Fear of death concentrates the mind.
FOOTNOTES
1. Liber aggregationis seu liber secretorum Alberti Magni, Londinium, juxta pontem qui vulgariter dicitur Flete brigge, MCCCCLXXXV.
2. Les Admirables Secrets d’Albert le Grand, A Lyon, Chez les Héritiers Beringos, Fratres, à l’Enseigne d’Agrippa, MDCCLXXV; Secrets merveilleux de la magie naturelle et cabalistique du Petit Albert, A Lyon, Chez les Héritiers Beringos, Fratres, à l’Enseigne d’Agrippa, MDCCXXIX.
3. Mexican lyric poet (1651–1695). The lines read: “Red rose growing in the meadow, you vaunt yourself bravely, bathed in crimson and carmine: a rich and fragrant show. But no: Being fair, you will be unhappy soon.”
4. Original title of the first version of Manzoni’s novel I promessi sposi (The Betrothed).
5. It is curious that in America and the United Kingdom, the Latin verse reminded many reviewers of Romeo and Juliet. It is curious, because it seems to me that the sense of Juliet’s words is exactly the opposite of that of Bernard’s. Shakespeare suggests that names do not matter and do not affect the substance of the thing-in-itself. Bernard might have agreed with Shakespeare that names are only arbitrary labels, but for the Benedictine what remains of the real (?) rose (if any) is precisely this evanescent, powerful, fascinating, magical name.
6. Part of this text has been published in the second issue of the American edition of the magazine FMR.
7. Address of the Faculty of the Arts in medieval Paris, Rue du Fouarre, as referred to by Dante, Paradiso, X, 137 (“Straw Street” in Sayers-Reynolds translation).
8. Emilio Salgari was a well-known popular Italian author of the late nineteenth century who wrote innumerable books of exotic adventures.
9. Both essays are reprinted in The Literature of Exhaustion (Northridge, Calif.: Lord John Press, 1982).
10. Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle, organized by Queneau, Le Lyonnais, Perec, and others to produce literature by mathematical combinatory means.
