6, also by Albeniz (see"Alfred Cortot plays Short Works," Biddulph Recordings, LHW 020, 1994, and "Alfred Cortot: Rare 78 rpm
Recordings
& Rare Pressings 1919-1947," Music & Arts, CD-615, 1989).
Samuel Beckett
4.
"Schone Griisse" (warm greetings).
ThomasHolmes Ravenhill (known as Raven, 1881-1952) studied medicine at the University of Birmingham; he conducted pioneering research in high-altitude medi cine as a medical officer in Chile and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1914 to 1918. After the war, he left medicine and became a painter, lodging inHester Dowden's house in Chelsea for over twenty years (Bentley, Far Horizon: A Biography of Hester Dowden, 58; J. B. West, "T. H. Ravenhill andHis Contributions to Mountain
Sickness",Journal ofApplied Physiology 80. 3 [March 1996J 715-724). THOMAS McGREEVY
TAR BERT, CO. KERRY
29/1 [1935]
34 Gertrude St [London] S. W. 10
My dear Tom
I have your news from Hester whom I saw last Sunday.
I know how awful it must be for you to have it drag on and on. There is nothing to say. I can only hope you have found some means of patience & comfort. 1
I came back with Frank last Sunday week. He returned, & Geoffrey arrived, on the Tuesday morning. Geoffrey went back on the Wednesday night. He has secured a post at an asylum near Beckenharn, & will be corning over at the end of this week to stay three months at least, for which I am very grateful, as you can imagine. I have resumed with Bion and am feeling better, in spite of all the symptoms, which left me more or less alone during the holiday, having come flocking back. It is a kind of confirmation of the analysis. 2
I had tea & a long conversation with Raven Sunday after noon in his studio. But he is impossible to talk with. He has obviously been through it. He does not seem to have emerged altogether.
242
Perhapshecouldputmeinthewayofsometranslations. The National Gallery after the "5th in Christendom" ("Amateur" in
29January {1935}, McGreevy
Hester looks very well and apparently her concert was a great success. I am invited to dine there this evening and try the
3
short & very tenuous. I think it would probably stand a better chance with the Evening Standard. I mean to try & see Muir.
4
5
It is an enormous relief being back in London. I miss you
acutely. I had to go with a party of Frank's to "Young England,"
and so was obliged to sit it out, an exasperation beyond all
description. I should look up Maccarthy, but dread the trend
6
Volpone, which opens superbly. The longueurs of culture are at least an improvement on the longueurs offacility. What a pity
7
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Kerry, Irish Free State; pm 29-1-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/69.
1 McGreevy'smotherwasill.
2 SBandFrankBeckettarrivedinLondonon20January.
Geoffrey Thompson came to London on 22 January to be interviewed for a position at the Bethlem Royal Hospital near Beckenham; he began there on 4 February 1935. Study of psychiatric medicine was not possible in Dublin, as SB wrote to McGreevy: "Geoffrey says a psychoanalyst would be run out of the town. ls that really possible? By the doctors themselves in the first place, he says" (18 January 1935, TCD, MS 10402/68).
3 Hester Dowden was a concert pianist; this concert has not been identified. "Infanta": see 24 February 1931, n. 4.
243
Infanta.
I have sent a new short story to Lovat Dickson. It is very
Irish Times) is like the 15 acres after a cabbage allotment.
[. . . ]
of conscientious solicitude it sets up inside me.
I have read Jonson's two Everyman & Poetaster & begun
the lexicographical f keeps creeping in so often. God love thee
Yours ever Sam
29 January {1935}, McGreevy
4 HoratioHenryLovatDickson(1902-1987),Australian-bornLondonpublisherand biographer, was Associate Editor ofFortnightly Review (1929-1932), Editor ofReview of Reviews (1930-1932), Editor ofLovat Dickson's Magazine (1934-1937), a journal devoted to short stories, and Managing Editor ofLovat Dickson Ltd. (1932-1938). SB submitted "Lightning Calculation" to Lovat Dickson (Pilling, A Samuel Beckett Chronology, 50-51; Cohn, A Beckett Canon, 70-71; unpublished manuscript of "Lightning Calculation," BIF, UoR, MS 2902).
The Evening Standard, London newspaper (1827 to present, under various titles).
The translations ofScottish-born poet and literary critic Edwin Muir (1887-1959), done with his wife Willa Muir (nee Anderson, 1890-1970), included books by Lion Feuchtwanger (1889-1958), Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946), Franz Kafka (1883-1924), and Heinrich Mann (1871-1950), published by the London publishers Martin Secker, Routledge, and Gollancz. Muir had reviewed SB's More Pricks Than Kicks in "New Short Stories," The Listener 12. 268 (4 July 1934) 42.
5 In response to the news of Thomas Bodkin's resignation as Director of the National Gallery ofIreland, a letter to The Irish Times signed "Amateur" pays tribute to his leadership, indicating that "Our Gallery ranks fifth in the world," and wonders whether Bodkin might stay ifoffered "an adequate emolument" ("Dr. Bodkin," The Irish Times 12January 1935: 6).
"The fifteen acres" refers to the broad open space in Dublin's Phoenix Park, by contrast to the small plots of land leased to non-landowners so that they could grow their own produce (MacThomais, Me Jewel and Darlin' Dublin, 111; Declan Kiberd, 12 September 2006).
6 YoungEngland,apatrioticmelodramabyWalterReynolds(1851-1941),proprietor ofthe Theatre Royal (Leeds), was voted by critics as "the worst show that had opened in London in 20 years"; it rapidly developed a cult following and "a quarter ofa million people saw the play," including a person who "boasted of150 visits" ("'Wrong Door, Wrong Door,"' Time [25 December 1939] 24-25; "Daly's Theatre: 'Young England,"' The Times 22 January 1935: 10; "The Victoria Palace: Shows," www. victoriapalacetheatre. co. uk [History]. 24 July 2005).
Desmond Maccarthy.
7 Everyman in his Humour (1598), Everyman out of his Humour (1599), Poetaster (1601), Volpone (1606): plays ofBenJonson (1572-1637).
The long "s" ("f") was the standard representation of the letter "s" in roman fonts until the late 1700s in English.
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
8/2 [1935]
244
34 Gertrude St [London] S. W. 10
8 February {1935}, McGreevy
My dear Tom
It is good news that you have the translation, even of a little
sensationalist like M. Also that you are keeping well. You ought to get out a bit more. Have you only your married sister with you now? 1
Of myself there is nothing to tell, except that the feeling of relief & vitality of the first week after my return has quite gone, & now I feel beyond description worthless, sordid & incapaci tated. Basta. 2
I heard Maryjo Prado play at Hester's last Sunday week.
The Footner turned up. I don't like her. Hester says she is intel
ligent. I feel her Jansenist precieuse. The Prado played some
things well, a Rameau gavotte & variations that I did not
know, Scriabin, the Vie de Brevet, Prokoviev's [for Prokofiev's]
Tentations Diaboliques [for "Suggestion Diabolique"], & some
flashy Dohnyani [for Dohnanyi]. But her Chopin & Debussy
were dragged out by the scruff of the neck, very disagreeable.
