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diff --git a/39264.txt b/39264.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b8d486a --- /dev/null +++ b/39264.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6264 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Grotesque in Church Art, by T. Tindall Wildridge + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license + + +Title: The Grotesque in Church Art + +Author: T. Tindall Wildridge + +Release Date: March 25, 2012 [EBook #39264] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GROTESQUE IN CHURCH ART *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +THE GROTESQUE IN CHURCH ART. + + + + + Only 400 copies of this Book published + for Sale, and this is No. 315 + + + + +[Illustration: THE STORY OF JONAH, RIPON.] + + + + + The Grotesque + in Church Art + + + By T. Tindall Wildridge + + + [Illustration] + + + LONDON: + WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., 5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, E.C. + 1899. + + + + +Preface. + + +The designs of which this book treats have vast fields outside the English +church works to which it has been thought good to limit it. Books and +buildings undoubtedly mutually interchanged some forms of their ornaments, +yet the temple was the earlier repository of man's ideas expressed in art, +and the proper home of the religious symbolism which forms so large a +proportion of my subject. In view also of the ground I have ventured to +hint may be taken up as to the derivation, of a larger number than is +generally supposed, of church designs from heathen prototypes by the hands +of apprenticed masons, it is fitting that the evidences should be from +their chisels. The only exceptions are a few wall-paintings, which serve +to point a difference in style and origin. + +In every case the examples are from churches in our own land. The +conclusions do not nearly approach a complete study of the questions, the +research to the present, great as it is, chiefly shewing how much has yet +to be learned in order to accurately compare the extant with the +long-forgotten. The endeavour has been to present sufficient to enable +general inferences to be drawn in the right direction. + +Of the numerous works consulted in the course of this essay, the most +useful has been "Choir Stalls and their Carvings," sketched by Miss Emma +Phipson. While tendering my acknowledgments for much assistance obtained +from that lady's book, I would add that the 'second series' suggested +cannot but equal the first as a service to the cause of comparative +mythology and folk-lore. + +This place may be taken to dispose of two kinds of grotesques in church +art which belong to my title, though not to my intention. + +The memorial erections put into so many churches after the middle of the +sixteenth century are to be placed in the same category as the less often +ludicrous effigies of earlier times, and may be dismissed as "ugly +monumental vanities, miscalled sculpture." The grotesqueness of some of +these sepulchral excrescences may in future centuries be still more +apparent, though to many even time cannot supply interest. Not all are +like the imposing monument to a doctor in Southwark Cathedral, on which, +by the way, the epitaph is mainly devoted to laudation of his _pills_. +Yet, though the grotesque is not entirely wanting in even these monuments, +it is chiefly through errors of taste. The worst of them are more pathetic +than anything else. The grotesque proper implies a proportion of levity, +whereas the earnestness evinced by these effigies are more in keeping with +the solemnity of the church's purpose than the infinitely more artistic +and unobtrusive ornament of the fabric. The other class of grotesque is +the modern imitation of mediaeval carving, with original design. Luckily, +it is somewhat rare to find the spirit of the old sculptors animating a +modern chisel. One of the best series of modern antiques of this kind is a +set of gargoyles at St. Nicholas's, Abingdon, executed about 1881, of +which I think it worth while to append a warning sample. + +These two classes are left out of account in the following pages. + +[Illustration: MODERN GARGOYLE, ABINGDON, 1881.] + + + + +Contents. + + + PAGE + + PREFACE v + + INTRODUCTION 1 + + DEFINITIONS OF THE GROTESQUE 5 + + THE CARVERS 9 + + THE ARTISTIC QUALITIES OF CHURCH GROTESQUES 19 + + GOTHIC ORNAMENT NOT DIDACTIC 24 + + INGRAINED PAGANISM 27 + + MYTHIC ORIGIN 34 + + HELL'S MOUTH 60 + + SATANIC REPRESENTATIONS 64 + + THE DEVIL AND THE VICES 78 + + ALE AND THE ALEWIFE 99 + + SATIRES WITHOUT SATAN 106 + + SCRIPTURAL ILLUSTRATIONS 112 + + MASKS AND FACES 121 + + THE DOMESTIC AND POPULAR 134 + + THE PIG AND OTHER ANIMAL MUSICIANS 152 + + COMPOUND FORMS 157 + + NONDESCRIPTS 169 + + REBUSES 173 + + TRINITIES 175 + + THE FOX IN CHURCH ART 184 + + SITUATIONS OF GROTESQUE ORNAMENT IN CHURCH ART 213 + + INDEX 219 + +[Illustration: A ROOF SUPPORTER, EWELME, OXON.] + + + + +The Grotesque in Church Art. + + + + +Introduction. + + +[Illustration: GORGONIC MASK, EWELME.] + +The more lofty the earlier manifestations of man's intellect, the more +complete and immediate seems to have been their advancement. That is to +say, where the products of genius depend mainly upon the recognition of +great principles and deliberate adherence to them, they are more +satisfying than when success depends upon dexterous manipulation of +material. What I have in view in this respect in connection with +architecture has its co-relative in language. The subtlety and poetic +force of Ayran roots shew a refined application of principle--that of +imagery--in far advance of the languages rising from them. The successive +growths of the detail of language, for use or ornament,--and the useful of +one age would seem to become the ornamental of another--necessarily often +forsake the high purity of the primeval standard, and give rise, not only +to the commonplace, but, by misconception or wantonness, to perversion of +taste. So in architecture. Temples were noble before their ornaments. The +grotesque is the slang of architecture. Nowhere so much as in Gothic +architecture has the grotesque been fostered and developed, for, except +for a blind adherence to ancient designs, due to something like gild +continuity, the whole detail was introduced apropos of nothing. The +assisting circumstance would appear to have been the indifference of the +architects to the precise significance of the detail ornaments of their +buildings. Gothic, or in fact any architecture admitting ornament, calls +for crisp sub-regular projections, which shall, by their prominence and +broken surface, attract the eye, but by the vagueness of their general +form attract it so slightly as to lose individuality in a general view. +These encrusting ornaments, by their opposition to the light of what the +carvers call a "busy" surface, increase and accentuate rather than detract +from the effect of the sweep of arches or dying vistas of recurring +pillars. They afford a sort of punctuation, or measurers of the rhythm of +the composition. Led from point to point, the eye gathers an impression of +rich elaboration that does not interfere with its appreciation of the +orderliness of the main design. + +These objects gained, the architects did not, apparently, enquire what the +lesser minds, who carved the boss or dripstone, considered appropriate +ornament. Hence we have a thousand fancies, often beautifully worked out, +but often utterly incongruous with the intent of the edifice they are +intended to adorn, and unworthy of the architecture of which they are a +part. + +As in language the grotesque is sometimes produced by inadvertency and +misconception, so in ornament not all the grotesque is of set purpose, and +here the consideration of the less development of the less idea has its +chief example. As original meaning became lost, the real merit of +earnestness decreased, and the grotesque became an art. + +Moreover, the execution of Gothic ornament is excellent in proportion to +its artistic easiness. Thus the foliate and florate designs are better +carved than the animal forms, and both better than the human. With the +exception of little else besides the Angel Choir at Lincoln, and portions +of the Percy Shrine at Beverley, there is nothing in Gothic representation +of sentient form really worthy of the perfect conceptions of architecture +afforded by scores of English churches. It may, of course, be considered +that anything but conventional form is out of place as architectural +ornament; on the other hand, it must not be ignored that conventionality +is a growth. It is only to be expected, therefore, that where the artist +found character beyond his reach he fell readily into caricature, though +it is a matter for surprise to find such a high standard of ability in +that, and in the carved work generally. We find no instances of carving so +low in absolute merit as are the best of the wall-paintings of the same +periods. + +The sources from which the artists obtained their material are as wide as +the air. A chief aim of this volume is to indicate those sources, and this +is done in some cases rather minutely, though not in any exhaustively. The +point of view from which the subject is surveyed is that the original +detail of the temples entirely consisted of symbols of worship and +attributes, founded chiefly upon astronomical phenomena: that owing to the +gild organization of the masons, the same forms were mechanically +perpetuated long after the worship of the heavenly bodies had given way to +Christianity, often with the thinnest veil of Christian symbolism thrown +over them. To this material, descended from remote antiquity, came +gradually to be added a multitude of designs from nature and from fancy. + +[Illustration: HARPY, EXETER.] + + + + +[Illustration: RAGE AND TERROR, RIPON.] + + +Definitions of the Grotesque. + + +The term "Grotesque," which conveys to us an idea of humourous distortion +or exaggeration, is simply _grotto-esque_, being literally the style of +art found in the grottos or baths of the ancients. The term rose towards +the end of the fifteenth century, when exhumation brought to light the +fantastic decorations of the more private apartments of the licentious +Romans. The use at that period of a similar style for not unsimilar +purposes gave the word common currency, and it has spread to everything +which, combined with wit or not, provokes a smile by a real or pretended +violation of the laws of Nature and Beauty. In its later, and not in its +original, meaning is the word applied to the extraordinary productions of +church art. We may usefully inquire as to the causes of those remarkable +characteristics of Gothic art which have caused the word Grotesque to +fittingly describe so much of its detail. + +The joke has a different meaning for every age. The capacity for +simultaneously recognizing likeness and contrast between things the most +incongruous and wide-sundered, which is at the root of our appreciation of +wit, humour, or the grotesque, is a quality of slow growth among nations. +No doubt early man enjoyed his laugh, but it was a different thing from +the laughter of our day. Many races have left no suspicion of their ever +having smiled; even where there are ample pictorial remains, humour is +generally unrepresented. The Assyrians have left us the smallest possible +grounds for crediting them with its possession. Instances have been +adduced of Egyptian humour, but some are doubtful, and in any case the +proportion of fun per acre of picture is infinitesimally small. The +Greeks, perhaps, came the nearest to what we consider the comic, but with +both Greek and Roman the humour has something of bitterness and sterility; +even in what was professedly comic we cannot always see any real fun. +Where it strikes out unexpectedly in brief flashes it is with a cold light +that leaves no impression of warmth behind. The mechanical character of +their languages, with a multitude of fixed formulae, is perhaps an index to +their mental development. The subtleties of wit ran in the direction of +gratifying established tastes and prejudices by satirical references, but +rarely condescending to amuse for mere humour's sake. Where is found the +nearest approach to merriness is in what now-a-days we regard as the least +interesting and meritorious grade of humour, the formal parody. The Greeks +had, outside their fun, let it be noted, something better than jococity, +and that was joyousness. The later Romans became humourous in a low way +which has had a permanent influence upon literature and art. + +Sense of humour grew with the centuries, and by the time that the Gothic +style of architecture arose, appreciation of the ludicrous-in-general +(_i.e._ that which is without special reference to an established phase of +thought) is traceable as a characteristic of, at least, the Teuton +nations. It must be admitted that the popular verbal fun of the middle +ages is not always easy to grasp, but it cannot be denied that where +understood, or where its outlet is found in the graphic or glyphic arts, +there is allied to the innocent coarseness and unscrupulousness, a +richness of conceit, a wealth of humour, and a delicate and accurate sense +of the laughable far beyond Greek wit or Roman jocularity. + +It is to the embodiments of the spirit of humour as found in our mediaeval +churches that our present study is directed. + +It may be as well to first say a little upon those comicalities which may +be styled 'grotesques by misadventure.' This is a branch of the subject to +be approached with some diffidence, for it is in many cases difficult to +discriminate between that which was intended to be grotesque, and that +which was executed with serious or often devout feelings, but for one of +several causes often presenting to us an irresistibly comic effect. + +The causes may be five. First, the varying mechanical and constructive +incompetency of the artists to embody their ideas. Second, the copying of +an earlier work with executive ability, with strong perception of its +unintentional and latent humour, but without respect to, or without +knowledge of, its serious meaning. Third, the use of symbolic +representation, in which the greater the skill, often the greater the +ludicrous effect. Fourth, the change of fashion, manners, and customs. +Fifth, a bias of mind which impelled to whimsical treatment. + +Consideration of the causes thus roughly analysed will explain away a +large proportion of the irreverence of the irreverent paintings and +carvings which excite such surprise, and sometimes disgust, in the minds +of many modern observers of ecclesiological detail. + +It will be seen that the placing of carvings in any one of these five +classes, or in the category of intentional grotesques, must, in many +cases, be a mere matter of opinion. For the present purpose it will not be +necessary to separate them, except so far as the plan of the work does it +automatically. Many ecclesiastical and other seals afford familiar +instances of the 'comic without intention,' parallel to what is said above +as to carvings. + + + + +The Carvers. + + +[Illustration: LINCOLN, _14th cent._] + +Seemingly probability and evidence go hand in hand to shew that a great +bulk of the church mason work of this country was the work of foreigners. +Saxon churches were probably first built by Roman workmen, whose erections +would teach sufficient to enable Saxons to afterward build for themselves. +Imported talent, however, is likely to have been constantly employed. +Edward the Confessor brought back with him from France new French designs +for the rebuilding of Westminster Abbey, and doubtless he brought French +masons also. Anglo-Norman is strongly Byzantine in character, and though +the channels through which it passed may be various, there is little doubt +that its origin was the great Empire of the East. Again, the great +workshop of Europe, where Eastern ideas were gathered together and +digested, and which supplied cathedrals and cathedral builders at command, +was Flanders; and there is little doubt that during some five centuries +after the Norman Conquest, Flemings were employed, in a greater or less +degree, on English work. Italians were largely employed. The Angel Choir +of Lincoln is one distinct witness to that. The workmen who executed the +finely-carved woodwork of St. George's Chapel, Windsor, King's College, +Cambridge, and Westminster Abbey, in the sixteenth century, were chiefly +Italians, under the superintendence of Torregiano, a Florentine artist. He +was a fellow-pupil of Michael Angelo, and is best known by the dastardly +blow he dealt him with a mallet, disfiguring him for life. The resentment +of Lorenzo de Medici at this caused Torregiano to leave Florence. He came +to England in 1503. + +The architect, however, of King Henry VII.'s Chapel was Bishop Alcock, an +Englishman, born at Hull, the already existing Grammar School of which +place he endowed, and, perhaps, rebuilt. Many other architects of English +buildings were Englishmen, probably the majority, and doubtless a large +proportion of the workmen also,[1] but it would be idle to deny that +imported art speaks loudly from work of all the styles. + +The carved detail may be relied upon to tell us something, and it speaks +of an original reliance upon the East, which was never outgrown. The +carvings found in England are not marked by anything at all approaching a +national spirit, even in the limited degree that was possible. Except for +a few carvings of armorial designs, and still fewer with slight local +reference, there are none in wood or stone which would not be equally in +place in any Romance country in Europe. The carvings, also, in the +Continental churches present familiar aspects to the student of English +ornament. + +But if we have yet to wait some fortunate discovery of rolls of workmen's +names, with their rate of wages, we are not without such interesting +information concerning the old carvers as is contained in portraits they +have left of themselves. Just as authors sometimes recognize how +satisfactory it is to have their "effigies" done at the fronts of their +books, so have the carvers of old sometimes attached to their works +portraits of themselves or their fellows, in their habits as they lived, +in their attitudes as they laboured. + +[Illustration: AN INDUSTRIOUS CARVER, LYNN.] + +Our first carver hails from Lincolnshire. In 1852, when the Church of St. +Nicholas, Lynn, was restored, the misericordes were taken out and not +replaced, but passed as articles of commerce eventually to the +Architectural Museum, Tufton Street, London. Among these is a view of a +carver's studio, shewing the industrious master seated, tapping carefully +away at a design upon the bench before him. There are three apprentices in +the background working at benches; there are at the back some incised +panels, and a piece of open screen-work. Perhaps we may suppose the +weather to be cold, for the carver has on an exceedingly comfortable cloak +or surcoat. At his feet reposes his dog. + +[Illustration: CARVER'S INITIALS, ST. NICHOLAS'S, LYNN.] + +There is an interesting peculiarity about these Lynn carvings; the sides +of the misericordes are designs in the fashion of monograms, or rebuses. +The sides supporting the carver are his initials, pierced with his carving +tools, a saw and a chisel. The difficulty is the same in all of the set; +the meaning of the monograms is not to be lightly determined. In this case +it may be U.V., or perhaps U is twice repeated. + +[Illustration: COMMUNICATING A STRIKING IDEA, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +The next carvers belong to the following century. Here also we see the +principal figures in the midst of work. In this case, however, there has +arrived an interruption. Either one of the workers is about to commit +mock assault and battery upon another with a mallet, or a brilliant idea +for a grotesque has just struck him, and he hastens to impart it. From the +expression of the faces, and the attitudes for which two other workmen +have stood as models, at the sides, the latter may be the more likely. It +is not impossible that the carver of the fine set of sixty-eight +misericordes in Beverley Minster had in mind the incident of the blow +given to Michael Angelo, and it would be interesting to know if any of +Torregiano's Italians worked at Beverley. This aproned, noisy, jocular +crew are very different from the dignified artist we have just left, but +doubtless they turned out good work of the humorous class. + +The two "sidesmen" are occupied in the two ways of shewing intelligence +and contempt known as "taking a sight," etc. + +[Illustration: MUTUAL CONTEMPT, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +The next carver is a figure at Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. This is +locally known as the Wellingborough shoemaker, but nearly all local +designations of such things are wrong, and this is no exception. Elsewhere +in speaking of this sedate figure, I have conjectured he may be cutting +something out of leather, and not making shoes. However, I have since +arrived at Miss Phipson's conclusion: the figure can only be that of a +carver. He is fashioning not a leather rosette, but a Tudor rose in oak, +to be afterwards pinned with an oak pin in some spandrel. He is rather a +reserved-looking individual, but a master of his craft, if we may suppose +he has "turned out" the two eagles at his right and left. + +[Illustration: A PIECE OF FINE WORK, WELLINGBOROUGH.] + +No doubt there were several ways of building churches, or supplying them +with their art decorations. Some masons would be attached to a cathedral, +and be lent or sent here and there by arrangement. Others would be ever +wandering, seeking church work. Others might come from abroad for +particular work, and return with the harvest of English money when the +work was done. For special objects there were depots. It is an +acknowledged fact that the black basalt fonts of Norman times were +imported from Flanders. There are occasionally met other things of this +material with the same class of design, evidently from the same source, +such as the sculptured coffin-lid at Bridlington Priory, given on a +following page. I have not seen it noted, but I think it will be +established that "brasses," so much alike all over the country, were +mostly ready-made articles also from Flanders. From the stereotyped +conventionality of the altar-tomb effigies, they also may be judged to be +the productions of workshops doing little but this work, and probably +foreign. + +What is required to determine the general facts on these points is a +return from various fabric accounts. We shall probably find both English +and foreign carvers. There is little or no doubt that the carvers of our +grotesques were members of the mysterious society which has developed into +the modern body of Freemasons. It would be interesting--if it were not so +apparently impossible--to trace in the records of early Freemasonry, not +only the names and nationalities of the masons and carvers, but the +details of that fine organization which enabled them to develope ideas and +improvements simultaneously throughout Europe; and which would tell us, +moreover, something of the master minds which conceived and directed the +changes of style. But the masonic history of our carvers is much enveloped +in error to the outside world. Thus we are told that in the minority of +Henry VI. the masons were suppressed by statute, but that on his assuming +the control of affairs he repealed the Act, and himself became a mason; +moreover, we are told he wrote out "Certayne Questyons with Awnsweres to +the same concerning the Mystery of Maconrye" which was afterwards "copyed +by me Johan Leylande Antiquarius," at the command of Henry VIII.; the MS. +being gravely stated to be in the Bodleian Library. No such MS. exists at +the Bodleian Library. If it did, its diction and spelling (which is all on +pretended record in certain books probably repudiated by the masonic body +proper) would instantly condemn it as a forgery. Certainly an Act was +passed, 3 Henry VI., which is in itself a historical monument to the +importance of Freemasonry. It is a brief enactment that the yearly +meetings of the masons, being contrary to the Statute of Labourers (of 25 +Edward III., 1351) fixing the rates of labour, which the masons varied and +apparently increased, were no longer to be held; offenders to be judged +guilty of felony. The Commons did not quite know what to style the +meetings, using in this short Act the following terms for them: Chapters, +Assemblies, Congregations, and Confederacies. + +But important though this proves the masons to have been, there is no +account of the statute being repealed until the 5 Elizabeth, when another +took its place equally intolerant to the spirit of Freemasonry, and +Freemasonry really only became legal by the Act of 6 George IV. + +But the prohibition of 1424 was not abolition. If the masons were debarred +from being allowed to exercise their advanced notions of remuneration, or +to have any legal recognition whatever, it scarcely seems to have affected +their action. For if they had refrained from exercising their freedom, and +submitted to being put down by statute, it is probable we should have met +them in the form of more ordinary gilds as instituted by other craftsmen. +But we do not meet them thus, and the inference is that they went on in +their own way, at their own time, and at their own price. It may be +presumed that the more or less migratory habits of the masons made the Act +impossible to be rigidly enforced. + +Coming down towards the end of Gothic times, we find, at any rate, there +was one place where images might be ordered. In the Stanford +churchwardens' accounts for 1556 there occur the following entries:-- + + "It. In expences to Abyndon to speke for ymages vijd. + It. for iij ymages, the Rode, Mare, and John xxijs. iiijd." + +It will have been noticed that the portraits of the carvers are Late. It +is a great merit, on antiquarian grounds, that Gothic work, prior to the +revival in art, was too much unconscious to admit anything so +self-personal as a thought of the workers themselves, though frequently +their 'marks' are unobtrusively set upon their works. By the sixteenth +century, the sculptor's art developed with the rest of mental effort, and +the artists drank fresh draughts from the springs coming by way of Rome, +springs whose waters had been concerned in the existence of nearly all the +art that had been in Europe for ten centuries. + + + + +[Illustration: DOG AND BONE, BRECHIN.] + + +The Artistic Quality of Church Grotesques. + + +The grotesque has been pronounced a false taste, and not desirable to be +perpetuated. Reflection upon the causes and meanings of Gothic grotesque +will shew that perpetuation is to be regretted for other than artistic +reasons. If the taste be false yet the work is valuable on historic +grounds, for what it teaches of its own time and much more for what it +hints of earlier periods of which there is meagre record anywhere. +Therefore it would be well not to confuse the student of the future with +our clever variations of imperfectly understood ideas. Practically the +grotesque and emblematic period ended at the Reformation; and it was well. + +But while leaving the falseness of the taste for grotesques an open +question, there is something to be said for them without straining fact. +For it is certain that there is underlying Gothic grotesque ornament a +unique and, if not understood, an uncopiable beauty, be the subject never +so ugly. The fascinating element appear to be, first, the completeness of +the genius which was exercised upon it. It not only conveys the +travestying idea, but also sufficiently conveys the original thought +travestied. + +What is it at which we laugh? It shall be a figure which is of a kind +generally dignified, now with no dignity; generally to be respected, but +now commanding no respect; capable of being feared, but now inspiring no +fear; usually lovable, but now provoking no love. It shall be a figure of +which the preconceived idea was either worthy or dreadful--which suddenly +we have presented to us shorn of its superior attributes. Ideals are +unconsciously enshrined in the mind, and when images proclaiming +themselves the same ideals appear in sharp degraded contrast--we laugh. +Thus we affirm the correctness of the original judgments both as to the +great and the contemptible imitating it, for laughter is the effect of +appreciation of incongruity. Custom overrides nearly all, and blunts +contrast of ideas, yet wit, darting here and there among men, ever finds +fresh contrasts and fresh laughter. + +[Illustration: DOG AND BONE, CHRISTCHURCH, HAMPSHIRE.] + +Further counts for something the excellence of the artistic management, +which in the treatment of the most unpromising subjects filled the +composition with beautiful lines. It was left to Hogarth's genius to +insist on the reality of "the line of beauty" as governing all loveliness, +and he suggests that a perceptive recognition of this existed on the part +of the classic sculptors. This applies to their work in general, but he +also mentions their frequent addition of some curved object connected +with the subject, as though it were a kind of key to the artistic +composition. Whether consciously or not, the ancients used many such +adjunctive curved lines, and Hogarth's conclusions cannot be styled +fanciful. The helmet, plume, and serpent-edged aegis of Minerva, the +double-bowed bolt and serpents of Jupiter, the ornaments of the trident, +the aplustre and the twisted rope of Neptune, the bow and serpent of +Apollo, the plume of Mars, the caduceus of Mercury, the ship-prow of +Saturn, the gubernum or rudder of Venus, the drinking horn of Pan, +together with many another form to be observed in particular works of the +ancients, is each a definite and perfect example of the faultless line. +Now, to repeat, many--an infinite number--of the ornaments of Gothic +architecture, and not less the grotesque than any other description, are +likewise composed of the most beautiful lines conceivable, either +entirely, or combined with lines of abrupt and ungraceful turn that seem +to deliberately provoke one's artistic protest; and yet the whole +composition shall, by its curious mixture of beauty and bizarre, its +contrast of elegance with awkwardness, leave a real and unique sense of +pleasure in the mind. Doubtless the root of this pleasure is the +gratification of the mind at having secretly detected itself responding to +the call of art to exercise itself in appreciative discrimination. This +may be unconsciously done; and in a great measure the qualities which give +the pleasure would be bestowed upon the work in similar happy +unconsciousness of the exact why and wherefore. Often, as in the ancient +statues, a small curved form is introduced as an appendage to a mediaeval +grotesque. + +[Illustration: HAWKS OR EAGLES? WELLINGBOROUGH, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE.] + +Thus we see that there are combinations of two kinds of contrast which +make Gothic grotesques agreeable, the artistic contrasts among the mere +lines of the carvings, and the significatory contrasts evolved by the +meanings of the carvings. + +As far back as the twelfth century, a critic of church grotesques +recognized their combination of contrasts. This was St. Bernard of +Clairvaux, who, speaking of the ecclesiastical decoration of his time, +paid the grotesques of church art the exact tribute they so often merit; +probably the greater portion of what he saw has given place to succeeding +carvings, though of precisely the same characteristics. He calls them "a +wonderful sort of hideous beauty and beautiful deformity." He, moreover, +put a question, many times since repeated by hundreds who never heard of +him, asking the use of placing ridiculous monstrosities in the cloisters +before the eyes of the brethren when occupied with their studies. + +It is not possible to explain the "use" of perpetuating the barbarous +symbols of a long-forgotten past; but it will be interesting to shew that +there were actual causes accounting for their continued existence and +their continued production, unknown ages after their own epoch. + + + + +Gothic Ornaments not Didactic. + + +Reflection will not lead us to believe carvings to have been placed in +churches with direct intent to teach or preach. Many writers have +coincided in producing a general opinion that the churches, as containing +these carvings, were practically the picture (or sculpture) galleries and +illustrated papers for the illiterate of the past. This supposition will +not bear examination. It would mean that in the days when humble men +rarely travelled from home, and then mostly by compulsion, to fight for +lord or king, or against him, the inhabitant of a village or town had for +the (say) forty years sojourn in his spot of Merrie England, a small +collection of composite animals, monsters, mermaids, impossible flowers, +etc.