No More Learning

12 TramandbusdriverswereonstrikeinDublin;serviceresumedonlyon18May 1935 ("Sixty Days of Tramway Strike," The Irish Times 1 May 1935: 8; "Trams and Buses To-Day," The Irish Times 18 May 1935: 9).
13 SBreferstoThompson'scourtshipofUrsulaStenhouse;"c'est! 'amour"(it'slove). "Schone Griisse" (warm greetings). Hester Dowden, Geraldine Cummins (Dilly).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London s_w. 10
Cher ami
Nostradamus et Michel de ! 'Hospital en collaboration,
1
astres et cadastres, vraie cellule de l'histoire. Tes poemes en retirent la membrane. Poles et principes male et femelle, cast­ agnettes de meme si tu veux, c'est plutot a celui-ci que je me surprends a songer par tous les secteurs de ton cycle, ce qui est
268
imprevisible, celle du tres Saint-Barthelemy, qui n'est apres tout
qu'une fa�on de . . gemir, et dont le firmament n'est guere plus
3
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London S. W. 10
Dear George,
Nostradamus and Michel de l'Hospital in collaboration, cel­
estial bodies and terrestrial plots, a true cell of history. 1 Your poems pull the membrane from it. Male and female poles and principles, ditto castanets if you like, this is the one I catch myself musing over through all the sectors of your cycle, which is no doubt part of your design. 2 But congratulations above all on that threat or promise, swelling like some orgasm whose term is unpredictable, of the very Saintly Bartholomew, which is after all only a manner of . . . moaning, something no more consoling to the firmament than afart on fire. 3
All signs are offarewell. 4 Let me have one all the same. All the best
Sam
1 For the sequence of poems Nostradam, Reavey cites as an epigraph lines from D. H. Lawrence's poem '"The Ship of Death":
269
23 May 1935, Reavey
danstondesseinsansdoute. 2 Maisfelicitationsavanttoutdecette
menace ou promesse grandissant comme orgasme a echeance
console que d'un pet en combustion.
Taus les signes sont d'adieu. 4 Ll. che-moi en [for Lache-m'en]
un tout de meme. Amities
s/ Sam
ALS; 1 leaf. 1 side; TxU.
23 May 1935, Reavey
"Build then the ship ofdeath, for you must take The longest journey[,] to oblivion.
And die the death, the long and painful death That lies between the old selfand the new. " ([31)
The poems in the first section ofNostradam, "A Word for Nostradamus" (9-22), explore political and religious upheaval following the death ofHemy II (1519-1559), as predicted by French physician and astrologer Nostradamus (Latin name ofMichel de Notredame, 1503-1566). Michel de ! 'Hospital (c. 1505-1573) represented Henry II at the Council ofTrent (1545-1563), and, after the King's death, became Chancellor ofFrance from 1560 to 1568; he advocated policy reform and religious toleration, but as the Wars of Religion (Catholics vs. Huguenots) resumed in 1567, L'Hospital and the moderates were discredited.
Reavey's epigraph for this section is drawn from Nostradamus, I, 53, although it modernizes some words:
"Lorsqu'on [for Las qu'on] verra grand peuple tourmente Et la Joy sainte [for Loy Saincte] en totale ruine
Par autres fois [for loix] toute la Chrestiente Quand d'or d'argent trouve nouvelle mine. "
("Alas, how a great people shall be tormented
And the Holy Laws in total ruin,
By other laws, all Christianity troubled,
When new mines ofgold and silver will be found. ")
(The Complcte Prophecies ofNostradamus, ed. and tr. Henry C. Roberts, [New York: Crown, 1947] 26)
Reavey dedicated the poem "Tell me that Dream" to SB; it considers Nostradamus's dream ofdeath (Nostradam, 13).
2 ThesecondsequenceofsixpoemsinReavey'sNostradamisentitled"ALaBelle Dame -Sans Merci" (21-28). SB alludes to the contrasts between the two sections of Nostradam.
3 On the feast day of St. Bartholomew in 1572, a massacre of French Huguenots began in Paris and continued in the countryside for a month.
