The feverish, obsidional
atmosphere
of Nourri dans le serail etc-16
I spend most of my time, when not with Bion or walking, reading on top of the fire.
I spend most of my time, when not with Bion or walking, reading on top of the fire.
Samuel Beckett
Peter.
I never saw the Oxford Uccello mentioned in this connection either.
7
Miss B. O'Brien is in Florence "studying the Old Masters".
8
Lucia is in Grosvenor Place with her aunt, who . . "is on her
10
for much in the elaboration of Charlus. Brouwer ran away from Hals & Haarlem, & Rubens & Rembrandt owned pictures
5
Perhaps Dermot [for Dermod] is working her up for the Gallery. Mary Manning is now Mrs Mark De Wolfle] Howe & on her honey moon to New York & the . . . Bermudas! 9 Do you know the story of the chaste centipede, who said to her suitor, crossing her thou sand legs: "No, a thousand times no. "
way to Ireland", whatever that means.
see me. I have done nothing - except make detours.
She wrote wanting to I have seen nothing of Geoffrey, but have planned to go
down & see him at the hospital next Sunday.
11
It may help to
solve the destination of the day. I inspected the plaster carica
tures of Vischer & Kraft in the V. & A. Nothing. The Great Hall
12
13
I go on with Bion . . . histoire d'elan acquis. I see no reason why it should ever come to an end. The old heart pounces now & then, as though to console me for the intolerable symp toms of an improvement. Mother writes, she supposes I am
253
was full of whores. The Raphael Room is closed.
The Maccarthy has taken her picture.
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
brimming over with material for books. . . anything rather than desoeuvrement. 14
Estella S. sent me a card for vernissage (et comment) next Tuesday. She is with Mary Duncan & Louise Jacobs at the
15
Arlington. Landscapes from Donegal & Yorkshire.
Last night I dropped my glasses from balcony of this room
16
into the area.
wanting to scrap the frame anyway.
I found the lenses this morning, unbroken. I was Love Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Keny, in lower left comer Irish Free State; pm 20-2-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/72. Dating: pm and opening of the Arlington Gallery before exhibition March 1935.
1 McGreevydidnotarriveinLondonashehadplanned(see10March1935).
Hester Dowden had offered SB the use ofher piano. SB compares the cats and dogs of her household to Renard's "'Le Herisson," in Histoires naturelles, a series of humorous vignettes written first for newspaper publication and then collected:
"'Le Herisson" Essuyez votre. . . S. V. P. II
II faut me prendre comme je suis et ne pas trop serrer. "'The Hedgehog"
Please wipe your
You have to take me as I am and not squeeze too tightly.
Uules Renard, Oeuvres, II, ed. Leon Guichard, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade [Paris: Gallimard, 1971] 126)
2 TheLenerQuartetatQueen'sHallon9March1935(see8February1935,n. 10).
3 James Guilford was in London to consult specialists; a ptosis belt is used to alleviate the symptoms of a hernia.
4 SB compares Elinor Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1811) with Joseph Fielding's character, Sophia Weston, in Tom Jones (1749). He also sees Baron Hulot, a character from Balzac's La Cousine Bette, as a forerunner of the Baron de Charlus in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. SB uses a Gallicism, "'etre pour beau
coup dans" for "'to count for a good deal in. "
5 Adriaen Brouwer served an apprenticeship in Haarlem under Frans Hals (c. 1581-1666); he left for Amsterdam, later returned to Haarlem from c. 1625 to 1631, and then spent the remainder of his life in Antwerp (Gerard Knuttel, Adriaen Brouwer: The Master and His Work, tr. ]. G. Talma-Schilthuis and Robert Wheaton [The Hague: L. J. C.
254
II
Bancher, 1962] 109). Rubens owned seventeen Brouwers (179); Rembrandt's collection of Brouwer included seven paintings, another "after Brouwer," and a book of drawings (Kenneth Clark, Remm-andt and the Italian Renaissance [London: John Murray, 1966] 193-202). Brouwer influenced Teniers the younger, but the only evidence that Teniers owned a painting by Brouwer is Teniers's painting The Artist in His Studio (1635, private collection) which depicts Teniers painting a self. portrait in his studio which is hung with thirty-three paintings by himself and contemporaries, including Brouwer's Drinker Asleep (The Sleeping Toper, AH:64:05, Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California; Margret Klinge, David Teniers the Younger: Paintings - Drawings, Antwerp: Koninklijk Museum Voor Schoene Kunsten, 11 May-1 September 1991 [Ghent: Snoeck-Ducaju and Zoon, 1991] 50, 52-53; Margret Klinge, 14 February 2007).
6 ThepaintingsofAdamElsheimer(1578-1610)intheGermanroom(XIX)ofthe National Gallery in London included St. Paul on Malta (c. 1600, NGL 3535, also known as The Shipwreck of St. Paul), St. Lawrence Being Prepared for Martyrdom (c. 1600-1601, NGL 1014), The Baptism of Christ (c. 1599, NGL 3904), and Tobias and the Archangel Raphael (c. 1650, NGL 1424, then attributed to Elsheimer, now considered to be after Elsheimer).
On 14January 1611, Rubens wrote to a biologist and collector living in Rome, Dr. Johann Faber (fl. early seventeenth century), who had informed him of Elsheimer's death: Elsheimer "had no equal in small figures, in Landscapes, and in many other subjects. He has died in the flower of his studies. " Rubens deplored Elsheimer's "sin of sloth, by which he has deprived the world of the most beautiful things" (Keith
Andrews, Adam Elsheimer: Paintings - Drawings - Prints [New York: Rizzoli, 1977] 51).
7 SBreferstoTheNativity(latefifteenthcentury,NGL4081)byGeertgentotSintJans {1460/1465-1495), noting that it was earlier than the Liberation of St. Peter from Prison {1513-1514) by Raphael, which was painted over a window-opening in the Vatican (Frederick Hartt, History of Italian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, 3rd edn. [New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987] 513-514). Also earlier is Uccello's Hunt in the Forest (c. 1470,Ashmolean MuseumA79).
8 Irish artist, Rose Brigid O'Brien (m. Ganly, 1909-2002) was the daughter of Dermod O'Brien, who was on the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery oflreland; the museum was seeking a new Director.
9 Irish writer Mary Manning• (1905-1999) married theAmerican historian and biographer Mark de Wolfe Howe {1906-1967) on 28 February 1935.
10 LuciaJoycearrivedinLondonon14February1935withheraunt,Mrs. Eileen Schaurek (nee Eileen Isabel Mary Xavier Brigid Joyce, 1889-1963), with whom she stayed at the Mascot Hotel in York Street, not Grosvenor Place. While Mrs. Schaurek was in Dublin (24 February to 1 March), Lucia Joyce stayed with Harriet Weaver at 74 Gloucester Place. However, from 26 to 27 February, she stayed on her own in a hotel on Gloucester Street, returning afterwards to stay again with Harriet Weaver. Lucia left for Ireland with her aunt on 16 March 1935 (Ellmann, James Joyce, 681; Carol Loeb Shloss, Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake [New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003] 308-312, 509; Brenda Maddox, Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom [Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. , 1988] 305-309). According toJoyce's letter to Giorgio and HelenJoyce, 19 February 1935, during this period Lucia met SB "a few times and they had dinner together" Ooyce, Letters of]ames Joyce, III. 344).
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
11 GeoffreyThompsonwasinBeckenham.
255
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
12 Nineteenth-centuryplastercastsintheVictoriaandAlbertcollection(room46A) included the highly ornamented Gothic canopy and enclosure ofthe Tomb ofSt. Sebaldus (1508-1519, St. Sebalduskirche, Nuremberg; V&A repro. 1869-14) by Peter Vischer the elder (c. 1460-1529) that was decorated with statuettes and reliefs; other works by Peter Vischer in the collection were casts of the Monument of Count Otto N of Henneberg (1488, Stadtkirche, Romhild; V&A repro. 1873-580:1) and of A Bronze Monument (1497, Magdeburg Cathedral; V&A repro. 1904-55:0). Also among the collection of casts in this room was the Schreyer-Landauer Monument (1490-1492, St. Sebalduskirche, Nuremberg; V&A repro. 1872-53) by German sculptor Adam Kraft (also Krafft, fl. 1490-1509).
