Irish artist John Crampton Walker (1890-1942) prepared the Catalogue of
Exhibition
of Pictures by the Late Nathaniel Hone RH.
Samuel Beckett
5, 17 February 1937, Nixon and Knowlson transcription)
6 Giorgione'sVenusintheZwingercollection:16February1937,n. 4.
7 SBreferstoAntonellodaMessina'spaintingTheMartyrdomofSt. Sebastian;acard of this image was sent to McGreevy on 2 February 1937, and SB describes it further in 16 February 1937 (see also n. 7 to that letter).
8 SB'sdiscussionofthearchitectureandrestorationoftheZwinger:16February 1937, n. 2. The Kronentor, the tower that crowns the main entrance of the Zwinger Palace, is depicted in The Zwinger Palace in Dresden by Italian painter Bernardo Bellotto (NPG, 629; see bildarchiv. skd-dresden. de/). Bellotto adopted Canaletto as his name outside of Italy, but SB recognizes this as the name of his uncle and master Canaletto (ne Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768).
9 On12February,SBwenttoMeissen. Thesculpturesinthechoirandcomersofthe mid-Gothic Dom in Meissen (c. 1260-1280) are ascribed to the thirteenth-century Naumburg Master; they are larger than life-size, but less naturalistic than his sculptures in Naumburg (Hans-Joachim Mrusek, Drei sachsische Kathedralen: Merseburg, Naumburg, Meissen [Dresden: Verlag der Kunst, 1976] 370).
On 16 February, SB went to Pillnitz; he describes the town which is dominated by the Schloss Pillnitz designed by Matthaus Poppelmann with steps down to terraces, and from there to the edge of the Elbe River.
10 "Sachsischer Stiitzwechsel" (Saxon support system); SB compares the prosti tutes lined up along the street to "Stiitzenwechsel," a pattern typical of Romanesque architecture in Saxony that alternates styles of piers or columns; he has noted this term in his German diary when describing the Dom in Hildesheim.
11 FreiberginSaxony. SB'sdiscussionofNuremberg:7March1937.
12 The "Fohn" (warm, dry wind from the Alps) is often thought to be a cause of illness or nervousness, called F6hnkrankheit (Fohn-sickness).
482
30 March 1937, Albrecht
The sixty-four paintings by Rubens in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich in 1936 were hung in Rooms V and VI, and in Cabinets XII and XIV; the rooms were located off a loggia, and the Cabinets were entered through the rooms (Karl Baedeker, Das Deutsche Reich und einige Grenzgebiete, Reisehand! ruch fiir Bahn und Auto [Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1936] 472).
13 SBdidnottaketypicalexcursionsfromMunich:Garmisch-Partenkirchen(where the 1936 winter Olympics had been held) and Mittenwald in the Bavarian Alps, and Kiinigsschliisser, the castle of King Ludwig II (1845-1886) near Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. SB mentions the Hofbrauhaus, the compositor, the Masters ofDead Virgins, and the Zugspitze in his letter of25 March 1937.
14 SBvisitedSevering'sbookshopinMunichatthesuggestionofPorep'sfriend, the dentist Dr. Richard Zarnitz. Axel Kaun: 18 January 1937 to Mary Manning Howe, n. 10.
"Der grosse Schwarze" (the big dark one).
SB met German writer and editor Paul Alverdes (1897-1979) at the bookstore on this day; SB began Kleine Reise: Aus einem Tage! ruch (1933; Small Journey: From a Journal). Alverdes is best known for his novel Die f'. feiferstube (1929; The Whistler) which he discussed with SB (BIF, UoR, GD 6/f. 63).
15 Axel Kaun had lent SB Hans Caressa's Geheimnisse des reifen Lebens: aus den Aufzeichungen Angermanns (1936; Secrets of the Mature Life: From the Notations of Angermann), Der Arzt Gion (1931; Doctor Gion), and Fiihrung und Geleit, ein Lebensgedenkbuch (1933; Guidance and Companionship: A Life Memoir).
SB refers to Hans Rupe (see 25 March 1937, n. 12). In his diary, SB recorded his discussion with Rupe about Rilke and Proust (BIF, UoR, GD 6/f. 77).
16 The art collection ofKurt Eggers-Kestner included a painting ofthe children of Eggers-Kestner by Ballmer (see 25 March 1937, n. 12), several works by Kluth including a portrait of Barlach, and unidentified watercolors by Hartmann. SB had met artist Hans Martin Ruwoldt through Grimm (see 28 November 1937 [for 1936], n. 15, and Beckett, Alles kommt aufso vie! an, 50-51).
Karl Ballmer, Aber Herr Heidegger! Zur Frei! rurger Rektoratsrede Martin Heideggers (Basel: Verlag von Rudolf Geering, 1933; But Mr. Heidegger! Concerning Martin Heidegger's Freiburg Inaugural Address as Rector). Ballmer was influenced by the theories ofthe Austrian-born founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Ballmer's manuscript was of a book published much later, and perhaps by then revised, as Deutschtum und Chlistentum in der Theosophie des Goetheanismus (Besazio: Verlag Fomasella, 1966; Germanness and Christianity in the Theosophy of Goetheanism).
17 On SB's behalf, Eggers-Kestner contacted Munich publisher Reinhard Piper (1879-1953) to see if SB could acquire a volume of Ernst Barlach's drawings, Zeichnungen (1935), published by Piper Verlag. Piper was very reluctant, anxious that a copy might be discovered in customs, but he said he would think it over.
The collection of drawings by Barlach had been planned in 1934 when Barlach's work was still allowed; publication proceeded even though by 1935 Barlach's work had been withdrawn from public view. But on 24 March 1936, "The Bavarian Political Police forbade the further sale ofthe volume ofBarlach's drawings and confiscated the 3,419 bound and unbound copies in the publisher's warehouse, on the grounds that the work's 'content is likely to endanger public safety and order'" (Peter Paret, An Artist
483
30 March 1937, Albrecht
Against the Third Reich: Ernst Barlach, 1933-1938 ! Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003] 96). Both Piper and Barlach took steps to fight this ban (Paret, 77-107).
"Ich will nicht, ich will nicht" (I don't want to, I don't want to).
18 SB saw a performance by the German cabaret and film comic Karl Valentin (1882-1948) at the Benz Cabaret in Munich, and soon after, on the day before he left Germany, SB went with the actor Eichheim to meet Valentin (Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 241; BIF, UoR, GD 6/f. 71 and f. 73).
19 InfulfillmentofhisReichsarbeitsdienst(NationalService),Albrechtservedina Labor camp in early 1937. Albrecht's painter friend has not been identified.
Willem Grimm married Kathe Franck (1910-1992) in March 1937.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
13/4/37 6 Clare Street Dublin
Dear George
Thanks for your note.
I hear that Nelson are trying to do a line in Irish authors.
1
want a third MS I can let you have it. I trust you received the second safely.
Any time you feel like throwing your hat at the whole thing I shall stand you a new one.
3
1 The publishers Thomas Nelson and Sons, Edinburgh, London, and New York, published the novel Somewhere to the Sea (1936) by Irish writer Kenneth Sarr (ne Kenneth
Shiels Reddin). but there is no evidence ofa new publishing direction for this firm.
484
Perhaps you might send Murphy next to them. ButthebestchanceseemsnowtheUSA&thenNott. Ifyou
2
Pomposo continues to occupy me. Kindest regards to Miss Vernon4
Yours ever Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
2 SB refers to seeking a publisher for Murphy. Writing to Reavey on 23 February 1937, SB had indicated that a second manuscript was with Mary Manning Howe in the United States, and a third in Dublin.
3 SB refers to his research and writing on Samuel Johnson, who was nicknamed "Pomposo" by Charles Churchill (1731-1764) in his satirical poem The Ghost (London: William Flexney, 1762).
4 ClodineGwyneddCade(neeVernonJones),Reavey'sfiancee.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
14/4/37 6 Clare St. Dublin
dear George
Was it Nelson that I suggested in my note yesterday? Please
1
ing Murphy to one Harrison Smith of Doubleday Doran & then if necessary to someone she knows in the Viking Press. 2 Don't you think you should get in touch with her if you intend to handle the MS in USA? In case you have lost her address it is: 136 Myrtle Street, Boston, Mass.
Gehorsamst3 Sam
APCS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
1 PublishersThomasNelsonandSons.
2 Oliver Harrison Smith (1888-1971) was an Editor with Doubleday Doran from 1936 to 1938, following the merger of his firm Haas and Smith with Random House in 1936 (Alden Whitman, "Harrison Smith of the Saturday Review is Dead," The New York Times 9 January 1971: 30; "Harrison Smith (1888-1971)," Saturday Review 54. 4 [23 January 19711 30).
Mary Manning Howe's contact at Viking Press in New York has not been identified. 3 "Gehorsamst"(mostobediently).
485
14 April 1937, Reavey
note that was my intention.
I hear from my friend Mrs Howe of Boston that she is show
26 April 1937, McGreevy THOMAS McGREEVY
LONDON
26/4/37 Foxrock [Co. Dublin] Dear Tom
Many thanks for your letter. Your descriptions ofO'Faolain &
1
comfortable. The afternoon withJBY was as pleasant as it always
is when one has him to oneself. He had a lovely new swamp - &
sea piece called the Little Waves of Breffni [for Breffny]. He has
five pictures in the Academy, including the boy & horse that I
had the reproduction of and I think 2 quite new ones that I have
2
Jack to the Academy dinner. I saw the Hones with Frank the following Monday. There was a nice misprint in Crampton
3
with my tortuous puff of the Amaranthers. I sent it to you. 4
The Lun;:at is back on the wall in Charlemont House, very
well repaired as far as I can see, but abominably hung, low down
in the long overlit room with the awful J. E. Blanches, in a
corner. I hear Kelly or whatever the curator is called confessed
sadly to Stella Solomons Starkey - ofall people! - to not knowing
5
Frere Reeves were reassuring.
I have been in a daze since returning, very stupid & fairly
notseen. IhavenotbeentotheAcademy. Gogartysaidpublicly he had never seen such a collection of pictures anywhere. Cottie came in later from the Hone watercolours in Waddington's Gallery in Anne Street, very rueful that she couldn't go with
Walker's blurb, Daubingy for Daubigny.
You don't mention having received the Dublin Magazine
agreatdealaboutit. Buthewasreadingitup,hesaid. TheJack Yeats Low Tide, in the Academy I think 2 years ago, and pre sented by Justice Meredith, was being derided by three ladies the
486
ing 2 girls in their nighties astride a roofridge in the moonlight.
26 April 1937, McGreevy
day I was there. There seem to be a number of new AEs, includ
6
The old bitch I was so fond of was destroyed (chloroformed)
last Saturday week, unbeknown to me, while I was at Jack Yeats'.
I was very upset, as I had wanted to be with her at the end, to try
7
&makeitperhapsalittleeasier. Motherwasprostrated,inbed for 2 days after it, and it was very hard work indeed getting her to take a reasonable view of what oneself could not take a reasonable view of. Apart from that she is much the same, with as few really good days as really bad. Frank spends most of his spare time with his girl. He has bought Joyce's Irish Place Names in 3 volumes, knows a lot already about Celtic etymolo gies & has cleaned his paint box. We are going to-morrow to the Exhibition of the Water-Colour Society! 8
I went one day with Cissie to see Boss. He has been moved,
to the new place perched above Rathdrum attached to the
county home, mainly the creation of my good uncle Gerald,
9
run by some Sisters of mercy. There he is more comfortable, and quite simply seven months worse than when I saw him last. I think he knows now he is dying & has given up the idea of ever coming home. I of course can't stimulate him, but when the Liam O'Briens & Seumas O'Sullivans go down he keeps them amused in the old way. Cissie is also a little worse than she was & less than ever able to move about. [. . . ] The son is still in the veldt, chafing to get home. 10
I had half a card from George, announcing another rejec tion. I sent him another copy & he has the two out now, I think
11
487
I have not looked him up, nor Dennis [for Denis] either. I hear Dennis asked Edward Sheehy, the only paid member of staff on Dublin To-Day [for Ireland To-Day] to get me to review his poems.
one with Nelson. He also mentioned Brian had been over.
26 April 1937, McGreevy
It is not a job that I would much relish, though of course I wd. have to execute myself. 12 So far I have heard nothing about it.
I had lunch with Leventhal but do not expect to see much of him. He seems to have made great friends with S. O'Sullivan & Austin Clarke, who has settled over here (Kimmage) now[. . . ] & was seen at the Academy with even more than his melancholy expression. 13
I called once on Ethna Maccarthy but she was not in. The young Pourbus Old Woman was leaning against the wall. 14
I met Joe Hone in the library & he invited me to dine one Saturday evening, which I accepted. Then at the last moment he rang me up and said that his wife said that the Lennox Robinsons, also invited, were enemies of mine & that it would not go! I said I was stupid about such things, ed. never remember who loved me & who hated me & who tolerated me & who did not, and that by all means let it be called up. A couple of nights later I dined, the only guest, and was given a bottle of stout15 [. . •)
Some of the Poussins have gone on loan to Paris, the Cranach to the Kaiser Friedrich and the awful Franz Hals some where else. 16
Nancy Cunard sent me from France Dos Poemas, one by herself & the other by a Spaniard, the usual indignations. 17
Ruddy making a fool of himself in Dublin Mag. , dragging in the memory of his dead wife, the footsteps that do not come, no peace till he rests beside her, etc. , all apropos ofLord de Talby's [for Tabley's] verse. A foul article by Lwellyn [for Llewelyn] Powys on Dr Johnson, making him out a John Bull, the orthodox balls in fact. By the way, I mentioned the Vincent O'Sullivan thing to Joe Hone, who had heard nothing of it & said he wd. very gladly subscribe if he knew to what quarter. 18
488
I like walking more & more, & the less aim the better. I was on the Big Sugarloafon Saturday and yesterday found in a field near Enniskerry a lovely small Celtic cross with still the dim low reliefofa Christ crucified with head duly inclined to the north. Frank wants me to go with him at Whit to Clonmel & walk the Galtees & the Blackstairs & so I will. I should love to see Cashel again. 19
I have been working, in so far as I have been working at all, at the Johnson thing, to find my petition of principle, after many disappointments, more strikingly confirmed than I had dared hope. It seems now quite certain that he was rather absurdly in love with her, all the 15 years he was at Streatham, though there is no text for the impotence. It becomes more interesting - the fake rage to cover his retreat from her, then the real rage when he realises that no retreat was necessary, and beneath both the despair ofthe lover with nothing to love with - and much more difficult. 20 It explains what has never been explained, i. e. his esteem for the imbecile Mr Thrale. 21 The last meeting in 1783, about 6 months before her marriage to Piozzi, a year before his death, has always remained nebulous. He has a briefreference to it in his Meditations. I think that is an interview that must be written, though I should have wished either to keep it all in 1784 or spread it to catch the scene where the Thrales find him on his knees before Dr Delap, praying for a continuance ofhis reason. Arthur Murphy is important, the only one, not excluding Fanny Burney, ofthe Streatham Circle who stuck to Ml"S_ Thrale through the scandal. I think we will have a very quiet Dr Johnson. Perhaps his nigger Frank Barber was the only person he never bellowed at. 22
I read Dujardin's Lauriers . . . and realised how extremely charitable it was in Joyce to invoke him to Larbaud & how very
489
26 April 1937, McGreevy
26 April 1937, McGreevy
modest his proposal that his conception of the monologue was not identical with the model's. Or perhaps it was neither charity
23
cheerful, but I think you are hypersensitive in that connexion.
25
couple of nights, in the bed where I had it the first time almost
exactly 11 years ago, but as little anxiety as then. Perhaps it is
that the phase of impatience with one's own limitations has
nearly exhausted itself. I feel now that I shall meet the most of
my days from now on here and in tolerable content, not feeling
much guilt at making the most of what ease there is to be had
and not bothering very much about effort. After all there
has been an effort. But perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps, it is
Dr Johnson's dream of happiness, driving rapidly to & from
26
27
1 McGreevy'scommentsaboutSeanO'FaolainandLondonpublishersFrere-Reeves are not known.
2 Jack Yeats wrote to McGreevy on 20 April 1937 that SB had visited the previous Saturday, 17 April (TCD, MS 10381/143).
Yeats's new painting was The Little Waves ofBreffny (private collection, Pyle 495). His paintings in the 108th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts were: Boy and Horse (see 29 January 1936, n. 2), While Grass Grows (Waterford Municipal Art Gallery 76, Pyle 492), A Morning in a City (NGI 1050, Pyle 493), An Evening in Spring (private collection, Pyle 494), and Dancing on the Deck (Waddington Gallery, London, Pyle 443).
490
nor modesty, but simply astuce again.
