Difference between revisions of "Jonathan Ned Katz: "Comrades and Lovers," Act I"
Line 488: | Line 488: | ||
− | ::Yet even with these bruised wings and faded petals | + | :::Yet even with these bruised wings and faded petals |
:::it is good to know | :::it is good to know | ||
:::that we bear in our breast | :::that we bear in our breast | ||
Line 511: | Line 511: | ||
WHITMAN: | WHITMAN: | ||
:::Alone I had thought -- | :::Alone I had thought -- | ||
− | + | :::yet soon a silent troop gathers around me, | |
Line 551: | Line 551: | ||
WHITMAN: | WHITMAN: | ||
− | (0 here I last saw him that tenderly loves me -and returns again, never to separate from me, And this, 0 this shall henceforth be the token of comrades -- this calamus-root shall, Interchange it, youths, with each other! Let none render it back!) | + | :::(0 here I last saw him that tenderly loves me -and returns again, never to separate from me, And this, 0 this shall henceforth be the token of comrades -- this calamus-root shall, Interchange it, youths, with each other! Let none render it back!) |
Line 559: | Line 559: | ||
:::SCENE TITLE: 8 John Addington Symonds: "I am taking with me to London" | :::SCENE TITLE: 8 John Addington Symonds: "I am taking with me to London" | ||
− | ::SYMONDS ADDRESSES AUDIENCE, HIS CONFIDANT, WITH URGENCY, ON THE TRAIL OF CALAMUS | + | :::SYMONDS ADDRESSES AUDIENCE, HIS CONFIDANT, WITH URGENCY, ON THE TRAIL OF CALAMUS |
Line 583: | Line 583: | ||
:::I saw Conway. | :::I saw Conway. | ||
− | ::I could not get him | + | :::I could not get him |
:::to say anything explicit about Calamus. | :::to say anything explicit about Calamus. | ||
:::This means that Calamus | :::This means that Calamus | ||
Line 621: | Line 621: | ||
:::I did not at all like his strained delivery. | :::I did not at all like his strained delivery. | ||
:::But Walt, | :::But Walt, | ||
− | ::when I thought | + | :::when I thought |
:::how a few days before | :::how a few days before | ||
:::he had been so attentive to you, | :::he had been so attentive to you, | ||
Line 640: | Line 640: | ||
− | ::There, Walt, | + | :::There, Walt, |
:::what do you think of them | :::what do you think of them | ||
:::setting up you and myself | :::setting up you and myself | ||
Line 651: | Line 651: | ||
− | ::VAUGHAN HOLDS UP A PLACARD WITH AN ORNATE SIGN: "SINCERE FRIENDS" | + | :::VAUGHAN HOLDS UP A PLACARD WITH AN ORNATE SIGN: "SINCERE FRIENDS" |
Line 664: | Line 664: | ||
− | WHITMAN RESPONDS NEGATIVELY TO VAUGHAN'S DEMAND | + | :::WHITMAN RESPONDS NEGATIVELY TO VAUGHAN'S DEMAND |
Line 759: | Line 759: | ||
:::at 213 West 43rd street. | :::at 213 West 43rd street. | ||
:::I have invited no company. | :::I have invited no company. | ||
− | ::: I want you to be there. | + | :::I want you to be there. |
:::Do not fail, please, | :::Do not fail, please, | ||
:::I am very anxious you should come. | :::I am very anxious you should come. | ||
− | ::FOUR YEARS PASS, HE REFOCUSES; LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE | + | :::FOUR YEARS PASS, HE REFOCUSES; LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE |
:::Walt, | :::Walt, | ||
:::my life has turned out | :::my life has turned out | ||
Line 775: | Line 775: | ||
:::I have written to you, Walt, | :::I have written to you, Walt, | ||
:::at least once a week | :::at least once a week | ||
− | ::for the last four years. | + | :::for the last four years. |
:::Sometimes I write long letters, | :::Sometimes I write long letters, | ||
:::sometimes short ones. | :::sometimes short ones. | ||
Line 805: | Line 805: | ||
WHITMAN: | WHITMAN: | ||
− | ::told me | + | :::told me |
:::he had never been in a fight -- | :::he had never been in a fight -- | ||
Line 852: | Line 852: | ||
TAYLOR: | TAYLOR: | ||
− | Jerry Taylor, from New Jersey, Second Regiment. | + | :::Jerry Taylor, from New Jersey, Second Regiment. |
WHITMAN: | WHITMAN: | ||
Line 876: | Line 876: | ||
:::On the banks of the Potomac, | :::On the banks of the Potomac, | ||
:::a large brick mansion, | :::a large brick mansion, | ||
− | ::the Lacy House, | + | :::the Lacy House, |
− | ::used as a hospital, | + | :::used as a hospital, |
:::only the worst cases. | :::only the worst cases. | ||
:::A man with his mouth blown out. | :::A man with his mouth blown out. | ||
:::Outdoors, | :::Outdoors, | ||
− | ::in front, | + | :::in front, |
:::several dead bodies | :::several dead bodies | ||
:::each covered with a brown woolen blanket, | :::each covered with a brown woolen blanket, | ||
Line 914: | Line 914: | ||
:::with a young Mississippi captain (about 19) | :::with a young Mississippi captain (about 19) | ||
:::that we took prisoner | :::that we took prisoner | ||
− | ::badly wounded | + | :::badly wounded |
:::at Fredericksburgh. | :::at Fredericksburgh. | ||
:::He is in the hospital here, | :::He is in the hospital here, | ||
Line 1,072: | Line 1,072: | ||
WHITMAN: | WHITMAN: | ||
− | I should have often thought: | + | :::I should have often thought: |
− | "Now Tom may be wearing around his body | + | :::"Now Tom may be wearing around his body |
:::something from me." | :::something from me." | ||
Line 1,159: | Line 1,159: | ||
FOX: | FOX: | ||
− | ::TO WHITMAN | + | :::TO WHITMAN |
:::You will allow me to call you Father, won't you? | :::You will allow me to call you Father, won't you? | ||
:::Both my parents are dead | :::Both my parents are dead | ||
Line 1,194: | Line 1,194: | ||
:::I have often thought of what you told me | :::I have often thought of what you told me | ||
:::when I said | :::when I said | ||
− | I am certain I will come back to Washington. | + | :::I am certain I will come back to Washington. |
− | |||
WHITMAN: | WHITMAN: | ||
− | ::: | + | :::A great many of the boys have said the same |
:::but none has returned. | :::but none has returned. | ||
Line 1,210: | Line 1,209: | ||
− | ::LIGHTING, MOOD CHANGE | + | :::LIGHTING, MOOD CHANGE |
Line 1,228: | Line 1,227: | ||
:::BROWN JOINS BUSH IN LIGHT | :::BROWN JOINS BUSH IN LIGHT | ||
+ | |||
:::that fellow | :::that fellow | ||
:::that went down on your BK, | :::that went down on your BK, | ||
Line 1,297: | Line 1,297: | ||
:::About 7 o'clock in the evening | :::About 7 o'clock in the evening | ||
:::he dozed into a sleep | :::he dozed into a sleep | ||
− | ::for a couple of hours. | + | :::for a couple of hours. |
:::The rest of the night | :::The rest of the night | ||
:::was very bad. | :::was very bad. | ||
Line 1,332: | Line 1,332: | ||
:::There is nothing beyond the comrade -- | :::There is nothing beyond the comrade -- | ||
:::the man, | :::the man, | ||
− | ::the woman: | + | :::the woman: |
:::nothing beyond: | :::nothing beyond: | ||
:::even our lovers | :::even our lovers | ||
:::must be comrades: | :::must be comrades: | ||
− | ::even our wives, husbands, mothers, fathers: | + | :::even our wives, husbands, mothers, fathers: |
:::we can't stay together, feel satisfied, | :::we can't stay together, feel satisfied, | ||
:::grow bigger, | :::grow bigger, | ||
Line 1,345: | Line 1,345: | ||
:::I had to give up health for it, | :::I had to give up health for it, | ||
:::but I am satisfied | :::but I am satisfied | ||
− | ::with what I got. | + | :::with what I got. |
:::I got the boys: | :::I got the boys: | ||
:::the boys: | :::the boys: | ||
Line 1,359: | Line 1,359: | ||
:::the consummated book. | :::the consummated book. | ||
:::I got that: | :::I got that: | ||
− | ::the ''Leaves'', | + | :::the ''Leaves'', |
− | ::the boys. | + | :::the boys. |
− | ONE OF WHITMAN'S BOYS, JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, NOW 30-YEARS OLD, FOR THE FIRST TIME REACHES OUT TO HIM. SYMONDS DIRECTLY ADDRESSES WHITMAN, WHO IS SEATED WITH HORACE TRAUBEL | + | :::ONE OF WHITMAN'S BOYS, JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, NOW 30-YEARS OLD, FOR THE FIRST TIME REACHES OUT TO HIM. SYMONDS DIRECTLY ADDRESSES WHITMAN, WHO IS SEATED WITH HORACE TRAUBEL |
Line 1,371: | Line 1,371: | ||
SYMONDS: | SYMONDS: | ||
:::When a man | :::When a man | ||
− | ::has dedicated a poem to another man | + | :::has dedicated a poem to another man |
:::I think he is bound | :::I think he is bound | ||
:::to confess the liberty. | :::to confess the liberty. | ||
Line 1,397: | Line 1,397: | ||
:::the treasures he has found | :::the treasures he has found | ||
:::I have done among my friends. | :::I have done among my friends. | ||
− | ::I say this to tell you, | + | :::I say this to tell you, |
:::as simply as I can, | :::as simply as I can, | ||
:::how much lowe you. | :::how much lowe you. | ||
Line 1,406: | Line 1,406: | ||
:::aged thirty, | :::aged thirty, | ||
:::married, | :::married, | ||
− | ::with three daughters. | + | :::with three daughters. |
Line 1,430: | Line 1,430: | ||
:::ADDRESSING SYMONDS ALONG WITH TRAUBEL | :::ADDRESSING SYMONDS ALONG WITH TRAUBEL | ||
− | + | ||
+ | :::Symonds has always seemed to me | ||
:::a forthright man, | :::a forthright man, | ||
:::unhesitating, | :::unhesitating, | ||
Line 1,443: | Line 1,444: | ||
:::is a red day for my calendar. | :::is a red day for my calendar. | ||
:::I am always strangely moved by a letter from Symonds: | :::I am always strangely moved by a letter from Symonds: | ||
− | ::it makes the day, | + | :::it makes the day, |
:::it makes many days, | :::it makes many days, | ||
:::sacred. | :::sacred. | ||
Line 1,481: | Line 1,482: | ||
:::as on a par | :::as on a par | ||
:::with the sexual feeling | :::with the sexual feeling | ||
− | :::was | + | :::was ''real''-- |
:::not a delusion of distorted passions, | :::not a delusion of distorted passions, | ||
:::not a dream of the past -- | :::not a dream of the past -- | ||
Line 1,523: | Line 1,524: | ||
:::Symonds is right, | :::Symonds is right, | ||
− | ::no doubt, | + | :::no doubt, |
:::to ask the questions: | :::to ask the questions: | ||
:::I am just as much right | :::I am just as much right | ||
Line 1,530: | Line 1,531: | ||
:::TO SYMONDS | :::TO SYMONDS | ||
− | ::I often say to myself about Calamus | + | :::I often say to myself about Calamus |
:::perhaps it means more or less | :::perhaps it means more or less | ||
:::than what I thought myself. | :::than what I thought myself. | ||
− | ::means different: | + | :::means different: |
:::perhaps I don't know | :::perhaps I don't know | ||
:::what it all means | :::what it all means | ||
Line 1,561: | Line 1,562: | ||
− | :::WHITMAN ENDS EMPHATICALLY -- HE KNOWS HIS SEXUAL MAN-LOVE CALAMUS POEMS MAY COMPROMISE HIS FUTURE REPUTATION AS REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN MAN AND POET | + | :::WHITMAN ENDS EMPHATICALLY, EVEN DESPERATELY -- HE KNOWS HIS SEXUAL MAN-LOVE CALAMUS POEMS MAY WELL COMPROMISE HIS FUTURE REPUTATION AS REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN MAN AND POET |
:::Calamus needs clear ideas: | :::Calamus needs clear ideas: |
Revision as of 22:42, 25 January 2010
ENTRY IN CONSTRUCTION
Jonathan Ned Katz: "Comrades and Lovers"
- ACT I
- LIGHTS OFF; WHITMAN'S FIRST WORDS ARE HEARD IN THE DARK.
