Leicester the Oak Felled By Oxford The "Dainty Briar"
Elizabeth Weir
I'm reading Paul McLane's _Spenser's Shepheardes Calender:
A Study in Elizabethan Allegory_ for McLane's insights into
the religious conflicts of the 1580s but McLane's rendering
of the Oak and Briar is riveting, supported by his solid research
on Leicester and Oxford.
McLane writes of Leicester the Oak's destruction by Oxford
the "Dainty Briar:"
In brief, there is the basic plot: the bragging and
spiteful Briar complains of the aged Oak to the
husbandman; [note: Elizabeth is the "husbandman" in
a number of English literary works] the latter, in anger,
cuts down the Oak; the winter storms then destroy the
Briar, which now lacks the protection of the Oak . . .
through misunderstanding, spite, and false complaints
the Briar is the upstart and younger courtier who brought
about the elder statesman's downfall. And the husbandman
is Queen Elizabeth, who listened to the unjust complaints
and in anger proceeded to cut down her erstwhile favorite,
the mighty "tree of state."
Lane continues:
What happens to the Briar finally is in a sense a prophecy:
cut down or remove from royal favor statesmen of proven
value, and misfortune (winter's storms) will afflict not only
the state but especially those lesser, more ornamental
figures, such as the dainty Briar, whose very existence
must depend on the trees of state.
Spenser's Shepheardes Calender: A Study in Elizabethan Allegory.
Paul E. McLane: University of Notre Dame Press. Notre Dame, IN.
Publication Year: 1961. Page 95.
Art Neuendorffer
> _________________________________________
>
> I'm reading Paul McLane's _Spenser's Shepheardes Calender:
> A Study in Elizabethan Allegory_ for McLane's insights into
> the religious conflicts of the 1580s but McLane's rendering
> of the Oak and Briar is riveting, supported by his
> solid research on Leicester and Oxford.
>
> McLane writes of
> Leicester the Oak's destruction
> by Oxford the "Dainty Briar:"
>
> In brief, there is the basic plot: the bragging and
> spiteful Briar complains of the aged Oak to the
> husbandman; [note: Elizabeth is the "husbandman" in
> a number of English literary works] the latter, in anger,
> cuts down the Oak; the winter storms then destroy the
> Briar, which now lacks the protection of the Oak . . .
> through misunderstanding, spite, and false complaints
> the Briar is the upstart and younger courtier who brought
> about the elder statesman's downfall. And the husbandman
> is Queen Elizabeth, who listened to the unjust complaints
> and in anger proceeded to cut down her erstwhile favorite,
> the mighty "tree of state."
(Prospero's surrender of his art, TEMPEST 5.1.33-44):
PROSPERO Have I given fire and rifted JOVE's stout OAK
With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have I made SHAKE and by the spurs
PLUCK'd UP THE PINE and CEDAR:
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[Cell of the OAK] CILL-DARA
-----------------------------------------------------------------
<<Brigid is the patron saint of Ireland, POETS, CATTLE & fugitives.>>
<<About the year 470 A.D., Bridget founded a monastery & convent
at Cill-Dara [translated Kildare] and was abbess of the convent,
the 1st of its kind in Ireland. She built her room, called a cell,
under a large OAK tree, and thus derives the name of
her convent: Cill-Dara [cell of the OAK].>>
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February 2 ritual at the great Goddess Brighid/St. Brigit's Well
<<As patroness of poetry and crops, Brigit is most clearly equated
with Freya whose animal is the DEER, and whose bird is the SWAN.>>
February 2, 1529, (The Courtier) BALTHASAR Castiglione dies in Toledo
February 2, 1585, Shakespeare's twins, Hamnet & Judith baptized.
February 2, 1602, John Donne wrote his father-in-law George More
concerning his unapproved marriage to Anne More. When Donne was
put under virtual house arrest for marrying the girl, he used a
diamond to write on a windowpane, "John Donne, Anne Donne, undone."
<<St. Brigit/Brigantia/BRITANNIA was the personified genia
of Britain and was first depicted on a coin of Antoninus Pius
(d. AD 161). Latterly, Britannia, with the attributes & weapons of
MINERVA, appeared on coins during the reign of Charles II in 1665.>>
February 2, 1650, Charles II's mistress NELL Gwin born
February 2, 1685, Charles II said "Let not poor Nellie starve" & died.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.fbrt.org.uk/pages/athena/frameset-athena.html
<<Inscribed on Athena's shield is a Latin motto,
"OBSCURIS VERA INVOLVENS",
meaning 'TRUTH is enveloped in obscurity', which explains
the imagery on the shield-the central sun representing TRUTH
and the surrounding clouds obscurity.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
"OBSCURIS VERA INVOLVENS"
{anagram}
"BACON" SVS "NIL VERO VERIUS"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
SVS STIE
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Good friend, for [IE]{SVS}' sake, forbear
To dig the du[ST] enclosed here:
Blest be the man that spa[RE]s these stones,
And curst be he that mo[VE]s my bones.
-------------------------------------------------------------
In 1630 an anonymous volume was published, entitled
*A Banquet of JEASTS or Change of Cheare*.
JEST no. 259 is as follows:
<<One TRAVELLing through STRATFORD UPON AVON, a TOWNE most
remarkeable for the BIRTH of FAMOUS WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE,
and walking IN THE CHURCH to doe his devotion, espyed a
thing there worthy observation, which was a TOMBestone
laid more that three hundred years agoe>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
_Who Wrote Shakespeare?_ by John Michell.
<<Only one person claimed that he saw John Shakspere. In the middle of
the 17th century, Archdeacon Thomas PLUMe of Rochester wrote down some
legends about Shakspere: 'He was a glover's son. Sir John MENNES saw
once his old father in his shop - a MERRY CHEEKT OLD MAN, that said,
"Will was a good honest fellow, but he durst
have crackt a *JESST* with him att any time."'
(Sir John MENNES was only 2½ years old when John Shakspere died)>>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Justine Henin-Hardenne: a *Flemish* neighbor of Kim Clijsters
Gerard JANssen: a *Flemish* neighbor of JAN Van Eyck
-------------------------------------------------------------------
JAN Van Eyck was born in the province of Limberg, in the region
between the Netherlands and what is now called Belgium.
[*EYCK* means *OAK* (EYCK painted with Oil on *OAK*)]
The name *DRUID* means: "SEER of the OAKS"
----------------------------------------------------------------
Mouse tap on picture to view (150%):
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/e/eyck_van/jan/02page/16rolin.html
Note the resemblance of Van Eyck's 1435 Christ child
to the pudgy, pointy nosed, curly haired Stratford bust
------------------------------------------------
Compare:
1) Jesus/Shakspere's beady-eyed smirks.
2) Shakspere's right middle & forefinger extended in writing.
to Jesus' right middle & forefinger extended in blessing.
3) the dark marble Corinthian columns.
4) Red & Blue/Green tasselled cushions for holding "the word".
[but with red side reversed & hair styles reversed]
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer
Chasm
Justine is not Flemish, but Walloon. So it should be:
Justine Henin-Hardenne: a Walloon neighbour of Kim Clijsters
or
Kim Clijsters: a Flemish neighbour of Justin Henin-Hardenne
> Gerard JANssen: a *Flemish* neighbor of JAN Van Eyck
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
> JAN Van Eyck was born in the province of Limberg, in the region
> between the Netherlands and what is now called Belgium.
Not Limberg but Limburg, consisting of Flemish (Vlaams) Limburg &
Dutch (Nederlands) Limburg. Germany also has an area named Limburg,
but not a province.
Art Neuendorffer
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > Justine Henin-Hardenne: a *Flemish* neighbor of Kim Clijsters
"Chasm" <gnaa...@hotmail.com> wrote
> Justine is not Flemish, but Walloon. So it should be:
> Justine Henin-Hardenne: a Walloon neighbour of Kim Clijsters
-----------------------------------------------------------------
<<From the earliest times Norwich had been colonized by Flemish &
Walloon refugees, and in 1571 there were 3,925 aliens dwelling within
the city. The number of silk workers (Deloney's own craft) seems to have
increased considerably during the latter half of the sixteenth century.
'Among the trading Strangers', writes Strype, 'that came over into
England from Elanders and those Parts for their Religion, in the said
Queen Elizabeths Reign, there were divers of this Sort that dealt
in dressing and preparing Silk for the other trades'; and it may
be remembered that alien artisans figure very prominently
in Deloney's novels.
Nash's epithet 'the Balletting Silke Weauer of Norwich' seems to point
to that town as the place of his birth, and it is significant that one
of his earliest ballads -- The Lamentation of Beckles (1586) -- was
printed 'for Nicholas Coleman of Norwich'. His name may indicate French
ancestry, and this, combined with his strong Anti-Catholicism, perhaps
points to descent from a Protestant silk-weaving family, one of those
which took refuge in East Anglia from Continental religious persecution.>>
[ From -- http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/deloney/intro.html ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.jimandellen.org/anne.cecil.poems.html
<<I am writing this to make known to other readers what may be the
first sonnet sequence in English written by an Englishwoman. It consists
of four sonnets and two quatrains in which the supposed poet, Anne Cecil
de Vere, Countess of Oxford (1556-88) mourns the death (in 1583) of her
new-born infant son, Lord Bulbecke. Together with a sonnet attributed
to Elizabeth I of England in which she mourns the recent death of the
Walloon Princess of Espinoy, Philippine-Christine de Lalang, heroine
of the 1581 siege of Tournai, the sequence first appeared in print in
Pandoora (1584), a slender book of verse otherwise attributed to
John Soowthern and dedicated to the infant's father, Edward de Vere,
the seventeenth Earl of Oxford (1550-1604).>>
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JOYCE: Ulysses, Lestrygonians
<<They remind one of don Quixote and Sancho Panza. Our national epic
has yet to be written, Dr Sigerson says. Moore is the man for it. A
knight of the rueful countenance here in Dublin. With a SAFFRON kilt?>>
Don Quixote by Cervantes - Translated by John Ormsby
( PART 1 - CHAPTER 18 )
<<"That knight whom thou seest yonder in YELLOW armour, who bears
upon his shield a lion crowned crouching at the feet of a damsel,
is the valiant Laurcalco, lord of the Silver Bridge;>>
Don Quixote by Cervantes - Translated by John Ormsby
( PART 2 - CHAPTER 18 )
<<They led Don Quixote into a room, and Sancho removed his armour,
leaving him in loose [YELLOW] WALLOON breeches and chamois-leather
doublet, all stained with the rust of his armour; his collar was a
falling one of scholastic cut, without starch or lace, his buskins
buff-coloured, and his shoes polished.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Chasm" <gnaa...@hotmail.com> wrote
> or
>
> Kim Clijsters: a Flemish neighbour of Justin Henin-Hardenne
> "Art Neuendorffer" <aneuendor...@comcast.net> wrote
> > Gerard JANssen: a *Flemish* neighbor of JAN Van Eyck
> > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > JAN Van Eyck was born in the province of Limberg, in the region
> > between the Netherlands and what is now called Belgium.
>
> Not Limberg but Limburg, consisting of Flemish (Vlaams) Limburg
> & Dutch (Nederlands) Limburg. Germany also has an area
> named Limburg, but not a province.
