The Crome Quartos - part 2

THE CROME(1) QUARTOS
BY DAVID STRATA

PART II : THE FEARFUL WEDDING(2) 



STANZA I

"Two there are, there, and the riddle is,

Which of the two is more afraid?"

Thought(3) sneers behind his broad, hair’d hand,

"The ball-less Prince who’s never roamed abroad(4),

The Princess who must face the marriage bed,

And all the awkward questions it may raise,

About the absence of a maiden head"(5)?

STANZA II


“He’ll never miss what he has never felt,

The teetotaller who never broached a vat(6),””

The odious Stale(7), remarks and sniggers too,

A guard, in grey and black, swats at his head,

Stale curses, and is forcibly restrained,

Drumming his spurred heels on the wooden pew.

While upward, upward, swells the organ note.

Notes:
(1) David Strata, deliberately co-opted the word 'Crome' from Huxley's satire. Writing privately (letter to Edward Upward, 3rd Sep 1923) that he 'defied the young upstart to sue'.  Ironically Strata was only very slightly older than Huxley and this 'spat' is an example of young authors jockeying for position.
(2) Text here is from the first published edition: 1st Dec 1924, Merrithought Press.
(3) Young Thought or Young Uoht in MS.  Amended in published text - a clear reference in MS to either the work of Thomas de Castigne or Robert W. Chambers.
(4) The ball-less Prince would be Juvre, whose emblem may be the ball covered in stars:
but who is 'ball-less' ie eunuchoid n Uoht's estimation because of his lack of experience of women.
(5) This suggests the bride is not a maiden and raises the old question: whose child is Thomas?  See also the ambiguity in Act 1 Scene 4 Lines 31-33, and Cassilda's nursing of the Child in Act II Scene 6.
(6) That is, as a virgin Juvre, can not know what it feels like to take a virgin, and thus will
not know his bride has been sexually active.
(7) Perhaps, Stale = Thales, as Thought = Uoht.


The full text of this paper will be printed in the Jaune Studies Yearbook Dec 2015.