Walking down a narrow street one evening, I stole a melon. The fruit seller, who was lurking behind his fruit, caught me by the arm.
Miss, I’ve been waiting for a chance like this for forty years. For forty years I’ve hidden behind this pile of oranges in the hope that somebody might pinch some fruit. And the reason for that is this: I want to talk, I want to tell my story. If you don’t listen, I’ll hand you over to the police.
OE Phoenix 37 Wintres ond sumeres wudu bið gelice bledum gehongen. OE Beowulf 1128 Hengest ða gyt wælfagne winter wunode mid Finne. OE Ælfric De Temporibus Anni (Cambr. Gg.3.28) (2009) x. 94 Durh his [sc. of zephyr] blæd acuciað ealle eorðlice blæda.., & se wind towyrpð & ðawað ælcne winter. OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Tiber. B.iv) anno 1021 Her on þisan geare..Ælfgar biscop se ælmesfulla forðferde on Cristesmæsseuhtan.
OE Rule St. Benet (Corpus Cambr.) viii. 32 On wintres timan [a1225 Winteney wintres tyman], þæt is fram þan anginne þæs monðes, þe is nouember gehaten, oþ eastran..on þære eahteþan tide þære nihte is to arisenne. OE Genesis B 370 And moste [ic] ane tid ute weorðan, wesan ane winterstunde. OE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Bodl.) (2009) I. xxi. 285 On sumera hit bið wearm and on wintra ceald. OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) (Peterborough contin.) anno 1127 Ðis gear heald se kyng Heanri his hird æt Cristesmæsse on Windlesoure. OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Parker) Introd. Þa feng Ęlfred hiera broþur to rice, & þa was agan his ielde xxiii wintra. OE Possessions, Rents, & Grants, Bury St. Edmunds in A. J. Robertson Anglo-Saxon Charters (1956) 194 Brihtric hæfð.. i mæsseboc & winterrædingboc & sumerboc. OE Fortunes of Men 9 God ana wat hwæt him weaxendum winter bringað. OE On Length of Shadow (Tiber.) in T. O. Cockayne Leechdoms, Wortcunning, & Starcraft (1866) III. 218 On viii kalend Ianuarii þæt byð on cristesmæssedæg byð seo sceadu to underne..seofon & twentigoþan healfes fotes. OE Laws: Rectitudines (Corpus Cambr.) ix. 450 viii pund cornes to mete, i sceap oððe iii pæniga to wintersufle. OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Parker) anno 886 Her for se here..up on Sigene & þær wintersetl [OE Tiber. B.i wintersetu] namon. OE Phoenix 18 Ne mæg þær ren ne snaw.., ne sunnan hætu, ne sincaldu, ne wearm weder, ne winterscur wihte gewyrdan. OE Prudentius Glosses (Boulogne 189) in H. D. Meritt Old Eng. Prudentius Glosses (1959) 4 [Sub quo prima dies mihi quam multas] hiemes [uoluerit] : wintras oþþe ger. OE Wulfstan Homily: Be Cristendome (York) in A. S. Napier Wulfstan (1883) 311 Leohtgescot gelæste man be wite to Cristesmæssan and to candelmæssan and to eastron. OE Blickling Homilies 213 Wæs se winter eac þy geare to þæs grim þæt manig man his feorh for cyle gesealde. OE Will of Abba (Sawyer 1482) in N. P. Brooks & S. E. Kelly Charters of Christ Church Canterbury, Pt. 2 (2013) 665 Ten hennfuglas, ðritig teapera gif hit wintres deg sie, sester fulne huniges. OE Maxims II 5 Winter byð cealdost, lencten hrimigost.., sumor sunwlitegost. OE Permission to ring Bells, Exeter in J. Earle Hand-bk. Land-charters (1888) 260 Þat yc..gef leaua ðam munche on Sancte Nicholaus minstre to hringinde hyre tyde be dage & be nihte, hwanne hy efre willat..bute an Cristesmasseniht, & giestersunneue. OE Phoenix 250 Forst ond snaw mid ofermægne eorþan þeccað wintergewædum. OE Wanderer 24 Ic hean þonan wod wintercearig ofer waþena [read waþema] gebind, sohte seledreorig sinces bryttan. OE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) (1980) i. xiv. 35 Þa Læcedemonia besætan þa burg Mæse x winter.
