Jonathan Strange And Mr Norrell Part 17

"This is a great day for Great Britain, sir!" cried Mr Honeyfoot. "Look at all that one magician has been able to accomplis.h.!.+ Only consider what two might do! Strange and Norrell! Oh, it sounds very well!" Then Mr Honeyfoot repeated "Strange and Norrell" several times over, in a highly delighted manner that made Strange laugh very much.

But like many gentle characters, Mr Segundus was much given to changes of mind. As long as Mr Strange stood before him, tall, smiling and a.s.sured, Mr Segundus had every confidence that Strange's genius must receive the recognition it deserved whether it be with Mr Norrell's help, or in spite of Mr Norrell's hindrance; but the next morning, after Strange and Henry Woodhope had ridden off, his thoughts returned to all the magicians whom Mr Norrell had laboured to destroy, and he began to wonder if Mr Honeyfoot and he might not have misled Strange.

"I cannot help thinking," he said, "that we should have done a great deal better to warn Mr Strange to avoid Mr Norrell. Rather than encouraging him to seek out Norrell we should have advised him to hide himself!"

But Mr Honeyfoot did not understand this at all. "No gentleman likes to be told to hide," he said, "and if Mr Norrell should mean any harm to Mr Strange which I am very far from allowing to be the case then I am sure that Mr Strange will be the first to find it out."

1 Some scholars (Jonathan Strange among them) have argued that Maria Absalom knew exactly what she was about when she permitted her house to go to rack and ruin. It is their contention that Miss Absalom did what she did in accordance with the commonly-held belief that all ruined buildings belong to the Raven King. This presumably would account for the fact that the magic at the Shadow House appeared to grow stronger fter fter the house fell into ruin. the house fell into ruin.

"All of Man's works, all his cities, all his empires, all his monuments will one day crumble to dust. Even the houses of my own dear readers must though it be for just one day, one hour be ruined and become houses where the stones are mortared with moonlight, windowed with starlight and furnished with the dusty wind. It is said that in that day, in that hour, our houses become the possessions of the Raven King. Though we bewail the end of English magic and say it is long gone from us and inquire of each other how it was possible that we came to lose something so precious, let us not forget that it also waits for us at England's end and one day we will no more be able to escape the Raven King than, in this present Age, we can bring him back." The History and Practice of English Magic The History and Practice of English Magic by Jonathan Strange, pub. John Murray, London, 1816. by Jonathan Strange, pub. John Murray, London, 1816.

2 When people talk of "the Other Lands", they generally have in mind Faerie, or some such other vague notion. For the purposes of general conversation such definitions do very well, but a magician must learn to be more precise. It is well known that the Raven King ruled three kingdoms: the first was the Kingdom of Northern England that encompa.s.sed c.u.mber-land, Northumberland, Durham, Yorks.h.i.+re, Lancas.h.i.+re, Derbys.h.i.+re and part of Nottinghams.h.i.+re. The other two were called "the King's Other Lands". One was part of Faerie and the other was commonly supposed to be a country on the far side of h.e.l.l, sometimes called "the Bitter Lands". The King's enemies said that he leased it from Lucifer.

3 Paris Ormskirk (1496-1587), a schoolmaster from the village of Clerkenwell near London. He wrote several treatises on magic. Though no very original thinker, he was a diligent worker who set himself the task of a.s.sembling and sifting through all the spells of summoning he could find, to try to uncover one reliable version. This took him twelve years, during which time his little house on Clerkenwell-green filled up with thousands of small pieces of paper with spells written on them. Mrs Ormskirk was not best pleased, and she, poor woman, became the original of the magician's wife in stock comedies and second-rate novels a strident, scolding, unhappy person.

The spell that Ormskirk eventually produced became very popular and was widely used in his own century and the two following ones; but, until Jonathan Strange made his own alterations to the spell and brought forth Maria Absalom into his own dream and Mr Segundus's, I never heard of any one who had the least success with it perhaps for the reasons that Jonathan Strange gives.

