(To Francis Ferguson)
It is the historic nature of all particulars to try to prove that they are universal by nature—
ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITTANICA
Wer sass nicht bang vor seines Herzens vorhang?
Der schlug sich auf: die Szenerie war Abschied. . . .
RILKE
PERSONS OF THE PLAY
Shenandoah Fish: Sarah Harris
Elsie Fish: Edna Harris
Mrs. Goldmark: Jack Strauss
Jacob Fish: Harry Lasky
Walter Fish and wife: Edith Strauss
Joseph Fish and wife: Bertha Lasky
Leonard Fish: The baby Shenandoah
Dolly Fish: Dr. Adamson
[Enter SHENANDOAH, to the right. A spotlight shines on him as the theater is darkened and the curtain rises on a darkened stage.]
SHENANDOAH:
This was the greatest day of my whole life!
I was eight days of age:
Twenty-five years
Consume my being as I speak (for we
Are made of years and days, not flesh and blood),
And no event since then is as important!
In January 1914 a choice was made
Which in my life has played a part as endless
As the world-famous apple, eaten in Eden,
Which made original sin and the life of man
—Or as the trigger finger with a bitten nail
Which Prinzip’s mind was soon to press
In Sarajevo, firing at Verdun,
St. Petersburg, Vienna, and Berlin—
And like the length of Cleopatra’s nose,
And like the grain of sand in Cromwell’s kidney,
As Pascal said, who knew a thing or two,
Or like the pinpoint prick which gave the great
Eloquent statesman lockjaw in the prime of life
(O Death is eminent, beyond belief!)
—Return with me, stand at my point of view,
Regard with my emotion the small event
Which gave my mind and gave my character,
Amid the hundred thousand possibilities
Heredity and community avail,
Bound and engender,
the very life I know!
[The stage lights up and the curtain rises.]
The curtain rises on a dining room
In the lower middle class in 1914:
Gaze briefly at the period quality,
Not at the quaintness, but at the pathos
Of any moment of time, seen in its pastness,
The ignorance which prophet, astrologist,
And palmist use as capital and need
—The dining room contains in vivid signs
Certain clear generals of time and place:
Look at the cut glass bowls on the buffet,
They are the works of art of these rising Jews,
—The shadow of Israel and the shadows of Europe
Darken their minds and hearts in the new world.
They prosper in America. They win the jewels
(My mind intends no pun, but falls on one:
Jews are no jewels, as Angles are no angels.)
Of cut glass bowls to place upon their tables,
Moved by the taste and trend of the middle class—
[Enter ELSIE FISH with her child in a bassinet and EDNA GOLDMARK, her next door neighbor. Both are young married women, but MRS. GOLDMARK is plainly the older of the two. As SHENANDOAH speaks, ELSIE is engaged in tending the baby, while MRS. GOLDMARK regards her.]
Explain the other furniture yourself,
But lift your mind from the local color,
For the particular as particular
Is not itself, as a house is not its front,
And as a man is not his flesh:
Come now,
See the particular as universal,
Significance like sunlight, the symbol’s glory,
As two crossed sticks of wood shine with the story
Of Jesus Christ and several institutions,
—The union of particular and universal,
That’s what one ought to see, as Aristotle
Has said for years:
he knew a thing or two—
[During the speeches of all the characters except SHENANDOAH, there is a systematic shift back and forth from formal speech to colloquial speech, a shift which is reflected in their actions, and echoed, so to speak, in the shift from verse to prose.]
ELSIE FISH: My father-in-law is coming to see me before the ceremony. I wonder what he wants. When he called, he was very disturbed and upset.
MRS. GOLDMARK: Maybe he wants to spend some time with his new grandson before the ceremony. We do not know what it is to be a grandparent, we are too young. Just think, a grandparent has all the pleasure, none of the pain and expense.
ELSIE FISH: I do not think he is so pleased. This is no novelty to him. He has been made a grandparent five times already by his other sons and daughters. Do you know, he said it was a question of life and death that he wanted to speak to me about. What can it be? But he is always like that, always nervous, always disturbed.
MRS. GOLDMARK: Maybe he wants to speak to your husband too. Where is your husband now?
ELSIE FISH: How should I know where my husband is? Who am I to know such a thing?
SHENANDOAH[standing at an angle to the scene, unseen and unheard]:
This marriage is a stupid endless mistake,
Unhappiness flares from it, day and night,
The child has been desired four long years,
For friends have told the young married woman
The child will change his father, alter herimage
Both in his mind and heart. For he is cruel.
How can two egos live near by all their days,
If Love and Love’s unnatural forgiveness
Do not give to the body’s selfishness
And the will’s cruelty lifelong carte blanche?
[A doorbell rings. The negro SERVANT GIRL passes from the kitchen at the left through doorway in back of dining room which leads to the hall.]