She sits perched up above the keyboard like Mme. Mahieu at
the seat of custom. Her left hand in the Scriabin was extremely
scrupulous & good. I suppose now I must go to her concert at the
3
I had lunch with Hester & Raven last Sunday afternoon, & played
duets with her afterwards. The Infanta could go quite well. She
offered me a latch+key to come in & practise whenever I liked,
but I contrived to parry this kindness. Since then I have not been
round. I get terribly tired of all the psychic evidence, wonder
what it has to do with the psyche as I experience that old bastard.
4
is so enormous that I wonder is he writing seriously or in parody. And yet I go on reading it. I have finished with Adler. Another
245
Aeolian Hall next Thursday. Mr Prado was sehr sympathisch.
Also the dogs & cats.
Am reading the Cousine Bette. The bathos ofstyle & thought
8 February {1935}, McGreevy
one track mind. Only the dogmatist seems able to put it across. 5
I wish you were to talk pictures, though I know you don't like
talking much of the Dutchmen. I thought Teniers was the last
word in Netherland drawing till I looked into the Brouwers, alas
so scarce. I found a lovely one in the Victoria & Albert, a man
playing a lute. The one in the National, with the woman pulling
the man's hair, is invisible. Their only other is in what the
6
attendant calls the "reference section".
Do they employ some
journalist, I wonder, to invent these expressions. Also in the
V. & A. an adorable tiny Terborch, portrait of a man in black,
tucked away behind a screen in the Forster Collection. I have
been promising myself a long look at the Dulwich Cuyps, but
7
Geoffrey arrived last Sunday & is now sumptuously installed
at the Bethlem Royal Hospital near Beckenham. I have seen him
8
I ran into Mr Arthur Hillis, & de fil en aiguille to his Cheyne Walk first floor flat, very nice, with Paul Henry at first hand & Peter de Hooch at an infinite remove, reconciled somehow. He is really very decent, is a Hispanophile, with Spanish Petit Larousse, a Bechstein piano & a good gramophone, & records of Cortot playing Seguidillas, Malaguena, etc. His background is the clas sics, and he dilated learnedly extempore on the influence ofthat minor author Theophrastus on the English Renaissance in gen eral & John Earle in particular. 9
To-morrow afternoon I have the Lener, but alas one cannot
10
every morning finds me shirking the cold journey.
only once. Perhaps it will be somewhere to go in the spring.
[. . . ]
book a seat for a mood.
from Ronda, drinking a lot of wine & frileux playing his fiddle in olive-groves on the rock, & reading Maupassant. He is going on to Seville, sometime. It does not sound as though he were doing
246
A sad little letter from Maurice Sinclair
much good. Cissie has left the Adelaide & gone home, very little
11
where she wants him now. The Costello seems to have cast me
12
1 so I do. On Monday I go for the 133rd time. 4
God love thee & write again soon. s/ Sam
TIS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Kerry, l. F. S. ; pm 8-2-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/70.
1 McGreevy translated Les Celibataires (1934), by French writer Henry Millon de Montherlant (1895-1972), as Lament for the Death of an Upper Class (London: John Miles, 1935). McGreevy's unmarried sister Margaret McGreevy (known as Ciss, 1887-1952) was at home during this time; his sister Honora Phelan (nee McGreevy, known as Nora, 1891-1974) also lived in Tarbert.
2 "Basta"(enough).
3 MaryJoPrado(neeTurner,n. d. )wasmarriedtoFlavioPradoUchoa(n. d. ),resident ofLondon and Sao Paulo, Brazil. whom SB found "sehr sympathisch" (very pleasant). Mary Jo Prado played: "Gavotte" from Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavedn . . . avec
des remarques sur les differens genres de musique, by French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764); music by Russian composer Aleksandr Scriabin (1872-1915); "Two Dances" from Manuel de Falla's lyric drama La vida breve; Prokofiev's "Navazhdeniye" ("Suggestion diabolique") from Four Pieces (rev. of Four Pieces, 1908), op. 4, no. 4; and music by Hungarian composer Erno Dohnanyi (ne Ernst von Dohnanyi, 1877-1960).
Amica de Biden Footner (1874-1961), British portrait painter, whose subjects included many prominent persons; her sister recalled the "directness and naivety of her conversation" (The Times, 20 October 1961: 15).
Mme. Mahieu (n. d. ), proprietor ofCafe le Mahieu.
There is no indication ofa concert by Mary Jo Prado on 14 February 1935 at Aeolian Hall; however, a piano recital was given there that evening by Elena Cavalcanti (n. d. ) ("Music this Week," The Times 11 February 1935: 8).
4 HesterDowden,knownforherexperimentsinautomaticwritingasaprofessio nal medium, had built "a clientele second to none throughout the country" (Bentley, Far Horizon: A Biography ofHester Dowden, 44). Hester Dowden's pets included Siamese cats and Pekinese dogs. "Infanta": see 24 February 1931, n. 4.
247
8 February {1935), McGreevy
the better.
Nothing more from Lucia Gottlob. Helen has got Giorgio
Lovat Dickson sent back the story by return. The thought of venturing forth into the cold world
off & kein Wunder.
I sent it on to Life & Letters. I have neither seen nor sought to see
13
Charles.
in the evening is intolerable. I feel I must squabble with Bion, &
8 February {1935}, McGreevy
5 Balzac,LaCousineBette(1846;CousinBette).
Alfred Adler (1870-1937), Austrian-born psychologist. SB's notes on psychology
include those taken on Adler's The Neurotic Constitution: Outlines of a Comparative Individualistic Psychology and Psychotherapy, tr. Bernard Glueck and John E. Lind (New York: Moffat, 1916; rpt. London: Kegan Paul. 1921); these notes are undated, and SB may have read other works by Adler (TCD, MS 10971/8/f 24r-33r).
6 FlemishpainterDavidTenierstheyounger(1610-1690),whowasinfluencedby Brouwer.
Adriaen Brouwer (c. 1605-1638) was a Flemish painter who spent much of his work ing life in Holland. Interior of a Room with Figures: A Man Playing a Lute and a Woman (c. 1635, Victoria and Albert Museum, CAI/80).
The Brouwer painting in the National Gallery described by SB is Tavern Scene (NGL 6591), on loan from Sir Edmund Bacon "from July 1907 until at least 1971"; it was acquired by the National Gallery in July 2002 (Alan Crookham and Flavia Dietrich-England, 1 July 2005). The painting in the "reference section" (or lower galleries) then attributed to Brouwer was entitled Three Boors Drinking (NGL 2569) (National Gallery Illustrations, Continental Schools {excluding Italian], 36); it is now attributed to "style of [Adriaen] Brouwer" and is entitled Four Peasants in a Cellar (Gregory Martin, The Flemish School, drca 1600 - drca 1900 [London: National Gallery, 1970] 12).
7 Gerard Ter Borch the younger (also Terborch, 1617-1681), Man in Black Dress, measures 19 x 21. 6 cm (Forster Bequest, F. 35, V&A); the Collection was a bequest of John Forster (1812-1876). The collection of the Dulwich College Picture Gallery con tains Flemish, Italian, and Dutch art, including many paintings by Dutch artist Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691).
