Haggard cherished literary ambitions beyond those
of a merely successful story-teller. The sales of his mystical
novel She relieved the strict financial economy observed
since his marriage, and he took a trip to Egypt early in 1887, with
the object of collecting local colour for a novel about Cleopatra,
a subject obviously at the back of his mind when he sketched the
personality of Ayesha in She.
-
· On his return
to England, he found himself " quite a celebrity," for Allan
Quatermain had continued the success of She; twenty thousand copies
were sold in the month of publication, ten thousand being
subscribed in London alone, a figure which Longmans believed " more
than has ever been subscribed of a 6s. novel before." He was
disappointed that Cleopatra, which ran serially in the Illustrated
London News before book publication in 1889, did not enjoy equal
success.
-
· It was written
in two months, immediately after his return from Egypt, and he
believed it to be his best work up to that time. Having absorbed
much knowledge of Egyptian antiquities, he allowed his enthusiasm
for the subject to override his theory that a story should be told
simply and directly. He was depressed when Lang, after reading the
manuscript, advised him to
" Put
Cleopatra away for as long as possible, and then read it as a
member of the public. You will find, I think, that between chapters
three and eight it is too long, too full of antiquarian detail, and
too slow in movement to carry the general public with it.... It is
not an advantage for a story to be told in an archaic style (this
of course is unavoidable). For that reason I would condense a good
deal and it could be done."
Haggard obtained most of his evidence about the
socioeconomic organisation of the ancient Egyptians from their
elaborate religious ceremonies depicted in temple and tomb.
Unfortunately, the key to the complex religious symbolism resided
with the living priesthood. Having lost this oral tradition we are
left with an Egyptian world view expressed in unintelligible
symbols. Our quest for understanding must inevitably begin
with the most consistent symbolisms which are those of the
procession, the festival, and the rites of temple and
funeral. A central feature of these ceremonies throughout the
long period of Egyptian history is the offering of village produce
to the gods. The ancient Egyptians not only depicted the
offerings but also detailed the various processes by which they
were produced. A widely accepted interpretation of this
convention was put succinctly by Alexandre Moret in his analysis of
the symbolism of wall decorations:
'All
around, servants bring provisions of food, clothing and the
necessary furniture; the making and origin of each offering is used
as the theme for the decoration. Thus, to explain the offering of a
leg of beef, they show animals feeding in the pasture, the mounting
of the cow, the birth of the calf and scenes of agricultural life
up to the slaughter of the animal; the offering of bread made it
necessary to have scenes of tilling, harvesting and baking; the
offering of wine was the excuse to show vineyards and
grape-gathering; offerings of furred and feathered game and of fish
made it necessary to show scenes of hunting in the desert and of
fishing by line or net. Each of the objects of the funeary
furniture - shrine, coffin, bed, vessels, clothing, arms or jewels
- gave rise to descriptions of the methods of manufacture of these
objects; thus, we can see, plying their trades, carpenters,
foundry- men, armourers, weavers and jewellers. Even the purchase
of provisions in the market and the drawing up of household
accounts are used as decorative subjects. The soul and the body of
the deceased relived perpetually the sculpted scenes: the act
depicted became a reality, each picture of a being or an object
recaptured, for a moment, its ka and came to life according to the
wish of the god who lived in the tomb . . .'
This idea, which appealed to Haggard's strong
historical and spiritual imagination, is presented diagrammatically
in Fig 1 as a sphere of 'worldly abundance' linked to a sphere of
'celestial abundance' via a sphere of 'offerings' organised by
palace and temple.
Fig 1 An world model of Ancient Egypt
A dynamic systems view of this model ( Fig 2)
defines the flow of offerings as a channel of mediation between
people and gods to realise mankind's divine potential. The system
represents a constant processing of natural resources through
society to ensure life after death in an eternal agrarian
paradise. This organic flow also guaranteed divine feedback
to maintain an abundant natural economy in mankind's transient
earthly life through the unfailing daily circuit of the
sun.
Fig 2 Human and divine flows of natural
resources and spiritual 'energy' through Egyptian
society
The artifacts, which
for the most part come from temples or tombs, cannot be considered
in isolation from this model. However, at the level of the
daily lives of farmers, craftsmen and traders they may be simply
taken as illustrations of the systems and processes by which
biological resources enter a local natural economy. In this way
Haggard was able to draw his Egyptian experiences into both his
novels and his life as a Ditchingham farmer.
