SB commented in his
notebook
for Human Wishes that this was a symptom of impotence (BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1, f.
Samuel Beckett
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. ViewsofRosalbacorrespondacross
496
the stairs. The big Perugino has gone to Vienna "for examina
tion. " The Barry Adam & Eve has gone down to the cellars.
Where he got the money from I don't know. Or how he got
even that Board of Guardians to consent. Now he wants artificial
7
Jack Yeats & Cottie came out to Foxrock for tea & got on well with Mother. He has sold £280 worth in the last fortnight. A 30 pounder (the boy & horse) to Brian [for Bryan] Guinness; the £100 "Where Grass Grows" [for "While Grass Grows"] in the Academy to the Haverty Trust & the big new Waves ofBreffni [for Breffny] that I think I mentioned to you to someone from London who saw it in his studio, I think Talbot Davis was the name -8
The Academy was incredibly awful. Bridget [for Brigid] O'Brien stands now in a fair way to take the place ofpapa -9
I had lunch one day with Brian. 10 He didn't admit me into his confidence. Talked most of the time about Saint[e]-Beuve and the critical function. And mentioned he was looking for a part time teaching job in London. Saw him again yesterday in the Library, looking really ill.
Mother went off on the mailboat this morning, with Mrs Manning, who sails to-morrow from Liverpool to America, to help deliver Mary. Then mother will go on to her brother near Newark for a short stay. This afternoon Frank & I are going down to Cahir for 3 or 4 days. I am looking forward to seeing Cashel again on the way down -11
The George II they blew up yesterday in the Green was one of the best statues in Dublin. If it had been Victoria or the
12
wife) & congratulated him on having resumed his cricket.
lighting and evening opening. It is time someone put him in mind of the purpose of a picture gallery, to provide pictures worth looking at and the possibility of seeing them.
14 May 1937, McGreevy
Cenotaph no one would have minded.
I met the hearty (? ) Mr Skeffington at the Academy (with
13
497
"Oh
14 May 1937, McGreevy
I am sure" he said "you would love to be playing too, ifyou analysed yourself. " The right answer was that I had overcome the need ofreturning to my vomit.
I am sorry that you mentioned anything to the Robinsons.
Hone thought Vera's manoeuvre as gratuitous as I did. Why
should he like my book? Or me? The Hones are off to Switzerland
next week, with the wretched little David, who is to be left there.
Vera has ordained that he is ill & halfthe doctors in town have
14
publicity value ofyour demarche. " 15 God love thee. Write very soon
Ever Sam
ALS; 3 leaves, 6 sides; ! water damage and torn at lower left margin (recto), lower right (verso)]; TCD, MS 10402/127.
1 Thomas Ravenhill, McGreevy's friend, who was resident at 15 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea; the incident to which SB refers is unknown.
2 William "Boss" Sinclair died on 4 May 1937 and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Dolphin's Barn, Dublin, on 6 May. Harry Sinclair and Boss were twin brothers. Cissie Sinclair had moved the family to a house on Moyne Road, Rathgar, during Boss's illness and hospitalization. Although SB wrote "some 100 Jines hurriedly on Boss Sinclair for the Irish Times," R. M. Smyllie, Editor of The Irish Times, published an unsigned obituary (SB to Mary Manning Howe, 22 May 1937, TxU); From a Correspondent, "William Abraham Sinclair. " 8 May 1937: 10).
3 As reported in The Irish Times ("Alleged Libel in Novel: Summons against Dr. Gogarty: London Publishers to be Sued," 14 May 1937: 2), Harry Sinclair initiated legal action against Oliver St. John Gogarty, and his London publishers Rich and Cowan, for libelous passages in his novel As I Was Going Down Sackville Street: A Phantasy in Fact (London: Rich and Cowan, 1937). The plaintiffcited passages that maligned himselfand his late brother, as well as his grandfather Morris Harris (1823-1909), who were in business as Harris and Sinclair, Antique Plate, Jewellery and Works of Art, 47 Nassau Street, until the shop was moved to 4 Grafton Street, Dublin.
SB was named as a witness, and the article cites from his affidavit:
Mr. Wood read an affidavit by Mr. Samuel Beckett, author, of Cooldrinagh, Foxrock. who stated that he purchased a copy of "As I Was Going Down Sackville Street," his attention having been called to it by many advertisements that he had read, and, he said, the notoriety of its author.