1330 R. Mannyng Chron. Wace (Rolls) 4024 After Sysilly com Glegabret, A syngere of þe beste get. 1386 G. Chaucer Pardoner’s Tale 17 And right anon thanne comen Tombesteres,..Syngeres with harpes. 1440 Promptorium Parvulorum 456/1 Synggare, cantor. 1486 in H. Littlehales Medieval Rec. London City Church (1905) 5 Namely, that he..help the Syngers after his cunnyng in the honour of our blessed lady. 1538 T. Starkey Dial. Pole & Lupset (1989) 102 Marchauntys therof [sc. pleasures] & craftys men, syngarys & playarys apon instrumentys. 1602 W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor i. iii. 24 His filching was like An vnskilfull singer, he kept not time. 1652 R. Brome City Wit iii. i. sig. C7v, in Five New Playes (1653) He..has been..one of the sweet singers to the City Funeralls. 1757 tr. J. G. Keyssler Trav. IV. 208 The vocal musicians, or singers,..perform even in private houses for money. 1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall III. xxxi. 216 Three thousand singers, with the masters of the respective chorusses. 1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth x, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. I. 268 My judgment is not deep, my lord; but the singer may dispense with my approbation. 1843 W. Hammond tr. Def. Faith Œcumen. Councils 183 If a Subdeacon, Reader, or Singer commits the same things.
1880 ‘V. Lee’ Stud. 18th Cent. Italy iii. ii. 113 Farinelli..was proud of being a singer and afraid of being a political agent. 1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §239 We see also, that Cock-birds, among Singing-birds, are ever the better singers. 1849 J. Craig New Universal Dict. (at cited word) The canary is a fine singer. 1896 J. W. Kirkaldy & E. C. Pollard tr. J. E. V. Boas Text Bk. Zool. 462 Singers (Sylviadæ)… Some of them noted singers. 1935 Amer. Speech 10 20/2 Singer, a stool pigeon or trusty who carries tales to the administration. (Obs.) 1961 John o’ London’s 30 Nov. 610/3 An informer, then a squealer, is now more often referred to..as a singer. 1560 Bible (Geneva) 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 Dauid.., the swete singer of Israel. 1652 (title) Herbert’s Remains, or, sundry Pieces of that sweet Singer of the Temple. 1704 T. Brown Presbyt. Proposals in Wks. (1711) IV. 126 Quakers, Muggletonians and Sweet-Singers of Israel. 1874 J. R. Green Short Hist. Eng. People vii. §7. 423 Amidst the throng in Elizabeth’s antechamber the noblest form is that of the singer who lays the ‘Faerie Queen’ at her feet. 1880 S. Lanier Sci. Eng. Verse Pref. Wyatt, Surrey, Sackville, and a host of less known or unknown singers. 1843 T. Carlyle Hist. Sketches (1898) 74 A sterling man, a true Singer-heart.
