Sunday, April 16, 2006
Right In Front of One's Nose
George Orwell, In Front of Your Nose (Tribune, March 22, 1946):
Dr. Christopher McDonough writes:
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To see what is in front of one's nose needs a constant struggle.Especially if one has a nose like that of Proclus, in the Greek Anthology 11.268 (tr. W.R. Paton):
Proclus cannot wipe his nose with his hand, for his arm is shorter than his nose; nor does he say "God preserve us" when he sneezes, for he can't hear his nose, it is so far away from his ears.Other epigrams in the eleventh book of the Greek Anthology that make fun of the length or shape of noses are 198, 199, 203, 204, 405, 406, and 418.
Οὐ δύναται τῇ χειρὶ Πρόκλος τὴν ῥῖν᾽ ἀπομύσσειν·
τῆς ῥινὸς γὰρ ἔχει τὴν χέρα μικροτέρην·
οὐδὲ λέγει Ζεῦ σῶσον ἐὰν πταρῇ· οὐ γὰρ ἀκούει
τῆς ῥινὸς· πολὺ γὰρ τῆς ἀκοῆς ἀπέχει.
Dr. Christopher McDonough writes:
Were you aware that Orwell (Eric Blair) had been a student of ASF Gow (of Gow & Page fame) at Eton, before he went off to Trinity at Cambridge? From Bernard Crick's George Orwell: A Life:I wasn't aware of this. Thanks for the information!Andrew Gow said that Blair 'made himself as big a nuisance as he could' and 'was a very unattractive boy'.
