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Post by Charlotte on Jan 14, 2004 10:24:15 GMT -5
Making a case for spiders At the Arable Farm, Wilbur wonders if Charlotte really can save his life, and how. "Just a minute", Charlotte is distracted by a fly caught in her net and runs to throw "a few jets of silk around it" and tells Wilbur she'll have it for breakfast. "You mean you eat flies?" "Certainly. Flies, bugs, grasshopers, choice beetles, moths, butterflies, tasty cockroaches, gnats, midges, daddy longlegs, (though she is one) centipedes, mosquitoes, crickets--anything that that is careless enough to get caught in my web. I have to live, don't I? Reasonable enough, "but it's cruel" Wilbur thinks. She tells him not to worry, that she knocks them out first to make them more comfortable, and bits them so they can't feel a thing. " Do they taste good?" " Delicious. Of course, I don't really eat them. I drink their blood. I love blood, said Charlotte, and her pleasant, thin voice grew even thinner and more pleasant." Strange words by Mr. White. "Oh please don't say things like that"-- Wilbur nearly faints again. "Why not? It's true, and I have to say what is true." She is not entirely happy with her diet of bugs and flies, she tells Wilbur, but it's the way she is made, her mother and all her family are trappers, and from "way back thousands and thousands of years we spiders have been laying for flies and bugs." Wilbur is doleful about such "a miserable inheritance", and sad "because his new friend is so bloodthirsty. Charlotte is fierce, brutal, scheming, bloodthirsthy", everything he doesn't like, and "even though she is pretty and, of course clever", he wonders if he can learn to like her. "But what a gamble friendship is! Charlotte apologizes, and tells Wilbur: "I can't help it. I don't know how the first spider in the early days of the world happened to think up this fancy idea of spinning a web, but she did, and it was clever of her too. And since then, all of us spiders have to work the same trick. It's not a bad pitch, on the whole." And besides, says Charlotte to Wilbur, "you can't talk, you have your meals brought to you in a pail. Nobody feeds me. I have to get my own living. I live by my wits. I have to be sharp and clever, lest I go hungry. I have to think things out, catch what I can, take what comes. And it just so happens, my friend, that what comes is flies and insects and bugs. And furthermore, said Charlotte, shaking one of her legs, do you realize if I didn't catch bugs and eat them, bugs would INCREASE AND MULTIPLY (not shouting) and get so numerous that they'd destroy the earth, wipe out everything." This makes sense to Wilbur, he "wouldn't want that to happen" and maybe her "web is a good thing after all." Wilbur compensated for Charlotte's cruel nature by thinking of just yesterday when "the sky lighted" and what a beautiful morning it was, and she chinny-chin-chinned him up with a happy song, and E.B. White concludes that: "Wilbur was merely suffering the doubts and fears that often go with finding a new friend. In good time he was to discover that he was mistaken about Charlotte. Underneath her rather bold and cruel exterior, she had a kind heart, and she was to prove loyal and true to the end." Brings to my eyes. Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 15, 2004 10:45:41 GMT -5
Wilbur is two month old, bored and restless. Like Don sometimes.
Zuckerman's barn had a two floors, "stalls on the main floor for the work horses, tie ups on the main floor for the cows, a sheepfold down below for the sheep", and "a pigpen down below for Wilbur", which was "in the lower part of the barn, directly underneath the cows. Mr. Zuckerman knew that a manure pile is a good place to keep a young pig. Pigs need warmth, and it was warm and comfortable down there in the barn cellar on the south side."
Generally speaking, wherever Francis Bacon lived, he had a place away from the horses, cows, and sheepfold, that "made it possible for him to periodically retire into seclusion, which he regards as essential in order to concentrate his thoughts upon his intellectual labors."
As I see it, pigs don't really live "in" a manure pile, but this rather refers to his mothers court, which Wilbur climbed on top of the manure pile at times to get a life, so to speak.
"Fern came almost every day to visit him", and placed an old milking stool "in the sheepfold next to Wilbur's pen. Here she sat quietly during long afternoons, thinking and listening and watching Wilbur."
This refers to Fern's almost life-long investigation, physical and mental, study and decoding of cypher of Lord Bacon's "pen" and his "good pens", and far beyond that. But "Mr. Zuckerman did not allow her to take Wilbur out and did not allow her to get into the pigpen. But he told Fern that she could sit on the stool and watch Wilbur as long as she wanted to." And this is exactly what Fern was told. It would not be prudent to name this Mr. Zuckerman, in each case though he is a very wealthy man. But Wilbur knew he had an ardent friend in her, and "it made Wilbur happy to know that she was sitting there, right outside his pigpen", and it made Fern "happy just do be near the pig." Actually, she says that she was "thouroughly bewitched" by Bacon, and when she talked about him it was as though every cell of the skin of her face alive and scintillating and shining. It's hard to describe, but in talking about the moon, (I always plan my trips to Egypt around a waxing and full moon) my friend in Egypt said it is "the lining under the womens skin shining like the moon." I asked him what that meant and he said: "You clever beeple in the west read so many books, how comes this you don't know?"
One day in mid-summer "Wilbur stood in the sun feeling lonely and bored." He thought that "there's never anything to do around here. He walked slowly to his food trough and sniffed to see if anything had been overlooked at lunch. He found a small strip of patato skin and ate it. His back itched, so he leaned against the fence and rubbed against the boards. When he tired of this, he walked indoors, climbed to the top of the manure pile, and sat down", surveying his realm.
"He didn't feel like going to sleep, he didn't feel like digging, he was tired of standing still, tired of laying down. 'I'm less than two month old and I'm tired of living', he said. He walked out to the yard again. 'When I'm out here' he said, 'there's no place to go but in. When I'm indoors, there's no place to go but out in the yard." Lol
"That's where you're wrong my friend, my friend', said a voice. Wilbur looked through the fence and saw the goose standing there. 'You don't have to stand in that dirty-little dirty-lillte dirty-little yard' said the goose, who talked rather fast. 'One of the boards is loose. Push on it, push-push-push on it, and come out!"
"What?" said Wilbur. "Say it slower!"
"At-at-at, at the risk of repeating myself," (lol I do that to, but most of the time know when I do) said the goose, "I suggest that you come out. It's wonderful out here."
" Did you say a board was loose?"
"That I did, that I did", said the goose.
"Wilbur walked up to the fence and saw that the goose was right--one board was loose. He put his head down, shut his eyes, and pushed. The board gave way. In a minute he had squeezed through the fence and was standing in the long grass outside his yard. The goose chuckled."
"How does it feel to be free?" she asked.
"I like it, said Wilbur. That is I 'guess' I like it." Actually, Wilbur felt queer to be outside his fence, with nothing between him and the big world. Where do you think I'd better go?"
Lady Anne Bacon, herself outside the fence, and seeing Francis boxed in, encourages Wilbur to explore the world, to be a rebel even.
Go "anywhere you like, anywhere you like. Go down through the orchard, root up the sod! Go down through the garden, dig up the radishes! Root up everything! Eat grass! Look for corn! Look for oats! Run all over! Skip and dance, jump and prance! Go down through the orchard and stroll in the woods! The world is a wonderful place when you're young."
A lady after mine own heart, and it seems Mr. White himself was a bit of a rebel, and all the children reading "Charlotte's Web" probably say "Yes."
Wilbur saw how great it was to be free. "He gave a jump in the air, twirled, ran a few steps, stopped, looked all around, sniffed the smells of afternoon, and then set off walking down though the orchards. Pausing in the shade of the apple tree, he put his strong snout into the ground and began pushing, digging and rooting. He felt happy. He had plowed up quite a piece of ground before anyone noticed." Yes, that's our Wilbur, way ahead of the barn animals of his time.
This has to do with Francis' sojourn in France, which I'll go into a bit tomorrow, meanwhile, Peter Dawkins describes Wilbur's walk down through the orchard as follows.
"Francis' delightful and instructive sojourn in France, where he had courted both love and learning, and faced exitement and dangers that well suited his ebullient and daring nature . . . "
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 16, 2004 10:25:02 GMT -5
Francis in France
Fern relates the words of William Rawley, chaplin and personal friend of Bacon:
"His first and childish years were not without mark of emminency, at which time he was indued with the pregnancy and towardlyness of wit as they were pressages of that deep and universal apprehenshion which manifested in him afterward and caused him to be taken notice of by several persons of worth and place; and especially by the queen, who (as I have been informed) delighted much then to confer with him and to prove him with questions, unto whom he delivered himself with that gravity and maturity above his years, that her Majesty would often term him 'The young Lord-Keeper'. Being asked by the Queen how old he was, he answered with much discretion; being then but a boy that he was two years younger than her Majesty's happy reign."
