Frédéric Thomas

François Renaud

J M Derothe

A Lambert

Thierry De Meeûs

Frank Cézilly

E Renaud

Assortative pairing in Gammarus insensibilis (Amphipoda

Keywords:

published or not. The documents may come

Introduction

Several studies have demonstrated that parasites can influence the reproductive biology of their hosts through various mechanisms [START_REF] Minchella | Parasitism: a cryptic determinant of animal community structure[END_REF]. Thus, F. Thomas (~) 9 F. Renaud 9 J.M. Derothe 9 A. Lambert T. De Meetis Laboratoire de Parasitologie Comparde (URA 698, CNRS), Universit6 Montpellier II, place Eugene Bataillon, F-34095 Montpellier, Cedex 05, France Phone: 33 67 14 37 52, Fax: 33 67 14 46 46 E. mail: parasito@crit.univ-montp2.fr E C6zilly Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat, Le Sambuc, F-13200 Arles, France parasites can alter the reproductive potential of their hosts directly, through total or partial castration [START_REF] Baudouin | Host castration as a parasitic strategy[END_REF], or indirectly through reducing the ability to care for young [START_REF] Festa-Bianchet | Nursing behaviour of bighorn sheep: correlates of ewe age, parasitism, lamb age, birthdate and sex[END_REF]. In recent years much attention has been devoted to how parasites affect mating success and mate choice in several species [START_REF] Zuk | The effects of gregarine parasites, body size, and time of day on spermatophore production and sexual selection in field crickets[END_REF]Mr 1990;[START_REF] Houde | Effect of parasitic infection on male color pattern and female choice in guppies[END_REF]. Several hypotheses have been advanced to explain the observed relationship between parasite load and variance in mating success. According to [START_REF] Hamilton | Heritable true fitness and bright birds: a role for parasites[END_REF], under certain circumstances females should choose males on the basis of their secondary sexual traits, the condition of which to some extent indicate parasite resistance. Alternatively, the "parasite avoidance hypothesis" [START_REF] Borgia | Satin bowerbird parasites: a test of the bright male hypothesis[END_REF][START_REF] Borgia | Female choice for parasite-free male satin bowerbirds and the evolution of bright male plumage[END_REF] suggests that females should avoid infected males to minimize external parasite transfer during mating. However, a negative relationship between male parasite load and mating success can also correspond to parasite-mediated reduction in male competitiveness, without the need to invoke female choice [START_REF] Schall | Malarial parasitism and male competition for mates in the western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis[END_REF][START_REF] Howard | Parasitism and mate competition[END_REF]Forbes t991). Thus, parasites can induce non-random pairing in their hosts through various mechanisms.

In this paper, we analyse the influence of MicrophaIlus papillorobustus Rankin 1940 (Trematoda: Microphallidae) on the reproductive biology of its intermediate host, Gammarus insensibiIis Stock 1966. The breeding biology of G. insensibilis (described by [START_REF] Brun | Variations intrasp6cifiques et sp6ciation chez deux esp~ces de gammares d'eau saumfitre du groupe Gammarus locusta (Crustac6s, Amphipodes)[END_REF][START_REF] Helluy | Un mode de favorisation de la transmission parasitaire: la manipulation du comportement de l'h6te intermddiaire[END_REF] is similar to that of the majority of Gammarus species [START_REF] Hynes | The ecology of Gammarus duebeni Lilljeborg and its occurrence in freshwater in western Britain[END_REF][START_REF] Hynes | The reproductive cycle of some British freshwater Gammaridae[END_REF][START_REF] Hartnoll | Pair formation and the reproductive cycle in Gammarus duebeni[END_REF][START_REF] Birkhead | Mate selection and precopnlatory guarding in Gammarus pulex[END_REF][START_REF] Ward | The breeding behaviour of Gammarus duebeni[END_REF][START_REF] Sutcliffe | Reproduction in Gammarus (Crustacea: Amphipoda): basic reproductive processes[END_REF]. Mating occurs only during a narrow part of the female's moult cycle, usually within a few days or hours of the moult [START_REF] Sutcliffe | Reproduction in Gammarus (Crustacea: Amphipoda): basic reproductive processes[END_REF]). In the absence of any mechanism synchronizing female moult cycles the operational sex ratio is consequently strongly male-biased: at any time, more males than females are available for mating. Thus, competition for access to mates takes place between males [START_REF] Ward | Sexual selection, natural selection and body size in Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda)[END_REF]. Males, which are able to identify females close to their moult [START_REF] Sutcliffe | Reproduction in Gammarus (Crustacea: Amphipoda): male strategies[END_REF], try to monopolize and guard them until fertilization of the eggs is possible [START_REF] Ward | The effects of size on the mating decisions of Gammarus pulex (Crustacea Amphipoda)[END_REF]. This precopulatory mate guarding may last several days [START_REF] Sutcliffe | Reproduction in Gammarus (Crustacea: Amphipoda): male strategies[END_REF], and it represents a substantial investment from the male since whilst he is guarding a female the opportunity to mate with other females is lost. After insemination, the male generally guards the female for a few hours before abandoning her. After fertilization, the eggs develop in the female's brood pouch. The time of development of the eggs varies according to water temperature and salinity, lasting about 11-15 days at 20~ in G. insensibilis [START_REF] Sutcliffe | Reproduction in Gammarus (Crustacea: Amphipoda): basic reproductive processes[END_REF].

Infective larvae of MicrophalIus papillorobustus enter gammarids through the branchial cuticle, migrate to the amphipod's brain and encyst in cerebroid ganglia [START_REF] Helluy | Un mode de favorisation de la transmission parasitaire: la manipulation du comportement de l'h6te intermddiaire[END_REF]. With at least one cerebral metacercaria present, the phototactism of the gammarid becomes strongly positive, and the geotactism is reversed from positive to negative [START_REF] Helluy | Un mode de favorisation de la transmission parasitaire: la manipulation du comportement de l'h6te intermddiaire[END_REF]. In addition, responses to mechanical disturbances are altered: gammarids swim along the water surface and/or cling to surface material [START_REF] Helluy | Un mode de favorisation de la transmission parasitaire: la manipulation du comportement de l'h6te intermddiaire[END_REF]. Thereby, the parasite's transmission to its definitive host, aquatic birds feeding on gammarids, is favoured [START_REF] Helluy | Relations h6tes-parasites du tr6matode Microphallus papillorobustus (Rankin, 1940). III Facteurs impliquds dans les modifications du comportement des Gammarus h6tes interm4diaires et tests de predation[END_REF]. Thus, survival of infected gammarids, and their broods, is reduced. Given the substantial investment in precopulatory mate guarding, selection presumably favours males who can detect and avoid females with metacercariae. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the empirical evidence, based upon data collected in the field, for a direct influence of parasitism upon mating patterns in G. insensibilis.

Materials and methods

All gammarids were collected during March 1994 in the Thau's lagoon (Southern France,43 ~ 25' N,3 ~ 35' E). We sampled a 1.5 m wide section at 40 cm water depth. We actively searched for and collected 214 pairs in precopula. In addition we collected unpaired individuals in the emergent aquatic vegetation. All individuals and pairs were immediately preserved in alcohol, and were later sexed, measured by length (from head to tip of telson), and dissected in order to count cerebral metacercariae of Microphallus papillorobustus. In unpaired individuals, only animals of breeding size (n = 504) were included in the analysis. This minimum breeding size was determined from the size of the smallest male and female found in the collection of paired individuals [START_REF] Ward | Sexual selection, natural selection and body size in Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda)[END_REF]). Following [START_REF] Margolis | The use of ecological terms in parasitology (report of an ad hoc committee of the American Society of Parasitologists)[END_REF], we estimated prevalence (proportion of infected individuals) and mean parasitic intensity (mean parasite load of infected individuals) for both males and females. Because of the behavioural alterations induced by Microphallus papiUorobustus on its intermediate host (positive phototactism and negative geotactism), infected individuals were probably more likely to be collected than uninfected ones [START_REF] Helluy | Un mode de favorisation de la transmission parasitaire: la manipulation du comportement de l'h6te intermddiaire[END_REF]. This bias may be especially important for pairs which were actively searched for and were more visible at the water surface. For unpaired individuals, which were randomly collected in large numbers within the aquatic vegetation, the proportion of infected gammarids is less likely to be overestimated. Consequently, prevalences should not be directly compared between paired and unpaired individuals.

The estimation of fecundity was restricted to a subsample of unpaired females and determined through counting the number of eggs contained in the brood pouches. In paired females many young may leave the female brood pouch at the time of capture (E Thomas, personal observation).

Statistical tests followed [START_REF] Siegel | Nonparametric statistics for the behavioural sciences[END_REF] and [START_REF] Sokal | Diplocotyle (Eucestoda), a parasite of Gammarus zaddachi in the estuary of the Yorkshire Esk, Britain[END_REF]. All tests were two-tailed. Throughout the paper values given are mean _+SD. Results were considered significant at the 5% level.

