Him [1927] Him is a play in three acts that combines elements of vaudeville, the circus, and expressionism. The play was first produced at the Provincetown Playhouse in New York in 1928. Page numbers are in parentheses before the note. The first number refers to pagination in the 1927 edition (reprinted 1955), while the second number refers to the 1970 edition. The idea of a dream play may have been suggested to Cummings by the Provincetown Playhouse's production of Strindberg's The Dream Play, which EEC characterized as having a "luminous existence" (Miscellany 144). Strindberg's play is more dream-like than Cummings' Him and contains no circus or vaudeville scenes, but it does feature two minor characters named "He" and "She," a character named "The Poet," and a central female character (Indra's daughter) who observes all the scenes and participates in many of them. The Dream Play premiered January 20th, 1926 and was directed by the same James Light who directed Him (see Deutsch and Hanau 141-42, 158-62, and 285-287). Him may also have benefited from the examples of John Dos Passos' play The Garbage Man (1924) and John Howard Lawson's Processional (1925). The drawing at the left appeared on the cover of the first edition and illustrates the passage in Act I, scene two when Him explains that being an artist is like performing a high-wire act in the clouds. (For EEC's discussion of this scene, see nonlecture five.) For an interpretation of some autobiographical aspects of Him, see Linda Wagner-Martin's "Cummings' Him—and Me" [Spring New Series 1 (1992): 28-36].  Him Links

In his notes to the play, Cummings writes that Him “is a combination of

nonsense(the 3 Weirds—before the curtain-picture, with their backs to audience)
sense(Him & Me—the revolving room
symbol(Act II entire)

Notes:
Act I

I,i (3 / 1) [and I, iii (17 / 15)] It’s Toasted = Slogan on packets Lucky Strike brand cigarettes.

I.i. (4 / 2) Mr. Anybody --Him's first nom de plume name may remind the reader of Odysseus' famous pseudonym, "Nobody" (Homer, Odyssey 9.366). See also the medieval morality play, Everyman. Marquis de la Poussière = "Marquis of Dust" [French].

I.ii. (9 / 7) married a Holeproof. "Holeproof" = brand-name of ladies' hosiery.
I.ii. (9 / 7) I don’t see the engine = "I don’t see the train coming."

(12-13 / 10-11) In his i: six nonlectures (81), Cummings comments on this "artist-as-acrobat" scene.

(19 / 17) omphalos = "navel" [Greek]. A large stone at the oracle at Delphi was considered the omphalos, the navel or center of the ancient Greek world. See page 121.

(19 / 17) casazza = according to Cummings’ notes, "a madeup word(burlesk)."

I.iv. (18 / 20) Keyring Comedies and Keyhole Farces = a play on the popular silent movies called Keystone Comedies. (Also a play on the phrase "three-ring circus"?)
gimme a chord professor = instruction given by a vaudeville or burlesque performer to the piano player or conductor, who was often called "professor." See the end of Act II, scene xiii (74).
nombril = navel [French]. (See omphalos above.)

(22 / 20) I’ve got the machine who’s got the god—a play on the theatrical expression deus ex machina, the "god from the machine" [Latin]. A god or godlike character appears at the end of the play to assign rewards and punishments and to tie up all loose ends.

(22 / 20) Ars longa vita brevis. The Est--?  "Ars longa vita brevis est" = "Art is long, life is short" [Latin]. The Est = The Is [Latin].

(23 / 21) Morgen. = [Good] morning [German].

(23 / 21) Professor Roland Thaxter Neighbor of the youthful E. E. Cummings in Cambridge, Massachusetts (see Kennedy, Dreams 22).

(21-24 / 19-22) The dialogue on these pages may be clarified by the following interpretation from Cummings’ notes:

1)a man & woman(H & M)are living together   H is an artist--

i.e. a person incapable of compromise,fighting an un-world [x-ed out: in the name of Beauty.]  She loves him.  He idealizes her.  b has shut me from the truth p 130
a)her fear of pregnancy (p 21)—he removes it by pretending to be on the point of
  committing suicide(p 23)whereupon,in terror,she menstruates(24)

(24 / 22) King C. Y. Didn’t Gillette Meknow— A guy named King C. Gillette founded the Gillette Safety Razor Company and appeared in its newspaper advertisements. Him’s line is a pun: "King see, why didn’t you let me know?"

