CHARLES ROBINSON - The Loveliest of the Queen's Maids-of-Honour

 While looking at vintage fairytales on Instagram I was surprised to find a contemporaneous (with Oscar Wilde) portrait of my second favourite Wildean character - The Loveliest of the Queen's Maids-of-Honour!  AKA "a beautiful girl..." (My favourite Wildean character is Her Lover, that romantic and passionate young man who says, stargazing with her on the balcony to the sound of dancing: "How wonderful the stars are, and how wonderful is the Power of Love!" -- hands down my favourite Wildean quote and Wildean scene; there's something so satisfying in how these two young characters subvert gender roles!).

Charles Robinson, the illustrator, imagines The Loveliest of the Queen's Maids-of-Honour in a medieval setting, wearing a hennin on her head (while most adaptations, like those of Andersen, prefer Victorian setting contemporary with the author). Her raven hair and ivory skin may echo Snow White, even more so in medieval attire, but her cold sneer reveals the character's callousness and materialism.

SÖDER OM SAHARA - MIGUEL BOSÉ

 SÖDER OM SAHARA

Av Miguel Bosé

översatt av Sandra Dermark

02/06/MMXXVI

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Söder om Sahara, hjärtesorg

är det där du gissar är astronomins borg?

Vi kan vara mer än vad vi glömt

i himlen, på jorden, mer än vad vi drömt

Det kan vara en cirkel gjord av sten,

tarotkort som vänds eller rullande ben,

det kan vara en leylinje på land,

det förflutna och framtiden uti din hand...

Det kan sluta cirkeln...

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REFRÄNG:

Dubbel stjärna lyser klart,

vit dvärg och jätte blå... åh, Sirius...

Men det så oförklar't

är kvar... mysterious...

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Söder om Sahara, Timbuktu,

det som folk har glömt och det som chockar nu

Det kan va' det sällsammaste av allt,

en skatt utav kunskap i ökennatt kall...

Söder om Sahara

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Nutidens logik försöker ge

en form till den malström som rymden kan se,

nervceller, atomer, form ni minns,

som överallt uti vi själva alltid finns,

i sanden i Sahara

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REFRÄNG

Dubbel stjärna lyser klart,

vit dvärg och jätte blå... åh, Sirius...

Men det så oförklar't

är kvar... mysterious...

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Dogonerna i savannen alltid vet

en vy från besöket från annan planet,

besökare från Sirius, helig sol

sen urminnestider kontakten så cool

Dogonernas mysterier

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Hur kan vi förklara...

Hur kan vi börja att förklara

allting som finns?

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Vi kan vara en leylinje på land,

förändring som ej syns i timglasets sand

Vi kan vara mer än vad vi glömt

i himlen, på jorden, mer än vad vi drömt

Vi kan bli för evigt

Victorian poem My Mother - for Mother's Day

 From The Fairy Gazette

Poem by Anne and Janet Taylor, "My Mother" -

Who fed me from her gentle breast,

And hushed me in her arms to rest,

And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?

My Mother.

When sleep forsook my open eye,

Who was it sung sweet lullaby,

And rocked me that I should not cry?

My Mother.

Who sat and watched my infant head,

When sleeping in my cradle bed,

And tears of sweet affection shed?

My Mother.

When pain and sickness made me cry,
Who gazed upon my heavy eye,
And wept for fear that I should die?
My Mother.

Who dressed my doll in clothes so gay,
And taught me pretty how to play,
And minded all I had to say?
My Mother.

Who ran to help me when I fell,

And would some pretty story tell,

Or kiss the place to make it well?

My Mother.

And can I ever cease to be

Affectionate and kind to thee,

Who was so very kind to me?

My Mother.

When thou art feeble, old, and gray,
My healthy arm shall be thy stay,
And I will soothe thy pains away,
My Mother.

And when I see thee hang thy head,

‘T will be my turn to watch thy bed.

And tears of sweet affection shed,

My Mother.

