Of
course, I must apologize to him for not yet having answered his
6
imagine that this omission might be in spite of myself.
course, I must apologize to him for not yet having answered his
6
imagine that this omission might be in spite of myself.
Samuel Beckett
I have never made my peace with the Pastoral
Symphony into which I have the impression Beethoven poured
everything that was vulgar, facile, and childish in him (and that
1
was a great deal), so as to have done with it once and for all.
I
heard a superb concert by the Pro Arte Quartet that I have already
spoken ofto Cissie, and to which I shall therefore not return now.
But another one, given by the Busch Quartet, which is at the
moment putting on a series of five concerts in which they are
performing all of Beethoven's string quartets, is worth a men
tion. 2 The programme was made up of three quartets, the first
one ('Harfen') from 1809, that is I think between the Pastoral and
3
disappointed. Although it is only his penultimate quartet it has
as its finale the last composition we have from his hand, an
incomparably beautiful Allegro. But it is the Cavatina that imme
diately precedes that Allegro that made the greatest impression
on me. A movement which in calm finality and intensity goes
beyond anything I have ever heard by the venerable Ludwig, and
which I would not have believed him capable of- really, ifyou are
not already familiar with this quartet (B Flat minor, op. 130), you
4
a grave ,11 allegro El;JIIJ;IJII
Muss es sein'? Es muss sein! Es muss sein15
197
theSeventh;thesecondfrom1800;andthethirdfrom1825. This is the one that I went to, and I can say that I was in no way
woulddowelltogetholdofit. Thelastconcertintheseriesison Saturday the 17th, feast of the unspeakable Patrick, and I have just gone some way to protecting myself against the memory of his vulgar zoological and botanical nonsense by buying a ticket. There will be the last Quartet in F (opus 135) with the famous 'Schwer Gefasste Entschluss':
4 March 1934, Morris Sinclair
Then a few days later, on the 20th I think, there is Jacques
Thibaud with a tremendous programme - including the Vitali
Chaconne, the Concerto in A by kleiner Wolfer! , and a galaxy of
6
The strange, gentle pleasures that I feel at the approach of spring are impossible of expression, and if that is a sentence inviting ridicule, so much the worse for me. I have positively never watched it coming with so much impatience and so much relief. And I think of it as a victory over darkness, nightmares, sweats, panic and madness, and of the crocuses and daffodils as the promise of a life at least bearable, once enjoyed but in a past so remote that all trace, even remembrance of it, had been almost lost. May the powers will it that I am not wrong - the peninsula must be radiant. And has the horse revived a little among the Zephyrs? Do remember me to him.
And how is the work going? This Ruddiesque anthology is indeed, as you say, a stinking affair, and moreover full of traps. My advice to you is to study it with a map of France to hand. That way there is at least a geographical interest to be got out of it. Otherwise it is an intolerable chore. Incidentally, I have never read it. Pay particular attention to the Proven�al part (Maurras, etc. ), for that is the domain beloved of the noble Professor. And I need hardly tell you that the study of the texts that are being proposed for study is far less important than that of the person proposing them. In other words, put
yourself in Ruddy's skin (there is room), and to hell more or less
7
Spaniards. Butevenstartingalreadytosaveupforit,Idonot know whether I shall be able to afford it. There is a positive storm of music in London just now, such a wealth of splendid things that even if one could afford them all it would be hard to choose between concerts happening on the same day. Now there is a dilemma that costs me no sleep! Alas!
with his anthologies.
198
4 March 1934, Morris Sinclair
On my conscience is the fact that I have not replied to your august father's letter. But as the hours oflight grow, and those of darkness are absorbed into them, there are forming in the immense crucible of my mind the only verbal combinations worthy of him, and of me in relation to him. Comfort him, then, ifperchance he had need ofsuch care, with this foretaste ofwhat is in preparation.
Before your magnificent mother, from whom an acknowl edgement ofthe divine letter which I recently dispatched to her is most urgently and insistently to be wished, I prostrate myself and eagerly fill my mouth with dust. Go through these move ments for me.
And to you, my dear friend, I wish, now and for the future, all that is most beneficent and propitious in a world where such virtues seem to be growing more and more scarce.
Love Sam
1 Beethoven'sSymphonyno. 6inFmajor,op. 68("Pastoral").
2 The concert given by the Pro Arte Quartet at the BBC Broadcasting House on 16 February 1934 comprised Beethoven's String Quartet no. 14 in C-sharp minor, op. 131; String Quartet no. 4 in C major, op. 91 by Bela Bart6k (1881-1945); and Debussy's String Quartet in G minor, op. 10 ("Music This Week," The Times 12 February 1934: 8).
The Busch Quartet played a series of ten concerts at Wigmore Hall between 24 February and 17 March 1934; they actually played the Beethoven string quartets in six concerts (26 February, and 2, 3, 9, 15, and 17 March).
3 On 2 March the Busch Quartet played Beethoven's String Quartet no. 10 in E-flat major, op. 74 ("Harp"); String Quartet no. 3 in D major, op. 18; and String Quartet no. 13 in B-flat major, op. 130. "Harp" was indeed written between Beethoven's Symphony no. 6 and Symphony no. 7 in A major, op. 92.
4 SBspeaksoftheCavatinaandAllegroofStringQuartetno. 13inB-flatmajor,op. 130. Beethoven originally composed the Grosse Fuge as a finale for this quartet; per suaded that it was too long, he published it separately (Grosse Fuge in B-flat major, op. 133) and composed the Allegro as a second ending (Philip Radcliffe, Beethoven's String Quartets, 2nd edn. ! Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978] 135-137).
5 Beethoven'sStringQuartetno. 16inFmajor,op. 135,wasperformedinthelast Busch concert of the series on 17 March 1934, St. Patrick's Day. SB quotes the epigraph
199
4 March 1934, Morris Sinclair
of the final movement as well as its musical motif: "Der schwer gefasste Entschluss/ Muss es sein? Es muss sein! Es muss sein! " (The heart-wrenching decision/ Must it be? It must be! It must be! ) Uohn Briggs, The Collector's Beethoven [Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978] 41-42; Radcliffe, Beethoven's String Quartets, 170-174).
6 From 1905 to 1935, French violinist Jacques Thibaud (1880-1953) often per formed as a member of a trio with French pianist and conductor Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) and Catalan cellist and composer Pablo Casals (1876-1973).
The program of Thibaud's recital at Wigmore Hall. 20 March 1934, included the Chaconne in G minor, then attributed to Italian composer Tomaso Battista Vitali (1663-1745); Violin Concerto in A major, K. 219, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791); the Violin Sonata in G major. by Belgian composer Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894); "Fountain of Arethusa" from Myths. op. 30, no. 1. by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937); the malaguefla "Rumores de la Caleta," from Rernerdos de viaje, op. 71. no. 6, by Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909), arranged for violin by Austrian-born American violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962); "Danse originale," dedicated to Thibaud, by Enrique Granados y Campifla (1867-1916); and the Suite from the lyric drama La vida breve by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). (For the current attribution of the Chaconne: Wolfgang Reich, "Die Chaconne g-Moll - von Vitali? " Beitrage zur Musikwissenschaft 2 [1965] 149-152. )
With the phrase. "kleinerWolferl" (littleWolfie), SB refers toWolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
7 In the 1933-1934 Calendar of Trinity College Dublin, Nouvelle Anthologie des troubadours, ed. Jean Audiau (Paris: Delagrave. 1928), is listed for the Michaelmas examinations, although the editor's name is incorrectly given as Audian (127). Rudmose-Brown was very interested in the Proven�al literary renaissance and was a member of the Societe des Felibriges.
