May Day Boxing Match

Adding Chapters to the Book of Hawkes

On May 1, 1884 and May 2, 1884 (vol. 8) of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion by Beth Brower, so much happens we cannot possibly analyze all of it in one post! The events of this day are so detailed and varied it took Emma two days, and 35 pages to write it all down! In fact, this is Emma’s longest journal entry in all volumes to date BY FAR. (Now, we don’t mean to scare you with too many numbers on this literary blog, but one of us is a data person so… yes, there was a spreadsheet involved. If you want to give a trivia stumper at your next book event the next longest journals are: 1-24-84 (24 pgs), 6-8-84 (23 pgs), 8-31-83 (23 pgs), 3-7-84 (21 pgs)). That being said, we hope you can understand that for this post we will only attempt to give you some of our insights on the events surrounding the boxing match. Hopefully one day we can break down all the other interesting people, conversations and activities. Fair warning: we might start waxing philosophical and projecting wildly, but this is the nature of the RHSS. As always, just take it with a grain of salt and an open mind.

Image: “Bulls Fighting” but George Stubbs, 1724-1806, beeswax and oil on panel, Yale Center for British Art

As the boxing match begins, the four core alchemy friends assume their usual roles. Emma, at a place not many women have ventured to be, is asking questions about “poor sportsmanship.” Pierce is patient and honest with Emma about her questions while covertly enjoying the press of their arms together. Islington is also fine answering Emma’s questioning and calling out the strongman’s “bad form,” while also putting on his judgmental-protector hat: “a bit bloody for a young woman,” but he’s not bodily removing her, so he is growing! Hawkes is right in front of Emma and in clearly restrained distress (book closed – shoulders tight).

Hawkes is hearing all of the comments from his friends and fellow St. Crispians around him, but is making no action to move. Finally, the one person who seems to be able to get through to him was The Boy by saying, “It’s the right thing and you know it.” The first time through, we as readers are just as confused as Emma! What is going on? How can Hawkes do something? What’s right? The reaction of Hawkes to The Boy seems to imply that The Boy might have a closer connection to Hawkes than the other Reprobates. His comment is not detailed, but shows he knows Hawkes’ internal turmoil and is speaking an answer directly to that unspoken conflict. We think The Boy does seem to be a little different than the other Reprobates in other interactions, too (think Twelfth Night - he is the only one to sit, talk, and be serious with Emma). We learned a little more about The Boy recently on Beth’s paid substack (link here ) which we highly encourage everyone to subscribe to! There is a lot of depth in this character that we are just getting to glimpse. Hawkes knows him though, and he apparently listens to and trusts him, because The Boy’s comment is the tipping point for him to stand and intervene in the ring.

Hawkes stands and faces Emma, but without making eye contact. He begins to remove and fold his restrictive outer garments and rolls up his sleeves, but keeps his suspenders¹ in place. We noted the colors of the suspenders: “one vertical stripe of pale green beside a vertical stripe of pale blue.”² Emma mentions that watching him do this “should have felt intimate.” Honest question: would watching any man in this time period take off his coat and vest be so very scandalous? Or was it because it was Hawkes specifically? Perhaps Emma has imagined that moment a bit differently, like in a more private setting?³ Emma only feels the moment of intimacy is “disrupted” by the sense that he was drawing himself to a “steeled center.” So instead of feeling intimate towards Emma, Emma has a sensation that he was pulling away into his center, which disrupts her feeling of intimacy. However, he soon returns to look at and interact with Emma and Emma alone. He still ignores everyone else, lifts his book, and makes immediate eye contact with her. Ok -pause- this “center” Emma believes she perceives is either a) not that “steeled.” Especially, if he can step out of it in one moment and have this interaction with Emma…or b) our favorite theory… Emma already has an express ticket to his heart. She can step right through the blockades he has put up for everyone else. This is worth pointing out because in this volume Emma is very interested in her own heart too. She describes her own heart as unknown, strange, and battered, and for this reason, she is consciously keeping it away and protecting it from Pierce. It seems to us that in this moment, Hawkes has already decided to keep Emma in his! Emma even comments that, “The distance he’d set between us all was still in play, but his gaze was immediate.” This certainly seems to support our idea that he “steeled himself” away, but his “immediate gaze” (i.e., directly looking at Emma,) showed she alone belonged there.

