Jurgen (27)
By:
September 17, 2015
James Branch Cabell’s 1919 ironic fantasy novel Jurgen, A Comedy of Justice, the protagonist of which seduces women everywhere he travels — including into Arthurian legend and Hell itself — is (according to Aleister Crowley) one of the “epoch-making masterpieces of philosophy.” Cabell’s sardonic inversion of romantic fantasy was postmodernist avant la lettre. HiLoBooks is pleased to serialize Jurgen here at HILOBROW. Enjoy!
“Well, well!” said Jurgen, when he had taken off all that foolish ironmongery, and had made himself comfortable in his shirt; “well, beyond doubt, the situation is awkward. I was content enough in Cocaigne, and it is unfair that I should be thus ousted. Still, a sensible person will manage to be content anywhere. But whither, pray, am I expected to go?”
“Into whatever land you may elect, my dear,” said Anaïtis, fondly. “That much at least I can manage for you: and the interpretation of your legend can be arranged afterward.”
“But I grow tired of all the countries I have ever seen, dear Anaïtis, and in my time I have visited nearly all the lands that are known to men.”
“That too can be arranged: and you can go instead into one of the countries which are desired by men. Indeed there are a number of such realms which no man has ever visited except in dreams, so that your choice is wide.”
“But how am I to make a choice without having seen any of these countries? It is not fair to be expecting me to do anything of the sort.”
“Why, I will show them to you,” Anaïtis replied.
The two of them then went together into a small blue chamber, the walls of which were ornamented with gold stars placed helter-skelter. The room was entirely empty save for an hour-glass near twice the height of a man.
“It is Time’s own glass,” said Anaïtis, “which was left in my keeping when Time went to sleep.”
Anaïtis opened a little door of carved crystal that was in the lower half of the hour-glass, just above the fallen sands. With her finger-tips she touched the sand that was in Time’s hour-glass, and in the sand she drew a triangle with equal sides, she who was strangely gifted and perverse. Then she drew just such another figure so that the tip of it penetrated the first triangle. The sand began to smoulder there, and vapors rose into the upper part of the hour-glass, and Jurgen saw that all the sand in Time’s hour-glass was kindled by a magic generated by the contact of these two triangles. And in the vapors a picture formed.
“I see a land of woods and rivers, Anaïtis. A very old fellow, regally crowned, lies asleep under an ash-tree, guarded by a watchman who has more arms and hands than Jigsbyed.”
“It is Atlantis you behold, and the sleeping of ancient Time — Time, to whom this glass belongs, — while Briareus watches.”
“Time sleeps quite naked, Anaïtis, and, though it is a delicate matter to talk about, I notice he has met with a deplorable accident.”
“So that Time begets nothing any more, Jurgen, the while he brings about old happenings over and over, and changes the name of what is ancient, in order to persuade himself he has a new plaything. There is really no more tedious and wearing old dotard anywhere, I can assure you. But Atlantis is only the western province of Cocaigne. Now do you look again, Jurgen!”
“Now I behold a flowering plain and three steep hills, with a castle upon each hill. There are woods wherein the foliage is crimson: shining birds with white bodies and purple heads feed upon the clusters of golden berries that grow everywhere: and people go about in green clothes, with gold chains about their necks, and with broad bands of gold upon their arms, and all these people have untroubled faces.”
“That is Inislocha: and to the south is Inis Daleb, and to the north Inis Ercandra. And there is sweet music to be listening to eternally, could we but hear the birds of Rhiannon, and there is the best of wine to drink, and there delight is common. For thither comes nothing hard nor rough, and no grief, nor any regret, nor sickness, nor age, nor death, for this is the Land of Women, a land of many-colored hospitality.”
“Why, then, it is no different from Cocaigne. And into no realm where pleasure is endless will I ever venture again of my own free will, for I find that I do not enjoy pleasure.”
Then Anaïtis showed him Ogygia, and Tryphême, and Sudarsana, and the Fortunate Islands, and Æaea, and Caer-Is, and Invallis, and the Hesperides, and Meropis, and Planasia, and Uttarra, and Avalon, and Tir-nam-Beo, and Thelême, and a number of other lands to enter which men have desired: and Jurgen groaned.