ELSIE FISH: That must be my father-in-law now. Since he has come about something very important, would you go now, Mrs. Goldmark, and come back when he has gone? You have been a wonderful neighbor.
MRS. GOLDMARK [departing]: I have had two children myself. I know what it is to be a mother for the first time.
[Enter JACOB FISH, a man of sixty.]
JACOB FISH [plainly preoccupied]: Dear Elsie, I was very anxious to see you before the ceremony. So this is my new grandson: what a fine boy! May he live to a hundred and ten!
SHENANDOAH:
God save me from such wishes, though well meant:
This old man has not read Ecclesiastes
Or Sophocles. Yet he has lived for sixty years,
He should know better what long life avails,
The best seats at the funerals of friends.
JACOB FISH: My dear girl, last night I heard that you were going to name the boy Jacob, after your dead father. Have you forgotten that Jacob is my name also? Have you forgotten what it means to have a child named after you, when you are still living?
ELSIE FISH: What is it, except an honor? An honor to you, father-in-law, as well as to my dear dead father, although I admit I had him in mind first of all.
JACOB FISH: Elsie, I do not blame you for not knowing the beliefs of your religion and your people. You are only a woman, and in this great new America, anyone might forget everything but such wonderful things like tall buildings, subways, automobiles, and iceboxes. But if the child is named Jacob, it will be my death warrant! Thus all the learned ministers have said. It is written again and again in various commentaries and interpretations of the Law. It has been believed for thousands of years.
SHENANDOAH:
How powerful the past! O king of kings,
King of the elements,
king of all thinking things!
ELSIE FISH: I am surprised that you accept such beliefs, father-in-law. I never thought that you were especially religious.
JACOB FISH: Wisdom comes with the years, my dear girl. When you are my age, you will feel as I do about these matters.
SHENANDOAH:
This old man is afraid of death, though life
Has long been cruel as jealousy to him.
How often death presides when birth occurs:
Yet to disturb the naming of a child
Is wrong,
though many would behave like this—
O to what difficult and painful feat
Shall I compare the birth of any child
And all related problems? To the descent
Of a small grand piano from a window
On the fifth-floor: O what a tour de force,
Clumsy as hippos or rich men en route
To Heaven through the famous needle’s eye!
Such is our début in the turning world. . . .
ELSIE FISH: How can I change the child’s name now? Some of the presents already have his initials and his name has been announced on very expensive engraved cards. What will I say to my mother, my father’s widow? This is her first grandchild. Do you really think a name will make you die?
JACOB FISH: Elsie, look at the problem from this point of view: why take a chance? If I die, think of how you will feel. There are hundreds of names which are very handsome.
ELSIE FISH: Father-in-law, you know I would like to please you.
JACOB FISH: You are a good woman, Elsie. You are too good for my son. He does not deserve such a fine wife.
ELSIE FISH: You do not know how he behaves to me. You would not believe me, if I told you. I have not had a happy day in the four years of my marriage.
JACOB FISH: I know, I know! He ran away from home as a boy and has never listened to anyone. I tell him every time I see him that he does not deserve such a wife, so intelligent, so good-looking, so kind and refined!
ELSIE FISH: I will do what you ask me to do. I will change the child’s name. Jacob is not a fine name, anyhow. I want the boy to have an unusual name because he is going to be an unusual boy.
[The BABY begins to howl, in a formalized way which does not get in the way of the dialogue, but seems a comment on it.]
You understand, I would not do this for anyone but you.
JACOB FISH: I will be grateful to you to my dying day!
ELSIE FISH: You have many years of life ahead of you!
JACOB FISH: You are a wonderful woman!
[In this dialogue, the shift back and forth between formalized and colloquial speech becomes especially pronounced. ELSIE FISH hands the child to SHENANDOAH, as if absentmindedly, and leaves the dining room to go to the door with her father-in-law.]
SHENANDOAH:
She thinks to please her husband through his father.
Do not suppose this flattery too gross:
If it were smiled at any one of you
You would not mind! You might not recognize
The flattery as such. And if you did,
You would not mind! Such falseness is too pleasant:
Each ego hides a half-belief the best is true,
Good luck and sympathy are all it lacks
To make the bright lights shine upon its goodness,
Its kindness, shyness, talent, wit, and charm!
—In any case, what can she do? Fight Death,
The great opponent ever undefeated
Except perhaps by Mozart?
As for belief,
To make a man give up but one belief
Is just like pulling teeth from a lion’s mouth—
[SHENANDOAH turns his attention to the child in his arms, regards the child with lifted eyebrows and a doubtful smile. As he does so, the spotlight falls on him, while the scene is left in a half-light.]