OE (Mercian) Vespasian Psalter (1965) xxxii. 3 Cantate ei canticum nouum, bene psallite in iubilatione : singað him song neowne wel singað in wynsumnisse. OE Beowulf 787 Þara þe of wealle wop gehyrdon, gryreleoð galan Godes andsacan, sigeleasne sang. OE Beowulf 1063 Þær wæs sang ond sweg samod ætgædere fore Healfdenes hildewisan, gomenwudu greted, gid oft wrecen. OE Beowulf 2447 Þonne he gyd wrece, sarigne sang, þonne his sunu hangað hrefne to hroðre. OE Crist III 1649 Ðær is engla song, eadigra blis. OE Cynewulf Elene 112 Wulf sang ahof, holtes gehleða. OE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) (2009) I. xii. 435 [Þa he þa] þis leoð asungen hæ[fde, þ]a forlet he þone sang. OE King Ælfred tr. Gregory Pastoral Care (Hatton) (1871) lii. 409 Ða singað ðone sang [L. canticum] ðe nan mon elles singan ne mæg. OE Lindisf. Gospels: Luke xv. 25 Cum ueniret et appropinquaret domui audiuit simphoniam et chorum : miððy gecuome & geneolecde to huse geherde huislung..& þæt song. OE Metres of Boethius (partly from transcript of damaged MS) (2009) xiii. 50 Þonne hi geherað hleoðrum brægdan oðre fugelas, hi heora agne stefne styriað. Stunað eal geador welwynsum sanc. OE Riddle 24 6 Hwilum gielle swa hafoc, hwilum ic onhyrge þone haswan earn, guðfugles hleoþor, hwilum glidan reorde muþe gemæne, hwilum mæwes song. OE St. Neot (Vesp.) in R. D.-N. Warner Early Eng. Homilies (1917) 129 He dæighwamlice to his Drihtene clypode æfter Dauides sange þuss cweðende, Drihten [etc.]. OE tr. Felix St. Guthlac (Vercelli) (1909) ii. 108 Ne he mistlice fugelas [read fugela] sangas ne wurþode, swa oft swa cnihtlicu yldo begæð. OE Widsith 100 Þonne ic be songe secgan sceolde hwær ic..selast wisse goldhrodene cwen giefe bryttian. 1175 Ælfric Let. to Sigeweard (De Veteri et Novo Test.) (Bodl.) 30 Heo up comen ealle isunde, herigende mid sangum [OE Laud mid sange] ðone heofenlice God. 1175 Homily (Bodl. 343) in S. Irvine Old Eng. Homilies (1993) 202 Þær is feȝer englæ werod, & apostola song. 1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 3374 Þeȝȝ alle sungenn ænne sang Drihhtin to lofe. & wurrþe. 1175 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 7931 Wop wass uss bitacnedd wel Þurrh cullfre. & turrtle baþe. Forr þeȝȝre sang iss lic wiþþ wop. 1225 MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 63 Godes songes beoð alle gode; to þere saule heo senden fode. 1225 Vices & Virtues (1888) 15 Ða aingles of heuene..sunge ðane derewurðe sang, Gloria in exselsis deo. 1275 Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 15282 Þer wes blisse & muche song. 1275 Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) 221 Þu miȝt mid þine songe afere Alle þat ihereþ þine ibere. 1275 Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) 722 Vor þi me singþ in holi chirche, An clerkes ginneþ songes wirche. 1300 Floris & Blauncheflur (Vitell.) (1966) l. 250 (MED) Þer is fowelene song. 1300 Poema Morale (Jesus Oxf.) 347 in R. Morris Old Eng. Misc. (1872) 70 Þer is alre Murehþe mest myd englene songe. 1325 Gen. & Exod. (1968) l. 699 (MED) Of ðis kinge wil we leden song. 1330 Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) l. 3535 (MED) In euerich toun fram Portesmouþe To Londen..Men made song and hopinges. 1330 Sir Tristrem (1886) l. 2654 Of ysonde he made a song. 1340 Ayenbite (1866) 60 Þe dyeules noriches þet..doþ ham slepe ine hare zenne be hare uayre zang. 1340 Ayenbite (1866) 68 Þe holi gost..makeþ his ychosene zinge ine hare herten þe zuete zonges of heuene. 1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Job xxx. 9 Now forsothe I am turned in to the song [L. canticum] of hem. 1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Lament. iii. 14 Y am mad in to scorne to al puple, the song [L. canticum] of them al dai. 1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John’s Cambr.) (1865) I. 317 (MED) Þerfore herdes of þat lond byhedeþ hem [sc. grasshoppers] forto haue þe swetter song. 1390 MS Vernon Homilies in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1877) 57 277 Þe brid song..so Murie..þat þenne to ryse mihte he nouht Til þat song weore i brouht to ende. 1393 J. Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) ii. l. 3012 (MED) Now schalt thou singe an other song. 1398 J. Trevisa tr. Bartholomaeus Anglicus De Proprietatibus Rerum (BL Add. 27944) (1975) I. xii. xiv. 625 There is a maner grashoppere þat hatte cicada and haþ þat name of canendo ‘syngynge’, for wiþ a ful litil throte he[o] schapiþ a wondirful song.
