Edward Lear's Tribute to the Moon
Peter J Ross
comment on the following Spiritual Exercise by the Avatar of Mormon,
Edward Lear.
"There was an Old Man of the Hague,
Whose ideas were excessively vague;
He built a balloon, to examine the moon,
That deluded Old Man of the Hague."
-- extracted from "The Book Of Bosh"
EL:
"There was an Old Man of the Hague,"
PJR:
Here, the Rosicrucian Anchorite Lear informs us that there was a Man;
that he was Old; and that he was of terrestrial origin (the Hague
being a terrestrial city). Thus he communicates to the Initiated the
Truth that there is no escape from Decline and Mortality unless one
frees oneself from the attraction of Earthly things.
EL:
"Whose ideas were excessively vague;"
PJR:
Vagueness, the Son of Wotan instructs us, although a Virtue in a
Spiritual Person, must no more be carried to excess than any other
Virtue, lest the Serpent of Eden (whose mystical name is Smaug) devour
his own tail and Virtue become Vice.
EL:
"He built a balloon,"
PJR:
Clearly, in mere technology no Redemption is to be found. For those
who have eyes to see, there is a parallel here with the True Imaginary
Fable of the Tower of Babel, contained in the Old Testament.
EL:
"To examine the moon,"
PJR:
The Upanishads and the Eddas are in agreement that the Moon, home of
my Fellow Seers the Moonies, is made of Green Cheese, so what greater
futility could there be than to inquire further into its composition?
The moon being also round, for the Wise Prophet Lear it symbolises the
Wheel of Existence, whence he would be liberated.
EL:
"That deluded Old Man of the Hague."
Here the Grand Wizard Edward indicates by a Mystical Parallel that the
Old Man of the Hague was deluded.
Cash or AmEx only plese: no cheques.
PJR :-)
Rex Savage
"Peter J Ross" <p...@britishlibrary.net> wrote in message
news:7cij5us8cl7ieohim...@4ax.com...
Here the author also reaffirms the terrestrial origin of the protaganist.
This is important, lest we forget.
Peter J Ross
the rec.arts.poems tavern, downed a triple Pernod-and-water, and
stammered:
> "Peter J Ross" <p...@britishlibrary.net> wrote in message
> news:7cij5us8cl7ieohim...@4ax.com...
<snip>
> > EL:
> > "That deluded Old Man of the Hague."
> > Here the Grand Wizard Edward indicates by a Mystical Parallel that the
> > Old Man of the Hague was deluded.
>
> Here the author also reaffirms the terrestrial origin of the protaganist.
> This is important, lest we forget.
Moreover, since the Old Man is Unnamed (like the Magnum Innominandum)
at the end of our Text, he has clearly recognised his Delusion and
begun to free himself from the Ties of Self. He is in truth already on
his way to meet the One, guided thither by the Houris of Valhalla.
PJR :-)
j r sherman
HEY! where the fuck is all the stuff about a serpent's tooth and that way
madness lies???
oh...wait.....
Edward Lear....
nevermind.
love and kisses,
j r sherman
In article <7cij5us8cl7ieohim...@4ax.com>, Peter says...
Rex Savage
i do know something about them there houris of valhalla, though. i was
through there once back in 62 and this pimp fixed me up with three of them
(i was a lot younger then); only one had a Ph.D., though, and i think one
was under six feet tall, but i didn't complain much. the pimp was an M.F.A.,
however, and insisted on returning my money after he measured Sybyll at
5'11". hard to get good service like that nowadays.
i will analyse some poems for you guys soon. right now i'm too busy with the
pernod.
love and kisses,
rex
"j r sherman" <jr...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:a3cn2...@drn.newsguy.com...
Peter J Ross
rec.arts.poems tavern, downed a triple Pernod-and-water, and
stammered:
> HEY! where the fuck is all the stuff about a serpent's tooth and that way
> madness lies???
>
> oh...wait.....
>
> Edward Lear....
>
>
> nevermind.
This is very worrying. Was Edward Lear a plagiarist?
> >"There was an Old Man of the Hague,
There's an old man in King Lear too. Suspicious, eh?
> >Whose ideas were excessively vague;
There's so much vagueness in King Lear that my copy has twice as many
pages of notes as of text. Also, the central character is more than a
little vague about which of his daughters loves him most. Can such a
close similarity be accidental?
> >He built a balloon, to examine the moon,
This line is all too obviously derived from the scene in King Lear in
which Gloucester attempts to escape from Edgar in a home-made
Zeppelin, but instead falls over a cliff. (If you don't remember the
Zeppelin it's because the editors of the First Folio suppressed it on
the grounds of anti-German feeling at the time.)
> >That deluded Old Man of the Hague."
The change of setting from King Lear's "Another part of the heath" to
The Hague is now revealed as merely a pathetic attempt to cover the
thief's tracks.
Edward Lear: the chuckles lysaght of his day. You heard it here first.
PJR :-)
j r sherman
>
>Just before closing time on 31 Jan 2002, j r sherman lurched into the
>rec.arts.poems tavern, downed a triple Pernod-and-water, and
>stammered:
>
>> HEY! where the fuck is all the stuff about a serpent's tooth and that way
>> madness lies???
>>
>> oh...wait.....
>>
>> Edward Lear....
>>
>>
>> nevermind.
>
>This is very worrying. Was Edward Lear a plagiarist?
christ, pete, all of them were. Phillip Marlowe claimed he wrote the Divine
Comedy. it's scary.
>> >"There was an Old Man of the Hague,
>
>There's an old man in King Lear too. Suspicious, eh?
you're god-damned right! i BET YOU Uncle Billy took the old man idea from
Hemingway!!!!
"let's see, an old man, in a boat...BORING! let's put him in a Kingdom instead,
yeah...with three daughters....yeah...and only one of them love him...yeah...and
screw all that fishing crap...."
Uncle Billy, plagiarist!!!!
>> >Whose ideas were excessively vague;
>
>There's so much vagueness in King Lear that my copy has twice as many
>pages of notes as of text. Also, the central character is more than a
>little vague about which of his daughters loves him most. Can such a
>close similarity be accidental?
absolutely not! and what about Cordelia? how much does she resemble Kate
Winslett's character in the movie Titanic???
it's too frightening to contemplate....but i will! could Shakespeare have stolen
from famed film director James Cameron??
>> >He built a balloon, to examine the moon,
>
>This line is all too obviously derived from the scene in King Lear in
>which Gloucester attempts to escape from Edgar in a home-made
>Zeppelin, but instead falls over a cliff. (If you don't remember the
>Zeppelin it's because the editors of the First Folio suppressed it on
>the grounds of anti-German feeling at the time.)
i have heard that even more scenes were suppressed from the First Folio, Pete.
After Gloucester escapes from Edgar (Zepplin in, or out of the story), he gets
new, mechanical eyes to replace the ones cut out by....which character, Albany?
i can't remember. anyway, the new eyes enable him to see auras and tell which of
Lear's daughter’s really loved him.
but of course all of that was completely cut out of the play. it's just another
example of stinking limey censorship!
>> >That deluded Old Man of the Hague."
>
>The change of setting from King Lear's "Another part of the heath" to
>The Hague is now revealed as merely a pathetic attempt to cover the
>thief's tracks.
well, what about the Dungeons and Dragons connection? the game is set in a
mythical kingdom created a long time ago, in just the same way as King Lear! how
SAD that Shakespeare needed to steal ideas from a simple role-playing game that
has given so much pleasure to so many people.
>Edward Lear: the chuckles lysaght of his day. You heard it here first.
christ, pete, British literature is RIFE with thievery. ya heard heard it
here...where am i on that opinion?? i think 27th.
Peter J Ross
rec.arts.poems tavern, downed a triple Pernod-and-water, and
stammered:
> In article <iusk5u0uf6p7iquoq...@4ax.com>, Peter says...
> >
> >Just before closing time on 31 Jan 2002, j r sherman lurched into the
> >rec.arts.poems tavern, downed a triple Pernod-and-water, and
> >stammered:
> >
> >> HEY! where the fuck is all the stuff about a serpent's tooth and that way
> >> madness lies???
