The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Illustrated
by Alan Andrew Farrant,
The Stukeley Press (1994).
Ltd edn of 30 signed, dated, and numbered aquatints. Nos 1-39 in tied linen-covered Solander box (468 x 330 x 55m), title in black on cover and on spine. Nos 40-50 book bound. The boxed issue is in 13 gatherings of 2 sheets folded to 4 leaves (457 x 320m), with interspersed sheets (455 x 315m) of plates (211 x 152m) and guard sheets (365 x 246m). Type filmset in Caxton Book. Text printed at Senefelder Press on Velin Arch Blanc 200gms. Aquatints made in the workshop of Hugh Stonemen and printed on Velin Arch Blanc 270gms.
Reviewed by Walter Crawford
(The Coleridge Bulletin New Series No 11, Spring 1998, pp 72-76)
THE PUBLICATION
Prints the 1834 text without the
gloss [which contains images and motifs not entirely compatible with the
artist's].
Each aquatint is individually captioned by hand with the
line or lines to which it refers: 1, 11, 21, 41-2, 59-60, 73-4, 81-2, 105-6,
117-18,. 141-2, 175-6, 197-8, 222-3, 252, 283-4, 290-1, 295-6, 322-3, 350-1,
375-6, 392, 408-9, 430, 466-7, 490-1, 503-4, 514, 554-5, 574, 624. The
aquatints are distinguished by excellent spatial design, occasionally tending
to the abstract (sometimes the Mariner is merely a nude figure), and often to
the symbolic: for example, plate 7 for lines 81-2. Many also make imaginative
use of perspective. Unusual, but not a fault: the ship is represented as a
small three-masted sailboat (perhaps 30 feet long), or a still smaller single-masted
boat, in plate 20 the Mariner lying asleep in a boat not much bigger than a
casket. And the Albatross is hung around the Mariner's neck by a chain rather
than a rope.
The aquatints were exhibited in February 1997 in the
Brewhouse Gallery at
[73]
students to discuss his works and
Coleridge's poem (source: cutting of a report of the exhibition and talk,
periodical unidentified, but p 4).
THE PROSPECTUS
The artist's prospectus (a sheet of
Velin Arch Blanc folded to 210 x 147mm, 4 pp, available from Bertram Rota Ltd,
31 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London, WC2E 9LT) includes “About the Artist”
(with his portrait) (p [2]) and “The Making of the Mariner,” describing the
three-phase development of each of the aquatints, which took ten years to
complete (p [3]). Pages [1] and [4] include the title and specifications of the
work and reproductions (102 x 72mm) of plates 10 (for lines 141-2) and 30 (for
line 624).
THE “SCRIPT TREATMENT”
The artist also prepared a “Script
Treatment for a Programme Presenting the AF Edition of Coleridge's The Rime of
the Ancient Mariner,” subtitled “The re-examination of a great poem; a new
interpretation and a justification of this vision,” and dated October 1996 (26
pp). The programme was for a BBC 2 Schools broadcast and for a CD-ROM.
THE ARTIST'S INTERPRETATION
In no one place does the artist
offer a complete, coherent written explanation of his visual interpretation of
the poem. Those sometimes different explanations, from brief to extensive, are
found in the artist's Prospectus [AP], the published Preface [Pr] and “Legend,”
a list of 22 images in the aquatints, with brief indications of their
significance [Le[, and his “Script,” which includes extensive interpretive
passages and brief but detailed explanations of his visual translations in each
aquatint of many individual images and motifs in the poem, which, taken
together, constitute something of an explication of the poem as
[74]
the artist “illuminates” it visually
[Sc]. In the following paragraphs I have assembled the principal explanations
into as brief a coherent account as I could manage.
