4
317
2 March 1936, Eisenstein
TLS; 1 leaf, 1 side; Russian State Archive ofLiterature and Art, Eisenstein archive 1923- 1-1642; copy, Museum of Modern Art.
317
2 March 1936, Eisenstein
TLS; 1 leaf, 1 side; Russian State Archive ofLiterature and Art, Eisenstein archive 1923- 1-1642; copy, Museum of Modern Art.
Samuel Beckett
It is not known which of the works by Florentine historian and writer Benedetto Varchi (1503-1565) SB received.
He refers to Torquato Tasso's epic poem Gerusalemme liberata (1575:Jerusalem Delivered) 6th edn.
(Milan: Ulrico Hoepli 1923).
It is not known which edition of the works of Italian satirical poet Giuseppe Giusti (1809-1850) SB was given.
15 SB refers to a reproduction of Aristotle, a twelfth-century sculpture on the Royal Portal, Chartres Cathedral (Etienne Houvet, An Illustrated Monograph of Chartres Cathedral [Chartres Cathedral: E. Houvet, 1938] 29). "Pere Eternel" may refer to any of several sculptures of God the Father in Chartres Cathedral. but none is known by this name: God Creating Day and Night (thirteenth century, North Portal), God Creating the Birds (thirteenth century, North Portal), God Creating the Moon and the Sun (n. d. , North Portal), God Creating Adam (thirteenth century, North Portal), God Creating the Earthly Paradise (n. d. , North Portal), or God Beyond Time (twelfth century. Royal Portal) (Houvet, An Illustrated Monograph of Chartres Cathedral, 44-48, 50).
SB refers to Michelangelo's n crepuscolo (Dusk), a sculpted figure on the Tomb of Lorenzo dei Medici in the Medici Chapel. Florence.
Tete du Christ du Calvaire from Puits de Moise (10 miles from Dijon), possibly by Netherlandish artist Claus Sluter (c. 1360-1406), is now in the Musee Archeologique in Dijon (see Cor Engelen, Le Mythe du Mayen Age: premiers elements d'une remise en question du style moyendgeux, tr. Benoit Boelens van Waesberghe [Leuven: C. Engelen, 1999] 214).
"If you can't get a woman . . . "; reference not traced.
16 Cove (now Cobh), Co. Cork; Liineburg, Hanover, Hamburg, in northern Germany.
17 NeitherFitzgeraldnor"Jelly"hasbeenidentified. "Mais pauvre en genie" (But no genius).
"Se munir d'un scenario? " (Equip oneself with a scenario? )
18 Frank Beckett's walk circled from the Dublin suburb of Rathfarnham to the southeast in Co. Dublin, into Co. Wicklow, returning north to Foxrock.
310
6 February {1936], McGreevy
German actress Elisabeth Bergner (nee Ettel, 1897-1986) starred in the film Escape Me Never (1935) which opened in Dublin on Sunday, 26 January 1936 at the Theatre Royal.
19 In a letter from Florence dated 2 January 1936, Vera Esposito complimented R. M. Smyllie (ne Robert Maire Smyllie, also known as Bertie, 1894-1954), Editor of The Irish Times from 1934 to 1954, on his article entitled "Japan's Millions" in which he had argued that Japan needed opportunities for expansion, as did Italy (The Irish Times 30 December 1935: 6). She concurred with Smyllie, citing from his conclusion that '"real peace never will come until the world finds some way to recognize such facts, and to provide for them without recourse to violence'" (The Irish Times 7 January 1936: 4).
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
6/2 (36]
Cooldrinagh Foxrock, [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
The coat arrived safely this morning. It was very good of you
to look after it for me so promptly and I hope it did not mean too
1
(. . . ] No news at all lately from Geoffrey. I came across all the
"Surrealism & Madness" texts I translated for Titus and sent
them to him with the Eluard & Breton Essais de Simulation . .
3
handle a camera, the higher trues of the editing bench, & so on,
4
muchofacorvee. Thanksalsoforletter. Newmandidhisbestto be nice about Will Summer, and with only the Rio Grande to set it against he was able to carry it off'. 2
Perhaps these were too much for him.
