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.]
JACK STRAUSS: To me, Shenandoah is a beautiful name, original and strange. I will give fifty dollars to be this boy’s godfather.
ELSIE FISH [to her sister, EDITH]: He is just trying to win favor with the man he works for.
BERTHA LASKY [to her husband]: What’s the matter with you? Make an offer quickly: don’t let him get ahead of you.
HARRY LASKY: I will give sixty dollars to be the boy’s godfather—
JACK STRAUSS: I will go higher and make it seventy-five—
WALTER FISH: Gentlemen, Gentlemen: you will make me think I ought to have a few children a week.
SHENANDOAH:
Clearly these business men feel in the father
A man whose day will come: he will be rich,
They feel his power. They feel his strength. He is
A man whose friendship must be cultivated,
sought and won—
ELSIE FISH: Walter, you promised me. I want my brother Nathan to be the child’s godfather.
WALTER FISH: I promised you and I will keep my promise. Nathan is a fine young man, studious and intelligent. What better godfather could a child be given than a promising young doctor? Nothing is too good for my son. Thank you, Jack and Harry, when the boy is old enough I will tell him how much money you were willing to spend to be the boy’s godfather. No doubt, he will then feel kindly to you.
SHENANDOAH: