for

The Structure the Oxford and

Florence

of Morris's Cambridge
S. Boos
Churches

Tales Magazine

the Oxford and Cam con well 1856 might two most writers promising were Bur ne-Jones Edward Morris1 admire William yet for tales their narrative prose eight stark and invention, emotion, complex a co These have motifs. writings early and herent structure psychological employ served Morris well in his which techniques For example, later he experimented work. for the narrators first with here, time, and protagonists normal who survive pro cesses and sometimes of death and change, leave narrative their frames. 'proper1 bridge Magazine that its clude of short fiction and R.W. Dixon, have been tales variously early as searches for interpreted religious romantic active vocation, love, certainty, and as an expression and social community, an integrated, to create confi of failure At dent (1) times, they clearly identity. of Morris's late express apprehensions and fears adolescence and early maturity, to achieve ends he will fail that worthy reflect the and love.(2) inspire They of a complex and multiply-gifted efforts to harmonize several conflict personality an unclear and confront ing aspirations These
future.

A casual

reader

of in

of North France: of Shadows to his testifies ardent Amiens," enjoyment of Amiens' decorative artwork and and the detached-but statuary, essay's narrative mode is closely loving paral in his leled fictional first-published "The Story of the Unknown Church." tale, Morris's

works prose early descriptive essay, Their autobiography. the cadence and language approaches of his best as a and imagery poetry, are result ill-served they by conventional At their best, plot-summary. rivals that of psychological authenticity the poems of The Defence of Guenevere, and their dislocated narrative temporally are frames and remote. strangely haunting I will examine these in three qualities works: the of "Shadow essay, Amiens," Morris's first to contribution the of "The the Unknown Magazine; Story narrated craftsman Church," by a fictional of the sort celebrated in of "Shadow and "A Dream," the of first Amiens;" Morris's a complex tales to employ of interrelated and community protagonists fiction,
narrators.

In general, hover between and stylized

Shadows wrote these Morris Characteristically, a of works in first support published to he which contrib cooperative project, more the most others in than uted to he also planned group.(3) Originally, a series of impressionistic write essays on the churches of North the after France, manner of of The Seven Architecture Lamps of Venice. influ and The Stones Ruskin's mov seen ence in tale's the also be may ing-camera emphathy narrator he what February of and intense effects mixture and but Morris's detachment, more identifies with directly sees. for Morris's the essay of issue the "The Magazine,

of

Amiens letters to ex a with does not

often Morris remarked in early are that emotions difficult deep the (4) and press, essay begins of what he passionate description know and cannot say. And

even I thought that if I could else about these say nothing grand I could churches men at tell least so that how much I loved then: though at me for my foolish they might laugh and confused be words, they might yet to see moved was what there to make . . . (349) me speak my love.

_VPR

visual detail of rhapsodic Sixteen pages Morris The twenty-one-year-old follow. or to be an antiquarian not pretend does his and architectural historian, that Blake's recalls epigram commentary The criticism." is "Imitation essay begins:

and love faith of man that dies not: for their the deeds and love, through . . . they not which it worked, will lose their reward (349-50), and these from the more than sermon thirty of years Ball John later:

published

Not long ago I saw for the first time some of the churches of North France; more still I saw them for recently the second and remembering the time; I have love for them and the longing was that in me to see them during the came between time that the and first second I thought I should like visit, to tell some of of those people I felt when I was there, there things the tombs of the among mighty long dead ages.(349) commemorates 'love' and the mighty tombs.' cathedral's artisans of Morrisian empathetic leap emotion, 'among of the the . . . those same Notice that he an earlier

as though the prison to walls opened me and I was out of Canterbury street and the of amidst meadows green me and therewithal with along April; I have folk that known and who are are and folk that dead, yea, living; on and all those of the Fellowship and in heaven; earth all and yea, are here that this day. ... once more I knew he who that and because doeth well in fellowship, of fellowship, not shall fail though to fail he seem but in days today, he and his hereafter shall work yet be alive, and men be holpen by them . . . to strive and yet again again.

felt 'longing' His evocation to an leads faith:

