#squireen

[sawle-sister]

The Twisted Sword

I love going back to the Poldark books. They fill in so much that's left unsaid on the series. Although the show does throw in bits here and there, you just get…I don’t know. More in the books. More of everything. In this altogether lovely (paraphrased) passage from The Twisted Sword-WG's 11th book-Ross is in his 50's, Demelza in her 40's. They tease, and bicker...and love.

‘Judas God! Yes!’

‘Those are the first words I ever heard you utter. It must be thirty years ago, isn’t it?’

‘What words?’

‘Judas God. You were complaining that those drunken louts had cut a piece off Garrick’s tail!’

‘My dear life, and they had! Ross…’ She stopped.

‘Yes, my dear?’

‘I have come a long way.’

‘We have both come a long way. When I met you I was an inebriate, half bankrupt squireen. You didn’t know what a catch you were making!’

‘I didn’t know I was making any catch,’ said Demelza.

Ross rubbed his nose, ‘I didn’t know what sort of a catch I was making either. Dear Heaven, that was the luckiest day of my life.’

There was silence again while he watched the cabbage girl. When he turned from the window, he was surprised to see his wife standing there with tears running down her cheeks.

‘Demelza,what is it?’

‘You don’t often pay me compliments, Ross.’

‘Good God, of course I do! I do it all the time, but you forget!’

‘I don’t forget! Perhaps it’s not that sort?’

With a sudden tenderness overlaying his frustration and vexation he put his arm around her, fished a handkerchief from her sleeve and wiped the tears away.

‘Come on, come on,’ he said, as the tears kept falling. ‘This will never do. What if the children return?’

‘They won’t be home yet,’ she said. ‘They’ve gone to the Tower.’

‘How long will they be?’

‘Oh, another hour, I should think.’

‘Let me have you.’

‘She stared at him through big but watery eyes, ‘What can you mean?’

‘What d’you think? I like you when you’re crying.’

‘Dear love, it isn’t done, it isn’t proper, it isn’t decent. In the middle of the day! When we have all night!’

‘You sound like Jud.’

‘Now don’t make me laugh.’ She tried not to hiccup.

‘Stopped crying now?’

‘Yes.’

‘Tears of sorrow, no doubt.’

‘I know what it is,’ she said; ‘now you’ve got this title it has gone to your head and you think to tousle a swerving wench. But there’s none handy, so you reckon your wife will do.’

‘Just so,’ said Ross. ‘Just so.’

‘In fact,’ she said, ‘I don’t care a button for your title. But I still care a little for you.’

‘Tell me upstairs,’ Ross said.

‘Oh,’ she said, ‘so it’s going to be upstairs, is it?’

[xxsparksxx]

Ross does a copious amount of drinking in the show. Do you think he would be an alcoholic if not for Demelza and the family life she has given him?

Oh god yes. And so does he! But yes, Demelza definitely changes his habits.

‘We have both come a long way. When I met you I was an inebriate, half bankrupt squireen. You didn’t know what a catch you were making!’‘I didn’t know I was making any catch,’ said Demelza.Ross rubbed his nose. ‘I didn’t know what sort of a catch I was making either. Dear Heaven, that was the luckiest day of my life.’

Mind, I’m not certain that Ross’s drinking (either in the show or the books) is particularly out of the ordinary for his time. Don’t forget that the ordinary liquid consumption of most people was ale - that was their water, essentially. Not terribly alcoholic, but healthier than water, which was often dirty and carried diseases.

[legopoldark]

Demelza, Book Two, Chapter 23

Sanson had said when they met at the door, “I have been looking to the opportunity to play you again, Captain Poldark. The good cardplayer is very rare and it is a pleasure to sit with such an expert one.” “Thank you. I’ve no taste for gaining tonight,” Ross had said. “I find that most disappointing, Captain Poldark." ... “I’m here to escort my wife. That being so, it wouldn’t fill my purpose to spend the evening in the card room.” ... “She seems well attended, if I may say so. Might I suggest a short game, just while the evening is warming up?” “Ah, Sanson,” George said, “there’ll be no pleasure dancing in this crush. Have you got a table?” “I have seats saved. But they will be gone if we don’t hurry. I was prevailing on Captain Poldark to join us.” “Come along,” said George. “With Francis we can make a foursome.”

