A Sensation and a Stone.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins is one of the first detective novels and is centered around British Imperialism. Collins himself describes it as a novel of how character affects circumstance rather than the traditional form of circumstance upon character. The novel compromises of eleven chapters with eleven narrators which emphasises that it is not a story of the people involved but it is a story of the moonstone itself.

The Moonstone is based on the Koh-i-Noor (meaning 'mountain of light' in Persian) diamond which was brought to Britain in 1850, it was cut in a traditional ancient Indian style and was re-cut by the monarchy in to a more traditional style as its original current was thought to be crude. Once weighing in at 185 carats it was re-cut to 105.60 carats. The diamond had belonged to various rulers, Hindu, Iranian and Sikh included  and it was fought bitterly over, continually being sized as a spoil of war. 

Eventually British rulers seized it in 1850 and was presented to Queen Victoria who was proclaimed empress of India in 1877 when it then became part of the British Crown Jewels and remains there to be viewed to this day.  It has been said that whoever owned the Koh-I-Noor ruled the world, a suitable statement for this, the most famous of all diamonds and a veritable household name in many parts of the world. Legend has suggested that the stone may date from before the time of Christ. History proves its existence for the past two and a half centuries.

"It was a diamond! As large, or nearly, as a plover's egg! The light that streamed from it was like the light of the harvest moon. When you looked down into the stone, you looked into a yellow deep that drew your eyes into it so that they saw nothing else. It seemed unfathomable; this jewel, that you could hold between your finger and thumb, seemed unfathomable as the heavens themselves." (Chapter Nine.)

The diamond still causes controversy today as this BBC article relates, BBC article concerning David Cameron and the Koh-i-Noor diamond.


The Moonstone was termed by its critics as one of the Victorian Sensation novels. The sensation novels were a minor sub-genre of British fiction in the 1860s. Termed as such due the content which mixed contemporary domestic realism with elements of the Gothic, an invasion of the realistic domestic space with extraordinary events. An example of this is the three Indian jugglers present in the house, stereotypical characters who perform tricks,spells and voodoo, initially thought to be the the culprits of the theft of the moonstone. Even the moonstone itself, an allegedly cursed object present in a seemingly ordinary Middle-class Victorian setting hints at this invasion. In the sensation novel extreme evil is masked by its realistic appearance.
John Locke's theory of mind and senses which is linked with Associationism, the idea that mental processes operate by the association of one state with its successor states can be applied to the sensation novel. The mind was conceived as a blank sheet which received sensation and then translated them into ideas of sensations, and then linked them together according to ones principled,social position and similarity. The sensation novel is meant to ignite the senses, one aspect of this in The Moonstone is the delaying tactics used by Batteridge leaving the reader agitated and desperate for the real story.
There are also links between gender and the Sensation novel. "Sensation fiction is full of women who refuse the angelic role; powerful women who take charge and sometimes multiple husbands; manly or androgynous women; sexually beguiling women and ambitious and ruthless women who will stop at nothing to get what they want." (Gilbert.) Collins struggled with this label and its links to the feminine.


A final  interesting issue with the moonstone is its spiritual and material value. 
As mentioned previously the stone was cut when in the possession of the monarchy decreasing its material value but also arguably  its spiritual value. Originally a religious stone, its significance changes when it is brought to Britian and as it exchanges hands in the novel it continually represents different things depending on the character  who owns it at the time. For example, Rachel views simply an ornament, for others its material value is what is important and for the Indian suspects it is the religious value which becomes the most significant.

Local Literary Landscapes - Lyme Regis.

Lyme Regis has been somewhat near the top of my 'must visit places while living in Devon list' and for good reason.

The small historic fishing port lies within Lyme Bay on the border of Dorset and Devon and is noted for its cliffs, beaches and the fossils that can be found there.
Lyme Regis also has several interesting literary connections.

The harbor wall or 'The Cobb' features in Jane Austen's novel Persuasion as well as the novel and film adaptation of  The French Lieutenant's Women by local writer John Fowles.
From there, you can carry out an informative Thomas Hardy literary walk. Hardy spent a lot of time in the town and consequently Lyme Regis inspired a significant amount of his work.

Most recently, Tracy Chevalier's novel Remarkable Creatures was set in this charming place.


