M&D Deep Duck Ch. 3: Innocent merriment

[Monte Davis]

I think that's at least a part of the reason -- and it's striking that it's
introduced so early, along withall the  Joaking of the nascent friendship
and so many cues to "beginnings."

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memento_mori>

On Mon, Jan 12, 2015 at 6:42 PM, Mark Wright <washoepete at gmail.com> wrote:

> He sees his own drop: a latent suicide steeling his nerve.
>
>
> On Monday, January 12, 2015, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 15.10: "Mason explains, though without his precise reason for it, that,
>> for the past Year or more, it has been his practice to attend the Friday
>> Hangings at that melancholy place ..." (Tyburn)
>>
>> Anybody care to venture a "precise reason"? This first meeting is in 1760
>> or 1761, so his habit might date to his wife Rebekah's death in 1759
>> (although later we'll get reasons to think he had tended to the
>>  Melancholick well before that). And yes, the Tyburn hangings were an
>> acknowledged Sight of London.
>>
>> Is that enough to explain it? Mason is rather gentle, neither sadistic
>> nor vindictive; I for one don't see an obvious or direct connection between
>> mouning and a desire to watch excutions.
>>
>
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