---- By J. L. Speranza
----------- Dedicated to J. M. Geary, of the
------------ Memphis Metaphysical Ministry.
Geary shares with the Grice Club his keenness for 'kankedort'. The MLN (1949) suggests it's 'conundrum', only mispelt. The OED, in analysing the hapax legomenon in Chaucer, "Was Troilus nought in a kandedort?" defines it as, "an awkward situation or affair".
Awkward indeed what the silly (means 'blessed') lexicographers find themselves (_not_ their-selves!) in. _If_ Chaucer meant 'conundrum', surely Griceians can play on that. _If_ he meant that Troilus was in an awkward affair (with Criseyde, no doubt), the topic is still soluble. Or not.
"The problem with the utterer's intention approach to meaning", Geary comments, "is that Chaucer is dead, and Cruseyde, who asks, 'Was Troilus nought in a kankedort?' was never alive".
Troilus and Criseyde is perhaps the most underrated operatic couple. We have operas on Tom and Jerry, Cleopatra, Othello, Snowwhite, ... you name them. But, Sir William Walton noted, "We still don't have an opera on "Troilus and Criseyde"". He remedied that. The opera played ONCE at Covent Garden: a hapax playomenon. Walton was married to this aristocratic Argentine, Susana -- "they never liked me in England". Susana Walton recalls in her biography (some say ghost! I don't!) of her hubby, how SHE (whose English was clumsy) was vocal-coaching the soprano into the Chaucerian rhythms. _She_ was Scandinavian. Eventually, the Waltons had settled in Ischia, where Susana keeps the LOVELIEST garden in town! And they contacted the awarded Italian poet to transcribe to Dante's language that particular phrase,
"Was Troilus nought in a kankedort?"
The opera now opened in Milano to high-celeb status. But again it was a hapax playomenon. The Italians _won't_ accept an opera in Italian by a non-Italian author! Plus, the melodies hardly matched Puccini's.
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Haha! This would be an opera about Derrida (undecisionism). As for the love-spoken problem, I would recommend the opera Cyrano de Bergerac-- a four-act opera with music by Franco Alfano, and libretto by Henri Caïn, based on Edmond Rostand's drama Cyrano de Bergerac. ...What about an opera on the missing sections of Parmenides' poem? "In opera, there is always too much singing" says Claude Debussy--so this would be effectively wordfree, if not existants also.
ReplyDeleteRight.
ReplyDeleteI see the man William Walton and Argentine lady, Susana, approached was none other than Montale, from 'il paese meo", Liguria. From wiki:
"Montale was born in Genoa. His family were chemical products traders (his father furnished Italo Svevo's firm)..."
He was a Nobel Prize. So the exercise here is to check that line in Chaucer, T & C, II, and check with various translations.
I would NOT think Montale had to deal with the kankedort, but you never know. The libretto of the English thing was by "Brookite" C. Hassall. I always admired Hassall since I read his "Rubert Brooke" bio and learned he had set to music some of Brooke's lovely sonnets for boy-voices.
It seems that as per the MLN (1949) thing, Crisyede did mean 'conundrum' -- but one wonders if the OED3 will take into consideration this finding or just stick with it being 'an awkward situation or affair'. One wonders.