Mon coeur - Petite Maman / Pequeña Mamá

Imagina que pudieras conocer a tu madre del pasado, cuando tenía tu edad...

Fabricar cosas juntas, compartir ilusiones y temores, hornear juntas una tarta de cumpleaños... navegar por el lago en la misma Zodiac...

Eso les pasa a Nelly y a su "Pequeña mamá" Marion en esta película tan tierna y tan otoñal... nada de violencia, sólo que van a operar a la pequeña Marion, pero su hija del futuro disipa toda incertidumbre...

Os dejo con la banda sonora y con los conmovedores pósters...

Des voix d'enfants

Chanteront

De nouveaux rêves

Le rêve d'être enfant avec toi

Le rêve d'être enfin loin de toi

Le rêve d'être enfant avec toi

Le rêve d'être enfin avec toi

Le rêve d'être enfant avec toi

Le rêve d'être enfin loin de toi

Le rêve d'être enfant loin de toi

Le rêve d'être enfin avec toi

Le rêve d'être enfant avec toi

Le rêve d'être enfin loin de toi

Le rêve d'être enfant loin de toi

Le rêve d'être enfin avec toi

Le rêve d'être enfant avec toi

Le rêve d'être enfin loin de toi

Le rêve d'être enfant loin de toi

Le rêve d'être enfin avec toi

Si mon cœur est dans ton cœur, ton cœur

Ton cœur est dans mon cœur

Si ton cœur est dans mon cœur, mon cœur

Mon cœur est dans ton cœur 

ROBERT BURNS - TO A LOUSE (ON A LADY'S BONNET)

 Imagine this: you're calmly sitting in your pew at church until you realise the girl in front of you is wearing a puffy hat full of frills and lace (inspired by the hot-air balloon/Montgolfier craze), and OMG, WAS THAT A BUG ON HER HAT?

Robert Burns felt really inspired and this is the result - it's far funnier than the Haggis and Mouse poems I have previously analysed:

Robert Burns

To a Louse

On Seeing One on a Lady’s Bonnet, at Church
1786

Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie?

(where are you going, you crawling miracle?)
Your impudence protects you sairly;

(sairly: greatly)
I canna say but ye strunt rarely,
Owre gauze and lace;

(lice like you strut very rarely on frilly, lacy hats --because the wealthy care much more about their hygiene)
Tho’, faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.

Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,

(blasted --"bloody"-- wonder)
Detested, shunn’d by saunt an’ sinner,

(hated by saint and sinner alike)
How daur ye set your fit upon her-

(fit: feet)
Sae fine a lady?
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some poor body.

Swith! in some beggar’s haffet squattle;

(haffet: temple --the part of the head--; squattle, squat, occupy)
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle,
Wi’ ither kindred, jumping cattle,

(cattle: here, beasts)
In shoals and nations;

(shoals: schools, like those of fish - in the heads of the poor, there are whole schools and nations of lice)
Whaur horn nor bane ne’er daur unsettle

(where neither horn hairbrushes nor bug poison --bane-- dare unsettle your colonies; ie in the scalps of the poor)
Your thick plantations.

Now haud you there, ye’re out o’ sight,

(haud: halt. Halt/stop you there!)
Below the fatt’rels, snug and tight;

(fatterels: the frills of the hat/bonnet)
Na, faith ye yet! ye’ll no be right,
Till ye’ve got on it-
The verra tapmost, tow’rin height

(the very topmost, towering height)
O’ Miss’ bonnet.

My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out,

(bauld: boldly)
As plump an’ grey as ony groset:

(groset: gooseberry; he's exaggerating the size of the louse)
O for some rank, mercurial rozet,

(rozet: resin. Mercurial roset: resin laced with mercury - to poison the louse)
Or fell, red smeddum,

(smeddum: makeup - Burns intends to poison our bug with it)
I’d gie you sic a hearty dose o’t,
Wad dress your droddum.

