Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, September 17, 1892Various
General
Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 103, September 17, 1892
Various
English wit and humor -- Periodicals
_Anax andron_, too, might be useful. Say, as substitute for that
everlasting G.O.M., of which I admit I'm heartily sick, Lord of Men!
_Not_ King of Men, of course. LABBY might kick at latter. "Nothing
can be simpler than the meaning of the two words." Exactly. Must get
HARCOURT to popularise these. Applied to AGAMEMNON. Why not to "strong
men" who live _after_ AGAMEMNON? "Evidence from extraneous sources
of connection between title of _Anax andron_ and great Egyptian
Empire." Aha! I may yet have to play the _Anax andron_ in Egypt as
before. Allegory--I mean _Anax andron_ on banks of Nile! Good--and
not a Malapropism, whatever WOLSELEY may say. "Title of _Anax
andron_ descendible" (good word, "descendible") "from father to
son, and accorded in the poems to personages altogether secondary,
_viz._, EUMELOS and EUPHETES." Wonder what my EUMELOS--HERBERT--will
say to that!
Enjoyed it much whilst MAX was "mouthing out" (as Mrs. BROWNING
says) my eulogy of that man of "Phoenician stamp," the "universal
ODYSSEUS," who expressed the many-sided, the all-accomplished man;
the _polutropos_, the _polumetis_, the _tlemon_, the _polutlas_, the
_polumekanos_, the _poikilometis_, the _poluphron_, the _daiphron_,
the _talasiphron._ (What a peck of p's!) In battle never foiled! In
council supreme! His oratory like the snow-flakes of the winter
storm. Superbly representative Phoenician! "But over and above this
universality of ODYSSEUS in the arts of life, he bears the Phoenician
stamp in what may be termed his craft." Aha! The "Old Parliamentary
Hand" of his period plainly. Wonder if MAX thought of _that_!
Hellas and Phoenicia combined! As a Statesman of classical culture,
commercial instincts _and_ craft, what a shining success ODYSSEUS
might have been in these days!
He went into the Cyclops' cave
To see what he could spy out;
He slew his oxen, stole his sheep,
And then he poked his eye out,
as the ribald doggerelist has it. Sounds a little "predatory,"
perhaps, as SALISBURY would say. But quite capable of being
"spiritualised" into a sound Liberal policy, directed against the
purblind Poluphemos of Property and Privilege.
On the whole, I had a high old time among the Orientalists. But
when discussion ensued, I longed to throw off my disguise and
rush, Achilles-like, into the fray. But MAX might have thought that
inconsistent with my "colossal humanity;" so, very unwillingly, I
refrained.
* * * * *
UP ALOFT.--The most elevated title in the Peerage, and belonging to
the upperest part of the Upper House, is "Lord MOUNTGARRET." There can
be but one higher, and that will have to be created in the person of
a future "Lord TOPOCHIMNEPOT." Though, perhaps, the title of "Lord
COWLEY," if it were altered into Lord CHIMNEPOT-COWL-Y, would be the
highest of all.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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