Elizabeth Taylor DBE 1932 - 2011 RIP
The barge she sat in, like a burnish'd throne,
Burn'd on the water: the poop was beaten gold;
Purple the sails, and so perfumed that
The winds were love-sick with them; the oars were silver,
Which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made
The water which they beat to follow faster,
As amorous of their strokes. For her own person,
It beggar'd all description: she did lie
In her pavilion--cloth-of-gold of tissue--
O'er-picturing that Venus where we see
The fancy outwork nature: on each side her
Stood pretty dimpled boys, like smiling Cupids,
With divers-colour'd fans, whose wind did seem
To glow the delicate cheeks which they did cool,
And what they undid did.
posted byArchbishop Cranmer at 1:52 pm Permalink
33 Comments:
May she rest in peace...
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety.
Her poop was indeed burnished gold
Gosh. May she RIP, especially after all that.
We'll not see her like again. A true star.
And so very beautiful. A true star indeed, who suffered much from poor health in her latter years. May she rest in peace.
I believe you're right, Cranmer: Elizabeth Taylor is the woman, among all women, who identifies the 20th century. In the face of many personal tragedies and health problems she retained her deep love for others and fought death with great courage. She transcended her limitations.
synchronicity
How sad. :(
Ride on Velvet Brown. R.I.P
I think I would give cat on hot tin roof a memorable performance , but undeniable she played some great roles.
Surely a stunning example, along with Vivien Leigh and Greta Garbo, that exceptional physical beauty is a curse rather than a blessing?
Don't think the Bard's words are entirely appropriate for Ms Taylor. Not my idea of a role model either.
Let's hope she finds the peace in death she clearly didn't have in life.
The Last Dodo
She won't find peace unless she had accepted Jesus as her Lord and saviour.
I think it was CS Lewis, who once said that he believed those who are in Hell become creatures they were never meant to be.
Celebrate her gerat acting but the issues of life and death are far more important.
'Your Grace', I agree.
Elizabeth Taylor's "Cleopatra" is one of the cultural treasures of the otherwise vapid 1960s: she was a real "work of Nature" (if one ever wondered what that means). Shakespeare would have loved her perfect embodiment of his edgy Cleopatra, surely never to be bettered? Burton was a hard drinking type, v like Antony.
She was v like the Bard's passionate, beautifully attired, waspish, sensuous seductress - with Cleopatra's added ability to brawl in the streets.
In the Elysian fields of the imagination, surely she is now putting on her golden head-dress and saying:
"Go fetch my best attire: I am again for Cydnus to meet Mark Antony."
I hope she found the Cross and through it, made peace with God. It would be great to see her perfected, some day.
I find it most peculiar that posters here should profess a such a gushing sense of loss for a vain, sex-mad, alcoholic, serial adulteress and multiple divorcee, yet stand in damning judgement over lesser mortals' 'immoral' proclivities.
I hear the undertakers have had to order a 'Y' shaped coffin.
Shakespeare felt precisely the same. Note his feelings about seductive women in the Sonnets. He asks why some robustly rational people succumb to the (demonic) power of some women over the imagination, when one fully knows their faults, sins and dangers? Surely, the reason is the power of the stimulated imagination.
No one is suggesting that repentance is not required in some cases, but images on film and writing offer a kind of cultural defiance of death. No one is glossing over sin which alienates a holy God. It is simply that some people have "imaginative endurance".
We all need to make our peace with God. No one is accepted without repentance.
Hello me dearios, poked around me ganderscrote bag and I've come up with a very tender and furtive madrigal, for all the girlieo's out there. I wrote it whilst trollin through the farmyard the other day as a young girl came towards me on a popular sort of farm vehicle."
"A tractor?"
"Well, I suppose I must have done."
So I stood under her bower a-plighting of my troth, and I had to kneel down cos she had a very low bower but she refused me 'cos I only had a very small troth! .
Well, my dearios. Well, tonight I shall have great pleasure ... but first of all I'd like you to sing this song with me. So loosen your grussets, traddle your thrums, let your bossocks down, and away we go.
(Must be sung andante but most lugubriously)
Here's to the maiden who woggles her nodes
Here's to the widow's cordwangle
Here's to the lass with extravagant scrodes
Set at a curious angle
Let the grunge flow
Let yourself go
Prop up your posset at ninepence a throw
Here's to the charmer whose grummets we pride
Here's to the maid who has none Sir.
Here's to the girl of extraordinary size
Who boggles here moolies for fun Sir
Let the grunge flow
Let yourself go
Prop up your posset at ninepence a throw
Here's to to the maiden who wurdles to please
And the maid with magnificent loomers
Here's to the girl with provocative knees
Who is subject to all kinds of rumours
Let the grunge flow
Let yourself go
Prop up your posset at ninepence a throOOw
Fare thee well, my Lizzie from Hampstead.
Goodness, we're even getting pronouncements on what Shakespeare thought. That settles that then.
To say nothing of the god-like non-souls who set themselves up in judgement of the woman. I expect they did that over her buddy mj, too... and even Rock Hudson, for that matter.
Non Mouse rose to a Fair Maidens defence 24 March 2011 10:56
LOL.
Old Ernst can almost picture you, tapping away on the keyboard, completely indignated, with your left hand wearing a sequinned glove and your right hand covered in sticky plasters.
