by T. S. Eliot
Like cocktail mixers, come to dust.
(Kipling: “How at Bankside, a boy drowning kittens | Winced at the business; whereupon his sister— | Lady Macbeth aged seven—thrust ’em under | Sombrely scornful”, The Craftsman 13–16; included in A Choice of Kipling’s Verse. Cymbeline IV ii: “Golden lads and girls all must, | As chimney-sweepers come to dust.”)
1–4 come out to-night · · · come one come all · · · The Jellicle Moon is shining bright · · · come to the Jellicle Ball: “Boys and girls come out to play, | The moon doth shine as bright as day · · · Come with a whoop and come with a call, | Come with a good will or not at all”, nursery rhyme. come one come all: traditional rhetoric since Scott. See letter to Tom Faber, Easter 1931, “if ALL the Pollicle Dogs & Jellicle Cats came (and of course they all would come)”, quoted in note to INVITATION TO ALL POLLICLE DOGS & JELLICLE CATS TO COME TO THE BIRTHDAY OF THOMAS FABER (in “Other Verses”).
[Poems II 10–12 · Textual History II 628–29]
5 Jellicle Cats are black and white: to Tom Faber, 28 Dec 1931: “You Remember that we had a black & white Jellicle Cat that lived with us?” (see headnote to The Old Gumbie Cat).
7 merry and bright: “One finger one thumb · · · We’ll all be merry and bright”, nursery rhyme.
8 caterwaul: OED v. 1: “intr. Of cats: To make the noise proper to them at rutting time”, first cit. from Chaucer.
18 toilette: pronounced twa-lette in TSE’s recording. Fowler “toilet, -ette”: “The word should be completely anglicized in spelling & sound (not –e’tte, nor twahle’t).”
27 terpsichorean: the Muse Terpsichore presided over dancing. Pronounced terpsi-korèan in TSE’s recording.
28 To dance by the light of the Jellicle Moon: Lear: “They danced by the light of the moon, | The moon, | The moon, | They danced by the light of the moon”, The Owl and the Pussy-Cat. TSE: “When cats are maddened in the moonlight dance”, To Walter de la Mare 19. “Under the light of the silvery moon”, Suite Clownesque III 7 (and see note for the vaudeville sketch “School Boys and Girls”).
Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer
To Alison Tandy, 21 Oct 1937: “Some time ago I mentioned in a letter that I was meaning to write a Poem about TWO Cats, named Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer—and here it is. You may not like it, because those two Cats have turned out to be even Worse than I expected.”
Verso of envelope to “Mrs. Tandy herself” enclosing “Letter in English: from T. Possum”, postmarked 3 Nov 1939: “How would Wuxaboots do as a Name for that Intruder Cat?” On “Wux” see letter to Bonamy Dobrée, 10 May 1927 in “Improper Rhymes”; “-aboots” perhaps from Puss in Boots or from markings on the cat.
Title Rumpelteazer: in Grimms’ fairy tale, the dwarf Rumpelstiltskin takes his name from “Rumpelstilt”, a goblin who makes rattling noises with posts.
Unadopted note on the author By the Author of | “The Fantasy of Fonthill: or, Betjeman’s Folly” | and | “John Foster’s Aunt”: see Noctes Binanianæ, headnote to Ode to a Roman Coot. John Foster also figures in TSE’s comic lines quoted in the note to Sweeney Erect 40.
3–4 reputation · · · centre of operation: of another double act: “a disreputable part of town · · · police · · · long after the centre of misery had been engulphed in his cell”, Eeldrop and Appleplex I (1917). “centre of formalities”, Mandarins 1 12 (see note). “F. M.”: “the uproar · · · has its centre in the kitchen, but gradually it spreads · · · crashing of china · · · flinging of a heavy saucepan”, Diary of the Rive Gauche I (1925) (“dining room smash · · · from the pantry there came a loud crash”, 34–35).