"Fa�on de . . gemir" (manner of. . moaning, adapted from "fa�on de parler" [manner ofspeaking])
4 SBalludestoReavey'sSignesd'adieu. GEORGE REAVEY
LONDON
23/6/35 34 Gertrude St London SW 10
270
plaisent plus que tout ce que j'ai lu de toi jusqu'ici.
Comme
articulation - lyrisme succinct, pensee qui n'insiste pas, litote
sans secheresse - ils ne risquent guere de se perdre. (Femmes si
2
23 June 1935, Reavey
Cher ami
Oui, elle et lui foyers de la vie ellipse de solitudes. On finira
bien par ne plus se donner la peine de verifier les distances.
Je suis bien aise de pouvoir te dire que tes Signes me
1
reelles et quatre derniers vers de Souci Tristesse).
Mais c'est
avant tout comme temperament que j'en admire la qualite,
temperament que je ne me souviens pas d'avoir trouve ailleurs
sinon dans les ! I"agiques de Jouve, qui l'a toutefois beaucoup
3
traduction est excellente. Merci infiniment.
A toi Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
Dear George
Yes, he and she sources oflife ellipsis ofsolitudes. We shall
end up not troubling to check the distances.
I am very pleased to be able to tell you that I like your Signes
1
plus indique.
Je n'ai pas besoin de }'original pour comprendre que la
4
more than anything I've read ofyours up till now.
As articu­
lation - succinct lyricism, unobtrusive thought, litotes with­
out dryness - they are in no danger oflosing their way. ("Femmes
2
sireelles"andlastfourlinesof"Soucitristesse"). Butitisabove all for their temperament that I admire the quality of them, a temperament that I cannot remember finding anywhere except in Jouve's Tragiques, where in any case it is much more insistent. 3
271
23 June 1935, Reavey
I do not need the original to understand that the translation
4
Yours Sam
1 Reavey,Signesd'adieu. 2 Reavey'spoem:
Femmes si reelles votre realite n'est pas sure quant a ce qui est des caresses
signes d'adieu d'etoiles mourantes apposition des mains mesintelligence
des levres et des yeux l'enchainement de certains moments et l'inconsequence de la plupart.
SB discusses the four last lines of:
Souci tristesse
ainsi parle cette musique
mais le coeur s'y laisserait prendre? Jamais! c'est une ravine ou ! 'on s'affaisse 6 destin plus fort que l'acier
et plus puissant que tout vouloir
ii est la tapi dans cette musique
et le desir vous effleure
mais dans Jes failles des montagnes
la neige s'ecoule en torrents.
is excellent.
Very many thanks
(21)
(16) 3 Tragiques(1923),acollectionofpoemsbyPierre-Jeanjouve(1887-1976).
4 Signesd'adieu,theFrenchtranslationofReavey'spoems:10March[1935],n. 8;an English edition, Frailty ofLove, was announced, but it was not published.
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, IRELAND
8 Sep [1935] 34 Gertrude St [London]
272
8 September {1935}, McGreevy The discrepancy between mind and body is terrible. It is
1
I have been as you know me. I miss you greatly. I had a card
2
round, less Cytherean. We had a lovely walk in Battersea Park. 3
I would like to live in a perpetual September. One does one's best
to prefer Spring, in vain. I had a letter from Simon & Schuster,
asking to see all available material. I told Chatto's to send Proust &
Pricks. Parsons expressed himself overcome by the sound of my
voice after so long. Were he not just on the point of going on
holiday, etc. When could Chatto's look forward to hearing from
me in my hack's capacity. So long now since. No news of Charles
if not a card from the midlands, where wonderful dinners are
4
of proofs which have not come. The Undertaker's Man is the
hardest to mitigate. It never was a poem and the best I can do
now is to cut my losses. Yet it has something that will not let me
leave it out altogether. They will provoke the irritated guffaw &
heehaw all right. Deja quelquechose. I have also been working
5
Miss Costello turned up from Las Palrnas, but Poggioli was the best I could put up. Their spaghetti alla B. are very aphrodis­ iac, pace Geoffrey and the courting extremists. We went to a brief Spanish colour film in Tottenham Court Rd. , La Cucaracha. 6 That
273
My dear Tom
somethingthatthefourofyouaretogether. Andthatyouhave been able to feel close to her if only briefly. May it all be over soon, for her and for you all.
from Hester announcing remove to Sorrento. Geoffrey was
being had by him. No inquiries for you.
