Droll Tales 2

Wild, wet, and windy weather persisted, producing dispiriting gloom throughout the day.

I therefore continued the sequence begun with https://derrickjknight.com/2023/01/06/droll-tales-1/ wherein more details of the three publications featured here is given.

The second of the first Decade of stories is entitled “Venial Sin” by the Folio Society, and “The Venial Sin” by the other two. It deals with the nature of degrees of sin as believed by the Catholic Church, which was the dominant religion of the times. The determiner therefore becomes quite significant if we are considering the importance of a particular Venial Sin or the general nature of such an offence. Venial signifies a crime of a lesser nature and therefore not condemning the offender to the loss of divine grace and an eternity in Hell.

Fornication and adultery were definitely seen as Mortal Sins. Especially when they were themselves guilty the clergy in particular went to great lengths in apologetics to find a way of permitting such misdeeds as venial and therefore excusable after the service of a suitable penance. Not knowing what was happening, or occurring by accident were helpful vindications.

In 1968 The Dubliners dealt with the predicament in which this Balzac story’s young lady found herself. I couldn’t find an available video of that version of the 19th century ballad that Jackie remembers singing in the Girl Guides, although she professes not to have understood it at the time.

Balzac describes the genuine love between his protagonists and accompanying wishes each to please the other considering their differing needs with fluid prose and vivid descriptions of people, country, and location. A certain amount of subterfuge was inevitably employed. I will not go into the detail save to say that a debatable resolution is sought over a period of years.

Now, to obtain an heir, Blanche lent herself to the coursing of stags and deer

This is Mervyn Peake’s of 1961

followed by Gustave Doré’s of 1874

and the more risqué offerings of Jean de Bosschère from 1926.

This evening we all dined on three prawn preparations – spicy, tempura, and breaded – on a bed of Jackie’s tasty egg fried rice topped by a thick omelette; with Becky’s tuna pasta salad. The Culinary Queen drank Hoegaarden, our daughter drank Diet Pepsi, and I started another bottle of the Côtes du Rhône.

45 comments

  7. I’ve never heard that song — or heard of it, for that matter. The Girl Guides clearly were more fun than my Bluebird group. On the other hand, one good song deserves another. Do you and Jackie know a favorite from one of my favorite groups — “Old Woman from Wexford”? I’ll bet you do!

    Reply

    1. Agreed, Sue. Although Peake had his charms, he would not be my favourite. Thanks very much

      Reply

  12. I find all of these illustrations fascinating!
    Love that song! And vid! HA! 😀 Yes, it’s probably good we don’t always totally understand certain things the very first time we hear about them. 😮 😉
    (((HUGS))) 🙂

    Reply

  15. I had to still jump through hoops to get here Derrick… Your gavitar led me to your old wordpress address via the link left there and then to the page that said you had moved… Still no updates in the reader I can see or emails Derrick..

    As for the wonderful Droll Tales…. Great shares and beautiful pieces of artwork amongst them.. Sending Hugs your way <3

    Reply

        1. The Happiness Engineers have never made me happy. My site is now being managed by my local adviser. He is attempting to resolve the reader problems of my followers. Thanks very much, Sue

          Reply

  17. Fornications was definitely considered the most mortal of sins in the Catholic Church (probably still is). I remember the nuns drilling the horror of it into our heads when we were way too young to understand what they were talking about. At the same time, we were also being taught stories of native savages and scalping early white settlers in western Canada. I put 2 and 2 together and came up with a roving band of marauding fornicators. They turned out to be a crew of utility workers that my cousin worked with, but they scared the wits out of me.

    Reply

    1. Adults in position of authority can so easily forget the mind of a child, Anne. Your story is a perfect example. Thanks very much

      Reply

      1. The nuns we had were so obsessed with fornication and ‘sins of the flesh’ I don’t think they had the minds to remember anything else. Honestly, they never should have been in a position of authority over a bunch of six year olds.

        Reply

  18. Hi Derrick, this book sounds most intriguing. The idea of rating sins is definitely something I know about from my younger days when I attended a convent. When I read Dante’s Inferno I was intrigued that there were adulterers and suicides in two different levels of hell. The split related to the ranking of those sins which changed over time.

    Reply

Leave a Reply