00573--A note [Summary] on Epithalamion by Edmund Spenser.

A short note [Summary] on Epithalamion by Edmund Spenser.

According to Mutter Epithalamion is one of the greatest formal lyrics in English.  Legouis praises it as a great ode without a rival.  It exceeds in richness and splendour all compositions of the same kind.  It is the most gorgeous jewel in the treasure-house of the Renaissance.  J.W. Mackail assigns to it the first place not only among spenser’s lyrics but also among all English odes.  It celebrates the marriage of Spenser with Elizabeth Boyle. 
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The ode adopts the Italian Canzone.  It has twenty three stanzas of usually seventeen lines which are of unequal length and intricate rhyme pattern, each stanza ending in a fourteen syllable line which forms a varied refrain.  The last seven lines are tornata, an envoi, that expresses the poet’s desire to offer the poem as a gift in lieu of the ornaments that have not reached her because of some accident.  It bears the influence of Sappho, Theocritus’s Epithalamium of Helen, Catallus’s The Wedding of Manlius and Vinia and the epithalamia of the French Pleiade, Ronsard and Du Bellay.  Its novelty lies in the narrator being the poet who is also the bridegroom. 

The poem unfolds a canvas where mythological and Christian elements, literary reminiscence and natural description  blend harmoniously to intensify the expression of the poet’s personal emotions.  It radiates an aura of a pageant about it.  Its chief features are the invocation of the Muse, the procession, feasting, the decoration of the bride, the praise of her beauty, the bride’s arrival at the church, the marriage ceremony, the preparation of the bridal chamber and prayer for their fruitful union. 

Spenser’s Platonic conception that the outward beauty is a reflection of the inner virtue and purity, manifests itself in the description of the bride who is adorn’d with beauty’s grace and virtue’s store.  The beauty of her body like a palace fair leads the mind with many a stately stair to honour’s seat, to the seat of perfect virtue.  Spenser’s celebration of ideal beauty, and the Petrarchan deification of the  lady are conventional.  Though the poem is personal, it universalies the experience of love.  The narration of events covering one day, from morning to midnight imposes on the poem a unity in respect of the subject-matter and of its emotional content.  As Mutter observes, the wealth of imagery is allied to the often remarked musical quality of the poem to produce a total effect of strength and controlled luxuriance which earns for it Coleridge’s praise of truly sublime. 

00572--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-35

Mulla Nasrudin was telling a friend his future through palmistry. He said, "You will be poor and unhappy and miserable until you are sixty."

"Then what?" asked the man hopefully.

"By that time," said Nasrudin, "you will be used to it."

00571--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-34

Mulla Nasrudin went to see his lawyer about a divorce.

"What grounds do you think you have for a divorce?" the lawyer asked.

"It is my wife's manners," said the Mulla. "She has such bad table manners that she is disgracing the whole family."

"That's bad," the lawyer said. "How long have you been married?"

"Nine years," said the Mulla.

"If you have been able to put up with her table manners for nine years, I can't understand why you want a divorce now," the lawyer said.

"Well," said Nasrudin, "I did not know it before. I just bought a book on etiquette this morning."

00570--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-33

"This is a lesson in logic," said the old professor in the teahouse. "If the show starts at nine and dinner is at six, and my son has the measles, and my brother drives a Cadillac, how old am I?"

"You are eighty-four," replied Mulla Nasrudin promptly.

"Right," said the professor. "Now tell the rest of the fellows here how you arrived at the correct answer."

"It is easy," said Nasrudin. "I have got an uncle who is forty-two, and he is only half nuts. You must be eighty-four."

00569--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-32

Mulla Nasrudin climbed into a barber's chair and asked, "Where is  the barber who used to work on the next chair?"

"Oh, that was a sad case," the barber said. "He became so nervous and despondent over poor business, that one day when a customer said he did not want a massage, he went out of his mind and cut the customer's throat with a razor. He is now in the state mental hospital. By the way, would you like a massage, sir?"

"Absolutely!" said Mulla Nasrudin.

00568--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-31

Mulla Nasrudin was getting ready to apply to a local department store for a job. A friend told him that it was the policy of the store to hire nobody but Catholic Christians, and that if he wanted a job there he would have to lie about being a Catholic Christian.

