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Here is a collection of notes to various really, really obscure references and puns and other stuff in the essays that, if either of us had a life, I wouldn't be writing and you wouldn't be reading. -Enjoy! RHB |
| To understand the title you need to remember that I'm English, and so for me 'The Return of the Mummy' carries parental as well as Egyptological connotations. (And, of course, 'The Mummy's Curse' immediately suggests "You #@!*!~**!!! kids!") 1 "cell phone" From our Great Minds Think Alike department comes the following cartoon by Mr Bui.
| | | 1 In an era of Victorian propriety and emphasis on the seriousness of the protestant work ethic, Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938) exemplified and championed both characteristics in both his writing and in deed.
Eminently respectable, Newbolt was a lawyer, novelist, playwright and magazine editor. Above all, he was a poet who championed the virtues of chivalry and sportsmanship combined in the service of the British Empire.
Born in Bilston, Staffordshire, and following studies at Clifton School and Oxford University, Newbolt became a barrister.
Although his first novel, Taken from the Enemy, was published in time for his thirtieth birthday in 1892, Newbolt’s reputation was established in 1897 in a poem written about a schoolboy cricketer who grows up to fight in Africa, Vitai Lampada.
“Vitai lampada” is a quotation from Lucretius , De Rerum Natura [On the Nature of the Universe], book II, line 79, and means literally :” The torch of life”, as ‘lampada' is ‘the torch' and ‘vitai (or, vitae)' is ‘of life'.
The complete quotation is the following:
“Augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur,
inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum
et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt.”
“Some races increase, others are reduced,
And in a short time the generations of living creatures are changed
And like runners they pass on the torch of life”.
There, in the panic of battle the boy is stirred to heroic action by schooldays memories: “his Captain’s hand on his shoulder smote Play up! Play up! And play the game!”
“Play up! Play up! And play the game!” – words that have become famous through the years - symbolised Newbolt’s view that war should be fought in the same spirit as school sports. The poem was well received both critically and publicly at the time, and his work underwent a further revival at the outbreak of the First World War, when optimism was high; however as gloom set in, Newbolt’s verse consequently suffered in popularity.
Newbolt came to dislike his most famous poem Vitai Lampada; during a 1923 speaking tour of Canada he was constantly called upon to recite the poem: “it’s a kind of Frankenstein’s Monster that I created thirty years ago,” he complained. The poem retained its popularity in Canada long after it fell out of favour in Britain.
Shortly after war was declared Newbolt, a friend and contemporary of Sir Douglas Haig , was recruited by the head of Britain’s War Propaganda Bureau (WPB), "Charles Masterman , to help shape and maintain public opinion in favour of the war effort. Newbolt, who was appointed controller of telecommunications during the war, was knighted in 1915. The Companion of Honour followed in 1922.
Newbolt authored two official volumes of the naval history of the war in the 1920s. His autobiography, My World as in My Time was published in 1932.
Sir Henry Newbolt died in 1938.
Vitai Lampada
THERE'S a breathless hush in the Close to-night -
Ten to make and the match to win -
A bumping pitch and a blinding light,
An hour to play and the last man in.
And it's not for the sake of a ribboned coat,
Or the selfish hope of a season's fame,
But his Captain's hand on his shoulder smote
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"
The sand of the desert is sodden red, -
Red with the wreck of a square that broke; -
The Gatling's jammed and the colonel dead,
And the regiment blind with dust and smoke.
The river of death has brimmed his banks,
And England's far, and Honour a name,
But the voice of schoolboy rallies the ranks,
"Play up! play up! and play the game!"
This is the word that year by year
While in her place the School is set
Every one of her sons must hear,
And none that hears it dare forget.
This they all with a joyful mind
Bear through life like a torch in flame,
And falling fling to the host behind -
"Play up! play up! and play the game!" | | | 1 One should note that this was only after having to fight my youngest daughter Rowena Margaret Nancy Sarah Hroþwyn Howland-Bolton for the priviledge.
| | | 1 Sorry wrong play.
| | | 1 Elephantmandias
"... Shelley's Sonnet Elephantmandias" This ought to be with sincere (possibly grovelling) apologies to P.B.Shelley, Jean De Brunhoff and J.C.Merrick since it shamelessly combines all three. I particularly like the effect produced by the reversal of the trunk and legs.
The whole of Shelley's version of the sonnet is here.
For a different take on this sonnet see My Dogma Ran After My Karma. 2Shelley Winters
"... Miss Winters' poem" I bet you never knew before that she was a poetess as well as an actress. | | | 1 This is a reference to the wonderful BBC programme "Listen with Mother"
2 Not that it has anything much to do with her expression; but back in the ancient days of early computernerddom, when huge herds of wandered freely across the darkling plain and metal was always heavy and was--well just was, there was composed this delightful poem:
or for those whose Old Nerdish is rusty or absent:
Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.
The onlie begetters of this delight being I believe Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, MI
| | | | I'm sure you'll be relieved to see this | | | You might want to compare this with my story.
Or this:
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Here's a Beeb bit on it! And I should point out that the Beeb has a pull quote attributed to 'Dr Amy Plowman, Paignton Zoo scientific officer' that claims she said
"The work was interesting but had little scientific value, except to show that the 'infinite monkey' theory is flawed".
I do hope that the unfortunate Dr Amy was misquoted because if that really represented her thoughts then science in Paignton Zoo can't be doing too well. Of course the work did no such thing. If anything it merely demonstrated that infinity is a hell of a lot bigger than one month. 1 a later edition (on-line) of the OED brings it a bit closer, but cigarlessly though:
"1868 C. L. SHOLES et al. U.S. Patent 79,265 23 June 4 Thus made, the type-writer is the simplest, most perfectly adapted to its work.
1875 KNIGHT Dict. Mech. s.v., The Sholes type-writer..is about the size of the sewing-machine, and is worked with keys arranged in four banks or rows." | | | | 1 Miserabellies---I don't know if Americans use the expression 'misery guts' but that lies behind their pun: guts -->bellies. | |
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