PROFESSOR RUDMOSE BROWN TO
UNIVERSITY
OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
5 June 1937 Trinity College Dublin
I have great pleasure in supporting the application of Mr S.
5 June 1937 Trinity College Dublin
I have great pleasure in supporting the application of Mr S.
Samuel Beckett
193 (February 1992) 35-36; rpt.
in Spanish as "Samuel Beckett: carta alemana de 1937," tr.
Ana Maria Carolano, Beckettiana: Cuadernos del Seminario de Beckett 5 (February 1997) 89-91.
The text presented here is a draft; that SB probably did send the letter is indicated by the fact that he sent a copy of a portion of it to Arland Ussher on 11 July 1937: "My affection for you leaves me with no alternative but to let you have the benefit of the enclosed, which is an extract from a letter addressed to the Ringelnatz League in Berlin"; this letter closes with: "Your thoughts on Logoclasm, will you please put them in order and bestow them on me" (TxU).
This text is based on a ribbon copy, not a carbon copy, and it may represent SB's typed draft, with ink corrections made by SB at the time the letter was written. This document was given by SB to Lawrence Harvey between 1960 and 1966; Philip N. Cronenwett, formerly Curator of Manuscripts, Dartmouth College Library, concurs with the editors that the pencil corrections and notations may have been made at that time by SB and/or by Lawrence Harvey.
Martin Esslin's transcription of this letter incorporates a wide variety of silent corrections (Beckett, Disjecta, 51-54).
gegen meine eigene machen mochte und - Deo juvante - werde. Mit herzlichem Gruss
1hr
Soll ich Ihnen die Ringelnatz Bande zuriickschicken? Gibt es eine englische Uebersetzung von Trakl? 11
9/7/37
6 Clare Street Dublin
IFS
Dear Axel Kaun,
Many thanks for your letter. I was just about to write to
you when it came. Then I had to go travelling rather like
516
9 July 1937, Kaun Ringelnatz's male postage stamp, although under less passion
1
my opinion Ringelnatz is not worth the effort. You probably will not be more disappointed to hear this from me than I was in having to determine it.
I read through the 3 volumes, chose 23 poems and trans
2
From this it is not to be assumed at all that a translated Ringelnatz would not find interest or success with the English public. In this respect, however, I am totally unable to make a judgement since responses of small as well as large audiences are becoming more and more mysterious to me and, what is worse, less significant. For I cannot get away from the naive antithesis that, at least where literature is concerned, a thing is either worth it or not worth it. And if we absolutely must earn money, we do it elsewhere.
I do not doubt that Ringelnatz as a person was of rather
exceptional interest. As poet, however, he seemed to have
been of Goethe's opinion: better to write NOTHING than not to
write. However, perhaps even the Geheimrat might have
allowed the translator to feel himself unworthy of such high
4
for Ringelnatz's verse-obsession if you feel like going into it. However, for the time being I will spare you. Perhaps you like funeral orations as little as I do.
517
ate circumstances.
It is best I tell you right away and without further ado that in
lated2oftheseassamples. Thelittlethatofnecessitytheylost in the process is of course only to be evaluated in relation to what they have to lose in the first place, and I must say3 that I found this co-efficient of deterioration quite insignificant even where he is most poet and least rhymester.
kakoethes.
I would be happy to explain to you in more detail my disdain
9 July 1937, Kaun
Likewise, I could perhaps indicate to you the chosen poems
and send you the sample translations.
I am always delighted to receive a letter from you. Therefore do write as often and as extensively as possible. Do you abso lutely want me to do the same for you in English? Do you get as bored reading my German letters as I composing one in English? I would be sorry if you had the feeling that perhaps this was a matter of a contract which I am not fulfilling. An answer is requested.
It is indeed getting more and more difficult, even pointless, for me to write in formal English. And more and more my language appears to me like a veil which one has to tear apart in order to get to those things (or the nothingness) lying behind it. Grammar and style! To me they seem to have become as irrelevant as a Biedermeier bathing suit or the imperturbability of a gentleman. 5 A mask. It is to be hoped the time will come, thank God, in some circles it already has, when language is best used where it is most efficiently abused. Since we cannot dismiss it all at once, at least we do not want to leave anything undone that may contribute to its disrepute. To drill one hole after another into it until that which lurks behind, be it something or nothing, starts seeping through - I cannot imagine a higher goal for today's writer.
Or is literature alone to be left behind on that old, foul road long ago abandoned by music and painting? Is there something paralysingly sacred contained within the unnature of the word that does not belong to the elements of the other arts? Is there any reason why that terrifyingly arbitrary materiality of the word surface should not be dissolved, as for example the sound surface of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is devoured
518
9 July 1937, Kaun
by huge black pauses, so that for pages on end we cannot per ceive it as other than a dizzying path of sounds connecting unfathomable chasms of silence? 6 An answer is requested.
I know there are people, sensitive and intelligent people, for whom there is no lack of silence. I cannot help but assume that they are hard of hearing. For in the forest of symbols that are no symbols, the birds of interpretation, that is no interpre tation, are never silent.
Of course, for the time being, one makes do with little. At first, it can only be a matter of somehow inventing a method of verbally demonstrating this scornful attitude vis-a-vis the word. In this dissonance of instrument and usage perhaps one will already be able to sense a whispering of the end-music or of the silence underlying all.
In my opinion, the most recent work ofJoyce had nothing at
7
Perhaps, Gertrude Stein's Logographs come closer to what I
mean. The fabric of the language has at least become porous, if
regrettably only quite by accident and, as it were, as a conse
quence of a procedure somewhat akin to the technique of
8
alltodowithsuchaprogramme. Thereitseemsmuchmorea matter of an apotheosis of the word. Unless Ascent into Heaven and Descent into Hell are one and the same. How nice it would be to be able to believe that in fact it were so. For the moment, however, we will limit ourselves to the intention.
Feininger. Theunhappylady(isshestillalive? )isundoubtedly still in love with her vehicle, if only, however, as a mathemati cian is with his numbers; for him the solution of the problem is of very secondary interest, yes, as the death of numbers, it must seem to him indeed dreadful. To connect this method with that of Joyce, as is fashionable, appears to me as ludicrous as the attempt, as yet unknown to me, to compare Nominalism (in the
519
9 July 1937, Kaun
sense of the Scholastics) with Realism. On the road toward this, for me, very desirable literature of the non-word, some form ofnominalistic irony can ofcourse be a necessary phase. However, it does not suffice ifthe game loses some ofits sacred solemnity. Let it cease altogether! Let's do as that crazy math ematician who used to apply a new principle ofmeasurement at each individual step of the calculation. Word-storming in the name of beauty.
9
In the meantime I am doing nothing. Only from time to time do I have the consolation, as now, of being allowed to violate a foreign language as involuntarily as, with knowledge and intention, I would like to do against my own language, and - Deo juvante - shall do. 10
Cordially yours,
Shall I send you back the Ringelnatz volumes? Is there an English translation ofTrakl? 1 1
1 SBevokesRingelnatz'spoem"EinmannlicherBriefinarkerlebt"(HansBotticher and Richard J. M. Seewald, eds. , Die Schnupftabaksdose: Stumpftinn in Versen und Bildem [Munich: R. Piper, 1912] 4; see text and translation by Ernest A. Seemann, www. beilharz. com/poetas/ringelnatz/, 25 May 2006). The poem personifies a male postage stamp that experienced arousal when licked by a princess; he wished to kiss her back, but had to go traveling, thus his love was unavailing.
