VP wrote: Kinbote is a very sly
Zemblan...the more I look at Conmal - in the note to line 962 Kinbote makes him
resemble John Shade, but Conmal's "extraordinary sonnet" in "colorful, if not
quite correct, English," takes a viewpoint that is precisely
Kinbotean,
namely that the study of botany (acanthus) is no match for the
study of
nobility (architrave).
Dear Vic
Perry,
I had a vague remembrance of the acanthus leaf in
association to the military, besides the ornamentation of medieval
manuscripts.
In Brazil the "acanthus leaf" stands
for purity and the maintenance of the Honor Code in the Army division
that deals with Logistics (
arms,fuel,provisions,etc) . Google,
through the "acanthus leaf/military" led me to Anglo-Saxon England,
Roman Britain, Herodotus ( Persian & Greek battles, name of a city) and The
Weimar Republic.
I don't see a clear connection bt this thorny leaf
and "Botany" (anthos: flower; acanthus: thorns or spikes ), nor
do I understand your interpretation of "architrave" as representative
of nobility ( although it seems that the Greek "arch" does stand
for "higher"). Both are linked to the
"corynthian column", but this is as far as I went on foreign
grounds.
Let drawing students copy the
acanthus,
I work with Master on the
architrave!