"A very strange stranger it must be who does not see charm in the immediate environs of Lyme to make him wish to know it better." -  Persuasion

Walking around Lyme Regis is simply lovely. The local people are friendly and welcoming and there is no shortage of independent shops and cafes to keep you busy. Particularly if you like books or antiques.

The pubs are the sort who welcome dogs and have a warm fire to greet you after a day strolling along the coastline searching for fossils.

The bay with many interesting rocks and fossils further down.

Yummy fudge-making. There were many samples to try and sea-salt fudge is a new favorite.

Further down the bay.

Central part of the village with mostly independent shops.

Link to more information.
Lyme Regis

Quick Quote - Wilkie Collins.

"We were six of one and half-a-dozen of the other. How it was I don't understand, but we always seemed to be getting, with the best of motives, in one another's way.
When I wanted to go up-stairs, there was my wife coming down; or when my wife wanted to go down, there was I coming up. That is married life, according to my experience of it."
- Wilkie Collins.

The Hermit of Hampole.

 Here is a brief introduction to the Medieval Mystic known as Richard Rolle, references on request. Rolle is a particularly interesting mystic and his works should be read even if only for his take on spirituality and perfection and a passionate love for God and Christ which often borders on the erotic.

Relatively little is known about Richard Rolle, and what we do know is based almost entirely from autobiographical references that are found in his own writings and from the biographical office complied by the Hampole nuns thirty years after he died during the Black Death in September 1349. Several miracles were attributed to Rolle during his life and even more so after his death which led people to believe that he would one day become a saint. Rolle was born in Thornton Dale in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the son of William Rolle, a prosperous but landless yeoman. Rolle studied at Oxford sponsored by the archdeacon of Durham Thomas Neville, however, in his nineteenth year after religious conversion, he left university before taking a degree. Following this, Rolle famously fashioned himself a hermit’s habits from his sister’s clothing before returning to Yorkshire.

 Aged twenty-two he had his first sensory experience of God’s love: a warmth (fervor); a sweet smell or taste (dulcor); and the angelic chorus of the saved in heaven (canor).The commentary which best expresses this divine moment is his gloss on the first two and half verses of the Song of Songs or Super canticum canticorum, which survives in thirty manuscripts. Here he gives a sensual account of these feelings and claims to have repeatedly experienced these sensations over many years. 

These experiences can be compared to many other English and European mystics, for example Julian of Norwich claimed to have experienced divine revelations from God and St Teresa of Avila, who inspired the infamous Bernini sculpture, experienced many visions of Jesus and seraphim. She can be related to Rolle not only through the fire of love which she experienced physically when visited by the seraph “leave me all on fire with a great love for God” but she also helped establish nine levels of Christian prayer comparable to Rolle’s levels of sensory experience which lead one to God.   

Rolle develops this love further in his Latin poem in praise of the Virgin, Canticum Amoris  which helps establishes his unconventional persona as the joyous hermit-saint. These two roles of inspired religious authority and poetic lover of God converge in The Fire of Love or Incendium Amoris. In this early work written before 1343 of substantial length Rolle refers to the ‘fire’ that is the love for God. The exact nature of the fire is never fully clarified since he refers to it both physically and metaphorically but he is later criticised by other mystical writers for suggesting it has physical presence. 

In the Fire of Love Rolle refers to an intense physical sensation and an almost sexual love for God portrayed by an abundance of erotic language and description. “What mortal man could survive the heat at its peak,” he uses the heat of love to emphasise God’s ineffability, his references to Icarus suggest that we as humans can feel the heat, if we are fortunate enough, but we cannot reach the very core as we will be burnt, “he must inevitably wilt before the vastness and sweetness of love.” This is not unique to this work as references in Ego Dormia, one of Rolle’s later vernacular works despite its Latin title , are made to a marriage to Christ as Rolle attempts bring the readers to ‘Christ’s bed’. The piece is written in an intimate present tense for a nun of Yedingham and uses sensual language to encourage a union between the recipient, himself and Christ. Critic E.Colledge believes that this is the piece which best represents Rolle. With The Fire of Love in particular, Rolle inspired a great response with many villagers’ who experienced similar fiery passions; he became incredibly popular with the common man who believed he would become a saint.  Emendatio Vitae or The Amendment of Life was perhaps the most popular of Rolle’s Latin treatises on the spiritual life and was also later translated into English by Richard Misyn.“There is no emphasis on the hermit life yet it is utterly characteristic of Rolle’s spirituality.”

