Subject: Trunken Heads -or- A New Leaf From: maus@Morgan.COM (Malcolm Austin) Date: 1991-03-07, 14:36 Newsgroups: alt.tv.twin-peaks In article <6696@idunno.Princeton.EDU> news@idunno.Princeton.EDU (USENET News System) writes: >from Spenser's the Fairy Queen: > > > >Then groning deepe, "Nor damned Ghost," quoth he. > > "Nor guilefull sprite to thee these wordes doth speake, > > But once a man...now a tree... > > A cruell witch... hath thus transformed." > >(I've left out a lot, but you get the idea.) > > The footnote to my edition says, "The motif of a man imprisoned > >in a tree derives from Virgil (Aeneid 3.27-42) and is used by Ariosto > >(Orlando Furiouso 6.26-53). > > I don't have a copy of the Aeneid of the Furiouso. Clearly, > >this is significant. Can anyone track this down further? > > Well, I don't have the Aeneid, but your mention of Virgil brings to mind another arboreal metamorphosis in Dante's DIVINE COMEDY (in which Virgil is a major character). The Wood of the Suicides consists of thorny trees (shrubs?) housing the souls of suicides. When you pluck their leaves (which hurts) they can speak as long as the sap continues to ooze out of the wound. Back to the olde tales, wasn't Daphne turned into a tree when she ran from Apollo? -- =Malcolm Austin================================================================ maus@fid.morgan.com "It's antihistamine money--not to be sneezed at. #include That's a medical type joke, Rocky, do ya get it?" ---------------------------"Yeah, I got it." "Thousands won't!"---------------