by T. S. Eliot
Attribution Tam o’ Elliot: Burns, Tam o’ Shanter. Elliot: to his Mother, 7 Feb 1928: “I always have to be tactful with Scotch people, because they think my name is Elliot, and they say you must be Scotch, why do you spell it Eliot. So then I apologise for not being Scotch.” (For TSE’s fascination with his pedigree, see letters to W. T. T. Elliott, 20, 22 and 28 Mar 1928.) To Virginia Woolf, 17 Apr 1936: “I have interviewed a Scot who wanted to sell a book, because my name was Eliot; and, said he, all we El(l)iots are alike—hot-tempered, obstinate, and dislike to agree with anybody.” See headnote to The Marching Song of the Pollicle Dogs. Skewbald: not Scots, but Old Northern French. OED: “Of animals, esp. horses: Irregularly marked with white and brown or red”; see note to 28, “bawsent”.
3 grannoch: proper noun only: Loch Grannoch Crags are in Galloway. See note to East Coker II 41, “grimpen”.
4 Maisie: Scott’s Proud Maisie is sung on her deathbed in The Heart of Mid-Lothian ch. XLV.
5 brae: OED 1: “The steep bank bounding a river valley.” 2: “A steep, a slope, a hill-side.”
5, 8 brae · · · we twa hae: Burns: “We twa hae run about the braes”, Auld Lang Syne.
8 thumpit: fired (Scots). Burns: “the tither shot he thumpit”, Tam Samson’s Elegy 56.
9 mavis: song-thrush (Scots). laverock: lark (Scots).
11 brock: badger (here apparently as in “Brock Hill”, a common place name).
13 skevertary: not in OED or A Scots Dialect Dictionary ed. Alexander Warrack and William Grant (1911). “skiver” (OED: “a workman who pares or splits leather”) + “secretary” ?
16 Sae airly in the marnin’: adapted from the shanty What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor, upon which TSE had drawn in The Rock for When I was a lad what had almost no sense.
17–20 It was the bannocks and the boons | That toorned ma stomach soorly, | The baps an’ the potato scoons | That made me skimple doorly: to Enid Faber, 6 Apr 1937: “I am rather exhausted, not so much by the potations · · · as by the baps, bannocks, potato scones, and mutton pies · · · My heart is in the highlands, but I am very glad that my digestive system is back in London · · · I am very unhappy because of my indigestion on account of baps and bannocks etc.” bannocks: home-made bread, usually unleavened, of large size, round or oval. boons: this pronunciation of “buns” prevails in the north of England, but “buns” is not used in Scotland (see note to 28).
18 toorned ma stomach: Burns: “I wonder didna turn thy stomach”, Tam o’ Shanter 162.
19 scoons: the village of Scone in Perthshire is pronounced Skoon (as the rhyme here demands). The Stone of Scone (or Stone of Destiny) had been used in the coronation ceremonies of Scottish kings, but was taken to Westminster Abbey by Edward I’s army.
20 skimple: not in OED or A Scots Dialect Dictionary. doorly: OED “dour”: “dourly adv. with hard sternness, stubbornly, obstinately.”
21–22 guid: good (Scots). Talisker · · · Tobermory: single malt whiskies. TSE stayed in Apr 1937 with Neil M. Gunn, author of Whisky and Scotland (1935).
23 pibroch: bagpipe music, often ceremonial. skirr: OED “skirl” b: “Of the bagpipe (or its music) · · · to sound shrilly”, with Burns: “He screw’d the pipes and gart them skirl”, Tam o’ Shanter 123.