Madam Deventer:
"The great banquet hall of Gorhambury was decorated with carvings (being partly Sir Nicholas Bacon's original verse) and maxims regarding Grammer, Logic, Arithmetic, Astrology, History, etc. These interests of the Lord Keeper show how Francis' spirit, from youth up, was awakened to the same. In lively remembrance, he recalled the visits of the Queen, who, when tarrying at Gorhambury, conversed with the boys (Francis and his half brother Anthony, my note) regarding their school work and progress in study. At these times she seemed to the young Francis particularly severe."
In short, the Queen, aware of her sons keen intellect and assessment of court life, kept an eye and ear on Francis, and she was "particularly severe" on Francis, or stressed out, as we would say, as to what he knew about her secret life.
Madam Deventer:
"Francis does not state the exact day when he became aware of his mysterious birth, but there are reasons to believe that it occurred during his studies at Gray's Inn, for while the elder Anthony was able to complete the course, Francis, barely sixteen years of age, was suddenly torn from them at the desire of the Queen, and sent out of England. He was attached to Sir Nicholas' nephew, Sir Amyas Paulet, the English Ambassador in Paris.
Life at the French court broadened Francis' views and he met there prominent men, with some of whom he maintained friendship till mature years, Opportunity was also afforded him not only to engage in the study of the Romance languages, and of foreign literatures, but also to increase his efficiency in the ancient tongues. Thus did his sojourn in France bear for him lasting fruits."
Later, Francis and Anthony, both learned in the Law, traveled to Italy and Spain in the service of the Queen. Bacon was proficient in Latin, Greek and Hebrew, and spoke French, Italian and Spanish fluently.
A philosopher, scientist, intelligecer, mystic, poet, writer, playwright, a naturalist and horticulturist, and a multi-linguist, Lord Bacon created, it "is reckoned by an Etymologist, nearly five thousand new words."
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 18, 2004 11:05:41 GMT -5
Wilbur comes home again
Mrs. Zuckerman was the first to notice that Wilbur was missing, "and she immediately shouted for the men."
"Ho-mer!" she cried. "Pig's out! Lurvy! Pig's out! Homer! Lurvy! Pig's out. He is down there under THAT apple tree."
"Now the trouble starts," thought Wilbur. "Now I'll catch it."
The goose heard the racket and she, too, started hollering. "Run-run-run downhill, make for the woods, the woods!" she shouted to Wilbur. "They'll never-never-never catch you in the woods." Those were exactly my thoughts when I as a child used to wander in the woods, or hid out in my bomb crater.
Lady Anne Bacon, "who espoused the cause of the non-comformists", watched out for Francis: "I mean to do him good."
Everybody was in on the chase for Wilbur, and "walked toward Wilbur" (the boar representing incarnate truth to be hunted after), Mr. Zuckerman told Lurvy to "get around behind him and drive him toward the barn", but cautions Lurvy "to take it easy and not rush Wilbur", and he, Mr. Zuckerman would "get a bucket of slops" to see if he could persuade Wilbur to come back.
"Wilbur didn't know what to do. The woods seemed a long way off, and anyway, he had never been down there in the woods and wasn't sure he would like it."
"I'm really to young to go out into the world alone" he thought as he lay down" it says at the end of the chapter, but many times I have to inter-and exchange things, also from the book and the video, to put my own spin on it lol.
All this has to do with Francis leaving London and coming back. Like Hamlet, "Charlotte's Web" is a story within a story, the essence of which are historical events which cannot be told point blank, so to speak. Not because anybody says so, but because, said Fern irritated, and she was irritated at me, scientists, scholars, masons, "pop-pop big-shots and who have you" and "things here below" most of the time: "It's to big for your dumb, form-bound brains, your rationalizations and conjectures." Actually, she has a loving heart, but was just frustrated, and "tired of working and talking and writing until I was blue in the face." Nobody can tell it until for humanity entire, as the the Bible writers state so eloquently, "the times and seasons hath changeth, and kings hath been removeth and kings setteth up", then "he giveth wisdom onto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding."
All the Queen's men, which all the Ladies at court lay in wait for, whilst pretending to do needle point they actually eyed them over for a possible future tächtl-mächtl, heard of Wilbur's escape, which "spread rapidly among the animals (the men) on the place. When any creature broke loose on Zuckerman's farm (the court), the event was of great interest to the others. (Especially the Cecil's) The goose shouted to the nearest cow that Wilbur was free, and soon all the cows knew." It's called a Kaffeklatsch. "Then one of the cows told one of the sheep, and soon all the sheep knew. The lambs learned about it from their mothers. The horses, in their stalls in the barn, pricked up their ears when they heard the goose hollering; and soon the horses (the more powerful and jealous men) had caught on to what was happening. 'Wilbur's out', they said. Every animal stirred and lifted its head and became exited to know that one of his friends had gone free and was no longer penned up or tied fast." Anthony Bacon, and Robert Essex were true friends to Francis.
"Wilbur didn't know what to do or which way to run. It seemed as though everybody was after him. "If this is what it's like to be free", he thought, "I believe I'd rather be penned up in my own yard." Wilbur thought all this commotion was awful and wondered where Fern was to rescue him. "He began to cry."
Charlotte
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Post by Don Barone on Jan 18, 2004 20:15:22 GMT -5
Charlotte, we all do at the beauty and majesty of your writings and insights. Can not wait for the next chapter ! In Love and The Light A sometimes bored and restless Don Barone
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 19, 2004 11:27:51 GMT -5
Huh ahh Don , it is the magnanimous Francis Tudor who is to be praised, and then beloved Fern who gave me the impetus by, sitting on the porch recovering from an "illness", noticing a spiders web in the corner with a human skeleton it, which she termed "the ematiated soul of the world." And not last the genius and spectacular mind of E.B. White, who speaks on many levels at once about "this miracle which has occurred on earth. So one can understand Hamlet's words: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio . . . " To reach the untrammeled Hights of Lord Bacon's "Realm of Delight", it is as though we're now only sitting in a Lear by the celestial terminal, warming up, and waiting for the engines to hum flawlessly, and you know how long that can take. Wilbur comes home again Wilbur didn't know what to do, his friends advised him not to go back to England for all the tribulations he would encounter the goose couldn't bear to see Wilbur unhappy, or worse, giving up the fight. She "took command and began to give orders." " Don't just stand there, Wilbur! Dodge about, dodge about!" cried the goose. "Skip around, run toward me, slip in and out, in and out, in and out! Make for the woods! Twist and turn! While cheering Wilbur on, Lady Anne Bacon advised him what to do so they couldn't catch and kill him, and he could always run toward her. "The cocker spaniel sprang for Wilbur's hind leg", that was the younger Cecil fearing Francis' superior intellect, but "Wilbur jumped and ran. Lurvy, the hired hand, "reached out and grabbed. Mrs. Zuckerman", the Queen, "screamed at Lurvy." I have to pick out Lurvy somewhere along the way, someone close to the Queen she could abuse. "Wilbur dodged between Lurvy's legs. Lurvy missed Wilbur and grabbed the spaniel instead. "Nicely done, nicely done!' cried the goose. "Try it again, try it again!" The cows, the gander, the rooster, and the sheep, suggested, yelled, cried, called and honked at Wilbur to "look out for Lurvy and Mr. Zuckerman." "Poor Wilbur was dazed and frightened by all this hullaballoo. He didn't like being the center of all this fuss." Francis was a private man. "He tried to follow the instructions his friends were giving him, but he couldn't run downhill and uphill at the same time, and he couldn't turn and twist when he was jumping and dancing, and he was crying so hard he could barely see anything that was happening. After all, Wilbur was a very young pig---not much more than a baby, really." Only about 18 years of age, and you can see the pickle he was in. But Francis felt responsible for England, and to serve his mother the Queen. "He wished Fern was there to take him in her arms and comfort her. When he looked up he saw Mr. Zuckerman standing with quite close to him, holding a pail of warm slops, he felt relieved. He lifted his nose and sniffed" if the air was clear, "the smell was delicious--warm milk, patato skins, wheat middling, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, and a popover left from Zuckerman's breakfast." "Come, pig!" said Mr. Zuckerman, Leicester, "tapping on the pail. Come, pig!" Wilbur took a step toward the pail. "No-no-no!" said the goose. "It's the old pail trick, Wilbur. Don't fall for it, don't fall for it. He's trying to lure you back into captivity-ivity. He is appealing to your stomach." Worldly appetites. "Wilbur didn't care. The food smelled appetizing. He took another step toward the pail." I mean how much can a man take, and after all, Francis was a man. I really can't put my mind into man-ness, but you gentlemen probably know these things better. "Pig, pig!' said Mr. Zuckerman in a kind voice", tricky Leicester, "and began walking slowly toward the barnyard, looking all about him innocently, as if he didn't know that a little WHITE pig was following behind him." "You'll be sorry-sorry-sorry," called the goose. Wilbur didn't care", he would face whatever came along, "he kept walking toward the pail of slops." "You'll miss your freedom", honked the goose. "An hour of freedom is worth a barrel of slops." "Wilbur didn't care." Yeah, one does get to the point where nothing matters, freedom from all daily concerns. "When Mr. Zuckerman reached the pigpen, he climbed over the fence and poured the slops into the trough. Then he pulled the loose board away from the fence, so that there was a wide hole for Wilbur to walk through." "Reconsider, reconsider!" cried the goose. Wilbur paid no attention." Francis accepted his fate. "He stepped through the fence into the yard. He walked to the trough and took a long drink of slops, sucking in the milk hungrily and chewing the popover. It was good to be home again." "While Wilbur ate, Lurvy fetched a hammer and some 8 penny nails and nailed the board in place. Then he and Mr. Zuckerman leaned lazily on the fence and Mr. Zuckerman scratched Wilbur's back with a stick. "He is quite a pig," said Lurvy. "Yes, he'll make a good pig," said Mr. Zuckerman. "Wilbur heard the words of praise. He felt the warm milk inside his stomach. He felt the pleasant rubbing of the stick along his itchy back. He felt peaceful and happy and sleepy. This had been a stirring afternoon. It was still only about four o'clock but Wilbur was ready for bed." And I think he layed there wondering if we are really the stuff that dreams are made of . . . Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 20, 2004 10:13:12 GMT -5
Back home in England
Wilbur had to start all over. He "had planned to go out, this day, and dig a new hole in the yard. He had other plans, two." But it was raining and Wilbur was under the weather.
