Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice Read online

  _A Foreword: Which Asserts Nothing._

  In Continental periodicals not more than a dozen articles in allwould seem to have given accounts or partial translations of theJurgen legends. No thorough investigation of this epos can be saidto have appeared in print, anywhere, prior to the publication, in1913, of the monumental _Synopses of Aryan Mythology_ by Angelode Ruiz. It is unnecessary to observe that in this exhaustive digestProfessor de Ruiz has given (VII, p. 415 _et sequentia_) asummary of the greater part of these legends as contained in thecollections of Verville and Buelg; and has discussed at length andwith much learning the esoteric meaning of these folk-stories andtheir bearing upon questions to which the "solar theory" of mythexplanation has given rise. To his volumes, and to the pages of Mr.Lewistam's _Key to the Popular Tales of Poictesme_, must bereferred all those who may elect to think of Jurgen as theresplendent, journeying and procreative sun.

  Equally in reading hereinafter will the judicious waive allallegorical interpretation, if merely because the suggestionshitherto advanced are inconveniently various. Thus Vervillefinds the Nessus shirt a symbol of retribution, where Buelg,with rather wide divergence, would have it represent the dangerousgift of genius. Then it may be remembered that Dr. Codman says,without any hesitancy, of Mother Sereda: "This Mother Middle isthe world generally (an obvious anagram of _Erda es_), and thisSereda rules not merely the middle of the working-days but themidst of everything. She is the factor of _middleness_, ofmediocrity, of an avoidance of extremes, of the eternal compromisebegotten by use and wont. She is the Mrs. Grundy of the Leshy; she isComstockery: and her shadow is common-sense." Yet Codman speaks withcertainly no more authority than Prote, when the latter, in his_Origins of Fable_, declares this epos is "a parable of ... man'svain journeying in search of that rationality and justice which hisnature craves, and discovers nowhere in the universe: and the shirtis an emblem of this instinctive craving, as ... the shadow symbolizesconscience. Sereda typifies a surrender to life as it is, a giving upof man's rebellious self-centredness and selfishness: the anagram being_se dare_."

  Thus do interpretations throng and clash, and neatly equal thecommentators in number. Yet possibly each one of these unriddlings,with no doubt a host of others, is conceivable: so that wisdom willdwell upon none of them very seriously.

  With the origin and the occult meaning of the folklore of Poictesmethis book at least is in no wise concerned: its unambitious aim hasbeen merely to familiarize English readers with the Jurgen epos forthe tale's sake. And this tale of old years is one which, by rarefortune, can be given to English readers almost unabridged, in viewof the singular delicacy and pure-mindedness of the Jurgen mythos:in all, not more than a half-dozen deletions have seemed expedient(and have been duly indicated) in order to remove such sparse andunimportant outcroppings of mediaeval frankness as might conceivablyoffend the squeamish.

  Since this volume is presented simply as a story to be read forpastime, neither morality nor symbolism is hereinafter educed, andno "parallels" and "authorities" are quoted. Even the gaps are leftunbridged by guesswork: whereas the historic and mythologicalproblems perhaps involved are relinquished to those reallythoroughgoing scholars whom erudition qualifies to deal with suchtopics, and tedium does not deter....

  In such terms, and thus far, ran the Foreword to the first issues ofthis book, whose later fortunes have made necessary the lengtheningof the Foreword with a postscript. The needed addition--this much atleast chiming with good luck--is brief. It is just that fragmentwhich some scholars, since the first appearance of this volume, haveasserted--upon what perfect frankness must describe as notindisputable grounds--to be a portion of the thirty-second chapterof the complete form of _La Haulte Histoire de Jurgen_.

  And in reply to what these scholars assert, discretion says nothing.For this fragment was, of course, unknown when the High History wasfirst put into English, and there in consequence appears, here,little to be won either by endorsing or denying its claims toauthenticity. Rather, does discretion prompt the appending, withoutany gloss or scholia, of this fragment, which deals with

  _The Judging of Jurgen._

  Now a court was held by the Philistines to decide whether or no KingJurgen should be relegated to limbo. And when the judges wereprepared for judging, there came into the court a great tumblebug,rolling in front of him his loved and properly housed young ones.With the creature came pages, in black and white, bearing a sword, astaff and a lance.

