Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Sweet Melancholy

Et je m'en vais

Au vent mauvais

Qui m'emporte

Deçà, delà,

Pareil à la

Feuille morte.*

The long sobs of the viols of autumn have now passed us by here in Melbourne, however, I continue to flutter about, much like any falling leaf.

In a recent post, I emphasised that one needs to be a manly man to apply paint to one’s otherwise recalcitrant Spencer Smiths. Now, if the mood takes me as it has for the past fortnight I can out-manly Bear Grylls or even Teddy Rooseveldt, but now, and with the days drawing in, I find myself in a more reflective mood.

So, let me turn up the lamp (but not too far!) and hold forth. I may, on occasion cough into a handkerchief. Do not dwell upon that!

I am, as many of you may have guessed somewhat of a two-sided character. One part of my nature is deeply practical and pragmatic, however I feel that this is something of a camouflage which conceals something of the decadent and the romantic. There is always the backward glance to the fin-de-siecle, the work of Beardsley and Wilde. The bold Cavalier, the dark and liquid eye that gazes calmly back from a Van Dyck.

This mood can be evoked for me by many things. A misty morning. Day-long rain. The way a thin wash of a beautiful yellow buff moulds the supple limbs of a Gilder Cavalier. Oh! The way in which it flows over the cleanly white of the undercoat. The perfect way in which a thin line of darkest brown finishes the shape. One yearns to apply the gloss varnish.

But! Patience! Patience! Consummation will be the sweeter for waiting.



*And I'm going

On an ill wind

That carries me

Here and there,
As if a
Dead leaf.

15 comments:

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

This is priceless! Once of your best posts ever.

Best Regards,

Stokes

Bloggerator said...

And I even wrote it sober.

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

I'm more than a bit worried now. Imagine the power that could be at your fingertips after a few. Sort of like Dr. Evil but in a Pacific Rim context.

Best Regards,

Stokes

Bloggerator said...

I like it.

johnpreece said...

Strewth mate, you want to knock those Hinchliffe ECW on the Head.

Pure Absinthe for wargamers, they are. If you don't watch out you'll be gaming in a dressing gown and painting fleur de mal on your Persians.

Bloggerator said...

Whilst - no doubt - being arrested for outrages against public decency.

It is my contention that there is insufficient decadence among the petit bourgeois of the wargaming set.

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Well, if I could only find just the right pair of Prince Albert slippers. . .

Best Regards,

Stokes

Old School ACW said...

Shopping cures nothing.

johnpreece said...

Well, you may well have a point about the cultural horizons of wargamers.

In your favour is the absence of Oscar Wilde or Aubrey Beardsley figures in a genre overflowing with Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper.

On the other hand a hobby which contains the pricing structure of Wargames Foundry cannot be totally lacking in decadence.

Fitz-Badger said...

"I am a leaf on the wind" - Wash.

Old School ACW said...

Or at least not lacking in disposable income.

Funny old world. We feel so insecure, so powerless, and we compensate with a mortgage payment to Foundry.

I wonder if booze, drugs and poetry have some compensations I'm not yet aware of.

Greg

Bloggerator said...

Fitz - Wash?

Steve Gill said...

Perkins.
Sir?
My compliments to the M.O. and ask him if he would be so good as to refer Horne to the Trick Cyclist at his earliest convenience.
Very good Sir.

Bloggerator said...

Perkins - ignore him. If he does not desisst at once, I shall be forced to create a small but exquisite diorama consisting of female gladiators in a state of nature dueling for the entertainment of lolling Roman aristos.

Actually...

Fitz-Badger said...

Wash = Washburne = pilot of the Serenity on the tv series Firefly. That was one of his most-quoted lines, your post made me think of it. :)