I meant nothing more than
9
I go very little away from the house, having no money to go
with, except to Sandycove for a bathe.
9
I go very little away from the house, having no money to go
with, except to Sandycove for a bathe.
Samuel Beckett
his grotesque attitute [for attitude]
towards his wife & Mr Thrale). It is hard to put across, he being so
old at the crisis, i. e. she could hardly have expected much from
him. 2 We will make him younger & madder even than he was. 3
4
1 MaryManningHowe·slettertoSBhasnotbeenfound. PascalCovici(1888-1964), Romanian-born Chicago publisher, joined forces with Donald Friede (1901-1965) to form Covici-Friede (1928-1937) in New York.
There was no New York office for the European Literary Bureau.
2 In1736,SamuelJohnsonmarriedthewidowElizabethPorter(neeJervis,known as Hetty, 1689-1752) when she was forty-six and he was twenty-five (Bate, Samuel Johnson, 147). Bate notes that "between December 1737 and May 1739Johnson and his wife 'began to live apart,' althoughJohnson visited her occasionally" (177-178, 187-188; Boswell, Boswell's Life ofjohnson, I, 192). Yet Boswell disputed the observation of Sir John Hawkins that Johnson's fondness for his wife "was dissembled," writing: "we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceased,
even after her death" (Boswell, Boswell's Life ofjohnson, I, 192, 96, 234).
If, as it appears, SB's text reads "towards his wife and M'Thrale," then the "grotesque attitude" that SB ascribes toJohnson bears upon his apparently incongruous admira tion of them. If the slightly effaced page reads "M'1'1" Thrale, then SB draws a parallel between Elizabeth Porter and Hester Thrale, who were romantically and sexually
somewhat unlikely partners with their husbands.
Johnson was seventy-one years old when Henry Thrale died.
3 SB recorded in his notebook some details of Johnson's singular behavior in spring 1764 from Boswell's Life of Johnson: Johnson's symptoms of depression, his withdrawal from society and his "sighing, groaning, talking to himself, and restlessly walking from room to room. " Boswell describes Johnson's obsessive compulsive behavior as "superstitious habit" (e. g. arranging his steps so that the same foot always crossed the threshold), and notesJohnson's involuntary "sounds with his mouth . . . chewing the cud, . . . giving a half whistle . . . clucking like a hen . . . blowing out his breath like a whale" (Boswell's Life ofJohnson, I, 483-486; BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1, f. 42R).
4 GeorgeReaveymarriedClodineGwyneddCadeon16July1937. 5 "Atoi"(your).
522
Remember me to Miss Vernon. A toi5
Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA
July 29th 1937
6 Clare Street Dublin
Irish Free State
Dear Sir
I beg to apply for the post of Lecturer in Italian in the
University of Cape Town.
I enclose copies of testimonials and a brief curriculum vitae. The following will act as referees:
Mr Thomas C. Ross, Solicitor, 31 South Frederic[k] Street,
Dublin.
Captain the Reverend Arthur Aston Luce, D. D. , F. T. C. D. ,
Ryslaw, Bushey Park Road, Rathgar, Dublin.
Dr Geoffrey Thompson, 71 Harley Street, London W. 1.
Yours faithfully
s/ Samuel Beckett
(Samuel Beckett, M. A. , T. C. D. )
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
1
April 1906. 1916-19. 1919-23.
1923-27.
Samuel Barclay Beckett Church of Ireland
Single
Born in Dublin.
Earlsfort House Preparatory School, Dublin. Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Trinity College, Dublin. Specialise in French and Italian. 1925 Senior Exhibitioner. 1926 Scholar of the House. April-August 1927 travelling in Italy.
523
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
1928-30.
1930-32. 1932-37.
Publications.
October 1927 graduate first of first class Modera tors with large gold medal in French and Italian. Lecturer in English at the Ecole Normale Superieure Paris.
Lecturer in French at Trinity College, Dublin. Private study and composition. Travel in France and Germany.
Proust (Chatto and Windus, London, 1932. ) Short Stories (Chatto and Windus, London, 1934. ) Poems (Europa Press, Paris, 1935. )
as well as various occasional translations, reviews, poems, short stories, etc.
PROFESSOR RUDMOSE BROWN TO UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
5 June 1937 Trinity College Dublin
I have great pleasure in supporting the application of Mr S. B. Beckett for the Lectureship in Italian in the University of Cape Town. Mr Beckett graduated in 1927 with the very highest distinction in French and Italian. He knows both lan guages thoroughly and in a scholarly way, as well as German. He has resided in Italy, France and Germany and has an intimate knowledge of the three countries as well as of their literatures. Mr Beckett spent two years as Lecturer in English in the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris (1928-1930) and has written a most illuminating book on Proust, as well as many articles on literary subjects and some prose fiction and verse. I may say without exaggeration that as well as possessing a sound academic
524
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
knowledge of the Italian, French and German languages, he has remarkable creative faculty.
Signed: T. B. Rudmose-Brown, Professor of the Romance
Languages in the University of Dublin, Secretary of
the University Council, MA. , Lltt. D. , Docteur
2
P. S. I may add that Mr Beckett has an adequate knowledge of Provenc;:al, ancient and modern.
Copy
PROFESSOR WALTER STARKIE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
llthJune, 1937 University Club Dublin
Mr. Samuel Beckett has asked me to testify to his knowledge of Italian language and literature. During the four years of his course at Dublin University he attended my lectures in Italian Literature, and he obtained an Honors Degree, first-class, in 1927, in Modern Literature (Italian and French). Mr Beckett was an excellent student and possesses a good knowledge of Italian history and literature. In the final examination the can didates are required to display special knowledge of the great classical authors, in particular, ofDante. Mr Beckett's answering showed distinction and literary gifts of no mean order. I wish to recommend him for a lectureship in Italian.
Signed: Walter Starkie, MA. , Lltt. D. , Professor in the University of Dublin, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.
525
d'Universite, Soci dou Felibrige.
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
PROFESSOR ROBERT W. TATE TO THE UNIVERSITY
OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
June 12th 1937 40 Trinity College Dublin
Mr Samuel B. Beckett graduated in 1927 with a First Class Moderatorship with large gold medal in French and Italian. In his Italian studies I was closely associated with him both as lecturer and examiner throughout his course. It is my conviction that very few foreigners have a practical knowledge of that language as sound as his, or as great a mastery of its grammar and constructions.
