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Product Description
The translation to English of Brian Merriman's Cúirt an Mheán Oíche ( The midnight Court) published by Mercier Press Cork, 1981.
Condition - the only flaw is some specks ( as if from liquid splatter) on the front lower edges of the cover, ( see photo) otherwise internally unmarked, all illustrations by Verling are present , binding tight, clean throughout.
Bawdy illustrations throughout by Verling, who appeared particularly fond of drawing hair, and textile surfaces - the artwork is striking .
The opening lines conjure up a scene of drowsy peace on the shore of Lough Graney in east Clare, onto which bursts a horrifying, colossal woman-bailiff who sweeps Merriman off to a ‘midnight court’ in nearby Feakle, presided over by Aoibheall, the fairy queen of Thomond. Merriman listens as a young woman complains to the court of her difficulties in finding a desirable husband; an enraged old cuckold accuses her and all women of venality towards men and argues for the abolition of marriage, to which she responds with an eloquent statement of the wrongs done to human sexuality, women’s in particular, by late marriages and the enforced celibacy of Catholic priests. Merriman is then arraigned as an exemplar of all the able-bodied Irish males whose reluctance to mate has caused pandemic sexual frustration among women. Aoibheall pronounces him guilty, but just as he is about to be flayed alive he awakes out of what transpires to have been only a dream.
