Under The Rose

[White, Rich]

Sub Rosa = clandestine/secret/confidential but the origin eludes me at the 
moment.  I think somewhere from Byzantium.(?)
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.*++From: owner-pynchon-l
.*++To: SY19058
.*++Subject: Under The Rose
.*++Date: Thursday, June 13, 1996 8:15PM
.*++
.*++<<File Attachment: HEADERS.TXT>>
.*++
.*++Just out of curiosity, does anyone know where the phrase "under the 
rose"
.*++comes from?  Not only is it the title of one of TRP's short stories,
.*++but it pops up early on in V:
.*++
.*++"Profane had wondered then what it was with Da Conho and that machine
.*++gun.  Love for an object, this was new to him.  When he found out not 
long
.*++after this that the same thing was with Rachel and her MG, he had his 
first
.*++intelligence that something had been going on *under the rose*, maybe 
for
.*++longer than and with more people than he would care to think about."
.*++
.*++My emphasis added.  I've never run across this phrase anywhere else.
.*++Any hints?
.*++
.*++Brian McCary
.*++
.*++