by T. S. Eliot
3 hunt the thimble: children’s party game.
5 porters · · · daughters: “O the moon shone bright on Mrs. Porter | And on her daughter”, The Waste Land [III] 199–200.
12 busy in the luggage van: TSE, 23 Dec 1963: “When I was a boy and we travelled by train from St. Louis to the East, I was always apprehensive. I always feared that it would pull out in front of our eyes, or that my father, busy with seeing the luggage put aboard, would miss the train”, reported Levy 135.
14 the signal goes “All Clear!”: Kipling: “And it’s ‘All clear aft’”, The Long Trail 43.
15 off at last for the northern part: Kipling: “It’s North you may run”, The Long Trail 13.
18 Sleeping Car Express: to Hayward, 30 Apr 1943, on a trip to Edinburgh: “the journey, with a first class sleeping compartment to oneself, is as pleasant as ever: all my life Sleeping Cars have spelled Romance to me.”
19 bagmen: OED 2a: “spec. A commercial traveller. (Somewhat depreciatory)” with “A traveller—I mean a bagman, not a tourist—arriving with his samples at a provincial town” (1865). TSE: “An undernourished bagman”, Dearest Mary | Je suis très affairé 4. To William Empson, 24 July 1936: “I was travelling back from Derby last week, and sat opposite two Midland bagmen”. Dickens, Pickwick Papers ch. XIV includes “a Tale told by a Bagman”.
[Poems II 29 · Textual History II 637]
22 in the First and in the Third: Victorian railways had First, Second and Third Class accommodation. The companies were obliged by law to provide Third Class, so when the poorest coaches were upgraded in the 1870s to reduce the number of classes, it was Second that was nominally abolished. First and Third were finally renamed First and Second in 1956.
27 hilarity: pronounced hylarity in TSE’s recording of 1957.
38 button · · · to make a breeze: air-conditioning was first introduced on overnight trains (in the US) in 1932. button: the emendation from “handle” may reflect changes in sleeper cars. The early fittings were handles to be turned.
61 Gallowgate: TSE is unlikely to have visited this run-down area of east Glasgow. It had formerly had two stations, but neither was on the main line from London.
The Ad-dressing of Cats
On TSE’s 1957 recording of Practical Cats, this is the last poem, following Cat Morgan Introduces Himself (there as Morgan, the Commissionaire Cat).
20–21 Now Dogs pretend they like to fight · · · bite: Isaac Watts: “Let dogs delight to bark and bite, | For God hath made them so; | Let bears and lions growl and fight, | For ’tis their nature too · · · But, children, you should never let | Such angry passions rise”, Against Quarrelling.
22–23 A Dog is · · · a simple soul: “Issues from the hand of God, the simple soul”, Animula 1.
37 A Dog’s a Dog — a cat’s a cat: Burns: “A man’s a man for a’ that”, Is There for Honest Poverty (refrain).
45 o cat!: recalling the declension of Latin nouns, vocative form.
49 oopsa cat!: “OOPSA! The Practical Cat”, The Practical Cat 16.
50 James Buz-James: A. A. Milne: “James James | Morrison Morrison | Weatherby George Dupree”, Disobedience in When We Were Very Young (1924). TSE used Messrs. James & James, a firm of solicitors, during the 1930s, and Buz is a name within the law thanks to Dickens’s Mr. Serjeant Buzfuz, counsel for the plaintiff in Bardell v. Pickwick (see note to unadopted headings to Parts I and II of The Waste Land: “HE DO THE POLICE IN DIFFERENT VOICES”). The Victorian judge and legal historian James Fitzjames Stephen was an uncle of Virginia Woolf’s. Ford Madox Ford (previously Hueffer) died in June 1939.
51 we’ve not got so far as names: to Herbert Read, 22 Mar 1943: “Who is this strange lady friend of Peter Gregory’s, who called me by my first name after half an hour’s acquaintance?” See note to Five-Finger Exercises V 1 on dropping the “Mister”.