2 SBhadbeensentthreevolumesofthepoemsbyRingelnatz'spublisherRowohlt, for whom Kaun worked, but it is not clear which books these were, nor which two poems SB had translated. He quotes "Die Ameisen" in his letter to Arland Ussher, 15 June 1937 (TxU).
3 SBwrote"<willIhnennichtverleugnen>"andtheninserted"muss"toreplace "will" and also added "-en" (the infinitive ending in German) without adding a verb stem. In order to have a translatable sentence, we have inserted (as did Esslin) the verb stem of "to say" to render "sagen. "
4 SB cites Goethe's final sentence ofthe first chapter ofDie Wahlverwandtschaften, in Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, Die Wahlverwandtschaften, Kleine Prosa, Epen, ed. Waltraud Wietholter and Christoph Brecht, in Sdmtliche Werke, VIII, ed. Friedmar Apel, Henrik Bines, and Dieter Borchmeyer (Frankfurt: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1994) 278; Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Elective Affinities, tr. David Constantine, The World's Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994) 9.
520
27July 1937, Reavey "Kakoethes" (Gk. , wickedness, malignity); in SB's "Serena I": "or as they say evil
propensity" (see 8 October 1932).
5 Influenced by the French Empire style, "Biedermeier" (1815-1848) is usually applied to furnishings and fashion of the German bourgeoisie; later it took on a derogatory connotation of conventional narrow-mindedness.
6 Beethoven'sSymphonyno. 7inAmajor,op. 92.
7 Joyce'sWorkinProgress,publishedalreadyinfragments,waspublishedinfullas
Finnegans Wake in 1939.
8 "Logograph"isnotatermusedbyAmericanwriterGertrudeStein(1874-1946), although her writing emphasized sound and rhythm over sense, which SB compares to Lyonel Feininger's cubist technique, which layered prismatic planes of color.
SB wrote to Mary Manning Howe on 11 July 1937: "! am starting a Logoclast� League. [. . . [ I am the only member at present. The idea is ruptured writing, so that the void may protude, like a hernia" (TxU).
9 ThephilosophicaltraditionknownasRealismholdsthatwordssuchas"truth," "beauty," and "justice" are concepts that are general or universal, but also that they name extramental, actually existing entities. Nominalism holds that these words are merely names (Lat. , nomen) for which there are no corresponding entities. A survey of the medieval controversy is given in Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, II (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1955) 136-155.
10 "Deojuvante"(withGod'shelp).
11 The writing of Austrian poet Georg Trakl (1887-1914) had not yet been trans lated into English in 1937.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
27/7/37 6 Clare St Dublin
dear George
I quote from a letter from Mrs Howe: "Please let Reavey
know I've sent your MS. to Covici-Firede (? ) Inc. [for Covici Friede] in New York. If they tum it down it[']s to be sent to Hal Smith ofDoubleday Doran. Let the New York offices ofReavey of which there is no address that I can find be notified & they can deal with matters after that. "1
521
"Geheimrat" (Privy counselor), in reference to Goethe.
27 July 1937, Reavey
My efforts to document my Johnson fantasy have not
ceased. The evidence for it is overwhelming. It explains what
has never been explained (e. g. his grotesque attitute [for attitude]
towards his wife & Mr Thrale). It is hard to put across, he being so
old at the crisis, i. e. she could hardly have expected much from
him. 2 We will make him younger & madder even than he was. 3
4
1 MaryManningHowe·slettertoSBhasnotbeenfound. PascalCovici(1888-1964), Romanian-born Chicago publisher, joined forces with Donald Friede (1901-1965) to form Covici-Friede (1928-1937) in New York.
There was no New York office for the European Literary Bureau.
2 In1736,SamuelJohnsonmarriedthewidowElizabethPorter(neeJervis,known as Hetty, 1689-1752) when she was forty-six and he was twenty-five (Bate, Samuel Johnson, 147). Bate notes that "between December 1737 and May 1739Johnson and his wife 'began to live apart,' althoughJohnson visited her occasionally" (177-178, 187-188; Boswell, Boswell's Life ofjohnson, I, 192). Yet Boswell disputed the observation of Sir John Hawkins that Johnson's fondness for his wife "was dissembled," writing: "we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceased,
even after her death" (Boswell, Boswell's Life ofjohnson, I, 192, 96, 234).
If, as it appears, SB's text reads "towards his wife and M'Thrale," then the "grotesque attitude" that SB ascribes toJohnson bears upon his apparently incongruous admira tion of them. If the slightly effaced page reads "M'1'1" Thrale, then SB draws a parallel between Elizabeth Porter and Hester Thrale, who were romantically and sexually
somewhat unlikely partners with their husbands.
Johnson was seventy-one years old when Henry Thrale died.
3 SB recorded in his notebook some details of Johnson's singular behavior in spring 1764 from Boswell's Life of Johnson: Johnson's symptoms of depression, his withdrawal from society and his "sighing, groaning, talking to himself, and restlessly walking from room to room. " Boswell describes Johnson's obsessive compulsive behavior as "superstitious habit" (e. g. arranging his steps so that the same foot always crossed the threshold), and notesJohnson's involuntary "sounds with his mouth . . . chewing the cud, . . . giving a half whistle . . . clucking like a hen . . . blowing out his breath like a whale" (Boswell's Life ofJohnson, I, 483-486; BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1, f. 42R).
4 GeorgeReaveymarriedClodineGwyneddCadeon16July1937. 5 "Atoi"(your).
522
Remember me to Miss Vernon. A toi5
Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA
July 29th 1937
6 Clare Street Dublin
Irish Free State
Dear Sir
I beg to apply for the post of Lecturer in Italian in the
University of Cape Town.
I enclose copies of testimonials and a brief curriculum vitae. The following will act as referees:
Mr Thomas C. Ross, Solicitor, 31 South Frederic[k] Street,
Dublin.
Captain the Reverend Arthur Aston Luce, D. D. , F. T. C. D. ,
Ryslaw, Bushey Park Road, Rathgar, Dublin.
Dr Geoffrey Thompson, 71 Harley Street, London W. 1.
Yours faithfully
s/ Samuel Beckett
(Samuel Beckett, M. A. , T. C. D. )
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
1
April 1906. 1916-19. 1919-23.
1923-27.
Samuel Barclay Beckett Church of Ireland
Single
Born in Dublin.
Earlsfort House Preparatory School, Dublin. Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Trinity College, Dublin. Specialise in French and Italian. 1925 Senior Exhibitioner. 1926 Scholar of the House. April-August 1927 travelling in Italy.
523
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
1928-30.
1930-32. 1932-37.
Publications.
October 1927 graduate first of first class Modera tors with large gold medal in French and Italian. Lecturer in English at the Ecole Normale Superieure Paris.
Lecturer in French at Trinity College, Dublin. Private study and composition. Travel in France and Germany.
Proust (Chatto and Windus, London, 1932. ) Short Stories (Chatto and Windus, London, 1934. ) Poems (Europa Press, Paris, 1935. )
as well as various occasional translations, reviews, poems, short stories, etc.
