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'Precisely whom Sir Thomas Browne had in mind when he wrote this lovely description in Hydriotaphia, or Urne-Buriall is a question as puzzling as his teaser about the song the Sirens sang. But we can all supply a list of tedious beings who might better please us were they to embrace non-being. I admit to detesting certain beings. And certain non-beings who are ritually tricked-up and exhibited, like the toed remains of Bentham, to the gaze of people who honestly don't give a toss about the old spectre, and who hardly know who or what he ever was or did.' (Introduction)
Notes
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Epigraph: But the most tedious being is that which can unwish itself, content to be nothing, or never to have been, which was beyond the male-content of Job, who cursed not the day of his life, but his Nativity: Content to have so fare been, as to have a Title to future being; Although he had lived here but in an hidden state of life, and as it were an abortion."
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Last amended 1 May 2020 09:22:02
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Sharkey : Ern Burial