by Leon Mead. Can't decide about him, funny or not? An Assumed
Weakness, Revels of the Muses, and The Belle of the Dinner are now up.
A few short primary source extracts have been added. The Castle of Love and Notes from a
Medieval Faculty Meeting (some things never change.) Also a later extract from Villani not in
Rose Selfe's translation on the Failure of the Bardi and other 14th century bankers in Florence
because the King of England wouldn't pay his bills because he needed his money to fund the
invasion of France (some more things never change, sadly).
NOV. 2, 2005. Ongoing site revamp. Wo and weladay! Makes raking seem like fun.
Chestnuts do not live up to their hallowed reputation ('roasting on the open fire', etc.) Must be
an acquired taste, and me with a whole yard full of them. They are only slightly better than
acorns (but not much).
Did put up another story by Leon Mead, When Ezra Sang First Bass.
Have misplaced the Shakespeare Calendar so the daily quote will stay missing occasionally.
The scanner cord has gone missing as well, still no new pictures.
About mispronunciation fears, should you ever worry about that. According to Smith and
Thompson in First Year Latin (p. 3):
"This book gives Latin pronunciation as taught in the United States. Every country has its own
pronunciation of Latin. Thus for Cicero, we say Kikero, the Germans, Tsetsero; the French,
Seesero; the Spanish, Theethero; and the Italians, Cheechero. The greatest user of Latin, the
Roman Catholic Church, follows the Italian pronunciation most closely."
I checked and Father Heely of Chelsea, MA, pronounces ol' Julius, Chay-sar, while we see See-
sur. The moral is, say what you want and then add, by U. S. standards (or French, or Italian, or
Hollywood, etc.)
Feel better?
By the way, this holds for punctuation and spelling, too, just vary the century. Long sentences
(very long), idioms like till, and strange spellings are all perfectly fine depending on when they
were written or translated. If you write like them, just style your writing as 'in the manner of the
eminent Classical (or Medieval, Renaissance, Victorian) scholars.' You will be able to prove it
as well with a lot of the texts here, if anybody is giving you grief.
OCT. 25, 2005. Self-Deception, by Matthew Arnold, is poem that is quite comforting and it's up
and proofread. So is an interesting short story by Leon Mead, a 19th century humorist, The
Bow-Legged Ghost. These pages, at least, are in the cross-browser friendly style thanks to
the Web Design Group folk. They have the patience of Job. Learning Latin or Greek is easier
to learn and makes more sense to me than web design language. Thus, it is quite hard for me
to understand anything CSS or HTML without thirty or so explanations. Like I said, the patience
of Job.
OCT. 20, 2005. Major revamp of website begun to be more cross-browser friendly. Icky job!
Learning how to do better is often a difficult proposition. Do you suppose that is why so many
never do? Being a fairly labor intensive proposition, there is not much new content. At least
Mac MSIE users will have colored backgrounds and some margins on their pages now. There
is a worse job than proofreading after all!
My gratitude goes out to Liam Quinn, Darin McGrew and the brains at w3.org, who share what
they know in a thousand ways. For all who see elfinspell and are positive you can do better,
go for it. Take advantage of the html validator, css validator and link checker tools that this
group offers. Online tools, no hazardous download necessary either. And use them early and
often! Once is not enough, believe me.
OCT. 1, 2005. Frost is on my little pumpkins! A perfect little bit of spooky and chilly verse by
Herrick found in the Notes to some More Anglo-Saxon Charms in Early English Poems:
“ The hag is astride
This night for to ride
The devil and she together
Through thick and through thin
Now out and now in
Though ne’er so foul be the weather. ”
More from Early English Poems by Pancoast and Spaeth is up (not proofed):
The Life of the Gleeman from Widsith
The Myth of the Sheaf-Child from Beowulf
The Sea-Farer
The Husband's Message
The Battle of Brunnanburg
The Battle of Maldon
SEPT. 23, 2005. "Then he will talk - good gods, how he will talk!"
(aptly quoted by NATHANIEL LEE - Alexander the Great. Act I. Sc. 3.)
Computer all better now, (it was sick). Hoveden proofed.
