Characters

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.

For reasons unknown, Sir Deakin Killigrew failed to attend his father’s funeral, although travel boat from St. Pol, the port of Morlaix, to Fowey, the port nearest Gleys, would have taken but a few hours. He leaves the trip until November, preferring a longer sea-route to (probably) London, and then an even longer land route to Cornwall through war-torn southern England.

Sir Deakin Killigrew is the only son of Killigrew of Gleys. At the time he appears in the novel he is said to be about fifty, suggesting a birth date of c.1592. Sir Bevil Grenville claimed to have known him  – possibly at Oxford. Grenville was born in 1595 and took his degree at Exeter College, Oxford in 1613. As Sir Deakin seems to be without political, religious or military affiliations, it is difficult to see what he was knighted for. From the time of his marriage he appears to have lived in Brittany, with both his children growing up there. The family would have spoken French, English and Cornu-Breton.

Sir Deakin Killigrew is formally presented to the reader in Chapter V. Sir Deakin and Delia Killigrew, along with their servant Jacques, are lodged in the upper room of the Three Cups inn, with Luke Settle and his gang plotting their murder from the room below. Sir Deakin is a wealthy, deformed and tubercular man. As Jack Marvel enters the upper room he is preparing a ‘liqueur’ in a silver saucepan, but the entry distracts him and in a rage he sweeps all the equipment from the table, beats Jacques with his fists and falls coughing to the ground. Delia looks on unconcerned. It is the most bizarre scene in the novel and very difficult to interpret.

Sir Deakin is also clever, cunning and courageous, as his escape from Settle and his murderous associates demonstrates. Death holds no fear for him as his body has never allowed him to live and he is far from sorry to flee its deformity.

Anthony Killigrew appears as a character in Chapters II and III of the novel, with a brief mention in Chapter VII. Unlike his father and grandfather, he is an Anglican and a Royalist. An accounts list on page 16 shows him to be a spendthrift and a gambler, with £17 having been lost at dice. Unsurprisingly, he is a member of His Majesty’s troop of guards, commanded by Lord Bernard Stewart – historically a ‘show troop’ of little military value. Although he is entrusted with the King’s letter to Hopton, he insists on returning to the ‘Crown’ to redeem his losses. What he then loses is his life.

He appears to have arrived in England in 1640, presumably for the purpose of attending Oxford, making him about nineteen in 1642. His emotions are always close to the surface, which makes him similar to Jack Marvel and quite possibly Q. There is no harm in Anthony Killigrew and it is a pity he did not live in a better age.

When first presented in Chapters IV and Chapter V, Q emphasises her foreignness. She sings French airs to a stringed instrument, sports chestnut curls and has a golden box of sweet-smelling herbs or spices hanging on a chain from her neck. Marvel is quickly and superficially seduced by her unique charms. He eventually declares his love some months later in the hold of the Godsend, when they are escaping by boat from Bristol. She greets it with a laugh.

Unfortunately, the character develops  little after the dramatic opening in the Three Cups. With her capture by the Parliamentarians at Launceston on the 18 January (Chapter X), she disappears from the text and apparently from Jack Marvel’s mind. It is not until later, when Marvel is conversing with Hannibal Tingcomb at Gleys on the 15 May, that her name reappears, and not until Chapter XVII, that she reappears in person. At the close of the novel she returns to Morlaix and it is clear that she will marry none but Jack Marvel – who rides away to rejoin the regiment of Sir Bevil Grenville.

Joan of the Tor is the most tragic character in the novel. In Chapter X, Delia Killigrew disappears from the text and is replaced in Chapter XI by Joan. She lives on a farm, presumably Temple Tor Farm, at Temple, a hamlet off the Launceston – Bodmin road on Bodmin Moor. She is first seen by Marvel, who had turned off the main road onto a side road, ploughing a moor field above him. This area of granite tors and marshy bottoms is drained by the Warleggan River, a tributary of the Fowey.

Joan speaks Cornish and English. The first words heard by Marvel are addressed to a team of oxen – ‘Comely Vean’. ‘Vean’ is the Late Cornish form of ‘byghan’ or little. A knowledge of Celtic is the one thing she has in common with Delia Killigrew, apart from her feelings for Jack Marvel. While Delia is rather a passive figure, reacting to what occurs around her, Joan is utterly self-reliant and self-directed. She is unafraid to confront the troopers who come in search of Marvel and can fight Cornish style as good as any man.

She has no religious or political views. The Reformation and the refusal of Cornish language by the Anglican Church had left her forbears without religion – a situation that will remain unchanged until the coming of John Wesley a hundred years in the future. When the wounded Marvel appears at her door, and appeals to her as a servant of the Church and Crown, she dismisses it with disdain. She protects him as she would a wounded animal.

It is Joan who rides to Boconnoc House to warn Hopton of the approaching Parliamentarians and to deliver the King’s letter, but not out of any commitment to a cause. Then for three months she nurses Marvel back to health, falling in love with him in the process. Yet she is too unsophisticated for Marvel, a child purely of nature, and when she realises that she can never compete with the sophisticated Delia Killigrew, she takes a bullet intended for Marvel and dies in his arms.

For all her unsophistication, Joan is the noblest and most selfless character in the novel, and even death holds no fear for her. As with many at that time, she is caught up in events she neither understands nor sympathises with. She pays for the folly and antagonisms of others with her life. The theme of wounded and tragic innocence is one that runs through Q’s novels, usually in relation to women or children.

Luke Settle is one of the villains of the novel, appearing to be without a single redeeming feature. He is a soldier of fortune, who has fought in the Low Countries, and will change sides to suit his purposes. Settle has no fear of death provided it is someone else’s.

He first appears in Chapter I, where Hannibal Tingcomb engages him to assassinate the Killigrews, starting with Anthony in the Crown tavern and then travelling south to intercept Sir Deakin and Delia Killigrew at the Three Cups inn. The first is achieved with a dart of his sword.

To effect the interception he deserts the Royalist cause and temporarily turns highwayman, but then he moves on to the Three Cups, where the landlord is an associate. The assassination attempt fails owing to the cunning of Sir Deakin, but a message of success is sent to Hannibal Tingcomb.

In order to intercept the Killigrews further west (he cannot have known of the demise of Sir Deakin), he joins the Parliamentarians and gets himself posted to an inn on the Launceston – Bodmin road. Delia is duly captured and word is sent to Tingcomb. By his command Delia is conveyed back to Bristol to await the outcome of Stamford’s campaign. If successful Delia is to be imprisoned at Gleys; if unsuccessful she is to be transported to Virginia.

Settle travels to the coast after the Battle of Stratton. He murders an old woman so as to secure her two horses for his escape. When signalling to the sloop carrying Delia he is discovered by Jack Marvel and taken prisoner, having first directed Delia ashore to save his own life.