-------------------------------------------------------------
IV. RISE OF BOURGEOIS LITERATURE (1300-1500)
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06517a.htm
<<The decline of the knightly caste brought with it a decline of the
literature of which this caste had been the chief support. The
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were not favourable to the
development of an artistic literature. The Empire was losing its power
and drifting into anarchy, the emperors were bent chiefly on increasing
their dynastic power, while the princes strove to make themselves
independent of imperial authority. They were no longer patrons of
poetry. The clergy also in great part, followed worldly pursuits. The
rise of the cities and their commerce was fatal to the prestige of
knighthood and its ideals; life became more practical, more utilitarian,
less aesthetic, and as a consequence the didactic tone becomes more
and more prominent in literature. The universities which sprung up in
Germany during this period -- the first being founded at Prague (1348)
-- widened the gap between the learned classes and the people and
prepared the way for Humanism, which towards the end of the fifteenth
century begins to be a force in German letters. The influence of
Humanism was not wholly beneficial. It was a foreign institution and
fostered Latin as the language of scholarship at the expense of the
native idiom. Gradually the Humanists turned against the dominant
Scholastic philosophy, and soon a spirit of revolt manifested itself
against the Church and its authority. The schisms within the Church
and the worldliness of many of its dignitaries stimulated this
spirit, which took a violent form, notably in the Hussite movement.
The way was thus prepared for the great Lutheran revolt.
Of the many didactic poems of this period, by far the most famous was
the "Narrenschiff" (Ship of Fools) of the learned humanist Sebastian
Brant (d. 1521), which appeared in 1494 and achieved a European
reputation. This is a satire of all the vices and follies of the age, of
which no less than one hundred and ten kinds are enumerated. A satiric
tendency pervades also the "Reinke de Vos," a Low German version from a
Dutch original of the famous story of Reynard the Fox (1498). The
allusions in this poem to the vices of men high in Church and State are
unmistakable.
As for lyric poetry the Minnesang dies out, Hugo, Count of Montfort
(c. 1423), and Oswald von Wolkenstein (d. 1445) being its last
representatives. The cultivation of the lyric is now taken up by the
burghers; the Meistersang displaces the Minnesang. Poetry in the hands
of this class became a mere matter of technic, a trade that was taught
in schools established for that purpose. The guild system was applied to
art, and the candidate passed through different grades, from apprentice
to master. Tradition names Mainz as the seat of the oldest school, and
Heinrich von Meissen (d. 1318) as its founder. Of the many cities where
schools flourished, none gained such a reputation as Nuremberg,
the home of Hans Sachs.
Very little of the poetry of these meistersingers has literary merit.
The best lyric poetry of this period and the following is found in the
Volkslied, a song generally of unknown authorship, expressive
of the joys and sorrows of people in all stations and ranks of life.
Contemporary events often furnished the inspiration, as in Halbsuter's
song of the battle of Sempach (1386). Other songs deal with legendary
subjects, as for instance the song of Tannhaeuser, the minstrel knight
who wandered into the Mountain of Venus and then
journeyed to Rome to gain absolution.
Another literary genre that now rose into prominence was the drama, the
origin of which here as elsewhere is to be sought in the religious plays
with which the great Christian festivals, especially Easter, were
celebrated. These plays had a distinct purpose; they were to instruct as
well as to edify. But gradually they assumed a more secular character,
they were no longer performed in the church, but in the marketplace or
some public square. Laymen also began to participate, and in the
fourteenth century German takes the place of Latin. Besides the Passion,
Biblical stories and legends were dramatized. One of the oldest and most
striking of such plays is the Tegernsee play "Antichrist" (twelfth
century). A famous drama of which the text is preserved is that of the
wise and foolish virgins, performed at Eisenach in 1322.
The origin of the secular drama is not wholly clear. In the fifteenth
century this genre is chiefly represented by the Shrovetide play, which
undoubtedly traces its origin to the mummeries and the coarse funmaking
indulged in on special occasions, notably on Shrove-Tuesday. No doubt
the religious drama exerted its influence on the development of the
secular drama. As a rule the latter was extremely crude in form and also
incredibly coarse in language and content. The chief place for these
plays was Nuremberg, and Hans Folzs and Hans Rosenblüt are the
best-known authors in this line. In their plays appears the tendency
that was to make of this literary genre an effective vehicle for satire.
In this period of utilitarianism prose comes to occupy a leading
position. The romances of chivalry were turned into prose, foreign
romances were translated, and thus arose the Volksbücher, of which the
most noteworthy is that of Till Eulenspiegel, a notorious wag, around
whom gathered all kinds of anecdotes. The original Low German book
of 1483 is lost, the oldest High German version dating from 1515.
History was now written in German prose. Of prose chronicles we possess
a number, as that of Strasburg (to 1362), of Limburg (to 1398), and the
Thuringian chronicle of Johannes Rothe, a monk of Eisenach (1421). But
the best German prose of this period is to be found in the writings of
the mystics. The founder of this school was Master Eckhart (d. 1327), a
Dominican monk, and the Dominican Order became its chief exponent.
Eckhart was accused of pantheism. His disciple, Heinrich SEUSE (Suso),
also a Dominican (d. 1366), was less philosophical and more poetical.
The third great mystic, Johannes Tauler (d. 1361), a Dominican of
Strasburg, gave the teachings of his predecessors a more practical turn.
The service which the mystics rendered to the German language in making
it the medium for their speculations can hardly be overestimated.
The greatest preacher of the period was Geiler von Kaysersberg of
Strasburg (d. 1510), whose series of sermons based on Brant's
"Ship of Fools" was especially famous.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Steel Bras and Winged Hats
http://www.dragoncourt.org/ringasset/ch5_05.asp
<<As the Valkyrie maidens dispatched the Danish warriors to Valhalla,
so also the Raven women of the battle field, the Morrigans of the Celts,
dispensed release from this world to Celtic friend and foe alike. From
Raven we obtain the word ravenous, which is akin to the blood frenzy of
the Morrigans or Morganas in the theatre of war, as they drank the blood
of the fallen. The Raven women, the Morganas, are the baobhan sidhe,
the vampire fairies who, off the battlefield, beeome the laeanan Sidhe,
beautiflil fairy maidens like
the Countess of Salisbury (The Maid of Kent),
who was called La Belle Dame Sans Merci
and acted as the Queen of Fairies and Witches in England. These away
from the field of bloodshed, drank dry the life force of their human
lovers. Along with the Ban Sidhe - Melusine, these girls, the serene and
graceful ladies of the lake and guardians of the sacred Meres and secret
fountains, are the legendary Swan Maidens, the Valkyrie of the Danes.
