by Mervyn Peake
p. 66 ‘The Men in Bowler Hats Are Sweet’: f.p. BN, p. 65. Source: Nonsence 1, p. 36v; hence the conjectural date. See note to ‘Ode to a Bowler’ (p. 223).
p. 67 ‘Aunts and Uncles’: f.p. BN, pp. 67–71. Source: Peake archive MS. The line ‘When Uncle Sid’ occurs in Nonsence 1, p. 20r; the phrase suggests it was the beginning of another poem in the ‘Aunts and Uncles’ series, and its presence in the 1947 nonsence notebook gives us our conjectural date. See note to ‘My Uncle Paul of Pimlico’ (p. 226). In her introduction to BN, Maeve Gilmore describes the genesis of this series of small poems as follows: ‘The short section “Aunts and Uncles” was written in the late ’forties and sprang to some extent from an evening’s conversation with friends, when someone who had just returned from a rather remote country holiday mentioned that he had been staying on a farm where there was a gaggle of geese, and that the owner was hardly discernible from his gaggle. The conversation roved upon propinquity, either between a man and a woman, closely related, long married, or any relationship where each partner takes on some of the other’s idiosyncrasies – gestures, habits, ideas – so that it is quite difficult to distinguish one from the other. He wrote the rhymes first, and then added the drawings.’
p. 68 ‘The Osseous ’Orse’: f.p. G, p. 33, which is our source for all but stanza 4. Stanza 4 was edited out before publication, and is taken from the MS of G; we have restored it because it explains why ‘The Osseous ’orse sat up at once’ in stanza 5. Date given in MS of G.
p. 69 ‘Song of the Castle Poet’: unpublished. Source: MS of G, which supplies the date.
p. 70 ‘How White and Scarlet Is that Face’: f.p. G, p. 309, which is our source. Date given in MS of G.
p. 71 ‘O Here It Is and There It Is…’: f.p. BN, pp. 46–7. Source: Peake archive MS. Also in Nonsence 2, p. 15v. A fragment occurs in the MS of G, which supplies the date.
p. 72 ‘Little Spider’: f.p. BN, p. 22. Source: Bod. Dep Peake 16, p. 7r. The poem occurs in the MS of G, which supplies the date. Versions of the poem are sung by Fuchsia in Peake’s adaptation of TG for radio (see note to ‘Nannie Slagg’s Song’, p. 231), and by Percy in WW. We have based the last four lines of stanza 1 on the WW text as the final version.
p. 73 ‘“It Worries Me to Know”’: f.p. BN, pp. 23–6. Source: Peake archive MS. Date conjectural, based on the reference to Gormenghast in the final line, which suggests it may have been written while he wrote G. It may date from earlier, but the poem’s narrative recalls the wooing of Irma Prunesquallor by Bellgrove, so we have opted for the later date. Dashes have been added at stanza 4, line 1 and stanza 15, line 4. In BN ‘a cloudy-looking man’ in line 7 was misread as ‘a dowdy-looking man’.
p. 74 ‘A-Lolling on the Shores of Old Hawaii’: f.p. MP, p. 72, which is our source; hence the date.
p. 75 ‘O’er Seas that Have No Beaches’: f.p. MP, p. 251, which is our source and gives the date. There is another version in Nonsence 2, p. 14. Mr Pye recites these verses as he drinks a farewell glass of wine with his friends. Before the recital he tells them: ‘Words at such times make little sense and what sense they do make is nonsense – of which, incidentally, I was once particularly fond. I used to write it once – at board meetings while others doodled. How did that one go…? That particularly good one that I wrote on the back of a procedure form?’
p. 76 ‘The Bullfrog and the Flies’: f.p. W&D, p. 96. Source: Peake archive MS, which supplies the date.
p. 77 ‘The Rhino and the Lark’: f.p. PP, pp. 499–500, which omits sixteen lines. Source: Peake archive MS, which supplies the date. Inverted comma added at the beginning of line 13.
p. 78 ‘Richly In the Unctuous Dell’: f.p. PS, vol. 11, no. 2 (April 2009), p. 13. Source: MS of MB, where it is sung by four professors to wake a sleepwalking colleague. Date conjectural.
p. 79 ‘Manifold Basket’s Song’: f.p. PS, vol. 11, no. 2 (April 2009), p. 13. Source: MS of MB. Date conjectural. In the play this ‘impromptu little song’ is sung by the ‘self-absorbed, self-centred’ Headmaster of the title.
