HUGH SELWTN MAUBERLEY

E.P.
niiiiiiiiiiiiNiiiiiiiHiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Uu^.

University of California

Berkeley

Hugh Se/wyn
Mauberley

KP.

THE

OVIT>
1920

"

VOCAT

^ESTUS

IN

UMBJRAM

^emesianus EC.

H.

S. Mauberley
AND CONTACTS)

(LIFE

CONTENTS
Part
I.

PAGE

Ode pour f'election

II.

de son sepulchre 9

10
ii

III.

IV. V.

12
13
,

Teux Glauques 14 " Siena mi fe disfecemi Maremma 1 5

*Brennbaum
\

Mr. Nixon
X.

17 18
19

XL
XII.

20

ENVOI
1919
Part
II.

1920
(Mauberley)
I.

22

II.

III.

" The age demanded"

Medallion

IV. V.

23 25 27 28

THIS

is

NUMBER

E.P.

ODE POUR SELECTION DE SON SEPULCHRE OR

He

three years, out of key with his time, strove to resuscitate the dead art
;

Of poetry

to maintain

" the sublime "

the start

In the old sense.

Wrong from

No

hardly, but, seeing he had been born In a half savage country, out of date ;
;

Bent resolutely on wringing lilies from the acorn Capaneus trout for factitious bait
;

ap roi

Travff

o<r 'eV( T/oo/jf/

;

unstopped ear Giving the rocks small lee-way The chopped seas held him, therefore, that year.

Caught

in the

His true Penelope was Flaubert, He fished by obstinate isles Observed the elegance of Circe's hair Rather than the mottoes on sun-dials.
;

Unaffected by " the march of events," He passed from men's memory in fan trentiesme

De

son cage

No

the case presents adjunct to the Muses' diadem.

;

10
II.

HE

age demanded an image Of its accelerated grimace, Something for the modern stage, Not, at any rate, an Attic grace;

Not, not certainly, the obscure reveries Of the inward gaze

;

Better mendacities

Than

The Made with no

"

the classics in paraphrase ^mwon. & JTS r*mrfi

!

If

age demanded
loss

"

A
in plaster,

chiefly a

mould

of time, alabaster prose kinema, not, not assuredly, Or the "sculpture" of rhyme.

,m

ol jron

III.

HE
The

tea-rose tea-gown, etc.

Supplants the mousseline of Cos, "

pianola "replaces

Sappho's barbitos.
Christ follows Dionysus, Phallic and ambrosial

Made way for macerations <;^ Caliban casts out Ariel.

AII i_n All things are a flowing, Sage Heracleitus says ;

But a tawdry cheapness Shall reign throughout our days.

Even

the Christian beauty after Samothrace Defects

"We see TO KaXdv Decreed in the market place.

Faun's
flesh is

not to us,

Nor

We

the saint's vision. have the press for wafer

Franchise for circumcision.

All men, in law, are equals.

We choose a
To

Free of Peisistratus, knave or an eunuch

rule over us.

bright Apollo,

TIV avSpa, riv jj/owa, Ttva Oeov,

What

god, man, or hero

Shall I place a tin wreath

upon

12
IV.

HESE fought, in any case, and some believing, pro domo, Some quick to arm,

in

any case

some for adventure, some from fear of weakness, some from fear of censure, some for love of slaughter, in imagination,
learning later
.

some in fear, learning love of slaughter Died some pro patria, non dulce non et decor
;

".

walked eye-deep

in hell

came home, home

believing in old men's lies, then unbelieving to a lie,

to

home home
and

many deceits, to old lies and new

infamy

usury age-old and age-thick liars in public places.

Daring

Young

never before, wastage blood and high blood,

as
;

as

never before.

Fair cheeks, and fine bodies

fortitude as never before

frankness as never before, disillusions as never told in the old days, hysterias, trench confessions,

laughter out of dead

bellies.

v,

And

died a myriad, of the best, among them, For an old bitch gone in the teeth,
civilization,

HERE

For a botched

Charm, smiling at the good mouth, Quick eyes gone under earth's lid,
For two gross of broken statues, For a few thousand battered books.

