Just a minor point (I know nothing about the dildo crux): you write
> a footnote on p.441 referring to Auden taking a phrase from_Mahagonny_ -
"Grub first, then ethics".<
I can't remember the phrase turning up in Mahagonny & haven't the text at
hand (only the lyrics, where it does not appear), but "Erst kommt das
Fressen, dann kommt die Moral" is from the great ballad in
_Dreigroschenoper_: "Denn wovon lebt der Mensch". "Grub first" etc could
also not be a satisfactory translation in context, as these words are sung &
don't fit rhythmically at all.
Martin
PS I'm struggling through Jeffrey's rather convolutedly reasoned
contribution, but I spontaneously had the same feeling he ~ and Mark, in the
mail I've just read~ gives
expression to: why do you assume >that time< in the USA had a tolerant
>sexual climate<? Wasn't it about the same time Ransom chucked a poem by
Duncan out of his periodical after accepting it when Duncan "came out"
publicly, famously remarking that homosexuals should be castrated in his
opinion to prevent their transmitting their perverse traits to their
children?! (See Fass's biography for details I haven't got in my head.)
PPS What, by the way Jeffrey, if you're reading this, is >Germanische
contamination<? Can you elucidate? I'm also a little puzzled as to what norm
you're proceeding from in discussing the metrics of Auden's poem; to my ear
the revised version sound perfectly all right.
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