—from Antonina Miliukova Tchaikovsky,
the nieve,
—from Queen Cecropia the hypersubtle,
—from the Witch of Endor and her broth,
menses, and
materials,
—from Maria Beadnell, the pinchpin,
—from La Belle Heaulmière,
la catin
,
—from the Sibyl of Panzoult, who spoke
lies,
—from Valeria Messalina, the notorious
stew,
—from Dame van Winkle, the whiniling
dastard,
—from Mother Prat, the fat woman
of
Brainford,
—from all Troll Madams, Titifulls,
and
Tattlers,
—from Glycera, the painted trullabub,
—from Diana Trapes, the walking mort,
—from Lady Fricarelle, the duchess
of
malfeasance,
—from Una the Fairy Queen,
—from Smêraldine and her hairpins,
—from Catherine Alexeyevna Romanov I,
called ‘Figgy,’
the
kozlonogaia
,
—from Giralda, the weathercock,
—from Berte au grant pié,
la conasse
,
—from Old Mother Gothel and her
gamps and
slatterns,
—from Elizabeth Bathory,
the
trugging-house truepenny,
—from Hecate the Attic drench,
—from Mahboobeh the slave-girl,
—from Watere Wytches, crownede
wythe
reytes,
—from Fanfan la Tulipe and her
bumrowls,
—from Empress Agrippina, the orgiac,
—from Notre-Dame des Parcs, the saint
of the
smock-fair,
—from Wjera Sassulitch, the human
skate,
—from Henda, the wife of Abu Sofian,
—from La DuBarry and her ligbies
and
lightskirts,
—from Lynda Raxa, the rixatrix,
—from La Sorellacia and her sausage
legs,
—from Dido and all her
dutzbetterins
and
biltregerins
,
—from Jane Medlar, the Dutch Widow,
—from Pohjola’s Daughters,
—from Madame Miracola, the zook of
hell,
—from Argante, the giantess of
prostitution,
—from Dame Wiggins of Lee, the female
mandrake,
—from Venus Pandemos, the queen of
tarts,
—from Naamah, Noah’s crosseyed wife,
—from Senta the spiggot-wench,
—from Paulina Bonaparte,
la pettegola
maligna
,
—from Queen Aigle of Dreiviertelstein,
who could
fly,
—from Harriet Wilson, the blackmailing
waistcoateer,
—from the Mother of St. Edward
of Corfe, the
mullipod of villainy,
—from Queen Dollalolla, the slatterpiece,
—from Isobel Gowdie the Strix,
—from Akko and Alphito and all giglots
and
jillivers,
—from My Own Middle-Wicketed
Mingwort of a
Mother . . .”
Stung with anger, Crucifer went suddenly into a full
hue and cry, alive with self-inflicted hurt, and he rose up, grey,
like Banquo’s ghost, heaping even greater contumely on each and
every name he uttered with each dart of that sarcastic tongue that
looked like a foul pistil issuing from a huge calyx.
“—from Libitana and her dead eyes,
libera nos,
Domine
—from Dipsias and her flying wheels,
—from Lady Alice Kyteler, virago and
voriander,
—from Aholibah the aplestous,
—from Miss Farabutto, the quarrelsome
fratcher,
—from Pythia the oracularia,
—from Ilmator, Creatrix of the World,
—from Cybele, the Phrygian goddess
of
fustilugging,
—from Al Lat, the false idol,
—from She Who Must Be Obeyed,
—from Francesca Bassington, the
belittling
bersatrix,
—from Mary of Brabant, pavior and
rumbold,
—from Albertine Simonet,
la disparue
,
—from Waila, the Koranic nag,
—from the Wretched Magpies
of King
Pieros,
—from Hélène de Surgères and her cool
hands,
—from Evelyn Bedstead, the wanton
bedswerver,
—from Athalie, the child butcher,
—from Columbine, the construpratress
of all those
commode ladies who
lend out their
beauty for hire,
—from Madame Guyon, the gotch-bellied
tart,
—from Drusilla, the chamberer,
—from Gagool, the evil crone of
Zimbabwe,
—from Anna Sage, the Lady in Red,
—from Ninon de Lenclos,
notre dame
des
amours
,
—from Elsche Nebelings, the
Mouse-Maker,
—from Dame La Voisin, philtre-seller
and whore,
—from Morgan le Fay, the fuxlady,
—from Penelope Devereux, richest
of bitches,
—from Goody Rickby and her noisy
forges,
—from Herodias, the jewified bestialator,
—from Mademoiselle de Maupin and her
pet muggins,
—from Philtra, the money stinkard,
—from La, queen of the Atlantean colony
of Opar,
—from Acrasia and her bowery wiles,
—from Ethel le Neve, snipe and mistress,
—from Jane Nightwork, the pox-ridden
fireship,
—from Centectl, maize mother
of Mexico,
—from Syntyche, the sharny-faced
scrubber,
—from fierce Camilla, o’er the plain,
—from Omm Jemil, the scoffing bardash,
—from the American South and its
stinking
girleries,
—from Lady Clara Vere de Vere, the
proud mincing
peat,
—from Cunizza da Romano,
la zitella
inacidita
,
—from Hilde Bobbe, the old witch
of Haarlem,
—from Mothers Twaddle and Twitchett
and all weeping
culls and drabs,
—from Gara Gertsoginia, the gueuse
of Gazag,
—from Gricka Vjestica, the Witch of
Gric,
—from Laverna, goddess of impostors,
—from Cicely Yeovil, the yawde,
the yode, the
yade, the yaud. . .”
The select and cynically imaginative incantation
exceeded by far the black medieval hymn in conjuring, almost to
fantasm, the meaning of the day of wrath and yet the furious and
driving relentlessness of both proclaimed equally in the full moon
of Dr. Crucifer’s blowing face, its morphs of color increasingly
going to dark as he droned the long profanity out in dry
arundinaceous whistles.
“—from Atropos and her glittering forfex,
libera
nos, Domine
—from Empusa the succubus,
—from Potiphar’s Wife, who hadn’t
even a name,
—from Linda Pallant, the finished
product,
—from Assma, the sheeny poetess,
—from Mother Brownrigg, the despicable
rudas,
—from Giulia Farnese, concubine
di Papa
Alessandro VI,
—from Zipporah the Desertable,
—from Kali the Black Mother,
—from Mesdames Goursey and Barnes,
the Abington
scrubbers,
—from Anne Boleyn, the princess of
plackets,
—from Lady Pecunia and her encomium,
—from Queen Tiy, who did her thutmose,
—from Marozia,
la grande horizontale
,
—from La Belle Dame Sans Merci,
the terrible
frictrix,
—from Madame la Mort and the xvi
gromettes in her
stable,
—from Lady Giacoma Rodogina,
the
engastrimythion prophetess,
—from Dame Trot and her basket of
eggs,
—from Aloysia Weber the Unavailable,
—from the Wife of Bath and her yvel
preef,
—from Franceschina, tanakin of the
Low
Countries,
—from Miss Flannigan, the Winnipeg
Whore,
—from the Great Whore of Revelations,
—from Signora Cianculli, the soapmaker
of Reggio,
—from Roxana, Countess of Wintelsheim,
—from Mary Powell Milton,
the troublesome
hindermate,
—from Proserpina, Crowned Empress
of the Nether
Clefts of Hell,
—from Queen Athaliah, court wanton,
—from Boadicea, the bullying bubble,
—from Katherine de Vausselles,
the
wheencat,
—from Aerope the andromaniac,
—from Mademoiselle Maximum
the
maculate,
—from Volumnia, iron-boweled mother
of
Coriolanus,
—from Penelope Whorehound, harlot
of
Bridewell,
—from Madeleine Amalaric, the nativity
caster,
—from The Red Queen and her scarlet
queynt,
—from Vidosava, wife of Vojvoda
Momcilo,
—from Procne, filiocide,
—from Anna Keller Haydn,
the
spoonpinching greedigut,
—from Melusine, the kitchen malkin,
—from Creseide, the cold-hearted
enjôleuse
,
—from Tubby Ursula, the Fatness
of the Fair,
—from Erichtho the Karcist,
—from bat-eyed Madame du Deffand,
notre dame
de lorette
,
—from Vittoria Corombona, the devil
in crystal,
—from Lucilla and her curious curio,
—from Mamaloi, the twigger of the
West Indies,
—from Athé, heron-thighed goddess
of
peevishness,
—from Livia Augusta, the leporine,
—from Mother Laquedem the Yenta,
—from Niphleseth, queen of the
chitterlings,
—from the Phrygian Cybele and her
eunuch
pontifesses,
—from Mademoiselle Scudéry, the urning,
—from the Lady Dunya, the land-frigate,
—from Isis, the female pope of secret
religions,
—from the Princess Badroulbadour,
out of the
tomb,
—from Madame de Maintenon
and her beavroys
and
ridinghoods. .
.”
Then the “Lacrymosa” began: the grief in the musical
flats of the long mournful lament, like fatal heartache, repeatedly
sobbing themselves out like ancient questions, and Crucifer now,
almost as if turning away from himself, as if now leaving the
exequies involved in the burial of a thousand corpses to the
unearthly infection of the music alone, revolved, drifted, around
the room, almost hypnotized himself, his hands down by his sides as
though they were both dead, but he never stopped the murmuring. It
was incessant, brutal, eternal.
“—from the Blue Hag of Leicester,
libera nos,
Domine
—from Asenath Waite, the psychovore,
—from Queen Hiera, the cuckquean,
—from Ramping Alice and her riggish
zooks and
mawks,
—from Aello, Ocypete, and Celeno, the
triple extract
of infamy,
—from Roxalana, the quean
of
bawdreaminy,
—from Hélène Kuryagin, the
otorva
,
—from the Women of the Sidhe,
—from Queen Quintessence and her
rhubarb
soul,
—from Undine, the wayward watersprite,
—from Baba Yaga, bronzestrops
and blowze,
—from Elizabeth Sawyer, the Witch
of Edmonton,
—from Alcina, the flatbacker,
—from the Duchess of Wonderland,
—from the bandit Lara and her cyprian
patrol,
—from Amine, the wicked inquisitrix,
—from Lizzie Eustace, the sorceress
unsorcelled,
—from Termagant, Mohammed’s
shrewish
wife,
—from Julie de Lespinasse,
la
liaisonesse
,
—from Europa who diddled a bull,
—from Mutter Frauenwelt, die Herrinnen
der Herren,
—from the Yakshas of the Himalayas,
—from Thel, the small-souled theme,
—from the Lady Governors of the Old
Men’s Home at
Haarlem,
—from Gabrina the jillet,
—from Mistress Alice Arden, stabfiend,
—from Sappho, the silly
gousse
,
—from Lucretia Estense Borgia,
the
lycanthrophile,
—from Alyona Ivanovna the pawnbroker,
—from Yolara of the moon pool,
—from the Comtesse d’Orgueil,
the Duchesse
d’Argent, and Madame
de Grandes
Titres, the unpartial
daughters of
necessity,
—from Gulfora, Queen of the Sabbat,
—from Odette de Crécy and her
cotqueanity,
—from Ixtab, Mayan goddess of suicide,
—from Minerva and her celestial trollops,
—from Belphoebe, the perforated virgin,
—from Gort à Bhaile, the femina of
famine,
—from Madame Anima and her firehaired