Late but lamented discovery: The 5oo+ pages of Hoveden comprise only Volume 1! Woe!
Woe! But at least it is all proofed now. Oh wait! There are 6 words in Greek text that I have to
fix. Not all that easy, you know... but soon, soon.
Black Prince proofed (missing a map and indices (indexes). Totally in love with Wikipedia. org.
Although I do wish each entry had a person to e-mail, since I don't need another login word and
secret code to try to interact with authors.
Discovered Professor Dan Kline's remarkable page on all things Chaucer at the Electronic
Canterbury Tales. A great resource for the period, the man, and his works. Professor Kline is a
scholar and a gentleman!
Put up a few Anglo-Saxon riddles and gnomic verse. Gnomic verses are apparently little mini-
proverbs and sayings (don't quote me on this).
By the end of the week, I hope to be back to Froissart and Aretino.
Inflicted a print-out of the Old English epic of Judith on a helpless and bored guy (in the
hospital). He liked it! ( of course he liked Beowulf in school, too). He's a heating and AC
installer in the Kentucky hills. I wonder who his teacher was? (Who deserves a medal!)
I do like it that these pages print out so nicely and readably. I try to keep them in short enough
segments (unless it's history) so the that you can print them, staple 10 pages at a time (staples
do best with 15 or less pages) and take them outside to read on the veranda or something, and
then just pass 'em on if you like them. This is an unbiased opinion, naturally.
The cost of ink being ridiculous, I hope to find a way to make a printable version in black ink
only, but that is on my to-learn list, which is an extensive one. Reading long things on the
computer is not fun so this seems sensible and easier than PDF's. PDF books are also a pain
in the neck to use and take forever to load, download and navigate..
Still having trouble with Mac Browsers and floating margins (so the page numbers are off to the
side--- a trick that Bill Thayer taught me (my hero).
All in all, I echo Socrates, who said:
"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing."
SEPT. 9, 2005. Proofed first third of Hoveden. Put up The Life of the Black Prince by the
Herald of Sir John Chandos, from the sole manuscript from Worcester College, translated by
Mildred K. Pope and Eleanor C. Lodge. The English translation is already up on the web
elsewhere, but the Introductory Matter and the Historical Notes which are so important are not
there, so now they are. Unproofed as yet. The Middle French text may be done at some point,
especially if someone wants to see it and asks.
Culinary Adventure: Deep-fried pickles. Who woulda thunk it?
Tried one in Neon, Kentucky, tried one in Jenkins, Kentucky. The latter was better. Relatively.
SEPT. 2, 2005. The Sibylline Oracles is proofed, only the table of contents page to go. Page
jumps would help for the footnotes but that is a task for later (much, much later unless
requested). The Annals of Roger de Hoveden complete and up, final proofing in progress. To
balance it, there's another fairy tale translated by Esther Singleton, from the Polish, called The
Three Gifts. An interesting bit on the origins of Tennis from Hazlitt's Dictionary of Fact and
Fable is up and so is A Poe-em of Passion, by C. F. Lummis from the turn of the late 1800's.
Who said Victorians were humorless? I mean humourless.
AUGUST 14, 2005. More Hoveden (not proofed), especially the charter by William, king of
Sicily on his dowry to Joanna, daughter of King Henry of England. Proofing of the Sibylline
Oracles is proceeding apace.
AUGUST 13, 2005. Sidetracked in Appalachia. But not for long enough to forget how to type
(almost though). Tulip poplar trees are charming. The leaf is distinctive and the name tells it
all. Learning botany, or anything else, would be so easy if all naming systems were this logical.
Library books are due pronto. So tying up loose ends is imperative. Sibylline Oracles: all
typed and up.
JULY 20, 2005. "O unstable one!"
What a great quote from the Sibylline Oracles written about the second century (A. D.)! This
text title leads to false expectations. The famous Oracles are not here, except in a few
remnants, but have been re-written extensively by anonymous Early Judao-Christian[s?].
Mostly apocalyptic and depressing, (awful woeful and doleful stuff). But some interesting bits,
including the authors attitude towards prevailing customs in the Roman Empire (pretty
sanctimonious for plagiarists... typically). And some of the fragments are felt to be much older
than this.