Charles Maurras (1868-1952) was a member of the Ecole romane, founded by Jean Moreas (1856-1910), Ernest Raynaud (1864-1936), Maurice du Plessys (1864-1924), and Raymond de la Tailhede (1867-1938); the group sought a return to the classical tradition in reaction against the Symbolists, the Parnassians, and the Romantics. See also Roger Little, "Beckett's Mentor. Rudmose-Brown: Sketch for a Portrait," Irish University Review 14 (spring 1984) 34-41.
MORRIS SINCLAIR DUBLIN
SB's errors of German in this letter have not been corrected.
5/5/34
48 Paulton's Square London S. W. 3
Lieber Sonny
Wer einst Rosen pfliicken will, der soll die Zeit, die ihm
auferlegt ist, dann und wann ermuntern. Verzeihe mir also,
200
5 May 1934, Morris Sinclair
wenn ich mich benotigt finde, meinen franzosischen Quatsch
augenblicklich fallen zu lassen. Zwar aus dieser unentbehrli
chen Veranderung wird uns keine Vorteil entstehen, doch viel
leicht ein bischen Spass. Vorteil! Was wollen sie eigentlich
1
von Vorteil! Sie furchten sie so schrecklich vor dem Leben, das
wenn sie aus irgendeinem Gegenstand keinen gewissen Gewinn
ziehen konnen, so fuhlen sie sich wie geschlagen, wo nicht fast
ermordet. Fur diesen Leute werden Spass und Vorteil allmahlich
so durchaus unvertraglich, dass alle Handlung nur zum Spass
gemacht ihnen wie eine Selbstverstiimmelung scheinen muss.
Wenn ich den Glaube hatte, ohne den niemand hassen kann,
2
3
lange keine Musik gehort. Ausser Horowitz, der ein Paar
Konzerten gibt, und dem Ring, d. h. die Saison, schon in vollem
4
Mit meiner Manie fur alles, das mit der Frage nur die mindeste Beziehung hat, wirst du hoffentlich Nachsicht haben.
Ich habe gem diese Sommerzeit, weil dadurch werden die Finstemis und alle seine schlechte Dinge wenigstens aufgescho
5
201
sagen, unsre [? schweizzige] Moralisten, mit ihrem Schreien
wiirde ich sicher diesen Gegenstandsauger hassen.
IchwiinschedirallenmoglichenErfolgimFeis. Ichhabe
GangeundKlange,hatesnichtsgegeben. Jedenfallsistesmir, aus Grunden die mir Gott sei dank unbekannt sind, als ware ich von der Musik ausgeschlossen, und dazu habe ich keinen geringsten Appetit . . . .
Ich wollt' ich war' noch alter, und runziger und kalter . . . .
ben. Da ich Manichaer bin, in was die Dunkelheit betrifft.
Hier spreize ich mich, kann und will nicht anders, und habe keine Ahnung, ob Gott mir hilft, oder nicht. Es gibt doch eine fast nie versagende Freude, namlich, das Denken an jenen Millionen, die weniger gliicklich als ich sind, oder sein sollten. Was fur ein Schmaus ist das! Da es aber klar wird, sobald man die
4 March 1934, Moms Sinclair
Sache ein bischen iiberlegt, dass zwischen Leiden und Fiihlen gar keine Verhaltnis festzustellen ist, so fangt auch jene Freude an, trtigerisch auszusehen. Wenn ich, zum Beispiel, in der Zeitung Iese, der arme Herr Dings solle morgen friih, ehe ich aus meinem Bette sein werde, hinrichten werden, und mich sofort zu gratu lieren beginn, dass ich keine solche Nacht zuzubringen habe, so tausche ich mich, insofern ich zwei Umstande, anstatt zweier Gemiitsbewegungen, vergleiche. Und es ist hochstwahrschein lich, dass der zum Tode Verurteilte wenigere Angst als ich hat. Wenigstens weiss er genau um was es sich handelt und genau um was er sich zu kiimmern hat, und das ist nun ein grosserer Trost als man im allgemeinen zu glauben ptlegt. So gross, dass viele Kranken Verbrecher werden, nur damit sie ihre Angst begrenzen und jenen Trost bekommen mogen. Jenseit der Spekulation kommt erst der Mensch in sein Eden, in jeden [for ? jenen] Schutzort wo keine Gefahr mehr ist, oder vielmehr eine, die bestimmt ist und die man zum Fokus bringen kann.
Neuerdings habe ich an den Lehrer der englischen Sprache
viel gedacht, und mich gefragt, wie es ihm geht. Freilich muss ich
mich bei ihm entschuldigen, dass ich seinen sehr vortrefflichen
6
michvorzustellen,dieseVersaumungseimirzumTrotz. Kaum
nehme ich die Feder in der Hand, um irgendetwas auf englisch
zusammenzusetzen, als ich die Empfindung habe, verpersonifi
ziert zu sein, wenn man einen solchen herrlichen Ausdruck
8
Brief noch nicht beantwortet habe. So bitte ich dich, ihm fur
7
gebrauchendarf. Deshalbwtirdealles,wasichdamalsschreiben konnte, meinem Vorhaben, dessen Wirkung sozusagen momen tanisch gelamt ist, am fernsten liegen. So lohnt es sich kaum. Es ist ein fremdes Gefuhl, unwillkiirlich weit von sich zurtickzu treten und sich wie durch ein Schliisselloch zu beobachten. Fremd ja, und zum Briefschreiben iiberhaupt unpassend.
202
5 May 1934, Morris Sinclair
Ich weiss nicht, wann ich nach Hause zuriickgehen konnen werde. Der Aufenthalt in dieser Stadt gefallt mir nur wenig. Ausser den Bildem, die meistenteils, ihres Fensterladenglases wegen, nur tropfenweise in die Augen kommen, gibt es nichts, das man ansehen darf. 9 Manchmal verlange ich nach jenen Bergen und Feldem, den ich so gut kenne, und die eine ganz andere Ruhe, als die zu dieser groben, englischen Landschaft gehorende, bilden. Wenn nur Dublin ungewohnt ware, so war' es angenehm, sich irgendwo in seiner Nahe niederzulassen.
Was fur ein Schlusszierat gehort zu diesem Klagelied? Man atmet, also . . . ? Oder: Was Hanschen nicht lemt. . . ? Die Symphonie unvollendet zu lassen, das ist jedenfalls die Hauptsache. Dabei kann alles in Ordnung aussehen.
Herzlich Sam
ALS; 3 leaves, 3 sides; Sinclair.
5/5/34
48 Paulton's Square London S. W. 3
Dear Sunny,
Whoever wants to pick roses some day should now and then
cheer up the time imposed on him. Forgive me therefore when I feel the urge to drop my French nonsense right away. It is true that out of this indispensable change no gain will accrue to us, but perhaps a bit of fun. Gain! What actually do they want to say, our[? Swiss] moralists, with their cries about gain! 1 They are so terribly afraid oflife that ifthere is any object from which they can draw no sure profit, they feel beaten, if not nearly murdered. For these people fun and gain slowly become so completely
203
5 May 1934, Morris Sinclair
irreconcilable that any action done just for fun must seem to
them like self-mutilation. IfI had the faith without which no one
2
3
heard any music for a long time. Besides Horowitz, who is giving a few concerts, and the 'Ring' (i. e. the season) already in full
4
I hope you will make allowances for my obsession with every thing that is even the least bit related to that question.