3–5 Victoria Grove · · · Cornwall Gardens · · · Launceston Place · · · Kensington Square: residential streets between Kensington High Street and Cromwell Road. TSE moved into two rented rooms in nearby Emperor’s Gate in Apr 1937.
[Poems II 12–14 · Textual History II 629–30]
14 Woolworth: OED: “The name of the retailing company (orig. sixpenny store) F. W. Woolworth · · · used attrib. to designate low-priced goods regarded as typical of its merchandise”, from 1931, with Auden in 1932. MacNeice had previously had “search in Heaven’s Woolworth’s for a soul”, Middle Age in Blind Fireworks (1929). TSE to Roy Campbell, 26 Jan 1946, of a line about Penguin books in his poem Talking Bronco: “The line ‘That Woolworthiser of ideas and theories’ must be preserved at all costs.” (Penguin published TSE’s Selected Poems in 1948.)
17 gift of the gab: OED: “a talent for speaking, fluency of speech”. Richardson’s New English Dictionary (1835–37) specified “the gift of speaking plausibly · · · making the best of a bad cause” (see N&Q 27 Apr 1867). Regarded by Partridge as “low colloquial”, so at odds with the refined district.
18 cat-burglars: OED: “a burglar who enters by extraordinarily skilful feats of climbing” (1907).
22 variant the man that’s inner: OED “inner” 3. Phr. the inner man: “The inner or spiritual part of man”, with Milton: “This attracts the soul, | Governs the inner man”, Paradise Regained II 477–78. b. humorously: “The stomach or ‘inside’, esp. in reference to food.”
Old Deuteronomy
To Alison Tandy, 15 Nov 1937: “I have written a number of Poems about Cats, and I thought it was time to write a Poem about a Very Old Cat; because he has only forty or fifty years more to live, and I wanted him to have the glory of a Poem about him now while he could appreciate it. Why is he called Old Deuteronomy? Well, you see, that is Greek, and it means ‘second name’—at least, it means as near that as makes no difference, though perhaps not quite that; and you see when he was young he had quite an ordinary name, but when he became quite old—I mean about forty-eight or nine—the people thought that he deserved a Distinction, or a grander name, so that is the name they gave him. So will close. Your fexnite | Possum.” In 1937 Alison Tandy turned seven. TSE had recently turned 49. Deuteronomy derives from δεύτερο [deutero] = second + νόμος [nomos] = law, and the Book of Deuteronomy is so named because it repeats the Decalogue and most of the laws in Exodus. But instead of Deutero-nomy TSE playfully divides the word as Deuter-onomy: δεύτερ [deuter] second + όνομα [onoma] name. For similar playfulness with Greek, see note to Mr. Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service 32 and Pound’s comment on “polymath”. TSE to Polly Tandy, 4 Oct 1943: “Your two daughters progress in the Arts, which I am pleased to see (you know that Painting in Water Colours and Sketching are among my requirements for the Education of Young Ladies—I hope, by the way, that Alison is now beginning Greek with Fr. Kenton, it is high time).”
5 buried nine wives: combining the cat’s traditional nine lives with Henry VIII’s six wives?
[Poems II 14–16 · Textual History II 630–31]
6 ninety-nine: Luke 15: 7: “Joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.”
11 Oldest Inhabitant: human, as opposed to feline in the poem. OED “oldest” 3: “Phr. oldest inhabitant; freq. in joc. use”, with first citation from Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850). But earlier are Notes on the Month in The New Monthly Magazine (1826): “It is difficult to take up a country-newspaper at some seasons of the year, without encountering a venerable personage under this title, whose business it is never to remember anything. He has never seen the like of a drought or a harvest · · · ‘Well, of all the sights’—‘Well, never in my born days did I see’—‘Well, I don’t believe within the memory of man!’” And Hawthorne again: “that twin brother of Time · · · hand-and-glove associate of all forgotten men and things,—the Oldest Inhabitant · · · ‘But my brain, I think,’ said the good old gentleman, ‘is getting not so clear as it used to be’”, A Select Party in Mosses from an Old Manse (1846); “The ‘Oldest Inhabitant’ seems to live, move, and have his being in the newspapers · · · The ‘Oldest Inhabitant,’ however, is only cited as an authority when he does not remember”, Graham’s Illustrated Magazine Jan 1857. W.