Is that the sound of 'Billie Jean' blaring away in the background (Oow, HeHe)?, with non mouse blogging in front of a big poster of Rock Hudson from Magnificent Obsession, with the words emblazed on it.. A Man's Man.
It makes Ernst chuckle.
Cheers
Ernsty
Oh Mr. Blofeld - I fear I fail to interpret you this hi/lo noon! The plaster's on the ankle - but anyway, I'd rather not dance on graves, especially not on these here mentioned!
They wanted us to believe in Comedy? Is there such a thing? Or even Tragi-Comedy...
Nay, lad. I see only smoke and mirrors and masks (even of gender) - covering nowt but 'these tragic circumstances.' It'll not change now, not while t'moon changes.
Dreadnought and all other self-righteous sub-cretins who've disparaged Taylor:
You have no idea what God would think. Oddly, it might be substantially different than what you'd imagine. Do you know that Taylor once offered herself as a substitute hostage at Entebbe? Like the rest of us, she was flawed, but she also had many virtues of which you are unaware. Let God make up His own mind.
Yes, Dreadnaught, a bit o.t.t what?
"They wanted us to believe in Comedy? Is there such a thing? Or even Tragi-Comedy...
Nay, lad. I see only smoke and mirrors and masks (even of gender) - covering nowt but 'these tragic circumstances.' It'll not change now, not while t'moon changes."
My dear boy, Ernst had a slight tear in his eye from that brief little lancastrian soliloquy. 'A silver trumpet muffled in silk' springs to mind.
I can see a flat cap being wrung between two little hands, as you plead for meaning in this sad mortal coil, this veil of tears.. Bravo old chap, bravo.
Brought back memeories of Richard Tarlton. Fine actor and court jester.
Ernsty
'memeories'. Oh the wit.
memespeak!
Ernsty
Yorkshire, Mr. Blofeld; Yorkshire.
" . . . these tragic circumstances. It'll not change now, not while t'moon changes." True words spoken in a truly sad situation, lo these 50+ years ago. Etched in memory - not least because of their lugubriosity! A dear old boy sought to express his sympathy as he held open the outside door - during a howling winter snowstorm.
Memories, indeed. I think Burton-Taylor may have worked on Faust at ?Oxford, around that time. In any case, I remember his saying that no one credited her enough for her acting ability. Only recently understood the backhander, there...
nm
Apologies NM.
Thas angered at Ernst blunder, Ernst varra flaid to come nar.
it’s nut jannock Ernst is off target as ’e wor ’ard on at t'keyboard.
Ernst is fair a reight gooid sooart.!
As is a rit armhole.
Cheer Up Non Mouse
Cheer up
Why 'as tha got yon dowly phiz?
Whativver is't 'at's wrong?
Tha must 'av lost a thrip'ny bit
'As t'cat bin at thi tongue?
Doan't go in t'dairy wi' that face,
t'll sour t'milk for sure.
Just mind that what's upset thee, lad,
'as upsetten many afore.
Whativver's cost thee sic a face
there's a sight more yet to pay:
nobbut think on what tomorra'll charge,
that should cheer thee up today.
Ise gangan bed as ise rit blethered.
Thas addled Old Ernst
"Like the rest of us, she was flawed, but she also had many virtues of which you are unaware. Let God make up His own mind."
Why make an exception for her?
I see the Westbro Baptist Church is saying they're turning up to protest. Here's a charming tweet about it from Ms Phelps.
"MargieJPhelps: When you pile up to have a public "memorial" to tout serial-sinner No RIP Elizabeth Taylor as holy-EXPECT US! THAT is time 2 say NO SINNING!"
Some people, including 'His Grace' do not need to be stranded on an unappealing BBC desert island to actually read and meditate upon William Shakespeare's works and the Bible. Some also read the Bard's contemporary writers. Thus, they do not regurgitate third-hand claptrap that "no one knows what he is talking about" and "no one can judge what he would think".
There were alternative Elizabethan versions of Cleopatra, which Shakespeare had read. Possibly from his personal experience, he brought forth a Cleo which Taylor impersonated very well, for various reasons. His was a consummate woman of theatre, a voluptuary, fiery femme fatale who, as a result of her skills and passion entirely removed reason from Antony who, as a result lost the Eastern Empire. The power of a dark women, with beautiful eyes is discussed in Sonnets 127 onwards. "Female evil" means a demonic spirit. "Sinful loving" means an unholy affair against the teachings of the Bible.
OK?
No, Anon. "Thus, they do not regurgitate third-hand claptrap that "no one knows what he is talking about" and "no one can judge what he would think"." That's not OK.
Even you have a hotline to Sh. and the ancient Hebrews, and you've been busy telling all of them what they thought... That's arrogant, presumptuous, overweening, etc.
Anonymous and Anonymous 2 garbled 25 March 2011 07:56 & 25 March 2011 11:12
Eh, ya what? Type clearer, I can't hear ya.
Anonymous the Third.
I bet your not much elder than me! I agree, though. Those wot live in glass houses should type more clearly :)
So:
Even ifyou have a hotline to Sh. and the ancient Hebrews, and you've been busy telling all of them what they thought... That's arrogant, presumptuous, overweening, etc.
Interpretation is another matter.
Must you have the last word?
YES
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