The Priests of Odin were called the Godthi, which is pronounced Gothi.
Perhaps Odin as Woden, the god of the forest dwelling Goths, is Woden
the Wood Lord or Wolden or Wooden (Uailaman) and the Goths themselves
were, like the Danaan, a tribe of Priest Kings. Where Godthi and Goth
means 'men of the god' or priests, so does Fir Bolg or Bog, and so again
we have a clear etymological link between the druids and the sacred
priests of Odin. It is feasable that from Denmark settlers moved south,
taking the Valkyries; (known in Ireland and Scotland as the Swan
Maidens) and the Ravens of Odin with them. Odin, who has at least 30
other names, was originally a Priest King, named Waeldeg or Waldeg (Wald
= Forest) who married the daughter of the Dalriadan king of Ireland,
Cormac Mac Art. We are instantly reminded of Robin Artisson.
In ancient Irish 'ART' meant stone which could refer to a mason (cf
Hiram Habiff and the Solomonic link) or to the Grail as the "Stone" that
fell to Earth, the Lia Fail, the jewel from Satan's Crown; the Lapsit
Exillis, the Cubic Stone of the Holy Vampire Grail.
It might also refer to Cobalt. Odin was Lord of the Wild Hunt in which
he was accompanied by his coven, the twelve Valkyrie. in Celtic Britain
the Wild Hunt part of the mythology of Windsor Geat Park, was led by
Herne and his pack of red-eared white (albe or fairy) hounds. In
Anderson's Genealogy there is a table of the kings of the Herulii. It is
thought that this tribe of priests-magi were descended from the Danish
Gothi of Odin and formed the link between the Goths and the Scandinavian
Dan tribe. Herulii is composed, it would seem, of two words, Her and
Ulii. Whilst Her is obviously Herr, meaning Lord, Ulii is reminiscent of
Ualla and Walloon, which is the name of the Frisian people who occupy
the region originally inhabited by the Herulii and the Chattoi (forest
Panther) tribes. It appears then that the Herulii - as Her-Ulii, the
sacred priests-magi, (the druidhes, the 'Men of the Trees', were also
called magi) are the Lords of the Forest and relate directly to the
Caledonian Picts, who were the Calle Daouine, the People of the Forest.
So it would appear that the Goths could be of Danaan descent via the
Danes and the Herulii, giving a link between Odin and
Balor/Herne/Merlin, meaning that the Gothi and the druids are indeed
cast from the same mould if the Goths were the Godthi, sacred
priest-kings of the Scythian Dragon, it would explain why the
Merovingians formed alliances with Gothic princesses. The Goths
inhabited the vast, mysterious forests of central Europe where the tops
of oak trees of some thirty feet in diameter, formed a canopy of up to
one hundred and fifty feet in height, giving the impression, mimicked in
Gothic architecture, that the observer was in the midst of a vast
natural catherdral or many pillared hall. Forests like this once ipanned
the length and breadth of the continent and its islands, including
Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England.It would he easy then to imagine
that the Scythian tribes, though dispersed by various migrations into
different regions in the norih, would develop along similar cultural and
spiritual lines that continued to Mica, theorporate£nd eniphasise the
environmental conditions of the regions they chose to occupy, namely
their natural and historical habitat, The Great Forests and the Ancient
Greenwoods. In the German Rhineland Wotan reigned as chief of the gods
and Lord of the Wild Hunt, the Ring myth was prominent and the Swan
Knights and Maidens were an intrinsic part of Gothic and Teutonic
folklore. Wotan or Odin held court with his twelve Valkyries, making a
Coven of thirteen priests of the old religion; and the Rhinemaidens and
the Nixes, like the Melusines and the Morganas, abided as the guardians
of fairy fountains and forest rivers, brooks and meres. By understanding
that these myths emerge from a common genetic and cultural source, which
is manifest in these islands as well as on the mainland, we can greatly
expand on our own appreciation of the finer details of the Dragon
Tradition and the Fairy History in Britain. In assessing numerous Irish,
Welsh and Scottish legendary figures and events; and comparing them with
those on the continent, our aesthetic appreciation of the richness of
our own fairy culture is deepened in hue and in the clarity of its
outlines. In the depths of forest fastnesses, Odin the Ring Lord and the
twelve Valkyies reflected the myths of Robin Goodfellow and his twelve
witches. Odin's or Wotan's hall of heroes in that deep dark forest
mimicks the refuge of Robin and his valiant outlaws with their own
Val-Halla or Wal-Halla, their own Hall of Trees, set deep in the heart
of the Greenwood of Merrie England. In a 12th century manuscript Odin is
described as a trinity. Despite the possible christian influence upon
the writer, the god actually does appear to have been a late tripartite,
composite figure. More likely however is that Odin, a Prince Priest
representing a bipartite deity, had his own attributes added, by
chroniclers or devotees, at a later date to form a trinity. In this
sense, the actual name of the high priest incarnating the god, or
manipulating the creative force, was eventually attributed to the god or
force itselt, whose name was then forgotten, if it had one in the first
place. In this way, behind Odin, Wotan, Herne, Jesus, Robin and a host
of other gods, there may simply be one god or force with many aspects,
represented by a different named or titled priest or priestess in
different regions. In all other respects, the priests were all the same
kind of people perfonflbig the same ritual flinction, arising from the
same biflircated cultural roots. The first two aspects of Odin the "god"
were Frey, who appeared during the early hunter-gatherer period and
Thor, who found popularity at a transitional period between pastoralism
and agriculture, something that the Celts were accomplished at, but
their overlords the Danaan king tribe, the Scythian fairies, could never
master. Odin's particular areas of influence came to include the forces
of Sorcery and War, which might have reflected a move towards the Raid
or Trade practices common amongst earlier Scythian and later
Scandinavian peoples. Oddly enough Odin, at one stage in his career, was
also called upon as a god of mortal love, probably because of the Wild
Hunt and the quasi-sexual practices within Royal Vampiric Ritual. Though
as a guardian of Portals and a psychopomp he is identified with Mercury,
or Hermes in the Greek Pantheon, both of whom were messengers of the
gods and, like Robin and St. Nicholas, were also the patrons of thieves.
Whilst the Nordic Taranis, Thor, is thought to compare with
Zeus-Dispater or Jehovah, Frey is identified with Diana's brother
Apollo. Some confusion exists over who came first, Odin or Thor, with
some commentators asserting that Thor was the son of Odin. By studying
his function and identity in other cultures, it is easy to see that Odin
started out not as a god, but as a priest-prince, performing exactly the
same mediatory function as any other Scythian intermediary priest from
whatever branch of the greater Dragon Tuadhe. As an aside, Tuadhe is
pronounced Teetha or Tootha, meaning an Overtribe or nation. In this it
is easy to see that the Dragon's Teeth, sown by Cadinus against Jason
and the Argonauts, represented Scythian warriors of the Dragon Tuadhe or
nation. In the fable The teeth, a play on words, which were sown in the
sand, rose up as skeletal soldiers, reminiscent of the grey blue, blood
drinking ghost warriors of the Scythian north. In the mediatory sense,
Odin's story is no different to that of Dracula or in fact Christ, who
also acted as a priestly, human intercessor, only to become identified
with the Cosmic force, whilst his close associate, Prince Vlad IV, also
became deified in popular folklore, as the Prince of Darkness,
Satan himself.>>
---------------------------------------------------------------
ART Neuendorffer
Art Neuendorffer
http://www.orbilat.com/Modern_Romance/Gallo-Romance/Walloon/Walloon.htm
<<Walloon is spoken nowadays in the modern Belgian provinces of Hainaut,
Liège, Namur, Luxembourg, and southern BRABANT (they are called often
Wallonia), in tiny parts of Northwestern France (mainly in the city of
Givret in the departement of the Ardennes), and in the region of Green Bay
in the United States (Wisconsin), where a compact group of Walloons settled
in the 19th century.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
<<Several years after [the 9th Earl of Oxford was] killed
*by a BOAR during a hunt* in *BRABANT* in 1392, Holinshed tells
us that "King Richard caused his corpse, being embalmed, to be
conveyed into England, and so to the priory of Colnie in Essex,
appointing him to be laid in a coffin of CYPRESS,>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
<<1515-1588 Weyer, Johan. Born in BRABANT. German physician.
Believed most witches were melancholy mentally disturbed old women,
incapable of harm. Believed that the belief in witchcraft was caused by
the devil. in 1563 wrote De Praestigiis Daemonum. Was forced out of
Netherlands by the Catholic Governor, Duke of Alba. His book was
denounced by Jean Bodin.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
<<We can now be sure that Bruegel was not himself a simple peasant, as
19th centrury critics still believed, but a cultured man in contact with
some of the best minds of the day. But Bruegel remains as dim and
shadowy - and in many ways as ambiguous - a figure as Shakespeare.>>
-- _Bruegel_ by Keith Roberts.
------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.fwkc.com/encyclopedia/low/articles/b/b003002760f.html
BRUEGHEL, Pieter, the Elder (c. 1525/30-69), Flemish artist, active in
Antwerp and Brussels, famous for his paintings and drawings of
landscapes and scenes of robust peasant life, and founder of
a dynasty of artists that remained active well into the 17th century.
Brueghel's art is often seen as the last phase in the development of a
long tradition of Netherlandish painting beginning with Jan van Eyck in
the 15th century. This tradition transformed the abstraction of medieval
art into a more empirical view of reality. Brueghel clearly rejected the
influences of Italian Renaissance art and its classical foundations, which
dominated the work of many of his Flemish contemporaries. Rather
than mythological subjects, muscular nudes, and idealized scenes,
Brueghel's art portrays figures observed from nature acting out
realistic situations in believable contemporaneous settings.
Brueghel is thought to have come from the town of Breda,
located in northern Brabant in present-day Holland.
Before he became a member of the painters' guild in Antwerp in 1551,
he seems to have studied with Pieter Coecke (1502-50)
in Brussels and worked for a short time in Malines.
After a trip to Italy between 1552 and 1555, Brueghel returned to
Antwerp. In 1563 he married Coecke's daughter and moved to Brussels,
where he lived until his death in September 1569. Their two children,
Pieter the Younger and Jan, both became painters of some renown.
Brueghel's earliest works were landscapes, an interest he retained
throughout his life. A number of panoramic landscape drawings made on
his Italian trip-for example, those preserved in Berlin (1552,
Staatliche Museen) and in London (1553, British Museum)-show Brueghel's
early ability to depict changing seasonal moods and the atmospheric
qualities of nature. These characteristics appear in his later landscape
paintings, such as Hunters in the Snow (1565, Kunsthistorisches Museum,
Vienna) and Magpie on the Gallows (1568, Hessiches Landesmuseum,
Darmstadt, Germany). After his return to Antwerp from Italy in 1555,
Brueghel regularly made drawings for engravings published by the
printing house owned by the graphic artist Hieronymus Cock (c. 1510-70).