Poor child, the center of this sinful earth,
How many world-wide powers surround you now,
Making your tears appropriate to more
Than the un-understood need and disorder
Your body feels. True and appropriate
Your sobs and tears, because you hardly know
How many world-wide powers surround you now,
And what a vicious fate prepares itself
To make of you an alien and a freak!
—I too am right to sympathize with you,
If I do not, who will? for I am bound
By the sick pity and the faithful love
The ego bears itself, as if Narcissus
And Romeo were one: for I am you
By that identity which fights through time,
No matter what Kant and other skeptics say
—Is it not true that every first-born child
Is looked on by his relatives as if
They were the Magi, seeking Zion’s promise?
At any rate, children for long have been
The prizes and angels of the West,
But what this signifies let us omit
—Now in the great city, mid-winter holds,
The dirty rags of snow freeze at the curb,
Pneumonia sucks at breath, the turning globe
Brings to the bitter air and the grey sky
The long illness of time and history,
And in the wide world Woodrow Wilson does
What he can do. In the wide world, alas!
The World War grows in nations and in hearts,
Bringing ten million souls an early death!
—Forgive my speech: I have nor youth nor age,
But as it were an after-dinner speech,
Speaking of both, with endless platitudes—
[The spotlight goes out, the scene is once more fully lighted, ELSIE FISH returns to the dining room with MRS. GOLDMARK, SHENANDOAH gives the child back to his mother, who acts as if he were not there, and then SHENANDOAH returns to his position at the side, removed from the scene and at an angle to both audience and scene.]
ELSIE FISH: I felt for the old man and you know how I am: I always give in to my sympathies. I know it is a weakness. But what a shame that he should let such beliefs make him afraid.
MRS. GOLDMARK: When one is old, one is like a child.
ELSIE FISH: And after all, I said to myself, he is a poor unhappy old man who came to America because his children had come. His wife abuses him because he does not work and his grown-up children support him, but give the mother the money, so that he has to come to his wife for a dollar.
MRS. GOLDMARK: That’s the way it is, that’s old age for you.
ELSIE FISH: But now I must find a new name for my boy before the guests come. My husband’s relatives are coming and some of the men who work for my husband, with their wives. Mrs. Goldmark, you gave your children such fine names, maybe you can think of a name for me.
MRS. GOLDMARK: Thank you for the compliment. I like the names Herbert and Mortimer more all the time. They are so distinguished and new and American. Do you know how I came to think of them? I was reading the newspaper in bed after my first boy was born. I was reading the society page, which is always so interesting.
ELSIE FISH: Let’s get the morning paper and we will see what luck I have. I wish my husband were here, I must have his approval. He gets angry so quickly.
[MRS. GOLDMARK goes into the living room at the right and returns with the newspaper.]
ELSIE FISH [to herself]: I wonder where Walter is.
MRS. GOLDMARK: Now let us see what names are mentioned today.
SHENANDOAH:
While they gaze at their glamorous ruling class,
I must stand here, regardant at an angle,
I must lie there, quite helpless in my cradle,
As passive as a man who takes a haircut—
And yet how many minds believe a man
Creates his life ex nihilo, and laugh
At the far influence of deities,
and stars—
MRS. GOLDMARK: “Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Somerville sailed yesterday for Havana—” What a life! to be able to enjoy sunshine and warmth in the middle of winter: one would never have colds—
ELSIE FISH: Maybe some day you too will be able to go south in the winter. Who would have believed we would all be as well as we are, ten years ago? Read some of the first names, one after another.
MRS. GOLDMARK: Russell, Julian, Christopher, Nicholas, Glenn, Llewellyn, Murray, Franklin, Alexander: do you like any of those?
ELSIE FISH: I like some of them, Mrs. Goldmark, but I might as well pick one from a whole many. Read some more.
MRS. GOLDMARK: Lincoln, Bertram, Francis, Willis, Kenneth—
ELSIE FISH: Kenneth: that’s a fine name—
MRS. GOLDMARK: I don’t like it: it sounds Scandinavian—1
ELSIE FISH: What’s wrong with that?
MRS. GOLDMARK: You should hear some of the things my husband tells me about the Scandinavians! Marvin, Irving, Martin, James, Elmer, Oswald, Rupert, Delmore—
ELSIE FISH: Delmore! What a pretty name, Mrs. Goldmark—
MRS. GOLDMARK: Vernon, Allen, Lawrence, Archibald, Arthur, Clarence, Edgar, Randolph—
SHENANDOAH:
This shows how all things come to poetry,
As all things come to generation’s crux:
Every particular must have a name,
Every uniqueness needs a special sound,
In the Beginning is the word
and in the End
Gabriel will call the blessèd by their nicknames,
And summon up the damned by the sweet petnames
They called each other in adulterous beds—
MRS. GOLDMARK: Elliott, Thomas, Maxwell, Harold, Melvin, Mitchell, Tracy, Norman, Ralph, Washington, Christopher—
ELSIE FISH: I like those names, but none of them really stands out. How do you think they would sound with Fish? Washington Fish? Christopher Fish? I would like an unusual sound.