(5)
was Morris to vindicate consistent deeply the continuity the of "stories emotion, of man that love die not." The echoing, are "Amiens" and Ruskin's, in his desire of human the and faith

still men and surely living, of receiving no I love capable love, less than the and men, great poets and such on who are painters like, no less earth than my breathing now; friends whom I can see looking kindly on me now. do l_ not love them Ah, cause with who certainly loved just of me sometimes between me, thinking the of their strokes chisels? (349) builders, still real (emphasis mine)

the timeshift seems Upon reflection, shouldn't strangely appropriate: why past builders have as he imagines him, imagined them? Similar informed thought-experiments the A Dream better-known of John Ball, written Notice later. the years thirty between the parallels following passage from "Amiens:" this men love of all that . . this and moreover for. had, of theirs, the upraising of the . . ; wrought. Cathedral front. great . . by the dint of chisel and stroke . . . stories of hammer into of the they work And for

in cadences symmetrical more of variants tempered also Morris varied Ruskin's a narrator in which arial-overview, ranges over is seen. In the what famous freely of "The Nature of Gothic," passage opening Ruskin invites to follow the reader the of a bird from to Southern flight-path Northern In Morris Europe. "Amiens," emulates this within humbler perspective human limits: if were one to mount of the you or were of the town, even to steeples mount of one of the roof up to the . . houses westward of the Cathedral. near the the crock top of the spire rose to the ets swell till you come that holds the of great spire-cross .... metal work (350-55) (emphasis mine) Later, more the narrator from approaches "one of the church the streets

mundanely

4 SPRING 1987

to the and out Place Royale," leading shifts from to first "I second person: to shout. felt inclined Morris's ..." of set this 'arial1 great piece technique, of course, is the idle singer's descrip at the of London tion fourteenth-century of The Paradise: Earthly beginning Forget
smoke,

six
. . .

counties of the

overhung pack-horse

with on the and its

Think

rather

down, dream And and white, clear The gardens and its

of London, small, clean Thames bordered by . . (6) 3) (III, green.

to an unnamed dissolve subsequent where town Elders and hall, Aegean city narrate Morris's and Wanderers longest poem: now Pass between brazen door, on the And standing floor all the noises Leave them, polished of the push the

the also ers' 'wonder' suggests early use of tale's characteristic multiple as eager, witnesses narrators reverential a Ruskin tableau. to a central enjoined of stones, to the colors careful attention was noted for and Morris's stained glass of its colors. richness and the depth tell at photographs which he chafes Here, of the colour the about building, "nothing is as un brown and yellow their in fact as possible of Amiens. to the like grey . . the to I have of colour facts So for. or at two I and the remember spent day try . . ."(354-55) he ad He could, Amiens. of looked have up full mits, explanations would but this the church's decorations, sto to tell the undercut his intention: and else. ries nothing suggested by them,

marble square shall noise you

behind;
Most calm that reverent but door ... chamber for your (7) the ye find, at Silent first, you made When on the brazen

hand (4)

laid
To shut it after.

In "Amiens" more interest

not takes Morris surprisingly in the cathedral's carvings, and stained statuary glass, paintings, He praises stalls its than engineering. a glor are "told in such stories whose manner" straightforward iously quaint on he dwells and (352); points carefully of realistic detail:

WILLIAM MORRIS Morris's medieval reconstructions have been for criticized their distortions and for their Both verisimilitude. praised are views he appreciated certain right; of physical kinds and visual historical as precisely as anyone detail in his time, and he others He ignored altogether. as researched later works such thoroughly The Roots of the Mountains and The Earthly but his interest in Paradise, 'important' was minimal: scene "The next is figures same bish the shrine of some this saint, I suppose; now dead after all his op, and and hard building ruling, fighting, . . ." with the powers that be. possibly, His to selective attention such (357)

a "There were, they and [of kine], crushing writhing heap one another; heads and drooping crowding bodies. and strange angular eyes, starting ... Pharoh's understood I never fairly saw at stalls the I dream till scene evokes his A burial Amiens."(352) so faces ''O those most intense response: and of all tender full longing yearning . . . might be with the too that they on a their There is wonder dead! happy . . the mighty see. faces when too, they . . . (364) The bystand of death. power

_VPR

was and situations also generic figures conviction that by his strong prompted are the appropriate measure human emotions of the Cathedral's effects: mighty I think I felt to shout inclined when I first It Amiens entered Cathedral. is so free and vast and noble I that . . . felt. . . intense at exultation the beauty of and a cer it. That, tain of satisfaction kind in looking on the of the geometrical tracery on the of the windows, sweep huge were in arches, my first feelings .... Amiens Cathedral (351-52) Throughout consistently difficult writings preoccupied retention of and ironies his Morris with was the the