I am fond of this summertime because darkness and all its bad things are at least being postponed thereby. Since I am a
5
have no idea if God helps me or not. There is after all an almost never-failing joy, namely the thought of those millions who are less fortunate than I, or ought to be. What a feast that is! But as it becomes clear as soon as one reflects a bit on the matter that no relationship between suffering and feeling is to be found, then even that joy begins to look deceptive. If, for example, I read in the paper that poor Mr. So-and-so is to be executed early in the morning, before I get out of bed, and immediately start to con gratulate myself that I do not have to spend such a night, I deceive myself in as much as I compare two circumstances instead of two emotions. And it is highly probable that the man condemned to death is less afraid than I. At least he knows exactly what is at stake and exactly what he has to attend to, and that is a greater comfort than one is generally inclined to
204
can hate, I would surely hate this object-gobbler. IwishyoueveryconceivablesuccessintheFeis. Ihavenot
swingandsound,therehasbeennothing. Atanyrate,itseems to me, for reasons unknown to me thank God, as ifl were cut off from music, and I have not the least bit of appetite for that.
I wish I were even older
And wrinklier and colder. . . .
Manichaean as far as darkness is concerned.
Here I strut about, I cannot and will not do otherwise, and
believe. So great that many sick people become criminals solely in order to limit their fear and gain that comfort. Only beyond speculation does man reach his Eden, that refuge where there is no more danger, or rather one which is determined and which one can bring into focus.
Lately I have thought a good deal about the teacher of the
English language and have wondered how he is getting on.
Of
course, I must apologize to him for not yet having answered his
6
imagine that this omission might be in spite of myself. No
sooner do I take up my pen to compose something in English
than I get the feeling of being "de-personified", if one may use
8
excellent letter. So I ask you to get him, on my behalf, to
7
5 May 1934, Morris Sinclair
such a marvellous expression. Therefore, everything that I might have written at that time would lie furthest away from my intention, the effect of which would be, so to say, momen tarily paralysed. Thus it is hardly worth doing. It is a strange feeling to step back instinctively, well away from oneself, and observe oneself as through a keyhole. Strange, yes, and alto gether unsuitable for letter writing.
I do not know when I shall be able to come home. Staying in
this town gives me little pleasure. Except for the pictures, which
because of their shop-window glass meet the eye for the most
part only drop by drop, there is nothing that one is allowed to
9
What kind of final embellishment might go with this lam entation? One breathes therefore. . . ? Or: What little Johnny does not learn. . . ? To leave the symphony unfinished, that at
205
lookat. SometimesIlongforthosemountainsandfields,which I know so well, and which create a completely different calm from the one associated with this coarse English landscape. If only Dublin were unfamiliar, then it would be pleasant to settle somewhere nearby.
5 May 1934, Moms Sinclair
any rate is the main thing. With that everything can appear to be
in order. Love,
Sam
1 SB writes "schweizzige" but it is unclear what he meant to signify here: possibly "schweizer" (Swiss) or "schweissige" (sweaty) or even "geschwatzige" (chattering).
2 "Gegenstandsauger" (object-gobbler). possibly a play on the German word "Staubsauger" (vacuum cleaner, literally dust sucker).
3 Morris Sinclair was a violinist and competed in the Feis Ce6il. a Dublin music festival and competition. which began on 8 May 1934.
4 Vladimir Horowitz played three concerts in London during the following week: a charity concert at Queen's Hall on 8 May. a BBC concert at Queen's Hall on 9 May. and a recital at Queen"s Hall on 28 May 1934.
Two complete cycles of Wagner's opera festival Der Ring des Nibelungen (Das Rheingold, Die Walkiire, Siegfried, Gotterddmmerung) were performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1 to 18 May 1934. On 2 May, the third act of Die Walkiire was broadcast over the London Regional radio station.
5 As it stands, SB's statement of identification with Manichaeism is a grammatical and logical fragment.
6 SB refers to Morris Sinclair's father Boss Sinclair who gave English lessons in Kassel (Morris Sinclair, 1 May 2003; Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 153).
7 SB's German construction would have been correct had he used the word "erkla ren" (explain). By using "vorstellen" instead, he merges the two constructions possible with that verb and thereby the two meanings ("introduce" and "imagine"), with the result that neither form is used correctly. Considering the contents and tone of the letter, we have settled on "imagine. "
8 SB is playing with German, as it were undoing the word "personifiziert" (person ified) with "verpersonifiziert" (de-personified).
9 InGerman,useoftheexpression"tropfenweise"withreferencetopaintingisas startling as "drop by drop" is in English.
NUALA COSTELLO DUBLIN
10/5 [1934]
206
48 Paulton's Sq. [London] S. W. 3
10 May {1934}, Costello You seem to be having a wunnerful time, with your new
1
saw Man ofAran and felt I am afraid irretrievably glued to the
seat. Very smart no doubt as far as it goes, sea, rocks, air and
granite gobs very fine, but a sensationalisation ofAran wouldn't
you be inclined to say, as Synge's embroidery a sentimentalisa
tion. Also I felt the trues of montage and photography, very
keenly, very keenly indeed. The boy fishing is pure Harold
Lloyd. The tempest au ralenti is Eve's Revue. Komrade King
caulking his curragh was very nice. The odd glimpse of the
Pins also. 3 Very depressing film, caricature ofwhat we all do,
struggling to ensure our dying every second, except that we
acquire our 27 foot sharks in a less amusing manner. But so
much mere nature all at once, is it not very dumpling. I was
forgetting the rock flowers, they were a relief, like a preterite in
Corneille at last. And no poteen? 4 Surely a little poteen would
not have been inessential. Didn't the wild waves make a strange
noise, not specially marine I thought. There are better waves in
5
Lautreaval. Pauvres Gens oxygenated.
DearNuala
nastorquemadanyles. Thisisverydeep. IamreadingAmelia. 2I
Epstein's Finis Terrae. Smaller and better. In fact the whole thing was very Hugo, Hugo at his most Asti. Not Lautreamont,
6
possible development ofthis denigration is in indecency. And I
scarcely know you well enough for that. But haven't I been very
7
How can you [? be] so little equitable, when I obviously suffer from the acutest paraesthesia to all that is said and written to and ofme. When I hear a small boy giggle two liberties off I redden to the rotten roots ofmy white hair. The slightest unkindly cut is a dagger stuck in my heart, another dagger. So please never say
207
I now find that the only
amusing. Ochone ochone I seem to have been most amusing. No doubt it[']s good exercise.
10 May {1934}, Costello
anything to me that you know I couldn't care to hear. "Bloody cheek" was an awful thing to have said to me, a positive dumdum. As I cannot give you the glittering account ofmy health that we all would wish, so I shall content myself with remarking, that the various eviscerations characteristic of my distemper are at the very top of their form. Can you imagine a quarry in ebullition. I have now ceased to wish to amuse you. Forgive me. Now whereas this interesting neolithic effervescence had hitherto been so forgiving as to confine itself roughly to my centre of inertia & environs, it has lately begun to embrace me without fear or favour from sinciput to planta. It takes my mind off my corns, no small favour I assure you. No ordinary somer sault will take place one of these days, something tells me in the late autumn, ifsuch generosity ofrecul is any indication, and I am
given to understand that it is an index of a prime order.
"And Autumn LIFE for him did choose
A season damp/dank with mists and rain, And took him, as the ev[e]ning dews Were settling o'er the fields again. "
Pardon our emotion. Unseasonable with Commonwealth day
8
sary to say that I have never read either Leprechaun or Telegraphie
Sans Egal, that my More Pricks are as free from Joycean port
manteaux as from allusion, and that I NEVER contract, can't do it
9
I postcarded you that I was sending Tom McGreevy's poems just released, with the fond hope that you would do the best you could for them. ls this an age of aesthetic integrity? I think not.
208
so nigh.
Was the blurb in the Observer sufficiently imbecile? Is it neces
my dear, I only bid. The major influences are Grock, Dante, Chaucer, Bernard de Mandeville and Uccello. 10 Publication on Commonwealth Day fills my mind with a thousand tender fancies.
