Lymond Casting Game (again)

What say you, Dunnett fans -- Lymond?

This is Joe Anderson. He was a major supporting role in the movie we watched for the Christmas Film Festival tonight, Across the Universe (actually a re-showing for those of us who missed it last year).  In this film, he plays an American, but he is actually English.  Blonde, piercing blue eyes, musical (he started as a singer, with an album, Songs about Jokes).  This movie didn't necessarily allow him to display his full range as an actor (if he has a range), but I certainly, personally, wouldn't turn him away from the audition.

Not Of Cabbages and Kings, But Rather Of Broccoli and Cauliflowers (and Queens)

One of my favorite passages in all Dunnett's work is the opening scene of Disorderly Knights (1966).  It briefly mentions the (historically accurate) marriage of character Will Scott to his aunt Grizel Beaton (the sister of his father's third wife).  The English are raiding nearby, so all the men dash out of the church immediately after the couple are proclaimed man and wife.  The bride takes it in stride, having expected something of the sort after "ten days ... of peace".

The text proceeds to describe the bride, "Duly packed like broccoli into lawn, buckram and plush and ropes of misshapen pearls, she had enjoyed the wedding..."

I've wondered about that broccoli.  What in heavens name is that simile all about?  I can sort of get the image of crowded florets intending buxomness, but -- hey, what's with the green?  And of course, that connotation of green infects my interpretation of "lawn". I've read enough historical novels to know that Dunnett means "a fine linen or cotton fabric used for making clothes" but every time I read this sentence, I jump to the image of a bridal party somehow wearing a kitchen garden.  And, detractors believe what you will, Dunnett is a better writer than that.

Finally I looked up the etymology of the word "broccoli", expecting to find some obsolete poetic meaning (which would be like Dunnett). Not so. "Broccoli" comes from the Latin broccus, for "extending" or "branches".  However, according to a couple of semi-reliable online sources, early northern Europeans confused broccoli and cauliflower, calling both by the same name.  And, apparently Catherine de Medici introduced the beloved Italian vegetable to the French Court sometime after her marriage to Henri II in 1533. (It was not introduced to England until the late 1600s, but the Scottish and French Courts were closely conjoined, in fact, intermarried.)

Now that makes Dunnett sense - the misuse of a word within the diegetic context -- Grizel Beaton was not a court member, so her knowledge of the vegetable would have been limited, but it would have been a hothouse, exotic item at the time.  And "Duly packed like cauliflower into lawn, buckram and plush...." aptly describes the many layers -- breasts, cotton chemise, buckram (padding) with a plush velvet overdress adorned with pearls.  Now I can see the white, upthrust cleavage of a pale, stocky, Scottish woman stuffed into an uncomfortable formal dress for her wedding.

I've much enjoyed scavenging the interweb for images of formal dresses from the mid-16th Century Scotland or France.  (Check out the V&A site for generally wonderful images of anything in their collections).  These two images are both from a German costuming site, and illustrate a cauliflower-like bosom. (The photo on the right/bottom is of "La Bella" -- Eleanora de Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino -- by Titian. Less "cauliflower" than perhaps "milk pudding" in that case.)

For Dunnett Afficionados

Will Scott?

(Actually, just looking for some way to share this photo, from The Sartorialist. I don't recall Scott being described as a beauty, and this young man is, perhaps, not angry enough. Other casting suggestions, however, are welcome.)

Australian Rules Footballers as Historical (Fictional) Characters

I thought I'd bring up out of a commentary conversation a return to the question of who would play Graham (Gabriel) Mallett in a filmed version of Dorothy Dunnett's Lymond Chronicles. I suggested Kevin McKidd. Kate suggested a player for Melbourne or Essendon. As it turns out, we have a reader who knows her Australian rules footballers. (I, on the other hand, don't even know for sure what that is -- rugby? or what Americans call soccer?) Anyway, she proposes three possibilities. Are any of these the man you meant, Kate?

Mark Johnson

(Standing with a possible Jerrott, were we casting the whole movie with sports stars.)






James Hird

Looking suitably pensive in this photo.









And Dustin Fletcher as a battered Gabriel.







I see, from other photos at the linked-to sites, a ball that cannot be a soccer ball, so I conclude we are talking rugby. You learn something every day.

By the way, the links are worth going towards if only to experience true Hogwarts-like moving photos. On each player's profile, when you first log in, is a running short video of the player. Something about the way they work remind me strongly of the effect in the Potter movies, and I found them strangely off-putting, muggle that I am.

Gabriel Mallett? (for Dunnett readers)

Kevin McKidd (a photo lifted from imdb.com). He's a bit worse for wear in this photo (I don't know what movie it's from) but can't you see Gabriel in there?