PEOPLE ALMOST MENTIONED IN A WEEK: A WEEK: Gazed on the Heavens for what he missed on Earth. Britania s Pastorals. PEOPLE OF WALDEN NARRATIVE HISTORY AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project William Browne
1591 William Browne was born at Tavistock in Devonshire to a branch of the family of Browne of Betchworth Castle in Surrey, England. After a grammar-school education in his native town he would attend Exeter College at Oxford University. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT William Browne Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project
1603 William Browne matriculated at Exeter College at Oxford University. He would reside initially at Clifford s Inn. EXETER COLLEGE DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. William Browne Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project
1611 William Browne began a study of law at the Inner Temple.
1613 The initial publication of William Browne s BRITANNIA S PASTORALS. His elegy on the death of Henry, prince of Wales. John Ford s long religious poem CHRISTES BLOODIE SWEAT, and also a prose essay published as a pamphlet, THE GOLDEN MEAN. CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT William Browne Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project
1614 William Browne s THE SHEPHEARD S PIPE, which contained some eclogues by other poets. 1 A WEEK: Gazed on the Heavens for what he missed on Earth. Britania s Pastorals. PEOPLE OF WALDEN 1. See page 320.
1615 January 13, Friday (1614, Old Style): William Browne s masque for the Inner Temple on the story of Ulysses and Circe was prepared for performance on this date (we aren t sure it actually got performed). LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? NO, THAT S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN S STORIES. LIFE ISN T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project William Browne
1616 The 2d publication of William Browne s BRITANNIA S PASTORALS, dedicated to William Herbert, 3d earl of Pembroke (the earl s seat at Wilton was for some time Browne s home).
HDT WHAT? INDEX
1624 April: Lord Herbert of Cherbury returned to England from his diplomatic travels in Europe, bringing his fun travel companion Thomas Carew back with him. William Browne returned to Exeter College at Oxford University, this time as tutor to Robert Dormer, afterward earl of Carnarvon. Oxford THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project William Browne
November: William Browne was awarded the MA degree at Exeter College at Oxford University. EXETER COLLEGE
1625 The initial two issues of William Browne s BRITANNIA S PASTORALS were re-issued.
1628 William Browne got married with Timothy Eversham, a daughter of Sir Thomas Eversham of Horsham, Essex.
1643 March 27, Monday (Old Style): It seems more than likely that this is the point at which William Browne died, since there is indeed a record of a burial for that name in the Tavistock registers and since by 1645 he was definitely dead (because a letter of administration was given to his widow).
1772 John Davies s collected edition of William Browne s works.
1815 A series of William Browne s sonnets to Caelia, along with some epistles, elegies and epitaphs, and some other miscellaneous poems collected from various sources, were published by Sir S.E. Brydges as ORIGINAL POEMS BY.
1844 January 17, Wednesday: Waldo Emerson checked out from Harvard Library, for Henry Thoreau, the 6th volume of Alexander Chalmers s 1810 anthology, THE WORKS OF THE ENGLISH POETS, FROM CHAUCER TO COWPER, 2 the volume that contains William Browne s Britannia s Pastorals (1613) and The Shepherd s Pipe (1614), Francis Beaumont s THE HONEST MAN S FORTUNE, Richard Crashaw s Sospetto d Herode, Charles Cotton s The World, The Morning Quatrains, Evening Quatrains, The Tempest, On the Death of the Most Noble Thomas Earl of Ossory, and Contentment, the poetry of Sir John Beaumont, Sir William Davenant s preface to Gondibert, the poetry of Giles Fletcher and Phineas Fletcher, William Habington s To Roses in the Bosome of Castara, and Sir John Birkenhead s On the Happy Collection of Mr. FLETCHER S Works, never before printed. PERUSE VOLUME VI JOHN BIRKENHEAD CHARLES COTTON RICHARD CRASHAW WILLIAM DAVENANT GILES FLETCHER PHINEAS FLETCHER WILLIAM HABINGTON Thoreau would make notes on this reading in his Literary Notebook and Miscellaneous Extracts. 3 2. THE WORKS OF THE ENGLISH POETS, FROM CHAUCER TO COWPER; INCLUDING THE SERIES EDITED WITH PREFACES, BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL, BY DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON: AND THE MOST APPROVED TRANSLATIONS. THE ADDITIONAL LIVES BY ALEXANDER CHALMERS IN TWENTY-ONE VOLUMES. London, 1810. 3. See page 320 of the William Browne text.