  This insect looked at Jurgen, and its pincers rose erect in horror.The bug cried to the three judges, "Now, by St. Anthony! this Jurgenmust forthwith be relegated to limbo, for he is offensive and lewdand lascivious and indecent."

  "And how can that be?" says Jurgen.

  "You are offensive," the bug replied, "because this page has a swordwhich I choose to say is not a sword. You are lewd because that pagehas a lance which I prefer to think is not a lance. You arelascivious because yonder page has a staff which I elect to declareis not a staff. And finally, you are indecent for reasons of which adescription would be objectionable to me, and which therefore I mustdecline to reveal to anybody."

  "Well, that sounds logical," says Jurgen, "but still, at the sametime, it would be no worse for an admixture of common-sense. For yougentlemen can see for yourselves, by considering these pages fairlyand as a whole, that these pages bear a sword and a lance and astaff, and nothing else whatever; and you will deduce, I hope, thatall the lewdness is in the insectival mind of him who itches to becalling these things by other names."

  The judges said nothing as yet. But they that guarded Jurgen, andall the other Philistines, stood to this side and to that side withtheir eyes shut tight, and all these said: "We decline to look atthe pages fairly and as a whole, because to look might seem to implya doubt of what the tumblebug has decreed. Besides, as long as thetumblebug has reasons which he declines to reveal, his reasons stayunanswerable, and you are plainly a prurient rascal who are makingtrouble for yourself."

  "To the contrary," says Jurgen, "I am a poet, and I makeliterature."

  "But in Philistia to make literature and to make trouble foryourself are synonyms," the tumblebug explained. "I know, foralready we of Philistia have been pestered by three of these makersof literature. Yes, there was Edgar, whom I starved and hunted untilI was tired of it: then I chased him up a back alley one night, andknocked out those annoying brains of his. And there was Walt, whom Ichivvied and battered from place to place, and made a paralytic ofhim: and him, too, I labelled offensive and lewd and lascivious andindecent. Then later there was Mark, whom I frightened intodisguising himself in a clown's suit, so that nobody might suspecthim to be a maker of literature: indeed, I frightened him so that hehid away the greater part of what he had made until after he wasdead, and I could not get at him. That was a disgusting trick toplay on me, I consider. Still, these are the only three detectedmakers of literature that have ever infested Philistia, thanks be togoodness and my vigilance, but for both of which we might have beenno more free from makers of literature than are the othercountries."

  "Now, but these three," cried Jurgen, "are the glory of Philistia:and of all that Philistia has produced, it is these three alone,whom living ye made least of, that to-day are honored wherever artis honored, and where nobody bothers one way or the other aboutPhilistia."

  "What is art to me and my way of living?" replied the tumblebug,wearily. "I have no concern with art and letters and the other lewdidols of foreign nations. I have in charge the moral welfare of myyoung, whom I roll here before me, and trust with St. Anthony's aidto raise in time to be God-fearing tumblebugs like me, delighting inwhat is proper to their nature. For the rest, I have never mindeddead men being well-spoken-of. No, no, my lad: once whatever I maydo means nothing to you, and once you are really rotten, you willfind the tumblebug friendly enough. Meanwhile I am paid to protestthat living persons are offensive and lewd and lascivious andindecent, and one must live."

  Then the Philistines who stood to this sid
e and to that side said inindignant unison: "And we, the reputable citizenry of Philistia, arenot at all in sympathy with those who would take any protest againstthe tumblebug as a justification of what they are pleased to callart. The harm done by the tumblebug seems to us very slight, whereasthe harm done by the self-styled artist may be very great."

  Jurgen now looked more attentively at this queer creature: and hesaw that the tumblebug was malodorous, certainly, but at bottomhonest and well-meaning; and this seemed to Jurgen the saddest thinghe had found among the Philistines. For the tumblebug was sincere inhis insane doings, and all Philistia honored him sincerely, so thatthere was nowhere any hope for this people.

  Therefore King Jurgen addressed himself, as his need was, to submitto the strange customs of the Philistines. "Now do you judge mefairly," cried Jurgen to his judges, "if there be any justice inthis mad country. And if there be none, do you relegate me to limboor to any other place, so long as in that place this tumblebug isnot omnipotent and sincere and insane."

  And Jurgen waited....

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  JURGEN

  ... _amara lento temperet risu_