Colburn and Bentley first edition - 1831
Another three-decker under my belt; and another G.P.R. James tale, this time one of his earliest, being the fifth (and only two years after his first novel, Adra or the Peruvians.) Philip Augustus was written in less than seven weeks; James received £600 from the publishers Colburn and Bentley (he was given the same amount for his De L'Orme, published a year earlier). Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832-1914), the poet, novelist and critic, regarded the novel as the author's best work. It is of note that James was living at Maxpoffle House, near Melrose at the time of the novel's publication. J.G. Lockhart later wrote: Mr James and his lady...were welcome additions [to the visitors of the dying Sir Walter Scott] - and frequently so - to his accustomed circle...Sir Walter...seemed when in the midst of his family and friends, always tranquil - sometimes cheerful. On one or two occasions he was even gay; particularly, I think, when the weather was so fine as to tempt us to dine in the marble-hall at Abbotsford, or at an early hour under the trees at Chiefswood. Apparently, on one occasion, James rode over the hills to Abbotsford with eleven dogs of every size and description gambolling and yelping at his heels. Scott would have loved that! It was earlier the the same year that Scott had written to James Skene: I beg to introduce a literary man of great merit who might be called James of that ilk, since he is James of James. Scott died in September 1832 and, partly in memory of the friendship, James named his first child, born two months later, George Walter James.
As usual in his novels, James weaves facts and fiction, real-life persons with creatures of his imagination, skilfully together. He sets his tale in the period from 1199 (just after Richard I of England's death) to around two years' later. Philip Augustus, King of France, has to deal with enemies within and without his realm, particularly in the period when his whole kingdom is placed under a papal Interdict. James peoples the historical events with a goodly array of villains and heroes.
Villains?
Above all, King John of England, who is depicted as personally murdering the rightful King of England, his nephew Arthur. John Lackland, the meanest and most pitiful villain that ever wore a crown... in whose dark recesses lurked a cruel heart.
Innocent III, of an imperious and jealous nature...as keen and clear-sighted as he was ambitious, he was clearly disliked by Philip and the author (and me!). The king's anger when Innocent tells him to forsake his new wife is profound: if in the meanwhile this proud Prelate yields me my wife - my own beloved wife - why well; but if he dares then refuse his sanction, his seat is but a frail one; for I will march on Rome, and hurl him from his chair... Innocent was one of the most powerful of the medieval popes, exerting a wide influence over the Christian states of Europe, claiming supremacy over all of Europe's kings. The Catholic Church ruled over all through the strength of superstition - called out by Scott, James and me.
Jodelle, a fictional mountebank and member of the roaming outlaw bands of the Cotereaux, a subgroup of the infamous Routiers, who deceived nearly all he came across - English and French. He meets a deserved dastardly death at the end of De Coucy's spear, but not before he had mortally wounded the latter's Fool.
Guillaume, the Count de la Roche Guyon - a slight, fair youth, of a handsome but somewhat feminine aspect. He turns out to be a bad oeuf and also dies in battle against Philip's forces..
Heroes?
Philip Augustus, tall, well-formed, handsome...with the manly florid hue of robust health, exposure, and exercise [whose] eyes seemed to speak that keen and quick sagacity, which sees and determines at once, in the midst of thick dangers and perplexity....(well might he need this prowess for, as the author remarks - the existence of a monarch, without his lot be cast amidst very halcyon days indeed, is much like the life of a seaman, borne up upon uncertain and turbulent waves) there was grace, and repose, and dignity, in his whole figure. The king seemed to have two spirits. There was the one that, bright and keen and active, mingled in the busy scenes of politics and warfare...and there was another, still, silent, deep, in the inmost chambers of his heart...here he had a world apart from aught else on earth, wherein the Spirit of deep feeling swayed supreme; and thence issued that strong control that his heart ever exercised over the bright Spirit of genius and talent, with which he was so eminently endowed. It was his love for Agnes de Meranie.
Count Thibalt D'Auvergne, who also loved Agnes but who suffered in silence, even going mad for awhile and, finally, giving his life for his monarch. "I admire the King though I love not the man".