SHENANDOAH:
She comes close to the problem’s very heart,
She has a sense of connotation. But wrongly,
As if, somehow, she stood upon her head
And saw the room minutely,
upside down!
MRS. GOLDMARK: Do you know, I could read the society page for weeks at a time? If I am ever sick, I will. I feel as if I had known some of the members of the Four Hundred, the Vanderbilts and the Astors, for years. And I know about the less important families also. I know their friends and where they go in winter and summer. For instance, the Talbot Brewsters, who are mentioned today: every year they go to Florida in January. Mr. Brewster has an estate in the Shenandoah Valley . . .
ELSIE FISH: Shenandoah! What a wonderful name: Shenandoah Fish!
[The baby begins to howl.]
MRS. GOLDMARK: It is not really the name of a person, but the name of a place. Yet I admit it is an interesting name.
ELSIE FISH: He will be the first one ever to be called Shenandoah! Shhhhh, baby, shhhhh: you have a beautiful name.
SHENANDOAH:
Now it is done! quickly! I am undone:
This is the crucial crime, the accident
Which is more than an accident because
It happens only to certain characters,
As only Isaac Newton underwent
The accidental apple’s happy fall—
[As before, the spotlight shines on SHENANDOAH, the scene itself is left in a half-light, ELSIE FISH gives SHENANDOAH the crying child and leaves the dining room with her neighbor. SHENANDOAH steps to the footlights, goes through motions intended to soothe the crying child, and speaks as if to the infant.]
Cry, cry, poor psyche, eight days old:
Primitive peoples, sparkling with intuition,
Often refuse to give the child a name,
Or call him “Filth,” “Worthless,” “Nothingness,”
In order to outwit the evil powers.
Sometimes a child is named by the event
Which happened near his birth: how wise that is—
This poor child by that rule would thus be named
“The First World War”—
Among the civilized,
A child is often named his father’s son,
Second and fresh identity: the wish is clear,
All men would live forever—
Some are named
After the places where they live, tacit
Admission of the part the milieu plays
And how it penetrates each living soul—
Some are called the professions, some are saints
As if to’express a hope of lives to come:
But everywhere on all sides everyone
Feels with intensity how many needs
Names manifest, resound, and satisfy—
The Jews were wise, when they called God
“The Nameless”
(He is the’anonymous Father of all hearts,
At least in my opinion). Legal codes
Are right too when they make most difficult
The change of names, flight from identity—
But let me now propose another use,
Custom, and rule: let each child choose his name
When he is old enough? Is this too great
An emphasis upon the private will?
Is not the problem very serious?
[The dining room fills with relatives and guests. Among those present are the infant’s father, WALTER FISH; Walter Fish’s brothers, JOSEPH and LEONARD, and their wives; JACOB and DOLLY FISH, Walter’s father and mother; Elsie Fish’s mother, SARAH HARRIS, and her sister, EDNA HARRIS; JACK STRAUSS and HARRY LASKY, two men who work for WALTER FISH, and their wives, EDITH STRAUSS and BERTHA LASKY. SHENANDOAH passes the infant in his arms to one of the relatives, and for a moment the infant is passed from person to person like a medicine ball, while everyone wears a broad grin. Then the infant is placed in his bassinet. Some are eating the sandwiches and fruits on the buffet, and WALTER FISH gives one of the men a drink. An argument is in progress.]
JACK STRAUSS: To me, Shenandoah is a beautiful name, original and strange. I will give fifty dollars to be this boy’s godfather.
ELSIE FISH [to her sister, EDITH]: He is just trying to win favor with the man he works for.
BERTHA LASKY [to her husband]: What’s the matter with you? Make an offer quickly: don’t let him get ahead of you.
HARRY LASKY: I will give sixty dollars to be the boy’s godfather—
JACK STRAUSS: I will go higher and make it seventy-five—
WALTER FISH: Gentlemen, Gentlemen: you will make me think I ought to have a few children a week.
SHENANDOAH:
Clearly these business men feel in the father
A man whose day will come: he will be rich,
They feel his power. They feel his strength. He is
A man whose friendship must be cultivated,
sought and won—
ELSIE FISH: Walter, you promised me. I want my brother Nathan to be the child’s godfather.
WALTER FISH: I promised you and I will keep my promise. Nathan is a fine young man, studious and intelligent. What better godfather could a child be given than a promising young doctor? Nothing is too good for my son. Thank you, Jack and Harry, when the boy is old enough I will tell him how much money you were willing to spend to be the boy’s godfather. No doubt, he will then feel kindly to you.