PROFESSOR RUDMOSE BROWN TO UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
5 June 1937 Trinity College Dublin
I have great pleasure in supporting the application of Mr S. B. Beckett for the Lectureship in Italian in the University of Cape Town. Mr Beckett graduated in 1927 with the very highest distinction in French and Italian. He knows both lan guages thoroughly and in a scholarly way, as well as German. He has resided in Italy, France and Germany and has an intimate knowledge of the three countries as well as of their literatures. Mr Beckett spent two years as Lecturer in English in the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris (1928-1930) and has written a most illuminating book on Proust, as well as many articles on literary subjects and some prose fiction and verse. I may say without exaggeration that as well as possessing a sound academic
524
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
knowledge of the Italian, French and German languages, he has remarkable creative faculty.
Signed: T. B. Rudmose-Brown, Professor of the Romance
Languages in the University of Dublin, Secretary of
the University Council, MA. , Lltt. D. , Docteur
2
P. S. I may add that Mr Beckett has an adequate knowledge of Provenc;:al, ancient and modern.
Copy
PROFESSOR WALTER STARKIE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
llthJune, 1937 University Club Dublin
Mr. Samuel Beckett has asked me to testify to his knowledge of Italian language and literature. During the four years of his course at Dublin University he attended my lectures in Italian Literature, and he obtained an Honors Degree, first-class, in 1927, in Modern Literature (Italian and French). Mr Beckett was an excellent student and possesses a good knowledge of Italian history and literature. In the final examination the can didates are required to display special knowledge of the great classical authors, in particular, ofDante. Mr Beckett's answering showed distinction and literary gifts of no mean order. I wish to recommend him for a lectureship in Italian.
Signed: Walter Starkie, MA. , Lltt. D. , Professor in the University of Dublin, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.
525
d'Universite, Soci dou Felibrige.
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
PROFESSOR ROBERT W. TATE TO THE UNIVERSITY
OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
June 12th 1937 40 Trinity College Dublin
Mr Samuel B. Beckett graduated in 1927 with a First Class Moderatorship with large gold medal in French and Italian. In his Italian studies I was closely associated with him both as lecturer and examiner throughout his course. It is my conviction that very few foreigners have a practical knowledge of that language as sound as his, or as great a mastery of its grammar and constructions.
Signed: R. W. Tate, Fellow and Tutor T. C. D. Copy
PROFESSOR RUDMOSE BROWN, GENERAL TESTIMONIAL
7 July 1932 Trinity College Dublin
Mr S. B. Beckett had a most distinguished University career at Trinity College, Dublin. He was the best student of his year in French, a Scholar of the House in French and Italian, and a 1st Class Moderator (1st Class Honour Degree) in French and Italian. I chose him to spend two years at the Ecole Normale Superieure as the nominee of Trinity College, and then picked him out of all my graduates to become Lecturer in French at
526
Trinity College. He speaks and writes French like a Frenchman of the highest education. He has a most remarkable knowledge of French literature, and has written a very competent and interesting book on Marcel Proust. I found him an excellent Lecturer, far above the average standard of young lecturers, and regretted very much when he resigned his post in order to take up further residence in Paris. His knowledge of Italian is very little less than his knowledge of French. He also knows German.
I can most thoroughly recommend Mr Beckett for a University post.
Signed: T. B. Rudmose-Brown, Professor of Romance Languages in the University of Dublin, M. A. , Litt. D. , Docteur d'Univ. . Soci dou Felibrige.
JEAN THOMAS, GENERAL TESTIMONIAL
le 22 Juillet 1932 Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite de Paris,
45 Rue d'Ulm
Paris 5me.
M. Samuel Beckett a ete, pendant deux annees consecutives, de Novembre 1928 a la fin de l'annee scolaire 1930, Lecteur d'anglais a l'Ecole Normale Superieure. Par sa connaissance a la fois de la litterature anglaise et de la litterature frarn;:aise, par sa culture aussi precise que riche, il a rendu a nos eleves les plus grands services. ]'ajoute qu'il a noue avec certains Normaliens
527
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
de precieuses amities et qu'il a laisse le meilleur souvenir dans ! 'esprit de tous ceux qui l'ont connu.
Signed: Jean Thomas, Agrege de l'Universite, Secretaire de ! 'Ecole Normale Superieure.
22July 1932 Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite de Paris,
45 Rue d'Ulm
Paris 5
Mr. Samuel Beckett was, for two consecutive years, from November 1928 to the end of the academic year 1930, Lecteur in English at the Ecole Normale Superieure. By his knowledge of both English and French literature, by his general culture, as exact as it was rich, he was exceptionally helpful to our stu dents. I may add that he struck up close friendships with a number of Normaliens, and that he is fondly remembered by all who knew him.
Signed: Jean Thomas, Agrege de l'Universite, Secretaire de ! 'Ecole Normale Superieure.
TIS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; enclosures: T. B. Rudmose-Brown to University of Cape Town. 5 June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); Walter Starkie to University of Cape Town, 11 June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); R. W. Tate to University of Cape Town, 12June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); general testimonial: T. B. Rudmose-Brown 7July 1932 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side) and
Jean Thomas 22July 1932 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); University of Cape Town.
1 Testimonialswereopendocuments,madeavailabletothecandidate;references were sent directly to the institution requesting them. The University of Cape Town does not hold letters from Thomas Conland Ross, a solicitor from 1896 to 1946 (d. 1947), Arthur Aston Luce, or Geoffrey Thompson, which suggests that they were not contacted as referees.
2 "SocidouFelibrige"(Provem;al,FellowoftheSocietyoftheFelibrige).
528
THOMAS McGREEVY
4! h Aug. 1937
Foxrock
DearTom
Very pleased with your lively letter.
Dr ]. 's dogmatisme was the facade of consternation. The
1s! h century was full of ahuris - perhaps that is why it looked like the age of "reason" - but there can hardly have been many so completely at sea in their solitude as he was or so horrifiedly aware of it - not even Cowper. Read the Prayers & Meditations if you don't believe me. 2
3
There is no question of being partisan in the matter one way or
another. He made her Salon & she made him comfortable. When
he wrote her the famous rough letter he didn't know what he was
doing. Probably it was the only overt cruelty in the "friendship
never infringed by one harsh expression during 20 years of famil
iar talk", as she herselfexpressed it in her admirably dignified last
letter to him. And of the covert she certainly had no more to
suffer than he, indeed certainly a great deal less, because she
had none of that need to suffer, or necessity of suffering, that he
had, and never found in him the peg to hang her pain on that he
did in her. His horror at loving her I take it was a mode or
paradigm of his horror at ultimate annihilation, to which he
declared in the fear of his death that he would prefer an eternity
4
1
4 August 1937, McGreeiy
Mrs Thrale was nee Salusbury- Hester(! ) Lynch(! ! ) Salusbury.
oftorment. Andiftheplayisabouthimandnotabouther,itdoes not mean that he was in the right, or any nonsense like that, but simply that he being spiritually self conscious was a tragic figure, i. e. worth putting down as part of the whole of which oneself is a part, & that she, being merely physically self conscious is less
529
4 August 1937, McGreevy
interesting to me personally. She of course didn't get what she wanted either, Piozzi being a poor performer. "Human Wishes". 5
[. . . ]
I would much rather you did the Intercessions for Ireland To-day than that I did. I can always get it from Seumas. I shall
6
I applied last week for the Lectureship in Italian at Cape Town. It would be an excuse for taking up the subject again & people say Cape Town has its advantages. I am really indifferent about where I go or what I do, since I don't seem able or to want to write any more, or let us be modest and say for the moment. I suppose the prospect of Mother being left alone should have restrained me, but it hasn't.
