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| Please pray for the soul of Esther Clark. R.I.P. She gave a framed copy of this painting to the author in the 1980's. |
The work is offered on behalf of my family to Our Blessed Lady, Regina Martyrum et Consolatrix Afflictorum. For EEKPTEE&EA.
👈The Tears of St Peter (1587-1596)
El Greco (Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos) 1541-1614
Museo Soumaya at Plaza Carso, Mexico.
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Not such my sleepe, but whisperer of dreames,
Creating straunge chymeraes, fayning frights;
Of day-discourses giving fansie theames,
To make dumme shewes with worlds of antick sights, [730]
Casting true griefes in fansies forging mold,
Brokenly telling tales rightly fore-told.
My own sleep is not the carefree slumber just described but one rather plagued by whispering dreams, calling forth strange chimeras, conjuring up horrors; the language used comes from everyday speech but is twisted into crazy themes by the imagination, like dumb shows filled with grotesque and fantastical sights. Genuine grief and contrition are distorted into fantastical forms; accounts of what actually happened are deformed into mis-shapen works of fantasy.
728. chymeraes. chimera, chimaera. A fabled fire-breathing monster of Greek mythology, with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail (or according to others with the heads of a lion, a goat, and a serpent), killed by Bellerophon.
A horrible and fear-inspiring phantasm, a bogy. 1600 W. Cornwallis Ess. I. xvii. sig. K7v Chimeræs, begotten betweene Feare, and Darkenesse, which vanish with the Light.
An unreal creature of the imagination, a mere wild fancy; an unfounded conception. 1587 Sir P. Sidney & A. Golding tr. P. de Mornay Trewnesse Christian Relig. xxv. 433 How could that Chymera haue come in any mannes mynd?
fayning. feigning. Feign. 1. To conjure up (delusive representations); to picture to oneself, imagine (what is unreal). 1578 T. Timme tr. Calvin Comm. Gen. Cain..feigned to himself so many enemies, as there were men in the world.
2. To counterfeit, imitate deceptively. 1590 E. Spenser Faerie Queene i. vii. sig. F6 Truth, whose shape she [sc. deceipt] well can faine.
frights. fright. In Middle English and in modern use: Sudden fear, violent terror, alarm. An instance of this. 1609 P. Holland tr. Ammianus Marcellinus Rom. Hist. xxix. xii. 369 The Mazices..thus beaten down in sundry slaughters, in a foule fright, brake their arraies.
fansie. fancy. Adj. From Noun. A spectral apparition; an illusion of the senses. Delusive imagination; hallucination. In early use synonymous with imagination n. (see fantasy). 1581 T. Howell Deuises (1879) 229 The flaming dartes, That Fancie quickly burne with quenchlesse fyre.
730. dumme shewes. dumb shows. 1. In the early drama, A part of a play represented by action without speech, chiefly in order to exhibit more of the story than could otherwise be included, but sometimes merely emblematical. 1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet iii. ii. 12 The ignorant, who for the Most parte are capable of nothing but dumbe shewes and noises.
2. Significant gesture without speech. 1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus iii. i. 131 Or shall we bite our tongues? and in dumbe showes Passe the remainder of our..daies?
antick. antic. Esp. of a person, or a person's attributes or actions: grotesquely amusing or playful; absurd, fantastical. a1593 C. Marlowe Edward II (1594) sig. A3 My men like Satyres..Shall with their Goate feete daunce an antick hay.
Of the face or features: grotesquely distorted like a gargoyle; grinning or grimacing grotesquely. 1595 A. Copley tr. R. de Cota Loves Owle sig. Dv, in Wits Fittes & Fancies To heare thy graue requestes Accompaned with deepe protestes And many an anticke countenance.
731. casting . . .forging mould: The image here is of a hollow form or matrix into which fluid material is poured (cast) or plastic material is pressed and allowed to cool or harden so as to form an object of a particular shape.
forging. There is a double meaning here which mixes the idea of casting with making (something) in fraudulent imitation of something else.
