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C-30, et ses amendements subsequents /^ !••• NL-339 (r. 88/04) c Canada A SPIRITUAL ODYSSEY: SKEPTICISM AND BELIEF IN THE LIFE OF LIONEL JOHNSON by (c"l Richard Marchand A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies, Dalhousie University, In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy September 1987 Permission has been granted L'autorisation a ete accordee to the National Library of a la Bibliotheque nationale Canada to microfilm this du Canada de microfilmer thesis and to lend or sell cette these et de pr&ter ou copies of the film. de vendre des exemplaires du film. 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ISBN 0-315-49667-3 DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES The undersigned hereby certify that they have read and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance a thesis entitled "A Spiritual Odyssey: skepticism and Belief in the Life of Lionel Johnson." by Richard Marchand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. © Dated October 16, 1987 External Examiner ,^v- JfiIti^i/tlti*^ /%£* Research Supervisor (TyLfaJrA/P' Examining Committee (\ <Cj~y\/\AA/is DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY Date November 1»', 1087 Author Richard Marchand Title "A Spiritual Odyssey: Skepticism and Belief in the Life of Lionel Johnson" Department or School: English Degree: Ph.D. Convocation February 1988 Permission is herewith granted to Dalhoui.ic- Univetsit to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial pu: i>oi,o:,, at discretion, the above title upon the request of in<li viriu.i 1-, or institutions. ^Z ignature of Author THE AUTHOR RESERVES OTHER PUBLICATION RIGHTS, AND NEITHr.i- THE THESIS NOR EXTENSIVE EXTRACTS FROM IT MAY BE PRINTED OR OTHI'I''.;i '.A. REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE AUTHOR'S WRITTEN PERMISSION. THE AUTHOR ATTESTS THAT PERMISSION HAS BEEN OBTAINED FOP Till. USE OF ANY COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL APPEARING IN THIS THESIS (OTHER THAN 3RIEF EXCERPTS REQUIRING ONLY PROPER ACKNOWLEDGMENT IN SCHOLARLY WRITING) AND THAT ALL SUCH USE IS CLEARLY ACKNOWLEDGED. TO MY PARENTS FOR THEIR ALWAYS TIMELY ENCOURAGEMENT AND LOVING SUPPORT IV TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract vi Introduction 1 Chapter I: THE SKEPTICISM OF CHILDHOOD: "I NEVER BELIEVED" 14 Chapter II: THE SEARCH FOR BELIEF: ON THE ROAD TO INDIA 26 Chapter III: THE DREAM OF YOUTH: THE REFORM OF CHRISTIANITY AND AFTER 55 Chapter IV: THE IMPRESSIONIST AT WORK: PATER AND THE "MOMENT" 84 Chapter V: FROM OXFORD TO ROME: THE JOURNEY FROM DOUBT TO DOGMA 121 Chapter VI: FROM TRIUMPH TO DESOLATION: THE SEARCH FOR SAINTHOOD 164 Conclusion 240 Bibliography 255 v ABSTRACT The temptation to think of Lionel Johnson as "decadent" is usually too great to be resisted. This dissertation attempts to prove that in one important aspect, his intense search for spiritual truth, Johnson escapes that category. As the first four chapters show, he began his search very early with a strongly libertarian and antinomian point of view. In quick succession, he espoused theosophical Buddhism, latitudinarian Christianity and Paterian "impres­ sionism". But a careful examination of his early correspon­ dence shows that these explorations grew primarily from an elemental skepticism against which there fought an'equally strong desire to believe. Chapter V shows that in the poetry produced from 1887 onward, his spiritual search focussed on Roman Catholicism to which he had first been drawn by his love of beauty in ritual. This movement was followed by the intellectual acceptance of Catholic dogma noticeable in poems like "Men of Assisi" and "Men of Aquino". In Chapter VI, we see how his acceptance of Catholicism gave him a short-lived serenity during which he produced much of his most distinctive poetry. But as Johnson reveals in the anguish of "The Dark Angel", this serenity had begun to dissolve in 1893. Thereafter, he attempted to overcome his doubts of his own salvation through the practice of an asceticism which shut him off from family and friends alike, as well as from poetry itself which no longer seemed of primary importance. As we see in "To the Saints", one of his last poems, he retreated into a world in which he sought, unsuccessfully, to conquer his own nature, a task thwarted by his alcoholism and his possible homosexuality. INTRODUCTION In the Nineties of the last century a group of writers emerged who have survived in literary history and in the popular imagination under the general heading of decadent. It is an epithet that exercised its power even over those who survived the period. W.B. Yeats, for example, when he turned back in memory, chose to focus on those elements which seemed central to the age he had known — alcohol, religion, madness and death — as we see in the introduction to his edition of The Oxford Book of Modern Verse (1936): Then in 1900 everybody got down off his stilts? henceforth nobody drank absinthe with his black coffee; nobody went mad; nobody committed suicide; nobody joined the Catholic church; or if they did I have forgotten.1 Yeats's memory, selective as all memories must be, had accepted the popular myth. Any study of Lionel Johnson must begin with the recognition that he presents to us the images that most commonly characterize the age. We see a great talent lost irrevocably as a result of personal tragedy, a tragedy which like so many in the Nineties had its roots in personal 1 2 weakness, in indulgence (as alcoholism was called) and in spiritual exhaustion. He became a convert to Roman Catholi­ cism as the decade began; while preferring whiskey, he was known to drink absinthe; and he died a young man shortly after the century ended. His friends included Ernest Dowson, Aubrey Beardsley, Oscar Wilde, John Gray, Count Stenbock, and others who were and are commonly called decadent. He was a student of Walter Pater's at Oxford, and held the works of that author in high reverence. In his book-lined study at 20 Fitzroy Street, in chambers whose walls were papered in brown wrapping paper and whose windows were hung in grey corduroy, Johnson seemed to place himself firmly among those who, in the Nineties, advocated a way of life in which interest in the unusual and perhaps even in the bizarre was paramount. And even his insomnia, which drove him nightly to investigate London's darkened streets, singled him out as one who had absorbed, and perhaps acted on, the ethos commonly attributed to the decadents.2 Two early memorials in verse, which have since become well know, reinforced this image. Yeats's lines in his poem "In Memory of Major Robert Gregory", although kind in their remembrance and in their recognition of Johnson's importance for the author, recalled Johnson's alcoholism in an allusion to his "Mystic and Cavalier". Lionel Johnson comes the first to mind, That loved his learning better than mankind, Though courteous to the worst; much falling he Brooded upon sanctity i Till all his Greek and Latin learning seemed A long blast upon the horn that brought. A little nearer to his thought A measureless consummation that he dreamed.3 Yeats's reference was echoed in Ezra Pound's "Hugh Selwyn Mauberley", where we find reputation and rumor joined into one voice which both judges and palliates its judgement. The "he" is probably Victor Plarr. For two hours he talked of Gallifet; Of Dowson; of the Rhymers' Club; Told me how Johnson (Lionel) died By falling from a high stool in a pub . But showed no trace of alcohol At the autopsy, privately performed-- Tissue preserved—the pure mind Arose toward Newman as the whiskey warmed.^ Pound had earlier been kinder in his edition of Johnson's poetry. His words then had called attention to a poetry "full of definite statement" without the Nineties' char­ acteristics of "muzziness" or "softness", and he had written of a man who was both committed to his art and intelligent in his criticism.5 But in the intervening years most critics have found it easier to regard Johnson simply as one of the more competent members of a group usually held to be at the centre of the Nineties decadence.