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Phantastes Chapter 5: Romance Of Sir Launfal, Thomas Chestre
Phantastes Chapter 5: Romance Of Sir Launfal, Thomas Chestre
German Romantic and Other Influences
A medieval poem of 1045 lines telling of a knight who loses status and wealth and who meets a beautiful woman who gives him love and wealth as long as he keeps her existence a secret. The motif of the lover’s prohibition appears in several medieval texts, and MacDonald makes use of this motif in this chapter.
Phantastes Chapter 6: The Demon Lady, William Motherwell
Phantastes Chapter 6: The Demon Lady, William Motherwell
German Romantic and Other Influences
From the poem “The Demon Lady” (1830), first published in The Edinburgh Literary Journal. William Motherwell (1797-1835) was a Scottish journalist and poet, as well as a collector of local Scottish ballads.
Phantastes Chapter 5: Pygmalion, Thomas Lovell Beddoes
Phantastes Chapter 5: Pygmalion, Thomas Lovell Beddoes
German Romantic and Other Influences
Thomas Lovell Beddoes (1803-1849) was a Romantic poet intensely focused on death. His poem “Pygmalion” (1825) recounts the myth of the Cypriot sculptor who fell in love with the statue he carved. In this chapter, MacDonald echoes this myth.
Phantastes Chapter 4: Ballad Of Sir Aldingar, James Kinsley
Phantastes Chapter 4: Ballad Of Sir Aldingar, James Kinsley
German Romantic and Other Influences
A child ballad of various origins. Aldingar attempts to seduce the Queen, who spurns him and sets off Aldingar to falsely accuse the Queen of sleeping with a leper. The king believes Aldingar, and the Queen asks that a knight fight for her honor. Unable to find a knight, she relies on a four-year-old boy, who defeats Aldingar. On his deathbed he admits his accusation was false. The history of this ballad can be found in Paul Christopherson’s The Ballad of Sir Aldingar, its Origins and Analogues, Oxford UP, 1952
Phantastes Chapter 1: Alastor; Or, The Spirit Of Solitude, Percy Bysshe Shelley
Phantastes Chapter 1: Alastor; Or, The Spirit Of Solitude, Percy Bysshe Shelley
German Romantic and Other Influences
A quest poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) published in 1816. The full title is “Alastor: or, the Spirit of Solitude.” MacDonald quotes lines 484-488 in which the Poet encounters his soulmate. Shelley’s poem is a major influence on Phantastes, and Shelley’s Preface to “Alastor” offers a nice gloss on MacDonald’s fantasy. “The poem entitled ‘Alastor’ may be considered as allegorical of one of the most interesting situations of the human mind. It represents a youth of uncorrupted feelings and adventurous genius led forth by an imagination inflamed and purified through familiarity with all that is excellent and majestic, …
Phantastes Chapter 2: Heinrich Von Ofterdingen, Georg Philipp Friedrich
Phantastes Chapter 2: Heinrich Von Ofterdingen, Georg Philipp Friedrich
German Romantic and Other Influences
Novalis is Georg Philipp Friedrich Freiherr von Hardenberg (1772-1801). A German writer who helped define German Romanticism, he was a key influence on MacDonald. Heinrich von Ofterdingen (1802) is a fantastical romance that concerns a young poet in search of love, who has dream visions. A central symbol in the work is a blue flower, which has become an icon for German Romanticism.
Phantastes Chapter 7: Ballad Of Sir Andrew Barton, Unknown
Phantastes Chapter 7: Ballad Of Sir Andrew Barton, Unknown
German Romantic and Other Influences
“Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton” dates from the reign of Queen Elizabeth 1. It appears in the eighteenth-century collection of ballads and popular songs edited by Thomas Percy, Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765). Sir Andrew Barton was a Scottish sea captain who engaged in a sea battle with two English ships. He was killed in the altercation, but became famous for his bravery.