So, I've been delving into Charles Williams a bit as part of Mythgard's
The Inklings and Science Fiction class. The official readings are "Et In Sempiternum Pereant" (available in Doug Anderson's
Tales Before Narnia) and "The Noises That Weren't There" (thus far apparently published only as a serial in
Mythlore 6,
7, and
8).
In reading "Et In Sempiternum Pereant," I found myself wondering about Lord Arglay's character. To me, there's at least a suggestion that he is not, or has not been prior to this episode, a particularly virtuous or godly man from a Christian perspective.
First off, I found myself wondering if Lord Arglay had taken advantage of the man whose Francis Bacon papers he'd been reviewing. The overall set-up of the encounter somewhat suggests this: a worldly, sophisticated man (not only a British Lord, but also a retired Chief Justice) heads out to the boondocks to meet with a man in financial straits who owns certain as-yet-unpublished papers the former Chief Justice is considering for a possible occupation or hobby in retirement. Moreover, the owner's financial circumstances are mentioned in the same breath with the fact that Arglay had restrained himself, and humored the owner, when the owner made a bitter joke about the papers, which Lord Arglay had not found amusing. (The joke was "All that is smoked isn't Bacon," which may possibly have reflected disappointment at owning papers of great historical significance which cannot be monetized.) For me, this particular trope was pressed into my consciousness through the short story
"Parson's Pleasure" by Roald Dahl. [Historical note: I doubt there is any "actual" connection between the two stories. The Williams story was apparently written around 1931, but not published in his lifetime. So Dahl's short story appeared first, as it was published in 1958 and the Williams story was published in 1986. Their lives overlapped -- Dahl was born in 1916 and Williams died in 1945 -- but I don't know if they ever met or corresponded, etc.]
Ultimately, however, I suspect Arglay did
not take advantage of him in the usual predatory sense; after all, their relations had been amicable enough that the "host" offered to send Arglay off by car (very unlikely if he knew that Arglay had forced him into a hard bargain, although possible if he'd been fleeced in ignorance) and there is no reference to Arglay being in possession of the papers (e.g., patting his pocket to assure himself they were there, etc.). The advantage-taking, if any, would have been to adhere to norms of scholarship and simply review them in situ without remuneration, rather than taking the opportunity to alleviate the man's distress by compensating him for his kindness in making the papers available to Arglay for study and publication. The story, standing alone, does not entirely foreclose such a reading.
And still other aspects of the story raised questions for me concerning Arglay's character, again questions that are not fully resolved in the story itself. Arglay's reported lifelong efforts to maintain his equanimity and not to take on responsibilities, to remain aloof and uninvolved, suggest a want of Christian charity. Likewise, his recollection of a convicted man's screaming suggests perhaps a detachment amounting to a lack of compassion. Arglay's "habit of devotion" is addressed to the "Omnipotence" rather than the Christian God -- and it is not prayer, per se, but merely "his means of recalling himself into peace out of the angers, greeds, sloths and perversities that still too often possessed him." Arglay's "natural temper" is apparently "violen[t]" -- "There had been people whom he had once come very near hating, hating with a fury or selfish rage and detestation; for instance, his brother-in-law." Even the long-suppressed hatred of his brother-in-law (which he now recognizes as unjustified) was something he apparently never truly overcame, but only set aside perhaps for equanimity's sake. Moreover, Arglay sees the cottage only when he experiences despair; it seems to materialize at the same time that he falters and fails in the virtue of hope (since despair is its negation).
In a private email and her guest lecture, however,
Sorina Higgins mentioned that Arglay is one of the main characters in the Williams novel,
Many Dimensions; his character is perhaps more fully developed there
. The brother-in-law appears too, and is in fact the undisputed villain of the piece; a person well worth hating by any standard.
So I'm now on a frolic and detour reading
Many Dimensions. Unlike "The Noises That Weren't There," I've only had to look up one allusion so far, to Kipling's poem "
The Sons of Martha" (first published 1907).
