[Poem I 60–61, 330–31 · Textual History II 383–84]
[II] 163–64, 170 Well, if Albert won’t leave you alone · · · What you get married for · · · Goonight Bill. Goonight Lou: to Polly Tandy, 17 Apr 1940: “I am stepping the other evening into the Refreshment Room for a drop of the usual (Good Evening, Miss Ward: Good Evening, Mr. E.) when I meet a Lady · · · who passes me the rumour that your old man had been in an escapade and ruining a Car · · · Well Polly you do have your share of trouble but if you marry a man like that what do you expect but the lion’s share as the saying is.”
[II] 169–71 HURRY UP PLEASE ITS TIME · · · Ta ta: Kipling: “Calls for a drink, and a mild cigar, | Batters a sovereign down on the bar, | Collars the change and says ‘Ta‑Ta’”, within the story The Army of a Dream. TSE: Mrs. Bert: “Well, tar, tar, boys. Don’t forget you’re goin’ to take me to the pictures to-night, Bert”, twice in draft of The Rock (after the song in Part II, 68 and 69). Ta ta: OED: “A nursery expression for ‘Good-bye’; now also in gen. colloq. use.”
[II] 172 Good night, ladies, good night, sweet ladies, good night, good night: Hayward: “Cf. Hamlet IV v. These are mad Ophelia’s pathetic words of farewell to the ladies of the Court of Denmark. Hamlet had accused Ophelia of being a whore and had told her to remove herself to a ‘nunnery’—a slang word in Shakespeare’s day for a brothel.” Though not her very last lines, Ophelia’s farewell anticipates her death by water, for which see note to the next lines of the published poem, [III] 173–76. Laforgue: “Il y avait une langue là-dedans; ça grasseyait: ‘Good night ladies; good night, sweet ladies! good night, good night!’” [He had a tongue in this head, and it burred out “Good night, ladies. Good night sweet ladies! good night, good night!”], Hamlet (Grover Smith 83). Laforgue’s Hamlet, speaking not of Ophelia but of Yorick, and continuing: “Ça chantait, et souvent des gravelures” [It also sang, and it very often sang something ribald].
III. THE FIRE SERMON
Title The Fire Sermon: in Henry Clarke Warren’s Buddhism in Translations (352–53), which TSE used in 1911–12, “The Fire-Sermon” begins with The Blessed One addressing the priests:
“All things, O priests, are on fire. And what, O priests, are all these things which are on fire?
“The eye, O priests, is on fire; forms are on fire; eye-consciousness is on fire; impressions received by the eye are on fire; and whatever sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent, originates in dependence on impressions received by the eye, that also is on fire.
“And with what are these on fire?
“With the fire of passion, say I, with the fire of hatred, with the fire of infatuation; with birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and despair are they on fire.
“The ear is on fire; sounds are on fire; … the nose is on fire; odors are on fire; … the tongue is on fire; tastes are on fire; … the body is on fire; things tangible are on fire; … the mind is on fire; ideas are on fire; … mind-consciousness is on fire; impressions received by the mind are on fire; and whatever sensation, pleasant or unpleasant, or indifferent, originates in dependence on impressions received by the mind, that is also on fire.
“And with what are these on fire?
“With the fire of passion, say I, with the fire of hatred, with the fire of infatuation, with birth, old age, death, sorrow, lamentation, misery, grief, and despair are they on fire.
[Poem I 61–62, 331 · Textual History II 384]
“Perceiving this, O priests, the learned and noble disciple conceives an aversion for the eye, conceives an aversion for forms, conceives an aversion for eye-consciousness, conceives an aversion for impressions received by the eye; and whatever sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent, originates in dependence on impressions received by the eye, for that also he conceives an aversion. Conceives an aversion for the ear, conceives an aversion for sounds, … conceives an aversion for the nose, conceives an aversion for odors, … conceives an aversion for tastes, … conceives an aversion for the body, conceives an aversion for things tangible, … conceives an aversion for the mind, conceives an aversion for ideas, conceives an aversion for mind-consciousness, conceives an aversion for the impressions received by the mind; and whatever sensation, pleasant, unpleasant, or indifferent, originates in dependence on impressions received by the mind, for this also he conceives an aversion. And in conceiving this aversion, he becomes divested of passion, and by the absence of passion he becomes free, and when he is free he becomes aware that he is free; and he knows that rebirth is exhausted, that he has lived the holy life, that he has done what it behooved him to do, and that he is no more for this world.”