(droddum: breeches, trousers. I'd give you so much poison that you'd soil your breeches!)

I wad na been surpris’d to spy
You on an auld wife’s flainen toy;

(on an old lady's flannel cap)
Or aiblins some bit dubbie boy,

(on a small ragged boy, a street-rat)
On’s wyliecoat;

(on his underwear)
But Miss’ fine Lunardi! fye!

(Lunardi: puffy hat, inspired by a hot-air balloon. He's referring to Jenny's frilly hat, with the louse on it. Fye: EWWW!!)
How daur ye do’t?

(how dare you do it?)

O Jenny, dinna toss your head,

(Jenny is the girl in the Lunardi hat, the poem's addressee)
An’ set your beauties a’ abread!

(set your beauties in public, show off your looks)
Ye little ken what cursed speed

(ye little ken: you barely know)
The beastie’s makin:
Thae winks an’ finger-ends, I dread,

(there's people looking at you and stretching out their fingertips to catch the louse)
Are notice takin.

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!

(may Heaven/the gods give us the gift to see ourselves as others see us)
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,

(mony: many)
An’ foolish notion:

(that gift would spare us many blunders and many foolish notions)
What airs in dress an’ gait wad lea’e us,
An’ ev’n devotion!

(putting on airs would leave us in a worse state. Jenny thinks that the others are admiring her hat and hairstyle; but really all eyes are on that louse)

LES CONTES DE NUTTHELO - MANDSDRAGT

Il la fait habiller en homme (perte d'identité de genre), ... DÉSHUMANISATION - Sandra: je dirais DÉFÉMINISATION

Elle souffre le martyre à chaque balade à cheval, ...

French Instagrammer and fairytale geek Nutthelo on the mandsdragt scene. She sees the prince's decision to put the Little Foundling in a suit as a way to make her lose her gender identity (she was far more feminine until then) and calls it dehumanisation. I would say it is rather defeminisation, loss of a feminine identity... Nuthelo agrees with Jacob Bøggild that the Prince is doing it to protect his own straight male sexuality from temptation...

 and I add that the character is a teen who is discovering her gender and sexuality. Maybe she is, like Brienne of Tarth and others, a cisgender teen tomboy? Both Brienne and the Little Foundling are in unrequited love with handsome young men (though the Prince loves the Convent Girl and Renly loves Loras, a boy). 

Also, even if the Victorian/Biedermeier era was far more patriarchal, the Little Foundling is, just like she explores her body and identity, exploring the land kingdom with all the freedom that her suit/mandsdragt allows her, through outdoor activities like horseback riding and mountaineering (even though those activities were masculine-coded back then). She is, like Queen Christina, Julie d'Aubigny, Eugénie Danglars... a New Woman before New Women existed, a Proto-New Woman.

But the Little Mermaid was an introverted girly-girl as a child, and the most spirited (dynamic, we world say tomboyish) back then, her spiritual predecessor, was one of her older siblings, the Third Sister (yaaaay! New Andersen character introduced!) who was the one who ventured deepest into the human realm until the Little Mermaid changed species, and also the first to come into contact with humans.

Illustrations by blog_mellow: in his version the Third Sister looks like Ariel, while the Little Mermaid/Foundling is platinum blonde. The setting is Biedermeier (as usual); when we reach the mandsdragt scene, I will analyse her outfit once more...

The Third Sister, as a teen, swam up a river that empties itself into the ocean (it was summer, she had to cool her face by plunging it time and again); she came across hilly riverbanks with palaces, manors, forests, and vineyards (I headcanon this as the Loire Valley because 1) the Loire empties itself into the Atlantic; 2) the summer there is burning hot; 3) the landscape is the same, Renaissance châteaux and manors, forest, and vineyards), on the top of the riverbank hills).

In a little creek, the Third Sister came across some human children splashing around, and she played with them (neither party was afraid, both of them were curious), until the bark of their pet puppy drove her away at breakneck speed, back into the ocean. That, and the fresh water didn't agree with her marine system.

