TOPIC: Tatters of the King

TATTERS OF THE KING

The Players
Barnabus Piper….............Alienist….Scott
Jacob Smythe-Blossett….Artist…....Jim
William King……..............Spy….….Steve
Dr Walter Clancy…..........Doctor…..Mel
John Stevenson….......…Engineer….Sant


I

The King in Yellow
The Scala Theatre, London. October 17th, 1928. Opening night of “Carcosa” or “The Queen and the Stranger” written, directed and starred in by Talbot Estus. The play is adapted from the book, “The King in Yellow” c. 1895, original in French. Pandemonium in the auditorium causes the theatre to cancel the play after just one night. Much of the disturbance began after the Stranger took centre stage to reveal a strange symbol embroidered into his costume. Estus, though visibly disappointed in the theatre management, dismisses the audience behaviour with the statement: “any work of art should seek to inspire fervour."

Dr Charles Highsmith
Barnabus Piper receives a letter from a Dr Highsmith, the Head of St. Agnes Asylum near Weobley, Herefordshire. He seeks a second opinion on a patient, Alexander Roby, who is due for release soon, as the two year period of the Order of Petition under which he was sanctioned is coming to its end. Highsmith believes Roby is fit for release; the patient’s family however wants his internment to be made permanent. After an initial meeting, on 28th October, with Highsmith at the Great Western Hotel near Paddington station it is agreed you’ll travel to Weobley to visit Roby.

St. Agnes Asylum for the Deranged
Arrive at Hereford by train from Paddington, with a change at Bristol. Highsmith sends a car to bring you to the small village of Weobley. Beyond the village, built alone on top of a sparse hill is the asylum. Having first taken rooms at the Wheatsheaf Inn in Weobley, you ascend the road up the hill. Admitted through the gates and escorted into the asylum you're ushered into a small office and into the company of Dr Highsmith. Highsmith doesn’t want to excite Roby during your interview and sends you with an orderly, Price, and his secretary, Mr. Reeves, who’ll take notes and produce a transcript.

Alexander Roby
Roby takes a while to start talking. When he does his conversation is an often incoherent train of thought spoke out loud. His only real statement aimed at the investigators is “Have you seen the yellow sign?” He makes no actual reply to anything asked of him. Amongst his ramblings, Roby mentions: Delia, Edwards, Malcolm Quarrie, Carcosa and the King in Yellow.

Returning to Dr Highsmith, opinion is divided on whether Roby is indeed fit for release. If he were released, where would he go? The preferred option would be to release him into the care of family. But Roby’s brother, Mr. Grahame Roby, is vehemently opposed to Alexander’s release, still blaming him for the murders of their father and sister, two years ago. The family doctor, Dr. Lionel Trollope, was instrumental in having Alexander interred in the asylum, and according to Highsmith, Grahame Roby is leaning heavily on Dr. Trollope to ensure Alexander remains committed.

A Night at the Wheatsheaf
William King, in conversation with locals learns that a terrible murder took place at the asylum almost a year ago. One of the orderlies was brutally killed by an inmate. The Hereford police investigated it. Jacob Smythe-Blossett, has a disturbing dream.

Back to the Asylum
The investigators return to the asylum next morning to collect a copy of the transcript being typed up of their interview with Roby yesterday. While here they speak to an orderly named Evans about the murder they learned about in the village. Evans confides in them but doesn’t want investigators to mention he’d told them anything – he wouldn’t want to get in trouble for talking.

Lucius Harriwell
Last November, an orderly by the name of Cuthbert Yates was murdered in the cell of Lucius Harriwell; the cell next door to Roby. Cuthbert should have known better than to enter a patient’s cell alone – it’s against the rules. Harriwell is utterly deranged. The investigators, without dropping Evans in it, arrange to see Harriwell. Lucius Harriwell is straight-jacketed, for his and everyone else’s safety. There is no coherent conversation. The excitable patient laughs and shouts. He mentions the Red Devil and repeats “red, red, red …” He describes a murder of knives and blood and the devil cut Cuthbert and then himself.

The Roby Murders
At Hereford, the investigators dig up what information they can on the murders of Alexander’s father and sister. From newspaper archives they discover Herbert Roby and his daughter Georgina Roby were killed at the family home, 4 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London on the night of 14th October 1926.

The investigators already learned from Dr Highsmith, that Alexander Roby confessed to the murders but police concluded that there was no evidence to support the confession. There had clearly been a break-in to the property and the terrible injuries were unlikely to have been inflicted by Alexander, who when found in shock in his room had no weapon and no blood on him, or evidence of him being involved in any struggle.

It is stemming from the time of the murders, that Alexander Roby’s sanity was broken.

Thanks for the write up Paul .

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I recently discovered a copy of Jacob Smythes Blossetts retrospective exhibition catalogue with some of his work in. Ill post extracts as we go along. Here is a bit of the introduction that I have transcribed.

Jacob Smythe-Blossett

A retrospective: Dark Phantasmagoria of the Soul, 2022


Introduction

Jacob Smythe-Blossett is one of Englands finest forgotten artists who lived and worked in London at the beginning of the previous century. Not much was known about the man or his work until a series of sketchbooks were found in late 2019. All we could say prior to this discovery was that Blossett was a curious artist who seldom painted from life. His work, much like earlier artists such as Blake, was inspired from the inner world, that dark phantasmagoria of the soul, more so than his picturesque surroundings in Hampstead Heath. That being said, his work still has its followers to this day…

…As I said earlier, it wasn’t until Blossetts sketchbooks were uncovered in 2019 that we began our rediscovery of Blossetts oeuvre. The drawings were found by chance during a routine pipe inspection of an old run down quarter of London. Tucked away behind a largely dilapidated wall was a small wooden chest with an enigmatic symbol carved into its lid. The man who found it, Thomas Hitchin, not knowing what he had found, passed it onto an antiques dealer in the city to ascertain what it was, and how much it was worth. You can imagine the dealers surprise when, inside the box, was a selection of perfectly preserved Jacob Smythe-Blossett sketchbooks…

An introduction to an early paper by Dr Barnabas Piper

Reflection in Psychoanalysis: On symbols and metaphors

Psychoanalysis is an art of reflection, i.e. it tries to facilitate the subject's retrieval of his own self. The 'material' to be reflected upon consists of the products of human symbolisation. But there are two views of reflection. In one, the self is searched in a worldly, structural and procedural 'anterior' (the model of archaeology). In the other the self is to be found in a still evolving meaning process, i.e. it resides in a 'future' (phenomena in terms of the purpose they serve rather than of the cause by which they arise.). Both these pictures are common in psychoanalysis. The aim of this paper is to study the figures of symbolisation through both of the reflection models.

Id read it Sarge.

JIm wrote:
Cheers Jim, perhaps I’ll add a bit more to the paper, or introduce others he has penned

Can’t take full credit though, been googling psychoanalysis and have cobbled some terms together…

Sorry guys. Babysitting again tonight