732. fore-told. To tell (i.e. either inform or enjoin) beforehand. a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) iv. i. 149 These our actors, (As I foretold you) were all Spirits.
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This sleepe most fitly suteth Sorrowes bed,
Sorrow, the smart of evill, Sinnes eldest child;
Best, when unkind in killing who it bred; [735]
A racke for guilty thoughts, a bit, for wild;
The scourge that whips, the salve that cures offence:
Sorrow, my bed and home, while life hath sence.
The sleep I have just described is the kind most suited to Sorrow’s bed.
Sorrow is a biting pain in the conscience and comes from the evil of sin; hence it has been called “sin’s eldest child.”
Sorrow is at its best when it vanquishes ruthlessly the very thing from which it takes its origin. It is a discipline for overcoming sinful thoughts; it is an effective bridle for unruly and dissolute thoughts; it is a scourge to punish and a balm to heal a conscience stricken by sin.
Sorrow is for the bed I have made and on which I lie, while my life still has sense and feeling, in a sense becoming for me and feeling like my home.
733. suteth. Suiteth.
734. Sorrow . . . Sinnes eldest child. The notion that Sorrow is Sin’s eldest child would be repeated by the dramatist John Webster when he wrote: “Sorrow is held the eldest child of sin.” Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies The White Devil and The Duchess of Malfi, from which the quotation is taken (Act V, Scene v, 74).
smart. Sharp, often intense, physical pain, esp. such as is caused by an external agency (a blow, sting, etc.) a1530 W. Bonde Pylgrimage of Perfeccyon (1531) iii. f. CCiiiiv He suffred the sharpnes & smart of payne, ye suche as neuer was suffred.
735. unkind. 1. Not in accordance with the natural or normal course of things; unusual, out of the ordinary. 1544 Bk. Chyldren in T. Phaer tr. J. Goeurot Regiment of Lyfe (new ed.) sig. h.iiijv A souerayne medicyne for burnynge and scaldynge, and all vnkynde heates.
2. Not having or demonstrating qualities considered proper or appropriate; c1500 (▸?a1475) Assembly of Gods (1896) l. 1023 Sensualyte..sewe the felde with hys vnkynde seede, That causyd Vertu aftyr mykyll woo to feele.
who it bred. The one who bred it, or, that which bred it.
3. Lacking natural or proper affection or respect for one's parents; uncharacteristic of or unbefitting a son or daughter; unfilial, undutiful. 1595 S. Daniel First Fowre Bks. Ciuile Warres i. lxxxix. sig. E4 O whither dost thou tend my vnkind sonne?
4. Behaving in a mean-spirited, malicious, or hostile manner (to a particular person, group, etc.);
736. racke. 1. Something which causes acute physical or mental suffering. Also: the result of this; intense pain or anguish. 1565 J. Jewel Replie Hardinges Answeare i. 16 I thinke M. Hardinge here..meaneth Priuie Confession, whiche many haue vsed as a racke of mens consciences…
2. An instrument of torture, usually consisting of a frame on which the victim was stretched by turning two rollers fastened at each end to the wrists and ankles. 1587 A. Fleming et al. Holinshed's Chron. (new ed.) III. Contin. 1326/2 The chiefe matter..is as yet vnreuealed, and come racke come rope, neuer shall that be discouered.
bit. The mouthpiece of a horse's bridle, consisting of the metal bit-mouth, and adjacent parts, to which the reins are attached. (It is not clear whether the word in this sense signifies that which the horse bites, or that which bites or grips the horse's mouth. 1623 Shakespeare & J. Fletcher Henry VIII v. iii. 57 Stop their mouthes with stubborn Bits & spurre 'em.
wild. i.e., wild thoughts.
738. sence. Sense. 1. Senses relating to meaning, intelligibility, or coherence. 2. Senses related to the faculties of the mind, brain, or body.
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Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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