Cimorene

"And, by my faith, he is a man of steel, as true and as pure, but as hard and as pitiless. You remember the Cock of Capperlaw, whom he hanged over his gate for a mere mistake—a poor yoke of oxen taken in Scotland, when he thought he was taking them in English land? I loved the Cock of Capperlaw; the Kerrs had not an honester man in their clan, and they have had men that might have been a pattern to the Border—men that would not have lifted under twenty cows at once, and would have held themselves dishonoured if they had taken a drift of sheep, or the like, but always managed their raids in full credit and honour."

Their stately offices—their pleasant gardens—the magnificent cloisters constructed for their recreation, were all dilapidated and ruinous; and some of the building materials had apparently been put into requisition by persons in the village and in the vicinity, who, formerly vassals of the Monastery, had not hesitated to appropriate to themselves a part of the spoils. Roland saw fragments of Gothic pillars richly carved, occupying the place of door-posts to the meanest huts; and here and there a mutilated statue, inverted or laid on its side, made the door-post, or threshold, of a wretched cow-house.

"My master has pushed off in the boat which they call the little Herod, (more shame to them for giving the name of a Christian to wood and iron,)[...]"

Old Keltie, the landlord, who had bestowed his name on a bridge in the neighbourhood of his quondam dwelling, received the carrier with his usual festive cordiality, and adjourned with him into the house, under pretence of important business, which, I believe, consisted in their emptying together a mutchkin stoup of usquebaugh.

“Peace, ye brawling hound!” said the wounded steward; “are dagger-stabs and dying men such rarities in Scotland, that you should cry as if the house were falling?”

• “[Y]ou twa will be as thick as three in a bed an ance ye forgather.” [You two will be as thick as three in a bed once you get together.]



• “Then the gentleman is a scholar, David?”
  
  “I'se uphaud him a scholar,” answered David: “he has a black coat on, or a brown ane, at ony-rate.” [I'd bet he's a scholar; he has a black coat on, or a brown one, at any rate.]
  
  “Is he a clergyman?”
  
  “I am thinking no, for he looked after his horse's supper before he spoke o' his ain,” replied mine host.



• “I wish him no worse lesson,” said the Sacristan, “than to go swimming merrily down the river with a ghost behind, and Kelpies, night-crows, and mud-eels, all waiting to have a snatch at him."



• The Scottish laws, which were as wisely and judiciously made as they were carelessly and ineffectually executed,



• “Alas! sir,” answered Dame Elspeth, “he is but too prompt, an you talk of promptitude, at any thing that has steel at one end of it, and mischief at the other.”



• "He is a considerate lord the Lord Abbot.”
  
  “And weel he likes a saft seat to his hinder end,” said Tibb; “I have seen a belted baron sit on a bare bench, and find nae fault." [And well he likes a soft seat for his hind end.]



• “And would he fight with Foster in the Church's quarrel?”
  
  “On any quarrel, or upon no quarrel whatever."

[T]he novel follows Birdalone, a young girl who is stolen as a baby by a witch who takes her to serve in the woods of Evilshaw. After she encounters a wood fairy [who] helps her escape the witch's clutches, Birdalone embarks on a series of adventures across the titular Wondrous Isles. These isles are used by Morris both as parables for contemporary Britain and as vehicles for investigating his radical socialist beliefs. As Birdalone travels through the isles she slowly evolves into the embodiment of [Morris's progressive version of] the Victorian "[N]ew [W]oman," embracing hard physical labor, healthy exercise, higher education, socialist values, and financial freedom, while rejecting sexual exploitation, physical abuse of both women and children, and the restrictive sexual mores of the era. This makes her unique in the fantasy fiction of the era as one of the genre's first examples of a strong female hero.

• so she arose and thrust her grief back into her heart,

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• or he might have staid to take a half-mutchkin extraordinary with his crony the hostler



• The young gentleman, who began to grow somewhat impatient, was now joined by a companion in this petty misery of human life—



• The floor, as well as the table and chairs, was overflowed by the same mare magnum of miscellaneous trumpery, where it would have been as impossible to find any individual article wanted, as to put it to any use when discovered.