WHITMAN:
- Love thoughts
SPEAKER 1
- love-juice,
SPEAKER 2:
- love-odor,
SPEAKER 3:
- love-yielding,
SPEAKER 4:
- love-climbers,
WHITMAN:
- and the climbing sap,
SPEAKER 1:
- arms and hands of love,
SPEAKER 2:
- lips of love,
SPEAKER 3:
- phallic thumb of love,
SPEAKER 4:
- breasts of love,
WHITMAN:
- bellies pressed and glued together with love.
- LIGHTS ON, NIGHT.
- SCENE TITLE, PROJECTED OR PRINTED ON PLACARD:
- 1 Walt Whitman, "Love-thoughts"
- WHITMAN AND A "BOY" MOVE CLOSE TOGETHER, ADDRESS EACH OTHER.
BOY:
- The wet of woods through the early hours.
WHITMAN:
- Two sleepers at night lying close together as they sleep,
BOY:
- One with an arm slanting down across and below the waist of the other.
WHITMAN:
- The smell of apples,
BOY:
- aromas from crushed sage plant,
WHITMAN:
- mint,
BOY:
- birch bark.
WHITMAN:
- The boy's longings,
- the glow and pressure
- as he confides to me
- what he was dreaming.
BOY:
- The dead leaf tallings its spiral whirl,
- falling still and content to the ground.
WHITMAN:
- The sensitive, orbic, underlapped brothers,
- that only privileged feelers
- may be intimate where they are.
BOY:
- The mystic amorous night.
WHITMAN:
- The curious roamer the hand,
- roaming allover the body,
BOY:
- the bashful withdrawing of flesh
- where the fingers soothingly pause
- and edge themselves.
WHITMAN:
- The limpid liquid within the young man,
BOY:
- the vex'd corrosion
- so pensive and painful,
WHITMAN:
- the torment,
BOY:
- the irritable tide
- that will not be at rest,
WHITMAN:
- the like of the same I feel,
- the like of the same in others.
- SCENE TITLE: 2 Rufus Griswold, "Once licentiousness"
- RESPONDING TO THE EARLIER VERSE, GRISWOLD APPEARS WITH LEAVES OF GRASS, SPEAKS TO WHITMAN.
GRISWOLD:
- Once licentiousness
- shunned the light;
- now it writes books
- showing how grand and pure it is,
- and prophecies
- its own ultimate triumph.
- TO AUDIENCE, HOLDING UP LEAVES OF GRASS
- It is impossible to imagine
- how any man's fancy
- could have conceived
- such a mass of stupid filth.
- We leave this gathering of muck
- to the laws
- which have power to suppress
- such gross obscenity.
- FIRE AND BR1MSTONE PROPHECY
- "Peccatum illud horribile,
- inter Christianos non nominandum."
- WHISPERS TO WHITMAN
- (That vile sin among Christians not to be named.)
- WHITMAN AND SPEAKERS RESPOND TO GRISWOLD.
- SCENE TITLE: 3 Walt Whitman, "Through me"
WHITMAN:
- Through me many long dumb voices,
SPEAKER 1:
- voices of the interminable generations of slaves,
SPEAKER 2:
- voices of prostitutes and deformed persons,
SPEAKER 3:
- voices of the diseased and despairing,
SPEAKER 4:
- voices of wombs and the fatherstuff,
SPEAKER 1:
- voices of the rights of them the others are down upon.
WHITMAN:
- Through me forbidden voices,
SPEAKER 2:
- voices of sexes and lusts,
SPEAKER 3:
- voices veiled
- and I remove the veil,
SPEAKER 4:
- voices indecent
- by me clarified and transfigured.
WHITMAN:
- I do not press my finger across my mouth!
SPEAKER 1:
- keep as delicate around the bowels
- as around the head and heart,
SPEAKER 2:
- copulation is no more rank to me than death is.
SPEAKER 3:
- I believe in the flesh and the appetites,
SPEAKER 4:
- seeing, hearing, and feeling are miracles,
- and each part and tag of me is a miracle.
WHITMAN:
- TO BRONSON ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU, WHO APPEAR IN THE NEXT SCENE
- If I worship any particular thing
- it shall be some of the spread of my body;
SPEAKER 1:
- You my rich blood,
- your milky stream pale strippings of my life;
SPEAKER 2:
- Breast that presses against other breasts
- it shall be you,
SPEAKER 3:
- Root of washed sweet-flag,
- timorous pond-snipe,
- nest of guarded duplicate eggs,
- it shall be you,
SPEAKER 4:
- Mixed tussled hay of head and beard and brawn
- it shall be you,
WHITMAN:
- Trickling sap of maple,
- fibre of manly wheat,
- it shall be. you;
SPEAKER 1:
- Winds
- whose soft-tickling genitals rub against me
- it shall be you,
SPEAKER 2:
- Broad muscular fields,
SPEAKER 3:
- branches of liveoak,
SPEAKER 4:
- loving lounger in my winding paths,
- it shall be you,
WHITMAN:
- Hands I have taken,
- face I have kissed,
- mortal I have ever touched,
- it shall be you.