lacement of arches the intensest blue of the . . . summer blue some sky; times at night the stars you may see It is fair it. still shining through the is gone, the though gold spire seems that to rock when across it in the wild the clouds nights February go westward. (366) written 11, January 1856, after the of the appearance of the Oxford and Cambridge Morris remarked that "The Sha Magazine, dows of Amiens" was not to write: easy me more "It has cost trouble than anything I have written I ground at it the yet; other from nine o'clock till half night four when the went a.m., past lamp out, and I had to creep to bed through upstairs the great dark a thief."(9) house like In the end, the essay's reflects exposition this care. of Amiens" "Shadows revealed Morris's to reshape Ruskin's tech ability and rhetoric to his nique's, sensibility, own and it touched he ends, registers often used own emotions, his di again: narrative reconstruc rectly reported; immediate visual tions, de suggested by and extended on the reflections tails; moral of what he has seen. significance It is a surprisingly first sophisticated critical and Mackail was not en effort, effusive when he called it "wrought tirely as if with chisel and yet strokes, precise days issue passionate."(10) In a eleven first letter

truth, past of indirect vagaries historical and the transmission, recovery of vanishing and redefinition at points the edge of human record. piece and Other their suppress essayists source's Morris makes it a unreliability; central rhetorical which also device, the and thus the complements ineffability elusiveness of what he sees. the Compare of an angel, for following description with his to Jane Burden tribute example, that "I cannot I love but you, paint perceptions, fabrication. he believed, own their from conscious sometimes should

Artists, together refrain

you"(8): a very like fair woman's fairer than woman's any saw or thought . . . of. a at loss how to de utterly or scribe to of idea the it, any give of the cheek lines and the exquisite . hair back from it. rippled sweeping . . (359-60) it is face, face I am rather but I ever Twenty-six farewells of magniloquent lines the conclusion. precede essay's care Morris took with fic Later, great tional and several leavetaking, works, and late of the Moun (The Roots early for in 1888), end with tains, example, solemn funerals. "Amiens's" final image is of a bare ruined choir which still.. . catches through its inter more Story of the Unknown Church

and fluid Dramatically-charged language narrative structure have created critical interest in "The of the Unknown Story Church." Its dream is highly plot sugges and its unusual tive, anachronisms may be or More both. disordered, evocative, the tale's an of significantly, portrayal devoted stonemason also recon intensely an ancient siders is artistic question: a manifestation creation of re inhuman or a fitting reward for a dedi pression, cated and humane As a conventional life? narrative of heroism or love, the work is rather as a companion-tale to "The slight; Shadows of Amiens," is orderly, it even and its narrative transparent, structure adumbrates again which Mor many patterns

6 SPRING 1987
ris
work.

developed

more

clearly

in his

later

Walter, Morris "still

is one of the builders of "Shadows Amiens," men and real still living, surely and he love" of (349), receiving capable 'unknown describes his church,' lovingly In Morris exterior first. "Amiens," to a carving of the dead deeply responded has Walter carved virgin; carefully of his dead and sister Margaret effigies his The her fiance closest friend. Amyot, an elegiac narrator of "Amiens" praises a vanished art which to restore attempts most Wlater's work past; wrought lovingly love commenorates his for two lost lovers. the mason, in evoked narrator of "Amiens," the also Like Walter even iconic likes profusion. complexity, in death two lovers The lie together a marble all about "carved beneath canopy so many flowers and histories," which with some standard but include Christian icons, he had "the faces of all of those also on earth." The Amiens known (!) essayist to his church when cadenced farewell bids his is done; when Walter completes homage last he bids his decorative ornament, for he is found to life, farewell "lying last of dead underneath the the lily
tomb."

I was the master-mason of a church was built more than that six hundred now it two is hundred ago; years that church from since vanished years the face of it was de the earth; of it fragment utterly,?no stroyed was not even the great left; pillars. . . . (149) Like Ruskin, architecture later described form organic has seen," Morris considered Gothic the highest form of art and it as "the most completely . . . Art which of the world . . . "a harmonious (11) of art, of all work inclusive cooperative serious the that of arts,"(12) is, and the Its craftwork decorative arts. in consequence?among them practitioners, as Walter?were most artisans such "the of useful part [society's] population." (13)

one As benefits of the Morris Walter admires, of ornamentation great

master-artists creates thus

and variety but his range, improvis?tional The story is obliterated. accomplishment the but effort somehow of his survives, is the church itself gone; compare into has fallen which at Amiens, cathedral be still its may ruin, great spire though on wild In seen life, nights. February when we looked forward to "the time Walter now but be all should again," together voice his narrative lingers spectral only Someone will his to record get fidelity. the "Amiens" straight, identity bishop's is the but Walter possible only Because his of his tale. interpreter was so its also is achievement greater,
loss.