And the other main hero, the fictitious Guy De Coucy, a brave young warrior, back from the Crusades with D'Auvergne, who falls quickly in love with Isadore but whose father forbids the relationship. Guy (often literally) battles through the story, steadfast in his love and loyalty to King Philip, imprisoned by King John at one stage but eventually helping his monarch overcome the odds in a major battle.
William Longsword, the Earl of Salisbury, the illegitimate brother of King John, is one of the few Englishmen to come out well in the story. He saves De Coucy's life and is repaid, in turn, at the end of the tale.
Perhaps, the most tragic figure is Prince Arthur Plantagenet - a slight, graceful boy, of about fifteen, sprang into the room. He was gaily dressed in a light tunic of sky-blue silk, and a jewelled bonnet of the same colour, which showed well on his bright, fair skin, and the falling curls of his sunny hair... endowed with a thousand graces of person and of mind, Arthur still had that youthful indecision of character, that facility of yielding, which leads the lad so often to do what the man afterwards bitterly repents of.
The most annoying character was Gallon the Fool. Originally one of the jugglers who had accompanied the second Crusade to the Holy Land, he had been made prisoner by the Infidel; and, after several years' bondage, had been redeemed by De Coucy. Never did a more curious physiognomy come from the cunning and various hand of Nature. His nose was long, and was seemingly boneless; for, ever and anon, whether from some natural convulsive motion, or from a voluntary and laudable desire to improve upon the singular hideousness of his countenance, this long, sausage-like contrivance in the midst of his face would wriggle from side to side, with a very portentous and uneasy movement. As if that's wasn't enough to put any observer off, his eyes...had in themselves a manifest tendency to separate, never having any fixed and determined direction, but wandering about apparently independent of each other, - sometimes far asunder, - sometimes, like Pyramus and Thisbe, wooing each other across the wall of his nose with a most portentous squint. The reader gets the picture. Unfortunately, James also gave to his character the (extremely irritating, to me at least) additional expletive Haw, haw, haw! or, more than once, Haw, haw, haw! Haw, haw, haw! every time the Fool spoke.
Entangled in the account of the machinations of monarchs, popes and nobles is the story of two loves - one destined for happiness after travail; the other destined for tragedy after happiness. Philip, after the death of his first wife, married Ingerburge, sister of Canute, King of Denmark; but on her arrival in France, he was seized with so strong a personal dislike of her (shades of Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves), that he instantly convoked a synod of the clergy of France, who, on pretence of kindred in the prohibited degrees, annulled the marriage. Philip then married Agnes de Meranie, daughter of the Duke of Istria and Meranie. James uses his novelist's skills to portray a genuine love affair - between the manly monarch and the 19 year-old fair girl, with her light hair floating upon her shoulders in large masses of shining curls...with her full, soft, blue eyes. Alas, thanks to the megalomania of the pope, the union will end in tragedy. On the other hand, De Coucy finally gets his girl, the gorgeous Isadore of the Mount, slight in figure, but yet with every limb rounded in the full and swelling contour of woman's most lovely age. Her features were small, delicate, and nowhere sharp, yet cut with that square exactness of outline so beautiful in the efforts of the Grecian chisel. Her eyes were long, and full, and dark...the hair, that fell in a profusion of thick curls round her face, was as black as jet...her skin as smooth as alabaster... I hope Mrs James approved of this outpouring.
Rather like Scott, James plays fast and loose with chronology. Philip and Agnes married in 1196 and separated after the papal Interdict (1199-September 1200). Agnes died - possibly in childbirth - in July 1201. Arthur does not 'disappear' until 1203. The Battle of Bouvines, between Philip and Otho's forces does not occur until 1214. The author has 'telescoped' all these events into just two years. The novelist's licence?
There is the usual padding - required for a three-decker - mainly of descriptions of the environment and weather, and witticisms which fail to raise a smile: "Art thou sure thou knowest the way, urchin?" cried the man, in a wearied and panting tone, which argue plainly enough, that his corpulency loved not deeply the species of stumbling locomotion, to which his legs subjected his paunch... But I forgive these minor failings, as James spins a good yarn.
No comments:
Post a Comment