192. The Myth of Danaë (3): Danaë's Possessions

Charles Ricketts made three wood engravings for Thomas Sturge Moore's poem Danaë that was published as a Vale Press edition in 1903. The poem itself, without illustrations, had appeared in The Dial of 1893, but Moore had rewritten the poem, adding many verses for the new edition. In the introduction the tower erected by Acrisius to imprison his daughter Danaë is described:

a tower of brass, so strong that it might never be broken into, so smooth that it might never be scaled, and so high that his daughter was reared in the top of it beyond the reach of any man. (p. iv)

Danaë is attended by a 'crone', however, the myth being a myth, almost no details about food or hygiene are given, although Moore points out that her 'nurse' daily brought her fresh water from a well (and carried a bucket up the winding stair), and that her clothes are taken away on a weekly basis, and returned to her 'smooth and neatly folded' (p. xii). Although the tower is said to be impenetrable, garments and water are regularly brought in. The nurse never leaves the tower, and 'scarcely the room for much more than an hour' (p. xxxviii).

An embroidery frame in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'She kneels in awe beholding lavish light' (1903) [detail]

The poem does not say much about the room that keeps Danaë a prisoner. Details about her small possessions are given in some verses: she owns a 'coral necklace' (p. xvi), a pair of sandals (p. xiii), a napkin (p. xvii), 'little terra-cotta dolls' (p. xvii), a 'simple nightdress' (p. xx), needle work (p. xxii), 'balls of silk', shells, 'silver trinkets, and gold mugs', and a bowl of maple wood (p. xxxvii), and a 'tall embroidery frame' (p. xxv).

An embroidery frame in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'In polisht walls a sister found is kissed' (1903) [detail]

Ricketts showed the embroidery frame (in his first and in his second wood-engraving), and he also depicted the pair of sandals. The nightdress has been illustrated as well; in all three wood-engravings Danaë seems to be dressed in the same long white garments. The toy-dolls, the napkin, and bowls have been ignored by the artist.

A pair of sandals, in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'Danaë at her twilit lattice ponders' (1903) [detail]

But Ricketts has added other objects that Moore does not mention in his poem, such as a wicker basket (illustration 1). In a preparatory drawing for this in the British Museum one can see a second basket in the front, which, in the final design, has been replaced by a step.

A basket in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'In polisht walls a sister found is kissed' (1903) [detail]

How to illustrate a mythical place? Ricketts seems to have used objects, garments, furniture, and room constructions that could have existed in Greece, the location of the story. However, he also introduced objects that look too modern, like the books that occur in the first two illustrations. They have a codex form that was not in use in Greece 'at the time', but then, a myth is without a fixed time in history.

A book in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'In polisht walls a sister found is kissed' (1903) [detail]

A book in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'She kneels in awe beholding lavish light' (1903) [detail]

As the poem progresses some features of Danaë's prison are mentioned:

A window:
For nothing saw she, save her room's few things,
Beside the well-conned window-view (p. ix)

So tall and slender later on she grew
That, planted on a footstool, she could view
The many lanes that led up through the fields (p. xxvii)

Ricketts gives an image of Danaë looking out of the small window, however she is not on a footstool but on a small stepladder.

Flight of stairs in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'Danaë at her twilit lattice ponders' (1903) [detail]

A window in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'In polisht walls a sister found is kissed' (1903) [detail]

Danaë at her window in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'Danaë at her twilit lattice ponders' (1903) [detail]

A mirror:
the great mirror's polished round (p. ix)

Ricketts shows a mirror with a peacock feather as a decoration.

A mirror in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'Danaë at her twilit lattice ponders' (1903) [detail]

A cupboard:
a cupboard on the wall (p. xii-xiii)

Ricketts did not illustrate this piece of furniture.

A bed:
How long it took before her bed was made!
[...]                                                   It stood,
A scaffold house of slender painted wood,
Secluded like a shrine far in the room
Where curtains through the day made hallowed gloom. (p. xvii)

The bed's mattress 'hung on straps of pliant leather, which, through, each other plaited, joined the frame', the pillows were soft, the sheets were white and the quilt was 'beyond blue'.

Ricketts includes a canopy bed, with a decorated headstand and long curtains, in his second wood-engraving.

A canopy bed, in Charles Ricketts, wood-engraving 'She kneels in awe beholding lavish light' (1903) [detail, below]

A carpet
across the carpet treads (p. xxii)

A bath
         in her bath she washed herself that morn (p. xxiii)
The bath is in the room where Zeus envelopes her in his light for the first time, and she does not hear:
                                          her nurse's knocks
Or voice that bids her raise the latch that locks
The door from the inside (p. xxiv)

The carpet and the bath have not been illustrated by Ricketts.
Later, Zeus's light approaches her in another room:
                                     Zeus even dared
Come close up to the tall embroidering frame (p. xxv)

And this brings us to the architecture of the tower, or better, the floor plan of Danaë's prison room(s).

[To be continued.]