What I would learn under a person like Pudovkin is how to
of which I know as little as of quantity surveying. The most liberal government imaginable, in effect & disposition, would not make me a bit wiser in that respect. It is interesting that Becky Sharp in colour, which I think had a long run in London,
311
6 February {1936}, McGreevy
was a complete flop here and was taken off at the Savoy after three days & not transferred to any other house. That does not encourage my hope that the industrial film will become so completely naturalistic, in stereoscopic colour & gramo phonic sound, that a back water may be created for the two dimensional silent film that had barely emerged from its rudiments when it was swamped. Then there would be two separate things and no question of a fight between them or rather of a rout. 5
I brought Maurice Sinclair to see J. B. Y. last Saturday. He did
not seem at all perturbed about his brother. There was only
himself and all went very well. I can't ask him to let me have
the picture for nothing & I can't raise the amount of even a
6
I lunched with Denis Devlin last Monday. He was meeting a
girl that night at Brinsley MacNamara's premiere. He has called
his poems Intercessions. What the hell is Reavey doing? Not a
word from him & still the outstanding copies in abeyance. Not
7
slowly home by Provence & Paris. He asks for news of Murphy.
There is none. There only remain three chapters of mechanical
writing, which I haven't the courage to begin, choking myself
off with assistance to young Sinclair, who is up for Schol, & to
Ethna Maccarthy, who is doing Ruddy's Provern;al in T. C. D.
8
modestfirstinstalment. Thepolicybeingtokeepmetightso that I may be goaded into salaried employment. Which reads more bitterly than it is intended.
that I have need of them.
A letter from Charles who is giving up Athens & coming
Parallel by the way between Felibres & Gaels very exact. I wonder what is the present state of "notre beau parler de Saint-Remi". I heard that Ruddy had been complaining of my neglect, so walked over one afternoon to see him, to find him in
312
a thick TCD atmosphere, O'Toole & Liddell (the new German
man from Manchester - pernicious - German-Scottish). Ruddy
himself is apparently quite well again - but of course liable to
9
il piede cammina, il cuore gode. "Gode" is rather strong. "Posa" would be better. For hours last Sunday along the ridge between Glendalough & Glenmalure. And alone anything from 5 to 10 miles locally daily. It saves cafard & masturbation. 10
I like the title of Huxley's new novel announced in Chatto's
Spring List: Eyeless in Gaza (Samson Agonistes). Footless in
Dublin. What about a new series of yams: Less Kicks than
11
Gate's last season. It appears they are unlikely to return. He is
running a company in their absence and the Drama League is
once more in full Fragonard. 12 And Denis Johnson [for Johnston]
13
Have just read the ! \'l_andragola & started Clizia. He apolo gises as uom saggio e grave, for writing so frivolously, in what de Sanctis calls "cattivi versi ma strazianti". I quote them because I think they will please you:
6 February {1936}, McGreevy
another fulmination any time.
Have been walking feverishly, with Frank & alone. Quando
Pricks or More More Pricks.
Longford lost God knows how many thousands in the
talks to the Old Dublin Society ofSwift & Stella in Capel Street. Beecham is coming with London Philharmonic next Saturday & Sunday week, but no programme announced. I am taking Mother a tout hasard. 14
Scusatelo con questo, che s'ingegna Con questi van pensieri
Fare il suo tristo tempo piu soave: Perche altrove non ave
Dove voltare il visa: Che gli e stato interciso
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6 February {1936], McGreevy
Monstrar con altre imprese altra virtue,
15
I want to get hold of Folengo & Berni and the Cardinal of
Bibbiena (La Calandra) and the theatre of Bruno & much else
besides. I picked up Reid's complete works in good condition in
18th century edition at Green's [for Greene's] for sixpence.
16
ALS; 2 leaves, 3 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens. Chelsea, London S W 3; pm 7-2-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/88. Dating: from pm; response to letter 29 January 1935 [for 1936] re: coat and Pudovkin.
1 ThecoatthatMcGreevyre-senttoSB:see29January1935[for1936]. "Cmvee"(chore).
2 Ernest Newman (ne William Roberts, 1868-1959), Music Critic of The Sunday Times, reviewed new work by Constant Lambert (1905-1951). Newman wrote that Lambert's masque for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, "Summer's Last Will and Testament," was "not likely to prove a serious rival to the splendid 'Rio Grande'" (for piano, chorus, and orchestra, 1927) ("This Week's Music: Chamber Music," The Sunday Times 2 February 1937: 7). McGreevy was a friend of Lambert and had written the libretto for the work that became the ballet Pomona.
3 SB had translated many of the texts in the surrealist number of This Quarter (5. 1 [September 19321); for a list of the texts by Breton, Eluard, and Rene Creve! translated by SB, see Federman and Fletcher, Samuel Beckett: His Works and His Critics, 92-93. SB also refers to essays written by both Breton and Eluard that he translated for this issue: "The Possessions," "Simulation of Mental Debility Essayed," "Simulation of General Paralysis Essayed" (119-125); SB also translated Crevel's "Simulation of the Delirium oflnterpretation Essayed" (126-128).
4 Pudovkin understood the art of filmmaking as a process of selection of scene, angle, balance oflight and shadow; in Film Technique he emphasizes the development of the scenario, cinematographic analysis in the shooting-script, and the close relation ship between technical knowledge and the creative faculty.
