[This note is dedicated to
Jonathan Caws-Elwitt.]
On the strength of a single droll passage,
I am always disappointed with mountains. There are no mountains in the
world as high as I would wish. They irritate me invariably. I should
like to shake Switzerland. —
Ronald Firbank, The Princess Zoubaroffa friend and I each bought some selected works of the author. Though neither of us ended up as card-carrying members of the Ronald Firbank fan club, note some of his astonishing staging notes:
[in a voice which is rather like cheap scent]
[playing extinct eyes]
[All but imperceptibly, twilight begins to form.]
[impressionistically]
[blinking at a flash of summer lightning]
[covering her eyes with an elaborately becoroneted Vanity-bag]
And in his novel
Valmouth, I love Firbanks' thingamabobs, such as:
A long sunbeam lighting up the whatnot . . .
Make ready the thingamies!
