Thomas of reading or The Six Worthy Yeomen of the West
After the grueling
read that was ”The Unfortunate Traveller” I was not looking forward to ”Thomas
of Reading or The Six Worthy Yeomen of the West”. I suspected it would just as
challenging, but I was relieved to find that it was a much easier and far more
pleasant read. Whether or not this stems from the fact that my edition was a
copy of a print from 1827 I do not know. It could be that the language was modernized
for this edition, but I suspect it was not. It felt archaic, but not illegible
and the style of writing was far more accessible than “The Traveller”.
“Thomas of
Reading” is not a normal novel. There is very little in terms of progressive
story. Rather it is a series of intermezzos involving a limited group of people
centered on a group of clothiers in provincial England. One is trying to have
an affair with a hostess at an inn, another is murdered by another host and
hostess. One is having trouble with thieves stealing his wares and find that
executioners are difficult to find and some get good friends with the king who
recognizes the clothiers as the backbone of the country.
The closest
the book gets to an actual plot is the story of the high-born Margaret, who
when her father the Earl falls from grace finds herself alone and destitute and
becomes a maid with one of the clothiers. While nobody realizes she is a noble
lady she does get a lot of admirers and finally runs away with one of them, a
duke who happens to be the kings rebellious brother. When the king finds out
his brother has run away he gets royally pissed and it end badly for Margaret
and the duke.
I get the clear
impression that the book is based on some folk tales going back to medieval
times. Certainly there are references to a time well before that of the writing
and hints that the events of the story have fostered local legends, place names
and traditions still known to the reader in 1600. It is very possible that the
author, a Thomas Deloney, has elaborated on these stories and thereby created
this tapestry of events.
This is a
very entertaining read. The author is not blind to the comical aspects of the
situations and much of it still works these four centuries later. It is also a
far more tender story than what I have been reading lately, It does not dwell
as much on mutilation and gore, even when it gets juicy, and prefers to tone it
down, which suits me just fine. That is perfectly in line with the positive
note the book is playing. We get praise rather than condemnation, success
rather than failure and hard times are mostly used as a moral lesson. This
could all make the story somewhat tame, but the colorful writing gives it
plenty of juice.
I was
laughing aloud from the tale of the clothier’s wives who went to London and
discovered a world of feminine luxuries to the chagrin of their husbands. Ah,
nothing has really changed… Another hilarious story was that of the clothier
who wooed an innkeeper’s wife and went to very elaborate trouble to tumble her
only to get caught red-handed by the innkeeper.
“Thomas of
Reading” will never be considered the greatest book ever written, but it is a
very enjoyable one and easy enough to access to make it recommended. I could
think of worse books to bring along with me on a plane.
It will
likely be a while before my next post. “Don Quixote” is hefty brick of a
thousand pages…