I have not yet sent them, but shall, to-day or to-morrow, which is
also a day. Heap abuse on hardhearted Hanna when he has not
au coeur, organe qui n'offre plus de prise, mais enfin a une
10 May {1934}, Costello
got hundreds ofcopies in his window. Ceci me tient, je ne dis pas
11
The Cyprus Isle, Miss LouisaStuart Costello? 12
I hear Percy has withdrawn definitively to Cappagh.
andouille quelconque.
Are you connected, how remotely soever, with The Maid Of
13
But I
have no doubt I am misinformed.
If you haven't read Green's Adrienne Mesurat, my advice to
you is, don't. I paid a flying visit to The Country Boneyard. Never do this.
Up he went & in he passed
& down he came with such endeavour As he shall rue until at last
He rematriculate for ever. 14
I grow gnomic. It is the last phase. Beautiful Greetings
s/Sam
TLS; 1 leaf. 2 sides; Costello. Dating: from the publication of More Pricks Than Kicks, 24 May 1934.
1 "Nastorquemada nyles" has not been identified with certainty. The segment "Torquemada" may refer either to the Inquisitor General of the Spanish Holy Office, Tomas de Torquemada (1420-1498), or to the deviser of the cryptic crossword in The Observer from 1926 to 1939, Edward Powys Mathers (pseud. Torquemada, 1892-1939).
2 HenryFielding,Amelia(1751).
3 AmericanfilmmakerRobertFlaherty(1884-1951)directedthedocumentaryfilm Man ofAran (1934), which was shot on location in the Aran Islands, west of Galway Bay. Depicting a struggle ofman against nature, the film was reviewed by Ivor Montagu as having turned "reality to romance" ("Romance and Reality," New Statesman and Nation 128 April 1934] 638). SB compares Flaherty to John Millington Synge (1871-1909), who lived among the Aran islanders for periods from 1898 to 1902; this is reflected in his play Riders to the Sea (1904) and recorded in his observations in Aran Islands (1907).
209
10 May {1934}, Costello
Flaherty used montage. SB compares the routines of the boy, played by Mickleen Dillane, to silent film comedian Harold Lloyd (1893-1971).
"Trues" (tricks); the "truca" used footage from two cameras to create special effects (Roger Boussinot, ed. , L'Encylopedie du cinema ! Paris; Bordas, 1967] 1437-1438; Maurice Bessy andJean-Louis Chardans. Dictionnaire du cinema et de la television, IV ! Paris: Pauvert, 1971] 431-446). "Au ralenti" (in slow motion).
A blacksmith named Coleman "Tiger" King (n. d. ) played Komrade King in Man ofAran. "The Twelve Pins," the mountain range northeast of Galway Bay.
4 ThepreteriteisrarelyusedinCorneille'splays. "Poteen" (Irish, illicitly distilled whiskey).
5 FrenchfilmmakerJeanEpstein(1897-1953)directedFinisterrae(1929),thefirstof his cycle of films made on the coast of Brittany.
6 SBreferstoAstiSpumante. anItaliansparklingwine.
Victor Hugo's Les Pauvres gens (ThePoor People), collected in La Legende des siecles (1859). Comte de Lautreamont (ne Isidore Ducasse, 1846-1870), author of Les Chants de
Maldoror (1868). SB plays with the last two syllables of Lautreamont's name: "amont" (upstream) is replaced with its opposite, "aval" (downstream): "Lautreaval. "
7 "Ochone"(anIrishexclamationoflament,heardinkeening).
8 "Fromsinciputtoplanta"(frontalpartoftheskulltothesoleofthefoot). "Recul" (withdrawal or retreat).
SB quotes Synge's poem "Epitaph," but he substitutes "LIFE," for "Death" and "damp/dank" for "dank" U-M. Synge, Collected Works, I, Poems, ed. Robin Skelton ! London: Oxford University Press, 1962] 31).
In 1934 the Labour Party proposed that Empire Day should be renamed "Commonwealth Day" (The Times 28 April 1934: 14); More Pricks Than Kicks was to be published on that day, 24 May 1932. Commonwealth Day is now celebrated on the secondMonday inMarch.
9 TheadvancenoticeaboutMorePricksThanKicksinTheObserverread:
One of the few English books onMarcel Proust was the work ofMr. Samuel Beckett. Mr. Beckett now reveals himself as a writer of short stories. They are not conventional stories. The same young Dubliner appears in each of them. Together they form an epitome of his life. Imagine Mr. T. S. Eliot influenced by "The Crock of Gold," and not unmindful ofMr. Joyce's vocabulary, and you will have a notion of Mr. Beckett. Events in "More Pricks than Kicks," due on the 24th from Chatto, are ordinary; their narration is oblique. Mr. Beckett's mixture of mock heroic and low comedy surprises. When you expect him to expand, he contracts. The Dubliner in hospital is a triumph. Elsewhere, minor brilliancies abound. Mr. Beckett is allusive, and a future editor may
have to provide notes. (Anon. , "Books and Authors," 6May 1934: 6)
SB refers to the story of the leprechauns of Gort na Cloca in TheCrock ofGold byJames Stephens and spins T. S. E. (Eliot's initials) into "Telegraphie Sans Egal" (telegraphy without equal) playing on "Telegraphie Sans Fil" (wireless), commonly referred to in France as TSF.
Playing on the notion of "contract" in the announcement, SB uses it in the sense found in the game of bridge.
210
23 June 1934, Reavey
10 Greek, the Swiss clown, see 9 October 1933, n. 10; for his influence: Pilling, A Companion to "Dream ofFair to Middling Women," 33.
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342/1343-1400).
Bernard de Mandeville (1670-1733) was a Dutch doctor and pamphleteer who settled in London after being implicated in a popular uprising in Rotterdam; his Fable of the Bees, or: Private Vices, Publick Benefits (1714) was influential on eighteenth century social philosophy.
The Florentine painter, Uccello.
11 ThomasMcGreevy,Poems(1934).
SB plays on the name ofDublin bookseller Fred Hanna, 29 Nassau Street, by reference to a popular song, "Hard-Hearted Hannah . . . the vamp ofSavannah," composed by Charles Bates, Robert Bigelow, and Jack Yellin (New York: Ager, Yellen and Bornstein, 1924/1950).
"Ceci me tient, je ne dis pas au coeur, organe qui n'offre plus de prise, mais enfin a une andouille quelconque. " (Titls is close, I shall not say to my heart, an organ that no longer offers grip, but to some entrail or other. )
12 Irish-bornminiaturepainter,poet,andnovelistLouisaStuartCostello(1799-1870) lived in Paris; her first poems were published as The Maid ofthe Cyprus Isle (1815).
13 ArlandUssherhadmovedfromDublintothefamilyhome,Cappagh,Co. Waterford.
14 French-AmericanwriterJulienGreen(1900-1998)wroteAdrienneMesurat(1927; The Closed Garden).
In this title, SB alludes to "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray (1716-1771). The lines of verse are SB's own.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
23/6/34 48 Paulton's, not Portland,
Square, [London] S. W. 3 right enough.
Cher ami
Vas-y et que toutes les putains de ! 'Olympe nous soient
favorables. Shatupon & Windup t'enverront probablement te promener Rue des Batards sans nombre de Ponsieur
1
Doumerde. Au besoin je peux te gratifier des epreuves, non pas en placards Dieu soit loue mais en pages, oui positivement en pages, et dont je me reservais le plaisir de me torcher les levres auxilia[i]res au plus triste de cet hiver de fecontent que j'entends venir avec un boucan de petard et de mats sous la
211
23 June 1934, Reavey
tempete, plaisir auquel je veux bien renoncer aux interets de l'ars longa, et d'autant plus facilement que j'ai Zarathustra sous
23
lamain. Love&LethesetraduitMortPlusPrecieuse. A toi
sf Sam Beckett TIS; 1 leaf, 1 side; pencil signature; TxU.
