‘On Tapestry’, <em>The Bulletin</em>, 14 July 1910
Ballad, chivalry, Courtly Love, crusade, E. J. Brady (1869-1952), Holy Land, joust, knight, romance.
This engaging “McCrae-like medieval narrative ballad” (John B. Webb, “A Critical Biography of Edwin James Brady 1869-1952” PhD Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1972, p.95) concerns the fortunes of a triad of ill-starred lovers. On one hand there is brave Sir Maurice, the wealthy and impetuous knight who excels in chivalric conduct but who is tragically slain while crusading in the Holy Land. On the other is the golden-haired Lady Alice, a romantic counterpart for him who naively “vowed [...] Her Lord he’d be”. Unknown to either of these two quixotically tempered day-dreaming protagonists is the real target of Cupid’s dart, the “crow-haired” ladies maid, who recognises from the outset that her suit is hopeless, and who must content herself with plaintive prayers and “A [hasty] daylight glance.” The tragedy of the missed opportunity that is all too often ‘staring you in the face’ is a theme that Brady also favours and highlights in his less accomplished, more light-hearted medievalist poem, ‘On Keira (See: <a href="http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1032" target="_self">http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1032</a>).’
E. J. Brady
<em>The Bulletin</em>
<em>The Bulletin</em>
14 July 1910, p.39
Public Domain
<a href="http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1032" target="_self">http://ausmed.arts.uwa.edu.au/items/show/1032</a>
Journal (Microfilm)
‘As it is in the Days of Now’,<em> The Bulletin</em>, 12 March 1908
Absent lover, anti-nostalgia, chivalry, critique, cuckoldry, Courtly Love, false friendship, gold, Henry Lawson (1867-1922), Holy Land, honour, knight, knighthood, Lady Clare, Noblesse oblige, reputation, romance, Sir Antony Mark, Sir William, the Crusades.
This poem, which is best described as “an anti-nostalgic demystification of chivalric heroism” (Louise D’Arcens, <em>Old Songs in the Timeless Land: Medievalism in Australian Literature 1840-1910</em>, Turnhout, Brepols, 2011, p.143), draws a link to the medieval past to suggest that little has changed with regards human behaviour. ‘As it is in the Days of Now,’ is a tale of cover-up, falsity, and cuckoldry. Here, everyone but Sir William is aware of an affair that took place between his Lady and his best friend while he was fighting in the Holy Land. The poor man even unwittingly drinks wine in the company of his rival and false friend. Lawson’s ubiquitous narrator states, “And the true friend pledges the false friend thrice.” Lawson refuses to romanticise love in accordance with medieval notions of chivalry. Lust and cupidity are here disguised and subsumed into ‘noblesse oblige,’ and Lawson’s poem rather denigrates selfish ‘knightly’ behaviour, with its false friendships, cuckoldry, and risible notions of Courtly Love. The poem in fact, is an angry riposte to nineteenth-century nostalgia and naiveté as it relates to the individual’s lack of nous and foresight.
Henry Lawson
<em>The Bulletin</em>
<em>The Bulletin</em>
12 March 1908, p.39
Public Domain
Journal (Microfilm)
‘Rivals’, <em>The Bulletin</em>, 14 July 1900
absent lovers, Boer War, chivalry, courtly love, Creeve Roe, favour, gift, heroism, Isabel, knight, maiden, marriage, romance, Sir Comfort, Sir Valour, soldier, valour, veldt, Victor Daley (1858-1905).
‘Rivals’ is an interesting attempt by medievalist writer Victor Daley to transform what must have been a fairly commonplace incident at that time into something more than it seems. The poem describes a young man, Sir Valour, taking leave of his sweetheart (“My Lady Fair”), and going off to fight in the Boer War. The leave-taking is transformed into a medieval tale, a deliberately romantic historicization of the present (Louise D’Arcens, <em>Old Songs in the Timeless Land: Medievalism in Australian Literature 1840-1910,</em> Turnhout, Brepols, 2011, p.110), whereby the couple pledge true love and the lady presents him with a token of her favour, before he sets out for foreign lands. In her knight’s protracted absence, Sir Comfort, an older and much wealthier man, slyly wins the favours of “Sweet Isabel,” and marries her. This turnaround is presumably hastened by the giving of a number of beautiful and very costly items: “Some simple rubies, strings of pearls / And diamonds for [her] hair.” Here Creeve Roe contrasts the stark unpleasant realities of the war with quasi-medieval ‘courtly’ values. The final scene, when the young man dies “in lands remote,” with Isabel’s name upon his lips, is one of shattered dreams and misplaced expectations.
Creeve Roe (Victor Daley)
<em>The Bulletin</em>
<em>The Bulletin</em>
14 July 1900, p.32
Public Domain
Journal Article (Microfilm)
La Belle Dame sans merci, by Arthur Hughes
Alain Chartier, apparition, armor, armour, Arthur Hughes (1832-1915), Arthurian, ballad, chivalric, chivalry, courtly love, damsel, dream, faery child, fair lady, false promise, infatuation, John Keats, knight, La Belle Dame sans merci, maiden, medieval costume, poem, supernatural, unrequited love, VIC, Victoria
<p>This painting by English artist Arthur Hughes was acquired by the National Gallery of Victoria in 1919 with funds from the Felton Bequest. It portrays a scene from the well-known ballad of the same name penned in 1819 by Romantic poet John Keats. The poem is a tale of unrequited love featuring an Arthurian knight and a beautiful woman he meets in the woods. Described by Keats as a ‘faery’s child’, the woman woos the knight with songs, food and promises of love, before taking him back to her elfin grot and lulling him to sleep. While asleep, however, he dreams of death-pale kings, princes and warriors crying “La Belle Dame sans merci/Thee hath in thrall!” before waking up alone on a cold hillside. In the painting, the infatuated knight is pictured in the woods shortly after he has met the beautiful woman and lifted her onto his horse. In the background, the apparitions of the pale figures he will later dream of are visible, trying to convey their warning in vain. Keats borrowed the title for his Arthurian ballad from a fifteenth-century courtly love poem by Alain Chartier.</p>
<p>For a copy of Keats’ <em>La Belle Dame sans merci</em>, see <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173740" target="_blank"> <span style="color: #0000ff;">http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173740</span></a>.</p>
Hughes, Arthur
National Gallery of Victoria
1863
National Gallery of Victoria
Oil on Canvas, 153.7 x 123cm;
Hyperlink