The road to a literary and antiquarian hell is frequently paved with good intentions, and this blog is no exception to that rule. Since I first started considering a direction, a half a year has passed, and no progress has been made. Since we all have new resolutions for the new year, mine will include finally getting serious about this project. It is to be the nature of this blog that it will cover a variety of antiquarian topics, but not -- as originally envisioned -- only concern itself with books, but rather with all of the odd bits of matter and philosophy which would have concerned the antiquarians of yesteryear, Lowndes or Grasset, for example. I hope to explore my faith and its liturgical trappings, opinions, history, ethnic culture, and, of course, books, as well as certain objects of vertu.
“Honi soit qui mal y pense” is the motto of the British chivalric Order of the Garter. An acceptable translation from Middle French is “evil to him who thinks evil of it.”
For my dueling society brothers at Corps Saxo-Borussia and Corps Masovia, a quatrain from the Landesvater ritual sums it up:
“So lange wir ihn kennen,
woll’n wir ihn Bruder nennen,
es leb auch dieser Bruder hoch!
Ein Hundspfott wer ihn schimpfen soll.”
The quote ostensibly originated during the reign of Edward III, while he was dancing with his cousin and daughter-in-law, Joan of Kent. Upon her garter slipping down to her ankle, the assembled courtiers – not showing good judgement in the face of the Sovereign, started snickering at her humiliation, but Edward, quite the cavalier, placed the garter around his own leg and iterated that now-famous quote, which became the motto of the Order of the Garter.
It’s somehow appropriate for our reading public as well.
It's the second day of Orthodox Christmas today, and it's a cold day at Klein Waldeck; yesterday, after a pleasant day at the Cathedral of Saint John the Forerunner, followed by a variety of fast-free treats in the Parish Hall, daughter Anna Sophia, spouse Lydia and yours truly retired back to the log cabin in the Blue Ridge. Anna Sophia left us at about 6:00 p.m. Lydia and I had a number of far-fetched plans, all of which involved staying up to watch the latest Russian movies, which dissipated quickly. We were exhausted. Lydia enjoys her sleep, and now that she is pregnant, she enjoys it even more. We'll try again on Sunday afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment