The Zeal of Thy House; Acting Edition for the Festival of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral
Canterbury: H.J. Golden, Limited, 1937. First Acting edition. Octavo, original textured stiff wrappers, front wrapper printed in blue. Minor toning and soiling to wrappers. A near-fine copy. Item #1529
"WE ARE THE MASTER-CRAFTSMEN, GOD AND I"
First "Acting Edition" of The Zeal of Thy House, Dorothy Sayers's Cathedral Play about the medieval rebuilding of Canterbury's Quire after a disastrous fire. Printed for the Friends of Canterbury, this edition precedes the first trade edition published later that same year.
In the late 1930's, Charles Williams "wrote the play Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury for the annual Canterbury Festival and proposed Sayers as the festival's next playwright" (Zaleski). Inspired by a medieval monk's account of the fire in September 1174, Sayers took up the story of Williams Sens, the Architect chosen to rebuild the choir. With a title taken from the Psalm 69:9: "For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up," the Architect's boastful pride in his abilities—"We are the Master-craftsmen, God and I"—renders him unable to give glory to God for his achievement. Just as he places the keystone in place ("God's crown of matchless works is not complete without my stone, my jewel, creation's nonpareil") the Architect plummets to the floor from the high scaffold. Despite months of painful recuperation, William will only relinquish the finishing of his work to others after a visitation from Michael the Archangel.
The text, prefaced with only a single leaf of the Dramatis Personae, consists of five acts. "The action of the play," Sayers says in The Dogma is the Drama, "involves a dramatic presentation of a few fundamental Christian dogmas—in particular, the application to human affairs of the doctrine of the Incarnation." Sayers see the Primary Imagination, after Coleridge, as the "living power and prime Agent of all human perception." The Living Power "would appear as the theme of her play The Zeal of Thy House and her best nonfiction book, The Mind of the Maker" (Zaleski). The play "received good notices and gave her prominence as a Christian artist as well as a creator of elegant mysteries" (Zaleski). The trade edition, with a preface by Laurence Irving, was published later the same year by Victor Gollancz Ltd. Zaleski and Zaleski. The Fellowship: The Literary Lives of the Inklings.
Price: $75.00