Alan Thompson's wife bore him a son yesterday.
Your account of the evening with Charles was not very
24
I have not written to him and must do so.
I have had the old internal combustion heart & head a
nowhere in a postchaise with a pretty woman.
Cissie met O'Malley at Grange House & liked him. Write again soon.
Love ever Sam
ALS; 5 leaves. 5 sides; TCD, MS 10402/126.
3 On17April,CottieYeatshadseenanexhibitionofoilsandwatercolorsbyIrish landscape painter Nathaniel Hone (1831-1917) at the Victor Waddington Gallery, 28 South Anne Street, that ran from 13 to 20 April. SB and Frank Beckett saw it on Monday, 19 April.
Irish artist John Crampton Walker (1890-1942) prepared the Catalogue of Exhibition of Pictures by the Late Nathaniel Hone RH. A. at Victor Waddington Gallery; in the one-page biographical essay the name of French landscape painter Charles-Fran,;ois Daubigny (1817-1878) is misspelled.
4 SB'sreviewofTheAmaranthers:"AnImaginativeWork! "80-81.
5 The damage to Lur,;at's Decorative Landscape (a hole near the center and several small ones at the side) had been repaired by J. J. Cory's, Picture Restorer, 51 Grafton Street (invoice for repair, 13 August 1935, Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane; see also 5 May 1935, n. 6, and Sunday [22 September 1935], n. 2). John F. Kelly was Curator of the Municipal Gallery of Modem Art from 1 October 1935 to 1954. Stella Solomons Starkey was a good friend of Sarah Purser; Purser, as the leader of the Friends of the National Collections, had been responsible for bringing the painting into the collection.
The paintings by Jacques-Emile Blanche (1861-1942) in the collection at this time included Jeanne and Mischief (Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, no. 294 and no. 293).
6 LowTidebyJackB. Yeatshadbeenshowninthe1935RoyalHibernianAcademy Exhibition; it was bought byJusticeJames Creed Meredith and presented in 1937 to the Municipal Gallery of Modem Art: 5 May 1935, n. 3.
There were thirteen paintings by AE in the collection at this time, many of which were part of the 1904 gift of Hugh Lane; the museum opened in Charlemont House in 1933, and may have rotated the paintings on exhibition, which would explain why the painting to which SB refers, On the Roof Top, Moonlight (Dublin City Museum The Hugh Lane, no. 32), may have been "new" to SB (Patrick Casey, Dublin City Museum The Hugh Lane, 2 June 2006).
7 SBreferstohisdogWolf.
8 Frank'sgirl,JeanVioletWright(1906-1966).
Frank Beckett bought Patrick Weston Joyce, The Origin and History of Irish Names of
Places, 3 vols. (Dublin: Educational Company oflreland; London: Longmans, Green, n. d. [after 19131).
The 83rd Exhibition of The Water Colour Society of Ireland was held at Mills's Hall, Merrion Row, Dublin, April-May 1937.
9 Gerald Paul Gordon Beckett (1888-1950), SB's uncle, was the County Medical Officer for Wicklow. Boss Sinclair had been moved in November 1936 (see 28 November 1937 [for 1936], n. 25).
10 Liam O'Brien (6 Briaine, 1888-1974), Irish Nationalist and Professor of French, University College Galway. The Sinclairs' son, Morris Sinclair, was in South Africa.
11 George Reavey's letter to SB, to which SB's of 13 April is a reply, has not been found; however, Hamish Hamilton wrote to Reavey on 9 April 1937 rejecting Murphy: "Alas, Beckett's book is as obscure as I feared! I don't feel that I can make an offer" (TxU). SB had suggested Nelson as a possible publisher for Murphy, but no
491
26 April 1937, McGreevy
26 April 1937, McGreevy
evidence has been found of the manuscript being submitted to them. Brian Coffey had been in London.
12 SBreferstoDenisDevlin'scollectionofpoemsIntercessions,notyetpublishedby Reavey'sEuropa Press. Irish writerEdward Sheehy (c. 1910-1956) was on the staffof Ireland To-Day, a journal published from June 1936 to March 1938, edited by Frank O'Connor. SB did not write this review.
"Execute myself' (Gallicism for "do it as asked").
13 KimmageisaDublinsuburb. TheannualRoyalHibernianAcademyExhibition was at this time.
14 Ethna MacCarthy's painting by the School of Pourbus: 20 February 1935, n. 13.
15 VeraHone;LennoxandDollyRobinson. "Would not go" (Gallicism for "wouldn't work").
16 Three works by Poussin were lent for the Chefs d'Oeuvre de ! 'Art Franc;:ais Exhibition at the Palais National des Arts in Paris from June to October 1937: The Entombment of Christ (NG! 214 ), Acis and Galatea (NG! 814), and an ink and wash on paper, The Marriage of Acis and Galatea (NG! 2842). Lucas Cranach's painting Christ on the Cross (NGJ 471) was lent to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin (from 24 April 1937); A Young Fisherman of Scheveningen (also known as The Fisher Boy, NGI 193) by Franz Hals was lent for the Franz Hals Exhibition in Haarlem Uuly to September 1937) ("National Gallery of Ireland: Loans and Purchases," The Irish Times 8 April 1937: 8).
17 When in Spain during the summer and autumn of 1936, Nancy Cunard met Pablo Neruda, who introduced her to Spanish poets, and encouraged her to create a series to print poetry inspired by the Spanish Civil War. Six pamphlets were published in 1937, hand-printed by Cunard and Neruda on her press at Reanville: Les Poetes du monde defendent le peup! e espagnol (Poets of the World Defend the Spanish People). The first number, Dos Poemas, consisted of a poem by Neruda, "Canto sobre unas ruinas", and another by Cunard, "Para hacerse amar", tr. Vicente Aleixandre (La Chapelle Reanville, 1937; Chisholm, Nancy Cunard: A Biography, 235-238; Rafael Osuna, Pablo Neruda y Nancy Cunard: ! es poetes du monde defendent le peuple espagnol lMadrid: Editorial Origenes, 1987] 21-30).
18 ThomasRudmose-BrownpublishedareviewofthethesisofErnaLow,"Beitrage zur De Tabley Forschung" (University of Vienna, 1935) in Dublin Magazine 12. 2 (April-June 1937) 72-74. In the review, Rudmose-Brown writes of how the poetry of John Byrne Leicester Warren, Baron de Tabley (1835-1895) influenced him while a student in Aberdeen; Rudmose-Brown alludes to his wife's death through quotation of de Tabley's lines ("How lonely all the years will run / Until I rest by thee" and "To listen for a step that will not come! ").
Llewelyn Powys, "Dr. Johnson - Idler, Rambler and Straggler," Dublin Magazine 12. 2 (April-June 1937) 9-15.
American-born British writer Vincent O'Sullivan (ne Sean O'Suilleabhain, 1872-1940) had financial and US citizenship difficulties at this time (letter 6 March 1937 to Seumas O'Sullivan, TCD, MSS 4630-49/1439; letter to A. J. A. Symons 1 March 11937], in Vincent O'Sullivan, Selected Letters, ed. Alan Anderson ILoanhead, Scotland: Tragara Press. 1993] 43-45). Vincent O'Sullivan had done some paid research for
492
26 April 1937, McGreevy Joseph Hone's book on George Moore in 1934-1935 (Vincent O'Sullivan, FifteenLetters
to Seumas O'Sullivan [Edinburgh: Tragara Press, 1979] 20-24, 28).
19 Big Sugarloaf (1,659 feet) is southwest of Bray, Co. Wicklow. SB refers to the Fassaroe cross, 1 mile northeast of Enniskerry and 2 miles west-southwest of Bray, in a niche on the north side ofa narrow by-road (road SN 337); a primitive crucifixion is on one side and two human heads on the other (Anthony Weir, Early Ireland: A Field Guide [Belfast: BlackstaffPress, 1980] 231; William Cumming, Architect, National Monuments Division,The Office ofPublic Works, Dublin, 1 November 1994).
Whitsunday fell on 16 May in 1937. Clonmel is the largest town in Co. Tipperary. The Galtee Mountains, the highest inland range in Ireland, extend westward for about 16 miles from Cahir, Co. Tipperary. Blackstairs Mountain (2,411 feet) is in Co. Carlow, near Cashel, Co. Tipperary.
20 SB's reading notes about Samuel Johnson, especially his relationship with HesterThrale, can be found in his notebooks for Human Wishes (BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1-3).
