Samuel Coleridge’s use of paratext in “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, henceforth referred to as “Mariner” is interesting and problematic as it offers itself as another part of the narrative, instead of placing itself separate from it. This paratextual problem persists in the underlying issues found in the title; these would include the strange word choice in the title of rime, and the framing of the mariner as ancient. The later edition of “Mariner” elevates this problem with the addition of the marginal gloss. Here, the text forces the reader to question the role the paratext plays in the narrative.
The problem with the paratext is that it misdirects the reader who at first might believe the paratext is unbiased, but later must critically analyze the reliability and authority of the paratext. Throughout this essay, I will argue that the paratext serves as another, separate narrator of the poem. In order to support this position, I will more closely examine the ways in which the title is problematic, analyze moments in the poem where the marginal gloss exists to frame or create a narrative, add information that was unknown, or attempt to change it in order to show how the paratext is a narrator.
Moreover, I will conclude by providing evidence that the paratext is unreliable. Here we have the narrator’s account of the Mariner’s initial encounter with the wedding guest, “He holds him with his glittering eye – / The wedding-guest stood still / And listens like a three year’s child: / The mariner hath his will” (12-15) Here in particular, the importance is that there is no supernatural element in the narrator’s description of the encounter. Instead, he describes it as an almost parental dialogue, especially with the line describing the wedding guest as a three year old.
In contrast, the marginal gloss tells a different story, “The wedding guest is spellbound by the eye of the old seafaring man and constrained to hear his tale” (715) instead of a parental dialogue or mention of a type of dialogue at all, the marginal gloss instead narrates this interaction as the result of magic with the phrase spellbound. In addition, it adds several elements of framing the mariner, he is no longer a simple mariner, and instead he becomes an “old seafaring man” completely dropping any title of mariner at all.
Several times in the poem, the marginal gloss will instead reduce descriptions or actions that are rigorously described for example the narrator describes the mariner’s journey as, “The sun came up upon the left, / Out of the sea came he; And he sone bright, and on the right / Went down into the sea. ” (25-28) while the marginal gloss instead states, “The mariner tells how the ship sailed southward with a good wind and fair weather til it reached the line. ” (715) Which seems to signify a lack of description or care to the mariner’s journey. Additionally, the marginal gloss adds a key detail here, that the mariner narrators this.
This detail breaks the reader out of the immersion of believing that they are reading the events as they occur. I would suggest that the marginal gloss’ narrator does this immersion breaking in order to discredit the narrator of the poem, or possibly reaffirm this narrator’s presence by actively acting in the retelling of this story. As Huntington Brown describes in her article “The Gloss to the Rime of the Ancient Mariner”, “For only in one place does he do anything but paraphrase the story, and the paraphrase on several occasions rounds out and carefully articulates ideas that are only suggested or remain ambiguous in the poem” (321).
The reader is able to see the different narrators adding different perspectives on the crucial scene of the sighting of the albatross. In the poem’s narration, the albatross is hailed, and seen as a Christian soul, “At length did cross an albatross / Throrough the fog it came; / As if it had been a Christian soul, / We hailed it in God’s name. ” (62-65), while in the marginal gloss removes the Christian element of the bird’s identity as well as removing the idea of hailing it in God’s name, “Till a great sea-bird, called the albatross, came through the snow-fog, and was received with great joy and hospitality. (716)
Removing these two elements serves to diminish some of the impact that readers might feel when being reminded of their religion, which adds the interesting question of why did this narrator decide to remove such imagery. In addition to removing the holy imagery, the marginal gloss’ narrator also adds in both framing the albatross as great, and names it as the albatross. This is an interesting departure from the poem’s narration where the narrator describes it as an animal, without deciding to go through the theatrics of naming.
Moreover, the marginal gloss changes the standard fog into snow-fog, which serves to create a different interpretation of the scene for those reading the marginal gloss, as well as exoticize the location of this albatross. While in the poem, the narration might serve to almost distance the mariner from the action of shooting the albatross, “God save thee, ancient mariner, / From the fiends that plague thee thus! / Why look’st thou so? ’ ‘With my crossbow / I shot the albatross. (79-82) the marginal gloss deliberately frames and describes his action as purposeful and dastardly, “The ancient mariner inhospitably killeth the pious bird of good omen” (717) The two narrator’s seem to be reading into this situation completely differently and as such the reader has a conflicted account of what actually takes place. As the mariner never explains why he shot the albatross, or what he felt after doing so it is up to the two narrators to tell us what happened. With the poem addressing it as the mariner himself describes it to the wedding guest.
