400 MODERN LANGUAGE NOTES, JUNE, 1951 to clarify the problem. Robinson’s “ transcendental optimism ” (the phrase was his own) was always dependent upon a sturdy con- frontation of tragedy and evil; he phrased this aspect of his phi- losophy in a number of ways, but never more cogently than when he wrote to Josephine Peabody: “I still stick to my thesis that the world is a Hell of a Place, and that it should be one if it means anything.” * With this basic idea in mind, one can return to the poem and understand why the poet “welcomes when he fears, the black and awful chaos of the night.” ‘The night is proof of the coming of the light, though it is fearful in itself. “For,” then, introduces a final modification and explanation of “welcomes when he fears,” in terms of an expansion of the earlier star imagery. The inter- postion of “the black and awful chaos of the night” throws the reader off balance, and renders it unlikely that he can follow Robinson’s agile turnings. One can hardly say that Robinson has successfully established his full meaning within the form; though the thought is not particularly difficult, the essential paradox is not firmly grounded and the syntactical organization, which might have made this crucial point clear, contributes rather to its obfuscation, Epwin §. Fusseut University of California (Berkeley) THE ORIGIN OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK The name of J. Alfred Prufrock, T, 8, Eliot’s man of divided conscience, was probably suggested by the Prufrock-Littau Com- pany, furniture dealers located at Fourth and St. Charles Streets in St. Louis, Eliot’s birthplace, at the time of the composition and publication of “The Love Song of J, Alfred Prufrock” in 1915. A store advertisement was printed in the December 19, 1912, issue of Reedy’s Mirror, an important literary weekly of the 1900-1920 period. ‘The name Prufrock is so rare that a thorough search of the tele- phone directories of fifteen other large American cities failed to ? Unpublished letter of March 12, 1915, quoted by permission of the Harvard College Library.THE ORIGIN OF J. ALFRED PRUFROCK 401 discover a single representative of the family. In St. Louis, how- ever, three were listed in the 1950 directory: Mrs. C. Prufrock, Mrs, Harry Prufrock, and W. F. Prufrock, Jr. A letter of inquiry in regard to J. Alfred Prufrock’s origin was sent to Mr. Eliot and elicited the following reply: “Several corre- spondents have recently called my attention to the Prufrock-Littau Company, furniture dealers of St. Louis, I did not have, at the time of writing the poem, and have not yet recovered, any recollec- tion of having acquired the name in this way, but I think that it must be assumed that I did, and that the memory has been ob- literated.” SrerHEN STEPANCHEV Queens College REVIEWS Goethe das Leben im Werk, von Hurwnicxt Myer, Hamburg-Berge- dorf, Strom-Verlag, 1949. Pp. 677. Meyer disliked the picture of a “serene Apollinian” Goethe which he claims the biographers—* Gocthe-Dichter ” he calls them —have “invented.” So he sat down and read the “ 150,000 printed pages of original Goethe writings and sources ” together with “ some unpublished material.” Having penetrated the “subtle psycho- logical processes of poetic writing” he set about to write 670 odd pages of his own “Goethe-Dichtung.” He draws the picture of a man whose most prominent feature is a will to domineer—* humor- loser Herrscher, der sich tiberaus ernst nimmt ”—“ herrisch ober- flachlich ”—“ eifersiichtig und herrschsiichtig und habgierig.” The wisdom of such a character is questionable because he lacks even a “modicum of humor.” This fictitious character never outgrew the helplessness of his adolescent years—* ewiges Kind »—* verwach- sen und in seinem Wollen verworren.” As he advances in years he spends most of his time busying himself with trivial activities— © mit belangloser Geschiiftigkeit und blossem Stochern, Gockern und bedichtigem Tandeln.” He cannot plan and outline his poetic dreams but produces like an “apple tree.” He, like the tree, has to bide the turn of the seasons, wait for the “orgastic relief,” to bring forth the fruit of his pen. As to the merits of his works Goethe is as ignorant as the tree is of the “acids and esters ” found in the apple. If one should have overlooked a brief remark that the author