W. Jacobs (1863–1943): “The oldest inhabitant of Claybury sat beneath the sign of the ‘Cauliflower’ and gazed with affectionate, but dim, old eyes in the direction of the village street”, In the Family (1906). (TSE: “my sight may be failing”, 15). Eden Phillpotts, The Oldest Inhabitant, stage comedy, 1934.
Several references to TSE and a misquotation of Preludes in G. K. Chesterton’s An Apology for Buffoons in London Mercury June 1928 caused TSE to write to Chesterton on 2 July in protest. Chesterton replied, 4 July, that he had intended his “nonsense · · · to be quite amiable, like the tremulous badinage of the Oldest Inhabitant in the bar parlour, when he has been guyed by the brighter lads of the village” (Letters 4 201–202).
23 untoward: pronounced untòrd in TSE’s recording.
25 ^ 26] The rhyme scheme suggests that a line is missing, ending with a rhyme for “of all” as in the first and third stanzas. In 1939 and 1953 such a line would have appeared at the head of the poem’s second page, but none is present in known drafts.
33 Fox and French Horn: although it had closed in the 1920s or 1930s, this was probably the historic pub in Clerkenwell, the name of which was listed among “Curious Compounds” in G. A. Tomlin’s Pubs (1922).
38 I’ll have the police if there’s any uproar: “And what with the Station it being so near”, Billy M’Caw: The Remarkable Parrot 6.
Of the Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles
Title] Abbreviated on contents pages to The Pekes and the Pollicles. Samuel Johnson’s youthful translation of Battle of the Pygmies and Cranes, from Addison’s mock-heroic Greek poem, was first published in MLR Jan 1936. Together with some Account: John Evelyn, Numismata: A Discourse of Medals, Antient and Modern. Together with some Account of Heads and Effigies · · · To which is added a Digression concerning Physiognomy (1697), the turn becoming common.
[Poems II 16–18 · Textual History II 631–32]
4–6 say · · · display · · · fray: the first triplet in Johnson’s The Battle of the Pygmies and Cranes rhymes “array · · · fray · · · day”.
8–10 Bark bark · · · bark bark · · · hear: “KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK”, Sweeney Agonistes: Fragment of an Agon 169 and 170. “Hark! now I hear them scratch scratch scratch”, Dirge 17.
10 Until you can hear them all over the Park: “All cheering until you could hear us for miles”, Mr. Pugstyles 48.
16 Bricklayer’s Arms (variant Wellington Arms): the oldest pub in Putney, the Bricklayer’s Arms was licensed under the Duke of Wellington’s Beer Act (1830).
19 They did not advance, or exactly retreat: “Unable to fare forward or retreat”, Animula 26.
25–26 Peke · · · a Heathen Chinese: Bret Harte: “The heathen Chinee is peculiar | Which the same I would rise to explain”, Plain Language from Truthful James (1870).
33 dour: pronounced do-er in in TSE’s recording. tyke: OED: “A nickname for a Yorkshireman: in full Yorkshire tyke. (Perhaps originally opprobrious; but now accepted · · · It may have arisen from the fact that in Yorkshire tyke is in common use for dog).”
34 braw: OED: “Sc. form of brave, in old pronunciation”.
37 When the Blue Bonnets Came Over the Border: Walter Scott’s poetic celebration of the Jacobite army on the march in 1745. For the ferocity of the Scottish Pollicle, see The Marching Song of the Pollicle Dogs 31–40.
