A Visit Recalled: Dame Edith Sitwell.

‘Chocolate?’
I had foolishly arrived with a scarce box of fancy liqueur chocs.
‘My dear, the last time 
                                       I ate
                                            chocolate
                                                  was Nineteen Twenty-Eight.’
The half-smile of the poetess was 
                                       matched only by her half-rhyme.
Points of light flashed from a large blue agate
set on one of the rings 
                                      with which her fingers were laden.
Bangles jangled as the empress extended her hand with
                                      a flourish
                                            as though it were some form
                                                  of impish
                                                        sabre-rattling at the whim
of a capricious potentate.
                                      ‘Mais non . . . !’
She selected a chocolate-coated fragment the size of a crumb.
‘. . . Maybe I’ll simply choose the makeweight 
                                      en hommage à la poésie concrète!’

‘She was impressively grand, quite eccentric . . . 
She wore her usual loose, dramatic robes, her high,
Plantagenet headdress. Her lovely hands were
covered with the most beautiful rings I had ever
seen actually worn: they were deep, deep, coloured
stones — aquamarines, blue agates, large and
pool-like.’ (A Drink* with Dame Edith by
Muriel Spark. Literary Review. February 1997.)

Special Note: A ‘makeweight’ was, according to custom, a small, very thin, tablet of pure chocolate added, as occasion demanded, to a box of chocolates to meet trading standards when the tray was underweight.

*Dame Edith’s favourite tipple was, apparently, Gin-and-Pineapple-Juice.


See also: Variation on a Theme by Edna St. Vincent Millay
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2019/10/variation-on-theme-by-edna-st-vincent.html

See also: Premature embalmment of anti-art
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2016/04/dotty-premature-embalmment-of-anti-art.html

See also: Poésie trouvée, the unsought text
http://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/colour-blind.html
and
http://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/poesie-trouvee-unsought-text.html

•

Catherine Eisner believes passionately in plot-driven suspense fiction, a devotion to literary craft that draws on studies in psychoanalytical criminology and psychoactive pharmacology to explore the dark side of motivation, and ignite plot twists with unexpected outcomes. Within these disciplines Eisner’s fictions seek to explore variant literary forms derived from psychotherapy and criminology to trace the traumas of characters in extremis. Compulsive recurring sub-themes in her narratives examine sibling rivalry, rivalrous cousinhood, pathological imposture, financial chicanery, and the effects of non-familial male pheromones on pubescence, 

see Eisner’s Sister Morphine (2008)

http://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/sister-morphine.html

and Listen Close to Me (2011)

http://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/published-this-autumn-listen-close-to.html 

and A Bad Case (2014)

http://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/a-bad-case-and-other-adventures-of.html

Ignoble Retreat at the Edge where Earth and Firmament meet . . .

Ubi cœlum terræ se conjungit.

                           A host of angels
                                       vent their dirge obscure
           as of a vanquished 
                                       army of cicadas
           to signify alarm or
                                       their displeasure
           called to retreat, scorned
                                       unavailing stardust.

‘. . . and now in little space the confines met
of Empyrean Heav’n and of this World . . .’
                                                                                     Paradise Lost Book 10
                                                                                              1667 John Milton

A Miotic and Dilative Cosmic Eye

In his paper published in April 1930, Zum kosmologischen Problem der allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie, Albert Einstein  speculates briefly on a universe in a process of Expansion (Dilatationsbewegung) and Collapse in an eternal cycle of extinctions and rebirths. His flirtation with Oscillating Universe theory develops from a presumption of ‘spherical  space [spharischen Raum], whose radius is variable over time [and, in consequence, a progressive decrease in expansion follows, which] sets an upper boundary for the radius of the cosmos that cannot be exceeded with the passage of time . . . whereupon the whole process is gone through in the opposite sense (umgekehrtem Sinne) . . .’

Medieval Verse (4) Praise Crown Restored . . . Raise Voice in Song . . .

[ This hitherto untranscribed text is by a hand unknown and no putative attribution to any earlier scriptor should be assayed. ]

Discovered inscribed in cursiva anglicana (Middle English

and Latin) by stylus on a wax tablet. Early 14th Century.

This tabletta (tabula or ceraculum), one of a number hinged together and
sealed in a carrying-pouch, is in the personal possession of
Catherine Eisner who has transcribed the orthographical variants,
with reference to The Middle English Dictionary and 

to The Index to Middle English Verse; and within 

the limitations of current scholarship Eisner 

believes this text to be a faithful rendering.

                     In Truth May All Our 
                                                         Prayers Exalt the Tongue
                     Loud to Condemn the 
                                                         Wrongs by Falsehoods Shriven.
                     Praise Crown Restored 
                                                         in Faith Raise Voice in Song
                     Not Death Besought but 
                                                         Souls their Harvests Thriven.

