Joshua_Mehigan

In Robert Graves’s I, Claudius, the character of Caligula interprets a serious illness as part of his metamorphosis into a god.

A cuirass made to look like a muscular torso. “Musculata” isn’t historically correct Latin but a latter-day invention. The term seems to be used now mainly by armor enthusiasts.

I hope the next lines make it clear that the “prince” is Caligula (12–41 BCE), the most deranged of the Julio-Claudian emperors. In addition to raping his sisters, Caligula seems to have believed that he was a god. He is also supposed to have considered making his horse Incitatus a consul, and also to have compelled his army to carry seashells to Rome in order to display them as spoils of war against Neptune. Caligula could not swim.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywkuaIPsVBA

George Balanchine (1904–1983) was a great Russian–Georgian ballet choreographer and impresario, and founder of the New York City Ballet. The New York City Ballet has a summer residency in Saratoga Springs, New York, near where I grew up, and my mother, who is a ballet fanatic, took me to watch rehearsals conducted by Balanchine. My mother was such a fanatic that eventually the dancers gave her a name, “Front Row Lisa.” They became curious and wanted to talk with her, and she became friends with many of them, including the former dancer described in this poem.

Alkalis are strong corrosives used in some cosmetic applications.

Hydroquinone is used for skin depigmentation. The process is illegal in the United States.

Botulin is the most lethal known poison and also the active ingredient in a cosmetic treatment used by millions of Americans.

This line quotes a plastic surgeon interviewed for a magazine article about Michael Jackon’s apparent obsession with plastic surgery. The source is unfortunately lost.

This is also from Richard II.