Johnson and theThrales: 13 December 1936 and n. 6 and n. 8.
After his stroke, Johnson wrote to Hester Thrale on 19 June 1785: "I have loved you with virtuous affection, I have honoured You with sincere Esteem. Let not all our endear ment be forgotten" (Samuel Johnson,Letters ofSamuelJohnsonLLD. , II. Jan15, 1777-Dec. 18,
1784, col. and ed. George Birkbeck Hill [New York: Harper and Brothers, 1892] 303). When Johnson suspected Mrs. Thrale had already married Piozzi, he berated her in what is known as his "rough Jetter" of 2 July 1784: "If you have abandoned your children and your religion, God forgive your wickedness. " Then, thinking that he might still prevent the marriage, he added: "I who have loved you, esteemed you, reverenced you, & served you, I who long thought you the first of womankind, entreat that before your fate is irrevocable, I may once more see you" Oohnson,Letters ofSamuel
Johnson, LL. D, II, 405-406; BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1. f. 10-llR, f. 12 R).
21 Vulliamy wrote that Mr. Thrale "could never emerge from his constitutional torpidity, and all that we know of him proves him to have been a man whose intelligence was Jess than mediocre. " Yet Johnson supported Thrale in domestic dis putes and "expressed a high regard for Mr. Thrale, in which it was difficult to avoid seeing a trace of hypocrisy or of obstinacy" (Mrs. Thrale of Streatham, 68-69, 72).
22 HesterThralemarriedPiozziinLondonon23July1784. Herlastmeetingwith Johnson was on 5 April 1783, when Johnson wrote in his Diary (rather than his Meditations): "I took leave of Mrs. Thrale. I was much moved. I had some expostulations with her. She said that she was likewise affected" (Samuel Johnson, Diaries, Prayers, and Annals, ed. E. L. McAdam, Jr. with Donald Hyde and Mary Hyde,The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, I [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1958] 358-359).
When Mr. and Mrs. Thrale had discovered Johnson on his knees before Dr. John Delap (1725-1812) in June 1766, "Beseeching God to continue to him the use of his understanding," they resolved to take him into their country home, Streatham, where he stayed from late June until October, and where he later became a regular visitor (Bate, SamuelJohnson, 412; BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1, f. 41R).
Irish writer Arthur Murphy (ne Charles Ranger, 1727-1805), HenryThrale's oldest friend, had introduced Johnson to the Thrales; Murphy supported Mrs. Thrale in her decision to marry Piozzi, when even her friend Frances Burney (known as Fanny, 1752-1840), among others, sought to prevent it (Bate, Samuel Johnson, 572; BIF, UoR. MS 3461/1, f. 14R and f. 35 R).
493
26 April 1937, McGreevy
When Frank Barber was interviewed by "Our Ingenious Meteorological Journalist" for Gentleman's Magazine, he reported that Johnson had never cursed at him, saying that the worst word he had had from Johnson was: "You dunghill dog" ("A Meteorologist's Tour from Walton to London," Gentleman's Magazine and Historical 63. 1 Uuly 1793] 620).
23 Les Lauriers sont coupes (1887) by Edouard Dujardin (1861-1949). Joyce read the novel between 1902 and 1903. tried without success to be in touch with Dujardin in 1917. and acknowledged the impact of Dujardin on Ulysses (Ellmann. James Joyce. 126, 411. 520; Elizabeth van der Staay, Le Monologue interieur dans ! 'oeuvre de Valery Larbaud [Paris: Champion-Slatkine, 1987], 84-85; Mary Colum disputes this influence, Life and the Dream, 394-395). Joyce mentioned Dujardin's novel to Larbaud in 1921 and secured a copy for Larbaud, who became an admirer, writing the preface for Les Lauriers sont coupes when it was reissued (Paris: Messein, 1925) (Ellmann, James Joyce, 519-520).
"Astuce" (shrewdness).
24 Jeremy Thompson, son ofAlan Thompson and Frances Sylvia Thompson (nee
Reeves, 1904-1982), was born on 25April 1937.
25 CharlesPrentice. IfSBwrotetohim,theletterhasnotbeenfound.
26 On19September1777BoswellnotedofJohnson:"'If(saidhe)1hadnoduties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman; but she should be one who could understand me, and would add something to the conversation'" (Boswell, Boswell's Life of]ohnson, Ill, The Life /1776-1780}, 162). SB commented in his notebook for Human Wishes that this was a symptom of impotence (BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1, f. 90V).
27 At Seumas O'Sullivan's home, Grange House, Beckett's aunt, Cissie Sinclair, met Ernest O'Malley (1898-1957), a Republican, journalist, and advocate of Irish artists.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
14/5/37 Cooldrinagh Foxrock
DearTom
I was very sorry to hear about Raven. I can well imagine the
kind of performance. He will probably feel much better for it, for a time. I wish you did not come in for all these dramas. Dont be
1
died in Rathdrum Sanatorium lastTuesday week and was buried
494
persuaded to go back to 15.
I have done very little for the past fortnight. Boss Sinclair
in the Jewish cemetery the following Thursday. The week before
I was down with Cissie I don't know how many times. His last
words to me were an apology for his poor company. Har:ry was
with him at the end. Cissie takes it quite calmly, her affective
apparatus is worn out. He is not missed from the house in Mayne
Road because he was never there. Har:ry & Cissie asked me to
write something for the Irish Times, which I did, with only an
hour to do it. Har:ry put it into Smyllie's hand, I standing visible
but aloof, and did not say whose it was. Smyllie promised to put
it in, had in fact asked Harry for something, but it did not appear.
2
some weeks before his death. Gogarty has been evading service of
writ for the past 3 or 4 days & I do not think they have got him
even now. Dodging out ofhis back door, sleeping in Howth, etc.
What good does he think that will do him. All kinds of dirt will be
raked up & I suppose they will try & discredit me as author of the
Pricks. That is ifGogarty faces the court, which I fancy he will do
lepping, unless Cowan & Rich [for Rich & Cowan] insist on settling
outside. Apparently he & they took advice at every point of the
book, but from some London lawyer incompetent to appreciate
the references! I think most people here disapprove of the action,
however little sympathy they may have with the defendant,
perhaps just on that account. But there are limits to scurrility, &
to cynical laissez-faire. It is not pleasant for me and wont do me
3
495
14 May 1937, McGreevy
Har:ry had to write something himselfin the end.
I suppose you have read about the action for libel that Har:ry is taking against Gogarty. I am in it up to the neck. And gladly in so far as Boss wanted it done, having seen the offending passage
any good. But it will amuse me. And Boss wanted it. Assez.
I met Furlong one evening at Hones and left him to it very shortly after dinner, left him talking about the dear Rajah who was so anxious to obtain his services and the exquisite Lady
14 May 1937, McGreevy
Fingal[l), in his voice where the Nancy, Mayfair & Tipperary
elements meet without mixing. Ineffable shoulders. His sole
aesthetic remark was that Vermeer built up his pictures in a
contrast of blue & yellow. I very nearly asked him which
4
I was really shocked to see what he had done with the
Gallery. He has taken all the Dutch pictures down to the print
room & the prints are in the cellars. The print room is done up a
cold dark scientific laboratory or public lavatory green. There is
no top light & the pictures, all boldly hung in a single line, are
worse than invisible. As there is not room for them all on the
walls he is experimenting with movable screens. He looks for
ward to treating the sculpture hall in the same way, i. e. remov
ing the casts & putting pictures there. There is no top lighting
there either. No matter how one addresses oneselfto a picture
one has the light in one's eyes. And they are all hung on about a
5
when there is plenty ofroom & the line set at the right height, is
carried on upstairs, where the Italian pictures begin now in the
Dutch rooms (& Irish room) & finish with the awful Gentileschi
& Piazzetta in the big room where they all were previously. The
wallpaper has been done up an indescribable shade ofanchovy
which Furlong asserts "goes well" with "Italian pictures", as a
man might have a prejudice in favour ofstout with oysters. It
has a pleasant effect on the blues of Canaletto & Bellotto. The
result of the single line is acres of this heavy angry colour
weighing down on the pictures and on the spectator. The rail
6
Vermeer he meant. He talked all the stock sentimental bunk about the Nazi persecutions. He asked were you in Paris. I said, on the contrary. He doesn't smoke & he doesn't drink & tea parties are his passion -
level with the pubic bone.
The mania for single line hanging, which is all very well
hehasremovedaltogether.