4 Mr Segundus's good sense seems to have deserted him at this point. Charles Hether-Gray (1712-89) was another historio-magician who published a famous spell of summoning. His spell and Ormskirk's are equally bad; there is not a pin to chuse between them.

5 In mediaeval times conjuring the dead was a well-known sort of magic and there seems to have been a consensus that a dead magician was both the easiest spirit to raise and the most worth talking to.

6 There have been very few magicians who did not learn magic from another pract.i.tioner. The Raven King was not the first British magician. There had been others before him notably the seventh-century half-man, half-demon, Merlin but at the time the Raven King came into England there were none. Little enough is known about the Raven King's early years, but it is reasonable to suppose that he learnt both magic and kings.h.i.+p at the court of a King of Faerie. Early magicians in mediaeval England learnt their art at the court of the Raven King and these magicians trained others.

One exception may be the Nottinghams.h.i.+re magician, Thomas G.o.dbless (1105?-82). Most of his life is entirely obscure to us. He certainly spent some time with the Raven King, but this seems to have been late in his life when he had already been a magician for years. He is perhaps one example that a magician may be self-created as of course were both Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange.

24.

Another magician September 1809 MR DRAWLIGHT TURNED slightly in his chair, smiled, and said, "It seems, sir, that you have a rival."

Before Mr Norrell could think of a suitable reply, Lascelles asked what was the man's name.

"Strange," said Drawlight.

"I do not know him," said Lascelles.

"Oh!" cried Drawlight. "I think you must. Jonathan Strange of Shrops.h.i.+re. Two thousand pounds a year."

"I have not the least idea whom you mean. Oh, but wait! Is not this the man who, when an undergraduate at Cambridge, frightened a cat belonging to the Master of Corpus Christi?"

Drawlight agreed that this was the very man. Lascelles knew him instantly and they both laughed.

Meanwhile Mr Norrell sat silent as a stone. Drawlight's opening remark had been a terrible blow. He felt as if Drawlight had turned and struck him as if a figure in a painting, or a table or a chair had turned and struck him. The shock of it had almost taken his breath away; he was quite certain he would be ill. What Drawlight might say next Mr Norrell dared not think something of greater powers, perhaps of wonders performed beside which Mr Norrell's own would appear pitiful indeed. And he had taken such pains to ensure there could be no rivals! He felt like the man who goes about his house at night, locking doors and barring windows, only to hear the certain sounds of someone walking about in an upstairs room.

But as the conversation progressed these unpleasant sensations lessened and Mr Norrell began to feel more comfortable. As Drawlight and Lascelles talked of Mr Strange's Brighton pleasure-trips and visits to Bath and Mr Strange's estate in Shrops.h.i.+re, Mr Norrell thought he understood the sort of man this Strange must be: a fas.h.i.+onable, shallow sort of man, a man not unlike Lascelles himself. That being so (said Mr Norrell to himself) was it not more probable that "You have a rival," was addressed, not to himself, but to Lascelles? This Strange (thought Mr Norrell) must be Lascelles's rival in some love affair or other. Norrell looked down at his hands clasped in his lap and smiled at his own folly.

"And so," said Lascelles, "Strange is now a magician?"

"Oh!" said Drawlight, turning to Mr Norrell. "I am sure that not even his greatest friends would compare his talents to those of the estimable Mr Norrell. But I believe he is well enough thought of in Bristol and Bath. He is in London at present. His friends hope that you will be kind enough to grant him an interview and may I express a wish to be present when two such pract.i.tioners of the art meet?"

Mr Norrell lifted his eyes very slowly. "I shall be happy to meet Mr Strange," he said.

Mr Drawlight was not made to wait long before he witnessed the momentous interview between the two magicians (which was just as well for Mr Drawlight hated to wait). An invitation was issued and both Lascelles and Drawlight made it their business to be present when Mr Strange waited upon Mr Norrell.

