Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
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1910 · PDF PAGE 201

The Winged Beetle

MR TODD 191 GRANDFATHER. Bitter cold, Charley, for us old people ! Nothing right nowadays ! Oh, my poor leg ! Bitter, bitter cold ! I mind me, more than sixty years ago now—oh dear ! oh dear ! Run and tell Nurse I want my liniment ! Oh dear ! oh dear ! what a wretched world. Sciatics—like rats gnawing, gnawing at you, Charley. CHARLEY. You frighten me, grampa ! Why doesn’t Mr. Carr come and play with me ? GRANDFATHER. He has gone out with your mother. He’ll come by-and-by, no doubt. Run and fetch Nurse, Charley ! [CHARLEY runs off. Oh dear ! I …

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1910 · PDF PAGE 235

The Winged Beetle

…onstrous rears its prospered head ! Well know’st Thou, Satan (ease this woe of mine !) I went not thither futile tears to shed ; But, an old lecher with’s old concubine, To madden sense on the enormous bitch Whose hellish charm pours youth from me like wine ! Whether thou sleep in morning’s sheets (dear witch !) Heavy, obscure, and chill ; or preen thee, vain, In evening’s veils, with gold embroidery rich, Infamous Capital, I love thee ! Drain Whose thieves and whores give me to ease life’s itch Pleasures inscrutable to the profane !

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1910 · PDF PAGE 209

The Winged Beetle

…ODD smiles kindly on him. They go out. [The child turns ; and, finding himself alone, begins to cry. CHARLEY. My nice man has gone away. Old Todd has taken him away. I think I hate that old Todd ! [Enter TODD. I hate you ! I hate you ! Where is my nice man ? [TODD whispers in his ear. Oh, I see. It is when people get to be grown-ups that they don’t like you any more. But I like you, Mr. Todd. Carry me pick-a-back ! [TODD takes CHARLEY on his shoulder, and goes dancing from the room, the boy crowing with delight. CURTAIN.

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1910 · PDF PAGE 142

The Winged Beetle

…in. There she sways and stares, And with the jaw dropped all awry—first swears, Then lurches ; then she slobbers unctuously : “ I am not old : I am quite beautiful ; How have I lost your love ? Pitiful ! Pitiful ! Pitiful ! This is no tragedy of little tears. This worm was in her blood Lurking for thrice five years, And now I see him—that old slime that leers Where Bacchus smiles, that evil and averse God that is wholly curse,

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1910 · PDF PAGE 162

The Winged Beetle

152 AN HYMN Let but our hearts hold brotherhood, And this they shall not take away. Ashes to ashes ? Dust to dust ? So let it be ! In God we trust. Stand ! and join hands ! and let us sing ! Shake out Old Glory to the skies ! With heart and hand defiant fling Our purpose against Destiny’s Ashes to ashes ? Dust to dust ? So let it be ! In God we trust.

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1910 · PDF PAGE 202

The Winged Beetle

192 MR TODD OSSORY. I want to say a word, girlie, about young Del- homme. Er—well, we all grow older, you know—one day—er—ah ! Nice young fellow, Delhomme ! EUPHEMIA. I refused him twenty minutes ago, father. OSSORY. What ? How the deuce did you know what I was going to say ? Bless me, I believe there may be some- thing in this psychic business after all ! EUPHEMIA. Yes, father, I feel I have strange powers ! OSSORY. But look here, girlie, why did you refuse him ? Reculer pour mieux sauter is all very well, don’t you know, but he gives twice wh…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 158

The Winged Beetle

148 THE JEW OF FEZ His bullied servants overheard This wicked renegado-word. Four soldiers dragged the Jew away To prison on that very day. The Cadi and the Caid wept ; They thought a promise should be kept. “ Be calm ” (said they) “ and do not strive ! We think of burning you alive.” “ Shame ! ” said the wretch. “ ’Tis cruel to Burn me because I am a Jew ! ” The wise old Cadi wagged his head. “ I do not see a Jew,” he said. “ This clear distinction must be made. We only burn a renegade.” The fire they burnt Abdullah at Went merrily ; for he wa…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 126

The Winged Beetle

…gious ! Yet, that were relic of an holy man, And thou the carcass of a courtesan ! Beneath my seas thy creaking timbers tremble, Gallant old barque ! I shake thee, stem and stern, With furious kisses in blind rage at Time Who hath wrought on thee his cold and common crime. So now I rise, laughing with love, and burn ! Those dissolute embers of thy lust grown dun, The ashen horrors of thy face, resemble The dull red glare of a November sun.

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1910 · PDF PAGE 236

The Winged Beetle

…One scarce can hear the words they say. In the ancient frozen solitary part Two ghosts evoke the past—oh hark ! “ Dost thou remember our old ecstasy ? ” “ Why do you wish to remind me ? ” “ Does thy heart beat still at my name, and glow ? “ Seest thou my soul in dreams, dear ? ” “ No.” “ Ah ! the fair days of joyaunce and of gree “ When our mouths kissed, ah kissed ! ” “ Maybe ! ” “ How blue the sky was, as our hope was clear ! ” “ Hope has gone down to Hell’s nadir.” So in the foolish alleys they conferred, And only midnight overheard.

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1910 · PDF PAGE 121

The Winged Beetle

… your help He needed, to a currish yelp. Now—so the wheel of Fortune whirls !— Your kindly love for little girls And ardour for the fine old faith Makes all that past a wisp, a wraith. You patronise our Sunday schools, Pronounce on Grammar’s darkest rules, Rebuke bad taste, irreverence, Heresy, humbug, and pretence. Your tepid verses come like boons To cheer Suburban afternoons ; While Asquith, were he only wise, Would bid a Board of Morals rise ; Sure no one like yourself can be Past-Master in Virginity. Stay ! if so well you play the rôles, W…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 113

The Winged Beetle

…one chaste shrine That pious hands have builded ; And, oiled and scented, curled and gilded, A virgin, swimming like new wine In my grey old soul, that I may give His life to Pan, and live ! I have seen Love, and known A blasphemy, a violation And perfect profanation ; Wherefore the god hath flown. My heart no longer trembles If that blind Harper—blind, or he dissembles !— Touches its strings with burning finger-tips, Or fastens his soft lips About my soul. . . . Then what is left To a woman love-bereft ? I have tasted Passion ; I have known Ho…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 119

The Winged Beetle

CLYTIE 109 Hold me ! he must not think I yearned—he is too master- ful—beware ! Oh, should he guess this body burned, shame, shame—how should a maiden fare ? Nay, girls, I know. But Pan hath wrought this marvel on my wanton’s will, Filling it with one virgin thought, as strong as summer, and as still. Ah hold ! my body breaks away maugre your weakling struggles. Hold ! Nay ! my soul faints ; the stinging spray lures like his kisses did of old. Free ! Now stand back ! How good it is—how good it is to be alive ! How good to swim for the first kis…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 36

The Winged Beetle

26 THE WIZARD WAY Mixed with fat of many a maid Slain by the inchauntments cold Of the witches wild and old. He had crucified a toad In the basilisk abode, Muttering the Runes averse Mad with many a mocking curse. He had traced the serpent sigil In his ghastly virgin vigil. Sursum cor ! the elfin hill, Where the wind blows deadly chill From the world that wails beneath Death’s black throat and lipless teeth There he had stood—his bosom bare— Tracing life upon the Air With the crook and with the flail Lashing forward on the gale, Till its blade …

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1910 · PDF PAGE 153

The Winged Beetle

IN MEMORIAM 143 Are you ready, sweet ? Then fold Once your arms about me, cling Close and clip me as old— In the presence of the King That awaits us. Love is bold. We are witness—by our fate— To one poet—is there one ? That beyond the miry weight Of the fog there shines a sun ! Be he comforted thereat ! . . . . . . Yea ! I chant your mastery ! In the hag-ridden, mange-bitten, Sodden, superstitious sty That John Milton made of Britain In the twentieth century, Two in blood the runes have written— How to love and how to die ! Praise, O Martyrs ! …

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1910 · PDF PAGE 125

The Winged Beetle

…your moustachioed mouth ; The fading fires in your debauched grey eyes With the black grooves about them, each a trench Where some dead soldier rots, a sterile stench— All of you, ripe and rotten, athwart the lies Of paint and powder, false fanfares of youth That blare, yet passionate ache their tongue were true— Hag of the pit, what should I make of you ? I will legitimize the bastard spell ! Take all your falsehood, weld it with my force. Now then, Canidia, match thy miracle With mine, old medlar ! Though the reek of hell Gush from thy gorge,…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 150

The Winged Beetle

…ob Catches my throat. All these vain voices die, And all these thunders venomously hurled Stop. My head strikes the floor ; one cry, the old cry, Strikes at the sky in its exquisite agony : Rose ! Rose o’ th’ World !

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1910 · PDF PAGE 16

The Winged Beetle

… strikes the day to hyaline floors Whereon blithe fish and emerald water snakes Play all the day, and all their innocence adores Is some old anchor with its rusty flakes Fallen from God knows what forgotten ship. No ! not in Fancy’s palace will I play, Nor in imagination’s deep will dip The timid foot ; but rather will I strip Each rag of thought, and leap Into the sunset deep Still glowing with the glamour Of your life’s blood, and ashen gold With floating gossamer your hair, that might enfold A giant god, and strangle him anon With starry ser…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 146

The Winged Beetle

…nor water flows, But such a poison as Locusta never Distilled from toad, asp, viper, scorpion, Nightshade, gall, orpiment, Jews’ hearts, Old women’s tongues, by monstrous arts ; But this my poison drips, without endeavour, From the mere soul of the world’s rose ! What alchemy of hell this ronyon Venus has skill of ! Wonder that I live ! This has been like a bag-pipe drone to wail Its monotone through high, low, fast and slow. It has been like a secret cancer, Forcing all servants of the life to give Their work to the usurper ; all its themes as…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 194

The Winged Beetle

184 MR TODD the English hypocrite ? Who was poor Uncle Henry ? Did you love poor Uncle Henry so dearly as all that ? How old were you when your father quarrelled with poor Uncle Henry ? About two and a half ! The only thing you know about poor Uncle Henry is that poor Uncle Henry once tickled your toes. [EUPHEMIA gives a little scream of horror.] Enough humbug about poor Uncle Henry ! . . . Sweetheart ! EUPHEMIA. Mine own ! [They embrace and kiss with great intensity. EUPHEMIA. Unhand me, villain ! . . . But one has to be decent about one’s rel…

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1910 · PDF PAGE 188

The Winged Beetle

…think that I should go. [He shakes hands. MRS. OSSORY. Good morning. We are so grateful for your sympathy and kindness. [He turns to the old man.] Grandfather is asleep. [DELHOMME shakes hands coldly with CARR, wonder- ing why he does not offer to come with him. He goes to EUPHEMIA. EUPHEMIA. [Jumps up and gives her hand, hiding her tear-stained face. She has a slight lisp.] Good morning, monsieur. [He bends over her hand and kisses it. DELHOMME. Always my sympathy and devotion, made- moiselle. EUPHEMIA. Thank you—thank you. [Her real attitude …

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