There were too many people there, people of the kind who had sent Jim to prison. Painted and powdered up, dressed to the eyes, high heeled, fan flicking, snuffbox clicking. People with titles; people wanting titles; placeholders; place seekers; squires; squireens; clergymen with two or three rich livings; brewers; millers; iron, tin, and copper merchants; ship owners; bankers. People of his own class. People he despised. He turned. “What do you want? What do you wish to play?”

[sherlockian-cymraeg]

For I would write a book that would stand for a century-a book telling of my people and how they fought to live; telling of their music, their courage, their forbearance, their love of things beautiful, their fire, their God. And I would write of the money-beggars who suck them, the magistrates, squireens, the gentry who live on them, the gaols, the transportations, the unfair trials, and of those who spit on our language.

Hosts of Rebecca, Alexander Cordell

[hourlywritingprompts]

Writing prompt of the hour: squireens

[saintsquireengaming-blog]

Minecraft for XBox 360

(I know I havent posted in a little while, but here goes and buckle in for some exciting news!!!) So as most of you, who are at all interested in Minecraft, know already, Minecraft has been officially released!!!! i wont really go over the stuff that is special to the XBox edition because there will be soo many tutorials an such out in no time at all but I will say that, though it is a downer that ONLY 8 people max is allowed to play together in one world, you can have a select few that you can play with most likely your best friends but also now you can play with siblings!!!!! You wont have to keep on switching off with your siblings because you only have one Minecraft account and/or one computer!!! Play eith up to 4 people on one XBox and then an additional 4 via XBox Live!!! How great is that??? That is ehat i think is the most rockin' feature so far. I know that the Minecraft starts out at version 1.6.6 (hilariously the last time i played the compiter edition) but it will continue updating, and hopefully add complete servers along with whatever else it needs to add to catch up with the more accomplished computer edition. I know it doesnt seem like the biggest thing ever, which it isnt, but it is pretty exciting after all this talk and other mayhem floating around bringing my curiosity greatly up. Ok, everybody. Thats all I wanted to say, so like, follow, reblog, whatever and talk to you guys tomorrow!!! ~Saint Squireen Gaming P.S.- Ever tried the Pocket Edition of Minecraft?;)

[xxsparksxx]

In the books, Ross says *Elizabeth* was the love of his love, not Demelza. Even if he uses the past tense, 'love of my life' to me indicates a love above all others, even if past. I've always been shaken by Ross saying that of Elizabeth. Do you understand it?

Well.......he does say that, it’s true. He says to her, in that conversation in the graveyard in The Four Swans (in the context of her suggesting he had hinted to George about their night together): ‘I loved you. You were – the love of my life. Love can’t turn to that much hate.’

But as you point out, he uses the past tense. He loved her, she was the love of his life, nothing present tense at all. What he has with Demelza is on another scale entirely.

I think it’s telling how he speaks of it all in later life. This, to Jeremy when Jeremy is heartbroken, in The Stranger From The Sea:

‘Don’t forget I can have a fellow feeling, Jeremy. I was once in the same boat.’‘What boat?’‘Perhaps I should more properly call it a shipwreck . . . I mean the boat of loving a woman and losing her.’‘History repeating itself . . . But you found . . .’‘Someone better, I know. But it’s hard to think that at the time.’

(bolded by me for emphasis)

And the way he thinks and talks about Demelza is telling, too. Again and again, the sense is conveyed that Demelza is really and truly the love of his life. This, in The Loving Cup:

She was the one constant, apparently unchanging; taken for granted but instantly needed; sometimes an irritant and an anxiety, yet without her the other welcomes would have been hollow; for better or worse everything in his life operated against the background of her continuing existence.

(again, bolded by me)

In The Twisted Sword, this conversation with Demelza:

‘We have both come a long way. When I met you I was an inebriate, half bankrupt squireen. You didn’t know what a catch you were making!’‘I didn’t know I was making any catch,’ said Demelza.Ross rubbed his nose. ‘I didn’t know what sort of a catch I was making either. Dear Heaven, that was the luckiest day of my life.’

And, of course, there’s his speech to Demelza near the end of Bella Poldark, which I have quoted before but am always happy to share again:

I should have said that in my life I’ve loved only two women. Right? The first married my direst enemy. The second married me. She has been my lover, my companion, my housekeeper, the mother of my children, the – the keeper of my conscience. She is comparable in my eyes to no other woman. I would not be a human being if I had not sometimes developed other sorts of affections, other mild fancies, other but not contrary loyalties. Sometimes they have been unnecessarily strong, especially maybe towards the difficult young man I suspected of being my son. I expect a feeling of guilt came into it too! But following that and building on that supposition I shall continue, whether I wish it or not, to have a strong interest in the fortune of his son. It can be no other way, but unless my wife demands that my every interest shall be exclusive to her, then she has all my steadfast support, interest, concern, sympathy, love and loving kindness. If I have in any way neglected my true family these last few weeks I ask their pardon and will try to do better.