"Trues" with reference to "truquage" (special effects): 10 May [1934], n. 3.
5 By applying the technicolor processing employed in cartoons by the Disney Studios (founded by Walt Disney, 1901-1966), Becky Sharp (1935) marked a turning point in the cinema industry. However, the unnamed Cinema Correspondent for The Irish Times called it a "rather poor film. " noting that the novelty of color could reduce the demand for quality, as did the introduction of sound with the "Talkies"
314
Non sendo premio alle fatiche sue.
Translate Fracastoro's Sifilide e poi mori. Love ever
Sam
6 February {1936}, McGreevy ("Film Notes," 28 January 1936: 4). The film did not run at the Savoy, but at the Capitol
Theatre, Dublin, from 24 to 30 January 1936 to record audiences.
6 W. B. Yeats had suffered a heart attack on 29 January 1936 in Palma, Majorca ("Illness ofMr. W. B. Yeats: Improvement Reported," The Irish Times 1 February 1936: 9). SB wrote to Morris Sinclair on 31 January 1936 to arrange to go with him to see Jack Yeats the following day: "Bring £30 (thirty pounds) & we'll buy the Morning" (Sinclair).
7 TheGrandHouseintheCitybyBrinsleyMacNamara(1890-1963)openedonMonday, 3 February 1936, at the Abbey Theatre.
Denis Devlin's collection ofpoems, Intercessions, was to be published in the Europa Poets series by George Reavey, but Reavey deferred publication until August 1937 (Devlin to Reavey, 4 March 1936, TxU). Echo's Bones, published in November 1935, had not been reviewed or distributed in Ireland; Devlin had reported to Reavey that Combridge's order had not been filled (18 January 1936, TxU), and Brian Coffey had advised Reavey to approach Dublin booksellers directly himself (14 January 1936, TxU).
8 Charles Prentice, having retired as a Director ofChatto and Windus, had been pursuing archeological interests in Greece.
Morris Sinclair was preparing for the Foundation Scholarship examination in Trinity College Dublin.
Ethna Maccarthy was teaching Rudmose-Brown's course in the Provem;:al Poets during his illness. Both the Felibres (modern Provem;:al poets) and the Gaels (the Gaelic poets ofthe Irish renaissance) sought to recover the past through language.
9 By"notrebeauparlerdeSaint-Remi"(Saint-Remyspeech),SBreferstotheOccitan language ofSouthern France, here associated with the town and region ofSaint-Remy de-Provence. In his notes taken from Gaston Paris, Penseurs et poetes, ed. Calmann Levy (Paris: Ancienne Maison, Michel Levy Freres, 1896), SB cites Paris's observation ofa similarity: "how the spoken language of San-Remi (Mistral's center for Felibriges) became a new literary language . . . [and] how the Florentine dialect did the same for Tuscany" (Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10971/4: Frederic Mistral and the Felibrige Poets," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue SBT/A 16 [2006] 135).
Rudmose-Brown was confined to his home (8 Shanganagh Terrace, Killiney) while recovering from illness. Eamonn O'Toole (1883-1956) was Professor oflrish at Trinity College Dublin from 1929 to 1954. Maximilian Friedrich Liddell (1887-1968) was Professor of German and Lecturer in Anglo-Saxon at Trinity College Dublin from 1933 to 1968; Liddell was not at Manchester earlier in his career, but he taught at the University ofBirmingham from 1920 to 1932.
to "Quandoiipiedecammina,iicuoregode":see5May1935,n. 2. "Posa"(rests).
From Laragh, the walk from Glendalough (site ofSt. Kevin's churches) south along a ridge to Glenmalure follows the upper reaches ofthe Avonbeg River, Co. Wicklow.
"Cafard" (low spirits, gloom).
11 AldousHuxley'sEyelessinGaza(1936)takesitstitlefromJohnMilton'sdramatic poem SamsonAgonistes (1671) in which the blind Samson is held captive in Gaza by the Philistines.
12 Lord Longford began a new company, the Longford Players, that planned to present modern plays at the Gate Theatre while the Gate company, Jed by Hilton
315
6 February {1936}, McGreevy
Edwards, was on tour (The Irish Times 4 February 1936: 4). In addition, Lennox Robinson, Lord Longford, Mrs. W. B. Yeats [George], and Olive Craig (Mrs. Frank Craig, n. d. ) revived the Dublin Drama League to produce "uncommercial" plays on Sundays and Mondays; their first performances in the new series included Orpheus (Orphee, 1925) by Jean Cocteau, His Widow's Husband (El marido de su viuda, 1908) by Jacinto Benavente (1866-1954), Hotel Universe (1930) by Philip Barry (1896-1949), and Murder in the Cathedral (1935) by T. S. Eliot (The Irish Times 14 January 1936: 4).