• As Mr. Oldbuck thought his worthy friend and compeer was in some respects little better than a fool, he was apt to come more near communicating to him that unfavourable opinion, than the rules of modern politeness warrant.



• “Woman,” said he, “is that advertisement thine?” showing a bit of crumpled printed paper: “Does it not set forth, that, God willing, as you hypocritically express it, the Hawes Fly, or Queensferry Diligence, would set forth to-day at twelve o’clock; and is it not, thou falsest of creatures, now a quarter past twelve, and no such fly or diligence to be seen?—Dost thou know the consequence of seducing the lieges by false reports?—dost thou know it might be brought under the statute of leasing-making? Answer—and for once in thy long, useless, and evil life, let it be in the words of truth and sincerity,—hast thou such a coach?—is it in rerum natura?—or is this base annunciation a mere swindle on the incautious to beguile them of their time, their patience, and three shillings of sterling money of this realm?—Hast thou, I say, such a coach? ay or no?”



• "[A] walk in the garden once a-day is exercise, enough for any thinking being—none but a fool or a fox-hunter would require more."



• "But ye like to gar folk look like fools—ye can do that to Sir Arthur, and the minister his very sell.”
  
  “Nature has been beforehand with me, Grizel, in both these instances, and in another which shall be nameless."



• "I have a literary friend at York, with whom I have long corresponded on the subject of the Saxon horn that is preserved in the Minster there; we interchanged letters for six years, and have only as yet been able to settle the first line of the inscription. I will write forthwith to this gentleman, Dr. Dryasdust,..."
  



• For, gentle reader, if thou hast ever beheld the visage of a damsel of sixteen, whose romance of true love has been blown up by an untimely discovery, or of a child of ten years, whose castle of cards has been blown down by a malicious companion, I can safely aver to you, that Jonathan Oldbuck of Monkbarns looked neither more wise nor less disconcerted.

• A few shepherds they fell in with, who were short of speech, after the manner of such men, but deemed a greeting not wholly thrown away on such goodly folk as those wayfarers.



• So they ate their meat in the wilderness, and were nowise ungleeful, for to those twain the world seemed fair, and they hoped for great things.



• So they went thence, and found the master-church, and deemed it not much fairer than it was great; and it was nowise great, albeit it was strange and uncouth of fashion.



• However, all men were armed, and they had many bows, and some of the chapmen's knaves were fell archers.



• [...] where was much recourse of merchants from many lands, and a noble market.



• When they came up to the wall they saw that it was well builded of good ashlar, and so high that they might not see the roofs of the town because of it;



• “I shall lead thee whereas we shall be somewhat out of the way of murder-carles.”

1. In the middle of the hall he saw a handsome nobleman with greying hair seated upon a bed. His head was covered by a cap of sable – black as mulberry, with a purple peak – and his robe was of the same material. He was leaning on his elbow before a very large fire of dry logs, blazing brightly between four columns. Four hundred men could easily sit around that fire, and each would have a comfortable spot. A tall, thick, broad, brass chimney was supported by those strong columns.

   
   –Perceval, The Story of the Grail, Chrétien de Troyes, 1182-1190 C.E.




2. Kay strode to the centre of the hall without his mantle, holding in his right hand a staff; he had a cap of fine cloth over his blond hair, which had been plaited into a braid – there was no more handsome knight in the world, but his beauty and prowess were spoiled by his evil tongue. His cloak was of a colourful and expensive silken material; he wore an embroidered belt whose buckle and links were all of gold – I recall it well, for the story bears witness to it.

   
   –Perceval, The Story of the Grail, Chrétien de Troyes, 1182-1190 C.E.