TSE: “On one side the conceit is merely the development in poetry of an expository device known to preachers from the earliest times, the extended, detailed, interminable simile. The Buddha used it in the Fire Sermon”, The Varieties of Metaphysical Poetry 130 (Clark Lecture IV). “There was no widespread interest in Oriental philosophy at Harvard that I knew of. My interest began after my year in Paris. Very, very few people studied it”, Northrop Frye corrigenda (1963). Back at Harvard after spending 1910–11 in Europe, TSE took C. R. Lanman’s “Elementary Sanskrit” course in 1911–12, and both Lanman’s “Pali” course and James Haughton Woods’s “Philosophical Sanskrit” in 1912–13. TSE on Latimer’s “Sermon on the Card”: “The method—the analogy, and the repetition—is the same as that once used by a greater master of the sermon than either Donne or Andrewes or Latimer: it is the method of the Fire-Sermon preached by the Buddha”, The Preacher as Artist (1919). For the “Fire Sermon” at St. Magnus Martyr, see note to [III] 264.
229–98] Cut by Pound. The lines begin with Fresca’s awakening, written in the style of Pope (229–48), followed by Fresca’s letter (249–65), which is closer to Restoration Comedy. WLFacs notes:
This opening passage was written in imitation of The Rape of the Lock. Cf. also the Calypso episode in Joyce’s Ulysses [Little Review June 1918]. Pound “induced me to destroy what I thought an excellent set of couplets;” wrote Eliot of his pastiche, “for, said he, ‘Pope has done this so well that you cannot do it better; and if you mean this as a burlesque, you had better suppress it, for you cannot parody Pope unless you can write better verse than Pope—and you can’t’” (Introduction to Selected Poems of Ezra Pound, 1928). Eliot added, in the Paris Review (1959), that Pound had advised him to “‘Do something different’.”
[Poem I 62, 332 · Textual History II 384–87]
The first item in the first issue of the Criterion Oct 1922, in which The Waste Land appeared, was Dullness by George Saintsbury, of which the first words were: “There is of course no foolish intention here of vying in prose with Pope in verse.” (Pope and the Goddess Dullness: “Dulness o’er all possess’d her ancient right, | Daughter of Chaos and eternal Night · · · Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, and blind, | She rul’d, in native Anarchy, the mind”, The Dunciad (1742) I 11–16; TSE: “Women grown intellectual grow dull”, WLComposite 282.) In 1934: “the fact that a writer can be satisfied to use the exact idiom of a predecessor is very suspicious; you cannot write satire in the line of Pope or the stanza of Byron”, After Strange Gods 24. To W. H. Auden, 10 Dec 1936, of his Letter to Lord Byron: “I must say that I started with as much prejudice against it as if you had told me that you had done something like the Rape of the Lock, only rather better. But actually it seems to me extremely successful, and is very different from a pastiche.” (Gilbert Frankau’s “novel in verse” One of Us is a Byronic pastiche in ottava rima. For Frankau, see note to [III] 173–82. For TSE’s own ottava rima, see headnote to A Fable for Feasters.) “a deliberate attempt to return to the style of any author or of any period, however accomplished, must always produce an effect of insincerity”, Views and Reviews in NEW 20 June 1935. “the writer to-day who was genuinely influenced by Pope would hardly want to use that couplet at all”, The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism 39. To James Smith, 21 June 1926: “T
he desire to imitate or emulate Pope is itself rare and commendable. To imitate Pope is in itself highly useful for anyone who wishes to write poetry. I have done it myself, not so very long ago either, and with the exception of one or two lines I do not think that my verses were any better than yours, and perhaps not so evenly good. I destroyed mine and recommend you do the same. Nothing in this style of verse is of any value except as an exercise: and this for the reason that it has already been done literally to perfection. You cannot improve on Pope, nor can you get anywhere by burlesquing him or ragging him because there is just sufficient element of burlesque in Pope himself to render him immune.” For The Dunciad, see note to Airs of Palestine, No. 2 15.
229–30 the sun’s inclining ray · · · the · · · day: Pope: “Sol thro’ white Curtains shot a tim’rous Ray, | And op’d those Eyes that must eclipse the Day”, The Rape of the Lock I 13–14.