8 GeoffreyThompsonwasSeniorHousePhysicianatBethlemRoyalHospitalfrom 4 February to 31 October 1935 and extended his service there to January 1936.
9 "De fil en aiguille" (by easy stages). Arthur Hillis lived at 131 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. Hillis's Bechstein piano was his father's wedding gift to his mother. Hillis owned a painting by Paul Henry (1876-1958), Irish portrait and landscape artist, and an interior scene painted by Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684), who was associated with the School of Delft.
Alfred Cortot recorded Albeniz's"Seguidillas" from Suite espafiola, op. 232, no. 5, and the malaguefia"Rumores de Ia Caleta" from Recuerdos de viaje, op. 71, no.
6, also by Albeniz (see"Alfred Cortot plays Short Works," Biddulph Recordings, LHW 020, 1994, and "Alfred Cortot: Rare 78 rpm Recordings & Rare Pressings 1919-1947," Music & Arts, CD-615, 1989).
Arthur Hillis read Classics and Law at Trinity College Dublin. Greek philosopher Theophrastus (c. 372-287 BC), head of the Peripatetic School after Aristotle, is known for his study of"Characters," human types related to the humour theory of person ality dominant through the English Renaissance. John Earle (1601-1665) wrote a collection of character sketches, Microcosmographie (1628), based on the model of Theophrastus.
10 SB'sticketfortheLenerQuartet,playingaBeethovenprogramatQueen'sHall, was not for 9 February, but for 3 pm on 9 March 1935 (see below, 20 February 1935 and 10 March 1935).
248
14 February {1935}, McGreevy
11 RondaisacitybuiltonahighplateauintheAndalusiaregionofSpain. "Frileux" (sensitive to cold).
French writerGuy de Maupassant (1850-1893).
CissieSinclair had been treated at the Adelaide Hospital in Dublin.
12 LuciaJoyce. "Gottlob"(Godbepraised).
Giorgio Joyce and his wife Helen were in NewYork, where he was pursuing a
musical career (Ellmann, James Joyce, 678, 683). Nuala Costello. "Kein Wunder" (no wonder).
13 SB's story "Lightning Calculation" was sent on to Life and Letters which, from November 1934, was edited by Richard Ellis Roberts (Pilling, A Samuel Beckett Chronology, 51).
Charles Prentice.
14 SB had been in therapy with Bion for a little more than a year.
THOMAS M cGR E EVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
14/2 [1935] 34 Gertrude Street [London] S. W. 10
My dear Tom
Delighted at the prospect of seeing you soon. Will you be
going to Cheyne Gardens? 1
There is nothing in the Criterion.
Frank's friend Guilford arrived yesterday, & I have to be
with him rather more than I would ifhe were not Frank's friend. 3
I know Hester will be froissee ifI do not tum up at the Aeolian this
evening & hear the Prado, but I do not think I will be able. I have
not been round to 15 for a long time now, so the lnfanta is no
4
between the detainees at Bethlem, Hadfield & Miss What is her
5
that I sent you from Dublin. It was very scantily parcelled & I felt
2
further.
I have seen very little ofGeoffrey. He has no time to spare,
name, and I have seen nothing ofhim.
By the way did you ever receive Sorel's Chute de la Royaute
doubtful about it at the time.
6
249
14 February {1935}, McGreevy
I see no prospect of the analysis coming to an end. But I realize how lost I would be bereft of my incapacitation. When will the old sub renounce? 7
Stella is giving a show at the Arlington Galleries. Here is a photo of her looking like Holofernes Leyster. She promised in
8
I finished Cousine Bette - incomprehensibly. A Stock
Exchange Hugo. Now I am reading the divine Jane. I think she
9
Dublin that she would send me a card, but she has not.
hasmuchtoteachme. ItiscurioushowEnglishliteraturehas never freed itself from the old morality typifications & simplifi cations. I suppose the cult of the horse has something to do with it. But writing infect[ed] with selective breeding of the vices & virtues becomes tiresome, whether resulting in humours a la Jonson or Coglioni Lorenziani. Isn't Aldington straight out of the Chester cycle? 10
The two Rests on the Flight School of Patinir are lovely. If
the little Flemish annexe contained a chair it would be perfect.
The Master from Delft Crucifixion triptych is inexhaustible.
11
There are passages straight out of Bosch apparently.
If only
one could afford the choices in the Classiker der Kunst [for
Klassiker]. Zwemmer's have a number at reduced prices. I nearly
bought a Brouwer in the K[u]nstlermappen series, but withheld
my hand like Michelangelo from Brutus. 6/- with 6 coloured
12
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; enclosure, cutting from the Daily Sketch 12 February 1935: n. p. . featuring a photo of Estella Solomons with the caption "Irish Art" (AN added to portion of headline above the pictures, wavy underscoring, addition of double exclamation points: FUNDS HEAVY); env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Kerry, l. F. S. ; pm 14-2-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/71. Dating: from pm and enclosure.
250
plates, including an astonishing landscape. Love
Sam
1 WhenhewasinLondon,McGreevyusuallystayedatHesterDowden'shome,15 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, London SW3.
2 McGreevy anticipated a review in The Criterion of his Poems which had been published in May 1934 by William Heinemann Ltd. in London, and in November 1934 by Viking in New York; none appeared.
3 James H. Guilford (1903-1997) lived in Foxrock, near the Beckett family home.
4 "Froissee"(offended). Theconcerton14FebruarywasnotbyMaryJoPrado(see 8 February 1935, n. 3). SB had been invited to use Hester Dowden's piano when he liked (see 29 January [19351, n. 3.
5 GeoffreyThompsonjoinedtheTavistockClinicin1935. JamesArthurHadfield (1882-1967) was Director ofStudies and a consultant ofthe Tavistock Clinic from 1928 to 1951. Thompson was courting Ursula Stenhouse (1911-2001), who taught at Crohamhurst School in Croydon (1933-1935), and then Croydon High School for Girls, south ofLondon (Deborah Thompson, 13 June 1994).
6 AlbertSorel(1842-1906),LaChutedelaroyaute1789-1795,thesecondoftheeight· volume L'Europe et la revolutionfra11faise (1885-1904); rpt. Paris: Pion, Nourrit: 1914-1922.
7 Sub:subconscious.
8 "PicturesofCornwall,Yorkshire,Donegal,Portraits,Etchings,"thegroupexhi· bition by Estella Solomons, Mary Duncan (1885-1967), and Louise R. Jacobs (1880-1946), was held at The Arlington Gallery, from 26 February to 8 March 1935.
A notice ofthe show appeared in the Daily Sketch, 12 February 1935, with Estella Solomons's picture (n. p. ). SB compares her photograph to Judith Holding the Head of Holofemes (NG! 186) by Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), probably alluding to what McGreevy later describes as Judith's "purposeful expression" (Pictures in the Irish National Gallery, 47). SB conflates this image with Judith Leyster (1609-1660), Dutch artist, whose An Interior: Woman Sewing by Candlelight is also in the collection ofthe National Gallery ofIreland (NG! 468).