"I get everything all beautifully planned out and it has to rain," he said. Suddenly Wilbur felt lonely and friendless. "One day (is) just like another," he groaned. "I'm very young, I have no real friends here at the barn, it's going to rain all morning and all afternoon, and Fern won't come in such bad weather. Oh, honestly!" And Wilbur was crying again, for the second time in two days."
"For a while he stood gloomily indoors. Then he walked to the door and looked out. HIS yard was cold and wet. It seemed as though he couldn't bear"---"the weight put on young Francis shoulders."
" Drops of rain struck his face, fell from the roof, spattered against Mrs. Zuckerman's kitchen window, ran in crooket courses down into the lane where thistles and pickweed grew, fell on the backs of the sheep, gushed out of the downspouts", but up climbed an itsy-bitsy spider . . . Actually, Charlotte weathered the storm in the center of her web where she felt most secure, curled up in a ball just in case one of those heavy drops accumulating on the cross beam of the barn door fell on her head.
The rain upset Wilbur's plan for the day. He had planned to eat breakfast at six-thirty, finishing at seven, talk with Templeton, but Templeton was nowhere in sight, after which he planned to take a nap in the morning sun. "From eleven to twelve he had planned" to space out, just standing still watching "flies on the boards, bees in the clover, and swallows in the air." Lunch was at twelve, and after some sleep he had "planned to scratch itchy places by rubbing against the fence."
"From three to four he planned to stand perfectly still and think of what it was to be alive, and to wait for Fern."
Francis Bacon planned not only his own future, which was rained out until the latter part of his life, but also how to go about "secretly instigating a system of world-regeneration", for which he would need "the living cooperation of all available talents and scholarly intellects" to contribute to such a monumental undertaking, who could be trusted, and "wait for centuries for their posthumous reward," or "wait for Fern" to help them out of their graves because they couldn't help themselves, as she put it. The "real friends of Wilbur" in the barnyard are in Fern's words:
"The original Shakespeare Group included such literary lights in the British Isles as Ben Jonson, John Donne, Henry Watton, Lancelot Andrews, Toby Mathews, Edmond Spencer, Sir Walter Raleigh, Francis Drake, George Herbert, George Wither, the Bodly Brothers Miles and Joshua, and many others. They all contributed their best labors to the literary Shakespeare endeavor, which of course by far exceeds the Plays ascribed to the Stradford clown."
"Whatever abode philosophy thinketh to build to erect a lofty Temple that may shrine her faith, crowning the unvisited holiness of the hills or thrust her fair facades among the noisy dens of swarming industry, to invite the sons of toil: All altitude expanse or grandeur of building subsisteth on foundations buried out of sight, which yet the good Architect carrieth ever in mind, and keepeth the draft by him stored in his folios."
It stopped raining for about twenty minutes, and Wilbur asked one of the lambs to play with him, but the lamb refused, and, making a case for the orthos, the lamb says: "In the first place, I cannot get into your pen, as I am not old enough to jump the (Don's) fence. In the second place, I am not interested in pigs. (That's there greatest loss) Pigs mean less than nothing to me." I am only going to argue with my equals who also like to argue, because we don't want the cows to come home, ever.
Wilbur thinks on "pigs mean less than nothing to me", and says to the lamb: "What do you mean, 'less' than nothing? I don't think there is any such thing as 'less' than nothing. Nothing is absolutely the limit of nothingness. It's the lowest you can go. It's the end of the line. How can something be less than nothing? If there were something that was less than nothing, then nothing would not be nothing, it would be something--even though it's just a very little bit of something. But if nothing is 'nothing', then nothing has nothing that is less than it is." The lamb isn't into common sense: "Oh, be quiet, go play by yourself, I don't play with pigs", all you do is talk pig Latin.
"Sadly,Wilbur lay down and listened to the rain."
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Jan 21, 2004 9:28:26 GMT -5
The goslings arrive
During the rain the barn animals were in a contemplative mood, all was perfectly still. The goose felt the goslings stirring in their confinement, and heard "their weak voices calling from inside the eggs." In the video, she is seen lifting her wings twice gracefully in the attitude of the pelican, nudging her offspring, and carefully sits down again "so that they can receive the full heat from her warm body and soft feathers."
The birds at the barnyard let all the animals know that it will stop raining soon by chirping a few cautiously optimistic chirps. After some twenty minutes the sun pierced the clouds. Wilbur lifted his head and looked outward, and was transfixed by mystical though fleeting picture of the sun's rays streaming from all around the clouds and touching the earth. He wished he could stand in one those rays where they were most concentrated close to the clouds to see what it feels like, or if they could be felt at all, but they looked so far off even though the end of the rays seemed to be right beside him.
It was a "jubilee" day "for the birds. In the fields , around the house, in the barn, in the woods, in the swamp---everywhere love and songs and nests and eggs. From the edge of the woods, the white-throated sparrow (which must have come all the way from Boston) calls, "Oh, Peabody, Peabody, Peabody!" The song sparrow, who knows how brief and lovely life is, says, "Sweet, sweet, sweet interlude; sweet, sweet, sweet interlude." If you enter the barn, the swallows swoop down from their nests and scold. "Cheeky, cheeky!" they say." (Because "Charlotte's Web contains sensitive information", says a school teacher.
"When the first gosling poked its grey-green head through the goose's feathers and looked around, Charlotte spied it and made the announcement:
"I am sure that every one of us here will be gratified to learn that after four weeks of unremitting effort and patience on the part of our friend the goose, she now has something to show for. The goslings have arrived. May I offer my sincere congratulations!"
Thank you, thank you, thank you!" said the goose, nodding and bowing shamelessly." The gander said "thank you" only once.
Wilbur too congratulated the goose. He wants to know how many goslings, and the goose says in her always authoritative voice "there are 7." Charlotte, somewhat superstitious, says that 7 is a lucky number, but the goose protests: "it had nothing to do with luck, but everything with good manegement and hard labor."
Almost as soon as all the gosling emerged from their shells and can walk, mother goose tells them that it's time for swimming lessons. There is a small pond just down the road surrounded by big old trees and smaller young ones, high grass, tiger and yellow lilies, all sorts of beautiful flowers, and Buddha lilies floating on the surface, where the goose has been taking her offspring for many years to old Swamper, who lived in a quaint house by the pond, for swimming lessons.
To her sorrow she had heard that he died, and that the charming place was taken over by a young, sort of handsome fellow, who put up a new sign which read
FOR SWIMMING LESSONS PAUSE AT DAZ!