231 Fresca: “De Bailhache, Fresca, Mrs. Cammel, whirled | Beyond the circuit of the shuddering Bear”, Gerontion 67–68. (For TSE’s enquiry as to whether Gerontion, from 1920, should appear as a “prelude” to The Waste Land and for Pound’s reaction, see headnote, 1. COMPOSITION.) yawns, and gapes: “She yawns and draws a stocking up; | | The silent man · · · gapes”, Sweeney Among the Nightingales 16–18.
231–32 gapes · · · rapes: see note to “Fresca couplets” [3–5] and variant, following 298 below.
237–38 tray · · · tea: a rhyme in the 18th century. Pope: “Here Thou, great Anna! whom three Realms obey, | Dost sometimes Counsel take—and sometimes Tea”, The Rape of the Lock III 7–8 (“Amanda”, 234). See Possum now wishes to explain his silence 13–14: “tea · · · Wednesday”. TSE’s rhyme “ray/day” (229–30) corresponds to Pope’s “Ray/Day” (III 19–20).
238–39 soothing chocolate, or stimulating tea. | | Leaving the bubbling beverage: Pope: “Fumes of burning Chocolate shall glow, | And tremble at the Sea that froths below!” The Rape of the Lock II 135–36. In The Custom of the Country (1913) ch. IV, Edith Wharton describes how Undine Spragg “usually had her chocolate brought to her in bed by Céleste, after the manner described in the articles on ‘A Society Woman’s Day’ which were appearing in Boudoir Chat.” the bubbling beverage to cool: “Round and round, as in a bubbling pot | That will not cool”, Entretien dans un parc 22–23.
240 needful stool: OED “necessary” 3: “necessary house, a privy”, with 1761 “He appeared to have just come from his necessary-stool.”
[Poem 62, 332 · Textual History II 385]
241 Richardson: WLFacs notes: “Samuel Richardson (1689–1761). ‘The pathetic tale’ may have been his novel Clarissa Harlow.” Gilbert Frankau: “Sleep sound, my Meg, and wake refreshed, to write | A new ‘Priscilla’ for the Tatler’s numbers!” One of Us (1912) 91. (Though there is no 18th-century novel Priscilla, Fielding’s Shamela and Amelia followed Richardson’s epistolary Pamela and Clarissa.)
243 the conscious sheets: OED “conscious” 2: “fig. Attributed to inanimate things as privy to, sharing in, or witnesses of human actions or secrets. Chiefly poet.” For “its conscious darts”, see “Fresca couplets” [21] variant (following 298) in Textual History.
244 Gibbon: TSE’s books: Bodleian list (1934) includes “Gibbon [Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire]: 6 vols (incomplete)”, and “Gibbon’s Autobiography (signed by Mary Hutchinson)” which is immediately followed by “12 unbound copies Poems of V.H.E.” (Vivien Haigh Eliot; no copy traced). TSE changed “Gibbon” to “the Daily Mirror”—the paper founded in 1903 as “a mirror of the feminine life as well on its grave as on its lighter sides” (Hannah Sullivan, The Work of Revision, 2013, 133). TSE: “Addison and Johnson were fortunate in not having to compete with the Daily Mirror”, Religious Drama: Mediaeval and Modern (1937). In Jerome K. Jerome’s Fanny and the Servant Problem, the Younger Miss Wetherell is prescribed “one page Marcus Aurelius before breakfast—in case of need” (“needful”, 240). For the play, see note to Aunt Helen 11–12.
245 Her hands caress the egg’s well-rounded dome: Emerson: “The hand that rounded Peter’s dome, | And groined”, The Problem 19–20.
254–56 Kleinwurm: “Here’s the Pollicle clan stepping out behind M’Crooner of M’Crooner, last of the hereditary Sandy Pipers (by kind permission of Sir Angus Kleinwurm, Bt., Lord of the Isle of Bugg)”, caption to a drawing for children sent by TSE to the Tandy family (late 1930s or early 1940s; BL).
255–56 Oh, Lady Kleinwurm’s monde—no one that mattered— | Somebody sang, and Lady Kleinwurm chattered: “So they cried and chattered | As if it mattered”, Inside the gloom 27–28.
258 Giraudoux: Jean Giraudoux (1882–1944), French diplomat and novelist. Sending a “prose lyrique” of Giraudoux’s to the Dial on 25 June 1920, Pound noted: “It is derived from Laforgue but = Laforgue was satiric to destruction.” The Dial published Giraudoux’s The Wreck in July 1921. Grover Smith 1983 65: “Giraudoux’s breezy novel Suzanne et le Pacifique attained wide success in 1921.”