23/6/34 48 Paulton's, not Portland,
Square, [London] S. W.
Symphony into which I have the impression Beethoven poured
everything that was vulgar, facile, and childish in him (and that
1
was a great deal), so as to have done with it once and for all.
I
heard a superb concert by the Pro Arte Quartet that I have already
spoken ofto Cissie, and to which I shall therefore not return now.
But another one, given by the Busch Quartet, which is at the
moment putting on a series of five concerts in which they are
performing all of Beethoven's string quartets, is worth a men
tion. 2 The programme was made up of three quartets, the first
one ('Harfen') from 1809, that is I think between the Pastoral and
3
disappointed. Although it is only his penultimate quartet it has
as its finale the last composition we have from his hand, an
incomparably beautiful Allegro. But it is the Cavatina that imme
diately precedes that Allegro that made the greatest impression
on me. A movement which in calm finality and intensity goes
beyond anything I have ever heard by the venerable Ludwig, and
which I would not have believed him capable of- really, ifyou are
not already familiar with this quartet (B Flat minor, op. 130), you
4
a grave ,11 allegro El;JIIJ;IJII
Muss es sein'? Es muss sein! Es muss sein15
197
theSeventh;thesecondfrom1800;andthethirdfrom1825. This is the one that I went to, and I can say that I was in no way
woulddowelltogetholdofit. Thelastconcertintheseriesison Saturday the 17th, feast of the unspeakable Patrick, and I have just gone some way to protecting myself against the memory of his vulgar zoological and botanical nonsense by buying a ticket. There will be the last Quartet in F (opus 135) with the famous 'Schwer Gefasste Entschluss':
4 March 1934, Morris Sinclair
Then a few days later, on the 20th I think, there is Jacques
Thibaud with a tremendous programme - including the Vitali
Chaconne, the Concerto in A by kleiner Wolfer! , and a galaxy of
6
The strange, gentle pleasures that I feel at the approach of spring are impossible of expression, and if that is a sentence inviting ridicule, so much the worse for me. I have positively never watched it coming with so much impatience and so much relief. And I think of it as a victory over darkness, nightmares, sweats, panic and madness, and of the crocuses and daffodils as the promise of a life at least bearable, once enjoyed but in a past so remote that all trace, even remembrance of it, had been almost lost. May the powers will it that I am not wrong - the peninsula must be radiant. And has the horse revived a little among the Zephyrs? Do remember me to him.
And how is the work going? This Ruddiesque anthology is indeed, as you say, a stinking affair, and moreover full of traps. My advice to you is to study it with a map of France to hand. That way there is at least a geographical interest to be got out of it. Otherwise it is an intolerable chore. Incidentally, I have never read it. Pay particular attention to the Proven�al part (Maurras, etc. ), for that is the domain beloved of the noble Professor. And I need hardly tell you that the study of the texts that are being proposed for study is far less important than that of the person proposing them. In other words, put
yourself in Ruddy's skin (there is room), and to hell more or less
7
Spaniards. Butevenstartingalreadytosaveupforit,Idonot know whether I shall be able to afford it. There is a positive storm of music in London just now, such a wealth of splendid things that even if one could afford them all it would be hard to choose between concerts happening on the same day. Now there is a dilemma that costs me no sleep! Alas!
with his anthologies.
198
4 March 1934, Morris Sinclair
On my conscience is the fact that I have not replied to your august father's letter. But as the hours oflight grow, and those of darkness are absorbed into them, there are forming in the immense crucible of my mind the only verbal combinations worthy of him, and of me in relation to him. Comfort him, then, ifperchance he had need ofsuch care, with this foretaste ofwhat is in preparation.
Before your magnificent mother, from whom an acknowl edgement ofthe divine letter which I recently dispatched to her is most urgently and insistently to be wished, I prostrate myself and eagerly fill my mouth with dust. Go through these move ments for me.
And to you, my dear friend, I wish, now and for the future, all that is most beneficent and propitious in a world where such virtues seem to be growing more and more scarce.
Love Sam
1 Beethoven'sSymphonyno. 6inFmajor,op. 68("Pastoral").
2 The concert given by the Pro Arte Quartet at the BBC Broadcasting House on 16 February 1934 comprised Beethoven's String Quartet no. 14 in C-sharp minor, op. 131; String Quartet no. 4 in C major, op. 91 by Bela Bart6k (1881-1945); and Debussy's String Quartet in G minor, op. 10 ("Music This Week," The Times 12 February 1934: 8).
The Busch Quartet played a series of ten concerts at Wigmore Hall between 24 February and 17 March 1934; they actually played the Beethoven string quartets in six concerts (26 February, and 2, 3, 9, 15, and 17 March).
3 On 2 March the Busch Quartet played Beethoven's String Quartet no. 10 in E-flat major, op. 74 ("Harp"); String Quartet no. 3 in D major, op. 18; and String Quartet no. 13 in B-flat major, op. 130. "Harp" was indeed written between Beethoven's Symphony no. 6 and Symphony no. 7 in A major, op. 92.
4 SBspeaksoftheCavatinaandAllegroofStringQuartetno. 13inB-flatmajor,op. 130. Beethoven originally composed the Grosse Fuge as a finale for this quartet; per suaded that it was too long, he published it separately (Grosse Fuge in B-flat major, op. 133) and composed the Allegro as a second ending (Philip Radcliffe, Beethoven's String Quartets, 2nd edn. ! Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978] 135-137).
5 Beethoven'sStringQuartetno. 16inFmajor,op. 135,wasperformedinthelast Busch concert of the series on 17 March 1934, St. Patrick's Day. SB quotes the epigraph
199
4 March 1934, Morris Sinclair
of the final movement as well as its musical motif: "Der schwer gefasste Entschluss/ Muss es sein? Es muss sein! Es muss sein! " (The heart-wrenching decision/ Must it be? It must be! It must be! ) Uohn Briggs, The Collector's Beethoven [Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1978] 41-42; Radcliffe, Beethoven's String Quartets, 170-174).
6 From 1905 to 1935, French violinist Jacques Thibaud (1880-1953) often per formed as a member of a trio with French pianist and conductor Alfred Cortot (1877-1962) and Catalan cellist and composer Pablo Casals (1876-1973).
The program of Thibaud's recital at Wigmore Hall. 20 March 1934, included the Chaconne in G minor, then attributed to Italian composer Tomaso Battista Vitali (1663-1745); Violin Concerto in A major, K. 219, by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791); the Violin Sonata in G major. by Belgian composer Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894); "Fountain of Arethusa" from Myths. op. 30, no. 1. by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937); the malaguefla "Rumores de la Caleta," from Rernerdos de viaje, op. 71. no. 6, by Isaac Albeniz (1860-1909), arranged for violin by Austrian-born American violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962); "Danse originale," dedicated to Thibaud, by Enrique Granados y Campifla (1867-1916); and the Suite from the lyric drama La vida breve by Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876-1946). (For the current attribution of the Chaconne: Wolfgang Reich, "Die Chaconne g-Moll - von Vitali? " Beitrage zur Musikwissenschaft 2 [1965] 149-152. )
With the phrase. "kleinerWolferl" (littleWolfie), SB refers toWolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
7 In the 1933-1934 Calendar of Trinity College Dublin, Nouvelle Anthologie des troubadours, ed. Jean Audiau (Paris: Delagrave. 1928), is listed for the Michaelmas examinations, although the editor's name is incorrectly given as Audian (127). Rudmose-Brown was very interested in the Proven�al literary renaissance and was a member of the Societe des Felibriges.
Charles Maurras (1868-1952) was a member of the Ecole romane, founded by Jean Moreas (1856-1910), Ernest Raynaud (1864-1936), Maurice du Plessys (1864-1924), and Raymond de la Tailhede (1867-1938); the group sought a return to the classical tradition in reaction against the Symbolists, the Parnassians, and the Romantics. See also Roger Little, "Beckett's Mentor. Rudmose-Brown: Sketch for a Portrait," Irish University Review 14 (spring 1984) 34-41.