Results

Parasitic prevalence and intensity

For paired as for unpaired individuals, parasitic prevalence was significantly higher in males than in females (Fisher's exact test P = 0.0007 and P = 0.007 for paired and unpaired individuals, respectively) (Table 1). Within infected pairs, the mean intensity was significantly higher in females than in males (Wilcoxon signed ranks test, z = 2.44, n = 67, P = 0.007), whereas for unpaired infected individuals there was no significant difference between sexes in parasite intensity (Mann-Whitney test, U = 6767.5, P > 0.05). Further, the mean intensity in unpaired individuals (males: 7.1; females: 6.1) was higher than in paired individuals (males: 2.1; females: 3.2) (Mann-Whitney Utest, U = 5362 for males, P < 0.001; U = 3336.5 for females, P < 0.001). This last result was related to the larger proportion of infected individuals with more than four metacercariae in unpaired gammarids (Fig. 1).

Parasite load and female fecundity

The fecundity was estimated in 102 unpaired females. Fecundity increased with female size (log transformed data, r = 0.945; Fig. 2). There was no significant difference between slopes of infected and uninfected females (analysis of covariance, F1,99 = 0.001, n.s.), but uninfected females were more fecund than infected females of the same size (compmision of intercepts, FI,99 = 13.891, P < 0.001).

The mean egg number was 50.1 + 26.2 and 36.6 _+ 24 for uninfected and infected females, respectively. In addition, in infected females, residuals from the regression of fecundity as a function of size were negatively correlated with the parasitic load (i.e. intensity) (Spearman rank order correlation coefficient, rs = -0.336, n = 41, P < 0.05).

Parasite load and patterns of mating

Among the 214 pairs, the null hypothesis of random pair formation according to the presence/absence of parasites was strongly rejected (Z 2 = 57.08, df= 1, P < 0.001) (Table 2). Homogamic pairs UU (uninfected male -uninfected female) and II (infected male -infected female) were over-represented (75%). However, there was no significant relationship between male and female parasite intensity among II pairs (Spearman rank order correlation coefficient r s = -0.159, n = 94, n.s.). Among the two possible heterogamic pairs, the combination IU (infected male -uninfected female) was less under-represented than the UI (uninfected male -infected female) combination (IU partial Z 2 = 9.54; UI partial Z 2 = 20.35). Size distributions were not significantly different from the normal distribution (Kolmogorov-Smirnov onesample test, n = 214, D = 0.084 and D = 0.045 for males and females, respectively). There was a significant positive relationship between male size and female size within pairs (r = 0.467, n = 214, P < 0.001) (Fig. 3). Assortative mating by size was still significant when observed within pair categories (UU, II, UI and IU; Table 3), and there was no significant difference between slopes (analysis of covariance: F3,al 0 = 1.212, P = 0.306), nor between intercepts (P = 0.088). The differences in size distribution between paired and unpaired males (Fig. 4) were significant for uninfected and for infected males (Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample test, D = 0.405 for uninfected, D = 0.625 for infected, P < 0.01 in both cases). Paired males were larger than unpaired ones, both in infected and uninfected individuals (Mann-Whitney Fig. 4 Size distribution of paired and unpaired males of Gammarus insensibilis in parasite uninfected and infected specimens U-test, infected: U = 2362, P < 0.001; uninfected: U = 2765.5, P < 0.001), whereas no such difference was observed for females. Among pairs involving uninfected females, residuals from the regression of female size on male size were larger for uninfected males than for infected males (t-test = 1.997, df = 108, P < 0.05). Thus, compared with uninfected males at equal size, infected males were paired with smaller uninfected females.

Discussion

Parasitic prevalence and intensity

Data on the prevalence of M. papillorobustus in G. insensibilis are scarce. In 15 unpaired adults examined, [START_REF] Helluy | Un mode de favorisation de la transmission parasitaire: la manipulation du comportement de l'h6te intermddiaire[END_REF] found 6 individuals with metacercariae.

Although the present study is based on a much larger sample from a different field station, the observed prevalence (Table 1) is not significantly different (Z21 = 0.208, P = 0.648). However, variation in time and space in the prevalence of M. papilIorobustus remains largely unexplored. The fact that the prevalence was higher in males remains unexplained, but has already been reported by [START_REF] Ward | A comparative field study of the breeding behaviour of a stream and a pond population of Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda)[END_REF] for Gammarus pulex (L.) infected by Polymorphus minutus Goeze 1782. Data on parasite intensity in gammarids are scarce and do not consider the two sexes separately (e.g. [START_REF] Brown | Parasitism and host sensitivity to cadmium: an acantocephalan infection of the freshwater amphipod Gammarus pulex[END_REF]. Our results suggest that individuals, both males and females, heavily infected by M. papillorobustus are less likely to pair than individuals with reduced parasite loads. The interpretation of the observed higher parasite intensity in paired females compared to paired males remains difficult with-out a detailed analysis of parasite intensity and patterns of mortality in males and females.

Parasite load and female fecundity

The low fecundity of infected females, reported here for M. papillorobustus for the first time, have frequently been observed in crustaceans infected by parasites [START_REF] Reinhard | Parasitic castration of Crustacea[END_REF]Stark 1965;[START_REF] Moore | The ecology of the acanthocephalan (Plagiorhynchus cylindraceus) in the isopod (Armadillidium vulgare) and the starling (Sturnus vulgaris)[END_REF]. Parasitic infection may affect the reproductive potential of female gammarids through total or partial suppression of reproduction [START_REF] Ward | The breeding behaviour of Gammarus duebeni[END_REF][START_REF] Ward | A comparative field study of the breeding behaviour of a stream and a pond population of Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda)[END_REF]Poulton and Thompson 1988). Our results are consistent with results from female G. pulex infected with the acantocephalan parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis (Miiller) [START_REF] Poulton | The effects of the acanthocephalan parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis on mate choice in Gammaruspulex[END_REF].

As in the present study, [START_REF] Poulton | The effects of the acanthocephalan parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis on mate choice in Gammaruspulex[END_REF] found that uninfected females were more fecund than infected females of the same size. As infected females lay fewer eggs than uninfected ones and as, in addition, infected females and hence their eggs, have a lower survival through higher vulnerability to predation, we expect that male mating decisions will be influenced by parasitic prevalence. Since there is a direct connection between parasitism, altered behaviour (i.e. "suicide") and fecundity, males should be able to take into account parasitism when choosing a mate.

Size-assortative pairing

An important feature of precopulatory mate guarding in amphipods is that males and females tend to be matched for size (i.e. positive assortative pairing for size; Crespi 1989). Thus, larger males are found with large females and smaller males with small females [START_REF] Birkhead | Mate selection and precopnlatory guarding in Gammarus pulex[END_REF]; see [START_REF] Kusano | Size assortative mating and sexual dimorphism in gammaridean Amphipoda[END_REF] for a review). Various hypotheses have been advanced to explain assortative pairing by size in amphipods [START_REF] Pringle | Factors affecting the microdistribution of different sizes of the amphipod Gammarus pulex[END_REF][START_REF] Adams | Why are males bigger than females in pre-copula pairs of Gammarus pulex ?[END_REF][START_REF] Greenwood | Sexual dimorphism in Gammarus pulex: the effect of current flow on pre-copula pair formation[END_REF][START_REF] Ward | The effects of size on the mating decisions of Gammarus pulex (Crustacea Amphipoda)[END_REF][START_REF] Ward | The relative roles of habitat structure and male-male competition in the mating system of Gammarus pulex (Crustacea; Amphipoda): a simulation study[END_REF]; see Crespi 1989 for a review). A likely explanation lies in the increase in female fecundity with size coupled with malemale competition for access to large, more fertile females [START_REF] Ward | Advantages and a disadvantage of large size for male Gammarus pulex (Crustacea Amphipoda)[END_REF][START_REF] Ward | The effects of size on the mating decisions of Gammarus pulex (Crustacea Amphipoda)[END_REF][START_REF] Ward | Sexual selection, natural selection and body size in Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda)[END_REF]. Males have been observed to take over females held in precopula by other males [START_REF] Ward | Advantages and a disadvantage of large size for male Gammarus pulex (Crustacea Amphipoda)[END_REF][START_REF] Elwood | The amorous Garnmarus: size assortative mating in G. puIex[END_REF]. In this context, large paired males would have better ability to resist attacks from other males and they should be more likely to take over females from small males [START_REF] Ward | Advantages and a disadvantage of large size for male Gammarus pulex (Crustacea Amphipoda)[END_REF]. Two major alternatives to the sexual selection hypothesis have been advanced to explain size-assortative pairing in gammarids. The loading constraint hypothesis [START_REF] Adams | Loading constraints, sexual selection and assortative mating in peracarid Crustacea[END_REF]) considers that males may be limited in their ability to carry females whose size is large relative to their own. However, this hypothesis, mainly relevant for populations in running waters, has so far received weak empirical support [START_REF] Crespi | Causes of assortative mating in arthropods[END_REF]. According to the spatial segregation hypothesis, size-assortative mating occurs through either size-related microhabitat preference or because of constraints on male and female habitat caused by size variation [START_REF] Birkhead | Mate selection and precopnlatory guarding in Gammarus pulex[END_REF][START_REF] Thompson | Substrate selection and assortative mating in G. pulex[END_REF][START_REF] Ward | The relative roles of habitat structure and male-male competition in the mating system of Gammarus pulex (Crustacea; Amphipoda): a simulation study[END_REF]. However, data from [START_REF] Thompson | Substrate selection and assortative mating in G. pulex[END_REF] and [START_REF] Elwood | The amorous Garnmarus: size assortative mating in G. puIex[END_REF] show that size-assortative mating can occur in experimental patches where the substrate is homogeneous. [START_REF] Ward | A comparative field study of the breeding behaviour of a stream and a pond population of Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda)[END_REF] also reported significant size-assortative pairing in a pond population where the substrate was homogeneous. In the present study, pairs were all collected in a homogeneous environment and in still water. Therefore the observed pattern of sizeassortative pairing is more likely to be the result of malemale competition for access to large females.