Signed: R. W. Tate, Fellow and Tutor T. C. D. Copy
PROFESSOR RUDMOSE BROWN, GENERAL TESTIMONIAL
7 July 1932 Trinity College Dublin
Mr S. B. Beckett had a most distinguished University career at Trinity College, Dublin. He was the best student of his year in French, a Scholar of the House in French and Italian, and a 1st Class Moderator (1st Class Honour Degree) in French and Italian. I chose him to spend two years at the Ecole Normale Superieure as the nominee of Trinity College, and then picked him out of all my graduates to become Lecturer in French at
526
Trinity College. He speaks and writes French like a Frenchman of the highest education. He has a most remarkable knowledge of French literature, and has written a very competent and interesting book on Marcel Proust. I found him an excellent Lecturer, far above the average standard of young lecturers, and regretted very much when he resigned his post in order to take up further residence in Paris. His knowledge of Italian is very little less than his knowledge of French. He also knows German.
I can most thoroughly recommend Mr Beckett for a University post.
Signed: T. B. Rudmose-Brown, Professor of Romance Languages in the University of Dublin, M. A. , Litt. D. , Docteur d'Univ. . Soci dou Felibrige.
JEAN THOMAS, GENERAL TESTIMONIAL
le 22 Juillet 1932 Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite de Paris,
45 Rue d'Ulm
Paris 5me.
M. Samuel Beckett a ete, pendant deux annees consecutives, de Novembre 1928 a la fin de l'annee scolaire 1930, Lecteur d'anglais a l'Ecole Normale Superieure. Par sa connaissance a la fois de la litterature anglaise et de la litterature frarn;:aise, par sa culture aussi precise que riche, il a rendu a nos eleves les plus grands services. ]'ajoute qu'il a noue avec certains Normaliens
527
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
de precieuses amities et qu'il a laisse le meilleur souvenir dans ! 'esprit de tous ceux qui l'ont connu.
Signed: Jean Thomas, Agrege de l'Universite, Secretaire de ! 'Ecole Normale Superieure.
22July 1932 Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite de Paris,
45 Rue d'Ulm
Paris 5
Mr. Samuel Beckett was, for two consecutive years, from November 1928 to the end of the academic year 1930, Lecteur in English at the Ecole Normale Superieure. By his knowledge of both English and French literature, by his general culture, as exact as it was rich, he was exceptionally helpful to our stu dents. I may add that he struck up close friendships with a number of Normaliens, and that he is fondly remembered by all who knew him.
Signed: Jean Thomas, Agrege de l'Universite, Secretaire de ! 'Ecole Normale Superieure.
TIS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; enclosures: T. B. Rudmose-Brown to University of Cape Town. 5 June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); Walter Starkie to University of Cape Town, 11 June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); R. W. Tate to University of Cape Town, 12June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); general testimonial: T. B. Rudmose-Brown 7July 1932 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side) and
Jean Thomas 22July 1932 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); University of Cape Town.
1 Testimonialswereopendocuments,madeavailabletothecandidate;references were sent directly to the institution requesting them. The University of Cape Town does not hold letters from Thomas Conland Ross, a solicitor from 1896 to 1946 (d. 1947), Arthur Aston Luce, or Geoffrey Thompson, which suggests that they were not contacted as referees.
2 "SocidouFelibrige"(Provem;al,FellowoftheSocietyoftheFelibrige).
528
THOMAS McGREEVY
4! h Aug. 1937
Foxrock
DearTom
Very pleased with your lively letter.
Dr ]. 's dogmatisme was the facade of consternation. The
1s! h century was full of ahuris - perhaps that is why it looked like the age of "reason" - but there can hardly have been many so completely at sea in their solitude as he was or so horrifiedly aware of it - not even Cowper. Read the Prayers & Meditations if you don't believe me. 2
3
There is no question of being partisan in the matter one way or
another. He made her Salon & she made him comfortable. When
he wrote her the famous rough letter he didn't know what he was
doing. Probably it was the only overt cruelty in the "friendship
never infringed by one harsh expression during 20 years of famil
iar talk", as she herselfexpressed it in her admirably dignified last
letter to him. And of the covert she certainly had no more to
suffer than he, indeed certainly a great deal less, because she
had none of that need to suffer, or necessity of suffering, that he
had, and never found in him the peg to hang her pain on that he
did in her. His horror at loving her I take it was a mode or
paradigm of his horror at ultimate annihilation, to which he
declared in the fear of his death that he would prefer an eternity
4
1
4 August 1937, McGreeiy
Mrs Thrale was nee Salusbury- Hester(! ) Lynch(! ! ) Salusbury.
oftorment. Andiftheplayisabouthimandnotabouther,itdoes not mean that he was in the right, or any nonsense like that, but simply that he being spiritually self conscious was a tragic figure, i. e. worth putting down as part of the whole of which oneself is a part, & that she, being merely physically self conscious is less
529
4 August 1937, McGreevy
interesting to me personally. She of course didn't get what she wanted either, Piozzi being a poor performer. "Human Wishes". 5
[. . . ]
I would much rather you did the Intercessions for Ireland To-day than that I did. I can always get it from Seumas. I shall
6
I applied last week for the Lectureship in Italian at Cape Town. It would be an excuse for taking up the subject again & people say Cape Town has its advantages. I am really indifferent about where I go or what I do, since I don't seem able or to want to write any more, or let us be modest and say for the moment. I suppose the prospect of Mother being left alone should have restrained me, but it hasn't.
The brute from Buffalo hasn't turned up yet. If he says there
8
I haven't seen JBY for a fortnight. I am truly delighted to
hear that you are doing something about him again. Was it the
Constable that started you? I remember asking you had you ever
seen the affinity, but you said no.
I meant nothing more than
9
I go very little away from the house, having no money to go
with, except to Sandycove for a bathe. I must having [sic) been
getting too much sea & sun lately, to judge by the limpness.
Cissie & family are off to Port Elizabeth to-morrow week. That
10
with the kneeling figure that means something important to me. I think I mentioned it to you before. "Portant leur fatigue, etc. "11
530
makeitrightwithDenis. Iamsobrokewithweddings,&with the whole ofAugust to go before the next cheque, that I haven't even been able to send Reavey a cheque for the 3 copies I had meant to order. 7 But I suppose he won't mind adding that to what no doubt I owe him already.
is anything going there I shall probably apply for it also.
occasional passages with resemblances of handling.
will be a loss.
I enclose a photo of a section of the west wall at Ardmore
4 August 1937, McGreevy
I read Eliot's Dante. How insufferably condescending,
restrained & professorial. Then again Boccaccio's Life &
Leonardo Bruni's, with the mention of Taddeo Gaddi's fresco
12
portrait that used to be in Santa Croce.
It seems ages since I heard from or wrote to Charles.
13
I
wonder is there not something shut off there that even his dinners do not dissipate. Of course there is in us all, but I mean a whole habit of life that I certainly always felt a lonely one. I would like to know about his sexualities.
Love ever. Don't leave me long without a letter. Sam
ALS; 4 leaves,7 sides; TCD,MS 10402/130.
1 McGreevy'slettertoSBhasnotbeenfound.
2 "Ahuris" (bewildered people).
