LATEST EXHIBITS, deeds, and chores:

    (not including endless work on Froissart and fixing
    stuff and learning more tech stuff and typing.







February 8, 2007.   A Forgotten Wit, by William Mathews, is online.  This is an essay on
Sebastian Chamfort, an interesting figure in 18th Century France. (Partially proofed)

Also by Mathews,  an excerpt on
Sneezes and the history of their importance/superstitions
is online from "A Pinch of Snuff".  This is proofed.


From
The Sayings of Grandmamma and Others, by Elinor Glyn; Duffield & Company, New
York, 1908; p. 21,  27:



    One should have fine perceptions and be able to see with
    one's eyelashes.

    Grandmamma


    *


    THE world is a pleasant enough place if you can pay your bills --
    and have a fair digestion.

    Sir Antony




A few selections from The Repository of Wit and Humor; comprising more than One
Thousand Anecdotes, Odd Scraps, Off-Hand Hits, and Humorous Sketches;
selected and
arranged by  M. Lafayette Byrn, M. D., are online
here.

A quote for Carol Anne at
The Flower House in Jenkins, KY.  The only florist I ever
knew who will make a living plant basket that will thrive with minimal care:


    Flowers preach to us if we will hear.


    Christina G. Rossetti,
    Consider the Lilies of the Field.



February 7, 2007.  The rest of The Forty Vezirs, translated by Epiphanius Wilson is online.
Only partially proofed, though.



From
The New Pun Book, p. 103:



        SMITH -- Most things that are bought go to the buyer.

       JONES -- Yes, all except coal; that goes to the cellar.


February 5, 2007.  From Rare Poems of the  Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, a
Supplement to the Anthologies,
Collected and Edited with Notes by, by W. J. Linton;
Roberts Brothers, Boston, 1895; p. 94:

     
    A VALENTINE


    CHOOSE ME your Valentine
           Next, let us marry!
    Love to the death will pine
           If we long tarry.


    Promise and keep your vows,
           Or vow you never!
    Love's doctrine disallows
           Troth-breakers ever.


    You have broke promise twice,
           Dear !  to undo me;
    If you prove faithless thrice,
           None then will woo ye.


    ROBERT HERRICK




From The Sayings of Grandmamma and Others, by Elinor Glyn; Duffield & Company, New
York, 1908; p. 1-2, 34:


    THERE are three things a woman ought to look: -- Straight
    as a dart -- supple as a snake -- and proud as a Tiger- lily.

    Grandmamma

    *


    ONE can realise that numbers of very good people make
    one want to look at the clock.

    Ambrosine




February 3, 2007.  More tales from the History of the Forty Vezirs, translated by
Epiphanius Wilson are online, from the medieval period in Ottoman Literature.


From the Glossary in
Yorkshire Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs, by R. Blakeborough,
(1911), p. 479:


    Three-thrums, n.  The purring of a cat.


From Volume V of Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor, edited by Thomas L.
Mason, (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York; 1903), p. 57:


        There are trees in California so tall that it takes two
    men and a boy to look to the top of them.  One looks till
    he gets tired, and another commences where he left off.




February 2. 2007.  From the Glossary in Yorkshire Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs, by
R. Blakeborough, (1911), p. 342:


    Bowdykite, n.  An impudent child.  



February 1, 2007.  History of Chivalry, by G. P. R. James is proofread, for the third time!

The Battle of Brunanburh, translated in verse by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, basing it on the
prose translation of his son Hallam is online.  You can compare it to the other translation
already online by
Spaeth.

To top this off,  the
The Villager and the Snake by George T Lanigan is online.



From A Man of the World's Dictionary, translated from the French,  (both author and
translator anonymous), published by J. Appleyard, Catharine-Street, Strand, London:
1822:


    ATTORNEY.   A cat that settles differences between mice.

   BALDERDASH.   Of this there are two sorts, the simple and the
compound.  Simple balderdash is that which
the author understands, but which the public do
not understand: compound balderdash is that
which is understood neither by the public nor
by the author.           

      CASTRATO.  A martyr to music.

        DIVORCE.  A dangerous remedy for a more dangerous disease.



January 31, 2007.  The best online Latin to English translating tool, of single words, and
ad- free as well, is by
William Whitaker.