498
had a whack at him.
Leventhal's remark, a propos ofthe libel: "I appreciate the
On reading paragraphs at pages 65, 70 and 71 he instantly inferred that the lines commencing 'Two Jews in Sackville Street" referred to Mr. Henry Morris Sinclair and the late Mr. William Abraham Sinclair, and the words "old usurer" and "grandsons" referred to the late Mr. Morris Harris and his two grandsons. He considered that the words constituted a very grave charge against Mr. Henry Morris Sinclair and his late brother. (2)
SB thought that his authorship of More Pricks Than Kicks would be used to discredit him; Proust and Whoroscope also served that purpose in the trial (Ulick O'Connor, Oliver St. John Gogarty: A Poet and His Times [London: Jonathan Cape, 1964[, 280-281).
"Assez" (Enough).
4 GeorgeFurlong,DirectoroftheNationalGallery.
It is not known to what Rajah Furlong refers. SB mentions a Maharajah of Chittagong (then in East Bengal, now in Bangladesh) in his letter to Mary Manning Howe (22 May 1937; TxU), but Chittagong had not been a regal colony since it was ceded to the East-India Company in 1760, and did not have a Maharajah (Dorian Leveque, Oriental and India Office Collections, British Library, 21 June 2006; Edward Thornton,A Gazetteer ofthe Tenitories under the Government ofthe East-India Company and of the Native States on the Continent ofIndia [London: William H. Allen, 1857] 206. )
Furlong refers to Elizabeth Mary Margaret Plunkett (nee Burke, 1866-1944), then Dowager Countess of Fingall (following the death of her husband Horace Plunkett, 11th Earl of Fingall in 1929). To SB, Furlong's voice contained tones of Nancy [? Cunard], Mayfair (smart London), and Tipperary (rural Ireland).
There was no Vermeer in the collection of the National Gallery oflreland.
5 TheDutchcollectionoftheNationalGallerywasrehunginagroundfloorroom that had been the print room, with the only light from side windows, darkened with frosted glass Uohn Dowling, "Art: Advice and Estimates Free," Ireland To-Day 2. 10 [October 1937] 63, 77).
6 The Italian collection was rehung and distributed across the first floor rooms (formerly the Dutch, Irish and Italian rooms). SB refers to David Slaying Goliath (NG! 980) by Gentileschi and A Decorative Group (NG! 656, now attributed to the Studio of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta [1682-1754]).
Paintings by Canaletto: A View of the Piazza San Marco (NG! 286), The Grand Canal with the Church ofSalute (NG! 705), and The Grand Canal with the Church ofthe Carita (NG! 1043). Those by Bellotto were A View of Dresden Looking Down the Elbe (NG! 181) and A View of Dresden Looking Up the Elbe (NG! 182).
7 ThefourpastelsbyRosalbaCarriera(1675-1757)were:Spring(NG! 3846),another called Spring (previously called Summer, NG! 3847), Autumn (NG! 3848), and Winter (NG! 3849).
The Perugino Pietil (942) was sent to Vienna for evaluation and cleaning (see 17 July [1936], n. 6).
Adam and Eve (NG! 762) by Irish artist James Barry (1741-1806) had been put into storage, awaiting refurbishment of the new Irish room.
Electric lighting was added to the offices and work rooms of the Gallery, which had had only natural light (Director [Furlong] to the Secretary, Department of Public Works, 4 December 1936; Director to The Secretary, Department of Education, 13 December 1937; NG! Archives). The government had suggested evening openings and the Board of
499
14 May 1937, McGreevy
14 May 1937, McGreevy
Governors and Guardians authorized this change on 3 February 1937 (S. O'Neill, Board ofEducation to theDirector, National Gallery, 19December 1936;Director to The Secretary,Department ofEducation, 3 February 1937; S. O'N[eillJ, Board ofEducation to Secretary,Department of Finance, 6December 1937; NG! Archives).
8 Jack B. Yeats had five paintings in the Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition in April 1937. Yeats's painting Boy and Horse (Pyle no. 476; private collection) was sold to Bryan Guinness (1905-1992), and While Grass Grows was sold to the Haverty Trust (now in the Waterford Museum of Art, no. 76). The Little Waves ofBreffny (Pyle no. 495; private collection) was not in theExhibition, but was sold directly to Henry Talbot de Vere Clifton (1907-1979), to whom W. B. Yeats dedicated his poem "Lapis Lazuli" (Pyle. Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, I, 450).