9 Balzac'sLaCousineBetteiscomparedtothewritingsofVictorHugo. English novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817).
10 Inthemedievalmoralityplaycharactersoftenexemplifiedvirtuesandvices.
The humour theory ofhuman types and behaviors was exemplified by Ben Jonson's Everyman in His Humour (1598) and Everyman Out ofHis Humour (1599).
"Coglioni Lorenziani" (Lawrentian balls) is an allusion to D. H. Lawrence.
SB places Richard Aldington and/or the characters in his novels in the context of the Chester cycle plays which enacted biblical narratives to illuminate themes ofsin and redemption; Aldington's Death ofa Hero (1929), The Colonel's Daughter (1931), All Men are Enemies (1933).
11 Joachim Patinir (also Patenir, Patenier, c. 1480-1524), early Flemish landscapist. SB refers to two paintings ascribed to the School ofPatinir: Rest on the Flight into Egypt (NGL 3115) and The Flight into Egypt (NGL 1084). The Master from Delft (fl. 1490-1520) triptych Scenesfrom the Passion ofChrist (NGL 2922) depicts the Crucifixion in the central panel, with scenes ofthe Procession to Calvary, Judas hanging from a withered tree, the Virgin swooning with Saint John and three Holy Women, and the Agony and preparation for the Capture. Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516).
251
14 February {1935), McGreevy
14 February {1935}, McGreevy
In the National Gallery, London, the little Flemish annex, room XIII, was offa corridor between rooms XII and XN; these rooms were rearranged and remodeled in 1935.
12 The Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben (1904-1937) was a series of comprehensive studies with illustrations that included works by painters such as Rembrandt, Titian, Diirer, and Rubens. The London bookstore A. Zwemmer, 76-78 Charing CrossRoad, specialized in fine art books. The volume on Adriaen
Brouwer in the Kiinstlermappen series (no. 83) was written by Kurt Zoege van Marteuffel, Adriaen Brouwer: acht farbige Wiedergaben seiner Werke (Leipzig:
E. A. Seemann, 1936).
Michelangelo (ne Michelangelo Buonarroti. 1475-1564) began sculpting a bust of
Brutus (1540, Museo Nazionale de! Bargello, Florence) "as a tribute to the republican spirit of Florence," but abandoned the project when "reminded of the crime" of Brutus' murder of Caesar (Howard Hibbard, Michelangelo, 2nd edn. [Cambridge, MA:
Harper andRow, 1985] 264).
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
20/2 [1935]
34 Gertrude Street London S. W[. ] 10
My dear Tom
It is good news that I may look forward to seeing you in a
fortnight. Herewith the spinsterian pound. I have seen nothing
at all of Hester. I feel no inclination to ring up & ask may I go in &
play, even ifl felt like playing, and I don't. She took my address
carefully on two occasions & she can write & invite me if she
wants me, which I believe & frankly hope she does not. It is a
strain there always and the animals like Renard's hedgehog - a
1
ofMarch.
Frank's pal has been liquidated without casualty. It was only
about a ptosis belt that he came, so he is as far from the sights of it as ever. 3
I like Jane's manner, in the sense that there is material that can be treated most conveniently in the crochet mode, and
252
decaying pudenda with nowhere to go, how castrated soever.
I went to my concert a month too soon. It is not till the 9th
2
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
somehow Elinor Dashwood is realised as concubine no less desirable than Fielding's Sophie. I suppose the Baron Hulot was
4
by him, & so I think did Teniers. It is very hard to see the Elsheimers in the German room, but the Tobias & the Angel seems exquisite. Rubens let off a lot of obituary steam for him, deplored his "indolence"! 6 The Geertgen Adoration must be one of the earliest spotlight paintings. Surely it is only half the story to date them from Raphael's Liberation of St. Peter. I never saw the Oxford Uccello mentioned in this connection either. 7
Miss B. O'Brien is in Florence "studying the Old Masters".
8
Lucia is in Grosvenor Place with her aunt, who . . "is on her
10
for much in the elaboration of Charlus. Brouwer ran away from Hals & Haarlem, & Rubens & Rembrandt owned pictures
5
Perhaps Dermot [for Dermod] is working her up for the Gallery. Mary Manning is now Mrs Mark De Wolfle] Howe & on her honey moon to New York & the . . . Bermudas! 9 Do you know the story of the chaste centipede, who said to her suitor, crossing her thou sand legs: "No, a thousand times no. "
way to Ireland", whatever that means.
see me. I have done nothing - except make detours.
She wrote wanting to I have seen nothing of Geoffrey, but have planned to go
down & see him at the hospital next Sunday.
11
It may help to
solve the destination of the day. I inspected the plaster carica
tures of Vischer & Kraft in the V. & A. Nothing. The Great Hall
12
13
I go on with Bion . . . histoire d'elan acquis. I see no reason why it should ever come to an end. The old heart pounces now & then, as though to console me for the intolerable symp toms of an improvement. Mother writes, she supposes I am
253
was full of whores. The Raphael Room is closed.
The Maccarthy has taken her picture.
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
brimming over with material for books. . . anything rather than desoeuvrement. 14
Estella S. sent me a card for vernissage (et comment) next Tuesday. She is with Mary Duncan & Louise Jacobs at the
15
Arlington. Landscapes from Donegal & Yorkshire.
Last night I dropped my glasses from balcony of this room
16
into the area.
wanting to scrap the frame anyway.
I found the lenses this morning, unbroken. I was Love Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Keny, in lower left comer Irish Free State; pm 20-2-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/72. Dating: pm and opening of the Arlington Gallery before exhibition March 1935.
1 McGreevydidnotarriveinLondonashehadplanned(see10March1935).
Hester Dowden had offered SB the use ofher piano. SB compares the cats and dogs of her household to Renard's "'Le Herisson," in Histoires naturelles, a series of humorous vignettes written first for newspaper publication and then collected:
"'Le Herisson" Essuyez votre. . . S. V. P. II
II faut me prendre comme je suis et ne pas trop serrer. "'The Hedgehog"
Please wipe your
You have to take me as I am and not squeeze too tightly.
Uules Renard, Oeuvres, II, ed. Leon Guichard, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade [Paris: Gallimard, 1971] 126)
2 TheLenerQuartetatQueen'sHallon9March1935(see8February1935,n. 10).
3 James Guilford was in London to consult specialists; a ptosis belt is used to alleviate the symptoms of a hernia.
4 SB compares Elinor Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1811) with Joseph Fielding's character, Sophia Weston, in Tom Jones (1749). He also sees Baron Hulot, a character from Balzac's La Cousine Bette, as a forerunner of the Baron de Charlus in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. SB uses a Gallicism, "'etre pour beau
coup dans" for "'to count for a good deal in. "
5 Adriaen Brouwer served an apprenticeship in Haarlem under Frans Hals (c. 1581-1666); he left for Amsterdam, later returned to Haarlem from c. 1625 to 1631, and then spent the remainder of his life in Antwerp (Gerard Knuttel, Adriaen Brouwer: The Master and His Work, tr. ]. G. Talma-Schilthuis and Robert Wheaton [The Hague: L. J. C.
