CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS

RELEVANT TO THE CHARGE OF THE GODDESS FRAGMENT

150-250 (BC) Latin Theater arises from Etruscan rituals and ceremonies (Brocket, 1982, p. 57).

364 BC first theater performance in Rome when musical and dance performers brought from Eturia (Brocket, 1982, p. 57).

100 (AD) earliest know term of “the Old Religion” appearing in Roman Senate record of Claudius I and Seneca speaking of the Etruscan religion (Grimassi, 1999, p. 35.)

1280 Diocesan Council of Conserans assoicates the “Witch Cult with the worship of a pagan goddess” (Grimassi, 1995/2000, p. 15)

1310 “Coucil of Trier associates Witches with the Goddess Diana" (Grimassi, 1995/2000, p. 15)

1313 legendary date of the birth of Aradia who supposedly travelled about Italy teaching witchcraft (Grimassi, 1999, p. 223)

1358 theorized date by Italian Inquisitor Bernardo Rategno of the revival of a witch sect (Grimassi, p. 223)

1390 “A woman tried by the Milanese Inquisition for belonging to the ‘Society of Diana’ confessed to worshipping the ‘Goddess of Night’ and stated ‘Diana’ bestowed blessing upon her.” (Grimassi, 1995/2000, p. 15)

1508 Tractatus de Strigibus by Italian Inquisitor Bernardo Rategno documents “a ‘rapid expansion’ of the ‘witches sect’ had begun 150 years before his time.” (Grimassi, p. 223; Note that Grimassi does not properly cite source.)

1520 comedia a la vilaneshca (indicative of a body of popular villanelle existed) (MacFarland, p. 2)

1526 “Judge Paulus Grillandus worte of Withces in the town of Benevento who worshipped a goddess at the site of an old walnut tree.” (Grimassi, 1995/2000, p. 15)

1534-1602 Life of Jean Passerat who established the rhyme scheme ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA for a type of villanelle (Dobbins, p 773).

1537 publication of Canzone Villaneshce Napolitana (McFarland, p. 2)

Catherine de Medici goes to Paris to marry Henri II, King of France. She brings with her Italian dances and poetry (Horst, 1940, p. 43; )

1543 Witchcraft first appears in Scottish criminal code (Fraser, p. 149)

1544 Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots goes to Paris to the Court of Henri II and Catherine de Medici; educated there and associating with the Pleiade poets most of whom were writing villanelles in French (McFarland, p. 28).

1550 commedia dell’arte (an Italian theater form) arises from Latin theater and/or from vestigal elements of ritual, ceremonial, and carnival entertainements (Chujoy & Manchester, 1967, p. 947).

1550 (circa) "villanella seem to have been prominent in staged commedia dell’arte entertainments” (Arnold, pps. 770-773).

1557 “Songs & Sonnets” published, containing poetry by Thomas Wyatt who had brought back poetry forms from Italy (Adams, 1987, p. 138): the terza rima, otta va irma, and the sonnet (Schmidt, 1999, p. 123). “Songs & Sonnets” also contained poems by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey who created the Shakespearian sonnet (Adams, 1987, p. 138).

1558 publication in Divers Jeux Rutiques best known villanelle of Cardinal Jean du Bellay: “En ce moys deliciieux” (McFarland, p. 29).

1560 Mary Queen of Scots returns to Scotland bringing with her dances and poetry she had learned/acquired at the French court. Her library of 300 books is the largest in Scotland.

1563 Mary Queen of Scots passes a law against witchcraft (Gunn, 1996/99).

1588 Orchesographie written “the finest history of the dances of his [Jehan Tabourot's] time” (Horst, 1940, p. 5)

1590-97 in Scotland a period of intense prosecution and punishment for withcraft Gunn, 1996/99).

1598-9 William Shaw, the royal Master of Works, warden of all Scottish masons, establishes district lodges which are the origins of Freemasons (Hutton, 1999, p.53).

1665 Reginald Scot's Discovery of Witches published in which Celtic Bards are referred to as Witches (Robbinson, p. 134)

1680 permanent Freemason lodges on the Scottish model established in England (Hutton, p. 54).

1696 “the first information survives of the content of the ritual, [Masonic] and there is no way of telling whether this had developed over the century or had been established from the time of Shaw or before” (Hutton, p. 53).

1722 Memoirs of the Marquis of Clanicarde published containing a detailed description of the Bardic Schools (Bergin, p. 28) which were still extant, though dying out, in Scotlan (Corkery, p. 29).

1887 W. B. Yeats joined the London Lodge of the Theosophists (Jeffares, 1984, p. xvi).

1887 first villanelle written in English by Edmund Gosse (McFarland, 1987, p. 62).

1888 The Order of the Golden Dawn created by Freemasons William Robert Woodman, William Wynn Westcott, Alphonsus F. A. Woodward, and Samuel Liddell Mathers. All but Woodward were memembers of the Societas Rosicruciana (Hutton, p. 74-5).

1888 publication of W. E. Henley the villanelle “A dainty thing’s a villanelle” (email from McFarland) in Passerat’s rhyme scheme.

1888 W. B. Yeats joined the esoteric section of Theosophists (Jeffares, 1984, p. xvi).

1890 W. B. Yeats initiated into the Golden Dawn (Jeffares, 1984, p. xvii)

circa 1897-98 Aleister Crowley seeks entry into the Golden Dawn in London (Hutchinson, 1998, pp. 68-70.)

1898 Aleister Crowley initiated by Mathers in Paris p. 69)

1899 Aradia by Charles Leland is published (Hutton, 1999, p. 143).

1900 Aleister Crowley returns to London and invades Golden Dawn rooms, altering documents pp.69-73)

1909 Crowely publishes secrets of the Golden Dawn p.119)

1910 Mathers sues Crowely for publishing Golden Dawn secrets. p.119)

1938 The Book of the Law by Crowely without his commentaries first published by OTO (Wilkinson & Beta, p.10); hitherto it had only been circulated among the OTO (Wilkinson & Beta, p. 10) with a private printing in 1926 (Wilkinson and Beta, p. 287).

1939 Yeats dies January 28 (Jeffares, p. xx)

2000 Cynthia Joyce Clay receives a version of the Charge to memorized. She finds it quite poetical and sets it out in lines discovering it is a fragmented villanelle.


to References

to the history article

to the analysis of the fragment as Yeats’s

to “The Villanelle Charge”


copyright 2000 Cynthia Joyce Clay all rights reserved