{"id":5053,"date":"2024-02-09T16:02:32","date_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:02:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=5053"},"modified":"2024-02-09T16:08:04","modified_gmt":"2024-02-09T16:08:04","slug":"ralph-hoyte-on-christabel-released","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/?p=5053","title":{"rendered":"Ralph Hoyte on Christabel Released"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Greek tragedy, \u2018hubris\u2019 is defined as \u201cexcessive pride towards or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis\u201d <\/em>(Oxford Languages). I have had much the same sort of feeling since I decided \u2013 well, \u2018decided\u2019 sounds too, er, decisive (?), when what really happened was that my resistance to \u2018taking on Coleridge\u2019 was gradually chipped away, seemingly by some hand other than my own, until that fateful day during a residency with the Quantocks AONB more than 10 years ago on which it became evident to me that I was \u2018going to finish Christabel\u2019, the great man – the epitome of a non-completer-finisher (Porlock!) \u2013 never having managed to do so himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, \u2018hubris\u2019 \u2013 who, or what was I calling out? The literature on Coleridge (and his Romantic poet companion wanderers in halcyon landscapes) is probably enough to sink hundreds of Titanics multiple times over. Every work, every sentence, every word, every comma, every obscure reference in Greek, Latin – or Coleridgean – has been pored over by people who have invested their lives in The Quest \u2026 then along comes some Bristol poet or the other who \u2018finishes\u2019 one of Coleridge\u2019s opuses: Christabel. Derision is to be expected. Praise, perhaps. More likely to be ignored, which no artist much likes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet \u2013 and this undoubtedly opens me out to further derision \u2013 I tried to resist the necessity to release Christabel and the whole cast of protagonists (her sire, Sir Leoline; her nemesis, Geraldine – is she the daughter of Sir Roland de Vaux of Tryermaine Castle in the Scottish Borders, “that castle good \/ which stands and threatens Scotland\u2019s wastes”, as she purports to be, or could she be someone else\u2019s daughter?) from their over 200 years in limbo \u2013 but they insisted someone had to do it, none more so than Christabel herself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sir, you say, pshaw! But if you\u2019re up on top of the Quantock Hills of Somerset at midnight on the winter equinox at Lady Fountain \u2018neath ancient Dowsborough and the Lady herself appeareth and spake, \u2018Release Christabel! Release \u2026 Christabel\u2026.\u2019, then what to do? Release her, evidently, or stop pretending to be \u2018a poet\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brighter then, and brighter as it seemed,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shone the spectre, as Geraldine screamed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Mercy, have mercy upon me, mother mild,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018T was not my wish to besiege thy child!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Then whose, demon-stock?\u2019 Set forth the mother<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Doth the succubus have father, sister, brother?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Art thou witch, warlock, devil\u2019s sporn?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In which measureless cavern wast thou born?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In which savage place, devil haunted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Out of which hag\u2019s unclean womb wast enchanted?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speak!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process, which unwound naturally over most of the rest of a year \u2013 with major chunks written at Treowen, a 17th<\/sup> century manor house in Monmouthshire, Wales \u2013 was uncomplicated: let the cast of Christabel work out their own destinies though me. Write \u2013 in longhand \u2013 until I come to a stop, then refer back to Coleridge: who was Geraldine (\u2018dine\u2019, not \u2018deen\u2019)? Why was she trying to seduce Sir Leoline and destroy all his seed? That seduction scene – was Christabel really innocent? Was Geraldine also under some form of compulsion? Why had Sir Leoline and Sir Roland de Vaux argued bitterly all those years ago and would now have nothing to do with each other? What\u2019s with the green snake demonesses (common enough in the Quantocks, rare elsewhere)? I\u2019d intended Christabel, at the beginning, to \u2018do an Ophelia\u2019, id est, go mad, float downstream with flowers in her hair, and drown. But she point blank refused. What to do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I decided at the beginning that I would \u2018bolt on\u2019 my voice to that of Coleridge\u2019s: Christabel Released contains all of STC\u2019s original (split into 4 parts rather than 2), bar his ridiculous coda (\u2018a little child, a limber elf\u2019 \u2026 \u2018a fairy thing with red round cheeks\u2019, \u2018singing, dancing to itself\u2019??? Camille Paglia is correct \u2013 he calls up these atavistic apparitions, then can\u2019t deal with them!). The other 16 parts are all mine, making Christabel Released 18% Coleridge, 72% Hoyte. When I didn\u2019t know where the story was going, I\u2019d ask Coleridge. I am a declamatory poet (\u2018the poetry is in the voice\u2019), so Christabel Released takes 3 to 4 hours to declaim (it\u2019s fun doing a performance and then asking people who didn\u2019t know Christabel where they thought Coleridge ended and Hoyte took over!). The premiere was a perambulation through the various rooms of Halsway Manor in the Quantocks over a long weekend, with a period banquet, comments including, \u2018was that really nearly 4 hours? I never wanted it to end!\u2019 and \u2018we found this event by chance, yet it was a highpoint to our Summer, a night of magic and mysterious intrigues in a peerless setting.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Christabel Released \u2018a reimagining of Romanticism\u2019? Well, not so much \u2018a reimagining\u2019 as an extension, perhaps \u2013 it takes the tropes of Romanticism (the uniqueness of the human spirit, reflected in and deeply connected to the untamed wildness of nature; emotion over reason; freedom of form; and an exploration of the Gothic and unknown, etc.) and adds a 21st<\/sup> century twist, noting the passing of the Old Order and the individual choices which may be possible today, but not in the 18th<\/sup> century; it appropriates Coleridge and makes him, terrible phrase, \u201821st<\/sup> century – relevant\u2019 (bonus: no \u2018limber elves\u2019). Is that \u2018an escape\u2019 from the realities of our age? Just as William and Dorothy Wordsworth and ST Coleridge sought a new way of doing poetry, of living, in the closing years of the 18th<\/sup> century after the disillusionment of the French Revolution, so perhaps we can also reimagine our lives set against \u2018the untamed wildness of nature and the uniqueness of the human spirit\u2019?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ralph Hoyte will be next declaiming Christabel Released (abridged) as part of the Words in Watchet<\/strong> literary festival on 17 February 2024. Christabel Released is available as print-on-demand\/eBook on Amazon; and as an audio book on Bandcamp. Anyone up for making Christabel Released into a graphic novel?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Website and contact: ralphhoyte.org<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In Greek tragedy, \u2018hubris\u2019 is defined as \u201cexcessive pride towards or defiance of the gods, leading to nemesis\u201d (Oxford Languages). I have had much the same sort of feeling since… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[22],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5053"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5058,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053\/revisions\/5058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bars.ac.uk\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}