- ALCOTT AND HENRY DAVID THOREAU RESPOND TO WHITMAN
- SCENE TITLE: 4 Bronson Alcott: "This morning with Henry David Thoreau"
- ALCOTT ADDRESSES AUDIENCE; THOREAU ACCOMPANIES HIM, FOCUSING ON WHITMAN
ALCOTT:
- This morning
- with Henry David Thoreau to Brooklyn,
- to see Walt Whitman.
- I find this Whitman
- likely to make his mark on Young America
- he affirming himself
- to be its representative man and poet.
- WHITMAN AND THOREAU EYE EACH OTHER SUSPICIOUSLY; ALCOTT OBSERVES
- Thoreau and Whitman
- each seemed planted fast in reserve,
- surveying the other curiously,
- like two beasts,
- each wondering
- what the other would do,
- whether to snap
- or run.
THOREAU:
- TO ALCOTT, INDICATING WHITMAN
- There are two or three pieces
- in his book
- which are disagreeable
- to say the least,
- simply sensual.
- He does not celebrate love at all.
- It is as if
- the beasts spoke.
- Men have been ashamed of themselves
- with reason.
- I do not wish
- his poems' sensual parts
- were not written
- but that men and women
- were so pure
- they could read them
- without harm,
- that is,
- without understanding them.
- TO HIMSELF; A NEW THOUGHT
- Of course,
- if we are shocked,
- whose experience are we reminded of?
- SCENE TITLE: 5 Walt Whitman, "By silence"
- WHITMAN RESPONDS TO THOREAU
WHITMAN:
- By silence
- the pens of poets
- have long connived
- at the filthy law
- that sex,
- desires,
- lusts,
- organs,
- acts
- are unmentionable,
- to be ashamed of,
- driven to skulk out of literature.
SPEAKER 1:
- This filthy law
- has to be repealed
- it stands in the way
- of great reforms.
SPEAKER 2:
- It is in the interest of women
- as well as men
- that there should be
- no infidelism about sex,
- but perfect faith.
SPEAKER 3:
- The present diluted deferential love
- is enough to make a man vomit;
SPEAKER 4:
- as to manly friendship,
- everywhere observed in the states,
- there is not the first breath of it
- to be observed in print.
WHITMAN:
- The body of a man or women
- is so far quite unexpressed in poems;
SPEAKER 1:
- that body is to be expressed,
- and sex is.
WHITMAN:
- TO JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, WHO APPEARS IN NEXT SCENE
- All theories stagnate in their vitals,
- cowardly and rotten,
- if they cannot publicly accept, and publicly name,
- with specific words,
- the things on which all decency,
- all that is worth being here for
- depend.
- SYMONDS, INSPIRED BY WHITMAN'S WORDS, STEPS INTO THE LIGHT.
- SCENE TITLE: 6 John Addington Symonds, "Is it not strange?"
- HERE, SYMONDS IS TWENTYSEVEN; HE HAS BEEN MARRIED THREE YEARS AND HAS TWO DAUGHTERS; HE'S WELL-EDUCATED, AND COMES FROM AN OLD, ENGLISH, ARISTOCRATIC FAMILY, BUT HE MUST WRITE LITERARY AND ART CRITICISM TO SUPPLEMENT HIS INHERITED INCOME.
- HE INTRODUCES HIMSELF TO THE AUDIENCE AS A CLOSE CONFIDANT, FULL OF INNER PASSION
SYMONDS:
- Is it not strange I should have read
- Whitman's Leaves of Grass only this week?
- If I had read it years ago,
- and if I had understood,
- I should have been
- a braver, better, different man now.
- The Leaves is not a book.
- It is a man,
- miraculous in his vigour,
- and love,
- and omniscience,
- and animalism.
- and omnivorous humanity.
- ELATED AT HIS RECENT DISCOVERY OF WHITMAN'S CELEBRATION OF LOVE BETWEEN MEN
- His Calamus poems
- treat the whole matter newly.
- This man has said
- what I have burned to say;
- what I should have done
- if opinion and authority
- and the contamination of vile lewdness
- had not ended in muddling my brain.
- WITH SLIGHT SELF-MOCKERY
- Yet even with these bruised wings and faded petals
- it is good to know
- that we bear in our breast
- the Psyche and Flower
- of the noblest
- most masculine Democracy.
- RAISING HIS ARM TO INTRODUCE THE WHITMAN POEM THAT FOLLOWS
- Behold!
- A light has risen
- which may not be denied.
- LIGHTS UP ON WHITMAN. TITLE: 7 Walt Whitman, "Alone I had thought"
- AS WHITMAN SPEAKS HE IS JOINED, ONE BY ONE, BY A GROUP OF YOUNG MEN. WHITMAN AND THE SPEAKERS ADDRESS EACH OTHER
WHITMAN:
- Alone I had thought --
- yet soon a silent troop gathers around me,
SPEAKER 1:
- Some walk by my side, and some behind,
SPEAKER 2:
- and some embrace my arms or neck,
WHITMAN:
- They, the spirits of friends, dead or alive -- thicker they come, a great crowd, and I in the middle,
SPEAKER 3:
- Collecting, dispensing, singing in spring, there I wander with them,
WHITMAN:
- Plucking something for tokens -- something for these, till I hit upon a name -- tossing toward whoever is near me,
SPEAKER 4:
- Here! lilac, with a branch of pine,
SPEAKER 1:
- Here, out of my pocket, some moss which I pulled off a live-oak in Florida, as it hung trailing down,
SPEAKER 2:
- Here, some pinks and laurel leaves, and a handful of sage,
SPEAKER 3:
- And here what I now draw from the water, wading in the pond-side,
WHITMAN:
- (0 here I last saw him that tenderly loves me -and returns again, never to separate from me, And this, 0 this shall henceforth be the token of comrades -- this calamus-root shall, Interchange it, youths, with each other! Let none render it back!)
