Wednesday, September 09, 2015

The Trembling Ghosts

"The trembling ghosts with sad amazed mood,/ Chattring their yron teeth, and staring wide/ With stonie eyes; and all the hellish brood/ Of feends infernall flockt on eury side..." That's some ghosts in hell being afraid of NIGHT (kind of terrifyingly described as "O thou most auncient Grandmother of all"), who is riding her chariot - or "charet" as Edmund Spenser calls it - ha ha! Get a dictionary, Edmund Spenser! - through hell... "Their mournefull charet, fild with rusty blood." I won't lie to you, THE FAERIE QUEENE is giving me the heebie jeebies. Even Sisyphus with his rock and "thirstie Tantalus hong by the chin" and Tityus, who "fed a vulture on his maw" (!) "Leaue off their worke, vnmindfull of their smart,/ To gaze on them..." So that's gotta be pretty intense! A sight so unusual it makes you temporarily forget that a vulture is feasting on your maw! And I haven't even told you about the very beginning, when the dude chops off a monster's head and the monster's babies start drinking blood out of the neck hole. I think I'm remembering that correctly. I guess what freaks me out the most is that the ghosts have iron teeth. Anyway, who writes this stuff?