SHENANDOAH:
He has a brutal tongue, cannot resist
Speaking his brutal insights as if
No one else knew the human heart. Yet this
Proves that such motives are intense in him,
How would he know them, why would he mock them,
Smiling with keen pleasure when he sees them
At work in other hearts, except in great
Relief at finding colleagues, finding peers?
JACK STRAUSS: I bet the boy will make a million dollars—
HARRY LASKY: I bet that he will be a famous lawyer—
GRANDMOTHER HARRIS: I hope that he will be a famous doctor—
SHENANDOAH:
How utterly they miss the mark, how shocked,
How horrified if they but knew what I
Will one day be: if from their point of view
They saw me truly, saw my true colors,
grasped
And understood the rôle of my profession!
O, their emotions would approximate
Those of a man who has found out his wife
Has been unfaithful or was born Chinese—
[Enter NATHAN HARRIS, a good-looking and tall young man who has recently become a doctor. It is obvious as he is greeted that he is well-liked and respected by all and as he shakes hands, his boundless self-assurance and sense of authority shows itself.]
NATHAN HARRIS: Where is my wonderful nephew, Jacob or Jacky Fish?
ELSIE FISH: Nathan, we have decided to give him another name since my father-in-law has the same name. We are going to call him Shenandoah—
NATHAN HARRIS: Shenandoah! How in a hundred years did you think of such a foolish name?
WALTER FISH: I fail to see anything foolish about Shenandoah?
NATHAN HARRIS: It is foolish in every way. It does not sound right with Fish. The association of ideas is appalling. The boy will be handicapped as if he had a clubfoot. When he grows up, he will dislike his name and blame you for giving it to him.
SHENANDOAH:
How moved I am! how much he understands!
He is both right and wrong. He sees the danger,
But does not see the strange effect to come:
Yet what a friend he is to me, how close
I feel to him! He means well and he knows
How difficult Life is,
climbing on hands and knees—
JACK STRAUSS: You are exaggerating, Dr. Harris.
HARRY LASKY: This is not a matter of the human body, in which you are an expert, Dr. Harris.
NATHAN HARRIS: No, not the human body, but the human soul: nothing is more important than a name. He will be mocked by other boys when he goes to school because his name is so peculiar—
SHENANDOAH:
He is intelligent, that’s obvious:
Perhaps his youth permits a better view
Of cultural conditions of the Age—
NATHAN HARRIS: Don’t you see how pretentious the name is?
WALTER FISH: Nathan, there is nothing wrong with me. I am as good as the next one and maybe better. My son has a right to a pretentious name.
NATHAN HARRIS: Walter, to be pretentious means to show off foolishly.
[The infant has begun to cry again and cries louder as they quarrel.]
WALTER FISH: Thank you very much for explaining the English language to me. That’s very pretentious of you—
NATHAN HARRIS: Excuse me, Walter: what I meant to say is that the two names of Shenandoah and Fish do not go well together—
WALTER FISH: I suppose you think something like Fresh Fish would be better? [Laughter from the others.]
NATHAN HARRIS: All right, go ahead and laugh. But if this helpless infant is going to be named Shenandoah, I don’t want to be his godfather.
WALTER FISH: Don’t do me any favors! Others are willing to pay for the privilege. I am glad that you don’t want to be his godfather—
NATHAN HARRIS: I am glad that you are glad!
GRANDMOTHER HARRIS: Nathan, don’t lose your temper. What a shame, to quarrel on a day like this: what will the minister think?
WALTER FISH: He has come here to insult me and to insult an eight-day old child. Who do you think you are, anyway? Just because you are a doctor does not mean you are better than us in every respect—
ELSIE FISH: Nathan, you ought to be ashamed of yourself: you should have heard the fine things Walter was just saying about you and how he wanted you to be the boy’s godfather. I was the one who chose the name of Shenandoah—
NATHAN HARRIS: Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself! I am not going to stay here another moment to see a helpless child punished for the rest of his life because his parents have an inadequate understanding of the English language—
[NATHAN goes out as everyone follows him, trying to stop his departure. The child is given to SHENANDOAH again. Spotlight and half-light once more, as SHENANDOAH comes to the footlights, trying to stop the child’s tears.]
SHENANDOAH:
This is hardly the last time, little boy,
That conflict will engage the consciousness
Of those who might admire Nature, pray to God,
Make love, make friends, make works of art,
make peace—
O no! hardly the last time: in the end
All men may seem essential boxers, hate
May seem the energy which drives the stars,
(L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle!)
And war as human as the beating heart:
So Hegel and Empedocles have taught.
—It is impossible to tell you now
How many world-wide causes work this room
To bring about the person of your name:
Europe! America! the fear of death!
Belief and half-belief in Zion’s word!