"Full Fragonard" invokes the French court painter Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806), probably an allusion to opulent color and display.
13 Denis Johnston's talk to the Old Dublin Society on 3 February 1936, "Some Dublin Relics of the Late Doctor Swift" (The Irish Times 4 February 1936: 8). Stella lived in Capel Street.
14 Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Theatre Royal, Dublin on 15 and 16 February; the programs were announced in The Irish Times 14 February 1936: 6.
"A tout hasard" (on spec. ).
15 La Mandragola and Qizia (1525), plays by Machiavelli. "Uom saggio e grave" (a man wise and serious) is taken from the line "D'un uom che voglia parer saggio e grave" ("For one who likes to be thought wise and serious") (Mandragola in Tutte le opere di Niccolo Machiavelli, II, ed. Francesco Flora and Carlo Cordie [Milan and Verona: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1950] 561; Mandragola in The Literary Works of Machiavelli, tr. J. R. Hale [London: Oxford University Press, 1961] 6).
Italian literary historian Francesco de Sanctis (1817-1883) wrote of the passage that SB quotes from the prologue to La Mandragola: "Cattivi versi, ma strazianti" (bad verses, but heart-rending) (Storia della letteratura italiana, ed. Niccolo Gallo, II [Turin: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1958] 598).
Forgive him: for he tries with idle dreams To make the hour less bitter than it seems. Bitter, for he can turn no other way
To show a higher worth, do what he may; For graver themes
He sees no chance of patronage or pay.
(Mandragola in The Literary Works ofMachiavelli, 6)
16 SBexpressesthewishtoreadthreeItalianwritersoftheCinquecento,whose work is characterized by robust humor and earthy satire: Teofila Folengo (ne Girolamo, pseud. Merlin Coccalo or Cocai, 1491-1544), the most important of the "macaronic poets" whose best-known work is Baldus (1517): Francesco Berni (c. 1497-1535); Bernardo Bibbiena (ne Bernardo Dovizi, 1470-1520), whose most cele brated work was La Calandra (1513; Calandra), perhaps the most scurrilous play of the 1400s; and the philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) whose only play was n Candelaio (c. 1582; The Candle-Bearer).
Thomas Reid (1710-1796), Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. There were many eighteenth-century three-volume editions of Reid's Essays on the Intellectual and Active Powers of Man, collecting essays published in 1785 and 1788; however, the earliest collected edition was The Works of Thomas Reid (Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, 1803).
316
2 March 1936, Eisenstein
Italian physician Girolamo Fracastoro (1478-1553) wrote the epic poem Syphilis sive de morbo gallico (1530: Syphilis or the French Disease), whose central figure Syphilis suffers from the disease that now bears his name.
SB adapts the famous line about Naples, "Vedi Napoli e poi muori" (See Naples and die).
SERGEI EISENSTEIN MOSCOW
2/3/36 6 Clare Street Dublin
Irish Free State
Monsieur
I write to you on the advice of Mr Jack Isaacs of London, to
ask to be considered for admission to the Moscow State School of
1
teur d'anglais at Ecole Normale, Paris. Worked with Joyce, colla
borated in French translation of part of his Work in Progress
(N. R. F. , May 1931) and in critical symposium concerning same
2
I have no experience of studio work and it is naturally in the
scenario and editing end ofthe subject that I am most interested.
It is because I realise that the script is function of its means of
realisation that I am anxious to make contact with your mastery
ofthese, and beg you to consider me a serious cineaste worthy of
3
s/
( Samuel Beckett )
Cinematography.
Born 1906 in Dublin and "educated" there. 1928-1930 lec
(Our Exagmination, etc. ). Published Proust (essay, Chatto & Windus, London 1931), More Pricks Than Kicks (short stories, do. , 1934), Echo's Bones (poems, Europa Press, Paris 1935).
admissiontoyourschool. Icouldstayayearatleast. Veuilliez [for Veuillez] agreer mes meilleurs hommages.
4
317
2 March 1936, Eisenstein
TLS; 1 leaf, 1 side; Russian State Archive ofLiterature and Art, Eisenstein archive 1923- 1-1642; copy, Museum of Modern Art. Oxford; previous publication (transcription with variants): Jay Leyda, ed. , Eisenstein 2: A Premature Celebration ofEisenstein's Centenary, tr. Alan Y. Upchurch, et al. (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1985; rpt. London: Methuen, 1988) 59, and transcription in "Scripted by Beckett," Rolling Stock 7 (1984), 4.
