Canto 34: Via Crucis

[Scott Norsworthy]

Easter is over. Clarel witnessed the festivities depicted in the previous canto, without participating or feeling any joy, either in the coming of spring or the ritual celebration of Christ's resurrection. 

https://books.google.com/books?id=BvRDAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA568&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Clarel/Part_4/Canto_34

As Melville presents it at the start of Part 4 Canto 34, the Way of the Cross is an ancient natural path, dutifully followed "By man, as by the brute." So too in Melville's Manhattan where the main streets or "leading thoroughfares" used to be Indian trails, as remarked by H. R. Schoolcraft:

"...the main configuration of the leading thoroughfares of the city, from the ancient canoe-place at Copsie or the Battery, extending north to the Park, and thence to Chatham square and the Bowery, and west to Tivoli Garden, &c., were ancient roads, in the early times of Holland supremacy, which followed the primary Indian foot-paths." 

--Quoted in A Brief Description of New York (1845) page 27. https://books.google.com/books?id=CZlvrIkudR0C&pg=RA1-PA27&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

The title of this our last regular canto says Via Crucis = "Way of the Cross" but we are 7 weeks past Easter. Ostensibly "Whitsun-tide" =  White Sunday or Pentecost and after, commemorating descent of the Holy Spirit on the disciples of Christ. 

People are returning to Jerusalem through St. Stephen's Gate "from paths without" the city. People and animals, forming a long and varied procession or "train" of earthbound "strangers and exiles":

As 'twere a frieze, behold the train!
Bowed water-carriers; Jews with staves;
Infirm gray monks; over-loaded slaves;
Turk soldiers--young, with home-sick eyes;
A Bey, bereaved through luxuries; ⁠
Strangers and exiles; Moslem dames
Long-veiled in monumental white,
Dumb from the mounds which memory claims;
A half-starved vagrant Edomite;
Sore-footed Arab girls, which toil ⁠
Depressed under heap of garden-spoil;
The patient ass with panniered urn;
Sour camels humped by heaven and man,
Whose languid necks through habit turn
For ease for ease they hardly gain. ⁠
In varied forms of fate they wend--

Or man or animal, 'tis one:
Cross-bearers all, alike they tend
And follow, slowly follow on.

Planet Earth in this view seems one big Isle of the Cross. Melville's decorative "frieze" of earthly pilgrims as "Cross-bearers all" in CLAREL recalls the sad tableaux presented so pathetically to Hunilla in The Encantadas Sketch Eighth, Norfolk Isle and the Chola Widow. From her distant perch, through branches, Hunilla witnessed the deaths of her husband Felipe and brother Truxill as a kind of tableau or painting, "trancelike its mild pictorial effect."

https://books.google.com/books?id=BVYAAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA351&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

At the close of CLAREL, Melville emphasizes the shared experience of the Cross by human beings and dumb beasts of burden, "Or man or animal, 'tis one." Same theme occurs at the end of the Hunilla sketch, memorably figured in the image of the Christ-like widow on a Cross-marked donkey. 

"The last seen of lone Hunilla she was passing into Payta town, riding upon a small gray ass; and before her on the ass's shoulders, she eyed the jointed workings of the beast's armorial cross."

Meanwhile back in Melville's epic religious poem, Clarel has been to the Mount of Olives, perhaps in search of a footprint:

"From that mount our Lord Jesus Christ ascended to heaven on Ascension Day, and yet there appears the imprint of his left foot in the stone." -- Thomas Wright, Early Travels in Palestine (London, 1848) page 177.

https://books.google.com/books?id=9pE2AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA177&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

Between city and mount lies Jehoshaphat where Clarel has been mourning for many days at Ruth's grave.

"THE outline of Mount Olivet swells up in the form of a crescent, to the east of Jerusalem, just across the Valley of Jehoshaphat, where its base commences, which is about one hundred and fifty yards from the city walls. At the foot of the mountain, opposite St. Stephen's Gate, three roads radiate up over its sides."

-- Albert Rhodes, Jerusalem As It Is (London, 1865) page 159.

https://books.google.com/books?id=GVUOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA159&lpg=PA159&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

But, lagging after, who is he ⁠
Called early every hope to test,
And now, at close of rarer quest,
Finds so much more the heavier tree?
From slopes whence even Echo's gone,
Wending, he murmurs in low tone: ⁠
"They wire the world--far under sea

They talk; but never comes to me
A message from beneath the stone."

