L'esprit d'escalier

T he theme of the weary wanderer or pilgrim is also found at the Paris Montparnasse Cemetery. There is a sculpture by the Spanish sculptor Baltasar Lobo (* 1910, † 1993) embodies, which is on its grave. The following lines of Walter Ralegh (* 1554, † 1618) seem suitable to receive the wanderer motif lyrically:

Even such is time, Which takes in trust / Our youth, our joys, and all we have, / And pays us but with age and dust, / Who in the dark and silent grave, / When we have wandered all our ways, / Shuts up the story of our days. / And From Which earth, and grave, and dust, / The Lord shall raise me up, I trust. ¹

This was written Ralegh evening before his execution, so the religious connotation is understandable. They found the lines in Ralegh Bible in the Gatehouse Prison, Westminster, London, where he had previously sat thirteen years with a break in custody. On the scaffold he, after he had checked the sharpness of the Henkersbeils said: "'Tis a sharp remedy, but a sure one for all ills." ² When asked about how he Any desired bed with his head on the chopping block, He replied: "So the heart be right, it is no matter which way the head lies." ³

1. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, 174 Oxford 1964, p. [ ← ]
2. ibid [ ← ]
3. ibid [ ← ]