28 Ma honest sonsie bawsent Jock: Burns: “His honest, sonsie, baws’nt face”, The Twa Dogs 31. sonsie: glossed by Burns as “having sweet, engaging looks; lucky, jolly”, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1787). TSE to Mappie Mirrlees (Hope Mirrlees’s mother Emily), 31 Dec 1947: “Hope rapped me over the knuckles for referring to the Bishop of Chichester as a sonsie wee bishop · · · Chambers’ Scottish Dictionary (a miserable affair) gives me no support, but I find Wright’s Dialect Dictionary more helpful. Hope’s use of the word is certainly correct, but it is not the only one recognised. Sense 4 is: ‘cheerful, pleasing, tractable; sensible’ · · · The only weakness is that Wright’s Dialect Dictionary does not always make quite clear to what part of the island, or county of England, Scotland or Wales, a particular use is limited; so that my use of the word may be local to Cumberland or Westmorland, and unknown north of the border.” bawsent: OED “bausond”: “Obs. or dial. Of animals: Having white spots on a black or bay ground.”
TEXTUAL HISTORY
ts1 (King’s): on two leaves, dated by Hayward, 9 Apr 1937.
ts2 (Valerie Eliot collection): first three stanzas only, sent to Geoffrey and Enid Faber, postmarked 22 Apr 1937.
Title BRAES OF] BRAES O’ ts2 Subtitle o’ Elliot | The Skewbald] O’ Elliott | Skewbald ts2 3 every] ev’ry ts2 12 turned tae] toorned to ts2 17 and the boons] an’ the boons, ts2 21 Ah mony] Och Mony ts2 22 An’] And ts2 23 before] befure ts2 24 Tae sing] To crail ts2
Poor Poony now is meek and mild
Dear Alison,
Poor Poony now is meek and mild,
And very like a Christian Child.
She must be peaceable and good:
She could not Bite me if she would.
5
I know it’s very hard in youth
To be without a sweetened Tooth,
And so I send this floral wreath
In memory of Poony’s teeth.
But Oh! when you would like to gnash
10
On Food more firm than Succotash,
And Oh! when you would like to grind
The tough refract’ry bacon rind,
And Oh! when you would like to champ
Some food more firm than porridge damp—
15
The sorrow from your face efface
And think upon Poor Possum’s case.
For he is much worse off than you
In losing teeth: but two by two
And year by year, they are extracted.
20
His agony is more protracted.
And though you now must feed on mushes,
You very soon will have new tushes
(To crack a nut or chicken bone)
Which you can call your very own.
25
But Poor Old Possum has to wait
For something called a Dental Plate
That’s not in any way so good
For human nature’s daily food
And not so powerful to bite
30
And not so beautiful and white.
I hope this letter will convey
A mite of all I’d like to say
And will express in Microcosm
The sympathy of faithful
35
Possum
To Alison Tandy, 16 Apr 1937 (BL).
1 Poony: the two Tandy daughters were known as Poony (Alison, b. 1930) and Poppette (Anthea, b. 1935).
1–2 meek and mild, | And very like a Christian Child: Charles Wesley: “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, | Look upon a little child”, Gentle Jesus 1–2.
1, 8 meek · · · teeth: TSE wrote to E. M. W. Tillyard, 26 Oct 1947, postponing a visit until he felt “more certain of my teeth (I have a premonition that they will fall out the moment I begin to speak in public in French). | Yours very meekly, | T. S. Eliot”.
10 Succotash: OED: “A dish of North American Indian origin, usually consisting of green maize and beans boiled together.”
18–19 two by two | And year by year, they are extracted: TSE had the last of his teeth out in 1947.
25–26 Old Possum · · · Dental Plate: “He has teeth, which are false and quite beautiful”, How to Pick a Possum 53.
26–27 Dental Plate | That’s not in any way so good: to Tillyard, 21 Nov 1947: “What I now advise anybody is, to stick to his natural teeth until the moment when he begins to be sure that he would really be better without them. The substitute is never as good as the original article and the blades are not so sharp.”
AMONG the various Middle Classes
AMONG the various Middle Classes
(Who live on treacle and molasses)
A custom has (for want of better)
Been
called the Bread & Butter Letter.
5
But Mrs. Woolf would not rejoice
In anything that’s so bourgeoise,
So what can poor Old Possum do,
Who’s upper-middle through and through?
For centuries and centuries
10
And under President or King,
He’s always told the proper lies
And always done the proper thing.
