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    Crystal Ball Cameos
    Crystal Ball Cameos
    Crystal Ball Cameos
    Ebook86 pages39 minutes

    Crystal Ball Cameos

    By Leo Madigan

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    About this ebook

    Crystal Ball Cameos is a collection of 21 verses which take as their premise which is retrospective rather than foreseeing. Characters from near or ancient history appear, none of them known to posterity, but usually with some connection with famous figures. Schopenhauer's charlady for instance, and King Croesus' accountant. Napoleon's psycho-analyst is here too, along with Lucrezia Borgia's confessor and Vlad the Impaler's Aunt Immacula. Certain historical and literary conundrums are solved, such as whether or not hieroglyphics employed the letter 'w' (see Cleopatra's chiropodist) and the identities of the Mr W. H. of Shakespeare's sonnets and the Unknown Soldier. Superman, Batman and Spiderman have a brother who missed the limelight as did two Saxon sailors who believe they started the Hundred years War. The Mayor of Sodom has a verse to himself as do Goliath's batman and a number of others among whom is the beggar with whom St Martin shared cloak:
    Who's that banging in the night,
    My bones a mess, my shroud a sight?
    It's not good manners interrupting
    Cadavers quietly corrupting.

    Originally conceived as audition pieces for actors, these verses would not be out of places alongside Belloc's Cautionary Tales and Don Marquis' archy and metitabel.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLeo Madigan
    Release dateMar 17, 2013
    ISBN9789898564085
    Crystal Ball Cameos
    Author

    Leo Madigan

    Born in New Zealand. Joined the British Merchant Navy at 16. Graduated with B.Ed from London University and taught High School in London and Izmir, Turkey.Currently lives in Fatima, Portugal.

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      Book preview

      Crystal Ball Cameos - Leo Madigan

      Crystal Ball Cameos

      Encounters with Second Fiddles

      Leo Madigan

      Published by Leo Madigan at Smashwords

      Copyright 2013 Leo Madigan

      For Charley Apperley

      These verses were originally conceived

      as audition pieces for actors

      tmp_7087d004e7734dc24292358cd48f9339_tTFwCy_html_m8290635.jpg

      Contents:

      1. Encounter the Ball

      2. Schopenhauer's Char

      3. Bog Man.

      4. Cleopatra's Chiropodist

      5. King Croesus' Accountant

      6. Bucko & Oppo

      7. Goliath's Batman

      8. An Insignificant Demon

      9. Lucrezia Borgia’s Confessor

      10. Napoleon’s (Undercover) Psycho-Analyst

      11. Booth’s Prompt

      12. Shakespeare's Swain: Mr. W.H.

      13. St. Martin's Beggar

      14. St. Sebastian's Model

      15. Sts. Peter and Andrew's Parents

      16. The Hell of the Sisters Bell

      17. The Man from Porlock

      18. The Mayor of Sodom

      19. The Unkown Soldier

      20. Vlad the Impaler's Aunt

      21. The Failed Poet's Society

      1. I Encounter the Ball.

      I never felt the need at all

      Of witch's wand or gypsy's ball

      Until one morning as I strode

      Along the Portobello Road

      My eye discerned among the junk,

      Stuffed inside a cardboard trunk,

      Between a porcelain banana,

      Bric-a-brac, Victoriana,

      Velvet drapes and bits of brass,

      An orb of pure translucent glass.

      And as I looked it seemed to me

      The face of mediocrity

      Rose from a limbo deep within

      Intoning like a sombre djinn:

      Lumiar, you worthy Peer,

      Strike a bargain, buy this sphere;

      Fate has selected you to be

      Our contact with this century.

      'Job lot for a tenner, chum!'

      Said the barrow boy; and the deal was done.

      I removed the glass from the mildewed chest

      To take it home, and dumped the rest.

      By home, of course, you'll know I mean

      The family manor, Bethnal Green.

      In a belvedere by the labyrinth

      There stands a fluted marble plinth

      Which once had graced the servant's hall.

      On this I set the Crystal Ball.

      There ensued a series of soirées

      With citizens of yesterdays -

      Interesting folk, and fine,

      But none that one could ask to dine.

      Those within the Crystal's sphere,

      Are secondary folk, I fear.

      tmp_7087d004e7734dc24292358cd48f9339_tTFwCy_html_5444295d.png

      2. Schopenhauer's Char.

      Look! I found this crystal ball

      On a seedy market stall;

      If I’m still and hold it fast

      Faces rise up from the past.

      Who is this emerging now?

      It's a haus und garten frau.

      Tell us, liebling, who you are.

      I am Schopenhauer's char.

      Not the Prussian, Arthur Schope.,

      Long on gloom and short on hope,

      Deploring joy, embracing triste,

      The psyche's vivisectionist?

      Them things ain't no concern of mine.

      I done the house by luncheon time

      And in the afternoons I sat

      At needlework and things like that.

      Not the man whose greatest thrill

      Was analyzing human will?

      Who minimized the picturesque

      At the timber of his desk?

      He was always up front with me pay,

      And changed his stockings twice a day;

      He didn't drink or smoke or go

      To gaming dens, like some I know.

      Did he never calm your fears

      With a metaphysics of ideas?

      Never shock you over tea

      By damning Kant's philosophy?

      Not so as I know of dear.

      Now I've got to go, I fear.

      There's ever so much to be done

      In Paradise, beyond the sun.

      Well ask him, will you, what he thinks

      Of Bertrand Russell, William Finks,

      John Stuart Mill

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