“I am ashamed of my fellows,” says he: “for it appears their notion of felicity is to dwell eternally in a glorified brothel. I do not think that as a self-respecting young Prince I would care to inhabit any of these earthly paradises, for were there nothing else, I would always be looking for an invasion by the police.”
“There remains, then, but one other realm, which I have not shown you, in part because it is an obscure little place, and in part because, for a reason that I have, I shall not assist you to go thither. Still, there is Leukê, where Queen Helen rules: and Leukê it is that you behold.”
“But Leukê seems like any other country in autumn, and appears to be reasonably free from the fantastic animals and overgrown flowers which made the other paradises look childish. Come now, there is an attractive simplicity about Leukê. I might put up with Leukê if the local by-laws allowed me a rational amount of discomfort.”
“Discomfort you would have full measure. For the heart of no man remains untroubled after he has once viewed Queen Helen and the beauty that is hers. It is for that reason, Jurgen, I shall not help you to go into Leukê: for in Leukê you would forget me, having seen Queen Helen.”
“Why, what nonsense you are talking, my darling! I will wager she cannot hold a candle to you.”
“See for yourself!” said Anaïtis, sadly.
Now through the rolling vapors came confusedly a gleaming and a surging glitter of all the loveliest colors of heaven and earth: and these took order presently, and Jurgen saw before him in the hour-glass that young Dorothy who was not Heitman Michael’s wife. And long and wistfully he looked at her, and the blinding tears came to his eyes for no reason at all, and for the while he could not speak.
Then Jurgen yawned, and said, “But certainly this is not the Helen who was famed for beauty.”
“I can assure you that it is,” said Anaïtis: “and that it is she who rules in Leukê, whither I do not intend you shall go.”
“Why, but, my darling! this is preposterous. The girl is nothing to look at twice, one way or the other. She is not actually ugly, I suppose, if one happens to admire that washed-out blonde type, as of course some people do. But to call her beautiful is out of reason; and that I must protest in simple justice.”
“Do you really think so?” says Anaïtis, brightening.
“I most assuredly do. Why, you remember what Calpurnius Bassus says about all blondes?”
“No, I believe not. What did he say, dear?”
“I would only spoil the splendid passage by quoting it inaccurately from memory. But he was quite right, and his opinion is mine in every particular. So if that is the best Leukê can offer, I heartily agree with you I had best go into some other country.”
“I suppose you already have your eyes upon some minx or other?”
“Well, my love, those girls in the Hesperides were strikingly like you, with even more wonderful hair than yours: and the girl Aillê whom we saw in Tir-nam-Beo likewise resembled you remarkably, except that I thought she had the better figure. So I believe in either of those countries I could be content enough, after a while. Since part from you I must,” said Jurgen, tenderly, “I intend, in common fairness to myself, to find a companion as like you as possible. You conceive I can pretend it is you at first: and then as I grow fonder of her for her own sake, you will gradually be put out of my mind without my incurring any intolerable anguish.”
Anaïtis was not pleased. “So you are already hankering after those huzzies! And you think them better looking than I am! And you tell me so to my face!”
“My darling, you cannot deny we have been married all of three whole months: and nobody can maintain an infatuation for any woman that long, in the teeth of having nothing refused him. Infatuation is largely a matter of curiosity, and both of these emotions die when they are fed.”
“Jurgen,” said Anaïtis, with conviction, “you are lying to me about something. I can see it in your eyes.”
“There is no deceiving a woman’s intuition. Yes, I was not speaking quite honestly when I pretended I had as lief go into the Hesperides as to Tir-nam-Beo: it was wrong of me, and I ask your pardon. I thought that by affecting indifference I could manage you better. But you saw through me at once, and very rightly became angry. So I fling my cards upon the table, I no longer beat about the bushes of equivocation. It is Aillê, the daughter of Cormac, whom I love, and who can blame me? Did you ever in your life behold a more enticing figure, Anaïtis? — certainly I never did. Besides, I noticed — but never mind about that! Still I could not help seeing them. And then such eyes! twin beacons that light my way to comfort for my not inconsiderable regret at losing you, my darling. Oh, yes, assuredly it is to Tir-nam-Beo I elect to go.”
“Whither you go, my fine fellow, is a matter in which I have the choice, not you. And you are going to Leukê.”
“My love, now do be reasonable! We both agreed that Leukê was not a bit suitable. Why, were there nothing else, in Leukê there are no attractive women.”
