Details
For any student of the life and writings of Q, the novel The Splendid Spur and the character of Jack Marvel are of particular interest. The novel opens in Oxford on November 29, 1642, when Jack Marvel, a Yorkshireman, is a student at the university, although possibly more interested in fencing and halbadeering than in serious study.
Q became a student at Oxford in 1882. It was love at first sight, the magic remaining with him until his dying day. After lodging for the first year, he moved into the former rooms of John Henry Newman at Trinity College and continued there for the rest of his studentship. The Oxford chapters of Brittain’s biography (1947) and Q’s Memories and Opinions (1944) provide a snap-shot of the young man at the time. The similarity between Q and Jack Marvel, and to a lesser extent Anthony Kiligrew, is unmistakable. Both Q and Marvel show a capacity for friendship, intense loyalty, a somewhat quick temper, especially where there is perceived injustice (as with Henry Books in Poison Island), and a tendency to extra-curricular activities. In Memories and Opinions Q calls himself light-hearted, but devil-may-care may be more appropriate, a tendency he passed on to Bevill in full measure. It is also passed on to Jack Marvel and Anthony Killigrew. In Killigrew’s case it cost him his life, in the case of Marvel it almost did time and again.
With Anthony Killigrew, Q shared a tendency to flamboyance of dress. Killigrew sported an amber satin cloak with black bards. Q was inclined to “loud check suits”, as Brittain informs us. In neither case could these have been sensibly afforded.
It would be easy to dismiss Marvel, Killigrew and young Q as shallow and showy Oxford students. Yet this would be unfair. Marvel and Killigrew were fully aware of the war raging around them, with Killigrew in the King’s confidence and Marvel in the ranks of the volunteers - as was Jonathan Couch during the Napoleonic War, as Q describes in the short story “The Looe Die-hards”. Q was ever conscious of the poor and dispossessed, a concern which soon led him into writing for the left-wing liberal paper the Speaker.
Although Jack Marvel is based on the writer, there is also an aura of romanticism surrounding him, maybe a reflection of the aura which Q ever felt surrounded Oxford. Many must have felt such an aura when gathering to the flag of the King at the beginning of the civil war, but it quickly dissipated when faced with the incompetence, corruption and brutality of the contest. The ‘Scholar Troop’ at Oxford to which Marvel belonged was in reality a show troop of no military value. Yet Q manages to maintain the romanticism throughout the novel. Nowhere does Marvel question his commitment.
The plot of The Splendid Spur revolves around Jack Marvel from the opening to the closing pages. Following the murder of Anthony Killigrew in The Crown at Oxford by Luke Settle, alias Lucius Higgs, and paid for by Hannibal Tingcomb, steward of Gleys in Cornwall, Marvel carries the King’s letter westwards. By chance he meets Anthony’s father and sister at the Three Cups inn, only to see Sir Deakin mortally wounded by Settle. Escaping with Delia Kelligrew he continues west until captured by the Parliamentarians and imprisoned in Bristol. From there he escapes with Delia on the Godsend, a Royalist craft captained by Billy Pottery. Landing at Bude Bay, Marvel and Delia ride to Launceston to join the King’s forces, unaware of their retreat to Bodmin. Delia is taken by Luke Settle who decides to transport her to America.
A wounded Jack Marvel escapes from Launceston and is taken in by Joan of the Tor at Temple on Bodmin moor. Joan ensures the delivery of the King’s letter to Sir Ralph Hopton and witnesses the battle of Braddock Down before returning to nurse Marvel. Following recovery, Marvel and Joan ride to Gleys, where they are deceived by Tingcomb. Marvel’s impulsiveness and naivety are no match for Tingcomb’s cunning.
Subsequently, Marvel takes part in the battle of Stratton Down, near Bude, rescues Delia and returns west with her. On Bodmin Moor they meet a body of Parliamentarians retreating from Bodmin. Joan gives her life to save theirs. They finally travel to Gleys, of which Delia is the rightful owner, only to see Tingcomb die and the house irrupt in flames. The novel concludes with Marvel returning north to rejoin the Royalist forces and Delia sailing back to Brittany, Sir Deakin’s former residence, on board the Godsend.
As The Splendid Spur is an adventure novel with a romantic sub-plot, it is dominated by action and event. Jack Marvel is a man of action, sometimes impulsive and unwise, but always principled. Only in his dealings with Joan of Tor is his conduct open to moral criticism.
Jack Marvel has relationships with two women, Delia Killigrew and Joan of the Tor. Delia is a convent educated Catholic of the landed class. She and Marvel have much in common, although her foreignness gives her a slight air of mystery. Yet she is generally passive, acting as a foil to Marvel’s activism. Marvel leads and she follows. This stifles a clear sense of personality, the more so as the novel progresses. The ending leaves the reader with the intimation of a future relationship, if Marvel survives the war.
With Joan the position is different. She is ignorant and unsophisticated, but independent minded and enamoured of Marvel. She takes the lead, especially when Marvel is wounded or in trouble. She is not as well drawn as Delia, as Q probably knew few working class girls. To Joan Marvel owes his life twice over, and twice she fails to win him from Delia. Marvel is, wittingly or unwittingly, the cause of her death, especially tragic as she has no interest in the war. Yet her death affects Marvel only in passing. In fact, Marvel is too involved in a man’s world to be greatly affected by Joan or Delia.
As Q was not writing a novel of character and reflection but of adventure and action, the reader cannot ask too much of Jack Marvel. He plays the part Q intended, holding the plot together and living at a pace to satisfy the imagination.