YEUX GLAUQUES
LADSTONE was still
When
;

respected,

John Ruskin produced " " Swinburne Kings Treasuries

And
Foetid

Rossetti
lifted

still

abused.

Buchanan

up

his voice

When that faun's head

Became
a j pastime for Painters and adulterers.

of hers

JUfi*8

.'5

vvf>/

'

dfeg&

$ moil

;;':

The Burne-Jones cartons Have preserved her eyes

Still, at the Tate,

they teach
;

Cophetua

to rhapsodize

Thin like brook-water, With a vacant gaze.

The
The

English Rubaiyat was still-born

--

In those days.
'" r '{ or T ?' tt-"" C l f ^ clear gaze, the same thin, Still darts out faun-like from the half-ruin'd fac
\

*<

Questing and passive ---" Ah, poor Jenny's case "...

Bewildered that a world Shows no surprise

At her last maquero's

Adulteries.

"SIENA MI

FE'

DISFECEMI

MAREMMA

'5

MONG the pickled foetuses and bottled bones,

Engaged
I

in perfecting the catalogue,

last

found the

scion of the

Senatorial families of Strasbourg,

t_ . 11 J For two 1_ hours he talked

Monsieur Verog.
<.

T-

or Gallitet

Cn

11-r

Of Dowson of the Rhymers' Club T- 1J T /T 1x J' J Told me how Johnson (Lionel) died
;

1_

1_

r>

By

11-

falling

c from

a high stool in a

L-

-3tt
.

pub

But showed no trace of alcohol

At

the autopsy, privately performed Tissue preserved the pure mind

Arose toward

Newman

as

the whiskey warmed.

;

Dowson found harlots cheaper than hotels Headlam for uplift Image impartially imbued With raptures for Bacchus, Terpsichore and the Church. So spoke the author of " The Dorian Mood ",
;

Verog, out of step with the decade, Detached from his contemporaries, XT J Neglected by the young, Because of these reveries.
1
1

M.

T_

-)8\

b'nbi-'iLsd

y:hQ'!U?,

on

ev/o?!S

i6

BRENNBAUM.

rHE
Never

The The

sky-like limpid eyes, circular infant's face,

stiffness

from

spats to collar
;

relaxing into grace

The heavy memories of Horeb, Sinai and the forty years, Showed only when the daylight fell
Level across the face " The

Of Brennbaum

Impeccable

".

'7

MR.

NIXON

the cream gilded cabin of his steam yacht Mr. Nixon advised me kindly, to advance with fewer "Consider Dangers of delay. " Carefully the reviewer.
;

" I was as are poor as you " When I I got, of course, began " Advance on at first royalties, fifty " Follow me, and take a column, " Even if free. you have to work

", said

Mr. Nixon,

" Butter reviewers. From fifty to three hundred " I rose in eighteen months " The hardest nut I had to crack " Was Dr. Dundas.
;

" I never mentioned a man but with the view " Of works. selling my own
"

The

tip's a

good one,

as for literature

*'

It gives

no man

a sinecure."

And no one knows, at sight And give up verse, my boy,

There's nothing in
it.

a masterpiece.

*
:

Likewise a friend of Bloughram's once advised me Don't kick against the pricks, " The " Nineties tried your game Accept opinion. And died, there's nothing in it.

X.

ENEATH the sagging roof

The
At
stylist

has taken shelter,

Unpaid, uncelebrated, &\fc

last

from the world's welter

With

Nature receives him, a placid and uneducated mistress

He exercises
And the
soil

his talents

meets his

distress.

The haven from

Leaks through

sophistications and contentions

its

thatch

He

offers succulent

cooking

The door

has a creaking latch.

XL

ONSERVATRIX of MU&icn

"

Habits of mind and feeling, But in Baling Possibly. With the most bank-clerkly of Englishmen?
an exaggeration. No instinct has survived in her Older than those her grandmother Told her would fit her station.

No,

" Milesien "

is

20
XII.

APHNE with her thighs in

Stretches toward
Subjectively.
I

me

bark her leafy hands

",

In the stuffed-satin drawing-room

Valentine's

await

The Lady

commands,

Knowing my

coat has never been

Of precisely the fashion To stimulate, in her, durable passion ;

Doubtful, somewhat, of the value

Of well-gowned approbation Of literary effort, But never of The Lady Valentine's vocation

Poetry, her border of ideas, The edge, uncertain, but a means of blending With other strata

Where

the lower and higher have ending

to catch the

A A A

hook

Lady

Jane's attention,
_..
**
'"

modulation toward the theatre, f

-^"

Also, in the case of revolution, possible friend and comforter. *

%
highest

^m^?

wo s^hli8

Conduct, on the other hand, the soul " " Which the cultures have nourished

To

Fleet St.

where
;

Dr. Johnson flourished

Beside this thoroughfare The sale of half-hose has

Long

since superseded the cultivation

Of

Pierian roses.

21

ENVOI

(1919)

O, dumb -born book,

Tell her that sang

me

once that song of Lawes

Hadst thou but song As thou hast subjects known, Then were there cause in thee that should condone

And
Such

that heavy upon build her glories their longevity.

Even

my faults

me

lie

Tell her that sheds

treasure in the air,
else

Recking naught
I

but that her graces give

Life to the moment,

would bid them

live

As roses might, in magic amber laid, Red overwrought with orange and all made

One

substance and one colour

iafebd Tsrf
r

Braving time.
Tell her that goes With song upon her

y^

lips

But sings not out the song, nor knows The maker of it, some other mouth,

May

be as
in

fair as hers,

When
Till

ages, gain her worshippers, our two dusts with Waller's shall be laid, Sittings on siftings in oblivion,

Might,

new

change hath broken down

All things save Beauty alone.

22 1920

(MAUBERLEY)
I.

URNED from
Of
Mcssalina
:

the "eau-forte
'

Par Jaquemart To the strait head

" His true Penelope

Was And
The

Flaubert
his tool

",

engraver's

Firmness, Not the full smile, His art, but an art

&H

falrhA

In profile
Colourless

Pier Francesca, Pisanello lacking the skill To forge Achaia.

;.

",

...

.r.Ayr

iii/'j-

o
'

n '-J

<T O'aoT
r'ff

II

Qu'est ce quils satenf de f amour y guest ce quits pettvent comprendre ?

s'i/s

"

Sils ne comprennent pas la poeste,

ne sentent pas la musique, quest ce quils peu^ent comprendre de cette passton en

comparaison avec laquelle la rose

estgrossiere et le parfum des violettes

un

tonnerre?"

CAID ALI

OR three
He

the scale, years, diabolus in

drank ambrosia,

All passes, Came end, at

ANANGKE
last,

prevails, to that Arcadia.

He

had moved amid her phantasmagoria,

her galaxies,
5ird
f

Amid

NUKTIS "AGALMA h ns

i>K

c:

Drifted .... drifted precipitate, Asking time to be rid of , .\

"

Of his

bewilderment ; to designate His new found orchid.V.'vr:i

certain
serial
,

To be
(Amid

certain
, ,

flowers)

time for arrangements

;

Drifted on To the final estrangement

Unable

To sift TO

in the supervening blank ness

AGATHON

from the chaff

. .

Until he found his seive

Ultimately, his

seismograph

Given, that

is,

his urge

To convey the Of eye-lid and

By

relation

cheek-bone
;

verbal manifestation

To present the series Of curious heads in medallion

He had
And
In their

,1

passed, inconscient, full gaze,

irises

The wide-banded

botticellian sprays implied diastasis ;

Which

anaesthesis,

noted a year

late,

And

weighed, revealed his great affect,

(Orchid), mandate Of Eros, a retrospect.

