Something Good To Read . . .

[Margaret Atwood, Negotiating With The Dead, p155-156:]

When I was a young person reading whatever I could get my hands on, I came across some old books of my father's, in a series called Everyman's Library.  The endpapers of that date were a sort of William Morris design, with leaves and flowers and a lady in graceful medieval draperies carrying a scroll and a branch with three apples or other spherical fruit on it.  Interwoven among the shrubbery there was a motto:  "Everyman I will go with thee and be thy gude, In thy most need to go by thy side."  This was very reassuring to me.  The books were declaring that they were my pals; they promised to accompany me on my travels; and they would not only offer me some helpful hints, they'd be right there by my side whenever I really needed them.  It's always nice to have someone you can depend on.
---Imagine my consternation when — some years later, and enrolled in a university class that required me to fill my gaps, Middle English among them — I discovered the source of this cuddly quotation.  It was a medieval play called Everyman, in which Everyman is not on some pleasant country stroll but on his way to the grave.  All Everyman's friends have deserted him, including Fellowship, who wanders off in search of a stiff drink as soon as he hears the proposed destination.  The only loyal one is Good Deeds, who isn't up to the job of saving Everyman from the consequences of himself, being too feeble.  However, Good Deeds has a sister called Knowledge, and it is Knowledge who offers to be the helpful guide on Everyman's ramble to the tomb, and who speaks the words I have just quoted.
---The relationship between me and these books, then, was not as cosy as I'd once thought.  In the light of their newly discovered context, the three round fruits toted by the Pre-Raphaelite lady looked positively sinister:  I was acquainted by then with Robert Graves's book The White Goddess, and I felt I could recognize the food of the dead.
---I remain rather amazed at the long-ago editors of this series, and their choice of design and epigraph.  What possible help did they think Pride and Prejudice and Mopsa the Fairy were going to be to me on my leisurely hike to the crematorium? — though when you come to think of it, I suppose we're all on the same train trip, and it's a one-way ticket, so you might as well have something good to read on the way.  And some lunch too — that must be where the fruit comes in.

[I'd forgotten this piece until i looked at the last chapter of Negotiating With The Dead again last evening.  Then i had to smile.  May you always have something good to read on your way to the tomb; and enjoy it!]