The Anathemata
The Lady of the Pool (continued)
Who’ll try my sweet prime lavendula
I cry my introit in a Dirige-timea
Come buy for summer’s weeds, threnodic stalks
For in Jane’s ditch Jack soon shall white his earliest rime1
Come, come buy
good for a ditty-box,b my fish-eyec
good to sweeten y’r poop-bower, cap’n.
Come buy
or else y’r duckd ’ill cry.
Come buy my sweet lavender
that bodes the fall-gale westerlies
and ice on slow old Baldpate2
when the Noree gulls fly this way that tell to Lear’s
river a long winter’s tale.
Was already rawish crost the Lower Pool3 afore four o’ the clock this fine summer mornin’—it might ’ve been Lemon’s Day.4 An’ cuckoo seeming but bare flown and Ember Idesf not yet by a long way come, in pontiff Juliuses ’versal colander and them not yet sung their Crouchmasses5
David Jones notes
1 When, in August, lavender was cried in the street, my maternal grandmother was saddened by the call, because she said it meant that summer was almost gone and that winter was again near. Cf. also the vulgar tradition which wrongly derived the district-name Shoreditch from Jane Shore who was believed to have died in, or been cast into, a ditch in that vicinity. It may not be without relevance to note that lavender, though perhaps particularly associated with eighteenth- and nineteenth-century London, was cultivated at Hitchin in Hertfordshire in the sixteenth century; also that it was used by the meddygon, physicians, in thirteenth-century tribal Wales. It was considered efficacious for disorders of the brain and of the nervous system. It is said to please lions.
2 Cf. Oranges and Lemons:
‘Old father bald-pate
Say the slow bells of Aldgate.’
3 The bend of the river by Rotherhithe and Shadwell.
4 November 23, St Clement of Alexandria,
Cf. ‘Oranges and Lemons
Say the bells of St Clemens’
5 Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, September 14, see note 3 to page 165 below.
additional notes
DJ note 2: Oranges and Lemons is a traditional English nursery rhyme and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the City of London.
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement’s.You owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin’s.When will you pay me?
Say the bells of Old Bailey.When I grow rich,
Say the bells of Shoreditch.When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.I do not know,
Says the great bell of Bow.Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
For more details. see Wikipedia.
a Dirige: the Office of the Dead is a traditional ecclesiastical office of the Roman Catholic Church that is sung or recited for the repose of the soul of a deceased person. The introit (‘entrance’) is the beginning section of the Mass. The first antiphon of the matins service of the Office of the Dead consists of the Latin words ‘Dirige, Domine’ (‘Direct, O Lord’ a shorter version of a phrase occurring later in the liturgy, ‘Dirige, Domine, Deus Meus, in conspectu tuo viam meam’ (‘Direct, O Lord, my God, my way in thy sight’). In Middle English, the matins of the Office came to be called dirige, after the opening word of the service.
c fish-eye: The Christian sysmbol of the fish is applied by the poet to the Masters of the various vessels whose journeys are described in the poem, in as much as they can be seen as typifying the Master in the ship-like upper room of the Last Supper (p. 53). Of its use here, DJ writes ‘Not so bright as “icthyic sign” [page 74] perhaps because here is an image of more gross a nature — the drunken sodden, tough but efficient, and, at base, kindly skipper who berths them to schedule and is thus a type of S. Peter and of our David and Manawydan the sea-god.’ (quoted in Hague p. 159).
e The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the Thames Estuary. It marks the point where the River Thames meets the North Sea.
f In the liturgical calendar of the Western Christian churches, Ember days are four separate sets of three days within the same week — specifically, the Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday — roughly equidistant in the circuit of the year, that were formerly set aside for fasting and prayer. The Ides of December in the Roman calendar is the 13th, which falls within the December Ember week.
see also
semantic structures
glossary
b ditty-box: a small wooden box where a sailor kept various odds and ends such as needles, etc.
d duck: here a term of endearment.
comments
We now meet the Lady of the Pool, a lavender seller whose name we later learn is Elen Monica, who accosts the skipper. It does not take DJ long to start using the girl as the medium for his word play.