Dec. 9
We don’t mind admitting toady’s tea, a Brazilian Mate , has us stumped. It claims to be ‘herbaceous,’ and maybe this is where the confusion started. Maybe we failed the Tea Marketing Course. We hear ‘herbaceous’ and think ‘border.’ You know, pretty English border gardens? Full of herbaceous shrubs? Yeah, that.
It also strongly suggests a herbal tea, and mate is definitely caffeinated. Not as caffeinated as, say, Full Flush Darjeeling, but it’s not camomile tea, either.
So, we went onto the website for this one, and the mythical David agrees about the caffeine, whatever the Advent Calendar packaging says. Of course, David also promises sweet notes in this tea, but all we’re getting is the earthy undertones. That might be our fault. We tipped the packet intou our tea bell, because without the little gold tins, it’s too hard to save leftover tea in the cupboard. The bags topple over. Something to think about, Friend David.
The point here is, we may have over-steeped the tea. It was a very generous portion of mate. We’d try it again with fewer leaves and an egg timer. But maybe not late at night.
About which – we were out at a concert this evening, hence squeaking in at the eleventh hour. It was a really good, Medieval music thing, with lutes and period instruments. No O-Antiphons, but that’s okay. I have my weekly appointment with Creator of the Starry Bloody Height tomorrow. Oh, wait, that’s not the title. It’s also a different post. Want to know which Advent hymn we’re already sick of? Tune in tomorrow. We’ll tell all.
Until then…We were going to find you a nice Middle English poem. You know, Donne, Herbert, Meredith…But it’s late, so we’re dipping into the emergency backup. Have Faux Middle English(e) instead.
The Ballad of Goodly Fere
Ezra Pound
Simon Zelotes speaking after the Crucifixion. Fere=Mate, Companion.
Ha’ we lost the goodliest fere o’ all
For the priests and the gallows tree?
Aye lover he was of brawny men,
O’ ships and the open sea.
When they came wi’ a host to take Our Man
His smile was good to see,
“First let these go!” quo’ our Goodly Fere,
“Or I’ll see ye damned,” says he.
Aye he sent us out through the crossed high spears
And the scorn of his laugh rang free,
“Why took ye not me when I walked about
Alone in the town?” says he.
Oh we drank his “Hale” in the good red wine
When we last made company,
No capon priest was the Goodly Fere
But a man o’ men was he.
I ha’ seen him drive a hundred men
Wi’ a bundle o’ cords swung free,
That they took the high and holy house
For their pawn and treasury.
They’ll no’ get him a’ in a book I think
Though they write it cunningly;
No mouse of the scrolls was the Goodly Fere
But aye loved the open sea.
If they think they ha’ snared our Goodly Fere
They are fools to the last degree.
“I’ll go to the feast,” quo’ our Goodly Fere,
“Though I go to the gallows tree.”
“Ye ha’ seen me heal the lame and blind,
And wake the dead,” says he,
“Ye shall see one thing to master all:
‘Tis how a brave man dies on the tree.”
A son of God was the Goodly Fere
That bade us his brothers be.
I ha’ seen him cow a thousand men.
I have seen him upon the tree.
He cried no cry when they drave the nails
And the blood gushed hot and free,
The hounds of the crimson sky gave tongue
But never a cry cried he.
I ha’ seen him cow a thousand men
On the hills o’ Galilee,
They whined as he walked out calm between,
Wi’ his eyes like the grey o’ the sea,
Like the sea that brooks no voyaging
With the winds unleashed and free,
Like the sea that he cowed at Genseret
Wi’ twey words spoke’ suddently.
A master of men was the Goodly Fere,
A mate of the wind and sea,
If they think they ha’ slain our Goodly Fere
They are fools eternally.
I ha’ seen him eat o’ the honey-comb
Sin’ they nailed him to the tree.
Wondering what fere means? It’s proper Middle English for ‘companion’ or ‘friend.’ For our money, it’s what sells the poem linguistically. The first time we heard it was while watching A Spy Among Friends. We know, we know, two English degrees and somehow Pound never came up. But because he didn’t, we genuinely took it for a fragment of something much older.