SB's comparison ofEnglish poet William Cowper (1731-1800) to SamuelJohnson is not reflected in his notes on Cowper's wish that he "'had never been. "' SB observes,"Into such a wish]. ed. never have entered" (BIF,UoR,3461/2,f SOR,Nixon transcription).
SB refers to Samuel Johnson's writings published posthumously as Prayers & Meditations (1785); they were edited by George Strahan (1744-1824) at Johnson's request.
3 SB's exclamation point following "Hester" may allude to Hester Dowden. SB knows that McGreevy will share his amusement at the sudden appearance of the very Irish "Lynch" among such veryEnglish names.
4 Johnson's"roughletter"toHesterThrale:26April1937,n. 20. SBrefersaswellto HesterThrale's reply of 4 July 1784:
I have this morning received from you so rough a letter in reply to one which was both tenderly and respectfully written,that I am forced to desire the conclusion of a correspondence which I can bear to continue no longer You have always commanded my esteem. and long enjoyed the fruits of a friendship never infringed by one harsh expression on my part during twenty years of familiar talk. Never did I oppose your will,or control your wish; nor can your unmerited severity itself lessen my regard; but till you have changed your opinion of Mr. Piozzi let us converse no more. God bless you. Uohnson,Letters ofSamuelJohnson LL. D, II,406; RUL MS 3641/1,f. 12R)
InthisletterMrs. Thraleusestheterm"husband"ofPiozzi,althoughtheywerenotyet married.
5 Contemporaries of Mrs. Thrale advanced speculation about Piozzi's vitality (Vulliamy,Mrs. Thrale ofStreatham, 234,260).
531
4 August 1937, McGreevy
Beckett's title for the Johnson play was "Human Wishes," playing on the title of Johnson's poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (1749) to suggest the disappointment of his desire for Mrs. Thrale (Boswell, Boswell's Life ofJohnson, I, 192; Samuel Beckett, "Human Wishes," in Disjecta, 155-166).
6 Denis Devlin had asked SB to review his collection of poems Intercessions for Ireland To-Day. it was McGreevy who wrote the review; in it, he took the opportunity to sketch the similarities and differences between SB and Devlin as poets ("New Dublin Poetry," Ireland To-Day 2. 10 [October 1937] 81-82). SB did not review Intercessions for Dublin Magazine; his review appeared as "Denis Devlin," transition 27 [April-May 1938] 289-294).
7 George Reavey had married on 16 July 1937 and Frank Beckett's wedding was imminent.
SB ordered three copies of Intercessions in the limited edition from Reavey's Europa Press on 3 August 1937 (see 14 August 1937) (InU, Mitchell/ Beckett Mss. ).
8 Mary Manning Howe, whose husband had recently taken a faculty position at the University of Buffalo (now SUNY, Buffalo), had mentioned the possibility of a position there for Beckett. The person whom SB describes as "Buffalo Bill" in his letter to Howe of 30 August 1937 was probably Henry Ten Eyck Perry, Chairman of the English department, then on leave in Europe.
9 The centenary of the death of John Constable (1776-1837) was marked by exhibitions at the British Museum, the Tate Gallery, and the Wildenstein Gallery in London, from April to the end ofAugust 1937.
Although in his Jack B. Yeats, McGreevy discusses the possibility of Constable's influence on Yeats's work, he underlines the differences between them: "Jack Yeats was concerned with human values. Constable was not" (11).
10 The40Foot:23May[1936[,n. 6.
Cissie Beckett and family had left for Southampton, from there to travel to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where they would visit Morris Sinclair.
11 SB had written about this figure in the west gable of the ruins of Ardmore Cathedral, Co. Waterford, reportedly the burial place of St. Declan (fl. fifth century), in his letter to McGreevy of 9 September 1936: "I spent a few days last week with Joe Hone at the Usshers in Cappagh (Dungarvan) and saw Ardmore & Cashel. On the west door at Ardmore there is an exquisite tiny carved stooping figure under a spear (Pelorson's Lance Grave), representing I suppose conversion of Declan. The loveliest six inches of stone I ever saw" (TCD, MS 10402/107; for photo see www. waterford countyrnuseum. org).
The relief figure in the arcades on the west gable represents an ecclesiastic blessing a kneeling warrior, armed with a long spear; this reminds SB of a line from a poem, "Plans," written by Georges Pelorson: "portant la fatigue comme une lance grave" (Bearing weariness like a serious spear) (transition 21 [March 1932] 182-183).
12 T. S. Eliot,Dante(London:FaberandFaber,1929).
Giovanni Boccaccio, La Vita di Dante (c. 1348 - 1373).
Although Florentine artist Taddeo Gaddi (1290-1366), a pupil of Giotto, created
many of the frescos in Santa Croce in Florence, Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444) does not
532
name him as the artist in his La vita di Dante (c. 1436): "La effigie sua propria si vede nella chiesa di Santa Croce, quasi a mezzo della chiesa, dalla mano sinistra andando verso ! 'altar maggiore, ed e ritratta al naturale ottimamente per dipintore perfetto de! tempo suo. " ("His portrait may be seen in Santa Croce, near the centre of the church, on the left hand as you approach the high altar, a most faithful painting by an excellent artist of that time") (Leonardo Bruni, Le vite di Dante e del Petrarca, ed. Antonio Lanza [Rome: Archivio Guido Izzi. 1987] 45; James Robinson Smith, tr. The Earliest Lives of Dante: Translated from the Italian of Giovanni Boccacdo and Leonardo Bruni Aretino. Yale Studies in English [New York: Holt, 1901; rpt. New York: Russell and Russell. 1968] 90).
A fifteenth-century copy of the lost fresco portrait of Dante can be found in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence, Banco Rari 215, Ms. Palantino 320/ f. II recto (Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen, 1300-1450 [Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1968], II, 282-284, n. 186, and IV, 205c; Frank Jewett Mather. Jr. , The Portraits of Dante: Compared with the Measurements of his Skull and Reclassified [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1921] frontispiece, 11-18).
4 August 1937, Reavey
13 CharlesPrentice.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
Aug 4! ! ! 1937 dear George
0 Doubleday Doran
Less OXY than moron
You've a mind like a whore on A trip to Bundoran1
6 Clare St Dublin
The Johnson thing has gone away to be dyed. I mean the idea of it. For nothing had been degraded to paper. I have been too tired.
Hope you enjoyed every moment of your trip. And that I shall see you both soon. Denis very pleased with his advance copy. 2 Herewith a last flicker. Place it if you can. Seldom in a woman. Never in a man. 3
533
4 August 1937, Reavey
Love to Gwynedd4 Ever
Sam-
ALS: 1 leaf, 1 side: no enclosure is extant; TxU.