The Raphael Room (48), with cartoons for tapestries commissioned by Pope Leo X (1515) for the Sistine Chapel, was closed intermittently between April 1934 and August 1935, as paintings were removed in stages for repair. The records of the Victoria and Albert Museum indicate that the cartoon then known as "Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate" (now "The Healing of the Lame Man," 1515-1516) was removed in early February 1935, treated, and replaced in its frame on 6 March 1935 (Alison Baber, National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum. 1 June 1994, from the Museum's registered papers). The "Great Hall" may have been the main entrance to the Museum or the Octagon Court which displayed loan exhibitions; there are no records to confirm what was exhibited there in 1935 (Alison Baber, 13 June 1994).
13 Ethna MacCarthy's painting, Portrait of a Lady (inscribed 1599 "age 61") by the School of Pourbus, had been offered at auction (Sotheby's, 13 June 1934, no. 85) but had not met the reserve price. The Pourbus family of Flemish painters included Pieter Pourbus (1523/1524-1584), his son Frans Pourbus (1545/1546-1581), and Frans Pourbus II (1569-1622). SB had been asked to pick up the painting and keep it for MacCarthy.
14 "Histoired'elanacquis"ijustamatterofmomentum). "Desoeuvrement" (having nothing to do, idleness).
15 "Vernissage (et comment)" (private view [and howl). The exhibition opened for private view on 26 February 1935. Mary Duncan's landscapes were largely of Cornwall, those by Louise Jacobs were of Yorkshire, and those by Estella Solomons were of Donegal.
16 SB wrote "<this> balcony of this room . THOMAS McGREEVY
TARBERT, LIMERICK, co_ KERRY 10/3 (1935]
34 Gertrude Street London SW10
My dear Tom
Very glad to have your letter & touched at your bothering
your head about my old Grillen. 1 All I ever got from the 256
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
Imitation went to confirm & reinforce my own way of living, a way ofliving that tried to be a solution & failed. I found quanti ties of phrases like qui melius scit pati majorem tenebit pacem, or, Nolle consolari ab aliqua creatura magnae puritatis signum est, or the lovely per viam pacis ad patriam perpetuae claritatis, that seemed to be made for me and which I have never forgot ten. 2 Amg many others. But they all conduced to the isolation ism that was not to prove very splendid. What is one to make of "seldom we come home without hurting of conscience" and "the glad going out & sorrowful coming home" and "be ye sorry in your chambers" but a quietism of the sparrow alone upon the housetop & the solitary bird under the eaves? An abject self-referring quietism indeed, beside the alert quiet ofone who always had Jesus for his darling, but the only kind that I. who seem never to have had the least faculty or disposition for the supernatural, could elicit from the text. and then only by means of a substitution ofterms very different from the one you pro pose. 3 I mean that I replaced the plenitude that he calls "God", not by "goodness", but by a pleroma only to be sought among my own feathers or entrails, a principle of self the possession of which was to provide a rationale & the communion with which a sense of Grace. Thus the Imitation could be made [to] subserve the "Sin" of Luciferian concentration. And I know that now I would be no more capable of approaching its hypostatics & analogies "meekly, simply & truly", than I was when I first twisted them into a programme of self-sufficiency. I would still find it, so far from being a compendium of Christian behaviour, with oeuvres pies, humility, utility, self-effacement, etc. etc. , in all probability conceived & composed on the rebound from the fiasco of just such an effort in behaviour, your "long, long experience of unhappiness"; and that ifcertain forms of contact
257
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
are commended by the way, it is very much by the way, and
incidental & secondary to the fundamental contact - for him,
with "God". So that to read "goodness & disinterestedness" every
time for "God". would seem the accidental for the essential with
a vengeance & a mining of the text; whereas to allow the scep
tical position (which I hope is not complacent in my case, how
ever it may be a tyranny), & replace a principle of faith, absolute
& infinite, by one personal & finite of fact, would be to preserve
its magnificent basis of distinction between primary & secon
4
dary,intheinterestsofaverybaroquesolipsismifyoulike. I cannot see how "goodness" is to be made a foundation or a beginning of anything. Arn I to set my teeth & be disinterested? When I cannot answer for myself, and do not dispose of myself, how can I serve? Will the demon - pretiosa margarita! - disable me any the less with sweats & shudders & panics & rages & rigors & heart burstings because my motives are unselfish & the welfare of others my concern? Macche! 5 Or is there some way of devoting pain & monstrosity & incapacitation to the service of a deserving cause? Is one to insist on a crucifixion for which there is no demand?
For me the position is really a simple & straightforward one, or was until complicated by the analysis, obviously necessarily. For years I was unhappy, consciously & deliberately ever since I left school & went into T. C. D. , so that I isolated myself more & more, undertook less & less & lent myself to a crescendo of disparagement of others & myself. But in all that there was nothing that struck me as morbid. The misery & solitude & apathy & the sneers were the elements of an index of superior ity & guaranteed the feeling of arrogant "otherness", which seemed as right & natural & as little morbid as the ways in which it was not so much expressed as implied & reserved &
258
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
kept available for a possible utterance in the future. It was not
until that way of living, or rather negation of living, developed
such terrifying physical symptoms that it could no longer be
pursued, that I became aware of anything morbid in myself. In
short, if the heart had not put the fear of death into me I would
be still boozing & sneering & lounging around & feeling that I
was too good for anything else. It was with a specific fear & a
specific complaint that I went to Geoffrey, then to Bion, to learn
that the "specific fear & complaint" was the least important
symptom of a diseased condition that began in a time which I
could not remember, in my "pre-history", a bubble on the pud
dle; and that the fatuous torments which I had treasured as
denoting the superior man were all part of the same pathology.
That was the picture as I was obliged to accept it, and that is still
largely the picture, and I cannot see that it allows of any philo
sophical or ethical or Christlike imitative pentimenti, or in what
way they could redeem a composition that was invalid from the
6
Ifl cod myself with all this I cod myself & that is all. It will
7
Reavey has been active, founding a branch of his International Bureau over here, or something equally interesting. Your
259
word "go" & has to be broken up altogether.
bubbles it is because the puddle has not been drained, and the fact of its bubbling more fiercely than ever is perhaps open to receive consolation from the waste that splutters most, when the bath is nearly empty.
If the heart still
havebeenanexpensivecanular. Ihavetriedtofacethepossi bility of its failing to render the business of remaining alive tolerable, & I have not been able to. It claims to do more, but if it does as much the year of two fears or three fears will seem to me better spent than any others I can point to up till now.
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
defection at the 6 Bells was still present in his mind. I was wishing I had his precious Anthologie Surrealiste to return to him. But he will be back in a fortnight. He is full of translations, anthologies, adaptations & centos & transactions of every kind. He showed me a poem that surprised me it was so much better than anything I had seen ofhis hitherto. 8
The Lucia ember flared up & fizzled out. But more of that viva voce.
I do not see much of Hester, but it always goes very well when I go round, and we play the Pavane with special reference to the obeisances in the dance. 9
The news from home is good. I sent Mother Morton's In the
1
I spent an evening with Geoffrey and to-day I am going down to Eden Park to spend afternoon & evening. He is in excellent form and is now attached to the outpatients psychological department at Bart's, so that he can proceed to little analyses on his own! 11
I went to the Lener playing the Rasumovsky Quartets at Queen's Hall yesterday & was very disappointed. Their playing seemed dry & finickety to the point of Old Maidishness & Ludvig never so Rembrandtesque. 12
Stella's exhibition with Louise Jacobs & Mary Duncan was really lamentable. She had a 10 year old portrait of Jack Yeats priced at £100! The place was packed with the chosen & faithful for the opening day. I was talking to Louise Jacobs, on whose work alone the eye could rest, & who personally seems an agreeable woman. 13 Seumas says he will publish my four wan lines about the surrogate goodbyes in his April number. But that means nothing. 14
I have been reading Wahrheit und Dichtung in Hester's copy and have got to the Strassberg [for Strasburg] period & contact
260
StepsoftheMasterforherbirthday&shewasdelighted. °Frank never writes.