- WHITMAN GIVES CALAMUS-ROOT TO SYMONDS, WHO TAKES IT GLADLY, HOLDING IT UP TO AUDIENCE]
- SCENE TITLE: 8 John Addington Symonds: "I am taking with me to London"
- SYMONDS ADDRESSES AUDIENCE, HIS CONFIDANT, WITH URGENCY, ON THE TRAIL OF CALAMUS
SYMONDS:
- I am taking with me to London
- an introduction
- to the American Unitarian clergyman, Moncure Conway,
- whose biography of Whitman appeared in the Fortnightly.
- From Conway I hope to learn
- something more
- about the innovator.
- I shall not omit
- to ask Conway questions
- about the substance
- of Whitman's Calamus poems
- with a view to hearing
- what a nest for it
- there is in America.
- TIME PASSES, HE REFOCUSES; MOOD/LIGHTING CHANGE
- I saw Conway.
- I could not get him
- to say anything explicit about Calamus.
- This means that Calamus
- is really very important
- and Conway refuses
- to talk it over with a stranger.
- He cannot be oblivious
- of its plainer meanings.
- If I see Conway again
- I shall consult him further
- about certain Whitman poems.
- FRED VAUGHAN STEPS FORWARD, HIS WORKING CLASS DEMEANOR AND SPEECH CONTRAST WITH SYMONDS' ARISTOCRATIC ENGLISH
- SCENE TITLE: 9 Fred Vaughan, "To form the acquaintance"
VAUGHAN:
- TO WHITMAN
- To form the acquaintance
- of any Boston stage man,
- get on one of those stages
- running to Charleston Bridge, or Chelsea Ferry.
- Introduce yourself as my friend.
- By the way, Walt,
- what do you think of the Common?
- You tell me Mr. Emerson came to see you.
- I heard him lecture on Friday last.
- Though much pleased with the subject,
- I did not at all like his strained delivery.
- But Walt,
- when I thought
- how a few days before
- he had been so attentive to you,
- my heart warmed toward him very much.
- I think he has that in him
- which makes men
- capable of strong friendships.
- This theme he touched on,
- and said that
- a man whose heart was filled with Friendship,
- warm, ever-enduring,
- not-to-be-shaken-by-anything,
- was one to be set on one side
- apart from other men.
- VAUGHAN AND WHITMAN FORM A TABLEAU REPRESENTING SINCERE FRIENDS
- There, Walt,
- what do you think of them
- setting up you and myself
- and one or two others that we know
- in some public place,
- HE LOOKS AROUND THE STAGE AREA
- with a large placard on our breasts:
- VAUGHAN HOLDS UP A PLACARD WITH AN ORNATE SIGN: "SINCERE FRIENDS"
- Good doctrine that.
- WHITMAN MOVES AWAY FROM VAUGHAN TO INSPECT HIS PROOF SHEETS, AND TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM VAUGHAN'S INTENSE NEED
- I am glad, Walt,
- you are succeeding so well with your book.
- Send me some of the first proof sheets.
- WHITMAN RESPONDS NEGATIVELY TO VAUGHAN'S DEMAND
WHITMAN:
- TO VAUGHAN
- Are you the new person drawn toward me?
- To begin with, take warning, I am surely far different from what you suppose.
VAUGHAN:
- How is this, Walt?
- I have written to you twice since I heard from you.
WHITMAN:
- Do you suppose you will find in me your ideal?
- Do you think it is so easy to have me become your lover?
VAUGHAN:
- What the devil is the matter?
- Nothing serious I hope.
WHITMAN:
- Do you think the friendship of me would be unalloyed satisfaction?
VAUGHAN:
- I cannot succeed
- in hearing one word from you.
WHITMAN:
- Do you think I am trusty and faithful?
VAUGHAN:
- I swear
- I would have thought
- you to be the last man in the world to neglect me.
WHITMAN:
- Do you see no further than this facade, this smooth and tolerant manner of me?
VAUGHAN:
- I was very much pleased to hear from you.
WHITMAN:
- Do you suppose yourself advancing on real ground toward a real heroic man?
VAUGHAN:
- I want to see you, Walt,
- very much indeed.
WHITMAN:
- Have you no thought 0 dreamer that it may be all maya, illusion?
VAUGHAN:
- I have never thought
- more frequently about you.
WHITMAN:
- o the next step may precipitate you!
VAUGHAN:
- Call and see me
- as soon as you arrive in New York,
- I have much,
- very much
- to talk to you about.
WHITMAN:
- o let some past deceived one hiss in your ears, how many have prest on the same as you are pressing now,
- How many have fondly supposed what you are supposing now only to be disappointed.
VAUGHAN:
- TIME PASSES, HE REFOCUSES; LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE
- Walt,
- I am to be married tomorrow,
- at 213 West 43rd street.
- I have invited no company.
- I want you to be there.
- Do not fail, please,
- I am very anxious you should come.
- FOUR YEARS PASS, HE REFOCUSES; LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE
- Walt,
- my life has turned out
- a poor miserable failure.
- I have not been honest to myself,
- my family,
- nor my friends.
- I have written to you, Walt,
- at least once a week
- for the last four years.
- Sometimes I write long letters,
- sometimes short ones.
- I often keep them months
- before I destroy them.
- There is never a day passes
- but what I think of you.
- My love my Walt
- is with you always.
- WHITMAN TURNS FROM VAUGHAN TO A PASSING STRANGER. SCENE TITLE: 10 Walt Whitman, "Passing Stranger!"