The order of a community in which
The lower middle class looks up and gapes
And strives to imitate the sick élite
In thought, in emptiness, in luxury;
Also the foreigner whose foreign-ness
Names his son native, speaking broken English—
Enough! for this is obvious enough:
Let us consider where the great men are
Who will obsess this child when he can read:
Joyce is in Trieste in a Berlitz school,
Teaching himself the puns of Finnegans Wake—
Eliot works in a bank and there he learns
The profit and the loss, the death of cities—
Pound howls at him, finds what expatriates
Can find,
culture in chaos all through time,
Like a Picasso show! Rilke endures
Of silence and of solitude the unheard music
In empty castles which great knights have left—
Yeats too, like Rilke, on old lords’ estates,
Seeks for the permanent amid the loss,
Daily and desperate, of love, of friends,
Of every thought with which his age began—
Kafka in Prague works in an office, learns
How bureaucratic Life, how far-off God,
A white-collar class’ theology—
Perse is in Asia as a diplomat,
—He sees the violent energy with which
Civilization creates itself and moves—
Yet, with these images, he cannot see
The moral apathy after The Munich Pact,
The’unnatural silence on The Maginot Line,
—Yet he cannot foresee The Fall of France—
Mann, too, in Davos-Platz finds in the sick
The triumph of the artist and the intellect—
All over Europe these exiles find in art
What exile is: art becomes exile too,
A secret and a code studied in secret,
Declaring the agony of modern life:
The child will learn of life from these great men,
He will participate in their solitude,
And maybe in the end, on such a night
As this, return to the starting-point, his name,
Showing himself as such among his friends—
[The lighting changes as before, the whole cast comes back, and as the child is returned to the dining room by SHENANDOAH, it is obvious that the argument has continued with greater and greater heat. For a moment, as the argument waxes fast and furious, the infant is passed from person to person hurriedly and painfully, like something too hot to handle. NATHAN has been backed against the wall by his mother and several of the men, who are trying to keep him from making his departure.]
NATHAN HARRIS: I say again that the name Shenandoah is inexcusable and intolerable, and I will not stay here unless the boy is given another name—
GRANDMOTHER HARRIS: What an unlucky thing for the baby, to have his godfather go away on this day: this day of all days—
WALTER FISH: Let him go, if he feels that way. He thinks he is too good for all of us—
ELSIE FISH: What name would you suggest for my child, Nathan? Just what is wrong with Shenandoah?
NATHAN HARRIS: I have explained again and again that Shenandoah is not a name, to begin with, and secondly, it does not go well with Fish.
MRS. GOLDMARK: He is just a snob—
JACOB FISH: I wish I had not started this whole business. But after all, a great tradition was at stake.
DOLLY FISH: You ought to be ashamed of yourself: you would like to live forever.
NATHAN HARRIS [scanning the paper]: Mrs. Goldmark, you are so resourceful, here, turn to the sport pages and read out the names of the entries at the race-tracks. [MRS. GOLDMARK turns aside in anger.]
SHENANDOAH:
My God in Heaven: what piercing irony,
To think of naming me after a horse—
NATHAN HARRIS: “Straw Flower, About Face, Cookie, Royal Minuet, Sandy Boot, Rex Flag, Hand & Glove, Fencing, Key Man, Little Tramp, Wise Man, Domkin—”
SHENANDOAH:
These names are fairly pleasant, after all:
But I am not the best judge, prejudiced—
WALTER FISH: This is too much: how long am I supposed to stand here and be insulted without opening my mouth? To name my son after a horse: who do you think you are, anyway?
NATHAN HARRIS: Who do you think the child is, anyway?
[The child howls and SHENANDOAH holds his hand to his head and then to his heart with feeling.]
SHENANDOAH: I often wonder who I am, in fact—
WALTER FISH: Please depart from this house at once—
SEVERAL RELATIVES: Nathan! Walter! Nathan! Walter!
NATHAN HARRIS: This is my sister’s home. I refuse to go.
WALTER FISH: I am going to get a policeman—
[Enter the rabbi, DR. DAVID ADAMSON.]
DR. ADAMSON: Ah, this is the house blessed by the birth of a child; what a wonderful thing it is to bring a human being into the world—
SHENANDOAH:
Here is the man of God: what will he say?
How relevant are his imperatives?
Can he express himself in modern terms?
And bring this conflict to a peaceful end?
His insights, old as Pharaoh, sometimes work,
But there is always something wholly new,
Unique, unheard-of, unaccounted for,
Under the sun, despite Ecclesiastes—
DR. ADAMSON: But why did I hear such shouting and angry voices? What must God think, seeing anger in the house of a newborn child? Men were not born to fight with one another—
JACOB FISH: Why not let Dr. Adamson decide who is right?
