Sunday, August 2, 2015

"Whoevery heard of such a think?"

(459.30-461.32)  Although Isabel is in love with another boy, she says that will never forget Shaun, "not for tons of donkeys."  With that in mind, she instructs Shaun to not try to compel her faithfulness by "peppering with fear," lest she murder him.  Instead, she tells him, "meet me after by next appointment near you know Ships just there beside the Ship."  So, she won't give up her other love for Shaun, but she'll still remain faithful to him, in her own way.  "Trust us," she says.  "Our game.  (For fun!)  The Dargle shall run dry the sooner I you deny.  Whoevery heard of such a think?  Till the ulmost of all elmoes shall stele our harts asthone!"

While Shaun is away, she will keep a kind of dream diary, writing in "gold pen and ink" in her "Jungfraud's Messongebook."  She'll wait for him until eternity with sweets to give him upon his return, but in the meantime she'll buy herself an expensive raincoat "of pinked elephant's breath grey of the loveliest sheerest dearest widowshood over airforce blue I am so wild for."  For now, though, it's time for her daily appointment with "Pinchapoppapoff, who is going to be a jennyroll" (the Russian General), apparently another lover.

Near the end of Isabel's reply, she describes the night of her "golden violents wetting," when her and her new husband will consummate the marriage.  Campbell and Robinson read this passage as a kind of allegory for the Christian Church, with Shaun representing the departed Christ and Isabel representing the faith left behind by Christ, which gives itself freely to all denominations (Catholic, protestant, Russian, etc.).  Following this wedding night description, she reverts back to the present, in which she talks childish ("thalk thildish") and says that before she goes to bed, she will say one little prayer.

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