January 29, 2007.  The final proofreading and pictures are up for Odette: A
Fairy Tale for Weary People, by Ronald Firbank.  He wrote this book when he was 19, or
younger, since that is how old he was when it was first published,  and who knows how
long that process took in 1916.  The story is better on re-reading.

From Volume V of
Little Masterpieces of American Wit and Humor, edited by Thomas L.
Mason, (Doubleday, Page & Co., New York; 1903), p. 35:


            The late Bill Nye was fond of telling this story of his
    smaller daughter: At a dinner one day there was a party
    of guests for whom Mr. Nye was doing his best in the way
    of entertainment, when a lady said to the little girl, "Your
    father is a very funny man!"  
         "Yes," responded the child, "when we have company."


From the Glossary in Yorkshire Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs, by R. Blakeborough,
(1911), p. 491:


    Whemmel, v.  To rock to and fro and then fall over.



The first half of The Forty Vezirs, translated by Epiphanius Wilson, is online (partially
proofed).  This Ottoman work dates from the 15th century A.D.  The basic premise, is
taken from
The Ethiopica of Heliodorus, see for yourself by comparing them.



January 28, 2007.  Chapters 8- 12,  of
The History of Chivalry by G. P. R. James is
proofed..  The French and Latin has been translated painfully, and poorly by me.


Finally found a great resource on Ancient French, most of the words in ancient French can
be found in Randle Cotgrave's 1611
Dictionary, translates 17th century French to 17th
Century English, which Greg Lindahl has scanned and made searchable.  It took me 4
months to find my way to it, so I though I would save anyone else the trouble, by
mentioning it.  Also the best links to Old and Middle French can be found on
Lexilogos,
including this treasure.  My gratitude is boundless!

Besides many obsolete words in French (and English), he gives multiple proverbs with their
translations, i.e. this one, [modernized spelling]:


    "L'hoste & le poisson, passé trois jours, puent:

    A guest and a fish after three days are fusty."




January 25, 2007.  The two engravings, one of squire obtaining his knighthood, and the
other of a fatal joust, plus the final proofing of the Preface and first eight chapters of
The History of Chivalry by G. P. R. James is done.


Online, A
Hymn by Cleanthes, the Stoic philosopher of Ancient Greece who lived in the 3rd
century B.C, is online, translated by Professor H. S. Palmer.  Here is a quote from it:


       "...  But thou, O Zeus, giver of all, thou of the cloud, guide of the
    thunder, deliver men from baleful ignorance!  Scatter it, fathers, from
    our souls; ..."


From the Glossary in Yorkshire Wit, Character, Folklore & Customs, by R. Blakeborough,
(1911), p. 443:

    Ramm'l-rag, n.  A tomboy.


From Monologues and Parodies, compiled by J. F. Hartman (A Comedian), 1910, p. 52:


    Said a dainty professor of Latin,
    Who dressed his pet piggie in satin:
        "If I'd teach her to speak
        In Norwegian and Greek,
    Do you think she'd be easier to fatten?"




January 23, 2007.  A short admiring poem, Beauty on the Box, by Leigh Gordon Giltner,
illustrated by A. D. Blashfield, is online.   The picture is great.


The Notes from The History of Chivalry, by G. P. R. James are online, too.

The Wish Fairy of the Sunshine and Shadow Forest, by Alice Ross Colver is online, with
pictures (!!) and proofed (!!!).  Torey, my sweet, sweet kid, bought this book for me to put
up.


A fact by early 20th century American botanist, Frederic William Stack:


        One of the most costly perfumes in the world is Attar of Roses,
    and ten tons -- twenty thousand pounds -- are required to make
    one pound of this precious oil, which is valued at two hundred
    dollars per pound [in 1909].


From Burton's The Cyclopaedia of Wit and Humor (1881), p. 880:


    A FOOL'S ANSWER. -- "How shameful it is that you should
    fall asleep," said a dull preacher to a drowsy audience,
    "whilst that poor idiot is awake and attentive."

        "I would have been asleep, too," said the fool, "if I had
    not been an idiot."






    Go to the Archives for the chronological record of the additions
    for the past 2 years.