{"id":1005,"date":"2026-09-28T19:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T18:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/?p=1005"},"modified":"2026-11-08T18:36:37","modified_gmt":"2026-11-08T18:36:37","slug":"the-whale-and-the-elephant","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/the-whale-and-the-elephant\/","title":{"rendered":"The Whale and the Elephant: A Fable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Noctes Binanianae: The Whale and the Elephant: A Fable -->\n<article class=\"noctes-chapter\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant\">\n<header class=\"chapter-head\">\n<h1 class=\"head\">The Whale<sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r1\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n1\" role=\"doc-noteref\">1<\/a><\/sup> and the Elephant:<sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r2\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n2\" role=\"doc-noteref\">2<\/a><\/sup> A Fable<sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r3\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n3\" role=\"doc-noteref\">3<\/a><\/sup><\/h1>\n<p class=\"subtitle\"><em>To the learned and ingenious Dr. Morley<\/em><sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r4\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n4\" role=\"doc-noteref\">4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"poem-body\">\n<div class=\"lg\">\n  <p class=\"l\">The <em>Elephant<\/em> at forty-nine<sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r5\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n5\" role=\"doc-noteref\">5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">Cannot be caught with <em>hook<\/em> and <em>line<\/em>,<sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r6\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n6\" role=\"doc-noteref\">6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">Especially when it leads into<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">The Precincts of the <em>Hamburg Zoo.<\/em><sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r7\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n7\" role=\"doc-noteref\">7<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\" data-n=\"5\">The <em>Whale<\/em>,<sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r8\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n8\" role=\"doc-noteref\">8<\/a><\/sup> at nearly thirty-eight,<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">Has less grey matter in his pate.<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">The <em>Elephant<\/em>, of beasts alive,<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">Is quite the most <em>Conservative<\/em>;<sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r9\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n9\" role=\"doc-noteref\">9<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">(Of beasts Conservative, the most<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\" data-n=\"10\">Have perish\u2019d, like the <em>Morning Post<\/em><sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r10\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n10\" role=\"doc-noteref\">10<\/a><\/sup>).<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">While other creatures change and roam,<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">He lingers in his <em>jungle<\/em> home,<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">In vegetarian flatulence.<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\"><em>Slow<\/em> in attack, <em>strong<\/em> in defence,<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\" data-n=\"15\">The <em>Whale<\/em>, of more <em>Mercurial<\/em> mind,<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">Is driven about by <em>tide<\/em> and <em>wind<\/em>:<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">A mammal with no nobler wish<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">Than live like fish among the fish:<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">A Monster who escap\u2019d the <em>Flood<\/em>,<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\" data-n=\"20\">With watery <em>diluted<\/em> Blood,<sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r11\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n11\" role=\"doc-noteref\">11<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">And, sacrificing <em>hoof<\/em> to <em>fin<\/em>,<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">Perpetuates pre-diluvial Sin.<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">Yet ah! might <em>Whales<\/em> perhaps repent?<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">And leave their fluid Element?<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\" data-n=\"25\">Prepare the higher life to meet,<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">And stand at last on <em>legs<\/em> and <em>feet<\/em>?<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">With <em>fatted calves<\/em><sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r12\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n12\" role=\"doc-noteref\">12<\/a><\/sup> we\u2019d welcome \u2019em<\/p>\n  <p class=\"l\">Into the New Jerusalem.<sup class=\"enref\" id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-r13\"><a href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-n13\" role=\"doc-noteref\">13<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"attribution\">[T. S. Eliot]<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"notes\" role=\"doc-endnotes\" aria-label=\"Notes to the-whale-and-the-elephant\">\n<details open>\n<summary>Notes<\/summary>\n<ol>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n1\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r1\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 1 in the text\">1.<\/a>\n  <p>FVM to Helen Gardner (who had coyly surmised that FVM was \u2018Whale\u2019 because he was overweight), 23 June 1978:<\/p>\n  <blockquote class=\"extract\"><p>I carried and happily still carry a reasonable physical bulk; the primary reason, though, was that I had been on whaling voyages, and written a book about Whaling [F. V. Morley and J. S. Hodgson, <em>Whaling North and South<\/em> (1926)], and was made famous for giving certain items to the Natural History Museum \u2013 there was for a time a glass case exhibiting \u2018SPECIMENS OF THE WHALE-LOUSE\u2019, the card ambiguously continuing \u2018FROM F. V. MORLEY ESQ.