COVE

          Sidney H. Sime’s frontispiece for Arthur Machen’s The Hill of Dreams was published in 1907 in Wales. Sime illustrates the scene of vulnerability where Lucian renounces his status as  “Master” to Annie and falls to his knees, stating “I worship you, my dear Annie,” (Machen 75). Sime and Machen’s submissive renditions of Lucian create a veneration scene, whereby Annie becomes a muse-like figure. Corine Schielf in her essay “Kneeling on the Threshold” explores how “kneeling venerators [are] found [...] during the Middle Ages and early modern era” (213). The kneeling position is an easily recognized and long surviving form of ritualistic veneration. Annie is entangled in Lucian’s artistic process, he not only writes for her but because of her, resembling the role of the muse figures who preside “over and inspir[e] learning and the arts” (“Muse, N”). Lucian’s docile stance with his head tilted upwards in awe, converts Annie into a divine body deserving of veneration. Lucian is able to rationalize this power which Annie holds over him due to her role as an inspiring influence in his literary endeavours.

                                                                                        Works Cited

Corine Schleif. "Kneeling on the Threshold: Donors Negotiating Realms Betwixt and Between." Thresholds of Medieval Visual Culture: Liminal Spaces, edited by Elina Gertsman and Jill Stevenson, Boydell Press, 2012, pp. 213

Machen, Arthur. The Hill of Dreams.The Internet Archive, 1907. archive.org/details/thehillofdreams00machiala/page/n5/mode/2up. Accessed 7 Oct. 2024.

“Muse, N. (1).” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, March 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093

Sime, Sidney H. Frontispiece. The Hill of Dreams, by Arthur Machen, Arthur, The Internet Archive, 1907. archive.org/details/thehillofdreams00machiala/page/n5/mode/2up. Accessed 28 Nov. 2024.