“Have you no sense except book-sense! It is for that reason I am sending you to Leukê.”
And thus speaking, Anaïtis set about a strong magic that hastened the coming of the Equinox. In the midst of her charming she wept a little, for she was fond of Jurgen.
And Jurgen preserved a hurt and angry face as well as he could: for at the sight of Queen Helen, who was so like young Dorothy la Désirée, he had ceased to care for Queen Anaïtis and her diverting ways, or to care for aught else in the world save only Queen Helen, the delight of gods and men. But Jurgen had learned that Anaïtis required management.
“For her own good,” as he put it, “and in simple justice to the many admirable qualities which she possesses.”
Footnotes from Notes on Jurgen (1928), by James P. Cover — with additional comments from the creators of this website; rewritten, in some instances, by HiLoBooks.
* Atlantis — Atlantis was a fabulous continent, supposed by the ancients to have been submerged beneath the Western Seas. Plato was the first to mention it, and even recently huge tomes have been written to prove that its ruins still lie beneath the waters of the Atlantic. Here, as in other mythical lands, Time was thought to be asleep, guarded by Briareus.
* Briareus — Briareus was a mythological giant who had fifty heads and a hundred hands.
* Inislocha — ?
* Inis Daleb — One of the four paradises of the world in Irish myth, the others being Inislocha to the west, Inis Ercandra to the north and Adam’s Paradise to the east.
* Inis Ercandra — ?
* Rhiannon — In The Mabinogion, Rhiannon is a queen possessed of magic powers. The song of the birds of Rhiannon was so sweet that warriors, listening to them, remained spellbound for eighty years.
* Land of Women — ?
* Ogygia — This was the mythical island inhabited by the enchantress of Calypso. Homer places it in the very center of the sea, far from all lands. One reason for mentioning “Ogygia” is that in this interesting conflation of Celtic and Classical material, Ireland was sometimes identified with Ogygia — as in the book of that name by Roderic O’Flaherty.
* Tryphême — This was the realm of Pierre Louys’ King Pausole.
* Susarsana — ?
* Fortunate Islands — Among the ancients this was another name for the Islands of the Blest, a terrestrial paradise in the Atlantic.
* Aeaea — This was the island where Circé dwelt, and where she received Ulysses’ men and turned them into swine.
* Caer-Is — This was the drowned Breton city of Is. Perhaps more commonly rendered Ker-Ys, or the City of Ys these days.
* Invallis — Sebosus, according to Pliny, gives this as one of the Fortunate Islands. It is so named on account of its undulating surface.
* Hesperides — In classic mythology, the isle of the Hesperides contained the golden apples, the obtaining of which was one of the twelve labors of Hercules.
* Meropis — Meropis was another mythical island of the Western Seas.
* Planasia — This was another of the Fortunate Islands, named thus from the smoothness of its appearance.
* Uttarra — ?
* Avalon — In Welsh mythology, Avalon was the kingdom of the dead. Afterwards, it became a paradise of the western seas; and it was to this abode of heroes that, after his last battle, King Arthur was conveyed.
* Tir-Nam-Beo — This is clearly a Celtic paradise; probably the tir na mban (Land of Maidens) of the great Irish epic, the Tain Bo Cualnge. Some specify Tir-Nam-Beo as the “Land of the [Ever] Living”, as contrasted to Tir Na nÓg, which is the “Land of the [Ever] Youthful”.
* Theleme — Thelême is an abbey described in the Gargantua of Rabelais. It was designed to be the direct opposite of all other abbeys; and was filled with beautiful ladies and honorable men, who spent their time in all the pleasures of a courtly life. The motto above the door was, “Fay ce que Voudras.” Mr. Cabell, it will be remembered, has already paraphrased this motto for the law of Cocaigne, “Do that which seems good to you.”
* Leukê — Leukê was an island in the Euxine Sea, near the mouth of the Borysthenes. Here, according to post-Homeric myth, the souls of the ancient heroes were placed, as in the Elysian Fields. Here also, to prevent strife, the shade of Helen was united to that of Achilles, so that no lesser hero might hope to win her.
* Calpurnius Bassus — This is a writer mentioned by Pliny but otherwise unknown. It is thought that he lived in the reign of Caligula or Tiberius.
* Aillê — ?
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