Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice, James Branch Cabell [mini ebook reader .TXT] 📗

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JURGEN

A Comedy of Justice

By

JAMES BRANCH CABELL

1922

   "Of JURGEN eke they maken mencioun,
   That of an old wyf gat his youthe agoon,
   And gat himselfe a shirte as bright as fyre
   Wherein to jape, yet gat not his desire
   In any countrie ne condicioun."

TO BURTON RASCOE

     Before each tarradiddle,
   Uncowed by sciolists,
   Robuster persons twiddle
   Tremendously big fists.

     "Our gods are good," they tell us;
   "Nor will our gods defer
   Remission of rude fellows'
   Ability to err."

     So this, your JURGEN, travels
   Content to compromise
   Ordainments none unravels
   Explicitly … and sighs.

* * * * *

"Others, with better moderation, do either entertain the vulgar history of Jurgen as a fabulous addition unto the true and authentic story of St. Iurgenius of Poictesme, or else we conceive the literal acception to be a misconstruction of the symbolical expression: apprehending a veritable history, in an emblem or piece of Christian poesy. And this emblematical construction hath been received by men not forward to extenuate the acts of saints."

—PHILIP BORSDALE.

"A forced construction is very idle. If readers of The High History of Jurgen do not meddle with the allegory, the allegory will not meddle with them. Without minding it at all, the whole is as plain as a pikestaff. It might as well be pretended that we cannot see Poussin's pictures without first being told the allegory, as that the allegory aids us in understanding Jurgen."

—E. NOEL CODMAN.

"Too urbane to advocate delusion, too hale for the bitterness of irony, this fable of Jurgen is, as the world itself, a book wherein each man will find what his nature enables him to see; which gives us back each his own image; and which teaches us each the lesson that each of us desires to learn."

—JOHN FREDERICK LEWISTAM.

* * * * *

CONTENTS A FOREWORD: WHICH ASSERTS NOTHING I WHY JURGEN DID THE MANLY THING II ASSUMPTION OF A NOTED GARMENT III THE GARDEN BETWEEN DAWN AND SUNRISE IV THE DOROTHY WHO DID NOT UNDERSTAND V REQUIREMENTS OF BREAD AND BUTTER VI SHOWING THAT SEREDA IS FEMININE VII OF COMPROMISES ON A WEDNESDAY VIII OLD TOYS AND A NEW SHADOW IX THE ORTHODOX RESCUE OF GUENEVERE X PITIFUL DISGUISES OF THRAGNAR XI APPEARANCE OF THE DUKE OF LOGREUS XII EXCURSUS OF YOLANDE'S UNDOING XIII PHILOSOPHY OF GOGYRVAN GAWR XIV PRELIMINARY TACTICS OF DUKE JURGEN XV OF COMPROMISES IN GLATHION XVI DIVERS IMBROGLIOS OF KING SMOIT XVII ABOUT A COCK THAT CROWED TOO SOON XVIII WHY MERLIN TALKED IN TWILIGHT XIX THE BROWN MAN WITH QUEER FEET XX EFFICACY OF PRAYER XXI HOW ANAÏTIS VOYAGED XXII AS TO A VEIL THEY BROKE XXIII SHORTCOMINGS OF PRINCE JURGEN XXIV OF COMPROMISES IN COCAIGNE XXV CANTRAPS OF THE MASTER PHILOLOGIST XXVI IN TIME'S HOUR-GLASS XXVII VEXATIOUS ESTATE OF QUEEN HELEN XXVIII OF COMPROMISES IN LEUKÊ XXIX CONCERNING HORVENDILE'S NONSENSE XXX ECONOMICS OF KING JURGEN XXXI THE FALL OF PSEUDOPOLIS XXXII SUNDRY DEVICES OF THE PHILISTINES XXXIII FAREWELL TO CHLORIS XXXIV HOW EMPEROR JURGEN FARED INFERNALLY XXXV WHAT GRANDFATHER SATAN REPORTED XXXVI WHY COTH WAS CONTRADICTED XXXVII INVENTION OF THE LOVELY VAMPIRE XXXVIII AS TO APPLAUDED PRECEDENTS XXXIX OF COMPROMISES IN HELL XL THE ASCENSION OF POPE JURGEN XLI OF COMPROMISES IN HEAVEN XLII TWELVE THAT ARE FRETTED HOURLY XLIII POSTURES BEFORE A SHADOW XLIV IN THE MANAGER'S OFFICE XLV THE FAITH OF GUENEVERE XLVI THE DESIRE OF ANAÏTIS XLVII THE VISION OF HELEN XLVIII CANDID OPINIONS OF DAME LISA XLIX OF THE COMPROMISE WITH KOSHCHEI L THE MOMENT THAT DID NOT COUNT A FOREWORD

"Nescio quid certè est: et Hylax in limine latrat."

A Foreword: Which Asserts Nothing.