ThomasHolmes Ravenhill (known as Raven, 1881-1952) studied medicine at the University of Birmingham; he conducted pioneering research in high-altitude medi cine as a medical officer in Chile and served in the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1914 to 1918. After the war, he left medicine and became a painter, lodging inHester Dowden's house in Chelsea for over twenty years (Bentley, Far Horizon: A Biography of Hester Dowden, 58; J. B. West, "T. H. Ravenhill andHis Contributions to Mountain
Sickness",Journal ofApplied Physiology 80. 3 [March 1996J 715-724). THOMAS McGREEVY
TAR BERT, CO. KERRY
29/1 [1935]
34 Gertrude St [London] S. W. 10
My dear Tom
I have your news from Hester whom I saw last Sunday.
I know how awful it must be for you to have it drag on and on. There is nothing to say. I can only hope you have found some means of patience & comfort. 1
I came back with Frank last Sunday week. He returned, & Geoffrey arrived, on the Tuesday morning. Geoffrey went back on the Wednesday night. He has secured a post at an asylum near Beckenharn, & will be corning over at the end of this week to stay three months at least, for which I am very grateful, as you can imagine. I have resumed with Bion and am feeling better, in spite of all the symptoms, which left me more or less alone during the holiday, having come flocking back. It is a kind of confirmation of the analysis. 2
I had tea & a long conversation with Raven Sunday after noon in his studio. But he is impossible to talk with. He has obviously been through it. He does not seem to have emerged altogether.
242
Perhapshecouldputmeinthewayofsometranslations. The National Gallery after the "5th in Christendom" ("Amateur" in
29January {1935}, McGreevy
Hester looks very well and apparently her concert was a great success. I am invited to dine there this evening and try the
3
short & very tenuous. I think it would probably stand a better chance with the Evening Standard. I mean to try & see Muir.
4
5
It is an enormous relief being back in London. I miss you
acutely. I had to go with a party of Frank's to "Young England,"
and so was obliged to sit it out, an exasperation beyond all
description. I should look up Maccarthy, but dread the trend
6
Volpone, which opens superbly. The longueurs of culture are at least an improvement on the longueurs offacility. What a pity
7
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Kerry, Irish Free State; pm 29-1-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/69.
1 McGreevy'smotherwasill.
2 SBandFrankBeckettarrivedinLondonon20January.
Geoffrey Thompson came to London on 22 January to be interviewed for a position at the Bethlem Royal Hospital near Beckenham; he began there on 4 February 1935. Study of psychiatric medicine was not possible in Dublin, as SB wrote to McGreevy: "Geoffrey says a psychoanalyst would be run out of the town. ls that really possible? By the doctors themselves in the first place, he says" (18 January 1935, TCD, MS 10402/68).
3 Hester Dowden was a concert pianist; this concert has not been identified. "Infanta": see 24 February 1931, n. 4.
243
Infanta.
I have sent a new short story to Lovat Dickson. It is very
Irish Times) is like the 15 acres after a cabbage allotment.
[. . . ]
of conscientious solicitude it sets up inside me.
I have read Jonson's two Everyman & Poetaster & begun
the lexicographical f keeps creeping in so often. God love thee
Yours ever Sam
29 January {1935}, McGreevy
4 HoratioHenryLovatDickson(1902-1987),Australian-bornLondonpublisherand biographer, was Associate Editor ofFortnightly Review (1929-1932), Editor ofReview of Reviews (1930-1932), Editor ofLovat Dickson's Magazine (1934-1937), a journal devoted to short stories, and Managing Editor ofLovat Dickson Ltd. (1932-1938). SB submitted "Lightning Calculation" to Lovat Dickson (Pilling, A Samuel Beckett Chronology, 50-51; Cohn, A Beckett Canon, 70-71; unpublished manuscript of "Lightning Calculation," BIF, UoR, MS 2902).
The Evening Standard, London newspaper (1827 to present, under various titles).
The translations ofScottish-born poet and literary critic Edwin Muir (1887-1959), done with his wife Willa Muir (nee Anderson, 1890-1970), included books by Lion Feuchtwanger (1889-1958), Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-1946), Franz Kafka (1883-1924), and Heinrich Mann (1871-1950), published by the London publishers Martin Secker, Routledge, and Gollancz. Muir had reviewed SB's More Pricks Than Kicks in "New Short Stories," The Listener 12. 268 (4 July 1934) 42.
5 In response to the news of Thomas Bodkin's resignation as Director of the National Gallery ofIreland, a letter to The Irish Times signed "Amateur" pays tribute to his leadership, indicating that "Our Gallery ranks fifth in the world," and wonders whether Bodkin might stay ifoffered "an adequate emolument" ("Dr. Bodkin," The Irish Times 12January 1935: 6).
"The fifteen acres" refers to the broad open space in Dublin's Phoenix Park, by contrast to the small plots of land leased to non-landowners so that they could grow their own produce (MacThomais, Me Jewel and Darlin' Dublin, 111; Declan Kiberd, 12 September 2006).
6 YoungEngland,apatrioticmelodramabyWalterReynolds(1851-1941),proprietor ofthe Theatre Royal (Leeds), was voted by critics as "the worst show that had opened in London in 20 years"; it rapidly developed a cult following and "a quarter ofa million people saw the play," including a person who "boasted of150 visits" ("'Wrong Door, Wrong Door,"' Time [25 December 1939] 24-25; "Daly's Theatre: 'Young England,"' The Times 22 January 1935: 10; "The Victoria Palace: Shows," www. victoriapalacetheatre. co. uk [History]. 24 July 2005).
Desmond Maccarthy.
7 Everyman in his Humour (1598), Everyman out of his Humour (1599), Poetaster (1601), Volpone (1606): plays ofBenJonson (1572-1637).
The long "s" ("f") was the standard representation of the letter "s" in roman fonts until the late 1700s in English.
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
8/2 [1935]
244
34 Gertrude St [London] S. W. 10
8 February {1935}, McGreevy
My dear Tom
It is good news that you have the translation, even of a little
sensationalist like M. Also that you are keeping well. You ought to get out a bit more. Have you only your married sister with you now? 1
Of myself there is nothing to tell, except that the feeling of relief & vitality of the first week after my return has quite gone, & now I feel beyond description worthless, sordid & incapaci tated. Basta. 2
I heard Maryjo Prado play at Hester's last Sunday week.
The Footner turned up. I don't like her. Hester says she is intel
ligent. I feel her Jansenist precieuse. The Prado played some
things well, a Rameau gavotte & variations that I did not
know, Scriabin, the Vie de Brevet, Prokoviev's [for Prokofiev's]
Tentations Diaboliques [for "Suggestion Diabolique"], & some
flashy Dohnyani [for Dohnanyi]. But her Chopin & Debussy
were dragged out by the scruff of the neck, very disagreeable.
