Mallarme is hardly a bundle of laughs, but the funniest thing I've read about him (in a newspaper review I now can't find) is that he once edited a book of children's rhymes in English. This included the one about the man who jumped into a bramble bush and scratched out both his eyes.
It concludes:
And when he saw his eyes were out,
With all his might and main
He jumped into another bush
And scratched them in again!
Unfortunately, the editor, or his source omitted a vital word in the last line, so Mallarme's version ended 'And scratched them again!' leading the great man to add a worried scholarly footnote 'There is something here not quite clear'.
Mallarme in D & A? Blimey!
|