In
“The Novel of the Black Seal,” an indication that something strange is
happening in Professor Gregg’s rural residence “‘in the west of England, not
far from Caermaen,’” is provided by the removal of a dusty bust of the English
statesman William Pitt from its customary place atop a 15-foot cupboard and its
placement on the scholar’s desk. Miss
Lally is puzzled by Gregg’s evasiveness about the matter. We learn eventually that Gervase Cradock,
horribly transformed, moved the bust by means of a “slimy, wavering tentacle”
extruding from his supine body. Gregg’s
horrible surmises have been fulfilled.
Having
read, sometimes reread, all of Dickens’s novels except Dombey and Son, I have been making up that deficiency just
now. I’ve discovered that, before being
placed on Professor Gregg’s cupboard and then moved by Gervase, the bust of
Pitt was an ornament in proud, mammon-worshipping Mr. Dombey’s house. It is mentioned four times in Dickens’s
novel, in Chapters 5 (twice), 8, and 51.
In Chapter 8 we read that it is “about ten feet from the ground” and
“near the bookcase.” In Chapter 51 it is
“upon the bookcase.” This suggests that
it has been moved.
I
don’t suppose that Machen derived the idea specifically of a moved bust of Pitt
from Dickens’s novel, but I imagine that the Pitt-bust itself was placed in
Machen’s mind by one or other of his readings – I imagine there were more than
one – of Dombey and Son. That Machen was a great reader of Dickens is
well-known. It’s his preface that begins
A Handy Dickens. Overt references to Dickens appear in other
things by Machen, and perhaps further instances of (likely) unconscious
allusions to Dickens will come to light.
 |
| A Handy Dickens (1941) |
Yes, I just got A Handy Dickens in d/w and the introduction by Machen is splendid at evoking the charm of great books that school managed to make appear dull.
ReplyDeleteThe bust of Pitt may have wandered from Dickens to Sheridan Le Fanu before arriving with Machen.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 24 of Uncle Silas, men come to Knowl for the reading of the deceased Austin Ruthyn's will.
"I remember how they loitered and came to a halt at the corner of the oak passage leading to the study, and how the Rector patted the marble head and smoothed the inflexible tresses of William Pitt, as he listened to Mr. Danvers' details about the presentment," etc.
Dale Nelson
I now think it likely that Machen specified a "bust of Pitt" with an "agenda" of his own -- though I stick by my remarks about Machen and Dickens. I have been reading about S. T. Coleridge's severe remarks about William Pitt the Younger in Alethea Hayter's book Coleridge and the Defense of the Human.
ReplyDeleteShe writes:
"Coleridge's famous portrait of Pitt in the Morning Post emphasizes his lack of human feelings and attachments, and explains that this failure of the heart has been responsible for his failure to treat his British Subjects or his French, Irish, and American enemies as human beings. For Pitt 'was cast, rather than grew.' His early facility with words unconnected with things 'deadened his genuine feelings' and caused him to lose 'one of the prime links that connect the individual with the species..... He... had no feelings connected with man or nature, no spontaneous impulses, no unbiassed or desultory studies, no genuine science, nothing that constitutes originality in intellect, nothing that teaches brotherhood in affection!'" etc.
If Machen had any similar opinions about Pitt, it is perhaps no surprise that he would gratify them by having the bust of Pitt slimed by the tentacle of Jervase Cradock.
Dale Nelson