1 MurphywastobesenttoDoubledayDoran(see14April1937,n. 2;27July1937). Bundoran, a seaside resort in Co. Donegal.
This verse appears, with variations, in SB's letter to Mary Manning Howe after 10 December 1937; it is cited as from a letter of 6 August 1937 in Bair, Samuel Beckett, 262 with variations from the text as written; the verse as found in Bair is reprinted in Eoin O'Brien, The Beckett Country, 308.
2 GeorgeandGwyneddReaveyhadbeenontheirhoneymoon.
Denis Devlin's collection of poetry Intercessions was published on 15 October by Reavey's Europa Press.
3 Althoughaverseisattheheadoftheletter,itisprobablethatthe"lastflicker" refers to another piece of writing, possibly "Whiting," which was enclosed (there is a slight rust mark from a paper clip at the upper right margin of the letter).
Beckett plays upon, among other things, a popular verse of the time:
Patience is a virtue Possess it if you can Found seldom in a woman Never in a man.
4 SBhabituallywritesGwyneddReavey'snameas"Gwynned. "Thismispellingof her name will be silently corrected throughout. When SB correctly spells her name, this is noted.
CISSIE SINCLAIR
SOUTHAMPTON, EN ROUTE TO SOUTH AFRICA
14! 1! [August 1937] Gresham Hotel Dublin
dearest Cissie
[. . . ]
I was glad to get your letter this morning. I wanted you to think of me sometimes when you had a drink. How else would I render it likely? Have many.
534
At least I am escaped from Cooldrinagh, the Liebespaar &
Molly. All the presents pouring in, a gong this morning so
terrible, the impediments of detached domesticities, the circle
closing round. How much freer & liebesfiihiger (wenn es darauf
1
I saw Ilse again but she was "korperlich nicht ganz auf der Hohe". We all know what that means. So we conversed, yes really conversed. Hans had rung up inviting her to dine. She declined. Motze [for Motz) had been out. 2 It is something very close to disgust, nausea, & of course she feels it. Soon it will be over.
I can't work. I have not made a pretence of working for a month. Given up even the preoccupied look & the de quoi
3
I had a letter from Tom by the same post as yours. He is
writing about Jack Yeats, inspired apparently by some Constable
exhibition & a chance remark ofmine about the Watteauishness
ofwhat he has been doing lately. Every Thursday there seems to
4
14 {August 1937), Cissie Sinclair
[an]kommt! ), furnished lodgings & no possessions. To be welded together with gongs and tea-trolleys, the bars against the sky, how hopeless. Is that what "home" means for all women, solid furniture & not to be overlooked, or is there another sense of home in some of them, or are there some who don't want a home, who have had enough of that?
ecrire. IflgotthejobinCapeTownIdon'tthinkI'dholditfor a fortnight. It would be a degradation if the terms of reference had not shrivelled up. I always see the physical crisis just round the corner. It would solve perhaps the worst ofwhat remains to be solved, clarify the problem anyway, which I suppose is the best solution we can hope for.
be something to prevent me going in to see him. I suppose I don't want to see him. Watteau put in busts and urns, I suppose to suggest the inorganism of the organic - all his people are mineral in the end, without possibility of being added to or taken from, pure inorganic juxtapositions - but Jack Yeats
535
14 {August 1937}, Cissie Sinclair
does not even need to do that. The way he puts down a man's head & a woman's head side by side, or face to face, is terrifying, two irreducible singlenesses & the impassable immensity between. I suppose that is what gives the stillness to his pictures, as though the convention were suddenly sus pended, the convention & performance of love & hate, joy & pain, giving & being given, taking & being taken. A kind of petrified insight into one's ultimate hard irreducible inorganic singleness. All handled with the dispassionate acceptance that is beyond tragedy. I always feel Watteau to be a tragic genius. i. e. there is pity in him for the world as he sees it. But I find no pity, i. e. no tragedy in Yeats. Not even sympathy. Simply perception & dispassion. Even personally he is rather inhuman, or haven't you felt it?
Perhaps the literary value of this letter & so if the worst comes to the worst (don't misunderstand me) its marketable interest would be promoted by a few lines of verse. You may find them trivial & unpleasant; there seemed no point to me in beautifying them, or making them less direct in the fashionable manner. They came just as they are here.
WHITING
Offer it up plank it down
Golgotha was only the potegg
cancer angina it is all one to us
cough up your T. B. don't be stingy
no trifle is too trifling not even a thrombus anything venereal is especially welcome
that old toga virilis in the mothballs
don't be sentimental you won't be wanting it again send it along we'll put it in the pot with the rest with your love requited & unrequited
536
the things taken too late the things taken too soon the spirit aching bullock's scrotum
you won't cure it ifyou can't endure it
it is you it equals you any fool has to pity you
so parcel up the whole issue & send it along
the whole misery diagnosed undiagnosed misdiagnosed get your friends to do the same we'll make use of it
we'll make sense ofit we'll put it in the pot with the rest it all boils down to blood oflamb5
[. . . ]
ALS; 4 leaves, 8 sides; letterhead; Sinclair. Dating: SB's letter to Thomas McGreevy, 14 August 1937, encloses TMS of the same poem (with two minor variants); WHITTNG was published as "Ooftish" (see n. 6 below). SB's letter to McGreevy refers to the poem in similar words: "The enclosed you will probably find merely disagree ably trivial" and "I see no point in making it less direct or fiddling about with it. It came straight the way it is. "
1 SB'scousinMollyRoewasvisitingCooldrinaghwherepreparationswerebeing made for Frank Beckett's marriage; a reception and viewing of gifts took place at Cooldrinagh on 23 August, and the wedding on 25 August.
"Liebespaar" (lovers). "Liebesfahiger (wenn es darauf [an]kommt! ") (more capable of loving [when it matters]).
SB expands in this vein to Thomas McGreevy, 23 August 1937:
Watching the presents come along has been painful. The awful unconscious social [c]ynicism that knows that what the relationship comes down to in the end is Gongs & tea-trolleys, that without them there is no "together". Till it seems almost a law of marriage that the human personal element should be smothered out ofexistence from the word go, reduced to a mere occasion for goodhousekeeping&homechat. Theeggcupinthepieofdomesticsolidity. How much freer one would be to develop the spiritual thing, or even the physical thing, or to keep them alive, or to bring them together into one, that wd. be neither cordial fucking nor fucking cordiality, in the meanest of bed sitting rooms, where at least one owned nothing, i. e. was owned by nothing, than among the gongs & tea-trolleys, booming & trundling you out of
537
14 {August 1937}, Cissie Sinclair
Love ever Write often dein Sam6
14 {August 1937}, Cissie Sinclair
a relation into a condition. Or is it that when you grow up you stop talking about relationships - the bare unmitigated undeserved spiritual & physical commerce between 2 human beings & thank God if you can achieve the egg cup in the pie? Quoi qu'il en soit, it is horrible to see how society takes over at the least hint of a fresh social node of growth. Neither of them wants all this hullabaloo with presents & a reception, they would both have really pre ferred to do without the presents if they could have been spared the fuss. & yet they submit to it.
towards his wife & Mr Thrale). It is hard to put across, he being so
old at the crisis, i. e. she could hardly have expected much from
him. 2 We will make him younger & madder even than he was. 3
4
1 MaryManningHowe·slettertoSBhasnotbeenfound. PascalCovici(1888-1964), Romanian-born Chicago publisher, joined forces with Donald Friede (1901-1965) to form Covici-Friede (1928-1937) in New York.
