THE DEEP ONES: "The Mezzotint" by M.R. James

"The Mezzotint" by M.R. James

Discussion begins May 3.

First published in Ghost Stories of an Antiquary (1904).



ONLINE VERSIONS

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ghost_Stories_of_an_Antiquary/The_Mezzotint
http://www.thin-ghost.org/items/show/145

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?96013

SELECTED PRINT VERSIONS

Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories: The Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James, Volume 1
The Penguin Complete Ghost Stories of M. R. James
The Ghost Stories of M. R. James
Dark Company: The Ten Greatest Ghost Stories
Ghostly

MISCELLANY

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezzotint
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/ArchiveMRJLetter.html
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/02/13/fright-nights-2
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-enduring-power-of-m-r-james-...
https://tentaclii.wordpress.com/2014/10/22/lovecraft-and-m-r-james/
http://tinyurl.com/l4rrp8f

I believe this is in my copy of The Ghost Stories of M.R. James but will confirm this weekend at home.

CORRECTION: The Book of Ghost Stories, that is. It's not the full omnibus so unclear which stories are included.

CORRECTION OF MY CORRECTION: So actually, it's in my copy of A Warning to the Curious. The Book of Ghost Stories has others including a lecture or two, but not "The Mezzotint".

Count Magnus and Other Ghost Stories for me.

I originally read this one in Casting the Runes and Other Ghost Stories, but I'll probably re-read online.

>4 paradoxosalpha:

Same here.

The recent Oxford University Press edition of Collected Ghost Stories (the one that was reprinted in paperback as an Oxford World's Classic) for me.

I've read this at least once before, possibly more than once. It's a great example of James for me, and what I like about his stories. They are indulgent and fun in a similar way that Golden Age detective stories often are described by aficianados -- for the language, the academic British settings, the dry humour. The same relish for watching someone come to a grisly end, deserved or not.

But I also like how the story goes somewhere I wasn't quite expecting (remembering), even after the basic premise is revealed. Yes, it's clear the mezzotint will show something sinister, and it's soon clear it's animated. This is, perhaps, easy for us to overlook in its potential for causing the reader unease and even horror, so accustomed are we to moving pictures on tablets and film and such. But two things happen that were not predictable for me:

First, that the figure brings back a baby. Forget the description that it's unclear whether the baby is alive or not. Just reading it was carrying an infant was enough to give me goosebumps. I wasn't expecting that part.

Second, that the mezzotint apparently showed that one scene, and then ... stopped. For whatever reason, that is spookier for me than the idea it would show a live picture eternally. Maybe because in this way, it's so different from the ubiquitous CCTV or tablet images of today.

James makes me laugh!

tea was taken to the accompaniment of a discussion which golfing persons can imagine for themselves, but which the conscientious writer has no right to inflict upon any non-golfing persons. ... But those who are familiar with University life can picture for themselves the wide and delightful range of subjects over which the conversation of two Fellows of Canterbury College is likely to extend during a Sunday morning breakfast. Hardly a topic was left unchallenged, from golf to lawn-tennis.

"the Phasmatological Society" is presumably a riff on the Society for Psychical Research.

ETA: And "Sadducean Professor of Ophiology" is just too much!

I laughed at each of those, myself, and wondered further if there was a specific target for "Sadducean Professor of Ophiology".

I am not familiar enough with Sadducees to come up with anything on my own, and found this reference a useful primer. But homophonetically I wondered if he was simply punning on the Caduceus.

ETA but now I see the Biblical verse Matthew 3:7 citing Sadducees includes the line "generation of vipers", and that probably accounts for it.

That a child is in danger elevates the feeling of dread, but so does the figure doing the kidnapping, "crawling on all-fours towards the house, and it was muffled in a strange black garment with a white cross on the back.." Is James hinting that it is not quite human? And what about that cross?

I now know that "sympathetic ink" is disappearing ink, but what exactly is a "skip"? A servant, more or less?

>11 gwendetenebre:

Apparently a housekeeper, at Trinity College.

I did like the detail James provides, like the cross and crawling on all fours (but then returning upright, with the child in arms). Is there something specific meant? Or just something to give us the willies?

Darryl Jones has some helpful notes in the OUP edition of Collected Ghost Stories:

for "Skip" - "a college servant. Technically, in Oxford, Robert Filcher would have been Mr Williams's scout; in Cambridge, his gyp; and only in Trinity College Dublin, his skip."

(Edited to remove unwanted extra word).

>12 elenchus:, >13 housefulofpaper:

Thanks for the clarification. Each type no doubt has his own unique capabilities. :-)

On the figure, it's not merely a black coat, but a "strange black garment" with that white cross. I wonder if James was alluding to a particular profession or group. A band of robbers? A priest's robe? Something more occult? Maybe just something to give us the willies, as elenchus says.