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
with Herder. I find parts of it absorbing, for example the literary picture during his Leipzig phase. The early years in Frankfurt, long description ofcrowning ofKing ofHesse etc. , are dull. What an awful shit ofa Father he had. 15 They are doing The Alchemist at the Embassy next week & I hope to go. What an admirable dramatic unity of place the besieged house provides & how much he makes of it.
The feverish, obsidional atmosphere of Nourri dans le serail etc-16
I spend most of my time, when not with Bion or walking, reading on top of the fire. Snow yesterday. I occasionally see Maccarthy. Ethna has had her picture taken away for removal to Dublin. 17
Do hurry up & come over.
My best wishes for comfort & contentment to your mother. The Spring should make things a bit gayer for her.
Love ever Sam
ALS; 3 leaves, 6 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co Kerry. Irish Free State; pm 11-3-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/73. Dating: from pm; concert by Lener Quartet at Queen's Hall, 9 March 1935.
1 SB may use the term "Grillen," as Goethe frequently did, "to denote his moodi ness and troubles" (Mark Nixon, '"Scraps ofGerman': Samuel Beckett reading German Literature," Notes Diverse Halo, Special issue SBT/A 16 [2006[ 265).
2 German-borntheologianThomasaKempis(neThomasHaernrnerlein,1380-1471) wrote what is known in English as The Imitation of Christ in 1441; it was first published in 1471. Latin citations that follow in this and related notes are from Thomas a Kempis, De imitatione Christi libri quatuor: sacrae scripturae textuum adnotatione et variis rerum indiabus lorupletata, new edn. (Mechliniae, Belgium: H. Dessain, 1921); sections and subsections of the text are given in roman numerals followed by the page reference in arabic numerals. Modern English translations are taken from Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, ed. Ernest Rhys, EveI}'1l1an's Library (London: J. M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1910), which is widely available. Rhys's translation is based on the first English translation, De imitatione Christi, ed. J. K. Ingram, Early English Text Society Extra Series (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Turner and Co. , 1893). For the convenience of readers as well as scholors of the classical text, page references are given to both English translations. SB's notes are in his Notebook for
261
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
Dream of Fair to Middling Women, BIF, UoR, MS 5000; see Pilling (ed. ), Beckett's Dream Notebook, 80-87.
"Qui melius scit pati, majorem tenebit pacem" (II. iii, 87) ("He that can well suffer shall find most peace") (Rhys, 66; Ingram, 43).
"Nolle consolari ab aliqua creatura, magnae puritatis, et internae fiduciae signum est" (II. vi, 93) ("For a man not to wish to be comforted by any creature is a token ofgreat purity") (Rhys, 72; Ingram, 47).
"Per viam pacis, ad patriam perpetuae claritatis" (III. lxiv, 296) ("Direct him by the way of peace to the country of everlasting clearness") (Rhys, 228; Ingram, 150).
3 In"OfEschewingSuperfluityofWords"(l. x),ThomasaKempisaskswhywedo not simply avoid conversation, since "seldom we come home without hurting of conscience"; he suggests that "we seek comfort each from the other and to relieve the heart that is made weary with divers thoughts," but concludes that "such outward comfort is a great hindering ofinward and heavenly consolation" (Rhys, 16; Ingram, 11).
From I. xx, "OfLove ofSilence and to Be Alone," Thomas a Kempis cites: "Be ye sorry in your chambers" (from Isaiah 26:20) (Rhys, 37; Ingram, 25). He advises withdrawal from the world: "Laetus exitus tristem saepe reditum parit: et laeta vigilia serotina triste mane facit" ("glad going out ofttimes bringeth forth a sorrowful coming home and a glad watching over evening bringeth forth a sorry morning") (Rhys, 38; Ingram, 25).
From N. xii, "With how great Diligence he ought to prepare himself that should receive the Sacrament of Christ. " Thomas a Kempis's advice is to shut oneself in as "passer solitarius in tecto" ("a solitary bird under the evesings leaves]") (Rhys, 268; Ingram, 276).
4 "Pleroma"(Gk. ,fullness,abundance),relatedtoGnosticism.
From Kempis, l. v, "Of Reading of the Scriptures": "If thou wilt draw profit in reading read meekly simply and truly, not desiring to have a name of knowledge" (Rhys, 10; Ingram, 107).
"Oeuvres pies" (works of piety).
SB seems to be quoting from McGreevy's letter to him which has not been found.
5 "Pretiosamargarita"(preciouspearl),ananalogytotheKingdomofHeaven(see Matthew 13:45-46).
Thomas a Kempis wrote: "Quam multi ore tenus praedicant, sed vita longe dissen tiunt: ipsa tamen est pretiosa margarita, a multis absc6ndita" (III. xxxvii, 213) ("Many preach with the mouth but in living they depart far therefrom. Nevertheless it is a precious margaret (pearl) and hid from many") (Rhys, 167; Ingram, 108).
SB wrote "<terrors> shudders. " "Macche" (It. colloq. , Come off it! ). 6 "Pentimenti"(actsofcontrition).
7 "Canular"(EcoleNormaleSuperieureslang,practicaljoke).
8 WithMarcLvovichSlonim(1894-1976),GeorgeReaveyhadfoundedtheBureau Litteraire Europeen, 4, Square Leon Guillot, Paris XV; for several years, following work on The European Caravan, he had been interested in establishing a London base for his agency as the European Literary Bureau.
The Six Bells was a pub on King's Road near Glebe Place, Chelsea. Petite Anthologie poetique du surrealisme, ed. Georges Hugnet (Paris: Editions Jeanne Bucher, 1934).
With Slonim, Reavey edited and translated from the Russian Soviet Literature: An Anthology (London: Wishart and Co. , 1933; tr. into French as Anthologie de la litterature
262
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
sovietique, 1918-1934 [Paris: Gallimard, 19351). His edition ofPaul Eluard's poems, Thorns of Thunder, included many translated by SB; it was released in conjunction with The International Surrealist Exhibition in London (11 June to 4 July 1936).
Reavey had embarked on the first of his translations of the works of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948), Smysl istorii (1923; The Meaning of History, 1936).
Reavey's current poetry was based on centos: e. g. the two collections he published in 1935: Faust's Metamorphoses: Poems; Nostradam: A Sequence of Poems, Europa Poets 1 (Paris: Europa Press, 1935); Signes d'adieu (Frailty of Love), tr. Pierre Chamay, Europa Poets (Paris: Editions Europa, 1935). It is not known which poem Reavey had shown SB.
9 LuciaJoyceinLondon:see20February[1935],n. 10.
SB and Hester Dowden were playing Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante defunte for piano,
four hands (24 February 1931, n. 4).
10 In the Steps of the Master (1934) by H[enry] V[ollam] Morton (1892-1979). May Beckett's birthday was 1 March.
11 Eden Park, an area of southeast London, near Beckenham. St. Bartholomew's Hospital (Barts). Westsmithfield, London, EC 1.
12 TheLenerStringQuartetplayedallofBeethoven'sRasumovskyQuartets,op. 59,at Queen's Hall on 9 March 1935.
13 The exhibition Landscapes from Donegal to Yorkshire: 20 February [1935], n. 15.
Estella Solomons's portrait ofJack Yeats, painted in 1922, is now in the collection of the Sligo County Library and Museum; she had included her portraits in the exhibition at the urging of Louise Jacobs (Louise Jacobs to Stella Solomons Starkey, 10 October 1934, TCD, MS 4644/1208). Jacobs's paintings included landscapes (The Cafe Montmartre, A Tournament in Toyland, Red Roofs of Whitby) as well as portraits (TCD, MS 4644/3521; Michael Jacobs).
