Reader's Companion to John Cowper Powys's a Glastonbury Romance
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John Cowper Powys’s A Glastonbury Romance: A Reader’s Companion Updated and Expanded Edition W. J. Keith December 2010 . “Reader’s Companions” by Prof. W.J. Keith to other Powys works are available at: https://www.powys-society.org/Articles.html Preface The aim of this list is to provide background information that will enrich a reading of Powys’s novel/ romance. It glosses biblical, literary and other allusions, identifies quotations, explains geographical and historical references, and offers any commentary that may throw light on the more complex aspects of the text. Biblical citations are from the Authorized (King James) Version. (When any quotation is involved, the passage is listed under the first word even if it is “a” or “the”.) References are to the first edition of A Glastonbury Romance, but I follow G. Wilson Knight’s admirable example in including the equivalent page-numbers of the 1955 Macdonald edition (which are also those of the 1975 Picador edition), here in square brackets. Cuts were made in the latter edition, mainly in the “Wookey Hole” chapter as a result of the libel action of 1934. References to JCP’s works published in his lifetime are not listed in “Works Cited” but are also to first editions (see the Powys Society’s Checklist) or to reprints reproducing the original pagination, with the following exceptions: Wolf Solent (London: Macdonald, 1961), Weymouth Sands (London: Macdonald, 1963), Maiden Castle (ed. Ian Hughes. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 1990), Psychoanalysis and Morality (London: Village Press, 1975), The Owl, the Duck and – Miss Rowe! Miss Rowe! (London: Village Press, 1975), and A Philosophy of Solitude, in which the first English edition is used. In the case of Porius, references are to the edition by Judith Bond and Morine Krissdóttir (New York and London: Overlook Duckworth, 2007) with page-numbers for the 1995 Colgate University Press text edited by Wilbur K. Albrecht following in square brackets; in that of Owen Glendower, the first references are to the first edition, with the common pagination of the U.K. Walcot 2002 and the U.S. Overlook 2003 editions in square brackets. Details of all other books quoted (and details of JCP’s posthumously published writings) will be found in the concluding “Works Cited.” Common universal references are ignored, but, except in the most obvious (e.g., “London”), all British geographical references are glossed. Phrases and quotations from foreign languages are translated even when elementary. I usually give page-references only to the first appearance of a word or phrase, unless later references seem significant. However, all but the most casual of artistic and literary references are included. In referring to Arthurian and Grail scholarship, I have concentrated on the work of older scholars (R. S. Loomis, John Rhys, Jessie L. Weston) because these are the authorities that JCP used. Many of their theories, of course, have now been superseded. A street-map of Glastonbury, marked by JCP, is produced in Dante Thomas (39), in Rands, “Aspects” (27), and on the cover of Powys Review 9 (1981-2). I would like to record special thanks to James Carley, Kate Kavanagh, and Susan Rands, who provided valuable corrections and additions to the earlier versions of this compilation. And I am especially grateful to Jacqueline and Max Peltier for their continual encouragement over several years and for their efforts to make these annotations accessible on their own and the Powys Society’s websites, and to Lihua Gui for patient and cheerful computer assistance. W. J. K. November 2010 3 4 A Glastonbury Romance includes “the Ruins of Glastonbury” in a list of objects that A can change “one’s whole life” (The Meaning of Culture [268]). “A grave for Mark …” (epigraph) — A translation of a stanza Abbey Theatre in Dublin (333 [325]) — The famous Irish from “Stanzas of the Graves” in The Black Book of Carmarthen theatre where many of the plays of Sean O’Casey, J. M. Synge, (probably ninth century), which “is generally considered to and W. B. Yeats were first performed. provide the earliest recorded evidence for a concept of Arthur as a hero who had never died and would never die” (Green Abbot’s Kitchen (513 [496]) — A fourteenth-century [72]). JCP clearly derived it from Rhys’s Studies (19). The building within the Abbey Ruins, which survived the meaning of the third line has been much discussed; it Dissolution intact. probably means “Nobody can say where Arthur’s grave is” Abbot’s Tribunal (339, 654 [330, 629]) — A substantial (Padel [50]), while “anoeth … refers to something difficult merchant’s house in Glastonbury High Street, now the to acquire, hidden, precious, a wonder” (David Jones [“Myth” Glastonbury Museum. Until recently, it was thought to have 213]), and is sometimes translated as “the world’s wonder” been the monastery’s court-hall. (Information from James (Thomas Jones [127]). Geoffrey Ashe notes that the line Carley.) could also be translated as “Concealed till the Judgment Day the grave of Arthur,” and comments: “Its essential message Abishag (1091 [1042]) — The Shunamite woman chosen is clear: ‘Don’t ask questions.’ The poet is aware of a secret” to lie with the aged David to keep him warm in 1 Kings 1:1-3. (King [117]). JCP’s use of the stanza here immediately casts abstracted trance (301 [294]; cf. 907 [887]) — Cf. the doubt on the claim that Arthur’s grave is in Glastonbury. characteristic JCP hero’s sinking into his soul. It is interesting For further details, see Keith (81-4). that here the condition is attributed to Socrates (q.v.). “a great good place” (26 [44]; cf. 169 [179]) — The title of Acheron (1027 [981]) — A river in the classical underworld. a short story by Henry James, first published in The Soft So, “Acherontic” (340 [332]). Side (1900). Also quoted in The Inmates (239, 240), Dorothy Achilles (272 [268]) — The hero of Homer’s Iliad. He had M. Richardson (44), and The Dorset Year (274). a pair of immortal horses, Xanthos and Balios; these led the à quatre (1094 [1045]) — Involving four [people] (French). chariot when Achilles killed Hector (see Books 19 and 21). a second figure … sorceress (343) — In the 1955 edition They are also mentioned in Autobiography (388), where (334), this reads : “the still recumbent figure of Mr. Geard” Xanthos is incorrectly given as Zanthus. (see Smith article). acquainted with fear (592 [570]) — Probably an echo of “a thousand years were as a day” (677 [650]) — From Psalm “acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). 90:4, perhaps via Isaac Watts’s hymn “O God our help in Æolian harp (640 [615]) — A supposedly natural ages past …” (noted by Kate Kavanagh). instrument by which strings emitted sounds when played “à trois” (121 [133]) — Involving three [people] (French), upon the wind. “Æolus-breath” (583 [561]) is the sound usually referring to an unorthodox marriage. conveyed by the wind. Æolus was the classical god of the winds. “a wide solution” (98 [112]) — Sir Thomas Browne, Hydriotaphia, Urn-Burial (Ch.5), also quoted in Wood and Aestiva Regio (596 [573]) — Summer region (Latin), Stone (530), The Complex Vision (202), and Jack and Frances mentioned by Rhys (52, 329, 346). Almost certainly a name (I 54). for Somerset. Abbey Barn (204 [211]) — The fourteenth-century tithe- affairs of men (1155 [1102]) — An apparent echo of barn at the corner of Chilkwell Street, well known for its Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (IV iii 218), also quoted in Mortal carvings in stone of the symbols of the four evangelists; a Strife (161). lion for Matthew, an ox for Mark, a man for Luke, and an After Wookey Hole, when … (892) — In the 1955 edition eagle for John. In JCP’s time it was still in use; it is now a [854] this becomes simply “When …” (see Smith article). Rural Life Museum. Agamemnon (258 [254]) — Mycenaean leader at Troy, slain Abbey House (18 [37]) — A large house overlooking the on his return by his wife Clytemnestra and her lover east end of the Abbey Ruins, built in 1825 and inhabited in Aegisthus; see Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon. the novel/romance by Euphemia Drew. Along with the Agapé (103 [117]) — Spiritual love (Greek), close to but Ruins, it was auctioned in 1907 (see “Bishop” below, and not identical with the Pauline “charity” of the Authorized Carley, Glastonbury [175]). By 1982 it had become an (King James) Version. Anglican retreat house. A sketch (1833) is reproduced in Dunning (89), and there is a photograph of its gateway in Agathos-Dikaios (733 [703]) — Implying goodness and Rands (“Aspects” [34]). righteousness. JCP is wrong, however, in attributing the reference to St. John. In fact, it is found to be in Luke 23:50, Abbey Ruins (18 [37]) — The ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, translated in the Authorized (King James) Version as “a good suppressed at the Dissolution.. See also “Bishop.” JCP man and a just.” A Reader’s Companion 5 Agincourt (64 [80]) — Scene of the battle in 1415 where all flesh was literally grass (168 [177]) — Adapted from 1 the forces of Henry V defeated those of the French. Peter 1:24. “airy syllables” (1118 [1067]) — Abridged from Milton’s all the sweet-sickly religious lies that had ever medicined Comus (l.208), also quoted in One Hundred Best Books (15). the world (108 [122]) — Jerome McGann (179) detects here an echo of Marx’s Communist Manifesto. Aix-les-Bains (911 [872]) — A French lake-resort close to the borders of Switzerland and Italy. altar … that had been used in the original wattle-edifice (562 [541]) — See “Wattle Church.” Aladdin’s cave (355 [345]) — The home of the owner of the magic lamp, whose story is told in The Arabian Nights’ Altar Stone (84, 85 [99, 100]) — A recumbent stone within Entertainments.