>12 elenchus:

I understood the passage "but not this time crawling cautiously on hands and knees. Now it was erect and stepping swiftly, with long strides" to indicate Gawdy was creeping towards the house to make sure he couldn't be seen, but abandoning caution once he had stolen the child and heading away from the house with all speed.

I'd assumed the cross indicated that Gawdy was wearing a shroud, but admittedly I couldn't find any evidence for this custom (it was only a brief online search, however).

For "Sadducean Professor of Ophiology" Darryl Jones notes "MRJ's coinage, meaning "Professor of Serpents". The Sadducees were a priestly Jewish caste 'which say that there is no resurrection' (Matthew 22:23), and who believed in 'neither angel nor spirit' (Acts 23:8)"...the rest of the note cites the Biblical reference already noted by @elenchus in >10 elenchus:. This is a little sharp for James, and I think genuinely shows his really very conservative views on religion, and what it's proper for Academe to investigate.

>15 housefulofpaper: I'd assumed the cross indicated that Gawdy was wearing a shroud

I made a similarly brief online search, and also couldn't confirm. Turned up some mighty interesting Victorian burial customs, though. None of them touched on what someone who was hanged typically would be buried in, however.

>16 elenchus:

Just a thought - if he was buried in unconsecrated ground, perhaps a friend or well-wisher tried to help him, in some way, by painting a cross on his shroud/grave-clothes?

I wonder if there's a parallel in 19th century literature?

>16 elenchus:

You don't want Victorian burial customs for this story: the scene of the picture is circa 1802, so Regency era will be a better match.

It could be argued the key to the story are a few lines by Nisbet, lines which didn't particularly affect me when first reading them:

But, you know, it looks very much as if we were assisting at the working out of a tragedy somewhere. The question is, Has it happened already, or is it going to come off? You must find out what the place is. (Emphasis mine)

Other aspects of the story were creepy, these are sort of interesting but not terribly chilling. Anyone have ideas about these? Clearly other people (at minimun the London dealer Britnell) had seen the moving image, so it's not like Williams was the first to see it and set off some episode. And yet, the scene stops after this group of dons views the image, and Nisbet makes the observation above.

It goes along with the idea of an academic stumbling into something grisly and beyond his power to control. Perhaps that's all there is to it. And James makes the reference to Dennistoun from "Canon Albaric's Scrap-Book", so it's clear he's riffing on a successful theme.

>18 paradoxosalpha:

Ah, right! I didn't search specifically for Victorian shrouds, but they are what came up in my generic search. I didn't mark they would have been inappropriate, though.

>21 housefulofpaper:

I've read this story several times over the past 20+ years (I've worked out that it was 1994 when I first got a cheap copy of the Collected Ghost Stories).

It's an early story and clearly aimed at his audience in King's College, with its gentle digs at a lightly disguised Oxford ("Bridgeford") and its institutions. As noted it's quite gentle until the tragedy is fully disclosed at the end (although the Golden Age detective stories @elenchus made comparison with could also be surprisingly blunt about the crimes that drive their plots).

That said, the idea of the changing mezzotint image is a creepy and memorable idea (mezzotints themselves can be startlingly realistic when compared to earlier engraving styles. Living near London has enabled me to view one or two exhibitions of engravings held at the British Museum).

>19 elenchus:

I don't know, this might have been a one-off. At the end of the story, it's reported that "Mr Britnell knew nothing of it save that he was sure it {the mezzotint} was uncommon". Possibly the fact that the college owns land adjoining Anningley Hall could be a reason for the revelation to being to play out?

I also found this creepy and memorable. Particularly >7 elenchus: the indeterminate state of the baby.

>8 paradoxosalpha: That was also one of my favorite bits.

As for the garment, I thought of the Knights Hospitaller which wore black garbs with a white cross (though on the front), but there's no indication James had them in mind.

Joshi's notes state this story has two supernatural mysteries. The obvious haunted mezzotint and the possibility that Gawdry is making his kidnapping post-mortem.

More speculation on the garment, here's an eyewitness description of how a hanged body was kitted out after execution:

There is no other form of execution but hanging; it is thought that the taking of life is sufficient punishment for any crime without worse torture. After hanging murderers are, however, punished in a particular fashion. They are first hung on the common gibbet, their bodies are then covered with tallow and fat substances, over this is placed a tarred shirt fastened down with iron bands, and the bodies are hung with chains to the gibbet, which is erected on the spot, or as near as possible to the place, where the crime was committed, and there it hangs till it falls to dust. This is what is called in this country to 'hang in chains'."