The goose was curious to see if he would handle her goslings as carefully and lovingly as old Swamper, and said "lets go" to her children. They followed her in single file, exept one, the runt.
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 17, 2004 13:51:38 GMT -5
Besides not being able to live another day without Wilbur and Shakespeare, it is a classic case of an Exodus. Having left the barnyard, a more familiar place, Egypt, and gone to explore the world of Gurdjieff, virgin territory for me really, the wilderness on the other side of the Red Sea, where I try to orient myself, but because I haven't gained any traction walking around in this new territory, it is easier on my brain and mind to go back to the barnyard for a while, or Wilbur persuing me, so to speak. The only difference being that the waters will be kept at bay by the "strong East Wind" or knowledge blowing from the East, as it does, and the path will stay open to walk back and forth between the Old, in the sense only that I have studied it first, and the New bewildering me.
The runt gosling
All the goslings follow their mother to take swimming lessons, exept the last born. The old sheep looks at it and says: "This one is undersized, hmm, I never saw a gosling that tiny, there must be something wrong with it." The goose gets an attitude and says to the sheep: "This is Jeffery-effrey, he takes after my side of the family-amily".
"Come on Jeffery" says the goose, but Jeffery hesitates, looks at Wilbur and asks him if he wants to go for swimming lessons, to which Wilbur replies: "I'd love to but I don't swim." "I'll stay with Wilbur Mom", says Jeffery, and Mom says: "Suit yourself."
Jeffery takes to Wilbur immediately. "Are you my mother?" the gosling asks Wilbur, who chuckles: "No, I'm Wibur, I'm not your mother but I'll be your friend. I was a runt like you once." "Your kidding", the gosling wonders, but Wilbur is not kidding. It is conspicuous that Jeffery addresses the goose as "Mom", but then asks Wilbur if he is his mother, and that the're both runts.
Jeffery tells Wilbur: "Then I wanna be like you", and Wilbur says:
"Why not? We got lots in common where it really counts, where it really counts we got large amounts, what we look like doesn't count an once, we got lots in common where it really counts . . . "
All the barn animals join in the song, the human family too has lots in common where it really counts.
Jeffery runs around the barnyard oinking, and Fern's brother Avery remarks that the "shrimpy little thing" sounds more like a pig than a gosling, and why isn't it with his mother? Jeffery is as lost, and Fern says: "Because he likes Wilbur!"
"Let's be friends forever Wilbur, want to?" That would be great, but "Jeffery, there is a horrible fact of life you don't know about, I don't wanna tell you, Charlotte is working on the problem, are'nt you Charlotte?"
"Indeed yes, but I see no point in withholding unpleasant information from your friend, the fact is Wilburs life is in danger, I'm trying to think of a way to save him." Jeffery asks if he can help, and Charlotte tells him that she has to think of an idea first of how to save Wilbur.
"I love you Wilbur" says the gosling effectionally, and Wilbur replies: "I love you too Jeffery." They were devoted to each other.
Jeffery is the second son of Queen Elizabeth I and 'Robert' Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, 'Robert' Devereux, later Earl of Essex, and Francis' younger brother. Both Francis and Robert were runts, as both were 'unwanted' by the Queen, if not their father Leicester, himself never acknowledged publicly as Prince Consort by the Queen. Essex remarked one that he didn't know why his parents denied him, I'll come across the exact quotation sooner or later.
Francis and Robert had an intimate relationship as brothers and friends until the tragic end of Essex. However, the brothers were very different, Essex was reckless and ambitious, whereas Francis "maintained continually his tranquil superiority despite the many struggles from which he privately suffered through neglect and ill treatment" by the Queen.
Francis continually advised and warned Robert, to whom the Queen turned her favor, about his plans and actions, as if a 'mother' to him.
Madam Deventer writes:
"We observe that Francis was in this matter thouroughly in Essex's confidence, and in case of misunderstandings, which were not lacking between Essex and the Queen, the elder, more experienced and intellectually superior Francis sought to bring his hot-spurred younger brother into submission to the Queen, in order not to forfeit the royal favor."
"Upon the whole his (Francis') correspondence with Essex shows how he, though standing in friendly intimacy with him, often expressed his opinion against him.
Nor did he conceal from Essex his bitter feelings concerning his own life destiny. Yet these thoughts are so expressed that their full significance can only be grasped by the initiated and like-minded."
Francis, in a letter to Essex "emphasizes the fact that despite all friendship and devotion he can no longer remain politically attached to Essex, as it would be contrary to the laws of the State and his duty to the Queen."
Fern:
"Bacon's younger brother, Robert Deveraux, the Earl of Essex, also knew his true parentage and that he was Lord Bacon's younger brother. Francis spared no effort to win the young Deveraux for the noble New Age cause, as is clearly evident from the accompanying illustration. However, Robert Deveraux also realized that his older brother had relinquished all aspiration to a worldly throne, and that together with his noble followers and coworkers, (the initiated and like-minded of Madam Deventer) was dedicated to endow future generations. Robert, Bacon's younger brother, therefore was next in line and a priviledged favorite of the Queen, his mother. The following emblem and poem from the George Wither book presents the struggle in young Deveraux's soul as an encounter with both Virtue and Vice:
My hopefull Friends at trice five yeares and three, Without a Guide (into the World alone) To seek my fortune, did adventure me; And, many hazards, I alighted on. First, Englands greatest Rendevouz I sought, Where Vice and Vertue at the highest sit; (the Queen, my note) And thither both a mind and body brought, For neither of their services unfit. Both woo'd my Youth: And, both perswaded so, That (like the Young man in our Emblem here) I stood, 'and cry'd, Ah! which way shall I go? To me so pleasing both their Offers were. Vice, Pleasures best Contentment promist mee, And what the wanton Flesh desires to have: Quoth Vertue, I will Wisdom give to thee, And those brave things, which noblest Mindes doe crave. Serve me said Vice, and thou shalt soon aquire All those Achievements which my service brings: Serve me said Vertue, and I'll raise thee higher, Then Vices can, and teach thee better things. Whil'st thus they strove to gain me, I espyde Grimm death attending Vice, and, that her Face Was but a painted ViZard, which did hide The foul'st Deformity that ever was. LORD, grant me grace for evermore to view Her Ugliness: And, that I viewing it, Her Falsehood and allurements may eshew; And on fair VERTUE my Affection set; Her Beauties contemplate, her Love embrace, And by her safe Direction, runne my Race.
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 18, 2004 11:19:04 GMT -5
More on Essex
Francis, Robert, and Anthony
"And now turning to the friendship between Essex and Francis, let it be mentioned that in 1592 Anthony Bacon (stepbrother of Francis) returned from the continent, and that from this time on, the friendship of these three men assumed an intimate character.
Meanwhile the political horizon had become more clouded and Essex, who had gained a seat in the Council, brought about negotiation between France and England concerning the contemplated apostasy of the Protestant King Henry IV to Catholicism, which caused his allegiance to Elizabeth to totter.
The many despatches which were at this period exchanged with France and came under the Essex's charge, Francis and Anthony assisted him in deciphering. Cypher correspondence between these three friends is also in evidence during this period, showing that the three men exchanged secrets among themselves.
As Spedding rightly judges, one can compare the conduct of Essex toward the Queen with the capricious and impulsive behavior of a 'spoiled child' if one but considers the various misunderstandings between Essex and the ageing Queen. Her vascillating, diplomatically calculating nature, which was so often the despair of her advisers and subordinates, Essex could never endure but took immediate offence.
Again and again Elizabeth meets him as the condescending and forgiving Queen.
But the same patience which she exercised toward Leicester did not extend to the son. Francis scrutinized the whole with quite clearness and plainly saw the dangers to which Essex's passionate nature would expose him. He also realized that Essex possessed many traits of character similar to Leicester which might easily work to his disadvantage since his relations to the Queen were quite different and required the greatest circumspection. How accurately he perceived the entire situation is shown by a detailed letter from him to Essex. He recognized that the young man, popular with the people, thirsting for action and fame, possessed at the court jealous enemies who threatened to estrange him from the Queen. Leicester had also risked much and wounded the Queen to the heart through his secret marriage with Lettice, Widow Essex, (stepmother of Robert) but he felt that he was to her indispensable and therefore secure.
Elizabeth's love transferred to the son was not so strong,--it was only the reflection of those feelings which she had buried in Leicester's grave. When we view this fact in weigh of the advice which Bacon gives to Essex concerning his behavior toward the Queen, we see at once that he lays everything plainly before him, not as being his inferior in rank, (Elizabeth never knighted Francis) but with the wisest of foresight with which he has thought out the entire matter and gives in his letters to Essex the most confidential advice in the plainest language, though sometimes between the lines.
