M&D - Chapter 18 - This Incompletely Recogniz'd man

[Johnny Marr]

Thanks for the addendum

I've seen Top Girls and know who Pope Joan was meant to be, but I'm still
uncertain what her name signifies in the chapter, where 'Pope Joan'
seems casually inserted without further comment amidst a litany of gambling
terms.

On Thursday, March 26, 2015, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Pope Joan: See wikipedia, a long article, a supposed Medieval
> Pope.....but here is the section on literary uses:
>
> In fiction[edit]
>
> Pope Joan has remained a popular subject for fictional works. Plays
> include Ludwig Achim von Arnim's Päpstin Johanna (1813), a fragment by
> Bertolt Brecht (in Werke. Bd. 10), and a monodrama, Pausin Johanna by
> Cees van der Pluijm (1996). Pope Joan also appears as a character in
> Caryl Churchill's 1982 play Top Girls.
>
> The Greek author Emmanuel Rhoides' 1866 novel The Papess Joanne was
> admired by Mark Twain and Alfred Jarry, and freely translated by
> Lawrence Durrell as The Curious History of Pope Joan (1954). The
> American Donna Woolfolk Cross's 1996 historical romance Pope Joan was
> recently made into a German musical as well as the movie described
> below. Other novels include Wilhelm Smets's Das Mährchen von der
> Päpstin Johanna auf's Neue erörtert (1829), Marjorie Bowen's Black
> Magic (1909), Ludwig Gorm's Päpstin Johanna (1912), and Yves Bichet's
> La Papesse Jeanne (2005).
>
> There have been two films based on the story of Pope Joan. Pope Joan
> (1972), directed by Michael Anderson, was titled The Devil's Imposter
> in the USA. In 2009 it was recut to include more of John Briley's
> original script and released as She... who would be Pope. In the same
> year another film with the title Pope Joan was released, this one a
> German, British, Italian and Spanish production directed by Sönke
> Wortmann and produced by Bernd Eichinger, based on Cross's novel.
>
>
> I actually read Durrell's 'free translation" which had wit and a dated
> subversiveness in my humble opinion.
>
> On Thu, Mar 26, 2015 at 12:02 AM, Johnny Marr <marrja at gmail.com
> <javascript:;>> wrote:
> > Mason returns to the family bosom, to find his own sisters hostile and
> his
> > own sons indifferent to him - they barely recognise who he is. Mason buys
> > their peace, and their partial goodwill, with a pair of Toy Ships bought
> > last minute in Tenerife, affording him the opportunity to play with them
> > down by the Stream, "leaving the Women to discuss his character".
> >
> > William is now five years old, Doctor Isaac is three. William has taken
> the
> > role of the watchful elder brother, with Isaac "closer to agreeable
> > laughter". They're old enough to detect the differences in the Toy Boats
> to
> > the British ones they've seen in the flesh - they can spot the
> difference in
> > the rigging, the carvings and the number of Guns they carried. Mason
> seizes
> > upon this as an opportunity to tell an entertaining story of how the blue
> > Spanish ships, camouflaged against the sea, can sneak attack the French
> > boats - only for this sons to shrug out of range when he shapes to tickle
> > them at the end of the anecdote.
> >
> > Shocking news at the start of July, as Bradley dies after a short
> illness.
> > We learn that Susannah has predeceased him (five years earlier, it later
> > transpires), as Bradley is to be buried alongside her at Minchinhampton.
> >
> > This sudden news would be devestating to any close friend, and a man of
> > Mason feels particularly guilty because he senses that Bradley knew about
> > his prior relationship with Susannah and that he still found her
> "impossible
> > not to gaze at", yet never properly addressed the matter, even when he
> and
> > Susannah lived next door to and regularly socialised with Mason and
> Rebekah.
> > The card references continue as Mason recalls how the four of them played
> > plenty of "Cards upon Nights of Cloud or Storm", as well as Piquet and
> > various Parlour games (and a reference to the possibly apocryphal Pope
> Joan
> > that I can't quite contextualise at close to 3 in the morning ...)
> >
> > "Was he always fated for these terrible unending four-door Farces? They
> do
> > not always end luckily, as at the Cape, with ev'ryone's Blood unspill'd".
> > TRP will refer to four-door farces again in ATD - the classic farce set
> up
> > of people moving in and out through rooms and doors and narrowly missing
> one
> > another. In this situation, it reminds us that Mason is the only
> surivivor
> > of the foursome, and that he is happy to be back home, closer to his
> > children, thawing out the relationship with his Sisters and able to
> channel
> > Rebekah's spirit in a more manageable environment. His desire to travel
> > abroad for any length of time must now be severely diminished.
> >
> > Mason is embarassed when he turns up for Bradley's funeral only to be
> told
> > that "Bradley wish'd only the Family near. Any further word will be in
> the
> > newspapers". A harsh judgement for a close friend who wanted to pay his
> > respects - having been in demand by all of London's intellectual circles
> > just a few months before, Maso now finds himself as "Incompletely
> > Recogniz'd" by polite society as by his own progeny. He is back to the
> > position of the lone unappreciated maverick.
> > "some of us are Outlaws, and some Trespassers upon the very World.
> > Everywhere stand Monitors advising Mason, that he may not proceed. He is
> a
> > Warrior who has just lost his Lord".
>
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