The Grotesque in Church Art Part 14

On their way to court, Reynard and Grimbart meet Martin the Ape, who is bound for Rome, and promises his gold shall buy Reynard's absolution.

Arrived at court, Reynard boldly explains away the stories of the Coney and the Crow, and demands the trial by battle. The Coney and Crow, having no witnesses, and being averse to battle, withdraw. Reynard accuses the dead Bellin of killing the Hare Lampe and secreting rare jewels he sent to the King. His story is half believed in the hope that the jewels, which he described at great length, may be found. Reynard's former services to the state are remembered, and he is about to depart triumphant, when the Wolf, unable to restrain his rage, accuses him afresh. In the end, as each accusation is smoothly foiled, he accepts the wager of battle. They withdraw to prepare for the lists. Reynard is shorn and shaven, all but his tail, by his relatives the Apes. He is well oiled. He is also enjoined to drink plentifully overnight.

They meet in the lists. Reynard kicks up the dust to blind the Wolf, draws his wet tail across his eyes, and at length tears an eye out. He is, however, seized by the Wolf's strong jaw, and is about to be finished off when he takes advantage of a word of parley to seize the wolf in a tender part with his hand, and the fight recommences, ending in the total overthrow of Isengrin. The King orders the fray to be stayed and the Wolf's life spared. The Wolf is carried off. All fly to congratulate the victor,

"All gazed in his face with fawning eyes, And loaded him with flatteries."

The King makes him the Lord Chancellor and takes him to his close esteem.

The tale winds up:

"To wisdom now let each one turn, Avoid the base and virtue learn; This is the end of Reynard's story, May G.o.d a.s.sist us to His glory."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FOX RETURNING FROM HUNTING, MANCHESTER.]

The above is the gist of the matter dealing with the Fox in letters; from these lively images we will turn to the more wooden achievements of the carvers. The general fact that the Fox is a marauder specially fond of the flesh of that bird of long descent, the goose, but also partial to that of other birds, is frequently ill.u.s.trated by church carvings. In the churches at the following places he is carved as having seized his prey:--Beverley (Minster), Boston, Fairford, Faversham, Gloucester, Hereford, Norwich, Oxford (Magdalen), Peterborough, Ripon, Wellingborough, Winchester, and Windsor (St. George's Chapel). At the last-named he is also shewn as preying upon a hen. At Beverley (Minster) Ely, Manchester, and Thanet (St.

Mary's Minster) the picture of the abduction of the goose is heightened in interest by his pursuit by a woman armed with a distaff. Doubtless there are others; the object throughout is to give examples, not an exhaustive list.

A somewhat unusual subject is one in Manchester Cathedral, in which the Fox is returning from hunting. A carving where the Fox is used to point a moral is another, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, in which three monks, conveyed in a wheel-barrow into h.e.l.l's Mouth, are accompanied by a Fox with a goose in his mouth. Probably the idea here broadly expressed is intended to be quietly suggested by some of the above.

Next in frequency is the more definite satire of the Fox preaching to Geese. We find it at Beverley (both the Minster and St. Mary's), Boston, Bristol, Cartmel, Ely, Etchingham, Nantwich, Ripon, Stowlangcroft, and Windsor (St. George's Chapel). In the last he has a goose in his cowl.

All those need for their completion the supposition that the text of the Fox's sermon is the same as was given at length in a representation of a preaching scene on an ancient stained-gla.s.s window in the church of St.

Martin, Leicester, which was unhappily destroyed in the last century. In this, from the Fox's mouth proceeded the words "Testis est mihi Deus, quam cupiam vos omnes visceribus meus" (G.o.d is my witness how I desire you all in my bowels.--Philippians, i., 8). In Wolfius, A.D. 1300, is a description of another such representation, in a MS. of aesop's Fables. It may accord quite well with the theory of the transmission of designs by the continuity of the artificers' gild system to suppose that some proportion of the material found its way into their repertoire through the medium of ma.n.u.scripts (not necessarily original in them), especially for such subjects as were essentially mediaeval. We have seen how the carvings of Jonah and of Samson, at Ripon, were taken from the Poor Man's Bible; here we have the Preaching Fox mentioned in a book of 1300 as being in an earlier work. A Fox bearing two c.o.c.ks by the neck on a staff is the initial T in a MS. considered by Montflaucon to be of the ninth century.

Fredegarius, the Frankish historian, in the middle of the seventh century, has a fable of a Fox at the court of the Lion, repeated by others in the tenth and eleventh. Paulin Paris and Thomas Wright agreed in thinking the whole fable of French origin, and first in the Latin tongue. So that we may reasonably suppose that the countless tons of books and MSS. (though it is useless to grope now among the mere memories of ashes), burnt at the Reformation, would contain much that would have made clearer our understanding of this subject of Gothic grotesques. It is clear, however, that the Fox was used as a means of satirical comment before the writing of the Isengrine Fable, and that most of the church carvings refer to what we may call pre-Fable or co-Fable conceptions.

