Volume 6 Number 2 Article 13

4-15-1979

Cavalier Treatment

Lee Speth

Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore

Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons

Recommended Citation Speth, Lee (1979) "Cavalier Treatment," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 6 : No. 2 , Article 13. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss2/13

This Column is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm

Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm

Abstract Notes the possibility of a parody of “Let Me Linger,” a 1937 poem by Mabel Ingalls Westott, in Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan.

Additional Keywords Peake, Mervyn. Titus Groan—Sources; Wescott, Mabel Ingalls. Let Me Linger and Other Poems

This column is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol6/iss2/13 or Lewis or White or just about anybody else you care to Deschene, James M. "The Mystic and the Monk: Holiness name" (p . 9 ) . ( I . H. W hite a c t u a lly made i t in t h is same and Wholeness". Studia Mystica, 1:4 (Winter 1978), year — 1977 — with The Book o f M erlyn.) Carter mis­ 37-50 [Lewis, 40, 45-46, 49n, 50n]. takenly assumes that Tolkien began writing on The Silm aril- Deschene, in his discussion of the relationship of holiness l i o n after he finished The Lord of the Rings. Carter also to wholeness and health, cites Lewis' T i l l We H ave F a c e s on mentions the Gandalf award for fantasy given at the World the depths of holiness ("Holy wisdom is not clear and thin Science Fiction Convention (p. 11). In his "Appendix: The like water, but dark and thick like blood") and The F o u r Year's Best Fantasy Books" (pp. 204-208), he includes L o v e s on the pains of love. The Silm arillion in the list of eight books of original Eastman, Arthur M. (gen. ed.). The Norton Reader: An fiction (p. 205); he also, in a nonce category of "The Anthology of Expository Prose. Fourth Edition. Worst Book Ever", includes Terry Brooks' The Sword of New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1977. xxiii + S h a n n a r a : "I have nothing against the fine art of pas­ 1274 pp. [References to Lewis, pp. xxx, 1170-1175, tiche, or writing in another author's style, since I 1265.] With Craig Bradford Snow, A Guide to "The practice the craft myself. But Terry Brooks wasn't trying Norton Reader", Fourth Edition: Discussions of to imitate Tolkien's prose, just steal his story line and Content and Rhetoric with Questions for W riting. complete cast of characters, and did it with such clumsi­ New York: W. W. Norton and Co., 1977. xliv + 226 pp. ness and so heavy-handedly, that he virtually rubbed your [Lewis, xxvi, x lii, 215-217,] Note: from the nose in it", (p. 208. page references in Snow's G u id e , it is apparent that the selection from Lewis also is printed in Cawelti, John G. "Trends in Recent American Genre Fiction" the Shorter Edition of The Norton Reader, p . 619 f f . Kansas Q uarterly , 10:4 (Fall 1978), 5-18 [Lewis, 8; Tolkien, 7-9]. The selections from Lewis is titled "Three Screwtape Let­ ters" (pp. 1170-1175) and numbered I, II, and III; they Cawelti finds three trends in recent popular fiction: the are, in fact, the first three of The Screwtape Letters. shift from the western to science fiction, the shift from A footnote explains the identities of Screwtape and Worm­ the detective puzzle to the spy thriller, and the develop­ wood (p . 1 1 7 0 n ). In The Norton Reader’s R h e to r ic a l ment of fantasy. He contrasts the moral ambiguities of the Index, these selections are listed under Persona and modern spy novel with the clear moral sides of the fantasy Irony (p. xxx; also G u id e , p. xxvi); a very brief bio­ (.The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars), in that only by the graphical notice, listing The Pilgrim 's Regress and reader escaping this world can he find moral certitude. The Screwtape Letters, appears, with others in the back Lewis' Ransom trilogy is contrasted with Tolkien's works as of the book (p. 1265). In the G u id e 's "Rhetorical Index being more openly didactic and hence old fashioned. By Essay", S a t i r e is added to P e r s o n a and I r o n y (p. x l i i ) . "Dabbling in Exotheology" (in the "Religion" section;. The main discussion in the G u id e introduces The Screwtape T im e , 111:17 (24 April 1978), 63. L e t t e r s as a Christian work, describes Lewis' view of Hell, A discussion, probably inspired by the movie Close Encoun­ and explains the connotations of S c r e w ta p e and Wormwood ters of the Third Kind (1977) which is mentioned once and (pp. 215-216); twelve "Analytical Considerations" follow has a still reproduced, of the possible theological impact (pp. 216-217). One of the shortest may be quoted as an of extraterrestrial intelligent life. Lewis' "Will We Lose example: "7. Is the purpose of "Three Screwtape Letters' God in Outer Space?" (reprinted in The World's Last Night the traditional goal of satire: to rid people of v i as "Religion and Rocketry") is cited twice. and folly through ridicule? Please explain." Cavalier Treatment