p. 80 ‘With a One, Two, Up!’: f.p. PP, p. 298. Source: MS of WW. Date conjectural. Sung by the aged Dr Willy in Act One.
p. 81 ‘In Ancient Days’: f.p. PP, p. 354. Source: MS of WW. Date conjectural. Sung by the aged Dr Willy in Act Three.
p. 82 ‘O Keep Away’: unpublished. Source: MS of WW in the Peake Archive. Date conjectural. This is sung by Sally Devius. According to a note in the archive by Maeve Gilmore, it was written at a time when Peake was thinking of turning WW into a musical.
p. 83 ‘O Darling When a Story’s Done’: unpublished. Source: MS of WW in the Peake archive. Date conjectural. According to a note in the archive by Maeve Gilmore, this song was written at a time when Peake was thinking of turning WW into a musical.
p. 84 ‘Undertaker’s Song (1)’: unpublished. Source: MS of WW in the Peake Archive. Date conjectural. According to a note in the archive by Maeve Gilmore, this song was written at a time when Peake was thinking of turning WW into a musical.
p. 85 ‘Undertaker’s Song (2)’: unpublished. Source: MS of WW in the Peake archive. Date conjectural. According to a note in the archive by Maeve Gilmore, this song was written at a time when Peake was thinking of turning WW into a musical.
p. 86 ‘Nannie Slagg’s Song’: f.p. TG: A Radio Play, MPR, no. 21 (1987/8), p. 10. Source: MS in the Peake archive. Date conjectural; the play was broadcast on 1 February 1956. Nannie Slagg sings this to the infant Titus.
p. 87 ‘Fuchsia’s Song’: f.p. TG: A Radio Play, MPR, no. 21 (1987/8), p. 12, which is our source. Date conjectural; the play was broadcast on 1 February 1956.
p. 88 ‘Nannie Slagg’s Lullaby’: f.p. TG: A Radio Play, MPR, no. 21 (1987/8), p. 37, which is our source. Date conjectural; the play was broadcast on 1 February 1956. Nannie Slagg sings this to the infant Titus.
p. 89 ‘Where the Little Dunderhead’: f.p. TG: A Radio Play, MPR, no. 21 (1987/8), p. 88, which is our source. Date conjectural; the play was broadcast on 1 February 1956. Nannie Slagg sings this to the infant Titus.
p. 90 ‘Lean Sideways on the Wind’: f.p. BN, p. 49. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 1r; hence the conjectural date. See note to ‘My Uncle Paul of Pimlico’ (p.226).
p. 91 ‘Of Pygmies, Palms and Pirates’: f.p. BN, p. 29. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 2r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 92 ‘An Angry Cactus Does No Good’: f.p. BN, p. 37. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 3r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 93 ‘I Cannot Give the Reasons’: f.p. BN, p. 39. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 3v; hence the conjectural date.
p. 94 ‘O Little Fly’: f.p. BN, p. 22. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 4r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 95 ‘How Fly the Birds of Heaven’: f.p. TA, second edition, p. 187, which is our source, except for the last line, which comes from Nonsence 2, p. 5r. The poem’s presence in Nonsence 2 gives the conjectural date. In TA the poem is recited by Crabcalf (who describes it as ‘a passing thought’), and the last line is commuted into dialogue: ‘Crabcalf opened his eyes. “Do you see what I mean?” he said’.
p. 96 ‘Leave the Stronger’: f.p. BN, p. 77, where it was accidentally fused with ‘Fish or Fowl’ (below) as if they were one poem. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 6r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 97 ‘Fish or Fowl’: f.p. BN, p. 77, where it accidentally continues ‘Leave the Stronger’ (above), and line 5 is missing. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 7r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 98 ‘“Shrink! Shrink!”’: f.p. BN, p. 66. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 8r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 99 ‘An Old and Crumbling Parapet’: f.p. BN, p. 30, where stanzas 1 and 2 are accidentally combined. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 9r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 100 ‘It Is Most Best’: f.p. BN, p. 31. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 10r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 101 ‘The Hours of Night Are Drawing On’: unpublished. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 10v; hence the conjectural date.
