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LITTLE TOM POLLICLE |
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A chronological list of explanations of those less-obvious strange things mentioned in the Cats lyrics!
+ Jellicle Cat: T.S Eliot's 4-year-old niece trying to say "dear little cat"
+ Pollicle Dog: T.S Eliot's niece trying to say "poor little dog"
JELLICLE SONGS FOR JELLICLE CATS
+ Can you look at a king: From the old porverb "A cat may look at a King". It is a rebuke to someone who's arrogant/snobby and complains if others are interested in what they're doing.
Alumnus of Heaven or Hell: an alumnus is a graduate, so they’ve graduated from both Heaven and Hell...hmm ^^
+ Familiar with candle, with book and with bell: Bell, book, and candle is an old method of excommunication for someone who sinned very badly. Excommunication is used to exclude someone from a religious community. It uses the Bible, a candle and a bell. It was supposed to remove the person's soul from the light of God.
+ Handeling pieces from the Messiah: Nope, not a misspelling! A pun on the composer of the Messiah, Handel.
+ Delphicoracal Cats: The 'Delphic Oracle' was in Delphi, where the Ancient Greeks would go to consult the Gods. An oracle is a bit like a divine fortune-teller. So Delphicoracle Cats are cats that can see the future and give advice about it.
THE NAMING OF CATS
+ Plato, Admetus, Electra, Demeter: These 'fancier names' are all from Ancient Greece, here are their very basic stories: (I love Classics!!!)
Plato was a famous philosopher. Believed education was began with music and gymnastics and finished mathematics. He invented the concept of Hell (eternal punishments) which was later adapted by the Christians, and wrote the story of Atlantis, the lost city.
Electra, a Trojan princess, discovered her mother's lover plotted to kill her father. She later took revenge through her brother, then defended him in court so that he wasn't killed for the crimes. Play by Sophocles.
Admetus, a king of Thessaly, was doomed to die young. His selfish parents did not give themselves up to save him, but his wife Alcestis did. The Gods realised she had died instead of Admetus and Hercules brought her back. Play by Euripides.
Demeter is the Goddess of the Seasons and Fertility. Her daughter Persephone was stolen by Hades and lived half the year with her mother and half in the underworld, hence the seasons as Demeter mourns when Persephone is away and the earth turns cold and unfertile. Greek Myth.
Cassandra is also Greek, but not mentioned in the poem; she was a beautiful Trojan princess who could see the future, but doomed to be never believed. During the Trojan war she took refuge at the statue of Athena, but was ripped away and raped. Athena punished the attacking Greeks for this by sinking their entire fleet. Later Cassandra was murdered after being enslaved by Agamemnon (Electra's father).
THE GUMBIE CAT
+ Beetles Tattoo: A military tattoo is when you're in the army and shoot guns and stuff, and run about with cannons pulled by horses.
BUSTOPHER JONES
+ White spats: White cloth things worn ages ago in England, they go over the top of your shoes to stop them getting muddy. A precurser of galoshes, then gumboots/wellington boots. Worn in spring/summer.
+ Spring in Pall Mall: Pall Mall (in England, mall is said like this) a posh street in London. In the poem, it means that B.J is so well known that when he wears white spats, everyone knows spring has come.
MUNGOJERRIE AND RUMPELTEAZER
+ Vase which was said to Ming: Chinese vase from the Ming Dynasty, about 1475 – 1500 AD. They're very, very expensive...museum pieces really!
+ Woolworth Pearls: string of fake pearls
THE PEKES AND THE POLLICLES
+ Little Tom Pollicle: This part of the song is called "The Marching Song of the Pollicle Dogs" which T.S Eliot wrote for his nephew Tom - hence Tom Pollicle.
GRIZABELLA THE GLAMOUR CAT
+ The Rising Sun: Brothel (prostitute house) in New Orleans. There's a few songs written about it; this one gives you the general idea
THE SONG OF THE JELLICLES
+ Terpsichorean powers: Terpsichore is the Greek Muse of Dance
GUS THE THEATRE CAT
+ Toothful of gin: very small glass of gin
GROWLTIGER'S LAST STAND
+ Sampans and Junks: Flat-bottomed Chinese boats
+ The Bell at Hampton/The Lion: both pubs in England
UP TO THE HEAVISIDE LAYER
+ Up past the Russel Hotel: "At the end they all go up in a balloon - self, spats, and dogs and cats." - T.S. Eliot. This is because in the beginning he was going to have Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats be a collection of poems about cats and dogs, recited by "the Man in White Spats" at the Russel Hotel. Later they decided to make the book exclusively feline.
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