--with perhaps one doubtful domestic scene of a lady breaking a vessel +over the head of a gentleman who is inquisitive as to boots--with which to +improve his mind. Sometimes his church would contain not half-a-dozen +forms, and mostly not one he could understand or cared to interpret. + +Misericordes, the secondary seats or shelves allowed as a relaxation +during the ancient long standing services, are invariably carved, and +episode is more likely to be found there than anywhere else in the church. +Hence, misericordes have been specially selected for this erroneous +consideration of ornament to be the story-book of the Middle Ages. This is +unfortunate for the theory, for they were placed only in churches having +connection with a monastic or collegiate establishment. They are in the +chancels, where the feet of laymen rarely trod, and, moreover, there would +be few hours out of the twenty-four when the stalls would not be occupied +by the performers of the daily offices or celebrations. + +The fact appears to be that the carvings were the outcome of causes far +different from an intention to produce genre pictures. It is patent that +anything which kept within its proper mechanical and architectural +outline, was admitted. What was offered depended upon a multitude of +considerations, but chiefly upon the traditions of mason-craft. The Rev. +Charles Boutell has an apt description touching upon the origin of the +carvings: calling them "chronicles," he says they were "written by men who +were altogether unconscious of being chroniclers at all.... They worked +under the impulse of motives altogether devoid of the historical element. +They were influenced by the traditions of their art, by their own +feelings, and were directed by their own knowledge, experience, and +observation, and also by the associations of their every-day lives." This +appears to explain in general terms the sources of iconography. In brief, +the sculptor had a stock-in-trade of designs, which he varied or +supplemented, according to his ability and originality. + +That the stock-in-trade, or traditions of the art, handed down from +master to apprentice, generation after generation, persistently retained +an immense amount of intellectualia thus derived from a remote antiquity, +is but an item of this subject, but the most important of which this work +has cognizance. + +[Illustration: SEA-HORSE DRAGONZED, LINCOLN, _14th cent._] + + + + +Ingrained Paganism. + + +We at this day may be excused for not participating in the good St. +Bernard's dislike to the "hideous beauties" of the grotesque, and for not +deploring, as he does, the money expended on their production. For many of +them are the embodiments of ideas which the masons had perpetuated from a +period centuries before his time, and which could in no other way have +been handed down to us. There are many reasons why books were unlikely +media for early times; for later, the serious import of the origin of the +designs would be likely to be doubted; and for the most part the special +function of the designs has been the adornment of edifices of religion. +They were, in fact, religious symbols which in various ages of the world +have been used with varying degrees of purity. One of the Rabbis, +Maimonides, has an instructive passage on the rise of symbolic images. +Speaking of men's first falling away from a presumed early pure religion +he says:--"They began to build temples to the stars, ... and this was the +root of idolatry ... and the false prophet showed them the image that he +had feigned out of his own heart, and said it was the image of that star +which was made known to him by prophecy; and they began after this manner +to make images in temples and under trees ... and this thing was spread +throughout the world--to serve images with services different one from +another and to sacrifice unto, and worship them. So in process of time the +glorious and fearful name was forgotten out of the mouth of all living ... +and there was found on earth no people that knew aught save images of wood +and stone, and temples of stone which they built." The ancient Hindoo +fables also indicate how imagery arose; they speak of the god Ram, "who, +having no shape, is described by a similitude." The worship of the "Host +of Heaven" was star-worship, or "Baalim." + +The Sabean idolatry was the worship of the stars, to which belongs much of +the earlier image carving, for the household gods of the ancient Hebrews, +the Teraphim (as the images of Laban stolen by Rachel), were probably in +the human form as representing planets, even in varying astronomical +aspects of the same planet. They are said to have been of metal. The +ancient Germans had similar household gods of wood, carved out of the root +of the mandragora plant, or alraun as they called it, from the +superstition kindred to that of the East, that the images would answer +questions (from _raunen_ to whisper in the ear). Examination of many +ancient Attic figurines appears to shew that they had a not unsimilar +origin, reminding us that both Herodotus and Plato state the original +religion of the Greeks to have been star-worship, and hence is derived the +[Greek: Theos] god, from [Greek: Thein] to run. Thus in other than the +poet's sense are the stars "elder scripture." + +A large number of the forms met in architectural ornament, it may be +fittingly reiterated, have a more or less close connection with the +worships which existed in times long prior to Christianity. A portion of +them was continuously used simply because the masons were accustomed to +them, or in later Gothic on account of the universal practice of copying +existing works; unless we can take it for granted in place of that +practice, that there existed down to Reformation days "portfolios" of +carver's designs which were to the last handed down from master to +apprentice, as must have undoubtedly been the case in earlier times. Other +portions of the ancient worship designs are found in Christian art because +they were received and grafted upon the symbolic system of the Church's +teaching. The retention of these fragments of superseded paganism does not +always appear to have been of deliberate or willing intention. The early +days of the Church even after its firm establishment, were much occupied +in combating every form of paganism. The converts were constantly lapsing +into their old beliefs, and the thunders of the early ecclesiastical +councils were as constantly being directed against the ancient +superstitions. Sufficient remains on record to shew how hard the gods +died. + +To near the end of the fourth century the chief intelligence of Rome +publicly professed the Olympic faith. With the next century, however, +commenced a more or less determined programme of persecutory repression. +Thus, councils held at Arles about 452 ruled that a bishop was guilty of +sacrilege who neglected to extirpate the custom of adoring fountains, +trees, and stones. At that of Orleans in 533 Catholics were to be +excommunicated who returned to the worship of idols or ate flesh offered +to idols. At Tours in 567 several pagan superstitions were forbidden, and +at Narborne in 590; freemen who transgressed were to have penance, but +slaves to be beaten. At Nicea in 681 image worship was allowed of +Christ.[2] At Augsburgh (?) in 742 the Count Gravio was associated with +the Bishop to watch against popular lapses into paganism. In 743 Pepin +held a council in which he ruled, as his father had done before, that he +who practised any pagan rites be fined 15 sous (15/22 of a livre). To the +orders was attached the renunciation, in German, of the worship of Odin by +the Saxons, and a list of the pagan superstitions of the Germans. The +Council of Frankfort in 794 ordered the sacred woods to be destroyed. +Constantinople had apparently already not only become a channel for the +conveyance of oriental paganism in astro-symbolic images, but was also +evidently nearer to the lower idolatry of heathenism than the Church of +the West. Thus we find the bishops of Gaul, Germany, and Italy in council +at Frankfort, rejecting with anathema, and as idolatrous, the doctrines of +the Council of Constantinople upon the worship of images. + +While all this repression was going on, the Church was making itself +acceptable, just as the Mosaic system had done in its day, by assimilating +the symbols of the forbidden faiths. Itself instituted without formularies +or ceremonial, both were needed when it became a step-ladder of ambition +and the expedient displacer of the corrupt idolatries into which +sun-worship had disintegrated. Hence among the means of organization, +observance and symbol took the place of original simplicity, and it is +small wonder that ideas were adopted which were already in men's minds. +Elements of heathenism which, after the lapse of centuries, still clung to +the Church's robes, became an interwoven part of her dearest symbolism. If +men did not burn what they had adored, they in effect adored that which +they had burned. + +In spite, however, of edicts and adoptions, paganism has never been +entirely rooted out; what Sismondi calls the "rights of long possession, +the sacredness of time-hallowed opinion, and the potency of habit," are +not yet entirely overcome in the midst of the most enlightened peoples. +The carvings which point back to forgotten myths have their parallels in +curious superstitions and odd customs which are not less venerable. + +There were many compromises made on account of the ineradicable attachment +of the people to religious customs into which they were born. Christian +festivals were erected on the dates of heathen observances. In the sixth +century, Pope Gregory sent word to Augustine, then in England, that the +idolatrous temples of the English need not be destroyed, though the idols +should, and that the cattle sacrificed to the heathen deities should be +killed on the anniversary of dedication or on the nativities of the +saints whose relics were within the church. + +It is said that it was, later, usual to bring a fat buck into St. Paul's, +London, with the hunters' horns blowing, in the midst of divine service, +for the cathedral was built on or near the site of a former temple of +Diana. This custom was made the condition of a feudal tenure. The story of +Prosperine, another form of Diana, was the subject of heathen plays, and +down to the sixteenth century the character appears in religious mystery +plays as the recipient of much abuse. + +Ancient mythology points in one chief direction. "Omnes Deos referri ad +solem," says Macrobius, "All Gods refer to the sun," and in the light of +that saying a thousand complicated fables of antiquity melt into +simplicity. The ancient poets called the sun (at one time symbolically of +a First Great Cause, at another absolutely) the Leader, the Moderator, the +Depository of Light, the Ordainer of human things; each of his virtues was +styled a different god, and given its distinct name. The moon also, and +the stars were made the symbols of deities. These symbols put before the +people as vehicles for abstract ideas, were quickly adopted as gods, the +symbolism being disregarded, and the end was practically the same as that +narrated by the ancient rabbi just quoted. But it may be doubted whether +the pantheism of the classic nations was ever entirely gross. The great +festivals of the gods were accompanied by the initiation of carefully +selected persons into certain mysteries of which no description is +extant. Thirlwall hazards the conjecture "that they were the remains of a +worship which preceded the rise of the Hellenic mythology ... grounded on +a view of nature less fanciful, more earnest and better fitted to awaken +both philosophical thought and religious feeling." Whether a purer system +was unfolded to the initiated on these occasions or not, there is little +doubt that it had existed and was at the root of the symbol rites. + +[Illustration: AN IMP ON CUSHIONS, CHRISTCHURCH, HANTS., _early 16th +cent._] + + + + +Mythic Origin of Church Carvings. + + +[Illustration: TAU CROSS, WELLINGBOROUGH.] + +The discoveries in Egypt in recent years undoubtedly press upon us the +fact that there was in Europe an early indigenous civilization, and that +the exchange of ideas between East and West was at least equal. For the +purpose of this study, however, the theory of independence is not accepted +absolutely; it is premised that though there were in numerous parts of the +old world early native systems of worship of much similarity, yet that +such relics of them as are met in architecture came from the East. + +The mythic ideas at the root of Gothic decoration were probably early +disseminated through Europe in vague and varying ways, whose chief impress +is in folk-lore; but the concrete forms themselves appear to have been +introduced later, after being brought, as it were, to a focus, being +selected and assimilated at some great mental centre. Alexandria was the +place where Eastern and Western culture impinged on each other, and +resulted in a conglomerate of ideas. These ideas, however, were not +essentially different in their nature, though each school, Assyrian, +Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek, and Hebrew, had diverged widely if they came +from an unknown common source. But if Alexandria was the furnace in which +the material was fused, Byzantium appears to have been the great workshop +where the results were utilized, and from whence they were issued to +Europe. + +Sculptured ornament is not alone in the fact of its being a direct legacy +from remotely ancient forms, though, on comparing that with any of the +other arts hitherto recognized as of Eastern origin, it will be found that +none bears such distinct marks of its parentage, or shews such continuity +of form. Thus examination of European glazed pottery, which comes perhaps +the nearest to our subject, shews that the ornamenting devices +occasionally betray an acquaintance with the old symbolic patterns, but +there is less recognition of meaning, scarcely any intention to perpetuate +idea, and no continuity of design. It was not in the nature of the +potter's purpose that there should be any of these, the difference being +that for the mason's and the sculptor's art there was a very close +association with the gild system. The first Christian sculptors would be +masons brought up in pagan gilds, and the gild instincts and traditions +had undoubtedly as strong an effect upon their work, on the whole, as any +religious beliefs they might possess. + +The symbolism of the animals of the church in the late points of view of +the Bestiaries and of the expository writers of the Middle Ages, is not +here to be made the subject of special attention. That is a department +well treated in other works, particularly in the volume, "Animal Symbolism +in Ecclesiastical Architecture," by Mr. E. P. Evans, which yet remains to +be equalled. It is to be noted, however, that the early Christians, +seeing the animals and their compounds so integral a portion of pagan +imagery, endeavoured to twist every meaning to one sufficiently Christian: +but what is chiefly worthy of note is the unconscious resistance of the +sculptors to the treatment. Although a multitude of figures can be traced +as used symbolically in accordance with the Christian dicta, there are at +least as many which shew stronger affinity to pagan myth. There is +evidence that this was early recognized by the propogandists. The Council +of Nice in 787, in enjoining upon the faithful the due regard of images, +ordered that the works of art were not to be drawn from the imagination of +the painters, but to be only such as were approved by the rules and +traditions of the Catholic Church. So also ordained the Council of Milan +in 1565. + +The Artists, however, did not invent the images so much as use old +material, and, the injunctions of the Council notwithstanding, the ancient +symbols apparently held their ground. The protests of St. Nilus, in the +fifth century, against animal figures in the sanctuary, were echoed by the +repudiations of St. Bernard in the twelfth and Gautier de Coinsi in the +thirteenth, a final condemnation being made at the Council of Milan in +1565, all equally in vain. Though the force of the myth symbols has passed +away, they have left another legacy than the grotesques of church art. The +art works of the Greeks arose from the same materials, the glorious +statues and epics being the highest embodiment of the symbolic, so loftily +overtopping all other forms by the force of supreme physical beauty as to +almost justify and certainly purify the religion of which they were the +outcome; so, later, the same ideas clothed with the moral beauty of +supreme unselfishness enabled Christianity to take hold of the nations. + +By the diatribes of Bernard we can see what materials were extant in the +twelfth century for a study of worship-symbols and of the grotesque, +though he ignores any possible meaning they may have. He says, "Sometimes +you may see many bodies under one head; at other times, many heads to one +body; here is seen the tail of a serpent attached to the body of a +quadruped; there the head of a quadruped on the body of a fish. In another +place appears an animal, the fore half of which represents a horse, and +the hinder portion a goat. Elsewhere you have a horned animal with the +hinder parts of a horse; indeed there appears everywhere so multifarious +and so wonderful a variety of diverse forms that one is more apt to con +over the sculptures than to study the scriptures, to occupy the whole day +in wondering at these than in meditating upon God's law." + +It has now to be observed how far the symbolic fancies of ancient beliefs +have left their impress on the grotesque art of our churches. + +A common representation of the great sun-myth was that of two eagles, or +dragons, watching one at each side of an altar. These were the powers of +darkness, one at each limit of the day, waiting to destroy the light. This +poetic idea has come down to us in many forms. Greek art was unconsciously +frequent in its use of the form, and mediaeval sculptors, being often quite +ignorant of the significance of the design, use it in a variety of ways, +in many of which the likeness to the original is entirely lost, the +composition ending in but a semi-natural representation of birds pecking +at fruit. In the above block from Lincoln Minster, the altar is well +preserved. In the next block, which is from a carving connected with the +preceding one, the idea is more distantly hinted at. + +[Illustration: THE ALTAR OF LIGHT AND THE BIRDS OF DARKNESS, LINCOLN.] + +[Illustration: SYMBOLS OF DARKNESS, LINCOLN.] + +At Exeter, an ingenious grotesque composition of two duck-footed harpies, +one on either side of a _fleur-de-lis_, is evidently from the same source. +Examples of this could be multiplied very readily. + +[Illustration: THE ALTAR OF LIGHT AND THE BIRDS OF DARKNESS, EXETER.] + +The Cat and the Fiddle are subjects of carvings at Beverley and at Wells. + +Man has an almost universal passion for the oral transmission of the +fruits of his mental activity. In the particular instances of many lingual +compositions this passion has become an inveterate race habit, and the +rhymes or reasons have been transmitted verbally to posterity long after +their original meaning has been lost or obscured. It is no new thing that +a nursery rhyme has been found to be the relic of an archaic poem long +misunderstood or perverted. The lines as to "the cat and the fiddle" are +an excellent instance of the aptitude to continue the use of metrical +composition the sense of which has departed. The full verse is, as it +stands, a curious jumble of disconnected sentences. + + "Hey, diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle, + The cow jumped over the moon, + The little dog laughed to see such sport, + While the dish run away with the spoon." + +[Illustration: THE WEEKS DANCING TO THE MUSIC OF THE MONTH, BEVERLEY +MINSTER.] + +[Illustration: HEY, DIDDLE, DIDDLE, THE CAT AND THE FIDDLE, WELLS.] + +I am not aware that any attempt has yet been made to explain this +extraordinary verse. Examination seemingly shews that it was originally a +satire in derision of the worship of Diana. The moon-goddess had a +three-fold existence. On the earth she was Diana. Among the Egyptians we +find her as Isis, and her chief symbol was the cat. Apuleius calls her the +mother of the gods. In the worship of Isis was used a musical instrument, +the sistrum, which had four metal bars loosely inserted in a frame so as +to be shaken; on the apex of this frame, which was shaped not unlike a +horse-shoe, was carved the figure of a cat, as emblematic of the moon. The +four bars are said by Plutarch to represent the elements, but it is more +likely they were certain notes of the diapason. The worship of Isis passed +to Italy, though the Greeks had previously connected the cat with the +moon. The fiddle, as an instrument played with a bow, was not known to +classic times, but the word for fiddle--_fides_--was applied to a lyre. It +is equivalent to a Greek word for gut-string. In the light of what +follows, I suggest that "the Cat and the Fiddle" is a mocking allusion to +the worship of Diana upon earth. + +In the heavens the moon-goddess had the name of Luna, and her chief symbol +was the crescent, which is sometimes met figured as a pair of cow's horns. +Images of Isis were crowned with crescent horns; she was believed to be +personified in the cow, as Osiris was in the bull, and her symbol, a +crescent moon, is met in sculpture over the back of the animal. This +apparently suggested the second line. + +The third personality of the goddess was Hecate, which was the name by +which she was known in the infernal regions,--which means of course, in +nature, when she was below the horizon. Now another name by which she was +known was Prosperine (Roman), and Persephone (Greek), and her carrying +down into Hades by Pluto (Roman), or Dis (Greek), was the fable wrought +out of the simple phenomenon of moon-set. I suggest that the last line of +the verse is a grotesque rendering of the statement that-- + + "Dis ran away with Persephone." + +Dis is equivalent to Serapis the Bull, otherwise Ammon, AEsculapius, Nilus, +etc., that is, the Sun. Why the little dog laughed to see such sport is +not easy to explain. It may be an allusion to one of the heads of Hecate, +that of a dog, to indicate the watchfulness of the moon. There is another +Hecate (a bad, as the above-mentioned was considered a beneficient deity), +but which was originally no doubt the same, whose attributes were two +black dogs, _i.e._, the darkness preceding and following the moonlight in +short lunar appearances. Or it may be an allusion to the fact that the dog +was associated with Dis, being considered the impersonation of Sirius the +Dog-star. In various representations of the rape of Prosperine, Dis is +accompanied by a dog, _e.g._, the grinning hound in Titian's picture. + +Prosperine's symbol of a crescent moon was adopted as one of those of the +Virgin Mary, and Candlemas Day, 2nd February, takes the place of the Roman +festival, the candles used to illustrate the text, "a light to lighten the +Gentiles," being the representatives of the torches carried in the +processions which affected to search for the lost Prosperine. + +Hindoo mythology has also a three-fold Isis, or moon-goddess; namely, Bhu +on earth, Swar in heaven, Patala, below the earth. + +The moon-deity has not come down to us as in every case a female +personation. This is, however, explained by an early fable [in the +Puranas] of the Hindoos, in which it is narrated that Chandra, or Lunus, +lost his sex in the forest of Gauri, and became Chandri, or Luna. The +origin of this has yet to be discovered; it may be nothing more than the +account of an etymological change, produced by a transcript of dialect. + +Whether the Beverley artist knew that the cat was a moon-symbol may be +doubted. The fiddle has four strings, as the sistrum had four bars. As +well as the elements and the four seasons of the year, the four may mean +the four weeks. It will be observed that as the Hours are said to dance by +the side of the chariot of the sun, so here four weeks dance to the music +of the moon-sphere; the word moon means the measurer, and the cat is +playing a dance measure! + +The cat is not a very frequent subject. At Sherborne she is shewn hanged +by mice, one of the retributive pieces which point to a confidence in the +existence of something called justice, not always self-evident in the +olden-time. Rats and mice are the emblem of St. Gertrude. The dog had a +higher place in ancient estimation than his mention in literature would +warrant; the fact that among the Romans he was the emblem of the Lares, +the household gods, is a weighty testimonial to that effect, while the +Egyptians had a city named after and devoted to the dog. + +Among the pre-existing symbols seized by the Christians, the Egyptian +Cross and Druidical Tau must not be overlooked. It is found on the +capitals of pillars at Canterbury and other places; the example given in +the initial on page 34 is perhaps the latest example in English Gothic. +Its admission as a grotesque is due to its, perhaps merely accidental, use +as a mask as noted in the chapter on "Masks and Faces." + +The sinuous course of the sun among the constellations is mentioned in +literature as far back as Euripides as an explanation of the presence of +the dragon in archaic systems of mythology. This may have been the origin +of the figure. Yet in addition to that there always seems to have been the +recognition of an evil principle, of which by a change of meaning, the +dragonic or serpentine star-path of the sun was made the personification +or symbol. According to Pausanius the "dragon" of the Greeks was only a +large snake. + +It might not be impossible to collect several hundreds of names by which +the deistic character of the sun has been expressed by various peoples; +and the same applies, though in a less degree, to the Darkness, Storm, +Cold, and Wet, which are taken as his antithesis. One of the oldest of +these Dragon-names is Typhon, which is met in Egyptian mythology. Typhon +is said to be the Chinese _Tai-fun_, the hot wind, and, if this be so, +doubtless the adverse principle was taken to be the spirit of the desert +which ever seeks to embrace Egypt in its arid arms. The symbol of Typhon +was the crocodile, and doubtless the dragon form thus largely rose. Rahu, +an evil deity in Hindoo mythology, though generally called a dragon, is +sometimes met represented as a crocodile, and his numerous progeny are +styled crocodiles. The constellation called by the Japanese the crocodile +is that known to us as the dragon. Can it be that in the universal dragon +we have a chronicle of our race's dim recollection of some survival of the +terrible Jurassic reptiles, and hence of their period? + +But the myth has ever one ending; the power of the evil one is destroyed +for a time by the coming of the sun-god, though eventually the evil +triumphs, that is dearth recurs. + +In the Scandinavian myth, Odin the son of Bur, broke for a season the +strength of the great serpent Joermungard, who, however, eventually +swallowed the hero. Thus was Odin the sun; and his companions, the other +Asir, were more or less sun attributes. In the case of Egypt the god is +Horus (the sun-light), the youthful son of Osiris and Isis, who drives +back Typhon to the deserts; for that country the rising of the Nile is the +happy crisis. Horus is sometimes called Nilus. Whether the above +derivation of the word Typhon be correct or not, which may be doubtful,[3] +that of Horus from the root _Hur_ light, connected with the Sanscrit _Ush_ +to burn (whence also Aurora, etc.,) is certain. When the great myth became +translated to different climates, the evil principle took on different +forms of dread. Water, the rainy season in