Assortative mating by parasitic prevalence

The over-representation of homogamic pairs UU and II indicates that the trematod M. papillorobustus has a strong effect on pair formation in its host G. insensibilis. This result contrasts with what has been previously reported for G. pulex where males do not pair less frequently with females infected with Polymorphus minutus [START_REF] Ward | A comparative field study of the breeding behaviour of a stream and a pond population of Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda)[END_REF] or Pomphorhynchus laevis [START_REF] Poulton | The effects of the acanthocephalan parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis on mate choice in Gammaruspulex[END_REF] than with uninfected ones. Two alternative hypotheses can be proposed to explain assortative pairing related to parasite prevalence in G. insensibilis.

The behavioural alterations of infected gammarids (positive phototactism and negative geotactism) induce a vertical segregation between infected and uninfected individuals that may explain the low frequency (25%) of heterogamic pairs UI and IU. However, in order to reduce such bias, all gammarids were sampled in a homogeneous environment of no more than 40 cm depth. Moreover, the proportion of uninfected, unpaired gammarids that were sampled among the emergent vegetation (at the water surface) seems too large to be in accordance with the vertical segregation hypothesis. [START_REF] Poulton | The effects of the acanthocephalan parasite Pomphorhynchus laevis on mate choice in Gammaruspulex[END_REF] in an experimental study on Pomphorhynchus laevis parasites, and [START_REF] Ward | A comparative field study of the breeding behaviour of a stream and a pond population of Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda)[END_REF] in a field study on Polymorphus minutus parasites, both parasites affecting the photophilic behaviour of G. pulex, found no evidence for any spatial segregation on pair formation. The second hypothesis assumes reduced competitivity in infected males. IU pairs were more frequently observed than UI ones, and for the same female size in UU and IU pairs, infected males were significantly larger than uninfected ones. Thus, like uninfected ones, infected males may attempt to mate with large, uninfected females. However, they need to be larger than uninfected males to gain access to uninfected females, probably because they are less competitive. The idea that male's competitiveness is negatively affected by the parasite load is corroborated by the higher mean intensity observed in unpaired infected males compared to paired infected ones. A similar result has been reported by [START_REF] Ward | A comparative field study of the breeding behaviour of a stream and a pond population of Gammarus pulex (Amphipoda)[END_REF] in G. puIex infected by Polymorphus minutus. According to this author, such an infection which reduces the male's vigour (Rum-OECOLOGIA 104 (1995) 9 Springer-Verlag 263 pus and Kennedy 1974), makes the male less capable of obtaining and keeping a female until her moult. Moreover, in our data, the fact that there were no significant difference in the mean parasite load between unpaired individuals of both sexes, while in pairs females were, on average, more parasited than males, supports the hypothesis of a parasite-mediated reduction in male competitiveness. Thus the "sexual selection" hypothesis for assortative pairing in G. insensibilis includes the following components: all males attempt to pair with relatively large and uninfected females, uninfected males outcompete infected males, and the subsequent pairing between uninfected males and uninfected females leaves infected individuals to pair among one another. Testing the two hypotheses ("spatial segregation" and "sexual selection") would require monitoring pairing patterns in an experimental setting. In addition, the "sexual selection" hypothesis essentially considers male behaviour to be the main agent of assortative pairing. However, female behaviour may be important in promoting assortative mating. Female gammarids have been reported to be able to resist males' attempts to engage in precopula [START_REF] Sutcliffe | Reproduction in Gammarus (Crustacea: Amphipoda): basic reproductive processes[END_REF]. As males are driving the females during the precopula phase, females paired with infected males should then be exposed to the consequences of the males' altered behaviour and experience higher predation risk. Thus, uninfected females resistant to infected males may also induce assortative pairing by prevalence. Observations of female behaviour when confronted with uninfected and infected males should help assessing the relevance of this hypothesis.

Although the precise mechanisms promoting assortative pairing in parasite-infected specimens remain to be quantified, this study provides the first evidence for a strong effect of a parasite on pair formation in gammarids. The study illustrates the need for considering parasites as important agencies affecting the population biology and behavioural ecology of their host.

  Fig. 1 Number of Microphallus papillorobustus in infected paired and unpaired males and females of Gammarus insensibilis

Table 1

 1 Number of unpaired and paired male and female gammarids, non-infected and infected by the MicrophaIlus papilIorobustus cerebral metacercariae

		Unpaired	Paired
	Males
	Non-infected	131 (45.3%)	76 (35.5%
	Infected	158 (54.6%)	138 (64.5%)
	Females
	Non-infected	124 (57.7%)	110 (51.4%)
	Infected	91 (42.3%)	104 (48.6%)

Table 2

 2 Observed and expected values of pair formation with respect to parasite load under the hypothesis of random mating for each pair category (UU uninfected male -uninfected female,/Jr infected male -infected female, Ut uninfected male -infected female, 1U infected male -uninfected female)

						OECOLOGIA
							30						n=214
				O
	80" 60"		O .Oo OO d~ o.g:.		t~ 9	20	9 ..... 9	9 .., .:;t!: 9 ".t; i e:ltllll I o 9 9 l -ill 9	... 9 9
	40-							9 : ..	9	.s:s.ir	.:"		s.. 9
	20"
	0	i	]	i			0	....	i	....	i	,	9	,
	5	10	I5	20	25		10		15		20
		FEMALE BODY LENGTH (ram)					MALE BODY SIZE (mm)
	Fig. 2 Fecundity (number of eggs per brood pouch) in females of	Fig. 3 Relationship between male and female body size (mm) in
	different body size; infected specimens denoted by filled circles	precopula pairs of Gammarus insensibilis indicating pairing to be
	and uninfected ones by open circles				positively size assortative
	Pair	UU	II	UI	IU
	Observed	66	94	10	44
	Expected	39,3	67,1	37,7	69,8

Table 3

 3 Regressions of females size as a function of male size in homogamic and heterogamic pairs. Same notation as in Table2; n:sample size, r correlation coefficient, S coefficent of the slope

	Pair	n	r	S	P
	UU	66	0.61	0.99	<0.001
	II	94	0.39	0.77	<0.001
	UI	10	0.68	0.81	<0.05
	IU	44	0.42	0.65	<0.01

Acknowledgements We gratefully acknowledge financial support from the Minist~re de l'Environnement, Comitd "Ecologie et Gestion du Patrimoine Naturel". We thank Rudi Nager for helpful comments on the manuscript.


3. Energy and "nature" Examples 24 -31 Conclusion: the values of creative energy

Examples 32 -36

Creative Energy in Clarel

Clarel is ostensibly the story of a quest for the truth about God; less ostensibly it is a manifestation of, and tribute to, human creative energy. The poem's vast landscape of discourse and ideas -the narrator's and the characters'-raises expectations of a definitive truth, only to veer away and redefine truth as energy.

Creative energy in Clarel works from within the heritage of the Christian creational myth, digesting it from inside. The divine logos was first explained to be only in the live voice of the Creator, the spirit being alive and the letters dead. But then, letters persisted in existing, so, in parallel to the live voice of preachers, letters, written discourse, were set the task of fixing and conveying God's word. But letters play truant: the detail of a text may counter its overt intention and then the text splits up into different versions of itself. As Claude Richard said long ago in Lettres Américaines, Melville's writing "challenges the univocality of the signifier". In Clarel, as in Pierre, "Two books are being writ; of which the world shall only see one" [XXIII, p304]. Or shall it?

To explore creative energy in Clarel, I will look at the two books I find in the poem: a homogeneous one and a heterogeneous one.

The first book-homogeneous.

The hero's task is to check the existence of God and find the right life path. To do so he travels across the material Palestine, visiting Jerusalem and touring to the Dead Sea and back, with a group of pilgrim friends and local guides and bodyguards.

Matter, in the sense of mineral substance, is everywhere represented in holy places, monuments and landscapes. These places are constantly paired to religious myths and concepts, as if they were a mineral text giving access to the spirit. But the collection of places does not homogenize around a spiritual presence: no spirit appears.