The brute from Buffalo hasn't turned up yet. If he says there
8
I haven't seen JBY for a fortnight. I am truly delighted to
hear that you are doing something about him again. Was it the
Constable that started you? I remember asking you had you ever
seen the affinity, but you said no. I meant nothing more than
9
I go very little away from the house, having no money to go
with, except to Sandycove for a bathe. I must having [sic) been
getting too much sea & sun lately, to judge by the limpness.
Cissie & family are off to Port Elizabeth to-morrow week. That
10
with the kneeling figure that means something important to me. I think I mentioned it to you before. "Portant leur fatigue, etc. "11
530
makeitrightwithDenis. Iamsobrokewithweddings,&with the whole ofAugust to go before the next cheque, that I haven't even been able to send Reavey a cheque for the 3 copies I had meant to order. 7 But I suppose he won't mind adding that to what no doubt I owe him already.
is anything going there I shall probably apply for it also.
occasional passages with resemblances of handling.
will be a loss.
I enclose a photo of a section of the west wall at Ardmore
4 August 1937, McGreevy
I read Eliot's Dante. How insufferably condescending,
restrained & professorial. Then again Boccaccio's Life &
Leonardo Bruni's, with the mention of Taddeo Gaddi's fresco
12
portrait that used to be in Santa Croce.
It seems ages since I heard from or wrote to Charles.
13
I
wonder is there not something shut off there that even his dinners do not dissipate. Of course there is in us all, but I mean a whole habit of life that I certainly always felt a lonely one. I would like to know about his sexualities.
Love ever. Don't leave me long without a letter. Sam
ALS; 4 leaves,7 sides; TCD,MS 10402/130.
1 McGreevy'slettertoSBhasnotbeenfound.
2 "Ahuris" (bewildered people).
SB's comparison ofEnglish poet William Cowper (1731-1800) to SamuelJohnson is not reflected in his notes on Cowper's wish that he "'had never been. "' SB observes,"Into such a wish]. ed. never have entered" (BIF,UoR,3461/2,f SOR,Nixon transcription).
SB refers to Samuel Johnson's writings published posthumously as Prayers & Meditations (1785); they were edited by George Strahan (1744-1824) at Johnson's request.
3 SB's exclamation point following "Hester" may allude to Hester Dowden. SB knows that McGreevy will share his amusement at the sudden appearance of the very Irish "Lynch" among such veryEnglish names.
4 Johnson's"roughletter"toHesterThrale:26April1937,n. 20. SBrefersaswellto HesterThrale's reply of 4 July 1784:
I have this morning received from you so rough a letter in reply to one which was both tenderly and respectfully written,that I am forced to desire the conclusion of a correspondence which I can bear to continue no longer You have always commanded my esteem. and long enjoyed the fruits of a friendship never infringed by one harsh expression on my part during twenty years of familiar talk. Never did I oppose your will,or control your wish; nor can your unmerited severity itself lessen my regard; but till you have changed your opinion of Mr. Piozzi let us converse no more. God bless you. Uohnson,Letters ofSamuelJohnson LL. D, II,406; RUL MS 3641/1,f. 12R)
InthisletterMrs. Thraleusestheterm"husband"ofPiozzi,althoughtheywerenotyet married.
5 Contemporaries of Mrs. Thrale advanced speculation about Piozzi's vitality (Vulliamy,Mrs. Thrale ofStreatham, 234,260).
531
4 August 1937, McGreevy
Beckett's title for the Johnson play was "Human Wishes," playing on the title of Johnson's poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (1749) to suggest the disappointment of his desire for Mrs. Thrale (Boswell, Boswell's Life ofJohnson, I, 192; Samuel Beckett, "Human Wishes," in Disjecta, 155-166).
6 Denis Devlin had asked SB to review his collection of poems Intercessions for Ireland To-Day. it was McGreevy who wrote the review; in it, he took the opportunity to sketch the similarities and differences between SB and Devlin as poets ("New Dublin Poetry," Ireland To-Day 2. 10 [October 1937] 81-82). SB did not review Intercessions for Dublin Magazine; his review appeared as "Denis Devlin," transition 27 [April-May 1938] 289-294).
7 George Reavey had married on 16 July 1937 and Frank Beckett's wedding was imminent.
SB ordered three copies of Intercessions in the limited edition from Reavey's Europa Press on 3 August 1937 (see 14 August 1937) (InU, Mitchell/ Beckett Mss. ).
8 Mary Manning Howe, whose husband had recently taken a faculty position at the University of Buffalo (now SUNY, Buffalo), had mentioned the possibility of a position there for Beckett. The person whom SB describes as "Buffalo Bill" in his letter to Howe of 30 August 1937 was probably Henry Ten Eyck Perry, Chairman of the English department, then on leave in Europe.
9 The centenary of the death of John Constable (1776-1837) was marked by exhibitions at the British Museum, the Tate Gallery, and the Wildenstein Gallery in London, from April to the end ofAugust 1937.
Although in his Jack B. Yeats, McGreevy discusses the possibility of Constable's influence on Yeats's work, he underlines the differences between them: "Jack Yeats was concerned with human values. Constable was not" (11).
10 The40Foot:23May[1936[,n. 6.
Cissie Beckett and family had left for Southampton, from there to travel to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where they would visit Morris Sinclair.
11 SB had written about this figure in the west gable of the ruins of Ardmore Cathedral, Co. Waterford, reportedly the burial place of St. Declan (fl. fifth century), in his letter to McGreevy of 9 September 1936: "I spent a few days last week with Joe Hone at the Usshers in Cappagh (Dungarvan) and saw Ardmore & Cashel. On the west door at Ardmore there is an exquisite tiny carved stooping figure under a spear (Pelorson's Lance Grave), representing I suppose conversion of Declan. The loveliest six inches of stone I ever saw" (TCD, MS 10402/107; for photo see www. waterford countyrnuseum. org).
The relief figure in the arcades on the west gable represents an ecclesiastic blessing a kneeling warrior, armed with a long spear; this reminds SB of a line from a poem, "Plans," written by Georges Pelorson: "portant la fatigue comme une lance grave" (Bearing weariness like a serious spear) (transition 21 [March 1932] 182-183).
12 T. S. Eliot,Dante(London:FaberandFaber,1929).
Giovanni Boccaccio, La Vita di Dante (c. 1348 - 1373).
Although Florentine artist Taddeo Gaddi (1290-1366), a pupil of Giotto, created
many of the frescos in Santa Croce in Florence, Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444) does not
532
name him as the artist in his La vita di Dante (c. 1436): "La effigie sua propria si vede nella chiesa di Santa Croce, quasi a mezzo della chiesa, dalla mano sinistra andando verso ! 'altar maggiore, ed e ritratta al naturale ottimamente per dipintore perfetto de!