There may be other material lying hidden in our great libraries, but search for early Reynard drawings produces almost nothing.

At Ripon the Fox is shewn without vestments, in a neat Gothic pulpit adorned with carvings of the trefoil.[8] His hands, and what they may have held, are gone. His congregation is to his right a goose, to his left a c.o.c.k, who appear to be uttering responses, while his face is significant of conscious slyness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PREACHING FOX, RIPON.]

In Beverley Minster the Preaching Fox is in a square panelled pulpit on four legs; before him are seven geese, one of whom slumbers peacefully. He wears a gown and cowl, has a rosary in his right hand, and appears to be performing his part with some animation. Behind the pulpit stands an ape with a goose hung on a stick, while another fox--to give point to the lesson--is slinking off with a goose slung over his back. At St. Mary's, Beverley, the various carvings have a decidedly ma.n.u.script appearance. The one of the Preaching Fox has labels, upon which, in some unknown original, may have been inscribed texts or other matter. Here the Fox wears only his "scapulaire," and has his right hand raised in correct exhortative manner; his pulpit is of stone, and is early. Behind stand two persons, perhaps male and female, whose religious dress would lead us to suppose them to represent the cla.s.s to whose teaching a fox-like character is to be attributed. At the front are seated two apes, also in scapularies, or hoods, who, as well as the Fox, may be here to shew the real character of the supposed sanctified.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE RULE AND THE ROAST CONTRASTED, ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.]

It will have been noticed how frequently the carvings evade explanation; all these satires on the clergy may mean either that the system was bad, or that there was much abuse of it. A remarkable instance of this is in another misericorde in St. Mary's, Beverley. Here we have the Benedictine with mild and serene countenance, without a sign of sin, and bearing the scroll of truth and simplicity of life--call it the rule of his order. Yet how do many of his followers act? With greed for the temporalities, they aspire to the pastoral crook, and devour their flocks with such rapacity as to threaten the up-rooting of the whole order.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE PREACHING FOX, ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.]

Such might be one rendering; yet the placid cleric may be simply introduced to shew the outward appearance of the ravening ones.

It has been a favourite explanation of these anti-cleric carvings to say that they were due to the jealousy which existed between the regular orders and the preaching friars. But carvings such as this last are sufficient to prove the explanation erroneous; preaching friars carried no croziers.

Yet another instance from St. Mary's shews us two foxes in scapularies reading from a book placed on an eagle-lectern.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FOXES AT THE LECTERN, ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.]

The bird--lectern or not--has round its head a kind of aureola or glory; it is probably an eagle, but who shall say it is not a dove? The religiously-garbed foxes are alone unmistakable.

At Boston we have a mitred Fox, enthroned in the episcopal seat in full canonicals, clutching at a c.o.c.k which stands near, while another bird is at the side. Close by the throne, another fox, in a cowl only, is reading from a book.

At Christchurch, Hampshire, we see the Fox on a seat-elbow, in a pulpit of good design, and near him, on a stool, the c.o.c.k; it appears in the initial of this article.

At Worcester, a scapularied Fox is kneeling before a small table or altar, laying his hand with an affectation of reverence upon--a sheep's head.

This is one of the side carvings to the misericorde of the three mowers, considered under the head of "Trinities."

[Ill.u.s.tration: EPISCOPAL HYPOCRISY, BOSTON.]

The Fox seizing the Hen, at Windsor, reminds of the Fable, yet in so many other instances it is the c.o.c.k who is the prey. Still further removing the carvings out of the sphere of the Fable is a carving at Chicester of the Fox playing the harp to a goose, while an ape dances; and another at St.

George's, Windsor, in which it is an ape who wears the stole, and is engaged in the laying on of hands. In the Fable the Fox teaches the Hare the Creed, yet in a carving at Manchester it is his two young cubs whom he is teaching from a book.

The Fox in the Sh.e.l.l of Salvation, artfully discoursing on the merits of a bottle of holy water, as drawn on page 58, may be considered a Preaching Fox.

There is at Nantwich a carving which, unlike any of those already noticed, is closely ill.u.s.trative of an incident of the epic. It represents the story told to Nouvel's court by the widower Crow. He and his wife, in travelling through the country, came across what they thought was the dead body of Reynard on the heath. He was stiff, his tongue protruded, his eyes were inverted. They lamented his unhappy fate, and "course so early run."