Everything returns to normal after Чорнобильська катастрофа. That is, everything but art. Most of the great works are lost, and it is up to people like William Shakespeare Junior the Fifth to restore the lost artwork of the human race. He finds strange goings-on at a resort enough to remind him of all the lines of the play, dealing with mob boss Don Learo and his daughter Cordelia, a strange professor named Jean Luc-Godard (sic), who repeatedly xeroxes his hand for no particular reason. He is followed by four humanoid goblins that keep tormenting Cordelia. There is also the gentleman whose girlfriend, Valerie, isn’t always visible.
Centering around the phrase ‘No Thing’. Jean Luc Godard, a stalwart of the French New Wave Cinema, superimposes his eccentric avant garde experimentalism, a Study based on the Classic Shakespearean tragedy King Lear, in a modern contextual interpretation. The following a non-linear plot structure as referred Shot In The Back in the intertitle. Godard brings his personal approach, rendering a modern interpretation, and his subjective construction.
Peter Sellars as a descendant of the legendary playwright William Shakespeare sets forth to revive his ancestors lost art in a world post the Chernobyl disaster. He discovers the characters under mysterious circumstances at a hotel in Nyon Vaud, Switzerland (the locale is alluded as a mystical place in between France and Germany with sea and woods). Don Learo and his daughter Cordelia substitute the father-daughter duo of the Shakespearean classic suffering from a similar or identical hamartia, a tragic flaw so ingrained in the father-daughter relationship as the existential fight between Power versus Virtue. The end is predictable, as Cordelia succumbs failing to express her love for her father. The lack of not having her heart in her mouth suffocates her in awkward circumstances depicted through her internal psychological conflict, brooding silence and disinterested appearance. Her inability and inexpression tortures her father intolerably as he attempts over the time to silence her silence. The No Thing or Nothing of Cordelia results in a faulty meaning generation owing to her fathers incapacity of acceptance and understanding, rather misinterpreting her silence as a lack of love, leading to the tragic conclusion too late to rectify. Other alternate character additions worth mentioning: Professor Pluggy (starring Godard himself) a frenzied clairvoyant substitute of the Shakespearean Fool, obsessed with photocopying his own hand, whose strangely mysterious last words bear an uncannily absurd co-incidental reference to the name of the film editor Mr Alien featuring in the end. Godard also incorporates Shakespeares paranormal elements in the form of four shadowy human-like figures imitating and following the central characters everywhere (as depicted in first half when Peter scribbles on a notepad whilst walking around the woods seeking inspiration the human goblins emulate and follow him). Godard surpasses nudity with this film, as he barely includes any intimate sequence or moments. As his character Peter is required by Cannon Films (the actual film Distributor) to exclusively exclude any form of nudity from his creative themes thus directing his interest in the father-daughter conversations patronising them as his central characters.
The camera work and cinematography is well conceived opening new perspectives. The mise en scene is seamlessly blended as thematically the desolate tourist location is ideal, merging the backdrop smoothly into the plot. But the real show stealer are the ground breaking dialogues, interesting sound bits (of screeching sea gulls), intense voice-overs and critical soliloquies as the plot gains momentum from the audio sound bits and the voice-overs helping in character introspection and giving psychological insight in the characters mental state. Reference clippings of Renaissance artworks of Michelangelo with some French Impressionism along with special emphasis on The Girl With A Pearl Earring of Johannes Vermeer and paintings of Francisco Goya, etc are focused through a candle flame depicting the necessity of art revival in the modern world interests.
It appeared as the third and last clock stopped its ticking. Steel saw it first, then Rob. Sapphire was also aware of its presence. It was a moving, flickering shape that appeared high up, near the apex of the end wall. It seemed, as first, to be a part of the wall texture itself. As if the plaster of the wall was shifting. Then it appeared to take on a series of quick, broken images. Robe felt that it looked like pieces of old and faded moving-film, except that these images were three-dimensional. Rob also thought that he heard, under the rumbling of the skin-like fabric, the sound of voices that seemed to squeal with laughter of pain, or both.
Sapphire nodded. ‘Time.’ She put her arm about Helen’s shoulders and drew the child close to her as she continued to address Rob. ‘You can’t see it. Only now and again. Perhaps a glimpse, that’s all. But even that is dangerous. Also, you cannot enter into Time.’ The smile left her face. In its place was the calm, cool look. It was a look that somehow helped to illustrate her theme. The look itself seemed ageless, as if the blueness, that she radiated, was somehow both the colour and the secret of time.