some countries, the darkness +and cold of winter in others, were the Dragon which the Hero-god, the Sun, +had to overcome--out of which conflict arose myths innumerable, yet one +and the same in essence. Apollo slew the Python, the sunbeams drying up +the waters being his arrows; Perseus slew the Dragon, by turning him to +stone, which perhaps means that the spring sun dried up the mud of the +particular locality where the fable rose. Later, Sigurd slew the Dragon +Fafnir. When the Christians found themselves by expediency committed to +adopt the form, and to a certain degree the spirit, of heathen beliefs, +the Sun _versus_ Darkness, or the Spring _versus_ Winter myth was a +difficulty in very many places. At first the idea was kept up of a +material victory over the adverse forces of nature, and we find honourable +mention of various bishops and saints, who--by means of which there is +little detail, but which may be supposed to be that great monastic +beneficence, intelligent drainage--conquered the dragons of flood and fen. +It is somewhat odd that the Psalmist attributes to the Deity the victory +of breaking the heads of the "dragons in the waters." + +Thus St. Romain of Rouen slew there the Dragon Gargouille, which is but +the name of a draining-gutter after all, and hence the grotesque +waterspouts of our churches are mostly dragons. + +St. Martha slew the Dragon Tarasque at Aix-la-chapelle, but that name is +derived from _tarir_, to drain. St. Keyne slew the Cornish Dragon, and, to +be brief, at least twelve other worthies slew dragons, and doubtless for +their respective districts supplied the place of the older myth. Among +these, St. George is noteworthy. He is said to have been born at Lydda, in +Syria, where his legend awaited the Crusaders, who took him as their +patron, bringing him to the west, as the last Christian adoption of a +sun-myth idea, to become the patron saint of England. A figure of St. +George was a private badge of English kings till the time of the Stuarts. +On the old English angel the combat is between St. Michael and the Dragon, +and though St. George is generally shewn mounted, as was also sometimes +Horus, the Egyptian deity, he is sometimes represented on foot, like St. +Michael. The Dragon is generally the same in the two cases, being the +Wyvern or two-legged variety. + +Another form of dragon is drake. Certain forms of cannon were called both +dragons and drakes. Sometimes the dragon is found termed the Linden-worm, +or Lind-drake, in places as widely sundered as Scotland and Germany. It is +said this is on account of the dragon dwelling under the linden, a sacred +tree, but this is probably only, as yet, half explained. + +Perhaps through all time the sun-myth was accompanied by a constant +feeling that good and evil were symbolised by the alternation of season. +It is to be expected that the feeling would increase and solidify upon the +advent of Christianity, for the periodic dragon of heathendom was become +the permanent enemy of man, the Devil. The frequent combats between men +(and other animals) and the dragons, met among church grotesques, though +their models, far remote in antiquity, were representations of sun-myths, +would be carved and read as the ever-continuing fight between good and +evil. That, however, it is reasonable to see in these Dragon sculptures +direct representatives of the ancient cult, we know from a fact of date. +The festival of Horus, the Egyptian deity, was the 23rd of April. That is +the date of St. George's Day. + +Less than the foregoing would scarcely be sufficient to explain the +frequency and significance of the Dragon forms which crowd our subject. + +During the three Rogation days, which took the place of the Roman +processional festivals of the Ambarvalia and Cerealia, the Dragon was +carried as a symbol both in England and on the continent. When the Mystery +pageantry of Norwich was swept away, an exception was made in favour of +the Dragon, who, it was ordained, "should come forth and shew himself as +of old." + +The Rogation Dragon in France was borne, during the first two days of the +three, before the cross, with a great tail stuffed with chaff, but on the +third day it was carried behind the cross, with the tail emptied of its +contents. This signified, it is said, the undisturbed dominion of Satan +over the world during the two days that Christ was in Hell, and his +complete humiliation on the third day. + +In some countries the figure of the Dragon, or another of the Devil, after +the procession, was placed on the altar, then drawn up to the roof, and +being allowed to fall was broken into pieces. + +Early Keltic and other pastoral staves end in two Dragons' heads, +recalling the caduceus of Mercury and rod of Moses; the Dragon was a +Keltic military or tribal ensign. Henry VII. assumed a red dragon as one +of the supporters of the royal arms, on account of his Welsh descent; +Edward IV. had as one of his numerous badges a black dragon. A dragon +issuing from a chalice is the symbol of St. John the Evangelist, an +allusion to the dragon of the Apocalypse. + +[Illustration: THE SLAYER OF THE DRAGON, IFFLEY.] + +The Dragon combat here presented is from the south doorway of Iffley +Church, near Oxford. In this example of Norman sculpture, the humour +intent is more marked than usual. The hero is seated astride the dragon's +back, and, grasping its upper and lower jaws, is tearing them asunder. The +dragon is rudely enough executed, but the man's face and extremities have +good drawing. The cloak flying behind him shew that he has leaped into +the quoin of vantage, and recalls the classic. The calm exultation with +which the hero seizes his enemy is only equalled by the good-natured +amusement which the creature evinces at its own undoing. + +We now arrive at a form of the sun-myth which appears to have come down +without much interference. The god Horus is alluded to as a child, and in +a curious series of carvings the being attacked by a Dragon is a child. It +is attempted, and with considerable success, to be represented as of great +beauty. The point to explain is the position of the child, rising as it +does from a shell. This leads us further into the various contingent +mythologies dealing with the Typhon story. Horus (also called Averis, or +Orus), was in Egyptian lore also styled Caimis, and is equivalent to Cama, +the Cupid of the Hindoos. Typhon (also known as Smu, and as Sambar) is +stated to have killed him, and left him in the waters, where Isis restored +him to life. That is the account of Herodotus, but AElian says that Osiris +threw Cupid into the ocean, and gave him a shell for his abode. After +which he at length killed Typhon. + +Hence the shell in the myth-carvings to be found to-day in mediaeval +Christian churches. + +The Greeks represented Cupid, and also Nerites, as living in shells, and, +strangely enough, located them on the Red Sea coast, adjacent to the home +of the Typhon myth. It is probable that the word _sancha_, a sea-shell, +used in this connection, is from _suca_, a cave, a tent; and we may +conjecture that there is an allusion to certain dwellers in tents, who, +coming westward, worked, after a struggle, a political and dynastic +revolution, carrying with it great changes in agriculture. This is a +conjecture we may, however, readily withdraw in favour of another, that +the shell itself is merely a symbol of the ocean, and that Cupid emerging +is a figure of the sun rising from the sea at some particular zodiacal +period. + +[Illustration: THE CHILD AND DRAGON, LINCOLN.] + +Another story kindred to that of Typhon and Horus is that of Sani and +Aurva, met in Hindoo literature. They were the sons of Surya, regent of +the Sun (Vishnu); Sani was appointed ruler, but becoming a tyrant was +deposed, and Aurva reigned in his place. This recalls that one of the +names given to Typhon in India was Swarbhanu, "light of heaven," from +which it is evident that he is Lucifer, the fallen angel; so that +accepting the figurative meaning of all the narratives, we can see even a +propriety in the Gothic transmission of these symbolic representations. + +It may be added to this that the early conception of Cupid was as the god +of Love in a far wider and higher sense than indicated in the later +poetical and popular idea. He was not originally considered the son of +Venus, whom he preceded in birth. It is scarcely too much to say that he +personified the love of a Supreme Unknown for creation; and hence the +assumption by Love of the character of a deliverer. + +There are other shell deities in mythology. Venus had her shell, and her +Northern co-type, Frigga, the wife of the Northern sun-god, Odin, rode in +a shell chariot. + +The earliest of our examples is the most serious and precise. The Dragon +is a very bilious and repulsive reptile, while the child form, thrice +repeated in the same carving, has grace and originality. This is from +Lincoln Minster. + +The next is also on a misericorde, and is in Manchester Cathedral. Here +the shell is different in position, being upright. The Child in this has +long hair. + +[Illustration: DRAGON AND CHILD, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +The third example is from a misericorde at Beverley Minster, the series at +which place shews strong evidence of having been executed from the same +set of designs as those of Manchester Cathedral, and were carved some +twelve years later. Many of the subjects are identically the same, but in +this case it will be seen how a meaning may be lost by a carver's +misapprehension. The shell would not be recognizable without comparison +with the other instances, and the Dragon has become two. The head of the +Child in this carving appears to be in a close hood, or Puritan infantile +cap, which, as the "foundling cap," survived into this century. In all the +three carvings, the Dragons are of the two-legged kind, which St. +George is usually shewn slaying. It is a little remarkable that the +Child's weapon in all three cases is broken away. The object borne +sceptre-wise by the left hand child in the Lincoln carving, is apparently +similar to the Egyptian hieroglyphic [symbol], the Greek [Greek: z], +European s. It may be worth while to suggest that the greatly-discussed +collar of ss, worn by the lords chief justices, and others in authority, +may have its origin in this hieroglyphic as a symbol of sovereignty, +rather than in any of the arbitrary ascriptions of a mediaeval initial. + +[Illustration: THE CHILD AND DRAGON, MANCHESTER.] + +[Illustration: THE SLAYING OF THE SNAIL, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +The weapon is evidently a form of the falx, or falcula, for it was with +such a one (and here we see further distribution of the myth) that Jupiter +wounded Typhon, and such was the instrument with which Perseus slew the +sea-dragon: the falx, the pruning-hook, sickle or scythe, is an emblem of +Saturn, and the oldest representation of it in that connection shew it in +simple curved form. Saturn's sickle became a scythe, and the planet deity +thus armed became, on account of the length of his periodical revolution, +our familiar figure of Father Time. Osiris, the father of Horus, is styled +"the cause of Time." An Egyptian regal coin bears a man cutting corn with +a sickle of semi-circular blade. In many parts of England, the sickle is +spoken of simply as "a hook." + +[Illustration: GROTESQUE OF HORUS IN THE SHELL. THE PALMER FOX EXHIBITING +HOLY WATER. NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD.] + +Apparently the carver of the Beverley misericorde was conscious he had +rendered the shell very badly, for in the side supporter of the carving he +had placed, by way of reminder as to an attack upon the occupant of a +shell, a man in a fashionable dress, piercing a snail as it approaches +him. In mediaeval carvings, as in many of their explanations, it is +scarcely a step from the sublime to the ridiculous. + +One other carving which seems to point to the foregoing is at New +College, Oxford. It is a genuine grotesque, and may be a satire upon the +more serious works. It represents, seated in the same univalve kind of +shell as the others, a fox or ape in a religious habit, displaying a +bottle containing, perhaps, water from the Holy Land, the Virgin's Milk, +or other wondrous liquid. One of the side carvings is an ape in a hood +bringing a bottle. + + + + +Hell's Mouth. + + +[Illustration: HELL'S MOUTH, HOLY CROSS, STRATFORD-ON-AVON.] + +Hell's Mouth was one of the most popular conceptions of mediaeval times. +Except so far as concerns the dragon form of the head whose mouth was +supposed to be the gates of Hell, the idea appears to be entirely +Christian. "Christ's descent into Hell" was a favourite subject of Mystery +plays. In the Coventry pageant the "book of words" contained but six +verses, in which Hell is styled the "cindery cell." The Chester play is +much longer, and is drawn from the Apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus. This +gospel, which has a version in Anglo-Saxon of A.D. 950, is no doubt the +source from which is derived a prevalent form of Hell's Mouth in which +Christ is represented holding the hand of one of the persons engulped in +the infernal jaws. This is seen in a carving on the east window of +Dorchester Abbey. + +The Mouth is here scarcely that of a dragon, but that of an exceedingly +well-studied serpent; for intent and powerful malignity the expression of +this fine stone carving would be difficult to surpass. The Descent into +Hell is one of a series, on the same window, of incidents in the life of +Christ; all are exceedingly quaint, but their distance from the ground +improves them in a more than ordinary degree, and their earnest intention +prevails over their accidental grotesqueness. The beautiful curves in this +viperous head are well worthy of notice in connection with the remarks +upon the artistic qualities of Gothic grotesques. + +[Illustration: HELL'S MOUTH, DORCHESTER, OXON.] + +The verse of the Gospel (xix., 12), explains who the person is. "And [the +Lord] taking hold of Adam by his right hand he ascended from hell and all +the saints of God followed him." The female figure is of course Eve, who +is shewn with Adam in engravings of the subject by Albert Durer (1512, +etc.,) and others. The vision of Piers Ploughman (_circa_ 1362), has +particular mention of Adam and Eve among Satan's captive colony. Satan, on +hearing the order of a voice to open the gates of Hell, exclaims:-- + + "Yf he reve me of my ryght he robbeth me by mastrie, + For by ryght and reson the reukes [rooks] that be on here + Body and soul beth myne both good and ille + For he hyms-self hit seide that Syre is of Helle, + That Adam and Eve and al hus issue + Sholden deye with deol [should die with grief] and here dwell evere + Yf thei touchede a tree othr toke ther of an appel." + +A MS. volume in the British Museum, of poems written in the thirty-fourth +year of the reign of Henry VI., has "Our Lady's Song of the Chyld that +soked hyr brest," in which other persons than Adam and Eve are stated to +have been taken out of hell on the same occasion:-- + + "Adam and Eve wyth hym he take, + Kyng David, Moyses and Salamon + And haryed hell every noke, + Wythyn hyt left he soulys non." + +The belief in the descent in Hell can be traced back to the second +century. The form of Hell as a mouth is much later. + +There is mention of a certain "Mouth of Hell," which in 1437 was used in a +Passion play in the plain of Veximiel; this Mouth was reported as very +well done, for it opened and shut when the devils required to pass in or +out, and it had two large eyes of steel. + +The great east window of York Cathedral, the west front and south doorway +of Lincoln, and the east side of the altar-screen, Beverley Minster, have +representations of the Mouth of Hell. The chancel arch of Southleigh has a +large early fresco of the subject, in which two angels, a good and a bad +(white and black), are gathering the people out of their graves; the black +spirit is plucking up certain bodies (or souls) with a flesh-hook, and his +companions are conveying them to the adjacent Mouth. In a Flemish Book of +Hours of the fifteenth century (in the Bodleian Library) there is a +representation with very minute details of all the usual adjuncts of the +Mouth, and, in addition, several basketsful of children (presumably the +unbaptized) brought in on the backs of wolf-like fiends, and on sledges, a +common mediaeval method of conveyance. + +Sackvil mentions Hell as "an hideous hole" that-- + + "With ougly mouth and griesly jawes doth gape." + +Further instances of Hell's Mouth are in the block of the Ludlow ale-wife +on a following page. + + + + +Satanic Representations. + + +[Illustration: WINCHESTER COLLEGE, _14th century_.] + +Quaint as are the grotesques derived from the great symbolic Dragon, there +is another series of delineations of Evil, which are still more curious. +These are the representations of Evil which are to be regarded not so much +symbolic as personal. The constant presence of Satan and his satellites on +capital and corbel, arcade and misericorde, is to be explained by the +exceedingly strong belief in their active participation in mundane affairs +in robust physical shapes. + +[Illustration: SATAN AND A SOUL, DORCHESTER, OXON.] + +It would, perhaps, not seem improper to refer the class of carving +instanced by the three cuts, next following, to the Typhon myth. I think, +however, a distinction may be drawn between such carvings as represent +combat, and such as represent victimization; the former I would attribute +to the myth, the latter to the Christian idea of the torments consequent +on sin. At the same time, the victim-carving, generally easily disposed of +by styling it "Satan and a Soul," is undoubtedly largely influenced by +the myth-idea of Typhon (by whatever name known) as a _seizer_, as +indicated definitely in one of his general names, Graha. The figure was +naturally one according well with the mediaeval understanding of spiritual +punishment, and its varieties in carving are numerous enough to furnish an +adequate inferno. The Dorchester example is a small boss in the groined +ceiling of the sedilia of celebrants; that at Ewelme is a weather-worn +parapet-ornament on the south of the choir; the carving at Farnsham is on +a misericorde. + +[Illustration: SATAN AND A SOUL, EWELME, OXON.] + +Not entirely, though in some degree, the two next illustrations support +the theory, of punishment rather than conflict, for the others. + +[Illustration: REMORSE, YORK.] + +The carving in York Cathedral is of a graceful type; there is one closely +resembling it at Wells. The Glasgow sketch is from the drawing of a +fragment of the cathedral; it is more vivid and ludicrous than the other. +A comparison of these two affords a good idea of the excellent in Gothic +ornament. The Glasgow carving lacks everything but vigor; the York +production, though no exceptional example, has vigor, poetry, and grace. + +We will now revert to the more personal and "human" aspect of Satan. + +[Illustration: REMORSE, GLASGOW.] + +A writer[4] in the _Art Journal_ some years ago offered excellent general +observations upon the ideas of the Evil One found at various periods. He +pointed out that the frolicsome character of the mediaeval demon was +imparted by Christianity, with its forbidden Satan coming into contact +with the popular belief in hobgoblins and fairies which were common in the +old heathen belief of this island, and so the sterner teaching was tinged +by more popular fancies. + +There is much truth in this, except that for the hobgoblins and fairies we +may very well read ancient deities, for the ultimate effect of +Christianity upon Pagan reverence was to turn it into contempt and +abhorrence for good and bad deities alike. We can read this in the slender +records of ancient worships whose traces are left in language. Thus _Bo_ +is apparently one of the ancient root-words implying divinity; _Bod_, the +goddess of fecundity; _Boivani_, goddess of destruction; _Bolay_, the +giant who overcame heaven, earth and hell; _Bouders_, or _Boudons_, the +genii guarding Shiva, and _Boroon_, a sea-god, are in Indian mythology. +_Bossum_ is a good deity of Africa. _Borvo_ and _Bormania_ were guardians +of hot springs, and with _Bouljanus_ were gods of old Gaul. _Borr_ was +the father of Odin, and _Bure_ was Borr's sister. The _Bo_-tree of +India is the sacred tree of wisdom. In Sumatra _boo_ is a root-word +meaning good (as in _booroo_). _Bog_ is the Slavonic for god. These are +given to shew a probable connection among wide-spread worships. + +[Illustration: SATAN AND A SOUL, DORCHESTER.] + +We are now chiefly concerned with the last instance. The Slavonic _Bog_, a +god, is met in Saxon as a goblin, for the "boy" who came into the court of +King Arthur and laid his wand upon a boar's head was clearly a "bog" (the +Saxon _g_ being exchanged erroneously for _y_, as in _dag's aeg_, day's +eye, etc). In Welsh, similarly, _Brog_ is a goblin, and we have the evil +idea in _bug_. + + "Warwick was a bug that feared us all." + --_Shakespeare. Henry IV., v., 2._ + +That is "Warwick was a goblin that made us all afraid." The Boggart is a +fairy still believed in by Staffordshire peasants. We have yet _bugbear_, +as the Russians have _Buka_, and the Italians _Buggaboo_, of similar +meaning. + +As with the barbaric gods, so with the classic deities, who equally +supplied material of which to make foul fiends. Bacchus, with the legs and +sprouting horns of a goat, that haunter of vine-yards, then his fauns +constructed on the same symbolic principle, gave rise to the satyrs. +These, offering in their form disreputable points for reprobation, were +found to be a sufficiently appropriate symbol of the Devil. The reasons of +variety in the satyr figure are not far to seek, beyond the constant +tendency of the mediaeval artist to vary form while preserving essence. +Every artist had his idea of the devil, either drawn from the rich depths +of a Gothic imagination, from the descriptions accumulated by popular +credulity, and most of all from that result of both--the Devil of the +Mystery or Miracle Plays. + +The plays were performed by trade gilds. Every town had many of these +gilds, though several would sometimes join at the plays; and even very +small villages had both gild and plays. There are yet existing some slight +traces of the reputation which obscure villages had in their own vicinity +for their plays, of which Christmas mumming contains the last tattered +relic. So that, the Devil being a favourite character in the pieces so +widely performed, it is not surprising to find him equally at home among +the works of the carvers, who, according to the nature of artists of all +time, would doubtless holiday it with the best, and look with more or less +appreciation upon such drama as was set before them. + +Where we see Satan as the satyr, he is the rollicking fiend of the Mystery +stage, tempting with sly good-humour, tormenting with a grim and ferocious +joy, or often merely posturing and capering in a much to be envied height +of the wildest animal spirits. There is in popular art no trace, so far as +the writer's observation extends, of that lofty sorrow at man's +unworthiness, which has occasionally been attributed to Satan. + +The general feeling is that indicated by the semi-contemptuous epithets +applied to the satyr-idea of "Auld Clootie" (cloven-footed), and "Auld +Hornie," of our Northern brethren. + +[Illustration: A MAN-GOAT, ALL SOULS, OXFORD.] + +Horns were among all ancient nations symbolic of power and dignity. +Ancient coinages shew the heads of kings and deities thus adorned. The +Goths wore horns. Alexander frequently wore an actual horn to indicate his +presumption of divine descent. The head dress of priests was horned on +this account. This may point to a pre-historic period when the horned +animals were not so much of a prey as we find them in later days; thus the +aurochs of Western Europe appears to have been more dreaded by the wild +men of its time, than has been, say, the now fast-disappearing bison by +the North American Indians. On the other hand, the marvellous continuity +of nature's designs lead us to recognize that the carnivorous animals must +always have had the right to be the symbols of physical power. Therefore, +the idea of power, originally conveyed by the horns, is that carried by +the possession of riches in the shape of flocks and herds. The pecunia +were the means of power, and their horns the symbol of it. With the +Egyptians, the ox signified agriculture and subsistence. Pharaoh saw the +kine coming out of the Nile because the fertility of Egypt depends upon +that river. So that it is easy to see how the ox became the figure of the +sun, and of life. Similar significance attached to the sheep, the goat, +and the ram. Horus is met as "Orus, the Shepherd." Ammon wore the horns of +a ram. Mendes was worshipped as a goat. + +[Illustration: A CHERISHED BEARD, CHICHESTER.] + +The goat characteristics are well carved on a seat in All Souls. A goat +figure of the thirteenth century at Chichester has the head of a man with +a curious twisted or tied beard, clutched by one of the hands in which the +fore feet terminate. The clutching of the beard is not uncommon among +Gothic figures, and has doubtless some original on a coin, or other +ancient standard design. At St. Helen's, Abingdon, Berkshire, in different +parts of the church, three heads, one being a king, another a bishop, are +shewn grasping or stroking each his own beard. It is to be remembered that +the stroking of the beard is a well-known Eastern habit. + +Of close kindred to the goat form is the bull form. Just as Ceres +symbolized the fecundity of the earth in the matter of cereals, so Pan was +the emblem by which was figured its productiveness of animal life. Thus +Priapus was rendered in goat form, as the ready type of animal sexual +vigor; but not less familiar in this connection was the bull, and that +animal also symbolizes Pan, who became, when superstition grew out of +imagery, the protector of cattle in general. An old English superstition +was that a piece of horn, hung to the stable or cowhouse key, would +protect the animals from night-fright and other ills. When the pagan Gods +were skilfully turned into Christian devils, we find the bull equally with +the goat as a Satanic form, and several examples will be seen in the +drawings. + +The ox, as the symbol of St. Luke, is stated to refer, on account of its +cud-chewing, to the eclectic character of this evangelist's gospel. +Irenaeus, speaking of the second cherubim of the Revelation, which is the +same animal, says the calf signifies the sacerdotal office of Christ; but +the fanciful symbolisms of the fathers and of the Bestiaries are often +indifferent guides to original meaning. It may be that in the ox forms we +have astronomical allusions to Taurus, Bacchus, to Diana, or to Pan. A +note on the emblems of the Evangelists follows in the remarks on the +combinatory forms met in grotesque art. + +Before passing on to consider particular examples of satyr or bull-form +fiends, a few words may be said as to another form which, though allied to +the dragon-shape embodiments, has the personal character. This is the +Serpent. The origin of this appears to be the translation of the word +_Nachasch_ for serpent in the Biblical account of the momentous Eden +episode, a rendering which, without philological certainty, is +countenanced by the general presence of the serpent in one form or another +in every system of theology in the world. Jewish tradition states that the +serpent, with beauty of form and power of flight, had no speech, until in +the presence of Eve he ate of the fruit of the Tree, and so acquired +speech, immediately using the gift to tempt Eve. Other traditions say that +Nachasch was a camel, and became a serpent by the curse. Adam Clarke +maintained that Nachasch was a monkey. The traditional and mystic form of +the angels was that of a serpent. _Seraph_ means a fiery serpent. In +Isaiah's vision, the seraphim are human-headed serpents. One of the most +remarkable items in the history of worship is the account of the symbolic +serpent erected by Moses, and the subsequent use of it as an idol until +the time of Hezekiah. In the first satire of Perseus, he says, "paint two +snakes, the place is sacred!" + +[Illustration: THE SERPENT, ELY.] + +The use of the serpent as the Church symbol of regeneration and revival of +health or life is not common in carvings. In these senses it was used by +the Greeks, though chiefly as the symbol of the Supreme Intellect, being +the special attribute and co-type of Minerva. The personal apparition +which confronted Eve is not so infrequent, though without much variety. + +In a representation of the temptation of Adam and Eve among the +misericordes of Ely, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is shewn +of a very peculiar shape. The serpent, whose coils are difficult to +distinguish from the foliage of the tree, has the head of a saturnine +Asiatic, who is taking the least possible notice of "our first parents," +as they stand eating apples and being ashamed, one on each side of the +composition. + +[Illustration: THE OLD SERPENT, CHICHESTER. _13th century._] + +A carving in the choir of Chichester Cathedral shews in a double +repetition, one half of which is here shewn, the evil head with an attempt +at the legendary comeliness, mingled with debased traits, that is +artistically very creditable to the sculptor. As though dissatisfied with +the amount of beauty he had succeeded in imparting to the heads on the +serpents, he adds, on the side-pieces of the carving, two other heads of +females in eastern head-dresses, to which he has imparted a demure Dutch +beauty, due perhaps to his own nationality. Human-headed serpents are in +carvings at Norwich and at Bridge, Kent. + +[Illustration: DEMURENESS MEDITATING MISCHIEF. DEUTCHO-EGYPTIAN MASK, +CHICHESTER.] + +With regard to Satan's status as an angel, a considerable number of +representations of him are to be found, in which he conforms to a +prevalent mediaeval idea as to the plumage of the spirit race. Angels are +found clothed entirely with feathers, as repeated some scores of times in +the memorial chapel, at Ewelme, of Alice, Duchess of Suffolk, +grand-daughter of Chaucer, who died in 1475. The annexed block shews a +small archangel which surmounts the font canopy, and is of the same +character as the chapel angels. At All Souls, Oxford, is a carving of a +warrior-visaged person wearing a morion, and armed with a falchion and +buckler. He is clad in feathers only, appearing to be flying downward, and +is either a representation of St. Michael or Lucifer. + +[Illustration: ANGEL, EWELME.] + +[Illustration: ST. MICHAEL, ALL SOULS, OXFORD.] + +Satan is often similarly treated. Loki, the tempter of the Scandinavian +Eden, who was ordered to seek the lost Idun he had deceived, had to go +forth clad in borrowed garments of falcon's feathers with wings. When the +pageant at the Setting of the Midsummer Watch at Chester was forbidden by +the Mayor, in 1599, one of the prohibited figures was "the Devil and his +Feathers." + +There may be a connection between the final punishment of Loki and the +idea embodied in the carvings mentioned above as being at, among other +places, Wells, York, and Glasgow, and which have been considered as +conceptions of Remorse. Loki was condemned to be fastened to a rock to +helplessly endure the eternal dropping upon his brow of poison from the +jaws of a serpent; only that there is neither in these carvings, nor any +others noted to the present, any indication of the presence of the +ministering woman-spirit who for even the fiend Loki stood by to catch the +death-drops in a cup of mercy. + + + + +The Devil and the Vices. + + +[Illustration: RECORDING IMP. ST. KATHERINE'S, REGENT'S PARK. (_Initial +added_).] + +Having examined the various lower forms given by man to his great enemy, +and now noting that to such forms may be added the human figure in whole +or part, we will next take in review a few of the sins which bring erring +humanity into the clutches of Satan; for we find some of the most +grotesque of antique carvings devoted to representation of what may be +called the finale of the Sinner's Progress. These are probably largely +derived from the Mystery Plays; for the moral teaching has the same direct +soundness. The ideas are often jocosely put, but the principle is one of +mere retribution. The Devil cannot hurt the Saint and he pays out to the +Wicked the exact price of his wrong-doing. Thus in nearly all of what may +be termed the Sin series there is a Recording Imp who bears a tablet or +scroll, on which we are to suppose the evil commissions and omissions of +the sinner are duly entered, entitling the fiend to take possession. This +reminds of the Egyptian Mercury, Thoth, who recorded upon his tablets the +actions of men, in order that at the Judgment there might be proper +evidence. + +[Illustration: THE UNSEEN WITNESS, ELY. + +The Account Presented. Satan Satisfied. The Record of Sin.] + +There is a series of carvings, examplified at Ely, New College, Oxford, +St. Katherine's (removed from near the Tower to the Regent's Park) and +Gayton, which have Satan encouraging or embracing two figures apparently +engaged in conversation. I have placed these among the Sins, for though no +very particular explanation is forthcoming as to the meaning of the group, +it is clear that the two human beings are engaged in some occupation +highly agreeable to the fiend. This evidently has a connection with the +monkish story told of St. Britius. One day, while St. Martin was saying +mass, Britius, who was officiating as deacon, saw the devil behind the +altar, writing on a slip of parchment "as long as a proctor's bill" the +sins which the congregation were then and there committing. The people, +both men and women, appear to have been doing many other things besides +listening to St. Martin, for the devil soon filled his scroll on both +sides. Thus far our carvings. + +The story goes further, and states that the devil, having further sins to +record, but no further space on which to write them, attempted to stretch +the parchment with teeth and claws, which, however, broke the record, the +devil falling back against a wall. The story then betrays itself. Britius +laughed loudly, whereat St. Martin, highly displeased, demanded the +reason, when Britius told him what he had seen, which relation the other +saint accepted as being true. + +This story is one of a class common among mediaeval pulpit anecdotes. It +cannot well be considered that the carvings arose from the story, nor the +story from the carvings. Probably both arose from something else, +accounting for the number of sinners being uniformly two, and for the +attitude of the fiend in each case being so similar. With regard to the +latter I must leave the matter as it is. + +I venture, as to the signification of the two figures, to make a +suggestion to stand good until a better be found. In the Mystery Play +entitled the "Trial of Mary and Joseph" (Cotton MS., Pageant xiv., +amplified out of the Apocryphal New Testament, _Protevan_, xi.), the story +runs that Mary and Joseph, particularly the former, are defamed by two +Slanderers. The Bishop sends his Summoner for the two accused persons, and +orders that they drink the water of vengeance "which is for trial," a kind +of miraculous ordeal by poison. Joseph drinks and is unhurt; Mary likewise +and is declared a pure maid in spite of facts. One of the Slanderers +declares that the drink has been changed because the Virgin was of the +High Priest's kindred, upon which the Slanderer is himself ordered to +drink what is left in the cup. Doing so he instantly becomes frantic. All +ask pardon of Mary for their suspicions, and, that being granted, the play +is ended. + +Now the play commences with the meeting of the Two Slanderers. A brief +extract or two will shew their method. + + 1ST DETRACTOR.--To reyse blawthyr is al my lay, + Bakbyter is my brother of blood + Dede he ought come hethyr in al this day + Now wolde God that he were here, + And, by my trewth, I dare well say + That if we tweyn to gethyr apere + Mor slawndyr we t[w]o schal a rere + With in an howre thorwe outh this town, + Than evyr ther was this thouwsand yer, + Now, be my trewth, I have a sight + Evyn of my brother ... Welcome ... + + 2ND DETRACTOR.--I am ful glad we met this day. + + 1ST DETRACTOR.--Telle all these pepyl [the audience] what is yor name-- + + 2ND DETRACTOR.--I am Bakbyter, that spyllyth all game, + Both hyd and known in many a place. + +Then they fall to, and in terms of some wit and much freedom describe the +physical condition of she who was "calde mayd Mary." + +The Two Slanderers in this play are undoubtedly men, for each styles the +other "brother." Yet there are words in their dialogue, not suited to +these pages, which could properly only be used by women. As in at least +one of the carvings the sinners are women, if my hypothesis has any +correctness there must be some other form of the story in which the +detractors are female. It is to be noted, also, that the play from which I +have quoted has no mention of the devil. + +[Illustration: A BACKBITER, ST. KATHERINE'S.] + +Years before I met with the play of the trial of Joseph and Mary, I +considered that the sin of the Two might be scandal, and put down a +curious carving adjoining the St. Katherine group as a reference to it, +and suggested it might be a humorous rendering of a Backbiter. This is +shewn in the accompanying block. It was therefore agreeable to find one +of the Mystery detractors actually named Backbiter. Against that it may be +mentioned that the composite figure with a head at the rear is not unique. +At Rothwell, Northamptonshire, is a dragon attempt, rude though probably +of late fifteenth century work, with a similar head in the same anatomical +direction; this is not connected with anything that can be considered +bearing upon the subject of the Mystery, unless the heads on the same +misericorde are meant to be those of Jews. + +The example at Ely shews the fiend closely embracing the two sinners who +are evidently in the height of an impressive conversation. One figure has +a book on its knee, the other is telling the beads of a rosary. At the +sides are two imps of a somewhat Robin Goodfellow-like character, each +bearing a scroll with the account of the misdeeds of the sinners, and +which we may presume are the warrants by which Satan is entitled to seize +his prey. He is the picture of jovial good-nature. + +[Illustration: A BACKBITER, ROTHWELL, NORTHANTS.] + +New College, Oxford, has a misericorde of the subject in which the +figures, female in appearance, are seated in a sort of box. This reminds +us of Baldini and Boticelli's picture of Hell, which is divided into +various ovens for different vices. That may be the idea here, or perhaps +the object is a coffin and is used to emphasize what the wages of sin +are. They, like the two sinners of Ely, are in animated conversation. +Satan here is of a bull-headed form with wings rather like those of a +butterfly. These are of the end of the fifteenth century. + +[Illustration: THE UNSEEN WITNESS, NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD.] + +There are foreign carvings described by Mr. Evans as being of the devil +taking notes of the idle words of two women during mass. This is, perhaps, +the simple meaning of all this series, and an evidence of the resentment +of ecclesiastics against the irreverent. There is considerable evidence +that religious service was scarcely a solemn thing in mediaeval times. If +this is the signification the box arrangement described above may be some +sort of early pew. + +The next example, from St. Katherine's (lately) by the Tower, has the +fiend in a fashionable slashed suit. The ladies here are only in bust, and +though of demurely interested expression they have not that rapport and +animation which distinguish the two previously noticed. Satan does not +embrace them, but stands behind with legs outstretched and hands, or +rather claws, on knees, ready to clutch them at the proper moment. + +[Illustration: THE UNSEEN WITNESS, ST. KATHERINE'S.] + +At Gayton, Northants, is a further curious instance of this group. The two +Sinners are in this case unquestionably males, and, but for the +coincidence with the preceding examples, the men might have been supposed +to have been engaged in some game of chance. It will be observed that the +one to the right has a rosary as in the first-named carving. Satan here +is well clothed in feathers, and in his left wing is the head of what is +probably one of the instruments of torture awaiting the very much +overshadowed victims. It is a kind of rake or flesh-hook, with three +sharp, hooked teeth; perhaps a figure of the tongue of a slanderer, +materialized for his own subsequent scarification; it may be added as a +kind of satanic badge. Satan bears on his right arm a leaf-shaped shield. + +[Illustration: THE UNSEEN WITNESS, GAYTON, NORTHANTS.] + +The vice next to be regarded is Avarice. In a misericorde at Beverley +Minster we have three scenes from the history of the Devil. One gives us +the avaricious man bending before his coffers. He has taken out a coin; if +we read aright his contemplative and affectionate look, it is gold. +Hidden behind the chest behold Satan, one of whose bullock horns is +visible as he lurks out of the miser's sight, grinning to think how surely +the victim is his. + +At the opposite end of the carving is the other extreme, Gluttony. A man +is drinking out of a huge flask, which he holds in his right hand, while +in the other he grasps a ham (or is it not impossible that this is a +second bottle). In this the devil is likewise present; he is apparently +desperately anxious the victim should have enough. + +[Illustration: THE DEVIL AND THE MISER, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +[Illustration: SATAN AND A SOUL, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +Between these two reliefs appears Satan seizing a naked soul. In the +original all that remains of the Devil's head is the outline and one +horn; of the soul's head there remains only the outline; the two faces I +have ventured to supply, also the fore-arm of the Devil. The fiend is here +again presented with the attributes of a bullock, rather than a goat. +Satan has had placed on his abdomen a mask or face, a somewhat common +method of adding to the startling effect of his boisterous personality. +The fine rush which the fiend is making upon the soul, and the shrinking +horror of the latter, are exceedingly well rendered. The moral is, we may +suppose, that the sinners on either side will come to the same bad end. + +[Illustration: THE DEVIL AND THE GLUTTON, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +Among the seat-carvings of Henry VII's. Chapel, Westminster Abbey, we have +the vice of Avarice more fully treated, there being two carvings devoted +to the subject. In the first we see a monk suddenly seized by a quaint and +curious devil (to whom I have supplied his right fore-arm). The monk, +horror-stricken, yet angry, has dropped his bag of sovereigns, or nobles, +and the coins fall out. He would escape if he could, but the claws of the +fiend have him fast. + +[Illustration: DISMAY, WESTMINSTER.] + +In the companion carving we have the incident--and the monk--carried a +little further. The devil has picked him up, thrown him down along his +conveniently horizontal back, and strides on with him through a wild place +of rocks and trees, holding what appears to be a flaming torch, which he +also uses as a staff. The monk has managed to gather up his dearly-loved +bag of money, and is frantically clutching at the rocks as he is swiftly +borne along. Satan in the first carving has rather a benevolent human +face, in the second a debased beast face, unknown to natural history. +There is no explanation of how Sathanus has disposed in the second scene +of the graceful dragon wings he wears in the first. It is probable that +two of the Italians who carved this set each took the same subject, and we +have here their respective renderings. I mention with diffidence that if +the mild and timorous face of Bishop Alcock (which may be seen at Jesus +College, Cambridge), the architect of this part of the abbey, could be +supposed to have unfortunately borne at any time the expressions upon +either of these two representations of the monk, the likeness would, in my +opinion, be rather striking. + +[Illustration: THE OVERTAKING OF AVARICE, WESTMINSTER.] + +[Illustration: THE TAKING OF THE AVARICIOUS, WESTMINSTER.] + +[Illustration: DEMONIACAL DRUMMER, WESTMINSTER.] + +On the side carving of the carrying-away scene is shewn a woman, dismayed +at the sight. On the opposite side a fiend is welcoming the monk with beat +of drum, just as we shall see the ale-wife saluted with the drone of the +bagpipes. + +[Illustration: VANITY, ST. MARY'S MINSTER.] + +A carving at St. Mary's Minster, Isle of Thanet, has the devil looking out +with a vexed frown from between the horns of a lofty head-dress, which is +on a lady's head. Whether this be a rendering of the dishonest ale-wife, +or a separate warning against the vice of Vanity, cannot well be decided. + +There was a popular opinion at one time that the bulk of church carvings +were jokes at the expense of clergy, probably largely because every hood +was thought to be a cowl. There is, however, no doubt as to the carving +here presented. It may represent the consecration of a bishop. The +presence of Satan dominating both the individuals, and pulling forward the +cowl of the seated figure, appears to declare that this is to illustrate +the vice of Hypocrisy. It is at New College, Oxford. + +[Illustration: HYPOCRISY, NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD.] + + + + +Ale and the Ale-wife. + + +[Illustration: THE JOLLY TAPSTER, LUDLOW.] + +Ale, good old ale, has formed the burden of more songs and satires ancient +and modern, than will ever be brought together. Ale was the staple +beverage for morning, noon, and evening meals. It is probable that swollen +as is the beer portion of the Budget, the consumption of ale, man for man, +is much less than that of any mediaeval time. The records of all the +authoritative bodies who dealt with the liquor traffic of the olden time +are crowded with rules and regulations that plainly demonstrate not only +the universal prevalence of beer drinking in a proper and domestic degree, +but also the constant growing abuse of the sale of the liquor. In the +reign of Elizabeth the evils of the tavern had become so notorious, that +in some places women were forbidden to keep ale-houses. + +As far back as A.D. 794, ale-houses had become an institution, for we find +the orders passed at the Council of Frankfort in that year included one by +which ecclesiastics and monks were forbidden to drink in an ale-house. St. +Adrian was the patron of brewers. + +In some boroughs (Hull may be given as an instance) in the fifteenth +century, the Mayor was not allowed to keep a tavern in his year of office. +Brewers and tavern keepers, with many nice distinctions of grade among +them, were duly licensed and supervised, various penalties meeting +attempts at illicit trade. The quality of ale was also an object of +solicitude, and an official, called the ale-taster, was in nearly every +centre of population made responsible for the due strength and purity of +the national beverage. It was customary in some places in the fifteenth +century for the ale-taster to be remunerated by a payment of 4d. a year +from each brewer. + +It has to be remembered ale was drunk at the meals at which we now use +tea, coffee, and cocoa; it will be interesting to glance at an instance of +the rate at which it was consumed. At the Hospital of St. Cross, founded +in 1132, at Winchester, thirteen "impotent" men had each a daily allowance +of a gallon and a half of good small beer, with more on holidays; this was +afterwards reduced to three quarts with some two quarts extra for +holidays. The porter at the gate had only three quarts to give away to +beggars. There was great idea of continuity at this establishment; even in +1836 there was spent L133 5s. for malt and hops for the year's brewing. +The happy thirteen had each yet three quarts every day as well as a jack +(say four gallons) extra among them on holidays, with 4s. for beer money. +Two gallons of beer were also daily dispensed at the gate at the rate of a +horn of not quite half a pint to each applicant. + +[Illustration: LETTICE LITTLETRUST AND A SIMPLE SIMON. WELLINGBOROUGH, +_14th century_.] + +Ale, no more than other things, could be kept out of church. A carving at +Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, shews us an interview between a would-be +customer on the one part and an ale-wife on the other part. There is, in a +list of imaginary names in an epilogue or "gagging" summons to a miracle +play, mention of one Letyce Lytyltrust, whom surely we see above. +Evidently the man is better known than trusted, and while a generous +supply of the desired refreshment is "on reserve" in a dear old jug, some +intimation has been made that cash is required; he, like one Simon on a +similar occasion, has not a penny, and with one hand dipped into his +empty pocket, he scratches his head with the other. His good-natured +perplexity contrasts well with the indifferent tradeswoman-like air of the +ale-wife, who while she rests the jug upon a bench, does not relinquish +the handle. He is saying to himself, "Nay, marry, an I wanted a cup o' ale +aforetime I was ever served. A thirsty morn is this. I know not what to +say to t' jade;" while she is muttering, "An he wipe off the chalk ahint +the door even, he might drink and welcome, sorry rogue tho' he be. But no +use to cry pay when t' barrel be empty." + +At Edgeware in 1558, an innkeeper, was fined for selling a pint and a half +of ale at an exorbitant price, namely, one penny. A quart was everywhere +the proper quantity, and that of the strongest; small ale sold at one +penny for two quarts. With regard to the then higher value of money, +however, the prices may be considered to be about the same as at present, +and the same may be said of many commodities which appear in records at +low figures. + +Of an earlier date is the tapster of the initial block, from Ludlow, who +furnishes a comfortable idea of a congenial, and to judge from his pouch, +a profitable occupation. It is to be presumed the smallness of the barrel +as compared with that of the jug--probably of copper, and dazzlingly +bright--was the artist's means of getting its full outline within the +picture, and not an indication of the relations of supply and demand. + +Alas for the final fate of the dishonest woman who could cheat men in the +important matter of ale! At Ludlow we are shewn such a one, stripped of +all but the head dress and necklace of her vanity, and carried +ignominiously and indecorously to Hell's Mouth on the shoulders of a +stalwart demon (whose head is supplied in the block). In her hand, and +partaking of her own reverse, she bears the hooped tankard with which she +defrauded her customers. It is the measure of her woe. The demon thus +loaded with mischief is met by another, armed with the bagpipes. With +hilarious air and fiendish grin he welcomes the latest addition to the +collection of evil-doers within. To the right are the usual gaping jaws of +Hell's Mouth, into which are disappearing two nude females, who, we may +suppose, are other ale-wifes not more meritorious than the lady of the +horned head dress. To the left is the Recording Imp. + +[Illustration: THE END OF THE ALE-WIFE, LUDLOW.] + +[Illustration: THE FEMALE DRAWER, ALL SOULS, OXFORD.] + +There is allusion in a copy of the Chester Mystery of Christ's Descent +into Hell, among the Harleian MSS., to an ale-wife of Chester, which +doubtless suggested this carving. This lady, a little-trust and a cheater +in her day, laments having to dwell among the fiends; she endeavours to +propitiate one of them by addressing him as "My Sweet Master Sir +Sattanas," who returns the compliment by calling her his "dear darling." +She announces that:-- + + "Some tyme I was a tavernere, + A gentill gossipe and a tapstere, + Of wyne and ale a trustie brewer, + Which wo hath me wroughte. + Of cannes I kepte no trewe measuer + My cuppes I soulde at my pleasuer, + Deceaving manye a creature, + Tho' my ale were naughte." + +The Devil then delivers a short speech, which is one of the earliest +temperance addresses on record. He says:-- + + "Welckome, dere ladye, I shall thee wedd, + For many a heavye and droncken head + Cause of thy ale were broughte to bed + Farre worse than anye beaste." + +There is an old saying "pull Devil, pull Baker" connected with the +representation of a baker who sold his bread short of weight, and was +carried to the lower regions in his own basket; the ale-wife, of our +carving, however, does not appear to have retained any power of +resistance, however slight or ineffectual. + +[Illustration: A HORN OF ALE, ELY.] + +At All Souls, Oxford, there is a good carving of a woman drawing ale. It +is not, apparently, the ale-wife herself, but the maid sent down into the +cellar. The maid, perhaps after a good draught of the brew, seems to be +blowing a whistle to convey, to the probably listening ears of her +mistress upstairs, the impression that the jug has not received any +improper attention from her. The artful expression of the ale-loving maid +lends countenance to the conjecture that the precaution has not been +entirely efficacious. It is to this day a jocular expression in +Oxfordshire, and perhaps elsewhere, "You had better whistle while you are +drawing that beer." + +A carving at Ely represents Pan as an appreciative imbiber from a +veritable horn of ale. + + + + +Satires without Satan. + + +[Illustration: THE SLUMBERING PRIEST, NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD.] + +There are numbers of grotesques which are satires evidently aimed at sins, +but which have not the visible attendance of the evil one himself. + +Among these must be included a curious carving from Swine, in Holderness. +The priory of Swine was a Cistercian nunnery of fifteen sisters and a +prioress. Mr. Thomas Blashill states, "There were, however, two canons at +least, to assist in the offices of religion, who did not refrain from +meddling in secular affairs."[5] There was also a small community of +lay-brethren. + +The female in the centre of the carving is a nun; her hood is drawn partly +over her face, so that only one eye is fully visible, but with the other +eye she is executing a well-known movement of but momentary duration. The +two ugly animals between which she peers are intended for hares, a symbol +of libidinousness, as well as of timidity. + +Another carving in the same chancel may be in derision of some official of +the papal court, which, in the thirteenth century, on an occasion of the +contumacy of the nuns in refusing to pay certain tithes, caused the +church, with that adjoining, of the lay brethren, to be closed. The nuns +defied all authority, broke open the chapels, and in general during the +long contest acted in a curiously ungovernable, irresponsible manner. + +[Illustration: A PAPAL MONSTER, SWINE, YORKSHIRE.] + +At Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, are some misericordes, which, says +Miss Phipson, are stated to have originally belonged to Old St. Paul's. +Among them is the annexed subject. The wicked expression of the face, and +the general incorrectness of the composition, are a historical evidence of +indecorum akin to the gestures of the Beverley carvers. + +[Illustration: IMPUDENCE, BISHOP'S STORTFORD, HERTFORDSHIRE.] + +From the fine choir carvings of Westminster Abbey yet another example is +given. It is one in which the spirit of the old _Comptes a Plaisance_ is +well illustrated. A well-clad man, suggesting Falstaff in his prime, is +seated with a lady among luxurious foliage. His arm is right round his +companion's waist, while his left hand dips into his capacious and +apparently well-lined pouch, or gipciere. He has been styled a merchant. +He is manifestly making a bargain. The lady is evidently a daughter of the +hireling (_hirudo!_), and is crying, "Give, give." In spite of this being +the work of an Italian artist, the artistic feeling about it would seem to +recall slightly the lines of Holbein. + +[Illustration: THE WINKING NUN, SWINE, YORKSHIRE.] + +[Illustration: A QUESTION OF PRICE, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.] + +The small carving to the right of the above is a highly-elate pig, playing +the pipe. This is shewn in a short chapter hereafter given on Animal +Musicians. The initial at the head of this chapter is illustrated with the +"slumbering priest," the carving of whom is at the right of that of the +'Unseen Witness,' drawn on page 85. This doubtless implies that some +portion of the sin of the people was to be attributed to the indifference +of the clergy. Balancing this, there is in the original carving an aged +person kneeling, and, supported by a crutch, counting her beads. + +In a subsequent chapter (on Compound Forms in Gothic) the harpy is +mentioned, and shewn to be a not uncommon subject of church art, either as +from the malignant classic form which symbolized fierce bad weather, or as +the more beneficient though not unsimilar figure which was the symbol of +Athor, the Egyptian Venus. A Winchester example which might seem in place +among the remarks on the Compounds, is included here, as it is evidently +intended to embody a sin. It serves to show that a modern use of the word +harpy was well understood in mediaeval times. The design is simple, the +vulture wings being made to take the position of the hair of the woman +head. She lies in wait spider-wise, her great claws in readiness for the +prey; and is evidently a character-sketch of a coarse, insatiable daughter +of the horse-leech. + +[Illustration: THE HARPY IN WAIT, WINCHESTER.] + + + + +Scriptural Illustrations. + + +[Illustration: ADAM AND EVE, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +Mystery Plays, we have seen, drew upon the Apocryphal New Testament for +subjects, but it has simply happened that the examples of vice carvings +illustrate those writings, for Mystery Plays were in general founded upon +the canonical scriptures. There are many carvings which have Biblical +incidents for their subject, but it is often impossible to say whether the +text were the sole material of the designer, or whether his ideas were +formed by representations he had seen on the Mystery stage. It may be +presumed that the effect would not be greatly different in one case from +the other. + +The story of Jonah furnishes a subject for two misericordes in Ripon +Cathedral. One is in the frontispiece of this volume. In the first the +prophet is being pushed by three men unceremoniously over the side of the +vessel which has the usual mediaeval characteristics, and, in which, +plainly, there is no room for a fourth person. The ship is riding easily +on by no means tumultuous waves, out of which protrudes the head of the +great fish. The fish and Jonah appear to regard the situation with equal +complacency. + +In the sequel carving Jonah is shewn being cast out by the fish, of +which, as in the other, the head only is visible. The monster of the deep +has altered its appearance slightly during the period of Jonah's +incarceration, its square upper teeth having become pointed. The prophet +is represented kneeling among the teeth, apparently offering up thanks for +his deliverance. The sea is bounded by a rocky shore on which stand trees +of the well-known grotesque type in which they are excellent fir-cones. + +[Illustration: THE STORY OF JONAH. THE CASTING OUT.] + +These two carvings are of somewhat special interest, as their precise +origin is known. They are both exceedingly close copies of engravings in +the Biblia Pauperum, or Poor Man's Bible, otherwise called "Speculum +Humanae Salvationis," or the Mirror of Human Salvation. Other Biblical +subjects in the Ripon Series of Misericordes are from the same source. Did +the Sculptor or Sculptors of the series fall short of subjects, or were +their eyes caught by the definite outlines of the prints in the "Picture +Bible" as it lay chained in the Minster? + +The Adoration, in a carving in the choir of Worcester, comes under the +head of unintentional grotesques. It is a proof that though the +manipulative skill of the artist may be great, that may only accentuate +his failure to grasp the true spirit of a subject; and render what might +have been only a piece of simplicity, into an elaborate grotesque. The +common-place, ugly features--where not broken away--the repeated attitudes +and the symmetric arrangement join to defeat the artist's aim. Add to +those the anachronisms, the ancient Eastern rulers in Edward III. crowns +and gowns, seated beneath late Gothic Decorated Arches offering