From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I have been asked to forward the following.
The pilgrims poster for a very long time has not been in the club house. It
was removed from the foyer to the bar area for a while then removed
altogether. Not because it was NAFF so much that the person did not care for
it, too Darth Vader-ishand sombre for taste. The historical aspect of the
club, s interior/decore/ephemeta in general. The poem as such is misquoted
and has fox-trot alpha to do with dear old Rudyard Kipling. It come from the
verse play Hassan by James Elroy Flecher, 1st published in 1922. JEF was born
in Lewisham 1884, educated at Dean Close school, Cheltenham, where his dad
was h master. Then at uppingham where he won a classical scholarship 2
trinity Oxford. He passed the exam for the Consular Service in 1908. Spent 2
years studying oriental languages at Cambridge where he was a friend of other
poets and writers. He entered the Consular Service in 1910, was posted to
Istanbul, later Smyrna and Beirut, but was soon found to be suffering from
TB. He published several volumes of poetry and wrote 2 plays. Don Juan and
Hassan neither published in his lifetime he died in Switzerland in 1915 aged
31. He prob wrote Hasssan 1911-13 after reading an old Turkish farce in
Autumn 1911. The original Hassan script coming 2 the attention of Basil Dean
in Autumn 19113 via Viola Tree daughter of Sir Herbeit Tree for whom BBD
worked as an assistant producer, who said please give this wonderful play
special attention; I can, t get daddy to read it as he says it, s too long.
The final revised version was eventually performed on 20/9/1923 at His
Majesty, s Theatre.
The poem which does appear, in part, on the Clock-comes from act III, Scene
IV the last scene of the play, roughly in the middle. It is spoken by The
Master of the Caravan at the gate of the moon, Baghdad and Ishak (formerly
the Caliph Haron Al Raschid,s Minstrel now with Hassan, a pilgrim). Hassan is
not master of the caravan as per page 27 in Mr Stuart,s book, he is formally
a confectioner in the bazaar. It reads thus: The Principal Jews:
And we have manuscripts in peacock styles
By Alia of Damascus: we have swords
Engraved with storks and apes and crocodiles
and heavy beaten necklaces for lords
The Master of the Caravan
But you are nothing but a lot of Jews
The Principal Jew
Sir even dogs have daylight and we pay
The Master of the Caravan
But who are you in rags and rotten shoes
You dirty-bearded, blocking up the way?
Ishak
We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go
Always a little further: it may be
beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow
Axe that angry or that glimmering sea
Write on a throne or guarded in a cave
There lives a prophet who can understand
why men were born: but surely we are brave,
who take the golden road to Samarkand
They say sorry to go on at such length but thought you would appreciate the
background and indeed THE FACTS
Sorry if I made any mistakes,
Tina
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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