Some of Brueghel's drawings for Cock were landscapes, but others were
clearly meant to capitalize on the popularity of the bizarre art of
Brueghel's famous Flemish predecessor Hieronymus Bosch. The fantastic,
monstrous figures and demonic dwarfs in Brueghel's series of engravings
The Seven Deadly Vices (1557) are within this category. Late in the
1550s, Brueghel began a series of large painted panels with complex
compositions of Flemish folk life. The earliest of these is an
encyclopedic portrayal of common sayings, Netherlandish Proverbs (1559,
Staatliche Museen), followed by Combat Between Carnival and Lent (1559)
and Children's Games (1560, both Kunsthistorisches Museum).
All are marked by a keen perception of human nature,
pervasive wit, and the vitality of his peasant figures.
Later examples include Peasant Kermis and Peasant Wedding Feast
(both c. 1566-68, Kunsthistorisches Museum).
Modern scholars are far from interpreting Brueghel's art
as simple drolleries and folk subjects painted by an
artist from mere peasant stock, as Karel van Mander (1548-1606)
described him in 1604. Recent writers see him as a knowledgeable man
with such intellectual friends as geographer Abraham Ortelius.
Brueghel's art has been variously interpreted as referring to the
conflicts between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, to the political
domination of the Lowlands by the Spanish, and as parallels to dramatic
allegories performed publicly by Flemish societies of rhetoric.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
_Lohengrin_ by Richard Wagner
http://www.metopera.org/synopses/lohengri.html
ACT I: Antwerp, c. 900s. On the banks of the Scheldt, a Herald announces
King Heinrich, who asks Count Telramund to explain why the Duchy of
Brabant is torn by strife and disorder. Telramund accuses his young
ward, ELSA, of having murdered her brother, Gottfried, heir to Brabant's
Christian dynasty. (Gottfried was actually enchanted by the evil Ortrud,
whom Telramund has wed.) When ELSA is called to defend herself, she
relates a dream of a knight in shining armor who will come to save her.
The herald calls for the defender, but only when ELSA prays does the
knight appear, magically drawn in a boat by a SWAN. He betroths himself
to her on condition that SHE NEVER ASK HIS NAME OR ORIGIN.
Defeating Telramund in combat, the newcomer establishes
the innocence of his bride.
ACT II: Before dawn in the castle courtyard, Ortrud and the lamenting
Telramund swear vengeance. When ELSA appears serenely in a window,
Ortrud attempts to sow distrust in the girl's mind, preying on her
curiosity, but ELSA innocently offers the scheming Ortrud friendship.
Inside, while the victorious knight is proclaimed guardian of Brabant,
the banned Telramund furtively enlists four noblemen to side with him
against his newfound rival. At the cathedral entrance, Ortrud and
Telramund attempt to stop the wedding - she by suggesting that the
unknown knight is in fact an impostor, he by accusing ELSA's bridegroom
of sorcery. The crowd stirs uneasily. Though troubled by doubt, ELSA
reiterates her faith in the knight before they enter the church,
accompanied by King Heinrich.
ACT III: Alone in the bridal chamber, ELSA and her husband express their
love until anxiety and uncertainty at last compel the bride to ask the
groom who he is and whence he has come. Before he can reply, Telramund
and his henchmen burst in. With a cry, ELSA hands the knight his sword,
with which he kills Telramund. Ordering the nobles to bear the body to
the king, he sadly tells ELSA he will meet her later to answer her
questions.
Escorting ELSA and the bier to the Scheldt, the knight tells the king he
cannot now lead the army against the Hungarian invaders. He explains
that his home is the temple of the Holy Grail at distant Monsalvat, to
which he must return; Parsifal is his father, and Lohengrin is his name.
He bids farewell and turns to his magic SWAN. Now Ortrud rushes in,
jubilant over ELSA's betrayal of the man who could have broken the spell
that transformed her brother into a SWAN. But Lohengrin's prayers bring
forth Gottfried in place of his vanished SWAN, and after naming the boy
ruler of Brabant, Lohengrin disappears, led by the dove of the Grail.
Ortrud perishes, and ELSA, calling for her lost husband, falls lifeless
to the ground.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Geneviève of Brabant
<<According to the usual version, Geneviève is the wife of the Count
PALATINE Siegfried, residing in the region of Trier. When he is called
away on an expedition against the infidels, he entrusts his wife and
castle to the care of his major-domo Golo. Inflamed with sinful passion,
Golo makes advances to the countess, and on being repulsed, falsely
accuses her to her absent lord of adultery. The count sends word
to put his wife & her new-born son to death, and Golo bids two
servants execute this command. But moved by pity they let her go, &
she takes refuge in a cave in the ARDENnes together with her child,
who is miraculously suckled by a ROE. At the end of six years Count
Siegfried, who has in the meantime repented of his rash deed, is led
to this cave while pursuing the ROE, and a happy reunion is the result.
Golo dies a traitor's death, his limbs being torn asunder by four OXEN.
The fame of the story is due to the work of the French JESUIT René de
Cerisiers. His book, entitled "L'Innocence reconnue ou Vie de Sainte
Geneviève de Brabant", won immediate popularity. The oldest datable
edition is from 1638. Two years later this story, together with those
of Jeanne d'Arc and Hirlanda, was reprinted in "Les trois états de
l'innocence affligée", etc. In Cerisiers' version the legend has been
considerably amplified; its pious character is emphasized, especially
through the copious introduction of miracles. Here also the child
receives the Biblical name *BENONI* (i.e. son of my sorrow, Gen.35:18).
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Geneviève (Genovefa) of Brabant
<<Geneviève is the wife of the Count Palatine Siegfried,
residing in the region of Trier. When he is called away
on an expedition against the infidels, he entrusts his wife and
castle to the care of his major-domo Golo. Inflamed with sinful passion,
Golo makes advances to the countess, and on being repulsed, falsely
accuses her to her absent lord of adultery. The count sends word
to put his wife and her new-born son to death, and Golo bids two
servants execute this command. But moved by pity they let her go, and
she takes refuge in a cave in the ARDENNES together with her child,
who is miraculously suckled by a roe. At the end of six years Count
Siegfried, who has in the meantime repented of his rash deed, is led
to this cave while pursuing the roe, and a happy reunion is the result.
