The Scull and the Spider single work   poetry   "Aye weave thy web, thou venomed one,"
Alternative title: To a Spider : Which Had Made Its Web in the Scull of a Woman Placed in My Dressing Room
Issue Details: First known date: 1836... 1836 The Scull and the Spider
The material on this page is available to AustLit subscribers. If you are a subscriber or are from a subscribing organisation, please log in to gain full access. To explore options for subscribing to this unique teaching, research, and publishing resource for Australian culture and storytelling, please contact us or find out more.

AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Spider weaves web in skull of native woman famous for her spider-like qualities' (Webby).

Notes

  • Editor's note: By the late Henry Vaux, Esq. D.A.C.G., who was unfortunately drowned at Norfolk Island
  • Editor of the Sydney Times, Nataniel Lipscom Kentish writes: 'Note accompanying the above lines from a friend of the deceased, by whom we have been favored [sic] with the same: The circumstances which occasioned the above, was a spider having woven its web within the scull [sic] of a black native female of King George's Sound, who was in her lifetime notorious for treachery, lechery, and cruelty. She was also said to have possessed great personal charms. This scull the writer used to keep on a shelf in his bed-room, and on perceiving the fact stated above, wrote these beautiful lines. They are truly Byronic; only (as a friend who I consider a very competent judge in such matters, justly remarked) had they proceeded from Lord Byron, the ideas would have been expressed with more clearness - the result of his being so much more in the habit of clothing his thoughts in poetry than the author of these, although no doubt the circumstances would have given rise to the same train of reflection in both'.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Sydney Times vol. 3 no. 67 15 October 1836 Z1639601 1836 newspaper issue 1836 pg. 4
  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon The Southern Cross vol. 14 no. 1 31 December 1859 Z630300 1859 periodical issue 1859 pg. 4
Last amended 11 Oct 2010 13:25:04
Newspapers:
    Powered by Trove
    X