There was no New York office for the European Literary Bureau.
2 In1736,SamuelJohnsonmarriedthewidowElizabethPorter(neeJervis,known as Hetty, 1689-1752) when she was forty-six and he was twenty-five (Bate, Samuel Johnson, 147). Bate notes that "between December 1737 and May 1739Johnson and his wife 'began to live apart,' althoughJohnson visited her occasionally" (177-178, 187-188; Boswell, Boswell's Life ofjohnson, I, 192). Yet Boswell disputed the observation of Sir John Hawkins that Johnson's fondness for his wife "was dissembled," writing: "we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceased,
even after her death" (Boswell, Boswell's Life ofjohnson, I, 192, 96, 234).
If, as it appears, SB's text reads "towards his wife and M'Thrale," then the "grotesque attitude" that SB ascribes toJohnson bears upon his apparently incongruous admira tion of them. If the slightly effaced page reads "M'1'1" Thrale, then SB draws a parallel between Elizabeth Porter and Hester Thrale, who were romantically and sexually
somewhat unlikely partners with their husbands.
Johnson was seventy-one years old when Henry Thrale died.
3 SB recorded in his notebook some details of Johnson's singular behavior in spring 1764 from Boswell's Life of Johnson: Johnson's symptoms of depression, his withdrawal from society and his "sighing, groaning, talking to himself, and restlessly walking from room to room. " Boswell describes Johnson's obsessive compulsive behavior as "superstitious habit" (e. g. arranging his steps so that the same foot always crossed the threshold), and notesJohnson's involuntary "sounds with his mouth . . . chewing the cud, . . . giving a half whistle . . . clucking like a hen . . . blowing out his breath like a whale" (Boswell's Life ofJohnson, I, 483-486; BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1, f. 42R).
4 GeorgeReaveymarriedClodineGwyneddCadeon16July1937. 5 "Atoi"(your).
522
Remember me to Miss Vernon. A toi5
Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA
July 29th 1937
6 Clare Street Dublin
Irish Free State
Dear Sir
I beg to apply for the post of Lecturer in Italian in the
University of Cape Town.
I enclose copies of testimonials and a brief curriculum vitae. The following will act as referees:
Mr Thomas C. Ross, Solicitor, 31 South Frederic[k] Street,
Dublin.
Captain the Reverend Arthur Aston Luce, D. D. , F. T. C. D. ,
Ryslaw, Bushey Park Road, Rathgar, Dublin.
Dr Geoffrey Thompson, 71 Harley Street, London W. 1.
Yours faithfully
s/ Samuel Beckett
(Samuel Beckett, M. A. , T. C. D. )
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
1
April 1906. 1916-19. 1919-23.
1923-27.
Samuel Barclay Beckett Church of Ireland
Single
Born in Dublin.
Earlsfort House Preparatory School, Dublin. Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Trinity College, Dublin. Specialise in French and Italian. 1925 Senior Exhibitioner. 1926 Scholar of the House. April-August 1927 travelling in Italy.
523
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
1928-30.
1930-32. 1932-37.
Publications.
October 1927 graduate first of first class Modera tors with large gold medal in French and Italian. Lecturer in English at the Ecole Normale Superieure Paris.
Lecturer in French at Trinity College, Dublin. Private study and composition. Travel in France and Germany.
Proust (Chatto and Windus, London, 1932. ) Short Stories (Chatto and Windus, London, 1934. ) Poems (Europa Press, Paris, 1935. )
as well as various occasional translations, reviews, poems, short stories, etc.
PROFESSOR RUDMOSE BROWN TO UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
5 June 1937 Trinity College Dublin
I have great pleasure in supporting the application of Mr S. B. Beckett for the Lectureship in Italian in the University of Cape Town. Mr Beckett graduated in 1927 with the very highest distinction in French and Italian. He knows both lan guages thoroughly and in a scholarly way, as well as German. He has resided in Italy, France and Germany and has an intimate knowledge of the three countries as well as of their literatures. Mr Beckett spent two years as Lecturer in English in the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris (1928-1930) and has written a most illuminating book on Proust, as well as many articles on literary subjects and some prose fiction and verse. I may say without exaggeration that as well as possessing a sound academic
524
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
knowledge of the Italian, French and German languages, he has remarkable creative faculty.
Signed: T. B. Rudmose-Brown, Professor of the Romance
Languages in the University of Dublin, Secretary of
the University Council, MA. , Lltt. D. , Docteur
2
P. S. I may add that Mr Beckett has an adequate knowledge of Provenc;:al, ancient and modern.
Copy
PROFESSOR WALTER STARKIE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
llthJune, 1937 University Club Dublin
Mr. Samuel Beckett has asked me to testify to his knowledge of Italian language and literature. During the four years of his course at Dublin University he attended my lectures in Italian Literature, and he obtained an Honors Degree, first-class, in 1927, in Modern Literature (Italian and French). Mr Beckett was an excellent student and possesses a good knowledge of Italian history and literature. In the final examination the can didates are required to display special knowledge of the great classical authors, in particular, ofDante. Mr Beckett's answering showed distinction and literary gifts of no mean order. I wish to recommend him for a lectureship in Italian.
Signed: Walter Starkie, MA. , Lltt. D. , Professor in the University of Dublin, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.
525
d'Universite, Soci dou Felibrige.
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
PROFESSOR ROBERT W. TATE TO THE UNIVERSITY
OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
June 12th 1937 40 Trinity College Dublin
Mr Samuel B. Beckett graduated in 1927 with a First Class Moderatorship with large gold medal in French and Italian. In his Italian studies I was closely associated with him both as lecturer and examiner throughout his course. It is my conviction that very few foreigners have a practical knowledge of that language as sound as his, or as great a mastery of its grammar and constructions.
Signed: R. W. Tate, Fellow and Tutor T. C. D. Copy
PROFESSOR RUDMOSE BROWN, GENERAL TESTIMONIAL
7 July 1932 Trinity College Dublin
Mr S. B. Beckett had a most distinguished University career at Trinity College, Dublin. He was the best student of his year in French, a Scholar of the House in French and Italian, and a 1st Class Moderator (1st Class Honour Degree) in French and Italian. I chose him to spend two years at the Ecole Normale Superieure as the nominee of Trinity College, and then picked him out of all my graduates to become Lecturer in French at
526
Trinity College. He speaks and writes French like a Frenchman of the highest education. He has a most remarkable knowledge of French literature, and has written a very competent and interesting book on Marcel Proust. I found him an excellent Lecturer, far above the average standard of young lecturers, and regretted very much when he resigned his post in order to take up further residence in Paris. His knowledge of Italian is very little less than his knowledge of French. He also knows German.