p. 102 ‘Over the Pig-Shaped Clouds T
hey Flew’: unpublished. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 11r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 103 ‘Come, Break the News to Me, Sweet Horse!’: f.p. BN, p. 35, where ‘kissed’ in stanza 4 is given as ‘kicked’. Source: Nonsence 2, pp. 12r and 14v; hence the conjectural date.
p. 104 ‘What Though My Jaw’: unpublished. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 12v; hence the conjectural date.
p. 105 ‘The Trouble with Geraniums’: f.p. BN, p. 41, where ‘crows’ in line 9 is given as ‘stars’. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 13r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 106 ‘Crocodiles’: f.p. BN, p. 43. Source: Nonsence 2, p. 15r; hence the conjectural date.
p. 107 ‘Along the Cold, Regurgitating Shore’: f.p. BN, p. 45, where it is accidentally printed as part of ‘O Love, O Death, O Ecstasy’ (p. 127). Source: Nonsence 2, p. 16v; hence the conjectural date. The original reads ‘regurting’ for ‘regurgitating’, but rhyme and sense suggest that this is a slip on Peake’s part.
p. 108 ‘I Have My Price’: f.p. TA, pp. 54–5, where it is described as ‘a sort of song’ sung to Juno by Muzzlehatch. This is our source. Another version occurs in Nonsence 2, p. 16v; hence the conjectural date. In this version lines 7 and 8 read: ‘From yellow grass in Paraguay / Where knitting is taboo’, and lines 13–15 read ‘O felony in Paraguay, / There’s not a soul in Paraguay / Who’s worth the dreaming of’. In addition, the word ‘pearl’ in line 9 is spelt ‘purl’.
p. 109 ‘Jehovah, Jehovah’: f.p. Act III of The Cave in MPR, no. 29 (1996) [no pagination], which reproduces a TS of Peake’s play that was circulated by his agent c. 1960. From this the play can be dated to the late 1950s.
pp. 110, 111 ‘Over the Border, or The Adventures of Footfruit’; ‘The Adventures of Footfruit, or The Enthusiast’: f.p. BN, pp. 79–87. Source: Peake archive TS. Date conjectural. Maeve Gilmore writes about the story as follows in the introduction to BN: ‘“The Adventures of Footfruit”, which is the last piece in this book, is also the last he conceived. It was to have been a short book. Its genesis was an article in the News Chronicle of 25 September 1957, headed:
SUB-THINK
SUB-Think
Sub-Think
“They’re going to try it on us soon,” the article began, continuing: “A company was recently formed in the United States with the blatant aim of taking hold of the human mind, without the owner’s consent, much less his co-operation. The company is called the Subliminal Projection Corporation.”’
p. 112 ‘Another Draft of Footfruit’: f.p. New Worlds, no. 187 (February 1969), pp. 41–3, which is our source, having been reproduced in facsimile from an MS of which we have traced only one page. Date conjectural (above, note to ‘Over the Border, or The Adventures of Footfruit’). Comma added in the phrase ‘What, no reply?’. The name of the dog here, ‘Jackpot’, recalls the name of the Lost Uncle’s companion, Jackson, in Peake’s illustrated novel Letters from a Lost Uncle (1948). It also suggests that the dog has won what the narrator desires, proximity to Footfruit (whose name in conjunction with the dog’s evokes a fruit machine or one-armed bandit).
p. 113 ‘Crown Me With Hairpins’: f.p. BN, p. 73. Source: Bod. Dep. Peake 16, p. 16v. Date unknown.
