“Whomsoever I Shall Kiss”: Sourcing Judas in M. R. James’s “A Warning to the Curious”

Although one of the foremost academics of his era — he was provost at both Eton and Cambridge — M. R. James is today known more for his elegant ghost stories than for his voluminous writings on history, religion, and archaeology. One of his best-known works in the horror genre is "A Warning to the Curious," first published in 1925. In this tale of an amateur archaeologist — more looter than scholar — who violates a tomb and thereby triggers the wrath of a guardian spirit, James, a lay clergyman in addition to his other titles, alludes often to the tragedy of Judas — the ultimate traitor in western culture — to emphasize the treasonous actions of the young archaeologist who, by stealing one of the guardian crowns buried on the coast of England to protect the kingdom from invasion, betrays not just his profession, but indeed, his own country: and thus, in the end, he pays the Judas price for his betrayal.