I have been working over the poems, in the expectation
at other stuff, I fear involontairement trivial. Well if it is so and I am so, amen. Really anything at all is better than the perpetual blankness and obliteration before the fact. I hope to keep at it.
8 September {1935}, McGreevy
cooled me off. And a good thing, with such an unclitoridian companion.
[. . . ]
I begin to think I have gerontophilia on top of the rest. The
little shabby respectable old men you see on Saturday afternoon
and Sunday, pottering about doing odd jobs in the garden, or
flying kites immense distances at the Round Pond, Kensington.
Yesterday there was a regular club ofthe latter, with a sprinkling
of grandchildren, sitting in a crescent waiting for a wind. The
kites lying in the grass with their long tails beautifully cared for,
all assembled and ready. For they bring them in separate pieces,
the sticks and tail rolled up in the canvas and a huge spool of
string. Some have boats as well, but not the real enthusiasts.
Then great perturbation to get them off at the first breath of
wind. They fly them almost out of sight, yesterday it was over
the trees to the south, into an absolutely cloudless viridescent
evening sky. Then when the string is run out they simply sit
there watching them, chucking at the string, the way coachmen
do at a reins, presumably to keep them from losing height. There
seems to be no competition at all involved. Then after about an
hour they wind them gently in and go home. I was really rooted
to the spot yesterday, unable to go away and wondering what
was keeping me. Extraordinary effect too of birds flying close
to the kites but beneath them. My next old man, or old young
man, not of the big world but of the little world, must be a
kite-flyer. So absolutely disinterested, like a poem, or useful in
the depths where demand and supply coincide, and the prayer is
the god. Yes, prayer rather than poem, in order to be quite clear,
7
because poems are prayers, of Dives and Lazarus one flesh. Then there is the "old boy" of the house opposite, whose seizure of course remains the felony that was first described to
274
8 September {1935], McGreevy
me, and whose cup is still on the sill where he left it, though the
crusts have been taken away. I suppose they keep hens in the
back. Well, I suppose the less dirty clouds of dirty glory people
trail about with them, the more likeable they are, and so the
clean old man takes the eye. The doctrine of reminiscence may
8
for anyone but the failures". I thought that was quite the nicest thing anyone had said to me for a long time.
You know all I wish for you. That the hope of your Arrangement be not much longer deferred, to begin with. 9 Then the rest.
Love ever s/ Sam
TIS; I leaf, 2 sides; TCD, MS 10402/80. Dating: in a letter of 31 August 1935 (TCD), SB writes to McGreevy that his brother Frank is in Donegal for a fortnight, and on 22 September 1935 that Frank and May Beckett have moved to Killiney. Previous publication: The paragraph beginning "I begin to think . . . " is published in Deirdre Bair, Samuel Beckett: A Biography (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978) 207.
1 McGreevywrotetoRichardAldington:"Mymotherhasbeenverybadbutiseasier now. her mind as clear as ever" (10 September 1935, TxU: Derek Patmore). Two of McGreevy's six sisters were with him in Tarbert - Honora Phelan and Margaret McGreevy.
2 Hester Dowden was on holiday in Ireland; having stayed in Bray with her friend Geraldine Cummins, she was now visiting her daughter Dolly Robinson at her home, "Sorrento," in Dalkey (Cummins to Thomas McGreevy, 14 August 1935, TCD MS 8111).
3 GeoffreyThompson. BatterseaPark,LondonSW11,ontheThames.
4 TheNewYorkpublishers,SimonandSchuster.
Ian Parsons (1906-1980) was an Editor at Chatto and Windus. By "hack work" SB refers to his critical writing. In 1932, he had proposed a study of Gide to Chatto and Windus (see 13 [September 1932J, n. 3).