gifts, +and the absurdity is nearly complete. It is difficult to quite understand +the presence of the lady with gnarled features, on the left, bearing the +swathed infant (headless) which seems to demonstrate that this was carved +by a foreigner, or was from a foreign source; for though swathing was +practised to some extent in England, I can only find that in Holland, +Germany, etc., and more especially in Italy, the children were swathed to +this extent, in the complete mummy fashion styled "bambino." + +Perhaps the reason of the two figures right and left was that the artist +went with the artistic tide in representing the recently-born infant as a +strapping boy of four or five; yet his common-sense telling him that was a +violation of fact he put the other figure in with the strapped infant to +show what--in his own private opinion--the child would really be like at +the time. + +We might have supposed it to be St. John, but he was older and not younger +than the Divine Child. In the Scandinavian mythology, Vali, the New Year, +is represented as a child in swaddling clothes. + +[Illustration: ADORATION OF THE MAGI, WORCHESTER.] + +The Scriptural subjects in carved work may be compared with the wall +paintings which in a few instances have survived the reforming zeal of +bygone white-washing churchwardens. The comparison is infinitely to the +advantage of the carvings. These paintings are in distemper and were the +humble inartistic precursors of noble frescoes in the continental fanes, +but which had in England no development. To what extent there was merit in +the mural decoration of the English cathedrals cannot well be stated. +Such examples, as in a few churches are left to us, are simply +curiosities. Though changing with the styles they are more crude than the +sculptures, and the modern eye in search of the grotesque, finds here +compositions infinitely more excruciatingly imbecile than in any other +department of art-work of pretension. + +[Illustration: BAPTISMAL SCENE, GUILDFORD.] + +At the same time when they are considered in conjunction with the most +perfect of the paintings of their period they are by no means so low in +the scale of merit as at the first thought might be supposed. + +Outside the present purpose of looking at them as unintentional grotesques +they are very valuable specimens of the English art of painting of dates +which have, except in illuminations, no other examples. + +Those of St. Mary's, Guildford, are very quaint. The first selected from +the series is a representation of Christ attending the ministration of St. +John the Baptist. St. John has apparently taken down to the river bank a +classic font, in which is seated a convert. The Baptist himself, wearing a +Phrygian cap (probably Saxon), is turning away from the figures of Christ +and the man in the font, and is apparently addressing a company which does +not appear in the picture. Just as the font was put in to make the idea of +baptism easily understood, so, we may suppose, the curious buttons on +thongs, or whatever they are, were shewn attached to St. John's wrist, to +indicate that he is speaking of the "shoe-latchets." The waters and bank +of the Jordan are indicated in a few lines. + +[Illustration: CASTING OUT OF DEVILS, GUILDFORD.] + +The other selection is still more bizarre. It evidently portrays Christ +casting out devils. The chief point of interest in this painting is the +original conception of the devils. Anything more vicious, degraded, and +abhorrent, it would be difficult to produce in so few lines. Roughly +speaking, they are a compound of the hawk, the hog, and the monkey; this +curious illustration is an excellent pendant to the marks made upon early +Satanic depictions on a previous page. The faces are Saxon, except in the +case of the man with the sword, who is a distinct attempt at a Roman. The +artist had evidently in his mind one who was set in authority. + +The churches of the Midlands are rich in wall-paintings. + +A fine example is in North Stoke Church, Oxfordshire, which has two +Scriptural subjects, a series of angelic figures, and several other +figures, etc., only fragmentally visible. They were all found accidentally +under thick coats of whitewash. It may be doubted whether they were ever +finished. The two Biblical subjects are "Christ betrayed in the Garden," +and "Christ before Pilate." Christ is a small apparently blind-folded +figure, of which only the head and one shoulder remains. Pilot is the +Saxon lord, posing as the seated figure of legal authority, poising a +hiltless sword in his right hand. The figure addressing Pilate is +apparently a Roman (Saxon) official; his hand is very large, but there is +a simple force about his drawing. The fourth figure in a mitre is +doubtless meant for a Jewish priest, and he has a nasty, clamorous look. +Pilate, unfortunately, has no pupils to his eyes, but his general +appearance is as though he was expostulating with the priest. + +There is a carol, printed in 1820, which has a woodcut of the subject not +less rude and not less of an anachronism than this: but what is curious, +as illustrating the main theory of the present volume--the tenacity with +which form is adhered to in unconscious art--is that the disposition of +the figures is exactly the same in both pictures. Where the Saxon lord is +seated, imagine a bearded magistrate, at a sort of Georgian +quarter-sessions bench, with panelled front. For the simple Saxon, with +vandyked shirt, suppose a Roman half-soldier, half-village-policeman. Then +comes the figure of Christ, with the head much lower than those of the +others because he is nearer. Lastly, there is an incomplete figure behind. + +In this case the perfect correspondence may be mere coincidence; it is +difficult to explain otherwise. The design, however, is the same, only the +Anglo-Norman filled in his detail from his observation of a manorial +court, the Moorfield engraver from his knowledge of Bow Street +police-court. + +To conclude, although these paintings are ludicrous in the extreme, the +artists, who had no easy task, were absolutely serious, and their works, +divested of the comic aspect conferred by haste and manipulative +incompetence, are marked by bold impressiveness. + +The initial to this chapter is from one of a series of similar ornaments +on the parapet of the south side of the nave of Beverley Minster; it +illustrates the toilsome nature of the later portion of Adam's life. + + + + +Masks and Faces. + + +[Illustration: FOLIATE MASK, THE CHOIR, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +The merriest, oddest, most ill-assorted company in the world meet together +in the masks and faces of Gothic ornament. Space could always be found for +a head, and skill to execute it. Yet though the variety is immense, the +faces of Gothic art will be found to classify themselves very definitely. + +[Illustration: FOLIATE MASK, DORCHESTER, OXON.] + +Perhaps the most prevalent type is the classic mask with leaves issuing +from the mouth. This may be an idea of the mask which every player in the +ancient drama wore, displayed as an ornament with laurel, bay, oak, ivy, +or what not, inserted in the mouth, because it was pierced for speaking +through, and the only aperture in which the decorative branches could be +inserted. Or seeds might germinate in sculptured masks and so have +suggested the idea. Masks were hung in vineyards, etc. + +[Illustration: FOLIATE MASK, ST. MARY'S MINSTER, ISLE OF THANET.] + +[Illustration: FOLIATE MASK, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +A mask above the internal tower-doorway in the Lady Chapel of Dorchester +Abbey has a close resemblance to the classic mask in the protruding lips, +which, for the conveying of the voice for the great distance necessary in +the arrangement of the ancient theatres, were often shaped like a shallow +speaking-trumpet. The leaves appear to be the vine, and so the head, +perhaps, that of Bacchus. Between the eyebrows will be noticed an angular +projection. This is probably explained by a mask in a misericorde in St. +Mary's Minster, in which some object, perhaps the nasal of a helmet, comes +down the middle of the forehead. The leaves in this case appear to be oak, +which is, indeed, the prevailing tree used for the purpose. + +[Illustration: INDIAN MASK, ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.] + +[Illustration: LATE ITALIAN FOLIATE MASK, WESTMINSTER.] + +Occasionally a mask with leaves has the tongue protruding. + +Perhaps one of the most remarkable masks in Gothic is on another +misericorde in the same town, but in St. Mary's Church; in which the +features, the head-dress, the treatment of the ears, are all Indian, while +the leaves are those of the palm. This is, perhaps, unique as an instance +of Gothic work so nearly purely Indian in its form. + +[Illustration: RIPON, _late Fifteenth Century_.] + +Sometimes the leaves are much elaborated as in one of the late +misericordes of Westminster Abbey; in a few cases the original simplicity +is quite lost, and we have, as at Ripon, the mask idea run mad, inverted, +and the leaves become a graceful composition of foliage, flower, and +fruit. + +A rosette from the tomb of Bishop de La Wich, Chichester, has four animal +faces in an excellent design. + +[Illustration: ROSETTE ON TOMB OF BISHOP DE LA WICH, CHICHESTER.] + +Often masks are of the simple description known as the Notch-head; these +are of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. They are generally found +in exposed situations at some elevation, as among the series of corbels +(_corbula_ a small basket) or brackets called the corbel-table, +supporting a stone course or cornice. The likeness to the human face +caused by the shadows of the T varies in different examples. That below, +by curving back at the base, suggests the idea of a mouth. Occasionally, +as at Finedon, Northamptonshire, the notch-head has its likeness to a face +increased by the addition of ears. + +[Illustration: MASK, BUCKLE, OR NOTCH HEAD, CULHAM, YORKSHIRE.] + +Norman masks are interesting, as they explain some odd appearances in +later work. In many churches are faces scored with lines across the +cheeks, regardless of the ordinary lines of expression, in a manner +closely resembling the tattoo incisions of the New Zealand warrior. This +appearance, however, is simply the too faithful copying of crude Norman +masks, in which the lines are meant to be the semi-circles round eyes and +mouth. Moreover, the Norman heads are most often the heads of animals +grinning to shew the teeth, although their general effect is that of +grotesque human heads. Iffley west doorway furnishes the best example. +Here we have the well-known "beak head" ornament. The semicircle and upper +portion of the jambs have single heads, not two of which are exactly +alike, though all closely resemble each other. They are heads of the eagle +or gryphon order, with a forehead ornament very Assyrian in character. The +heads of the jambs are compound, being the head of a grinning beast, +probably a lion, from the mouth of which emerges a gryphon head of small +size. These are sometimes called "Cat-heads," and the gryphon head is +sometimes considered (and perhaps occasionally shewn as such) a tongue. A +fine doorway of beak-heads is at St. Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford, which +church was probably executed by the workmen who were responsible for +Iffley. + +[Illustration: BEAK HEADS, IFFLEY.] + +It is probable that the symbolism of this is the swallowing up of night by +day or _vice versa_. The outer arch of the Iffley doorway consists of +zodiacal signs, and at the south doorway are other designs elsewhere +mentioned in this volume, far removed from Christian intent. + +[Illustration: NORMAN MASK, ROCHESTER.] + +The grotesqueness of Norman work is almost entirely unconscious. The +workers were full of Byzantine ideas, and the severe and awful was their +object rather than the comic. They frequently attempted pretty detail in +their symbolic designs, but in all the forms which have come from their +chisels it is easy to see how incomplete an embodiment they gave to their +conceptions, or rather to the conceptions of their traditional school. +Norman work, beyond the Gothic, irrespective of the architectural +peculiarities, has traces of its eastern origin in the classic connection +of its designs. Adel Church, near Leeds, is peculiar in having co-mingled +with its eastern designs more than ordinarily tangible references to +ancient Keltic worship, but nearly all Norman ideographic detail concerns +itself with old-world myths. + +[Illustration: GORGONIC MASK, EWELME.] + +An excellent conception, well carried out, is in a mask which is one of a +series of late carvings alternating with the gargoyles of Ewelme. In this, +instead of leaves issuing from the mouth of the mask, there are two +dragons. If those with leaves are deities, this surely must be one of the +Furies. It is on the north side of the nave; on the exterior of the +aisle, at the same side, other sculptures form a kind of irregular +corbel-table, and special attention may be drawn to them as affording an +indication of the derivation of such ornaments from the "antefixes" or +decorated tiles occupying a nearly corresponding position in classic +architecture. + +[Illustration: FOLIATE MASK, EWELME.] + +One of those on the aisle offers a further explanation of the mark before +mentioned as being on the foreheads of some masks. In this case the +prominences of the eyebrows branch off into foliage. This appears also to +be the intention in a capital carving in Lincoln Chapter House. + +Roslyn Chapel has some very realistic heads, notably of apes or gorillas +near the south doorway, of which one is drawn (opposite). + +[Illustration: FOLIATE MASK, LINCOLN.] + +Norman work has frequently some very grotesque heads in corbel tables and +tower corners, to the odd appearance of which the decay by weather has no +doubt much contributed. Two examples from Sutton Courtney, Oxfordshire, +illustrate this weather-worn whimsicality. + +[Illustration: GORILLA, ROSLYN CHAPEL.] + +Then comes a crowd of faces which have no particular significance, being +simply the outcome of the unrestrainable fun of the carver. Some are +merely oddities, while others are full of life-like character. + +[Illustration: GARGOYLE, SUTTON COURTNEY.] + +[Illustration: WEATHER-WORN NORMAN, SUTTON COURTNEY, BERKSHIRE.] + +[Illustration: HUMOUR, YORK.] + +[Illustration: MASK WITH SAUSAGE, STRATFORD-UPON-AVON.] + +[Illustration: A JEALOUS EYE, YORK.] + +The knight with the twisted beard, from Swine, may be a portrait, and the +Gargantuan-faced dominus from St. Mary's Minster certainly is. An old +barbarian head from a croche or elbow-rest at Bakewell is rude and worn, +but yet bold and fine. + +[Illustration: A BEARD WITH A TWIST, SWINE, YORKSHIRE.] + +[Illustration: A QUIZZICAL VISAGE, BAKEWELL.] + +[Illustration: GRIMACE MAKER, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +[Illustration: FOOL'S HEADS, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +Some of these are better than the joculators and mimes' faces in which the +artist seriously set himself a humorous task, as in the three heads +(page 130) from Beverley Minster, though the latter are in some respects +more grotesque. + +[Illustration: A PORTRAIT, ST. MARY'S MINSTER. ISLE OF THANET.] + +[Illustration: A ROUGH CHARACTER, BAKEWELL.] + +Another curious instance of a grimace and posture maker, assisting his +countenance's contortions by the use of his fingers, is at Dorchester +Abbey. In this the artist has not been master of the facial anatomy, and +shows a double pair of lips, one pair in repose, the other pulled back at +the corners. + +[Illustration: GRIMACE MAKER, DORCHESTER, OXON.] + +Often a grotesque face will be found added to a beautiful design of +foliage, either as the conventional mask, as in the design in Lincoln +Chapter House, or a realistic head, as the following grim, dour visage +between graceful curves on a misericord at King's College, Cambridge. + +[Illustration: GRACE AND THE GRACELESS, KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.] + + + + +The Domestic and Popular. + + +[Illustration: THE WEAKER VESSEL, SHERBORNE.] + +Domestic and popular incidents are plentiful among the carvings, of which +they form, indeed, a distinct class; and they afford a considerable amount +of material with which might be built up, in a truly Hogarthian and +exaggerated spirit, an elaborate account of mediaeval manners in general. +In the majority of cases the incidents have a familiar, if not an +endearing suggestiveness. + +[Illustration: DOMESTIC DISCIPLINE, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +The records of mankind are not wanting in stormy incidents in which the +gentle female spirit has chafed under some presumed foolishness or +wickedness of the head of the house, and at length breaking bounds, +inflicted on him personal reminders that patience endureth but for a +season. An example of this is given above, which shews the possibility of +such a thing as far back as 1520, the date of the Beverley Minster +misericordes. While the lady is devoting her attention to the flagellation +of her unfortunate and perhaps entirely blameless spouse, a dog avails +himself of the opportunity to rifle the caldron. + +[Illustration: AN UNKIND FARE, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +The picture in the initial, taken from a carving in the choir of Sherborne +Minster, shews another domestic incident in which the lady administers +castigation. Though in itself no more than a vulgar satire, it is probable +that this carving was copied from some representation of St. Lucy, who is +sometimes shewn with a staff in her hand, and behind her the devil +prostrate. + +It is not easy to say what is the meaning of another carving in Beverley +Minster, or whether it has any connection with that just noted. The +probability is that it has not. This may be a shrewish wife being wheeled +in the tumbril to the waterside, there to undergo for the better ruling of +her tongue, a punishment the authority for which was custom older than +law. But I am inclined to think that another reading will be nearer the +truth. The vehicle is not the tumbril but a wheelbarrow, and the man +propelling it is younger than the lady, who is pulling his hair. I imagine +the man is apprentice or husband, and is not very cheerfully trundling his +companion home. A similar, but more definite misericorde is in Ripon +Cathedral. + +In this barrow, the old woman, wearing a cap with hat on the top, as yet +occasionally seen in country places, is seated in a mistress-like way. She +is not committing any violence, but apparently is offering the man (call +him the bridegroom) his choice of either a bag of money with dutiful +obedience, or a huge cudgel, which she wields with muscular power, with +dereliction. The gem of the carving is the man's face. He smiles a quiet, +amused, satirical smile, as of one who would say, "'Tis no harm to humour +these foolish old bodies, and must be done, I trow." + +[Illustration: THE CHARIOT, RIPON.] + +But the object called a bag of money is as likely to be a bottle, and the +whole subject may be something quite different. She may be going to the +doctor, or offering the man a drink; or it may be Noah wheeling his +wife into the Ark, which, it was one of the jokes in a Mystery play to +suppose she was very unwilling to enter. + +[Illustration: PILGRIMAGE IN COMFORT, CANTERBURY.] + +[Illustration: MARTINMAS. CHRISTMAS. HOLY TRINITY, HULL.] + +The block from the capital of a column in the crypt of Canterbury +Cathedral, tells us little of its history. It is given as an example of a +cheerful grace and ease not common in early work. + +The hunting of the boar is a frequent subject of the Gothic carver, being +generally considered the sport of September, though Sir Edward Coke says +the season for the boar was from Christmas to Candlemas. It is uncommon to +find the boar's head shewn treated as in the accompanying block, struck +off, and with the lemon in his mouth, ready for the table. These +quatrefoils are the only two with a special design upon them, out of +twelve on the font of Holy Trinity Church, Hull, the others having +rosettes. There is no rule in this, but there are other examples in which +small portions of fonts are picked out for significant decoration, and +possibly on the side originally intended to be turned towards the door of +the church, or the altar. + +[Illustration: HUNTSMAN AND DEER, YORK.] + +Hunting scenes frequently occur. A boss in York Minster shews a huntsman +"breaking" a deer as it hangs from a tree. + +The wild sweetness of one stringed and one wind instrument--not uncommonly +met as harp and piccolo near London "saloon bars"--was a usual duet of +the middle ages. In Stoeffler's _Calendarum Romanorum Magnum_ (of 1518) in +a series of woodcuts illustrating the months, and which are otherwise +reasonable, he gives one of these duets performed in a field as a proper +occupation of the month of April with the following highly appropriate +distich-- + + "Aprilis patule nucis sub umbra + post convivia dormio libenter." + +[Illustration: A CURIOUS DUET, CHICHESTER.] + +In this carving, however, the musicians appear to be within doors and to +be giving a set duet. To the interest of the ear they add a curious +spectacle for the eye, for they are seated in chairs which have no +fore-legs, and their balance is kept by the flageoletist taking hold of +the harp as the players sit facing, so that while leaning back they form a +counter-poise to each other. The chairs are a curious study in mediaeval +furniture. + +It is not unlikely that the sculptor in the case of the annexed block had +in his mind something similar to the saying-- + + "When a man's single he lives at his ease." + +[Illustration: BACHELOR QUARTERS, WORCESTER.] + +A man come in from, we may presume, frost and snow, has taken off his +boots, and warms his feet as, seated on his fald-stool by the fire, he +stirs the pot with lively anticipation of the meal preparing inside. He is +probably a shepherd or swine-herd; on one side is seated his dog, at the +other are hung two fat gammons of bacon. + +[Illustration] + +Shepherds and shepherding furnish frequent subjects to the carver. + +In a Coventry Corpus Christi play of 1534 one of the three shepherds +presents his gloves to the infant Saviour in these words-- + + "Have here my myttens, to pytt en thi hondis, + Other treysure have I none to present thee with." + +This carving has been called the Good Shepherd. If the artist really meant +Christ by this shepherd with a hood over his head and hat over that, with +great gloves and shoes, with a round beardless face, with his arms round +the necks of two sheep, holding their feet in his hands, it is the finest +piece of religious burlesque extant. But it is not to be supposed that the +idea even occurred to the sculptor. + +The Feast of Fools was a kind of religious farce, a "mystery" run riot. +Cedranus, a Byzantine historian, who wrote in the eleventh century, +records that it was introduced into the Greek Church A.D. 990, by +Theophylact, patriarch of Constantinople. We can partly understand that +the popular craving for the wild liberties of the Saturnalia might be met, +and perhaps modified, by a brief removal of the solemn constraint of the +Christian priest-rule. But licentiousness in church worship was no new +thing, and, long before the time of Theophylact, the Church of the West, +and probably the Greek Church also, had been rendered scandalous by the +laxity with which the church services were conducted. At the Council of +Orleans, in A.D. 533, it was found necessary to rule that no person in a +church shall sing, drink, or do anything unbecoming; at another in +Chalons, in A.D. 650, women were forbidden to sing indecent songs in +church. There is in fact every evidence, including the sculptures of our +subject, that religion was not, popularly, a thing solemn in itself. +Cedranus mentions the "diabolic dances" among the enormities practised at +the Feast of Fools, which was generally held about Christmas, though not +confined to that festival. + +In the twelfth century, the abuse increased; songs of the most indecent +and offensive character were sung in the midst of the mock services; +puddings were eaten, and dice rattled on the altar, and old shoes burnt as +incense. + +[Illustration: DANCING FOOLS, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +This observance, so evidently an expedient parody of the old-time +festivals, is traceable in England, and said to have been abolished about +the end of the fourteenth century. The carvings in Beverley Minster, here +presented, are supposed to refer to the Feast, and at any rate give us a +good idea of the mediaeval fool. There were innumerable classic dances. +The Greeks send down the names of two hundred kinds. A dance with arms was +the Pyrrhic dance, which was similar in some of its varieties to the +military dance known as the Morris. The Morris was introduced into Spain +by the Moors, and brought into England by John of Gaunt in 1332. It was, +however, little used until the reign of Henry VII. There were other +vivacious dances, called Bayle, of Moorish origin, which, as well as +various kinds of the stately Court dance, were used by the Spaniards. It +is difficult, from general sources, to ascertain the dances in vogue in +old England. A drawing in the Cotton MSS. shews a Saxon dancing a reel. +The general inference is, however, that the Morris (of the Moors or +Moriscoes) was the chief dance of the English, and perhaps it is that in +which the saltatory fools of the carving are engaged. + +[Illustration: AN ABJECT OBJECT. WINCHESTER COLLEGE CHAPEL.] + +Probably the extraordinary monstrosity shewn in the annexed block had an +actual existence. There are fairly numerous accounts of such malformities +in mediaeval times, and it was a function of mediaeval humour to make +capital out of unfortunate deformity. This poor man has distorted hands +instead of feet, and he moves about on pattens or wooden clogs strapped to +his hands and legs. There is little meaning in the side carvings. The +fool-ape, making an uncouth gesture, is perhaps to shew the character of +those who mock misfortune. The man with the scimitar may represent the +alarm of one who might suddenly come upon the sight of the abortion, and +fearing some mystery or trap, draw his blade. In a sense this is a +humourous carving--yet there is a quality for which it is much more +remarkable, and that is its element of forcible and realistic pathos. + +[Illustration: A MYTHOLOGICAL EPISODE, YORK.] + +Two reliefs from York Minster are presumably scenes from classic +mythology, from, in regard to the costumes, a Saxon point of view. One may +be supposed to be the rape of Ganymede. Oak leaves are an attribute of +Jupiter, as is also the eagle which bore Ganymede to Olympus. + +The other may be Vulcan giving Venus "a piece of his mind." + +[Illustration: MARITAL VIOLENCE, YORK.] + +If these readings are correct these two carvings are among the very few +instances of representations of circumstantial detail of the Olympian +mythology. Most of the church references to mythology have more connection +with the earlier symbolic meanings than with the later narrative histories +into which the cults degenerated. Other examples are in the references to +Hercules in the sixteenth century stalls of Henry VII.'s Chapel, +Westminster. + +There is in mediaeval art several examples remaining of what may be called +topsy-turveyism, in which two figures mutually lent their parts to each +other in such a way that four figures may be found. + +An excellent example of this is at New College, Oxford, in which, though +the four figures are so apparent when once seen, the two (taken as upper +and lower), are in a natural and ingenious acrobatic position. The +grotesque head at the base is put in to balance the composition, and +perhaps to prevent the trick being discerned at once. + +[Illustration: A CONTINUOUS GROUP OF FOUR FIGURES, OXFORD.] + +The grace of the free if somewhat meagre Corinthian acanthus as used in +Early English work is often rendered more marked by the introduction of +an extraneous subject. Thus at Wells the foliate design is relieved by the +ungainly figure of a melancholy individual, who, before retiring to rest, +pursues an examination into his pedal callosities, or extracts the +poignant thorn. Or can it be that we have here a reminder of the Egyptian +monarch, Somaraja, mentioned in the Hindoo accounts of the Egyptian +mythology, who was dissolute and outcast, and who, to shew his repentance +and patience, stood twelve days upon one leg? + +[Illustration: A PILGRIM'S PAINS, WELLS.] + +This discursive chapter would not be complete without a reference to the +alleged impropriety of church grotesques. Though it is not to be denied +that in the wide range of subjects a considerable number of indecent +subjects have crept in, yet their proportion is small. Examination would +lead to the belief that upon the whole the art of the churches is much +purer than the literature or the popular taste of the respective periods. +Though there may be sometimes met examples of grossness of humour and a +frank want of reserve, such as in the annexed drawing from the chapel of +All Souls, Oxford, yet these are rarely of the most gross or least +reserved character. + +[Illustration: A POSTURIST, ALL SOULS, OXFORD.] + +It may be well to note, in this connection that the literature from which +we draw the bulk of our ideas as to mediaeval life, are foreign, and that, +although English manners would not be remotely different in essentials, +yet there would be as many absolute differences as there are yet remaining +to our eyes in architecture and in art generally. + + + + +The Pig and other Animal Musicians. + + +[Illustration: APE AS PIPER, BEVERLEY.] + +One might count in the churches animal musicians, perhaps, by thousands, +and the reason of their presence is doubtless the same as that which +explains the frequency of the serious carvings of musicians which adorn +the arches of nave and choir throughout the country--namely the prevalent +use of various kinds of instrumental music in the service of the church. +The animal musicians are the burlesques of the human, and the fact that +the pig is the most frequent performer may perhaps suggest that the +ability of the musician had overwhelmed the consideration of other +qualities which might be expected, but were not found, in the +harmony-producing