The mineral matter also elicits abundant discourse from the narrator and the pilgrims, especially the American intellectuals, Clarel, Vine, Derwent and Rolfe. When stones fail, could this discourse be material for spiritual guidance? But no, the verbal trip is as inconclusive as the physical one: names and references pile up, arguments and counter-arguments compete in a staggering, fluctuating encyclopaedia, but the characters get nowhere special. Religious meaning remains fragmented into elements which never homogenize into one inspiring truth. In this way, religion is reduced to dead matter. The hypertrophic but ineffective speech about it is like the medieval "Matter of Rome" or

The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris.

H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 2 "Matter of Britain" which awaited personal reworking by individual authors-it is a collection of inert elements awaiting an individual voice to make it meaningful and persuasive.

On the contrary, what is homogeneous is the efficacy of the individual believers who do not ask, but assert. Characters like Nathan, the fanatic Zionist with "Hades in his eyes" (IV,32,93), speak their God's truth with intense performativity. Problem: this homogeneous speech is deadly. God-keepers follow their God into death, their own and others' deaths, whether their religion is austere like Abdon's or the rabbi's or elated and happy like Nehemiah's. In them, logocentric repression is at work: no dialogue is possible, or rather no dialectic dynamic. Even when arguments are exchanged, no difference is made.

The Holy Land turns out morbid and religion lethal. "Hapless are the favorites of heaven", Melville said in his Journal. For a more striking quote: "In the emptiness of the lifeless antiquity of Jerusalem the emigrant Jews are like flies that have taken up their abode in a skull." (Journals, "Journal 1856-1857", p. 91.) Religion yields no homogeneous answer, leaving the "seeker" in doubt and crushing him after he briefly finds an answer which owes more to sensuality than to God. Six characters die, four to religion (Nathan, Nehemiah, Agar, Ruth), two to despair, which is but the other face of certainty (Celio, Mortmain). Religion becomes the dominant face of a morbid absolutism ascribing homogeneous meaning to life. The attitude is found as well in politics or science, and produces fanaticism or nihilism, once the tenets collapse, as in Mortmain.

In this way, the pilgrims are helpless in front of the Real, labelled "nature". A little scorpion on the path, an impressive rocky cliff or a sick-smelling fog leave them distraught, drained of any energy to respond to the challenges of life.

Critics have found vital, homogeneous religious meaning in the poem, finding for instance that the general morbidity reflects the necessary testing of faith by the mystery of evil. Yet I think vitality is elsewhere, in the heterogeneous dimension of the text. In this "second book", the "Matter of religion", i. e. the inert, morbid elements of the material trip and of the resulting discourse-are vitalized by a creative energy which is not divine but human.

The second book-heterogeneous: Experiencing energy.

Melville's writing foments empowerment of minor textual elements: not overt macrostructures of narrative or theme micro heterogeneities. None of these makes sense alone, but together they make sense, like a democratic crowd.

A heterogeneous reading means to focus off-centre at the textual by-products of the main narrative.

In terms of story, they are digressions, hesitations, interruptions, free associations, associated affects, half-conscious sensations.

In terms of rhetoric and narration, they are vocabulary, imagery, syntax, discrepancies in theme, tone and image, and textual interpolations.

All these components of the "second book" work discreetly, like a textual unconscious, to open up an unexpected zone of meaning.

Story

Discrepancies are sometimes found in characterisation, for instance joining aggression with goodwill: brigands can shed tears of devotion (I, 4 "The Crusaders"), a mercenary carrying deadly weapons makes the best partying companion (III, 11, "The Beaker", the Arnaut, 75-85). The meek The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris.

H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 3

Nehemiah unexpectedly puts on "a meek superior look" when he judges Nathan insane (I,22 "Hermitage",76). Theme is more often discrepant. Religion competes for attention with politics, science and psychology (Mortmain, Margoth, Vine…) and the various opinions are all expressed powerfully and persuasively. Margoth is ridiculed, but his sarcasms are pithy; Nehemiah is half-insane, but his visions are enchanting. There is little hierarchy of values in the treatment of characterisation and theme. Then, most of the action is verbal and free associations articulate the discussions, which jump from politics to science, from King David's time to the Paris Commune. The result is that digression is more a principle of composition than an exception. Also, hesitations recur, especially in Clarel, who is often unsure he should express an idea or even decide on an idea.

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Hesitations

No, I'll not leave her: no, 'Tis fixed; I waver now no more.-But yet again he thought it o'er… (I, 43, "A Procession", 48-50)

Interruptions break off discourse, the speakers falling silent or musing, or interrupting another to make an unrelated remark, like Derwent stopping Rolfe's speech to point out the moon (II, 16, "Night in Jericho", 120) (Rolfe on Mortmain, deserts, madness and wisdom).

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Interruptions

Delay of talk; they mused-( 23)

The ball of thought And chain yet dragging, on they strained Oblique along the upland-slow And mute. (285-286) I, 31 "Rolfe" Even written discourse gets lost: when Nehemiah offers his evangelical pamphlet to an Arab, the man's camel tries to munch it up. The Arab spears it to take it up, and we never know the rest (II, 13 "Flight of the Greeks").

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A typical string of digressions and breaks from II, 16 "Night in Jericho"

They gaze silently at the landscape → Rolfe exclaims he can imagine Elijah and Saint John in the place → he carries on with a series of Western visitors, the deist Volney, Chateaubriand, Lamartine → he digresses to "poor" Lamartine's "social dream"

The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris. Not only discourse, but action too is interrupted. Clarel and Ruth's developing relationship breaks off on her father's death. When Clarel appeals to the monk in Mar Saba (III, 30 "The Celibate"), the monk stays mute and gives him a small book (the "hermit-rhyme") preaching asceticism, then vanishes. Clarel remains faced with the same undecidable alternative as before.

These perturbations are paralleled by half-conscious sensations and thoughts. Clarel's hesitation to leave Ruth, as quoted above (I, 43 "A Procession") is triggered by a funeral procession carrying a young woman to her grave on an "Armenian bier" /biə/). Clarel remembers this bier three times (II, 17; II, 29; IV, 16) before a procession repeats it for real after Ruth's death (IV, 32 "Passion Week").

In IV, 26 "The Prodigal", the Lyonese is the stimulus inspiring Clarel to drop mortification and a dream continues the work: I, 1 "The Hostel"

Fear is a strong recurrent affect: the group is struck with fright on seeing a scorpion (III, 4 "An Intruder"), Clarel is scared of the jangling weapons worn by a mercenary, although the man is peaceful and jovial (III, 11 "The Beaker", the Arnaut). Rolfe "shrinks" in "awe" thinking of the fate of St Louis (II, 13 "The Flight of the Greeks",[11][12]; when Nehemiah falls asleep under an enormous poised rock he finds it "horrible" (II,30 "Of Petra",74). Clearly, Palestine is a "land of fear" (II, 16, "Night in Jericho").

Rhetoric

The rhetoric shows constant warpings which produce a sense of instability.

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The vocabulary is quite heterogeneous. We find discrepancies in register: it may be informal (fish up, foot it, chum) but also technical, exotic or regional (coignes, parhelion; yestreen). It is also often highly abstract and conceptual and extremely archaic ("wight", "demesne", "hight", "appanage", "would fain"). It is full of rarities, even among archaisms (cascatelle, symposiarch, irrelation, yestreen, oleose, mortcloths, malison), and neologisms, particularly to create negative terms which are another lexical trait ("undelight", 340, "undeify", 442).

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Lexical heterogeneity

To "fish up" a basket on a rope To "foot it", "hump it" when riding is too difficult To have a "chum"

A mountain lane is "flanked by coignes" Declining faith is a "Parhelion orb / Of faith"

A character spoke with another "yestreen" (yesterday evening)

wight … demesne … hight … appanage … would fain cascatelle … symposiarch … oleose … mortcloths … malison undelight … undeify … irrelation
monks "fish up" a basket on a rope to get the pilgrims' credentials before allowing them into Mar Saba (II, 10 "Before the Gate") Nehemiah "foot[s] it" (I, 37 "A Sketch") the group "hump it into that black Hill" (II,14 "By Achor",54) the "mellow man" who serves wine to the group in Mar Saba has a "chum" with him (the Arnaut, in III, 11 "The Beaker").

→ coigne: an archaic spelling of "coign" or "quoin" = a projecting external angle; a cornerstone; a keystone; a wooden or metal angle used in printing → parhelion: an optical effect which seems to replicate the sun in the sun's halo → yestreen: Scottish English These surprises manifest uncommon lexical vitality-even excess is a stimulus which begs for response.

For instance, moving from rare to extremely rare words functions as a receding frontier of meaning which leaves the mind on alert.

As for grammatical structure, major features are negativity, ellipsis and anastrophe.

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Grammatical constructions

Double negatives: "not unblest", "nor unlike", "not unrenowned", "not unamazed"… Periphrasis: Nehemiah = "the sinless one", etc.