3. Dinner was as incongruous as everything else. Detestable soup in a splendid old silver tureen that was nearly as dark in hue as Robinson Crusoe's thumb; a perfect salmon, perfectly cooked, on a chipped kitchen dish; such cut glass as is not easy to find nowadays; sherry that, as Flurry subsequently remarked, would burn the shell off an egg; and a bottle of port, draped in immemorial cobwebs, wan with age, and probably priceless.

   
   –Some Experiences of an Irish R.M., Edith Somerville and Violet Martin writing as E.Œ. Somerville and Martin Ross (1898)




4. [H]e observed that Mr Wyse had a soft crinkly shirt with a low collar, and velveteen dress clothes: this pretty costume caused him to look rather like a conjurer.

   
   –Mapp and Lucia, E.F. Benson (1931)




5. His clean-shaven face, with abundant grey hair brushed back from his forehead, was that of an actor who has seen his best days, but who has given command performances at Windsor. He wore a brown velveteen coat, a Byronic collar and a tie strictured with a cameo-ring: he wore brown knickerbockers and stockings to match, he wore neat golfing shoes. He looked as if he might be going to play golf, but somehow it didn't seem likely [...].

   
   –Mapp and Lucia, E.F. Benson (1931)




6. The ship was, or had been, a three-masted barque; two of her masts were gone, and her bows stood high out of the water on the reef that forms one of the shark-like jaws of the bay. The long strand was crowded with black groups of people, from the bank of heavy shingle that had been hurled over on to the road, down to the slope where the waves pitched themselves and climbed and fought and tore the gravel back with them, as though they had dug their fingers in. The people were nearly all men, dressed solemnly and hideously in their Sunday clothes; most of them had come straight from Mass without any dinner, true to that Irish instinct that places its fun before its food. That the wreck was regarded as a spree of the largest kind was sufficiently obvious. Our car pulled up at a public-house that stood askew between the road and the shingle; it was humming with those whom Irish publicans are pleased to call "Bonâ feeds," and sundry of the same class were clustered round the door. Under the wall on the lee-side was seated a bagpiper, droning out "The Irish Washerwoman" with nodding head and tapping heel, and a young man was cutting a few steps of a jig for the delectation of a group of girls.

   
   –Some Experiences of an Irish R.M., Edith Somerville and Violet Martin writing as E.Œ. Somerville and Martin Ross (1898)




7. On the other side of the water sat a very well designed, very strong, and very splendid castle. There is no reason for me to lie about it: the castle sat upon a cliff and was so well fortified that no finer fortress was ever beheld by eye of mortal man; and upon a bare rock was set a great hall entirely of dark marble. There were a good five hundred open windows in the great hall, and a hundred of them were filled with ladies and damsels gazing out into the meadows and flowering orchards in front of them. Most of the damsels were wearing clothes of samite, and most had donned tunics of many hues and silken robes with golden threads. The maidens stood thus at the windows, and those outside could see them from the waist up, with their lustrous hair and elegant bodies.

   
   –Perceval, The Story of the Grail, Chrétien de Troyes, 1182-1190 C.E.

1. The decoration of the studio was even more appalling than might have been expected. There was a German stove in the corner made of pink porcelain, the rafters and roof were painted scarlet, the walls were of magenta distemper and the floor was blue. In the corner was a very large orange-coloured screen. The walls were hung with specimens of Irene’s art, there was a stout female with no clothes on at all, whom it was impossible not to recognize as being Lucy; there were studies of fat legs and ample bosoms, and on the easel was a picture, evidently in process of completion, which represented a man.



This studio belongs to an eccentric socialist artist, a gentlewoman who smokes like a chimney and spits like a man, to our narrator's dismay. The first association the description brings to mind for me are American advertisement illustrations for midcentury bathroom fixtures, from that period (started in the 1930s actually) when sinks and toilets and tubs came in a rainbow of colors, and to sell them they had some absolutely wild pictures with brilliant colors on the walls and the floors as well as the fixtures, and weird carpets and curtains and bows and things like that. I've seen 1960s and 1970s features from magazines on decor with similar color schemes, but only for bedrooms. This is an absolutely gobsmacking mental image that I'm dying to see on film.