14 SBwasdisappointed:"TheDublinMagazineisout,butmypoemnotin"(SBto McGreevy, 26 April 1935, TCD, MS 10402/74). In a letter to Leventhal, SB wrote: "[O'Sullivan] has a quatrain ofmine, due in the last awful issue, but perhaps he has smoked its indiscriminate application to death-bed & whoral turns"; SB enclosed the poem "Da Tagte Es" (7 August [1935], TxU).
15 Goethe's autobiography Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit (1811-1833; Memoirs of Goethe: Written by Himself ). SB may have read an edition that presented the title in "inverted word order," namely Aus meinem Leben: Wahrheit und Dichtung, of which there are several. Notes on his reading of Goethe can be found in TCD, MS 10971/1; for a description: Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10971/1: German Literature," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue SBT/A 16 (2006) 115-116, 120-123.
SB had read as far as Goethe's meeting with the German philosopher, Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) (Book X). Goethe himself depicts his father as imperious, yet respected.
16 TheactionofBenJonson'sTheAlchemist(1610)issetinasinglehouseofadoctor. SB quotes from Racine's Bajazet (1672): "Nourri dans le serail, j'en connais ! es detours"
263
10 March {1935), McGreevy
("In the Seraglio reared, I know its ways") Uean Racine, Bajazet [Paris:Editions du Seuil, 1947] 124; Jean Racine, Complete Plays, II, tr. Samuel Solomon, [New York: Modem Library, 1969] 64).
17 MacCarthy'spainting:see20February[1935],n. 13.
GEORGE REAVEY PARSI
[15 March 1935]
34 Gertrude St London S. W. 19.
[no greeting]
Not Poems after all, but: Echo's Bones, and Other Precipitates.
2
TPCI; 1 leaf, 2 sides; to Monsieur George Reavey, Bureau LitteraireEuropeen, Rue Bonaparte 13, Paris 6me; pm 15-3-35, London, pm 16-3-35, Paris; AN recto, in another hand Giacometti, 46 Rue Hippolyte, XVI Maindron Rue d'Alesia; AN verso, in another hand 6 March 1935; TxU. Dating: from pm.
1 Forthetitleofthebook,SBchosethetitleofthefinalpoeminthecollection. 2 "C'estplusmodeste. "(Itismoremodest. )
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
5/5/35 Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
My dear Tom
Glad to hear that Devlin's visit was a success. Did you see his
poem in Saturday's Irish Times? An agreeable change from all
1
1
C'est plus modeste. S. B.
the Hymns Ancient & Modern.
264
Except for the heart bad a couple of nights, things have been
pretty well with me. I have been a lot with Mother, & note with
pleasure that she forgets to be wretched more often than for
merly. Also walking enormously. Quando il piede cammina il
2
Madame, from 3 to past 6, and saw some quite new pictures. He
seems to be having a freer period. The one in the Academy - Low
Tide - bought by Meredith for the Municipal is overwhelming. 3
He can only recall my watercolour very vaguely, as being prob
4
the advisability of your not failing to apply for the Gallery, though
saying nothing to make it appear that he was in the know. 5 He
had some story from Miss Purser of the Lun;:at, now exposed in
the Municipal, having been attacked with spits & sticks. In the
end we went out, down to Charlemont House to find out about
Sunday opening, & then to Jury's for a drink. He parted as usual
with an offer to buy me a Herald. I hope to see him again before
6
I went one evening with Leventhal to see Ethna. She has some kind of a job in the Castle. The Pourbus seems held up
7
I have found some charming and playable de Falla of my own.
I am getting on well with the Torre. It is a pity that he can't keep off the flowers of speech. The precedent hunting seems very brilliant, though I imagine a historian would cavil at the Revolution as merely an episode in a national tradition of anti feudalism, and at the sequitur from the rejection of the Reform
to the convocation of the States General. But for me the simpli
5 May 1935, McGreevy
cuore gode.
Yesterday afternoon I had Jack Yeats all to myself, not even
ablythefishmarketinSligo. Hewasaskingforyou,andstressed
I leave, but do not expect ever to have him like that again.
[. . . ]
indefinitelyintheCustoms. ShelentmetwovolumesofAlbeniz.
8
fication & easy going dogmatism is good enough.
9
265
5 May 1935, McGreevy [. . . ]
I suppose you remember the little Del Mazo Musicians in the Gallery. I seem to remember your having spoken of it as a pet of yours. It is charming, with something of Watteau in it. The Wilson Tivoli views are good, one is almost a replica of the one in Dulwich. 10
Second lesson at church this evening was the passage of Christ's commission to Peter. "Care my lambs, care my sheep, care my sheep", & the "Peter, lovest thou me" thrice. Poor Peter, he was always getting it in threes. Anyway I remembered the Raphael Cartoon of the Commission, & the rest of the service was easy, even a sermon all about demes & 1/120th part of a [? lav] per caput (si on peut dire). 11
Dublin is lovely with no trams & buses, the hills & sea seem to have crept nearer. 12
I expect to stay the month, which means I would be back in London to-morrow fortnight. I don't want to accept this life quite yet, but I loathe the thought of returning to London. However, it must be.
I wonder did you remember to take the books I left at Gertrude St. to the library?
No news from Geoffrey. C'est ! 'amour.
13
ALS; 3 leaves. 6 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 6-5-35, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/75.
1 Denis Devlin had joined the Department of External Affairs and was traveling in connection with his work. Devlin's poem "Moments" was in three parts, each beginning from a specific observation; whereas earlier poems had been drawn principally from religious or historical contexts ("Moments," The Irish Times 4 May 1935: 7; see Denis Devlin, Collected Poems ofDenis Devlin, ed. J. C. C. Mays [Dublin: Dedalus Press, 1989] 93-99, 107-108).
266
Schone Griisse to Hester & Dilly. Love ever
Sam
5 May 1935, McGreevy 2 "Quando ii piede cammina ii cuore gode" (When the foot walks, the heart
gladdens). Source unknown, probably proverbial.
3 YeatswasawareofSB'spreference,ashewrotetoMcGreevyon13February1935: "I tried to get Beckett on the phone one day but he was away. I wanted to arrange a day for him to come here - when there wouldn't be other visitors as he doesn't so much like having them about" (TCD, MS 10381/125). His wife was artist Mary Cottenham Yeats(nee White, known as Cottie, 1867-1947).
Low Tide(1935, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, no. 727; Pyle 454) was shown in the 1935 Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition; it was sold to Justice James Creed Meredith(1875-1942), who in 1937 presented it to the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art(Pyle. Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, I, 312; III, 196).
4 ThewatercolorisCornerBoys(privatecollection,Pyle701)(Pyle,JackB. Yeats:His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels [Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993] 165).
5 ThepositionofDirectoroftheNationalGalleryoflrelandwasadvertisedfortwo weeks from 9 April 1935; the advertisement announced a closing date for applications of 21 May 1935 and stated that "Personal canvassing of members of the Board is prohibited" (The Irish Times 9 April 1935: 6). Jack Yeats counseled McGreevy: "I wish you were certain to get the directorship of the National Gallery here. I am sure you have a good chance"(13 February 1935, TCD, MS 10381/125); later he sent a copy of the advertisement, and wrote: "I daresay that the field will be so overwhelming on each other that, if you came ghost up along, determinedly, you might, just, get it"(15 April 1935, TCD MS 10381/126). Brian Coffey, whose father Dr. Denis Coffey(1865-1945) was President of University College Dublin and a member of the Board, also encouraged McGreevy(16 May 1935, TCD MS 8110/19). McGreevy applied for the position on 18 May, but he was not invited to interview.
6 TheattackonLurc;:at'sDecorativeLandscape(DublinCityGalleryTheHughLane,no. 709) was reported to the City Manager by the Curator, John J. Reynolds(n. d. , Curator from 14 April 1924 to 30 September 1935)(26, 27 April 1935, Records of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art). SB reported to McGreevy: "A large hole was clean through the middle sky, with scratches extending left to the 'magic' ! edgy passage, & what looked like spit marks"(15 May 1935, TCD, MS MS 10402/76). Sarah Purser, Dublin artist and art patron, had accepted the Lurc;:at painting on behalf of the Society of Friends of the National Collections of Ireland: 4 November [for 3 November 1932], n.