WALTER FISH: This is my son: I am the one to decide his proper name—
DR. ADAMSON: A child is not a piece of property, Mr. Fish—
WALTER FISH: Are you here to insult me too?
DR. ADAMSON: Now, now: my remark was ill-considered: but let us get to the bottom of this improper quarrel—
ELSIE FISH: Let me explain quickly: we cannot name the child Jacob after my dear dead father because his other grandfather’s name is Jacob and here he is—
JACOB FISH: Thank God for that!
DR. ADAMSON: You are right, a child ought to not be named after a living man: that is the habit of the Gentiles.
JACOB FISH: Let us not imitate them—
ELSIE FISH: We decided to name him Shenandoah because that sounds like such a fine name. But my brother Nathan seems to think it is disgraceful. What do you think, Dr. Adamson?
NATHAN HARRIS: I wonder how much sense this anachronism has? He knows more than the father, however.
DR. ADAMSON: It is a most unusual name. There are so many fine names which belong to our people: why go far afield?
WALTER FISH: There has been enough discussion. I have made up my mind. The boy is going to be called Shenandoah.
SHENANDOAH:
This shows the livid power of my father:
For fifteen years he will behave like this—
DR. ADAMSON: I do not want to add fuel to the flames of this regrettable dispute. I must admit that there is nothing seriously wrong with the name, although it is unusual—
NATHAN HARRIS: You see, he is not sure. He does not know. He would like to stop the quarrel, but he speaks without conviction—
SHENANDOAH:
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity—”2
DR. ADAMSON: Young man, I am full of conviction.
WALTER FISH: Go on, Nathan, just go on like that: attack everyone in the house: did you ever see anyone so sure of himself?
ELSIE FISH: Walter, maybe Nathan is right, who knows? Why don’t you call up Kelly and ask him?
SHENANDOAH:
What a suggestion! fearful and unsure,
She seeks the Gentile World, the Gentile voice!
The ancient wisdom is far from enough,
Far from enough her husband’s cleverness—
WALTER FISH: All right; everyone always says that I am unwilling to take advice and listen to reason. I will show you I can and I do. I will call my lawyer Kelly and we will find out what he has to say about the name. Not that I think for one moment that you’re right, Nathan—
NATHAN HARRIS: Go ahead, Walter, call up Kelly: I won’t think for one moment that you think I am right—
JACOB FISH: Who is this Kelly?
HARRY LASKY: Kelly is Walter’s lawyer, one of the best young lawyers in town, one of the coming men. And they say he knows the right people in Tammany through his wife’s sister—
DR. ADAMSON: Mr. Fish, to one and all it is perfectly clear that you have no need of me, since you have your lawyer Kelly. I would like to suggest that he perform the ceremony of circumcision—
[He starts for the door. Walter stops him.]
HARRY LASKY: Another one wants to go! Soon no one will be left!
WALTER FISH: Now, now, Dr. Adamson, no offense intended. With all due respect for you, you know it is always best to hear what everyone has to say. After all, this child is going to live in a world of Kellys! Just sit down for a moment while I call. I am going to make this worth your while.
DR. ADAMSON [to himself]: Forbearance and humility are best: what good will it do for me to become angry? The modern world is what it is.
[WALTER goes out to call. DR. ADAMSON helps himself to a piece of fruit from the buffet.]
SHENANDOAH:
His feelings have been hurt. The war between
Divine and secular authority,
Is old as man in Nature! Ah, he knows
He is a kind of chauffeur and no more,
Hence he adjusts himself with a piece of fruit—
[WALTER can be seen in the hallway, holding up the telephone to his mouth.]
WALTER FISH: Hello, Kelly: this is Fish. Fine and they’re fine too. Nothing like being a father. And how are you? And the wife and children? That’s good. Sorry to disturb you on a Sunday (hope you put in a good word for me with the Almighty! ha! ha!) I have a problem on my hands and I could use some of your advice (just put it on the bill, ha! ha!).
SHENANDOAH:
For this did Alexander Graham Bell
Rack his poor wits? For this? Was it for this
The matchless English language was evolved
To signify the inexhaustible world?
WALTER FISH: You know how today we are giving my boy a name. The ceremony is just like a christening, except that it’s different—Yes, ha! ha!
NATHAN HARRIS [To the rest, who are listening intently]: What a marvellous sense of humor—
WALTER FISH: I would like to have invited you, but you know how it is. Now the thing is this: we thought of naming the boy Shenandoah. Yes, Shenandoah: it seems to be some place down South. But my brother-in-law is making a scene about the whole thing. He says the name is no good—
NATHAN HARRIS: As if it were merely a matter of opinion!
SHENANDOAH:
Ah, what a friend! How close I feel to him!