Madam Deventer
Francis "values Essex's fortunes as his own."
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 20, 2004 11:41:13 GMT -5
The death of Essex
Against the advice of Francis and others at court, Essex thought "that, if he had shown himself too submissive, he would have suffered from her (the Queen's) cold and spiteful moods."
Francis to Essex: But whatever I caunsell you the best, or, for the best, duty bindeth me, to offer you, my wishes.". . . . . . "Win the Queen; if this be not the Beginning, of any other course, I see no end."
Francis "begs Essex to win the Queen as this is the only way to establish the right relations and to destroy in Elizabeth all mistrust against him. Also in his conduct toward friends who advise him rightly as against those who would ensnare with falsity, he must give such expression to his choice as would be in agreement with the Queen: 'for I know the exellency of her (Majesty's) nature too well!" Elizabeth herself is a riddle to be solved.
"Further on in this letter he warns him against the hypocricy and flattery in vogue at the court. He also warns Essex to avoid and minimize his likeness to Leicester and all imitations of his ways:
Next, whereas I have noted you, do fly and avoid in some respect the resemblance and imitation of my Lord of Leicester--yet I am persuaded (however I wish your Lordship as distinct as you are from him in points of favor, integrity, magnanimity and merit) that it will do you good between the Queen and you, to allege him for authors and patterns.
In this and other advice and caunsel comes clearly to view in few words the openess between Francis and Essex, how they respectively judge of Leicester and how the elder brother admits to the younger the latter's resemblance to Leicester, while also recognizing his far superior character."
After political failures, the Queen recalled Essex to England.
"He had disregarded the repeated advice of Francis, so that the latter's efforts with Elizabeth for reconciliation proved all in vain. Essex was denied access to the Queen and held in arrest in his own house. Thus closed the year 1599. When finally released, the restless Essex planned new undertakings. He regarded the government of the aging women, Elizabeth, who held him in too close restraint, as out-lived, and intrigued secretly against her with James the VI of Scotland, he relied too strongly upon the popular favor by which he believed himself supported. He thus drew down more dark clouds, not only over his own head but over Elizabeth's. And again did Francis' wisdom and discretion penetrate the dangers which Essex prepared for hi,self. It was a tremendous moment--an historical landmark, in which two letters grandly exhibit alike Francis' character and statesmanlike loyalty to his monarch, and Essex's restless and strongly antagonistic spirit. Politically the two brothers here seperate, though their personal friendship remains unbroken. Francis' letter to Essex is here given literally:
"My Lord-- No man better expounds my doings which maketh me need to say the less. Only I humbly pray you to believe that I aspire to the conscience and commendation, first, 'bonus civis' which with us is a good and true servant of the Queen and next of 'bonus vir' that is an honest man. I desire your Lordship also to think that though I confess, I love some things much more than I love your Lordship, as the Queens service, her quiet and contentment, her honor, her favor, the good of my country and the like, yet I love few persons better than yourself both for graditude's sake and for your own virtue which cannt be hurt but by accident or abuse."
That which Lord Bacon loved more, and much more than anything were his intellectual labour's for future generations, humanity. And for this reason Charlotte loves Wilbur eternally.
To this letter "Essex replied in proper spirit. Although he was by no means without literary ability as his reply shows. It is worthy of note in Essex's answer that he touches upon the difference in their respective literary endowments, saying: 'I am a stranger, to all Poetical Concerts, or else I might say somewhat, of your Poetical Example'. This exchange of views concerning their literary abilities is most interesting."
All efforts of Francis to "bring about Essex's full restoration to the court" failed. Essex kept secret from Francis that he conspired to overthrow the Queen "and place himself on the throne."
"In this can be seen the increasing recklessness of this man, with Elizabeth overthrown, would thus desire an entire revolution of government. The conspiracy proceeded to the point of an outbreak in open rebellion and now Essex was taken prisoner; and upon the command of the Queen, Francis was compelled to appear against him as prosecuter.
His address to the prisoner is most remarkable! Bacon begins his condemnation with these words:
"You, my Lord, should know that though princes give their subjects cause of discontent, though they take away the honour they have heaped upon them, though they bring them to a lower estate than they raised them formerly--yet ought they not to be so forgetful of their allegiance that they should enter into any undutiful act,--much less rebellion, as you, my lord, have done."
"Francis, as Judge in the Crown Council," and of his brother Robert, "was compelled to recognize the conspiracy as high treason and the death sentence followed. But it is noteworthy that he begins his speech with an indirect reproach to the Queen, admitting that she had given Essex cause for discontent, though he follows with the statement that no subject in on that account justified in rebellion.
Historians of later days regarded his conviction of his 'friend' Essex as almost treason, whereas the blame, if any, should rest upon Elizabeth who demanded his services in the case." The Queen was not pleased when one year before Francis excused himself when "the case of Essex came up in the Star Chamber."
Francis' "lifelong resignation to his own fate was clearly displayed before Essex when he unequivocally represented her as the instigating cause of Essex's guilt. But the ending on the block of Essesx's young life must ever be regarded as a tragic and unpardonable in its severity."
From that time on Elizabeth "fell into melancholia. Though she fought against it with all her energy, while those about her sought to divert her mind--still the underlaying melancholy remained. And what unprejudiced mind, without transforming into a rediculous old women the highly gifted monarch whose forceful brain had laid the real foundation of England as a world power, can insinuate that her feelings for the young man were merely an unworthy and amorous passion? No! No! the natural yearnings of a mother forever dominated her agonized heart after that awful death scene."
In interpreting so many, many things, our "fanciful historians, adepts in skirting the surface and never exploring the deep", have a sexual explanation for most everything.
Wilbur and Jeffery
PS Day before yesterday, on my way hoem from work, I listened to a report from Bagdad on NPR (National Public Radio). The apparent women leader of the "40 women of power" in Iraq said: "This is our time 'to be', we must be now, not 'not be." She said it several times interspersing her sentences with "to be or not to be!" Ah yes, Francis Bacon, Prometheus-like, is creating a new humanity. Nothing can or should stop it!
Full of hope
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 28, 2004 15:19:51 GMT -5
Poetry ever brings me to Wilbur.
The bad news first.
Charlotte sees no point in withholding unpleasant information from the runt gosling who loves Wilbur, tries to imitate him but can't due to his different nature, and wants them to be friends forever. And Francis and Essex were friends to the end.
Wilbur's life, and his intellectual work was in danger throughout the years when one realizes "by a moment's reflection on the fact of Tudor tyranny, when the slightest political expression might bring a man to the torture chamber, when Catholic and Protestant were at daggers drawn, when the block and the hanging-tree at Tyburn menaced everyone. The charitable-minded man--in politics or religion--the man who loved the middle way--ran the risk, since he was not a violent sectary, of finding himself either strangled, drawn and quartered at Tyburn as a rebel or burnt at the stake as an atheist and a heretic." "Francis Bacon's Personal Life Story" by Alfred Dodd
And remember that Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII.
"Wilbur liked Charlotte better each day. Her campaign against insects seemed sensible and useful. Hardly anybody around the farm had a good word to say for a fly. Flies spent their time pestring others. The cows hated them. The horses detested them. The sheep loathed them. Mr. and Mrs. Zuckerman were always complaining about them, and putting up screens." LOL I don't like them either and put one of those new, invisible fences around me.
"Wilbur admired the way Charlotte managed. He was particularly glad that she always put her victim to sleep before eating it."
"It's real thoughtful of you to do that, Charlotte," he said.
"Yes," she replied in her sweet, musical voice, "I always give them an anaesthetic so they won't feel pain. It's a little service I throw in." I can't stop laughing, it's much like reading G, sometimes hilarious, sometimes profound.
"As the days went by, Wilbur grew and grew. He ate three big meals a day. He spent long hours laying on his side, half asleep, dreaming pleasant dreams. He enjoyed good health and he gained a lot of weight." Bacon spend long hours in seclusion, dreaming of the good days ahead, and planing for the "New Atlantis"--that which you call America."
"One afternoon, when Fern was sitting on her stool, the oldest sheep walked into the barn, and stopped to pay a call on Wilbur." The 'oldest' sheep, who's 'seen it all', here figures for conventional wisdom, as opposed to blasé Papa sheep, scholarly ingenuity and academic arrogance.
"Hallo!" she said. "Seems to me you're putting on weight."