2. She had an old wide-awake hat jammed down on her head, a tall collar and stock, a large loose coat, knickerbockers and grey stockings.



This is the artist in question. She always dresses like this, we learn, and at another time the narrator refers to the style as "like a jockey". You can see snapshots of women from the period in knickerbocker outfits like this, usually for some kind of sports (although this was not the dominant outfit for sports in the 20s, but knickerbockers or jodphurs were the trousers worn for horseback riding) - the easiest to find and most widespread are of Chinese American actress and fashion icon Anna May Wong. But because I've seen so few images of this, and encountered it so rarely in the literature I've read from the period before, I wasn't sure how widespread this outfit really was. The idea that it's a suitable costume for an eccentric revolutionary artist type is pleasing to know. (PS: the Quaker Oats man's hat is a wide-awake hat.)



3. [...]looking quainter than ever in corduroys and mauve stockings with an immense orange scarf bordered with pink.



The same person in winter. Interesting that even winter did not seem to be cause for full-length trousers.



4. Without being in the least effeminate, Mr. Wyse this morning looked rather like a modern Troubadour. He had a velveteen coat on, a soft, fluffy, mushy tie which looked as if made of Shirley poppies, very neat knickerbockers, brown stockings with blobs, like the fruit of plane trees, dependent from elaborate “tops,” and shoes with a cascade of leather frilling covering the laces. He might almost equally well be about to play golf over putting-holes on the lawn as the guitar.



A completely different character. This one isn't considered an eccentric at all; everybody looks up to him, in fact, as a member of an Old County Family whose sister is married to an Italian count. This reminds me of the outfits Oscar Wilde wore.

1. "If anyone wishes to oppose this, let him now say what he thinks. I am the king, and I must not he nor consent to any villainy or falsity or excess; I must preserve reason and rightness, for a loyal king ought to maintain law, truth, faith, and justice. I would not wish in any way to commit disloyalty or wrong, no more to the weak than to the strong; it is not right that any should complain of me, and I do not want the tradition or the custom, which my line is bound to uphold, to fall into disuse." (This speech was King Arthur's, but it's interesting more for the ideal of kingship presented, which seems comically at odds with the history of the period - to wit, the reign of Henry II!)


2. Erec had very rich lodgings, for that was what he was accustomed to: there was a profusion of lighted candles, both wax and tallow.


3. King Evrain was faultlessly courteous when he saw Enide coming: he immediately greeted her and hastened to help her dismount. He led her by her beautiful and delicate hand up into his palace, just as courtesy required, and he honoured her in every way he could – for he knew full well how to do it – without any base or foolish thought. He had perfumed a chamber with incense, myrrh, and aloe; upon entering it everyone praised King Evrain’s fine welcome. Hand in hand they entered the chamber with the king, who had escorted them there, rejoicing greatly over them.


4. Before the hour of tierce had sounded, King Arthur had dubbed four hundred knights and more, all sons of counts and kings; he gave each of them three horses and three pairs of mantles, to improve the appearance of his court. The king was very powerful and generous: he did not give mantles made of serge, nor of rabbit or dark-brown wool, but of samite and ermine, of whole miniver and mottled silk, bordered with orphrey, stiff and rough.


5. Guivret led Erec to a delightful room, far from noise and well aired; his sisters laboured to heal him, at Guivret’s urging. Erec put his trust in them, for they inspired great confidence in him. First they removed the dead flesh, then applied ointment and dressing; they showed great diligence in caring for him and, being very skilled, they repeatedly washed his wounds and reapplied the ointment. Each day they made him eat and drink four times or more, and they kept him away from garlic and pepper.

The carle smiled, and said to himself, Forsooth, yonder ruffler must needs clothe him in holiday raiment to do his doughty deed!