B y L ee Speth

A Connecticut Yankee In Gormenghast

Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan is to fantasy litera­ Linger now with me, thou Beauty, ture as chicken livers are to the palate: each excludes On the sharp archaic shore. neutrality. T itu s is either treasured as an imaginative Surely 'tis a wastrel's duty triumph or loathed as a diseased excrescence. Those who And the gods could ask no more. read it, or try to read it, will rarely, if ever, reshelve If thou lingerest when I linger. it as "just another book". If thou tread'st the stones I tread. Thou wilt stay my spirit's hunger But I hope that those of the second party, the And dispel the dreams I dread. "Saints and angels shield us, T itu s Groan!" sort, will not skip this column just because it concerns Titus. For Come thou, love, my own, my Only, I will intrude no demented fancies, nor, I hope, stir the Through the battlements of Groan; scent of decay. 1 am of the first party and love the Lingering becomes so lonely book, but I do not write as champion. I figure here as When one lingers on one's own. a pedant and dusty, bespectacled bibliographer. I have made a modest discovery and intend to elevate My th lo r e Primordial stuff. Anyway, I think it's catchy. with a Question as to Source. And whether or not one likes it, one would think it u n iq u e . Those who have read T itu s as far as the great odyssey of Steerpike across the roof of Gormenghast may But it isn't; not altogether. recall the recitation of the Poet at the turret window; Steerpike overhears him expounding this weird composition Let Me Linger and Other Poems is the title of a with its haunting refrain in soliloquy. I will not repeat collection of lyrics by Mrs. Mabel Ingalls Wescott. I have the poem entire - it can be found on pp. 147-8 of the called her a Connecticut Yankee for the sake of the Ballantine edition. A snatch will convey the meter and the heading; in fact she hailed from Vermont and set out fla v o r. her sugary baits for the muse in New Hampshire. 46 So my thoughts will ever linger where the If I use the word "poetess" I shall brand myself roses gently lean. as a sexist, but in fact no other word defines the lady And I'll rest beside the trellis, where no sound more precisely. Here is how her publishers the Meador can intervene. Publishing Co. expound her qualifications for the laurel: And the world may spin about me, but the spinning I'll not see, "Mrs. Wescott is a member of the Methodist Epis­ For the mighty wheels of commerce have no copal Church, the Order of Eastern Star, the Order of urge of time for me. White Shrine of Jerusalem, the Laconia Woman's Club, the Laconia Business and Professional Woman's Club, the Let Me Linger and Other Poems was published in National Federation of Business and Professional Women's Boston in 1937, nine years before Titus Groan a p p e a r e d Clubs; and a charter member of many Vermont clubs, in England. And I must confess myself bewildered as to including the Altrurian and Athenian Literary Clubs be­ what conclusions to draw. sides honorary societies of the schools which she The similarities seem to me undeniable. The reit­ a t t e n d e d ." eration of the key word "linger" in both poems is most Enough of biography. We proceed to the title obvious, along with the precise identity of the meters. poem, the work that drew my attention to this volume The only differences are that Peake uses two lines when I discovered it about eight years ago. It is not where Mrs. Wescott uses one and therefore doubles his easily available; I forestall oblivion and reprint the whole rhymes, and that Peake varies his chant with a four line refrain. poem :