James & the Daemonologie

Demonology, classically, has been defined as the study of evil spirits, demons, or the
theology of evil; it has also been defined by Ankarloo, Clark and Monter as the literature of witchcraft. James I uniquely among monarchs considered himself a demonologist and when writing his own treatise there was more than one hundred years of literature which supported his statements.


 
His work is primarily a refutation of Reginald’s Scot’s The Discoverie of Witchcraft which James, on his accession in 1603, ordered that all accessible copies to be burnt. Scot who was skeptical of the claims made against witches published The Discoverie of Witchcraft soon after the witch trials of St Osyth in 1584 where fourteen women were charged with witchcraft, of these fourteen, ten were charged with ‘bewitching to death’ which carried the death penalty.

Subsequently George Gifford published his Discourse of the Subtill Practices of the Devil in 1587 and a dialogue concerning witches and witchcrafts in 1593 which also demonstrated considerable skepticism, arguing that the devil did not need old women to do his work”
The Discoverie of Witchcraft has been described by scholars such as Rosen as, “so reasonable as to be almost unreadable in its own day.” For example , while it was widely believed that witches had control of the weather Scot writes; “if all the divels in Hell were dead and all the witches in England burnt or hanged; I warrant you we should not faile to have raine, haile and tempests”
Scot acknowledges the existence of good and evil spirits but values common sense over hysteria, often displaying views well ahead of his time. James however, in the Preface of the Daemonologie describes Scot as; “an Englishman, not ashamed in public print to deny that there can be such a thing as witchcraft; and so maintains the old error of the Sadducees.”

It is interesting that James likens Scot to a Jewish sect as the views of the Jewish in the era were not so very different from the views on witches, the widespread belief being that Jews had powers gained from worshiping and making a pact with the devil, this suggests that James is likening Scot himself to a demon for daring to defend the people accused of witchcraft. He also alludes to a chemical imbalance possibly causing Scot’s doubts in the second book as well as anyone in agreement with Scot as having a “melancholic humour” this referring to the four  bodily fluids blood, phlegm, choler and bile.
The Daemonologie is divided into three parts. The first part deals with magic, the second with witches and the third with demons and other spirits. 

When it comes to defining James’s views within the Daemonologie it is the Bible which was probably the most important source for James where he derives the existence of demons, their ability to appear to humans and appear in human form. Since the Reformation abandoned most of the teachings of the Catholic Church, the Bible remained the only steadfast source for James. This is especially true when considering that the post Reformation church in Scotland was very much Calvinistic at the time. The 16th century Calvinists saw the Bible as the only certain means of knowing anything about God. Additionally, James would have been comprehensively aware of the classical teachings of ancient Rome and Greece that were known at the time, also Scotland itself had a rich history of mythical folklore, with which James would have been at least somewhat familiar and drawn on as sources in the Daemonologie.

In the second book James mentions on several occasions that it is only by the permission of God that the devil can harm mankind, in this context, through his agents of the devil, the witches. This is also a direct allusion to the Malleus Maleficarum which opens with the three points which come together in witchcraft. Firstly the devil, secondly a witch, and thirdly, God’s permission. This assertion of God’s omnipotent wisdom which limits and controls the devil’s power is typical of both Catholic and Protestant demonologists. Furthermore, asserting the supremacy of God would have an applied purpose, as it was believed in the Renaissance that James I would have been appointed as ruler by the grace of God and as King had divine rule over his kingdom. Therefore, citizens would have to accept that there were no supernatural beings other than those dictated by James. Those which are confirmed to exist in the Demonology also could not be questioned as this would weaken the very basis of James’s rule. The divine right turned the act of questioning the King’s decisions from a matter of opinion to high treason.