So this doesn't settle the question, since Gawdy wasn't hung in chains but was buried in the appropriate section of the churchyard, "on the north side of the church—you know the way in that part of the world: anyone that's been hanged or made away with themselves, they bury them that side."

Finally, I just realised on re-reading that James suggests the mezzotint was itself created by the child's father, Anningly Hall's owner:

The father, Mr. Arthur Francis, was locally known as a talented amateur engraver in mezzotint. After his son's disappearance he lived in complete retirement at the Hall, and was found dead in his studio on the third anniversary of the disaster, having just completed an engraving of the house, impressions of which are of considerable rarity.'

Did Francis knowingly create the mezzotint as a way to document Gawdy's crime of infanticide? But I don't see how.

A related idea: It could be the ghost of Francis animating the mezzotint with the images of the supernatural visitation that he believed himself to have suffered (i.e. Gawdy abducting the child).

That actually makes some sense, as he expired "having just completed" the engraving. Perhaps then, the ghost has been "freed" of its haunting, now the dons figured out what had happened. It was not, in fact, some friends of Gawdy who abducted the child, as local legend and rumour had it. It was Gawdy himself, and Francis accuses him after death.

Probably a rare instance I've read of a ghost haunting a ghost. I suppose Sixth Sense may qualify as another such story.

>25 elenchus:

Probably a rare instance I've read of a ghost haunting a ghost.

Nicely put!

>27 frahealee:

The Adelaide archive is pretty impressive. We might be able to use it for future nominations, so I'll put the link over in the "Brainstorming" thread.

>27 frahealee: “Hall” referred to the college dons dining in the Great Hall. It means, in essence, dinner time.

>30 frahealee:

A don is a fellow or tutor in a college. Oxford and Cambridge, the two traditionally elite colleges in England, would be very much into having dons. M.R. James was a don at King's College, Cambridge. There was the tradition of dons living in the university quarters and having their meals in the Ulla Maxima (Great Hall) together in a rather formalised fashion.

James reputedly wrote his stories to tell them to his fellow dons and students in his rooms at Cambridge in the run up to Christmas. One should read these stories with the image of M.R. James telling them to his colleagues and students in a room with walls covered in mahogany bookcases filled with old, leather bound tomes, and leather armchairs around the room occupied by enthralled listeners hanging on every word. The room, of course, is only lit by candles.

By the way, The Mezzotint is one of my favourite James stories.

When I first read his stories I enjoyed them as ghost stories. Any I have revisited have given me much more and have revealed James's sense of humour, and his teasing of those colleagues of his that pursued the sport of golf.

>30 frahealee: I ran off and wrote my last post having read your first line. Now, having read the rest of your post I shall address your other questions.

The Loft was a great little bookshop. My friend, who himself had never stepped inside a university, was an avid reader and extremely knowledgeable in matters literary. He decided he want to a degree but we all said he did not want one. Well, he decided he wanted one and enrolled in Trinity College in Dublin, got his primary degree, went on to do a masters degree, and is now in Harvard doing a PhD.

Unfortunately he could not keep the bookshop open while he was doing all that and we lost a lovely spot to meet and discuss books.

The "one-man MRJ wannabe" as you call him, is a marvellous performer. I regret I cannot get to his performances more often. You will be able to find some of his work on-line if you search for "Nunkie". He has recorded a number of videos and has them on his website. He gave a few performances in the Loft and it was a perfect setting for the stories.

I have not seen Shadowlands so cannot comment on the dining room. Any of the old films, or TV programmes with university academics and students sitting at benches, staff wearing their gowns, will be the sort of thing that M.R. James referred to when he used the word, "Hall".

The practice still exists in some of the older universities. In Trinity College Dublin, it is referred to as "Commons".

>31 pgmcc: in the run up to Christmas

It was James introduced me to the British tradition of a ghost story at Christmas, evidently preferably when read aloud. I've found it interesting to observe there is also the tradition of watching the monarch's speech, too. Chase the holiday message with a ghost?

As I understand it, Christmas ghost stories got replaced by James Bond movies on tv, in a slot now occupied by Doctor Who xmas specials.

>33 elenchus: My family had been in the habit of watching the BBC Christmas Eve ghost story every year but it was only years later that I learnt of James and realised many of the BBC stories were adaptations of his tales.

>34 paradoxosalpha: The ghost stories we watched were on Christmas Eve rather than the Christmas Day after dinner slot occupied by Dr Who these years. I remember this distinctly because I was always wanting to watch the end of the ghost story but was being ushered out to attend midnight mass. It was called midnight mass but was usually held at 9pm in Belfast were I grew up because a few loyalist car bombs had been set to detonate amongst the people attending midnight mass on a couple of occasions. For some reason it was deemed more secure to have the mass earlier, possibly because more people would be available to watch for potential threats. I am sure it was not because they thought a car bomb would be less effective three hours before midnight.