57 Strassburg Pie: duck foie gras wrapped in bacon and baked in a puff pastry loaf.
60–61 habit | Of eating nothing else but rabbit: TSE in 1955–56: “Our housekeeper has her problems with Pettipaws! The previous cat I had, named Wiscus, was a fussy eater, too! · · · Pettipaws, who dominates this establishment and whose insistence on eating nothing but rabbit is going to bring us to penury”, Levy 69, 76. TSE: “a matter of habit · · · won’t eat rabbit”, The Rum Tum Tugger 24–26.
[Poems II 30–34 · Textual History II 637–39]
Cat Morgan Introduces Himself
First printed in Faber Book News, with a note: “Morgan’s verses may be reproduced without his permission.” Published in The Bookseller, 13 Oct 1951. Reprinted after Morgan’s death as a broadside by Donald Gallup (E2g) in 1953. A copy of this was autographed “pp. Exors. of the late Sir Henry Morgan. T. S. Eliot” (Bonhams, 28 Mar 2006). Added to Practical Cats in 1953, but not to American editions until the paperback of 1968.
In the recording, where this poem is entitled Morgan, the Commissionaire Cat, TSE begins, as though answering the telephone: “Morgan speaking · · ·”
To Hayward, 3 Mar 1944: “a black cat has recently added itself to the society of 24 and 23 Russell Square, which is a great comfort”. 14 Apr: “this week I have been alone (with occasional visits from Cat Morgan) doing my own charring”. To Hope Mirrlees [Oct 1944]: “Morgan has sat on my lap for a short time every evening, both times smelling strongly of fish. He is getting so fat that he has to stop for breath going up stairs.”
To Christina Morley, 27 Apr 1945: “The most remarkable addition to the staff is Cat Morgan, the ex‑pirate (now the commissionaire: there is a poem about him).” To Polly Tandy, 22 May 1945: “I am glad to say that the first person to greet me on my return to Russell Square, late at night, was Cat Morgan the Commissionaire. Did I ever send you the poem he wrote?”
Morley Kennerley to the Faber directors, 2 Oct 1951: “Much to my surprise and delight Mr. Eliot handed me last night a poem about Morgan. I have only just had time to read the poem and have dictated the attached this morning without any thought whatsoever, for I simply haven’t had time. Will you please revise this and add your own bright ideas. This note is to be roneod and sent out to the press (our bulletin list with the new catalogue); therefore I don’t think the note should be too erudite.” Kennerley’s dictated note became the first page of Faber Book News, sent to trade and press with the catalogue:
The front cover of Faber & Faber’s new Autumn and Winter catalogue bears an attractive drawing by Margaret Wolpe of the portico of 24, Russell Square. Even some of the firm’s directors had not noticed that the railings, as shown, are on one side Victorian—on the other Georgian. On the back cover you will find a
[Poem II 35 · Textual History II 639–40]
He is advancing to take up his favourite seat, cuddled up against and protected by the door-scraper. Morgan, for that is his name, is the Faber & Faber cat. He has for some time been much interested in the re-building and re-decorating of the two Faber buildings, for he was present when the flying bomb, which did so much damage, landed just across the road in Russell Square. Many who have been attracted by
obviously an animal of great character, have asked for information about him. We felt it impertinent to attempt to supply such data ourselves. One of the firm’s directors, having a special affection for Morgan, who comforted him during the trying nights of fire-watching, offered to approach Morgan personally about his lives, and Morgan, with some show of affected diffidence, handed him the following a few days ago. We were astonished to find the biographical note written in verse, but perhaps this is not surprising if one considers the literary atmosphere in which he has passed so much of his life, and the many visiting poets at whose feet he has sat. Morgan says that the present shortage of paper is a triviality compared to the shortage of fish which he lived through some years ago, but he is sympathetic to the problems of others and has so arranged his natural history that the first and last verses form an entity when printed by themselves.
TSE to C. St. B. Seale, 10 July
1952, replying to a request to reprint the poem in The Animals’ Magazine: “I would only ask that you should also print a note to the effect that this venerable animal died on the morning of July 7th, 1952 in spite of all that veterinary science and domestic care could do for him, of extreme old age.” The Animals’ Magazine Sept 1952 duly complied (identifying the poem as written “through the pen of T. S. Eliot, O.M.”).