MORRIS SINCLAIR DUBLIN
SB's errors of German in this letter have not been corrected.
5/5/34
48 Paulton's Square London S. W. 3
Lieber Sonny
Wer einst Rosen pfliicken will, der soll die Zeit, die ihm
auferlegt ist, dann und wann ermuntern. Verzeihe mir also,
200
5 May 1934, Morris Sinclair
wenn ich mich benotigt finde, meinen franzosischen Quatsch
augenblicklich fallen zu lassen. Zwar aus dieser unentbehrli
chen Veranderung wird uns keine Vorteil entstehen, doch viel
leicht ein bischen Spass. Vorteil! Was wollen sie eigentlich
1
von Vorteil! Sie furchten sie so schrecklich vor dem Leben, das
wenn sie aus irgendeinem Gegenstand keinen gewissen Gewinn
ziehen konnen, so fuhlen sie sich wie geschlagen, wo nicht fast
ermordet. Fur diesen Leute werden Spass und Vorteil allmahlich
so durchaus unvertraglich, dass alle Handlung nur zum Spass
gemacht ihnen wie eine Selbstverstiimmelung scheinen muss.
Wenn ich den Glaube hatte, ohne den niemand hassen kann,
2
3
lange keine Musik gehort. Ausser Horowitz, der ein Paar
Konzerten gibt, und dem Ring, d. h. die Saison, schon in vollem
4
Mit meiner Manie fur alles, das mit der Frage nur die mindeste Beziehung hat, wirst du hoffentlich Nachsicht haben.
Ich habe gem diese Sommerzeit, weil dadurch werden die Finstemis und alle seine schlechte Dinge wenigstens aufgescho
5
201
sagen, unsre [? schweizzige] Moralisten, mit ihrem Schreien
wiirde ich sicher diesen Gegenstandsauger hassen.
IchwiinschedirallenmoglichenErfolgimFeis. Ichhabe
GangeundKlange,hatesnichtsgegeben. Jedenfallsistesmir, aus Grunden die mir Gott sei dank unbekannt sind, als ware ich von der Musik ausgeschlossen, und dazu habe ich keinen geringsten Appetit . . . .
Ich wollt' ich war' noch alter, und runziger und kalter . . . .
ben. Da ich Manichaer bin, in was die Dunkelheit betrifft.
Hier spreize ich mich, kann und will nicht anders, und habe keine Ahnung, ob Gott mir hilft, oder nicht. Es gibt doch eine fast nie versagende Freude, namlich, das Denken an jenen Millionen, die weniger gliicklich als ich sind, oder sein sollten. Was fur ein Schmaus ist das! Da es aber klar wird, sobald man die
4 March 1934, Moms Sinclair
Sache ein bischen iiberlegt, dass zwischen Leiden und Fiihlen gar keine Verhaltnis festzustellen ist, so fangt auch jene Freude an, trtigerisch auszusehen. Wenn ich, zum Beispiel, in der Zeitung Iese, der arme Herr Dings solle morgen friih, ehe ich aus meinem Bette sein werde, hinrichten werden, und mich sofort zu gratu lieren beginn, dass ich keine solche Nacht zuzubringen habe, so tausche ich mich, insofern ich zwei Umstande, anstatt zweier Gemiitsbewegungen, vergleiche. Und es ist hochstwahrschein lich, dass der zum Tode Verurteilte wenigere Angst als ich hat. Wenigstens weiss er genau um was es sich handelt und genau um was er sich zu kiimmern hat, und das ist nun ein grosserer Trost als man im allgemeinen zu glauben ptlegt. So gross, dass viele Kranken Verbrecher werden, nur damit sie ihre Angst begrenzen und jenen Trost bekommen mogen. Jenseit der Spekulation kommt erst der Mensch in sein Eden, in jeden [for ? jenen] Schutzort wo keine Gefahr mehr ist, oder vielmehr eine, die bestimmt ist und die man zum Fokus bringen kann.
Neuerdings habe ich an den Lehrer der englischen Sprache
viel gedacht, und mich gefragt, wie es ihm geht. Freilich muss ich
mich bei ihm entschuldigen, dass ich seinen sehr vortrefflichen
6
michvorzustellen,dieseVersaumungseimirzumTrotz. Kaum
nehme ich die Feder in der Hand, um irgendetwas auf englisch
zusammenzusetzen, als ich die Empfindung habe, verpersonifi
ziert zu sein, wenn man einen solchen herrlichen Ausdruck
8
Brief noch nicht beantwortet habe. So bitte ich dich, ihm fur
7
gebrauchendarf. Deshalbwtirdealles,wasichdamalsschreiben konnte, meinem Vorhaben, dessen Wirkung sozusagen momen tanisch gelamt ist, am fernsten liegen. So lohnt es sich kaum. Es ist ein fremdes Gefuhl, unwillkiirlich weit von sich zurtickzu treten und sich wie durch ein Schliisselloch zu beobachten. Fremd ja, und zum Briefschreiben iiberhaupt unpassend.
202
5 May 1934, Morris Sinclair
Ich weiss nicht, wann ich nach Hause zuriickgehen konnen werde. Der Aufenthalt in dieser Stadt gefallt mir nur wenig. Ausser den Bildem, die meistenteils, ihres Fensterladenglases wegen, nur tropfenweise in die Augen kommen, gibt es nichts, das man ansehen darf. 9 Manchmal verlange ich nach jenen Bergen und Feldem, den ich so gut kenne, und die eine ganz andere Ruhe, als die zu dieser groben, englischen Landschaft gehorende, bilden. Wenn nur Dublin ungewohnt ware, so war' es angenehm, sich irgendwo in seiner Nahe niederzulassen.
Was fur ein Schlusszierat gehort zu diesem Klagelied? Man atmet, also . . . ? Oder: Was Hanschen nicht lemt. . . ? Die Symphonie unvollendet zu lassen, das ist jedenfalls die Hauptsache. Dabei kann alles in Ordnung aussehen.
Herzlich Sam
ALS; 3 leaves, 3 sides; Sinclair.
5/5/34
48 Paulton's Square London S. W. 3
Dear Sunny,
Whoever wants to pick roses some day should now and then
cheer up the time imposed on him. Forgive me therefore when I feel the urge to drop my French nonsense right away. It is true that out of this indispensable change no gain will accrue to us, but perhaps a bit of fun. Gain! What actually do they want to say, our[? Swiss] moralists, with their cries about gain! 1 They are so terribly afraid oflife that ifthere is any object from which they can draw no sure profit, they feel beaten, if not nearly murdered. For these people fun and gain slowly become so completely
203
5 May 1934, Morris Sinclair
irreconcilable that any action done just for fun must seem to
them like self-mutilation. IfI had the faith without which no one
2
3
heard any music for a long time. Besides Horowitz, who is giving a few concerts, and the 'Ring' (i. e. the season) already in full
4
I hope you will make allowances for my obsession with every thing that is even the least bit related to that question.
I am fond of this summertime because darkness and all its bad things are at least being postponed thereby. Since I am a
5
have no idea if God helps me or not. There is after all an almost never-failing joy, namely the thought of those millions who are less fortunate than I, or ought to be. What a feast that is! But as it becomes clear as soon as one reflects a bit on the matter that no relationship between suffering and feeling is to be found, then even that joy begins to look deceptive. If, for example, I read in the paper that poor Mr. So-and-so is to be executed early in the morning, before I get out of bed, and immediately start to con gratulate myself that I do not have to spend such a night, I deceive myself in as much as I compare two circumstances instead of two emotions. And it is highly probable that the man condemned to death is less afraid than I. At least he knows exactly what is at stake and exactly what he has to attend to, and that is a greater comfort than one is generally inclined to
204
can hate, I would surely hate this object-gobbler. IwishyoueveryconceivablesuccessintheFeis. Ihavenot
swingandsound,therehasbeennothing. Atanyrate,itseems to me, for reasons unknown to me thank God, as ifl were cut off from music, and I have not the least bit of appetite for that.