>37 frahealee:
A “common” in a village is a piece of common land, i.e. land where any of thevillagers can graze their livestock. I have no idea how the meal got called commons.

>39 frahealee:
Re. burials on the north side of a parish church - I'd certainly got the impression from various works of fiction that this was an area of unhallowed ground for murderers, suicides, the unbaptised, witches, magicians, vampires and werewolves...the picture seems, on the strength of a little bit of internet searching, to be a bit more fragmented and vague than that. Certainly there was a tradition of this side being shunned in favour of the south side (I found site referencing English tourists in rural Wales, of about the time of the events in "The Mezzotint", noting burials are "crowded into the south side" of the church ("the same practice prevails which is common in England"). It's rationalised, by one of the tourists/diarists, that burials on the south side would have been on the route into the church, and before the Reformation parishioners would have been reminded by the sight to offer up a prayer for their departed friends and neighbours. A burial on the opposite side of the church building would have been out of sight, out of mind.

Another source refers again to a Catholic origin of the practice, but this states the reason was that the Gospel was preached at the north side of the altar (whereas the Epistle is read on the south side: 'The underlying idea of this is that the Gospel was preached to "call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Hence the side from which the Gospel is read was delegated to those who, having committed crimes, were in greater need of salvation, and those so buried were said to be "out of sanctuary."'.This is apparently from Funeral Customs by Bertram S Puckle.

However, The Lore of the Land, Westwood & Simpson 2005, notes (in relation to the legend of a ghostly "hunting parson" in Lapford, Devon), that the practice of reserving the north side of a churchyard for "those whose salvation was uncertain or improbable", "probably stemmed from the apocryphal tradition that Hell lay in the north".

Edited- "murders" corrected to "murderers".

>40 housefulofpaper:

Thanks for that survey, I'd similarly picked up a loose idea of a tradition but wondered how much was apocryphal.

Are Christian churches typically aligned with the compass rose? I assumed there was quite a bit of variation based upon the site involved. Huh.

>41 elenchus:

Most churches are literally "orientated" - the altar, the main point of interest, is situated at the eastern end (once again, thank you Wikipedia!)

>41 elenchus: Catholic curches were supposedly aligned so that the sun rises over the altar. This resulted in the main ausle being aligned east-west. I know plenty of chuches that do not follow this alignment so possibly the constraints of available sites made this more difficult to realise in more modern times.

I value the sidetracks and tangents as much as the four-square observations here on LT, whether in The Weird Tradition or another group. I might be motivated more by sacred geometry and you more by a personal link to a specific church, but the conversation is as valuable regardless of the various interests.

(And anyway, it's fairly easy to skip a post for anyone who isn't interested enough to read it through!)

>50 frahealee:
I saw a Simon Callow one-man show in a theatre in Dublin in which he was playing Dickens and telling the story of his life. I was invited to the show by a supplier and Callow joined the party for dinner afterwards in a nearby restaurant. He is very talented and a good entertainer.

I am glad you enjoyed Robert's performances. He does not bring the whole set with him when he travels to Ireland. He has someone source specific items locally, such as a high-winged armchair, a candelabra, a table, and a few other small items. His performances can be very intimate as the audience is always very silent and everyone is hanging onto every word. It is delightful to attend one of his performances.

The reading by Michael Bryant of an abridged version of "The Mezzotint" for BBC Children's television in 1980 has made its way onto YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO6HEa2xsbE

I remember making reference to this, but it must be in another thread.

Michael Bryant's other genre credits include a segment of the Amicus portmanteau horror film Torture Garden, Brock in The Stone Tape, and the Rev. Somerton in the "Ghost Story for Christmas" adaptation of another M. R. James story, "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas".

Mark Gatiss has adapted "The Mezzotint" for television this year. It's scheduled to be broadcast on Christmas Eve.

>52 housefulofpaper:

I was quite surprised to see at the end that the programme was made for Jackanory, as I'd always thought that a programme for quite young kids. However, I couldn't find it on the IMDb page for the series and eventually tracked it down to something called Spine Chillers, described as a series for 'older children'. Only lasted one season—perhaps someone thought it too strong meat for youngsters.

>53 alaudacorax:

I found the Radio Times for 21 November 1980 on BBC Genome. For older children - but scheduled straight after Crackerjack!

>54 housefulsfilmtv:
“It’s Friday. It’s five-to-five. It’s CRACKERJACK!”