I can most thoroughly recommend Mr Beckett for a University post.
Signed: T. B. Rudmose-Brown, Professor of Romance Languages in the University of Dublin, M. A. , Litt. D. , Docteur d'Univ. . Soci dou Felibrige.
JEAN THOMAS, GENERAL TESTIMONIAL
le 22 Juillet 1932 Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite de Paris,
45 Rue d'Ulm
Paris 5me.
M. Samuel Beckett a ete, pendant deux annees consecutives, de Novembre 1928 a la fin de l'annee scolaire 1930, Lecteur d'anglais a l'Ecole Normale Superieure. Par sa connaissance a la fois de la litterature anglaise et de la litterature frarn;:aise, par sa culture aussi precise que riche, il a rendu a nos eleves les plus grands services. ]'ajoute qu'il a noue avec certains Normaliens
527
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
de precieuses amities et qu'il a laisse le meilleur souvenir dans ! 'esprit de tous ceux qui l'ont connu.
Signed: Jean Thomas, Agrege de l'Universite, Secretaire de ! 'Ecole Normale Superieure.
22July 1932 Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite de Paris,
45 Rue d'Ulm
Paris 5
Mr. Samuel Beckett was, for two consecutive years, from November 1928 to the end of the academic year 1930, Lecteur in English at the Ecole Normale Superieure. By his knowledge of both English and French literature, by his general culture, as exact as it was rich, he was exceptionally helpful to our stu dents. I may add that he struck up close friendships with a number of Normaliens, and that he is fondly remembered by all who knew him.
Signed: Jean Thomas, Agrege de l'Universite, Secretaire de ! 'Ecole Normale Superieure.
TIS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; enclosures: T. B. Rudmose-Brown to University of Cape Town. 5 June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); Walter Starkie to University of Cape Town, 11 June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); R. W. Tate to University of Cape Town, 12June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); general testimonial: T. B. Rudmose-Brown 7July 1932 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side) and
Jean Thomas 22July 1932 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); University of Cape Town.
1 Testimonialswereopendocuments,madeavailabletothecandidate;references were sent directly to the institution requesting them. The University of Cape Town does not hold letters from Thomas Conland Ross, a solicitor from 1896 to 1946 (d. 1947), Arthur Aston Luce, or Geoffrey Thompson, which suggests that they were not contacted as referees.
2 "SocidouFelibrige"(Provem;al,FellowoftheSocietyoftheFelibrige).
528
THOMAS McGREEVY
4! h Aug. 1937
Foxrock
DearTom
Very pleased with your lively letter.
Dr ]. 's dogmatisme was the facade of consternation. The
1s! h century was full of ahuris - perhaps that is why it looked like the age of "reason" - but there can hardly have been many so completely at sea in their solitude as he was or so horrifiedly aware of it - not even Cowper. Read the Prayers & Meditations if you don't believe me. 2
3
There is no question of being partisan in the matter one way or
another. He made her Salon & she made him comfortable. When
he wrote her the famous rough letter he didn't know what he was
doing. Probably it was the only overt cruelty in the "friendship
never infringed by one harsh expression during 20 years of famil
iar talk", as she herselfexpressed it in her admirably dignified last
letter to him. And of the covert she certainly had no more to
suffer than he, indeed certainly a great deal less, because she
had none of that need to suffer, or necessity of suffering, that he
had, and never found in him the peg to hang her pain on that he
did in her. His horror at loving her I take it was a mode or
paradigm of his horror at ultimate annihilation, to which he
declared in the fear of his death that he would prefer an eternity
4
1
4 August 1937, McGreeiy
Mrs Thrale was nee Salusbury- Hester(! ) Lynch(! ! ) Salusbury.
oftorment. Andiftheplayisabouthimandnotabouther,itdoes not mean that he was in the right, or any nonsense like that, but simply that he being spiritually self conscious was a tragic figure, i. e. worth putting down as part of the whole of which oneself is a part, & that she, being merely physically self conscious is less
529
4 August 1937, McGreevy
interesting to me personally. She of course didn't get what she wanted either, Piozzi being a poor performer. "Human Wishes". 5
[. . . ]
I would much rather you did the Intercessions for Ireland To-day than that I did. I can always get it from Seumas. I shall
6
I applied last week for the Lectureship in Italian at Cape Town. It would be an excuse for taking up the subject again & people say Cape Town has its advantages. I am really indifferent about where I go or what I do, since I don't seem able or to want to write any more, or let us be modest and say for the moment. I suppose the prospect of Mother being left alone should have restrained me, but it hasn't.
The brute from Buffalo hasn't turned up yet. If he says there
8
I haven't seen JBY for a fortnight. I am truly delighted to
hear that you are doing something about him again. Was it the
Constable that started you? I remember asking you had you ever
seen the affinity, but you said no.
I meant nothing more than
9
I go very little away from the house, having no money to go
with, except to Sandycove for a bathe. I must having [sic) been
getting too much sea & sun lately, to judge by the limpness.
Cissie & family are off to Port Elizabeth to-morrow week. That
10
with the kneeling figure that means something important to me. I think I mentioned it to you before. "Portant leur fatigue, etc. "11
530
makeitrightwithDenis. Iamsobrokewithweddings,&with the whole ofAugust to go before the next cheque, that I haven't even been able to send Reavey a cheque for the 3 copies I had meant to order. 7 But I suppose he won't mind adding that to what no doubt I owe him already.
is anything going there I shall probably apply for it also.
occasional passages with resemblances of handling.
will be a loss.
I enclose a photo of a section of the west wall at Ardmore
4 August 1937, McGreevy
I read Eliot's Dante. How insufferably condescending,
restrained & professorial. Then again Boccaccio's Life &
Leonardo Bruni's, with the mention of Taddeo Gaddi's fresco
12
portrait that used to be in Santa Croce.
It seems ages since I heard from or wrote to Charles.
13
I
wonder is there not something shut off there that even his dinners do not dissipate. Of course there is in us all, but I mean a whole habit of life that I certainly always felt a lonely one. I would like to know about his sexualities.
Love ever. Don't leave me long without a letter. Sam
ALS; 4 leaves,7 sides; TCD,MS 10402/130.
1 McGreevy'slettertoSBhasnotbeenfound.
2 "Ahuris" (bewildered people).
SB's comparison ofEnglish poet William Cowper (1731-1800) to SamuelJohnson is not reflected in his notes on Cowper's wish that he "'had never been. "' SB observes,"Into such a wish]. ed. never have entered" (BIF,UoR,3461/2,f SOR,Nixon transcription).