choristers. Clever as musicians, they may have become +merely functionaries as regards interest in the church, as we see to-day +in the case of our bell-ringers, who for the most part issue from the +churches as worshippers enter them. + +It may also be that the frequency of suilline musicians may have derisive +reference to the ancient veneration in which the pig was held in the +mythologies. It was a symbol of the sun, and, derivatively, of fecundity. +Perhaps the strongest trace of this is in Scandinavian mythology. The +northern races sacrificed a boar to Freyr, the patron deity of Sweden and +of Iceland, the god of fertility; he was fabled to ride upon a boar named +Gullinbrusti, or Golden Bristle. Freyr's festival was at Yule-tide. Yule +is _jul_ or _heol_, the sun, and Gehul is the Saxon "Sunfeast." The gods +of Scandinavia were said to nightly feast upon the great boar Saehrimnir, +which eaten up, was every morning found whole again. This seems somewhat +akin to the Hindoo story of Crorasura, a demon with the face of a boar, +who continually read the Vedas and was so devout that Vishnu (the sun god) +gave him a boon. He asked that no creature existing in the three worlds +might have power to slay him, which was granted. + +[Illustration: SOW AND FIDDLE, WINCHESTER.] + +The special sacrifice of the pig was not peculiar to Scandinavia, for the +Druids and the Greeks also offered up a boar at the winter solstice. The +sacrifice of a pig was a constant preliminary of the Athenian assemblies. +As a corn destroyer the same animal was sacrificed to Ceres. + +The above explains the recurrence of the pig rather than the pig musician. +A pregnant sow was, however, yearly sacrificed to Mercury, the inventor of +the harp, and a sow playing the harp is among the rich set of choir +carvings in Beverley Minster. + +The chase of the boar was the sport of September, the ordinary killing +season, the swine being then in condition after their autumn feed of +_bucon_, or beechmast (hence _bacon_), "His Martinmas has come" passed +into a proverb. The prevalence of the pig as a food animal had undoubtedly +its share in the frequency of art reference. + +[Illustration: SOW AS HARPIST, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +In the Christian adoption of pagan attributes, the pig was apportioned to +St. Anthony, it is said, variously, because he had been a swine-herd, or +lived in woods. The smallest or weakling pig in a litter, called in the +north "piggy-widdy" (small white pig), and in the south midlands the +"dillin" (perhaps equivalent to _delayed_), and is elsewhere styled the +Anthony pig, as specially needing the protection of his patron. + +[Illustration: MUSIC AT DINNER, WINCHESTER.] + +A common representation of the pig musician is a sow who plays to her +brood. At Winchester, the feast of the little ones is enlivened by the +strains of the double flute. At Durham Castle, in a carving formerly in +Aucland Castle Chapel, the sow plays the bagpipes while the young pigs +dance. At Ripon, a vigorous carving has the same subject, and another at +Beverley, in which a realistic trough forms the foreground. + +[Illustration: SOW AND BAGPIPES, DURHAM CASTLE.] + +[Illustration: PIGS AND PIPES, RIPON.] + +The "Pig and Whistle" forms an old tavern sign. Dr. Brewer explains this +as the pot, bowl, or cup (the _pig_), and the wassail it contained. The +earthenware vessel used to warm the feet in bed is in Scotland yet called +"the pig," and to southern strangers the use of the word has caused a +temporary embarrassment. If this explanation is not coincident with some +other not at present to hand, the carving of the pig and whistle in the +sixteenth century carving in Henry VII.'s chapel shows that the corruption +of the "pig and wassail" was accepted in ignorance as far back as that +period. + +[Illustration: PIG AND WHISTLE, WESTMINSTER.] + +But too much stress is not to be laid upon the pig as a musician, for at +Westminster the bear plays the bagpipes, just as at Winchester the ape +performs on the harp. In the Beverley Minster choir an ape converts a cat +into an almost automatic instrument by biting its tail. + +[Illustration: APE AS HARPIST, WESTMINSTER.] + + + + +Compound Forms. + + +[Illustration: ATHOR, CHICHESTER.] + +In nearly every church compound forms are met which in a high degree merit +the designation of grotesque. Few religions have been without these +symbolic representations of complex characters. If the Egyptian had its +cat-headed and hawk-headed men, the Assyrian its human-headed bull, the +Mexican its serpent-armed tiger-men, so also the Scandinavian mythology +had its horse-headed and vulture-headed giants, and its human-headed +eagle. Horace, who doubtless knew the figurative meaning of what he +satirizes, viewed the representations of such compounds in his days, and +asks-- + + "If in a picture you should see + A handsome woman with a fishes tail, + Or a man's head upon a horse's neck, + Or limbs of beasts of the most diff'rent kind, + Cover'd with feathers of all sorts of birds + Would you not laugh?"[6] + +It is, perhaps, a little remote from our subject to inquire whether the +poet or the priest came the first in bringing about these archaic +combinations; yet a word or two may be devoted to suggesting the inquiry. +It is probable that the religious ideas and artistic forms met in ancient +worships first solely existed in poetic expressions of the qualities of +the sun--of the other members of the solar system--of the gods. Thus the +swiftness of the sun in his course and in his light induced the mention of +wings. Hence the wings of an eagle added to a circular form arose as the +symbol in one place; in another arose the God Mercury; while Jove the +great sun-god is shewn accompanied by an eagle. The fertility of the earth +became as to corn Ceres, as to vines Bacchus, as to flowers Flora, and so +forth. The human personification, in cases where a combination of +qualities or functions was sought to be indicated, resulted in more or +less abstruse literary fables; on the other hand the artist or symbol +seeker found it easier to select a lower plane of thought for his +embodiments. Thus, while swiftness suggested the eagle, strength was +figured by the lion: so when a symbol of swiftness and strength was +required arose the compound eagle-lion, the gryphon. + +The gryphon, however, though constantly met in Gothic, is rarely grotesque +in itself. Another form which also, to a certain extent, is incorruptible, +is that of the sphinx. This is a figure symbolic of the sun from the +Egyptian point of view, in which the Nile was all-important. Nilus, or +Ammon, the Egyptian Jove, was the sun-god, an equivalent to Osiris, and +the sphinx was similar in estimation, being, it is reasonably conjectured, +a compound of Leo and Virgo, at whose conjunction the Nile has yearly +risen. According to Dr. Birch, the sphinx is to be read as being the +symbol of Harmachis or "the sun on the horizon." It may be that the Child +rising from the Shell is sunrise over the sea, and the Sphinx sunrise over +the land. It has been conjectured that the cherubim of the tabernacle were +sphinx-form. The cherubim on the Mosaic Ark are among the subjects of the +earliest mention of composite symbols. Ezekiel says they were composed of +parts of the figures of a man (wisdom, intellect), a lion (dominion), a +bull (strength), and an eagle (sharp-sightedness, swiftness.) The Persians +and Hindoos had similar figures. A man with buffalo horns is painted in +the Synhedria of the American Indians in conjunction with that of a +panther or puma-like beast, and these are supposed to be a contraction of +the cherubimical figures of the man, the bull, and the lion; these, +renewed yearly, are near the carved figures of eagles common in the Indian +sun-worship. + +[Illustration: SPHINX AND BUCKLER, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +[Illustration: SPHINX FIGURE, DORCHESTER, OXON.] + +A carving in the arm-rest of one of the stalls of Beverley Minster, +suggested in the block on page 159, shews a sphinx with a shield; there +are in the same church several fine examples seated in the orthodox +manner. + +On a capital in the sedilia of Dorchester Abbey is a curious compound +which may be classed as a sphinx. One of the hands (or paws) is held over +the eyes of a dog, which suggests the manner in which animals were +anciently sacrificed. Another sphinx in the same sedilia is of the winged +variety. It has the head cowled; many of the mediaeval combinatory forms +are mantled. + +In Worcester Cathedral is a compound of man, ox, and lion, very different +from the sphinx or cherubim shapes, being a grotesque deprived of all the +original poetry of the conception. + +[Illustration: COWLED SPHINX, DORCHESTER, OXON.] + +Virgil describes Scylla (the Punic _Scol_, destruction) as a beautiful +figure upwards, half her body being a beautiful virgin; downwards, a +horrible fish with a wolf's belly (utero). Homer similarly. + +The mermaid is a frequent subject, but more monotonous in its form and +action than any other creature, and is generally found executed with a +respectful simplicity that scarcely ever savours of grotesqueness. The +mermaid, "the sea wolf of the abyss," and the "mighty sea-woman" of +Boewulf, has an early origin as a deity of fascinating but malignant +tendencies. + +The centaur, perhaps, ranks next to the sphinx in artistic merit. To the +early Christians the centaur was merely a symbol of unbridled passions, +and all mediaeval reference classes it as evil. Virgil mentions it as being +met in numbers near the gates of Hades, and the Parthenon sculptures shew +it as the enemy of men. + +[Illustration: GROTESQUE CHERUBIM, WORCESTER.] + +The story of the encyclopedias regarding centaurs is that they were +Thessalonian horsemen, whom the Greeks, ignorant of horsemanship, took to +be half-men, half-animals. They were called, it is said, centaurs, from +their skill in killing the wild bulls of the Pelion mountains, and, later, +hippo-centaurs. This explanation may, in the presence of other +combinatory forms, be considered doubtful, as it is more probable that +this, like those, arose out of a poetic appreciation of the qualities +underlying beauty of form, that is, out of an intelligent symbolism. The +horse, where known, was always a favourite animal among men. Innumerable +coinages attest this fact. Early Corinthian coins have the figure of +Pegasus. In most the horse is shewn alone. In the next proportion he is +attached to a chariot. In few is he shewn being ridden, as it is his +qualities that were intended to be expressed, and not those of the being +who has subjected him. One of the old Greek gold staters has a man driving +a chariot in which the horse has a human head; while the man is urging the +horse with the sacred three-branched rod, each branch of which terminates +in a trefoil. The centaur has a yet unallotted place in the symbolism of +the sun-myth. Classic mythology says Chiron the centaur was the teacher of +Apollo in music, medicine, and hunting, and centaurs are mostly sagittarii +or archers, whose arrows, like those of Apollo, are the sunbeams. The +centaur met in Gothic ornament is the Zodiacal Sagittarius, and true to +this original derivation, the centaur is generally found with his bow and +arrow. + +It is said that the Irish saints, Ciaran and Nessan, are the same with the +centaurs Chiron and Nessus. + +[Illustration: MATERNAL CARES OF THE CENTAUR, IFFLEY.] + +A capital of the south doorway, Iffley, has a unique composition of +centaurs. A female centaur, armed with bow (broken) and arrow, is suckling +a child centaur after the human manner. The equine portions of the figures +are in exceptionally good drawing, though the tremendous elongation of +the human trunks, and the ill-rendered position, render the group very +grotesque. Both the mother and child wear the classic cestus or girdle. +The bow carried by the mother is held apparently in readiness in the left +hand, while it is probable that the right breast was meant to be shown +removed, as was stated of the Amazons. The mother looks off, and there is +an air of alertness about the two, which is explained by the sculpture on +the return of the capital, where the father-centaur is seen slaying a +wolf, lion, or other beast. + +[Illustration: CENTAUR AS DRAGON SLAYER, EXETER.] + +On a centaur at Exeter of the thirteenth century, the mythical idea is +somewhat retained; the centaur has shot an arrow into the throat of a +dragon, which is part of the ornament. This is a very rude but suggestive +carving. Is the centaur but a symbol of Apollo himself? + +The next block (at Ely) is also of the centaur order, though not +suggestive of aggression. The figure is female, and she is playing the +zither. This is of the fourteenth century. + +[Illustration: MUSICAL CENTAUR, ELY.] + +[Illustration: HARPY, WINCHESTER.] + +Another classic conception which has been perpetuated in Gothic is the +harpy, though in most cases without any apparent recognition of the harpy +character. Exceptions are such instances as that of the harpy drawn in the +chapter "Satires without Satan." In one at Winchester a fine mediaeval +effect is produced by putting a hood on the human head. + +[Illustration: IBIS-HEADED FIGURE FROM AN UNKNOWN CHURCH.] + +Another curious bird combination is in a carving in the Architectural +Museum, Tufton Street, London, from an unknown church. This is a +semi-human figure, whose upper part is skilfully draped. The head, bent +towards the ground, is that of a bird of the ibis species, and it is +probable that we have here a relic of the Egyptian Mercury Thoth, who was +incarnated as an ibis. Thoth is called the God of the Heart (the +conscience), and the ibis was said to be sacred to him because when +sleeping it assumes the shape of a heart. + +[Illustration: THE SWAN SISTER, ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL, WINDSOR.] + +An unusual compound is that of a swan with the agreeable head of a young +woman, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. This may be one of the +swan-sisters in the old story of the "Knight of the Swan." + +The initial letter of this section is a fine grotesque rendering of the +Egyptian goddess Athor, Athyr, or Het-her (meaning the dwelling of God.) +She was the daughter of the sun, and bore in images the sun's disc. +Probably through a lapse into ignorance on the part of the +priest-painters, she became of less consideration, and the signification +even of her image was forgotten. She had always had as one of her +representations, a bird with a human head horned and bearing the disc; but +the disc began to be shewn as a tambourine, and she herself was styled +"the mistress of dance and jest." As in the cosmogony of one of the +Egyptian Trinities she was the Third Person, as Supreme Love, the Greeks +held her to be the same as Aphrodite. The name of the sun-disc was Aten, +and its worship was kindred to that of Ra, the mid-day sun. The Hebrew +Adonai and the Syriac Adonis have been considered to be derived from this +word Aten. + +Several examples of bird-compounds are in the Exeter series of +misericordes of the thirteenth century. They are renderings in wood of the +older Anglo-Saxon style of design, and are ludicrously grotesque. + +It is scarcely to be considered that the compound figures were influenced +by the prevalence of mumming in the periods of the various carvings. In +this, as in many other respects, the traditions of the carvers' art +protected it from being coloured by the aspect of the times, except in a +limited degree, shewn in distinctly isolated examples. + +[Illustration: BIRD-COMPOUND, EXETER.] + + + + +Non-descripts. + + +[Illustration: A BEARDED BIPED, ST. KATHERINE'S.] + +There is a large number of bizarre works which defy natural +classification, and though in many cases they are a branch of the compound +order of figures, yet they are frequently well defined as non-descripts. +These, though in one respect the most grotesque of the grotesques, do not +claim lengthy description. Where they are not traceable compounds, they +are often apparently the creatures of fancy, without meaning and without +history. It may be, however, that could we trace it, we should find for +each a pedigree as interesting, if not as old, as that of any of the +sun-myths. Among the absurd figures which scarcely call for explanation +are such as that shown in the initial, from the Hospital and Collegiate +Church of St. Katherine by the Tower (now removed to a substituted +hospital in Regent's Park). + +[Illustration: A CLOAKED SIN, TUFTON STREET.] + +In the Architectural Museum, Tufton Street, London, is a carving from an +unknown church, in which appear two figures which were not an uncommon +subject for artists of the odd. These are human heads, to which are +attached legs without intermediary bodies, and with tails depending from +the back of the heads. + +[Illustration: THE WORM OF CONSCIENCE. (_From an unknown Church._)] + +In the "Pilgremage of the Sowle," printed by Caxton in 1483, translated +from a French manuscript of 1435 or earlier, is a description of a man's +conscience, which, there is little doubt, furnished the idealic material +for these carvings. A "sowle" being "snarlyed in the trappe" of Satan, is +being, by a travesty on the forms of a court of law, claimed by both the +"horrible Sathanas" and its own Warden or Guardian Angel. The Devil calls +for his chief witness by the name of Synderesys, but the witness calls +himself the Worm of Conscience. The following is the soul's +description:--"Then came forth by me an old one, that long time had hid +himself nigh me, which before that time I had not perceived. He was +wonderfully hideous and of cruel countenance; and he began to grin, and +shewed me his jaws and gums, for teeth he had none, they all being broken +and worn away. He had no body, but under his head he had only a tail, +which seemed the tail of a worm of exceeding length and greatness." This +strange accuser tells the Soul that he had often warned it, and so often +bitten it that all his teeth were wasted and broken, his function being +"to bite and wounde them that wrong themselves."[7] + +The above examples are scarcely unique. In Ripon Cathedral, on a +misericorde of 1489, representing the bearing of the grapes of Eschol on a +staff, are two somewhat similar figures, likewise mere "nobodies," though +without tails. These are a covert allusion to the wonderful stories of the +spies, which, it is thus hinted, are akin to the travellers' tales of +mediaeval times, as well as a pun on the report that they had seen nobody. + +[Illustration: NOBODIES, RIPON.] + +It is evident that the idea of men without bodies came from the East, and +also that it had credence as an actual fact. In the _Cosmographiae +Universalis_, printed in 1550, they are alluded to in the following +terms:--"Sunt qui cervicibus carent et in humeris habet oculos; De India +ultra Gangem fluvium sita." + +[Illustration: NON-DESCRIPT, CHRIST CHURCH, HANTS.] + +There are many carvings which are more or less of the same character, and +probably intended to embody the idea of conscience or sins. + +The two rather indecorous figures shewn in the following block from Great +Malvern are varieties doubtless typifying sins. + +[Illustration: SINS IN SYMBOL, GREAT MALVERN.] + + + + +Rebuses. + + +[Illustration: BOLT-TON.] + +[Illustration: WILLIAM WHITE, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +Rebuses are often met among Gothic sculptures, but not in such frequency, +or with an amount of humour to claim any great attention here. They are +almost entirely, as in the case of the canting heraldry of seals, of late +date, being mostly of the 15th and 16th centuries. They are often met as +the punning memorial of the name of a founder, builder, or architect, as +the bolt-ton of Bishop Bolton in St. Bartholomew's, Smithfield, the +many-times-repeated cock of Bishop Alcock in Henry VII's. Chapel, the eye +and the slip of a tree, and the man slipping from a tree, for Bishop +Islip, Westminster; and others well known. In the series of misericordes +in Beverley Minster, there are _arma palantes_ of the dignitaries of the +Church in 1520. William White, the Chancellor, has no less than seven +different renderings of the pun upon his name, all being representations +of weights, apparently of four-stone ponderosity. Thomas Donnington, the +Precentor, whose name would doubtless often be written Do'ington, has a +doe upon a ton or barrel. John Sperke, the Clerk of the Fabric, has a dog +with a bone, and a vigilant cock; this, however, is not a name-rebus so +much as an allusion to the exigencies of his office. The Church of St. +Nicholas, Lynn, had misericordes (some of which are now in the +Architectural Museum) which have several monograms and rebuses. +Unfortunately, they are somewhat involved, and there is at present no key +by which to read them. The least doubtful is that given below. + +[Illustration: WEIGHT, REBUS FOR WHITE, BEVERLEY MINSTER.] + +It has a "ton" rebus which will admit, however, of perhaps three different +renderings. It is most likely Thorn-ton, less so Bar-ton, and still less +Hop-ton, all Lincolnshire names. + +[Illustration: MERCHANT MARK, COGNIZANCE AND REBUS, ST. NICHOLAS'S, +LYNN.] + + + + +Trinities. + + +[Illustration: LARVA-LIKE DRAGON, ST. PAUL'S, BEDFORD.] + +Repeatedly has the statement been made that the various mythologies are +only so many corruptions of the Mosaic system. Manifestly if this could be +admitted there would be little interest in enquiring further into their +details. But there are three arguments against the statement, any one of +which is effective. Although it is perhaps totally unnecessary to +contradict that which can be accepted by the unreflective only, it is +sufficiently near the purpose of this volume to slightly touch upon the +matter, as pointing strong distinctions among ancient worships. + +First, there is the simple fact recorded in the Mosaic account itself, +that there existed at that time, and had done previously, various +religious systems, the rooting out of which was an important function of +the liberated Hebrews. The only reply to this is that, by a slight shift +of ground, the mythologies were corruptions of the patriarchal religion, +not the Mosaic system. Yet paganism surrounded the patriarchs. + +The second point is that most of the mythologies had crystallized into +taking the sun as the main symbol of worship, and into taking the +equinoxes and other points of the constellation path as other symbols and +reminders of periodic worship; whereas in the Mosaic system the whole +structure of the solar year is ignored, all the calculations being lunar. +If it be objected that Numbers ix. 6-13, and II. Chronicles xxx. 2, refer +indirectly to an intercalary month, that, if admitted, could only for +expediency's sake, and has no bearing upon the general silence as to the +solar periods. This second point is an important testimony to what may be +termed Mosaic originality. + +The third point is that in most of the mythologies there is the distinct +mention of a Trinity; in the Mosaic system, the system of the Old +Testament, none. With the question as to whether the New Testament +supports the notion of a Trinity, we need not concern ourselves here; it +is enough that it has been adopted as an item of the Christian belief. + +The mythological Trinities are vague and, of course, difficult or +impossible to understand. Most of them appear to be attempts of great +minds of archaic times to reconcile the manifest contradictions ever +observable in the universe. This is done in various ways. Some omit one +consideration, some another; but they generally agree that to have a +three-fold character in one deity is necessary in explaining the +phenomenon of existence. Some of the Trinities may be recited. + +PERSIAN. + + OROMASDES, Goodness, the deviser of Creation. + + MITHRAS, Eternal Intellect, the architect and ruler of the world, + literally "the Friend." + + ARIMANES, the mundane soul (Psyche). + +GRECIAN. + + ZEUS. + + PALLAS. + + HERA. + +ROMAN. + + JUPITER, Power. + + MINERVA, Wisdom, Eternal Intellect. + + JUNO, Love. + +SCANDINAVIAN. + + ODIN, Giver of Life. + + HAENIR, Giver of motion and sense. + + LODUR, Giver of speech and the senses. + +AMERICAN INDIAN. + + OTKON. + + MESSOU. + + ATAHUATA. + +EGYPTIAN. + + CNEPH, the Creator, Goodness. + + PTA (Opas), the active principle of Creation (= Vulcan). + + EICTON. + +The Egyptians had other Trinities than the above, each chief city having +its own form; in these, however, the third personality appears to be +supposed to proceed from the other two, which scarcely seems to have been +intended in the instances already given. Some of the city Trinities were +as follow:-- + +THEBES. + + AMUN-RA (= Jupiter), (RA = the Mid-day Sun.) + + MANT or MENTU (= "the mother," Juno.) + + CHONSO (= Hercules.) + +PHILAE & ABYDOS. + + OSIRIS (= Pluto). + + ISIS (= Prosperine). + + HORUS, the Saviour, the Shepherd (the Rising Sun). + +ABOO-SIMBEL. + + PTA or PHTHAH. + + AMUM-RA. + + ATHOR, Love (the wife of HORUS). + +So that it is no coincidence that both Hercules and Horus are met in +Gothic carvings as deliverers from dragons. + +ELEPHANTINE. + + KHUM or CHNOUMIS. + + ANUKA. + + HAK. + +MEMPHIS. + + PTAH. + + MERENPHTAH. + + NEFER-ATUM. + +HELIOPOLIS. + + TUM (Setting Sun.) + + NEBHETP. + + HORUS. + +Another Egyptian triad, styled "Trimorphous God!" was:-- + + BAIT. + + ATHOR. + + AKORI. + +Another:-- + + TELEPHORUS. + + ESCULAPIUS. + + SALUS. + +VEDIC HINDOO. + + AGNI, Fire, governing the Earth. + + INDRA, The Firmament, governing Space or Mid Air. + + SURYA, The Sun, governing the Heavens. + +BRAHMINIC HINDOO. + + BRAHMA, the Creator. + + VISHNU, the Preserver. + + SIVA, the Destroyer (the Transformer) (= Fire). + +The Platonic and other philosophic Trinities need not detain us; it has +been asserted that by their means the doctrine of the pagan Trinity was +grafted on to Christianity. + +Right down through the ages the number three has always been regarded as +of mystic force. Wherever perfection or efficiency was sought its means +were tripled; thus Jove's thunderbolt had three forks of lightning, +Neptune's lance was a trident, and Pluto's dog had three heads. The +Graces, the Fates, and the Furies were each three. The trefoil was held +sacred by the Greeks as well as other triad forms. In the East three was +almost equally regarded. Three stars are frequently met upon Asiatic +seals. The Scarabaeus was esteemed as having thirty joints. + +Mediaeval thought, in accepting the idea of the Christian Trinity, lavishly +threw its symbolism everywhere; writers and symbolists, architects and +heralds, multiplied ideas of three-fold qualities. + +Heraldry is permeated with three-fold repetitions, a proportion of at +least one-third of the generality of heraldic coats having a trinity of +one sort or another. In all probability the stars and bars of America rose +from the coat-armour of an English family in which the stars were three, +the bars three. + +St. Nicholas had as his attributes three purses, three bulls of gold, +three children. + +Sacred marks were three dots, sometimes alone, sometimes in a triangle, +sometimes in a double triangle; three balls attached, making a trefoil; +three bones in a triangle crossing at the corners; a fleur-de-lys in +various designs of three conjoined; three lines crossed by three lines; +and many other forms. + +God, the symbolists said, was symbolized by a hexagon, whose sides were +Glory, Power, Majesty, Wisdom, Blessing, and Honor. The three steps to +heaven were Oratio, Amor, Imitatio. The three steps to the altar, the +three spires of the cathedral, the three lancets of an Early English +window, were all supposed to refer to the Trinity. + +Having seen that the idea of the Trinity is a part of most of the ancient +religious systems, it remains to point to one or two instances where, in +common with other ideas from that source, the Trinity has a place among +church grotesques. + +There is a triune head in St. Mary's Church, Faversham, Kent, which was +doubtless executed as indicative of the Trinity. The _Beehive of the +Romishe Church_, in 1579, says: "They in their churches and Masse Bookes +doe paint the Trinitie with three faces; for our mother the holie Church +did learn that at Rome, where they were wont to paint or carve Janus with +two faces." In the Salisbury Missal of 1534 is a woodcut of the Trinity +triangle surmounted by a three-faced head similar to the above. Hone +reproduces it in his _Ancient Mysteries Described_, and asks, "May not the +triune head have been originally suggested by the three-headed Saxon deity +named "Trigla"?" The Faversham tria, it will be noticed, has the curled +and formal beards of the Greek mask. + +[Illustration: A TRINITY, ST. MARY'S, FAVERSHAM.] + +Another instance of a three-fold head similar to the Faversham carving is +at Cartmel. + +A still more remarkable form of the same thing occurs as a rosette on the +tomb of Bishop de la Wich, in Chichester Cathedral, in which the trinity +of faces is doubled and placed in a circle in an exceedingly ingenious and +symmetrical manner. This has oak leaves issuing from the mouths, which we +have seen as a frequent adjunct of the classic mask as indicating Jupiter. + +[Illustration: DOUBLE TRINITY OF FOLIATE MASKS, CHICHESTER.] + +In carvings three will often be found to be a favourite number without a +direct reference to the Trinity. The form of the misericorde is almost +invariably a three-part design, and, being purely arbitrary, its universal +adoption is one of the evidences of the organization of the craft gild. + +As with the misericorde, so with its subjects. At Exeter we have seen +(page 4) the tail of the harpy made into a trefoil ornament, while she +grasps a trefoil-headed rod (just as among Assyrian carvings we should +have met a figure bearing the sacred three-headed poppy). At Gayton (page +87) we have the three-toothed flesh-hook; at Maidstone is another. +Chichester Cathedral and Chichester Hospital have each three groups. +Beverley Minster has three fish interlaced, and three hares running round +inside a circle. In Worcester Cathedral there are three misericordes, in +each of which there are three figures, in which groups the number is +evidently intentional. Three till the ground, three reap corn with +sickles, three mow with scythes. + +[Illustration: TRINITY OF MOWERS, WORCESTER.] + +From them as being unusual in treatment, even in this stiff Flemish set, +is selected the trinity of mowers. Groups of three in mowing scenes is a +frequent number. Doubtless this carving is indicative of July, that being +the "Hey-Monath" of early times. One of the side supporters or pendant +carvings of this is a hare riding upon the back of a leoparded lion, +perhaps some reference to Leo, the sign governing July. + +The three mowers do not make a pleasing carving, owing to the repetition +and want of curve. + +Other instances of triplication in Gothic design might be given, +particularly in the choice of floral forms in which nature has set the +pattern. This section, however, is chiefly important as a convenient means +of incorporating a record of something further of the fundamental beliefs +of the world's youth, connected with and extending the question of the +remote origin of the ideas at the root of so many grotesques in church +art. + + + + +The Fox in Church Art. + + +[Illustration: PREACHING FOX, CHRISTCHURCH, HAMPSHIRE.] + +The Fox, apostrophized as follows: + + "O gentle one among the beasts of prey + O eloquent and comely-faced animal!" + +as an important subject in mediaeval art, has two distinct places. + +There is a general impression that there was a great popular literary +composition, running through many editions and through many centuries, +having its own direct artistic illustration, and a wide indirect +illustration which, later, by its ability to stand alone, had broken away +from close connection with the epic, yet possessed a derivative identity +with it. + +Closer examination, however, proves that there is indeed the Fox in its +particular literature with its avowed illustrations, but also that there +is the Fox in mediaeval art, illustrative of ideas partly found in +literature, but illustrative of no particular work, and yet awaiting a +key. Each is a separate and distinct thing. + +Among the grotesques of our churches there are some references to the +literary "Reynard the Fox," but they are few and far between; while +numerous most likely and prominent incidents of Reynard's career, as +narrated in the poem, have no place among the carvings. + +The subjects of the carvings are mostly so many variations of the idea of +the Fox turned ecclesiastic and preying upon his care and congregation; +and in this he is assisted by the ape, who also takes sides with him in +carvings of other proceedings; but in none of these scenes is there +evidence of reference to the epic. A great point of difference, too, lies +in the conclusion of the epic, and the conclusion of Reynard's life as +shewn in the carvings. In the epic, the King makes Reynard the Lord +Chancellor and favourite. + +The end of the Fox of church art, however, is far different; several +sculptures agree in shewing him hanged by a body of geese. + +In the epic, Reynard's victims are many. The deaths of the Hare and the +Ram afford good circumstantial pictures, yet in the carvings there is +neither of these; and it is scarcely Reynard who plots, and sins, and +conceals, but a more vulgar fox who concerns himself, chiefly about geese, +in an open, verminous way, while many of the sculptures are little more +than natural history illustrations, in which we see _vulpes_, but not the +Fox. + +To enable, however, a fair comparison to be made between literature and +art in this byway, it will be as well to glance at the history of the +poem, and lay down a brief analysis of its episodes; and, next, to present +sketches of some typical examples from the carvings. + +Much of ancient satire owes its origin to that description of fable which +bestows the attributes and capacities of the human race upon the lower +animals, which are made to reason and to speak. Their mental processes and +their actions are entirely human, although their respective animal +characteristics are often used to accentuate their human character. In +every animal Edward Carpenter sees varying sparks of the actual mental +life we call human, in, it may be added, arrested or perverted +development, in which, in each instance, one characteristic has +immeasurably prevailed. For the animal qualities, whether human or not in +kind, man has ever had a sympathetic recognition, which has made both +symbol and fable easily acceptable. Perhaps symbolism, which for so many +ages has taken the various animals as figures to intelligibly express +abstract qualities, gave rise to fable. If so, fable may be considered the +grotesque of symbolism. The same ideas--of certain qualities--are taken +from their original serious import, and used to amuse, and, while amusing, +to strike. + +On the other hand, Grimm asserts that animal-fable arose in the +Netherlands, North France, and West Germany, extending neither to the +Romance countries, nor to the Keltic; whereas we find animal symbolism +everywhere. Grimm's statement may be taken to speak, perhaps, of a certain +class of fable, and the countries he names are certainly where we should +expect to find the free-est handling of superstitions. His arguments are +based on the Germanic form of the names given to the beasts, but his +localities seem to follow the course of the editions. Perhaps special +causes, and not the influence of race, decided the localities. The +earliest trace of a connected animal-fable is of that which is also the +most wide-spread and popular--the history of the Fox. + +This early production is a poem, called _Isengrinus_, in Latin hexameters, +by a cleric of South Flanders, whose name has not survived. It was written +in the first half of the twelfth century, and first printed, it is said, +so late as 1834. + +In this, the narrative is briefly as follows:--The Lion is sick, and calls +a court to choose his successor. Reynard is the only animal that does not +appear. The Wolf, Isengrinus, to ruin Reynard's adherents, the Goat and +the Ram, prescribes as a remedy for the Lion's disorder a medicine of Goat +and Ram livers. They defend the absent Reynard, and pronounce him a great +doctor, and, to save their livers, drive the Wolf by force from before the +throne. Reynard is summoned. He comes with herbs, which, he says, will +only be efficacious if the patient is wrapped in the skin of a wolf four +years old. The Wolf is skinned, the Lion is cured, and Fox made +Chancellor. + +In this story is neatly dovetailed another, narrating how the Wolf had +been prevented from devouring a party of weak pilgrim animals by the +judicious display of a wolf's head. This head was cut off a wolf found +hanging in a tree, and, at Reynard's instigation, the party, on the +strength of possessing it, led the Wolf to believe them to be a company of +professional wolf-slayers. + +After this poem followed another at the end of the same century with +numerous additions and alterations, by a monk of Ghent. Next came a high +German poem, also of the twelfth century, expanded, but without great +addition. After this came the French version, Roman de Renart, which, with +supplementary compositions, enlarged the matter to no less than 41,748 +verses. There is another French version, called Renart le Contrefet, of +nearly the same horrible length. + +A Flemish version, written in the middle of the thirteenth century, and +continued in the fourteenth, became the great father of editions. + +All these were in verse, but on the invention of printing the Flemish form +was re-cast into prose, and printed at Gouda in 1479, and at Delft in +1485; abridged and mutilated it was often re-printed in Holland. + +Caxton printed a translation in 1481, and another a few years later. The +English quarto, like the Dutch, also gave rise in time to a call for a +cheap abridgment, and it appeared in 1639, as "The Most delectable history +of Reynard the Fox." + +Meanwhile a Low Saxon form had appeared, "Reinche Bos," first printed at +Lubeck in 1498, and next at Rostock in 1517, a translation, with +alterations, from the Flemish publication. Various other editions in +German followed, with cuts by Amman. + +In all these and their successors the incidents were varied. Having seen +that, within at least certain limits, the story must have been exceedingly +well-known and popular, we will run through the incidents narrated in the +most popular of the German Reynard poems, chiefly taken from Goethe's +rendering. + +Nouvel, the Lion, calls a parliament, and the Fox does not appear, and is +accused of various crimes. The Wolf accuses him of sullying the honour of +his wife, and blinding his three children. A little Dog accuses him of +stealing a pudding end (this the Cat denies, stating that the pudding was +one of her own stealing). The Leopard accuses him of murder, having only +the day before rescued the Hare from his clutch as he was throttling him, +under pretence of severity in teaching the Creed. + +The Badger, Grimbart, now comes forward in defence. + + "An ancient proverb says, quoth he, + Justice in an enemy + Is seldom to be found." + +He accuses the Wolf in his turn of violating the bonds of partnership. The +Fox and the Wolf had arranged to rob a fish-cart. The Fox lay for dead on +the road, and the carter, taking him up, threw him on the top of the load +of fish, turning to his horse again. Reynard then threw the fish on to the +road, and jumping down to join in the feast found left for him but fin and +scales. The Badger explains away also the story of Reynard's guilt as to +Dame Isengrin, and, with regard to the Hare, asks if a teacher shall not +chastise his scholars. In short, since the King proclaimed a peace, +Reynard was thoroughly reformed, and but for being absorbed in penance +would no doubt have been present to defend himself from any false +reports. + +Unfortunately for this justification, at the very moment of its conclusion +a funeral procession passes; + + "On sable bier + The relics of a Hen appear," + +while Henning, the Cock, makes a piteous complaint of Reynard's misdeeds. +He said how the Fox had + + "Assured him he'd become a friar, + And brought a letter from his prior; + Show'd him his hood and shirt of hair, + His rosary and scapulaire; + Took leave of him with pious grace, + That he might hasten to his place + To read the nona and the sept, + And vesper too before he slept; + And as he slowly took his way, + Read in his pocket breviary." + +all of which ended in the devout penitent eating nineteen of Henning's +brood. + +The Lion invites his council's advice. It is decided to send an envoy to +Reynard, and Bruno, the Bear, is selected to summon him to court. + +Bruno finds him at his castle of Malepart, and thunders a summons. +Reynard, by plausible speech and a story of honey, disarms some of his +hostility, and entices him off to a carpenter's yard, where an oak trunk, +half split, yet has the wedge in. Reynard declaring the honey is in the +cleft, Bruno puts his head and paws in. Reynard draws out the wedge. The +Bear howls till the whole village is aroused, and Bruno, to save his life, +draws himself out minus skin from head and paws. In the confusion the +parson's cook falls into the stream, and the parson offers two butts of +beer to the man who saves her. While this is being done, the Bear escapes, +and the Fox taunts him. + +The Bear displaying his condition at court, the King swears to hang +Reynard, this time sending Hinge, the Cat, to summon Reynard to trial. +Hinge is lured to the parson's house in hopes of mice, and caught in a +noose fixed for Reynard. The household wake, and beat the Cat, who dashes +underneath the priest's robe, revenging himself in a cruel and unseemly +way. The Cat is finally left apparently dead, but reviving, gnaws the +cord, and crawls back to court. + + "The King was wroth, as wroth could be." + +The Badger now offers to go, three times being the necessary number for +summoning a peer of the realm. He puts the case plainly before Reynard, +who agrees to come, and they set out together. On the way Reynard has a +fit of remorse, and confesses his sins. Grimbart plucks a twig, makes the +Fox beat himself, leap over it three times, kiss it; and then declares him +free from his sins. All the time Reynard casts a greedy eye on some +chickens, and makes a dash at one shortly after. Accused by Grimbart, he +declares he had only looked aside to murmur a prayer for those who die in +"yonder cloister." + + "And also I would say + A prayer for the endless peace + Of many long-departed geese, + Which, when in a state of sin, + I stole from the nuns who dwell therein." + +The Fox arrives at court with a proud step and a bold eye. He is accused, +but + + "Tried every shift and vain pretence + To baffle truth and common sense, + And shield his crimes with eloquence." + +In vain. He is condemned to die. His friend Martin the Ape, Grimbart the +Badger, and others withdraw in resentment, and the King is troubled. + +At the gallows Reynard professes to deliver a dying confession, and +introduces a story of seven waggon-loads of gold and jewels which had been +a secret hoard of his father, stolen for the purpose of bribing chiefs to +depose the Lion and place the Bear on the throne. + +Reynard is pardoned on condition of pointing out the treasure. He declares +it to be in Husterlo, but excuses himself from accompanying the King on +his way there, as he, Reynard, is excommunicated for once assisting the +Wolf to escape from a monastery, and must, therefore, go to Rome to get +absolution. + +The King announces his pardon to the court. The Bear and Wolf are thrown +into prison, and Reynard has a scrip made of a piece of the Bear's hide, +and shoes of the skin of the feet of the Wolf and his wife. Blessed by +Bellin the Ram, who is the King's chaplain, and accompanied a short +distance by the whole court, he sets out for Rome. The chaplain Ram and +Lampe the Hare, accompany him home to bid his wife farewell. He inveigles +the Hare inside, and the family eat him. He puts the Hare's head in the +bear-skin wallet, and taking it to the impatient Bellin outside, asks him +to take it to the King, as it contains letters of state policy. + +The satchel is opened in full court, and Reynard once more proclaimed a +traitor, accursed and banned, the Bear and Wolf restored, and the Ram and +all his race given to them for atonement. A twelve-day tourney is held. On +the eighth day the Coney and the Crow present complaint against Reynard; +he had wounded the Coney, and eaten the Crow's wife. It is resolved, in +spite of the Lioness's second intercession, to besiege Malepart and hang +Reynard. + +Grimbart secretly runs off to warn Reynard, who decides to return to court +once more and plead his cause. They set out together, and Reynard again +confesses his sins. This introduces a story of how he once fooled the +Wolf. Isengrin coveted to eat a foal, and sent the Fox to inquire the +price from the mare. She replied the price was written on her hinder hoof. +The Fox, seeing the trick, returned to the Wolf saying he could not +understand the inscription. The Wolf boasts of his learning, having long +ago taken his degrees as Doctor of Both Faculties. The Wolf bends down to +examine the newly-shod hoof, and the rest may be supposed. + +On their way to court, Reynard and Grimbart meet Martin the Ape, who is +bound for Rome, and promises his gold shall buy Reynard's absolution. +Arrived at court, Reynard boldly explains away the stories of the Coney +and the Crow, and demands the trial by battle. The Coney and Crow, having +no witnesses, and being averse to battle, withdraw. Reynard accuses the +dead Bellin of killing the Hare Lampe and secreting rare jewels he sent +to the King. His story is half believed in the hope that the jewels, which +he described at great length, may be found. Reynard's former services to +the state are remembered, and he is about to depart triumphant, when the +Wolf, unable to restrain his rage, accuses him afresh. In the end, as each +accusation is smoothly foiled, he accepts the wager of battle. They +withdraw to prepare for the lists. Reynard is shorn and shaven, all but +his tail, by his relatives the Apes. He is well oiled. He is also enjoined +to drink plentifully overnight. + +They meet in the lists. Reynard kicks up the dust to blind the Wolf, draws +his wet tail across his eyes, and at length tears an eye out. He is, +however, seized by the Wolf's strong jaw, and is about to be finished off +when he takes advantage of a word of parley to seize the wolf in a tender +part with his hand, and the fight recommences, ending in the total +overthrow of Isengrin. The King orders the fray to be stayed and the +Wolf's life spared. The Wolf is carried off. All fly to congratulate the +victor, + + "All gazed in his face with fawning eyes, + And loaded him with flatteries." + +The King makes him the Lord Chancellor and takes him to his close esteem. + +The tale winds up: + + "To wisdom now let each one turn, + Avoid the base and virtue learn; + This is the end of Reynard's story, + May God assist us to His glory." + +[Illustration: THE FOX RETURNING FROM HUNTING, MANCHESTER.] + +The above is the gist of the matter dealing with the Fox in letters; from +these lively images we will turn to the more wooden achievements of the +carvers. The general fact that the Fox is a marauder specially fond of the +flesh of that bird of long descent, the goose, but also partial to that of +other birds, is frequently illustrated by church carvings. In the churches +at the following places he is carved as having seized his prey:--Beverley +(Minster), Boston, Fairford, Faversham, Gloucester, Hereford, Norwich, +Oxford (Magdalen), Peterborough, Ripon, Wellingborough, Winchester, and +Windsor (St. George's Chapel). At the last-named he is also shewn as +preying upon a hen. At Beverley (Minster) Ely, Manchester, and Thanet (St. +Mary's Minster) the picture of the abduction of the goose is heightened in +interest by his pursuit by a woman armed with a distaff. Doubtless there +are others; the object throughout is to give examples, not an exhaustive +list. + +A somewhat unusual subject is one in Manchester Cathedral, in which the +Fox is returning from hunting. A carving where the Fox is used to point a +moral is another, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, in which three monks, +conveyed in a wheel-barrow into Hell's Mouth, are accompanied by a Fox +with a goose in his mouth. Probably the idea here broadly expressed is +intended to be quietly suggested by some of the above. + +Next in frequency is the more definite satire of the Fox preaching to +Geese. We find it at Beverley (both the Minster and St. Mary's), Boston, +Bristol, Cartmel, Ely, Etchingham, Nantwich, Ripon, Stowlangcroft, and +Windsor (St. George's Chapel). In the last he has a goose in his cowl. + +All those need for their completion the supposition that the text of the +Fox's sermon is the same as was given at length in a representation of a +preaching scene on an ancient stained-glass window in the church of St. +Martin, Leicester, which was unhappily destroyed in the last century. In +this, from the Fox's mouth proceeded the words "Testis est mihi Deus, quam +cupiam vos omnes visceribus meus" (God is my witness how I desire you all +in my bowels.--Philippians, i., 8). In Wolfius, A.D. 1300, is a +description of another such representation, in a MS. of AEsop's Fables. It +may accord quite well with the theory of the transmission of designs by +the continuity of the artificers' gild system to suppose that some +proportion of the material found its way into their repertoire through +the medium of manuscripts (not necessarily original in them), especially +for such subjects as were essentially mediaeval. We have seen how the +carvings of Jonah and of Samson, at Ripon, were taken from the Poor Man's +Bible; here we have the Preaching Fox mentioned in a book of 1300 as being +in an earlier work. A Fox bearing two Cocks by the neck on a staff is the +initial T in a MS. considered by Montflaucon to be of the ninth century. +Fredegarius, the Frankish historian, in the middle of the seventh century, +has a fable of a Fox at the court of the Lion, repeated by others in the +tenth and eleventh. Paulin Paris and Thomas Wright agreed in thinking the +whole fable of French origin, and first in the Latin tongue. So that we +may reasonably suppose that the countless tons of books and MSS. (though +it is useless to grope now among the mere memories of ashes), burnt at the +Reformation, would contain much that would have made clearer our +understanding of this subject of Gothic grotesques. It is clear, however, +that the Fox was used as a means of satirical comment before the writing +of the Isengrine Fable, and that most of the church carvings refer to what +we may call pre-Fable or co-Fable conceptions. + +There may be other material lying hidden in our great libraries, but +search for early Reynard drawings produces almost nothing. + +At Ripon the Fox is shewn without vestments, in a neat Gothic pulpit +adorned with carvings of the trefoil.[8] His hands, and what they may +have held, are gone. His congregation is to his right a goose, to his left +a cock, who appear to be uttering responses, while his face is significant +of conscious slyness. + +[Illustration: THE PREACHING FOX, RIPON.] + +In Beverley Minster the Preaching Fox is in a square panelled pulpit on +four legs; before him are seven geese, one of whom slumbers peacefully. He +wears a gown and cowl, has a rosary in his right hand, and appears to be +performing his part with some animation. Behind the pulpit stands an ape +with a goose hung on a stick, while another fox--to give point to the +lesson--is slinking off with a goose slung over his back. At St. Mary's, +Beverley, the various carvings have a decidedly manuscript appearance. The +one of the Preaching Fox has labels, upon which, in some unknown original, +may have been inscribed texts or other matter. Here the Fox wears only his +"scapulaire," and has his right hand raised in correct exhortative manner; +his pulpit is of stone, and is early. Behind stand two persons, perhaps +male and female, whose religious dress would lead us to suppose them to +represent the class to whose teaching a fox-like character is to be +attributed. At the front are seated two apes, also in scapularies, or +hoods, who, as well as the Fox, may be here to shew the real character of +the supposed sanctified. + +[Illustration: THE RULE AND THE ROAST CONTRASTED, ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.] + +It will have been noticed how frequently the carvings evade explanation; +all these satires on the clergy may mean either that the system was bad, +or that there was much abuse of it. A remarkable instance of this is in +another misericorde in St. Mary's, Beverley. Here we have the Benedictine +with mild and serene countenance, without a sign of sin, and bearing the +scroll of truth and simplicity of life--call it the rule of his order. Yet +how do many of his followers act? With greed for the temporalities, they +aspire to the pastoral crook, and devour their flocks with such rapacity +as to threaten the up-rooting of the whole order. + +[Illustration: THE PREACHING FOX, ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.] + +Such might be one rendering; yet the placid cleric may be simply +introduced to shew the outward appearance of the ravening ones. + +It has been a favourite explanation of these anti-cleric carvings to say +that they were due to the jealousy which existed between the regular +orders and the preaching friars. But carvings such as this last are +sufficient to prove the explanation erroneous; preaching friars carried no +croziers. + +Yet another instance from St. Mary's shews us two foxes in scapularies +reading from a book placed on an eagle-lectern. + +[Illustration: FOXES AT THE LECTERN, ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.] + +The bird--lectern or not--has round its head a kind of aureola or glory; +it is probably an eagle, but who shall say it is not a dove? The +religiously-garbed foxes are alone unmistakable. + +At Boston we have a mitred Fox, enthroned in the episcopal seat in full +canonicals, clutching at a cock which stands near, while another bird is +at the side. Close by the throne, another fox, in a cowl only, is reading +from a book. + +At Christchurch, Hampshire, we see the Fox on a seat-elbow, in a pulpit of +good design, and near him, on a stool, the Cock; it appears in the +initial of this article. + +At Worcester, a scapularied Fox is kneeling before a small table or altar, +laying his hand with an affectation of reverence upon--a sheep's head. +This is one of the side carvings to the misericorde of the three mowers, +considered under the head of "Trinities." + +[Illustration: EPISCOPAL HYPOCRISY, BOSTON.] + +The Fox seizing the Hen, at Windsor, reminds of the Fable, yet in so many +other instances it is the Cock who is the prey. Still further removing the +carvings out of the sphere of the Fable is a carving at Chicester of the +Fox playing the harp to a goose, while an ape dances; and another at St. +George's, Windsor, in which it is an ape who wears the stole, and is +engaged in the laying on of hands. In the Fable the Fox teaches the Hare +the Creed, yet in a carving at Manchester it is his two young cubs whom +he is teaching from a book. + +The Fox in the Shell of Salvation, artfully discoursing on the merits of a +bottle of holy water, as drawn on page 58, may be considered a Preaching +Fox. + +There is at Nantwich a carving which, unlike any of those already noticed, +is closely illustrative of an incident of the epic. It represents the +story told to Nouvel's court by the widower Crow. He and his wife, in +travelling through the country, came across what they thought was the dead +body of Reynard on the heath. He was stiff, his tongue protruded, his eyes +were inverted. They lamented his unhappy fate, and "course so early run." +The lady approached his chin, not, indeed, with any idea of commencing a +meal; far from that, it was to ascertain if perchance any signs of life +remained, when--snap! Her head was off! The Crow himself had the +melancholy luck to fly to a tree, there to sit and watch his wife eaten +up. In the carving we have the crows first coming upon the sight of the +counterfeit carrion as it lies near a rabbit warren. To shew how perfect +is Reynard's semblance of death, the rear portions of two rabbits are to +be seen as they hurry into their holes on the approach of the crows, the +proximity of the Fox not having previously alarmed them. + +The side figures have no simultaneous connection with the central +composition, being merely representations of Reynard, once more as a +larder regarder. The pilgrim's hat, borne by one of the figures, is a +further reminder of the Fable, and the monkish garb is of course in +keeping. These two are somewhat singular in being fox-headed men. At +Chester, also, is a Fox feigning death. + +[Illustration: THE FOX FEIGNING DEATH, NANTWICH.] + +[Illustration: THE TEMPTATION. THE PUNISHMENT. THE WAKE KNOT. BEVERLEY +MINSTER.] + +Thus far the examples have been of Reynard's crimes; we will now survey +his punishment. In the fable he was to be hanged, but was not, the Wolf +and the Bear, whom he always outwitted, being the disappointed +executioners. In the carvings he is really hanged, and the hangsmen are +the geese of his despoliation. Beverley Minster has among its fine +carvings an admirable rendering of this subject. Reynard is hanged on a +square gallows, a number of birds, geese, taking a beak at the rope. To +the left of the gallows stand two official geese, with mace and +battle-axe. The left supplementary carving gives a note of the crime; +Reynard is creeping upon two sleeping geese. The right hand supporting +carving gives us the Fox after being cut down. His friend, the Ape, is +untying the rope from his neck. Observe the twist of the rope at the end; +it declares that Reynard is dead, for it is a Wake Knot! + +Also at Boston, Bristol, Nantwich, and Sherborne are carvings of the +hanging by geese. The gallows of the Sherborne execution is square, and +made of rough trees. The general action is less logical than in the +Beverley scene, but the geese are full of vivacity, evidently enjoying the +thoroughness with which they are carrying out their intentions. + +[Illustration: EXECUTION OF REYNARD, SHERBORNE.] + +In the hanging scenes there is no suggestion of the religious dress. +Reynard has lost his Benefit of Clergy. Besides the carving of the Ape +laying out the dead Fox, at Beverley there are also others where the Ape +is riding on the Fox's back, and again where he is tending him in bed. The +Ape succouring the Fox is also instanced at Windsor. + +However, after the two broad classes of carvings are exhausted--the Fox +deluding or eating birds, and the Fox hanged by birds, there is little +left to tell of him. + +It may be added that his hanging by his one-time victims has suggested to +the carver another subject of the same kind--the hanging of the cat by +mice, or, more probably, rats, mentioned on page 43. It is there stated to +be at Sherborne, in error, the place being Great Malvern. + +[Illustration: EXECUTION OF THE CAT, GREAT MALVERN.] + +The following curious scene from the Fox-fruitful church of St. Mary's, +Beverley, is perplexing, and gives the Fox receiving his quietus under +unique circumstances. He is, with anxiety, awaiting the diagnosis of an +ape-doctor, who is critically examining urinary deposits; his health has +been evidently not all he could wish. When, lo, an arrow, from the bow of +an archer in quilted leather, pierces him through the heart! What more +this carving means is a mystery. + +[Illustration: REYNARD IN DANGER, ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.] + +Carvings of the ordinary fables in which the Fox is concerned are not +unknown. At Faversham, Kent, is one of the Fox and the Grapes; at Chester +is the Fox and the Stork. The latter is, again, on a remarkable slab, +probably a coffin lid, in the Priory Church of Bridlington, East +Yorkshire, the strange combination of designs on which may be described. +At the head appear two curious dragon forms opposed over an elaborate +embattled temple, suggestive of Saxon and Byzantine derivation, with a +central pointed arch. This may be a rendering of the sun-myth, noted on +page 37. At the foot is a reversed lion, the curls and twists of whose +mane and tail closely resembles those of the white porcelain lions used by +the Chinese as incense-burners. Between the temple and the lion is incised +an illustration of the fable of the Fox and the Stork. The slab, of which +a rough sketch is annexed, is of black basaltic marble, similar to that +of the font of the church, which is of the type generally