The Anathemata
The Lady of the Pool (continued)
Yes? I said, but not carping like nor crossing him—best let him rehearse his tale awhile seeing as it touched his service oversea—they all be apt at their rehearsals, captain, what was upon a time and long since within far sound of a bombard, captain.
But then it seemed he would be addressed, not to me at all, but, sort of, to the formless airs
again his hand the while a-fondle-ing the wall—as might the hand of the blind—but with open eye, as seemed aligned toward where the keels tie up below Fleet Bridge.
And then, as if he perceive a body—coming
as if he hails a personage
where was but insentience
and baulk of stone
he sings out and clear:
REDDITOR LVCIS ÆTERNÆ1
These, captain, were his precisive words—what sentiments I can’t construe—but at which, captain, I cried: Enough!
Let’s to terrestrial flesh, or
bid good-night, I thought.
David Jones notes
1 ‘Restorer of the Eternal Light’; this is inscribed on a gold medallion found at Beauvains near Arras (an area rich in memories for many of us), struck to commemorate the relief of London in AD 296 by Constantius Chlorus, the husband of St Helena (see page 131 above, note 3). He is mounted and with a lance, his horse stepping from the gang-plank of a boat at a turreted gateway inscribed LON. where a female figure kneels with welcoming arms. The words Redditor etc. are inscribed above the figure of the emperor. Although this may but commemorate a chance victory in a war of rival generals, none the less Constantius, at that moment, was the outward sign of something and was himself the implement of what he signified, namely: in the domain of accidental fact, the saving of London from immediate sack; in the domain of contemporary politics, the restoration of Britain to unity with the West, and in the domain of perennial idea, the return to Britain of the light of civilization. I have adopted the suggestion of one writer that the gate and the water on the medallion may represent Ludgate and the Fleet River; the latter being tidal, and navigable for long after Roman times.
additional notes
This medallion (the ‘Trier medallion’) can be seen here.
The mason is looking towards the Fleet Bridge, by Ludgate, because it was there that in his imagination the emperor entered the city.
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