Morris's Gothic church, however, English a category falls into neglected by Ruskin, in Seven of Architec who remarked Lamps to have "I could have that wished ture more examples from our early English given I have found it but Gothic; impos always to work of our in the cold sible interiors . . ."(14) com Ruskin also cathedrals. "a building cannot ments be consid that or five as in its until four ered prime . . ."(15) over have centuries it. passed was?an is?or 'unknown The then, church,' two Gothic church hun destroyed English in Ruskinian dred its ago, years 'prime,1 it has vanished of from and any penumbra narratives such In later recent memory. as "Ogier the Dane," used centuries Morris as symbols or for a sin (saecula) 'ages' a of two such After lifetime. gle lapse of the church what memory living 'ages,' there be? could for the also cherished Morris 'unknown,' was the what (like not,' legendary 'living "can n'er of The Earthly Paradise) figures A plausibly but con idealized be dead." so we can never be impugned, past jectural of his can the 'unknown lineaments imagine as we wish. as Morris church' freely use of nar his later refined extensively of frames and timeless rative descriptions his for de in the distant past, example of the peas scription fourteenth-century revolt of John ant in A Dream Ball. One

of The anachronism and immediate. direct

is narrative Morris' words: In Walter's

_VPR

tem was to attribute techniques the to dislocations protagonists poral the Dane strug as when Ogier themselves, secular his remember to previous gles Walter disembodied the Here 'lives.' recover the to some strain with tries Gestalt: entire church's of these No one it stood. now even where much remember not very jL ??2 land where the about was; my church ^i name of the have it, forgotten quite seem ... to see it again. I almost see in . . . Only it do dimly I_ .... summer and winter and spring of autumn-tide; the whole I remember I can come to me; in bits the others . . . of them. of think parts only mine) (149, emphasis knows was most however, "I important even with see it in eventually preternatural autumn-tide oh! so clearer, I can think of autumn; all I in autumn, (149)

bitter to the

deep utterly,?no ("destroyed . . where it stood," No one knows. has of his what love is tempered by church where it my ("the place placed now as when it to be is as beautiful It in all its (141). splendour" of his the last Walter years twenty his to carve masterwork: so it those

loss, art's sadness

but his natural at the

ultimate source. of loss

is loyalty his Thus a lifework . . . fragment. (149) dis used stood took life

I had carved after happened I loved above two whom their I could not leave that tomb, yet be I might and so that it; carving near a monk, and used I became them think to sit in the choir and sing, we all be of should the time when ing together again. (158)

What returns, vividness:

Approval to tial

clearer, now; yes, clearly .... and glorious bright but of them of parts only and nights and of all days one more particularly." remember There is

and something paradoxical the at fierce Walter's in joy touching into his life-work of transformation corn organic ("the most completely waving . . . Art has world the form of seen?"). to transmute labored has Someone who into art might and processes natural forms reversion such an Ecclesiastes-like regret Morris's takes but Walter to grass, of art own delight in the garden's profusion: with green green-white briony, one so that fast, grows blossoms, we see it that think could almost La bella and deadly grow, nightshade, so beautiful; red berry, oh! donna, and and purple, flower, yellow-spiked dark green cruel-looking, deadly, in the all leaf, together growing lush glorious days of early autumn. (151)

church's of the descriptions By contrast, recall fountains and carved golden spires even of "Palace here, Art;" Tennyson's to returns the passage finally though,
flowers?on graves "of monks and . . .

is essen of an internal audience and the Morrisian narratives, a becomes interest townspeople's growing to trans to Walter's testimonial ability sorrow: his form "as I carved, sometimes come too would and other the monks people . . . and sometimes as they and gaze, too for pity, would weep knowing gazed, they had been."(158) how all Wal Otherwise, secluded is quite monastic ter's labor as one on earth not indeed: "I was now, out but seemed of the world" away quite He lives to finish last the detail (149). the of the his finest tomb, imagination can last act and his is the conceive, which of the flower creation symbolizes, mutual love and resur among other things, . . till "So my life rection. passed,. one morning, came when quite early, they me into the church for matins, found they chisel in with dead, my hand, my lying the last of underneath the tomb." lily As a final the artist is (158) reward, not forced to outlive his Consonant art. the with tale's of art is its pre praise a of with loss love. Like occupation Thomas Mann's Tonio Walter is a Kroger, of the observer-memorialist lonely happi ness of but he deeply others, respects he observes; what and like all of Morris's he records the protagonist-observers, tale's essential events emotional from within.

lawyers."