SB refers to Samuel Johnson's writings published posthumously as Prayers & Meditations (1785); they were edited by George Strahan (1744-1824) at Johnson's request.
3 SB's exclamation point following "Hester" may allude to Hester Dowden. SB knows that McGreevy will share his amusement at the sudden appearance of the very Irish "Lynch" among such veryEnglish names.
4 Johnson's"roughletter"toHesterThrale:26April1937,n. 20. SBrefersaswellto HesterThrale's reply of 4 July 1784:
I have this morning received from you so rough a letter in reply to one which was both tenderly and respectfully written,that I am forced to desire the conclusion of a correspondence which I can bear to continue no longer You have always commanded my esteem. and long enjoyed the fruits of a friendship never infringed by one harsh expression on my part during twenty years of familiar talk. Never did I oppose your will,or control your wish; nor can your unmerited severity itself lessen my regard; but till you have changed your opinion of Mr. Piozzi let us converse no more. God bless you. Uohnson,Letters ofSamuelJohnson LL. D, II,406; RUL MS 3641/1,f. 12R)
InthisletterMrs. Thraleusestheterm"husband"ofPiozzi,althoughtheywerenotyet married.
5 Contemporaries of Mrs. Thrale advanced speculation about Piozzi's vitality (Vulliamy,Mrs. Thrale ofStreatham, 234,260).
531
4 August 1937, McGreevy
Beckett's title for the Johnson play was "Human Wishes," playing on the title of Johnson's poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (1749) to suggest the disappointment of his desire for Mrs. Thrale (Boswell, Boswell's Life ofJohnson, I, 192; Samuel Beckett, "Human Wishes," in Disjecta, 155-166).
6 Denis Devlin had asked SB to review his collection of poems Intercessions for Ireland To-Day. it was McGreevy who wrote the review; in it, he took the opportunity to sketch the similarities and differences between SB and Devlin as poets ("New Dublin Poetry," Ireland To-Day 2. 10 [October 1937] 81-82). SB did not review Intercessions for Dublin Magazine; his review appeared as "Denis Devlin," transition 27 [April-May 1938] 289-294).
7 George Reavey had married on 16 July 1937 and Frank Beckett's wedding was imminent.
SB ordered three copies of Intercessions in the limited edition from Reavey's Europa Press on 3 August 1937 (see 14 August 1937) (InU, Mitchell/ Beckett Mss. ).
8 Mary Manning Howe, whose husband had recently taken a faculty position at the University of Buffalo (now SUNY, Buffalo), had mentioned the possibility of a position there for Beckett. The person whom SB describes as "Buffalo Bill" in his letter to Howe of 30 August 1937 was probably Henry Ten Eyck Perry, Chairman of the English department, then on leave in Europe.
9 The centenary of the death of John Constable (1776-1837) was marked by exhibitions at the British Museum, the Tate Gallery, and the Wildenstein Gallery in London, from April to the end ofAugust 1937.
Although in his Jack B. Yeats, McGreevy discusses the possibility of Constable's influence on Yeats's work, he underlines the differences between them: "Jack Yeats was concerned with human values. Constable was not" (11).
10 The40Foot:23May[1936[,n. 6.
Cissie Beckett and family had left for Southampton, from there to travel to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where they would visit Morris Sinclair.
11 SB had written about this figure in the west gable of the ruins of Ardmore Cathedral, Co. Waterford, reportedly the burial place of St. Declan (fl. fifth century), in his letter to McGreevy of 9 September 1936: "I spent a few days last week with Joe Hone at the Usshers in Cappagh (Dungarvan) and saw Ardmore & Cashel. On the west door at Ardmore there is an exquisite tiny carved stooping figure under a spear (Pelorson's Lance Grave), representing I suppose conversion of Declan. The loveliest six inches of stone I ever saw" (TCD, MS 10402/107; for photo see www. waterford countyrnuseum. org).
The relief figure in the arcades on the west gable represents an ecclesiastic blessing a kneeling warrior, armed with a long spear; this reminds SB of a line from a poem, "Plans," written by Georges Pelorson: "portant la fatigue comme une lance grave" (Bearing weariness like a serious spear) (transition 21 [March 1932] 182-183).
12 T. S. Eliot,Dante(London:FaberandFaber,1929).
Giovanni Boccaccio, La Vita di Dante (c. 1348 - 1373).
Although Florentine artist Taddeo Gaddi (1290-1366), a pupil of Giotto, created
many of the frescos in Santa Croce in Florence, Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444) does not
532
name him as the artist in his La vita di Dante (c. 1436): "La effigie sua propria si vede nella chiesa di Santa Croce, quasi a mezzo della chiesa, dalla mano sinistra andando verso ! 'altar maggiore, ed e ritratta al naturale ottimamente per dipintore perfetto de! tempo suo. " ("His portrait may be seen in Santa Croce, near the centre of the church, on the left hand as you approach the high altar, a most faithful painting by an excellent artist of that time") (Leonardo Bruni, Le vite di Dante e del Petrarca, ed. Antonio Lanza [Rome: Archivio Guido Izzi. 1987] 45; James Robinson Smith, tr. The Earliest Lives of Dante: Translated from the Italian of Giovanni Boccacdo and Leonardo Bruni Aretino. Yale Studies in English [New York: Holt, 1901; rpt. New York: Russell and Russell. 1968] 90).
A fifteenth-century copy of the lost fresco portrait of Dante can be found in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Florence, Banco Rari 215, Ms. Palantino 320/ f. II recto (Bernhard Degenhart and Annegrit Schmitt, Corpus der Italienischen Zeichnungen, 1300-1450 [Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1968], II, 282-284, n. 186, and IV, 205c; Frank Jewett Mather. Jr. , The Portraits of Dante: Compared with the Measurements of his Skull and Reclassified [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1921] frontispiece, 11-18).
4 August 1937, Reavey
13 CharlesPrentice.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
Aug 4! ! ! 1937 dear George
0 Doubleday Doran
Less OXY than moron
You've a mind like a whore on A trip to Bundoran1
6 Clare St Dublin
The Johnson thing has gone away to be dyed. I mean the idea of it. For nothing had been degraded to paper. I have been too tired.
Hope you enjoyed every moment of your trip. And that I shall see you both soon. Denis very pleased with his advance copy. 2 Herewith a last flicker. Place it if you can. Seldom in a woman. Never in a man. 3
533
4 August 1937, Reavey
Love to Gwynedd4 Ever
Sam-
ALS: 1 leaf, 1 side: no enclosure is extant; TxU.
1 MurphywastobesenttoDoubledayDoran(see14April1937,n. 2;27July1937). Bundoran, a seaside resort in Co. Donegal.
This verse appears, with variations, in SB's letter to Mary Manning Howe after 10 December 1937; it is cited as from a letter of 6 August 1937 in Bair, Samuel Beckett, 262 with variations from the text as written; the verse as found in Bair is reprinted in Eoin O'Brien, The Beckett Country, 308.
2 GeorgeandGwyneddReaveyhadbeenontheirhoneymoon.
Denis Devlin's collection of poetry Intercessions was published on 15 October by Reavey's Europa Press.
3 Althoughaverseisattheheadoftheletter,itisprobablethatthe"lastflicker" refers to another piece of writing, possibly "Whiting," which was enclosed (there is a slight rust mark from a paper clip at the upper right margin of the letter).
Beckett plays upon, among other things, a popular verse of the time:
Patience is a virtue Possess it if you can Found seldom in a woman Never in a man.
4 SBhabituallywritesGwyneddReavey'snameas"Gwynned. "Thismispellingof her name will be silently corrected throughout. When SB correctly spells her name, this is noted.
CISSIE SINCLAIR
SOUTHAMPTON, EN ROUTE TO SOUTH AFRICA
14! 1! [August 1937] Gresham Hotel Dublin
dearest Cissie
[. . . ]
I was glad to get your letter this morning. I wanted you to think of me sometimes when you had a drink. How else would I render it likely? Have many.
534
At least I am escaped from Cooldrinagh, the Liebespaar &
Molly. All the presents pouring in, a gong this morning so
terrible, the impediments of detached domesticities, the circle
closing round. How much freer & liebesfiihiger (wenn es darauf
1
I saw Ilse again but she was "korperlich nicht ganz auf der Hohe". We all know what that means. So we conversed, yes really conversed. Hans had rung up inviting her to dine. She declined. Motze [for Motz) had been out. 2 It is something very close to disgust, nausea, & of course she feels it. Soon it will be over.
I can't work. I have not made a pretence of working for a month. Given up even the preoccupied look & the de quoi
3
I had a letter from Tom by the same post as yours. He is
writing about Jack Yeats, inspired apparently by some Constable
exhibition & a chance remark ofmine about the Watteauishness
ofwhat he has been doing lately. Every Thursday there seems to
4
14 {August 1937), Cissie Sinclair
[an]kommt! ), furnished lodgings & no possessions. To be welded together with gongs and tea-trolleys, the bars against the sky, how hopeless. Is that what "home" means for all women, solid furniture & not to be overlooked, or is there another sense of home in some of them, or are there some who don't want a home, who have had enough of that?
ecrire. IflgotthejobinCapeTownIdon'tthinkI'dholditfor a fortnight. It would be a degradation if the terms of reference had not shrivelled up. I always see the physical crisis just round the corner. It would solve perhaps the worst ofwhat remains to be solved, clarify the problem anyway, which I suppose is the best solution we can hope for.
be something to prevent me going in to see him. I suppose I don't want to see him. Watteau put in busts and urns, I suppose to suggest the inorganism of the organic - all his people are mineral in the end, without possibility of being added to or taken from, pure inorganic juxtapositions - but Jack Yeats
535
14 {August 1937}, Cissie Sinclair
does not even need to do that. The way he puts down a man's head & a woman's head side by side, or face to face, is terrifying, two irreducible singlenesses & the impassable immensity between. I suppose that is what gives the stillness to his pictures, as though the convention were suddenly sus pended, the convention & performance of love & hate, joy & pain, giving & being given, taking & being taken. A kind of petrified insight into one's ultimate hard irreducible inorganic singleness. All handled with the dispassionate acceptance that is beyond tragedy. I always feel Watteau to be a tragic genius. i. e. there is pity in him for the world as he sees it. But I find no pity, i. e. no tragedy in Yeats. Not even sympathy. Simply perception & dispassion. Even personally he is rather inhuman, or haven't you felt it?
Perhaps the literary value of this letter & so if the worst comes to the worst (don't misunderstand me) its marketable interest would be promoted by a few lines of verse. You may find them trivial & unpleasant; there seemed no point to me in beautifying them, or making them less direct in the fashionable manner. They came just as they are here.
WHITING
Offer it up plank it down
Golgotha was only the potegg
cancer angina it is all one to us
cough up your T. B. don't be stingy
no trifle is too trifling not even a thrombus anything venereal is especially welcome
that old toga virilis in the mothballs
don't be sentimental you won't be wanting it again send it along we'll put it in the pot with the rest with your love requited & unrequited
536
the things taken too late the things taken too soon the spirit aching bullock's scrotum
you won't cure it ifyou can't endure it
it is you it equals you any fool has to pity you
so parcel up the whole issue & send it along
the whole misery diagnosed undiagnosed misdiagnosed get your friends to do the same we'll make use of it
we'll make sense ofit we'll put it in the pot with the rest it all boils down to blood oflamb5
[. . . ]
ALS; 4 leaves, 8 sides; letterhead; Sinclair. Dating: SB's letter to Thomas McGreevy, 14 August 1937, encloses TMS of the same poem (with two minor variants); WHITTNG was published as "Ooftish" (see n. 6 below). SB's letter to McGreevy refers to the poem in similar words: "The enclosed you will probably find merely disagree ably trivial" and "I see no point in making it less direct or fiddling about with it. It came straight the way it is. "
1 SB'scousinMollyRoewasvisitingCooldrinaghwherepreparationswerebeing made for Frank Beckett's marriage; a reception and viewing of gifts took place at Cooldrinagh on 23 August, and the wedding on 25 August.
"Liebespaar" (lovers). "Liebesfahiger (wenn es darauf [an]kommt! ") (more capable of loving [when it matters]).
SB expands in this vein to Thomas McGreevy, 23 August 1937:
Watching the presents come along has been painful. The awful unconscious social [c]ynicism that knows that what the relationship comes down to in the end is Gongs & tea-trolleys, that without them there is no "together". Till it seems almost a law of marriage that the human personal element should be smothered out ofexistence from the word go, reduced to a mere occasion for goodhousekeeping&homechat. Theeggcupinthepieofdomesticsolidity. How much freer one would be to develop the spiritual thing, or even the physical thing, or to keep them alive, or to bring them together into one, that wd. be neither cordial fucking nor fucking cordiality, in the meanest of bed sitting rooms, where at least one owned nothing, i. e. was owned by nothing, than among the gongs & tea-trolleys, booming & trundling you out of
537
14 {August 1937}, Cissie Sinclair
Love ever Write often dein Sam6
14 {August 1937}, Cissie Sinclair
a relation into a condition. Or is it that when you grow up you stop talking about relationships - the bare unmitigated undeserved spiritual & physical commerce between 2 human beings & thank God if you can achieve the egg cup in the pie? Quoi qu'il en soit, it is horrible to see how society takes over at the least hint of a fresh social node of growth. Neither of them wants all this hullabaloo with presents & a reception, they would both have really pre ferred to do without the presents if they could have been spared the fuss. & yet they submit to it.