1 Jack Isaacs {1896-1973), Professor of English Language and Literature at Queen Mary College (London). was a founding member ofthe Film Society {1925-1938). He perforn1ed in Eisenstein's film, Lost, and when Eisenstein came to London, Isaacs was his guide.
2 ForJamesJoyce,"AnnaLiviaPlurabelle,"see29May1931,n. 2. Beckett, "Dante . . . Bruno. Vico. . Joyce," Our Exagmination.
3 Describing the curriculum at the GIK (Gosudarstvenni institut kinematografii [State Institute ofCinematography]) in Moscow, Eisenstein wrote: "To realize how it is done and actually participate in the process seems to me most advantageous and instructive for students" ("Cinematography with Tears! " 9). The scenario was the phase between narrative treatment and its cinematographic analysis, the "shooting script" (Vsevolod Pudovkin, On Film Technique, tr. Ivor Montagu [London: V. Gollancz, 1929J 176-177).
4 "Veuillezagreermesmeilleurshommages"(Yoursrespectfully).
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
5/3/36 Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
I hope you are feeling better & with perhaps some birds in a
bush somewhere.
It is difficult to write from the appalling sameness, blankness,
apathy, stupidity, pusillanimity, day after day, herE [sic]. Molly the cousin from Wales is over till the Grand National, an epidemic
1
I have been reading Geulincx in T. C. D. , without knowing why exactly. Perhaps because the text is so hard to come by. But
318
having released her from her dummy pianos. She is held to be company for mother. Thus she is not an evil communication.
5 March 1936, McGreevy
that is rationalisation & my instinct is right & the work worth
doing, because of its saturation in the conviction that the sub
specie aetemitatis vision is the only excuse for remaining alive.
He does not put out his eyes on that account, as Heraclites did &
Rimbaud began to, nor like the terrified Berkeley repudiate
2
Schwarmerei turned in-ward, Janus or Telephus eyes, like those
of Frenhofer in the Chef d'Oeuvre Inconnu, when he shall have
3
the greatest literary artist (as distinct from poet) of them all
perhaps & Goethe's Tasso, than which, except for some good
rhetoric, anything more disgusting would be hard to devise. If he
wants to state a personal position, as seems the case here, why
can't he do so directly, even if only with the directness of the
Wahlverwandtschaften, without soliciting precedents from
among the installed, whereby he is condoned & they falsified?
them. Onefeelsthemverypatientlyturnedoutward,&without
forgotten Mabuse & ceased to barbouiller.
Tasso again also with boredom, & Ariosto, feeling him to be
He really invites one very patiently to think of him as a machine
a mots, a cliche separator, & a bunker of the suffering that has
not proved its merit in a thousand impressions, or a vademecum
4
or rather Limerick, freedom of which had just been conferred on him, would rather be a good Irishman than a great painter! Brigit [for Brigid] is marrying a dentist [. . . ] 5
I haven't seen JBY for a fortnight. Last time I was there with
a crowd including Fearon grinding out mots and Miss Purser
scuttling along the treetops; and Miss MacCardle (for Macardle],
6
edition.
Dermod O'Brien, to come down to heaven, addressing Cork
smelling of Castle Cromer. HE is I think OFF to the Alpine next week, before when I hope to see him. 7 I perceived Miss Purser again at the R. D. S. the following Monday at Cortot's
319
5 March 1936, McGreevy
recital which was a disappointment. I think he was very ill. He played all the Preludes, Children[']s Comer & Liszt's 2nd
8
having dragged in Herbert Reid [for Read] to the Eluard party. I have not had a word from him for months, & no news of the
9
he want stamps licked in Clare Street. Though I fear my present saliva would bum a hole in the envelope.
Love Sam
ALS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, London; pm 6-3-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/91.
1 Maria Belis Roe (known as Molly, 1903-1986), SB's cousin, daughter ofEdward Price Roe, May Beckett's brother. Molly taught music at Howell's School in Denbigh, Wales, which at that time was closed on account of an outbreak of measles. The Irish Grand National steeplechase was run on 13 April in 1936, but Molly left on 2 April 1936 ("The cousin left this day week," SB to McGreevy, 9 April [1936], TCD, MS 10402/93).
2 In Ethica (Opera philosophica, III), Arnold Geulincx advocates total submission to God, "sub specie aeternitatis" (in the perspective of eternity). See also 16 January [1936], n. 5.
SB mentions philosophers and a poet who repudiated literal reality (as perceived through the eyes). According to Dante's account, "Heraclitus wept," see 27 February 1934, n. 3. For Rimbaud's "eye-suicide," see 11 March 1931, n. 7. The "immaterialist hypothesis" of George Berkeley denied the existence of matter, and claimed that material objects have no existence outside ofthe mind; see 8 September 1934, n. 18).