The book he is so tightly gripping is Newtons Principia, in Latin. Emma notices that a great tension in his face relaxes when he hands it to Emma because we think that he sees the tenderness and reverence with which she handles it. Most readers might have read this and thought, oh it’s just a math/science book and moved on. But you, dear lionhearts, you are hanging with the RHSS, and we will dive deeper to see if we can find some other importance of this book to this character especially in this moment. Yes, Principia is about Math and Science, but also engineering, physics, and astronomy. That could be important here because Hawkes is an about to attempt to leverage his weight/size against an opponent vastly larger than himself. Perhaps he’s using his knowledge of angles, inertia, force, mass and energy to swiftly calculate position, speed and reaction time. Physics and his (probable) medical training would mentally and physically prepare him to find all his own advantages and see the opponent’s weaknesses possible in the fight. But, what if those principles also have a philosophical meaning for Hawkes’ life right now not just a physical meaning? Here’s a quick high-level summary of this text, can you find any ways these concepts could applied on an emotional level as well?

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is a 1687 book by Isaac Newton that lays out his laws of motion and the law of universal gravitation. Written in Latin, it is considered one of the most important works in the history of science, establishing the foundation for classical mechanics and demonstrating the “Unified Theory” that the same physical laws of gravity and motion govern both celestial and terrestrial objects, unifying the physical world under a single mathematical framework. The three-volume work uses mathematical principles to explain the movement of bodies and the forces that act upon them

RHSS interpretation: We return to the idea of Hawkes “centering himself” and then directly looking at Emma. If Hawkes finds Emma at his center, could he also be philosophically associating her to gravity itself or with all the forces of nature that bind us including the God of the Universe and the very stars? “ASTRA INCLINANT, SED NON OBLIGANT (the stars incline us they do not bind us).” Could he be trying to understand how his whole world seems to be realigning with Emma pulling at the center? “She blew into St. Crispian’s like a four-leaf clover and I’ve trusted in that.” Are we as humans strictly bound by these laws and living pre-determined lives as if stuck in our fates? Or are there elements that can be conquered, chosen, and overcome to make (or at least to understand) our own futures, but all still be within the design of God’s unified plans for us as individuals and humanity as a whole? This balance between fate and free-will we believe will be a central theme in the series specifically played out through Hawkes’ storyline (ex. Oberon’s curse, running from his “true profession”, the fate of St. Sebastian, Declan’s letter to Hawkes (on Beth’s paid Substack-link here), the stars do not bind, etc.)

Now back to the main show: Hawkes heads to the ring. Even though doubts swirl around the onlookers’ comments and Emma’s thoughts, she still becomes extremely defensive and protective of Hawkes. At the same time her narrative slows and she becomes hyper-aware of the physicality of Hawkes: his mood, his looks, his eyes. Pierce, Islington, and Emma are all powerless to protect him from whatever is about to happen. The juxtaposition of the calmness and cheer from the Reprobates and the anxiety from the Alchemy (or at least Pierce and Emma - Islington seems to be calmer like the Reprobates,) is what makes the writing on this day feel so brilliant and palpable. And for the first time Emma notices that Hawkes also looks “comfortable” in the ring.

Image: “Key to the picture of the fancy going to a fight at Mousley-Hurst,” Published by R. Jones, sold by all booksellers and print sellers in the United Kingdom, 1819, Yale Center for British Art

Hawkes does not hear, but Emma whispers her three-part “blessing” upon Hawkes: Shakespeare, good luck and then a prayer to God. “The raging rocks and shivering shocks shall break the locks of prison gates”. This is a quote from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Act 1 scene 2). In this scene, Bottom is suggesting this line as potential dialogue for Pyramus in the play they are practicing. It means a powerful destructive force can overcome any emotion/obstacle for love. The speech is meant to be conveyed with the passion of a lover who would lay down his life for his love. Emma believes the “love” Hawkes is currently fighting for is St. Crispians and its residents. That is likely part of the reason, but we think there is another fight going on too. It is the one he is waging privately against his understandings of God’s plans, his place in the universe, and his gravitational feelings for Emma.

When Hawkes steps into the ring and begins to fight we see the full “Oberon” persona come out. Emma says, “Our vicar cocked his head in a confident manner wholly foreign to any previous Knowledge of Hawkes.” We think this is the version of Hawkes The Boy told Emma she had not met yet. The confident man in the Oberon mask. Other descriptive words during the fight include: relaxed, grace, liquid, spectre, taut, lean, disciplined, power, precise, dangerous, almost frightening. Then… Hawkes stumbles and his knees give out. “Hawkes yelled out, as if demanding his knees get him back on his feet.” All of these descriptions, Hawkes’s ferocity, and the accompanying scream have also never been seen in Emma’s book of “previous Knowledge of Hawkes.” We point out here though, that it does sound like a certain masked man who would surprisingly slam his glass on the floor after draining it (Oberon). Hawkes deals the knockout blow and the fight ends. Hawkes’s internal pain is evident to Emma by his expression and how he immediately helps the brute by sliding off his suspenders from his shoulders and completely removing his shirt (thank you Beth Brower for this!!).

