The Anathemata
The Lady of the Pool (continued)
At Sepulchre’s Turnagain Lane, t’ward the Smoothfield ponda, beyond the New Gate1
what were lime-bonded Kentish rag and Surrey tile at the beginning of the Sixth Age o’ the Worldb—or, by Janus, I weren’t a freestone-mason’s paramour nor him not ’dentured proper in his Mystery: him sweared as it were work o’ Roma,—what he spelled-out backward, captain.
And once, captain,
on a showery night’s fall in the thunder-nonesc of hot July, m’ apricots big in the convent apron and the pretty gillyflower to pink the white of his mason’s paper hatd; the Hammerer’s summer-flashers from time to time and far off over the Arx of Juliuse, and nearer by and now and again brighted up old imaged Lud, as some tell is balmed ’Wallon, high-horsed above Martin miles,2 what the drovers pray to, full of our London ales and their ’Gomeryf fables.
Inclined against these shadowy courses, close-in, under the lower string-course, next the dark hunch of the gate. From the dripping impost the gusted drops moisted the ransom’d flesh of both of us—from the right sideg of the gate, cap-tin. The runnels brimmed so, was a marvel if the blesséd guardian headh, cisted under, that keeps Lud’s town, weren’t down stream with dogs and garbage an’ such poor Tibs as had come to the ninth death b’ water.
In this wild eve’s thunder-rain, at the batement of it, the night-shades now much more come on: when’s the cool,
even, after-light.
David Jones notes
1 This gate, alone of all the gate-sites of Roman London, has yielded positive material evidence of Roman gate-work.
2 Cf. the story popularized by Geoffrey of Monmouth that King Cadwallon was embalmed and set in brass armour on a brass horse ‘over the West Gate of London’ (in this case not Newgate but Ludgate) and that St Martin, Ludgate Hill, was built for his requiems. See Geoffrey of Monmouth History of the Kings of Britain, Bk. XII, cp. 13. Altogether apart from this legendary account it is documented that images in fact adorned Ludgate in the medieval period; the ‘images of Lud and other kings’ being repaired or added in 1260.
additional notes
a The church of St Sepulchre Without Newgate, Turnagain Lane [now Holborn Viaduct], near Smithfield (‘Smoothfield’).
b St Augustine divided biblical world history into seven ages, of which the Sixth Age began with the advent of Jesus. The Seventh Age will be ushered in by the Day of Judgement.
c nones July = July 7th in the Roman calendar.
d mason’s paper hat: a square hat made from a cunningly folded sheet of paper. Eric Gill wore just such a hat.
e Arx of Julius: there were some who believed that Caesar built a fort (‘Arx’) on the site of the Tower of London.
f ’Gomery: Montgomery, a town and former county in rural mid-Wales.
g right side: Water (or blood) issuing from the right side is an image that DJ found particularly inspiring. One source is the account of the crucifixion in the Dream of the Rood, where the soldier’s spear pierces Jesus’ body on the right side (the original account in St John’s gospel does not specify which side), from whence issued blood and water. Another source is the antiphon Vidi aquam for the sprinkling of water at the beginning of Mass during Eastertide: ‘Vidi aquam egredientem de templo, a latere dextro, alleluja: Et omnes, ad quos pervenit aqua ista, salvi facti sunt et dicent, alleluja.’ (‘I saw water flowing from the temple, on the right side, alleluia. And all to whom that water came have been saved, and they will say, alleluia.’). The text of the antiphon is drawn from the vision of the Temple in Ezekiel 47.
h blessed guardian head: the head of Brân the Blessed.
see also
A Latere Dextro is one of his grandest paintings.
See page 163 for more about Brân the Blessed.
comments
Elen now mentions another church, St Sepulchre, and it reminds her of another lover, a stonemason who told her about the Roman construction of New Gate. She recalls how their passion was accompanied by a summer thunderstorm so heavy that even the buried head of Brân the Blessed might be washed down.