To Robert L. Beare, 12 Nov 1958: “The broadsheets of Cat Morgan’s Apology were printed primarily for circulation amongst the Directors and Staff of Faber & Faber, who had known Cat Morgan personally. The poem was originally composed as advertising matter for the firm. Subsequently Cat Morgan has died and the value of the broadsheets has risen in consequence · · · You are correct in assuming that the poem appeared first on the mimeographed sheets, to be circulated to booksellers.”
Title Morgan: TSE to Hayward, 13 Oct 1936, of the Oxford and Cambridge Club: “I had a good welcome at the club to-day Morgan said now sir I have got a new chef who cooks the roast beef the way you like it and Smith the Strangers Room Steward came in and said we have a consignment of Old Cheshire from Mr. Hutchinson · · · which I think you will appreciate.” To Hope Mirrlees, 12 Sept [1941]: “I am chiefly worried at the moment by hearing that Morgan may be taken from her [Mappie Mirrlees] · · · I imagine that the difficulty about these female chauffeur-gardeners is their ambiguous place between the drawing room and the servants’ hall.”
1 Pirate: Peter du Sautoy to John Ferrone, 2 Apr 1968: “Eliot used to call the cat Captain Morgan, after the famous pirate, but it was in fact a stray that became our caretaker’s pet and was really called something quite ordinary like Tibbles.” Privateer and pirate Admiral Sir Henry Morgan (1635?–88) was notorious for his raids on settlements on the Spanish Main.
[Poem II 35 · Textual History II 639–40]
3, 4 ease · · · Bloomsbury Square: “Leicester Square · · · ease”, Paysage Triste 7, 13 (at line ends). Faber & Gwyer moved to 24 Russell Square on 28 Dec 1925.
7 on the ’ouse: OED “house” n.1 c: “on the house: at the expense of the tavern, saloon, etc. (orig. U.S.)”, with Kansas City (Missouri) Times & Star, 1889, then 1934.
9 I ain’t got much polish, me manners is gruff: Fowler (“be”), on a(i)n’t for isn’t: “an uneducated blunder · · · But it is a pity that a(i)n’t for am not, being a natural construction & supplying a real want, should shock us as though tarred with the same brush · · · there is no abbreviation but ain’t I? for am I not? or am not I?· · · the speaker’s sneaking affection for the ain’t I that he (or still more she) fears will convict him of low breeding.”
12 variant ’e’s got a good ’art: to Mary Trevelyan, 30 Oct 1944, enclosing Four Quartets: “I can’t tell you what a wonderful letter that was, and I am sending you me 4tets this week, and my prattle is no return for such a letter, but remember that like Cat Morgan I have a good Heart really and a serious side to him.”
13 Barbary Coast: north African coast renowned for piracy and slavery.
14 melliferous: mellifluous, melodious, odoriferous. “vociferous · · · fumiferous”, The Triumph of Bullshit 17–21.
17 Faber—or Faber: when Faber & Gwyer was reorganised in 1929, Geoffrey Faber proposed a variety of names. Although he was the only member of his family on the board, he played the dual role of chairman and principal director, and the name chosen was Faber & Faber.
[Poem II 35 · Textual History II 640–41]
Anabasis
CHANSON
SONG
ANABASE
ANABASIS
CHANSON
SONG
CHANSON
Il naissait un poulain sous les feuilles de bronze. Un homme mit des baies amères dans nos mains. Étranger. Qui passait. Et voici qu’il est bruit d’autres provinces à mon gré … ‘Je vous salue, ma fille, sous le plus grand des arbres de l’année.’
* * *
Car le Soleil entre au Lion et l’Étranger a mis son doigt dans la bouche des morts. Étranger. Qui riait. Et nous parle d’une herbe. Ah! tant de souffles aux provinces! Qu’il est d’aisance dans nos voies! que la trompette m’est délice et la plume savante au scandale de l’aile! … ‘Mon âme, grande fille, vous aviez vos façons qui ne sont pas les nôtres.’
* * *
Il naquit un poulain sous les feuilles de bronze. Un homme mit ces baies amères dans nos mains. Étranger. Qui passait. Et voici d’un grand bruit dans un arbre de bronze. Bitume et roses, don du chant! Tonnerre et flûtes dans les chambres! Ah! tant d’aisance dans nos voies, ha! tant d’histoires à l’année, et l’Étranger à ses façons par les chemins de toute la terre! … ‘Je vous salue, ma fille, sous la plus belle robe de l’année.’