\u2019 But such is Fame \u2013 it gets forgotten \u2013 and the book on Whaling, though reviewed in <em>The Criterion<\/em>, not even that is a memory \u2013 such, I repeat, is Fame.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n  <p>Gardner, in a letter to Morley of 29 June 1978, conceded that she had indeed presumptuously supposed that the sobriquet \u2018Whale\u2019 was owed to the fact of \u2018your being rather larger than other members of the Bina Gardens circle\u2019.<\/p>\n  <p class=\"ind\">FVM to Gardner, 2 July 1978:<\/p>\n  <blockquote class=\"extract\"><p>Whaling is a cruel, sordid dirty business \u2026 Fair enough to attribute nicknames to physical (or other) characteristics. I happened to turn up an old engagement diary for 1934. When lunching at the O &amp; C we sometimes weighed ourselves before and after. Here are two entries<\/p><\/blockquote>\n  <blockquote class=\"extract\"><p>Friday June 29 1934<\/p><\/blockquote>\n  <table class=\"ledger\"><thead><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><th id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">Before<\/th><td><\/td><td><\/td><th id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">After<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>H.R. (Read).<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">11<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">stone<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">3<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">11<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">stone<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">6<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>T.S.E.<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">12<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">&#8220;<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">4<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">12<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">stone<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">4<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>F.V.M.<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">16<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">&#8220;<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h1\">1\u00bd<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">16<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">&#8220;<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t1h2\">3<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n  <blockquote class=\"extract\"><p>Monday July 2 1934<\/p><\/blockquote>\n  <table class=\"ledger\"><thead><tr><td><\/td><td><\/td><th id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">Before<\/th><td><\/td><td><\/td><th id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">After<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>F-S (Force-Stead)<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">10<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">stone<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">5<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">10<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">stone<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">7<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>T.S.E.<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">11<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">&#8220;<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">13<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">12<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">stone<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">2\u00bc<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>F.V.M.<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">15<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">&#8220;<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h1\">13<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">16<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">&#8220;<\/td><td headers=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-t2h2\">&#8220;<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n  <blockquote class=\"extract\"><p>Wm. Force Stead seemed to have considerable effect in filling up Tom\u2019s weight.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n2\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r2\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 2 in the text\">2.<\/a>\n  <p>See TSE\u2019s letter to Samuel Eliot (Boston, MA), 31 Mar. 1951 (concerning Samuel Eliot\u2019s great uncle):<\/p>\n  <blockquote class=\"extract\"><p>It was also welcome to have a copy of his bookplate. I notice that the motto is different from ours (<em>Tace et fac<\/em>, I believe a variant made by my grandfather on the <em>Tace aut Fac<\/em> which was used in the sixteenth century); but that you also turn the elephant\u2019s nose up, whereas the Eliots in Cornwall turn it down, as if about to eat a peanut (Houghton bMS Am 1692.3).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n  <p>TSE to Bonamy Dobr\u00e9e, 29 July 1927, teasingly: \u2018My family tradition is that we are descended from the White Elephant; not the Siamese but the Indian White Elephant. \u201cEliot\u201d is merely a corruption of \u201cElephant\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n3\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r3\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 3 in the text\">3.<\/a>\n  <p>Sent by TSE to GCF with the title: \u2018AN EPISTLE To the Learned and Ingenious Dr Morley\u2019; and an undated (?1 Oct. 1937) TS covering note, on <em>Criterion<\/em> paper:<\/p>\n  <blockquote class=\"extract\"><p>There is some question whether the enclosed Poem, the manuscript of which has just been discovered in the British Museum, is correctly attributed to the late Mr. GAY; and it is therefore sent to the chief living authority on that Author, for the benefit of his opinion. One reason why the attribution has been doubted, is that the identity of the Gentleman to whom the Poem is addressed, is completely obscure. Had there been such a Person among the Poet\u2019s acquaintance, we might expect to have heard of him before.