Walter's

art

expresses

his

8 SPRING 1987
to lives-within-lives appealed clearly of them variants and reappear Morris, "A Dream"'s his writings. throughout same seasonal the follow also tales inset one Earth of The as much the longer cycle The in spring. Paradise?beginning ly Paradise of The compares Earthly singer northern in a wintry to a wizard himself of a four windows who throws open clime, four scenes the of onto castle feudal on a cold win seasons in a warm dwelling and narrators the ter Finally, night. and seem to hear, prompt, protagonists not which to each other, only respond creates own wizardry, but its suggests in encountered some of the strains already "The Unknown Church."

A Dream: Selves,

Multiple Frames,

Speakers, and Dreams

in the and Oxford "A Dream" appeared for March, the month Cambridge Magazine became be Morris It would twenty-two. a fourteen-page to find hard Victorian a more tale with structure. prose complex Not only does "A Dream" have four internal narrators and of four inset witnesses but these narrators' episodes, interrelations with the inset protagonists are essential as a whole. to the tale "A Dream"'s narrators tell of four tales same of the two lovers in incarnations seasons across four scattered four structure which varies centuries?a of of "The the Unknown aspects Story and anticipates in miniature the Church" of A Dream of John Ball frames elaborate and Ttie The Like Paradise. Earthly "A Dream"'s narrative Paradise, Earthly outer has three The first-person levels. narrator "dream [s] once, that four men sat fire and winter talking telling by the . . ," and enters tale inmost tales. the in its final to view lovers' the paragraph tomb before he 'awakes' to remark that he has labored "To gather and tell o'er/Each little sound and sight" The tale (175). an also takes in place eclectically feudal and its narrators? European past, and Herman; Osric, Giles, Hugh, English, be and German?might French, Scandinavian, of The Paradise's Earthly prototypes multinational "Wanderers." Hugh narrates in the extended of the two episodes lives lovers Lawrence and Ella; the third; Giles the and all four witness fourth. The episodes, incarnations are ence, from different drawn four exist Lawrence and Ella's

are intro The four witnesses/narrators of order in duced age. Hugh, descending a is and principal first the speaker, black-bearded Giles white-bearded ancient; one of "the is simply Osric and younger; is "the and Herman men" two younger (179), most For the Hugh and part, youngest." Herman as and Osric listen, Giles speak as Paradise's The much aged Earthly to tales their tell and Elders Wanderers younger More auditors. 'wizardry' Ella is to remarks

come. In the third died that Hugh has episode a remembers and Giles the preceding night, and Osric invisible. when he became time when are disturbed Herman understandably last for the time, reappear Hugh and Giles
and more so when the more-than-four-hun

of

the by apparently separated saecula mentioned earlier. Morrisian (The between last three the intervals episodes are The in the tale's text) explicit thus matches of the 'unknown that duration and both Law like the church,' church, rence now ceased to exist. and Ella have A major the Paradise tale, "Ogier Earthly its follows Dane," protagonist similarly one hundred at four through life-spans out in the last intervals but year opens As I have to infinity. mentioned, cycle of tales-within-tales and configurations

close. its at Ella appears dred-year-old themselves and Herman Osric Since by then as as well narrators are centuries-old, at in seem to 'exist' thus protagonists the two worlds?within least episodes, and in a timeless is possible, death where share their in which realm narrative they four the totum In Morris's tales. simul, cho of collective form a kind narrators other's at each shiver rus. tales, They and other's at each woes, tremble join the lovers' to celebrate long finally these union. awaited patterns Again, later tendencies Morris's suggest strongly and time cultures different to blend peri and young, old and memories dreams, ods, and participants. observers More immediate parallels can be found

_VPR

of the Church" Unknown between "The Story and "A Dream." Both tales his with open funer close with torical public prefaces, and involve lost memorialize lovers, als, own tales. Walter's in their narrators are and memories dream by accompanied of red and and sensuous music descriptions sensuous most "A Dream"'s flowers; gold are of Ella's musical voice, descriptions and hair and clothing, the lovers' golden a brilliant Walter's crimson sunset. and has a deathlike friend Amyot pallor, the of "A Dream" in each reincarnation are more pallid in than lovers separated a a near dream in the last. appears Amyot a enter Lawrence must red cliff by water; near a red peak cavern Each by a river. scenes de four of inset "The Story"'s a a body of water scribes (two rivers, in "A and a waterfall); landlocked bay, scene is asso of each dissolve Dream" in disor of elements ciated with imagery a a tem der: sea, winds, rushing wintry over and gusts of wind the snow. pest, Some also frame narrative may to merit notice. enough "And I have first tale: Hugh fancied that in some way, how I sometimes, I am mixed know not, the up with strange I am going to tell (159-60) story you." father Cuthbert's his Hugh quotes descrip of the mysterious tion red cavern: have that cave, many would explored from covetousness either (expecting or from to find that therein), gold men of wonders love which most young but fear them back. have, kept Within the memory of man, however, some had entered, so men said, and,
were never seen on earth again. . . .

