The Folio Society entitle story number 27 in this series “About a Beggar known as Old Parchemins”. The Bibliophilist Society adds a hyphen to their version, in Par-Chemins thus clarifying the origin of the nickname which could be translated as “about the roads”, because that is where this homeless vagrant was always to be found.
I find this a story of two halves, in that, after squandering an inherited fortune this man wandered the roads studying “philosophy in a bird school” where we are treated to the author’s straightforward delightful descriptions of the lanes and their avian residents. We are then shocked, as was his sleeping victim by this aged gent’s sudden rape of a young woman, and the familiar prose of double entendre takes over.
We have learned about Parchemins’s success in gambling with dice; was he to succeed in gambling with his sexual prowess to save him from the gallows?
Here is Mervyn Peake’s illustration for The Folio Society:
and those of Gustave Doré in the other publication.
Further details of the publications are given in https://derrickjknight.com/2023/01/06/droll-tales-1/except that there are no pictures here by Jean de Bosschère as I do not have any of the third Decade by him.
Love the illustrations.
Thank you very much, Pat
There’s almost a surreal feeling to the illustrations.
Yes. Thanks very much, Merril
What I like most about these tales are the illustrations. The art is wonderful!
What a dynamic illustration by Peake, contrasting the sleeping girl with the leaping elderly man.
It was indeed. Thanks very much, Dolly
The rape of a young woman doesn’t sound droll to me.
No. That was a shocker, Liz. Thank you very much
You’re welcome, Derrick.
The illustrations certainly capture the moods/emotions in the tale.
(((HUGS)))
Thanks very much, Carolyn
The illustrations are excellent.
Thank you very much, Lavinia
Mervyn Peake’s illustrations are always somehow funny 🙂
Thank you very much, Ribana