[Vwoolf] "Allerseelen" & Scrope Purvis

Wed Sep 18 09:17:48 EDT 2013

Whatever the woman is actually singing--I like to think the "ee um fa um
so" is an imaginative rendering of the German words to bring them close to
a nursery rhyme.

For what it's worth, here is the footnote I wrote for Scrope Purvis:

Scrope Purvis An imaginative combination of two uncommon names. Scrope
Purvis is the first of many Londoners who observe the main characters from
the outside. Originally, these figures were to have been anonymous (see
Introduction). In an undated entry from the winter of 1922, VW wrote in her
notebook: ‘Why not have an observer in the street at each critical point
who acts the part of chorus—some nameless person?’ (Berg MD2 n.pag.; H 419).
 See for example B1 85:21. George Gordon Noel Byron (1788-1824) had a good
friend named Scrope Berdmore Davies (1782-1852). VW was a close reader of
Byron from the 1920’s onward. Several Englishmen with the surname Scrope
are listed in the DNB including Richard Scrope (1350-1404), Archbishop of
York and Adrian Scrope (1601-1660), army officer and regicide (a distant
relative of the royalist Sir Adrian Scroope).

The surname Purvis comes from Anglo-French and means ‘dweller at a parvis’
or porch. It may also be a Northumbrian variant of Purves, ‘an occupational
name for the official responsible for obtaining the supplies required by a
monastery or manor house, from the Middle Englishpurveys’ (Hanks). The
prominent industrialist and buyer of war supplies, Arthur Blaikie Purvis,
(1890–1941) rose through the ranks of the Nobel Explosives Company Ltd and
on the outbreak of the Great War ‘made one of the largest war purchases,
$25 million of acetone, which was in acute shortage in the United Kingdom;
he remained responsible for the purchase in America of materials for
explosives throughout the war.’ (DNB)  A ‘Mr Purvis’ contributes to Mary
Datchet’s art club discussion (ND 50).  Cf. ‘Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street’:
‘so, Scrope Purvis, C.B., saw her as he hurried to his office.’  (CSF 152)
‘C.B.’ indicates Scrope Purvis is a Companion of the Most Honourable
[Military] Order of the Bath, a chivalric title and order, founded by
George I in 1725, and conferred to British and Commonwealth citizens in
recognition of conspicuous service to the Crown. Ksiezopolska notes that
the name is an anagram for corpus veris.

On Wednesday, September 18, 2013, Stuart N. Clarke wrote:

> "Allerseelen": I have discussed this at length in the "Virginia Woolf
> Bulletin": there is no reason to think that she is singing the words in
> Strauss's setting.
>
> "Scrope Purvis": he has been discussed at length in VWB28!  By Irena
> Ksiezopolska: "The Secret Life of Minor Characters in 'Mrs. Dalloway'".
>  She thinks his name is an anagram.  I'm not especially convinced, but it
> is a very odd name.  My suggestion was "corpus sprevi" = I have rejected
> the body!
>
> Stuart
>
> -----Original Message----- From: Martin, James
> Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2013 9:48 AM
> To: Toni McNaron ; woolf list
> Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] larks
>
> When I first read it, I thought of "The Lark Ascending" - thus a motion
> going up - and then the plunge, which is, of course, Septimus's fate. The
> duality of the two main characters is there from the start. Septimus dies
> so that others might live. The high priestess role of Clarissa at her party
> has been written about in the secondary literature.
> Ralph Vaughn-Williams's "The Lark Ascending" was composed in 1914 but, on
> account of WWI, wasn't performed until June 14, 1921 under Adrian Boult.
> Marie Hall was the solo violinist, a "very charming woman, very small and
> jolly and with a great sense of humour." Did VW know her? Did she go to
> that concert? Did she know the music? I'll bet she did.
> In the poem on which the tone poem was based, one finds the lines:
> [...]And ever winging up and up,
> Our valley is his golden cup,
> And he the wine which overflows
> To lift us with him as he goes:
> - this reference is intoned in the opening bars of the piece, in which the
> melody in the violin soars upwards.
> Also found in the poem are these lines, which make me think of Virginia's
> demise:
> All intervolv'd and spreading wide,
> Like water-dimples down a tide
> Where ripple ripple overcurls
> And eddy into eddy whirls;
>
> Being interested in music history, I have found numerous other references
> in Mrs. Dalloway to works from the classical catalog. There is the woman
> near the Tube singing "Allerseelen" by Richard Strauß, a direct reference
> to the day of the year when spirits from the past (Sally, Peter) walk the
> earth.
> In The Voyage Out, there is a reference to Opus 112 by Beethoven. Look in
> the catalog of his works and you will see that it is "Calm Sea & Prosperous
> Voyage" and follows directly the composer's last three piano sonatas
> (Rachel was playing a late sonata - probably the opening of op. 109).
>  Remaining for a moment in the late opus numbers of the mad king Ludwig
> van, we see Op. 117 "King Stephen" (more than just "incidental music" for
> Virginia Stephen?).
> Op. 113 is "The Ruins of Athens" - could this have sparked Woolf's naming
> of the passing warship, Euphrosyne (one of the Greek charities)?
> Then there is Op. 128, "Der Kuß". The lyrics refer to a woman being kissed
> against her will by a man. She threatened to scream if he did it. He did it
> and did she scream? Yes, long afterwards. The girl's name was Chloe, a
> Greek name.
>
> Ich war bei Chloen ganz allein,
> Und küssen wollt ich sie:
> Jedoch sie sprach,
> Sie würde schrein,
> Es sei vergebne Müh.
>
> Ich wagt es doch und küßte sie,
> Trotz ihrer Gegenwehr.
> Und schrie sie nicht?
> Jawohl, sie schrie,
> Doch lange hinterher.
>
> And need I mention that this reference comes right before Rachel and
> Richard (Dalloway!) talk about love, "a word that seemed to unveil the
> skies for Rachel"? Please remind me, someone, when he kissed her!
>
> Such fun!
> Jim
>
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [mailto:
> vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] Im Auftrag von Toni McNaron
> Gesendet: Dienstag, 17. September 2013 15:27
> An: woolf list
> Betreff: Re: [Vwoolf] larks
>
> I agree with Michael Davis in that both the bird and the playful gaminess
> is going on in the reference.  I also think about the fact that larks, when
> they flourished, were often the very first birds to greet the dawn, hence
> they were seen as excited about another day in which they could make
> beautiful music, fly around, eat bugs, etc.  So a imagine larks as
> exuberant, hence perhaps how the verb "to lark" came into existence in the
> first place.
>
> Toni McNaron
>
>
>
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-- 
Anne E. Fernald<http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/english/faculty/english_faculty/anne_fernald_28537.asp>
Director of Writing/Composition at Lincoln Center,
Associate Professor of
English<http://www.fordham.edu/academics/programs_at_fordham_/english/index.asp>and
Women's
Studies <http://www.fordham.edu/womens_studies>
Fordham University
113 W 60th St.
New York NY 10023

212/636-7613
fernald at fordham.edu
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