The

biting empty air, stone dogs, in metamorphosis were, Caught

still

Mouths

Left

him

as epilogues.

"THE AGE DEMANDED

VIDE

"

POEM

II.

Page 10
chance found

OR this
The

agility

Him of all men, unfit As the red-beaked steeds of

Cytheraean for a chain-bit.

The glow

of porcelain Brought no reforming sense To his perception Of the social inconsequence.

Thus,

if

her colour
as if

Came
It

against his gaze,

Tempered

were through a perfect glaze

immediate application
to relation of the state

He made no
Of this To the

individual, the

month was more temperate

Because this beauty had been

The

coral isle, the lion-coloured sand Burst in upon the porcelain revery :

Impetuous troubling

Of his

imagery.

Mildness, amid the neo-Neitzschean clatter, His sense of graduations,

Quite out of place amid

Resistance to current exacerbations

mere invitation to perceptivity led him to the isolation Gradually Which these presents place
Invitation,

Under

more

tolerant, perhaps, examination.

26

By constant elimination The manifest universe

Yielded an armour

Against utter consternation,

Minoan undulation, Seen, we admit, amid ambrosial circumstances Strengthened him against

The

discouraging doctrine of chances

And

his desire for survival, Faint in the most strenuous

moods,

Became an Olympian

apathein

In the presence of selected perceptions.

pale gold, in the aforesaid pattern,

The unexpected palms

Destroying, certainly, the artist's urge, Left him delighted with the imaginary Audition of the phantasmal sea-surge, Incapable of the least ^utterance or composition, " Emendation, conservation of the better tradition", Refinement of medium, elimination of superfluities,

August

attraction or concentration.

in brief, but maudlin confession Irresponse to human aggression,

Nothing

Amid the precipitation, Of insubstantial manna

down-float

Lifting the faint susurrus Of his subjective hosannah.

Ultimate affronts to

human
"

redundancies
his betters
"

Non-esteem of
Leading,
as

self-styled

he well knew,
l

To his

final

Exclusion from the world of letters.

IV.

^
Moluccas
to day, in the next

CATTERED
The

Not knowing, day The first days end,

placid water
'

noon

Unbroken by the Simoon

'

Thick

foliage

warm suns, Tawn fore-shores

Placid beneath

Washed

in the cobalt of oblivions'^

:rr.>85*ic

r j r\ Or ^ through dawn-mist The grey and rose

y.c'fu

Of the juridical
Flamingoes
r.:\
;

A consciousness disjunct,
Being but
Series

hH* ih?-^ ^^i^lr^bb

(til

iba:-.

this ovcrblotted

Of intermittences

;
.

jnemanitayi

Coracle of Pacific voyages, The unforecasted beach Then on an oar

:

Read

this

"I was And I no more Here drifted

exist

An

hedonist

"

28

MEDALLION
i-i m porcelain
!

-""'

"

The grand

piano

,^

Utters a profane Protest with her clear soprano.

The sleek head emerges From the gold-yellow frock As Anadyomene in the opening
Pages of Reinach.

A basket-work of braids which seem as

Spun
in

Honey-red, closing the face-oval

if

they were

King Minos'

hall

From
The

metal, or intractable

amber

face-oval beneath the glaze, Bright in its suave bounding-line, as

Beneath half-watt rays

The

eyes turn topaz.

PiOIJJAtlSM

THIS EDITION OF 2OO COPIES IS THE THIRD BOOK OF THE OVID PRESS WAS PRINTED BY JOHN
:

RODKER AND COMPLETED APRIL

:

EDITION^ Copies on Japan Vellum numbered 5 & notfor sale.

OF THIS
'

2 3RD.

1920

i- 1

20 Signed copies numbered 1 6- ? c ^ TT J L J X joc Unsigned copies numbered 36 -200 J 6 r

'

initials

& colophon by

^^*uJnr5n3mo^bBnA eA
S.Wadsworth.

-^cl
!

A
5

ni
:

ni?q8
-'noi

NigiiH
g:

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PARK

GARDENS