and These (16) the young Hugh's

other

stories

imagination,

kindle only however:

me many wondrous tales told My father a long for whereof the place, about to remember I have been able time or some means nothing; by yet, a has certain up grown another, story tell I will in my heart, which you no living a story of: which something ever I do told creature me, though I knew not it the time when remember not.(159) of a tale the Notice syncretic imagery ever creature told "no living which me," "has heart." but which grown up in his and the first Osric When he finishes tale, sense of are "awed Herman vague by some . . ," but near. Giles very being spirits so patient, he and not is brusquely old the "Never? hesitant Hugh: prompts cannot tell not is I it Hugh, so?Speak! I know it was not but you how it happened, us Tell not so, Hugh! so?speak quick, The all!"(165) dressed, all, ruggedly is "black-bearded, with Giles middled-aged . . brows that. wild grey eyes great hung over and his blunt contravention is far," one more the of frame's interesting and to Giles passages. struggle Hugh latter's the continue until breast as heaved would it though as of must be it rid burst, though he secret. its sprang up, Suddenly a solemn was that and in a voice "In full chant, began: long daylight, a slumberously-wrathful, on ago,
thunderous afternoon of summmer. . ..

of aspects be symbolic the begins

the

(165)
then man's ran old his chant the voice: "On an October close with packed day, heavy-lying more was than mere autumn which mist, . . the shrill went voice mist,". on; sank down and Giles Hugh again, to [remained] there, standing swaying to the measured and fro of ringing own shrill his beard his voice, long . . . with him. (165) moving a brief and Ella, and hos across shrill

(159)
about this 'cave' both Something suggests The Earthly of Venus" Paradise's and "Hill more general emblems of an Unknown toward are which successive generations drawn?an which may inexorably ambiguity some account for of to Hugh's tendency Lawrence assimilate and himself. of the cave attraction is archetypical made more vivid when Cuthbert tells once own father his stabbed him Hugh that to keep in the shoulder him from the cave. The also

second records Hugh's episode between Lawrence reconciliation as a wounded reincarnated knight

10 SPRING 1987
nurse a plague. In a scene pital during influenced Two Years perhaps by Kingsley's as a physician After (1855), Hugh serves as the latter to Lawrence from recuperates as Lawrence him his addresses wounds. as master "kind the makes Hugh" physician his rounds with the reincarnated who Ella, a is now a 'holy nun, woman,' presumably also still but and quick 'peevish-looking' Her only to anger. in the episode speech is an unmerited and reproof: exhortation "Master is not for this time Physician, . . here at act. but ," least, dreaming: a man to care she for the sick, enjoins a man-eating not enter cave. The gentle, Lawrence to all of scrupulous responds as were on if his mind this "impatiently, other and he in bed turned his things, . . . (167) The scene ends away. finally a great when "WEST WIND" rises up healing sea to blow from the the away plague's a healing miasmic clouds, (17) process master' he may which Hugh?'kind though At the end of be?cannot effect himself. he remains "mixed his tale up poignantly the "somehow with my life strange story": I beheld from the the when time changed . . . I grew old two and lovers, quickly. . . I know was not And that ago,. long when it happened."(168) Like Walter, Hugh an ideal has faded venerates with which narra in Morris's into work him oblivion; and tors too and till the "come fields, lie beneath." more the third, episode, begins his than intervention tempestuous quietly a breath "I heard in the second: suddenly of the the of air rustle boughs through . . . my heart almost beat elm. stopped as not knew I watched the I path ing, why, over and of that breeze the bowing lilies . . the the rushes fountain. ." (168 by brother and love recent have Giles's 69) and he is still in mourning when ly died, a "clear and distinct" in he sees (169) two of Lawrence and Ella, "Those carnation seen in dreams whom before I had but by for the to Ella Lawrence, speaks night." with affec tale first time in the open our meet for last true this tion?"Love, a we need end of the before all, ing let softened this man, witness; by sorrow, even as we are, her go with us"(169)?and so reminds melodious voice the normally of his love that he is Giles dead vigorous Giles's Her. overwhelmed grief. by inarticulate a witness" once also "need [for] expresses for Morris's desire testimonial again of In reply, emotion. deep recognition or "old Cuthbert Lawrence suggests Hugh, been witnesses his [who] have both father, that "Cuth she before;" solemnly replies . . . has dead been bert. years twenty

[and]
this

Hugh died

last

night"

(170).