Miss B. O'Brien is in Florence "studying the Old Masters".
8
Lucia is in Grosvenor Place with her aunt, who . . "is on her
10
for much in the elaboration of Charlus. Brouwer ran away from Hals & Haarlem, & Rubens & Rembrandt owned pictures
5
Perhaps Dermot [for Dermod] is working her up for the Gallery. Mary Manning is now Mrs Mark De Wolfle] Howe & on her honey moon to New York & the . . . Bermudas! 9 Do you know the story of the chaste centipede, who said to her suitor, crossing her thou sand legs: "No, a thousand times no. "
way to Ireland", whatever that means.
see me. I have done nothing - except make detours.
She wrote wanting to I have seen nothing of Geoffrey, but have planned to go
down & see him at the hospital next Sunday.
11
It may help to
solve the destination of the day. I inspected the plaster carica
tures of Vischer & Kraft in the V. & A. Nothing. The Great Hall
12
13
I go on with Bion . . . histoire d'elan acquis. I see no reason why it should ever come to an end. The old heart pounces now & then, as though to console me for the intolerable symp toms of an improvement. Mother writes, she supposes I am
253
was full of whores. The Raphael Room is closed.
The Maccarthy has taken her picture.
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
brimming over with material for books. . . anything rather than desoeuvrement. 14
Estella S. sent me a card for vernissage (et comment) next Tuesday. She is with Mary Duncan & Louise Jacobs at the
15
Arlington. Landscapes from Donegal & Yorkshire.
Last night I dropped my glasses from balcony of this room
16
into the area.
wanting to scrap the frame anyway.
I found the lenses this morning, unbroken. I was Love Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co. Keny, in lower left comer Irish Free State; pm 20-2-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/72. Dating: pm and opening of the Arlington Gallery before exhibition March 1935.
1 McGreevydidnotarriveinLondonashehadplanned(see10March1935).
Hester Dowden had offered SB the use ofher piano. SB compares the cats and dogs of her household to Renard's "'Le Herisson," in Histoires naturelles, a series of humorous vignettes written first for newspaper publication and then collected:
"'Le Herisson" Essuyez votre. . . S. V. P. II
II faut me prendre comme je suis et ne pas trop serrer. "'The Hedgehog"
Please wipe your
You have to take me as I am and not squeeze too tightly.
Uules Renard, Oeuvres, II, ed. Leon Guichard, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade [Paris: Gallimard, 1971] 126)
2 TheLenerQuartetatQueen'sHallon9March1935(see8February1935,n. 10).
3 James Guilford was in London to consult specialists; a ptosis belt is used to alleviate the symptoms of a hernia.
4 SB compares Elinor Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1811) with Joseph Fielding's character, Sophia Weston, in Tom Jones (1749). He also sees Baron Hulot, a character from Balzac's La Cousine Bette, as a forerunner of the Baron de Charlus in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu. SB uses a Gallicism, "'etre pour beau
coup dans" for "'to count for a good deal in. "
5 Adriaen Brouwer served an apprenticeship in Haarlem under Frans Hals (c. 1581-1666); he left for Amsterdam, later returned to Haarlem from c. 1625 to 1631, and then spent the remainder of his life in Antwerp (Gerard Knuttel, Adriaen Brouwer: The Master and His Work, tr. ]. G. Talma-Schilthuis and Robert Wheaton [The Hague: L. J. C.
254
II
Bancher, 1962] 109). Rubens owned seventeen Brouwers (179); Rembrandt's collection of Brouwer included seven paintings, another "after Brouwer," and a book of drawings (Kenneth Clark, Remm-andt and the Italian Renaissance [London: John Murray, 1966] 193-202). Brouwer influenced Teniers the younger, but the only evidence that Teniers owned a painting by Brouwer is Teniers's painting The Artist in His Studio (1635, private collection) which depicts Teniers painting a self. portrait in his studio which is hung with thirty-three paintings by himself and contemporaries, including Brouwer's Drinker Asleep (The Sleeping Toper, AH:64:05, Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California; Margret Klinge, David Teniers the Younger: Paintings - Drawings, Antwerp: Koninklijk Museum Voor Schoene Kunsten, 11 May-1 September 1991 [Ghent: Snoeck-Ducaju and Zoon, 1991] 50, 52-53; Margret Klinge, 14 February 2007).
6 ThepaintingsofAdamElsheimer(1578-1610)intheGermanroom(XIX)ofthe National Gallery in London included St. Paul on Malta (c. 1600, NGL 3535, also known as The Shipwreck of St. Paul), St. Lawrence Being Prepared for Martyrdom (c. 1600-1601, NGL 1014), The Baptism of Christ (c. 1599, NGL 3904), and Tobias and the Archangel Raphael (c. 1650, NGL 1424, then attributed to Elsheimer, now considered to be after Elsheimer).
On 14January 1611, Rubens wrote to a biologist and collector living in Rome, Dr. Johann Faber (fl. early seventeenth century), who had informed him of Elsheimer's death: Elsheimer "had no equal in small figures, in Landscapes, and in many other subjects. He has died in the flower of his studies. " Rubens deplored Elsheimer's "sin of sloth, by which he has deprived the world of the most beautiful things" (Keith
Andrews, Adam Elsheimer: Paintings - Drawings - Prints [New York: Rizzoli, 1977] 51).
7 SBreferstoTheNativity(latefifteenthcentury,NGL4081)byGeertgentotSintJans {1460/1465-1495), noting that it was earlier than the Liberation of St. Peter from Prison {1513-1514) by Raphael, which was painted over a window-opening in the Vatican (Frederick Hartt, History of Italian Renaissance Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, 3rd edn. [New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1987] 513-514). Also earlier is Uccello's Hunt in the Forest (c. 1470,Ashmolean MuseumA79).
8 Irish artist, Rose Brigid O'Brien (m. Ganly, 1909-2002) was the daughter of Dermod O'Brien, who was on the Board of Governors and Guardians of the National Gallery oflreland; the museum was seeking a new Director.
9 Irish writer Mary Manning• (1905-1999) married theAmerican historian and biographer Mark de Wolfe Howe {1906-1967) on 28 February 1935.
10 LuciaJoycearrivedinLondonon14February1935withheraunt,Mrs. Eileen Schaurek (nee Eileen Isabel Mary Xavier Brigid Joyce, 1889-1963), with whom she stayed at the Mascot Hotel in York Street, not Grosvenor Place. While Mrs. Schaurek was in Dublin (24 February to 1 March), Lucia Joyce stayed with Harriet Weaver at 74 Gloucester Place. However, from 26 to 27 February, she stayed on her own in a hotel on Gloucester Street, returning afterwards to stay again with Harriet Weaver. Lucia left for Ireland with her aunt on 16 March 1935 (Ellmann, James Joyce, 681; Carol Loeb Shloss, Lucia Joyce: To Dance in the Wake [New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003] 308-312, 509; Brenda Maddox, Nora: The Real Life of Molly Bloom [Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. , 1988] 305-309). According toJoyce's letter to Giorgio and HelenJoyce, 19 February 1935, during this period Lucia met SB "a few times and they had dinner together" Ooyce, Letters of]ames Joyce, III. 344).
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
11 GeoffreyThompsonwasinBeckenham.
255
20 February {1935}, McGreevy
12 Nineteenth-centuryplastercastsintheVictoriaandAlbertcollection(room46A) included the highly ornamented Gothic canopy and enclosure ofthe Tomb ofSt. Sebaldus (1508-1519, St. Sebalduskirche, Nuremberg; V&A repro. 1869-14) by Peter Vischer the elder (c. 1460-1529) that was decorated with statuettes and reliefs; other works by Peter Vischer in the collection were casts of the Monument of Count Otto N of Henneberg (1488, Stadtkirche, Romhild; V&A repro. 1873-580:1) and of A Bronze Monument (1497, Magdeburg Cathedral; V&A repro. 1904-55:0). Also among the collection of casts in this room was the Schreyer-Landauer Monument (1490-1492, St. Sebalduskirche, Nuremberg; V&A repro. 1872-53) by German sculptor Adam Kraft (also Krafft, fl. 1490-1509).