> >>
> >> oh...wait.....
> >>
> >> Edward Lear....
> >>
> >>
> >> nevermind.
> >
> >This is very worrying. Was Edward Lear a plagiarist?
>
> christ, pete, all of them were. Phillip Marlowe claimed he wrote the Divine
> Comedy. it's scary.
Philip Marlowe, Noah Webster, Lyndon Jonson, Captain Kyd... they were
all just as bad.
> >> >"There was an Old Man of the Hague,
> >
> >There's an old man in King Lear too. Suspicious, eh?
>
> you're god-damned right! i BET YOU Uncle Billy took the old man idea from
> Hemingway!!!!
Hemingway, of course, plagiarised Janet and John.
"Simple sentences are good. They're the only kind I know. That's not
so good. As the sun went down I watched the bulls and the men fighting
like heros. It was good. 'Jesus Christ,' I said. I felt good."
(Etc, for hundreds of pages.)
> "let's see, an old man, in a boat...BORING! let's put him in a Kingdom instead,
> yeah...with three daughters....yeah...and only one of them love him...yeah...and
> screw all that fishing crap...."
Screwing all that fishing crap would have improved Moby Dick too.
> Uncle Billy, plagiarist!!!!
He even stole his name from Nicholas Breakspear. Billy's real name was
Jones, but it was dangerous to be Welsh in those days.
> >> >Whose ideas were excessively vague;
> >
> >There's so much vagueness in King Lear that my copy has twice as many
> >pages of notes as of text. Also, the central character is more than a
> >little vague about which of his daughters loves him most. Can such a
> >close similarity be accidental?
>
> absolutely not! and what about Cordelia? how much does she resemble Kate
> Winslett's character in the movie Titanic???
>
> it's too frightening to contemplate....but i will! could Shakespeare have stolen
> from famed film director James Cameron??
I just heard that Prokofiev intends to sue over the theft of ideas
from his ballet "Romeo and Juliet".
> >> >He built a balloon, to examine the moon,
> >
> >This line is all too obviously derived from the scene in King Lear in
> >which Gloucester attempts to escape from Edgar in a home-made
> >Zeppelin, but instead falls over a cliff. (If you don't remember the
> >Zeppelin it's because the editors of the First Folio suppressed it on
> >the grounds of anti-German feeling at the time.)
>
> i have heard that even more scenes were suppressed from the First Folio, Pete.
> After Gloucester escapes from Edgar (Zepplin in, or out of the story), he gets
> new, mechanical eyes to replace the ones cut out by....which character, Albany?
It wasn't Cornwall, because he's a nice guy, and it wasn't the King of
France, because he'd have run away, so you're probably right.
> i can't remember. anyway, the new eyes enable him to see auras and tell which of
> Lear's daughter’s really loved him.
Bassanio had bionic, casket-piercing eyes too. The whole plot of the
Merchant of Venice depends on this fact, but you won't find it in the
Arden Edition.
> but of course all of that was completely cut out of the play. it's just another
> example of stinking limey censorship!
Not so. Actually, you found Tom Paine just as much of an embarrassment
over there as we did, at the time.
> >> >That deluded Old Man of the Hague."
> >
> >The change of setting from King Lear's "Another part of the heath" to
> >The Hague is now revealed as merely a pathetic attempt to cover the
> >thief's tracks.
>
> well, what about the Dungeons and Dragons connection? the game is set in a
> mythical kingdom created a long time ago, in just the same way as King Lear! how
> SAD that Shakespeare needed to steal ideas from a simple role-playing game that
> has given so much pleasure to so many people.
There are several plays, /allegedly/ by Shakespeare, that include a
King, a Queen and some Bishops and Knights. Need I say more?
The full truth may never be known, but I'm beginning to suspect that
the "vague old man" idea was E Lear's before it was W Shakespeare's.
> >Edward Lear: the chuckles lysaght of his day. You heard it here first.
>
> christ, pete, British literature is RIFE with thievery. ya heard heard it
> here...where am i on that opinion?? i think 27th.
I expect the Sumerians were the first to find out.
> love and kisses,
Polite bows,
> j r sherman
PJR :-)