At

in Giles's narration, point shudder" goes through sickening "but he noted it not men, younger on" (170).

"a cold two the and went

sets In the then forth with Giles tale, and Lawrence the hill "toward Ella by the a cave red riverside" (another river?), by a queen is to crown the victorious where As they war. of a recent hero Giles walk, curious is overcome phenomenon: by another
"my nature was changed, and ... I was

. for, sun was the though no did cast I neither any shadow, high, . . ." (170) we passed man that us. notice Ella and Lawrence After depart, suddenly was own nature visible right "my at but friends the celebration returned," his With note attire. inappropriate now becomes the victor dream-plausibility, and Giles and the Lawrence Ella, queen Lawrence that he has rendered recalls also . . a good fierce service: "in that fight. would have from another, behind, coming . . my lance his bit into slain but. him, the holds The queen breast."(171) briefly to render hand Giles hero's thanks; only formal sees is the she and that Ella, a fact embrace. in is passionate gesture this climactic Giles After encounter, now him asks Osric ends his tale; quickly and Giles how long this ago all happened, a "More than his him with terrifies reply: invisible.
hundred years. ..."

reunites tale inset briefly howls wind A southwest involved. everyone enters and Ella the warm hearth, outside the door; to open to Osric when Hugh nods as the Herman later it for Lawrence, opens even Ella's howls louder. wind appearance in dressed now is she transcends age; is as her hair but usual, golden white, a long, both covered white with veil, . . . and shroud: "her beauty bridal veil The fourth to seemed was plainly grow every minute; not but young, she though rather very,

_VPR

11

who could (173) say how old?" old, very Law absent still the seeks She actively time him for the first rence and describes his which in terms physical emphasize he is When he finally enters, beauty. lover: human than more luminous presence in bright 'ware of some one "was [Herman] of it for the armour him, gleam passing not as could he for was all about him, yet hair the blinded see by being clearly, The about floated him." had that (174) a tableau last silent now in embrace pair ash of snow-white 'a heap into fade then who awed four the es' before 'witnesses,' the bear also their for souls. pray They a great who build news to 'the people,' carve lovers' the Walter and like tomb, outer the on its sides. Finally, story all this dreamt has narrator who most is which final tale's the image, speaks "in my i an and pre-Raphaelite: both Keats on the I saw the moon shining dream tomb, on from the it fair colours throwing a of music sound till rose, glass; painted . " (175) . . The and fainted. deepened, and warm, is chill state final lovers's and sensuous and restful, loving passionate. "A Dream" is a remarka its modest way, and Its idealistic tale. melancholy are in of Morris's all present nostalgia of inner but its demarcation work, early these renders frames and outer qualities and Ella's more effective, temper complex divi conventional the tale's varies ament In some labor. and heroic of sexual sions the and conventional, respects stylized a complicated dia enact also two lovers and of alienated consciousness lectic and the tale anticipates desire, postponed more form the in concentrated complex of Morris's wavefronts narrative later, works. longer In ble in narrator Such shifts work are often Morris's in and chronology as signs of judged or lack of artistic fragmented identity and "A Dream" might and "A Story" control, cases test seem difficult two of the most Yet twentieth for a contrary argument. such novelists employ routinely century a mark of is considered and it shifts, at least to them to object Philistinism some ancillary Victo without argument. was also characterized rian by poetry

widespread narrative

with complex experimentation of view voices, multiple points narrators and the and Book), (The Ring an earlier vision from alienated ("Titho narra Anacoluthic "Dover Beach"). nus," a a it lacks if flaw is tive plausi only shifts of such and absence ble rationale, be contexts bland. in certain may simply show also book-borders Morris's roughly and broken of symmetry analagous patterns as larger and again, reestablished again waves of from successive diverge patterns dif each smaller slightly configurations, from the next. ferent to ex fictional first attempts with identification emotional press bear also of narrative artist the en remained traits which several deeply sensuous mature his character: in graved romantic with identification experience, in fi to endure frustration willingness and devo to a disinterested cause, delity to an ideal of historical tion redemption The and personal collective loss. for narrator who is a wry or diffident witness a basic remained tales of others' likewise of of Morris's Aspects pattern writings. and role narrative this may be found again of in blend in the characteristic again of and distance tense narrative sympathy the Morris's emotive, speakers, restlessly trans-historical non-possessive, quality move of the the 'I' and 'we' which through The Earthly Paradise, tales, prose early on art and socialism. Wal and the essays of and narrator the ter, Giles, Hugh, an early of Amiens" form "Shadows express of of but coherent the fusion complex and detachment which remained sympathy a career William Morris's throughout long of his virtual work. signature literary Morris's his role University of Iowa