51 GREAT RUMPUSCAT: to Mary Trevelyan, 18 Nov 1944:
I think I ate something which was unsympathetic a few days ago.
In the year that King Uzziah died,
Rumpuscat felt bad inside.
(Requies-cat ?) Isaiah 6: 1: “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne”. (As King of Jerusalem for 52 years, he was stricken by the Lord with leprosy for permitting sacrificial rituals: 2 Kings 15: 2–5.)
52 His eyes were like fireballs fearfully blazing: to Hayward, 23 June 1944: “the eye of the small pekinese had popped out while it was being given medicine. That is one of the unpleasant features of these unpleasant little animals. Eventually the vet got the eye back again and the dog is reported to be seeing with it: but from now on I shall always be uncomfortable to be in the same room with one of these wretched creatures, for fear of its eye coming out.”
59 scattered like sheep: Matthew 9: 36: “scattered abroad, as sheep.”
Mr. Mistoffelees
Title Mistoffelees: Mister + Mephistopheles. (For “a mixture of silly and Beelzebub”, see headnote to volume, 8. APROPOS OF PRACTICAL CATS BY VALERIE ELIOT.)
[Poems II 18–21 · Textual History II 632–33]
2 Conjuring: OED “conjure” III: “To invoke by supernatural power, to effect by magic or jugglery” and 5a: “To call upon, constrain (a devil or spirit) to appear or do one’s bidding, by the invocation of some sacred name or the use of some ‘spell’.” Marlowe: “Faustus, thou art conjuror laureate | That canst command great Mephistophilis”, Dr. Faustus I iii (1604 text), with “conjure” and “conjuring” throughout the play.
4–5 All his | Inventions are off his own bat: OED “off his own bat”, originally from cricket, also “fig. solely by his own exertions” (citing this poem). For “It’s my own invention”, see headnote to “Uncollected Poems”, 3. INVENTIONS OF THE MARCH HARE.
10–11 At prestidigitation | And at legerdemain: OED “prestidigitation”: “Slight of hand, legerdemain”. The awkwardness for cats is evident in the etymologies (preste, nimble + digitus, finger; and léger de main, light of hand).
28 cunning: see note to Verses to Honour and Magnify Sir Geoffrey Faber Kt. 4.
Macavity: The Mystery Cat
Geoffrey Tandy to TSE 6 Feb 1938: “Report on MACAVITY: THE MYSTERY CAT. The General Impression is entirely favourable. It has been read to Mr Richard Tandy and Miss Alison Tandy who received it very well and said that they liked it very much. Mr Richard Tandy observed that ‘it’s like Growltiger, but not so rough and tumble’. Of the corpus known to him he places Old Deuteronomy and The Old Gumbie Cat second. He says he would like to hear about other Kinds of Cat. He does not find any troublesome obscurity in Macavity. Miss Alison Tandy, examined separately, expressed herself well pleased with Macavity; but exhibited the same preferences and order of merit as her brother. On Moral Grounds I regret to see that, unlike Growltiger, the criminal seems to escape the due reward of his deeds.” Geoffrey Tandy queried 12, 23 and 27–31 (see below) and then concluded “I think it ‘sounds’ well” (BL Add. 71003 fol.8).
TSE to Frank Morley, 17 Feb 1938: “I have done a new Cat, modelled on the late Prof. Moriarty, but he doesn’t seem very popular: too sophisticated perhaps.”
Macavity was reprinted in Herbert Read’s anthology The Knapsack: A Pocket-book of Prose and Verse (1939).
