Domnei A Comedy of Woman-Worship by Cabell, James Branch, 1879-1958

Yet instances were not lacking in the service of _domnei_ where worship of the symbol developed into a religion sufficing in itself, and became competitor with worship of what the symbol primarily represented--such instances as have their analogues in the legend of Ritter Tannhaeuser, or in Aucassin's resolve in the romance to go down into hell with "his sweet mistress whom he so much loves," or (here perhaps most perfectly exampled) in Arnaud de Merveil's naive declaration that whatever portion of his heart belongs to God heaven holds in vassalage to Adelaide de Beziers. It is upon this darker and rebellious side of _domnei_, of a religion pathetically dragged dustward by the luxuriance and efflorescence of over-passionate service, that Nicolas has touched in depicting Demetrios.

4

Nicolas de Caen, himself the servitor _par amours_ of Isabella of Burgundy, has elsewhere written of _domne_i (in his _Le Roi Amaury_) in terms such as it may not be entirely out of place to transcribe here. Baalzebub, as you may remember, has been discomfited in his endeavours to ensnare King Amaury and is withdrawing in disgust.

"A pest upon this _domnei_!"[1: Quoted with minor alterations from Watson's version] the fiend growls. "Nay, the match is at an end, and I may speak in perfect candour now. I swear to you that, given a man clear-eyed enough to see that a woman by ordinary is nourished much as he is nourished, and is subjected to every bodily infirmity which he endures and frets beneath, I do not often bungle matters. But when a fool begins to flounder about the world, dead-drunk with adoration of an immaculate woman--a monster which, as even the man's own judgment assures him, does not exist and never will exist--why, he becomes as unmanageable as any other maniac when a frenzy is upon him. For then the idiot hungers after a life so high-pitched that his gross faculties may not so much as glimpse it; he is so rapt with impossible dreams that he becomes oblivious to the nudgings of his most petted vice; and he abhors his own innate and perfectly natural inclination to cowardice, and filth, and self-deception. He, in fine, affords me and all other rational people no available handle; and, in consequence, he very often flounders beyond the reach of my whisperings. There may be other persons who can inform you why such blatant folly should thus be the master-word of evil, but for my own part, I confess to ignorance."

"Nay, that folly, as you term it, and as hell will always term it, is alike the riddle and the masterword of the universe," the old king replies....

And Nicolas whole-heartedly believed that this was true. We do not believe this, quite, but it may be that we are none the happier for our dubiety.

EXPLICIT

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. LES AMANTS DE MELICENT, Traduction moderne, annotee et procedee d'un notice historique sur Nicolas de Caen, par l'Abbe. * * * A Paris. Pour Iaques Keruer aux deux Cochetz, Rue S. Iaques, M. D. XLVI. Avec Privilege du Roy. The somewhat abridged reprint of 1788 was believed to be the first version printed in French, until the discovery of this unique volume in 1917.