Jonathan Ned Katz: "Comrades and Lovers," Act II, Part II

Continued from: Jonathan Ned Katz: "Comrades and Lovers," Act II

SCENE TITLE: 7 Horace Traubel, "Whitman asked me"

PHOTO OF TRAUBEL PROJECTED

HORACE TRAUBEL, GAZING AT STAFFORD AND WHITMAN, HEARS WHITMAN'S LAST LINES. TRAUBEL INTRODUCES HIMSELF TO AUDIENCE

TRAUBEL:

Horace Traubel.

Whitman asked me

about last night's meeting,

which sat till after 12

in Philadelphia

about a dozen men present.

"Calamus" had been much discussed --

Sulzberger questioning the comradeship

there announced

as verging upon

the licentiousness of the Greek.

Whitman took it very seriously:

WHITMAN:

70-YEARS-OLD

He meant the handsome Greek youth

one for the other?

I can see how

it might be opened

to such an interpretation.

But in the ten thousand

who for many years

have stood ready

to make any possible charge against me,

none has raised this objection.

"Calamus" is to me indispensable--

LIGHTS UP ON JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS WHO, HEARING WORD "CALAMUS, STANDS UP, LOOKING AT WHITMAN WITH GREAT ANTICIPATION

not there alone

in that one series of poems,

but in all.

It could no more be dispensed with

than the ship entire.

SYMONDS MOVES FRONT. TWENTY YEARS AFTER HIS INITIAL INQUIRY ABOUT WHITMAN, HE IS STILL HOTLY PURSUING HIS QUESTIONS ABOUT WHITMAN'S CALAMUS THEME

SCENE TITLE: 8 John Addington Symonds, "In your conception of Comradeship"

PHOTO OF SYMONDS PROJECTED

SYMONDS SPEAKS DIRECTLY AND INTENSELY TO WHITMAN, READY, FINALLY, FOR A SHOWDOWN WITH WHITMAN ON THE SUBJECT OF SEX IN THE INTIMACIES OF MEN WITH MEN

SYMONDS:

In your conception of Comradeship,

do you contemplate

the possible intrusion

of those semi-sexual

emotions and actions

which do occur

between men?

I do not ask

whether you approve of them,

or regard them

as a necessary part of the relation.

But I should much like to know

whether you are prepared

to leave them

to the inclinations

and the conscience

of the individuals concerned?

For my part,

I hold that the present laws

of France and Italy

are right.

They protect minors,

punish violence,

and guard against

outrages of public decency.

They leave individuals

to do what they think fit.

These principles

are in open contradiction

with English and American legislation.

It has frequently occurred to me

to hear your "Calamus" poems

objected to

as praising

and propagating

a passionate affection

between men

which might "bring people into criminality."

I agree that some men,

having a strong natural bias

toward persons of their own sex,

the enthusiasm of your "Calamus" poems

is calculated to encourage

ardent and physical intimacies.

I do not agree

that such a result

would be absolutely prejudicial

to social interests.

SPEAKER 1:

REPEATING WHITMAN'S EARLIER WORDS

I do not press my finger across my mouth.

SPEAKER 2:

REPEATING WHITMAN'S EARLIER WORDS

I am for those who believe in loose delights

SPEAKER 3:

REPEATING WHITMAN'S EARLIER WORDS

All themes stagnate in their vitals,

if they cannot publicly accept

and publicly name,

with specific words,

those things on which

all that is worth being here for depend.

SPEAKER 4:

REPEATING WHITMAN'S EARLIER WORDS

It is to the development

of that fervid comradeship,

the adhesive love

of man and man,

that I look

for the counterbalance

of our materialistic,

vulgar

American democracy.

WHITMAN:

IMAGE PROJECTED: WHITMAN WITH SYMONDS' PHOTO IN BACKGROUND

SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO SYMONDS

Your questions

about my Calamus pieces

quite daze me.

That the Calamus part

has opened --

even allowed --

the possibility

of such construction as mentioned

is terrible.

I am fain to hope

that the pages themselves

are not to be even blamed --

mentioned --

for such gratuitous

and quite

at the time

undreamed

and unreckoned

possibility

of morbid inferences --

which are disavowed by me

and seem damnable.

My life,

young manhood, mid-age

have all been jolly

and probably open to criticism.

