Essays; “An Antiquary” by John Earle (8/142)

In an effort to educate myself, I am reading The Oxford Book of Essays, chosen and edited by John Gross. [copies for sale here] There’s 142 of the blighters, so it will take me all year. To make this “stick” I am going to blog each essay.

This essay is online

Who was the author: John Earle (c. 1601 – 17 November 1665) was an English cleric, author and translator, who was chaplain to Charles II. Towards the end of his life he was Bishop of Worcester and then Salisbury.

What happened the year they were born (and the C02 ppm): 1601– 270ppm ish

The Big Events they were alive for: Er, English Civil War, beginning of Cromwell’s reign. Plague.  Missed out on the Great Fire…

What happened in the year they died (and the C02 ppm): 1665– 270ppm ish

My awareness of/appreciation of this author (if any): zero

What’s the essay?

The essay is called “An Antiquary.” It’s 1 page long. For me, the key take-aways were – idk, Earle could paint word pictures?

Best line(s)

”and the dust makes a parenthesis between every syllable.”

Stuff I had to look up

Tully (Roman poet, iirc) – presumably Cicero?

Stuff worth thinking about.

Ageing, obvs.

Stuff to look up

xxx

Connects to (watch this space – if there are later essays that resonate with this one, I’ll come back and add a link to the post for that essay).