The lady approached his chin, not, indeed, with any idea of commencing a meal; far from that, it was to ascertain if perchance any signs of life remained, when--snap! Her head was off! The Crow himself had the melancholy luck to fly to a tree, there to sit and watch his wife eaten up. In the carving we have the crows first coming upon the sight of the counterfeit carrion as it lies near a rabbit warren. To shew how perfect is Reynard's semblance of death, the rear portions of two rabbits are to be seen as they hurry into their holes on the approach of the crows, the proximity of the Fox not having previously alarmed them.

The side figures have no simultaneous connection with the central composition, being merely representations of Reynard, once more as a larder regarder. The pilgrim's hat, borne by one of the figures, is a further reminder of the Fable, and the monkish garb is of course in keeping. These two are somewhat singular in being fox-headed men. At Chester, also, is a Fox feigning death.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FOX FEIGNING DEATH, NANTWICH.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TEMPTATION. THE PUNISHMENT. THE WAKE KNOT. BEVERLEY MINSTER.]

Thus far the examples have been of Reynard's crimes; we will now survey his punishment. In the fable he was to be hanged, but was not, the Wolf and the Bear, whom he always outwitted, being the disappointed executioners. In the carvings he is really hanged, and the hangsmen are the geese of his despoliation. Beverley Minster has among its fine carvings an admirable rendering of this subject. Reynard is hanged on a square gallows, a number of birds, geese, taking a beak at the rope. To the left of the gallows stand two official geese, with mace and battle-axe. The left supplementary carving gives a note of the crime; Reynard is creeping upon two sleeping geese. The right hand supporting carving gives us the Fox after being cut down. His friend, the Ape, is untying the rope from his neck. Observe the twist of the rope at the end; it declares that Reynard is dead, for it is a Wake Knot!

Also at Boston, Bristol, Nantwich, and Sherborne are carvings of the hanging by geese. The gallows of the Sherborne execution is square, and made of rough trees. The general action is less logical than in the Beverley scene, but the geese are full of vivacity, evidently enjoying the thoroughness with which they are carrying out their intentions.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXECUTION OF REYNARD, SHERBORNE.]

In the hanging scenes there is no suggestion of the religious dress.

Reynard has lost his Benefit of Clergy. Besides the carving of the Ape laying out the dead Fox, at Beverley there are also others where the Ape is riding on the Fox's back, and again where he is tending him in bed. The Ape succouring the Fox is also instanced at Windsor.

However, after the two broad cla.s.ses of carvings are exhausted--the Fox deluding or eating birds, and the Fox hanged by birds, there is little left to tell of him.

It may be added that his hanging by his one-time victims has suggested to the carver another subject of the same kind--the hanging of the cat by mice, or, more probably, rats, mentioned on page 43. It is there stated to be at Sherborne, in error, the place being Great Malvern.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXECUTION OF THE CAT, GREAT MALVERN.]

The following curious scene from the Fox-fruitful church of St. Mary's, Beverley, is perplexing, and gives the Fox receiving his quietus under unique circ.u.mstances. He is, with anxiety, awaiting the diagnosis of an ape-doctor, who is critically examining urinary deposits; his health has been evidently not all he could wish. When, lo, an arrow, from the bow of an archer in quilted leather, pierces him through the heart! What more this carving means is a mystery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REYNARD IN DANGER, ST. MARY'S, BEVERLEY.]

Carvings of the ordinary fables in which the Fox is concerned are not unknown. At Faversham, Kent, is one of the Fox and the Grapes; at Chester is the Fox and the Stork. The latter is, again, on a remarkable slab, probably a coffin lid, in the Priory Church of Bridlington, East Yorkshire, the strange combination of designs on which may be described.

At the head appear two curious dragon forms opposed over an elaborate embattled temple, suggestive of Saxon and Byzantine derivation, with a central pointed arch. This may be a rendering of the sun-myth, noted on page 37. At the foot is a reversed lion, the curls and twists of whose mane and tail closely resembles those of the white porcelain lions used by the Chinese as incense-burners. Between the temple and the lion is incised an ill.u.s.tration of the fable of the Fox and the Stork. The slab, of which a rough sketch is annexed, is of black basaltic marble, similar to that of the font of the church, which is of the type generally considered to be Norman, and to have been imported ready made from Flanders, and on which dragons are sometimes the ornament. The Fox on this slab is the earliest sculptured figure of the animal known in England.

[Ill.u.s.tration: COFFIN LID, BRIDLINGTON, YORKSHIRE.]

There are also hunting scenes in which the fox is shot with bow and arrow, as in Beverley Minster; or chased with hounds in a way more commending itself to modern sporting ideas, as at Ripon.