There were no large cupboards in the room, not even a wardrobe. Helen’s clothes were hung in a built-in unit on the landing outside. The door through which Rob had entered was the only door. The room also had only one window. This was fitted with half-length curtains which were drawn to. Rob moved across the room and snatched the curtains open. The small window was shut tight. There was also a child-guard screwed to about two thirds of the window height. Rob tested the guard. It was still fixed firmly in place.
Steel passed the picture. ‘I doubt it,’ he said as he began to descend the first flight of stairs. Rob followed him. He still felt tired, but he did not fancy sleeping in his own bedroom. Not at the moment. He passed the picture, thinking that there was another couch in the sitting room. Maybe if he fell asleep on that, or even pretended to sleep on it, Sapphire might make him a bed there and tuck him up for the night. He was even wondering, though he would never admit it, what a kiss goodnight from Sapphire would be like.
Rob waited, feeling like someone who was fixed to a spot. Fixed there forever. His mind was filled with a jumble of thoughts. Perhaps this was the time-corridor thing. This place. A nowhere place. Perhaps he was to be left here now. Perhaps it would never be morning, and never be night again. Perhaps it would always stay like this, the very same time. So therefore he would never feel hungry, never feel tired, never feel anything but this strange sense of isolation, of not belonging. Perhaps it would be like that for him forever.
Rob and Helen were back in the kitchen again with Sapphire. Constable Daly had driven back to Scars Edge. He looked slightly puzzled, in the way that people do when they feel that they have been somewhere, or done something before, perhaps in a dream. But he had left feeling satisfied. Rob had watched, without being able to say a word, as Steel moved into action. He had literally stepped into Daly’s arrival at the door, like a fair-owner stepping on to a moving roundabout. Therefore it became Steel, not Rob, who had opened the door, Steel who had asked Daly what he wanted, who told the policeman that everything was alright at that house, and that he, Steel, was a friend of the family who was visiting, in the hope of some peace and quiet in the country.
OE Ælfric Homily (Corpus Cambr. 178) in J. C. Pope Homilies of Ælfric II. 792 Nu segð se wyrdwritere þæt seo wicce sceolde aræran þa of deaþe þone Drihtnes witegan Samuhel gehaten. 1425 Edward, Duke of York Master of Game (Digby) vi Þer beth some [wolves] þat eten children and men..And þei be cleped werewolfes, for men shulde be were of hem, or þe mann see hem.
Near the deep woods falling into the sky, seven hundred steps stepped little black twigs dare not speak. Against ritual abstract solitudes outline, fragmentary flights of fancy tracing twilight’s window shuttered, ghastly monotony, deliberation, and grey abyss.
Fields full thoughtless haste in cryptographic absence from a conscious world, mirror clouding over. Cellar debris looming certain symbols shuddering recognizable.
By night, a subtler thing witching, a werewolf shape, a vampire’s cigarette smoldering on the cobblestone, ghouls waiting at an abandoned bus stop, ghosts and spent skeletons ankle-bone slightly gnawed, but for the dark, figures moved uncertainly. Black lake, black boat, black stone.
Stars pale dusk, flat paper-cut shadows a few more breaths on an oblique road turns patient turning moment time unwinds rough-hewn pillars wrought iron and smoke.
Hypnotic figure chanting some such words sunk in settled gloom, fingers and toes grasp stone’s corner worn mortar smooth in the ruin. Bells tower, their shadows long rhythmic confusion, faintly dreaming wide tonal range collecting at the gates of a town already shut.
The model of a contrivance by means of which could certainly get possession of the sheets which were to be a rope; it was a short stick attached by one end to a long piece of thread. By this stick intended to attach the rope to the bed, and as the thread hung down to the floor of the room below, there should pull the thread and the rope would fall down. Tried it, and congratulated the invention, as this was a necessary part of scheme, as otherwise the rope hanging down would have immediately discovered me.
I pull the thread, unravelling round this tiny labyrinthine, a room for music and dance.
Sitting, sets the thread. Set of dining-room furniture constructing a whole geography of consciousness proceeding along inescapable pastimes merely accursed.