Ellipses

Auxiliary "be": "what think men?" (II, 25, 92)

Modal auxiliaries: "how much further this descending?" (III, 25, 44) (= will this descending carry on?) "Be" copula: "who that man?" (III, 24 "Vault and grotto"; p. 356)

Adverb "there" in "there is/are": "Be many Hebrews..." (II,22,18).

Objects of transitive verbs: "if eagles eye" (p 371, = supposing eagles eyed this), "may preconceptions thrall?" (II, 22, 17) (= may preconceptions enslave our thoughts?)

Determiners, pronouns, reflexive morpheme: "and seated him" (IV, 10, 159) (= and seated himself).

Anastrophes

"I grant that here by Judah's side / Queerly it jars with frame implied / To list the geologic Jew / His way Jehovah's world construe" = to listen to the geologic Jew construe Jehovah's world in his own way

The missing markers and disrupted constructions refresh the impact of common words ("What think men?") and also make the referent feel abstract, outlining a world in need of definition; the mind reaches out for missing precision and the missing goals of the actions evoked. The hypertrophy of difficult words and the hypotrophy of grammar beg the mind to supply missing forms and interpret strange ones -a strategy for the mind to create extra semantic space.

Imagery is surprising too, with a blend of standard poetic diction and unexpected free associations (from characters or narrator) which regularly imply associations of discrepant or antinomic values. For instance, two old clerics describe the light which colours the Church of the Ascension on Olivet and the simile is to the volcano Vesuvius, a rather hellish association. (I, 35 "Arculf and Adamnan").

Another feature of the imagery is animation.

The poem mentions real plants and beasts (willows, palms, poppies; horses, camels, an ass, a scorpion) and uses traditional plant and animal images and pathetic fallacy (the rose, the dove, halcyon, shark, vulture, hyena or the eagle of Saint John whose feather fell on Mortmain's dying lips in III, 32 "Empty Stirrups", "The Tree in salutation waved" (III, 29 "Rolfe and the Palm").

Figurative plants and animals may be more creative An old tower is an "oak" (I, 31 "Rolfe"), Vine's gifts are like "mistletoe" on a tree (I, 29 "The Recluse"), time flies like "cranes" (III, 30, 90), choir boys are "dolphins" (IV, 32, 48), priests are "Brazilian birds" (IV,33,33).

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Elsewhere we find the hippopotamus, the sloth, /sləuθ/, the penguin, the kangaroo. Beasts are even globally equated, existentially, with people: "Or man or animal, 'tis one: / Cross-bearers all" (IV,34 "Via Crucis",(42)(43). 8

Imagery: animation willows, palms, poppies; horses, camels, an ass, a scorpion rose, dove, halcyon, shark, vulture, hyena, eagle; "The Tree in salutation waved" (III, 29 "Rolfe and the Palm") Figurative: a tower is an "oak" (I, 31 "Rolfe"), Vine's gifts are like "mistletoe" on a tree (I, 29 "The Recluse"), time flies like "cranes" (III, 30, 90), choir boys are "dolphins" (IV, 32, 48), priests are "Brazilian birds" (IV, 33, 33)

… hippopotamus … sloth … penguin … kangaroo … leopard … toucan …
"Or man or animal, 'tis one: / Cross-bearers all" (IV, 34 "Via Crucis", 42-43).

Imagery: animation

willows, palms, poppies; horses, camels, an ass, a scorpion rose, dove, halcyon, shark, vulture, hyena, eagle; "The Tree in salutation waved" (III, 29 "Rolfe and the Palm") Figurative: a tower is an "oak" (I, 31 "Rolfe"), Vine's gifts are like "mistletoe" on a tree (I, 29 "The Recluse"), time flies like "cranes" (III,30,90), choir boys are "dolphins" (IV,32,48), priests are "Brazilian birds" (IV,33,33).

Elsewhere we find the hippopotamus, the sloth, /sləuθ/, the penguin, the kangaroo. Beasts are even globally equated, existentially, with people: "Or man or animal, 'tis one: / Cross-bearers all" (IV,34 "Via Crucis",(42)(43).

In short, life forms pop up irrespective of theme. The effect on the mind is centrifugal, offering gratuitous daydreams about curious animals. It's a zoo. The menagerie will be interpreted as one of a number of decentered manifestations of vitality which suggest that the life of the text is not, as it seems, in the homogenizing potential of discussions about religion.

Narration

Now, some heterogeneous elements in the narration. One feature is jumps of focus between grave and light themes. Young Glaucon happily considers the presents he could bring home, including "cameos from the Dead Sea's stone", but his future father-in-law, the banker, comically freezes with fright. II, 2 "By the Garden", 30-44

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Glaucon and the Banker Finally, textual interpolations form bubbles in the flow of the narrative. An exhaustive study is impossible here but chosen examples confirm the textual heterogeneity. They can be sung, recited or quoted by the characters, rarely written, or dropped into the narrative directly by the narrator. Some are serious, even pathetic, some light, even buffoon.

Example which is not about religion: [Ungar recites a text on the social theme of the disillusion of revolutionary leaders (after the Rizpah one) but I don't know whether there are many other interpolated texts about politics, science, philosophy etc. "Elating and elate, / Do they mount them in their pride? / Let them wait a little, wait, / For the brimming of the flood / Brings the turning of the tide."/ His lyric. Yet in heart of hearts / Perchance its vanity he knew (…) IV, 5 "Of the Stranger"]

The serious texts are mostly about religion and narrative potential. They pay tribute to faith as a passion coessential with the beauty of myth. The narrator tells of the rescue of the pilgrim bishop Arculf (in the 8 th c) by monks in the Hebrides. In a touching tale-within-the tale, the naïve Arculf tells the story of his visit to the Church of the Ascension and his host Adamnan listens like a child while natural elements rage outside. Lo, he is with me, even here." (II, 28 "The Fog")

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Minutes before drowning, Nehemiah then hears God's voice in a sleepwalking dream

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And a great voice he hears which saith, Pain is no more, no more is death; I wipe away all tears: Come, ye, Enter, it is eternity. And happy souls, the saved and blest, Welcomed by angels and caressed, Hand linked in hand like lovers sweet, Festoons of tenderness complete--Roamed up and on, by orchards fair To bright ascents and mellower air; Thence, highest, toward the throne were led, And kissed, amid the sobbings shed Of faith fulfilled.

(II, 38 "The Sleepwalker")

These texts arouse empathy: the characters are stirred, and Derwent recites the same hymn over Nehemiah's grave (II 39 "Obsequies"). But no-one finds faith through them. At best, they lead to common humanity: religion is reduced to the idiom of humanism. This is the case when Ungar recites a verse commenting on the story of Rizpah, a concubine of King Saul. The issue for Ungar is faithfulness to political and humanist values and rebellion against an unfair death sentence. In the Old Testament, it is submission to God's advice to offer sacrifice by killing seven innocents.

(King Saul attacked the Gibeonites, then after Saul's death God punished the Israelites for this with bad harvests, so that King David made an agreement with the Gibeonites and gave over seven sons and grandsons of Saul's to be executed in compensation for the attack.) A written text is glued inside Clarel's trunk: a "denizen", half-"written matter" and half-persona (according to the Melvillean homology between people and text). It embodies this duplicity of myth which arouses and disappoints:

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A "faded denizen" glued inside Clarel's trunk comments on Judaea "The World accosts--"Last one out of Holy Land, What gift bring'st thou? Sychem grapes? Tabor, which the Eden drapes, Yieldeth garlands. I demand Something cheery at thy hand. … "The Palmer replies: "Nay, naught thou nam'st thy servant brings, Only Judea my feet did roam … These palms I bring-from dust not free, Since dust and ashes both were trod by me."

(I, 2 "Abdon")

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Celio experiences the high and the comedown; seeing a night procession, he is infected by pathos:

One named the Bitter Cup, and said: 75 "Saviour, thou knowest: it was here The angels ministered, thy head Supported, kissed thy lidded eyes And pale swooned cheek till thou didst rise; Help these then, unto these come near!" 80 Out sobbed the mourners, and the tear From Celio trickled; but he mused--Weak am I, by a myth abused.

(I, 14 "In the Glen")

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Finally, when Clarel yearns for a discussion about marriage versus celibacy, he is silently given a book about biblical stories of unhappy marriages. It is not directly quoted but concludes that humanity would have been better created without any women. The text feels inhuman, boiling down to sheer repression of the erotic impulse.

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The "hermit-rhyme" of the "Celibate" (III, 30 "The Celibate") So, the religious "bubbles" are grounded in the passion for myth and may be productive in terms of human relations but the spiritual import dissolves into thin air.

Another type of interpolated texts appear as unexpectedly as the previous sort, but are completely unserious, even making fun of religion. The sources are collective culture or individual characters, who recite or sing them and then exit the scene happily, carrying their levity away with them. They may refer to Biblical stories but without repeating them. A trio of characters sing these texts: Glaucon in Part II ("The Wilderness"), the Lesbian in Part III ("Mar Saba") and the Lyonese in Part IV ("Bethlehem").