The text presented here is a draft; that SB probably did send the letter is indicated by the fact that he sent a copy of a portion of it to Arland Ussher on 11 July 1937: "My affection for you leaves me with no alternative but to let you have the benefit of the enclosed, which is an extract from a letter addressed to the Ringelnatz League in Berlin"; this letter closes with: "Your thoughts on Logoclasm, will you please put them in order and bestow them on me" (TxU).
This text is based on a ribbon copy, not a carbon copy, and it may represent SB's typed draft, with ink corrections made by SB at the time the letter was written. This document was given by SB to Lawrence Harvey between 1960 and 1966; Philip N. Cronenwett, formerly Curator of Manuscripts, Dartmouth College Library, concurs with the editors that the pencil corrections and notations may have been made at that time by SB and/or by Lawrence Harvey.
Martin Esslin's transcription of this letter incorporates a wide variety of silent corrections (Beckett, Disjecta, 51-54).
gegen meine eigene machen mochte und - Deo juvante - werde. Mit herzlichem Gruss
1hr
Soll ich Ihnen die Ringelnatz Bande zuriickschicken? Gibt es eine englische Uebersetzung von Trakl? 11
9/7/37
6 Clare Street Dublin
IFS
Dear Axel Kaun,
Many thanks for your letter. I was just about to write to
you when it came. Then I had to go travelling rather like
516
9 July 1937, Kaun Ringelnatz's male postage stamp, although under less passion
1
my opinion Ringelnatz is not worth the effort. You probably will not be more disappointed to hear this from me than I was in having to determine it.
I read through the 3 volumes, chose 23 poems and trans
2
From this it is not to be assumed at all that a translated Ringelnatz would not find interest or success with the English public. In this respect, however, I am totally unable to make a judgement since responses of small as well as large audiences are becoming more and more mysterious to me and, what is worse, less significant. For I cannot get away from the naive antithesis that, at least where literature is concerned, a thing is either worth it or not worth it. And if we absolutely must earn money, we do it elsewhere.
I do not doubt that Ringelnatz as a person was of rather
exceptional interest. As poet, however, he seemed to have
been of Goethe's opinion: better to write NOTHING than not to
write. However, perhaps even the Geheimrat might have
allowed the translator to feel himself unworthy of such high
4
for Ringelnatz's verse-obsession if you feel like going into it. However, for the time being I will spare you. Perhaps you like funeral orations as little as I do.
517
ate circumstances.
It is best I tell you right away and without further ado that in
lated2oftheseassamples. Thelittlethatofnecessitytheylost in the process is of course only to be evaluated in relation to what they have to lose in the first place, and I must say3 that I found this co-efficient of deterioration quite insignificant even where he is most poet and least rhymester.
kakoethes.
I would be happy to explain to you in more detail my disdain
9 July 1937, Kaun
Likewise, I could perhaps indicate to you the chosen poems
and send you the sample translations.
I am always delighted to receive a letter from you. Therefore do write as often and as extensively as possible. Do you abso lutely want me to do the same for you in English? Do you get as bored reading my German letters as I composing one in English? I would be sorry if you had the feeling that perhaps this was a matter of a contract which I am not fulfilling. An answer is requested.
It is indeed getting more and more difficult, even pointless, for me to write in formal English. And more and more my language appears to me like a veil which one has to tear apart in order to get to those things (or the nothingness) lying behind it. Grammar and style! To me they seem to have become as irrelevant as a Biedermeier bathing suit or the imperturbability of a gentleman. 5 A mask. It is to be hoped the time will come, thank God, in some circles it already has, when language is best used where it is most efficiently abused. Since we cannot dismiss it all at once, at least we do not want to leave anything undone that may contribute to its disrepute. To drill one hole after another into it until that which lurks behind, be it something or nothing, starts seeping through - I cannot imagine a higher goal for today's writer.
Or is literature alone to be left behind on that old, foul road long ago abandoned by music and painting? Is there something paralysingly sacred contained within the unnature of the word that does not belong to the elements of the other arts? Is there any reason why that terrifyingly arbitrary materiality of the word surface should not be dissolved, as for example the sound surface of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony is devoured
518
9 July 1937, Kaun
by huge black pauses, so that for pages on end we cannot per ceive it as other than a dizzying path of sounds connecting unfathomable chasms of silence? 6 An answer is requested.
I know there are people, sensitive and intelligent people, for whom there is no lack of silence. I cannot help but assume that they are hard of hearing. For in the forest of symbols that are no symbols, the birds of interpretation, that is no interpre tation, are never silent.
Of course, for the time being, one makes do with little. At first, it can only be a matter of somehow inventing a method of verbally demonstrating this scornful attitude vis-a-vis the word. In this dissonance of instrument and usage perhaps one will already be able to sense a whispering of the end-music or of the silence underlying all.
In my opinion, the most recent work ofJoyce had nothing at
7
Perhaps, Gertrude Stein's Logographs come closer to what I
mean. The fabric of the language has at least become porous, if
regrettably only quite by accident and, as it were, as a conse
quence of a procedure somewhat akin to the technique of
8
alltodowithsuchaprogramme. Thereitseemsmuchmorea matter of an apotheosis of the word. Unless Ascent into Heaven and Descent into Hell are one and the same. How nice it would be to be able to believe that in fact it were so. For the moment, however, we will limit ourselves to the intention.
Feininger. Theunhappylady(isshestillalive? )isundoubtedly still in love with her vehicle, if only, however, as a mathemati cian is with his numbers; for him the solution of the problem is of very secondary interest, yes, as the death of numbers, it must seem to him indeed dreadful. To connect this method with that of Joyce, as is fashionable, appears to me as ludicrous as the attempt, as yet unknown to me, to compare Nominalism (in the
519
9 July 1937, Kaun
sense of the Scholastics) with Realism. On the road toward this, for me, very desirable literature of the non-word, some form ofnominalistic irony can ofcourse be a necessary phase. However, it does not suffice ifthe game loses some ofits sacred solemnity. Let it cease altogether! Let's do as that crazy math ematician who used to apply a new principle ofmeasurement at each individual step of the calculation. Word-storming in the name of beauty.
9
In the meantime I am doing nothing. Only from time to time do I have the consolation, as now, of being allowed to violate a foreign language as involuntarily as, with knowledge and intention, I would like to do against my own language, and - Deo juvante - shall do. 10
Cordially yours,
Shall I send you back the Ringelnatz volumes? Is there an English translation ofTrakl? 1 1
1 SBevokesRingelnatz'spoem"EinmannlicherBriefinarkerlebt"(HansBotticher and Richard J. M. Seewald, eds. , Die Schnupftabaksdose: Stumpftinn in Versen und Bildem [Munich: R. Piper, 1912] 4; see text and translation by Ernest A. Seemann, www. beilharz. com/poetas/ringelnatz/, 25 May 2006). The poem personifies a male postage stamp that experienced arousal when licked by a princess; he wished to kiss her back, but had to go traveling, thus his love was unavailing.
2 SBhadbeensentthreevolumesofthepoemsbyRingelnatz'spublisherRowohlt, for whom Kaun worked, but it is not clear which books these were, nor which two poems SB had translated. He quotes "Die Ameisen" in his letter to Arland Ussher, 15 June 1937 (TxU).
