Lex Rex

"Eccentricity is not, as dull people would have us believe, a form of madness. It is often a kind of innocent pride, and the man of genius and the aristocrat are frequently regarded as eccentrics because genius and aristocrat are entirely unafraid of and uninfluenced by the opinions and vagaries of the crowd."

- Dame Edith Sitwell

Magister Dixit:

Queen Elizabeth posing near the Waterloo Monumental Vase. Buckingham Palace.

"How small an selfish is sorrow. But it bangs one about until one is senseless." 

- Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother
(letter to Edith Sitwell, shortly after the death of George VI)

Beneath the flat and paper sky

The sun, a demon's eye,

Glowed through the air, that mask of glass;

All wand'ring sounds that pass

Seemed out of tune, as if the light

Were fiddle-strings pulled tight.

The market-square with spire and bell

Clanged out the hour in Hell;

The busy chatter of the heat

Shrilled like a parakeet;

And shuddering at the noonday light

The dust lay dead and white

As powder on a mummy's face,

Or fawned with simian grace

Round booths with many a hard bright toy

And wooden brittle joy:

The cap and bells of Time the Clown

That, jangling, whistled down

Young cherubs hidden in the guise

Of every bird that flies;

And star-bright masks for youth to wear,

Lest any dream that fare

-Bright pilgrim-past our ken, should see

Hints of Reality.

Upon the sharp-set grass, shrill-green,

Tall trees like rattles lean,

And jangle sharp and dissily;

But when night falls they sign

Till Pierrot moon steals slyly in,

His face more white than sin,

Black-masked, and with cool touch lays bare

Each cherry, plum, and pear.

Then underneath the veiled eyes

Of houses, darkness lies--

Tall houses; like a hopeless prayer

They cleave the sly dumb air.

Blind are those houses, paper-thin

Old shadows hid therein,

With sly and crazy movements creep

Like marionettes, and weep.

Tall windows show Infinity;

And, hard reality,

The candles weep and pry and dance

Like lives mocked at by Chance.

The rooms are vast as Sleep within;

When once I ventured in,

Chill Silence, like a surging sea,

Slowly enveloped me.

- Edith Sitwell

Rex Lex:

"The aim of flattery is to soothe and encourage us by assuring us of the truth of an opinion we have already formed about ourselves."

- Edith Sitwell

Magister Dixit:

"Good taste is the worst vice ever invented."

- Edith Sitwell

Dramatic

The Sitwells

Pourquoi Pas?

Magister Dixit:

"I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it."

by Dame Edith Sitwell

Ni Plus, Ni Moins...

"I have often wished I had time to cultivate modesty... but I am too busy thinking about myself."

by Dame Edith Sitwell

If It Pleases You