I will do a better footnote system will be done later (a lot later unless requested).
"Between the hammer and the anvil"
Another great quote recognized centuries ago and found in the Annals of Roger de Hoveden. It
would make a great title, wouldn't it? So I told The Kid, who agreed and said somebody already
thought so and made it the title of a song and got richer. I forget the name of the band, it
doesn't appear on the classical or country-western station is all I know. . . The Kid just roused
and said Judas Priest is the band.
More Hoveden up (not proofed yet, natch), particularly interesting in that this section includes
the letters of Thomas, archbishop of Canterbury, and others, including Pope Alexander, that
lead to his banishment, recall, death and martyrdom. It seems to me that the blessed Thomas
failed diplomacy (his virulent, flagrantly antagonistic letters could and did tick off kings and
brethren) and he seemed unstable as well. But this is only my preliminary subject-to-
modification opinion, until I do more research (later) and is based on this collection.
"Conjectural emendation"
aka "My guess". This is scholababble for filling in the gaps in manuscripts or ancient texts with
the writer's guess of what could, should or might have been there, maybe.
This phrase has a potential for a lot of leeway, and might come in handy at some point in your
own life. Especially when somebody says to you, "Hey, I didn't say that!"
You then can reply that, "My apologies, my words were merely a conjectural emendation --
based on my faulty recollection of your words."
Might get you out of trouble. Might not.
A fairy tale from the Goldenrod Fairy Book is up, The Dancing Shoes translated from the
German by Esther Singleton.
JULY 17, 2005. Small children and working at home don't mix. A surprise inundation of Destiny
(6) and Ryan (3) for a long, long time is the reason for no work except a few quotes on the site
for 6 weeks. The kid-flood has receded and so back to the keyboard! Phew.
The Sibylline Oracles, translated by Milton S. Terry, has shown up elsewhere in the meantime.
But two locations for this extremely rare book is not a bad idea. So we have the first 4 books for
now. (unproofed). Ongoing thanks again tendered for feedback to Chris Phillips, the genius
behind medieval genealogy.org.uk.
There are a lot of good resources to be found at the site.
That reminds me:
Bill Thayer of Lacus Curtius, a key resource for ancient Rome and its traces in modern Italy
(and other stuff), including my favorite piece of his on credentialism,
and
Roger Pearse, the mastermind behind tertullian.org, who's hunting down and then putting up
rare texts related to early Christianity.
Both, besides being much "smarter than your average bear", are very nice guys that are
generous with ongoing help and also have excellent resources.
JUNE 4, 2005: More Froissart and Hoveden and Straparola. Finished proofing Illustrations of
Chaucer's England, now only the footnote and index links to do, and it will be done.
The first three chapters of G. P. R. James' The History of Chivalry and the Crusades is up
(unproofed).
MAY 25, 2005: I got my first e-mail through the web site link. It worked! I am so tickled. Usually I
get e-mail in my other e-mail box in response to mail I generate from that address. Chris said
some of my links were bad on Illustrations of Chaucer's England. Drat. I am now in the middle
of proofing it, so that is convenient, being immersed in The Black Prince and all.
Also, now proofing Legends and Satires from Medieval Literature, edited by Martha Hale
Shackford. It's all up and partly proofed. Talk about some bad links--spelling is so crucial at the
most inconvenient times, I have to say.
A little more Hoveden up.
Braved the new printer, and sent over the file to try once more to make a real book. The old
one is not salvageable, 'A pest to him' as somebody medieval once said, maybe,
In the midst of ennui-inspiring proofing, was delighted to find On Cyclones by Bill Nye and The
Man and The Goose by Ambrose Bierce. James might be pleased and visit my page someday
with this.
For Beth, I got started on The Goldenrod Fairy Book, the first three stories are up (starter
version only).
For Beth as well, begun tackling the modernization of Thomas Nash's The Unfortunate Traveller
or the Life of Jack Wilton. What a great storyteller he was! Take that, Will S!
Almost forgot -- there is a Squib on how to read old literature in translation wisely.
