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Ayesha Unveils.
Maurice Greiffenhagen
1888
Lithograph
15.4 cm high by 9.2 cm wide (6 by 3 ½ inches), facing p. 161, framed
Eighth regular illustration for H. Rider Haggard's SHE: A History of Adventure, facing page 161 in the Longman's British edition (1888).
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Scanned image and text by Philip V. Allingham
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She lifted her white and rounded arms — never had I seen such arms before — and slowly, very slowly, withdrew some fastening beneath her hair. Then all of a sudden the long, corpse-like wrappings fell from her to the ground, and my eyes travelled up her form, now only robed in a garb of clinging white that did but serve to show its perfect and imperial shape, instinct with a life that was more than life, and with a certain serpent-like grace that was more than human. On her little feet were sandals, fastened with studs of gold. Then came ankles more perfect than ever sculptor dreamed of. About the waist her white kirtle was fastened by a double-headed snake of solid gold, above which her gracious form swelled up in lines as pure as they were lovely, till the kirtle ended on the snowy argent of her breast, whereon her arms were folded. I gazed above them at her face, and — I do not exaggerate — shrank back blinded and amazed. I have heard of the beauty of celestial beings, now I saw it; only this beauty, with all its awful loveliness and purity, was evil — at least, at the time, it struck me as evil. How am I to describe it? I cannot — simply I cannot! The man does not live whose pen could convey a sense of what I saw. I might talk of the great changing eyes of deepest, softest black, of the tinted face, of the broad and noble brow, on which the hair grew low, and delicate, straight features. But, beautiful, surpassingly beautiful as they all were, her loveliness did not lie in them. It lay rather, if it can be said to have had any fixed abiding place, in a visible majesty, in an imperial grace, in a godlike stamp of softened power, which shone upon that radiant countenance like a living halo. Never before had I guessed what beauty made sublime could be — and yet, the sublimity was a dark one — the glory was not all of heaven — though none the less was it glorious. Though the face before me was that of a young woman of certainly not more than thirty years, in perfect health, and the first flush of ripened beauty, yet it had stamped upon it a look of unutterable experience, and of deep acquaintance with grief and passion. Not even the lovely smile that crept about the dimples of her mouth could hide this shadow of sin and sorrow. It shone even in the light of the glorious eyes, it was present in the air of majesty, and it seemed to say: “Behold me, lovely as no woman was or is, undying and half-divine; memory haunts me from age to age, and passion leads me by the hand — evil have I done, and from age to age evil I shall do, and sorrow shall I know till my redemption comes.” [Chapter XIII, "Ayesha Unveils," pp. 161-162]
So old that she knows nothing of the Christian Messiah, the Queen has a magic fountain which acts as a surveillance screen for her: through its images she saw the arrival of the explorers. But her knowledge of the world beyond her kingdom is based entirely on ancient history.
The five-thousand-year-old ruler of the Amahagger does not reveal her beauty unbidden. Rather, Holly asks to gaze upon her face. Apparently she keeps her face and form veiled or secret because her beauty seems to have a hypnotic effect on men, as she likens what might happen to Holly to what befell Actaeon in the Greek myth. She is waiting for the reincarnated form of one she loved, and wronged, and seems eager to see “The Lion,” that is, Leo, especially since his scarab (the bezel on the ring that Leo had made) which she sees on Holly’s finger seems identical to the one that her beloved wore around his neck thousands of years earlier.
Haggard, H. Rider. "SHE:" A History of Adventure. Illustrated by E. K. Johnson. The Graphic Magazine, Vols. XXXIV and XXXV. 2 October 1886 to 8 January 1887.
Haggard. H. Rider. SHE: A History of Adventure. Illustrated by E. K. Johnson. New York: Harper & Bros., 1887.
Haggard, H. Rider. SHE: A History of Adventure. Illustrated by Maurice Greiffenhagen and Charles H. M. Kerr. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1888, rpt. 1927.
Haggard, H. Rider. She. Project Gutenberg EBook #3155 produced by John Bickers; Dagny; William Kyngesburye; David Kyngesburye; David Widger. 2016. Web. Accessed 9 May 2025.
Created 12 May 2025