Let me linger near the trellis where the Even with the refrains, Peake's poem is shorter, roses gently lean. but this is usual in parody; no one would do a whole Give me time for idle dreaming, without call five act mock -H a m le t. And of course the tones are to intervene. completely different. Peake is weird. Gothic, evocative. 'Tis the place for gaily weaving all the Mrs. Wescott's cards are bucolic and forthrightly on the thoughts forever dear. table. Love of nature is her forte; even had we not Dreary moments that possess me are quite sure the poem as testimony, we have the word of her pub­ to disappear. lishers on this point: "Out of the wind-swept gardens of old New Hamp­ Many a time from window casement, ere I shire comes the fragrant breath of lavender and old sought evening rest. rose in this collection of poems by the author. One Did I gaze on this loved trellis, when the breathes the exotic atmosphere of the flowers of the sun was sloping west; garden; feels the gentle tug at the line in the fishing Many a time I saw ambition, rising through stream; hears the lapping of waves on the shore of the mellow glow. the lake; kneels before the altar at the foot of the hills And I dipped into the future far as human for the grandeur of the autumn-dressed forest. One eye could go. sees bejewelled boughs glistening in flaming sunshine - subdued by twilight's mellow rainbow; and the song With the weary years behind me, like a picture- birds awaken a sleeping memory." book that's closed, I wrung from out the future, some promises We tear ourselves with difficulty from the vision r e p o s e d . of Mrs. Wescott dancing garlanded in diaphanous robes And I saw the spring all crimson, as upon the through the Laconia Business and Professional Woman's robin's breast; Club, or perhaps the Altrurian Literary Club, and we While the vision, full of promise, touched my return to the question at hand. heart with newer crest.

Saw the heavens dipped in sunshine, pyramids Is Peake's effusion a parody of Mrs. Wescott's for magic sails; poem? The meter is not decisive. It was Dolores Roses of the purple twilight, draping trellis Espinosa who directed my inquiry toward "Locksley with their bales. Hall" and I find that the meters of all three poems Every bar was twined with roses, every rose an are identical. Indeed Mrs. Wescott appropriates whole o p e n d o o r . phrases from "Locksley Hall" and her last couplet may Where my fancy found an egress, knowing life be taken as a direct repudiation of Tennyson's Futurism is more and more. Everything would be clear if the T itu s poem were similarly related to this established classic. But I see no similarity beyond meter. The word "linger" does not Never comes the golden sunset, never comes occur in "Locksley Hall" with any prominence. the spring of day. Never bursts the fragrant blooming but I wander far away; It is so hard not to suspect that lines such as And I linger near the trellis where the roses "Many a time from window casement, ere I sought gently lean. evening rest/ Did I gaze on this loved trellis, when the sun was sloping w est..." find mordant and mockinq There my thoughts will ever wander, and my heart the sunshine glean. echo in Mervyn Peake's fantasy: "In dark alcoves I have lingered/ Conscious of dead dynasties. / I have lingered in blue cellars/ And in hollow trunks of 'Till at last the dusky twilight, that is t r e e s . " near and nearer drawn Mingles with the light of heaven, in the Yet it is terribly unlikely that Peake, even if he merging of a dawn. had seen Mrs. Wescott's book, would have b o t h e r e d to And the ranbow I shall gather, in the parody it. For who else in England had seen it? The gleanings I have made. presence of this grotesque witticism, if such it was, Will brighten paths before me, as my thoughts could scarcely be expected even to boost trans-A tlantic Move down the glade. sales, assuming they were initially contemplated.

For the dreams that I am dreaming, are the At a Sutton Hoo branch meeting a couple of summers dreams that all may share. ago, I read the Wescott poem and broached the question They're bright dreams of golden sunlight, in of relationship. Those who had opinions were decidedly the merging of the fair. negative. The verdict was coincidence. I throw the And I know that in the weaving of the dreams question to the whole Society. I personally believe that that I have seen, much may be at stake here. For if Peake did n o t k n o w I shall pause in realms celestial, in contentment Mrs. Wescott's poem, how sure can anyone be about a n y quite serene. derivation? We may even have to face the possibility that 47 the author of Genesis had never heard of Gilgamesh.