Key to the Figures of Speech
Light fingered 20
Keeping his end up 25
Scraping an acquaintance 28
Paddle your own canoe! 32
A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush 33
Getting his sea-legs 46
I could kick myself 51
It suits them down to the ground 52
Splitting hairs 57
Keeping his chin up 62
Getting his back up 66
Cold comfort 67
Getting down to brass tacks 70
Put that in your pipe and smoke it 74
I have other fish to fry 118
His right-hand man 129
Cooling his heels 145
Horse-play 155
Sitting pretty 163
Love me, love my dog! 168
Led by the nose 171
To cut a long story short 185
Toeing the line 190
It came to a head 192
Burning their bridges 197
Grin and bear it 199
Bringing him down to earth 206
Coming up to scratch 207
Severing relations 219
Index of Titles
About My Ebb and Flow-ziness 42
The Adventures of Footfruit or The Enthusiast 211
Again! Again! and Yet Again 112
All Over the Lilac Brine! 78
A-Lolling on the Shores of Old Hawaii 166
Along the Cold, Regurgitating Shore 204
Although I Love Him 26
An Angry Cactus Does No Good 188
An Old and Crumbling Parapet 196
Ancient Root O Ancient Root 44
Another Draft of Footfruit: Chapter 1 217
Aunts and Uncles 150
The Ballad of Sweet Pighead 116
Beard of My Chin 26
The Bullfrog and the Flies 169
The Camel 96
Come, Break the News to Me, Sweet Horse! 200
Come Husband! Come, and Ply the Trade 69
Come, Sit Beside Me Dear, He Said 60
The Crocodile 82
Crocodiles 203
Crown Me with Hairpins 220
Deliria 63
The Dwarf of Battersea 35
A Fair Amount of Doziness 43
Fish or Fowl 194
The Frivolous Cake 44
Fuchsia’s Song 183
The Giraffe 84
Green Park 24
The Hideous Root 140
The Hippopotamus 102
The Hours of Night Are Drawing On 198
Hold Fast 120
How Fly the Birds of Heaven 191
How Good It Is to Be Alone (1) 71
How Good It Is to Be Alone (2) 73
How Mournful to Imagine 92
How White and Scarlet Is that Face 157
I Cannot Give the Reasons 189
I Cannot Give You Reasons 115
I Cannot Simply Stand and Watch 58
I Have My Price 204
I Married Her in Green 50
I Must Begin to Comprehend 122
I Saw a Puffin 21
I Waxes and I Wanes, Sir 100
I Wish I Could Remember 98
In Ancient Days 176
It Is Most Best 198
It Makes a Change 88
‘It Worries Me to Know’ 161
The Jailor and the Jaguar 94
Jehovah, Jehovah 205
The King of Ranga-Tanga-Roon 114
A Languorous Life 104
Lean Sideways on the Wind 186
Leave the Stronger 193
Linger Now with Me, Thou Beauty 48
Little Spider 161
Manifold Basket’s Song 174
The Men in Bowler Hats Are Sweet 148
Mine Was the One 65
My Uncle Paul of Pimlico 86
Nannie Slagg’s Lullaby 184
Nannie Slagg’s Song 183
Norbury 23
O Darling When a Story’s Done 179
O Here It Is and There It Is… 158
O Keep Away 178
O Little Fly 191
O Love, O Death, O Ecstasy 127
Ode to a Bowler 30
O’er Seas that Have No Beaches 167
Of Pygmies, Palms and Pirates 186
One Day When They Had Settled Down 110
The Osseous ’Orse 154
Over the Pig-Shaped Clouds They Flew 200
Practically Poetry 29
Raft Song of the Conger Eel 31
Railway Ditties 23
The Rhino and the Lark 170
Richly in the Unctuous Dell 174
Roll Them Down 108
Sensitive, Seldom and Sad 106
‘Shrink! Shrink!’ 195
Simple, Seldom and Sad 47
&
nbsp; Song of the Castle Poet 156
The Song of Lien Tsung 22
Squat Ursula 138
Streatham and Balham 23
The Sunlight Lies Upon the Fields 64
The Sunlight Falls Upon the Grass 80
Swelter’s Song 53
Synopsis: Over the Border or The Adventures of Footfruit 208
Thank God for a Tadpole 42
Thornton Heath 23
The Threads of Thought Are Not for Me 68
The Threads Remain 123
Tintinnabulum 128
The Trouble with Geraniums 202
Uncle George 113
Undertaker’s Song (1) 181
Undertaker’s Song (2) 182
Upon My Golden Backbone 76
Upon the Summit of a Hill 59
Waddon 23
What a Day It’s Been! 90
What Though My Jaw 202
Where the Little Dunderhead 184
White Mules at Prayer 124
With a One, Two, Up! 176
You Before Me 26
You Can Never Be Sure of Your Birron 24
Index of First Lines
A Crocodile in ecstasy 82
A fair amount of doziness 43
A freckled and frivolous cake there was 44
A languorous life I lead, I do 104
A Plumber appeared by the Light of the Moon 140
About my ebb and flow-ziness 42
Again! again! and yet again 112
All alone 183
A-lolling on the shores of old Hawaii 166
Along my weary whiskers 98
Along the cold, regurgitating 204
Although I love him and could never find 26