This verse, perhaps the final jottings on these wax tablets
to be deciphered (since the succeeding tabulae in the
series are seemingly irredeemably welded together),
 is thought to celebrate the seizure of power by Edward III,
aged seventeen, in the coup d'état against Roger Mortimer,
the de facto Regent of England; so a ‘restoration’ of the 
true king would have been strong in the mind of  the writer,
possibly a mendicant preacher. This series of verses (1307
to 1330?), therefore, spans the reign of Edward II and the
early years of his heir, the boy King Edward III. 
It’s clear the tablet-scriber was alert to the unfolding drama
within the unruly House of Plantagenet and aware, too, of the
monarchical intrigues of his turbulent times, so it’s 
frustrating that his later shrewd observations are hidden
from us. The fact that the travelling-pouch of tablets lay
concealed in a secret cache for over six hundred years surely
evidences the caution the writer must have observed
in safeguarding his indiscreet clerical broadsides. 

The figuration of the growth of the Soul as a spiritual
harvest to be reaped by Righteousness may be
found in 2 Corinthians 9:10. 

For a transcription of the first of these medieval verses by an unknown hand, see

Verse 1 (possibly 1307) a devout prayer on the occasion of Edward II’s coronation:

https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2016/03/medieval-song.html

The tabulae appear chronological in composition; see the following Verse 2 of 1312:

https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/01/medieval-verse-2-hart-there-was.html

Verse 3 (possibly 1325-1330) records the Fall of Edward II with the defeat of Queen Isabella – the She-Wolf of France – together with her lover, Roger Mortimer:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/02/medieval-verse-3-when-lief-churl.html

The Cambridgeshire Hoard

Provisional details of the 14th Century Cambridgeshire Hoard will be announced by Eisner following completion of the first phase of studies.

I realised only yesterday, following the uncovering of a childhood cache of my drawings, that I must have been – even in my early teens – fascinated by 14th Century clerical thought and practice. This pastiche of a medieval woodcut – a pilgrim – I printed at home when I was fourteen.

Medieval Verse (3) When lief a Churl

[ This hitherto untranscribed text is by a hand unknown and no putative attribution to any earlier scriptor should be assayed. ]

Discovered inscribed in cursiva anglicana (Middle English

and Latin) by stylus on a wax tablet. Early 14th Century.

This tabletta (tabula or ceraculum), one of a number hinged together and
sealed in a carrying-pouch, is in the personal possession of
Catherine Eisner who has transcribed the orthographical variants,
with reference to The Middle English Dictionary and 

to The Index to Middle English Verse; and within 

the limitations of current scholarship Eisner 

believes this text to be a faithful rendering.

                    When lief a Churl   

                                                 Our Chateleine enthrones 

                    To Woe a Mort ere  

                                                 More Her Dower* guerdones   

                    For Domayne Reft  

                                                 the Wolf-Dam nere atones 

                    Til Lord of Hosts 

                                                 fain All of Heaven summons

Above: 1326,
Queen Isabella, ‘She-Wolf’ of France, consort of Edward
II, and her lover Roger Mortimer raise an insurgent
mercenary army to rule England as de facto regents.

Beneath the overt meaning of this verse it’s tempting to

read a dangerously libellous covert broadside whose

intention, if correctly interpreted, places its composition

at some point between 1325 and 1330.

Overt meaning: ‘When willingly Our Lady Regnant

raises a Ruffian to High Office/a great deal [mort] of

her Dowery, before an even greater amount, is gifted to

Sorrow/since the She-Wolf never atones for Plundering

the Realm/until the Kingdom of Heaven is obliged by evil

deeds on earth to summon the aid of the Lord God.’

Covert meaning: ‘When willingly Queen Isabella raises

an Upstart [Mort-i-more] to the Throne of England/

a great deal [mort] of England’s Treasury, before an even

greater amount, is gifted to England’s Bankruptcy/

because the She-Wolf of France never atones for

plundering the English Realm/until the Kingdom

of Heaven is obliged by the Lovers’ evil deeds

on earth to summon the aid of the Lord God.

Above: 1308,
Princess Isabella, twelve years old, daughter
of King Phillip IV of France, marries the new
king of England, Edward II, aged 24.

*Anglia dos Mariae. (England, Mary's dowry.)
On reflection, when probing deeper into the connotations of this verse, I believe the words are an anti-royalist Mariolatrous invocation protesting the despoiling of England by the French She-Wolf’s predations on the King’s treasury. The words possibly seek to quicken in the reader (assuming there existed a trusting confidant in the 14th Century privy to read them) an affirmation of a religiose national idolatry. The denunciatory character of the verses are all the more heretical since they point up the extreme comparison to be found in Queen Isabella’s ‘Dowry-by-Plunder' when contrasted with the metonym for England that is Our Lady’s Dowry (or Dowry of the Virgin and similar variations). This metonym had become widespread by the middle of the fourteenth century for at that time it is stated, ‘It is commonly said that the land of England is the Virgin’s dowry.’  The Virgin Mary was regarded, therefore, as England’s Protectress who, through her power of intercession, acted as the country’s defender or guardian. The iambic scansion of these lines suggest that 'dower’ was pronounced with a diphthong.