9 The1937RoyalHibernianAcademyExhibition.
Rose Brigid O'Brien Ganly, a member of the RHA since 1935, was the daughter of
Dermod O'Brien who was then President of the RHA.
1O BrianCoffey.
11 AfteraccompanyingSusanManningasfarasLiverpool,MayBecketttraveledon to visit her brother, Edward Price Roe, in Newark, Nottinghamshire.
12 The bronze equestrian statue of George II. sculpted by John van Nost the younger (d. 1780) and erected in St. Stephen's Green, was blown up in an act of protest in response to the coronation of King George VI (1895-1952) on 12 May 1937. W. B. Yeats in a letter to The Irish Times mourned it as the "only Dublin statue that has delighted me by beauty and elegance. Had they blown up any other statue in St. Stephen's Green I would have rejoiced" ("George II," 14 May 1937: 4).
Dublin's Cenotaph: 16January [1936[, n. 11. The statue of Queen Victoria, sculpted by John Hughes (1865-1941), was placed in front of Leinster House in 1903 (it was
removed in 1947 and given in 1987 to the city of Sydney, Australia).
13 OwenandAndreeSheehy-Skeffington.
14 SBreferstoVeraHone'swithdrawndinnerinvitation(see26April1937). David Hone (b. 1928).
15 "Yourdemarche"(thestepyouhavetaken).
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
5/6/36 [for 37]
Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Since coming back from Cahir there hasn't been any
continuity. Mother was away for a week, seeing Mrs Manning
500
5 June 1936 ifor 1937}, McGreevy
off at Liverpool. then staying with her brother in Notts. .
and came back rested but refusing to admit it. Frank and I
came back by Limerick, where he had some work, and I saw
St. Mary's. Appallingly restored and a lovely west door. I suppose
you know it. I happened to mention it to Sean O'Sullivan who
said, "It would take more than a west door to excite me". En
1
dull performance on both sides. Judgment reserved till
Monday. It doesn't seem to matter much whether we win
this round or not. The hearing proper with jury will probably
not be before October. God knows where I shall be then. I
suppose I must come back for it wherever I am.
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. ViewsofRosalbacorrespondacross
496
the stairs. The big Perugino has gone to Vienna "for examina
tion. " The Barry Adam & Eve has gone down to the cellars.
Where he got the money from I don't know. Or how he got
even that Board of Guardians to consent. Now he wants artificial
7
Jack Yeats & Cottie came out to Foxrock for tea & got on well with Mother. He has sold £280 worth in the last fortnight. A 30 pounder (the boy & horse) to Brian [for Bryan] Guinness; the £100 "Where Grass Grows" [for "While Grass Grows"] in the Academy to the Haverty Trust & the big new Waves ofBreffni [for Breffny] that I think I mentioned to you to someone from London who saw it in his studio, I think Talbot Davis was the name -8
The Academy was incredibly awful. Bridget [for Brigid] O'Brien stands now in a fair way to take the place ofpapa -9
I had lunch one day with Brian. 10 He didn't admit me into his confidence. Talked most of the time about Saint[e]-Beuve and the critical function. And mentioned he was looking for a part time teaching job in London. Saw him again yesterday in the Library, looking really ill.
Mother went off on the mailboat this morning, with Mrs Manning, who sails to-morrow from Liverpool to America, to help deliver Mary. Then mother will go on to her brother near Newark for a short stay. This afternoon Frank & I are going down to Cahir for 3 or 4 days. I am looking forward to seeing Cashel again on the way down -11
The George II they blew up yesterday in the Green was one of the best statues in Dublin. If it had been Victoria or the
12
wife) & congratulated him on having resumed his cricket.
lighting and evening opening. It is time someone put him in mind of the purpose of a picture gallery, to provide pictures worth looking at and the possibility of seeing them.
14 May 1937, McGreevy
Cenotaph no one would have minded.
I met the hearty (? ) Mr Skeffington at the Academy (with
13
497
"Oh
14 May 1937, McGreevy
I am sure" he said "you would love to be playing too, ifyou analysed yourself. " The right answer was that I had overcome the need ofreturning to my vomit.
I am sorry that you mentioned anything to the Robinsons.
Hone thought Vera's manoeuvre as gratuitous as I did. Why
should he like my book? Or me? The Hones are off to Switzerland
next week, with the wretched little David, who is to be left there.