She sits perched up above the keyboard like Mme. Mahieu at
the seat of custom. Her left hand in the Scriabin was extremely
scrupulous & good. I suppose now I must go to her concert at the
3
I had lunch with Hester & Raven last Sunday afternoon, & played
duets with her afterwards. The Infanta could go quite well. She
offered me a latch+key to come in & practise whenever I liked,
but I contrived to parry this kindness. Since then I have not been
round. I get terribly tired of all the psychic evidence, wonder
what it has to do with the psyche as I experience that old bastard.
4
is so enormous that I wonder is he writing seriously or in parody. And yet I go on reading it. I have finished with Adler. Another
245
Aeolian Hall next Thursday. Mr Prado was sehr sympathisch.
Also the dogs & cats.
Am reading the Cousine Bette. The bathos ofstyle & thought
8 February {1935}, McGreevy
one track mind. Only the dogmatist seems able to put it across. 5
I wish you were to talk pictures, though I know you don't like
talking much of the Dutchmen. I thought Teniers was the last
word in Netherland drawing till I looked into the Brouwers, alas
so scarce. I found a lovely one in the Victoria & Albert, a man
playing a lute. The one in the National, with the woman pulling
the man's hair, is invisible. Their only other is in what the
6
attendant calls the "reference section".
Do they employ some
journalist, I wonder, to invent these expressions. Also in the
V. & A. an adorable tiny Terborch, portrait of a man in black,
tucked away behind a screen in the Forster Collection. I have
been promising myself a long look at the Dulwich Cuyps, but
7
Geoffrey arrived last Sunday & is now sumptuously installed
at the Bethlem Royal Hospital near Beckenham. I have seen him
8
I ran into Mr Arthur Hillis, & de fil en aiguille to his Cheyne Walk first floor flat, very nice, with Paul Henry at first hand & Peter de Hooch at an infinite remove, reconciled somehow. He is really very decent, is a Hispanophile, with Spanish Petit Larousse, a Bechstein piano & a good gramophone, & records of Cortot playing Seguidillas, Malaguena, etc. His background is the clas sics, and he dilated learnedly extempore on the influence ofthat minor author Theophrastus on the English Renaissance in gen eral & John Earle in particular. 9
To-morrow afternoon I have the Lener, but alas one cannot
10
every morning finds me shirking the cold journey.
only once. Perhaps it will be somewhere to go in the spring.
[. . . ]
book a seat for a mood.
from Ronda, drinking a lot of wine & frileux playing his fiddle in olive-groves on the rock, & reading Maupassant. He is going on to Seville, sometime. It does not sound as though he were doing
246
A sad little letter from Maurice Sinclair
much good. Cissie has left the Adelaide & gone home, very little
11
where she wants him now. The Costello seems to have cast me
12
1 so I do. On Monday I go for the 133rd time. 4
God love thee & write again soon. s/ Sam
TIS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Kerry, l. F. S. ; pm 8-2-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/70.
1 McGreevy translated Les Celibataires (1934), by French writer Henry Millon de Montherlant (1895-1972), as Lament for the Death of an Upper Class (London: John Miles, 1935). McGreevy's unmarried sister Margaret McGreevy (known as Ciss, 1887-1952) was at home during this time; his sister Honora Phelan (nee McGreevy, known as Nora, 1891-1974) also lived in Tarbert.
2 "Basta"(enough).
3 MaryJoPrado(neeTurner,n. d. )wasmarriedtoFlavioPradoUchoa(n. d. ),resident ofLondon and Sao Paulo, Brazil. whom SB found "sehr sympathisch" (very pleasant). Mary Jo Prado played: "Gavotte" from Nouvelles suites de pieces de clavedn . . . avec
des remarques sur les differens genres de musique, by French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764); music by Russian composer Aleksandr Scriabin (1872-1915); "Two Dances" from Manuel de Falla's lyric drama La vida breve; Prokofiev's "Navazhdeniye" ("Suggestion diabolique") from Four Pieces (rev. of Four Pieces, 1908), op. 4, no. 4; and music by Hungarian composer Erno Dohnanyi (ne Ernst von Dohnanyi, 1877-1960).
Amica de Biden Footner (1874-1961), British portrait painter, whose subjects included many prominent persons; her sister recalled the "directness and naivety of her conversation" (The Times, 20 October 1961: 15).
Mme. Mahieu (n. d. ), proprietor ofCafe le Mahieu.
There is no indication ofa concert by Mary Jo Prado on 14 February 1935 at Aeolian Hall; however, a piano recital was given there that evening by Elena Cavalcanti (n. d. ) ("Music this Week," The Times 11 February 1935: 8).
4 HesterDowden,knownforherexperimentsinautomaticwritingasaprofessio nal medium, had built "a clientele second to none throughout the country" (Bentley, Far Horizon: A Biography ofHester Dowden, 44). Hester Dowden's pets included Siamese cats and Pekinese dogs. "Infanta": see 24 February 1931, n. 4.
247
8 February {1935), McGreevy
the better.
Nothing more from Lucia Gottlob. Helen has got Giorgio
Lovat Dickson sent back the story by return. The thought of venturing forth into the cold world
off & kein Wunder.
I sent it on to Life & Letters. I have neither seen nor sought to see
13
Charles.
in the evening is intolerable. I feel I must squabble with Bion, &
8 February {1935}, McGreevy
5 Balzac,LaCousineBette(1846;CousinBette).
Alfred Adler (1870-1937), Austrian-born psychologist. SB's notes on psychology
include those taken on Adler's The Neurotic Constitution: Outlines of a Comparative Individualistic Psychology and Psychotherapy, tr. Bernard Glueck and John E. Lind (New York: Moffat, 1916; rpt. London: Kegan Paul. 1921); these notes are undated, and SB may have read other works by Adler (TCD, MS 10971/8/f 24r-33r).
6 FlemishpainterDavidTenierstheyounger(1610-1690),whowasinfluencedby Brouwer.
Adriaen Brouwer (c. 1605-1638) was a Flemish painter who spent much of his work ing life in Holland. Interior of a Room with Figures: A Man Playing a Lute and a Woman (c. 1635, Victoria and Albert Museum, CAI/80).
The Brouwer painting in the National Gallery described by SB is Tavern Scene (NGL 6591), on loan from Sir Edmund Bacon "from July 1907 until at least 1971"; it was acquired by the National Gallery in July 2002 (Alan Crookham and Flavia Dietrich-England, 1 July 2005). The painting in the "reference section" (or lower galleries) then attributed to Brouwer was entitled Three Boors Drinking (NGL 2569) (National Gallery Illustrations, Continental Schools {excluding Italian], 36); it is now attributed to "style of [Adriaen] Brouwer" and is entitled Four Peasants in a Cellar (Gregory Martin, The Flemish School, drca 1600 - drca 1900 [London: National Gallery, 1970] 12).
7 Gerard Ter Borch the younger (also Terborch, 1617-1681), Man in Black Dress, measures 19 x 21. 6 cm (Forster Bequest, F. 35, V&A); the Collection was a bequest of John Forster (1812-1876). The collection of the Dulwich College Picture Gallery con tains Flemish, Italian, and Dutch art, including many paintings by Dutch artist Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691).