A small aside: amid all the excitement of the fight Emma realizes she is gripping Pierces arm. During the earlier fights Emma was finding her proximity to Pierce flirtatious and romantic, but now she has literal hands on him and has forgotten all about their “courtship” or placed any value on the fact she is clutching him. Her attention has all been drawn to Hawkes. That might not be a good sign for relationship potential for Pierce, but definitely a good sign for Hawkes.

Pierce’s reaction is fully valid, “Who the hell is Hawkes?” Great question. One that all of us readers are still pondering, and it supports the idea from The Boy that Emma did not know who Oberon was at the Twevlth Night Ball. Why would Hawkes NEED to learn to fight like this? That was not just a prim and proper sport. It seemed more like guerrilla survival-style fighting. Most gentlemen would not learn or practice hand-to-hand fighting at all, let alone be as adept as Hawkes. It would explain a few unexplained bruises noticed on Sunday mornings though. It is especially contrary knowledge for someone serving as a highly educated vicar, with no (known) military experience. Maybe we should all take this as a hint to the very real danger Hawkes has warned is present in his life.

After the fight: One more nod to Beth for leaving Hawkes shirtless for this next confrontation. It makes him more vulnerable, bare, and open during the Emma intervention, or “Emmavention” that’s about to happen.

Even though the crowd basically deems him the “Hero of St. Cristian’s,” everyone immediately clears out and moves on to their next entertainments, not bothering to check on him or even congratulate him. Among all the witnesses of his triumph and pain, who is left waiting for him? It is not the parishioners and residents who bet on him and whose honor was defended. It is not the Reprobates that pleaded with him to enter the ring. It is not The Boy who seemed to know the significance of his public exhibition. It is not even his friends Islington and Pierce who may have already bonded with him on a more personal level. No one stays or dares to wait to talk with him after…except, Emma. We think this would be significantly meaningful to Hawkes. At the end of the day, he may be required to give all he has body and soul to serving others. He may be pained, emptied, and drained for everyone else’s sake, and no one seems to be there to give anything back to him. But what a comfort to know that Emma is someone who will stay, wait, and be there after he’s struggled and worked. She will not be too shocked or judgmental to stand by him even when the smoke from the battle clears. Everyone else seems to use him like a tool, wield him like a weapon, and ask for healing, favors, prayers, and help for themselves, but Emma sees the man and the whole person still standing. That is why she stays and waits. She is seeing him in a way no one else seems to. This is a type of love, care, and devotion that transcends friendship. This is the type of love we would go to war to protect!

Emma first checks on his physical health with, “have all your teeth?” Then she notices he was “decidedly down.” His ocean blue eyes unflinchingly meet Emma’s green eyes (the blue-green stripe suspenders description is closely repeated in this description). Their subsequent discussion of “first do no harm” is just another example of how Emma can get straight to his center to help settle and unwind his thoughts even if he only reveals a few words (in Latin, no less). She knew he was trying to disappear and put his distance back in place. Everyone else in St. Crispians has done so, but Emma claims another path. Emma proves she could take care of his Principia during the fight. Then by taking it “hostage” afterwards, she is also trying to prove that she can walk beside him and keep him from going to the abyss and into the dark “corridors of his own mind.” (Ironically, this is similar to what Pierce did for Emma after Maxwells funeral, and what Hawkes did for Pierce after Nettle. In that instance though it seemed Emma could not be this same anchor for Pierce; telling? Yes?). She shows Hawkes her internal strength; her ability to stand toe-to-toe mentally with the man who just took down a literal Goliath. Most interestingly, it wasn’t with her great knowledge of Latin, physical strength, interpretation of poetry, or fancy education that impresses him, it is her ability to see what he needs and find a way to break down his barriers to reach him! This “startles” Hawkes. He knows she is claiming a role that no one else in his life has dared.

