Turning to the south-east window, we are confronted with an entirely exceptional development. The whole of the upper half is occupied with a single subject (the Brazen Serpent), and that in Early Victorian glass inconceivably poor and crude. The lower half is ancient and typical, the type and antitype being placed side by side:
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Type Naomi bewailing her husband. (Ruth i. 20.) |
Antitype The Holy Women bewailing Christ. |
The history of this marked departure from the norm is that the buildings of the Great Court were planned to abut upon the Chapel here, so as to block the lower half of the window, for which, accordingly, no glass was provided. That which is there now was originally in the upper half and was moved down in 1841, the Brazen Serpent being substituted for it. The remaining windows on this side of the choir also underwent a sad amount of "restoration" at the same period.
The next window (the fifteenth in the entire sequence) is of the normal arrangement.
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Type Joseph cast into the pit. |
Type The overthrow of Pharaoh. |
| —— | —— |
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Antitype Christ laid in the Sepulchre. |
Antitype The Harrying of Hell. |
The last scene is a most forcible representation of Christ's victorious "Harrying of Hell," as conceived by mediæval imagination and referred to by Dante in his Inferno. The Conqueror of Death has forced His resistless way through the shattered gates of Hell, on which He stands, treading under His feet the gigantic leaden-coloured bulk of their demon warder. Before Him kneels Adam, at last rescued from his age-long captivity, and other Holy Souls. In the back-ground a blue devil gazes in dismay from the red mouth of Hell (represented after the usual mediæval fashion, as an actual mouth, with teeth, etc.), while another, in livid green, is dancing with demoniac rage above, and yet another, white and gold, is scudding away in terror as fast as his wings will carry him.
The remaining windows of the choir on this side deal with the Resurrection. In the first of these (the third from the east) the subjects are:
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Type Jonah escaping from the Fish. |
Type Tobias appearing to his mother (who had thought him dead). |
| —— | —— |
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Antitype Christ arising from the Sepulchre. |
Antitype Christ appearing to His Mother. |