I wish I were even older
And wrinklier and colder. . . .
Manichaean as far as darkness is concerned.
Here I strut about, I cannot and will not do otherwise, and
believe. So great that many sick people become criminals solely in order to limit their fear and gain that comfort. Only beyond speculation does man reach his Eden, that refuge where there is no more danger, or rather one which is determined and which one can bring into focus.
Lately I have thought a good deal about the teacher of the
English language and have wondered how he is getting on.
Of
course, I must apologize to him for not yet having answered his
6
imagine that this omission might be in spite of myself. No
sooner do I take up my pen to compose something in English
than I get the feeling of being "de-personified", if one may use
8
excellent letter. So I ask you to get him, on my behalf, to
7
5 May 1934, Morris Sinclair
such a marvellous expression. Therefore, everything that I might have written at that time would lie furthest away from my intention, the effect of which would be, so to say, momen tarily paralysed. Thus it is hardly worth doing. It is a strange feeling to step back instinctively, well away from oneself, and observe oneself as through a keyhole. Strange, yes, and alto gether unsuitable for letter writing.
I do not know when I shall be able to come home. Staying in
this town gives me little pleasure. Except for the pictures, which
because of their shop-window glass meet the eye for the most
part only drop by drop, there is nothing that one is allowed to
9
What kind of final embellishment might go with this lam entation? One breathes therefore. . . ? Or: What little Johnny does not learn. . . ? To leave the symphony unfinished, that at
205
lookat. SometimesIlongforthosemountainsandfields,which I know so well, and which create a completely different calm from the one associated with this coarse English landscape. If only Dublin were unfamiliar, then it would be pleasant to settle somewhere nearby.
5 May 1934, Moms Sinclair
any rate is the main thing. With that everything can appear to be
in order. Love,
Sam
1 SB writes "schweizzige" but it is unclear what he meant to signify here: possibly "schweizer" (Swiss) or "schweissige" (sweaty) or even "geschwatzige" (chattering).
2 "Gegenstandsauger" (object-gobbler). possibly a play on the German word "Staubsauger" (vacuum cleaner, literally dust sucker).
3 Morris Sinclair was a violinist and competed in the Feis Ce6il. a Dublin music festival and competition. which began on 8 May 1934.
4 Vladimir Horowitz played three concerts in London during the following week: a charity concert at Queen's Hall on 8 May. a BBC concert at Queen's Hall on 9 May. and a recital at Queen"s Hall on 28 May 1934.
Two complete cycles of Wagner's opera festival Der Ring des Nibelungen (Das Rheingold, Die Walkiire, Siegfried, Gotterddmmerung) were performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, from 1 to 18 May 1934. On 2 May, the third act of Die Walkiire was broadcast over the London Regional radio station.
5 As it stands, SB's statement of identification with Manichaeism is a grammatical and logical fragment.
6 SB refers to Morris Sinclair's father Boss Sinclair who gave English lessons in Kassel (Morris Sinclair, 1 May 2003; Knowlson, Damned to Fame, 153).
7 SB's German construction would have been correct had he used the word "erkla ren" (explain). By using "vorstellen" instead, he merges the two constructions possible with that verb and thereby the two meanings ("introduce" and "imagine"), with the result that neither form is used correctly. Considering the contents and tone of the letter, we have settled on "imagine. "
8 SB is playing with German, as it were undoing the word "personifiziert" (person ified) with "verpersonifiziert" (de-personified).
9 InGerman,useoftheexpression"tropfenweise"withreferencetopaintingisas startling as "drop by drop" is in English.
NUALA COSTELLO DUBLIN
10/5 [1934]
206
48 Paulton's Sq. [London] S. W. 3
10 May {1934}, Costello You seem to be having a wunnerful time, with your new
1
saw Man ofAran and felt I am afraid irretrievably glued to the
seat. Very smart no doubt as far as it goes, sea, rocks, air and
granite gobs very fine, but a sensationalisation ofAran wouldn't
you be inclined to say, as Synge's embroidery a sentimentalisa
tion. Also I felt the trues of montage and photography, very
keenly, very keenly indeed. The boy fishing is pure Harold
Lloyd. The tempest au ralenti is Eve's Revue. Komrade King
caulking his curragh was very nice. The odd glimpse of the
Pins also. 3 Very depressing film, caricature ofwhat we all do,
struggling to ensure our dying every second, except that we
acquire our 27 foot sharks in a less amusing manner. But so
much mere nature all at once, is it not very dumpling. I was
forgetting the rock flowers, they were a relief, like a preterite in
Corneille at last. And no poteen? 4 Surely a little poteen would
not have been inessential. Didn't the wild waves make a strange
noise, not specially marine I thought. There are better waves in
5
Lautreaval. Pauvres Gens oxygenated.
DearNuala
nastorquemadanyles. Thisisverydeep. IamreadingAmelia. 2I
Epstein's Finis Terrae. Smaller and better. In fact the whole thing was very Hugo, Hugo at his most Asti. Not Lautreamont,
6
possible development ofthis denigration is in indecency. And I
scarcely know you well enough for that. But haven't I been very
7
How can you [? be] so little equitable, when I obviously suffer from the acutest paraesthesia to all that is said and written to and ofme. When I hear a small boy giggle two liberties off I redden to the rotten roots ofmy white hair. The slightest unkindly cut is a dagger stuck in my heart, another dagger. So please never say
207
I now find that the only
amusing. Ochone ochone I seem to have been most amusing. No doubt it[']s good exercise.
10 May {1934}, Costello
anything to me that you know I couldn't care to hear. "Bloody cheek" was an awful thing to have said to me, a positive dumdum. As I cannot give you the glittering account ofmy health that we all would wish, so I shall content myself with remarking, that the various eviscerations characteristic of my distemper are at the very top of their form. Can you imagine a quarry in ebullition. I have now ceased to wish to amuse you. Forgive me. Now whereas this interesting neolithic effervescence had hitherto been so forgiving as to confine itself roughly to my centre of inertia & environs, it has lately begun to embrace me without fear or favour from sinciput to planta. It takes my mind off my corns, no small favour I assure you. No ordinary somer sault will take place one of these days, something tells me in the late autumn, ifsuch generosity ofrecul is any indication, and I am
given to understand that it is an index of a prime order.
"And Autumn LIFE for him did choose
A season damp/dank with mists and rain, And took him, as the ev[e]ning dews Were settling o'er the fields again. "
Pardon our emotion. Unseasonable with Commonwealth day
8
sary to say that I have never read either Leprechaun or Telegraphie
Sans Egal, that my More Pricks are as free from Joycean port
manteaux as from allusion, and that I NEVER contract, can't do it
9
I postcarded you that I was sending Tom McGreevy's poems just released, with the fond hope that you would do the best you could for them. ls this an age of aesthetic integrity? I think not.
208
so nigh.
Was the blurb in the Observer sufficiently imbecile? Is it neces
my dear, I only bid. The major influences are Grock, Dante, Chaucer, Bernard de Mandeville and Uccello. 10 Publication on Commonwealth Day fills my mind with a thousand tender fancies.
I have not yet sent them, but shall, to-day or to-morrow, which is
also a day. Heap abuse on hardhearted Hanna when he has not
au coeur, organe qui n'offre plus de prise, mais enfin a une
10 May {1934}, Costello
got hundreds ofcopies in his window. Ceci me tient, je ne dis pas
11
The Cyprus Isle, Miss LouisaStuart Costello? 12
I hear Percy has withdrawn definitively to Cappagh.
andouille quelconque.