6 Giorgione'sVenusintheZwingercollection:16February1937,n. 4.
7 SBreferstoAntonellodaMessina'spaintingTheMartyrdomofSt. Sebastian;acard of this image was sent to McGreevy on 2 February 1937, and SB describes it further in 16 February 1937 (see also n. 7 to that letter).
8 SB'sdiscussionofthearchitectureandrestorationoftheZwinger:16February 1937, n. 2. The Kronentor, the tower that crowns the main entrance of the Zwinger Palace, is depicted in The Zwinger Palace in Dresden by Italian painter Bernardo Bellotto (NPG, 629; see bildarchiv. skd-dresden. de/). Bellotto adopted Canaletto as his name outside of Italy, but SB recognizes this as the name of his uncle and master Canaletto (ne Giovanni Antonio Canal, 1697-1768).
9 On12February,SBwenttoMeissen. Thesculpturesinthechoirandcomersofthe mid-Gothic Dom in Meissen (c. 1260-1280) are ascribed to the thirteenth-century Naumburg Master; they are larger than life-size, but less naturalistic than his sculptures in Naumburg (Hans-Joachim Mrusek, Drei sachsische Kathedralen: Merseburg, Naumburg, Meissen [Dresden: Verlag der Kunst, 1976] 370).
On 16 February, SB went to Pillnitz; he describes the town which is dominated by the Schloss Pillnitz designed by Matthaus Poppelmann with steps down to terraces, and from there to the edge of the Elbe River.
10 "Sachsischer Stiitzwechsel" (Saxon support system); SB compares the prosti tutes lined up along the street to "Stiitzenwechsel," a pattern typical of Romanesque architecture in Saxony that alternates styles of piers or columns; he has noted this term in his German diary when describing the Dom in Hildesheim.
11 FreiberginSaxony. SB'sdiscussionofNuremberg:7March1937.
12 The "Fohn" (warm, dry wind from the Alps) is often thought to be a cause of illness or nervousness, called F6hnkrankheit (Fohn-sickness).
482
30 March 1937, Albrecht
The sixty-four paintings by Rubens in the collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich in 1936 were hung in Rooms V and VI, and in Cabinets XII and XIV; the rooms were located off a loggia, and the Cabinets were entered through the rooms (Karl Baedeker, Das Deutsche Reich und einige Grenzgebiete, Reisehand! ruch fiir Bahn und Auto [Leipzig: Karl Baedeker, 1936] 472).
13 SBdidnottaketypicalexcursionsfromMunich:Garmisch-Partenkirchen(where the 1936 winter Olympics had been held) and Mittenwald in the Bavarian Alps, and Kiinigsschliisser, the castle of King Ludwig II (1845-1886) near Neuschwanstein in Bavaria. SB mentions the Hofbrauhaus, the compositor, the Masters ofDead Virgins, and the Zugspitze in his letter of25 March 1937.
14 SBvisitedSevering'sbookshopinMunichatthesuggestionofPorep'sfriend, the dentist Dr. Richard Zarnitz. Axel Kaun: 18 January 1937 to Mary Manning Howe, n. 10.
"Der grosse Schwarze" (the big dark one).
SB met German writer and editor Paul Alverdes (1897-1979) at the bookstore on this day; SB began Kleine Reise: Aus einem Tage! ruch (1933; Small Journey: From a Journal). Alverdes is best known for his novel Die f'. feiferstube (1929; The Whistler) which he discussed with SB (BIF, UoR, GD 6/f. 63).
15 Axel Kaun had lent SB Hans Caressa's Geheimnisse des reifen Lebens: aus den Aufzeichungen Angermanns (1936; Secrets of the Mature Life: From the Notations of Angermann), Der Arzt Gion (1931; Doctor Gion), and Fiihrung und Geleit, ein Lebensgedenkbuch (1933; Guidance and Companionship: A Life Memoir).
SB refers to Hans Rupe (see 25 March 1937, n. 12). In his diary, SB recorded his discussion with Rupe about Rilke and Proust (BIF, UoR, GD 6/f. 77).
16 The art collection ofKurt Eggers-Kestner included a painting ofthe children of Eggers-Kestner by Ballmer (see 25 March 1937, n. 12), several works by Kluth including a portrait of Barlach, and unidentified watercolors by Hartmann. SB had met artist Hans Martin Ruwoldt through Grimm (see 28 November 1937 [for 1936], n. 15, and Beckett, Alles kommt aufso vie! an, 50-51).
Karl Ballmer, Aber Herr Heidegger! Zur Frei! rurger Rektoratsrede Martin Heideggers (Basel: Verlag von Rudolf Geering, 1933; But Mr. Heidegger! Concerning Martin Heidegger's Freiburg Inaugural Address as Rector). Ballmer was influenced by the theories ofthe Austrian-born founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925). Ballmer's manuscript was of a book published much later, and perhaps by then revised, as Deutschtum und Chlistentum in der Theosophie des Goetheanismus (Besazio: Verlag Fomasella, 1966; Germanness and Christianity in the Theosophy of Goetheanism).
17 On SB's behalf, Eggers-Kestner contacted Munich publisher Reinhard Piper (1879-1953) to see if SB could acquire a volume of Ernst Barlach's drawings, Zeichnungen (1935), published by Piper Verlag. Piper was very reluctant, anxious that a copy might be discovered in customs, but he said he would think it over.
The collection of drawings by Barlach had been planned in 1934 when Barlach's work was still allowed; publication proceeded even though by 1935 Barlach's work had been withdrawn from public view. But on 24 March 1936, "The Bavarian Political Police forbade the further sale ofthe volume ofBarlach's drawings and confiscated the 3,419 bound and unbound copies in the publisher's warehouse, on the grounds that the work's 'content is likely to endanger public safety and order'" (Peter Paret, An Artist
483
30 March 1937, Albrecht
Against the Third Reich: Ernst Barlach, 1933-1938 ! Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003] 96). Both Piper and Barlach took steps to fight this ban (Paret, 77-107).
"Ich will nicht, ich will nicht" (I don't want to, I don't want to).
18 SB saw a performance by the German cabaret and film comic Karl Valentin (1882-1948) at the Benz Cabaret in Munich, and soon after, on the day before he left Germany, SB went with the actor Eichheim to meet Valentin (Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 241; BIF, UoR, GD 6/f. 71 and f. 73).
19 InfulfillmentofhisReichsarbeitsdienst(NationalService),Albrechtservedina Labor camp in early 1937. Albrecht's painter friend has not been identified.
Willem Grimm married Kathe Franck (1910-1992) in March 1937.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
13/4/37 6 Clare Street Dublin
Dear George
Thanks for your note.
I hear that Nelson are trying to do a line in Irish authors.
1
want a third MS I can let you have it. I trust you received the second safely.
Any time you feel like throwing your hat at the whole thing I shall stand you a new one.
3
1 The publishers Thomas Nelson and Sons, Edinburgh, London, and New York, published the novel Somewhere to the Sea (1936) by Irish writer Kenneth Sarr (ne Kenneth
Shiels Reddin). but there is no evidence ofa new publishing direction for this firm.
484
Perhaps you might send Murphy next to them. ButthebestchanceseemsnowtheUSA&thenNott. Ifyou
2
Pomposo continues to occupy me. Kindest regards to Miss Vernon4
Yours ever Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
2 SB refers to seeking a publisher for Murphy. Writing to Reavey on 23 February 1937, SB had indicated that a second manuscript was with Mary Manning Howe in the United States, and a third in Dublin.
3 SB refers to his research and writing on Samuel Johnson, who was nicknamed "Pomposo" by Charles Churchill (1731-1764) in his satirical poem The Ghost (London: William Flexney, 1762).
4 ClodineGwyneddCade(neeVernonJones),Reavey'sfiancee.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
14/4/37 6 Clare St. Dublin
dear George
Was it Nelson that I suggested in my note yesterday? Please
1
ing Murphy to one Harrison Smith of Doubleday Doran & then if necessary to someone she knows in the Viking Press. 2 Don't you think you should get in touch with her if you intend to handle the MS in USA? In case you have lost her address it is: 136 Myrtle Street, Boston, Mass.
Gehorsamst3 Sam
APCS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
1 PublishersThomasNelsonandSons.
2 Oliver Harrison Smith (1888-1971) was an Editor with Doubleday Doran from 1936 to 1938, following the merger of his firm Haas and Smith with Random House in 1936 (Alden Whitman, "Harrison Smith of the Saturday Review is Dead," The New York Times 9 January 1971: 30; "Harrison Smith (1888-1971)," Saturday Review 54. 4 [23 January 19711 30).