The Raphael Room (48), with cartoons for tapestries commissioned by Pope Leo X (1515) for the Sistine Chapel, was closed intermittently between April 1934 and August 1935, as paintings were removed in stages for repair. The records of the Victoria and Albert Museum indicate that the cartoon then known as "Peter and John at the Beautiful Gate" (now "The Healing of the Lame Man," 1515-1516) was removed in early February 1935, treated, and replaced in its frame on 6 March 1935 (Alison Baber, National Art Library, Victoria and Albert Museum. 1 June 1994, from the Museum's registered papers). The "Great Hall" may have been the main entrance to the Museum or the Octagon Court which displayed loan exhibitions; there are no records to confirm what was exhibited there in 1935 (Alison Baber, 13 June 1994).
13 Ethna MacCarthy's painting, Portrait of a Lady (inscribed 1599 "age 61") by the School of Pourbus, had been offered at auction (Sotheby's, 13 June 1934, no. 85) but had not met the reserve price. The Pourbus family of Flemish painters included Pieter Pourbus (1523/1524-1584), his son Frans Pourbus (1545/1546-1581), and Frans Pourbus II (1569-1622). SB had been asked to pick up the painting and keep it for MacCarthy.
14 "Histoired'elanacquis"ijustamatterofmomentum). "Desoeuvrement" (having nothing to do, idleness).
15 "Vernissage (et comment)" (private view [and howl). The exhibition opened for private view on 26 February 1935. Mary Duncan's landscapes were largely of Cornwall, those by Louise Jacobs were of Yorkshire, and those by Estella Solomons were of Donegal.
16 SB wrote "<this> balcony of this room . THOMAS McGREEVY
TARBERT, LIMERICK, co_ KERRY 10/3 (1935]
34 Gertrude Street London SW10
My dear Tom
Very glad to have your letter & touched at your bothering
your head about my old Grillen. 1 All I ever got from the 256
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
Imitation went to confirm & reinforce my own way of living, a way ofliving that tried to be a solution & failed. I found quanti ties of phrases like qui melius scit pati majorem tenebit pacem, or, Nolle consolari ab aliqua creatura magnae puritatis signum est, or the lovely per viam pacis ad patriam perpetuae claritatis, that seemed to be made for me and which I have never forgot ten. 2 Amg many others. But they all conduced to the isolation ism that was not to prove very splendid. What is one to make of "seldom we come home without hurting of conscience" and "the glad going out & sorrowful coming home" and "be ye sorry in your chambers" but a quietism of the sparrow alone upon the housetop & the solitary bird under the eaves? An abject self-referring quietism indeed, beside the alert quiet ofone who always had Jesus for his darling, but the only kind that I. who seem never to have had the least faculty or disposition for the supernatural, could elicit from the text. and then only by means of a substitution ofterms very different from the one you pro pose. 3 I mean that I replaced the plenitude that he calls "God", not by "goodness", but by a pleroma only to be sought among my own feathers or entrails, a principle of self the possession of which was to provide a rationale & the communion with which a sense of Grace. Thus the Imitation could be made [to] subserve the "Sin" of Luciferian concentration. And I know that now I would be no more capable of approaching its hypostatics & analogies "meekly, simply & truly", than I was when I first twisted them into a programme of self-sufficiency. I would still find it, so far from being a compendium of Christian behaviour, with oeuvres pies, humility, utility, self-effacement, etc. etc. , in all probability conceived & composed on the rebound from the fiasco of just such an effort in behaviour, your "long, long experience of unhappiness"; and that ifcertain forms of contact
257
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
are commended by the way, it is very much by the way, and
incidental & secondary to the fundamental contact - for him,
with "God". So that to read "goodness & disinterestedness" every
time for "God". would seem the accidental for the essential with
a vengeance & a mining of the text; whereas to allow the scep
tical position (which I hope is not complacent in my case, how
ever it may be a tyranny), & replace a principle of faith, absolute
& infinite, by one personal & finite of fact, would be to preserve
its magnificent basis of distinction between primary & secon
4
dary,intheinterestsofaverybaroquesolipsismifyoulike. I cannot see how "goodness" is to be made a foundation or a beginning of anything. Arn I to set my teeth & be disinterested? When I cannot answer for myself, and do not dispose of myself, how can I serve? Will the demon - pretiosa margarita! - disable me any the less with sweats & shudders & panics & rages & rigors & heart burstings because my motives are unselfish & the welfare of others my concern? Macche! 5 Or is there some way of devoting pain & monstrosity & incapacitation to the service of a deserving cause? Is one to insist on a crucifixion for which there is no demand?
For me the position is really a simple & straightforward one, or was until complicated by the analysis, obviously necessarily. For years I was unhappy, consciously & deliberately ever since I left school & went into T. C. D. , so that I isolated myself more & more, undertook less & less & lent myself to a crescendo of disparagement of others & myself. But in all that there was nothing that struck me as morbid. The misery & solitude & apathy & the sneers were the elements of an index of superior ity & guaranteed the feeling of arrogant "otherness", which seemed as right & natural & as little morbid as the ways in which it was not so much expressed as implied & reserved &
258
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
kept available for a possible utterance in the future. It was not
until that way of living, or rather negation of living, developed
such terrifying physical symptoms that it could no longer be
pursued, that I became aware of anything morbid in myself. In
short, if the heart had not put the fear of death into me I would
be still boozing & sneering & lounging around & feeling that I
was too good for anything else. It was with a specific fear & a
specific complaint that I went to Geoffrey, then to Bion, to learn
that the "specific fear & complaint" was the least important
symptom of a diseased condition that began in a time which I
could not remember, in my "pre-history", a bubble on the pud
dle; and that the fatuous torments which I had treasured as
denoting the superior man were all part of the same pathology.
That was the picture as I was obliged to accept it, and that is still
largely the picture, and I cannot see that it allows of any philo
sophical or ethical or Christlike imitative pentimenti, or in what
way they could redeem a composition that was invalid from the
6
Ifl cod myself with all this I cod myself & that is all. It will
7
Reavey has been active, founding a branch of his International Bureau over here, or something equally interesting. Your
259
word "go" & has to be broken up altogether.
bubbles it is because the puddle has not been drained, and the fact of its bubbling more fiercely than ever is perhaps open to receive consolation from the waste that splutters most, when the bath is nearly empty.
If the heart still
havebeenanexpensivecanular. Ihavetriedtofacethepossi bility of its failing to render the business of remaining alive tolerable, & I have not been able to. It claims to do more, but if it does as much the year of two fears or three fears will seem to me better spent than any others I can point to up till now.
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
defection at the 6 Bells was still present in his mind. I was wishing I had his precious Anthologie Surrealiste to return to him. But he will be back in a fortnight. He is full of translations, anthologies, adaptations & centos & transactions of every kind. He showed me a poem that surprised me it was so much better than anything I had seen ofhis hitherto. 8
The Lucia ember flared up & fizzled out. But more of that viva voce.
I do not see much of Hester, but it always goes very well when I go round, and we play the Pavane with special reference to the obeisances in the dance. 9
The news from home is good. I sent Mother Morton's In the
1
I spent an evening with Geoffrey and to-day I am going down to Eden Park to spend afternoon & evening. He is in excellent form and is now attached to the outpatients psychological department at Bart's, so that he can proceed to little analyses on his own! 11
I went to the Lener playing the Rasumovsky Quartets at Queen's Hall yesterday & was very disappointed. Their playing seemed dry & finickety to the point of Old Maidishness & Ludvig never so Rembrandtesque. 12
Stella's exhibition with Louise Jacobs & Mary Duncan was really lamentable. She had a 10 year old portrait of Jack Yeats priced at £100! The place was packed with the chosen & faithful for the opening day. I was talking to Louise Jacobs, on whose work alone the eye could rest, & who personally seems an agreeable woman. 13 Seumas says he will publish my four wan lines about the surrogate goodbyes in his April number. But that means nothing. 14
I have been reading Wahrheit und Dichtung in Hester's copy and have got to the Strassberg [for Strasburg] period & contact
260
StepsoftheMasterforherbirthday&shewasdelighted. °Frank never writes.