Nasrudin applied for the job, and the personnel man asked him the usual questions. Then he said to the Mulla, "To what church do you belong?"

"I am a Catholic," said Nasrudin, "and all my family are Catholics. In fact, my father is a priest and my mother is a nun, sir."

00567--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-30

One day Mulla Nasrudin visited a large department store to buy his wife some nylon hose. Inadvertently he got caught in the mad rush of a counter where a bargain sale was going on. He soon found himself being pushed and stepped on by frantic women. He stood it as long as he could, then with head lowered and elbows out, he plowed through the crowd.

"You there!" said a woman. "Can't you act like a gentleman?''

"Not anymore," said Nasrudin. "I have been acting like a gentleman for an hour. From now on I am acting like a lady."

00565--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-29

MULLA NASRUDIN constantly irritated his friends with his eternal optimism. No matter how bad the situation, he would always say, "It could have been worse." To cure him of this annoying habit his friends decided to invent a situation so completely black, so dreadful that even Nasrudin could find no hope in it.

Approaching him at the club bar one day, one of them said, "Mulla, did you hear what happened to George? He went home last night, found his wife in bed with another man, shot them both, then turned the gun on himself."

"Terrible," said the Mulla, "but it could have been worse."

"How in the hell," asked his dumbfounded friend, "could it 

possibly have been worse?"

"Well," said Nasrudin, "if it had happened the day before, I would be dead now."

00564--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-28

The Judge looked very severe. "Mulla," he said, "your wife says you hit her over the head with a baseball bat and threw her down a flight of stairs. What have you got to say for yourself?"

Mulla Nasrudin rubbed the side of his nose with his hand, and meditated. Finally he said, "Your Honor, I guess there are three sides to this case: my wife's story, my story, and the truth."

00563--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-27

Mulla Nasrudin's face lit up as he recognized the man who was walking ahead of him down the subway stairs. He slapped the man so heartily on the back that the man nearly collapsed, and cried, "Goldberg, I hardly recognized you! Why, you have gained thirty pounds since I saw you last. And you have had your nose fixed, and I swear you are about two feet taller."

The man looked at him angrily. "I beg your pardon," he said in icy tones, "but I do not happen to be Goldberg."

"Aha!" said Mulla Nasrudin, "so you have even changed your name?"

00562--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-26

Mulla Nasrudin got a job in a bank. The cashier tossed him a 

packet of one-rupee notes and said, "Check them to make sure there are one hundred."

The Mulla started counting. Finally he got up to fifty-six, fifty-seven, fifty-eight, then he threw the packet in the drawer.

"If it is right this far," remarked Nasrudin to the man next to him, 

"it is probably right all the way."

00561--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-25

Doctor Abrams was called to Mulla Nasrudin's shop where the  Mulla was Iying unconscious. Doctor

Abrams worked on him for a long time and finally revived him.

"How did you happen to drink that stuff, Nasrudin?" he asked the Mulla. "Didn't you see the label on the bottle? It said 'poison'."                  

Nasrudin said, "Yes Doctor, but I didn't believe it."

Doctor Abrams asked, "Why not?"

Nasrudin said, "Because whenever I believe someone, I am 

deceived."

00560--Mulla Nasrudin Stories--24

Mulla Nasrudin sidled up to a guest at one of his daughter's social evenings. He had heard him addressed as doctor, and now he said, diffidently, "Doctor, may I ask a question?"

"Certainly," he said.

"Lately," said Mulla Nasrudin, "I have been having a funny pain right here under the heart..."

The guest interrupted uncomfortably and said, "I am terribly sorry, Mulla, but the truth is I am a Doctor of Philosophy."

"Oh," said Nasrudin, "I'm sorry." He turned away, but then, overcome with curiosity, he turned back. "Just one more question, doctor. Tell me, what kind of disease is philosophy?"

00559--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-23

Mulla Nasrudin and his two friends were talking about their resemblances.

The first friend said, "My face resembles that of Winston Churchill. I have often been mistaken for him."

The second said, "In my case, people think I am President Nixon and ask me for my autograph."