Vera has ordained that he is ill & halfthe doctors in town have
14
publicity value ofyour demarche. " 15 God love thee. Write very soon
Ever Sam
ALS; 3 leaves, 6 sides; ! water damage and torn at lower left margin (recto), lower right (verso)]; TCD, MS 10402/127.
1 Thomas Ravenhill, McGreevy's friend, who was resident at 15 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea; the incident to which SB refers is unknown.
2 William "Boss" Sinclair died on 4 May 1937 and was buried in the Jewish Cemetery at Dolphin's Barn, Dublin, on 6 May. Harry Sinclair and Boss were twin brothers. Cissie Sinclair had moved the family to a house on Moyne Road, Rathgar, during Boss's illness and hospitalization. Although SB wrote "some 100 Jines hurriedly on Boss Sinclair for the Irish Times," R. M. Smyllie, Editor of The Irish Times, published an unsigned obituary (SB to Mary Manning Howe, 22 May 1937, TxU); From a Correspondent, "William Abraham Sinclair. " 8 May 1937: 10).
3 As reported in The Irish Times ("Alleged Libel in Novel: Summons against Dr. Gogarty: London Publishers to be Sued," 14 May 1937: 2), Harry Sinclair initiated legal action against Oliver St. John Gogarty, and his London publishers Rich and Cowan, for libelous passages in his novel As I Was Going Down Sackville Street: A Phantasy in Fact (London: Rich and Cowan, 1937). The plaintiffcited passages that maligned himselfand his late brother, as well as his grandfather Morris Harris (1823-1909), who were in business as Harris and Sinclair, Antique Plate, Jewellery and Works of Art, 47 Nassau Street, until the shop was moved to 4 Grafton Street, Dublin.
SB was named as a witness, and the article cites from his affidavit:
Mr. Wood read an affidavit by Mr. Samuel Beckett, author, of Cooldrinagh, Foxrock. who stated that he purchased a copy of "As I Was Going Down Sackville Street," his attention having been called to it by many advertisements that he had read, and, he said, the notoriety of its author.
498
had a whack at him.
Leventhal's remark, a propos ofthe libel: "I appreciate the
On reading paragraphs at pages 65, 70 and 71 he instantly inferred that the lines commencing 'Two Jews in Sackville Street" referred to Mr. Henry Morris Sinclair and the late Mr. William Abraham Sinclair, and the words "old usurer" and "grandsons" referred to the late Mr. Morris Harris and his two grandsons. He considered that the words constituted a very grave charge against Mr. Henry Morris Sinclair and his late brother. (2)
SB thought that his authorship of More Pricks Than Kicks would be used to discredit him; Proust and Whoroscope also served that purpose in the trial (Ulick O'Connor, Oliver St. John Gogarty: A Poet and His Times [London: Jonathan Cape, 1964[, 280-281).
"Assez" (Enough).
4 GeorgeFurlong,DirectoroftheNationalGallery.
It is not known to what Rajah Furlong refers. SB mentions a Maharajah of Chittagong (then in East Bengal, now in Bangladesh) in his letter to Mary Manning Howe (22 May 1937; TxU), but Chittagong had not been a regal colony since it was ceded to the East-India Company in 1760, and did not have a Maharajah (Dorian Leveque, Oriental and India Office Collections, British Library, 21 June 2006; Edward Thornton,A Gazetteer ofthe Tenitories under the Government ofthe East-India Company and of the Native States on the Continent ofIndia [London: William H. Allen, 1857] 206. )
Furlong refers to Elizabeth Mary Margaret Plunkett (nee Burke, 1866-1944), then Dowager Countess of Fingall (following the death of her husband Horace Plunkett, 11th Earl of Fingall in 1929). To SB, Furlong's voice contained tones of Nancy [? Cunard], Mayfair (smart London), and Tipperary (rural Ireland).
There was no Vermeer in the collection of the National Gallery oflreland.
5 TheDutchcollectionoftheNationalGallerywasrehunginagroundfloorroom that had been the print room, with the only light from side windows, darkened with frosted glass Uohn Dowling, "Art: Advice and Estimates Free," Ireland To-Day 2. 10 [October 1937] 63, 77).