Golo dies a traitor's death, his limbs being torn asunder by four OXEN.
The legend adds that a chapel was built and dedicated to Our Lady at the
very spot where the cave was. It is the Chapel of Frauenkirchen, near
Laach, and there Geneviève is said to be buried.
The fame of the story is due to the work of the French Jesuit René de
Cerisiers. His book, entitled "L'Innocence reconnue ou Vie de Sainte
Geneviève de Brabant", won immediate popularity. The oldest datable
edition is from 1638. Two years later this story, together with those of
Jeanne d'Arc and Hirlanda, was reprinted in "Les trois états de
l'innocence affligée", etc. In Cerisiers' version the legend has been
considerably amplified; its pious character is emphasized, especially
through the copious introduction of miracles. Here also the child
receives the Biblical name BENONI (i.e. son of my sorrow, Gen.,
xxxv, 18) whence the "Schmerzenreich" of the German version. >>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>David...@tesco.net (Rita) wrote:
>>> I found information on Gerbrand Adriaenszoon Bredero,
>>> the most noted Dutch poet & playwright of the day.
>>> Apparently 'his father had begun life as a shoemaker,
>>> & Bredero himself claimed to have had no more education
>>> than a bit of school-boy French.'
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Gift of [G]erbrand [A]driaenszoon [B]redero
<<(hr´bränt ädrän´zn br´dr), (1585-1618), Dutch dramatist & poet,
is considered the major Dutch poet of his generation,
particularly for his spontaneous love sonnets.
The first Dutch master of comedy, Bredero was an important
innovator; he drew upon classical elements as well as
Renaissance models. His masterpiece, De Spaansche Brabander
(1617, tr. *The Spanish Brabanter* ), is a realistic comedy of
Amsterdam life & reveals the influence of Spanish romanticism.>>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
<<Several years after Robert [9th Earl of Oxford was] killed
*by a boar during a hunt* in *Brabant* in 1392, Holinshed tells
us that "King Richard caused his corpse, being embalmed, to be
conveyed into England, and so to the priory of Colnie in Essex,
appointing him to be laid in a coffin of cypress,>>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.geocities.com/gvancauwelaert/ConstantijnHuygensBrittanica.htm
<<While the Spanish hold on the Catholic south of the Netherlands
during and after the Eighty Years' War (1568-1648) caused a decline
in Brabant & Flanders, there was a spectacular expansion in Holland,
to which artists, intellectuals, & financiers had fled from Spanish
armies. The emergence of Amsterdam & The Hague as capitals of an
empire and the birth of civic pride in writers of the "Golden Age"
symbolized the final passing of a medieval age belonging
to Ghent, Bruges, Liège, and Antwerp.
Spieghel, wrote for both the burgher & scholar.
His Nieujaarliedekens ("New Year Songs") &
Lieden op 't Vader Ons ("Songs on the Lord's Prayer") continued
a medieval tradition in a Renaissance style echoing Erasmian
moderation; his learned Twe-spraack vande Nederduitsche letterkunst
(1584; "Dialogue on Dutch Literature") was intended to popularize the
use of a national language. His most scholarly work, the unfinished
Hertspieghel (1614; "Mirror of the Heart"), was particularly
abstruse because it represented a first attempt
at philosophizing in the vernacular & in poetry.
The dichotomy inherent in the Renaissance--between popular religious
revival & Humanism--was particularly marked in Holland because of the
incompatibility of Calvinistic principles with the ideals of pagan
antiquity. This caused a tense ambivalence in many writers of the 17th
century who took both their religion and their art seriously. Daniël
Heinsius, a celebrated Humanist at the University of Leiden, wrote
plays in Latin, but he also contributed to the vernacular by writing
Hymnus oft lof-sanck van Bacchus (1614; "Hymn in Praise of Bacchus")
and an equally devout Lof-sanck van Jesus Christus (1615).
A poet, playwright, & painter, *Gerbrand Adriaenszoon Bredero*
(1585-1618) took his material from the life of the commoner; his medium
was the folk song, farce, or comedy. His secular songs in medieval style
and devotional songs in Renaissance verse told of a passionate devotion
to women & yearning for religious moderation. While his 3 tragicomedies
were not successful, his three farces marked the zenith of the medieval
genre. Contemporary life in Amsterdam provided material for his
2 comedies, including his masterpiece, Spaanschen Brabander (1617).
Amsterdam was the home of the poet and dramatist Joost van den Vondel.
Like Bredero, he was self-educated, and he resolved the conflict between
artistic and religious leanings only when he entered the Roman Catholic
Church at age 54. This was a courageous act of faith at a time when
Catholics formed an unpopular minority. It is a measure of van den
Vondel's indomitable personality that his attitude toward contemporary
people and events, of which he was a fearless chronicler, still prevails
even when history has recorded a different view. He was as great an
artist of the Counter-Reformation as Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens.
The aristocratic *Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft* (1581-1647) was one of
a fortunate few in Holland to bring the refinements of the new art
directly from Italy. He lavished an Italianate flourish on his sonnets
and plays, the studied prose of his letters, and a monumental unfinished
history of the war against Spain. His castle at Muyden became a thriving
centre for the entertainment of artists and scholars attracted not only
by a mutual interest in poetry, music, and learning but also by the
charm of such gifted young women as Visscher daughters, Anna & Maria.>>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.geocities.com/rmnestvold/Mar1600.HTM
Pieter (co)-R-NE(l)I-SZOON Hooft born March 16, 1581
Gerbrand (ad)-R-I(a)EN-SZOON Bredero born March 16, 1585 (Greg?)