263 And when to Paris: “‘And so you are going abroad; and when do you return?’” Portrait of a Lady III 5.
266–69 to the steaming bath she moves, | Her tresses · · · the cunning French · · · female stench: Rimbaud: “Comme d’un cercueil vert en fer blanc, une tête | De femme à cheveux bruns fortement pommadés | D’une vieille baignoire émerge · · · le tout sent un goût | Horrible étrangement” [As from a green zinc coffin, a woman’s head with brown hair heavily pomaded rises out of an old bath · · · the whole thing has a smell which is strangely disgusting], Vénus Anadyomène 1–3, 9–10. (For Rimbaud’s poem, see note to 284, 285 ^ 286 ms4.)
[Poem I 62, 332–33 · Textual History II 385]
268–69 Odours, confected by the cunning French, | Disguise the good old hearty female stench: TSE: “un odeur fémelle”, Petit Epître 8. (L. cunni- and Fr. con suggest a submerged pun.) “cunning · · · contrived · · · deceives · · · confusions”, Gerontion 34–38. “female smells in shuttered rooms”, Rhapsody on a Windy Night 66. the cunning French: “the cunning Bolognese”, Exequy 16. hearty female: “F. M.”: “Life is perhaps a coarse-fibred creature—almost a ‘hearty female,’ and the proper approach is the slap on the back”, A Diary of the Rive Gauche II (1925) (Haffenden).
270–98 Fresca! · · · salonnière: Pope still, but now Epistle II: To a Lady. Of the Characters of Women, with TSE’s Fresca akin to Pope’s Narcissa, Flavia, and Atossa. Fresca makes a last appearance in eighteen lines written by TSE and preserved among Vivien Eliot’s papers (c. 624 fol. 51), about editing the Criterion and dealing with contributors. They are scribbled on an invoice from Hamilton’s Bakers and Confectioners, 12 Apr 1924, beneath the stray line “A commentary (would be smart!)”, for which see the couplets at the end of this note.
We fear’d that we had bitch’d him quite
But when we met, he showed delight
O what an awfle thing to do
To let upstarts who are taboo
[5]
Write nasty articles on apes
Or speak of love in curious shapes
The pal of God whose name is John
The one safe bet to gamble on
Is glory hallelujah John
[10]
But Fresca looking rather sly
Says Do appeal to Roger Fry—
I know said she he loves to write
And so for you I think he might.
And great Geo Moore (of carpet fame)
[15]
Might—at a price—lend you his name.
√ √ √ √ √
Of course we know the reason why—
He keeps the stunt press in his eye.
[4] upstarts who are] a man who is 1st reading
[10] looking] uncertain reading ‖ questioning very uncertain 1st reading rather sly] very uncertain reading ‖ 1st reading illegible
[11] Says Do] Why not 1st reading
[13] And therefore write for you he might 1st reading
The fir
st nine lines of this fragment appear on the verso with, at foot, “Boston 13 / Shall we sail June 21 answer immediately”; the remaining eight lines were added on the recto, inverted.
[1] bitch’d: OED v.2 2: “To spoil, to bungle.” v.1 2: “trans. and intr. To behave bitchily towards (a person); to be spiteful, malicious, or unfair (to); to deceive (in sexual matters)”, but with first citation from Evelyn Waugh, 1934.
[4–6] variant a man who is taboo · · · nasty articles on apes · · · love in curious shapes: Pound translated Remy de Gourmont’s Physique de l’amour: essai sur l’instinct sexuel (1903) as The Natural Philosophy of Love (1922), ch. IX of which, “The Mechanism of Love”, includes apes. For the book, see note to Entretien dans un parc 32.
[6] see note to “Fresca couplets” [3–5] variant, following 298 below.
[Poem 62, 333 · Textual History II 385–87]
[7] The pal of God whose name is John: John 1: 6: “There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.” Probably John Middleton Murry, author of To the Unknown God (1924), and a regular contributor to the Criterion.
[11] Roger Fry: the Bloomsbury art critic’s translations of Mallarmé appeared in the Criterion Jan 1923.
[14] Geo Moore · · · carpet: the novelist George Moore was from a landed Irish family, unconnected with George Moore’s Carpets of Bury.
[14–15] Geo Moore · · · at a price: publication of The Waste Land almost foundered over the fee supposedly paid to Moore as contributor to the Dial (see headnote, 3. THE DIAL AND THE CRITERION).
The Poems of T. S. Eliot Volume I Page 82