Still growing longer in the tooth,
He sometimes yearns to speak the truth,
15
And would express his gratitude
For conversation, bed and food,
And quiet walks on downs and knolls,
And Sunday morning game of bowls.
Whoever gives him their approval—
20
He only hopes that Mrs. Woolf’ll.
To Virginia Woolf, [Oct 1937] (Berg).
Lines 1–8, 19–20 published in Woolf’s Letters VI (1980). A previous letter, [6 Jan] 1935, had spoken of not being asked to New Year celebrations: “If I had been, I should have brought a bottle of Champagne, and sung one of my songs, viz.: I dont want any Wurzburger” (a popular song by Jean Schwartz).
4 Bread & Butter Letter: OED b: “bread-and-butter letter. Orig. U.S., a letter of thanks for hospitality”, from 1901.
6 so bourgeoise: rather than TSE’s comic rhyme with “rejoice”, Fowler “bourgeois” recommends the pronunciation boor’zhwah. OED also gives berj-wa, and cites Aldous Huxley: “so disgustingly bourgeoise, Pamela” (1930).
15–16 gratitude | For conversation, bed and food: KING LEAR: “That you’ll vouchsafe me raiment, bed and food”, II iv (with “dues of gratitude” later in scene).
18 Sunday morning game of bowls: Virginia Woolf to Angelica Bell, 3 Oct 1937: “Tom was miraculous at bowls”.
TEXTUAL HISTORY
ts1 (Berg): on verso of a circular letter (addressed to “Mr Elliott”), dated Oct 1937, from the Secretary of the St Stephen’s [Church] Bridge Tournament. On the recto TSE has underlined an invitation to the fundraising “American tea”, and noted “I am using this in my new play”. A typed copy (not by TSE) is at Sussex U.
2 (Who] Who ts 1st reading (perhaps, given the position of the bracket in the margin)
10 President] typed over one or (perhaps for one or other) ts1
What O! Epitaff
From Pound:
What O! Epigraff
O wot avails the beauteous face,
O wot avails the sceptered line,
The statesman’s brain, the artist’s grace?
Ole Possum, all were thine.
TSE to Pound, 22 Nov 1937 (Beinecke), as a postscript reply:
O wot avails the noble race,
O wot the form divine,
The statesman’s gift, the artist’s grace???
Ole Possum, all were thine.
The second line originally began “O wot avails”.
Landor: “Ah, what avails the sceptred race, | Ah, what the form divine! | What every virtue, every grace! | Rose Aylmer, all were thine!” Rose Aylmer.
3 The statesman’s gift: Yeats: “We have no gift to set a statesman right”, On Being Asked for a War Poem 3. Linda Melton, TSE’s secretary 1941–46, typed a copy of Pound’s lines and the close of TSE’s letter to Pound, 19 Dec 1937: “So wot I sez | To ole Ez | Is what the ’ell, | NOEL NOEL” (Houghton). These are followed by two lines from TSE’s letter to Pound 25 Jan 1934:
I will arise and go NOW, and go to Rappaloo
Where the ink is mostly Green, and the pencils mostly Blue …
Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree: “I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree”.
An Exhortation
to Chas. Williams Esqre.
Charles Williams’s play Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury was produced at the Canterbury Festival, in the Chapter House, in June 1936, the year after Murder in the Cathedral. It too was directed by E. Martin Browne and had Robert Speaight in the leading role. On 30 Nov 1937, Williams wrote to TSE: “I enclose a copy of the verses of which I spoke to you. The joyous fact is that it records an actual incident” (Valerie Eliot collection). Enclosed was his verse:
I am not one of those who squabble for a penny,
I am as little conceited as any, and always on guard
against discontent; praise of others is my second nature.
But I must say I do think it hard
at my own play on my own day
to have an elderlyish woman meet me afterwards
and look silently at me for a great while—
and I? I looked back—for minutes—with an inquiring smile.
Presently she said: “Do you know Mr. Eliot?”
I said: “Yes”.
More minutes went by; we still gazed—
I gravely now, partly out of respect to Mr. Eliot,
partly in my own patience, partly to play up to her.
Presently she said: “Do you know Murder in the Cathedral?”
I said: “Yes”.
Time slipped into a crack and slept and came back.
She said: “I think that’s a very fine play”.
(No emphasis, no hostility, nothing, a mere fact
discovered in a voice.) I said: “yes”.
She looked at me again for some time and then went away.
That was all. As I say
against bitterness I am always on guard, but I do think it hard.
TSE to Williams, [Dec 1937]:
Beware, my boy, the aged maid,
beware the tongue which is so ven‑
-omous, but be thou not dismayed
by the austere paroissienne!
5
Her taste in poetry is obs‑
-olete, she gives her benison
only to sentimental daubs
of imitation Tennyson.
<
Your verses look like crazy rhomb‑
10
-oid shapes to her; for she enjoys
no verse more new than that of Thom‑
-as Eliot, or the nobler Noyes.
She, educated in the pur‑
-lieus of some dim suburban Surrey,
15
admires the nonconformist vir‑
-tues of prophetic John Macmurray.
Of subtle thought like Tom Aqui‑
-nas’s she is quite ignorant;
perhaps she is a press propri‑
20
-etor’s relict or maiden aunt.
Between her mind and yours is fixt
a canyon or abyss or gulf.
Her values are completely mixed,
and she admires Humbert Wolfe.
25
She’s probably a Kensitite,
or else of Bishop Barnes’s band:
so cease thou not from mental fight,
nor let thy sword sleep in thy hand!
T. S. E.
Carbon copy probably sent to Anne Ridler (her papers, Wade Center, Wheaton College). Later ts copy capitalises the first letter of several lines and omits the hyphens which begin others (Valerie Eliot collection).
1–2 Beware, my boy, the aged maid, | beware the tongue which: Carroll: “Beware the Jabberwock, my son, | The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! | Beware the Jubjub bird”, Jabberwocky 5–7.
4 paroissienne: female parishoner. (“Le paroissien” = prayer book.) Spelt “parioissienne” in the carbon among Anne Ridler’s papers.
6, 8 benison · · · Tennyson: Hardy: “The bower we shrined to Tennyson, | Gentlemen, | Is roofwrecked · · · The spider is sole denizen; | Even she who voiced those rhymes is dust”, An Ancient to Ancients 36–42. TSE rhymes “venison · · · ben’son” in Bustopher Jones: The Cat About Town 21.
12 Noyes: Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) was best known for ballads such as The Highwayman, but also wrote the historical verse drama Robin Hood (1911, rev. 1926). See note to Mr. Apollinax 6.
14–15 dim suburban Sur
rey · · · nonconformist: for “dim religious light” see note to Burnt Norton III 3.
16 John Macmurray: the philosopher was published by Faber for some thirty years from 1932. His most recent book was The Structure of Religious Experience (1936).
17–18 Tom Aqui- | nas: see note to Burnt Norton V 27–28.
20 maiden aunt: “Miss Helen Slingsby was my maiden aunt”, Aunt Helen 1. In the Commentary on To Walter de la Mare, see note 5, 7–8 to the second of the Draft Sonnets.
21–22 fixt | A canyon: HAMLET: “fixt | His canon ’gainst self-slaughter”, I ii.
24 Humbert Wolfe: see headnote, above, to Are you a-.
25 Kensitite: John Kensit (1853–1902) had founded the Protestant Truth Society in 1889.
26 Bishop Barnes’s band: Ernest Barnes (1874–1953) had been a controversial Bishop of Birmingham since 1924, expressing support for pacifism and eugenics.
27–28 So cease not · · · in thy hand!: Blake: “I will not cease from mental fight, | Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand”, from Milton (“And did those feet”) 13–14.
DEAR ALISON, I fear I can-
DEAR ALISON, I fear I can-
not join you on the First of Jan-
uary for your Birthday Part-
y and it nearly breaks my Heart.
5
Unhappily I have a pre-
vious engagement: were I free,
there is no doubt but I would scam-
per gleefully to you at Ham-
pton, singing Yankee Doodle Dand-
10
y to the family of Tand-
