TY - JOUR
AU - Booth, Martin
AB - In the main concourse of the Roman Palace Excavations at Fishbourne, there is a skeleton, in situ, as it was found. It is illuminated with artificial spotlighting and is viewed from a steel and timber catwalk. OR twenty new pence we stand here agog at the proximity of such nakedness, ignorant of the meanings of this historic, tragical pageantry of bones. Notice how the skull lies, how the feet bend, how the hands, lacking in delicacy (yet not lacking) string out like disjointed stones. All this, we are told, below a second or third century tessellated floor. Grist of stones, ploughshares and hooves have dissected the topsoil in turn to crop rotation and pasturing and more recently to a civil engineer's ravages. Through such a turmoil of inventive digging this sad clutter of bones has lain mute and crippled in the soil mustering its dignity for today. Note my use of a pronoun: as we stare and snap a clutch of shutters recording the posture for home colour viewing, the identity goes. We, without shame for our voyeur's tactics, leave, eat ices in the car park and under a blue sky drive off, somewhat gracelessly. MARTI N BOOTH 
TI - Lines Written in Shame
JO - English
DO - 10.1093/english/21.111.101
DA - 1972-10-01
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/oxford-university-press/lines-written-in-shame-sOzFaFkeNh
SP - 101
EP - 101
VL - 21
IS - 111
DP - DeepDyve
ER -