Help me understand English idiom and grammar

[gxnn]

As an English language learner, I read the following from "The Rainbow" written by D H Lawrence:

He had loved one warm, clever boy who was frail in body, a consumptive type. The two had had an almost classic friendship, David and Jonathan, wherein Brangwen was the Jonathan, the server. But he had never felt equal with his friend, because the other's mind outpaced his, and left him ashamed, far in the rear. So the two boys went at once apart on leaving school. But Brangwen always remembered his friend that had been, kept him as a sort of light, a fine experience to remember.

Would anybody tell me what David and Joanthan did in their friendship? Were the two like Adam and Eve or simply two gay persons because the next sentence seems to suggest something similar to that?

The last sentence, why is "had been" seperated from "a fine experience..."? And what is the grammatical function of the part "kept him as a sort of light"?

Thank you.

 

[AloneTooLong]

you might want to post this question over on the Author's Hangout.

 

[Bramblethorn]

As an English language learner, I read the following from "The Rainbow" written by D H Lawrence:

He had loved one warm, clever boy who was frail in body, a consumptive type. The two had had an almost classic friendship, David and Jonathan, wherein Brangwen was the Jonathan, the server. But he had never felt equal with his friend, because the other's mind outpaced his, and left him ashamed, far in the rear. So the two boys went at once apart on leaving school. But Brangwen always remembered his friend that had been, kept him as a sort of light, a fine experience to remember.

Would anybody tell me what David and Joanthan did in their friendship? Were the two like Adam and Eve or simply two gay persons because the next sentence seems to suggest something similar to that?

David and Jonathan are princes from the Bible. Some quotes:

"Then Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, with his armor, including his sword and his bow and his belt. "

David's lament on Jonathan's death: "I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of women. How have the mighty fallen, And the weapons of war perished!"

They are famous for their friendship, and some readers have interpreted it as a homosexual relationship. I haven't read "The Rainbow", but D H Lawrence was attracted to men as well as women, so that reference might well be hinting at a homosexual attraction. In Lawrence's time, and for a long time afterwards, it was common for authors to use this sort of code-language to hint at things that couldn't be said openly.

A lot of older English is very difficult to read without some understanding of the Bible, because authors will often use Biblical references and assume that their readers understand what they're talking about.

"But he had never felt equal with his friend, because the other's mind outpaced his, and left him ashamed, far in the rear."

- I don't think this sentence is referring to homosexuality. It's just saying that his friend was much more intelligent, and so he felt ashamed of not being as clever.

The last sentence, why is "had been" seperated from "a fine experience..."? And what is the grammatical function of the part "kept him as a sort of light"?

"But Brangwen always remembered his friend that had been, kept him as a sort of light, a fine experience to remember."

This is a confusing one because Laurence is using "that had been" as an old-fashioned idiom, not the way you'd usually see it in modern English.

Here, it's referring not to "a fine experience" but to "his friend". A more modern (less poetic) expression of the sentence would read something like:

"But Brangwen always remembered the person that had been his friend, and kept him as a sort of (inspiration/symbol of hope), that is, a fine experience to remember."