Eclogues, p.24
Eclogues, page 24
He was, I suppose, riffling through the essences of his mind, perhaps (and comfort myself to suppose) Mezzani the organ grinder in Padova turning the overture to I Vespri Siciliani, his monkey patting her crissum under her tutu (a memory that appeared in a conversation).
He had, we know, waved to Marc Aurel earlier on the Place Tourny. What revery could follow from that? Was he, moments before the pain jolted into his neck above the left shoulder, thinking of the day before at our house, of Victor chinning himself on a bar across a door?
Quello sfacciatello Ganimede! he had said happily as two slender legs swung toward him, no break in the up and down of chinning, and as the pain beat on his heart, did he beg for mercy, or did his wonderful imagination see that anche colui che era in Arcadia was with him?
About the Author
Guy Davenport (1927–2005) was an American writer, artist, translator, and teacher who was best known for his short stories that combined a modernist style with classical subjects. Originally from South Carolina, Davenport graduated from Duke University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford, where he wrote his thesis on James Joyce. After earning a PhD from Harvard, he taught English at Haverford College from 1961 to 1963 before accepting a position at the University of Kentucky, where he remained until his retirement in 1990. In 2012, the university appointed its inaugural Guy Davenport Endowed English Professor. Davenport won a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his literary achievements and an O. Henry Award for his short stories. He was also a visual artist whose illustrations were included in several of his books. His works include Da Vinci’s Bicycle, Eclogues, Apples and Pears, and The Jules Verne Steam Balloon.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Four of these stories have been published before in magazines and are reprinted here with the kind permission of their editors, “The Death of Picasso” in The Kenyon Review, “Christ Preaching at the Henley Regatta” in The North American Review, “Lo Splendore della Luce a Bologna” in Glitch, and “Idyll” in Sands.
“The Daimon of Sokrates” is a kind of translation of Plutarch’s Perí toû Sokrátous Daimoníou; the flatness of its text is meant to imitate Plutarch’s starkness and narrative simplicity. The author has added embellishments from the fragments that survive of his lost life of Epameinondas, his life of Pelopidas, and from other sources, when I could add a detail of manners or an object which Plutarch took for granted. “Idyll” derives from Theokritos’ Carmen V, “The Trees at Lystra” from Acts XIV:6–20. The author is also indebted to Stanley Spencer’s unfinished “Christ Preaching at the Cookham Regatta,” Montaigne’s Sur des Vers de Virgile (Essais III: 5), and Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Philosophers.
Copyright © 1981 by Guy Davenport
Collages copyright © 1981 by Roy R. Behrens
Cover design by Mauricio Díaz
ISBN: 978-1-5040-1960-6
This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
GUY DAVENPORT
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
Find a full list of our authors and
titles at www.openroadmedia.com
FOLLOW US
@OpenRoadMedia
Guy Davenport, Eclogues
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He had, we know, waved to Marc Aurel earlier on the Place Tourny. What revery could follow from that? Was he, moments before the pain jolted into his neck above the left shoulder, thinking of the day before at our house, of Victor chinning himself on a bar across a door?
Quello sfacciatello Ganimede! he had said happily as two slender legs swung toward him, no break in the up and down of chinning, and as the pain beat on his heart, did he beg for mercy, or did his wonderful imagination see that anche colui che era in Arcadia was with him?
About the Author
Guy Davenport (1927–2005) was an American writer, artist, translator, and teacher who was best known for his short stories that combined a modernist style with classical subjects. Originally from South Carolina, Davenport graduated from Duke University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford, where he wrote his thesis on James Joyce. After earning a PhD from Harvard, he taught English at Haverford College from 1961 to 1963 before accepting a position at the University of Kentucky, where he remained until his retirement in 1990. In 2012, the university appointed its inaugural Guy Davenport Endowed English Professor. Davenport won a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his literary achievements and an O. Henry Award for his short stories. He was also a visual artist whose illustrations were included in several of his books. His works include Da Vinci’s Bicycle, Eclogues, Apples and Pears, and The Jules Verne Steam Balloon.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
These are works of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Four of these stories have been published before in magazines and are reprinted here with the kind permission of their editors, “The Death of Picasso” in The Kenyon Review, “Christ Preaching at the Henley Regatta” in The North American Review, “Lo Splendore della Luce a Bologna” in Glitch, and “Idyll” in Sands.
“The Daimon of Sokrates” is a kind of translation of Plutarch’s Perí toû Sokrátous Daimoníou; the flatness of its text is meant to imitate Plutarch’s starkness and narrative simplicity. The author has added embellishments from the fragments that survive of his lost life of Epameinondas, his life of Pelopidas, and from other sources, when I could add a detail of manners or an object which Plutarch took for granted. “Idyll” derives from Theokritos’ Carmen V, “The Trees at Lystra” from Acts XIV:6–20. The author is also indebted to Stanley Spencer’s unfinished “Christ Preaching at the Cookham Regatta,” Montaigne’s Sur des Vers de Virgile (Essais III: 5), and Diogenes Laertius’ Lives of the Philosophers.
Copyright © 1981 by Guy Davenport
Collages copyright © 1981 by Roy R. Behrens
Cover design by Mauricio Díaz
ISBN: 978-1-5040-1960-6
This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
GUY DAVENPORT
FROM OPEN ROAD MEDIA
Find a full list of our authors and
titles at www.openroadmedia.com
FOLLOW US
@OpenRoadMedia
Guy Davenport, Eclogues