3 "Schwarmerei" (effusiveness). The Roman god Janus was symbolized by a double-faced head looking in opposite directions. When Telephus, the son of Hercules, was wounded in battle by Achilles, the Delphic Oracle said that only rust from the spear that wounded him would cure his wounds.
In Balzac's "Chef d'Oeuvre Inconnu" (1837; "The Unknown Masterpiece"), the character ofthe aging artist Frenhofer, who is the only pupil ofthe Flemish painter Mabuse (neJan Gossart, c. 1478-1532), has been working on a secret painting for years; when, after his disappearance, it is revealed, all that can be seen is a mass oflines and layers ofpaint. "Barbouiller" (to daub, or slap on paint).
320
Rhapsodie.
A letter from Brian this morning, furious with Reavey for
Bones from any quarter.
Murphy will not budge. I am thinking of asking Frank does
SB refers to Goethe's verse play Torquato Tasso (1788-1790) and his Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809; Elective Affinities ).
"Machine a mots" (word machine).
5 Dermod O'Brien. who was born in Co. Limerick, received the "Freedom of the City" award in Limerick (The Irish Times 29 February 1936: 11). Brigid O'Brien married dental surgeon and writer Andrew Ganly (1908-1982) on 19 May 1936.
6 William Robert Fearon (1892-1959) was a Professor ofBiochemistry (1934-1959) at Trinity College Dublin as well as a playwright, author ofParnell ofAvondale (1934).
"Mots" (witticisms).
Sarah Purser.
Dorothy Macardle (1899-1958), historian, playwright. novelist, and drama critic; she
was active in the Irish War oflndependence and the Irish Civil War and as a journalist with the League of Nations in Geneva. At this time she was writing The Irish Republic (1937), a history commissioned by Eamon De Valera, founder and President ofFianna Fail, and later President oflreland (1959-1963). Castlecromer is a coal mining town in Co. Kilkenny.
7 JackB. Yeats'sexhibitionwasnotattheAlpineClubGalleryinLondon,butatthe Rembrandt Gallery (also known as the Robert Dunthorne Gallery), 5 Vigo Street, London, opening 19 March 1936 (The Times 24 March 1936: 21; Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne oftheOil Paintings. II. 1098; see 29 January 1935 [for 1936], n. 2).
8 Pianist Alfred Cortot performed at the Royal Dublin Society in two programs on 24 February 1936. SB refers to the evening program: Chopin's Twenty-four Preludes, op. 28, and his Andante Spianato in G major, op. 22; Debussy's suite Children's Comer; and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 in C-sharp minor ("Royal Dublin Society Recital: Cortot Plays to Large Audiences," The Irish Times 25 February 1936: 5).
9 BrianCoffey.
British poet, art critic, and essayist Herbert Edward Read (1893-1968) edited Burlington Magazine from 1933 to 1939, wrote regularly on art for The Listener, and published The Meaning ofArt (1933) and Art Now (1933). He was one of the organizers ofthe 1936 Surrealist Exhibition in London.
Paul Eluard chose Herbert Read to write the preface for the English translations of his selected poems, Thoms of Thunder. Eluard wrote to Reavey on 5 May 1936: "'j'avais pense a Herbert Read parce que je crois qu'il a une assez large audience en Angleterre. Mais je serais tres heureux que vous l'ecriviez'" ("I thought of Herbert Read because I think that he has quite a wide audience in England. But I would be very pleased ifyou would write it") (Paul Eluard, Oeuvres completes, I, ed. Marcelle Dumas and Lucien Scheler, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade [Paris: Gallimard, 1968] 1459).
That Read wrote the introduction troubled more than one of Eluard's translators; Denis Devlin wrote to Thomas McGreevy on 15 March 1936: "I demurred at Read, then I found R. [eavey] had not told Br. [ian] and Sam about Read. Anyhow Br. [ian[ & Sam refuse to appear with Read and I too" (TCD MS 8112/9).
321
5 March 1936, McGreevy
4 Torquato Tasso: see 29 January 1935 [for 1936], n. 14.
It is probable that SB was readingOrlandojurioso (1532) by Italian poet Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533), which he had read earlier for his Trinity Moderatorship Examination; see TCD, MS 10962 for SB's notes on Ariosto (Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10962: Machiavelli and Ariosto," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue, SBT/A 16 [2006] 31-32).
12 March {1936}, Reavey
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
12/3 [1936]
6 Clare St [Dublin]
Dear George
Geheimrat Roberts is sublime. 1 Would he care to appoint a
time do you think for me to bend over. Poets' bottoms are so very much the same.
