Kathleen E Corley - Robert Burns - The History of Mr Polly by H G Wells 1949 - William Shakespeare - Chekhov Comedy Shorts TV - Percy Bysshe Shelley - Mary Shelley - John Scalzi - J R R Tolkien - Edmund Burke - Loot 1970 - Christopher Hitchens -
People in times of extreme mourning and bereavement will see – actually see, honestly believe they see – the dead person before them. Kathleen E Corley, University of Wisconsin, interview Decoding the Past s1e10: Resurrection, History 2005
Nature’s law,
That man was made to mourn! Robert Burns
I suppose I must have mourning. The History of Mr Polly by H G Wells 1949 starring John Mills & Betty Ann Davies & Megs Jenkins & Finlay Currie & Gladys Henson & Diana Churchill & Shelagh Fraser & Edward Chapman & Dandy Nichols & Sally Ann Howers & Juliet Mills et al, director Anthony Pelissier, Polly in day room
The fool, Madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul, being in heaven. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night I v 66-67, Feste
I’ve never heard the like. Your husband is dead – well – God rest him. He’s not coming back. You mourned him good and proper. But now it’s time to move on. You can’t sit here wearing black and crying for the rest of your life. Chekhov: Comedy Shorts: The Bear starring Julian Barratt & Julia Davis & Reece Shearsmith, Sky Arts 2010
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory;
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heap’d for the belovéd’s bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on. Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems
I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil, the void that presents itself to the soul, and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance. It is so long before the mind can persuade itself that she whom we saw every day and whose very existence appeared a part of our own can have departed forever – that the brightness of a beloved eye can have been extinguished and the sound of a voice so familiar and dear to the ear can be hushed, never more to be heard. These are the reflections of the first days; but when the lapse of time proves the reality of the evil, then the actual bitterness of grief commences. Yet from whom has not that rude hand rent away some dear connection? And why should I describe a sorrow which all have felt, and must feel? The time at length arrives when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity; and the smile that plays upon the lips, although it may be deemed a sacrilege, is not banished. My mother was dead, but we had still duties which we ought to perform; we must continue our course with the rest and learn to think ourselves fortunate whilst one remains whom the spoiler has not seized. Mary Shelley, Frankenstein
It’s easier to miss her at a cemetery, where she’s never been anything but dead, than to miss her at all the places where she was alive. John Scalzi, Old Man’s War
Shall we mourn here deedless forever a shadow-folk mist-haunting dropping vain tears in the thankless sea. J R R Tolkien, The Silmarillion
Man’s inhumanity to man
Makes countless thousands mourn! Edmund Burke
You must marry again after a decent interval of mourning … oh a fortnight would be long enough to indicate your grief – you must keep abreast of the times. Loot 1970 starring Richard Attenborough & Lee Remick & Hywel Bennett & Milo O’Shea & Roy Holder & Dick Emery & Joe Lynch & John Cater & Aubrey Woods & Harold Innocent et al, director Silvio Narizzano
‘How can you grieve for someone you’ve never met, you don’t know? It’s presumptuous and it is I think offensive.’ Christopher Hitchens, Diana: The Mourning After, 1998, Brendon Martin, 1998
‘It was like Disney meets the blackshirts – you must cry.’ ibid. Mark Thomas
It’s still quite difficult to believe what was happening on this very spot this time last year: the surreal events of Diana week. ibid. Hitchens
There were elements of mob-feeling as well as elements of demagoguery in play. ibid.
What about those who were attracted to mass events? ibid.
It becomes evident that that famous throng of mourners was by no means as unanimous or as monolithic as its media cheerleader would have you – perhaps I should say us – believe. And, come to think of it, why did so many people from day one decide to deliver their posies and bouquets and teddy bears to the wrong address – to Buckingham Palace? ibid.
Where was I when I heard the ghastly news? Who cares? ibid.
The fairytale princess had left exactly nothing to charity in her will. ibid.