"Yes, I guess I am," replied Wilbur. "At my age it's a good idea to keep on gaining." Gaining in magnitude and greatness of heart.
"Just the same, I don't envy you," said the old sheep, because they're fattening you up to kill you "and turn you into smoked bacon and ham. Almost all young pigs get murdered by the farmer as soon as the real cold weather sets in. There's a regular conspiracy around here to kill you at Christmastime. Everybody is in on the plot--Lurvy, Zuckerman, even John Arable." The killing of Wilbur at Christmastime involves a sacrifice.
Wilbur can't believe that even Fern's father is in on the plot. "Certainly. When a pig is to be butchered, everybody helps. I'm an old sheep and I see the same thing, same old business, year after year. Arable arrives with his .22, shoots the . . ."
Wilbur is beside himself. He bursts into tears, races up and down the fence, throws himself on the ground, screams that he doesn't want to die, that he wants to stay alive in his comfortable manure pile with his friends and "breathe beautiful air and lie in the beautiful sun."
Charlotte tells him to be quite, that "the old sheep has been around the barn for a long time. She has seen many a spring pig come and go. If she says they plan to kill you, I'm sure it's true. It's also the dirtiest trick I ever heard of. What people don't think of."
Among the dirty tricks were the "shameful intrigues being carried on against him at the court to prevent his advancement to higher office", and keeping the secret of his mothers marriage to Leicester was a matter of life and death. Wilbur is also concerned about his life's work coming out of confinement, to breathe beautiful air on it so it can "lie in the beautiful sun."
"You shall not die," said Charlotte briskly.
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Feb 29, 2004 13:11:18 GMT -5
The Miracle
" Day after day the spider waited for an idea to come to her. Having promised Wilbur to save his life, she was determined to keep her promise. Hour by hour she sat motionless in thought", other times she hung upsidedown in her net to let the blood rush to her head for better thinking. Wilbur wanted to exchange ideas with her, but she told him to go to sleep, that she can think better when alone.
"Finally, one morning toward the middle of July, the idea came."
"Why, how perfectly simple!" She was planing to play a harmless trick on Mr. Zuckerman because "people are very gullible and believe everything they see in print."
"What does 'gullible' mean?" "Easy to fool," said Charlotte. "That's a mercy," replied Wilbur
"Shadows lengthen across the farm", the goose comes back with her goslings, all the animals settle down and enjoy "the cool, sweet evening breeze", and feel the wondrous, mystical atmosphere "when the gods gather in the day." Jeffery sleeps blissfully with his back against Wilbur's warm body. The gosling will not leave Wilbur's side, whenever Wilbur moves Jeffery jumps up and looks at him. and realizing Wilbur is not going anywhere, he happily settles down again.
In the beginning, I was unsure whether to equate Essex or Anthony Bacon with Jeffery, because the goose said proudly: "This is Jeffery-effry, he takes after my side of the family-amily." That would be Anthony, also a very close friend to Francis as I mentioned a few posts ago. I opted for Essex because the gosling was as lost and asked Wilbur if he was its mother, was a runt also, wanted to be just like Wilbur, adored him, wanted to be friends forever, and Francis took Essex under his wings.
Considering Anthony Bacon as Jeffery:
"We can see the two boys, Francis the genius and Anthony of rare talents, growing up together in this wonderful old residence of memories (Gray's Inn), with its ever changing panorama of scene and incidence, each a foil to the others wit, "steel sharpening steel." They played in those beautiful historic gardens that were washed by our greatest national river. They saw the ships go sailing by, not only to the great centers of civilization, the Hague, Paris, Cadiz and Venice, but to those far-flung lands of romance and imagination "The Fortunate Isles." Under the spell of Father Thames, they were destined to develope into Francis Bacon's Masonic Romance of the 'Island of Bensalem' or The Land of the Rosicrosse. (The New Atlantis)"
"Francis Bacon's Personal Life" by Alfred Dodd
Wilbur says quietly "Charlotte, I dont' wanna die, I love it here at the barn." "Of course you do, we all do, stop worrying and go to sleep", the spider reassures him.
The farm is bathe in the soft light of a full moon. Wilbur's eyelids are closing down. "The spider, however, stayed wide awake, gazing affectionately at him and making plans for his future." She sings a lullaby:
"Now is the hour when frogs and thrushes praise the world from the woods and rushes, sleep my love, sleep my only deep . . . in the dark . . . "
Sleeping not so deep in the dark anymore is Lord Bacon's work, as a "servant to posterity", "The Great Instauration" of his phiosophical scheme, because the Iraqi lady said out loud "it is time to be!" It is marvelous how the world-soul Anima Mundi remoulds humanity entire at the moment, but, sing The Grateful Dead "it hasn't got a face just yet", first "ashes,ashes, all fall down."
In the video a mystical landscape "fragile and magical shadows silently start to appear, lovely and lyrical--silvery miracle--Charlotte's web. Carefully spinning her tracings, lacy and gracefully sheer over and under the infinate wonder of Charlotte's web. Why is she spinning and weaving away all night long, what is she trying so hard to convey with her silent song? Sometimes when somebody loves you miracles seem to appear, the wharf and the woof is the proof in Charlotte's web."
Though it is implied for the story's sake, no spider is seen spinning the web, the scene is surreal, invoking a dream-like state of wondering what it is all about. And the infinite wonder of which E.B. tells, "the miracle that has occured on earth", the birth of "the greatest hog in history", is "all over and under" the surface text of "Charlotte's Web", the "wharf and woof" veiled "lacy and gracefully sheer."
This is born out by the words Mr. White puts in the mouths of Mr. and Mrs. Zuckerman, and the other characters in the following chapter, and chapters, and in some instances I have pointed out before. It is hard to harmonize what is all over and under "Charlotte's Web" with even my scanty knowledge of Bacon's life and work. The story of Francis Bacon is grander than that.
O let my books be then the eloquence, And domb presages of my speaking brest, Who pleade for love, and look for recompense, More then that tonge that more hath more exprest.
O learne to read what silent love hath writ, To heare with eyes belongs to love's fine wiht.
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Mar 6, 2004 12:46:18 GMT -5
Hi Bacon Lovers?
The following chapter encapsulates to a degree what I have said so far, and shows intent by E.B. White that he wrote "Charlotte's Web" with Francis Bacon, "a completely out of the ordinary pig" in mind. I will emphasize in uppercase how over and again Mr. White points the reader to what's in the web and and to
SOME PIG
"The next day was foggy. Everything on the farm was dripping wet. The grass looked like a magic carpet. The asparagus patch looked like a silver forest.
On foggy mornings, Charlotte's web was truly a thing of beauty. This morning each thin strand was decorated with dozens of tiny beads of water. The web glistened in the light and made a pattern of loveliness and mystery, like a DELICATE VEIL. Even Lurvy, who wasn't particularly interested in beauty, noticed the web when he came with the pig's breakfast. HE NOTED HOW CLEARLY IT SHOWED UP AND HE NOTED HOW BIG AND CAREFULLY BUILT IT WAS. And then he took another look and he saw something that made him set his pail down. There, in the center of the web, NEATLY WOVEN in block letters, was A MESSAGE. It said:
SOME PIG!
Lurvy felt weak. He brushed his hand across his eyes and STARED HARDER at Charlotte's web. "I'm seeing things," he wispered. He droped to his knees and uttered a short prayer. Then, forgetting all about Wilbur's breakfast, he walked back to the house and called Mr. Zuckerman.
"I think you'd better come to the pigpen," he said.
"What's the trouble?" asked Mr. Zuckerman. "Anything wrong with the pig?"
"N-not exactly," said Lurvy. "Come and see for yourself."
The two men walked SILENTLY down to WILBUR'S YARD. Lurvy pointed to the spider's web. "Do you see what I see?" he asked.
Zuckerman stared at the writing on the web. Then he MURMERED the words "Some Pig." Then he looked at Lurvy. Then they both began to tremble. Charlotte, sleepy after her night's exertions, smiled as she watched. Wilbur came AND STOOD DIRECTLY UNDER THE WEB. (In the video also Wilbur stands directly under the web for a second or two longer to take notice)
"SOME PIG!" WHISPERED Mr. Zuckerman. They stared and stared for a long time AT WILBUR. Then they stared at Charlotte.
"You don't suppose that spider . . ." began Mr. Zuckerman--but he shook his head and didn't finish the sentence. Instead, he walked SOLEMNLY back up to the house and spoke to his wife. "Edith, something has happened," he said, IN A WEAK VOICE. He went into the living room and sat down, and Mrs. Zuckerman followed.