Mulla said, "That's nothing. Well, in my case, I have been mistaken for God Himself."

The first and second asked together, "How?"

Mulla Nasrudin said, "Well, when I was convicted and sent to jail for the fourth time, on seeing me the jailer exclaimed, 'Oh God, you have come again!' "

00558--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-22

Mulla Nasrudin went to his psychiatrist once and said, "Doctor, I wonder if you can split my personality for me?"

"Why? Why would you want to do that?" asked the doctor, surprised.

"Because," said the Mulla, "I am so lonesome."

00557--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-21

Mulla Nasrudin was in love with a woman.

"Look darling," he said to her, "here is a diamond engagement ring 

for you."

"Oh, it is beautiful!" she claimed "But honey, the diamond has a flaw in it."

"You should not notice that," said the Mulla. "Why, you are in love and you know what they say -- 'love is blind'."

"Blind, yes," she said, "but not stone blind."

00556--Mulla Nasruddin Stories-20

A guest had come to Mulla Nasruddin's house.

Mulla Nasruddin was giving him food. 

The guest was saying, "Now it is enough -- I have taken five PURIS, now no more."

Nasruddin said, "Five? You have taken eleven, but who is 

counting?"

00555--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-19

A young lady went to Mulla Nasrudin for advice.

She said to the Mulla, 'Should I marry a fellow who lies to me?'

'Yes, unless you want to remain unmarried forever,' said Nasrudin.

00554--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-18

Mulla Nasrudin refused the cow-puncher's command to drink, for three reasons. 

'Name them!' roared the terror of the town. 

'First,' said the Mulla, 'it is prohibited in my religion. Second, I promised my grandmother on her death-bed that I would handle not, touch not, taste not, the accursed stuff.' 

'And the other reason, the third?' insisted the bully, somewhat softened.

 'I have just had a drink,' said Nasrudin.

00553--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-17

One day Mulla Nasrudin saw a crowd gathered around the town well. A Moslem priest with a huge turban on his head had fallen into the water, and was calling for help. People were leaning over and saying,

'Give me your hand, Reverend, give me your hand!' 

But the priest didn't pay attention to their offer to rescue him. He kept wrestling with the water and shouting for help.

Finally Mulla Nasrudin stepped forward: 'Let me handle this!' He stretched out his hand towards the priest and shouted at him, 'Take my hand!' The priest grabbed Mulla's hand and was hoisted out of the pond.

People were very surprised and asked Mulla for the secret of his strategy. 

'It is very simple, ' he said. 'I know this miser would not give anything to anyone, not even his hand. I know this miser would not give anything to anyone, so instead of saying, "Give me your hand" I said, "Take my hand, your Reverence." And sure enough, he took it.'

00552--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-16

Mulla Nasrudin became very old and he went to his doctor. He was looking very weak so the doctor said, 'I can say only one thing. You will have to cut your love-life to half.'

The Mulla said, 'Okay. Which half? Talking about it or thinking 

about it?'

00551--Mulla Nasrudin Stories-15

Once Mulla Nasrudin had been away for a while and arrived back in town wearing a long beard. His

friends naturally kidded him about the beard and asked him how he happened to acquire the fur-piece. The Mulla with the beard began to complain and curse the thing in no uncertain terms. His friends were amazed at the way he talked and asked him why he continued to wear the beard if he did not like it. 'I hate the blasted thing!' the Mulla told them. 'If you hate it then why don't you shave it off and get rid of it?' one of his friends asked.

A devilish gleam shone in the eyes of the Mulla as he answered, 'Because my wife hates it too!'Once Mulla Nasrudin had been away for a while and arrived back in town wearing a long beard. His friends naturally kidded him about the beard and asked him how he happened to acquire the fur-piece. The Mulla with the beard began to complain and curse the thing in no uncertain terms. His friends were amazed at the way he talked and asked him why he continued to wear the beard if he did not like it. 'I hate the blasted thing!' the Mulla told them. 

'If you hate it then why don't you shave it off and get rid of it?' one of his friends asked.

A devilish gleam shone in the eyes of the Mulla as he answered, 'Because my wife hates it too!'