He proved neither as young nor as handsome as Mr Norrell had feared. He was nearer thirty than twenty and, as far as another gentleman may be permitted to judge these things, not handsome at all. But what was very unexpected was that he brought with him a pretty young woman: Mrs Strange.

Mr Norrell began by asking Strange if he had brought his writing? He would, he said, very much like to read what Mr Strange had written.

"My writing?" said Strange and paused a moment. "I am afraid, sir, that I am at a loss to know what you mean. I have written nothing."

"Oh!" said Mr Norrell. "Mr Drawlight told me that you had been asked to write something for The Gentleman's Magazine The Gentleman's Magazine but perhaps . . ." but perhaps . . ."

"Oh, that!" said Strange. "I have scarcely thought about it. Nichols a.s.sured me he did not need it until the Friday after next."

"A week on Friday and not yet begun!" said Mr Norrell, very much astonished.

"Oh!" said Strange. "I think that the quicker one gets these things out of one's brain and on to the paper and off to the printers, the better. I dare say, sir," and he smiled at Mr Norrell in a friendly manner, "that you find the same."

Mr Norrell, who had never yet got any thing successfully out of his brain and off to the printers, whose every attempt was still at some stage or other of revision, said nothing.

"As to what I shall write," continued Strange, "I do not quite know yet, but it will most likely be a refutation of Portishead's article in The Modern Magician The Modern Magician.1Did you see it, sir? It put me in a rage for a week. He sought to prove that modern magicians have no business dealing with fairies. It is one thing to admit that we have lost the power to raise such spirits it is quite another to renounce all intention of ever employing them! I have no patience with any such squeamishness. But what is most extraordinary is that I have yet to see any criticism of Portishead's article anywhere. Now that we have something approaching a magical community I think we would be very wrong to let such thick-headed nonsense pa.s.s unreproved."

Strange, apparently thinking that he had talked enough, waited for one of the other gentlemen to reply.

After a moment or two of silence Mr Lascelles remarked that Lord Portishead had written the article at Mr Norrell's express wish and with Mr Norrell's aid and approval.

"Indeed?" Strange looked very much astonished.

There was a silence of some moments and then Lascelles languidly inquired how one learnt magic these days?

"From books," said Strange.

"Ah, sir!" cried Mr Norrell. "How glad I am to hear you say so! Waste no time, I implore you, in pursuing any other course, but apply yourself constantly to reading! No sacrifice of time or pleasure can ever be too great!"

Strange regarded Mr Norrell somewhat ironically and then remarked, "Unfortunately lack of books has always been a great obstacle. I dare say you have no conception, sir, how few books of magic there are left in circulation in England. All the booksellers agree that a few years ago there were a great many, but now . . ."

"Indeed?" interrupted Mr Norrell, hurriedly. "Well, that is very odd to be sure."

The silence which followed was peculiarly awkward. Here sat the only two English magicians of the Modern Age. One confessed he had no books; the other, as was well known, had two great libraries stuffed with them. Mere common politeness seemed to dictate that Mr Norrell make some offer of help, however slight; but Mr Norrell said nothing.

"It must have been a very curious circ.u.mstance," said Mr Lascelles after a while, "that made you chuse to be a magician."

"It was," said Strange. "Most curious."

"Will you not tell us what that circ.u.mstance was?"

Strange smiled maliciously. "I am sure that it will give Mr Norrell great pleasure to know that he was the cause of my becoming a magician. One might say in fact that Mr Norrell made me a magician."

"I?" cried Mr Norrell, quite horrified.

"The truth is, sir," said Arabella Strange quickly, "that he had tried everything else farming, poetry, iron-founding. In the course of a year he ran through a whole variety of occupations without settling to any of them. He was bound to come to magic sooner or later."