WHITMAN:
- Passing stranger! You do not know how longingly I look upon you,
- You give me the pleasure of your eyes, face, flesh, as we pass -- you take of my beard, breast, hands, in return;
- I am to think of you when I sit alone or wake at night alone,
- I am to wait -- I do not doubt I am to meet you again,
- I am to see to it that I do not lose you.
- LIGHT ON EACH MAN AS HE INTRODUCES HIMSELF TO WHITMAN
SPENCER:
- Daniel Spencer
WHITMAN:
- told me
- he had never been in a fight --
SPENCER:
- do not drink at all --
- gone in Second New York Light Artillery,
- deserted, returned to it.
WHITMAN:
- Slept with me.
WILSON:
- David Wilson, about 19.
WHITMAN:
- walking up from Middaugh Street --
WILSON:
- work in blacksmith shop in Navy Yard --
- live in Hampden Street
WHITMAN:
- walks together
- Sunday afternoon
- and night.
- Slept with me.
OSTRANDER:
- Horace Ostrander from Otsego County
- 60 miles west of Albany,
- twenty-eight years of age.
- About 1855
- went on voyage to Liverpool--
- my experiences as a green hand.
WHITMAN:
- Slept with him.
TAYLOR:
- Jerry Taylor, from New Jersey, Second Regiment.
WHITMAN:
- Slept with me last night.
- Weather soft,
- cool enough,
- warm enough,
- heavenly.
- BLACKOUT. SOUND OF DRUMS, BUGLES, MARTIAL MUSIC; PERHAPS A FEW SHOTS IN DISTANCE
- TITLE: 11 Walt Whitman, Thomas Sawyer, Lewis K. Brown, Douglass Fox, "Began my visits"
- LIGHTS UP ON WHITMAN. IN BACKGROUND, PERHAPS, PROJECTIONS OF CIVIL WAR PHOTOS
WHITMAN:
- Began my visits
- among the Army hospitals.
- On the banks of the Potomac,
- a large brick mansion,
- the Lacy House,
- used as a hospital,
- only the worst cases.
- A man with his mouth blown out.
- Outdoors,
- in front,
- several dead bodies
- each covered with a brown woolen blanket,
- this war's regulation shroud.
- Nearby,
- at the foot of a tree,
- a heap
- of amputated feet,
- legs,
- arms,
- pieces of men,
- cut,
- bloody,
- black and blue,
- swelled and stinking,
- a load for a one-horse cart.
- In the garden, rear,
- a row of graves,
- a very long row of graves.
- LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE; WHITMAN, BANTERINGLY, TO AUDIENCE AS HIS SOPHISTICATED, NEW YORK LITERARY MEN-FRIENDS
- Have been on the battle-field among the wounded --
- GOES TO MISSISSIPPI CAPTAIN
- struck up a tremendous friends
- with a young Mississippi captain (about 19)
- that we took prisoner
- badly wounded
- at Fredericksburgh.
- He is in the hospital here,
- met him first in the Lacy House,
- his leg just cut off.
- Poor boy,
- he has suffered a great deal
- has eyes bright as a hawk,
- face pale --
- our affection is quite an affair,
- quite romantic
- TO YOUTH, WHO PUTS HIS ARM AROUND WHITMAN'S NECK, DRAWS HIS FACE DOWN TO KISS HIM
- sometimes
- when I lean over to say I am going,
- he puts his arm round my neck,
- draws my face down,
- WHITMAN LOOKS UP; TO NEW YORK FRIENDS
- quite a scene
- for the New Bowery Theater.
- SERIOUSLY; LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE
- I find the sick and dying soldiers cling to me --
- These thousands
- of badly wounded young men,
- pallid with diarrhea,
- dying with pneumonia,
- open deeper mines in me than any yet.
- I sometimes fancy myself with typhoid,
- or under the knife,
- tried by terrible tests,
- the living soul's,
- the body's tragedies,
- bursting the petty bonds of art.
- Compared to such scenes
- what are your dramas
- and poems,
- even the tearfulest?
- WHITMAN, SAWYER, AND BROWN MOVE TO AND AWAY FROM EACH OTHER IN A TRIANGULAR DANCE OF ATTRACTION AND RETREAT. LIGHTS UP ON SAWYER, WHO INTRODUCE.S HIMSELF TO WHITMAN
SAWYER:
- Thomas Sawyer.
- LIGHTS UP ON BROWN, WHO INTRODUCES HIMSELF TO WHITMAN
BROWN:
- Lewis K. Brown.
SAWYER:
- TO BROWN
- Give Walter Whitman my love and best wishes for ever;
- tell him I have got
- that little Book witch he gave me,
- and I shall always keep it
- for old acquaintance sake.
WHITMAN:
- TO SAWYER
- Tom,
- I was at Armory Hospital last evening,
- saw Lewy Brown,
- WHITMAN SMILES AT BROWN; GOES TO HIM
- sat with him a good while.
- Lew is so good,
- so affectionate --
- when I came away,
- he reached up his face,
- I put my arm around him,
- and we gave each other a long kiss,
- half a minute long.
- BROWN REACHES UP HIS FACE TO WHITMAN WHO PUTS HIS ARMS AROUND THE SOLDIER; THEN WHITMAN TURNS AWAY FROM BROWN, FOCUSES ON SAWYER
- We talked about you, Tom.
- I wish you was here.
- WHITMAN GLANCES AT BROWN; ADDRESSES SAWYER
- Somehow I don't find the comrade that suits me to a dot --
- and I won't have any other,
- not for good.
- I don't know how you feel about it,
- but it is the wish of my heart
- that if you should come safe
- out of this war,
- we should come together again,
- where we could make a living,
- and be true comrades
- and never be separated--
- and take Lew Brown too.