3 SBwrote"<willIhnennichtverleugnen>"andtheninserted"muss"toreplace "will" and also added "-en" (the infinitive ending in German) without adding a verb stem. In order to have a translatable sentence, we have inserted (as did Esslin) the verb stem of "to say" to render "sagen. "
4 SB cites Goethe's final sentence ofthe first chapter ofDie Wahlverwandtschaften, in Die Leiden des jungen Werthers, Die Wahlverwandtschaften, Kleine Prosa, Epen, ed. Waltraud Wietholter and Christoph Brecht, in Sdmtliche Werke, VIII, ed. Friedmar Apel, Henrik Bines, and Dieter Borchmeyer (Frankfurt: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag, 1994) 278; Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Elective Affinities, tr. David Constantine, The World's Classics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994) 9.
520
27July 1937, Reavey "Kakoethes" (Gk. , wickedness, malignity); in SB's "Serena I": "or as they say evil
propensity" (see 8 October 1932).
5 Influenced by the French Empire style, "Biedermeier" (1815-1848) is usually applied to furnishings and fashion of the German bourgeoisie; later it took on a derogatory connotation of conventional narrow-mindedness.
6 Beethoven'sSymphonyno. 7inAmajor,op. 92.
7 Joyce'sWorkinProgress,publishedalreadyinfragments,waspublishedinfullas
Finnegans Wake in 1939.
8 "Logograph"isnotatermusedbyAmericanwriterGertrudeStein(1874-1946), although her writing emphasized sound and rhythm over sense, which SB compares to Lyonel Feininger's cubist technique, which layered prismatic planes of color.
SB wrote to Mary Manning Howe on 11 July 1937: "! am starting a Logoclast� League. [. . . [ I am the only member at present. The idea is ruptured writing, so that the void may protude, like a hernia" (TxU).
9 ThephilosophicaltraditionknownasRealismholdsthatwordssuchas"truth," "beauty," and "justice" are concepts that are general or universal, but also that they name extramental, actually existing entities. Nominalism holds that these words are merely names (Lat. , nomen) for which there are no corresponding entities. A survey of the medieval controversy is given in Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, II (Westminster, MD: The Newman Press, 1955) 136-155.
10 "Deojuvante"(withGod'shelp).
11 The writing of Austrian poet Georg Trakl (1887-1914) had not yet been trans lated into English in 1937.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
27/7/37 6 Clare St Dublin
dear George
I quote from a letter from Mrs Howe: "Please let Reavey
know I've sent your MS. to Covici-Firede (? ) Inc. [for Covici Friede] in New York. If they tum it down it[']s to be sent to Hal Smith ofDoubleday Doran. Let the New York offices ofReavey of which there is no address that I can find be notified & they can deal with matters after that. "1
521
"Geheimrat" (Privy counselor), in reference to Goethe.
27 July 1937, Reavey
My efforts to document my Johnson fantasy have not
ceased. The evidence for it is overwhelming. It explains what
has never been explained (e. g. his grotesque attitute [for attitude]
towards his wife & Mr Thrale). It is hard to put across, he being so
old at the crisis, i. e. she could hardly have expected much from
him. 2 We will make him younger & madder even than he was. 3
4
1 MaryManningHowe·slettertoSBhasnotbeenfound. PascalCovici(1888-1964), Romanian-born Chicago publisher, joined forces with Donald Friede (1901-1965) to form Covici-Friede (1928-1937) in New York.
There was no New York office for the European Literary Bureau.
2 In1736,SamuelJohnsonmarriedthewidowElizabethPorter(neeJervis,known as Hetty, 1689-1752) when she was forty-six and he was twenty-five (Bate, Samuel Johnson, 147). Bate notes that "between December 1737 and May 1739Johnson and his wife 'began to live apart,' althoughJohnson visited her occasionally" (177-178, 187-188; Boswell, Boswell's Life ofjohnson, I, 192). Yet Boswell disputed the observation of Sir John Hawkins that Johnson's fondness for his wife "was dissembled," writing: "we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceased,
even after her death" (Boswell, Boswell's Life ofjohnson, I, 192, 96, 234).
If, as it appears, SB's text reads "towards his wife and M'Thrale," then the "grotesque attitude" that SB ascribes toJohnson bears upon his apparently incongruous admira tion of them. If the slightly effaced page reads "M'1'1" Thrale, then SB draws a parallel between Elizabeth Porter and Hester Thrale, who were romantically and sexually
somewhat unlikely partners with their husbands.
Johnson was seventy-one years old when Henry Thrale died.
3 SB recorded in his notebook some details of Johnson's singular behavior in spring 1764 from Boswell's Life of Johnson: Johnson's symptoms of depression, his withdrawal from society and his "sighing, groaning, talking to himself, and restlessly walking from room to room. " Boswell describes Johnson's obsessive compulsive behavior as "superstitious habit" (e. g. arranging his steps so that the same foot always crossed the threshold), and notesJohnson's involuntary "sounds with his mouth . . . chewing the cud, . . . giving a half whistle . . . clucking like a hen . . . blowing out his breath like a whale" (Boswell's Life ofJohnson, I, 483-486; BIF, UoR, MS 3461/1, f. 42R).
4 GeorgeReaveymarriedClodineGwyneddCadeon16July1937. 5 "Atoi"(your).
522
Remember me to Miss Vernon. A toi5
Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA
July 29th 1937
6 Clare Street Dublin
Irish Free State
Dear Sir
I beg to apply for the post of Lecturer in Italian in the
University of Cape Town.
I enclose copies of testimonials and a brief curriculum vitae. The following will act as referees:
Mr Thomas C. Ross, Solicitor, 31 South Frederic[k] Street,
Dublin.
Captain the Reverend Arthur Aston Luce, D. D. , F. T. C. D. ,
Ryslaw, Bushey Park Road, Rathgar, Dublin.
Dr Geoffrey Thompson, 71 Harley Street, London W. 1.
Yours faithfully
s/ Samuel Beckett
(Samuel Beckett, M. A. , T. C. D. )
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
1
April 1906. 1916-19. 1919-23.
1923-27.
Samuel Barclay Beckett Church of Ireland
Single
Born in Dublin.
Earlsfort House Preparatory School, Dublin. Portora Royal School, Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
Trinity College, Dublin. Specialise in French and Italian. 1925 Senior Exhibitioner. 1926 Scholar of the House. April-August 1927 travelling in Italy.
523
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
1928-30.
1930-32. 1932-37.
Publications.
October 1927 graduate first of first class Modera tors with large gold medal in French and Italian. Lecturer in English at the Ecole Normale Superieure Paris.
Lecturer in French at Trinity College, Dublin. Private study and composition. Travel in France and Germany.
Proust (Chatto and Windus, London, 1932. ) Short Stories (Chatto and Windus, London, 1934. ) Poems (Europa Press, Paris, 1935. )
as well as various occasional translations, reviews, poems, short stories, etc.
