One of the great eccentrics of English letters, Augustus Montague Summers is difficult to pin down. He produced a body of work that took in werewolves and vampires, and the first English translation of the notorious 15th-century treatise on witch-hunting, Malleus Maleficarum, but also included treatises on Shakespeare and obscure English playwrights. He spent some of his happiest childhood hours engrossed in books on many topics in the womb-like environment, which he describes at length in his posthumously published autobiography The Galanty Show Here he developed his love of the occult and of early English theatre.
He did not excel academically, exhibiting that behaviour, not uncommon among the creative, of doing intense scholarly work on his own but not in the classroom. He lodged outside the college, his name not appearing on the rolls of any clubs or activities, including the Oxford University Dramatic Society, and he appears in no college photographs, suggesting a detachment from mainstream college life.
Despite his later reputation as a literary gadfly, he obviously had a preference for other spheres. He did love the city, though, saying the only other comparable places in the world were Rome andVenice. By Summers had been ordained a deacon of the Anglican Church and curate of the Bristol diocese of Trinity Bitton. Shortly after this he found himself immersed in a scandal involving allegations of sexual improprieties with boys.
His sexuality is as difficult to ascertain as any other aspect of his life. He may well have been a homosexual, or he may simply have enjoyed the ambiguity of letting others think what they wanted without confirming anything one way or another. His eccentricity extended to his person as well as his beliefs.
Summers dressed in distinctive and quirky self-designed outfits and hairstyle suggestive of an 18th century cleric. In , following the sex scandal, he converted to Roman Catholicism and was ordained a Catholic Deacon. The Clifton Bishop, however, would not make Summers a priest, so he went to Italy and found a Cardinal who may have ordained him as such in an unorthodox and dubious process.
In the end, Summers found it easier to simply assume the role of priest — styling himself the Reverend Alphonsus Joseph-Mary Augustus Montague Summers — rather than actually becoming one. Unfortunately, few of the records concerning these events are extant. He therefore appeared on no clergy list in the United Kingdom, was under the authority of no bishop and could not practise publicly without first submitting to such authority.
None of his close friends doubted the sincerity of his religious faith, however, no matter how blasphemous his conversation often seemed. Dame Sybil Thorndike wrote of him: 'I think that because of his profound belief in the tenets of orthodox Catholic Christianity he was able to be in a way almost frivolous in his approach to certain macabre heterodoxies.
His humour, his "wicked humour" as some people called it, was most refreshing, so different from the tiresome sentimentalism of so many convinced believers.
For a living, Summers was able to draw on a modest legacy from his father, supplemented by spells of teaching at various schools, including Hertford Grammar, the Central School of Arts and Crafts in Holborn, and Brockley School in south London where he was senior English and Classics Master.
He described teaching as: 'One of the most difficult and depressing of trades, and so in some measure it must have been even well-nigh three hundred years ago when boys were not nearly so stupid as they are today. From , when he was in his mid-forties, Summers' writings and editing earned him the freedom to pursue full time his many enthusiasms and love of travel, particularly in Italy. The bulk of his activity then was related to English Restoration drama of the seventeenth century. Beginning in with the Shakespeare Head Press, Summers edited a large number of Restoration plays for various publishers, accompanied by lengthy critical introductions which were highly praised in their own right, and did much to rescue that period of literature from oblivion.
Not content with editing and introducing these plays, Summers helped in to found the Phoenix Society whose aim was to present them on stage in London. The venture was an immediate success and Summers threw himself wholeheartedly and popularly into all aspects of the productions, which were staged at various theatres. This brought him a measure of fame in London society and invitations to the most select salons, which he dazzled with his wit and erudition.
By he was recognized as the greatest living authority on Restoration drama. Some ten years later he crystallized his knowledge in The Restoration Theatre and The Playhouse of Pepys which examined almost every possible aspect of the London stage between and Summers' involvement with the theatre presents a curious parallel with his near contemporary Bram Stoker, who for most of his working life was business manager to Sir Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre in London.
One can't help suspecting Summers felt that if only he had been born some twenty years earlier he might have written the definitive vampire novel himself, only better. As an editor he also introduced to the public, along with many other works, a reprint of The Discovery of Witches by the infamous Matthew Hopkins and the first English translation of the classic fifteenth century treatise on witchcraft, Malleus Maleficarum.
In his introduction to Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto Summers articulated the appeal of Gothic novels, and perhaps also the appeal of all the dark mysteries which fascinated him: 'There is in the Romantic revival a certain disquietude and a certain aspiration.
It is this disquietude with earth and aspiration for heaven which inform the greatest Romance of all, Mysticism, the Romance of the Saints. The Classical writer set down fixed rules and precisely determined his boundaries. The Romantic spirit reaches out beyond these with an indefinite but very real longing to new and dimly guessed spheres of beauty. The Romantic writer fell in love with the Middle Ages, the vague years of long ago, the days of chivalry and strange adventure.
He imagined and elaborated a mediaevalism for himself, he created a fresh world, a world which never was and never could have been, a domain which fancy built and fancy ruled. And in this land there will be mystery, because where there is mystery beauty may always lie hid. The more sedate selection concerns literature, specifically that of the 17th century poet laureates Dryden and Shadwell.
These are not Summers only works, however; nor are they the most notable. For on another shelf are writings by the Reverend Montague Summers concerning his other interest: the supernatural. It is largely this interest and the controversy surrounding it that led to Montague Summers becoming so well known.
His first books on the occult were published in the late s. By this time, rational and materialistic thought was already standard. Fervent belief in the supernatural — such as that professed by Summers — was strange enough to be notable and controversial. His many books on the occult include not only those he wrote but also ones he edited. They have earned him mentions alongside the likes of occultist Aleister Crowley.
Montague Summers was certainly an unusual and fascinating man, and is of particular interest given his link to Richmond Borough libraries. He was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England at Lichfield Theological college in However, his belief in the literal existence of Satan and demonic forces led him to convert to Catholicism in He also began to refer to himself as Reverend, and to wear clothing typical of a Catholic priest.
It is not known whether Montague Summers was ordained within the Catholic Church; he was certainly not ordained by any English Catholic seminary. It was suggested that he may have been ordained in Rome, possibly by a wayward Church official who would have been technically able to ordain priests — whether or not it was wise for them to do so. He believed firmly in the good of the Church and was staunchly opposed to atheism and reliance on rationality.
Before his forays into the occult, Montague Summers was already known for his works on Restoration drama and Gothic literature.
0コメント