This omnipotent wisdom of the king is supported in The Newes from Scotland pamphlet which also stresses that the witches could not harm the King because he an agent of God. James repeats the same proposition in his Daemonologie, for it was an important part of the image that he wished to project as the divinely-appointed Protestant leader of Europe. The Newes from Scotland according to Roberts is the “most propagandistic of all the texts”, it is the first work printed in Scotland or England which focused solely on witchcraft in Scotland. The Newes is described as a classic sixteenth century pamphlet however, Roberts describes it as, “far more colorful, sensational and violent” than the average pamphlet. He also adds that “the Daemonologie, is suffused with a particular ideology, involving rheology”, which is emphasised by its apparent openness of dialogue but still regards it as propaganda. The woodcut below is from the cover of the pamphlet;

The author was most likely to be James Carmichael, minister of Haddington, who advised King James on the writing of the Daemonologie. The pamphlet was published in London in 1591, and contains essentially the only contemporary illustrations of Scottish witchcraft. The woodcut relates to the various scenes in the pamphlet. For example, to the centre and left, witches listen to the devil preaching a sermon. Also in the top left of the picture a ship is sunk by witchcraft and in the top right three witches stir a cauldron which is a characteristic pamphlet image. At the right and bottom right there is an example of a scene from a story told in the pamphlet preface, a peddler who discovers witches and is transported to a wine cellar in Bordeaux which can display the great powers possessed by a witch. The ship illustrates the potential fate of the King James reminding people immediately that witches are a threat to the nation. Roberts points out that this sensationalist pamphlet and the Daemonologie are both examples of propagandistic text is probably correct as it is these texts which would most likely shape the opinions of the average Jacobean citizen the most. Furthermore, in appendix two which shows the frontispiece of The Witch of Edmonton (1623), there can be found the title of the play and then the statement ‘a known true story’ , therefore, the play itself could be an example of witchcraft propaganda. Simply, a method of delivering the message that is contained in all three of these texts that witchcraft exists, is a genuine threat to society and must be eradicated. Therefore, Roberts’s point is undoubtedly highly relevant.

 The frontispiece of The Witch of Edmonton also illustrates a hag like woman with the traditional familiar dog. It is noted by Lawrence Normans that James is not as harsh on the female sex as his predecessors, while James shows no high respect for women in the Demonology he is not as aggressively misogynistic as Kramer where he discusses at length in the Malleus Maleficarum the notion of ‘the more women the more witches’ whereas James offers familiar arguments of the greater fragility of the female sex and the devil’s acquaintance with it since his deception of Eve.

 “P. What can be the cause that there are twenty women given to that craft where there is one man? E. Easy, for as that sex is frailer than man so it is easier to be entrapped in these gross snares of the devil.”

His emphasis is placed on the mental and physical weakness of women rather than their malice, untrustworthiness or sexual depravity.

James, in the second book also debates the notion of the ‘white witch’; it was widely known that a witch could cause diseases but how about those witches who cured diseases? Often the presence of a good witch was valued by villages for curing ailments and supplying simple potions so the question is raised of whether we may employ witchcraft to our advantage. James answers this question simply, that if the body is cured of disease by the use of magic then the soul will pay the price for this. Disease can only by cured through modification of lifestyle and prayer to God. Therefore emphasizing that witchcraft is not to be tolerated in any form. James in the penultimate chapter addresses the issue of whether witches have any influence over those who are trying them, James was particularly interested in this topic but comes to the conclusion that “God will not permit their master to trouble or hinder so good a work.” Furthermore he argues that a witch’s power must be reduced when she is approached and apprehended by a magistrate although she can be visited by the Devil in prison. He also places great emphasis on the bodily marks which define a witch as mentioned earlier in this paper, those marks caused by a familiar suckling on the witch. Finally in the second book of Daemonologie, James makes a bridge to the final book concerning the nature of spirits using a common Protestant philosophy that times of papistry are comparable to the pagan times before Christ’s manifestation since both these times were troubled with false wonders, apparitions, oracles and visions. Reginald Scot claims that the oracles ceased in the times of Henry VIII and his daughter Elizabeth. James takes this further by saying that since the reformation witchcraft and magic have flourished. Therefore, Henry’s reformation, aside from giving James the authority to judge witchcraft without consul and led the way for a new outlook on the source of evil.

There will be more on this wide subject to follow but should you wish to read the intriguing Daemonologie for yourself , please follow the link below.