There was another silence, then Strange said, "I had not understood before that Lord Portishead wrote at your behest, sir. Perhaps you will be so good as to explain something to me. I ave read all of his lords.h.i.+p's essays in The Friends of English Magic The Friends of English Magic and and The Modern Magician The Modern Magician but have yet to see any mention of the Raven King. The omission is so striking that I am beginning to think it must be deliberate." but have yet to see any mention of the Raven King. The omission is so striking that I am beginning to think it must be deliberate."

Mr Norrell nodded. "It is one of my ambitions to make that man as completely forgotten as he deserves," he said.

"But surely, sir, without the Raven King there would be no magic and no magicians?"

"That is the common opinion, certainly. But even it were true which I am very far from allowing he has long since forfeited any ent.i.tlement to our esteem. For what were his first actions upon coming into England? To make war upon England's lawful King and rob him of half his kingdom! And shall you and I, Mr Strange, let it be known that we have chosen such a man as our model? That we account him him the first among us? Will that make our profession respected? Will that persuade the King's ministers to put their trust in us? I do not think so! No, Mr Strange, if we cannot make his name forgotten, then it is our duty yours and mine to broadcast our hatred of him! To let it be known everywhere our great abhorrence of his corrupt nature and evil deeds!" the first among us? Will that make our profession respected? Will that persuade the King's ministers to put their trust in us? I do not think so! No, Mr Strange, if we cannot make his name forgotten, then it is our duty yours and mine to broadcast our hatred of him! To let it be known everywhere our great abhorrence of his corrupt nature and evil deeds!"

It was clear that a great disparity of views and temper existed between the two magicians and Arabella Strange seemed to think that there was no occasion for them to continue any longer in the same room to irritate each other more. She and Strange left very shortly afterwards.

Naturally, Mr Drawlight was the first to p.r.o.nounce upon the new magician. "Well!" he said rather before before the door had closed upon Strange's back. "I do not know what may be your opinion, but I never was more astonished in my life! I was informed by several people that he was a handsome man. What could they have meant, do you suppose? With such a nose as he has got and that hair. Reddish-brown is such a fickle colour there is no wear in it I am quite certain I saw some grey in it. And yet he cannot be more than what? thirty? thirty-two perhaps? She, on the other hand, is quite delightful! So much animation! Those brown curls, so sweetly arranged! But I thought it a great pity that she had not taken more trouble to inform herself of the London fas.h.i.+ons. The sprigged muslin she had on was certainly very pretty, but I should like to see her wear something altogether more stylish say forest-green silk trimmed with black ribbons and black bugle-beads. That is only a first thought, you understand I may be struck with quite a different idea when I see her again." the door had closed upon Strange's back. "I do not know what may be your opinion, but I never was more astonished in my life! I was informed by several people that he was a handsome man. What could they have meant, do you suppose? With such a nose as he has got and that hair. Reddish-brown is such a fickle colour there is no wear in it I am quite certain I saw some grey in it. And yet he cannot be more than what? thirty? thirty-two perhaps? She, on the other hand, is quite delightful! So much animation! Those brown curls, so sweetly arranged! But I thought it a great pity that she had not taken more trouble to inform herself of the London fas.h.i.+ons. The sprigged muslin she had on was certainly very pretty, but I should like to see her wear something altogether more stylish say forest-green silk trimmed with black ribbons and black bugle-beads. That is only a first thought, you understand I may be struck with quite a different idea when I see her again."

"Do you think that people will be curious about him?" asked Mr Norrell.

"Oh! certainly," said Mr Lascelles.

"Ah!" said Mr Norrell. "Then I am very much afraid Mr Lascelles, I would be very glad if you could advise me I am very much afraid that Lord Mulgrave may send for Mr Strange. His lords.h.i.+p's zeal for using magic in the war excellent in itself, of course has had the unfortunate effect of encouraging him to read all sorts of books on magical history and forming opinions about what he finds there. He has devised a plan to summon up witches to aid me in defeating the French I believe he is thinking of those half-fairy, half-human women to whom malicious people were used to apply when they wished to harm their neighbours the sort of witches, in short, that Shakespeare describes in Macbeth Macbeth. He asked me to invoke three or four, and was not best pleased that I refused to do it. Modern magic can do many things, but summoning up witches could bring a world of trouble upon everyone's head. But now I fear he might send for Mr Strange instead. Mr Lascelles, do not you think that he might? And then Mr Strange might try it, not understanding any thing of the danger. Perhaps it would be as well to write to Sir Walter asking if he would be so good as to have a word in his lords.h.i.+p's ear to warn him against Mr Strange."