8 GeoffreyThompsonwasSeniorHousePhysicianatBethlemRoyalHospitalfrom 4 February to 31 October 1935 and extended his service there to January 1936.
9 "De fil en aiguille" (by easy stages). Arthur Hillis lived at 131 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. Hillis's Bechstein piano was his father's wedding gift to his mother. Hillis owned a painting by Paul Henry (1876-1958), Irish portrait and landscape artist, and an interior scene painted by Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684), who was associated with the School of Delft.
Alfred Cortot recorded Albeniz's"Seguidillas" from Suite espafiola, op. 232, no. 5, and the malaguefia"Rumores de Ia Caleta" from Recuerdos de viaje, op. 71, no.
6, also by Albeniz (see"Alfred Cortot plays Short Works," Biddulph Recordings, LHW 020, 1994, and "Alfred Cortot: Rare 78 rpm Recordings & Rare Pressings 1919-1947," Music & Arts, CD-615, 1989).
Arthur Hillis read Classics and Law at Trinity College Dublin. Greek philosopher Theophrastus (c. 372-287 BC), head of the Peripatetic School after Aristotle, is known for his study of"Characters," human types related to the humour theory of person ality dominant through the English Renaissance. John Earle (1601-1665) wrote a collection of character sketches, Microcosmographie (1628), based on the model of Theophrastus.
10 SB'sticketfortheLenerQuartet,playingaBeethovenprogramatQueen'sHall, was not for 9 February, but for 3 pm on 9 March 1935 (see below, 20 February 1935 and 10 March 1935).
248
14 February {1935}, McGreevy
11 RondaisacitybuiltonahighplateauintheAndalusiaregionofSpain. "Frileux" (sensitive to cold).
French writerGuy de Maupassant (1850-1893).
CissieSinclair had been treated at the Adelaide Hospital in Dublin.
12 LuciaJoyce. "Gottlob"(Godbepraised).
Giorgio Joyce and his wife Helen were in NewYork, where he was pursuing a
musical career (Ellmann, James Joyce, 678, 683). Nuala Costello. "Kein Wunder" (no wonder).
13 SB's story "Lightning Calculation" was sent on to Life and Letters which, from November 1934, was edited by Richard Ellis Roberts (Pilling, A Samuel Beckett Chronology, 51).
Charles Prentice.
14 SB had been in therapy with Bion for a little more than a year.
THOMAS M cGR E EVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
14/2 [1935] 34 Gertrude Street [London] S. W. 10
My dear Tom
Delighted at the prospect of seeing you soon. Will you be
going to Cheyne Gardens? 1
There is nothing in the Criterion.
Frank's friend Guilford arrived yesterday, & I have to be
with him rather more than I would ifhe were not Frank's friend. 3
I know Hester will be froissee ifI do not tum up at the Aeolian this
evening & hear the Prado, but I do not think I will be able. I have
not been round to 15 for a long time now, so the lnfanta is no
4
between the detainees at Bethlem, Hadfield & Miss What is her
5
that I sent you from Dublin. It was very scantily parcelled & I felt
2
further.
I have seen very little ofGeoffrey. He has no time to spare,
name, and I have seen nothing ofhim.
By the way did you ever receive Sorel's Chute de la Royaute
doubtful about it at the time.
6
249
14 February {1935}, McGreevy
I see no prospect of the analysis coming to an end. But I realize how lost I would be bereft of my incapacitation. When will the old sub renounce? 7
Stella is giving a show at the Arlington Galleries. Here is a photo of her looking like Holofernes Leyster. She promised in
8
I finished Cousine Bette - incomprehensibly. A Stock
Exchange Hugo. Now I am reading the divine Jane. I think she
9
Dublin that she would send me a card, but she has not.
hasmuchtoteachme. ItiscurioushowEnglishliteraturehas never freed itself from the old morality typifications & simplifi cations. I suppose the cult of the horse has something to do with it. But writing infect[ed] with selective breeding of the vices & virtues becomes tiresome, whether resulting in humours a la Jonson or Coglioni Lorenziani. Isn't Aldington straight out of the Chester cycle? 10
The two Rests on the Flight School of Patinir are lovely. If
the little Flemish annexe contained a chair it would be perfect.
The Master from Delft Crucifixion triptych is inexhaustible.
11
There are passages straight out of Bosch apparently.
If only
one could afford the choices in the Classiker der Kunst [for
Klassiker]. Zwemmer's have a number at reduced prices. I nearly
bought a Brouwer in the K[u]nstlermappen series, but withheld
my hand like Michelangelo from Brutus. 6/- with 6 coloured
12
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; enclosure, cutting from the Daily Sketch 12 February 1935: n. p. . featuring a photo of Estella Solomons with the caption "Irish Art" (AN added to portion of headline above the pictures, wavy underscoring, addition of double exclamation points: FUNDS HEAVY); env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Kerry, l. F. S. ; pm 14-2-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/71. Dating: from pm and enclosure.
250
plates, including an astonishing landscape. Love
Sam
1 WhenhewasinLondon,McGreevyusuallystayedatHesterDowden'shome,15 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, London SW3.
2 McGreevy anticipated a review in The Criterion of his Poems which had been published in May 1934 by William Heinemann Ltd. in London, and in November 1934 by Viking in New York; none appeared.
3 James H. Guilford (1903-1997) lived in Foxrock, near the Beckett family home.
4 "Froissee"(offended). Theconcerton14FebruarywasnotbyMaryJoPrado(see 8 February 1935, n. 3). SB had been invited to use Hester Dowden's piano when he liked (see 29 January [19351, n. 3.
5 GeoffreyThompsonjoinedtheTavistockClinicin1935. JamesArthurHadfield (1882-1967) was Director ofStudies and a consultant ofthe Tavistock Clinic from 1928 to 1951. Thompson was courting Ursula Stenhouse (1911-2001), who taught at Crohamhurst School in Croydon (1933-1935), and then Croydon High School for Girls, south ofLondon (Deborah Thompson, 13 June 1994).
6 AlbertSorel(1842-1906),LaChutedelaroyaute1789-1795,thesecondoftheeight· volume L'Europe et la revolutionfra11faise (1885-1904); rpt. Paris: Pion, Nourrit: 1914-1922.
7 Sub:subconscious.
8 "PicturesofCornwall,Yorkshire,Donegal,Portraits,Etchings,"thegroupexhi· bition by Estella Solomons, Mary Duncan (1885-1967), and Louise R. Jacobs (1880-1946), was held at The Arlington Gallery, from 26 February to 8 March 1935.
A notice ofthe show appeared in the Daily Sketch, 12 February 1935, with Estella Solomons's picture (n. p. ). SB compares her photograph to Judith Holding the Head of Holofemes (NG! 186) by Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), probably alluding to what McGreevy later describes as Judith's "purposeful expression" (Pictures in the Irish National Gallery, 47). SB conflates this image with Judith Leyster (1609-1660), Dutch artist, whose An Interior: Woman Sewing by Candlelight is also in the collection ofthe National Gallery ofIreland (NG! 468).