PROFESSOR RUDMOSE BROWN TO UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
5 June 1937 Trinity College Dublin
I have great pleasure in supporting the application of Mr S. B. Beckett for the Lectureship in Italian in the University of Cape Town. Mr Beckett graduated in 1927 with the very highest distinction in French and Italian. He knows both lan guages thoroughly and in a scholarly way, as well as German. He has resided in Italy, France and Germany and has an intimate knowledge of the three countries as well as of their literatures. Mr Beckett spent two years as Lecturer in English in the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris (1928-1930) and has written a most illuminating book on Proust, as well as many articles on literary subjects and some prose fiction and verse. I may say without exaggeration that as well as possessing a sound academic
524
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
knowledge of the Italian, French and German languages, he has remarkable creative faculty.
Signed: T. B. Rudmose-Brown, Professor of the Romance
Languages in the University of Dublin, Secretary of
the University Council, MA. , Lltt. D. , Docteur
2
P. S. I may add that Mr Beckett has an adequate knowledge of Provenc;:al, ancient and modern.
Copy
PROFESSOR WALTER STARKIE TO THE UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
llthJune, 1937 University Club Dublin
Mr. Samuel Beckett has asked me to testify to his knowledge of Italian language and literature. During the four years of his course at Dublin University he attended my lectures in Italian Literature, and he obtained an Honors Degree, first-class, in 1927, in Modern Literature (Italian and French). Mr Beckett was an excellent student and possesses a good knowledge of Italian history and literature. In the final examination the can didates are required to display special knowledge of the great classical authors, in particular, ofDante. Mr Beckett's answering showed distinction and literary gifts of no mean order. I wish to recommend him for a lectureship in Italian.
Signed: Walter Starkie, MA. , Lltt. D. , Professor in the University of Dublin, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin.
525
d'Universite, Soci dou Felibrige.
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
PROFESSOR ROBERT W. TATE TO THE UNIVERSITY
OF CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
June 12th 1937 40 Trinity College Dublin
Mr Samuel B. Beckett graduated in 1927 with a First Class Moderatorship with large gold medal in French and Italian. In his Italian studies I was closely associated with him both as lecturer and examiner throughout his course. It is my conviction that very few foreigners have a practical knowledge of that language as sound as his, or as great a mastery of its grammar and constructions.
Signed: R. W. Tate, Fellow and Tutor T. C. D. Copy
PROFESSOR RUDMOSE BROWN, GENERAL TESTIMONIAL
7 July 1932 Trinity College Dublin
Mr S. B. Beckett had a most distinguished University career at Trinity College, Dublin. He was the best student of his year in French, a Scholar of the House in French and Italian, and a 1st Class Moderator (1st Class Honour Degree) in French and Italian. I chose him to spend two years at the Ecole Normale Superieure as the nominee of Trinity College, and then picked him out of all my graduates to become Lecturer in French at
526
Trinity College. He speaks and writes French like a Frenchman of the highest education. He has a most remarkable knowledge of French literature, and has written a very competent and interesting book on Marcel Proust. I found him an excellent Lecturer, far above the average standard of young lecturers, and regretted very much when he resigned his post in order to take up further residence in Paris. His knowledge of Italian is very little less than his knowledge of French. He also knows German.
I can most thoroughly recommend Mr Beckett for a University post.
Signed: T. B. Rudmose-Brown, Professor of Romance Languages in the University of Dublin, M. A. , Litt. D. , Docteur d'Univ. . Soci dou Felibrige.
JEAN THOMAS, GENERAL TESTIMONIAL
le 22 Juillet 1932 Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite de Paris,
45 Rue d'Ulm
Paris 5me.
M. Samuel Beckett a ete, pendant deux annees consecutives, de Novembre 1928 a la fin de l'annee scolaire 1930, Lecteur d'anglais a l'Ecole Normale Superieure. Par sa connaissance a la fois de la litterature anglaise et de la litterature frarn;:aise, par sa culture aussi precise que riche, il a rendu a nos eleves les plus grands services. ]'ajoute qu'il a noue avec certains Normaliens
527
29July 1937, University ofCape Town
29 July 1937, University of Cape Town
de precieuses amities et qu'il a laisse le meilleur souvenir dans ! 'esprit de tous ceux qui l'ont connu.
Signed: Jean Thomas, Agrege de l'Universite, Secretaire de ! 'Ecole Normale Superieure.
22July 1932 Ecole Normale Superieure, Universite de Paris,
45 Rue d'Ulm
Paris 5
Mr. Samuel Beckett was, for two consecutive years, from November 1928 to the end of the academic year 1930, Lecteur in English at the Ecole Normale Superieure. By his knowledge of both English and French literature, by his general culture, as exact as it was rich, he was exceptionally helpful to our stu dents. I may add that he struck up close friendships with a number of Normaliens, and that he is fondly remembered by all who knew him.
Signed: Jean Thomas, Agrege de l'Universite, Secretaire de ! 'Ecole Normale Superieure.
TIS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; enclosures: T. B. Rudmose-Brown to University of Cape Town. 5 June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); Walter Starkie to University of Cape Town, 11 June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); R. W. Tate to University of Cape Town, 12June 1937 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); general testimonial: T. B. Rudmose-Brown 7July 1932 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side) and
Jean Thomas 22July 1932 (TLC; 1 leaf, 1 side); University of Cape Town.
1 Testimonialswereopendocuments,madeavailabletothecandidate;references were sent directly to the institution requesting them. The University of Cape Town does not hold letters from Thomas Conland Ross, a solicitor from 1896 to 1946 (d. 1947), Arthur Aston Luce, or Geoffrey Thompson, which suggests that they were not contacted as referees.
2 "SocidouFelibrige"(Provem;al,FellowoftheSocietyoftheFelibrige).
528
THOMAS McGREEVY
4! h Aug. 1937
Foxrock
DearTom
Very pleased with your lively letter.
Dr ]. 's dogmatisme was the facade of consternation. The
1s! h century was full of ahuris - perhaps that is why it looked like the age of "reason" - but there can hardly have been many so completely at sea in their solitude as he was or so horrifiedly aware of it - not even Cowper. Read the Prayers & Meditations if you don't believe me. 2
3
There is no question of being partisan in the matter one way or
another. He made her Salon & she made him comfortable. When
he wrote her the famous rough letter he didn't know what he was
doing. Probably it was the only overt cruelty in the "friendship
never infringed by one harsh expression during 20 years of famil
iar talk", as she herselfexpressed it in her admirably dignified last
letter to him. And of the covert she certainly had no more to
suffer than he, indeed certainly a great deal less, because she
had none of that need to suffer, or necessity of suffering, that he
had, and never found in him the peg to hang her pain on that he
did in her. His horror at loving her I take it was a mode or
paradigm of his horror at ultimate annihilation, to which he
declared in the fear of his death that he would prefer an eternity
4
1
4 August 1937, McGreeiy
Mrs Thrale was nee Salusbury- Hester(! ) Lynch(! ! ) Salusbury.
oftorment. Andiftheplayisabouthimandnotabouther,itdoes not mean that he was in the right, or any nonsense like that, but simply that he being spiritually self conscious was a tragic figure, i. e. worth putting down as part of the whole of which oneself is a part, & that she, being merely physically self conscious is less
529
4 August 1937, McGreevy
interesting to me personally. She of course didn't get what she wanted either, Piozzi being a poor performer. "Human Wishes". 5
[. . . ]
I would much rather you did the Intercessions for Ireland To-day than that I did. I can always get it from Seumas. I shall
6
I applied last week for the Lectureship in Italian at Cape Town. It would be an excuse for taking up the subject again & people say Cape Town has its advantages. I am really indifferent about where I go or what I do, since I don't seem able or to want to write any more, or let us be modest and say for the moment. I suppose the prospect of Mother being left alone should have restrained me, but it hasn't.