As told in the Gospel of Luke chapter 24, the body of Jesus was already gone when mourners arrived at the tomb. Radiantly attired angels informed them, "He is not here, but has risen" (Luke 24:6). That grave stone was rolled away. At Ruth's grave, the stone remains. Clarel receives no such words of comfort as Luke recorded. Melville's protagonist hears no voice, human or angelic, gets no heaven-sent "message from beneath the stone." 

Dusked Olivet he leaves behind,
And, taking now a slender wynd, ⁠
Vanishes in the obscurer town.

The comparatives "rarer" and "obscurer" in these last lines offer interesting posers. Here as pretty much everywhere I would be glad to know what others think. What do you make of Clarel's "rarer quest"? Rare how, rarer than what? And why is the town now "obscurer"? While we're at it, what in the world is a wynd?

By way of a stocking stuffer before Christmas ('tis the season IRL; let it snow!), here's a bit of wordplay that may or may not be deliberate. Full disclosure: years ago I learned the hard way not to mess too much with anagrams. But this one strikes me as pretty tempting since it occurs (OK appears to occur) right after Melville asks "who is he." Who is he? It's a rhetorical question, obviously pointing to Clarel. Well, who is he then? 

... who is he ⁠
Called early

The two words immediately after "Who is he" are "Called early" which together contain all the letters of Clarel's name. In the next line of verse, "close of rarer" has the letters 

C-L-A-R-E-L and again echoes the name Clarel.

Stuffing, or quite possibly just stuff. For more on Clarel's name, without any bothersome anagrams that I can RECALL, check out the 2019 Melvilliana post

https://melvilliana.blogspot.com/2019/11/clarels-name.html

Link below to YouTube for a fine and fairly recent tour of the Via Crucis by Israeli tour guide Zahi Shaked:

https://youtu.be/QQLQJGPZU6Q

 @ 2:25: "...they found out that some of the stories are not matching the Bible, but think about Jesus. He was judged, found guilty. He didn't drink before, he didn't drink now, he's not drinking now, they're beating the life of him, he's carrying the cross, he knows that he's going to be crucified. Happy he wasn't. And according to the Franciscans, he fell three times. True or not, it doesn't matter. What is important for us is that he . . . he suffered. What we want to feel now is the agony of Christ. At the 4th station he met his mother. Although it's not mentioned in the Bible, let me tell you that a Jewish mother will be there."

[Stephen Hoy]

My first thought was that 'wynd' (y -> short i) is a verb meaning wend. I've seen it written that way somewhere, probably in some middle English text.

Probably comes to mind because other passages use 'wend': 

here:

From slopes whence even Echo's gone,

Wending, he ...

and here:

In varied forms of fate they wend--

But in this case, 'wynd' is not a verb, but a noun and it uses a different 'i' sound. 

'wynd' (y -> long i)

In Scotland, according to various online sources, a 'wynd' is a narrow alley, specifically a turn out from a larger, busier street. This alley connects to a more obscure part of the town.  How fitting for an obscure word to lead an un-clear Clarel toward obscurity. 

narrow alley -> slender wynd

as to 'rarer quest', I'm puzzled. One thought: Is this phrase turning back to Canto 35 Prelusive?  

"In Piranesi's rarer prints" with their infinitely winding staircases, we have a prelude of Clarel's quest. 

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[Hardeman]

With thanks to Scott and Stephen for bringing the importance of “wynd” to our attention. I believe we all benefit from deep diving into Melville’s choice of precise words for complex conceptions.

When I read Stephen’s researched definition what came to my mind was the narrow way preached by Jesus.13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”   Matthew 7:13-14

That would also enlighten us as to  “rarer quest.” It satisfies Clarel’s dedication to his spiritual search, “few who find it.” 

It also recalls Melville’s  authorial exposition “Of Rama.”

“Nor the divine in him bereaved,

Though what that was he might not guess. 

Live they who, like to Rama, led

Unspotted from the world aside”, [now that would be a divinely rare quest]

“May life and fable so agree?--

  The innocent if lawless elf,

Etherial in virginity,

Retains the consciousness of self.”

Which to me is the rarest and most difficult wynd for any pilgrim in this life, to know Thyself unbiased from one's conceptions.