(29 / 27) The planes overlap sometimes —Cummings says in his notes that this is a quote from the painter Paul Cézanne.  

I. v. (30 / 28) In Vino Veritas = in wine (is) truth [Latin].  

(31 / 29) hippocampus = seahorse.

 

The drawing appeared on p. 11 of the Hearst Sunday supplement American Weekly, February 28, 1926 (Clark xiv).

II.iv. (45-49 / 41-45) Will and Bill, two partners in business. This scene parodies Eugene O'Neill's play The Great God Brown (1925) in which some characters wear masks symbolic of their public faces or selves. One character (Bill Brown) assumes the identity of another (his deceased rival, Dion Anthony) by donning his mask. EEC's character Him may be indebted to that of Anthony, a failed artist who does not proceed. When Brown asks Cybel, an Earth-mother / prostitute figure, why Anthony is so attractive to women, she responds, "He's alive!" (340). 

II.iv. (48-49 / 44-45) Masks and ghosts . . . Larva, pupa and . . . imago —According to C. G. Jung’s Psychological Types (1923), a book which Cummings owned and heavily annotated,  

With the primitive [human] . . . the imago, the psychic reverberation of the sense-impression, is so strong and so avowedly sensuous in hue and texture that, when it appears reproduced, i.e., as a spontaneous memory-image it sometimes even has the quality of an hallucination. Thus when the memory-image of his dead mother suddenly reappears to a primitive, it is as if it were her ghost he sees and hears.  (Jung, Types 42). 

II.iv. (49 / 45) Life is a cribhouse = "Life is a cabin or hovel or small room." See the last stanza on page 51 / 47, scene 5. 

II.v. (49-54 / 45-50)  Frankie is the female (slang for Frances) and Johnny is the male. "Ashcan school" painter John Sloan  (1871-1951) made an etching of the performancd of this Frankie and Johnny scene. Sloan's etching depicts actors Hemsley Williams and Goldye Steiner singing "Frankie and Johnny." Steiner, as The Ground, holds a doll representing the dead Johnny.  Sloan wrote to James Light, the director of the play: "Him is about as thrilling an evening's entertainment as I have ever experienced. I liked it thoroughly—I don't claim to understand it—I do not believe that a work of art can be, nor need be, understood, even by its maker. It seemed to me to be a glimpse inside the cranium of an artist-poet" ("Stagestruck").

John Sloan, The Frankie and Johnny scene from Him, 1928

Sloan's comments on understanding the play echo Cummings' own, printed in the program: "Relax and give the play a chance to strut its stuff—relax, stop wondering what it is all 'about'—like many strange and familiar things, Life included, this Play isn't 'about,' it simply is. . . . Don't try to enjoy it, let it try to enjoy you. DON'T TRY TO UNDERSTAND IT, LET IT TRY TO UNDERSTAND YOU" (quoted in Kennedy 295).

II.v. (54 / 50) John Rutter = John S. Sumner, the "executive secretary of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice" (Daniels 81). See note to "the season 'tis,my lovely lambs" (CP 265). 

II.vii. (64 / 60) Chaos = "gap, chasm" according to Hesiod, the first element in creation [Greek]. Cosmos = order [Greek]. Kolynos = ?
(65 / 61) C. Petronius = Gaius Petronius Arbiter (died 61 AD), courtier of the Emperor Nero and author of the Satyricon.

II.viii. (70 / 66) "hands locked behind . ." — Napoleon as described by Robert Browning in his poem "Incident of the French Camp." 

II.viii. (71 / 67) To S.M. Il Re! = "To His Majesty the King!" [Vittorio Emanuele II, King of Italy. The Italian royal family was known as the house of Savoy (see next note).]

II.viii. (65-74 / 61-70) The Old Howard's conception of a luxurious Roman villa . . . The Old Howard Theatre was a burlesque house in Scollay Square, Boston. Long since demolished by "illustrious punks of Progress" (CP 438), Scollay Square and the Old Howard were for years "famous for supplementing the curricula of Harvard students" (Park). See also the web page "A brief, pictorial history of Scollay Square."

EEC wrote to Charles Norman about this scene: 

(73 / 69) Ecce Homos— "Ecce Homo" is an inscription often found on crucifixes and crucifixion scenes. It means "Behold the man" [Latin].

