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orichalcum at 01:26pm on 27/07/2008 under academia
orichalcum at 01:26pm on 27/07/2008 under academiaOn resonances between Robert Graves' I Claudius novels and the contemporary politics of the 1930s, by Philip Burton, in the 1995 _Review of English Studies_:
"Even the choice of characters may have curious overtones; it is interesting to note how the consonants in the name "Messalina" are precisely those of "Mussolini." Historically this is the merest accident....But Graves' father was a keen pan-Celticist, and at an early age Graves had learnt the cynghanedd verse-scheme of Welsh bards, which depends on the use of the same sequence of consonants in successive lines, but with different vowels. There is no direct correlation between the actions of Messalina and Mussolini, but Graves may have enjoyed casting the portentous dictator in the role of Claudius' lascivious wife. The resemblance between these two characters is admittedly tenuous."
"Even the choice of characters may have curious overtones; it is interesting to note how the consonants in the name "Messalina" are precisely those of "Mussolini." Historically this is the merest accident....But Graves' father was a keen pan-Celticist, and at an early age Graves had learnt the cynghanedd verse-scheme of Welsh bards, which depends on the use of the same sequence of consonants in successive lines, but with different vowels. There is no direct correlation between the actions of Messalina and Mussolini, but Graves may have enjoyed casting the portentous dictator in the role of Claudius' lascivious wife. The resemblance between these two characters is admittedly tenuous."
amused
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