(Fletcher &) Francis BeauMONT died March 16, 1616 (Greg?)
(Fletcher &) Philip Massinger died March 16, 1640
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
HUBERT of Liege
http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/sainth07.htm
Name Meaning: HUBERT <=> bright mind
Born: 705 @ Maasctricht
Died: 30 May 727
Memorial: 3 November; 30 May
Also known as: Apostle of the Ardennes
Profile: Grandson of Charibert, King of Toulouse. Son of Bertrand,
Duke of Aquitaine. Courtier @ Nuestra in youth, and passionately devoted
to the hunt. Married Floribanne, daughter of Dagobert, Count of Louvain
in 682. While hunting a stag, he received a vision of a crucifix between
its antlers, a voice warned him to turn to God, and converted. He became
the spiritual student of Saint Lambert. Widower. Priest. bishop of
Maestricht and Liege. Evangelized the Ardenne region, converting the
pagans and permitting them to decide on their own to destroy their
idols. Highly revered in the Middle Ages, there were several military
orders named in his honor.
Patronage: archers, dog bite, dogs, forest workers, furriers,
hunters, hunting, huntsmen, hydrophobia, machinists, mad dogs,
mathematicians, metal workers, precision instrument makers, rabies,
smelters, trappers
Representation: stag bearing a crucifix between its antlers; stag
------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Hubert http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07507a.htm
<<Confessor, thirty-first Bishop of Maastricht, first Bishop of Liège,
and Apostle of the Ardennes, born about 656; died at Fura (the modern
Tervueren), Brabant, 30 May, 727 or 728. He was honored in the Middle
Ages as the patron of huntsmen, and the healer of hydrophobia (rabies).
He was the eldest son of Bertrand, Duke of Aquitaine, and grandson of
Charibert, King of Toulouse, a descendant of the great Pharamond.
Bertrand's wife is variously given as Hugbern, and as Afre, sister of
Saint Oda. As a youth, Hubert went to the court of Neustria, where his
charming manners and agreeable address won universal esteem, gave him a
prominent position among the gay courtiers, and led to his investment
with the dignity of "count of the palace". He was a worldling and a
lover of pleasure, his chief passion being for the chase, to which
pursuit he devoted nearly all his time. The tyrannical conduct of Ebroin
caused a general emigration of the nobles and others to the court of
Austrasia. Hubert soon followed them and was warmly welcomed by Pepin
Heristal, mayor of the palace, who created him almost immediately
grand-master of the household. About this time (682) he married
Floribanne, daughter of Dagobert, Count of Louvain, and seemed to have
given himself entirely up to the ponp and vanities of this world. But a
great spiritual revolution was imminent. On Good Friday morn, when the
faithful were crowding the churches, Hubert sallied forth to the chase.
As he was pursuing a magnificent stag, the animal turned and, as the
pious legend narrates, he was astounded at perceiving a crucifix between
its antlers, while he heard a voice saying: "Hubert, unless thou turnest
to the Lord, and leadest an holy life, thou shalt quickly go down into
hell". Hubert dismounted, prostrated himself and said, "Lord, what
wouldst Thou have me do?" He received the answer, "Go and seek Lambert,
and he will instruct you."
Accordingly, he set out immediately for Maastricht, of which place St.
Lambert was then bishop. The latter received Hubert kindly, and became
his spiritual director. Hubert, losing his wife shortly after this,
renounced all his honors and his military rank, and gave up his
birthright to the Duchy of Aquitaine to his younger brother Eudon, whom
he made guardian of his infant son, Floribert. Having distributed all
his personal wealth among the poor, he entered upon his studies for the
priesthood, was soon ordained, and shortly afterwards became one of St.
Lambert's chief associates in the administration of his diocese. By the
advice of St. Lambert, Hubert made a pilgrimage to Rome and during his
absence, the saint was assassinated by the followers of Pepin. At the
same hour, this was revealed to the pope in a vision, together with an
injunction to appoint Hubert bishop, as being a worthy successor to the
see. Hubert was so much possessed with the idea of himself winning the
martyr's crown that he sought it on many occasions, but unsuccessfully.
He distributed his episcopal revenues among the poor, was diligent in
fasting and prayer, and became famous for his eloquence in the pulpit.
In 720, in obedience to a vision, Hubert translated St. Lambert's
remains from Maastrict to Liège with great pomp and ceremonial, several
neighboring bishops assisting. A church for the relics was built upon
the site of the martyrdom, and was made a cathedral the following year,
the see being removed from Maastricht to Liege, then only a small
village. This laid the foundation of the future greatness of Liege, of
which Lambert is honored as patron, and St. Hubert as founder and first
bishop.
Idolatry still lingered in the fastnesses of the forest of Ardennes--in
Toxandria, a district stretching from near Tongres to the confluence of
the Waal and the Rhine, and in Brabant. At the risk of his life Hubert
penetrated the remote lurking places of paganism in his pursuit of
souls, and finally brought about the abolishment of the worship of idols
in his neighborhood. Between Brussels and Louvain, about twelve leagues
from Liège, lies a town called Tervueren, formerly known as Fura. Hither
Hubert went for the dedication of a new church. Being apprised of his
impending death by a vision, he there preached his valedictory sermon,
fell sick almost immediately, and in six days died with the words "Our
Father, who art in Heaven . . . " on his lips. His body was deposited in
the collegiate church of St. Peter, Liège. It was solemnly translated in
825 to the Abbey of Amdain (since called St. Hubert's) near what is now
the Luxemburg frontier; but the coffin disappeared in the sixteenth
century. Very many miracles are recorded of him in the Acta SS., etc.
His feast is kept on 3 November, which was probably the date of the
translation. St. Hubert was widely venerated in the Middle Ages,
and many military orders were named after him.>>
------------------------------------------------------------------
Art Neuendorffer