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
with Herder. I find parts of it absorbing, for example the literary picture during his Leipzig phase. The early years in Frankfurt, long description ofcrowning ofKing ofHesse etc. , are dull. What an awful shit ofa Father he had. 15 They are doing The Alchemist at the Embassy next week & I hope to go. What an admirable dramatic unity of place the besieged house provides & how much he makes of it.
The feverish, obsidional atmosphere of Nourri dans le serail etc-16
I spend most of my time, when not with Bion or walking, reading on top of the fire. Snow yesterday. I occasionally see Maccarthy. Ethna has had her picture taken away for removal to Dublin. 17
Do hurry up & come over.
My best wishes for comfort & contentment to your mother. The Spring should make things a bit gayer for her.
Love ever Sam
ALS; 3 leaves, 6 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co Kerry. Irish Free State; pm 11-3-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/73. Dating: from pm; concert by Lener Quartet at Queen's Hall, 9 March 1935.
1 SB may use the term "Grillen," as Goethe frequently did, "to denote his moodi ness and troubles" (Mark Nixon, '"Scraps ofGerman': Samuel Beckett reading German Literature," Notes Diverse Halo, Special issue SBT/A 16 [2006[ 265).
2 German-borntheologianThomasaKempis(neThomasHaernrnerlein,1380-1471) wrote what is known in English as The Imitation of Christ in 1441; it was first published in 1471. Latin citations that follow in this and related notes are from Thomas a Kempis, De imitatione Christi libri quatuor: sacrae scripturae textuum adnotatione et variis rerum indiabus lorupletata, new edn. (Mechliniae, Belgium: H. Dessain, 1921); sections and subsections of the text are given in roman numerals followed by the page reference in arabic numerals. Modern English translations are taken from Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, ed. Ernest Rhys, EveI}'1l1an's Library (London: J. M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1910), which is widely available. Rhys's translation is based on the first English translation, De imitatione Christi, ed. J. K. Ingram, Early English Text Society Extra Series (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Turner and Co. , 1893). For the convenience of readers as well as scholors of the classical text, page references are given to both English translations. SB's notes are in his Notebook for
261
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
Dream of Fair to Middling Women, BIF, UoR, MS 5000; see Pilling (ed. ), Beckett's Dream Notebook, 80-87.
"Qui melius scit pati, majorem tenebit pacem" (II. iii, 87) ("He that can well suffer shall find most peace") (Rhys, 66; Ingram, 43).
"Nolle consolari ab aliqua creatura, magnae puritatis, et internae fiduciae signum est" (II. vi, 93) ("For a man not to wish to be comforted by any creature is a token ofgreat purity") (Rhys, 72; Ingram, 47).
"Per viam pacis, ad patriam perpetuae claritatis" (III. lxiv, 296) ("Direct him by the way of peace to the country of everlasting clearness") (Rhys, 228; Ingram, 150).
3 In"OfEschewingSuperfluityofWords"(l. x),ThomasaKempisaskswhywedo not simply avoid conversation, since "seldom we come home without hurting of conscience"; he suggests that "we seek comfort each from the other and to relieve the heart that is made weary with divers thoughts," but concludes that "such outward comfort is a great hindering ofinward and heavenly consolation" (Rhys, 16; Ingram, 11).
From I. xx, "OfLove ofSilence and to Be Alone," Thomas a Kempis cites: "Be ye sorry in your chambers" (from Isaiah 26:20) (Rhys, 37; Ingram, 25). He advises withdrawal from the world: "Laetus exitus tristem saepe reditum parit: et laeta vigilia serotina triste mane facit" ("glad going out ofttimes bringeth forth a sorrowful coming home and a glad watching over evening bringeth forth a sorry morning") (Rhys, 38; Ingram, 25).
From N. xii, "With how great Diligence he ought to prepare himself that should receive the Sacrament of Christ. " Thomas a Kempis's advice is to shut oneself in as "passer solitarius in tecto" ("a solitary bird under the evesings leaves]") (Rhys, 268; Ingram, 276).
4 "Pleroma"(Gk. ,fullness,abundance),relatedtoGnosticism.
From Kempis, l. v, "Of Reading of the Scriptures": "If thou wilt draw profit in reading read meekly simply and truly, not desiring to have a name of knowledge" (Rhys, 10; Ingram, 107).
"Oeuvres pies" (works of piety).
SB seems to be quoting from McGreevy's letter to him which has not been found.
5 "Pretiosamargarita"(preciouspearl),ananalogytotheKingdomofHeaven(see Matthew 13:45-46).
Thomas a Kempis wrote: "Quam multi ore tenus praedicant, sed vita longe dissen tiunt: ipsa tamen est pretiosa margarita, a multis absc6ndita" (III. xxxvii, 213) ("Many preach with the mouth but in living they depart far therefrom. Nevertheless it is a precious margaret (pearl) and hid from many") (Rhys, 167; Ingram, 108).
SB wrote "<terrors> shudders. " "Macche" (It. colloq. , Come off it! ). 6 "Pentimenti"(actsofcontrition).
7 "Canular"(EcoleNormaleSuperieureslang,practicaljoke).
8 WithMarcLvovichSlonim(1894-1976),GeorgeReaveyhadfoundedtheBureau Litteraire Europeen, 4, Square Leon Guillot, Paris XV; for several years, following work on The European Caravan, he had been interested in establishing a London base for his agency as the European Literary Bureau.
The Six Bells was a pub on King's Road near Glebe Place, Chelsea. Petite Anthologie poetique du surrealisme, ed. Georges Hugnet (Paris: Editions Jeanne Bucher, 1934).
With Slonim, Reavey edited and translated from the Russian Soviet Literature: An Anthology (London: Wishart and Co. , 1933; tr. into French as Anthologie de la litterature
262
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
sovietique, 1918-1934 [Paris: Gallimard, 19351). His edition ofPaul Eluard's poems, Thorns of Thunder, included many translated by SB; it was released in conjunction with The International Surrealist Exhibition in London (11 June to 4 July 1936).
Reavey had embarked on the first of his translations of the works of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948), Smysl istorii (1923; The Meaning of History, 1936).
Reavey's current poetry was based on centos: e. g. the two collections he published in 1935: Faust's Metamorphoses: Poems; Nostradam: A Sequence of Poems, Europa Poets 1 (Paris: Europa Press, 1935); Signes d'adieu (Frailty of Love), tr. Pierre Chamay, Europa Poets (Paris: Editions Europa, 1935). It is not known which poem Reavey had shown SB.
9 LuciaJoyceinLondon:see20February[1935],n. 10.
SB and Hester Dowden were playing Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante defunte for piano,
four hands (24 February 1931, n. 4).
10 In the Steps of the Master (1934) by H[enry] V[ollam] Morton (1892-1979). May Beckett's birthday was 1 March.
11 Eden Park, an area of southeast London, near Beckenham. St. Bartholomew's Hospital (Barts). Westsmithfield, London, EC 1.
12 TheLenerStringQuartetplayedallofBeethoven'sRasumovskyQuartets,op. 59,at Queen's Hall on 9 March 1935.
13 The exhibition Landscapes from Donegal to Yorkshire: 20 February [1935], n. 15.
Estella Solomons's portrait ofJack Yeats, painted in 1922, is now in the collection of the Sligo County Library and Museum; she had included her portraits in the exhibition at the urging of Louise Jacobs (Louise Jacobs to Stella Solomons Starkey, 10 October 1934, TCD, MS 4644/1208). Jacobs's paintings included landscapes (The Cafe Montmartre, A Tournament in Toyland, Red Roofs of Whitby) as well as portraits (TCD, MS 4644/3521; Michael Jacobs).
