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where_away2012-11-10 11:30 pm
sharpiefan) wrote in where_away2012-11-10 11:30 pm
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Quick question
Which book was it in where the parody on the Commander in Chief and his dictates, based on the biblical story of King Nebuchadnezzar and the Golden Image shows up?
I've just come across a reference to it in a book on the Marines, in a section on Admiral Jervis, Earl St Vincent, and want to re-read it.
(The quote referring to it, from The Formative Years 1803 to 1806 by Lt-Col Brian Edwards, RM:
Though he [Admiral Jervis] did have a sense of humour, it apparently took the form of schoolboy pranks prom a position of prefect - summoning all Chaplains to the Flagship by boat in choppy seas, or sending for his Senior RM Officer, who had no watchkeeping duties, in the middle watch so that he might smell the scent of oranges wafting from the Spanish shore. Jokes against himself were no doubt risky but those of similar schoolboy derivation might amuse; the junior lieutenant, who composed a parody on the Commander-in-Chief and his dictates, based on the Biblical story of 'the Golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar the King had set up', was invited to dinner and unexpectedly provided with a copy of his own work to read aloud over the port; having had his fun, the Earl then sent the young man on three months leave 'to entertain those at home as much as he had been entertained' and with an invitation to dine with him again on his return.)
I've just come across a reference to it in a book on the Marines, in a section on Admiral Jervis, Earl St Vincent, and want to re-read it.
(The quote referring to it, from The Formative Years 1803 to 1806 by Lt-Col Brian Edwards, RM:
Though he [Admiral Jervis] did have a sense of humour, it apparently took the form of schoolboy pranks prom a position of prefect - summoning all Chaplains to the Flagship by boat in choppy seas, or sending for his Senior RM Officer, who had no watchkeeping duties, in the middle watch so that he might smell the scent of oranges wafting from the Spanish shore. Jokes against himself were no doubt risky but those of similar schoolboy derivation might amuse; the junior lieutenant, who composed a parody on the Commander-in-Chief and his dictates, based on the Biblical story of 'the Golden Image that Nebuchadnezzar the King had set up', was invited to dinner and unexpectedly provided with a copy of his own work to read aloud over the port; having had his fun, the Earl then sent the young man on three months leave 'to entertain those at home as much as he had been entertained' and with an invitation to dine with him again on his return.)
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(I remember being in absolute stitches when I first read it, having no notion it was copied from an actual historical parody!!)
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The original is in the Book of Daniel - Old Testament. Get a decent modern translation, New International Version or Today's English Version. I find the King James Version, while beautiful, is too much like reading Shakespeare for me to be able to engage with.
The repetition of the lists (in Daniel, it's a list of people - satraps, governors etc - and instruments like the harp, the zither, the lyre...) is a technique used in the time and place that the book was written, because originally it was passed on by oral tradition and this was a way to make it memorable to the people listening.