Whence Wheldrake?

[Dead-Air]

I'm really curious about the poet Wheldrake who first appears, to my knowledge, in Revenge of the Rose. Is this character based upon an actual poet? I got the feeling that he was in a way more of a direct allegory for yourself at least in that book - is that an accurate assessment?

Finally, can we expect to see more of him, perhaps in other tales of the Multiverse besides Elric's?

[Michael Moorcock]

Wheldrake does speak for me from time to time, yes. But he's based firmly on Swinburne, a poet I admire but who went out of fashion a bit, partly because he wrote too many damned books. An incredibly facile poet with an ability to write in almost any poetic form at the drop of a hat (thus his repreentation in Revenge). He features quite largely in Gloriana, writing cod Elizabethan verse there, in one or two forms, though some, of course, are parodies of Spenser. Bloom, at the End of Time, also takes a few characteristics from Wheldrake...

[krunky]

Swinburne is hard to come by in the states. If you shop online there are some really cool illus. ed. of Swinburne by Harry Clarke. I like those.

I did once buy a complete Swinburne edition from somewhere. Probably an oxford publication or something. Small, hardbound thing.

[Michael Moorcock]

Generally speaking, his earliest work is considered his best. I have one of the few collections of Swinburne first editions outside of the odd University. It runs to two double-stacked shelves! These days his two volume CROMWELL isn't much sought after. He was a facile poet, who could write as easily in verse as in prose. There are some things, in prose, which are considerably better than much of the verse, which isn't actually bad, but isn't exactly inspired, either. People think he might have lived too long. Check out a biography or two. There's one all about his relationship (innocent, as they say) with Theodore Watts Dunton who took him in charge. They lived together at The Pines, Putney for many years. Locals say he would occasionally stop at a pub on the common for a half pint. When his room got to a general state of chaos he would simply take some big sheets of brown paper and bundle everything up into parcels. That sometimes included whole tea sets.
He survived most of his PreRaphaelite contemporaries. I have a great fondness for him, though I couldn't get through his pornographic flogging novel! He shared a taste for being flogged with Percy Granger and I've always been regretful Percy never put Charlie to music. Algernon Charles (Charlie) Swinburne. I've tried to include him in my forthcoming Miscellany volume from Constable, Moorcock's Mammoth Miscellany! The volume is so big at the moment, some of my choices might have to go.

[Dead-Air]

Interesting. Have you lifted any of Swinburne's writing in the Wheldrake excerpts, or are those all completely your own creations?

[Michael Moorcock]

Yes, I've lifted bits of Swinburne and I have modified bits. I have sometimes combined bits of me and Swinburne. Most of it, however, is me, as are most of the verses in The Skrayling Tree, for instance.
Which are not Swinburne parodies or references to Swinburne, but riff more around Longfellow, another under-rated Victorian, in my view.

[zakt]

Mike - I alwys took Wheldrake to be a pun on "Moorcock", and also thought the same of "Maurice Lescoq". Would this be the case, or is there an actual less cock somewhere?

[Michael Moorcock]

Wheldrake, believe it or not, is the pseudonym Swinburne took, but I must admit it struck me as a good pseudonym for me, too! Lescoq is another name for me, yes. Maurice is a possible derivation of Moorcock, though my name comes from a tiny village in Yorkshire called Moorcock.
Possibly named after the Moorcock Inn, which used to be there (might still be). Near Dent, W. Yorks. And that's a grouse. Ahem.

[Elwher]

Moorcock Inn is still there - there is a Yorkshire Water sewage works there - apparently the most westerly of all their sites!

[Michael Moorcock]

That explains a lot. Thanks. :)