Last week I was taking my lunchtime constitutional when I noticed that the corner furniture store had a display of chairs with a big sign, "Le siege parfait pour [something or other]." I meditated on this for a minute.
Aha! "Siege" must mean "seat" or "chair" -- like in Morte D'Arthur, the Siege Perilous! And that would make sense, because Morte was written during the Hundred Years War, when a massive chunk of English people spoke French anyway. And then I got off thinking about how Morte was the second book Caxton printed, after the Bible, and then thought about early printing in general, and then I was back to my office.
That evening, I shared my discovery with Jonathan. "So 'siege' must mean 'seat'"--
"Like the Siege Perilous?"
"Yes, exactly!" (We must hang out together too much. )
After that, of course, I had to start re-reading Morte D'Arthur. I even carried it to work with me. And today I made another discovery.
You see, my work chair and my back have been quarreling of late. I keep meaning to take a pillow or something, but haven't yet. Today I stuffed my nice hefty softcover Morte back there, and found it quite comfortable. As we learned in college, a thick book makes an excellent pillow. Le siege parfait, indeed. :-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment