Friday, September 17, 2010

Rico



In D.H. Lawrence's St. Mawr, St. Mawr is a horse ("The man repeated [his name], with a slight Welsh twist"), Lou Witt is Louise (from Louisiana)—and there's also, in this novella, a Lewis—is Lady Carrington, and her husband Rico is Sir Henry. Everyone has names, and many of them, and they are all of those names at once, but only one at a time. It is wordplay, nameplay. Thus:
"Isn't Fred flirting perfectly outrageously with Lady Carrington!--She looks so sweet!" cried Flora, over her coffee-cup. "Don't you mind, Harry!"

They called Rico 'Harry'! His boy-name.

"Only a very little," said Harry. "L'uomo è cacciatore."

"Oh, now, what does that mean?" cried Flora, who always thrilled to Rico's bits of affectation.

"It means," said Mrs. Witt, leaning forward and speaking in her most suave voice, "that man is a hunter."

Even Flora shrank under the smooth acid of the irony. "Oh, well now!" she cried. "If he is, then what is woman?"

"The hunted," said Mrs. Witt, in a still smoother acid. "At least," said Rico, "she is always game!"

"Ah, is she though!" came Fred's manly, well-bred tones. "I'm not so sure."

Mrs. Witt looked from one man to the other, as if she were dropping them down the bottomless pit.

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