Jurgen, James Branch Cabell [ebook reader computer .txt] 📗

Jurgen

By James Branch Cabell.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Epigraph Dedication A Foreword: Which Asserts Nothing Epigraph Jurgen 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: Diverse 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 Hourglass 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 Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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“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.

A Foreword: Which Asserts Nothing

“Nescio quid certè est: et Hylax in limine latrat.”

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