The Temple Of Fame: A Vision

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An Epistle To The Right Honourable Richard Earl of Burlington. Occasion'd by his Publishing Palladio's Designs of the Baths, Arches, Theatres, &c. of Ancient Rome (London: Printed for L. Gilliver, 1731); enlarged as Of False Taste ... (London: Printed for L. Gilliver, 1731 [i.e., 1732]).

Troy Book 5.3483–84. For another discussion of meter and style, see Schirmer, John Lydgate, pp. 70 ff.Embedded in West’s depiction of Emmeline Pankhurst is the biography Purvis has now extrapolated. Every line in the first paragraph of “A Reed of Steel” is calculated to redeem the suffragette movement and its leader’s role in it. That Emmeline Pankhurst was beautiful—as were many of her female followers—put the lie to the charge that suffragettes tended to be ugly old maids and somehow unfeminine—what the parlance of the day termed “unwomanly women.” Her pale face suggested what West later made explicit: Mrs. Pankhurst was a frail woman, a reed, but a “reed of steel”—the square jaw might be set in a delicate frame but it bespoke an honorable, sturdy, and (this was often not observed) conservative sensibility. Though inspired by the French revolution and enamored of French ideas and fashions (she spent her formative teenage years in Paris absorbing Thomas Carlyle’s heroic vision of historical change), Pankhurst’s revolution and West’s was a conservation of democratic rights for men and women. There was no need of another revolution, except in so far as Englishmen had to be challenged to continue the quest for liberty, equality, and fraternity. As West put it, Emmeline Pankhurst was “the last popular leader to act on inspiration derived from the principles of the French Revolution.” As a result, Mrs. Pankhurst has become the most misconstrued conservative revolutionary—or as Purvis calls her, “patriotic feminist”—in the 20thcentury. Her complaint, candid though it may seem, is short on specifics. The evocative lan­guage she uses to describe her double bind suggests that the lady may be caught in a loveless marriage, betrothed to be married against her will, or prevented from marrying at all due to a religious vow or some other regulation. At this point the reader is left guessing. It is only clear that she desires a man she cannot possess: A wide range of people is honored in the German Hall of Fame. Kings and other nobles are well represented, as are several military leaders. However, many scientists, artists, and poets are also included. Although Ludwig I specifically insisted that women should also be considered, only around a dozen females have ever been included at any given time. By 1933, however, just five years after women had secured the same voting rights as men, Emmeline Pankhurst’s role in that victory had already become obscure and distorted. And since 1933, no historian—until now—has expanded upon West’s effort to restore the centrality of Mrs. Pankhurst’s place in modern history. More is at stake, however, than doing justice to one individual. To understand what happened to Emmeline Pankhurst is to also to understand how figures like her and Rebecca West were marginalized as anti-Communists and relegated to the reactionary bin built by leftist/ Socialist historians who effectively rewrote the story of how women got the vote. Instead The Suffragette Movement (1931), written by Mrs. Pankhurst’s estranged radical daughter, Sylvia, became their foundationnarrative.

Of the unreasoning humours of mankind it seems that (fame) is the one of which the philosophers themselves have disengaged themselves from last and with the most reluctance: it is the most intractable and obstinate; for [as St. Augustine says] it persists in tempting even minds nobly inclined.” The temple of fame stands upon the grave: the flame that burns upon its altars is kindled from the ashes of dead men. The tale of Herostratus is directly referenced in two songs from the If These Trees Could Talk album Above the Earth, Below the Sky (2009).On an iron pillar, holding up the fame of Troy: Homer, Dares, Dictys, "Lollius", Guido delle Colonne, and Geoffrey of Monmouth. The original statues are arranged chronologically according to the date of death of the person being depicted. Originally, the first statue was that of Heinrich I (876-936) and the final one that of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), who died just in time to make the initial cutoff date. (Currently, a person must be dead for at least twenty years before being considered for admission.) Flower, Michael Attyah (1997). Theopompus of Chios: History and Rhetoric in the Fourth Century BC. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 78. ISBN 978-0-19-815243-9. Were not this desire of fame very strong, the difficulty of obtaining it, and the danger of losing it when obtained, would be sufficient to deter a man from so vain a pursuit. Seaton, Sir Richard Roos, p. 376. Sir John Paston was betrothed but never married to Anne Haute, though they were together for nine years and produced an illegitimate child, so the poem may have had particular poignancy in their case. See Davis, Paston Letters and Papers.