Subtitle

A CONFLUENCE OF DAYS, WEEKS AND YEARS

by Jonathan Vold

Friday, October 14

TWL, lines 386-395: The Chapel Of The Wind

386 In this decayed hole among the mountains
387 In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
388 Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
389 There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.
390 It has no windows, and the door swings,
391 Dry bones can harm no one.
392 Only a cock stood on the rooftree
393 Co co rico    co co rico
394 In a flash of lightning.  Then a damp gust
395 Bringing rain

388. THE CHAPEL PERILOUS , a term first used in Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur (1485) 6.14-15, is where a weeping Hellawes the Sorceress sends Sir Lancelot to retrieve a magical sword and cloth that will heal her brother.  Her ulterior motive is to seduce Lancelot, but when he refuses to kiss her upon his return then rides off to heal the wounded soldier, she despairs and kills herself.  Compare the story of Queen Dido and Aeneas (note 92).

The chapel itself, meanwhile, is a legend unto itself.  See Weston, From Ritual to Romance 13:

“Students of the Grail romances will remember that in many of the versions the hero--sometimes it is a heroine--meets with a strange and terrifying adventure in a mysterious Chapel, an adventure which, we are given to understand, is fraught with extreme peril to life. The details vary: sometimes there is a Dead Body laid on the altar; sometimes a Black Hand extinguishes the tapers; there are strange and threatening voices, and the general impression is that this is an adventure in which supernatural, and evil, forces are engaged. Such an adventure befalls Gawain on his way to the Grail Castle. He is overtaken by a terrible storm, and coming to a Chapel, standing at a crossways in the middle of a forest, enters for  shelter. The altar is bare, with no cloth, or covering, nothing is thereon but a great golden candlestick with a tall taper burning within it. Behind the altar is a window, and as Gawain looks a Hand, black and hideous, comes through the window, and extinguishes the taper, while a voice makes lamentation loud and dire, beneath which the very building rocks. Gawain's horse shies for terror, and the knight, making the sign of the Cross, rides out of the Chapel, to find the storm abated, and the great wind fallen. Thereafter the night was calm and clear.” 

389. THE WIND’S HOME: See the “wind under the door” at line 118.  The chapel in this passage is empty and windowless; likewise the bones, not yet brought to life (see line 186), are dry and harmless. The chapel remains the wind’s home, however, and the scene quickly changes: the door swings, a damp gust brings rain (see lines 394-395) and what was once a dry, sterile thunder (see line 342) will become full of meaning (see line 399 and following). 

PUTTING OFF SENSE AND NOTION: Compare the allegorical English chapel of Eliot, Little Gidding (1943):
“...If you came this way,
Taking any route, starting from anywhere,
At any time or at any season,
It would always be the same: you would have to put off
Sense and notion. You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiosity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more
Than an order of words, the conscious occupation
Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying...”
For a list of other church references in The Waste Land, see note 67.

393. THE COCK CROWS: Co co rico is the rooster’s cry in French, the language of Leman (see line 182) and, demotically, of Mr Eugenides (see line 212). 
The cock also crows in Shakespeare, The Tempest 1.2.385-387, as part of Ariel’s song (note 26): 

“Hark, hark! I hear
The strain of strutting chanticleer
Cry, Cock a diddle dow”

See also Shakespeare, Hamlet 1.1.156, as the ghost of Hamlet’s father, just about to speak, suddenly departs at dawn: 
“BARNARDO
It was about to speak when the cock crew.
HORATIO

And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have heard
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth with his lofty and shrill-sounding throat
Awake the god of day, and, at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine, and of the truth herein
This present object made probation.
MARCELUS
It faded on the crowing of the cock.”
See also Matthew 26: 31-35, 69-75: 

“Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. ...Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech betrayeth thee. Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.”

395. BRINGING RAIN: See Conrad*, An Outcast of the Islands 4.5:

“Then the heavy air round him was pierced by a sharp gust of wind, bringing with it the fresh, damp feel of the falling rain...”

No comments:

Post a Comment