WALDEN: Breed s hut was standing only a dozen years ago, though it had long been unoccupied. It was about the size of mine. It was set on fire by mischievous boys, one Election night, if I do not mistake. I lived on the edge of the village then, and had just lost myself over Davenant s Gondibert, that winter that I labored with a lethargy, which, by the way, I never knew whether to regard as a family complaint, having an uncle who goes to sleep shaving himself, and is obliged to sprout potatoes in a cellar Sundays, in order to keep awake and keep the Sabbath, or as the consequence of my attempt to read Chalmers collection of English poetry without skipping. It fairly overcame my Nervii. I had just sunk my head on this when the bells rung fire, and in hot haste the engines rolled that way, led by a straggling troop of men and boys, and I among the foremost, for I had leaped the brook. We thought it was far south over the woods, we who had run to fires before, barn, shop, or dwelling-house, or all together. It s Baker s barn, cried one. It is the Codman Place, affirmed another. And then fresh sparks went up above the wood, as if the roof fell in, and we all shouted Concord to the rescue! Wagons shot past with furious speed and crushing loads, bearing, perchance, among the rest, the agent of the Insurance Company, who was bound to go however far; and ever and anon the engine bell tinkled behind, more slow and sure, and rearmost of all, as it was afterward whispered, came they who set the fire and gave the alarm. Thus we kept on like true idealists, rejecting the evidence of our senses, until at a turn in the road we heard crackling and actually felt the heat of the fire from over the wall, and realized, alas! that we were there. The very nearness of the fire but cooled our ardor. At first we thought to throw a frog-pond on to it; but concluded to let it burn, it was so far gone and so worthless. So we stood round our engine, jostled one another, expressed our sentiments through speaking trumpets, or in lower tone referred to the great conflagrations which the world has witness, including Bascom s shop, and, between ourselves we thought that, were we there in season with our tub, and a full frog-pond by, we could turn that threatened last and universal one into another flood. We finally retreated without doing any mischief, returned to sleep and Gondibert. But as for Gondibert, I would except that passage in the preface about wit being the soul s powder, but most of mankind are strangers to wit, as Indians are to powder. PEOPLE OF WALDEN DAVENANT
A WEEK: Gazed on the Heavens for what he missed on Earth. Britania s Pastorals. PEOPLE OF WALDEN A WEEK: Man is man s foe and destiny. COTTON. PEOPLE OF WALDEN CHARLES COTTON Fy! What a wretched World is this? Nothing but anguish, griefs, and fears, Where, who does best, must do amiss, Frailty the Ruling Power bears In this our dismal Vale of Tears. Oh! who would live, that could but dye, Dye honestly, and as he shou d, Since to contend with misery Will do the wisest Man no good, Misfortune will not be withstood. The most that helpless man can do Towards the bett ring his Estate Is but to barter woe for woe, And he ev n there attempts too late, So absolute a Prince is Fate. But why do I of Fate complain; Man might live happy, if not free, And Fortunes shocks with ease sustain, If Man would let him happy be: Man is Man s Foe, and Destiny. And that Rib Woman, though she be But such a little little part; Is yet a greater Fate than he, And has the Power, or the Art The World. ODE. I II III IV V
To break his Peace; nay break his Heart. Ah, glorious Flower, lovely piece Of superfine refined Clay, Thou poyson st only with a Kiss, And dartest an auspicious Ray On him thou meanest to betray. These are the World, and these are they That Life does so unpleasant make, Whom to avoid there is no way But the wild Desart straight to take, And there to husband the last stake. Fly to the empty Desarts then, For so you leave the World behind, There s no World where there are no Men, And Brutes more civil are, and kind, Than Man whose Reason Passions blind. For should you take an Hermitage, Tho you might scape from other wrongs, Yet even there you bear the rage Of venemous, and slanderous tongues, Which to the Innocent belongs. Grant me then, Heav n, a wilderness, And there an endless Solitude, Where though Wolves howl, and Serpents hiss, Though dang rous, tis not half so rude As the ungovern d Multitude. And Solitude in a dark Cave, Where all things husht, and silent be, Resembleth so the quiet Grave, That there I would prepare to flee, With Death, that hourly waits for me. VI VII VIII IX X XI
1852 A 3d book of William Browne s BRITANNIA S PASTORALS (previously unknown though it must have been in circulation during the author s lifetime) was discovered by Beriah Botfield bound up with the editions of 1613 and 1616 in the library of Salisbury cathedral, and was edited by T.C. Croker for publication by the Percy Society. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project William Browne
1862 May 11, Sunday: Louisa May Alcott sent Sophia Foord a keepsake snippet from the wreath of andromeda they had placed on Henry s coffin.