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n  <p>TSE to GCF, 2 Oct. (1937) \u2013 Eliot Estate; copy in King\u2019s HB\/L\/12\/1\/8:<\/p>\n  <blockquote class=\"extract\"><p>I am writing in haste to prevent you from spending any more time over the problem which, as it now appears, I presented prematurely. I hope that you have not begun to write your full report, questioning, if not wholly disproving, the ascription to Mr. GAY. Because meanwhile a new copy of the Poem has turned up in the British Museum, this time entitled simply \u2018A Fable\u2019. It was found by a research student from Nigeria, between the leaves of Vol. III of <em>The Complete Works of Harold J. <\/em> <em>Laski<\/em>. It is identical in dedication and in every other respect, including paper and ink, except that after the lines<\/p><div class=\"lg\"><p class=\"l\">The <em>Elephant<\/em>, of beasts alive,<\/p><p class=\"l\">Is quite the most <em>Conservative<\/em>.<\/p><\/div><p>we have a couplet which does not occur in the first version, viz.:<\/p><div class=\"lg\"><p class=\"l\">(Of <em>beasts conservative<\/em>, the most<\/p><p class=\"l\">Have perish\u2019d, like <em>The Morning Post<\/em>):<\/p><\/div><p>Which appears to give us an approximate date for the Poem. Doesn\u2019t it? or does it not?<\/p><p>In haste (as I said before) and apologetically,<\/p><p class=\"sig tc\">TP<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n4\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r4\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 4 in the text\">4.<\/a>\n  <p>The phrase \u2018learned and ingenious\u2019 is an inveteration, as in <em>A Meditation of Life and Death: Translated with some alterations out of the works of the learned and ingenious Eusebius Nierembergius<\/em> (Oxford, 1682).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n5\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r5\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 5 in the text\">5.<\/a>\n  <p>JDH note: \u2018Mr E., at this time, aged 49.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n6\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r6\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 6 in the text\">6.<\/a>\n  <p><em>Job<\/em> 41: 1: \u2018Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook?\u2019 (cited in <em>Poems<\/em> II, 219).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n7\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r7\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 7 in the text\">7.<\/a>\n  <p>The Tierpark Hagenbeck is a zoo in Stellingen, Hamburg, Germany, first opened in 1874 by Carl Hagenbeck Sr. (1810\u201387), a fishmonger and amateur animal collector. It was the first zoo (which for a while even exhibited certain human \u2018animals\u2019 including Nubians and Inuit) to use enclosures surrounded with moats rather than fenced pens.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n8\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r8\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 8 in the text\">8.<\/a>\n  <p>JDH note: \u2018Mr M[orley].\u2019<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n9\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r9\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 9 in the text\">9.<\/a>\n  <p>See Private Willis\u2019s Song (\u2018When all Night Long a Chap Remains\u2019), in <em>Iolanthe<\/em>, Act II:<\/p>\n  <div class=\"lg\"><p class=\"l\">I often think it\u2019s comical \u2013 Fal, lal, la!<\/p><p class=\"l\">How Nature always does contrive \u2013 Fal, lal, la!<\/p><p class=\"l\">That every boy and every gal,<\/p><p class=\"l\">That\u2019s born into the world alive<\/p><p class=\"l\">Is either a little Liberal<\/p><p class=\"l\">or else a little Conservative!<\/p><p class=\"l\">Fal, lal, la!<\/p><\/div>\n  <p class=\"source\">(cited in <em>Poems<\/em> II, 219)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n10\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r10\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 10 in the text\">10.<\/a>\n  <p>JDH note: \u2018A famous newsheet [<em>sic<\/em>] later incorporated with ye \u201cDaily Telegraph\u201d.\u2019<\/p>\n  <p class=\"ind\"><em>The Morning Post<\/em> was a conservative daily newspaper published in London from 1772 to 1937, when it was acquired by <em>The Daily Telegraph<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n11\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r11\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 11 in the text\">11.<\/a>\n  <p>TSE\u2019s doctor announced to him one day: \u2018Mr Eliot, you have the <em>thinnest<\/em> blood I\u2019ve ever seen!\u2019 Also, there is a family legend, which TSE long believed, that he was remotely \u2013 dilutedly? \u2013 descended from the Bloods \u2013 bad Colonel Blood, &amp;c.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n12\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r12\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 12 in the text\">12.<\/a>\n  <p><em>Luke<\/em> 15: 23: \u2018And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill <em>it<\/em>; and let us eat, and be merry\u2019 (cited in <em>Poems<\/em> II, 219).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li id=\"the-whale-and-the-elephant-n13\"><a class=\"en-back\" href=\"#the-whale-and-the-elephant-r13\" role=\"doc-backlink\" aria-label=\"Back to reference 13 in the text\">13.<\/a>\n  <p><em>Revelation<\/em> 21:<\/p>\n  <blockquote class=\"extract\"><p>And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.<\/p><p>And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/details>\n<\/section>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Whale1 and the Elephant:2 A Fable3 To the learned and ingenious Dr. Morley4 The Elephant at forty-nine5 Cannot be caught with hook and line,6 Especially when it leads into The Precincts of the Hamburg Zoo.7 The Whale,8 at nearly thirty-eight, Has less grey matter in his pate. The Elephant, of beasts alive, Is quite [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":5,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1005","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1005"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1101,"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1005\/revisions\/1101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tseliot.com\/noctes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}