They are noticed by Mr. Whewell as forming the figure of the
fleur-de-lis, always a mark, when in tracery bars, of the most debased
flamboyant. It occurs in the central tower of Bayeux, very richly in the
buttresses of St. Gervais at Falaise, and in the small niches of some of
the domestic buildings at Rouen. Nor is it only the tower of St. Ouen
which is overrated. Its nave is a base imitation, in the flamboyant
period, of an early Gothic arrangement; the niches on its piers are
barbarisms; there is a huge square shaft run through the ceiling of the
aisles to support the nave piers, the ugliest excrescence I ever saw on
a Gothic building; the traceries of the nave are the most insipid and
faded flamboyant; those of the transept clerestory present a singularly
distorted condition of perpendicular; even the elaborate door of the
south transept is, for its fine period, extravagant and almost grotesque
in its foliation and pendants. There is nothing truly fine in the church
but the choir, the light triforium, and tall clerestory, the circle of
Eastern chapels, the details of sculpture, and the general lightness of
proportion; these merits being seen to the utmost advantage by the
freedom of the body of the church from all incumbrance.
NOTE VI.
Page 43.
Compare Iliad [Greek: S]. 1. 219 with Odyssey [Greek: Ô]. 1. 5-10.
NOTE VII.
Page 44.
"_Does not admit iron as a constructive material._"
Except in Chaucer's noble temple of Mars.
"And dounward from an hill under a bent,
Ther stood the temple of Mars, armipotent,
Wrought all of burned stele, of which th' entree
Was longe and streite, and gastly for to see.
And thereout came a rage and swiche a vise,
That it made all the gates for to rise.
The northern light in at the dore shone,
For window on the wall ne was ther none,
Thurgh which men mighten any light discerne
The dore was all of athamant eterne,
Yclenched overthwart and ende long
With yren tough, and for to make it strong,
Every piler the temple to sustene
Was tonne-gret, of yren bright and shene."
_The Knighte's Tale._
There is, by the bye, an exquisite piece of architectural color just
before:
"And northward, in a turret on the wall
_Of alabaster white, and red corall_,
An oratorie riche for to see,
In worship of Diane of Chastitee."
NOTE VIII.
Page 44.
_"The Builders of Salisbury."_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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