Fail to see the point of holding up Denis's poems. The Fall will not sell them any more than the Rise. 2
IfI succeed in getting away from here it will not be to London.
Several people, including Mrs Salkeld, asked for my poems in Combridges, in vain. They told her they had written to you, in vain. 3
Yours Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; letterhead <Royal Hibernian Hotel Co. Ltd. , Dublin>; TxU. Dating: AN AH l 935 and ? 12/5/36 (pencil) are incorrect dates; Denis Devlin's collection Intercessions was not published until October 1937, after much delay by Reavey; although SB's Echo's Bones was published in November 1935, in 5 March 1936, SB complains that he has not heard from Reavey nor anything of Bones in months. In 25 March 1936 to McGreevy, SB also mentions Roberts, which confirms 1936 as the year of this letter.
1 Michael Roberts had written to George Reavey on 12 February 1936 with his response to Echo's Bones. While it is not clear that Reavey sent the letter to SB, he did send a copy to McGreevy on 8 March 1936, with the note: "Dear Tom. Enclosed critique of pure reason. "
My dear George.
It was most kind of you to send me Samuel Beckett's new book.
The poems mostly leave me without any definite impression: I mean, they
dont impinge poetically. I get some sort of idea of the kind of person S. B. is, I learn that he knows Dublin, has read Joyce, and gets a lyrical experience from things which used to be thought not to give it. But does he discover new and exciting collisions of words, do his rhythms seem dead accurate, does he create myth, like [C]oleridge in Christabel, does he make a marmoreal moment like Wordsworth in some of the Lucy poems, does he see more in things than most people, like Shakespeare, or do some new thing?
322
25 March 1936, McGreevy
I dunno. His ! s]ensibility to language (ifhe claims to do these things) isnt mine. Who is, or will be, his audience? Obviously you see something important in the poems or you wouldn't print 'em. What is their virtue apart from the negative one ofnot expressing any opinion or moral judg ment, and therefore not laying themselves open to irrelevant attacks (c. f. attacks on Eliot & Auden)[. ] Is he afraid that he might be silly or sentimental if he talked? Or does he say: there is so little I can be certain of, I will say only that which I know - i. e. the things I see & touch.
Has he a theory ofverbal rhetoric?
How, in short, is he to be read, and what is the advantage ofreading him?
Yours,
Michael [Roberts[
(TLcc, I leaf, 1 side; A. D. Roberts; TLS copy, TCD, MS 8117/9) "Geheimrat" (Privy Counselor).
2 SBhadwrittentoReaveyaboutthedelayedpublicationofDenisDevlin'spoemsin the Europa Poets series. Devlin's letterof15 March 1936 to McGreevy clarifies SB's concern: My book [. . . ] was to be out last November! Reavey left me without any information whatever for months, then wrote about a fortnight ago saying he had transferred his business to London and that he would not publish me till about the Summer. It makes me mad. Sam advised me to take the affair from him but I can't afford to lose the £20 I have paid him - he would certainly not give that back. He wants just to publish his book of translations ofEluard in time for the Surrealiste exhibition in May next[. . . ] I am bitterly disappointed
that my book should be delayed again & again. (TCD, MS 8112/9)
3 Irish poet Blanaid Salkeld (1880-1958) acted with the Abbey Theatre company under the stage name ofNell Byrne and was known in Dublin for her literary salon.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
25/3/36 Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Thank you for your letter & enclosure, which I greatly liked
1
I have to sleep with my window closed so that the birds wont wake me at 6 in the morning. The days pass pearly, mild and tolerable. I seldom go to town, unless to read Geulincx in Trinity
323
and appreciated.
It is a long time since I was in the country at this time ofyear.
25 March 1936, McGreevy
or do a pressing tot or square for Frank when hard beset. 2 I could
go into the office any time at a small salary, or so I imagine,
though nothing has been said, but shall not. Mary nee Manning,
touting for Houghton Mifflin, writes for more copies of my
works, and urges me to put in for lectures at Harvard, where
3
from bad to worse. I have written to Eisenstein asking him would
he take me on at the Moscow State Institute of Cinematography
if I went over. I have had no reply. Shall probably go soon
4
foralesson. Iexpecthimtogetinwithease. Hehasdugoutsome more Italian books for me, including the Storie Fiorentine, which
pleases me greatly; and I found some for myself at Webb's, left in
by some little Jez called Boyle or Doyle, lepping fresh from Florence,
including the accounts of Dante by the Villani, Boccaccio, Aretino
& Manetti brought together in one volume. 6 I have been reading
wildly all over the place, Goethe's Iphigenia & then Racine's
to remove the taste, Chesterfield, Boccaccio, Fischart, Ariosto &
Pope! "Is there no bright reversion in the sky" is lovely. Pope says
7
Frank had to go down to Galway so I went with him, just two
nights & a day there, a pick day, the Corrib shining & foaming,
and the light coming through the Connaught walls like filigree.