Concord May 11th Dear Miss Ford As I promised to write you when Henry died I send these few lines to fulfil that promise though I suppose you have seen notices of the event in the papers. Father saw him the day before he died lying patiently & cheerfully on the bed he would never leave again alive. He was very weak but suffered nothing & talked in his old pleasant way saying it took Nature a long time to do her work but he was most out of the world. On Tuesday at eight in the morning he asked to be lifted, tried to help do it but was too weak & lying down again passed quietly & painlessly out the old world into the new. On Friday at Mr. Emerson s desire he was publicly buried from the church, a thing Henry would not have liked but Emerson said his sorrow was so great he wanted all the world to mourn with him. Many friends came from Boston & Worcester, Emerson read an address good in itself but not appropriate to the time or place, the last few sentences were these & very true. In the Tyrol there grows a flower on the most inaccessible peaks of the mountains, called Adelvezia or noble purity, it is so much loved by the maidens that their lovers risk their lives in seeking it & are often found dead at the foot of precipices with the flower in their hands. I think our friend s life was a search for this rare flower, & I know that could we see him now we should find him adorned with profuse garlands of it for none could more fitly wear them. Mr. Channing wrote the Stanzas & they were very sweetly sung. Father read selections from Henry s own books, for many people said he was an infidel & as he never went to church when living he ought not to be carried there dead. If ever a man was a real Christian it was Henry, & I think his own wise & pious thoughts read by one who loved him & whose own life was a beautiful example of religious faith, convinced many & touched the hearts of all. It was a lovely day clear, & calm, & spring like, & as we all walked after Henry s coffin with its pall of flowers, carried by six of his townsmen who had grown up with him, it seemed as if Nature wore her most benignant aspect to welcome her dutiful & loving son to his long sleep in her arms. As we entered the churchyard birds were singing, early violets blooming in the grass & the pines singing their softest lullaby, & there between his father & his brother we left him, feeling that though his life seemed too short, it would blossom & bear fruit for us long after he was gone, & that perhaps we should know a closer friendship now than even while he lived.
I never can mourn for such men because they never seem lost to me but nearer & dearer for the solemn change. I hope you have this consolation, & if these few words of mine can give you anything you have not already learned I am very glad, & can only add much love from us all & a heart full from your Lou. Come & see us when you can, after this week we shall be clean & in order, & always ready. I enclose a little sprig of andromeda his favourite plant a wreath of which we put on his coffin. The above does not do complete justice to the letter. Louisa was using two sheets of paper, front and back for a total of four pages, to write to her former teacher, and when she got to I hope you have this consolation, & if these few words she had run out of space at the bottom of the back of her second sheet. To have added a third sheet would have increased the postage, so she therefore went back to the top of the front side of the first sheet, above the salutation, to continue in the blank space there with of mine can give you anything you have not already learned... we shall be clean & in good order, & always ready, whereupon she again ran out of blank space, and so she turned the sheets over, and at the top margin of the front of the second sheet, upside down, she wrote I enclose a little sprig of andromeda and at the top margin of the back of the first sheet, upside down, she wrote his favorite plant a wreath of which we put on his coffin. (In the 1962 publication, a photograph of the actual letter has been presented.)