- BROWN JOINS WHITMAN AND SAWYER. WHITMAN ADDRESSES SAWYER
- If it is destined
- that we shall not meet again,
- you have my love
- whatever should keep you from me,
- no matter how many years.
BROWN:
- TO WHITMAN
- I received a letter to day from Thomas Sawyer.
- He did not mention your letter.
- WHITMAN TURNS TO SAWYER, ADDRESSES HIM
WHITMAN:
- Tom,
- I have not heard from you for some time.
- Lewy Brown has received two letters.
- Walter in Ward E has received one.
- MOVES TO SAWYER
- I was sorry you did not come up to my room
- and get the things
- you promised to accept from me;
- WHITMAN SURVEYS SAWYER'S BODY
SAWYER:
- a good strong blue shirt,
- a pair of drawers.
WHITMAN:
- I should have often thought:
- "Now Tom may be wearing around his body
- something from me."
- Not a day passes, nor a night,
- but I think of you.
- I hope God
- will put it in your heart
- to bear toward me
- a little of the feeling
- I have for you.
- SAWYER TURNS AWAY FROM WHITMAN TO BROWN
- I suppose my letters sound strange to you,
- but I am only expressing
- the feelings of my heart.
- WHITMAN TURNS TO BROWN, WHO ADDRESSES HIM
BROWN:
- I am sorry to hear you wer sick, Walt.
- It would be better for your health
- if you would give yourself that furlou
- but the boys about the Hospital
- could ill spare you,
- if you are as good to them
- as you wer to me.
- My leg continues to mend verry slow.
WHITMAN:
- TO BROWN
- Lewy,
- dear son and comrade,
- your photograph has been received,
- and the good sight of your face welcomer than all,
- my darling.
- o Lewy,
- how glad I should be to have you with me.
- WHITMAN ADDRESSES SAWYER, TURNS BACK ON BROWN
- Tom,
- you did not answer
- my last two letters,
- still I will write again.
- I see Lewy Brown always.
- Lewy's leg has not healed.
- Tom,
- I should like to know how things have gone for three months past.
- I can't understand
- why you have ceased to correspond.
- Do you want to shake me off?
- LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE; END OF SAWYER-BROWN-WHITMAN TRIANGLE. WHITMAN TURNS TO A NEW FRIEND, DOUGLASS FOX, WHO APPEARS IN LIGHT. WHITMAN SPEAKS TOBROWN
- Lew,
- I wish you to go in Ward G
- and find a very dear friend of mine in bed 11
- FOX INTRODUCES HIMSELF TO AUDIENCE
FOX:
- Douglass Fox.
WHITMAN:
- TO BROWN, INDICATING FOX
- Tell him I sent him my best love,
- and that he must not forget me,
- though I know he never will.
FOX:
- TO WHITMAN
- You will allow me to call you Father, won't you?
- Both my parents are dead
- and now, Walt,
- you will be a second father to me.
- I have never before
- met with a man that I could love as I do you.
- Still there is nothing strange about it.
WHITMAN:
- Dear son,
- I cannot bear the thought
- of being separated from you--
- I know I am a great fool about such things,
- but I tell you the truth.
- I do not think one night has passed
- when I have been at the theatre
- but what amid the play
- I would see your face before me,
- and I would realize
- how happy it would be
- if I could leave all the fun and noise
- and be with you.
- I hope you are quite well
- and with your dear wife,
- for I know you have long wished
- to be with her.
FOX:
- I have often thought of what you told me
- when I said
- I am certain I will come back to Washington.
WHITMAN:
- A great many of the boys have said the same
- but none has returned.
FOX:
- I am sorry it is so
- but after I had thought it over
- I concluded it would be better for me
- to go into some business here.
- LIGHTING, MOOD CHANGE
BUSH:
- INTRODUCING HIMSELF TO AUDIENCE
- Alonzo S. Bush
- TO WHITMAN
- I am glad to know, Walt,
- that you are once more
- in the Noted City of Washington
- So that you can go often
- and see that Friend of ours
- at Armory Square Hospital
- Lewy K. Brown
- BROWN JOINS BUSH IN LIGHT
- that fellow
- that went down on your BK,
- both so often with me.
- I wish that I could see him this evening
- and go in the Ward Master's Room
- and have some fun
- for he is a gay boy.
- LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE; BUSH REFOCUSES
- I am very Sorry indeed
- to hear that after laying so long
- he is about to loose his leg.
- THROUGHOUT WHITMAN'S NEXT SPEECH WE MAY OCCASIONALLY HEAR BROWN'S GROANS AND HALF-COHERENT TALK ABOUT WHITMAN
WHITMAN:
- Today,
- after dinner,
- Lewy Brown had his left leg amputated
- five inches below the knee.
- I was present at the operation,
- most of the time at the door.
- Lewy came out of the ether.
- Then it bled.
- They thought
- an artery had opened.
- They began to cut the stitches and make a search
- but after some time concluded
- it was only surface bleeding.
- They then stitched it up again
- and Lew felt every one of these stitches.
- They did not think it safe
- to give him more ether.
- BROWN CRIES OUT
- I caught glimpses of him
- through the open door.
- At length they finished,
- and brought the boy in on his cot.
- The ether and exhaustion
- had their effect for some time.
- His face was very pale, his eyes dull.
- BROWN ASKS FOR "WALT"
- He remained very sick,
- opprest for breath,
- with deathly feeling,
- in the stomach,
- head,
- and great pain in the leg.
- As usual in such cases
- he could feel
- the lost foot and leg very plainly.
- The toes would get twisted,
- and not possible to disentangle.
- BROWN AGAIN ASKS FOR "WALT"
- About 7 o'clock in the evening
- he dozed into a sleep
- for a couple of hours.
- The rest of the night
- was very bad.
- I remained all night,
- slept on the adjoining cot.
- The same next night.
- LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE; WHITMAN REFOCUSES ON DOUGLASS FOX AND ADDRESSES HIM
- Douglass,
- I have thought of you many times
- since the days there in the hospital
- during the war.
