Canto 26, "The Prodigal"

[herm melville]

All,

   This begins in a dreamy fashion:

"Youth, always an astrologer,

Forecasting happiness the dream!'    ll.5-6

"Slumber interred them; but not all,

For so it chanced that Clarel's cell

Was shared by one who did repel

The poppy. 'Twas a prodigal"         ll. 7-10

Are we to make anything out of this poppy, other than a metaphor? 

Of the prodigal,

"Not talkative , he half reclined

In reverie of dreamful kind."    ll. 15-6

I will leave this reverie now. I will not be able to discourse tomorrow.

John G

[herm melville]

All,

   What is a Tombez air? Is Tombez a place?     l. 50

Clarel is "Unmindful in perturbed estate."

He continues recreating scenes from the Old Testament. Why? Is he doing this as a defense against the prodigalness of the prodigal? And do these Old Testament references have a meaningful place?

"On hills of dread Judaea

Wherever one may faring go,

He dreams---Fit place to set the bier

Of Jacob, brought from Egypt's mead:

Here's Atad's threshing-floor."   ll. 75-79

John G

[Scott Norsworthy]

Rightly understood, "When Doves Cry" is the best "Tombez air" ever. But I repeat myself. Our prodigal here refers to the song he sang about Inez and doves mourning in the mangroves back in the Twilight canto 24. 

Tombez is Tumbes, Peru. As a matter of historical record, Melville was there with the Achusnet crew in early December 1841. 

The aim of the prodigal's Tombez air was to woo Inez. In a late chapter of WHITE-JACKET, matchless Jack Chase went further, disclosing physical details of a consensual encounter with the lovely Tomasita of Tombez," renowned as "the Castilian belle of all lower Peru."

https://books.google.com/books?id=HGokAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA338&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false

Besides doves definitely and crocs, probably, Tombez for Melville connotes what used to be called lovemaking. 

Fact check: it still does!!!

https://youtu.be/n13rqNGcPTA?t=170

[Stephen Hoy]

Tombez is a port city at the Peru / Ecuador border, about 25 miles south of Guayaquil. Currently rendered Tumbes in English atlases. 

I am not aware of any 'air' associated with Tumbes, but the place is well known as the starting point of Pizarro's invasion of the Inca empire. The mention of Lima a few lines later brings another association with Pizarro. 

These lines & others in the chapter lead us to link the Prodigal with corruption. Melville has a listener in The Town-Ho's Story remind us that, although Lima was the City of Churches, few places were "as corrupt as Lima." 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ishmail" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to ishmail+u...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/ishmail/CAD9yP4H0VGPWBZ%2BDDwN0fOQyt5%2BUAvNKOUffw0Fs-PzVHC9tow%40mail.gmail.com.