Mary Manning Howe's contact at Viking Press in New York has not been identified. 3 "Gehorsamst"(mostobediently).
485
14 April 1937, Reavey
note that was my intention.
I hear from my friend Mrs Howe of Boston that she is show
26 April 1937, McGreevy THOMAS McGREEVY
LONDON
26/4/37 Foxrock [Co. Dublin] Dear Tom
Many thanks for your letter. Your descriptions ofO'Faolain &
1
comfortable. The afternoon withJBY was as pleasant as it always
is when one has him to oneself. He had a lovely new swamp - &
sea piece called the Little Waves of Breffni [for Breffny]. He has
five pictures in the Academy, including the boy & horse that I
had the reproduction of and I think 2 quite new ones that I have
2
Jack to the Academy dinner. I saw the Hones with Frank the following Monday. There was a nice misprint in Crampton
3
with my tortuous puff of the Amaranthers. I sent it to you. 4
The Lun;:at is back on the wall in Charlemont House, very
well repaired as far as I can see, but abominably hung, low down
in the long overlit room with the awful J. E. Blanches, in a
corner. I hear Kelly or whatever the curator is called confessed
sadly to Stella Solomons Starkey - ofall people! - to not knowing
5
Frere Reeves were reassuring.
I have been in a daze since returning, very stupid & fairly
notseen. IhavenotbeentotheAcademy. Gogartysaidpublicly he had never seen such a collection of pictures anywhere. Cottie came in later from the Hone watercolours in Waddington's Gallery in Anne Street, very rueful that she couldn't go with
Walker's blurb, Daubingy for Daubigny.
You don't mention having received the Dublin Magazine
agreatdealaboutit. Buthewasreadingitup,hesaid. TheJack Yeats Low Tide, in the Academy I think 2 years ago, and pre sented by Justice Meredith, was being derided by three ladies the
486
ing 2 girls in their nighties astride a roofridge in the moonlight.
26 April 1937, McGreevy
day I was there. There seem to be a number of new AEs, includ
6
The old bitch I was so fond of was destroyed (chloroformed)
last Saturday week, unbeknown to me, while I was at Jack Yeats'.
I was very upset, as I had wanted to be with her at the end, to try
7
&makeitperhapsalittleeasier. Motherwasprostrated,inbed for 2 days after it, and it was very hard work indeed getting her to take a reasonable view of what oneself could not take a reasonable view of. Apart from that she is much the same, with as few really good days as really bad. Frank spends most of his spare time with his girl. He has bought Joyce's Irish Place Names in 3 volumes, knows a lot already about Celtic etymolo gies & has cleaned his paint box. We are going to-morrow to the Exhibition of the Water-Colour Society! 8
I went one day with Cissie to see Boss. He has been moved,
to the new place perched above Rathdrum attached to the
county home, mainly the creation of my good uncle Gerald,
9
run by some Sisters of mercy. There he is more comfortable, and quite simply seven months worse than when I saw him last. I think he knows now he is dying & has given up the idea of ever coming home. I of course can't stimulate him, but when the Liam O'Briens & Seumas O'Sullivans go down he keeps them amused in the old way. Cissie is also a little worse than she was & less than ever able to move about. [. . . ] The son is still in the veldt, chafing to get home. 10
I had half a card from George, announcing another rejec tion. I sent him another copy & he has the two out now, I think
11
487
I have not looked him up, nor Dennis [for Denis] either. I hear Dennis asked Edward Sheehy, the only paid member of staff on Dublin To-Day [for Ireland To-Day] to get me to review his poems.
one with Nelson. He also mentioned Brian had been over.
26 April 1937, McGreevy
It is not a job that I would much relish, though of course I wd. have to execute myself. 12 So far I have heard nothing about it.
I had lunch with Leventhal but do not expect to see much of him. He seems to have made great friends with S. O'Sullivan & Austin Clarke, who has settled over here (Kimmage) now[. . . ] & was seen at the Academy with even more than his melancholy expression. 13
I called once on Ethna Maccarthy but she was not in. The young Pourbus Old Woman was leaning against the wall. 14
I met Joe Hone in the library & he invited me to dine one Saturday evening, which I accepted. Then at the last moment he rang me up and said that his wife said that the Lennox Robinsons, also invited, were enemies of mine & that it would not go! I said I was stupid about such things, ed. never remember who loved me & who hated me & who tolerated me & who did not, and that by all means let it be called up. A couple of nights later I dined, the only guest, and was given a bottle of stout15 [. . •)
Some of the Poussins have gone on loan to Paris, the Cranach to the Kaiser Friedrich and the awful Franz Hals some where else. 16
Nancy Cunard sent me from France Dos Poemas, one by herself & the other by a Spaniard, the usual indignations. 17
Ruddy making a fool of himself in Dublin Mag. , dragging in the memory of his dead wife, the footsteps that do not come, no peace till he rests beside her, etc. , all apropos ofLord de Talby's [for Tabley's] verse. A foul article by Lwellyn [for Llewelyn] Powys on Dr Johnson, making him out a John Bull, the orthodox balls in fact. By the way, I mentioned the Vincent O'Sullivan thing to Joe Hone, who had heard nothing of it & said he wd. very gladly subscribe if he knew to what quarter. 18
488
I like walking more & more, & the less aim the better. I was on the Big Sugarloafon Saturday and yesterday found in a field near Enniskerry a lovely small Celtic cross with still the dim low reliefofa Christ crucified with head duly inclined to the north. Frank wants me to go with him at Whit to Clonmel & walk the Galtees & the Blackstairs & so I will. I should love to see Cashel again. 19
I have been working, in so far as I have been working at all, at the Johnson thing, to find my petition of principle, after many disappointments, more strikingly confirmed than I had dared hope. It seems now quite certain that he was rather absurdly in love with her, all the 15 years he was at Streatham, though there is no text for the impotence. It becomes more interesting - the fake rage to cover his retreat from her, then the real rage when he realises that no retreat was necessary, and beneath both the despair ofthe lover with nothing to love with - and much more difficult. 20 It explains what has never been explained, i. e. his esteem for the imbecile Mr Thrale. 21 The last meeting in 1783, about 6 months before her marriage to Piozzi, a year before his death, has always remained nebulous. He has a briefreference to it in his Meditations. I think that is an interview that must be written, though I should have wished either to keep it all in 1784 or spread it to catch the scene where the Thrales find him on his knees before Dr Delap, praying for a continuance ofhis reason. Arthur Murphy is important, the only one, not excluding Fanny Burney, ofthe Streatham Circle who stuck to Ml"S_ Thrale through the scandal. I think we will have a very quiet Dr Johnson. Perhaps his nigger Frank Barber was the only person he never bellowed at. 22
I read Dujardin's Lauriers . . . and realised how extremely charitable it was in Joyce to invoke him to Larbaud & how very
489
26 April 1937, McGreevy
26 April 1937, McGreevy
modest his proposal that his conception of the monologue was not identical with the model's. Or perhaps it was neither charity
23
cheerful, but I think you are hypersensitive in that connexion.
25
couple of nights, in the bed where I had it the first time almost
exactly 11 years ago, but as little anxiety as then. Perhaps it is
that the phase of impatience with one's own limitations has
nearly exhausted itself. I feel now that I shall meet the most of
my days from now on here and in tolerable content, not feeling
much guilt at making the most of what ease there is to be had
and not bothering very much about effort. After all there
has been an effort. But perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps, it is
Dr Johnson's dream of happiness, driving rapidly to & from
26
27
1 McGreevy'scommentsaboutSeanO'FaolainandLondonpublishersFrere-Reeves are not known.
2 Jack Yeats wrote to McGreevy on 20 April 1937 that SB had visited the previous Saturday, 17 April (TCD, MS 10381/143).
Yeats's new painting was The Little Waves ofBreffny (private collection, Pyle 495). His paintings in the 108th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts were: Boy and Horse (see 29 January 1936, n. 2), While Grass Grows (Waterford Municipal Art Gallery 76, Pyle 492), A Morning in a City (NGI 1050, Pyle 493), An Evening in Spring (private collection, Pyle 494), and Dancing on the Deck (Waddington Gallery, London, Pyle 443).
490
nor modesty, but simply astuce again.
Alan Thompson's wife bore him a son yesterday.
Your account of the evening with Charles was not very
24
I have not written to him and must do so.
