Corrigendum and Addendum

Corrigendum: I mis-spelt the surname of Vaclav Havel, putting in two 'l's at the end of his name. A mistake that derives from my one-time primary care doctor, who was a two 'l' Havell.

Addendum: I wanted to track down the Henry James quotation from the Preface to "What Maisie Knew" that was mentioned by Richard Ford. Google has everything and I found the Preface, which is very long and intricate and sets out James's development of his plot.

The reference by Richard Ford was in answer to a questioner who said he had been laughing out loud at many passages in the Ford book, and yet he felt there was always a more serious side to the humour. Then Ford mentioned the James quotation. I don't think from memory he got it quite right. But it was certainly on the following lines--which are Henry James:

"No themes are so human as those that reflect for us, out of the confusion of life, the close connexion of bliss and bale, of the things that help with the things that hurt, so dangling before us for ever that bright hard medal, of so strange an alloy, one face of which is somebody's right and ease and the other somebody's pain and wrong."

I was struck by the use of 'bale,' and prompted to go into my OED--something I always enjoy doing, although dictionaries in print are--sadly--dying a death.

Two meanings for the same word, "bale." The first, described as archaic and poetic, is "Evil, especially as an active and destructive force, a malign influence, woe, harm, injury, physical torment, pain, misery." That just about covers the waterfront.

But there is a second meaning, not qualified by "archaic and poetic:" "A great consuming fire, a funeral pyre."