"I've got something to tell you, Edith," he said. "YOU BETTER SIT DOWN.'
Mrs. Zuckerman sank into a chair. She looked pale and frightened.
"Edith," he said, trying to keep his voice steady, "I THINK YOU HAD BEST BE TOLD THAT WE HAVE A VERY UNUSUAL PIG."
A look of complete bewilderment came over Mrs. Zuckerman's face. "Homer Zuckerman, what in the world are you talking about?" she said.
"THIS IS A VERY SERIOUS THING, EDITH," he replied. "OUR PIG IS A COMPLETELY OUT OF THE ORDINARY."
"What's unusual about the pig?" asked Mrs. Zuckerman, who was beginning to recover from her scare.
"Well, I don't really know yet," said Mr. Zuckerman. "BUT WE HAVE RECEIVED A SIGN, Edith--- A MYSTERIOUS SIGN. A MIRACLE HAS HAPPENED ON THE FARM. (the world) There is a large spider's web in the doorway of the barn cellar, RIGHT OVER THE PIGPEN, and when Lurvy went to feed the pig this morning, he noticed the web BECAUSE IT WAS FOGGY, and you know how a spider's web looks VERY DISTINCT in a fog. And right spang in the middle of the web there were the words 'Some Pig.' The words were woven RIGHT INTO THE WEB. They were ACTUALLY PART OF THE WEB, Edith, I know, because I have been actually down there and seen them. It says, 'Some Pig' JUST AS CLEAR AS CAN BE. THERE CAN BE NO MISTAKE ABOUT IT. A miracle has happened and a sign has occurred HERE ON THE EARTH, right on the farm, AND WE HAVE NO ORDINARY PIG."
"Well," said Mrs. Zuckerman, "it seems to me you're a little off. It seems to me we have no ordinary spider."
"Oh, no," said Mr. Zuckerman. "IT'S THE PIG THAT'S UNUSUAL. IT SAYS SO, RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEB."
"Maybe so," said Mrs. Zuckerman. "Just the same, I intend to have a look at that spider."
"It's just a common grey spider," said Mr. Zuckerman.
They got up, and together they walked down to WILBUR'S YARD. (which is the world) "You see, Edith" It's just a common grey spider."
Wilbur was pleased to receive so much attention. (when he was young) Lurvy was still standing there, and Mr. and Mrs. Zuckerman. all three, stood for about an hour, READING THE WORDS OVER AND OVER, AND WATCHING WILBUR.
After a while the fog lifted. The web dried off and the words didn't show up so plainly. The Zuckerman's and Lurvy walked back to the house. Just before they left the pigpen, Mr. Zuckerman took one last look at Wilbur.
"You know," he said, IN AN IMPORTANT VOICE, "I've thought ALL ALONG THAT THAT PIG OF OURS WAS AN EXTRA GOOD ONE. HE'S A SOLID PIG. THAT PIG IS AS SOLID AS THEY COME. YOU 'NOTICE' HOW SOLID HE IS AROUND THE SHOULDERS, Lurvy?" (shoulders of substance)
"Sure, sure I do," said Lurvy. "I'VE ALWAYS NOTICED THAT PIG. HE'S QUITE SOME PIG.
"HE'S LONG AND SMOOTH," said Mr. Zuckerman.
"THAT'S RIGHT," agreed Lurvy. "HE'S AS SMOOTH AS THEY COME. HE'S SOME PIG."
How many times can E.B. White draw attention to this pig. The "hired hand" Lurvy, who feeds Wilbur, takes care of him, makes the crate in which Wilbur is taken to the fair, is the actor 'Shagespur', who at one time also took care of the horses at the Bacon Estate. More on that later.
Mr. Zuckerman was so shaken by what he had seen, that after he went back to his house he took off his shoes and work clothes, put on his best suit and went to see the minister. "He stayed for about an hour and explained to the minister that a miracle had happened on THE FARM."
"So far," said Zuckerman, "only four people ON EARTH know about this miracle--myself, my wife Edith, my hired hand Lurvy, and you." And I would whisper that if you accept it you now know it too. Meanwhile at the barnyard the negators stand around laughing at such nonsense. Mrs Fussy tries to ignore all the commotion at the Zuckerman's. She allowed Henry to go over and look at the web, but not long after curiosity got the better of her, and besides, Henry was still over there with Fern instead of getting ready for his violin lesson. She put on her hat, crossed the street, and as she approached the doorway at the barnyard, her thoughts in the form of an aggressive hornet preseed her and buzz around the web and wreck it. Charlotte snatches it out of the air and speedily wraps it up for a later meal, with or without anaesthetic. Mrs. Fussy glances at the torn web, glares at Fern and sneers "those words in the web, was that some trick of yours?"
"No Maaam, it was a miracle!" Fern replies flustered. Mrs. Fussy looks at the web again and scoffs "it doesn't look so miraculous anymore."
Wilbur observed all this and begins to worry again: "Charlotte, do you think when people start doubting the miracle my life will still be saved?"
"Most definitely not" replies Charlotte.
"I hate to bother you . . .
"You're no bother to me Wilbur, you are my one true friend!"
Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Mar 7, 2004 14:28:12 GMT -5
Hi All, I'm having a deja vu, I woke up and am sitting here again thinking about Wilbur. The Moon is full again and near it bright Venus is keeping it company. Some time ago over at Ma'at, the astute and deep thinker Warwick Nixon told me that "Charlotte's Web" was required reading in his school, which I don't know where that was, and that for me to say that Bacon and Shakespeare were one and the same person was in his humble or honest opinion, :< of course, something like a fanciful assumption of many Bacon scholars and Bacon lovers. I don't know about other countries, it was never mentioned where I went to Catholic school, and I never heard of the book until I came to America, and then didn't pay any attention to it until I met Fern. So I wondered if it is known in Germany, and in Januray 03 I asked my ever helpful friend Bernhard about it. He promptly sent me a 7 page article of some of what information is available on the www to German's about "Charlotte's Web". From the article: "5.2 Charlotte's Web MISSION To provide an indipendent communications network for the Charlotte region in the Carolinas, providing people worldwide access to education, information and communication resources, promoting participation in civic life and enhancing community socially, culturally and economically." Charlotte's Web, the article states, is an organization for the citizens of Charlotte, North Carolina and neigboring counties, and everyone living in North or South Carolina has free access to the site. A rudimentary access to the www was established for said citizens through the "Electronic Neighborhood" program. This was done "in fragile neighborhoods", interpreted by the German translater as "poor quarters" or neighborhoods, "by a few persons being equipped with donated computersystems and instructed how to use them. These persons then conveyed their 'Wissen' (knowledge or understanding of what it doesn't say, most likely to the pragmatic German mind, of the system) in their own 'fragile neighborhoods' and served as 'Information Brokers." The network Charlotte's Web, it says, was "citizen motivated and instigated" by those persons in "fragile neighborhoods", and had its inception in February 1993 through the journalist Steve White. Hmmm In the first year the system was staffed by honorary volunteers, but in 1994 financial assistance was sought and forthcoming from the "National Telecommunications and Information Administration"; "National Library of Medicine"; Microsoft and Sybase." It's a long story about establishing a local "physical net" says the article. Berhard remarked that access to the site from Germany and Europe is somewhat problematic, I found the same from here. If "Charlotte's Web" were simply another story to intertain children, why this over-exaggerated adoe about a completely out of the ordinary pig?" Why would the event of Wilbur be a sign occuring on earth which makes Mr. Zuckerman and Lurvy tremble, and Lurvy drop to his knees to say a prayer? Why would a human beings, Fern, destiny be tangled up with a pig? Why are the words "SOME PIG" part of the Web? Why would Mr. Zuckerman put on his best suit and go and explain to the minister about a miracle of a pig, and the minister thinking about explaining it in a sermon? Are words like "magnum opus" for children? Anyway, four people know about this miracle, and the minister says to Mr. Zuckerman: "Don't tell anybody else. We don't know what it means yet, but perhaps if I give thought to it, I can explain it in my sermon next Sunday. There can be no doubt that you have a most unusual pig. I intend to speak about it in my sermon and point out THE FACT THAT THIS COMMUNITY HAS BEEN VISITED WITH A WONDROUS ANIMAL. This community is the world "with" a wondrous animal. "By the way, does the pig have a name?" Lol you gotta love E.B. White. "Why, yes," said Mr. Zuckerman. "My little niece calls him Wilbur. She's a rather queer child--full of notions. She raised the pig with a bottle and I bought him from her when he was a month old." He shook hands with the minister and left. "Secrets are hard to keep." Errr . . . I know, but in this and many other cases, "secrecy becomes a cover for corruption, and the whole damn system is corrupted by men running the world to hell", Fern hits the glass table top just hard enough so it won't break. "Long before Sunday came, the news spread all over THE COUNTRY. Everybody knew that the Zuckerman's (Bacon's) had a wondrous pig. People came from miles around to look at Wilbur and to read