However, the marginal gloss seems to invite readers to read into what it could be saying. Despite attempting to remove the holy imagery that the poem attaches to the albatross, the marginal gloss then brings it back into the frame when it describes the bird as pious, and of good omen. The gloss also adds a motive and state of mind to the mariner’s actions. Reading into the character’s actions when presumably the marginal gloss’ narrator was not present when these actions occurred means that it is interpreting an interpretation and cannot be relied upon.
When examining the juxtaposition between the marginal gloss and the poem’s narration, one significant reduction and reinterpretation of the poem is when the mariner laments the lack of drinkable water. The poem’s narration then states, “Water, water, everywhere, / And all the boards did shrink; / Water, water, everywhere, / Not any drop to drink” (118-121) here there is the repetition of the ubiquity of the water, but it also adds key imagery to the horrors that are occurring on this ship.
However, the marginal gloss does not use any of the poem’s narration for these lines and instead creates its own narrative where it states, “And the albatross begins to be avenged” Treating the marginal gloss separate from the poem’s narration this quote does not seem to be recounting the same experience. The reader does not get the same sense of water as an enemy, or even of the seeming randomness of these supernatural experiences occurring. Instead, what the reader does gain from the marginal gloss is a reason for these events occurring, the albatross, however at the cost of removing all the events from the marginal gloss’ narration.
This is key because, when looking at the marginal gloss from a historic perspective of clearing up parts of the text that were vague, this marginal gloss fails. “According to Pirie, the gloss to the ‘Ancient Mariner’ reverses the traditional role of a gloss as that which unearths, makes clear the interior meaning of the text; instead he argues, it subverts the ‘true’ meaning of the poem” (180). Rather, it takes a seemingly simple verse about the water being ubiquitous, removes the water aspect, and includes a reason for further events to occur, essentially rewriting the verse, which is a role that only a narrator is able to fulfill.
In contrast to the marginal gloss’ ability to remove entire verses and replace them with its own narration of events, it is also capable of adding in detail which further complicates the story and was not available in the original verse. The original verse states, “And some in dreams assured were / Of the spirit that plagued us so; / Nine fathom deep he had followed us / From the land of mist and snow” (131-134), which describes the curse or spell that is haunting the crew, however it is fairly vague in terms of what it is describing.
The marginal gloss adds in a great amount of detail and historical references that were not so much as hinted at in the original verse, “The spirit had followed them; one of the invisible inhabitants of this planet, neither departed souls nor angels; concerning whom the learned Jew, Josephus, and the Platonic Constantinopolitan, Michael Psellus, may be consulted. They are very numerous, and there is no climate or element without one or more. (718) Again, the marginal gloss adds the theme of magic into a poem that does not explicitly state that any occurs.
The poem describes the mariner’s ‘salvation’ as such, “The self-same moment I could pray, / And from my neck so free. The albatross fell of and sank / Like lead into the sea. ” (286-290) the marginal gloss drops much of the narration and instead it simply states that, “The spell begins to break. (722) This narration seems to be drawing attention away from the gloss’ narration that the albatross was literally hanging around the mariner’s neck, and instead leaves it vague, or at least presents the possibility that the spell breaking does not necessary mean that the albatross is literally hanging there. Further, the marginal gloss removes so much of the fine details that are presented in the poem, completely removing any reference to praying.
However, it also does not give the reader the knowledge of why the spell is breaking only adding into the poem that it is breaking. Late in the text, the marginal gloss adds in the idea of penance for the mariner’s actions. This idea is not present in the poem’s narration of events as it states, “I woke, and we were sailing on / As in a gentle weather; / Twas night, calm night, the moon was high – / The dead men stood together” (429-432) whereas the marginal gloss states, “The supernatural motion is retarded; the mariner awakes, and his penance begins anew. (726)
The marginal gloss creates this idea of redemption for his sin of killing the bird, while the poem simply narrates where the mariner is in the story. Additionally, the marginal gloss adds the idea of supernatural motion being over, something that the poem does not address, rather describing how the weather changes and leaving the interpretation up to the reader Throughout the essay, the marginal gloss has been examined and concluded to be unreliable and drastically different from the source poem.
It will change the language used in the passages, remove entire segments in order to create a different narrative, and add in details that did not exist in the poem’s writing. Due to the marginal gloss’ ability to rework and rewrite the language and story that exists in the poem, there is the possibility of the marginal gloss working as another narrator in an already narrator dense work.