To this completely foreign situation to Hawkes, he is left with three choices: fight, flight or freeze:

1) Fight: to resist; insist on his own way. He tries first (wordlessly) gesturing for the book and frowning at Emma’s insistence. Emma then clutches Principia to her chest. “Terribly romantic, if one adores physicists.”⁴ Could Hawkes, who does highly value his Newton, also see this tug-of-war as a symbolically romantic gesture? It is up to many interpretations because again, this moment may mean something completely different from Hawkes’s perspective than it does from Emma’s.

2) Flight: to run/avoid the confrontation and still get his own way. He tries this second. Emma sees this desire to bolt already. “We both know you can keep your adoring parishioners at bay by simply hunching your shoulders and putting your nose into the Principia.” Somehow she intuits that he needs forgiveness of self more than anything, and disappearing into solitude will not resolve it. He can put up his walls for everyone else, while simultaneously allowing his friends to hold him up. That is the medicine she is prescribing for his soul. Also, this comment about his hunching and hiding in a book, shows a changing awareness in Emma regarding Hawkes. She is beginning to reconcile her poetry reading, mysterious, disappearing vicar with the man that just stepped out of the boxing ring. When he immediately tries to put his jacket on and retreat she notes that he turns “up the collar, as if to hide his strength.” Now she has gotten a clear view behind the façade, (and so do WE!) and found he is made of something stronger. She realizes the hunched version of himself that he has been presenting to most of his acquaintances may not be a natural posture, but a mask. A purposeful and artificial persona contrived for what purpose? Maintaining distance? Anonymity? Deference for his position in the church? To disarm others or make himself less intimidating? Is this misconstrued perception of him just another example of the “unreliable narrator” that Beth has warned us about? Emma’s impressions and interpretations are sometimes flawed or filtered through a biased viewpoint. Emma may even be purposefully in denial or deceiving herself in order to suppress any feelings of attraction that she is not ready to acknowledge or feel are “appropriate to the circumstances.”⁵

3) Freeze: to stay and accept an honorable defeat, and cede to Emma’s directives. This is his final response. “Pati necesse est multa mortalibus mala.” Translated: “mortals must bear many ills.” Hawkes is demonstrating his submission to the “benevolent dictatorship.” Perhaps in his mind this is the first small step toward something Declan has been telling him since he was just a lad (in the Substack letter from Declan to Hawkes): that his burdens are great but they mustn’t separate him from others, and he need not believe he must bear all his burden alone. Unknowingly Emma parrots Declan: “I remain unmoved. You must let—on this rare occasion—someone intervene on your behalf. Emma M. Lion, patron saint of Scrappy Vicars everywhere.”

We don’t know about all of the other readers out there, but doesn’t this encounter sound like a man trying to run from or break a “CURSE”? A woman “STRONG ENOUGH” to do break it? Someone Oberon is willing to take his “FIGHTING CHANCE” on?

That’s EXACTLY what it sounds like to US.

Image: “Hercules Fighting the Hydra,” Print made by Francesco Curti, 1610-1690, line engraving on textured paper

1. We noted that “suspenders” are written in the books, but called “braces” on the audio version. After a bit of research we discovered that apparently “suspenders” is NOT how British people refer to that item of clothing. Perhaps Genevieve Gaunt or the production team changed it while working on the audio? We acknowledge the word differences between the versions but will continue to use suspenders in our essay as we are from the United States and also for ease of reading.

2. We believe the colors of the suspenders are significant and symbolic. These colors represent Emma and Hawkes together. The suspenders stay on for the fight. They pass over the heart. They hold all the other clothing together. They are strong yet flexible. They are slid off the shoulders after the fight when Hawkes removes his shirt but are never removed completely as they seem to be important to Hawkes.

3. Hey, we didn’t write it we are just pointing it out…the “intimate” word selection here is suggestive and we are but humble observers of word choice! We also note that Emma has seen Hawkes take off other clothes before - as he prepared to get into the fountain on Valentine’s Day. And that was NOT described as “intimate” by Emma, so something is different here…

4. The RHSS see this pulling to the chest as symbolic. Emma later says that she took his book, “or rather him,” hostage. So, the book can arguable be seen as symbolic of Hawkes himself. Holding it to her chest therefore takes on new meaning, almost as if Hawkes himself is being held to her chest in a close embrace.

5. It wouldn’t be the first time we have seen this lack of honest awareness in Emma’s journals. All of Volume 5 is essentially a front row seat into her own denial of, ignorance to, and distraction from grief over the loss of Maxwell. Similarly, she never fully acknowledged the strength of her feeling for Pierce until he made the first “moves.”