Saint Ursula Academy - Scroll Yearbook (Toledo, OH)

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Within T hose Prison Walls -SALLY OTCONNELL '45 More often than f W I '1 would be at liber- not, the' instant we ' --l-f 'CY to Spelld .his hear the word Vffgif,-V time as he mlg t ' ' - i-L wish free from prison , our. im 'Y , h . agination carries us l financial worries. to a massive, bar- .La . E -gli .These men of ren-looking struc- ' f flu .Las L-E' 2 brilliant minds and ture, cut off from all society by a formidable wall of stone pillars and iron bars. Within the walls of this gloomy den of iniquity we are confronted with every conceivable form of humanity wallowing in the mire of despair, VVhile this idea is not entirely an illusion, for institutions of such a dank and dismal nature did exist in England and elsewhere as late as the twentieth century, there really was another kind of prison-that with which we are con- cerned in this article. lt was a sort of comfortable and spacious stopping-off place for courtiers and men in the com- paratively high places between court functions or hazardous scavenger hunts of the Sea Dog variety during the Tudor dynasty, when Henry VIII and Elizabeth held the sceptre in England. This tradition of keeping men guessing as to their fate continued for centuries in English diplomacy when mercy and justice were not above the sceptred sway. Q Many of the most highly educated and cultured nobles of the day were often made political prisoners. When the monarch of the time would tire of some nobleman's presence around the court, he would dispatch a guard to prevent the unfortunate disfavored one from leaving the bounds of his home. Or, on the other hand, the king might confiscate an estate in a newly con- quered distant province and send the man there for safe keeping. But, if the king were too busy to render any per- sonal attention to the case, the offender would be moved, often with his servants, to some secluded apartments, where he classical educations were not wastrels, but made use of their opportunities in this enforced idleness to compose some of the immortal master- pieces which even now serve as inspira- tion to the learned of our modern era. To those men of impetuous and ad- venturous natures, this life of compara- tive ease was intense cruelty. Probably many oi them would never have dreamed ol' a literary career had not this opportunity been forced upon them. Many a genius would undoubtedly have pursued a daring existence of blood and thunder to die a hero, renowned for his valor and courage. ln this respect we are indebted to the circumstances which gave birth to these outstanding literary contributions, Sir Thomas lN'lalory's Jllorirf 11' Arthur was the source of inspiration to such writers as Tennyson, Spenser, Nlil- ton, Arnold, iyiorris, and Swinburne. Rosetti, Watts, and Burne recorded some of its most stirring scenes on their canvasesg and hints of it are detected in the lyric dramas of Wagiier. Among the earliest of English prose, Marte d' Arthur relates the adventures of King Arthur, the prototype of the ideal English King Alfred, and his Round Table. The triumph of Arthur's virtues over the temporal vices is pre- dominant. In the war of the Roses, hlalory fought with the defeated Lancasters at the siege of Rouen in 1418 and may have been a member of Parliament in 1444 and 1445. So that in 1468 when the Yorks, in the person of Edward IV, came into power, Malory's name was so well known as an enemy to the party 8 THE SCROLL

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If X ,fp f fCk X X ' f ff a The Christmas Star The other stars when they went out every night, Made rne stay horne, because I was too bright, .flnd when theyld play games on the fola- lowlng day, Tlzeyld say I was too big and just got in the way. 1 For thousands of years I sat alone on a shelf, Just feeling sorry for rny big, clumsy self, Then one day when the others had gone off on a spree, A band of angels earne looking for me. Above an old stable they placed rne to adorn The place where the Son of God had been born, And all the little stars rushed from afar To honor rne, the Christmas Star. -PATRICIA CARSTENSEN '45 f

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that he was imprisoned for the duration of Edward's reign. It was during this period that he wrote lllorle d' xlrthur, which marked the beginning of printing in England. The first history source book written in English was also compiled in prison. It is Sir Waltei' Raleigh's llistory of the World, started when he was already fifty years old. This was quite an ac- complishment. for history as a branch of literature had not as yet been thought of. But Raleigh's brilliant education and the extensive traveling he had done before he fell into disfavor with the court had perfectly equipped him for such a task. Haughty and relentless, Raleigh had much of the nature of a monarch him- self and not enough of a subject. In The Cambridge History of English Literature he has been likened to Ha king without a kingdomfl With the accession of James l, he barely escaped the block to be sentenced to imprison- ment in the famous Tower. It was here that he wrote the History of the PVorld and saw it published during a lifetime which was soon to end under the execu- tionerls axe in 1618. The Pilgriufs Progress was begun by John Bunyan when he was in his second term of confinement at the Bedford goal. It is the comparison of Christian progress with a pilgrimage. It describes the battle between the forces of good and evil with the various virtues and vices depicting allegorical characters, It was finally published in 1678. At first only moderately received by the public, it has now become, with the exception of the Bible, the most widely read book extant in the English language. John Bunyan had the most mediocre of educations and began to study the Bible so closely that it became the whole center of his life. Indeed it was for the crime of preaching his religious tenets that he was committed to the gaol in Bedford for twelve years, during which time he produced no less than nine books. According to Nlacauley, if The Pilgfllllli' Progress had not been written, The Holy War would have been the greatest allegory in English literature. Although Daniel Defoe's greatest work, Robinson Crusoe, was not written in his two terms of imprisonment, he did produce so many masterpieces during those periods that it would take a vol- ume to recount them all. Most note- worthy of these publications are Hymn to the Pillory and the establishment of the Review, an outstanding model of journalism. Born on the eve of the Restoration, Defoe grew to be a man of such fiery spirit and boundless energy that it is a small wonder that imprisonment result- ed from the fearless attacks he made against the Tories and the irony in his never ending stream of pamphlets. Only his death in 1731 could halt the reams of literary works which were products of his genius. For a moment before concluding, let us now wander to American shores. From the pen of Williaiii Sydney Porter, or O. Henry as he is better known, came such productions as The Four Illillion and Options, both very enter- taining and humorous volumes of short stories depicting, for the most part, life in and around New York City, These and many other noteworthy pieces were written in the federal prison at Colum- bus, Ohio, where Porter was serving a five-year sentence for embezzlement. This was just the impetus that he need- ed to launch him on a career that was to bring him international fame as a short story writer. These brief sketches of but a chosen few of the countless prose masterpieces that owe their origin to the environment of prison walls bring out more clearly a fact that is self-evident: nothing, not even chains of iron, can shackle the well trained mind. How appropriate to quote here a verse, itself written in prison, by Richard Lovelace, the courtliest of the Cavaliers: Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron bars a ragey lllinds innocent and quiet tahe That for an hermitagej If I have freedom in my love Ana' in my soul am free, Angels alone, that soar above, Enjoy such liberty. THE SCROLL 9