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Read Ebook: The Cream of the Jest: A comedy of evasions by Cabell James Branch
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Ebook has 677 lines and 55155 words, and 14 pages
THE CREAM OF THE JEST
NOVELS: THE CREAM OF THE JEST THE SOUL OF MELICENT THE RIVET IN GRANDFATHER'S NECK THE CORDS OF VANITY THE EAGLE'S SHADOW
TALES: THE CERTAIN HOUR CHIVALRY THE LINE OF LOVE GALLANTRY
VERSES: FROM THE HIDDEN WAY
GENEALOGIES: BRANCH OF ABINGDON BRANCHIANA THE MAJORS AND THEIR MARRIAGES
THE CREAM OF THE JEST ??????????????? A Comedy of Evasions ??????????????? BY
JAMES BRANCH CABELL
NEW YORK ROBERT M. McBRIDE & COMPANY 1917
LOUISA NELSON
Contents
BOOK FIRST
I INTRODUCES THE AGELESS WOMAN 3
II WHEREIN A CLERK APPRAISES A 11 FAIR COUNTRY
V TREATS OF MAUGIS D'AIGREMONT'S 23 POTTAGE
VI JOURNEYS END: WITH THE 26 CUSTOMARY UNMASKING
BOOK SECOND
I OF A TRIFLE FOUND IN TWILIGHT 37
II BEYOND USE AND WONT FARES THE 40 ROAD TO STORISENDE
VI SUGGESTING THEMES OF UNIVERSAL 72 APPEAL
BOOK THIRD
I THEY COME TO A HIGH PLACE 103
II OF THE SIGIL AND ONE USE OF IT 107
V OF DIVERS FLESHLY RIDDLES 125
VI IN PURSUIT OF A WHISPER 130
BOOK FOURTH
I ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS OF 143 PIETY
II DEALS WITH PEN SCRATCHES 150
V EVOLUTION OF A VESTRYMAN 172
BOOK FIFTH
I OF POETIC LOVE: TREATED WITH 195 POETIC INEFFICIENCY
II CROSS-PURPOSES IN SPACIOUS 210 TIMES
V HORVENDILE TO ETTARRE: IN THE 226 CONCIERGERIE
VI OF ONE ENIGMA THAT THREATENED 232 TO PROVE ALLEGORICAL
I SUNDRY DISCLOSURES OF THE 249 PRESS
II CONSIDERATIONS TOWARD SUNSET 254
V WHICH MR. FLAHERTY DOES NOT 269 QUITE EXPLAIN
Preface
Hereinafter you have Kennaston's own explanation. I do not know but that in hunting down one enigma it raises a bevy; but it, at worst, tells from his standpoint honestly how this change came about.
You are to remember that the tale is pieced together, in part from social knowledge of the man, and in part from the notes I made as to what Felix Kennaston in person told me, bit by bit, a year or two after events the tale commemorates. I had known the Kennastons for some while, with that continual shallow intimacy into which chance forces most country people with their near neighbors, before Kennaston ever spoke of--as he called the thing--the sigil. And, even then, it was as if with negligence he spoke, telling of what happened--or had appeared to happen--and answering my questions, with simply dumbfounding personal unconcern. It all seemed indescribably indecent: and I marveled no little, I can remember, as I took my notes....
Now I can understand it was just that his standard of values was no longer ours nor really human. You see--it hardly matters through how dependable an agency--Kennaston no longer thought of himself as a man of flesh-and-blood moving about a world of his compeers. Or, at least, that especial aspect of his existence was to him no longer a phase of any particular importance.
Such, in any event, is the road that Kennaston took, and such the goal to which he was conducted. So, with that goal in view, I also begin where he began, and follow whither the dream led him. Meanwhile, I can but entreat you to remember it is only by preserving faith in human dreams that we may, after all, perhaps some day make them come true.
RICHARD FENTNOR HARROWBY.
??????????????????????
"Give place, fair ladies, and begone, Ere pride hath had a fall! For here at hand approacheth one Whose grace doth stain you all.
"Ettarre is well compared Unto the Phoenix kind, Whose like was never seen or heard, That any man can find."
??????????????????????
Introduces the Ageless Woman
THE tale tells how Count Emmerick planned a notable marriage-feast for his sister La Beale Ettarre and Sir Guiron des Rocques. The tale relates that, in honor of this wedding, came from Nacumera, far oversea, Count Emmerick's elder sister Dame Melicent and her husband the Comte de la For?t, with an outlandish retinue of pagan slaves that caused great wonder. All Poictesme took holiday. The tale narrates how from Naimes to Lisuarte, and in the wild hill-country back of Perdigon, knights made ready for the tournament, traveling toward Storisende in gay silken garments such as were suited to these new times of peace. The highways in those parts shone with warriors, riding in companies of six or eight, wearing mantles worked in gold, and mounted upon valuable horses that glittered with new bits and housings. And the tale tells, also, how they came with horns sounding before them.
Ettarre watched from the turrets of Storisende, pensively. Yet she was happy in these days. "Indeed, there is now very little left this side of heaven for you to desire, madame," said Horvendile the clerk, who stood beside her at his service.
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