Delmore Schwartz - Once and for All - The Best of Delmore Schwartz

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. ]