14 SBwasdisappointed:"TheDublinMagazineisout,butmypoemnotin"(SBto McGreevy, 26 April 1935, TCD, MS 10402/74). In a letter to Leventhal, SB wrote: "[O'Sullivan] has a quatrain ofmine, due in the last awful issue, but perhaps he has smoked its indiscriminate application to death-bed & whoral turns"; SB enclosed the poem "Da Tagte Es" (7 August [1935], TxU).
15 Goethe's autobiography Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit (1811-1833; Memoirs of Goethe: Written by Himself ). SB may have read an edition that presented the title in "inverted word order," namely Aus meinem Leben: Wahrheit und Dichtung, of which there are several. Notes on his reading of Goethe can be found in TCD, MS 10971/1; for a description: Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10971/1: German Literature," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue SBT/A 16 (2006) 115-116, 120-123.
SB had read as far as Goethe's meeting with the German philosopher, Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) (Book X). Goethe himself depicts his father as imperious, yet respected.
16 TheactionofBenJonson'sTheAlchemist(1610)issetinasinglehouseofadoctor. SB quotes from Racine's Bajazet (1672): "Nourri dans le serail, j'en connais ! es detours"
263
10 March {1935), McGreevy
("In the Seraglio reared, I know its ways") Uean Racine, Bajazet [Paris:Editions du Seuil, 1947] 124; Jean Racine, Complete Plays, II, tr. Samuel Solomon, [New York: Modem Library, 1969] 64).
17 MacCarthy'spainting:see20February[1935],n. 13.
GEORGE REAVEY PARSI
[15 March 1935]
34 Gertrude St London S. W. 19.
[no greeting]
Not Poems after all, but: Echo's Bones, and Other Precipitates.
2
TPCI; 1 leaf, 2 sides; to Monsieur George Reavey, Bureau LitteraireEuropeen, Rue Bonaparte 13, Paris 6me; pm 15-3-35, London, pm 16-3-35, Paris; AN recto, in another hand Giacometti, 46 Rue Hippolyte, XVI Maindron Rue d'Alesia; AN verso, in another hand 6 March 1935; TxU. Dating: from pm.
1 Forthetitleofthebook,SBchosethetitleofthefinalpoeminthecollection. 2 "C'estplusmodeste. "(Itismoremodest. )
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
5/5/35 Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
My dear Tom
Glad to hear that Devlin's visit was a success. Did you see his
poem in Saturday's Irish Times? An agreeable change from all
1
1
C'est plus modeste. S. B.
the Hymns Ancient & Modern.
264
Except for the heart bad a couple of nights, things have been
pretty well with me. I have been a lot with Mother, & note with
pleasure that she forgets to be wretched more often than for
merly. Also walking enormously. Quando il piede cammina il
2
Madame, from 3 to past 6, and saw some quite new pictures. He
seems to be having a freer period. The one in the Academy - Low
Tide - bought by Meredith for the Municipal is overwhelming. 3
He can only recall my watercolour very vaguely, as being prob
4
the advisability of your not failing to apply for the Gallery, though
saying nothing to make it appear that he was in the know. 5 He
had some story from Miss Purser of the Lun;:at, now exposed in
the Municipal, having been attacked with spits & sticks. In the
end we went out, down to Charlemont House to find out about
Sunday opening, & then to Jury's for a drink. He parted as usual
with an offer to buy me a Herald. I hope to see him again before
6
I went one evening with Leventhal to see Ethna. She has some kind of a job in the Castle. The Pourbus seems held up
7
I have found some charming and playable de Falla of my own.
I am getting on well with the Torre. It is a pity that he can't keep off the flowers of speech. The precedent hunting seems very brilliant, though I imagine a historian would cavil at the Revolution as merely an episode in a national tradition of anti feudalism, and at the sequitur from the rejection of the Reform
to the convocation of the States General. But for me the simpli
5 May 1935, McGreevy
cuore gode.
Yesterday afternoon I had Jack Yeats all to myself, not even
ablythefishmarketinSligo. Hewasaskingforyou,andstressed
I leave, but do not expect ever to have him like that again.
[. . . ]
indefinitelyintheCustoms. ShelentmetwovolumesofAlbeniz.
8
fication & easy going dogmatism is good enough.
9
265
5 May 1935, McGreevy [. . . ]
I suppose you remember the little Del Mazo Musicians in the Gallery. I seem to remember your having spoken of it as a pet of yours. It is charming, with something of Watteau in it. The Wilson Tivoli views are good, one is almost a replica of the one in Dulwich. 10
Second lesson at church this evening was the passage of Christ's commission to Peter. "Care my lambs, care my sheep, care my sheep", & the "Peter, lovest thou me" thrice. Poor Peter, he was always getting it in threes. Anyway I remembered the Raphael Cartoon of the Commission, & the rest of the service was easy, even a sermon all about demes & 1/120th part of a [? lav] per caput (si on peut dire). 11
Dublin is lovely with no trams & buses, the hills & sea seem to have crept nearer. 12
I expect to stay the month, which means I would be back in London to-morrow fortnight. I don't want to accept this life quite yet, but I loathe the thought of returning to London. However, it must be.
I wonder did you remember to take the books I left at Gertrude St. to the library?
No news from Geoffrey. C'est ! 'amour.
13
ALS; 3 leaves. 6 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 6-5-35, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/75.
1 Denis Devlin had joined the Department of External Affairs and was traveling in connection with his work. Devlin's poem "Moments" was in three parts, each beginning from a specific observation; whereas earlier poems had been drawn principally from religious or historical contexts ("Moments," The Irish Times 4 May 1935: 7; see Denis Devlin, Collected Poems ofDenis Devlin, ed. J. C. C. Mays [Dublin: Dedalus Press, 1989] 93-99, 107-108).
266
Schone Griisse to Hester & Dilly. Love ever
Sam
5 May 1935, McGreevy 2 "Quando ii piede cammina ii cuore gode" (When the foot walks, the heart
gladdens). Source unknown, probably proverbial.
3 YeatswasawareofSB'spreference,ashewrotetoMcGreevyon13February1935: "I tried to get Beckett on the phone one day but he was away. I wanted to arrange a day for him to come here - when there wouldn't be other visitors as he doesn't so much like having them about" (TCD, MS 10381/125). His wife was artist Mary Cottenham Yeats(nee White, known as Cottie, 1867-1947).
Low Tide(1935, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, no. 727; Pyle 454) was shown in the 1935 Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition; it was sold to Justice James Creed Meredith(1875-1942), who in 1937 presented it to the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art(Pyle. Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, I, 312; III, 196).
4 ThewatercolorisCornerBoys(privatecollection,Pyle701)(Pyle,JackB. Yeats:His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels [Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993] 165).
5 ThepositionofDirectoroftheNationalGalleryoflrelandwasadvertisedfortwo weeks from 9 April 1935; the advertisement announced a closing date for applications of 21 May 1935 and stated that "Personal canvassing of members of the Board is prohibited" (The Irish Times 9 April 1935: 6). Jack Yeats counseled McGreevy: "I wish you were certain to get the directorship of the National Gallery here. I am sure you have a good chance"(13 February 1935, TCD, MS 10381/125); later he sent a copy of the advertisement, and wrote: "I daresay that the field will be so overwhelming on each other that, if you came ghost up along, determinedly, you might, just, get it"(15 April 1935, TCD MS 10381/126). Brian Coffey, whose father Dr. Denis Coffey(1865-1945) was President of University College Dublin and a member of the Board, also encouraged McGreevy(16 May 1935, TCD MS 8110/19). McGreevy applied for the position on 18 May, but he was not invited to interview.
6 TheattackonLurc;:at'sDecorativeLandscape(DublinCityGalleryTheHughLane,no. 709) was reported to the City Manager by the Curator, John J. Reynolds(n. d. , Curator from 14 April 1924 to 30 September 1935)(26, 27 April 1935, Records of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art). SB reported to McGreevy: "A large hole was clean through the middle sky, with scratches extending left to the 'magic' ! edgy passage, & what looked like spit marks"(15 May 1935, TCD, MS MS 10402/76). Sarah Purser, Dublin artist and art patron, had accepted the Lurc;:at painting on behalf of the Society of Friends of the National Collections of Ireland: 4 November [for 3 November 1932], n.