NOTES
-For two such see the articles interpretations, by Frederick Kirchhoff and Kenneth in The Golden Deal Chain, edited New York: William Morris Silver, by Carole Society, 1981. medieval "Linden tales, early 2Among Morris's only an inset lacks Its nineteenth romantic borg Pool" plot. who becomes a thirteenth-century narrator, century priest, is troubled transition: "I have lost by this my identity. . . . Yet ... I will be calm. I am resigned, it since . . ," and is no worse than that. I am a priest, then. . . strangely remarks are that his dou "all. thoughts

12 SPRING 1987
. . ." The previous Morris had abandoned his ble,". fall, to become an Anglican intention The Collected clergyman. of William Works edited London: Morris, by May Morris, in the vol. I, pp. 247-48. 1910-15, Quotations Longmans, are or volume text from this unless another reference volume number is given. in A Critical and Selected Edition K. Jordon, ^Walter of William Morris's "Oxford and Cambridge (1856) Magazine" comments of Pennsylvania, (Ph.D. diss., 1960), University on in in the his Magazine's general extensively history to each chapter. and in the headnotes troduction on his commented earliest ^Morris self-consciously to Cor in early efforts those letters, especially See The Letters of William in 1855. Price Morris, Princeton: Princeton University by Norman Kelvin, 1984, pp. 12-14, pp. 19-22. pp. 8-11, 5The Collected 233. 6The 7Ibid., 8Philip Friends Collected p. 4. William Morris: McGraw Hill, 1967), His p. Life, 49. Work, Works, vol. Ill, p. 3. Works of William Morris, vol. XVI, p. 9J.W. York/London: 10Ibid., Mackai 1, Benjamin p. 97. William Basil Morris: Blackwell, Artist, 1936), Writer, vol. I, The Life of 1968), William vol.

Bloom,

I,

Morris, p. 96.

(New

1:I-May Morris, (Oxford: Socialist, 12

vol. Ibid., I, p. 266. John Ruskin's The Compare Lamps of Architecture, The Complete Works of John ?3E.T. Cook and Alexander Ruskm, (London: Wedderburn, George Allen, vol. 1903), VIII, p. 224. Seven 13Artist, 14John Writer, Ruskin, Socialist, Seven Lamps of vol. I, 267. p. 6.

poetic mell edited Press,

p.

Architecture,

who harm sons ^Fathers but several fathers writings, or imprison confine marriageable ter a devoted spurns (Rhodope)

are fairly in Earthly daughters, father.

rare in Morris's Paradise tales and one daugh

and

Henderson, (New York:

scenario *?The a queen in which crowns a heroic soldier is quite it may also have in been Morrisian; fluenced of ceremonies by contemporary in which reports honored Queen Victoria veterans of the Crimean War.

33.

~.?m

"This Macaulay

is my theory": on Periodical
A. Davis, Jr.

Style

William

Matthew Arnold wrote "Lord Ma we own as his know, had, heightened caulay and we and telling way of putting things, for must make allowance it."(l) By always Tho time offered this the Arnold advice, mas Babington way of putting Macaulay's to two become had already legend things on the raised His of readers generations and His and the Critical of England tory to the Edin Contributed torical Essays The trend Review. among Macaulay's burgh to make more not recent readers has been for his of allowances way things putting in to explain method to attempt his but of his of historiography terms theories Several dis in general. and composition for the of cussions example, History, scat Macaulay's together begin by piecing on theory to and proceed tered statements from show that borrowed freely Macaulay 1879,

In

the of the novelist, the bio techniques and the dramatist to create his grapher, as a historian. and These (2) unique style other discussions have not that suggested in any way im Macaulay's original style an understanding of the pedes History. those critics that who Likewise, argue as an Review style Edinburgh Macaulay's was contributor not have unremarkable the substance of the questioned Edinburgh or the relationship between their essays and (3) The present style meaning. study examines of periodical theories Macaulay's and shows that of Macaulay's readers style Review should these essays Edinburgh keep theories in mind before Ma to ascribing all of the ideas and literary caulay opin ions contained in the essays. By examining first Macaulay's letters to