considered to be +Norman, and to have been imported ready made from Flanders, and on which +dragons are sometimes the ornament. The Fox on this slab is the earliest +sculptured figure of the animal known in England. + +[Illustration: COFFIN LID, BRIDLINGTON, YORKSHIRE.] + +There are also hunting scenes in which the fox is shot with bow and arrow, +as in Beverley Minster; or chased with hounds in a way more commending +itself to modern sporting ideas, as at Ripon. + +In conclusion, the satirical intent of the fox inventions, as we find them +in the library or in the church, may be summed up, for here indeed lies +the whole secret of their prevalence and popularity. The section of +society satirized by the epic is large, but is principally covered by the +feudal institution. The notes struck are its greed of wealth and its greed +of the table, its injustice under the pretext of laws, its expedient +lying, the immunity from punishment afforded by riches, the absolute yet +revolution-fearing power of the sovereign, the helplessness of nobles +single-handed, and the general influence of religion thrown over +everything, while for its own sake being allowed to really influence +nothing. + +The chief point of the epic is generally considered to be that power in +the hands of the feudal barons was accompanied by a trivial amount of +intelligence, which was easily deceived by the more astute element of +society. The carvings give no note of this. A further object, however, may +be seen. The whole story of the Fox is meant not only to shew that + + "It is not strength that always wins, + For wit doth strength excel," + +by playing on the passions and weaknesses of mankind, but in particular to +hold up to scorn the immunity procured by professional religion, though it +is fair to note that the Fox does not adopt a religious life because +suited to his treacherous and deceitful character, but to conceal it. Thus +so far as they elucidate the general "foxiness" of religious hypocrisy, +the carvings and the epic illustrate the same theme, but it is evident +that they embodied and developed already-existing popular recognition of +the evil, each in its own way, and without special reference one to the +other. + + + + +Situations of the Grotesque Ornament in Church Art. + + +The places chosen for the execution of the work which, by reason of its +intention or its want of conformity with what we now consider a true taste +in art, may be styled Grotesque, do not seem to be in any marked degree +different from the situations selected for other ornamental work. It may, +however, be permitted to glance at those situations, and enquire as to +such comparisons as they afford, though the conclusions to be arrived at +must necessarily be loose and general. + +In Norman work the chief iconographical interest is to be found in the +capitals of pilasters and pillars, for here is often told a story of some +completeness. Other places are the arches, chiefly of doorways; bosses of +groining, and the horizontal corners of pillar plinths; exteriorly, the +gargoyles are most full of meaning, seconded by the corbels of the +corbel-table. We may expect in Norman grotesque some reference to ancient +mystics; the forms are bold and rugged, such appearance of delicacy as +exists being attained by interlacing lines in conventional patterns, with, +also, the effect of distance upon repeating ornament. + +Transitional Norman retained all the characteristic ornament of the purer +style, but with the development of Early English the grotesque for a time +somewhat passed out of vogue, slight but eminently graceful modifications +of the Corinthian acanthus supplying most of the places where strange +beasts had formerly presented their bewildering shapes. It might not be +impossible to connect this partial purification of ornament with a phase +of church history. + +[Illustration: APE CORBEL, CARRYING ROOF TIMBER, EWELME.] + +But in some portions of structure, as the gargoyles, and in the woodwork +of the choirs, the grotesque still held its own. As Early English grew +distinctly into the Decorated, every available spot was enriched with +carving. The collections (called "portfolios" elsewhere) of the old +carvers would seem to have been ransacked and exhausted, all that had gone +before receiving fresh rendering in wood and stone, while life and nature +were now often called upon to furnish new material. The pointed arch +remained, however, an undecorated sweep of mouldings, and the plinth +corners were rarely touched; in fact there was here scarcely now the same +squareness of space which before had asked for ornament. All the other +places ornamented in Norman work were filled up in Decorated with the new +designs of old subjects. The resting-places of ornament were multiplied; +the dripstones of every kind of arch, and the capitals of every kind of +pillar, whether in the arcading of the walls, the heaped-up richness of +the reredos, or the single subject of the piscina, became nests of the +grotesque. In a single group of sedilia all the architecture of a great +cathedral may be seen in miniature, in arch, column, groined roof, boss, +window-tracery, pinnacle, and finial, each part with its share of +ornament, of grotesque. In the choirs the carvers had busied themselves +with summoning odd forms from out the hard oak, till the croches or +elbow-rests, the bench ends, the stall canopies, and below all, and above +all, the misericordes, swarmed with all the ideas of Asia and Europe past +and present. Musicians are everywhere, but most persistently on the +intersections of the choir arches, and somewhat less so on those of the +nave. + +[Illustration: MISERICORDE--LION COMPOSITION, WELLINGBOROUGH.] + +A favourite place for humourous figures was on the stone brackets or +corbels which bear up timber roofs; examples are in the ape corbel in this +article, and the responsible yet happy-looking saint at the end of the +list of Contents. + +When the Perpendicular style came with other arts from Italy, and the +lavish spread of the Decorated was chastened and over-chastened into +regularity, there came for the second or third time the same ideas from +the never-dying mythologies, their concrete embodiments sometimes with +eloquence rendered, nearly always with vigour. They came to the old +places, but in most fulness to that most full place, the dark recess where +lurks the misericorde. + +Upon the whole it would appear that the grotesque, be it in the relics of +a long-forgotten symbolism, in crude attempts at realism, or in the +fantastic whimseys of irresponsibility, is chiefly met in the portions of +the church where would occur, in the development of architecture, the +problems and difficulties. They occur, so to speak, at the joints of +construction. It may be that the pluteresques (grotesque and other +ornaments made of metal) employed in many Spanish churches are to be +accounted for in this way on the score of the facility of attachment. +Where it may be questioned that the ornament was to conceal juncture, it +is often to be acknowledged that it was to give external apparent +lightness to masses which are in themselves joints or centres of weight. +To conclude--to whatever extent we may carry our inquiries into the +meaning of the grotesques in church art, we have in them undoubtedly +objects whose associations are among the most ancient of the human race; +whatever our opinion of their fitness for a place in the temple, it is +plain that practically they could be nowhere else. + +[Illustration: MUSICIAN ON THE INTERSECTION OF NAVE ARCHES, ST. HELEN'S, +ABINGDON, BERKSHIRE.] + + + + +INDEX. + + + + +Index. + + + Abdominal Mask, 91 + + Abingdon, 18, 72, 218, and Preface + + Aboo-Simbel Trinity, 177 + + Abydos Trinity, 177 + + Acanthus, 149-50, 214 + + Adam, 61, 62, 74; + and Eve, 112, 120 + + Adam Clarke, 74 + + Adel, Yorkshire, 127 + + Adonai, 168 + + Adonis, 168 + + Adoration, the, 113-5 + + AElian, 50 + + AEsculapius, 42 + + _AEsop's Fables_, 196 + + Africa, 66 + + Agni, 178 + + Aix-la-Chapelle, 46 + + Akori, 178 + + Alcock, Bishop, 10, 92, 173 + + Ale and the Alewife, 99-105 + + Alewife, 97 + + Alehouses, 99 + + Ale-taster, 100 + + Alexander, 71 + + Alexandria, 34 + + All Souls, Oxford, 71, 76, 104-5, 150-1 + + Alraun images, 28 + + Altar of the Sun, 37-39 + + Ambarvalia, 48 + + American Arms, 179 + + American-Indian mythology, 159 + + American-Indian Trinity, 177 + + Amman, Justus, 188 + + Ammon, 42, 72, 158 + + Amun-Ra, 177 + + _Ancient Mysteries described_, 180 + + Ancient Worships, 27-59, 64-77, 152-3, 157-168, 175-183 + + Angel Choir, Lincoln, 3, 9 + + Angel (coin), 47 + + Angels, 63 + + Animal Musicians, 152-6 + + Animal symbolism, 35 + + Anthony pig, the, 154 + + Anuka, 178 + + Archers, 205, 209-10 + + Ape, the, 59, 28-9, 145, 152, 156, 192-4, 198, 201, 203, 207-10, 214 + + Aphrodite, 168 + + Apocryphal New Testament, the, 60, 112 + + Apollo, 21, 46, 162, 165 + + April, 141 + + Apuleius, 41 + + Architectural Museum, Tufton Street, the, 12, 167, 169, 174 + + Arimanes, 176 + + Arles, the Council of, 29 + + Arma palantes, 173 + + Arthur, King, 69 + + Artistic quality of Church grotesques, 19-23, 61 + + _Art Journal, the_, 66 + + Asir, 45 + + Assyrian myth, 34, 157, 181 + + Assyrians, no record of their humour, 6 + + Astronomical symbols a source of Gothic design, 4, 27-8, 37-59, 73, + 157-68, 177 + + Atahuata, 177 + + Aten, 168 + + Athor, 111, 157, 167, 177-8 + + Athyr, 167 + + Attic figurines, 28 + + Auckland Castle, 155 + + Augsburgh, (?) Council of, 30 + + "Auld Clootie," 70 + + "Auld Hornie," 70 + + Aurva, 53 + + Avarice, 87, 91-95 + + Averus (Horus), 50 + + + Baalim, 28 + + Babylonian myth, 34 + + Bacon, 142, 154 + + Bacchus, 69, 73, 158 + + Backbiter, 82-84 + + Badger Grimbart, 189, 191-3 + + Bagpipes, 103, 152, 155 + + Ba-it, 178 + + Baker, 105 + + Bakewell, Derbyshire, 130-1 + + Baldini and Boticelli, 84 + + Baptism of John, the, 117-8 + + Barton, Lincs., 174 + + Basketsful of Children, 63 + + Bayle, a kind of dance, 147 + + Beakheads, 125-6 + + Bear Bruno, 190-3 + + Bear, the, 152-156 + + Beard, the, 72 + + Bedford, 175 + + _Beehive of the Romishe Church_, 180 + + Bellin the Ram, 192 + + Berkshire, 18, 72, 125, 129, 218 + + Bestiaries, the, 73 + + Beverley, Percy Shrine at, 3; + Carvings at, 13, 39, 40, 54, 57, 63, 87, 112, 120-3, 130, 133-6, 144, + 152, 154-5, 159, 173, 182, 195-6, 198-9, 201-2, 208-11 + + Bhu, 42 + + Bible (as Old and New Testaments), 176 + + Biblia Pauperum, 113 + + Birch, Dr., 158 + + Birds, 4, 9, 22, 38, 39 + + Bishop Foxes, 199, 203 + + Bishops Stortford, 109 + + Blashill, Mr. Thomas, 106 + + Bo, Bo-tree. Bod, Bog, Boggart, Boivani, Bolay, Boo, Bouders, Boudons, + Boroon, Bormania, Borr, Borvo, Bouljanus, Brog, Bug, Bugbear, + Buggaboo, Buka, 66, 69 + + Boar, 139-40, 152 + + Boar's Head, 69, 139 + + Bodleian Library, 16, 63 + + Bolton, Bishop, 173 + + Boston, Lincolnshire, 195, 196, 202, 208 + + Boutell, Rev. C., 25 + + Bow and arrow, 162-5 + + Boy (Bog), 69 + + Brahma, 178 + + Brahminic Trinity, 178 + + Breast, removal of, 165 + + Bridge, Kent, 75 + + Bridlington Priory Church, Yorks, 15, 210-1 + + Bristol, 196, 208 + + British Museum, 62 + + Bruno the Bear, 190-3 + + Buckle Mask, 125 + + Bull, the, 41-2, 72-3, 85, 88-9, 91, 159 + + Bur, 45 + + Byzantine ideas, 127 + + Byzantium, 35 + + + Caimis, 50 + + _Calendarum Romanorum Magnum_, 141 + + Calf, 73 + + Cama, 50 + + Cambridge, 10, 92, 133 + + Cambridgeshire, 74 + + Candlemas, 42, 140 + + Canterbury, 139 + + Canting heraldry, 173 + + Caricature in part explained, 3 + + Carpenter, Mr. Edward, 186 + + Cartmel, 180, 196 + + Carvers, 9-18 + + Cat, the, 156, 189, 191, 209 + + Cat and Fiddle, the, 39-43 + + Cat-heads, 126 + + Caxton, 170, 188 + + Cedranus, 143-4 + + Centaur, 161-6 + + Cerealia, 48 + + Ceres, 72, 153, 158 + + Cestus, 165 + + Chairs, 141 + + Chalons, Council of, 143 + + Chandra, Chandri, 43 + + Cherubim, 73, 159, 161 + + Chester, 60, 77, 103, 207, 210 + + Chichester, 72, 75, 124, 141, 157, 181, 182, 203 + + Chiron the Centaur, 162 + + Chnoumis, 178 + + Chonso, 177 + + Christ, 30, 48, 60-62, 104, 114-20 + + Christchurch (Hants), 21, 33, 172, 184, 202 + + Christmas, 139-40, 144 + + _Chronicles, the Book of_, 176 + + Church symbolism, expediency, etc., 31 + + Ciaran (St.), 162 + + Clergy, the, 97, 111 + + Cneph, 177 + + Cock, the, 184, 197-8, 202-3 + + Compound Forms, 37, 111, 157-168 + + Coney, the, 193, 204-5 + + Conscience, 170-1 + + Constantinople, Council of, 30; + Byzantium, 35 + + Continuous group, 149 + + Conventional form a matter of development, 3 + + Corinthian Acanthus, 149-50, 214 + + Corpus Christi Play, 142-3 + + _Cosmographiae Universalis_, 172 + + Cotton MSS., 82, 147 + + Councils, Arles, 29; + Augsburgh (?), 30; + Constantinople, 30; + Frankfurt, 30, 99; + Narbonne, 30; + Nicea, 30; + Orleans, 29; + Tours, 30; + Nice, 36; + Milan, 36 + + Coventry, 60, 142 + + Cow, the, 41 + + Creators, Mythological, 176-8 + + Crescent, the, 41, 42 + + Cripple, 145, 147 + + Crocodile, 44-5 + + Crorasura, 153 + + Cross, the, 43 + + Crow and his wife, the, 193, 204-5 + + Croziers, 198, 202 + + Crusaders, 47 + + Culham, Berkshire, 125 + + Cupid, 50, 51, 53-55 + + + Dance, 40, 43, 144, 147 + + David, King, 62 + + Decorated Carvings, 214-217 + + Deer, 140 + + Definitions of the Grotesque, 5-8 + + De la Wich, Bishop, 181 + + Delft, 188 + + Derbyshire, 130-1 + + Design, Continuity of Gothic, 4 + + Detractors, 82-3 + + Devil and the Vices, the, 78-98 + + Devil, the, 47, 69, 70, 77, 103-5 + + Devils, 63, 119 + + Diana, 32, 40-43, 73 + + Diapason, the, 41 + + Dillin pig, the, 154 + + Disc of the Sun, 167-8 + + Distaff, 195 + + Dog, 5, 19, 21, 40, 42, 142, 159-60, 189 + + Domestic and Popular, the, 134-151 + + Donnington, Thomas (1520), 174 + + Dorchester Abbey, Oxon., 60, 64-5, 121-2, 133, 159-60 + + Dragons, 26, 37, 44-57, 60, 64-66, 84, 127, 165, 177, 211 + + Drake (dragon), 47 + + Druidical Tau, 43-4 + + Drum (Tabor), 97 + + Durer, Albert, 61 + + Durham, 155 + + + Eagle, the, 22, 37, 148, 158-9, 202 + + Early English Carvings, 214 + + Eastern ideas, 9-10, 34-5 + + Eden, 73, 76 + + Edgeware, 102 + + Edward the Confessor, 9 + + Edward III., 17 + + Edward IV., 49 + + Egypt, 34, 43-45 + + Egyptians, little record of their humour, 6 + + Egyptian myth, etc., 34, 41-5, 47-8, 50-6, 157-8, 177-8 + + Egyptian Trinities, 177-8 + + Eicton, 177 + + Elephantine Trinity, 178 + + Ely, 74, 80-1, 84, 105, 166, 195-6 + + Equinoxes, the, 175 + + Eschol, 171 + + Esculapius, 178 + + Etchingham, 196 + + Evans, Mr. E. P., 35, 85 + + Evil, Images of, 1, 26, 33 + + Eve, 62, 74 + + Ewelme, Oxon., Carvings at, 1, 65, 67 + (not Dorchester), 76, 127-8, 214 + + Exeter, 4, 39, 165, 168, 181 + + Ezekiel, 159 + + + Fable, 186 + + Fafnir the Dragon, 46 + + Fairford, 195 + + Fairies, 66 + + Falx, the, 57 + + Farnsham, 65 + + Fates, the, 178 + + Fauns, 69 + + Faversham, Kent, 180, 195, 210 + + Feast of Fools, the, 143-7 + + Feathered Angels, 75-7 + + Fecundity, Goddess of, 66, 72 + + Fiddle, 40, 41, 153 + + Figurines as _lares_, 28 + + Finedon, Northamptonshire, 125 + + Fire, 178 + + Fish, 182 + + Flagellation, 134 + + Flanders, a church workshop, 9, 15 + + Flesh hook, 63, 87, 182 + + Fleur-de-lys, 39, 179 + + Flora, 158 + + Fools, 130 + + Fools, the Feast of, 143-7 + + Foreign carvers, 9-18 + + Fox, the, 58-9, 184-212 + + Fox and Grapes, the, 210 + + Fox and Stork, the, 210-1 + + France, 48 + + Frankfort, Council of, 30, 99 + + Fredegarius, 197 + + Freemasonry, 16, 17 + + French work for Saxons, 9 + + Frigga, 53 + + Freyr, 153 + + Furies, the, 178 + + + Gallows, the, 207-9 + + Ganges, the, 172 + + Gargonilles, 46, 129 + + Gaul, 66 + + Gaul, Bishops of, 30 + + Gauri, 43 + + Gautier de Coinsi, 36 + + Gayton, Northants, 81, 86, 87 + + Geese, Reynard's theft of, etc., 191, 195, 198, 203 + + Gehul, 153 + + George IV., 17 + + German "teraphim," 28; + paganism, 30 + + Germany, Bishops of, 30 + + Ghent, 188 + + Gild, continuity the explanation of continuity of design, 4, 35, 196 + (_see_ Freemasonry) + + Gilds, 70 + + Glasgow, 65, 66, 77 + + Gloucester, 195 + + Gluttony, 88 + + Goat, the, 69, 71-3, 187 + + Goethe, 189 + + Golden Bristle, 153 + + Gorgon, 127 + + Gothic ornament, uses of, etc., 2, 3; + some characteristics of, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 19-23, 24-26, 35-39, + 49, 54; + not didactic, 24-26; + situations of, 213, 218 + + Gouda, 188 + + Graces, the, 178 + + Gravio, Count, 30 + + Great Malvern, 172, 209 + + Grecian Trinity, 177 + + Greek wit, 6; + star-worship, 28; + myth, 34, 41, 177-8; + art, 36-37; + symbolism 74; + dances, 147 + + Grimace-makers, 130, 133 + + Grimbart, the Badger, 189, 191-3 + + Grimm, 186 + + Gryphon, 125, 158 + + Guildford, Surrey, 117-8 + + Gullinbrusti, 153 + + + Hades, 42, 161 + + Haenir, 177 + + Hak, 178 + + Hampshire, 21, 33, 172 + + Hanging of the Cat, 209 + + Hanging of the Fox, 207-8 + + Hare, the, 106-7, 182, 189, 192, 194, 203 + + Harleian MSS., 104 + + Harmachis, 158 + + Harp, the, 140-1, 153, 154, 155 + + Harpy, the, 4, 111, 166, 181 + + Hebrew Teraphim, 28 + + Hecate, 41, 42 + + Heliopolis, Trinity of, 178 + + Hell, 48, 84, 104 + + Hell's Mouth, 60-63, 103, 196 + + Hen, the, 195, 203 + + Henning the Cock, 190 + + Henry VI., 16, 62 + + Henry VII.'s Chapel, 10, 91, 95, 148, 156, 173 + + Henry VIII., 16, 49 + + Hera, 177 + + Heraldry, canting, 173 + + Heraldry and three-fold repetitions, 179 + + Hercules, 148, 177 + + Hereford, 195 + + Herodotus, 28, 50 + + Hertfordshire, 109 + + Het-her, 167 + + Hexagon, symbolic, 179 + + Hezekiah, 74 + + Hindoo myth, 28, 42-45, 50, 53, 153, 178 + + Hinge the Cat, 191 + + Hippocampus, Lincoln, 26 + + Hippo-centaurs, 161 + + Hobgoblins, 66 + + Hogarth, 20, 21 + + Holy Cross, Stratford-on-Avon, 60 + + Holy Trinity, Hull, 139-40 + + Holderness, 106 + + Homer, 160 + + Hone, 180 + + Hopton, 174 + + Horace, 157 + + Horns, 70; + Horn, 73 + + Horse, the, 162, 139 + + Horse-leech, 110-1 + + Horus, 45, 48, 50-56, 57, 72, 177, 178 + + Hull, 10, 100, 139-40 + + Humour, of nations, 6, 7; + defined, 20 + + Hunting, 140 + + Huntsman, 139 + + Husterlo, 192 + + Hypocrisy, 98 + + + Ibis, 167 + + Iceland, 153 + + Idun, 76 + + Iffley, 49, 126, 162, 163 + + Imagery in Architecture and Language compared, 1-3 + + Impudence, 109 + + Indecency in church, 143-7, 150-1 + + India, 172 + + Indian mask, 123-4 + + Indian mythology, East, 66, 69, 178 + + Indian Trinity, American, 177 + + Indra, 178 + + Irenaeus, 73 + + Irreverence in art explained in part, 8 + + _Isaiah_, 74 + + _Isengrinus_, 187 + + Isis, 41, 42, 45, 50, 177 + + Islip, Bishop, 173 + + Italian workers in England, 9, 10, 13 + + Italy, 41 + + Italy, Bishops of, 30 + + + Janus, 180 + + Japanese (crocodile), 45 + + Jesus College, Cambridge, 92 + + Joke, the, 6 + + Jonah, 112-3, 197 + + Joermungard, 45 + + Jove (Jupiter), 11 + + July, 183 + + Juno, 177 + + Jupiter, 21, 57, 148, 158, 177, 178, 181 + + Jurassic reptiles, 145 + + + Keltic dragons, 49 + + Kent, 75, 180, 182 + + Khum, 178 + + King Arthur, 69 + + King Edward the Confessor, 9 + + King Edward III., 17 + + King Edward IV., 49 + + King George IV., 17 + + King Henry VI., 16, 62 + + King Henry VII., 147 + + King Henry VII. Chapel, 10, 173 + + King Henry VIII., 16, 49 + + King's College, Cambridge, 10, 133 + + + Lampe the Hare, 192, 194 + + Lares, 43 + + Laughter of nations, 6-7; + defined, 20 + + Lectern, 202 + + Leicester, 196 + + Leland, John, 16 + + Lemon, 139-40 + + Leo, 158 + + Leopard, The, 189 + + Lincoln Cathedral, 3, 9, 38, 51, 54, 63, 128, 133 + + Lincolnshire, 11, 174 + + Lind-drake, 47 + + Linden worm, 47 + + Linden tree, 47 + + Line of Beauty, 20 + + Lion, 5, 158, 183, 187, 189-90, 210-1, 215 + + Lioness, The, 193 + + Little-trust, Lettice, 101 + + Lodur, 177 + + Loki, 76, 77 + + Love, 53 + + Lubeck, 188 + + Lucifer, 53, 76 + + Ludlow, 99, 102, 103 + + Luna, 41, 43 + + Lunar calculations of Mosaic system, 176 + + Lunus, 43 + + Lydda, 47 + + Lynn, 11, 174 + + + Macrobius, 32 + + Magdalen College, Oxford, 195 + + Magi, Adoration of the, 113-5 + + Maidstone, 182 + + Maimonides, the Rabbi, 27 + + Malepart, 190, 193 + + Malvern, Great, 172, 209 + + Manchester, 54, 55, 203-4, 195, 196 + + Mandragora images, 28 + + Mann, Mr. Robert, 66 + + Mant, 177 + + Mare and foal, the story of, 193 + + Mars, 21 + + Marks, sculptors', ignored; an example is on p. 103 + + Martinmas, 139, 154 + + Martin the Ape, 192-3 + + Mary, the Virgin, 34, 42, 82, 83 + + Masks and Faces, 121-133 + + Meaux Abbey, Yorkshire, 10 + + Memphis, Trinity of, 178 + + Mendes, 72 + + Mentu, 177 + + Merchant mark, 174 + + Mercury, 21, 49, 78, 153, 158, 167 + + Merenphtah, 178 + + Mermaid, 160 + + Messon, 177 + + Mexican myth, 157 + + Mice, 40, 43, 209 + + Michael Angelo, 10, 13 + + Midsummer Watch, 77 + + Milan, Council of, 36 + + Minerva, 21, 74, 177 + + Miracle Plays, 70 + + _Mirror of Human Salvation, the_, 113 + + Misericordes, 24-5, 181, 215, 217 + + Mithras, 176 + + Monstrosity, 147 + + Montflaucon, 197 + + Moon worship, 32, 40, 43 + + Morris Dance, 144, 147 + + Mosaic system, 31; + Ark, 159, 175; + not the original of pagan myth, 175-6 + + Moses, 62, 74, 175 + + Mouth of Hell, 60, 63 + + Mowers, 182 + + Mumming, 70, 168 + + Music, 140, 152 + + Monograms, 12 + + Mystery Plays, 32, 48, 70, 82, 103, 112, 142-3 + + Mythic origin of Church carvings, 34-59 + + + Nachasch, 73 + + Nantwich, Cheshire, 196, 204-5, 208 + + Narbonne, the Council of, 30 + + Nebhetp, 178 + + Nefer-Atum, 178 + + Neptune, 21, 178 + + Nerites, 50 + + Nessus the Centaur, 162 + + New College, Oxford, 58-9, 81, 84-5, 98, 106, 149 + + Nice, 36 + + Nicea, the Council of, 30 + + _Nicodemus, the Gospel of_, 60 + + Nile, the River, 45, 71, 158 + + Nilus, 45, 158; + St. Nilus, _see_ Saints + + Nobodies, 171 + + Non-descripts, 169-172 + + Norfolk, 48, 75, 195 + + Norman carvings, 49, 125, 127, 129, 163, 211, 213; + fonts 15 + + North Stoke, 119 + + Northamptonshire, 14, 22, 81, 84, 86-7, 101, 125 + + Norwich, 48, 75, 195 + + Notch-heads, 124-5 + + Nouvel the Lion, 189 + + _Numbers, the Book of_, 176 + + Nuns, 106-7 + + Nursery Rhymes, 39 + + + Oak, the, 148, 181 + + Odin, 45, 53, 69, 177 + + Opas, 177 + + Orleans, the Council of, 143 + + Ornament, the use of Gothic, 2 + + Oromasdes, 176 + + Orus (_see_ Horus), 50, 72 + + Osiris, 41, 45, 50, 57, 158, 177 + + Otkon, 177 + + Ox, 71, 73, 160 + + Oxford, 58, 59, 71, 76, 81, 84, 85, 97, 104-6, 149, 151, 195 + + Oxfordshire, 49, 60, 64-5, 67, 105, 121-2, 133, 159 + + + Paganism, ingrained among nations, 27 + + Pallas, 177 + + Palmer Fox, 58 + + Pan, 21, 72-3, 105 + + Pantheism, 32 + + Panther, the, 159 + + Paris, Paulin, 197 + + Parody, a characteristic of Greek wit, 7 + + Patala, 42 + + Pastoral staves, 49 + + Pausanius, 44 + + Pegasus, 162 + + Pepin, 30 + + Percy Shrine, 3 + + Perpendicular Ornament, 217 + + Persephone, 41 + + Perseus, 46, 57 + + Persian Trinity, 176 + + Peterborough, 195 + + Philaean Trinity, 176 + + _Philippians, the Epistle to the_, 196 + + Phipson, Miss, 14, 109, and preface + + Phyrric Dance, the, 147 + + _Picture Bible, the_, 113, 197 + + Pig and Whistle, 155, 156 + + Pig, and other Animal Musicians, the, 110, 152-6 + + Piggy-widdy, 154 + + _Pilgremage of the Sowle, the_, 170 + + Pipes, Double, 155 + + Planet symbols, 28 + + Plato, 28 + + Plutarch, 41 + + Pluteresques, 218 + + Pluto, 42, 177-8 + + _Poor Man's Bible, the_, 113, 197 + + Poppy, Assyrian, 182 + + Pottery, 35 + + Preaching Fox, the, 184, 196-204 + + Priapus, 73 + + Prideaux, Bishop, 30 + + Priest sleeping, 106, 110-1 + + Prosperine, 32, 41-2, 177 + + Protevan, 82 + + Psyche, 176 + + Pta, 177-8 + + Pulpits, 184, 197-8, 201 + + Puranas, 43 + + Python, the, 46 + + + Ra, 168, 177 + + Rabbi Maimonides, 27 + + Rahu, 44 + + Ram, the, 72, 187, 192 + + Ram Bellin, 192-3 + + Ram's Head, 19 + + Ram, the Hindoo deity, 28 + + Rebuses, 12, 173-4 + + Recording Imps, 78-9, 81, 84-5, 103 + + Red Sea, the, 50 + + _Reinche Bos_, 188 + + _Renart le Contrefet_, 188 + + _Reynard the Fox_, 184 + + _Reynard the Fox, the most delectable history of_, 188 + + Ripon, 5, 112-3, 124, 136-7, 155, 171, 195-8, 211 + + Rochester, 127 + + Rogation, 48 + + _Roman de Renart_, 188 + + Roman Trinity, 177 + + Roman, Wit bitter and low, 6-7; + myth, 42-3 + + Roman work for Saxons, 9 + + Roscommon, the Poet, 157 + + Roslyn Chapel, 128-9 + + Rostock, 188 + + Rothwell, Northants, 84 + + + Sabean Idolatry, 28 + + Sackville the Poet, 63 + + Sacred Marks, 103 (block), 179 + + Saehrimnir, 153 + + Sagittarius, 162-5 + + Saints--Adrian, 99 + Anthony, 154 + Augustine, 31 + Bartholomew's, Smithfield, 173 + Bernard of Clairvaux, 23, 27, 36-7 + Britius, 81 + Ciaran, 162 + Cross, Hospital of, Winchester, 100 + George, 47-8, 57 + George's Chapel, Windsor, 10, 167, 195-6, 203 + Gertrude, 43 + Helen's, Abingdon, 218 + John, 49, 118 + Katherine's, Regent's Park, 78, 81, 83, 86, 169 + Keyne, 46 + Lucy, 134-5 + Luke, 73 + Martha, 46 + Michael, 47, 76 + Martin's, Leicester, 196 + Martin, 81 + Mary's, Beverley, 123 (_see_ Beverley) + Mary's, Faversham, 180 + Mary's Minster, Thanet, 97, 122-3, 130-1, 195 + Nessan, 162 + Nicholas's, Lynn, 11-2, 174 + Nicholas, 179 + Nilus, 36 + Paul's, Bedford, 175 + Paul's, London, 32, 109 + Peter's-in-the-East, Oxford, 126 + Romain, 46 + + + Salus, 178 + + Sambar, 50 + + Samson, 198 + + Sani, 53 + + Satan, 48, 62, 70, 104-6, 170 + + Satanic Representations, 64-77, 78-105 + + Sathanus, 170 + + Satire, 185 + + Satires without Satan, 106-11 + + Satyrs, 69 + + Saturn, 21, 57 + + Saturnalia, 143 + + Saxon work, 9 + + Scandinavian mythology, 45, 76, 153, 157; + Trinity, 177 + + Scarabaeus, 178 + + Scriptural Illustrations, 112-120 + + Scylla, 160 + + Scythes, 182 + + Sea-horse (hippocampus), 26 + + Seals, 8, and end of Index + + September, 140, 154 + + Seraphim, 74 + + Serapis, 42 + + Serpent, the, 44-5, 60-1, 73-5, 77 + + Sex of the Moon, 43 + + Sheep, 72, 142 + + Shell, 50-1, 54-5, 57-9, 159 + + Shell Child, the, 50-9, 159 + + Shepherd, 72, 142 + + Sherborne, 134-5, 208 + + Shiva, 66 + + Sigurd, 46 + + Sin series of carvings, 78-111 + + Sirius, 42 + + Sismondi, 31 + + Sistrum, 41, 43 + + Situations of Church Grotesques, 213-8 + + Siva, 178 + + Slanderers, 82 + + Sledges, 63 + + Smu, 50 + + Snail, 57-8 + + Solomon, King, 62 + + Sources of material for Gothic grotesques, General, 4 + + Southleigh, 63 + + _Speculum Humanae Salvationis_, 113 + + Sperke, John (1520), 174 + + Spinx, the, 158-9 + + Springs, 66 + + SS., the letter, and Collar of, 57 + + Stanford, Berkshire, 18 + + Star Worship, 27-8 + + Stars and Stripes, 179 + + Statute of Labourers, 17 + + Stoeffler, 141 + + Stowlangcroft, 196 + + Stratford-on-Avon, 60, 129 + + Suffolk, Duchess of (ob. 1475), 76 + + Sun, 167 + + Sun Feast, 153 + + Sun Worship, 32, 37, 42, 44-59, 71, 153, 158, 162, 175, 210-1 + + Superstition, Horn, 73 + + Supreme Intellect, the, 74 + + Surya, 53, 178 + + Sutton Courtney, 128-9 + + _Sutton-in-Holderness_, 106 + + Swan, 167 + + Swar, 42 + + Swathing of Infants, 114 + + Swarhanu, 53 + + Sweden, 153 + + Swine, Yorkshire, 106-7, 109, 129-30 + + Symbolism and Fable, 186 + + Symbols of worship a general source of Gothic ornament, 4, 27 + + Syderesys, 170 + + Syria, 47 + + + Tabor (drum), 97 + + Tarasque, 46 + + Tau Cross, the, 34, 43-4 + + Taurus, 73 + + Telephorus, 178 + + Teraphim, 28 + + Teutonic appreciation of humour, 7 + + Thanet, Isle of, 97, 122, 130-1, 195 + + Theban Trinity, 177 + + Theophylact, 143 + + Thirlwall, 33 + + Thoth, 78, 167 + + Three, the number, 162 (_see_ Trinities) + + Three branched rod, 103 (block), 162, 181-2 + + Time, Father, 57 + + Titian, 42 + + Topsey-turveyism, 149 + + Torregiano, 10 + + Tree of Knowledge, the, 74 + + Trefoil, the, 162, 178-9 + + _Trial of Mary and Joseph_, 82 + + Trigla, 180 + + Trinities, 168, 175-183 + + Tufton Street Architectural Museum, 12 + + Tum, the Setting Sun, 178 + + Typhon, 44-57, 64-5 + + + Unseen Witness, the, 79, 85, 86, 87 + + + Vali, 114 + + Vanity, 97 + + Vedie Trinity, 178 + + Venus, 21, 53, 111, 148 + + Veximiel, 62 + + Virgil, the, 160-1 + + Virgin Mary, the, 30, 42, 82-3 + + Virgo, 158 + + Vishnu, 53, 153, 178 + + Vulcan, 148, 177 + + + Wall paintings compared with carvings, 114-117, 119-20 + + Wake Knot, 207-8 + + Wellingborough, 14, 15, 22, 34, 101, 195, 215 + + Wells, 65, 77, 150 + + Westminster Abbey, 9, 10, 91-95, 97, 109-110, 123-4, 156, 173 + + Wheelbarrows, 135-7, 196 + + Whistling Maid, the, 104-5 + + Whistling while drawing ale, 105 + + White, Wm. (1520), 173-4 + + Wich, Bishop de la, 124, 181 + + Winchester, 64, 100, 111, 145, 154, 166, 195 + + Windsor, 10, 167, 195, 203, 208 + + Winking Nun, the, 106-7 + + Wolf, the, 187, 189, 192; + story of the wolf's head, 187 + + Wolfius, 196 + + Worcester, 113-5, 142, 160, 161, 182-3, 203 + + Worm of conscience, the, 170 + + Wright, Thomas, 197 + + Wyvern, the, 47 + + + York, 63, 65, 77, 129-30, 140, 148 + + Yorkshire, 10, 63, 65, 77, 106-7, 109, 127 (_see_ Beverley) + + Yule, 153 + + + Zeus, 177 + + Zither, 166 + + Zodiac, 45, 53 + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Early in the thirteenth century unruly converts of the Abbey of Meaux, +Yorkshire, were, to humble their pride, made stonemasons, etc. + +[2] Of Christ, the Virgin, and saints only. It is here quoted as evidence +of a tendency. It is plain that the council protected itself, for the +following distich is attributed to it, which sums up the original intent +of all images-- + + "Id Deus est, quod Imago docet, sed non deus ipse; + Hanc Videas, sed mente colas; quod cemis in ipse." + +which Prideaux, Bishop of Worcester, translates (1681): + + "A God the Image represents, + But is no God in kind; + That's the eye's object, what it shews + The object of the mind." + +[3] Yet the Hindoo signification of Typhon is "the power of destruction by +heat." In this we have another piece of evidence that both the good and +the bad of the fable are referrable to the sun as his varying attributes, +and probably describe his particular effects at various portions of the +zodiacal year. The true, or rather the close, meaning of the various +accounts is obscured and confused; firstly, by imperfect knowledge as to +the geographical situations where the idea of the zodiac was conceived and +developed; secondly, by the gradual precession of the Equinoxes during the +ages which have elapsed since such conception. + +[4] Mr. Robert Mann. + +[5] "Sutton-in-Holderness." + +[6] Roscommon. + +[7] Hone. + +[8] The Church Treasury, by William Andrews, 1898, p. 193. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these +letters have been replaced with transliterations. + +The original text contains a hieroglyph. This is noted in this text as +[symbol]. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Grotesque in Church Art, by +T. 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