(74 / 70) Congressman Mann who freed the slaves --"U. S. Rep. J. R. Mann gave his name to the White Slavery Act of 1910, popularly known as the Mann Act. It decreed fines and imprisonment for persons transporting 'any woman or girl' across state lines for the purpose of prostitution or 'any other immoral purpose'" (Gerber 177-178).

III. i. (90 / 84) The stage directions should read: "ME stands—tense erect panting—" (rather than "terse erect panting").   

(90 / 84) Mademoiselle d’Autrefois = formerly, once [French].  

(91 / 85) Ahsh E. M. spells "H – I – M" as the letters are pronounced in French. 

(96 / 90) Eheu fugaces—refers to Horace, Odes, II.14: "Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume, / labuntur anni nec pietas moram / rugis et instanti senectae / adferet indomitaeque morti": "Ah, Postumus, Postumus, how fleeting / the swift years—prayer cannot delay / the furrows of imminent old-age / nor hold off unconquerable death.” (Also quoted or parodied in CP 234, CP 492, and CP 986.) 

III.iii. (99 / 93) According to Cummings, we are to understand that the "Blond Gonzesse" is a prostitute. His note reads: "gonzesse = tart." The French word gonzesse may be translated roughly as "broad" or "babe."  

(110 / 104) carrying . . . a cabbage —since the restaurant, Au Père Tranquille, was located next to Les Halles, formerly a very large outdoor produce market, it makes perfect sense for Him to be carrying a cabbage he has just purchased.

Him (To Waiter): Trois whis-ky et une assiette. = “Three whiskies and a plate.”
Waiter: Une assiette msieur—comment—?  Une assiette anglaise? = “A plate, monsieur—what—? A cold buffet?”
Him: Une assiette nature, pour le choux. = “A clean empty plate for the cabbage.”

(111 / 105) John Brown, a generic name, but also the name of the famous abolitionist. "John Brown's body lies a-mouldering in the grave" is from Julia Ward Howe's "Battle Hymn of the Republic."

(115 / 109) shall we dance the I Touch? = "shall we make love?"  

III.v. (129 / 123) Gay may change = "Ge (Earth) may change" [Greek]. [Hypnos and Thanatos = Sleep and Death [Greek]. 

III.vi. (132 / 126) his name is Nascitur = his name is "being born, arises, originates, begins, is produced, springs forth, proceeds, grows, is found." [Latin]. Cf. "yonder deadfromtheneckup graduate of a" (CP 232). The person whose name is Nascitur is the Barker, a.k.a., the Doctor, who touts the Freaks. This role is quite contradictory to his role in the Frankie and Johnny scene, where the Doctor plays the censor John Rutter. But see Act II, scene ix, where the Gentleman (also played by the Doctor) has “Just. Been. Born.” (85) and Act III, scene iii, where Him tells the same Gentleman, "I was born day before yesterday" (113). Note also the birth / Adam and Eve theme in the names of the nine Freaks:  

Table of Freaks in Him:

(135 / 129) Herpo = "to creep, to crawl, move slowly" [Greek].

(135-136 / 120-130) Frank Mac Dermot —Cummings' first wife Elaine Orr married Frank Mac Dermot after divorcing EEC in 1924. (See Kennedy 254-55.) He is presented here as a great white hunter who captures a sleeping serpent—perhaps Elaine or Me. 

(136-137 / 130-131) Kakos = "Bad, shitty, evil" [Greek]. Kalos "beautiful, fair, serving a good purpose, good, morally beautiful, right, good, noble" [Greek].

(138 / 132) Sempre abasso Savoia putana Madonna viva Lenine! = "Always down with [the house of] Savoy [king of Italy] whore Madonna long live Lenin!" [Italian] 

(140 / 134) Eat Un Grow Tin = "Eat and Grow Thin," Cummings’ spoof on a popular self-help book by Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich?

(140 / 134) Ge Ge . . . duh missin link = Ge = "earth, ground, soil: one's country" [Greek].

(141 / 135) A. I. Dolon = "dolos" = "bait, cunning contrivance, craft, cunning, treachery, wiliness" [Greek].

(131 / 125; 143 / 137) Princess Anankay = Anagke = "necessity, constraint, force, natural want or desire" [Greek].