Charles Prentice had retired as a Director at Chatto and Windus at the end of 1934 (Prentice to Harold Raymond [1887-1975], a Partner in Chatto and Windus, 3 January 1935, enclosing a copy of the "Deed of Release, duly signed & witnessed" [UoR, MS 2444 CW 54/131). SB reports Parsons's latest news ofPrentice; unsurprisingly,
275
hold for turds. And even they cool quickly.
Miss Costello said to me: "You haven't a good word to say
8 September {1935), McGreevy
McGreevy misunderstood this to mean that Prentice had stayed in contact with SB, though not with him: "Sam gets an odd postcard with no mention of me ever" (McGreevy to Richard Aldington, 11 September 1935, TxU, Derek Patmore collection).
5 SB was expecting to receive proofs of his first collection of poems, Echo's Bones, published by The Europa Press in November 1935. By "The Undertaker's Man," he refers to "Malacoda" [33-34[.
"Deja quelquechose" [for quelque chose] (better than nothing); "involontairement" (involuntarily).
6 Nuala Costello. Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Poggioli was an Italian restaurant, 5 Charlotte Street, Soho. La Cucaracha (1934), directed by Lloyd Corrigan (1900-1969).
7 "Gerontophi! ia"isatermincludedinSB'snotestakenonErnestJones'sPapersin Psycho-Analysis (1923) (TCD, MS 10971/8/18).
SB wrote "<prayers> poems are prayers. "
"Dives and Lazarus" refers to the parable of the rich man, Dives, whose petition was not granted, whereas that of Lazarus was (Luke 16:19-31).
8 The"oldboy"andhisfelonyaredescribedinBair,SamuelBeckett,207,whereno source is given.
9 McGreevy'snovelArrangement,alsoentitledNeitherwillI,wasneverpublished(see TCD, MS 8039/55).
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
Sunday [22 September 1935]
34 Gertrude St. , [London]
Dear Tom
I lunched to-day with Hester & Raven. She looks a new
woman after her holiday. Result I suppose of having fixed things
with Dolly. She seems to have got about a lot & seen all the
Jonsons, from O'Casey up or down. She was overjoyed at my
being able to identify Longford from her description of eunuch
1
seen at first night of Higgins, who she calls O'Higgins. She appears to know of your name in connexion with Municipal Gallery, but says she heard of nothing but highest praise of
276
Sunday {22 September 1935/, McGreevy
Reynolds. Funny you heard nothing more from Stewart. Perhaps the Munden in is coming a cropper. 2
I had no application for a poem, & proofs of mine have not
yet come. Had a card from Reavey from Toledo - Count Orgel
[for Orgaz]. Nothing more from S. & S. Chatto's may not have
bothered sending the books. Should not think anything is likely
to come of it, unless they want to have me under contract for a
3
forward. I have done about 9000 words. It is poor stuff & I have
4
Bion is not interested. Geoffrey checks a smile. I feel absolutely certain that I will get no further with analysis than I have done, that from now on it is money thrown away. Yet I have not the courage to call it off. I also feel certain that there is something wrong with my guts, yet have not the courage to consult a doctor on my own. Where one is as devoid of courage as I am there seems to be nothing more to be said or done.
Geoffrey is getting married on Nov.
2nd down at Lulworth Cove, Dorset, in church. I had long ago promised to be his witness in registry office, so now find myself booked for the misfortunes of Hairy. I was down at Bedlam this day week & went round the wards for the first time, with scarcely any sense of horror, though I saw everything, from mild depression to profound dementia. 5
I went to Woizikovski [for Woizikovsky] ballet Thursday & saw Sylphides, which I find positively ugly, Amour Sorcier & Petrouchka. Tarakanova danced the Widow & the Doll extremely well. I went with Hillis whom I ran into again in King's Road. I dined with him one evening in Cheyne Walk, & he played
277
possible some thing some day.