King James I - Daemonologie

Caliban Upon Setebos

Robert Browning, one half of the masterful Browning couple, who in the nineteenth century was critically outshone by his semi-invalid wife Elizabeth Barrett-Browning, author of such works as Aurora Leigh and  Sonnets from the Portuguese
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Writing during a time of upheaval in every sense, Browning's poetry often represents the turbulence of the Victorian period, massive upheavals including the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of Darwin's theory. Along with a decline in moral and religious vales and in turn a rise in Science and reason this renders the literature produced during this period particularly questioning and changeable.

Browning is known for his use of the dramatic monologue, a keen interest in the grotesque, a love of classical art and architecture and a penchant for Renaissance and European settings. I would like to briefly talk about one of Browning's most famous dramatic monologue Caliban Upon Setebos which embodies all of the mentioned features and yet stands out as a particularly inaccessible piece of work by Browning
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The setting we encounter in this poem is the island of Shakespeare's The Tempest and our protagonist, Caliban, an unpleasant native of the island who covets and attempts to rape or court (depending on your reading) Prospero's daughter Miranda and so is enslaved by the magician.

So here we encounter Caliban; at first the language of the abused salve seems angry and irrational, his words are taken from the things that surround him and his own experiences. He is a creature kept down in every way by Prospero without even the gift of eloquent language to express himself. The work is written in unrhymed pentameter lines with metrical irregularities suggesting the speaker is uneducated and course in nature. Noticeably Caliban speaks of himself in the first person, often without using pronouns such as "conceiveth" and "believeth" reflecting Caliban's theological speculations and is comparisons of himself and God. This association is often cruel for example his treatment of the crabs;

"Am strong myself compared to yonder crabs
That march now from the mountain to the sea;
Let twenty pass, and stone the twenty-first,
Loving not,hating not, just choosing so.
Say, the first straggler that boasts purple spots
Shall join the file, one pincer twisted off,
Say, this bruised fellow shall receive a worm,
And two worms h whose nippers end in red;
As it likes me each time, I do: so He." (100-109)


Caliban explores the idea of predestination and his power over those who are weaker than him as he decides which crabs will live or be maimed.

Caliban only knows hate and the negative side of existence, he associates his God Setebos with vengeful malevolence and he associates his master in much the same way,keeping him from the only thing he desires - Miranda - who represents goodness. It is no secret that Prospero treats Caliban badly, this is expressed in both The Tempest and the poem, particularly in the lines below;

"if he caught me here,
O'erheard this speech, and asked "What chucklest at?"
Would, to appease Him, cut a finger off,
Or of my three kid yearlings burn the best,
Or let the toothsome apples rot on tree,
Or push my tame beast for the orc to taste." (269-274)

So  Caliban is enslaved in more than just the traditional sense and  it can be seen that he not only desires freedom from his situation but also freedom to have Miranda and so to obtain these he must have freedom from the constraints of his master or God and therefore, religion. His frequent mention of birds, a creature associated with the trinity but also freedom, he wishes he himself were a bird or that he could fashion himself wings from clay, the traditional creation material of God. So that he could still keep God's grace but evolve to a being that could escape from his unpleasant situation and it angers him that god cannot provide this escape for him and therefore, he must be either cruel or too weak to enforce these changes.

The point made by Browning throughout the poem is that in his eyes, a person cannot accept that God is good unless he has had some experience of good in his life or has seen goodness around him.
The thought present in many aspects of Victorian theology is that God is forgiving, loving and non-judgmental however, Browning is arguing that this view, as written by the upper class of society is flawed in that they did not experience the negativity in life that might make an individual question the altruistic goodness of God.

There is also the interesting question of the setting, Shakespeare's England was not only one of high art but one of religious turbulence which relates in many ways to the new turbulence facing Victorian England. It as written at a time when Victorians were struggling with Christianity and Darwinism and how the two were connected. While once faith had been accepted as absolute and little thought was given to how the world world  how humans developed or the laws of physics and chemistry  now everything was being thrown in to question and doubt.


On a contemporary and somewhat amusing  note, Caliban in this poem has been likened to Gollum of Tolkien's creation, a bitter, despised creature who addresses himself and an unknown listener  also thought to be himself. Indicating he has been driven mad and is suffering from a split personality disorder.


If you would like to appreciate the poem for yourself please follow the link below.


Caliban Upon Setebos - R.Browning.

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