The brute from Buffalo hasn't turned up yet. If he says there
8
I haven't seen JBY for a fortnight. I am truly delighted to
hear that you are doing something about him again. Was it the
Constable that started you? I remember asking you had you ever
seen the affinity, but you said no. I meant nothing more than
9
I go very little away from the house, having no money to go
with, except to Sandycove for a bathe. I must having [sic) been
getting too much sea & sun lately, to judge by the limpness.
Cissie & family are off to Port Elizabeth to-morrow week. That
10
with the kneeling figure that means something important to me. I think I mentioned it to you before. "Portant leur fatigue, etc. "11
530
makeitrightwithDenis. Iamsobrokewithweddings,&with the whole ofAugust to go before the next cheque, that I haven't even been able to send Reavey a cheque for the 3 copies I had meant to order. 7 But I suppose he won't mind adding that to what no doubt I owe him already.
is anything going there I shall probably apply for it also.
occasional passages with resemblances of handling.
will be a loss.
I enclose a photo of a section of the west wall at Ardmore
4 August 1937, McGreevy
I read Eliot's Dante. How insufferably condescending,
restrained & professorial. Then again Boccaccio's Life &
Leonardo Bruni's, with the mention of Taddeo Gaddi's fresco
12
portrait that used to be in Santa Croce.
It seems ages since I heard from or wrote to Charles.
13
I
wonder is there not something shut off there that even his dinners do not dissipate. Of course there is in us all, but I mean a whole habit of life that I certainly always felt a lonely one. I would like to know about his sexualities.
Love ever. Don't leave me long without a letter. Sam
ALS; 4 leaves,7 sides; TCD,MS 10402/130.
1 McGreevy'slettertoSBhasnotbeenfound.
2 "Ahuris" (bewildered people).
SB's comparison ofEnglish poet William Cowper (1731-1800) to SamuelJohnson is not reflected in his notes on Cowper's wish that he "'had never been. "' SB observes,"Into such a wish]. ed. never have entered" (BIF,UoR,3461/2,f SOR,Nixon transcription).
SB refers to Samuel Johnson's writings published posthumously as Prayers & Meditations (1785); they were edited by George Strahan (1744-1824) at Johnson's request.
3 SB's exclamation point following "Hester" may allude to Hester Dowden. SB knows that McGreevy will share his amusement at the sudden appearance of the very Irish "Lynch" among such veryEnglish names.
4 Johnson's"roughletter"toHesterThrale:26April1937,n. 20. SBrefersaswellto HesterThrale's reply of 4 July 1784:
I have this morning received from you so rough a letter in reply to one which was both tenderly and respectfully written,that I am forced to desire the conclusion of a correspondence which I can bear to continue no longer You have always commanded my esteem. and long enjoyed the fruits of a friendship never infringed by one harsh expression on my part during twenty years of familiar talk. Never did I oppose your will,or control your wish; nor can your unmerited severity itself lessen my regard; but till you have changed your opinion of Mr. Piozzi let us converse no more. God bless you. Uohnson,Letters ofSamuelJohnson LL. D, II,406; RUL MS 3641/1,f. 12R)
InthisletterMrs. Thraleusestheterm"husband"ofPiozzi,althoughtheywerenotyet married.
5 Contemporaries of Mrs. Thrale advanced speculation about Piozzi's vitality (Vulliamy,Mrs. Thrale ofStreatham, 234,260).
531
4 August 1937, McGreevy
Beckett's title for the Johnson play was "Human Wishes," playing on the title of Johnson's poem "The Vanity of Human Wishes" (1749) to suggest the disappointment of his desire for Mrs. Thrale (Boswell, Boswell's Life ofJohnson, I, 192; Samuel Beckett, "Human Wishes," in Disjecta, 155-166).
6 Denis Devlin had asked SB to review his collection of poems Intercessions for Ireland To-Day. it was McGreevy who wrote the review; in it, he took the opportunity to sketch the similarities and differences between SB and Devlin as poets ("New Dublin Poetry," Ireland To-Day 2. 10 [October 1937] 81-82). SB did not review Intercessions for Dublin Magazine; his review appeared as "Denis Devlin," transition 27 [April-May 1938] 289-294).
7 George Reavey had married on 16 July 1937 and Frank Beckett's wedding was imminent.
SB ordered three copies of Intercessions in the limited edition from Reavey's Europa Press on 3 August 1937 (see 14 August 1937) (InU, Mitchell/ Beckett Mss. ).
8 Mary Manning Howe, whose husband had recently taken a faculty position at the University of Buffalo (now SUNY, Buffalo), had mentioned the possibility of a position there for Beckett. The person whom SB describes as "Buffalo Bill" in his letter to Howe of 30 August 1937 was probably Henry Ten Eyck Perry, Chairman of the English department, then on leave in Europe.
9 The centenary of the death of John Constable (1776-1837) was marked by exhibitions at the British Museum, the Tate Gallery, and the Wildenstein Gallery in London, from April to the end ofAugust 1937.
Although in his Jack B. Yeats, McGreevy discusses the possibility of Constable's influence on Yeats's work, he underlines the differences between them: "Jack Yeats was concerned with human values. Constable was not" (11).
10 The40Foot:23May[1936[,n. 6.
Cissie Beckett and family had left for Southampton, from there to travel to Port Elizabeth, South Africa, where they would visit Morris Sinclair.
11 SB had written about this figure in the west gable of the ruins of Ardmore Cathedral, Co. Waterford, reportedly the burial place of St. Declan (fl. fifth century), in his letter to McGreevy of 9 September 1936: "I spent a few days last week with Joe Hone at the Usshers in Cappagh (Dungarvan) and saw Ardmore & Cashel. On the west door at Ardmore there is an exquisite tiny carved stooping figure under a spear (Pelorson's Lance Grave), representing I suppose conversion of Declan. The loveliest six inches of stone I ever saw" (TCD, MS 10402/107; for photo see www. waterford countyrnuseum. org).
The relief figure in the arcades on the west gable represents an ecclesiastic blessing a kneeling warrior, armed with a long spear; this reminds SB of a line from a poem, "Plans," written by Georges Pelorson: "portant la fatigue comme une lance grave" (Bearing weariness like a serious spear) (transition 21 [March 1932] 182-183).
12 T. S. Eliot,Dante(London:FaberandFaber,1929).
Giovanni Boccaccio, La Vita di Dante (c. 1348 - 1373).
Although Florentine artist Taddeo Gaddi (1290-1366), a pupil of Giotto, created
many of the frescos in Santa Croce in Florence, Leonardo Bruni (1369-1444) does not
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name him as the artist in his La vita di Dante (c. 1436): "La effigie sua propria si vede nella chiesa di Santa Croce, quasi a mezzo della chiesa, dalla mano sinistra andando verso ! 'altar maggiore, ed e ritratta al naturale ottimamente per dipintore perfetto de!
