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43. MADAME SOSOSTRIS: See Aldous Huxley, Crome Yellow, 27 (1921), introducing Sesostris, the Sorceress of Ecbatana, a transvestite palm-reader who predicted the manner of clients’ deaths and ended sessions with an abrupt “Thank you.” Huxley’s influence on Eliot has been disputed, but the coincidence is still remarkable.
44. A BAD COLD: See Flamineo's dying words in John Webster, White Devil 5.6.311-313 (1612), a play about moral corruption:
“I have caught
An everlasting cold; I have lost my voice
Most irrecoverably. Farewell, glorious villains.
This busy trade of life appears most vain,
Since rest breeds rest, where all seek pain by pain.
Let no harsh flattering bells resound my knell;
Strike, thunder, and strike loud, to my farewell! [Dies]”
The thunder theme will be picked up in Part V.
45. THE WISEST WOMAN IN EUROPE: See E. M. Arndt, Sketches of Swedish History, The Foreign Quarterly Review, Vol. 63, Art. II (October 1843): In 1796 at the age of 17, Swedish King Gustav IV Adolf “outwitted the wisest woman in Europe, the Czarina Catherine of Russia” by calling off his engagement to her granddaughter Alexandra just as the royal engagement party had begun, because she refused to convert from Russian orthodoxy to Lutheranism. This irritated Catherine, and she died of a stroke two months later. Compare Queen Dido’s banquet at note 92. See also note 307 for Augustine’s experience at Carthage, also begun at the age of 17. Czarina Catherine, also known as Catherine the Great, was otherwise known to be an enlightened empress who ruled calmly yet effectively, traits often associated with the Empress Card in the Tarot deck (see note 46).
46. TAROT CARDS: Eliot*: “I am not familiar with the exact constitution of the Tarot pack of cards, from which I have obviously departed to suit my own convenience. The Hanged Man, a member of the traditional pack, fits my purpose in two ways: because he is associated in my mind with the Hanged God of Frazer, and because I associate him with the hooded figure in the passage of the disciples to Emmaus in Part V. The Phoenician Sailor and the Merchant appear later; also the ‘crowds of people,’ and Death by Water is executed in Part IV. The Man with Three Staves (an authentic member of the Tarot pack) I associate, quite arbitrarily, with the Fisher King himself.”
The Tarot deck makes an extended appearance at lines 43-59. See notes 45-57 for specific explanations of the cards referenced by Eliot, and see also notes 209 and 311.5. Tarot cards alluded to in this section include the Queen of Cups (note 47), the Three of Wands, or Staves (note 51), The Six of Pentacles, or Pentangles (note 52), the King of Cups (note 55), and three of the trump cards: The Wheel of Fortune (note 51), the Hanged Man (note 55) and the Empress (note 45). See also Weston**, From Ritual to Romance 2, comparing the Tarot suits and those of our modern deck of cards to symbols of the Grail legend: “Cup (Chalice, or Goblet)–Hearts. Lance (Wand, or Sceptre)– Diamonds. Sword– Spades. Dish (Circles, or Pentangles, the form varies)–Clubs.”
One of the most popular versions of the Tarot deck is the Rider deck, developed in 1909 by William Rider & Sons at the direction of Arthur Edward Waite, another American born English poet who lived in London in the early to mid nineteen hundreds. The Rider deck, exceptional for having illustrations on all of its 78 cards and not just the 22 trump cards, was sold with an explanation pamphlet titled A. E. Waite, The Pictorial Key to the Tarot (1910).
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*see note 0.1 **see note 0.2
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