"Oh!" said Lascelles. "I see no occasion for that. If you you think that Mr Strange's magic is not safe then it will soon get about." think that Mr Strange's magic is not safe then it will soon get about."

Later in the day a dinner was given in Mr Norrell's honour at a house in Great t.i.tchfield-street, at which Mr Drawlight and Mr Lascelles were also present. It was not long before Mr Norrell was asked to give his opinion of the Shrops.h.i.+re magician.

"Mr Strange," said Mr Norrell, "seems a very pleasant gentleman and a very talented magician who may yet be a most creditable addition to our profession, which has certainly been somewhat depleted of late."

"Mr Strange appears to entertain some very odd notions of magic," said Lascelles. "He has not troubled to inform himself of the modern ideas on the subject by which I mean, of course, Mr Norrell's ideas, which have so astonished the world with their clarity and succinctness."

Mr Drawlight repeated his opinion that Mr Strange's red hair had no wear in it and that Mrs Strange's gown, though not exactly fas.h.i.+onable, had been of a very pretty muslin.

At about the same time that this conversation was taking place another set of people (among them Mr and Mrs Strange) was sitting down to dinner in a more modest dining-parlour in a house in Charterhouse-square. Mr and Mrs Strange's friends were naturally anxious to know their opinion of the great Mr Norrell.

"He says he hopes that the Raven King will soon be forgot," said Strange in amazement. "What do you make of that? A magician who hopes the Raven King will soon be forgot! If the Archbishop of Canterbury were discovered to be working secretly to suppress all knowledge of the Trinity, it would make as much sense to me."

"He is like a musician who wishes to conceal the music of Mr Handel," agreed a lady in a turban eating artichokes with almonds.

"Or a fishmonger who hopes to persuade people that the sea does not exist," said a gentleman helping himself to a large piece of mullet in a good wine sauce.

Then other people proposed similar examples of folly and everyone laughed except Strange who sat frowning at his dinner.

"I thought you meant to ask Mr Norrell to help you," said Arabella.

"How could I when we seemed to be quarrelling from the first moment we met?" cried Strange. "He does not like me. Nor I him."

"Not like you! No, perhaps he did not like like you. But he did not so much as look at any other person the whole time we were there. It was as if he would eat you up with his eyes. I dare say he is lonely. He has studied all these years and never had any body he could explain his mind to. Certainly not to those disagreeable men I forget their names. But now that he has seen you and he knows that he could talk to you well! it would be very odd if he did not invite you again." you. But he did not so much as look at any other person the whole time we were there. It was as if he would eat you up with his eyes. I dare say he is lonely. He has studied all these years and never had any body he could explain his mind to. Certainly not to those disagreeable men I forget their names. But now that he has seen you and he knows that he could talk to you well! it would be very odd if he did not invite you again."

In Great t.i.tchfield-street Mr Norrell put down his fork and dabbed at his lips with his napkin. "Of course," he said, "he must apply himself. I urged him to apply himself."

Strange in Charterhouse-square said, "He told me to apply myself. To what? I asked. To reading he said. I was never more astonished in my life. I was very near asking him what I was supposed to read when he has all books."

The next day Strange told Arabella that they could go back to Shrops.h.i.+re any time she pleased he did not think that there was any thing to keep them in London. He also said that he had resolved to think no more about Mr Norrell. In this he was not entirely successful for several times in the next few days Arabella found herself listening to a long recital of all Mr Norrell's faults, both professional and personal.

