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Online text of Grisly
Grisell
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Grisly Grisell – Publication
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(Kindly supplied by Amy de Gruchy)
Publication details
1893, Macmillan.
Contents
Grisly Grisell is an historical tale, set in the period of the Wars
of the Roses. It ingeniously combines the plots of two mediaeval tales,
Sir Gawaine and the Loathly Lady, and Patient Griselda.
As a child of ten the heroine Grisell Dacre is badly injured in an accident
caused by her prospective husband, Leonard Copeland, a boy of thirteen.
His family repudiate the contract, and the scarred child is cared for
and trained by the nuns of Wilton. However, they are unable to keep her
without a dowry, and she is returned to her parents whose home is a primitive
castle on the Durham coast. There her appearance causes horror, but her
goodness and care for others gradually wins trust.
At the outbreak of the war Grisell's father, a supporter of the Yorkist
party, captures Leonard, whose family support the Lancaster side, and
forces him to marry Grisell. He agrees on condition that he can go free
and rejoin his king's army. In a later battle Grisell's father and brother
are killed, and Leonard takes over the castle in right of his wife, sending
in a troop of mercenaries. These decide that Grisell is a witch, but she
escapes from them to the home of a Flemish apothecary in Sunderland. The
tide of war turns again, Leonard is badly wounded, and the Fleming decides
to return to his homeland, taking Grisell with him, and at her plea, for
she loves her husband, Leonard also. Leonard recovers but does not realise
that his kind nurse is his wife, for he has never seen her face since
the accident, and has been told that she is dead. He takes service as
a soldier in the Netherlands, but is largely supported by Grisell's lace
making and medical skills. When her childhood friend Margaret of York
becomes Duchess of Burgundy, Grisell sues for Leonard's pardon, and also
for an end to their enforced marriage, so that he can wed another lady.
Leonard, however, has already come to love Grisell, even before this example
of her magnanimity, so they are happily reunited.
Characterisation is subordinated to the plot. Griselda as the loathly
lady and rejected wife is consistently worthy, pious and loving. Leonard
is the Sir Gawaine figure, loyalty to his king compelling him to a marriage
he abhors. He is brave and chivalrous, quite unlike Griselda's cruel husband.
The minor characters are one dimensional, though they perform adequately.
Many are historical personages and their relationships and the political
scene are set out at length. There are contrasting locations, the tranquil
scenery of Wilton, the wild Durham countryside, the prosperous city of
Bruges.
There is hardly any overt moralising. The authorial voice is chiefly
used to convey information about the social conditions and the events
of the period.
Further Reading
For contemporary reviews see
L. Madden,
J.B. Shorthouse and C.M. Yonge,
Unpublished thesis
University of London Diploma in Librarianship, 1964.
Romanes, Ethel
Charlotte Mary Yonge. An appreciation
(London and Oxford: Mowbray, 1908)
page 182.
Briggs, Katherine Mary
Folklore in the Works of Charlotte Yonge,
(Occasional Papers of the K.B.Club, No. 1. Cambridge: Just Your Type,
1990)
pages 11-12.
Review
of Grisly Grisell
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Grisell on paper
Grisly Grisell has been reprinted
as an illustrated hardback by the Lepanto Press.
It is part of their series, which also includes editions of and .
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