Sophia Elizabeth Thoreau evidently posted on this day a letter that she had begun to write to Friend Daniel Ricketson on April 7th: CONCORD, April 7, 1862. MR. RICKETSON: DEAR SIR, I feel moved to acknowledge the pleasant letters which Henry has lately received from you. It is really refreshing to hear of the flight of the wild geese and the singing of birds. There is a good deal of snow still whitening our fields. I am almost impatient to see the ground bare again. My dear brother has survived the winter, and we should be most thankful if he might linger to welcome the green grass and the flowers once more. Believing as I do in the sincerity of your friendship for Henry, I feel anxious that you should know how ill he is. Since the autumn he has been gradually failing, and is now the embodiment of weakness; still, he enjoys seeing his friends, and every bright hour he devotes to his manuscripts which he is preparing for publication. For many weeks he has spoken only in a faint whisper. Henry accepts this dispensation with such childlike trust and is so happy that I feel as if he were being translated, rather than dying in the ordinary way of most mortals. I hope you will come and see him soon, and be cheered. He has often expressed pleasure at the prospect of seeing you. I asked Mr. Alcott to write to you some weeks since; but I do not think that he impressed you with Henry s true condition. Few of his friends realize how sick he is, his spirits are always so good. In much haste, believe me, yours truly, S.E. THOREAU. P.S. Henry sends kind regards to you and your family, and desires me to tell you that he cannot rise to greet a guest, and has not been out for three months. SUNDAY May 11th 62. Mottoes placed in Henry s coffin by his friend W.E.C.: Hail to thee, 0 man, who art come from the transitory place to the imperishable. Gazed on the heavens for what he missed on earth. I think for to touche also The world whiche neweth everie daie, So as I can, so as I maie. Dear friend, you will not forget the bereaved mother and sister. Yours truly, S.E. THOREAU.
MAGISTERIAL HISTORY IS FABULATION, HISTORY IS CHRONOLOGY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In addition to the property of others, such as extensive quotations and reproductions of images, this read-only computer file contains a great deal of special work product of Austin Meredith, copyright 2014. Access to these interim materials will eventually be offered for a fee in order to recoup some of the costs of preparation. My hypercontext button invention which, instead of creating a hypertext leap through hyperspace resulting in navigation problems allows for an utter alteration of the context within which one is experiencing a specific content already being viewed, is claimed as proprietary to Austin Meredith and therefore freely available for use by all. Limited permission to copy such files, or any material from such files, must be obtained in advance in writing from the Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project, 833 Berkeley St., Durham NC 27705. Please contact the project at <kouroo@kouroo.info>. It s all now you see. Yesterday won t be over until tomorrow and tomorrow began ten thousand years ago. Remark by character Garin Stevens in William Faulkner s INTRUDER IN THE DUST Prepared: June 5, 2014 Stack of the Artist of Kouroo Project William Browne
ARRGH AUTOMATED RESEARCH REPORT GENERATION HOTLINE This stuff presumably looks to you as if it were generated by a human. Such is not the case. Instead, someone has requested that we pull it out of the hat of a pirate who has grown out of the shoulder of our pet parrot Laura (as above). What these chronological lists are: they are research reports compiled by ARRGH algorithms out of a database of modules which we term the Kouroo Contexture (this is data mining). To respond to such a request for information we merely push a button.
Commonly, the first output of the algorithm has obvious deficiencies and we need to go back into the modules stored in the contexture and do a minor amount of tweaking, and then we need to punch that button again and recompile the chronology but there is nothing here that remotely resembles the ordinary writerly process you know and love. As the contents of this originating contexture improve, and as the programming improves, and as funding becomes available (to date no funding whatever has been needed in the creation of this facility, the entire operation being run out of pocket change) we expect a diminished need to do such tweaking and recompiling, and we fully expect to achieve a simulation of a generous and untiring robotic research librarian. Onward and upward in this brave new world. First come first serve. There is no charge. Place requests with <kouroo@kouroo.info>. Arrgh.