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TITLE: JURGEN
AUTHOR: JAMES BRANCE CABELL
EBOOK: E05849 (O'Briens Book Cellar)
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

JURGEN

_A Comedy of Justice_

By

JAMES BRANCH CABELL

1922

   _"Of JURGEN eke they maken mencioun,
   That of an old wyf gat his youthe agoon,
   And gat himselfe a shirte as bright as fyre
   Wherein to jape, yet gat not his desire
   In any countrie ne condicioun."_

TO

BURTON RASCOE

     Before each tarradiddle,
   Uncowed by sciolists,
   Robuster persons twiddle
   Tremendously big fists.

     "Our gods are good," they tell us;
   "Nor will our gods defer
   Remission of rude fellows'
   Ability to err."

     So this, your JURGEN, travels
   Content to compromise
   Ordainments none unravels
   Explicitly ... and sighs.

      *       *       *       *       *

"Others, with better moderation, do either entertain the vulgar
history of Jurgen as a fabulous addition unto the true and authentic
story of St. Iurgenius of Poictesme, or else we conceive the literal
acception to be a misconstruction of the symbolical expression:
apprehending a veritable history, in an emblem or piece of Christian
poesy. And this emblematical construction hath been received by men
not forward to extenuate the acts of saints."

                                        --PHILIP BORSDALE.

"A forced construction is very idle. If readers of _The High
History of Jurgen_ do not meddle with the allegory, the allegory
will not meddle with them. Without minding it at all, the whole is
as plain as a pikestaff. It might as well be pretended that we
cannot see Poussin's pictures without first being told the allegory,
as that the allegory aids us in understanding _Jurgen_."

                                        --E. NOEL CODMAN.

"Too urbane to advocate delusion, too hale for the bitterness of
irony, this fable of Jurgen is, as the world itself, a book wherein
each man will find what his nature enables him to see; which gives
us back each his own image; and which teaches us each the lesson
that each of us desires to learn."

                                        --JOHN FREDERICK LEWISTAM.

      *       *       *       *       *

_CONTENTS_

        A FOREWORD: WHICH ASSERTS NOTHING

      I WHY JURGEN DID THE MANLY THING

     II ASSUMPTION OF A NOTED GARMENT

    III THE GARDEN BETWEEN DAWN AND SUNRISE

     IV THE DOROTHY WHO DID NOT UNDERSTAND

      V REQUIREMENTS OF BREAD AND BUTTER

     VI SHOWING THAT SEREDA IS FEMININE

    VII OF COMPROMISES ON A WEDNESDAY

   VIII OLD TOYS AND A NEW SHADOW

     IX THE ORTHODOX RESCUE OF GUENEVERE

      X PITIFUL DISGUISES OF THRAGNAR

     XI APPEARANCE OF THE DUKE OF LOGREUS

    XII EXCURSUS OF YOLANDE'S UNDOING

   XIII PHILOSOPHY OF GOGYRVAN GAWR

    XIV PRELIMINARY TACTICS OF DUKE JURGEN

     XV OF COMPROMISES IN GLATHION

    XVI DIVERS IMBROGLIOS OF KING SMOIT

   XVII ABOUT A COCK THAT CROWED TOO SOON

  XVIII WHY MERLIN TALKED IN TWILIGHT

    XIX THE BROWN MAN WITH QUEER FEET

     XX EFFICACY OF PRAYER

    XXI HOW ANAITIS VOYAGED

   XXII AS TO A VEIL THEY BROKE

  XXIII SHORTCOMINGS OF PRINCE JURGEN

   XXIV OF COMPROMISES IN COCAIGNE

    XXV CANTRAPS OF THE MASTER PHILOLOGIST

   XXVI IN TIME'S HOUR-GLASS

  XXVII VEXATIOUS ESTATE OF QUEEN HELEN

 XXVIII OF COMPROMISES IN LEUKE

   XXIX CONCERNING HORVENDILE'S NONSENSE

    XXX ECONOMICS OF KING JURGEN

   XXXI THE FALL OF PSEUDOPOLIS

  XXXII SUNDRY DEVICES OF THE PHILISTINES

 XXXIII FAREWELL TO CHLORIS

  XXXIV HOW EMPEROR JURGEN FARED INFERNALLY

   XXXV WHAT GRANDFATHER SATAN REPORTED

  XXXVI WHY COTH WAS CONTRADICTED

 XXXVII INVENTION OF THE LOVELY VAMPIRE

XXXVIII AS TO APPLAUDED PRECEDENTS

  XXXIX OF COMPROMISES IN HELL

     XL THE ASCENSION OF POPE JURGEN

    XLI OF COMPROMISES IN HEAVEN

   XLII TWELVE THAT ARE FRETTED HOURLY

  XLIII POSTURES BEFORE A SHADOW

   XLIV IN THE MANAGER'S OFFICE

    XLV THE FAITH OF GUENEVERE

   XLVI THE DESIRE OF ANAITIS

  XLVII THE VISION OF HELEN

 XLVIII CANDID OPINIONS OF DAME LISA

   XLIX OF THE COMPROMISE WITH KOSHCHEI

      L THE MOMENT THAT DID NOT COUNT

A FOREWORD

_"Nescio quid certe est: et Hylax in limine latrat."_

_A Foreword: Which Asserts Nothing._

In Continental periodicals not more than a dozen articles in all
would seem to have given accounts or partial translations of the
Jurgen legends. No thorough investigation of this epos can be said
to have appeared in print, anywhere, prior to the publication, in
1913, of the monumental _Synopses of Aryan Mythology_ by Angelo
de Ruiz. It is unnecessary to observe that in this exhaustive digest
Professor de Ruiz has given (VII, p. 415 _et sequentia_) a
summary of the greater part of these legends as contained in the
collections of Verville and Buelg; and has discussed at length and
with much learning the esoteric meaning of these folk-stories and
their bearing upon questions to which the "solar theory" of myth
explanation has given rise. To his volumes, and to the pages of Mr.
Lewistam's _Key to the Popular Tales of Poictesme_, must be
referred all those who may elect to think of Jurgen as the
resplendent, journeying and procreative sun.

Equally in reading hereinafter will the judicious waive all
allegorical interpretation, if merely because the suggestions
hitherto advanced are inconveniently various. Thus Verville
finds the Nessus shirt a symbol of retribution, where Buelg,

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