Though always unmarried

I have had six children.

IMMEDIATELY, WHITMAN'S SIX "SONS" APPEAR AROUND HIM: PETER DOYLE, THOMAS SAWYER, LEWIS BROWN, DOUGLASS FOX, HARRY STAFFORD, EDWARD CATTELL.

THEN SYMONDS RESPONDS TO WHITMAN, WITH A NOTE OF DISBELIEF AND IRONY

SYMONDS:

I am sincerely obliged to you

to know

so precisely

that the "adhesiveness" of comradeship has no interblending

with the "amativeness" of sexual love.

SYMONDS TURNS AWAY FROM WHITMAN TO SPEAK TO EDWARD CARPENTER

Whitman did not quite trust me perhaps.

Afraid of being used

to lend his influence

to "Sods."

CARPENTER:

TO SYMONDS

Personally,

having known Whitman fairly intimately,

I do not lay great stress on that letter.

Whitman was

in his real disposition

the most candid,

but also

the most cautious of men.

TO AUDIENCE

An attempt was made

on this occasion

to drive him

into some sort of confession

of his real nature;

that very effort

aroused all his resistance

and caused him to hedge

more than ever.

TO SYMONDS

If Whitman took

the reasonable line

and said that,

while not advocating

abnormal relations

in any way,

he of course

made allowance

for possibilities in that direction

and the occasional development

of such relations,

why, he knew

that the moment he said such a thing

he would have

the whole American press at his heels,

snarling and slandering.

TO AUDIENCE

Things are pretty bad here in England,

but in the states

(in such matters)

they are ten times worse.

SCENE TITLE: 9 Gavin Arthur, "In spite of his 80 years"

ARTHUR:

ADDRESSING THE AUDIENCE AS A CLOSE FRIEND

In spite of his 80 years,

Edward Carpenter's eyes

were a vivid sky-blue;

his face was copper,

his hair shining silver.

TO CARPENTER

I was twenty-two.

CARPENTER:

Welcome, my boy!

HE EMBRACES ARTHUR, HOLDING THE HANDSOME YOUTH ONE SECOND TOO LONG, KISSING HIM WARMLY ON BOTH CHEEKS

ARTHUR:

TO AUDIENCE

He smelled like leaves

in an autumn forrest.

A sort of seminal smell.

CARPENTER MIMES INTRODUCTIONS

He introduced me

to his comrade George

and George's comrade Ted.

We talked about Walt.

Carpenter said

CARPENTER:

Walt would have loved you

ARTHUR;

the others agreed

and my heart beat hard.

After supper Ted suggested

a walk in the moonlight.

ARTHUR AND TED WALK OUT TOGETHER

We talked about Carpenter.

Then Ted said:

TED:

Why don't you spend the night?

It would do Eddy so much good

to sleep with

a good looking young American.

ARTHUR:

I would like nothing better,

I said.

We approached the fire,

before which the Old Man was sitting.

Ted looked down at him lovingly:

TED:

Gavin wants to sleep with you tonight, Eddie.

Ain't you the lucky old dog?

ARTHUR:

The other two went up to bed.

The old man and I sat by the fire.

We talked again of Walt.

I blurted out,

half afraid to ask:

"I suppose you slept with him?"

CARPENTER:

Oh yes --

he regarded it

as the best way

to get together with another man.

He thought

people should know each other

on the physical and emotional plane

as well as the mental.

The best part of comrade love

was that there was no limit

to the number of comrades one could have.

ARTHUR:

"How did he make love?"

I forced myself to ask.

CARPENTER:

I will show you.

ARTHUR SITS STAGE CENTER; CARPENTER IN BACK OF ARTHUR, HOLDING HIM; WHITMAN SITS IN BACK OF CARPENTER. NO SEXUAL ACTIVITY NEEDS TO BE PORTRAYED, THE WORDS ARE POWERFUL ENOUGH

ARTHUR:

We were both naked.

We lay side by side

on our backs

holding hands.

Then he was holding my head

in his two hands,

making little growly noises,

staring at me in the moonlight.

"This is the laying on of hands,"

I thought.

"Walt.

Then Edward.

Then Me."

The old man at my side

was stroking my body

with the most expert touch.