Elizabeth was the love of his life in a very youthful, naive, idealistic way. The love of his life at one time. But what he has with Demelza, throughout their married life, is an enduring and essential love. In later years, when he thinks back on the past, on Elizabeth - or when speaking of it to others - he doesn’t disclaim loving her, but he can see his love for her in a more proper perspective. True, he never calls Demelza the love of his life, but I don’t think he needs to. I think it’s something that becomes too fundamental to need acknowledgement. Ross’s happiness depends on Demelza. His life doesn’t revolve around her, but she is an essential to him, a basic requirement of living. Elizabeth isn’t that. If ever he thought she was the love of his life, time, and Demelza, proves otherwise.

I think him saying it to Elizabeth is mostly to make it absolutely clear that he could never harm her in the way she suggests he could, by hinting to George that he slept with Elizabeth and therefore Valentine might be his. ‘Love can’t turn to that much hate’. Having loved her in that way, he could not hate her. That’s what I think he’s saying, and why he’s saying it.

And remember, just because he says it at this point doesn’t mean that he believes it, or that it’s true. He is trying to reassure Elizabeth, he is reminding her of the love they had shared, and of the way he had viewed her at one point. It’s the truth, from a certain point of view, but it doesn’t mean that he now believes she is the love of his life, nor that he thinks that looking back. And it could easily be Ross saying, basically, ‘I thought you were the love of my life when I was younger, but I was wrong’. He wouldn’t put it so bluntly to Elizabeth, ever - certainly not when she’s upset - but still. There are all sorts of interpretations possible, with that line.

But the one thing I don’t believe is that Ross, in The Four Swans or ever afterwards, thinks of Elizabeth as being forever the love of his life.

[saintsquireengaming-blog]

Blog Series: Gaming Post #: 1 My First blog post (or even just plain, old blog) Eva.

When I say eva, I mean it. I'm going to say that this is going to be a diverse blog, as this is my first blog but also because I'm going to cover a lot of topics I would like to cover over time. And I mean that too. Same with anything I say. I wish my little bro caught a wind of that because he definitely needs to hit enlightenment. Anyways, back to gaming. There are some pretty big games out there such as Blacks Ops, the GTA series, Halo, Minecraft (Personal Favourite;D), and many, many more. Its hard to come up with new ideas for games because everything is so tightly related to each other (at least in my perspective). Just on the top of my head I can tell you as a sure fact that there are hundreds if not a thousand or two FPS' (First Person Shooters) a couple examples of some are the ones I stated before, a couple hundred mmorpg's (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) such as WoW (World of Warcraft), etc., etc. Its hard to come up with new game types/ideas or likings for some outrageous, maybe exotic, games. The games not only could bring new waves of age groups together or to start the gaming world's 'Next Biggest Thing' but also change the programming style or programming languages or concepts, the way or style gamers play, change up thier settings, game reactions, game replayability, game diversity (I really like that word haha), multiplayer conectivity, gamers connectivity to other players, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I literally could go on forever on this topic but you guys would get pretty bored i presume. Short and to the point ( or in other words, To summarize my point), game ideas and concepts are hard to come by but we need the new spark to set off the great spark of wonder and awesomeness and also to burn ourselves clean of the same blandness that really can't go anywhere anymore. To me, gaming these days is kind of like a dying forrested area. We should control burn all of the dead, non-sprouting gaming concepts so that we can get new sprouts of randomness that can change the beige world of gaming into the bright and colorful forest that videogames started out in. I think this is where I shall end my Blog Numero Uno. I carried us through alot this blog but I think I got my semi-unstable point through to you and out of me. Thanks for reading through this and bearing with me through my tortured mess of literature above because all support is welcome no matter what(: I think i shall (my second favourite word lol) continue through a kind of series that entails only about gaming, as this was a sort of delight writing this. Any suggestions of gaming topics or questions of any type (as long as it is about Saint Squireen or gaming) is the most appreciated. I will probably make another type of blog that will post new updates on my checklist just so you guys can have a visual of what I, with full intent, try to accomplish. Remember: Any questions, comments, and suggestions are what I very much want. I think thats it, so I'll see you all later. ~Saint Squireen Gaming