Conan Doyle on Professor Moriaty: “He is the Napoleon of crime, Watson. He is the organiser of half that is evil and of nearly all that is undetected in this great city · · · He does little himself. He only plans. But his agents are numerous and splendidly organised · · · The agent may be caught · · · But the central power which uses the agent is never caught—never so much as suspected”, The Final Problem in The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, the story alluded to throughout the poem. (Byron: “Was reckoned a considerable time, | The grand Napoleon of the realms of rhyme”, Don Juan XI lv.) Most of the parallels between specific lines and The Final Problem were identified by H. T. Webster and H. W. Starr in Baker Street Journal Oct 1954. Priscilla Preston: “The humour is increased if one realizes that Macavity is modelled on a particular villain, Professor Moriarty, the most sinister of all of Sherlock Holmes’s opponents. Mr Eliot intended this relationship to be recognized by the reader. [Footnote: Confirmed in a letter of 28 Nov 1956]”, MLR July 1959. Katharine Loesch also noted similarities, N&Q Jan 1959.
[Poems II 21–24 · Textual History II 633–35]
A note signed by Anne Bradby [Ridler], probably dating from 1937, and preserved by Hayward at King’s, describes “John O’London’s Weekly ringing up to tell m
e severely that Mr. Eliot had cribbed from Conan Doyle, and their not being able to understand that he did it on purpose.” This probably referred to the borrowing in Murder in the Cathedral of a short dialogue from another Sherlock Holmes story, The Musgrave Ritual, pointed out by Elizabeth jackson in the Saturday Review of Literature 25 Jan 1941.
This borrowing was remarked again by Grover Smith in N&Q 2 Oct 1948, and letters to the TLS of 19 and 26 Jan, and 23 Feb 1951. Another letter, on 28 Sept 1951, quoted TSE himself: “My use of the Musgrave Ritual was deliberate and wholly conscious.” When solicitors then complained on behalf of the Conan Doyle Estate, Faber was obliged to seek legal advice. TSE then suggested that he should “state his willingness to print an acknowledgement · · · in the next edition of the play in which the words from The Musgrave Ritual appear. He will then re-write the passage referred to so that it is no longer based on The Musgrave Ritual. There would therefore in fact never be any acknowledgement, because the new passage would be inserted before the book is reprinted” (Peter du Sautoy to Field, Roscoe & Co., 8 Aug 1952, Faber archive). Apparently no further action was taken by the Conan Doyle Estate.
Charles Monteith on TSE’s loyalty to Holmes: “As evidence of his continuing enthusiasm he extracted from his wallet a formidable stack of membership cards from Sherlock Holmes societies all over the United States: the Speckled Band of Cincinnati, the Brooklyn Red-headed League, the Silver Blazes of Minnesota, more than a dozen. ‘The old lady,’ he said observing the pile with mild surprise, ‘shows her medals’”, Eliot in the Office (Faber archive). For “the great Sherlock Holmes play”, see headnote 3. COMPOSITION, above.
Durrell, of an occasion soon after publication of Four Quartets: “At the mention of the name [Conan Doyle] he lit up like a torch · · · ‘I flatter myself,’ he said,—and this is the nearest to an immodesty that I had ever heard him go—‘that I know the names of everyone, even the smallest character.’ Two minutes afterward he found he could not recall the name of one of Conan Doyle’s puppets. His annoyance was comical. He struck his knee with irritation and concentrated. It would not come. Then he burst out laughing at himself · · · ‘By the way,’ he said anxiously, ‘I trust that you, as a genuine Holmes fan, noticed the reference to him in Burnt Norton.’ I had not. He looked shocked and pained. ‘Really not?’ he said. ‘You do disappoint me deeply. A clear reference to The Hound of the Baskervilles. I refer to the ‘great Grimpen Marsh,’ do you recall? Yes, then I remembered; but I had forgotten that it features in the Holmes story. ‘But listen, Eliot, with all this critical work on your sources, has nobody mentioned it?’ His eye lit up like the eye of a zealot. ‘Not yet,’ he said under his breath. ‘They haven’t twigged it. ‘But please don’t tell anyone, will you?’ I promised to keep his secret.” (The “grimpen” occurs in East Coker II 41; the error was probably Durrell’s.)