Meanwhile in Hanover-square Mr Norrell constantly inquired of Mr Drawlight what Mr Strange was doing, whom he visited, and what people thought of him.

Mr Lascelles and Mr Drawlight were a little alarmed at this development. For more than a year now they had enjoyed no small degree of influence over the magician and, as his friends, they were courted by admirals, generals, politicians, any one in fact who wished to know Mr Norrell's opinion upon this, or wished Mr Norrell to do that. The thought of another magician who might attach himself to Mr Norrell by closer ties than Drawlight or Lascelles could ever hope to forge, who might take upon himself the task of advising Mr Norrell was very disagreeable. Mr Draw-light told Mr Lascelles that Norrell should be discouraged from thinking of the Shrops.h.i.+re magician and, though Mr Lascelles's whimsical nature never permitted him to agree outright with any one, there is little doubt that he thought the same.

But three or four days after Mr Strange's visit, Mr Norrell said, "I have been considering the matter very carefully and I believe that something ought to be done for Mr Strange. He complained of his lack of materials. Well, of course, I can see that that might . . . In short I have decided to make him a present of a book."

"But, sir!" cried Drawlight. "Your precious books! You must not give them away to other people especially to other magicians who may not use them as wisely as yourself!"

"Oh!" said Mr Norrell. "I do not mean one of my own books. I fear I could not spare a single one. No, I have purchased a volume from Edwards and Skittering to give Mr Strange. The choice was, I confess, a difficult one. There are many books which, to be perfectly frank, I would not be quite comfortable in recommending to Mr Strange yet; he is not ready for them. He would imbibe all sorts of wrong ideas from them. This book," Mr Norrell looked at it in an anxious sort of way, "has many faults I fear it has a great many. Mr Strange will learn no actual magic from it. But it has a great deal to say on the subjects of diligent research and the perils of committing oneself to paper too soon lessons which I hope Mr Strange may take to heart."

So Mr Norrell invited Strange to Hanover-square again and as on the previous occasion Drawlight and Lascelles were present, but Strange came alone.

The second meeting took place in the library at Hanover-square. Strange looked about him at the great quant.i.ties of books, but said not a word. Perhaps he had got to the end of his anger. There seemed to be a determination on both sides to speak and behave more cordially.

"You do me great honour, sir," said Strange when Mr Norrell gave him his present. "English Magic by Jeremy Tott." He turned the pages. "Not an author I have ever heard of." by Jeremy Tott." He turned the pages. "Not an author I have ever heard of."

"It is a biography of his brother, a theoretical magio-historian of the last century called Horace Tott," said Mr Norrell.2 He explained about the lessons of diligent research and not committing oneself to paper that Strange was to learn. Strange smiled politely, bowed, and said he was sure it would be most interesting. He explained about the lessons of diligent research and not committing oneself to paper that Strange was to learn. Strange smiled politely, bowed, and said he was sure it would be most interesting.

Mr Drawlight admired Strange's present.

Mr Norrell gazed at Strange with an odd expression upon his face as though he would have been glad of a little conversation with him, but had not the least idea how to begin.

Mr Lascelles reminded Mr Norrell that Lord Mulgrave of the Admiralty was expected within the hour.

"You have business to conduct, sir," said Strange. "I must not intrude. Indeed I have business for Mrs Strange in Bond-street that must not be neglected."

"And perhaps one day," said Drawlight, "we shall have the honour of seeing a piece of magic worked by Mr Strange. I am excessively fond of seeing magic done."

"Perhaps," said Strange.

Mr Lascelles rang the bell for the servant. Suddenly Mr Norrell said, "I should be glad to see some of Mr Strange's magic now if he would honour us with a demonstration."

"Oh!" said Strange. "But I do not . . ."

"It would do me great honour," insisted Mr Norrell.

"Very well," said Strange, "I shall be very glad to shew you something. It will be a little awkward, perhaps, compared to what you are accustomed to. I very much doubt, Mr Norrell, that I can match you in elegance of execution."

Mr Norrell bowed.