In Continental periodicals not more than a dozen articles in all would seem to have given accounts or partial translations of the Jurgen legends. No thorough investigation of this epos can be said to have appeared in print, anywhere, prior to the publication, in 1913, of the monumental Synopses of Aryan Mythology by Angelo de Ruiz. It is unnecessary to observe that in this exhaustive digest Professor de Ruiz has given (VII, p. 415 et sequentia) a summary of the greater part of these legends as contained in the collections of Verville and Bülg; and has discussed at length and with much learning the esoteric meaning of these folk-stories and their bearing upon questions to which the "solar theory" of myth explanation has given rise. To his volumes, and to the pages of Mr. Lewistam's Key to the Popular Tales of Poictesme, must be referred all those who may elect to think of Jurgen as the resplendent, journeying and procreative sun.

Equally in reading hereinafter will the judicious waive all allegorical interpretation, if merely because the suggestions hitherto advanced are inconveniently various. Thus Verville finds the Nessus shirt a symbol of retribution, where Bülg, with rather wide divergence, would have it represent the dangerous gift of genius. Then it may be remembered that Dr. Codman says, without any hesitancy, of Mother Sereda: "This Mother Middle is the world generally (an obvious anagram of Erda es), and this Sereda rules not merely the middle of the working-days but the midst of everything. She is the factor of middleness, of mediocrity, of an avoidance of extremes, of the eternal compromise begotten by use and wont. She is the Mrs. Grundy of the Léshy; she is Comstockery: and her shadow is common-sense." Yet Codman speaks with certainly no more authority than Prote, when the latter, in his Origins of Fable, declares this epos is "a parable of … man's vain journeying in search of that rationality and justice which his nature craves, and discovers nowhere in the universe: and the shirt is an emblem of this instinctive craving, as … the shadow symbolizes conscience. Sereda typifies a surrender to life as it is, a giving up of man's rebellious self-centredness and selfishness: the anagram being se dare."

Thus do interpretations throng and clash, and neatly equal the commentators in number. Yet possibly each one of these unriddlings, with no doubt a host of others, is conceivable: so that wisdom will dwell upon none of them very seriously.

With the origin and the occult meaning of the folklore of Poictesme this book at least is in no wise concerned: its unambitious aim has been merely to familiarize English readers with the Jurgen epos for the tale's sake. And this tale of old years is one which, by rare fortune, can be given to English readers almost unabridged, in view of the singular delicacy and pure-mindedness of the Jurgen mythos: in all, not more than a half-dozen deletions have seemed expedient (and have been duly indicated) in order to remove such sparse and unimportant outcroppings of mediæval frankness as might conceivably offend the squeamish.

Since this volume is presented simply as a story to be read for pastime, neither morality nor symbolism is hereinafter educed, and no "parallels" and "authorities" are quoted. Even the gaps are left unbridged by guesswork: whereas the historic and mythological problems perhaps involved are relinquished to those really thoroughgoing scholars whom erudition qualifies to deal with such topics, and tedium does not deter….

In such terms, and thus far, ran the Foreword to the first issues of this book, whose later fortunes have made necessary the lengthening of the Foreword with a postscript. The needed addition—this much at least chiming with good luck—is brief. It is just that fragment which some scholars, since the first appearance of this volume, have asserted—upon what perfect frankness must describe as not indisputable grounds—to be a portion of the thirty-second chapter of the complete form of La Haulte Histoire de Jurgen.

And in reply to what these scholars assert, discretion says nothing. For this fragment was, of course, unknown when the High History was first put into English, and there in consequence appears, here, little to be won either by endorsing or denying its claims to authenticity. Rather, does discretion prompt the appending, without any gloss or scholia, of this fragment, which deals with

The Judging of Jurgen.

Now a court was held by the Philistines to decide whether or no King Jurgen should be relegated to limbo. And when the judges were prepared for judging, there came into the court a great tumblebug, rolling in front of him his loved and properly housed young ones. With the creature came pages, in black and white, bearing a sword, a staff and a lance.

This insect looked at Jurgen, and its pincers rose erect in horror. The bug cried to the three judges, "Now, by St. Anthony! this Jurgen must forthwith be relegated to limbo, for he is offensive and lewd and lascivious and indecent."

"And how can that be?" says Jurgen.

"You are offensive," the bug replied, "because this page has a sword which I choose to say is not a sword. You are lewd because that page has a lance which I prefer to think is not a lance. You are lascivious because yonder page has a staff which I elect to declare is not a staff. And finally, you are indecent for reasons of which a description would be objectionable to me, and which therefore I must decline to reveal to anybody."

"Well, that sounds logical," says Jurgen, "but still, at the same time, it would be no worse for an admixture of common-sense. For you gentlemen can see for yourselves, by considering these pages fairly and as a whole, that these pages bear a sword and a lance and a staff, and nothing else whatever; and you will deduce, I hope, that all the lewdness is in the insectival mind of him who itches to be calling these things by other names."

The judges said nothing as yet. But they that guarded Jurgen, and all the other Philistines, stood to this side and to that side with their eyes shut tight, and all these said: "We decline to look at the pages fairly and as a whole, because to look might seem to imply a doubt of what the tumblebug has decreed. Besides, as long as the tumblebug has reasons which he declines to reveal, his reasons stay unanswerable, and