- Lewis Brown is well.
- I see him often.
- Tom Sawyer,
- (Lewy Brown's friend)
- passed safe through the war --
- but we have not heard from him now for two years.
- All the big hospitals are long broken up.
- I send you my love,
- dear friend and soldier.
- LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE; WHITMAN REFOCUSES ON THE AUDIENCE AS CONFIDANT; HE IS AN OLD, ILL MAN HERE, BUT STILL FULL OF INNER FIRE
- My letters,
- sent to the boys
- in the days of the War,
- stir up memories
- joyful, painful.
- There is nothing beyond the comrade --
- the man,
- the woman:
- nothing beyond:
- even our lovers
- must be comrades:
- even our wives, husbands, mothers, fathers:
- we can't stay together, feel satisfied,
- grow bigger,
- on any other basis.
- You look on me now with the ravages
- of that war experience
- finally reducing me to powder.
- I had to give up health for it,
- but I am satisfied
- with what I got.
- I got the boys:
- the boys:
- thousands of them:
- they were,
- they are,
- they will be mine.
- I gave myself for them:
- myself:
- I got the boys:
- but for this
- I would never have had Leaves of Grass,
- the consummated book.
- I got that:
- the Leaves,
- the boys.
- ONE OF WHITMAN'S BOYS, JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS, NOW 30-YEARS OLD, FOR THE FIRST TIME REACHES OUT TO HIM. SYMONDS DIRECTLY ADDRESSES WHITMAN, WHO IS SEATED WITH HORACE TRAUBEL
- SCENE TITLE: 12 John Addington Symonds, "When a man"
SYMONDS:
- When a man
- has dedicated a poem to another man
- I think he is bound
- to confess the liberty.
- This is my excuse
- for sending you
- the crude work
- in which you may detectsome echo
- of your Calamus theme.
- Since I first took up Leaves of Grass
- in a friend's rooms
- at Trinity College
- six years ago,
- your poems
- have been my constant companions.
- I have found in them
- pure air and health --
- the free breath of the world
- when often cramped by illness.
- What one man can do
- by communicating to those he loves
- the treasures he has found
- I have done among my friends.
- I say this to tell you,
- as simply as I can,
- how much lowe you.
- I am an Englishman,
- a historian and critic of art and literature,
- aged thirty,
- married,
- with three daughters.
- SYMONDS AND WHITMAN IN MOTIONLESS TABLEAU WHILE TRAUBEL INTRODUCES HIMSELF TO AUDIENCE
TRAUBEL:
- Horace Traubel.
- In the last four years of Whitman's life
- I recorded his words faithfully
- after daily visits.
- He knew I would write of him someday.
- WHITMAN, RESPONDING TO SYMONDS, SPEAKS TO TRAUBEL
WHITMAN:
- That was the first of Symonds' letters.
- ADDRESSING SYMONDS ALONG WITH TRAUBEL
- Symonds has always seemed to me
- a forthright man,
- unhesitating,
- without cant:
- not slushing over,
- not freezing up.
- He is warm
- (not too warm),
- a bit inquisitive,
- ingratiating.
- A Symonds letter
- is a red day for my calendar.
- I am always strangely moved by a letter from Symonds:
- it makes the day,
- it makes many days,
- sacred.
SYMONDS:
- TO WHITMAN
- Your words
- give me the keenest pleasure.
- I had not exactly expected to hear from you.
- I was beginning to dread
- that the poem I sent
- confounded your own pure feeling
- with the baser metal
- of my own nature.
- You have reassured me.
- For many years
- I have been attempting
- to explain in verse
- some of the forms
- of what you call "adhesiveness."
- I have traced passionate friendship
- through Greece,
- Rome,
- the medieval
- and the modern world.
- While engaged in this work
- I first read Leaves of Grass.
- Especially did I then learn that
- the Comradeship,
- which I conceived
- as on a par
- with the sexual feeling
- was real--
- not a delusion of distorted passions,
- not a dream of the past --
- but a vital bond
- of man to man.
- Yet even then
- how hard I found it --
- brought up in English feudalism,
- educated at an aristocratic school
- and over-refined university
- to be a simple human being.
- How you helped me!
- I have pored for continuous hours
- over the pages of Calamus
- (as I used to poor over Plato),
- longing to hear you speak,
- burning for a revelation
- of your developed meaning,
- panting to ask --
- is this what you would indicate?
- Most of all
- did I desire
- to hear from your own lips
- some story of athletic friendship
- from which to learn the truth.
- Yet I dared not address you.
- Shall I ever be permitted to question you?
WHITMAN:
- TO TRAUBEL
- Well, what do you think of that?
- Do you think that could be answered?
- You know I hate to be catechized.
- Symonds is right,
- no doubt,
- to ask the questions:
- I am just as much right
- if I do not answer them.
- TO SYMONDS
- I often say to myself about Calamus
- perhaps it means more or less
- than what I thought myself.
- means different:
- perhaps I don't know
- what it all means
- perhaps never did know.
- TO TRAUBEL
- My first instinct
- about all that Symonds writes
- is violently reactionary
- TO SYMONDS
- is strong and brutal for no, no, no.
- Then the thought intervenes
- that I maybe do not know all my own meanings.
- Sometime or other
- I will respond to Symonds
- definitely about Calamus.
- TO TRAUBEL
- You will be writing about Calamus some day
- and what I say
- may help to clear your ideas.
- WHITMAN ENDS EMPHATICALLY, EVEN DESPERATELY -- HE KNOWS HIS SEXUAL MAN-LOVE CALAMUS POEMS MAY WELL COMPROMISE HIS FUTURE REPUTATION AS REPRESENTATIVE AMERICAN MAN AND POET
- Calamus needs clear ideas:
- it may be easily, innocently distorted.