Farrant wishes his 30 aquatints to “illuminate” (rather than
“merely illustrate”) the poem “as a cautionary tale to all who are blessed at
birth with the poet's or artist's gift of perception,” which is “the very
essence of the soul” and opens the soul to the inspiration of the Muse, “But
the soul is a delicate flower; easily crushed and corrupted by the delights of
worldly pursuits” [Pr]. The Mariner is “the Artist in a state of remorse,” the
Wedding Guest “the Artist in a state of innocence” [Le]. In the poem, the
Mariner's killing of the Albatross is a metaphor for self-destruction of the
soul. In the poem the symbolic instrument of destruction is the crossbow, “the
poison of self-deluding appetite” ]Lei; in the art the instrument is the
hypodermic syringe [Pr], symbolizing drug abuse, which itself “is a metaphor
for the many other worldly appetites which, if over indulged, so easily destroy
the creative spirit” [AP].
Farrant reads the central figure of the Night-mare
Life-in-Death as “the unforgiving mistress of the mind who can be muse or, just
as easily, the destroyer of the soul.” She is the White Goddess who, as “the
young and innocent Virgin,” appears as the Bride in the poem; and who, as “the
wicked, all-destroying Witch,” is the Night-mare Life-in-Death. The White
Goddess is also the Moon Goddess. The Mariner “is punished with the most
dreadful retribution by the same Mistress that was his Inspiration and his Muse—the
Moon Goddess herself' [Sc].
Reading the poem in this light as reflecting the experience
of Coleridge before 1797, says Farrant, “you have the story of a young
[75]
poet who sets out on life's
adventure, full of confidence in his own genius.” He is inspired and “begins to
give expression to his talent. He gets so excited with his own brilliance that
he goes on a high—a drug-induced binge,” which is a metaphor for his slipping
into forms of debauchery. “In so doing he effectively destroys himself. All his
special gifts are taken away from him: as Poet, as Artist, and as Priest of the
real secrets of the world, which is what the Poet really is.” (“We were the
first that ever burst / Into that silent sea” [lines 105-6] Farrant glosses as “The
Poet thinks he has discovered all the secrets.”) “He suffers pain and
degradation, and becomes remorseful.” After this early “Experience marinates in
the Subconscious” of Coleridge, he produces the poem, conveying the Ancient
Mariner's warning [Sc]. The penalty “should be death; but death is too easy an
escape to ever satisfy the jealousy of the muse; the source of all inspiration.
The muse therefore prepares a living hell from which the Mariner can never
recover. All he can do is wander the earth warning others of the penalty and
pain that may be in store if they too succumb to worldly temptation” [AP].
Farrant's brief detailed glosses are too many for them all
to be presented here, but the glosses on the most notable images not drawn from
the poem supplement the overall interpretation presented above.
Plates 15 (for lines 283-4) and 17 (for 295-6) show a
swaddled, thumb-sucking infant in center of huge floating multi-petaled flower
like a lotus, representing “the return of innocence” in sleep [Le]. The infant
also appears in The Mabinogion story about the White Goddess, known in Celtic
mythology as Arianrod or Ceridwen: she bears a beautiful baby boy whom she
wraps up, places in a coracle, and sets afloat on the
Plate 22 (for 408-9) “illuminates” the Two Voices as “Conscience
[76]
and Hope, like a pair of
psychiatrists” [unseen; Sc] attending the Ancient Mariner seen hooked up to an
intravenous apparatus, in a hospital bed, as suffering from a drug overdose,
with hypodermic syringe at his side.
In Plate 26 (for 503-4) the Mariner kneels in
self-flagellant remorse, his back marked by application of the six-strand whip
lying on deck.
In Plate 27 (for 514), standing beside the Hermit, “the
earth's guardian” [Le], is his Goat, “the Bearer of Sins as taken from
Leviticus 16:10-22” [Se].
In Plate 29 (for 574), her back to the Mariner, a nude female figure stands on a half seashell floating on the sea - the White Goddess as “the young and innocent Virgin” [Sc], “The Young Girl” who is “the muse who turns away for good” [Le]. (This is also a visual allusion to Botticelli's Birth of Venus—colloquially, “Venus on a Half-shell.”)