Andersen says that the Third Sister never forgot about her adventures, especially about the human kids who could swim so well without having tails (and who were as little afraid of her as she was afraid of them). It was a loud noise that drove her away, something unheard of underwater. I headcanon the Third Sister as being the Little Mermaid's favourite sibling and the one she most admired, the one whose adventures she listened the most to, the one who inspired her to collect thingamabobs from shipwrecks and, years later, to explore both her identity and the land kingdom through horseback riding and mountaineering in a bespoke man's suit (ignoring that her one true love did so in order to defeminise her and protect himself from temptation)...

"No male shall ever put on female's clothing; neither shall ever a female put on male's clothing, for both of these are Abominations unto the LORD." Deuteronomy 22:5.

This taboo is still held today by many patriarchal, conservative religions, especially evangelical cults like Jehovah's Witnesses or Remnant Bride. In some of these cults, women are not allowed to wear trousers in Church; in others, they're not allowed to wear trousers AT ALL (but in none of those cults can women SPEAK during the service because Saint Paul said so: Corinthians 14:34)...

And gays, lesbians, queers... have it even WORSE than straight women. Remnant Bride even claims that ladies' jeans were invented by SATAN... One of their worst rants against gender deviance is this essay on HYENAS, foul-smelling scavengers yet matriarchal and pseudo-hermaphroditic, that dynamic women like Mary Wollstonecraft and Schiller's sans-culottes were always compared to...

The hyena essay (take this with a grain of salt - evangelical propaganda!):

https://www.remnantbride.com/hyena/spotted.htm

The Schiller fragment - Marianna Wertz translation:

Then wives into hyenas growing

Do make with horror jester’s art,

Still quiv’ring, panther’s teeth employing,

They rip apart the enemy’s heart.

Sir Terry Pratchett famously satirises at once war, the patriarchy, and homophobia in his most glorious Discworld novel, Monstrous Regiment, set in a Ruritanian land where nearly all the men have been either killed or imprisoned in a decades-long war, leading many brave women to join the army en travesti, even though they risk eternal damnation due to a sacred text full of arbitrary laws (including Deuteronomy 22:5, of course).

The premise of Monstrous Regiment reminds me of Chamsous-Sabah, ruling her land as a coloured child of eight or nine because she was the last one left standing, just because of her age and gender:

"All the men in my family have either been poisoned or killed in battle, either against enemies or against each other. It's sad, but existence has got to come to an end..."

Donegild - the Temptress with a Twist

 Chaucer Analysis

Donegild - the Temptress with a Twist -

or - was the messenger innocent at heart?

The messenger in The Man of Law's Tale gets drunk in the court of the queen mother, and thereby falls victim to her plan to switch messages regarding the fate of the heroine of the story. She uses drunkenness in a way that is usually interpreted as an evil exploitation to do harm to the story's protagonist; however, we can see it as an attempt to save her country and son and religion from Custance's foreign influence. The unusual role of Donegild as a temptress using the messenger's fondness for alcohol to get him drunk and into her power plays with the traditional idea of evil women as temptresses, because she is not so much tempting the messenger as letting him lead himself into sin. Chaucer complicates the morality of The Man of Law's Tale by making the queen mother's actions understandable. By doing this, he challenges the reader to consider that even those who seem to do evil can have good reasons for it.

 In the case of The Man of Law 's Tale, the temptation of a man to sin by a woman, especially since the messenger is far from a heroic figure, is a reversal of a typical plot for a saint's life. This clouds the moral nature of the tale by presenting a woman preying on a man for the purpose of protecting her family, country, and, most ironically, religion, as the narrator stresses that her country (Northumbria) is not Christian before Custance converts Allan to her faith. 

Donegild's role, by extension, may not be the role of the typical villainess. 