I have had the old internal combustion heart & head a
nowhere in a postchaise with a pretty woman.
Cissie met O'Malley at Grange House & liked him. Write again soon.
Love ever Sam
ALS; 5 leaves. 5 sides; TCD, MS 10402/126.
3 On17April,CottieYeatshadseenanexhibitionofoilsandwatercolorsbyIrish landscape painter Nathaniel Hone (1831-1917) at the Victor Waddington Gallery, 28 South Anne Street, that ran from 13 to 20 April. SB and Frank Beckett saw it on Monday, 19 April.
Irish artist John Crampton Walker (1890-1942) prepared the Catalogue of Exhibition of Pictures by the Late Nathaniel Hone RH. A. at Victor Waddington Gallery; in the one-page biographical essay the name of French landscape painter Charles-Fran,;ois Daubigny (1817-1878) is misspelled.
4 SB'sreviewofTheAmaranthers:"AnImaginativeWork! "80-81.
5 The damage to Lur,;at's Decorative Landscape (a hole near the center and several small ones at the side) had been repaired by J. J. Cory's, Picture Restorer, 51 Grafton Street (invoice for repair, 13 August 1935, Dublin City Gallery the Hugh Lane; see also 5 May 1935, n. 6, and Sunday [22 September 1935], n. 2). John F. Kelly was Curator of the Municipal Gallery of Modem Art from 1 October 1935 to 1954. Stella Solomons Starkey was a good friend of Sarah Purser; Purser, as the leader of the Friends of the National Collections, had been responsible for bringing the painting into the collection.
The paintings by Jacques-Emile Blanche (1861-1942) in the collection at this time included Jeanne and Mischief (Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, no. 294 and no. 293).
6 LowTidebyJackB. Yeatshadbeenshowninthe1935RoyalHibernianAcademy Exhibition; it was bought byJusticeJames Creed Meredith and presented in 1937 to the Municipal Gallery of Modem Art: 5 May 1935, n. 3.
There were thirteen paintings by AE in the collection at this time, many of which were part of the 1904 gift of Hugh Lane; the museum opened in Charlemont House in 1933, and may have rotated the paintings on exhibition, which would explain why the painting to which SB refers, On the Roof Top, Moonlight (Dublin City Museum The Hugh Lane, no. 32), may have been "new" to SB (Patrick Casey, Dublin City Museum The Hugh Lane, 2 June 2006).
7 SBreferstohisdogWolf.
8 Frank'sgirl,JeanVioletWright(1906-1966).
Frank Beckett bought Patrick Weston Joyce, The Origin and History of Irish Names of
Places, 3 vols. (Dublin: Educational Company oflreland; London: Longmans, Green, n. d. [after 19131).
The 83rd Exhibition of The Water Colour Society of Ireland was held at Mills's Hall, Merrion Row, Dublin, April-May 1937.
9 Gerald Paul Gordon Beckett (1888-1950), SB's uncle, was the County Medical Officer for Wicklow. Boss Sinclair had been moved in November 1936 (see 28 November 1937 [for 1936], n. 25).
10 Liam O'Brien (6 Briaine, 1888-1974), Irish Nationalist and Professor of French, University College Galway. The Sinclairs' son, Morris Sinclair, was in South Africa.
11 George Reavey's letter to SB, to which SB's of 13 April is a reply, has not been found; however, Hamish Hamilton wrote to Reavey on 9 April 1937 rejecting Murphy: "Alas, Beckett's book is as obscure as I feared! I don't feel that I can make an offer" (TxU). SB had suggested Nelson as a possible publisher for Murphy, but no
491
26 April 1937, McGreevy
26 April 1937, McGreevy
evidence has been found of the manuscript being submitted to them. Brian Coffey had been in London.
12 SBreferstoDenisDevlin'scollectionofpoemsIntercessions,notyetpublishedby Reavey'sEuropa Press. Irish writerEdward Sheehy (c. 1910-1956) was on the staffof Ireland To-Day, a journal published from June 1936 to March 1938, edited by Frank O'Connor. SB did not write this review.
"Execute myself' (Gallicism for "do it as asked").
13 KimmageisaDublinsuburb. TheannualRoyalHibernianAcademyExhibition was at this time.
14 Ethna MacCarthy's painting by the School of Pourbus: 20 February 1935, n. 13.
15 VeraHone;LennoxandDollyRobinson. "Would not go" (Gallicism for "wouldn't work").
16 Three works by Poussin were lent for the Chefs d'Oeuvre de ! 'Art Franc;:ais Exhibition at the Palais National des Arts in Paris from June to October 1937: The Entombment of Christ (NG! 214 ), Acis and Galatea (NG! 814), and an ink and wash on paper, The Marriage of Acis and Galatea (NG! 2842). Lucas Cranach's painting Christ on the Cross (NGJ 471) was lent to the Kaiser Friedrich Museum in Berlin (from 24 April 1937); A Young Fisherman of Scheveningen (also known as The Fisher Boy, NGI 193) by Franz Hals was lent for the Franz Hals Exhibition in Haarlem Uuly to September 1937) ("National Gallery of Ireland: Loans and Purchases," The Irish Times 8 April 1937: 8).
17 When in Spain during the summer and autumn of 1936, Nancy Cunard met Pablo Neruda, who introduced her to Spanish poets, and encouraged her to create a series to print poetry inspired by the Spanish Civil War. Six pamphlets were published in 1937, hand-printed by Cunard and Neruda on her press at Reanville: Les Poetes du monde defendent le peup! e espagnol (Poets of the World Defend the Spanish People). The first number, Dos Poemas, consisted of a poem by Neruda, "Canto sobre unas ruinas", and another by Cunard, "Para hacerse amar", tr. Vicente Aleixandre (La Chapelle Reanville, 1937; Chisholm, Nancy Cunard: A Biography, 235-238; Rafael Osuna, Pablo Neruda y Nancy Cunard: ! es poetes du monde defendent le peuple espagnol lMadrid: Editorial Origenes, 1987] 21-30).
18 ThomasRudmose-BrownpublishedareviewofthethesisofErnaLow,"Beitrage zur De Tabley Forschung" (University of Vienna, 1935) in Dublin Magazine 12. 2 (April-June 1937) 72-74. In the review, Rudmose-Brown writes of how the poetry of John Byrne Leicester Warren, Baron de Tabley (1835-1895) influenced him while a student in Aberdeen; Rudmose-Brown alludes to his wife's death through quotation of de Tabley's lines ("How lonely all the years will run / Until I rest by thee" and "To listen for a step that will not come! ").
Llewelyn Powys, "Dr. Johnson - Idler, Rambler and Straggler," Dublin Magazine 12. 2 (April-June 1937) 9-15.
American-born British writer Vincent O'Sullivan (ne Sean O'Suilleabhain, 1872-1940) had financial and US citizenship difficulties at this time (letter 6 March 1937 to Seumas O'Sullivan, TCD, MSS 4630-49/1439; letter to A. J. A. Symons 1 March 11937], in Vincent O'Sullivan, Selected Letters, ed. Alan Anderson ILoanhead, Scotland: Tragara Press. 1993] 43-45). Vincent O'Sullivan had done some paid research for
492
26 April 1937, McGreevy Joseph Hone's book on George Moore in 1934-1935 (Vincent O'Sullivan, FifteenLetters
to Seumas O'Sullivan [Edinburgh: Tragara Press, 1979] 20-24, 28).
19 Big Sugarloaf (1,659 feet) is southwest of Bray, Co. Wicklow. SB refers to the Fassaroe cross, 1 mile northeast of Enniskerry and 2 miles west-southwest of Bray, in a niche on the north side ofa narrow by-road (road SN 337); a primitive crucifixion is on one side and two human heads on the other (Anthony Weir, Early Ireland: A Field Guide [Belfast: BlackstaffPress, 1980] 231; William Cumming, Architect, National Monuments Division,The Office ofPublic Works, Dublin, 1 November 1994).
Whitsunday fell on 16 May in 1937. Clonmel is the largest town in Co. Tipperary. The Galtee Mountains, the highest inland range in Ireland, extend westward for about 16 miles from Cahir, Co. Tipperary. Blackstairs Mountain (2,411 feet) is in Co. Carlow, near Cashel, Co. Tipperary.
20 SB's reading notes about Samuel Johnson, especially his relationship with HesterThrale, can be found in his notebooks for Human Wishes (BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1-3).
Johnson and theThrales: 13 December 1936 and n. 6 and n. 8.