Bill says it's not bad, despite my 'rollicking style'. What a nice way to characterize my lack of
brevity! I'll take it, without tossing the plume into the nearest cesspit...for now.
Almost forgot again! Pulled out The Facetious Nights of Straparola, Volume 2. Why wait until I
have done Volume 1? So some of it is up (not proofed--my usual mantra)
But I have been proofing! Formatting! Tabling, titling, indexing--- you just can't tell.
It is 43 degrees, has rained for a week, the sun has gone on vacation somewhere afar off. New
England has turned into a rain forest, or thinks it's Seattle. The good thing is: it is so wet, if it
were any warmer Boston, et al., would mildew. It will be a good year for fleas.
P.P.S. (And here I thought I had been goofing off!) Also have done so more Cozzens, "The
Sayings of Dr. Bushwhacker and other Learned Men', which is the same as "Sayings, Wise and
Otherwise,". It has a few less essays and a different preface, the plan is to put all in one, or
something. The first 10 or so short but funny essays are up.
MAY 11, 2005 -- Great excitement abounds around here! Dr. Hilary Putnam gave his
permission to put up his illustrious and courageous father's 1930 translation of The Works of
Pietro Aretino, "The Scourge of Princes", or as Samuel Putnam puts it: "The Poison-Flower of
the Renaissance." The Biographical essay is up so far.
More Hoveden, more Froissart. More (but not enough) proofreading. The Sparrowgrass
Papers are proofed. I know, being such delightful reading, that wasn't a very painful chore. A
Squib on reading translations with an example by the Renaissance Italian poet Sacchetti.
Another interesting essay by Parson's: The Middle Age Not a Starless Night. A highly romantic
and sincere, true example of wedded bliss in the Georgian Era by Samuel Bishop. A pretty
piece from a sermon from Jeremy Taylor, from the Reformation period. A detour to Kentucky.
That is "Smile Country", for sure. If this isn't their state motto, it ought to be!
APR 24, 2005 -- More Hoveden. Picking and choosing from among the massive mountain of
material led to a little more Dante, an Extract from his Il Convito [The Banquet]. Beginning
Reuben T. Parsons's book, Some Lies and Errors of History, with St. Cyril and the Murder of
Hypatia.
And to help with mood stabilization, the tiny start of A Repository of Wit and Humor, A Thousand
Anecdotes &c. by Lafayette Byrn, MD.
I bonded immediately after reading his brief but apt opinion of Quacks. Of course, proofing not
done. Type or proof? Type or proof? That is the dilemma -- typing wins. Poggio is proofed,
though! Got a clue to track down Arthur Wade-Evans' heirs to try and get permission for
Nennius.
APR 13, 2005 -- The second collection of Poggio's Facetia, by an anonymous translator, up
with woodcuts scanned, semi-proofed. Roger of Hoveden's Chronicles started and up (not
proofed), first 30 pages or so. Found out the picture in Villani's Chronicle is by Michelino.
APR 7, 2005 -- A startling letter from Alfred the Great, 890 A.D. More Sparrowgrass Papers
(not proofed) and more Froissart up. Finished typing and putting up Mason's Aucassin and
Nicolette and other Medieval Romances and Legends, (not proofed). Some Elizabethan angst
by a forgotten poet, Francis Quarles up and, among other things, it is a reminder that
punctuality is a modern virtue. Today is proofing day!
MAR 27, 2005 -- Drat, drat, doubledrat! Typed up 60 pages of Nennius's History of the Britons,
before typing the title page and found out it was published in 1933. Which means it is not in the
public domain. Hopefully, I can get permission to put it up. So had to take down the link. Wrote
the publisher and an archive that has some papers of the translator, so we will see what
happens. Did the last proofing for Villani's Chronicle. Put up but didn't proof half of Eugene
Mason's translation of Aucassin and Nicolette and other Medieval Romances and Legends.
MAR 25, 2005 -- The Oxford Solar Myth by R. F. Littledale, a satire from the late nineteenth
century on University/Scholars Wars. Also Nennius's History of the Britons, trans. by A. W.