6 The Italian collection was rehung and distributed across the first floor rooms (formerly the Dutch, Irish and Italian rooms). SB refers to David Slaying Goliath (NG! 980) by Gentileschi and A Decorative Group (NG! 656, now attributed to the Studio of Giovanni Battista Piazzetta [1682-1754]).
Paintings by Canaletto: A View of the Piazza San Marco (NG! 286), The Grand Canal with the Church ofSalute (NG! 705), and The Grand Canal with the Church ofthe Carita (NG! 1043). Those by Bellotto were A View of Dresden Looking Down the Elbe (NG! 181) and A View of Dresden Looking Up the Elbe (NG! 182).
7 ThefourpastelsbyRosalbaCarriera(1675-1757)were:Spring(NG! 3846),another called Spring (previously called Summer, NG! 3847), Autumn (NG! 3848), and Winter (NG! 3849).
The Perugino Pietil (942) was sent to Vienna for evaluation and cleaning (see 17 July [1936], n. 6).
Adam and Eve (NG! 762) by Irish artist James Barry (1741-1806) had been put into storage, awaiting refurbishment of the new Irish room.
Electric lighting was added to the offices and work rooms of the Gallery, which had had only natural light (Director [Furlong] to the Secretary, Department of Public Works, 4 December 1936; Director to The Secretary, Department of Education, 13 December 1937; NG! Archives). The government had suggested evening openings and the Board of
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14 May 1937, McGreevy
14 May 1937, McGreevy
Governors and Guardians authorized this change on 3 February 1937 (S. O'Neill, Board ofEducation to theDirector, National Gallery, 19December 1936;Director to The Secretary,Department ofEducation, 3 February 1937; S. O'N[eillJ, Board ofEducation to Secretary,Department of Finance, 6December 1937; NG! Archives).
8 Jack B. Yeats had five paintings in the Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition in April 1937. Yeats's painting Boy and Horse (Pyle no. 476; private collection) was sold to Bryan Guinness (1905-1992), and While Grass Grows was sold to the Haverty Trust (now in the Waterford Museum of Art, no. 76). The Little Waves ofBreffny (Pyle no. 495; private collection) was not in theExhibition, but was sold directly to Henry Talbot de Vere Clifton (1907-1979), to whom W. B. Yeats dedicated his poem "Lapis Lazuli" (Pyle. Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, I, 450).
9 The1937RoyalHibernianAcademyExhibition.
Rose Brigid O'Brien Ganly, a member of the RHA since 1935, was the daughter of
Dermod O'Brien who was then President of the RHA.
1O BrianCoffey.
11 AfteraccompanyingSusanManningasfarasLiverpool,MayBecketttraveledon to visit her brother, Edward Price Roe, in Newark, Nottinghamshire.
12 The bronze equestrian statue of George II. sculpted by John van Nost the younger (d. 1780) and erected in St. Stephen's Green, was blown up in an act of protest in response to the coronation of King George VI (1895-1952) on 12 May 1937. W. B. Yeats in a letter to The Irish Times mourned it as the "only Dublin statue that has delighted me by beauty and elegance. Had they blown up any other statue in St. Stephen's Green I would have rejoiced" ("George II," 14 May 1937: 4).
Dublin's Cenotaph: 16January [1936[, n. 11. The statue of Queen Victoria, sculpted by John Hughes (1865-1941), was placed in front of Leinster House in 1903 (it was
removed in 1947 and given in 1987 to the city of Sydney, Australia).
13 OwenandAndreeSheehy-Skeffington.
14 SBreferstoVeraHone'swithdrawndinnerinvitation(see26April1937). David Hone (b. 1928).
15 "Yourdemarche"(thestepyouhavetaken).
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
5/6/36 [for 37]
Foxrock [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Since coming back from Cahir there hasn't been any
continuity. Mother was away for a week, seeing Mrs Manning
500
5 June 1936 ifor 1937}, McGreevy
off at Liverpool. then staying with her brother in Notts. .
and came back rested but refusing to admit it. Frank and I
came back by Limerick, where he had some work, and I saw
St. Mary's. Appallingly restored and a lovely west door. I suppose
you know it. I happened to mention it to Sean O'Sullivan who
said, "It would take more than a west door to excite me". En
1
dull performance on both sides. Judgment reserved till
Monday. It doesn't seem to matter much whether we win
this round or not. The hearing proper with jury will probably
not be before October. God knows where I shall be then. I
suppose I must come back for it wherever I am.