Glaucon, already quoted, is a young sportsman from Smyrna travelling with an old banker, his future father-in-law. His song sympathizes with a dandy who loses some pennies to a flower girl and compares her to a priest dressed up for a religious festival:

The bloody story of Queen Esther (wife of Xerxes) in Shushan, recounting the revenge of the Jews over their enemies, is celebrated by Jews in the feast of Purim / Shushan Purim, and inspired this song to the Lyonese: (IV, 26 "The Prodigal") "Shushan" (the city where Esther became queen to Ahasuerus / Xerxes, King of Persia had taken Esther to wife, not knowing she was Jewish, and he agreed with his minister Haman to slaughter the Jews; Esther revealed her faith and asked for pity and he King allowed the Jews to defend themselves and exposed their dead enemies.)

It would be better for Clarel to drop "inklings vain" and start to "enjoy", obeying natural law:

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The Lyonese, parting song: "Rules, who rules? Fools the wise, makes wise the fools-Every ruling overrules? Who the dame that keeps the house, Provides the diet, and oh, so quiet, Brings all to pass, the slyest mouse?

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Tell, tell it me: Signora Nature, who but she!"

(IV, 26 "The Prodigal")

The "dame that keeps the house" evokes what Voltaire called "la folle du logis" (the madwoman housekeeper), i. e. imagination (a phrase he wrongly attributed to the 17 th -c metaphysician Malebranche). She is the one who rules and brings about changes without our knowing: an allegory of creative energy.

Energy and "nature"

I will now discuss Melville's representation of creative energy in Clarel, before moving on to the values associated with this energy.

The heterogeneous elements do not bring meaning individually but in the energy that they release and arouse as a network. They cast doubt on (or "doubtify") the "Matter of religion", they arouse readerly energy and they vitalize the homogeneous first book so that it dies birthing new meaning, i. e. creative energy, manifested and represented.

The poem's paradigm issue is no longer where to find truth, but how to use one's mind; it is not about getting to a destination, but about moving on.

(Irony is exerted by a global ("elemental") rhetorical charge against an acceptance of readymade meaning and against the exclusive importance of the issues discussed by characters and narrator.) "Doubtification" begins with relativization and negativity: circularity, deaths, dead-ends, digressions, heavy vocabulary, all deflect readerly desire from the homogeneous quest. (The energy of discussing religion is displaced onto an interest for the non-religious-sameness breeds difference.)

Disrupted grammar and a receding horizon of never-ending lexical surprise arouse the mind. Baffling syntax refreshes old words, set off on a raw background smacking of primitive sagas (the rhythm helps). We grope for definition, our minds get eager to make it.

The religious interpolated texts displace attraction from religious meaning to myth for myth's sake, teasing up imagination. Incongruous life forms pop up from the most serious sentences.

The light interpolated texts commend enjoyment in sex and inebriation (the most bodily, least godly ecstasies) and they link pleasure with escape: the speakers (/ singers) vanish out of the prison of Palestine.

Are these heterogeneous elements informational noise? No, they defy the energies of control (like Ishmael wanting to knock off the hats of passers-by, but without the spleen), deny the legitimacy of religion to define what is meaningful and manifest the possibility for new meaning to arise as life forms do, spontaneously and beyond control. Vitalization is at hand. Creative energy vitalizes inert matter which is found in the terms of a threefold homology: -the morbid physical environment of Palestine, -the Matter of religion which entraps the characters' minds, -the human being, hovering between subjection to thinking in terms of religion and emancipation from this paradigm.

The homology of "matter" / "elements" / "nature" * the physical environment of Palestine → mineral, depressing, lethal; a cycle of movement from Nathan's death back to Ruth's * the "Matter of religion" → a mass of ideas reduced to indistinction due to the characters' inability to homogenize them around a choice of life made in religious terms:

The very pews are each a sect; 110 No one opinion's steadfast sway: A wide, an elemental fray.

(III, 21 "In Confidence")

* human nature, the human being and their mind → potentially inert or dynamic Compared in I, 32 "Of Rama" to a "mine" → a collection of useless grains of mineral material ("ore") which energy can work into gold:

The riches in them be a store Unmerchantable in the ore. 50 (I, 32 "Of Rama") "Them": "natures" like Rama.

This inert matter is imaged as pure quantity, a mass also called "elements" or "nature". "Nature" (= that which gives birth) is a ubiquitous word (100+ occurrences, plus derivatives).

Because matter turns from stasis to dynamism, "nature" is dichotomic. It can be indifferent, scary, deadly: (cf II, 28 "The Fog", poisonous Dead Sea, "pippins of Sodom" etc.) when Nehemiah falls asleep under a large rock Rolfe is awed, finds it "horrible" (II, 30 "Of Petra", 74); even without danger, the cliffs of Petra are "a scene / Of Nature's terror" (II,30 "Of Petra",(40)(41). This nature is like the Real (in Lacan): a presence which cannot constitute a signifier, alien to meaning. This is terrifying and morbid. In front of it, characters are resourceless and drained of energy (as when seeing a scorpion, IV "An Intruder"). Deathly nature … For Judah here-Let Erebus her rival own: 65 'Tis horror absolute-severe, Dead, livid, honey-combed, dumb, fell-A caked depopulated hell … (II, 11 "Of Deserts")

But "nature" is also enchanting and vital.

(Running water and greenery express vitality and pleasure while barren landscapes and hopeless beasts express disorientation and fright.)

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Vital nature

Clarel and Ruth--might it but be 1 That range they could green uplands free By gala orchards, when they fling Their bridal favors, buds of Spring; And, dreamy in her morning swoon, 5 The lady of the night, the moon, Looks pearly as the blossoming; And youth and nature's fond accord Wins Eden back, that tales abstruse Of Christ, the crucified, Pain's Lord, 10 Seem foreign--forged--incongruous.

(I, 28 "Tomb and Fountain")

Our "deep nature" makes us pity the dead (IV, 29 "The Night Ride", 37)

Our "human nature dear" yearns for love and shrinks from celibacy (II, 30 "The Celibate", 117)

Rolfe, dynamic and generous, is "a messmate of the elements" (I, 31 "Rolfe", 21)

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We follow the indications of nature to trace our paths (IV,34 "Via Crucis", It first seems that this contradiction is due to the wishful thinking of those who want to ignore unpleasantness and tell a false narrative of happiness in nature as God's creation. Derwent does this, telling Clarel to stay on the surface: The surface, ah, heaven keeps that green; 310 Green, sunny: nature's active scene, For man appointed, man's true home." III,21 "In Confidence",[307][308][309][310][311][312] This reminds us of the harlot nature of Moby-Dick, the pretty colours covering up terror: "all deified Nature absolutely paints like the harlot, whose allurements cover nothing but the charnel-house within … the mystical cosmetic which produces every one of her hues, the great principle of light, for ever remains white or colorless in itself … the palsied universe lies before us a leper." Moby-Dick, chapter 42, "The Whiteness of the Whale".

But in fact, nature is only indifferent or destructive as far as it is conceived in religious terms, i. e. as having got its meaning from God as a resource /rizo:s/ or a tool for punishment of the faithless: it punishes a freethinking ship-master blindly, with a "neutral mind" (I, 37 "A Sketch", 47).

(= Rolfe's story of the freethinking ship-master who suffered disaster after disaster till he broke down and became a Calvinist, I, 37 "A Sketch").

To "her" "nothing is amiss" (IV,28 "David's Well",18,p 478).

It is neutral, but not in the Tennysonian sense of the Faith / Doubt issue nor in the scientist vision of Margoth (who explains miracles as natural phenomena: "things natural", II, 20 "Under the mountain").

It is neutral in the sense that it does not yield meaning till our inner nature orients its energy towards the outer nature and the world. (So Rolfe says that nature keeps its meaning to itself: it "vetoes all / Her commentators" (II,32 "The Encampment",(60)(61).

This neutrality vanishes if we emancipate our thinking and apply it freely to nature: "Escaped from forms, enlarged at last, / Pupils we be of wave and waste" (II,32 "The Encampment",(56)(57) Last but not least, the sway and vital change trigger Clarel's choice for sensuality, against unnatural celibacy-more about this in my conclusion.

One more interpolated text forms an embedded reflection of the poem's central metaphor. It is Canto I, 32 "Of Rama", tellingly placed immediately after the canto "Rolfe" (I, 33 ) and introduced as "A niche for image of a novel mind". 30

Of Rama

That Rama whom the Indian sung--1 A god he was, but knew it not; Hence vainly puzzled at the wrong Misplacing him in human lot. Curtailment of his right he bare 5 Rather than wrangle; but no less Was taunted for his tameness there. A fugitive without redress, He never the Holy Spirit grieved, Nor the divine in him bereaved, 10 Though what that was he might not guess. … Mince ye some matter for faith's sake 42 And heaven's good name? 'Tis these shall make Revolt there, and the gloss disclaim.

I, 32 "Of Rama"

In spite of his Christ-like qualities, Rama is incapable of self-consciousness leadership, which might result in creating a tradition.