SONG
i Under the bronze leaves a colt was foaled. Came such an one who laid bitter fruit in our hands. Stranger. Who passed. Here comes news of other provinces to my liking.—‘Hail, daughter! under the tallest tree of the year.’
* * *
ii For the Sun enters the sign of the Lion and the Stranger has laid his finger on the mouth of the Dead. Stranger. Who laughed. And tells us of an herb. O from the provinces blow many winds. What ease to our way! how the trumpet rejoices my heart and the feather revels in the scandal of the wing! ‘My Soul, great girl, you had your ways which are not ours.’
* * *
iii Under the bronze leaves a colt had been foaled. Came such an one who laid this bitter fruit in our hands. Stranger. Who passed. Out of the bronze tree comes a great bruit of voices. Roses and bitumen, gift of song, thunder and fluting in the rooms. O what ease in our ways, how many tales to the year, and by the roads of all the earth the Stranger to his ways … ‘Hail, daughter! robed in the loveliest robe of the year.’
[Textual History II 644]
ANABASE
I
Sur trois grandes saisons m’établissant avec honneur, j’augure bien du sol où j’ai fondé ma loi.
Les armes au matin sont belles et la mer. A nos chevaux livrée la terre sans amandes
nous vaut ce ciel incorruptible. Et le soleil n’est point nommé, mais sa puissance est parmi nous
et la mer au matin comme une présomption de l’esprit.
Puissance, tu chantais sur nos routes nocturnes! … Aux ides pures du matin que savons-nous du songe, notre aînesse?
Pour une année encore parmi vous! Maître du grain, maître du sel, et la chose publique sur de justes balances!
Je ne hélerai point les gens d’une autre rive. Je ne tracerai point de grands
quartiers de villes sur les pentes avec le sucre des coraux. Mais j’ai dessein de vivre parmi vous.
Au seuil des tentes toute gloire! ma force parmi vous! Et l’idée pure comme un sel tient ses assises dans le jour.
* * *
… Or je hantais la ville de vos songes et j’arrêtais sur les marchés déserts ce pur commerce de mon âme, parini vous
invisible et fréquente ainsi qu’un feu d’épines en plein vent.
Puissance, tu chantais sur nos routes splendides! … ‘Au délice du sel sont toutes lances de l’esprit … J’aviverai du sel les bouches mortes du désir!
ANABASIS
I
i I have built myself, with honour and dignity have I built myself on three great seasons, and it promises well, the soil whereon I have established my Law.
ii Beautiful are bright weapons in the morning and behind us the sea is fair. Given over to our horses this seedless earth
iii delivers to us this incorruptible sky. The Sun is not named but his power is amongst us
iv and the sea at morning like a presumption of the mind.
v Power, you sang as we march in darkness … At the pure ides of day what know we of our dream, older than ourselves?
vi Yet one more year among you! Master of the Grain, Master of the Salt, and the commonwealth on an even beam!
vii I shall not hail the people of another shore. I shall not trace the great
&
nbsp; viii boroughs of towns on the slopes with powder of coral. But I have the idea of living among you.
ix Glory at the threshold of the tents, and my strength among you, and the idea pure as salt holds its assize in the day light.
* * *
x … So I haunted the City of your dreams, and I established in the desolate markets the pure commerce of my soul, among you
xi invisible and insistent as a fire of thorns in the gale.
xii Power, you sang on our roads of splendour … ‘In the delight of salt the mind shakes its tumult of spears … With salt shall I revive the dead mouths of desire!
[Commentary II 140 · Textual History II 644–45]
xiii He who has not praised thirst and drunk the water of the sands from a sallet
xiv I trust him little in the commerce of the soul …’ (And the Sun is not named but his power is amongst us.)
xv Men, creatures of dust and folk of divers ways, people of business and of leisure, men from the marches and those from beyond, O men of little weight in the memory of these lands; people from the valleys and the uplands and the highest slopes of this world to the ultimate reach of our shores; Scenters of signs and seeds, and confessors of the western winds, followers of trails and of seasons, breakers of camp in the little dawn wind, seekers of watercourses over the wrinkled rind of the world, O seekers, O finders of reasons to be up and be gone,