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THOUGHTS: A Final Comment on Donne and Marvell in Pale Fire
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This sort of poetic game was almost a standard in the
late middle ages and the so called "Renaissance". If
you pick up your book of Villon's poetry, you'll find
one that starts:
Je meurs de seuf auipres de la fontaine
and continues for three nice "stanzas".
Now pick up, say, your Pleiade edition of
medieval French poetry (mine was bound by mistake
with the cover of, "Jeux et sagesse du moyen age" Here
among the poems of Charles d'Orleans there is one
that goes:
Je meurs de soif en couste la fontaine.
Note it is a different poem, but both poets, of such
different social class had been given by their host
the same first line (with permission to make trivial
variation?) and were to rival each other, and then
presumably win some prise (perhaps only a certificate).
We have other instances.
Since many inhabitants of the xxi century are
startled or puzzled by this sort of thing, I hope to
educate them gently by showing them another example.
If you live in a habitat where men wear only loin
cloths, you may think that Nabokov was a little
peculiar if you see a picture of him in plus fours.
John A. Rea
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
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Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
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late middle ages and the so called "Renaissance". If
you pick up your book of Villon's poetry, you'll find
one that starts:
Je meurs de seuf auipres de la fontaine
and continues for three nice "stanzas".
Now pick up, say, your Pleiade edition of
medieval French poetry (mine was bound by mistake
with the cover of, "Jeux et sagesse du moyen age" Here
among the poems of Charles d'Orleans there is one
that goes:
Je meurs de soif en couste la fontaine.
Note it is a different poem, but both poets, of such
different social class had been given by their host
the same first line (with permission to make trivial
variation?) and were to rival each other, and then
presumably win some prise (perhaps only a certificate).
We have other instances.
Since many inhabitants of the xxi century are
startled or puzzled by this sort of thing, I hope to
educate them gently by showing them another example.
If you live in a habitat where men wear only loin
cloths, you may think that Nabokov was a little
peculiar if you see a picture of him in plus fours.
John A. Rea
Search the archive: http://listserv.ucsb.edu/archives/nabokv-l.html
Search archive with Google:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?q=site:listserv.ucsb.edu&HL=en
Contact the Editors: mailto:nabokv-l@utk.edu,nabokv-l@holycross.edu
Visit Zembla: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/nabokov/zembla.htm
View Nabokv-L policies: http://web.utk.edu/~sblackwe/EDNote.htm