Pamela Dean is indirectly responsible for a ridiculous amount of my bookshelf.

[marnanightingale]

And, actually, for this, for causing me to track down the phrase "farewell earth's bliss" many many years ago. Well, I suppose I can't blame her for the typesetting hobby; I think originally that was the subtle influence of benet.



Text: Thomas Nashe, Litany in a Time of Plague, from Summer's Last Will And Testament.

Capitals: Hans Holbein, Dance of Death Alphabet
Body Type: Sorts Mill Goudy.
Image: Alfred Rethel, detail from Der Tod als Freund,
Border: William Morris, from The Works Of Geoffery Chaucer.

Larger web version available on flikr, enormous printable .tif file negotiably available upon request.

Also, I'm not feeling morbid or depressed or anything, do not be concerned.
I've been meaning to do this one for ages.

This post was originally posted on Dreamwidth. where there are comments. Comment here or there as you prefer.

Comments

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

That is gorgeous! Did I ever send you my musical setting of that poem?

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

You did and I <3 it!

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

I really like this. The green and black border-- the whole balance of it.

I would have expected such a poem to be disturbing-- but it is strangely comforting...

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

The Elizabethans had a sort of familiar intimacy with both death and heaven that I find deeply comforting.

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

It's odd, but the influence of that Wiliam Morris border is so strong that I automatically placed the whole thing in the Arts & Crafts/late 19th century period -- even though most of your sources are from centuries earlier.

Lovely work! Your elements really work well together.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Rethel and Morris were contemporaries; I liked the juxtaposition of them and then Nashe/Holbein, who were also more-or-less contemporaries of one another, and of course a great big nod to the 19th C/Pre-Raphaelite obsession with the Medieval.

[sultrysong.livejournal.com]

I want to form a band called The Subtle Influence of Benet.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I want to be the Road Manager!

[theobviousname.livejournal.com]

Arbsh!

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

I'm not parsing that, which is almost certainly down to me being sick and stupid atm. Help?

[theobviousname.livejournal.com]

The text of the poem is a bit small at the scale the image shows on my monitor, so at a cursory glance I read the drop capitals as an acrostic.

Actually, I tend to try to read anything with a strong vertical line as an acrostic. Perhaps I was meant to be born Japanese.

[eglantine-br.livejournal.com]

Supposing I wanted the file of the great big printable-- If, say I wanted a copy suitable for framing.

Would you sell it? Could this be accomplished?

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

It could indeed, several ways. Email me? Marna at marna do ca.

[fallconsmate.livejournal.com]

that is truly beautiful. :)