Donegild does not play the role of the traditional villainess when she admits the messenger into her court. Instead, she practices the medieval virtue of hospitality (which already existed before, as seen in Ancient Greek literature). Even though the messenger is in a hurry to deliver the good news, it is no crime to invite him to rest for a night and continue on his way in the morning. The messenger, too, does no wrong in accepting her hospitality. As the one of lower rank, it is fitting for him to accede to the queen's generous request that he stay the night. The temptation, therefore, is less distinctly evil than it is in a normal saint's life. It is by the messenger 's own moral failing that he drinks the wine to excess. 

The narrator chides the messenger for being drunk: "O messager, fulfild of drunkennesse, / Strong is thy breath, thy limbs falter ay, / and thou betrayest alle secretness" (II. 771-773). Because a messenger's job is to get his letters secretly and safely from one place to the next, his drunken inability to keep a secret constitutes his complete failure as a good messenger. There is moral weakness in the character, who falls to the drink without much encouragement, although it may be safely assumed that Donegild is providing the wine in "the kynges moodres court " (11. 786). By allowing himself to get so drunk that he can no longer fulfill his duties twice, the messenger fails his king. In medieval society, failure to serve his lord was one of the greatest crimes a vassal could commit. The queen mother Donegild, however, receives the far harsher rebuke. The narrator is at a loss for words to capture the evil she has wrought: "O Donegild, I ne have noon Engliissh digne / Unto thy malice and thy tirannye!" (II. 778-780). He curses her emotionally, using religious language: "Fy, feendlych spirit, for I dar wel telle, / Thogh thou heere walke, thy spirit is in helle!" (II. 783-784). By taking advantage of the man's drunkenness to suit her own evil ends, Donegild plays the role of the Evil One, who tempts mortals to their doom. The Man of Law distinctly associates her with Satan and the Serpent in Eden (Scheps 289). By this association as well as the role she plays, she seems to be the prime evil in the story. By taking advantage of the messenger's dull-witted drunkenness, she is committing the greatest evil. The narrator, however, is umeliable in this regard. He fails to take into account the saving virtues of Donegild. He describes her as a "spirit" (II. 783), which stresses the way the two cultures conflict and see one another as strange.

 The ambiguity of the story is demonstrated by the departure Donegild's actions take from the traditional role of the villainess. The queen mother takes on the role of temptation, but it is significant that she does not play an entirely active role in the corruption of the messenger. Had she chosen, as women in romances typically do, to seduce the messenger, she would have had a more direct hand in his sin. Also, she does not drug the ale and wine she gives him, which she could easily do. It would certainly not have been unusual for her to do so. Had she done either, her role as the temptress would have been more definite, and the sin would have clearly been on her head.

The Man of Law's Tale presents a complicated moral picture in which morality is purposefully ambiguous. Although the queen mother commits a sin that is cursed by the narrator, the reader is also encouraged to consider that the messenger's weakness was also to blame. Therefore, the way in which she exploits drunkenness in the tale for what she perceives as morally justifiable complicates the morality of the tale's progression.

.............

I am tempted to compare Iago's treatment of Cassio with Donegild's of the messenger... Like Donegild, Iago does not drug Cassio's drinks, although he could easily do. Like Donegild, Iago considers what he does to be morally right, ie stripping an educated but inexperienced officer of a promotion he does not deserve. And thus Iago is letting Cassio lead himself into failure and tragedy.

to It is no crime to invite Cassio to a few drinks before his guard shift, considering he will surely be both thirsty and tired... and, like the messenger, Cassio does what he does of his own free will; it is fitting for him that he accept Iago's request, and it is of his own moral failing that he gets intoxicated, but this also leads to his complete failure as an officer and to utter tragedy for the married couple that he serves (Othello and Desdemona vs. Allan and Custance). By allowing himself to get so drunk that he can no longer fulfill his duties, Cassio fails Othello, like the messenger fails Allan. And, even though the Man of Law has a happy ending and the Shakespearean drama a tragic ending, by the end of both, Cassio and his counterpart the messenger are both forgiven and redeemed once the truth comes to light.