9 Balzac'sLaCousineBetteiscomparedtothewritingsofVictorHugo. English novelist Jane Austen (1775-1817).
10 Inthemedievalmoralityplaycharactersoftenexemplifiedvirtuesandvices.
The humour theory ofhuman types and behaviors was exemplified by Ben Jonson's Everyman in His Humour (1598) and Everyman Out ofHis Humour (1599).
"Coglioni Lorenziani" (Lawrentian balls) is an allusion to D. H. Lawrence.
SB places Richard Aldington and/or the characters in his novels in the context of the Chester cycle plays which enacted biblical narratives to illuminate themes ofsin and redemption; Aldington's Death ofa Hero (1929), The Colonel's Daughter (1931), All Men are Enemies (1933).
11 Joachim Patinir (also Patenir, Patenier, c. 1480-1524), early Flemish landscapist. SB refers to two paintings ascribed to the School ofPatinir: Rest on the Flight into Egypt (NGL 3115) and The Flight into Egypt (NGL 1084). The Master from Delft (fl. 1490-1520) triptych Scenesfrom the Passion ofChrist (NGL 2922) depicts the Crucifixion in the central panel, with scenes ofthe Procession to Calvary, Judas hanging from a withered tree, the Virgin swooning with Saint John and three Holy Women, and the Agony and preparation for the Capture. Netherlandish painter Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516).
251
14 February {1935), McGreevy
14 February {1935}, McGreevy
In the National Gallery, London, the little Flemish annex, room XIII, was offa corridor between rooms XII and XN; these rooms were rearranged and remodeled in 1935.
12 The Klassiker der Kunst in Gesamtausgaben (1904-1937) was a series of comprehensive studies with illustrations that included works by painters such as Rembrandt, Titian, Diirer, and Rubens. The London bookstore A. Zwemmer, 76-78 Charing CrossRoad, specialized in fine art books. The volume on Adriaen
Brouwer in the Kiinstlermappen series (no. 83) was written by Kurt Zoege van Marteuffel, Adriaen Brouwer: acht farbige Wiedergaben seiner Werke (Leipzig:
E. A. Seemann, 1936).
Michelangelo (ne Michelangelo Buonarroti. 1475-1564) began sculpting a bust of
Brutus (1540, Museo Nazionale de! Bargello, Florence) "as a tribute to the republican spirit of Florence," but abandoned the project when "reminded of the crime" of Brutus' murder of Caesar (Howard Hibbard, Michelangelo, 2nd edn. [Cambridge, MA:
Harper andRow, 1985] 264).
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
20/2 [1935]
34 Gertrude Street London S. W[. ] 10
My dear Tom
It is good news that I may look forward to seeing you in a
fortnight. Herewith the spinsterian pound. I have seen nothing
at all of Hester. I feel no inclination to ring up & ask may I go in &
play, even ifl felt like playing, and I don't. She took my address
carefully on two occasions & she can write & invite me if she
wants me, which I believe & frankly hope she does not. It is a
strain there always and the animals like Renard's hedgehog - a
1
ofMarch.
Frank's pal has been liquidated without casualty. It was only
about a ptosis belt that he came, so he is as far from the sights of it as ever. 3
I like Jane's manner, in the sense that there is material that can be treated most conveniently in the crochet mode, and
252
decaying pudenda with nowhere to go, how castrated soever.
I went to my concert a month too soon. It is not till the 9th
2
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
somehow Elinor Dashwood is realised as concubine no less desirable than Fielding's Sophie. I suppose the Baron Hulot was
4
by him, & so I think did Teniers. It is very hard to see the Elsheimers in the German room, but the Tobias & the Angel seems exquisite. Rubens let off a lot of obituary steam for him, deplored his "indolence"! 6 The Geertgen Adoration must be one of the earliest spotlight paintings. Surely it is only half the story to date them from Raphael's Liberation of St. Peter. I never saw the Oxford Uccello mentioned in this connection either. 7
Miss B. O'Brien is in Florence "studying the Old Masters".
8
Lucia is in Grosvenor Place with her aunt, who . . "is on her
10
for much in the elaboration of Charlus. Brouwer ran away from Hals & Haarlem, & Rubens & Rembrandt owned pictures
5
Perhaps Dermot [for Dermod] is working her up for the Gallery. Mary Manning is now Mrs Mark De Wolfle] Howe & on her honey moon to New York & the . . . Bermudas! 9 Do you know the story of the chaste centipede, who said to her suitor, crossing her thou sand legs: "No, a thousand times no. "
way to Ireland", whatever that means.
see me. I have done nothing - except make detours.
She wrote wanting to I have seen nothing of Geoffrey, but have planned to go
down & see him at the hospital next Sunday.
11
It may help to
solve the destination of the day. I inspected the plaster carica
tures of Vischer & Kraft in the V. & A. Nothing. The Great Hall
12
13
I go on with Bion . . . histoire d'elan acquis. I see no reason why it should ever come to an end. The old heart pounces now & then, as though to console me for the intolerable symp toms of an improvement. Mother writes, she supposes I am
253
was full of whores. The Raphael Room is closed.
The Maccarthy has taken her picture.
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
brimming over with material for books. . . anything rather than desoeuvrement. 14
Estella S. sent me a card for vernissage (et comment) next Tuesday. She is with Mary Duncan & Louise Jacobs at the
15
Arlington. Landscapes from Donegal & Yorkshire.
Last night I dropped my glasses from balcony of this room
16
into the area.
wanting to scrap the frame anyway.
I found the lenses this morning, unbroken. I was Love Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Keny, in lower left comer Irish Free State; pm 20-2-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/72. Dating: pm and opening of the Arlington Gallery before exhibition March 1935.
1 McGreevydidnotarriveinLondonashehadplanned(see10March1935).
Hester Dowden had offered SB the use ofher piano. SB compares the cats and dogs of her household to Renard's "'Le Herisson," in Histoires naturelles, a series of humorous vignettes written first for newspaper publication and then collected:
"'Le Herisson" Essuyez votre. . . S. V. P. II
II faut me prendre comme je suis et ne pas trop serrer. "'The Hedgehog"
Please wipe your
You have to take me as I am and not squeeze too tightly.
Uules Renard, Oeuvres, II, ed. Leon Guichard, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade [Paris: Gallimard, 1971] 126)
2 TheLenerQuartetatQueen'sHallon9March1935(see8February1935,n. 10).
3 James Guilford was in London to consult specialists; a ptosis belt is used to alleviate the symptoms of a hernia.
4 SB compares Elinor Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1811) with Joseph Fielding's character, Sophia Weston, in Tom Jones (1749). He also sees Baron Hulot, a character from Balzac's La Cousine Bette, as a forerunner of the Baron de Charlus in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. SB uses a Gallicism, "'etre pour beau
coup dans" for "'to count for a good deal in. "
5 Adriaen Brouwer served an apprenticeship in Haarlem under Frans Hals (c. 1581-1666); he left for Amsterdam, later returned to Haarlem from c. 1625 to 1631, and then spent the remainder of his life in Antwerp (Gerard Knuttel, Adriaen Brouwer: The Master and His Work, tr. ]. G. Talma-Schilthuis and Robert Wheaton [The Hague: L. J. C.
