#pot of basil

[chivalry-on-canvas]

Isabella and the Pot of Basil by George Henry Grenville Manton

[artemlegere]

Isabella and the Pot of Basil

Artist: Arthur Trevethin Nowell (British, 1861-1940)

Date: ca. 1904

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico

Description

The tragic love story of Isabella and Lorenzo has origins in oral folk tradition, but is better known for Bocaccio's medieval version in the Decameron (ca.1350-53). Daughter of noble lineage, Isabella falls in love with Lorenzo, a poor apprentice of her brothers. Once they discover their hidden romance, the brothers murder Lorenzo and hide his body. The ghost of the deceased appears to Isabella in a dream and leads her to his corpse, where she severs the head and buries it in her pot of basil, watered with her tears. Confused by their sister's obsession, the brothers steal the pot, find the severed head, and decide to flee Florence. Isabella later dies of a broken heart.

[rustburn]

If I die first, I want my ashes in a potted plant so my widow can weep into it like this:

I'd go full Lorenzo, but laws here generally prevent dirt burial. ...And now that I think about it, my severed head in a pot would probably be bad for said widow's schizophrenia. Ashes it is, then.

[epipsychidesis]

A pot of Basil

where there is hope

a pot of basil will grow

and if there is

any hope left for me

the rains will continue to soak

your leaves and roots

when I have long parched

from being too greedy

for the warmth of the sun

and the winds will continue to blow

through your luscious green leaves

like my fingers did do

when I plucked

yellow, shrivelled up leaves

from your basil head

[byronsmuse]

John William Waterhouse (1849-1917) Isabella and the Pot of Basil, 1907

John Keats, English Romantic poet and "October's child of woe" as the popular Victorian poem goes, was born on this day, 31st October 1795. To celebrate the occasion, I wrote a post about John William Waterhouse's dreamy painting "Isabella and the Pot of Basil" which was inspired by Keats's poem of the same name. Happy birthday, Keats!

John William Waterhouse and John Keats – Isabella and the Pot of Basil

https://byronsmuse.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/john-william-waterhouse-and-john-keats-isabella-and-the-pot-of-basil/

“They could not in the self-same mansion dwell

Without some stir of heart, some malady;

They could not sit at meals but feel how well

It soothed each to be the other by;

They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep

But to each other dream, and nightly weep.

With every morn their love grew tenderer,

With every eve deeper and tenderer still…” (Keats)

[dissidentlibrary]

I read Isabella; or the Pot of Basil last night.

And I'm reassured by the fact that, like many of us, Keats wanted to get read of (then proto-)capitalists because he didn't have the financial means to be a right-leaning piece of crap.

Early capitalism and imperialism left little Keats with massive blue balls because he couldn't marry the women he loved, because he was too poor.

So Johnny started to loathe those who possess everything and left the rest of the world living out of nothing.

And I agree.

It's not jealousy like so many well-off people want us to believe. It would be too easy. Unequal footing left Keats unable to make "sweet moan" and I feel that.

[crimsonbubbles]

'Go, shed one tear upon my heather-bloom, And it shall comfort me within the tomb.'

John Keats, Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil

[linaaaaaz]

The Troughton Post #66

Crown Court, episode "The Pot of Basil", 1975.

[More pics]

[All the Troughton Daily Post]