Almost as close as to that sobbing child—
WALTER FISH: I don’t agree with him. It sounds fine to me, very impressive. But this is not the kind of thing you like to take a chance about. After all, a name is one of those permanent things. People will be calling him that every day in his life. O, now you’re joking: sure, Francis is a fine name, but not for us. It would not go well with Fish—
NATHAN HARRIS: Inch by inch, against enormous odds, a certain amount of progress is, with luck, made now and then—
GRANDMOTHER HARRIS: Nathan, be quiet: no more fighting—
WALTER FISH: Now what do you think of Shenandoah, Kelly?
SHENANDOAH:
Mark the dominion of the Gentile world:
This Irish Catholic will not quote Aquinas
Who wrote a treatise on the names of God—
WALTER FISH: Are your sure? All right, then Shenandoah it will be! Many thanks, and give my best to Mary: good-bye—
[WALTER returns to the dining room with a look of triumph.]
WALTER FISH: He says it is a fine name, an elegant name. He guarantees that it is a good name! What have you to say now, Nathan? I suppose you think you know more than Kelly?
NATHAN HARRIS: I give up. No one can say I did not do my best—
WALTER FISH: Let’s shake hands, Nathan, let’s eliminate all hard feelings. I am sorry that I lost my temper. Some day the two of us will tell the boy about today and the three of us will have a good laugh about the whole thing from beginning to end—
NATHAN HARRIS: He may not share your sense of humor—
DR. ADAMSON: Yes! let kindness, forgiveness, good will, and rejoicing triumph in every heart on a day like this, the day which belongs to the first-born child.
NATHAN HARRIS: Here is my hand, Walter, but my left hand is for little Shenandoah!
[He stretches out his left hand at an angle toward the bassinet. SHENANDOAH stretches out his hand to NATHAN. But NATHAN’s back is turned.]
SHENANDOAH:
Nathan! here is my hand, across the years—
[SHENANDOAH regards his unacknowledged hand with great sadness.]
I am divorced from those I love, my peers!
DR. ADAMSON: This is the way that all conflicts should end. They should end with a sacred rite. Nothing is so beautiful, nothing is so good for the heart and the soul, and the mind as a ceremony well-performed. Let us go into the next room and begin the ritual of circumcision. The sacred nature of the rite will uplift our hearts—
JACOB FISH: This ceremony of circumcision gives me more pleasure, the older I get, although I hardly know why. And after that, the food and drink: no matter how old one is, that makes Life worth living, if one has a good stomach—
SHENANDOAH:
Prime Mover of this day, you are a card!
How many lives the Pleasure-Principle
Rules like an insane king,
even in dreams—
[The men begin to go to into the living room. The women remain behind, for they are barred from the ceremony. SHENANDOAH takes the infant in haste, and stands before the curtain.]
They are about to give this child a name
And circumcise his foreskin. How profound
Are all these ancient rites: for with a wound
—What better sign exists—the child is made
A Jew forever! quickly taught the life
That he must lead, an heir to lasting pain:
Do I exaggerate, do I with hindsight see
The rise of Hitler?
O the whole of history
Testifies to the chosen people’s agony,
—Chosen for wandering and alienation
In every kind of life, in every nation—
VOICE FROM THE LIVING ROOM: May the All-Merciful bless the father and mother of the child; may they be worthy to rear him, to initiate him in the precepts of the Law, and to train him in wisdom—
[There is the sound of moving about and arranging and preparing in the living room.]
May the All-Merciful bless the godfather who has observed the covenant of Circumcision, and rejoiced exceedingly to perform this deed of piety—
[Again there is the sound of moving about and murmuring, then a pause and silence, while the faces of the women are turned toward the other room, full of pained sympathy.]
For thy salvation have I waited, O Lord. I have hoped, O Lord, for thy salvation, and done thy commandments—
[There is an appalling screech, as of an infant in the greatest pain.]
And I passed by thee, and I saw thee weltering in thy blood, and I said unto thee, in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, in thy blood, live.
SHENANDOAH:
Silent, O child, for if a knife can make you cry,
What will you do when you know that you must die?
When the mind howls with the body, I am I?
When the horrors of modern life are your sole place?
When your people are driven from the planet’s face?
When the dying West performs unspeakable disgrace
Against the honor of man, before God’s utter gaze?
Though now and then, like the early morning light’s pure greys,
Transient release is known, in the darkened theater’s plays. . . .
CURTAIN
1. “. . . Scandinavian”: A private joke; Schwartz’s brother Kenneth (1916–1990) was the object of ambivalent feelings. Schwartz persistently turned Kenneth into a girl in his autobiographical fiction, as noted by his biographer, James Atlas. See his Delmore Schwartz: The Life of An American Poet (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1977), p. 13.
2. “. . . passionate intensity—”: Schwartz’s protagonist quotes from Yeats’s poem, “The Second Coming.”