Regarding your comments on the German quotes (lifting from one of my
webpages):
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
I'm not Russian at all, I come from Lithuania, a true German.
As this historical Marie was born into the Wittelsbach royal house of
Bavaria, far from Lithuania, it doesn't appear to me that this line is
an actual quote from a conversation with Marie and may have come from
somewhere else. Southam suggests that this quote may have been derived
from the novel Tarr by Wyndham Lewis, a friend of Eliot's. In the
novel, Fralien Vasek states that she is "a Russian, I'm thoroughly
Russian."
In "Quest for a Frenchman" by George Watson Watson reports this from a
letter he got from a friend of Verdenal's:
Jean Verdenal, he had written to me, in an English all his own, "took
a small interest, literary and political, in Charles Maurras and his
Action Française. He may have been inclined to be monarchist
theor[et]ically, but not to take part in this extremist movement."
Perhaps TSE is commenting on French nationalism too.
> I don't think it's much of a stretch to see that Eliot is drawing an
> analogy between the mix of excitement and fear of children sledding
> and adults beginning a sexual relationship ("hold on tight. And down
> we went"). It's the same mix that will be amplified by the
> Inferno/Paradiso lines in the hyacinth section.
On the excitement/fear in the sledding incident--It is likely that the
archduke was Crown Prince Rudolph and, if so, the sledding incident
was when they were about 15-17 years old (see her "My Past"). That
means that there would have been some sexual excitement there also.
Although Marie, in her books, kept herself aloof from Rudolph the
rumors were that she was interested in being the next Empress of
Austria. How much of what Eliot knew from his conversation with Marie
and how much from her book and other books we are likely never to
know. But I did want to mention the adolescent sexual element to this.
http://world.std.com/~raparker/exploring/books/my_past.html
> Interestingly, looking at the facsimile edition shows that it was Ezra
> Pound that put in the final German line from 'Tristan and Isolde' to
> complete the 'frame'.
On the Pound edits on the draft--I believe that they were Eliot's own.
On the page facing the photostat of the draft (the facsimilie) aren't
Pound's comments color-coded red? At any rate the addition of the 'Od
line appears to be too neat to be Pounds.
Regards,
Rick Parker
