That is Priceless by Steve Melcher for August 29, 2022

Henry kneeled before Mrs. Beatrix as she played with her sword and pretended to be a queen, hoping in turn she would then kneel and play with his…

Careful, you can put an eye out with that thing.

/// Who shall rightfully rule? One must cull

those deemed worthy from those weak or dull.

Stone-faced Esmond kneels down;

Beatrix tries for the Crown,

but she can’t pull the sword from his skull.

Aren’t knighthoods usually given out in public, before the whole court, not in private with a just a couple of ladies maids looking on?

The queen had this thing about sleeping with knights. She did kight a lot of men.

Sit. Beg. Roll over.

She said with delight “I’ll make you a knight. But it will take all night, ’til morning light.”He said “All Right!!”

She’s using the Sword of Damocles. It is associated with having a huge debt over head.

I dub thee “Sir Mix-A-Lot”, break it down!

This won’t hurt a bit. I’m just going to make a teeny-weeny hole, so you’ll stop biting.

Are we a Monarchy now? Sorry, just barely passed political science…

Henry fought for the kid tooth and claw/

But this is what sticks in my craw:/

When he failed in his quest/

He took second best..

He married his mother in law. (Well, she should have been..)

And now we all (taxpayer people that actually work) have a student loan.

Is it literature or “hackery”?/

Is it talent- or simply quackery?

And, as the plot thickens/

The audience sickens../

It’s not Dickens- it’s merely Thackeray.

Mildred’s New Age Barber School for Girls never really got going

Think about this for a minute. First, whose $10,000 is being lost? The banker who loaned the money or some other entity? Second, How is that entity going to survive when they don’t get there money back? I don’t know about you but when I loan money to someone I do so with the expectation that it will be repaid. Therefore, when the government forgives the $10,000 who is being hurt?

But your highness, I’d rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy

The blind queen was getting better with each knighthood given, this one only lost a locket of hair.

“I dub the Knight Bob… Shish-Ka-Bob”

Not having a 10 foot pole handy, she instead just used a 24 inch sword!

“M’lady, the remote won’t be invented for two hundred years. You can just tell me to rise.”

In this painting, representing a scene from William Makepeace Thackeray’s “The History of Henry Esmond, Esq.” Heartless Beatrix acts to knight Henry Esmond with a fencing foil. She actually plans to use his severed ear in a shish kebab upon the foil, together with love apples and onions. Blood pudding is also planned. Cruel, mean, evil, heartless Trixie!

Lady Castlewood looks on in horror, for she has come to love Henry first as a foster mother, then as a potential husband, and plans ultimately to emigrate to the American Colonies with him to connect with old friend Moll Flanders. (— (Cougars are tolerated there.)

All this is not of course crafted into the painting. You are obliged to read the book for details.

The novel by Thackeray, to which the painting refers, is only about 434 pages long — much shorter than his classic, “Vanity Fair.” I wonder if some artist has painted scenes from that novel. Becky Sharp is just as cruel, if not more so, than Beatrix. But she’s a sympathetic character in several ways. Victorian readers must have been fascinated by such plots — doubtless no less than readers of similar, contemporary fiction.

Can you hurry a little M’lady…I have to go pee pee?

Today’s posts brimming with references literary / Just made my day. I’m feeling quite merry. / It does my heart good indeed / To find others who actually read, / And share their insights in humorous commentary!

So I thank you all for joining in / And giving great books such a positive spin. / If the joy of reading can last, / Then the great works of the past / Will live on, and I count that a definite Win!

Dean Marge Smith in the background, calculating the cost of a new weight room.

Isabella has always wanted to be a Torero. Fernando is in for a surprise when she decides to attempt an estocado …

“Yes! Right there! That’s where it itches!”

This guy down on one knee, and hunched, is going to tower over all the others pictured when he stands. Is he a giant, or are they all children? Or, like so many others, the artist has not mastered perspective?

You’re going to play my game or you won’t get a slice of this pie!

My naughty side wonders whether that’s an odd pink and puce bodice or, being somewhat kinky, she’s foregone any bodice at all in favor of showing off her blood engorged tied and bound ta-tas…

Even better.

Say it: “I am she who must be obeyed.”

“I dub thee Sir Loin of Beef. Sir Hosis of Liver. Sir Comference of Circle.”

Beatrix Knighting Esmond : 

Paste (including the quote marks) 

"File:Beatrix Knighting Esmond by A.L. Egg (1837, Tate).jpg" site=commons.wikimedia.org 

(syntax supported by the Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ecosia, and Yandex search engines) in the browser address bar (or search for it using one of those search engines) and choose the first File: found, and click its link for info and links that point to more info about this painting.

 

Again, a larger strip image is shown by (Ctrl- or right-) clicking the image in Mr. Melcher’s MASTERPIECE #2985 (August 28, 2022) blog entry, accessible by the Check out the blog! box after the last comment, and using the dropdown menu (even larger if you trim what’s after .png from the URL). I have added a comment there (awaiting Mr. Melcher’s approval) pointing to info about this artist I used to point to here. So far, 3 works by him have been used here. The May 14, 2020, strip has the prior (the artist info URLs in my comment there are here links in my blog comment).

Open this keg!!!!!! I haven’t got all Knight! burp. :)

Milinda testing the main course temperature for tonight’s supper, doesn’t want to be too rare or too well done. it’s a good thing they had sex earlier. took all the acid out of his body, sweet and tender.

Getting your ear pierced … the early days.

But you still owe taxes on it as income.