I have been forcing myself to keep at the book, & it crawls
no interest in it.
The intestinal pains are worse than they have been so far.
Sunday {22 September 1935}, McGreevy
the Debussy Quartet for me & some songs (si on peut dire)
from Pelleas. Very pleasant. He is very pleasant, knows a lot
of music. Woizikovski does not dance so subtly as Massine,
yet the Petrouchka as philosophy was elucidated without any
attempt to do so having appeared, the man of low humanity
worshipping the earthball, & the man of high execrating his
6
at last. 7 Frank never writes, but Mother seems happier. All the visitors have left, which means strain intensified for both of them.
Raven was very gay (for him) & breathed forth guarantees concerning your books. I have the Boissier down for renewal
8
Montchretien I don't know at all. Hester was saying very nice things of the Montherlant, & of Guy de Pourtales' Chopin,
9
The weather had been so exquisite that it was impossible to stay in, especially at dusk, but since the monstrous moon of last Thursday week it has gone to bits. The kites at the Round Pond yesterday were plunging & writhing all over the sky. The book closes with an old man flying his kite, if such occasions ever arise. 11
Cissie has moved from Howth & is now in Moyne Road,
Rathgar. She has hired a piano & writes very happy at having
12
creator.
News from home satisfactory. They have reached Killiney
on Wednesday & shall not forget. It is no trouble. I am glad you have your catalogue. I have not been to a gallery for weeks. Preoccupation with the writing sucks all the attention I have out of me. If one could even look forward to going to bed!
whichImustsayIshouldnotcaretoface. Ihavegotstuckinthe Rabelais again, on the voyage round the world to consult the oracle of the Bottle. 10
a sanctuary, except that Boss refuses to leave Newcastle.
278
Sunday {22 September 1935), McGreevy
Hilliard is still about. I walked out ofthe door one morning
and there he was playing cricket with the street-urchins. No
doubt he is staying with Paddy Trench whom I see flying about
13
bring her to something worth having. It is certainly very awk­ ward about Delia, though I am sure you are blessing the extra
16
ALS; 3 leaves, 3 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Co Keny, Irish Free State; pm 23-9-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/81. Dating: pm; Thursday 19 September 1935 was the only evening that the Woizikovsky ballet included Les Sylphides, L'Amour Sorrier, and Petrouchka on the same program at the Coliseum.
1 HesterDowdenandThomasHolmesRavenhill. HesterDowdenhadjustreturned from Ireland and a visit with her daughter Dolly Robinson; the allusion to Ben Jonson suggests that she had seen all of the playwrights connected with the Abbey Theatre, of which her son-in-law Lennox Robinson was Director.
Edward Arthur Henry Pakenham, sixth Earl of Longford (1902-1961), theatrical producer and dramatist, supported the fledgling Gate Theatre from 1931 to 1936, at which time it divided into the Gate Company and the Longford Players, each group playing six months in residence in Dublin and six months touring.
F. R. Higgins became a Director of the Abbey Theatre in 1935; the opening of his verse play The Deuce of]acks, on 16 September 1935, was attended by Lord Longford and Irish playwright Sean O'Casey (1880-1964) (Holloway. Joseph Holloway's Irish Theatre, II, 1932-1937, 48).
2 John J. Reynolds (n. d. ) was Curator of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art from 1924 until 30 September 1935; he was replaced by John F. Kelly (n. d. ) on 1 October 1935.
William McCausland Stewart (1900-1989), then Professor of French at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, had mentioned the Directorship of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art to McGreevy and indicated that if McGreevy were interested he should be in touch with W. B. Yeats and Dermod O'Brien to support his application (Stewart to McGreevy, 19 August 1935 ITCD, MS 8136/76]; Susan Schriebman, 15
January 2007).
"Miinden in" (Ger. , flowing out, as at the mouth ofa river).
3 Proofs of Echo's Bones were awaited from George Reavey, Europa Press. Reavey had sent a card from Spain depicting The Burial of Count Orgaz (1586, Church of Santo
279
on an old motor-bike.
Your mother's powers ofrecovery are amazing & hope they
presence in the house. Love ever
Sam
Sunday {22 September 1935), McGreevy
Tome, Toledo) by Crete-born artist El Greco (ne Domenikos Theotokopoulos, 1541-1614); SB was familiar with the painting, having referred to it in Dream of Pair to Middling Women: "Her great eyes I - . . J went as big and black as El Greco painted, with a couple of good wet slaps from his laden brush, in the Burial of the Count ofOrgaz the debauched eyes of his son or was it his mistress? " (174).
The request of Simon and Schuster: 8 September 1935.
4 ThemanuscriptofMurphy.
5 SB was best man for Geoffrey and Ursula Thompson on 2 November 1935 in Lulworth, England (Cynthia Frazier, 18July 1994). SB's character Capper Quin, "known to his admirers as Hairy," was best man for Belacqua's marriage to Thelma bboggs (More Pricks Than Kicks, 124).
Thompson was Senior House Physician at Bethlem Royal Hospital (popularly known as Bedlam), although by 1914 it was described as a "charitable institution for the better-class insane, especially for curable cases (over 50% are dismissed as cured") (Findlay Muirhead, London and Its Environs, 2nd edn. , The Blue Guides [London: Macmillan, 1922] 319.
6 ThecompanyofPolishdancerandchoreographerLeonWoizikovsky(1899-1975) performed on Thursday 19 September 1935 at the London Coliseum. The ballet Les Sylphides (1909; previously entitled Chopiniana) was choreographed by Michel Fokine (1880-1942) and orchestrated by Aleksandr Konstantinovich Glazunov (1865-1936), Igor Stravinsky, and Sergei lvanovich Taneyev (1856-1915), from music by Frederic Chopin.
In the ballet L'Amour sorder (1935; Love the Magidan), Woizikovsky created new choreography for Manuel de Falla's one-act ballet El amor brujo (1916-1917); in this production, the Widow was danced by Nina Tarakanova (1915-1994); she also per­ formed the role of the Ballerina/Doll choreographed by Michel Fokine in Stravinsky's ballet Petrouchka (also Petrushka).
Arthur Hillis recalled SB's enthusiasm for Petrushka, and also that SB was particu­ larly interested in the structure of Debussy's String Quartet in G minor, op. 10: how the piece builds in the first three movements and then "blows it to bits in the fourth" (Arthur Hillis, 3 July 1992). Selections from Debussy's opera in four acts, Pellfos et Melisande, were recorded as "A Collector's Pelleas" (Paris Recordings, VAIA 1083, 1927-1928).
"Si on peut dire" (if I may call them that).
Leonide Massine played leading roles in Diaghilev's ballets between 1914 and 1928. Woizikovsky was a member of the Diaghilev Ballets Russes from 1915 to 1929, where he and Massine alternated in major roles.
In Petrushka, the Blackamoor infers that the coconut contains a powerful god and salutes it, and the Old Wizard defuses the dismay of onlookers by showing that Petrushka is merely a puppet.
7 MayandFrankBecketthadmovedtemporarilytoahouseinKilliney.
8 RavenhillreactedpositivelytoMcGreevy'srecentpublications:Poems(1934),and his translation, Lament for the Death of an Upper Class.
While McGreevy was away from London, SB renewed the loan of a library book by Gaston Boissier (ne Marie-Louis-Antoine-Gaston Boissier, 1823-1908), French classical scholar.
280
8 October 1935, McGreevy
9 AntoinedeMontchretien(c. 1575-1621),Frenchdramatistandeconomist.
Guy de Pourtales (1881-1941), Chopin; ou, le Poete (Paris: Gallimard, 1926), which was translated as Frederick Chopin: A Man of Solitude, tr. Charles Bayly Jr. (London: T.
Butterworth, 1927).
10 SB had purchased Rabelais's Gargantua et Pantagruel (1532-1533) in the Genie de la France edition (Paris: R. Hilsum, 1932; Paris: Gallimard, 1932) in four volumes (SB to McGreevy, 25 Uuly 1935], TCD, MS 10402/77). Rabelais relates a quest around the world to reach the "oracle of the Holy Bottle" (Books III-V). Although notes taken from this edition are included in TCD, MS 10969, there are none from books IV or V (Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10969: Germany, Europe, and the French Revolution. Rabelais," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue SBT/A 16 [2006] 96-97, 102-103).
11 TheendingofMurphy:see8September1935.
12 With her children Nancy, Deirdre, and Morris, Cissie Sinclair had moved to 85 Moyne Road, Rathgar, Co. Dublin; the house belonged to the Beckett family estate. Boss Sinclair was being treated at the National Hospital for Consumption in Ireland, known as Newcastle Sanatorium, in Newtownmountkennedy, near Greystones, Co. Wicklow.
13 Robert Martin Hilliard (1904-1937) studied at Trinity College Dublin, repre­ sented Ireland as a featherweight boxer in the 1928 Olympic Games, was ordained and took a parish in the Church of Ireland in Belfast (1933-1934); he moved to London where he worked as a journalist (1935) (Chalmers [Terry] Trench, 27 August 1993, and 13 September 1993; Rev. Barr to Terry Trench, 28September 1993; John Corcoran, "The Rev. Robert Martin Hilliard (1904-1937)," Keny Archaeological and Historical Society Journal, 2nd series, 5 [2005] 207-219).
Patrick Trench (1896-1939), the elder son of the TCDEnglish Professor Wilbraham Fitzjohn Trench, lived at 351 King's Road in September 1935.
16 BridgetMcGreevy(knownasDelia,1896-1977)hadnotfoundateachingposi­ tion, and thus remained in Tarbert at the McGreevy family home.
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
Oct. 8th '35 34 Gertrude St [London] S. W. 10
Dear Tom
I did not find your letter in Observer but expect it will be
in next Sunday. What a paper - tout de meme! The pompous
281
8 October 1935, McGreevy
trimming of that pisspot Garvin. Next week you will have it starched & unfurled. 1
It is good news that your sister has found even temporary work, I supposed [for suppose] it has saved the situation vis-a-vis your mother.
I think I saw Hester last Saturday night week. I went round & found her with the niece & husband. 2 I have not been round since. I dined one evening with Bion, a hurried but good sole at the
Etoile in Charlotte St. , & went on to hear Jung at the Institute of
Psychological Medicine. He struck me as a kind of super AE, the
mind infinitely more ample, provocative & penetrating, but the
3
He let fall some remarkable things nevertheless. He protests so
vehemently that he is not a mystic that he must be one of the
very most nebulous kind. Certainly he cannot keep the termi­
nology out of his speech, but I suppose that is a difficulty for
everyone. His lecture the night I went consisted mainly in the
so called synthetic (versus Freudian analytic) interpretation of
three dreams of a patient who finally went to the dogs because
he insisted on taking a certain element in the dreams as the
Oedipus position when Jung told him it was nothing of the kind!
However he lost his neurosis among the dogs - again according
4
same cuttle-fish's discharge & escapes from the issue in the end.
to Jung. The mind is I suppose the best Swiss, Lavater & Rousseau, mixture of enthusiasm & Euclid, a methodical rhap­ sode. 5 Jolas's pigeon all right, but I should think in the end less than the dirt under Freud's nails. 6 I can't imagine his curing a fly of neurosis, & yet he is said to have actually cured cases of schizophrenia. If this is true he is the first to do it. He insists on patients having their horoscopes cast! 7
Bion off the job is pleasant, but against a background
8
of tooth & yank camps that makes me tremble. I hope he
282
pis. I must use me to them.
As to going away even to Spain, I fear that is unlikely for
8 October 1935, McGreevy
hasn't done us both a disservice by inviting me to meet him in that way.
I don't think I shall go on with the analysis after Xmas.