Are you connected, how remotely soever, with The Maid Of
13
But I
have no doubt I am misinformed.
If you haven't read Green's Adrienne Mesurat, my advice to
you is, don't. I paid a flying visit to The Country Boneyard. Never do this.
Up he went & in he passed
& down he came with such endeavour As he shall rue until at last
He rematriculate for ever. 14
I grow gnomic. It is the last phase. Beautiful Greetings
s/Sam
TLS; 1 leaf. 2 sides; Costello. Dating: from the publication of More Pricks Than Kicks, 24 May 1934.
1 "Nastorquemada nyles" has not been identified with certainty. The segment "Torquemada" may refer either to the Inquisitor General of the Spanish Holy Office, Tomas de Torquemada (1420-1498), or to the deviser of the cryptic crossword in The Observer from 1926 to 1939, Edward Powys Mathers (pseud. Torquemada, 1892-1939).
2 HenryFielding,Amelia(1751).
3 AmericanfilmmakerRobertFlaherty(1884-1951)directedthedocumentaryfilm Man ofAran (1934), which was shot on location in the Aran Islands, west of Galway Bay. Depicting a struggle ofman against nature, the film was reviewed by Ivor Montagu as having turned "reality to romance" ("Romance and Reality," New Statesman and Nation 128 April 1934] 638). SB compares Flaherty to John Millington Synge (1871-1909), who lived among the Aran islanders for periods from 1898 to 1902; this is reflected in his play Riders to the Sea (1904) and recorded in his observations in Aran Islands (1907).
209
10 May {1934}, Costello
Flaherty used montage. SB compares the routines of the boy, played by Mickleen Dillane, to silent film comedian Harold Lloyd (1893-1971).
"Trues" (tricks); the "truca" used footage from two cameras to create special effects (Roger Boussinot, ed. , L'Encylopedie du cinema ! Paris; Bordas, 1967] 1437-1438; Maurice Bessy andJean-Louis Chardans. Dictionnaire du cinema et de la television, IV ! Paris: Pauvert, 1971] 431-446). "Au ralenti" (in slow motion).
A blacksmith named Coleman "Tiger" King (n. d. ) played Komrade King in Man ofAran. "The Twelve Pins," the mountain range northeast of Galway Bay.
4 ThepreteriteisrarelyusedinCorneille'splays. "Poteen" (Irish, illicitly distilled whiskey).
5 FrenchfilmmakerJeanEpstein(1897-1953)directedFinisterrae(1929),thefirstof his cycle of films made on the coast of Brittany.
6 SBreferstoAstiSpumante. anItaliansparklingwine.
Victor Hugo's Les Pauvres gens (ThePoor People), collected in La Legende des siecles (1859). Comte de Lautreamont (ne Isidore Ducasse, 1846-1870), author of Les Chants de
Maldoror (1868). SB plays with the last two syllables of Lautreamont's name: "amont" (upstream) is replaced with its opposite, "aval" (downstream): "Lautreaval. "
7 "Ochone"(anIrishexclamationoflament,heardinkeening).
8 "Fromsinciputtoplanta"(frontalpartoftheskulltothesoleofthefoot). "Recul" (withdrawal or retreat).
SB quotes Synge's poem "Epitaph," but he substitutes "LIFE," for "Death" and "damp/dank" for "dank" U-M. Synge, Collected Works, I, Poems, ed. Robin Skelton ! London: Oxford University Press, 1962] 31).
In 1934 the Labour Party proposed that Empire Day should be renamed "Commonwealth Day" (The Times 28 April 1934: 14); More Pricks Than Kicks was to be published on that day, 24 May 1932. Commonwealth Day is now celebrated on the secondMonday inMarch.
9 TheadvancenoticeaboutMorePricksThanKicksinTheObserverread:
One of the few English books onMarcel Proust was the work ofMr. Samuel Beckett. Mr. Beckett now reveals himself as a writer of short stories. They are not conventional stories. The same young Dubliner appears in each of them. Together they form an epitome of his life. Imagine Mr. T. S. Eliot influenced by "The Crock of Gold," and not unmindful ofMr. Joyce's vocabulary, and you will have a notion of Mr. Beckett. Events in "More Pricks than Kicks," due on the 24th from Chatto, are ordinary; their narration is oblique. Mr. Beckett's mixture of mock heroic and low comedy surprises. When you expect him to expand, he contracts. The Dubliner in hospital is a triumph. Elsewhere, minor brilliancies abound. Mr. Beckett is allusive, and a future editor may
have to provide notes. (Anon. , "Books and Authors," 6May 1934: 6)
SB refers to the story of the leprechauns of Gort na Cloca in TheCrock ofGold byJames Stephens and spins T. S. E. (Eliot's initials) into "Telegraphie Sans Egal" (telegraphy without equal) playing on "Telegraphie Sans Fil" (wireless), commonly referred to in France as TSF.
Playing on the notion of "contract" in the announcement, SB uses it in the sense found in the game of bridge.
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23 June 1934, Reavey
10 Greek, the Swiss clown, see 9 October 1933, n. 10; for his influence: Pilling, A Companion to "Dream ofFair to Middling Women," 33.
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1342/1343-1400).
Bernard de Mandeville (1670-1733) was a Dutch doctor and pamphleteer who settled in London after being implicated in a popular uprising in Rotterdam; his Fable of the Bees, or: Private Vices, Publick Benefits (1714) was influential on eighteenth century social philosophy.
The Florentine painter, Uccello.
11 ThomasMcGreevy,Poems(1934).
SB plays on the name ofDublin bookseller Fred Hanna, 29 Nassau Street, by reference to a popular song, "Hard-Hearted Hannah . . . the vamp ofSavannah," composed by Charles Bates, Robert Bigelow, and Jack Yellin (New York: Ager, Yellen and Bornstein, 1924/1950).
"Ceci me tient, je ne dis pas au coeur, organe qui n'offre plus de prise, mais enfin a une andouille quelconque. " (Titls is close, I shall not say to my heart, an organ that no longer offers grip, but to some entrail or other. )
12 Irish-bornminiaturepainter,poet,andnovelistLouisaStuartCostello(1799-1870) lived in Paris; her first poems were published as The Maid ofthe Cyprus Isle (1815).
13 ArlandUssherhadmovedfromDublintothefamilyhome,Cappagh,Co. Waterford.
14 French-AmericanwriterJulienGreen(1900-1998)wroteAdrienneMesurat(1927; The Closed Garden).
In this title, SB alludes to "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" by Thomas Gray (1716-1771). The lines of verse are SB's own.
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
23/6/34 48 Paulton's, not Portland,
Square, [London] S. W. 3 right enough.
Cher ami
Vas-y et que toutes les putains de ! 'Olympe nous soient
favorables. Shatupon & Windup t'enverront probablement te promener Rue des Batards sans nombre de Ponsieur
1
Doumerde. Au besoin je peux te gratifier des epreuves, non pas en placards Dieu soit loue mais en pages, oui positivement en pages, et dont je me reservais le plaisir de me torcher les levres auxilia[i]res au plus triste de cet hiver de fecontent que j'entends venir avec un boucan de petard et de mats sous la
211
23 June 1934, Reavey
tempete, plaisir auquel je veux bien renoncer aux interets de l'ars longa, et d'autant plus facilement que j'ai Zarathustra sous
23
lamain. Love&LethesetraduitMortPlusPrecieuse. A toi
sf Sam Beckett TIS; 1 leaf, 1 side; pencil signature; TxU.
23/6/34 48 Paulton's, not Portland,
Square, [London] S. W.
