Eric Fraser – derrickjknight

Forewarned But Forestalled

This fourth tale in The Folio Society selection of stories of Maria de Zayas, introduced in https://derrickjknight.com/2024/09/02/the-ravages-of-vice/, has a change of mood, of power; and a humorous theme.

This time clever women are the tricksters and men the victims of their jokes and deceit. The first fool was “so chastened by his experiences that he now scorned all women without exception, a sentiment quite contrary to reason, because for each wicked woman there are a hundred good ones. Not all women are wicked and it is not just to blame all for the crimes of a few. But he maintained once and for all that there was no trusting them, especially the clever ones, because they, from having ben calm and sensible, suddenly became flighty and vicious and took men in with their cunning wiles.”

The author closes with “I can now bring to an end this amazing story, which was intended as a warning to those ignorant people who condemn brains in a woman…..and if a woman is going to be bad, she will be bad whether she is clever or stupid, though in the first case she is more likely to b able to control herself.”

Here is Eric Fraser’s faithful illustration to this story.

A Shameful Revenge

On another day of relentless rain I stayed indoors and occupied myself with reading, including this third story in my Folio Society Maria de Zayas collection.

De Zayas writes that it is not acceptable for a man of good society and wealth to marry a woman, even of the same background, without similar riches; it is, however, satisfactory to win such a prey by any means possible as long as the affair is kept secret in order to preserve her reputation and his honour. In such a situation “the moment he saw her, or so he maintained, he lost his heart to her. (The worst thing about men to my mind [says the author] is that they profess to feel much more than they really do.)”

Persistence and false promises are preferable to force, although any method may be employed to break down honourable resistance to a dishonourable suit. Once satisfied the lover eventually tires of his love. When “unable to consummate his lust [he] had been in despair…now he regretted it. And the worst of it is that there are many men like him; there always have been and there still are today. There are many [such women] too, and neither one nor the other regret what they are doing until they have plunged into the same abyss as engulfed all their predecessors.”

“Who but a man could be guilty of such a betrayal!” Nevertheless our author says “You will surely allow me, gentlemen, in this tale of mine about a man’s deceit, to express my admiration for a woman’s wrath, for you will recognise that a woman’s fury often springs from a man’s duplicity.” Our author would have agreed with William Congreve that “Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned.”

Revenge is acceptable if in defence of honour; one of the schemes in this story is less shameful than the other.

As so often in these stories a shamed woman has recourse to “taking the veil” in order to preserve her life. Shakespeare’s Hamlet enjoins Ophelia to “get thee to a nunnery”.

Here is Eric Fraser’s engraving for this story.

This evening I dined on Jackie’s penne pasta arrabbiata sprinkled with Parmesan cheese, while she opted for a plateful of vegetables, including carrots, cauliflower, green and runner beans. I drank more of the Fleurie.

An Innocent Punished

Maria de Zayas y Sotomayor is introduced in https://derrickjknight.com/2024/09/02/the-ravages-of-vice/

This outspoken woman, centuries ahead of her time, on the very first page of this second story in my Folio Society selection, gives her view of the subservient position of women with “His will was always her will, and she loved and obeyed him as a father, so she accepted the offer [of marriage]”.

Maria has this to say about love, honour, and retribution: “despite the kindness she received at first from her husband”, the bride discovers that “Men are very accomplished at showing this in the early days of marriage, indeed it is my opinion that they are so generous with it then that they spend it all in the first year, after which, the springs of charity having dried up, they drive their wives to their graves from very lack of it. And….this is certainly the reason why wives, finding themselves disliked, become involved in infidelities which dishonour their husbands and cost they themselves their lives. What can a husband, or a father or a brother or, at its lowest level, a lover, expect from a woman except disaster if she finds herself disliked and deprived of the one thing she craves?”. Retribution is meted out by the nearest and dearest mentioned in this last sentence.

The author’s staunch Catholicism is featured several times in the story, and probably is the reason for “a great wizard and necromancer” being a Moor of the Muslim faith.

Deception, extreme cruelty, and torture, all play their typical parts in this fast moving story from an author who knows how to engage her readership.

Here is Eric Fraser’s faithful illustration to the tale.

The Two Towers

This morning’s chiropractic session with Eloise was encouraging: my next appointment is for five days time, which is continuing the further spacing.

On another cold, dull, day I stayed at home afterwards and scanned the Illustrations to the second book in J.R.R.Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Here is the Title Page and Frontispiece,

and the illustrations, approved with restrictions by the author himself.

This evening we all dined on Jackie’s classic cottage pie; crunchy carrots; green and runner beans, and meaty gravy with which the Culinary Queen drank more of the chardonnay, Ian and Dillon drank Hoegaarden and I drank more of the Cabernet Chiménère.

The Fellowship Of The Ring

I introduce today’s post with a couple of questions.

Why would I feature a book I am never likely to read?

Which European Monarch signed abdication papers today?

Well, not before I bought this Folio Society edition in 1977, I read J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Hobbit” which bored me so much that I regretted purchase of the Ring three volume set. Except for the illustrations, the story of which is featured in

two pages from the Folio Society Magazine of Spring 1978. You may need to enlarge these images to realise that today’s abdicating monarch is the artist who provided the original works redrawn by Eric Fraser to fit the format of the books. Having become Queen Margaretha, Ingahild Grathmer had no available time to carry out the task, but approved of Fraser’s efforts.