Wade-Evans, (not proofed!) this is the first history to ever mention King Arthur. Now I know who
Hors and Hengist were! Pictures up and proofing done for Early English Romances (just need
the table of contents, no index, thank you!). Picture done for Villani's Chronicle.
MAR 16, 2005 -- McEvoy's two funny poems on Golf are up. The Early English Romances
modernised by Edith Rickert are up and partly proofed. Found some more Poggio tales.
MAR 1, 2005 -- Poggio and Other Medieval Story-Tellers, translated by Edward Storer up
(except for Index), Villani Indexed, and text fully proofed, Floris and Blancheflour and Sir Orfeo
first drafts up. Peter the Cruel Table of Contents. Met knew printer last week, will be sending
proofs of My Liary and An Italian Portrait Gallery and hope!
FEB 13, 2005 -- Tryphiodorus (except Greek. . .sigh) up finally. Table of Contents for Peter the
Cruel. Index for Illustrations of Chaucer's England typed and up, the whole text is typed, just
needs final proofing and the whole text can go home to the library.
FEB 10, 2005 -- More Froissart's Chronicles but also for Valentine's Day reading, I found
something from his Poesies, called The Pleading of the Rose and of the Violet. Charming! (and
shows that his life was not all about the Gruesome in the fourteenth century.
One last try with the printers (sigh: I have a bad feeling!)
FEB 6, 2005 --
More Froissart up.
Excerpt from the annals of the pharaoh Thothmes or Thutmose III describing Egypt’s victory
over the army of Syria at Armageddon, or Megiddo.
More of Sparrowgrass Papers (a person typing up depressing history has to have some fun!)
Young Beichan, the ballad with Susie Pye from Ballads Old and New, edited by H. B. Cotterill.
The Mischievous Ape by Matteo Bandello and A Lover of Lies by Ortensio Lando both
translated by Thomas Roscoe.
FEB. 2, 2005 -- Rest of Villani's Chronicle (except Index), more primary sources--
Charles the Great's letter to Offa, King Canute's Letter to the English people.
Found out somebody 'borrowed' Queed and put it up on line, without credit, even including the
corrections! Then learned that to hide the source code to be able to prove, at some point, that
your work is yours can be done. But if you hide it from the unethical and dishonest, you also
hide it from search engines (!) and make the page inaccessible to older browsers!! Tried
writing to two of the contacts about my concerns, that their volunteers weren't a good ethical
reflection of the mission of their .org, but no answer. Very sad, I really liked that website before.
What is sadder, is if they had asked, I would have gladly shared, (it is such a great book!--they
proved my taste is not totally warped after hanging around old texts for so long) -- with a little
nod of acknowledgement of my efforts.
The printers -- what can I say? Nothing seems best, until there is no hope left for the trial of
reason, tolerance, patience, and persistence, combined with good manners. Don't remind me
that this never works, I know but I have to keep hoping. Looking elsewhere in case.
The good news? No snow today, heart is beating.
JAN. 25, 2005 --More Froissart (Ch 150-152, not proofed, though ) and The Sparrowgrass
Papers, Chapter VI (grin!).
JAN. 16, 2005 --Chaucer's History of England up (except index, not proofed)
More Froissart formatted and up (Ch 125-149--no pics yet)
JAN. 9, 2005 --Peter the Cruel proofed and put up (except index and table of
contents). Ongoing discussion with printers about Liary.
Rest of December, 2004 ---Torey home from college for break and worked too much.
But put up:
Our Lady 's Tumbler
The Flu
More Villani
DEC. 13, 2004 -- First 4 chapters of Villani's Chronicles.
Liary's in production at the printers.
NOV. 20, 2004 -- On Lepers.
NOV. 6, 2004 -- THE FAMOUS HISTORIE OF FRYER BACON.
NOV. 5, 2004 -- COLLUTHUS, THE RAPE [Abduction] OF HELEN.
Nov. 4, 2004 -- Whoops! Added daily quotes.
(Finished proofing and all for basic online pages, Queed, First 100 chapters of Froissart, An
Italian Portrait Gallery, several other small pieces and preparing Liary for printer.