(Christ-like: "innocent" but "lawless" (17) and "outlaw[ed]" (15) ; knows "no craft", "nor envy" (34) "tells of riddles" (41), challenges dogma: "revolt … the gloss disclaim", 44, and know the secrets of .)

Far from the self-conscious and controlling energy of divine Creation, Melville redefines creative energy as something which only exists « live ». It has been a long time since it was the free choice of « gipsy Christians » whose choice was not to gloss over dogma but to live and enjoy:

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True Christianity has been gone for eighteen centuries (as of 1776) Him [Jesus] following through the wilding flowers By lake and hill, or glad detained In Cana-ever out of doors-Ere yet the disenchantment gained 75 What dream they knew, that primal band Of gipsy Christians! (II, 21 "The Priest and Rolfe")

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Conclusion: the values of creative energy

I find the sacrificial loss of the beloved Ruth a fine instance of literary duplicity. A persistent network of words and actions value the love and joy which help reveal the symbolism of creative energy, contradicting the final valuation of the mystery of pain, and to the end touches of sensuality overlay religious discourse.

Bereaving Clarel makes him a token Christian pining for what his God took and cursing faith ("Then perish [Nathan's] faith … [my] faith's gone" (IV,30 "The Valley of decision",103,117).

The narrator even compares the resurrection of Christ with Ruth's definitive death while Clarel longs for Ruth's face and voice:

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Missing presence, missing voice, missing face

…

Christ is arisen; 65 But Ruth, may Ruth so burst the prison?

(IV, 33 "Easter", 65-66)

"They wire the world-far under sea 51 They talk; but never comes to me A message from beneath the stone."

(IV, 34 "Via Crucis")

But Ruth-ah, how estranged in face! 98 (IV, 32 "Passion Week") What Clarel has lost to his God is all that makes human identity and joy. Strangely, the Epilogue vaguely suggests that heart and mind matter more than the soul: the narrator addresses Clarel (who cannot hear):

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Heart, mind-but no soul Clarel, thy heart, the issues there but mind … 28 (IV, 35 "Epilogue") It seems that the soul is needless compared to heart and mind, which are key to creative energy. ("heart" figures 231 times, "mind" 95 times and "soul" 47 times.) In the story, the mind has been occupied by the Matter of religion, then the text offered a symbolical emancipation from it thanks to a sensual "sway", and Clarel turned to his heart and to sensuality. In turn, sensuality led to love, not only of women but also of one's neighbour, even Jewish:

The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris. The logic of keeping Clarel a spiritual poem represses the freedom of creative energy, but it also makes it run as it should, underground, inspirational without setting a conscious model, just like Rama. This is how, instead of a demonstration, we find overtones of sensuality, even in the touching "Dirge" to Ruth. The "palm" shading her otherworld dwelling might refer to Palestinian palms, but the Polynesian features of the Lyonese, and, according to Rolfe, of Christianity (IV, 18 "The Hill-side") suggest that the limbo is rather a half-tint bower of desire. (IV, 31 "Dirge")

The subdued conflict between sensuality and spirituality only serves to demonstrate the way art works.

Creative energy is here confronted to the Matter of religion which the narrator will not let go of, and it reworks discreetly the inertness of death to allow beauty to shoot through. As in the canto "Petra", in reading we see the switch from morbid chaos to the order of beauty:

36

The work of Art One starts. In Esau's waste are blent 17 Ionian form, Venetian tint. … … Mid such a scene 40 Of Nature's terror, how serene That ordered form. Nor less 'tis cut Out of that terror--does abut Thereon: there's Art." (II,30 "Of Petra")

11

  Arculf's tale of the Church of the Ascension, embedded in the one of his rescue by the abbot Adamnan 'Twas of that church, so brave erewhile--Blest land-mark on the Olive Hight--Which Arculf told of in the isle 20 Iona. Shipwrecked there in sight, The palmer dragged they from the foam, The Culdees of the abbey fair-Him shelter yielding and a home. … With travel-talk he did beguile 27 Their eve of Yule. … Arculf first 53 The wonders of the tomb rehearsed, And Golgotha … … Then: "On the hill--59 In site revealed thro' Jesu's grace"--(Hereat both cross themselves apace) "A great round church with goodly skill Is nobly built … that blest place where meet 65 The last prints of the Wounded Feet … Upon Ascension Day--at end The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris. H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 11 Of mass--winds, vocal winds descend 70 Among the worshipers." Amain The abbot signs the cross again … [The abbot] snatched the palmer's hand-99 Clung to it like a very child 100 Thrilled by some wondrous story wild Of elf or fay … … But how grim 104 The Pictish storm-king sang refrain, 105 Scoffing about those gables high Over Arculf and good Adamnan. (I, 35 "Arculf and Adamnan") 12 A Dominican monk encountered by the Jordan glorifies Christmas and Rome in this "recitative" Yearly for a thousand years On Christmas Day the wreath appears, And the people joy together: Prithee, Prince or Parliament, An equal holiday invent Outlasting centuries of weather. … (II, 25 "The Dominican", 193-198) 13 Unseen in the Dead Sea fog, Nehemiah sings a hymn paraphrasing Psalm 23 … in the dark Thick scud, the chanting saint they hark: "Though through the valley of the shade I pass, no evil do I fear; 45 His candle shineth on my head:

15

  Ungar: the story of Rizpah The habit of his mind, and tone 167 Tenacious touching issues gone, Expression found, nor all amiss, In thing he'd murmur: it was this: 170 "Who abideth by the dead Which ye hung before your Lord? Steadfast who, when all have fled Tree and corse abhorred? Who drives off the wolf, the kite-175 Bird by day, and beast by night, And keeps the hill through all? It is Rizpah: true is one Unto death; nor then will shun The Seven throttled and undone, 180 To glut the foes of Saul." The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris. H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 13 (IV, 5 "Of the Stranger") "Rizpah] 2 Samuel 21. 1-11 tells of her steadfastness in guarding the seven hanged corpses of Saul's sons (two born of Rizpah) from the birds by day and beasts by night." Clarel, Editorial appendix: Discussions, Part 4, page 824. Northwestern-Newberry Edition, 1991.

25

  Morbid, indifferent natureAgath's description of a Galapagos island and of its tortoises Paved with jet blocks those terraces, The surface rubbed to unctuous gleam 50 By something which has life, you feel: And yet, the shades but death reveal; … But, list,-a sound! Dull, dull it booms-57 Dull as the jar in vaulted tombs When urns are shifted. … Lo, 'tis the monstrous tortoise drear! … 61 A hideous, harmless look, with trace 66 Of hopelessness; the eyes are dull The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris. H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 20 As in the bog the dead black pool: Penal his aspect … Searching, he creeps with laboring neck, 75 Each crevice tries, and long may seek: Water he craves, where rain is none… (IV, 3 "The Island")Dehumanised human natureThe face of Agath the timoneer bears "Nature's own look, which might recall / Dumb patience of mere animal" (IV, 3 "The Island", 104-105).

27

  Derwent tries to persuade Clarel out of his torment [Clarel:] "Doubt bleeds, nor Faith is free from pain!" 304 … [Derwent:] "Alas, too deep you dive. … 307 That shaft you sink shall strike no bloom:

H

  . Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 25 34 Charity in a sensualist-the Lyonese uses libido to reveal his and Clarel's common humanity That grave, deep Hebrew coquetry! 235 Thereby Bathsheba David won In bath a purposed bait!--Have done!--Blushing? The cuticle's but thin! Blushing? yet you my mind would win. Priests make a goblin of the Jew: 240 Shares he not flesh with me--with you?" (IV, 26 "The Prodigal")

35

  The Lyonese's Polynesian sensuaity Rich, tumbled, chestnut hood of curls Like to a Polynesian girl's, Who, inland eloping with her lover, 250 The deacon-magistrates recover--With sermon and black bread reprove Who fed on berries and on love. (IV, 26 "The Prodigal") Rolfe: Christ in Tahiti "From Bethlehem here my musings reach 35 Yes--frankly--to Tahiti's beach." … … by beach where palm trees grow That sheltered Omai's olive race--Tahiti should have been the place For Christ in advent." 45 (IV, 18 "The Hill-side) Dirge: Ruth in limbo The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris. H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 26 Stay, Death. Not mine the Christus-wand 1 Wherewith to charge thee and command: I plead. Most gently hold the hand Of her thou leadest far away … And if, ere yet the lover's free, 16 Some added dusk thy rule decree That shadow only let it be Thrown in the moon-Glade by the palm.