For a transcription of the first of these medieval verses by an unknown hand, see

Verse 1 (possibly 1307) a devout prayer on the occasion of Edward II’s coronation:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2016/03/medieval-song.html
The tabulae appear chronological in composition; see the following Verse 2 of 1312:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/01/medieval-verse-2-hart-there-was.html
The Fourth verse, which ends the series (the succeeding wax tablets are irredeemably welded together) see:

https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/02/medieval-verse-4-praise-crown-restored.html

Medieval Verse (2): A Hart there was...

[ This hitherto untranscribed text is by a hand unknown and no putative attribution to any earlier scriptor should be assayed. ]

Discovered inscribed in cursiva anglicana (Middle English

and Latin) by stylus on a wax tablet. Early 14th Century.

This tabletta (tabula or ceraculum), one of a number sealed in a carrying-pouch,
is in the personal possession of Catherine Eisner who has transcribed the 

orthographical variants, with reference to The Middle English Dictionary

and to The Index to Middle English Verse;

and within the limitations of current scholarship Eisner 

believes this text to be a faithful rendering.

                       A Hart there was, 

                                                    a Hart so grievous hurt,

                       A Cry there was, 

                                                    a Cry of Hounds astart,

                       A Death there was,

                                                    a Death of Beauty caught,

                       A King there was,

                                                    a King most desolate.

This verse appears to be a hazardous essay into lese-majesty,
almost certainly written in 1312 or shortly after, for in that year
the King’s Favourite, Piers Gaveston, described as ‘the Minion of
a hateful King’ was hunted down and executed by a group of nobles
led by the Earls of Lancaster and Warwick, who had long sought by
any means to eliminate the influence – considered meddlesome and
scandalously improper – the upstart Piers exercised over Edward II.

For a transcription of the First of these medieval verses by an unknown hand, see:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2016/03/medieval-song.html
For the Third transcribed verse, believed to be in chronological order, see:
https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/02/medieval-verse-3-when-lief-churl.html
The Fourth verse, which ends the series (the succeeding wax tablets are irredeemably welded together) see:

https://catherineeisnerfrance.blogspot.com/2020/02/medieval-verse-4-praise-crown-restored.html

Occupation . . . Baghdad . . . Paris . . . Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose* . . .

  Dateline 1942:
‘In Hôtel Ampurias there is a respectably-sized arsenal of instruments for extracting information,’ Régine was warned on her first arrival in Paris. The place was said to echo with screams of a horrible significance.
  Locals called the street the Rue des Phalangistes, he’d added.
  The door Régine next entered had the Generalleutnant’s nameplate on it.  
  ‘A pleasant room with unpleasant uses,’ was Régine’s first thought.
  The elegant suite the general had chosen to occupy, with its magnificent gilded panels and cornices, marbled pillars and rich velvet, gold-tasselled drapes – an apartment that was never designed for a brigand chief – told the truth about him because of its lie. (Régine remembered tales of the Franco-Prussian War and of the fallen city and of imperial chaises longues chopped up for firewood by the marauding homo teutonicus.) 

From The Lost Hour – A Memoir of a Trauma

by Catherine Eisner 2016

  Dateline Paris 1942

Régine stared blankly at the figure seated at the general’s campaign desk
then read the name chalked on the roster board behind him :
Oberleutnant Reinhard von Heitmann. The young aide-de-camp, half hidden
by a card-index holder and dossiers of suspects, rose and removed a
file from the stack. Régine saw von Heitmann withdraw her identity card.

  Dateline Paris 1870

Anton von Werner’s 1894 painting Im Etappenquartier vor Paris

(A Billet outside Paris) at the Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

The painting depicts German troops occupying the Château de Brunoy

outside Paris on October 24, 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War.

  Dateline Baghdad 2003 

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Chad Touchett, centre, relaxes with comrades
from A Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment,
on April 7, 2003, after searching one of Saddam Hussein’s
palaces damaged by bombs in Baghdad.
( Photo: John Moore / AP )

  *The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Juvenilia . . . A Teenage Notebook . . .

A grief ago*

A grief ago

the fire burned itself out

where this small dog now

dares to paw the ashes.

I shall not shout

at one too meagre

to tempt my

 injustices.

In the Manner of Walter Savage Landor.

  O prosper not the past

that we may eat upon

a harvest lost, laid waste

    by our own carrion.**

*A coherent line from a word-salad-poem by Dylan Thomas.

** A reference to overpopulated London and the Thames, polluted since the early 19th Century.
The prince destined to be King Henry IX died, aged 18, from typhoid fever from a swim in the Thames
near Richmond in October 1612.