I don't expect the troubles I hoped first & foremost to get rid of
via analysis will be gone then any more than they are now. Tant
9
some time. Mother will be feeling there is a lot of me due to
her, & perhaps after all I may find myself immune to Dublin
now, & able to work there. She writes from Killiney more happily
I think than since it happened, & with a new sense of how she
must accept what is left behind. She went to see Count of
10
of sending be done. The Undertaker's Man is well changed, the rest more or less as you know them. It will be a relief to have them out & abused. 11
I have been working hard at the book & it goes very slowly,
but I do not think there is any doubt now that it will be finished
sooner or later. The feeling that I must jettison the whole thing
12
I never see Geoffrey. He is leaving Bethlem at the end of this month, & so far as I know his plan to get married on Nov. 2nd still
13
There are
283
Montecristo film with Frank! Miracle.
I expect the proofs of the poems this week. All this business
has passed, only the labour of writing the remainder is left. There is little excitement attached to it, each chapter loses its colour & interest as soon as the next is begun. I have done about 20 000 words. Perhaps I will send you a chapter & chance its getting through, but I think I would rather wait till you can have it all together.
holds good, with me holding the hat. What a bloody nuisance.
I went one day to the Gallery & saw a lot in the Segers that
14
I had not seen before & in the Fabritius musician.
8 October 1935, McGreevy
various shows one might go to, but I have not been to any. Hillis
wants me to go to Boris on Thursday, but even purified ofRimsky
that strikes me as too large & too hot a potato altogether. I think
there is a quartet at Wigmore Hall that evening playing Brahms,
Wolf & Sibelius, & we might go to that. Hillis - c;a va. There is
Otway's Soldier's Fortune, T. S. E. 's Sweeney & the Ballets Jooss
15
Ervine broke all his records in the Ob. I sent you. "Yes, my
dear"! But Maccarthy on Mr 'Awkins wasn't far behind. Thank
16
little late in the day.
Did I tell you I had a letter from Jack Yeats with news of the
picture which he has traced? He had been to Tobias & Angel at Abbey. What is that? 18
Mrs Frost has had a row with the pair of Lieblings above,
over their wireless which never stops, & they are going. Next
Saturday. God be praised. Now perhaps I shall be able to keep
some stamps. She wonders would Geoffrey & wife take it over!
and a new Garbo Karenina. Perhaps the last might be managed.
God one can write without an eye on these pukes.
I trust Devlin was kind to us. I fear he has hooked on to Dev a
17
19
Your Boissier falls due again this week & I shall not forget
20
Cissie owes me a letter this long time. I do not think Boss is
strong enough to write. He will not leave Newcastle. No news
22
Then the bed would creak to a purpose.
to renew it.
Standard & Baedeker's Paris before starting to lie awake. Sleeping very badly, I suppose because of the book. How hard it is to reach a tolerable arrangement between working & living.
I have been reading nothing at all. The Evening
21
from Simon & Schuster. I wonder did Chatto's let me down. Haven't the interest to inquire.
God love thee Sam
284
ALS; 2 leaves, 4 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq. Tarbert, Co Keny, Irish Free State; pm 9-10-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/83.
1 McGreevy'sletter,"ItalianArtProblem,"discussedthenudefiguresintheback­ ground of Michelangelo's Holy Family with the Infant St. John the Baptist (c. 1506/1508, painted for the Doni family, Uffizi Gallery, Florence) as representing the Law of Nature while the foregrounded Holy Family represented the Law of Grace (The Observer 13 October 1935: 15).
"Tout de meme" (all the same).
James Louis Garvin (1868-1947) was Editor of The Observer from 1908 to 1942 and of the
Encyclopaedia Britannica (13th and 14th edns. ). His editorial, "Keep Out This Time," claimed that the attack of the Italian army on Adowa, Abyssinia, confirmed his view that Mussolini and Hitler posed a genuine threat, that Britain's policy of sanctions was fallacious and inept, and that the Letter of Covenant of the League of Nations was invalid after the withdrawal of the United States, Japan, and Germany (The Observer 6 October 1935: 18).
2 SBreferstoMcGreevy'ssisterDelia.
Hester Dowden's niece has not been identified; her sister Hilda Mary Dowden (1875-1936) did not many.