  → is interrupted by jackal crying → Derwent continues about pilgrimage, referring to the crusade of the 12 th -c Norwegian king Sigurd → Vine inserts Walter Scott's imaginary "Knight of the Leopard" and the Biblical Rahab → "A lull. Their thoughts, mute plunging, strayed / Like Arethusa under ground…"(89)(90)

	→ Rolfe starts again about the Easter pilgrimages, then stops
	→ silence returns (102)
	→ Rolfe starts again about deserts ("Man sprang from deserts", 104) and comments on Mortmain's
	insanity which brought him to the desert
	→ Derwent stops him to point at the moon (120)
	→ Rolfe is "discouraged" (125)
	→ Derwent, then Vine encourage him to resume
	→ Rolfe starts again about Mortmain: "In gusts of lonely pain …" (135)
	→ Derwent cuts in immediately: "God help him, ay, poor realist!" / So Derwent. and that theme
	dismissed" (137-138)
	(Rahab hid Hebrew spies in Jericho when the Hebrews wanted to attack the town, helping the Hebrews
	slaughter the inhabitants, and then converted to Judaism)

H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 4

on the clear blue sea; Nor thus, my heart, it was with thee Landing amid the shouts and spray; 30 Nor thus when mounted, full equipped, Out through the vaulted gate we slipped Beyond the walls where gardens bright With bloom and blossom cheered the sight.

	The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris.	H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel	5
	His heart from such ascetic range
	…
	Vital he knew organic change
	(IV, 26 "The Prodigal", 302-310, 313).
	/zefə/
	A key term signalling the characters' waverings is "sway" (60 occurrences). The meanings range from
	physical waves (wind, trees, candle flames) to mental attraction and power (of a person, an opinion, a
	sect, a political movement, etc.).
	The sway may be passively undergone but also inwardly active. For instance, on hearing Nehemiah
	despise Nathan, Clarel has a "sway of thoughts" about him (I, 22 "Hermitage", 94).
	(Nehemiah feels superior to Nathan because Christianity must replace Judaism.)
	Affects are varied and intense in the hero and others. Some characters have fixed affects, others
	fluctuate: Mortmain drags his despair, the Lyonese sports his jollity. All this creates a roller-coaster of
	emotions. Clarel is first enthusiastic, then depressed; even in view of Olivet he sees "no play / Of life"
	(I, 1, 143-144).
	(Derwent often struggles to keep cheerful.)
		5
	One of Clarel's mood swings:
	Theology, art thou so blind?
	What means this naturalistic knell
	In lieu of Siloh's oracle
	Which here should murmur? Snatched from grace,	25
	And waylaid in the holy place!
	Not thus it was but yesterday
	Off Jaffa
		4
	After speaking with the Lyonese
	A spell came down;
	And Clarel dreamed, and seemed to stand
	Betwixt a Shushan and a sand;
	The Lyonese was lord of one,
	The desert did the Tuscan own,
	The pale pure monk. A zephyr fanned;
	It vanished, and he felt the strain
	Of clasping arms which would detain

goblins; go, each funeral thought- intense internal focalisation Bewitchment from this Dead Sea caught!"

  II, 29 "By the Marge",[155][156][157][158][159][160][161][162][163][164][165][166][167][168]

	The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris. The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris.	H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel	9
	10
	"… but for that stone-Against their sway his soul he nerved: Avoid, nor name!" "That stone? what one?" "Go,
	And cast a look of grieved surprise	40
	Marking the senior's ruffled guise;
	"Those cameos of Death's Sea--"
	"Have done,
	I beg! Unless all joy you'd cripple,
	Both noun omit and participle."
	II, 2 "By the Garden", 30-44
	Focalisation also jumps from zero to internal focalisation to underline miscommunication between the
	characters:
		10
	Internal focalisation
	Internal foc°
	"Thy passion's whim, / Wild Swede, mused Vine in silent heart"
	(II, 31 "The Inscription", 25-26)
	"Ah, clear sweet ether of the soul / (Mused Clarel), holding him [Vine] in view.
	(II, 27 "Vine and Clarel", 64-65
	zero focalisation
	* on a collective state of mind: after seeing the rainbow vanish from over the Dead Sea and hearing
	Margoth's derision of it
	* on Clarel's individual feeling, still zero
	They heard [Margoth's jeers], but in such torpid gloom
	Scarcely they recked, for now the bloom	→ zero focalisation on the group's thoughts
	Vanished from sight, and half the sea
	Died down to glazed monotony.
	Craved solace here would Clarel prove,	→ zero focalisation on Clarel
	Recalling Ruth, her glance of love.
	But nay; those eyes so frequent known
	To meet, and mellow on his own-
	Now, in his vision of them, swerved	from zero to internal focalisation on Clarel
	While in perverse recurrence ran
	Dreams of the bier Armenian.

"Ah, clear sweet ether of the soul / (Mused Clarel), holding him [Vine] in view.

(II, 27 "Vine and Clarel", 64-65 "Thy passion's whim, / Wild Swede, mused Vine in silent heart" (II, 31 "The Inscription", 25-26)

The song of Glaucon the Smyrniote

The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris.

H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 15

Song of poor-devil dandy: he:-53 "She's handsome as a jeweled priest In ephod on the festa. 55 And each poor blade like me must needs Idolize and detest her.

"With rain-beads on her odorous hair From gardens after showers, All bloom and dew she trips along, 60 Intent on selling flowers.

"She beams--the rainbow of the bridge; But, ah, my blank abhorrence, She buttonholes me with a rose, This flower-girl of Florence. 65

"My friends stand by; and, 'There!' she says-An angel arch, a sinner: I grudge to pay, but pay I must, Then-dine on half a dinner!-"Heigh-ho, next month I marry: well!" 70 With that he turned aside, and went Humming another air content.

(II, 5, "Clarel and Glaucon")

The religious motif of the ephod is turned into a sign of erotic seduction. In the next Part (Mar Saba), an oxymoronic scene has the pilgrims stay overnight in a monastery and have a drinking party there. The Lesbian, a food and drinks dealer, cajoles Derwent into drinking with allusions to springs starting in the desert and to the water turned to wine at Cana. The religious motif now covers up inebriation /ini:bri-/ and fellowship. Drink is needed to weaken reason into a necessary acceptance of folly. This folly brings the companions together as they forget their reflections:

20

The Lesbian's first song "Life is not by square and line: 1 Wisdom's stupid without folly: Sherbet to-day, to-morrow wine Feather in cap and the world is jolly!" The Lesbian's third song. He distributes wine and song, bonding the group together. Ebriation and sex return stronger when Clarel shares a room with the "Prodigal", a Lyonese businessman (Part IV, Bethlehem, canto 26 "The Prodigal"). This beautiful young man seems experienced but refuses to discuss the "mournful sway" of Palestine (83, Palestine called "Judah" = one of the ancestors of the 12 Hebrew tribes descended from Jacob). He is revealed to be a Jew (by the Russian, in Canto 27 "David's Well"), but one who shatters the cliché of tradition, faith and austerity set by Abdon and Nathan. Among informed bantering about Judaism, he quotes Solomon's Song as a literal erotic song; to him, Palestine is quite cheerful: it is where Noah invented winemaking, and the best about being a Jew is that Jewish women are the greatest beauties.

21

The narrator's metafictional address to the Lyonese:

Thy silvery voice, irreverent one! 'Twas musical … Dialogue with the Lyonese: "But Palestine, Insisted Clarel, "do you not Concede some strangeness to her lot?" " … You of the West, What devil has your hearts possessed, You can't enjoy?--…" Rolfe is "revuls[ed]" at seeing Derwent read a pleasant book to forget the demonic landscape "And read you here?

The Melville Society: 2022 Congress, Paris.

H. Guillaume -Creative Energy in Clarel 22

Scarce suits the ground with bookish cheer. 55 Escaped from forms, enlarged at last, Pupils we be of wave and waste-Not books; nay, nay!"

(II, 32 "The Encampment")

Melville's symbolism folds outer nature and inner human nature together in the imagery, and adds the field of received ideas (of which the Matter of religion) as homologous to outer nature. Like it, the mass of ideas essentially makes no sense as long as we do not energize our minds in order to relate to it in an innovative, a creative way.

Here the poem is read as an allegory of Melville's ongoing struggle to assume creative energy. In this reading, the central metaphor of the poem is the switch from dead matter to live growth, be it physical vital processes, the development of meaningfulness in text or the emergence of love in people.

The vitalization triggered by the heterogeneous elements point the way to this central metaphor by exposing us to discreet, relentless energizing shocks in the rhetoric and in the story.

But the shocks are not only effected: they are also reflected in the story and in the rhetoric.

In the story, the dynamic starter is a "sway" running through the individual. The sway (≈ 60 occurrences, plus "influence" and others) may come from a character or from impalpable atmosphere (which means Melville diffused it into his story, though atmosphere can also be read as an image for the unconscious).

Being "swayed" is an opportunity (seized or not) to develop an original response to the stimulus. This is the case of Clarel with the Lyonese. The matter of religion he is chock-full with is so shaken that "vital he knew organic change":

29

Clarel "swayed" by the Lyonese, who pushes his to acknowledge his libido The change is subconscious, "lurking" till it surfaces, not as matter but as dynamism, actionhere, the decision to marry Ruth.

The process is not conscious, because it needs to escape the pre-existing forms of religion (and other fixed ideas), whose energy of control rules in consciousness.

The process, too, is transgressive, disregarding God's exclusive truth. (Perhaps, after Ahab, this is a new species of ungodly, godlike characters, transgressive but vital.)