• Clark, Claudia. Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1997.
• Cummings, E. E. Him. New York: Boni and Liveright, 1927. Reprinted. New York: Liveright, 1955, 1970.
• ---. E. E. Cummings: A Miscellany Revised. Ed. George J. Firmage. New York: October House, 1965.
• Daniels, Jonathan. The Time Between the Wars: Armistice to Pearl Harbor. Garden City: Doubleday, 1966.
• Deutsch, Helen, and Stella Hanau. The Provincetown: A Story of the Theatre. 1931. New York: Russell & Russell, 1972. 
• Dos Passos. John. The Garbage Man, A Parade with Shouting. New York: Harper, 1924. 
• Gerber, Phillip A. "E. E. Cummings's Season of the Censor." Contemporary Literature 19 (1988): 177-200. 
• Jung, Carl Gustav. Psychological Types, or The Psychology of Individuation. Trans. H. Godwin Baynes. New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1923.
• Kennedy, Richard S. "Anne and Him." Dreams in the Mirror: A Biography of E. E. Cummings. New York: Liveright, 1980. 281-303.  
  
• Lawson, John Howard. Processional: A Jazz Symphony of American Life. New York: Seltzer, 1925.
  
• Norman, Charles. "The Poet as Playwright." E. E. Cummings, The Magic Maker. 3rd ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1972. 202-235. 
• O'Neill, Eugene. The Great God Brown. 1925. Nine Plays. New York: Random House / Modern Library, 1954.

• Bentley, Eric. "Him" in The Modern Repertoire: Series Two. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1952: 485-494. (Bentley writes an interesting essay about how he staged Him in Salzburg, Austria in the late 40s. This essay is at the back of an anthology of plays in which Him was included.)
• Cohen, Milton A. "Cummings and Freud." American Literature 55 (1983): 591-610. See especially pp. 606-610. 
• Dos Passos. John. "Mr Dos Passos on Him." New York Times, 22 Apr. 1928, sec. 9, p. 2. Rpt. The Major Nonfictional Prose. Ed Donald Pizer. Detroit: Wayne State UP, 1988. 110-111. 
• Friedman, Norman. "HIM (1927)." E. E. Cummings: The Growth of a Writer. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1964. 51-74.
  
• Maurer, Robert E. "E. E. Cummings' Him" in Norman Friedman, ed. E. E. Cummings: A Collection of Critical Essays. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1972: 133-155.
• North, Michael. The Dialect of Modernism: Race, Language, and Twentieth Century Literature. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994. (See pp. 26-28.)
• Smeltsor, Marjorie. "'Damn Everything but the Circus': Popular Art in the Twenties and Him." Modern Drama 17 (1974): 43-55.
• Wagner-Martin, Linda."Cummings' Him—and Me" Spring New Series 1 (1992): 28-36.
• Wegner, Robert E. The Poetry and Prose of E. E. Cummings. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965.  (See pp. 26-36.)
• Wilson, Edmund. "E. E. Cummings' Him." The Shores of Light. New York: Farrar, Straus, & Young, 1952. 282-285. (This is a review of the play as published.)
• Young, Stark. "Him." New Republic 54 (May 2, 1928): 325-26. Rpt in S. V. Baum, ed.  ESTI:eec: E. E. Cummings and the Critics. East Lansing: Michigan State UP,  1962. 47-49. (This is a review of the play as performed.)

• EEC's comments on Act I, Scene two of Him (the "artist-as-acrobat" scene) (i: six nonlectures 81). 
• Linda Wagner-Martin, "Cummings' Him—and Me" Spring New Series 1 (1992): 28-36.
• Harry L. Katz and Sara W. Duke, "Stagestruck: Performing Arts Caricatures Exhibition Opens," The Library of Congress. (Scroll down to see comments on John Sloan's etching of the Frankie and Johnny scene): http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/stagestruck/stage-exhibit.html
  
• Photo of Provincetown Playhouse (1935-36), site of first production of Him: http://newdeal.feri.org/library/u82.htm
• Berenice Abbott Photos of Provincetown Playhouse (1936): http://www.mcny.org/Exhibitions/abbott/a192.htm 
• A Short History of the Provincetown Playhouse: http://pages.nyu.edu/~jqk2598/provincetown.html

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