After his stroke, Johnson wrote to Hester Thrale on 19 June 1785: "I have loved you with virtuous affection, I have honoured You with sincere Esteem. Let not all our endear ment be forgotten" (Samuel Johnson,Letters ofSamuelJohnsonLLD. , II. Jan15, 1777-Dec. 18,
1784, col. and ed. George Birkbeck Hill [New York: Harper and Brothers, 1892] 303). When Johnson suspected Mrs. Thrale had already married Piozzi, he berated her in what is known as his "rough Jetter" of 2 July 1784: "If you have abandoned your children and your religion, God forgive your wickedness. " Then, thinking that he might still prevent the marriage, he added: "I who have loved you, esteemed you, reverenced you, & served you, I who long thought you the first of womankind, entreat that before your fate is irrevocable, I may once more see you" Oohnson,Letters ofSamuel
Johnson, LL. D, II, 405-406; BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1. f. 10-llR, f. 12 R).
21 Vulliamy wrote that Mr. Thrale "could never emerge from his constitutional torpidity, and all that we know of him proves him to have been a man whose intelligence was Jess than mediocre. " Yet Johnson supported Thrale in domestic dis putes and "expressed a high regard for Mr. Thrale, in which it was difficult to avoid seeing a trace of hypocrisy or of obstinacy" (Mrs. Thrale of Streatham, 68-69, 72).
22 HesterThralemarriedPiozziinLondonon23July1784. Herlastmeetingwith Johnson was on 5 April 1783, when Johnson wrote in his Diary (rather than his Meditations): "I took leave of Mrs. Thrale. I was much moved. I had some expostulations with her. She said that she was likewise affected" (Samuel Johnson, Diaries, Prayers, and Annals, ed. E. L. McAdam, Jr. with Donald Hyde and Mary Hyde,The Yale Edition of the Works of Samuel Johnson, I [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1958] 358-359).
When Mr. and Mrs. Thrale had discovered Johnson on his knees before Dr. John Delap (1725-1812) in June 1766, "Beseeching God to continue to him the use of his understanding," they resolved to take him into their country home, Streatham, where he stayed from late June until October, and where he later became a regular visitor (Bate, SamuelJohnson, 412; BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1, f. 41R).
Irish writer Arthur Murphy (ne Charles Ranger, 1727-1805), HenryThrale's oldest friend, had introduced Johnson to the Thrales; Murphy supported Mrs. Thrale in her decision to marry Piozzi, when even her friend Frances Burney (known as Fanny, 1752-1840), among others, sought to prevent it (Bate, Samuel Johnson, 572; BIF, UoR. MS 3461/1, f. 14R and f. 35 R).
493
26 April 1937, McGreevy
When Frank Barber was interviewed by "Our Ingenious Meteorological Journalist" for Gentleman's Magazine, he reported that Johnson had never cursed at him, saying that the worst word he had had from Johnson was: "You dunghill dog" ("A Meteorologist's Tour from Walton to London," Gentleman's Magazine and Historical 63. 1 Uuly 1793] 620).
23 Les Lauriers sont coupes (1887) by Edouard Dujardin (1861-1949). Joyce read the novel between 1902 and 1903. tried without success to be in touch with Dujardin in 1917. and acknowledged the impact of Dujardin on Ulysses (Ellmann. James Joyce. 126, 411. 520; Elizabeth van der Staay, Le Monologue interieur dans ! 'oeuvre de Valery Larbaud [Paris: Champion-Slatkine, 1987], 84-85; Mary Colum disputes this influence, Life and the Dream, 394-395). Joyce mentioned Dujardin's novel to Larbaud in 1921 and secured a copy for Larbaud, who became an admirer, writing the preface for Les Lauriers sont coupes when it was reissued (Paris: Messein, 1925) (Ellmann, James Joyce, 519-520).
"Astuce" (shrewdness).
24 Jeremy Thompson, son ofAlan Thompson and Frances Sylvia Thompson (nee
Reeves, 1904-1982), was born on 25April 1937.
25 CharlesPrentice. IfSBwrotetohim,theletterhasnotbeenfound.
26 On19September1777BoswellnotedofJohnson:"'If(saidhe)1hadnoduties, and no reference to futurity, I would spend my life in driving briskly in a post-chaise with a pretty woman; but she should be one who could understand me, and would add something to the conversation'" (Boswell, Boswell's Life of]ohnson, Ill, The Life /1776-1780}, 162). SB commented in his notebook for Human Wishes that this was a symptom of impotence (BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1, f. 90V).
27 At Seumas O'Sullivan's home, Grange House, Beckett's aunt, Cissie Sinclair, met Ernest O'Malley (1898-1957), a Republican, journalist, and advocate of Irish artists.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
14/5/37 Cooldrinagh Foxrock
DearTom
I was very sorry to hear about Raven. I can well imagine the
kind of performance. He will probably feel much better for it, for a time. I wish you did not come in for all these dramas. Dont be
1
died in Rathdrum Sanatorium lastTuesday week and was buried
494
persuaded to go back to 15.
I have done very little for the past fortnight. Boss Sinclair
in the Jewish cemetery the following Thursday. The week before
I was down with Cissie I don't know how many times. His last
words to me were an apology for his poor company. Har:ry was
with him at the end. Cissie takes it quite calmly, her affective
apparatus is worn out. He is not missed from the house in Mayne
Road because he was never there. Har:ry & Cissie asked me to
write something for the Irish Times, which I did, with only an
hour to do it. Har:ry put it into Smyllie's hand, I standing visible
but aloof, and did not say whose it was. Smyllie promised to put
it in, had in fact asked Harry for something, but it did not appear.
2
some weeks before his death. Gogarty has been evading service of
writ for the past 3 or 4 days & I do not think they have got him
even now. Dodging out ofhis back door, sleeping in Howth, etc.
What good does he think that will do him. All kinds of dirt will be
raked up & I suppose they will try & discredit me as author of the
Pricks. That is ifGogarty faces the court, which I fancy he will do
lepping, unless Cowan & Rich [for Rich & Cowan] insist on settling
outside. Apparently he & they took advice at every point of the
book, but from some London lawyer incompetent to appreciate
the references! I think most people here disapprove of the action,
however little sympathy they may have with the defendant,
perhaps just on that account. But there are limits to scurrility, &
to cynical laissez-faire. It is not pleasant for me and wont do me
3
495
14 May 1937, McGreevy
Har:ry had to write something himselfin the end.
I suppose you have read about the action for libel that Har:ry is taking against Gogarty. I am in it up to the neck. And gladly in so far as Boss wanted it done, having seen the offending passage
any good. But it will amuse me. And Boss wanted it. Assez.
I met Furlong one evening at Hones and left him to it very shortly after dinner, left him talking about the dear Rajah who was so anxious to obtain his services and the exquisite Lady
14 May 1937, McGreevy
Fingal[l), in his voice where the Nancy, Mayfair & Tipperary
elements meet without mixing. Ineffable shoulders. His sole
aesthetic remark was that Vermeer built up his pictures in a
contrast of blue & yellow. I very nearly asked him which
4
I was really shocked to see what he had done with the
Gallery. He has taken all the Dutch pictures down to the print
room & the prints are in the cellars. The print room is done up a
cold dark scientific laboratory or public lavatory green. There is
no top light & the pictures, all boldly hung in a single line, are
worse than invisible. As there is not room for them all on the
walls he is experimenting with movable screens. He looks for
ward to treating the sculpture hall in the same way, i. e. remov
ing the casts & putting pictures there. There is no top lighting
there either. No matter how one addresses oneselfto a picture
one has the light in one's eyes. And they are all hung on about a
5
when there is plenty ofroom & the line set at the right height, is
carried on upstairs, where the Italian pictures begin now in the
Dutch rooms (& Irish room) & finish with the awful Gentileschi
& Piazzetta in the big room where they all were previously. The
wallpaper has been done up an indescribable shade ofanchovy
which Furlong asserts "goes well" with "Italian pictures", as a
man might have a prejudice in favour ofstout with oysters. It
has a pleasant effect on the blues of Canaletto & Bellotto. The
result of the single line is acres of this heavy angry colour
weighing down on the pictures and on the spectator. The rail
6
Vermeer he meant. He talked all the stock sentimental bunk about the Nazi persecutions. He asked were you in Paris. I said, on the contrary. He doesn't smoke & he doesn't drink & tea parties are his passion -
level with the pubic bone.
The mania for single line hanging, which is all very well
hehasremovedaltogether.
