[lit-ideas] The White Badge of Courage
- From: jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 19:53:17 -0500
Henry Fleming, if memory serves me, was an isolated individual to start with
and initially didn’t stand. But when he was befriended, albeit for his false
“red badge”
a Common Romanic word, answering to a L. type *coraticum, from cor heart.
The heart as the seat of
feeling, thought, etc.; spirit, mind, disposition, nature.
c1300
K. Alis. 3559 Archelaus, of proud corage.
------
Funny, I'm not familiar with the story, but then it's all furrin to me.
I wouldn't think 'courage' is too serious a concept though, word-wise. I read
from the OED it's "Romanic", not "Roman". And possibly a survival of
Aristotle's apt theory, though, that it was the heart (cfr. enthymeme) which
was the seat of things.
For the more cerebral, dualist Plato, it was the _cold_ brain!
Odd that I should remember the Liguarian stories of the drummer-boys and
others, depicted in "Cuore" (Heart) by D'Amici. So perhaps there is something
there, too.
Cheers,
J. L.
"Once a Spartan"
"Once a Ligurian"
"Once Late"
________________________________________________________________________
More new features than ever. Check out the new AOL Mail ! -
http://webmail.aol.com
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] The White Badge of Courage