the words on Charlotte's web. The Zuckerman's driveway was full of cars and trucks from morning till night." Grey's Inn was a great center of learning. "The news of the wonderful pig spread clear up into the hills, and the farmers came rattling down in buggies and buckboards, to stand hour after hour at Wilbur's pen admiring the miracelous animal. All said they had never seen such a pig in their lives." "In the days that followed", nothing was the same again at the farm, everything was neglected including my work, in Gurdjieff language, "it couldn't get any worse, if you go on a spree then you go the whole hog including the postage." "Mrs. Zuckerman prepared special meals for Wilbur, as was the way with Lady Anne Bacon for Francis, food for the body as a "perfect housewife", mind and soul as a "very clever women", and Lurvy's "principle farm duty was to feed the pig while the people looked on. Mr. Zuckerman ordered Lurvy to increase Wilbur's feedings a day from three meals a day to four meals a day." The principle reason why the mostly unemployed actor Shagspour was hired as a horse-groom by Bacon's father, Leicester, (all these things happen at the same time and have to be taken in an overall context) was: in order to have some of the Plays published while the Queen was still alive, and "the people looked on for hours", some jealous and others bent on the political murder of Francis, someone had to stand in, or in front of Francis, a Mask, "to ensure a fair degree of safety from detection" of what all transpired behind the scene. While Bacon got "more solid around the shoulders" by eating "four meals." "On Sunday the church was full. The minister explained the miracle", not really though, he only "said that the words in the spiders web proved that human beings must always be on the watch for the coming of wonders." As noticable, many people subscribe to the notion that things will reach the light of day "when the time is right." "All in all, the Zuckermans' pigpen was the center of attraction. Fern was happy, for she felt that Charlotte's trick was working and that Wilbur's life would be saved. But she found that the barn was not nearly as pleasant---to many people. She liked it better when she could be all alone with her friends, the animals." Indeed she did, and does. Charlotte
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Post by Charlotte on Apr 2, 2006 11:38:58 GMT -5
Uhh Huh This morning I asked Templeton to pull on Wilbur's tail to rivive him from his deep coma The Court of Navarre came up during all the welcome rage of the Poussin Paintings and related threads, so I thought I write some apropos Francis Bacon's sojourn in France as it relates to Hamlet and "Charlotte's Web." I know I did so before but it's like starting all over, it's worse than Amarna Francis Bacon was sent "direct from her Majesty's hand with Queen Elizabeth's Ambassador, Sir Amyas Paulet," after his education at Trinity College, where "as a boy of twelve he excelled all others in his great industry and the wide range of his mind." Quotes are from Alfred Dodd and W.T. Smedley, respectively. In "Charlotte' Web", it is the segment when the goose, Lady Ann Bacon, who educated Francis to a great degree, told Wilbur that he doesn't "have to stay in that dirty little dirty little dirty little yard, the "frivolous court" of Elizabeth I, as Philip of Spain saw it. Hamlet shutters: "Oh horrible, O horrible, most horrible." Hamlet: There is something rotten in the State . . . Oh, cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right. The goose tells Wilbur that a board is loose in the fence, and encourages him to push very hard to "come out" because "it's wonderful out here." "Did you say a board was loose?" "At-at-at, at the risk of repeating myself," said the goose, "That I did, that I did," she said. He went to the fence and pushed and pushed with his head and eyes closed until he "squeezed through" and found himself in the green, green grass of spring. Francis was 15-16 years old at the time he left for France. Wilbur liked it outside, that is, he guessed he liked it, he felt somewhat unnerved "outside the fence , with nothing between him and the big world." He asked the goose where he should go and she tells him "anywhere you like - down through the orchard, root up the sod! Go down through the Garden, dig up radishes! Root up everything! Eat grass! Look for corn! Look for oats! Run all over! Skip and dance, jump and prance! Go down through the orchard and stroll in the woods. The world is a wonderfull place when you are young." Lady Ann Bacon, "Francis's greatly esteemed foster-mother - espoused the cause of non-conformists", writes Madam Deventer. Naturally, she influenced Francis, which can be had in these words from Dodd: "His mature mind early renounced all credal dogmatism, the first froot of which were bitterness, strife, the burning of heretics" and worse. He didn't like Aristotle either. "It appears as though Destiny, at the very moment when he stood at the threshold of his Life, had taken him by the hand and led him to fields and pastures new, surrounded him with for upward of three years with an ever-changing series of scenes, specially designed, to stamp their impress on his plastic mind, and draw out of him those inner, transcendent powers specially inbreathed by the Spirit of Wisdom . . ." (Dodd) Have I got this spot on or what? Wilbur jumped, "twirled in the air", looked about, "sniffed and smelled" the Roses, because the long time friend of Hamlet, Rosenkrantz, held them up to his nose. Of course, Wilbur "paused in the shade of an apple tree", that apple tree Fern and him "played hide and seek, and put his strong nose snout into the ground and began pushing, digging, and rooting. He felt happy. He had plowed up quite a piece of ground before anybody noticed him." Bacon plowed secretly. "Pig's out!" The Zuckerman's, Nicholas and Ann Bacon, were dismayed and looked for him everywhere, but "Lurvy, the hired hand", pointed out that "he's down there under that apple tree." Now, Mr. White writes "that" apple tree. The Oxfordians could have it a coincidental oversight by White, they think it's an orange tree. Lurvy the hired hand, who feed Wilbur slop all the time. In a magazine from "The teaching Company", February 20, 2003; from the Oxfordian camp: "Not that he (Shakespeare) had it easy; the first review of Shakespeare by a now forgotten playwright referred to him as "an upstart crow." Maybe that now forgotten playwright was Ben Jonsen, who killed the upstart crow Shagspur, "the imposter" as he is called. Actually, in 1586, Shagsbur, or however he spelled his name, was a "hired hand" to take care of the stables of the Earl of Leicester, the father of Francis Bacon. The name was close to the Spear-shaker Athena, the tenth Muse of Francis to whom he dedicated his work. I don't think Shagespur had originally intended to become Shakespeare, but was caught up in event and saw his opportunity to make money. His name also came in handy for Francis and his "good pens" to keep the Queen from finding out who was behind the Plays. So the name Lurvy who feeds Wilbur slop, points to this confusion. Let the writers of the exoteric life of Francis pause under that apple tree. Francis couldn't tell his mother, the Queen, face to face of all that was rotten in Denmark/her court, as she had the power over life and death, but did in Hamlet: "The Play is the Thing Wherein we catch the conscience of the King." Richard II Herself an extraordinary intellect, to say the least, Elizabeth, "when first attending 'Richard II' with a group of her courtiers" had a stupiphany and "shouted at her terrified courtiers: "Richard the second is I, know you not that", and closed all theaters. Madame Deventer writes: "After the stage presentation, the publisher, John Wolfe, was examined by Sir Edward Cook and stated that Dr. Hoyward was the author. When this tragedy of Richard II was presented on the stage in connection with the conspiracy, and Elizabeth was apprised of the fact, her keen perception grasped immediately the correc allusion to her own abdication. Dr. Heyward was therefore, after the examination of the publisher, taken to the tower in order to compell him by torture to name the actual author. "The Queen was evidently possessed of definite suspicions and as she had known Bacon as the writer of plays for the Grey's Inn Christmas celebrations or at least as a willing participant therin, she now sought to discover in conversation with Bacon at Twickenham Park, the real author of Richard II." In Hamlet, the entire tragedy of Francis' personal life can be seen without even looking to hard, especially in act IV, The Queens Closet. Hamlet/Bacon, who "has a caustic wit." His father a ghost, King Hamlet. Gertrude, the Queen "a stately dowager." Horatio, his childhood friend is Anthony, a scholar with an unusual Italian accent in Hamlet, his older step brother. Fortinbrass, who always rattled his saber, is the Earl of Essex, his natural brother by the Queen and Leisester. Polonius, the "hunchbacked" Cecil, greatest enemy of Francis at Elizabeth's court. And to make matters worse, there is an Ur Hamlet, who, the public was told, died of a snake bite. Verrry interesting Charlotte
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