Pardon? It's Arden (1)

A Bit Of Culture In An fbb Blog?

The above painting is called "Jaques and the Wounded Stag" and it is by George Romney; painted in 1790. And you are right, the stag doesn't look very wounded as it slakes its thirst in the babbling brook.

John Constable had a go in 1830 ...

... and his Jaques and the not very wounded Stag was copied by several others. William Blake in 1806 at least had a slightly dented stag.

So who was Jaques and why was he interested in a wounded stag? 

Jaques is a character in the play "As You Like It" by a certain Mr Will Shakespeare, only he pinched the idea from someone else and enhanced it!

In Act 2 Scene 1, one of the play's characters reports Jaques' encounter with the stag.

Jaques is not pronounced in the French way, despite the action of the play starting in the French Royal Court. Being Shakespeare, who played fast and loose with almost every writing technique for dramatic effect, the guy's name is pronounced in two totally different ways in the same play to fit the metre of the blank verse.

Don't ask, it's a bit technical.

Sometimes he is pronounced Jakes but elsewhere in the same play he is Jake-Wheeze. Anyway he is a Melancholic (a k a Misery-Guts). If he is "bad cop" then "good cop" is the "fool"  called Touchstone. Jakes was also a pseudonym for the rather odoriferous version of a WC cubicle, so yet another hilarious Shakespeare joke!

Chortle, chortle.

Most of the (in)action takes place in he "Forest of Arden", which, in the real world, includes Bard Bill's birthplace, Stratford upon Avon.

It is that big green blob under "Mercia". Back then "forest" did not mean a big load of trees, but an area of wooded scrubland, undeveloped for farming but used for hunting, e.g. non-wounded stags. It comes from Latin "foris" which means "outside" from which we also get our word for some one who is outside, i.e. foreign!

Told you it was a bit of culture.

Quite how a "forest" in England is the setting for high jinks from the Royal Court of France is one of the mysteries that excite the thousands of scholars who study the Shakespeare plays. Maybe they travelled by Eurostar?

Finally, in this farrago of educational delights (?), blog readers may remember (albeit faintly) Jaques' famous speech which begins "all the world's a stage ..." and promotes, grumpily, "the seven ages of man".

fbb is at No 6, but rapidly approaching No 7!

 The sixth age shifts

Into the fat and slipper’d pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and

pouch on side;

His youthful hose, 

well sav’d, a world too small

For his huge shank; 

and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward 

childish treble, pipes

And whistles in his sound.

Last scene of all,

That ends this

strange eventful history,

Is second childishness,

tank wagon collecting,

and then oblivion;

Sans teeth, sans eyes,

sans taste, 

sans everything.

Ah, yes; this is a Public Transport blog. fbb was just enjoying the pleasure of remembering (c/o the computer) a fair bit of Shakespeare that he had long forgotten!

Three places retain the historic link to the Forest of Arden. They are: Henley-in-Arden ...

... Hampton-in-Arden ...

... and Tanworth-in-Arden ...

... wot fbb had never heard of. That is TaNworth, not TaMworth!

To which we must now add Arden Cross!

You will not be surprised that it isn't built yet. 

You will not be surprised that it has a "Vision"!!

And you will not be surprised that there are already lots of "artists' impressions" of what it will (might?) look like when it is built.

Even more exciting is an "impression" of what it will be like in the dark!

There may, eventually, be a cross at Arden Cross ...

... but if there is, it will be made of Bargain Hunt's famous antique material, namely "reconstituted stone". 

That's actually concrete, innit?

fbb can now reveal that Arden Cross will have a railway station, a tram station and a people mover. It might have some local buses as well, but they do not feature in the vision.

It will be here ...

... and fbb will revel all in tomorrow's blog.

fbb is such a tease!

Confused.com? Here is a map showing two of the "in Arden" localities ...

... and here is the third.

All three have railway stations and one of them is not too far from Arden Cross.

And, on refection and hazy recollection, fbb did know "Tanworth" but not that it was "in Arden".

 Next 'Pardon? It's Arden' blog : Tues 17 June