I lay there in the moonlight pouring in at the window,

giving myself up

to the loving old man's marvelous petting.

Every now and then

he would bury his face

in the hair of my chest,

agitate a nipple

with the end of his tongue,

or breathe in deeply from my armpit.

I had of course a throbbing erection

but he ignored it

for a long time.

Very gradually, however,

he got nearer and nearer,

first with his hand

and later with his tongue

which was now

flickering all over me

like summer lightning.

I stroked whatever part of him

came within reach of my hand

but felt instinctively

this was a one-sided affair,

he being so old

and I so young,

and that he enjoyed petting me

as much as I enjoyed being petted.

At last his hand

was moving between my legs

and his tongue

was in my bellybutton.

Then he was tickling my fundament

just behind the balls

and I could not hold it any longer,

his mouth closed over the head of my penis

and I could feel my young vitality

flowing into his old age.

He did not waste that life-giving fluid.

As he said afterward:

CARPENTER:

LECTURING A BIT, EVER THE TEACHER

It isn't the chemical ingredients

which are so full of vitality

it's the electric content,

like you get in milk

if you drink it

direct from the cow --

so different from cold milk!

ARTHUR:

I fell asleep

like a child

safe in father-mother arms,

the arms of God.

SPEAKING OF RELIGION; LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE]

SCENE TITLE: 10 The New York Times, December 17, 1955

SPEAKER 1:

Roman Catholics of the Camden diocese

opened a campaign today

to prevent the naming

of a new Delaware River bridge

after Walt Whitman.

PHOTO OF WALT WHITMAN BRIDGE POSTCARD PROJECTED

SPEAKER 2:

When asked

why Whitman was objectionable,

the Reverend Edward Lucitt,

director of the Holy Name Society,

cited a recent biography of Whitman

by Dr. Gay Wilson Allen

who had called the poet

ALLEN:

a "homo-erotic."

SPEAKER 3:

But Dr. Allen said last night

that he had no intention

of implying that Whitman

was a homosexual:

ALLEN:

I used the term "homo-erotic"

rather than "homosexual"

because homosexual

suggests sex perversion.

There is absolutely no evidence

that Whitman engaged

in any perverted practice.

Whitman's writings show

a strong affection for men.

Many saints

show the same feeling.

SPEAKER 4:

Children of fifty-eight parochial schools

in the Camden diocese

are being asked

to submit essays

on "great men of New Jersey"

in the hope

of inspiring another name

for the bridge.

LIGHTING/MOOD CHANGE. PETER DOYLE TO FRONT CENTER OF STAGE

TITLE: 11 Peter Doyle, "I have Walt's raglan here"

DOYLE SPEAKS TO THE AUDIENCE AS A GOOD FRIEND. HERE, DOYLE IS ABOUT 50

DOYLE:

I have Walt's raglan here.

PUTS THE OVERCOAT ON

I now and then put it on,

lay down,

think I am in the old times.

Then he is with me again.

It's the only thing I kept

amongst many old things.

When I get it on

and stretched out on the old sofa

I am very well contented.

It is like Aladdin's lamp.

I do not ever for a minute

lose the old man.

He is always near by.

When I am in trouble --

in a crisis --

I ask myself

"What would Walt have done

under these circumstances?"

and whatever I decide

Walt would have done

that I do.

Towards the end

he continued to write to me.

He never altered his manner toward me;

here are a few postal cards,

HOLD UP POSTCARDS

you will see

they show the same old love.

He understood me --

I understood him.

We loved each other deeply.

Walt realized

I never swerved from him.

But I have talked a long while.

Let us drink this beer together.

HOLDS UP A BOTTLE

It's a fearful warm day.

You take the glasses, there;

Now, here's to the dear old man

and the dear old times --

and the new times, too,

and everyone that's to come!

TITLE: 12 Walt Whitman, "No labor-saving machine"

WHITMAN SPEAKS TO AUDIENCE AS COMRADE AND LOVER

WHITMAN:

No labor-saving machine, Nor discovery have I made,

Nor will I be able to leave behind me any wealthy bequest to found a hospital or library,

Nor reminiscence of any deed of courage for America,

Nor literary success nor intellect, Nor book for the bookshelf,

But a few carols vibrating through the air I leave,

For comrades and lovers.

BLACKOUT