On the way back we stopped at Clonmacnoise, which is inde
8
countless ways. If things do not improve I fear he will not last long. He lent me a rather dull work by one Greene [for Green] called Minuet on 18th century in France & England. Some inter esting information about Retif however. I have asked Brian to get me his Paysan-Paysanne & Monsieur Nicolas, but nothing
324
herfather-in-lawisamugwump. Jen'enferairien. Murphygoes
whether or no. I read Pudovkin's new book and disliked it. Maurice Sinclair up for Schol. comes out perhaps once a week
5
bright or white, Goethe golden and Hugo vermeil.
15 SB refers to a reproduction of Aristotle, a twelfth-century sculpture on the Royal Portal, Chartres Cathedral (Etienne Houvet, An Illustrated Monograph of Chartres Cathedral [Chartres Cathedral: E. Houvet, 1938] 29). "Pere Eternel" may refer to any of several sculptures of God the Father in Chartres Cathedral. but none is known by this name: God Creating Day and Night (thirteenth century, North Portal), God Creating the Birds (thirteenth century, North Portal), God Creating the Moon and the Sun (n. d. , North Portal), God Creating Adam (thirteenth century, North Portal), God Creating the Earthly Paradise (n. d. , North Portal), or God Beyond Time (twelfth century. Royal Portal) (Houvet, An Illustrated Monograph of Chartres Cathedral, 44-48, 50).
SB refers to Michelangelo's n crepuscolo (Dusk), a sculpted figure on the Tomb of Lorenzo dei Medici in the Medici Chapel. Florence.
Tete du Christ du Calvaire from Puits de Moise (10 miles from Dijon), possibly by Netherlandish artist Claus Sluter (c. 1360-1406), is now in the Musee Archeologique in Dijon (see Cor Engelen, Le Mythe du Mayen Age: premiers elements d'une remise en question du style moyendgeux, tr. Benoit Boelens van Waesberghe [Leuven: C. Engelen, 1999] 214).
"If you can't get a woman . . . "; reference not traced.
16 Cove (now Cobh), Co. Cork; Liineburg, Hanover, Hamburg, in northern Germany.
17 NeitherFitzgeraldnor"Jelly"hasbeenidentified. "Mais pauvre en genie" (But no genius).
"Se munir d'un scenario? " (Equip oneself with a scenario? )
18 Frank Beckett's walk circled from the Dublin suburb of Rathfarnham to the southeast in Co. Dublin, into Co. Wicklow, returning north to Foxrock.
310
6 February {1936], McGreevy
German actress Elisabeth Bergner (nee Ettel, 1897-1986) starred in the film Escape Me Never (1935) which opened in Dublin on Sunday, 26 January 1936 at the Theatre Royal.
19 In a letter from Florence dated 2 January 1936, Vera Esposito complimented R. M. Smyllie (ne Robert Maire Smyllie, also known as Bertie, 1894-1954), Editor of The Irish Times from 1934 to 1954, on his article entitled "Japan's Millions" in which he had argued that Japan needed opportunities for expansion, as did Italy (The Irish Times 30 December 1935: 6). She concurred with Smyllie, citing from his conclusion that '"real peace never will come until the world finds some way to recognize such facts, and to provide for them without recourse to violence'" (The Irish Times 7 January 1936: 4).
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
6/2 (36]
Cooldrinagh Foxrock, [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
The coat arrived safely this morning. It was very good of you
to look after it for me so promptly and I hope it did not mean too
1
(. . . ] No news at all lately from Geoffrey. I came across all the
"Surrealism & Madness" texts I translated for Titus and sent
them to him with the Eluard & Breton Essais de Simulation . .
3
handle a camera, the higher trues of the editing bench, & so on,
4
muchofacorvee. Thanksalsoforletter. Newmandidhisbestto be nice about Will Summer, and with only the Rio Grande to set it against he was able to carry it off'. 2
Perhaps these were too much for him.
What I would learn under a person like Pudovkin is how to
of which I know as little as of quantity surveying. The most liberal government imaginable, in effect & disposition, would not make me a bit wiser in that respect. It is interesting that Becky Sharp in colour, which I think had a long run in London,
311
6 February {1936}, McGreevy
was a complete flop here and was taken off at the Savoy after three days & not transferred to any other house. That does not encourage my hope that the industrial film will become so completely naturalistic, in stereoscopic colour & gramo phonic sound, that a back water may be created for the two dimensional silent film that had barely emerged from its rudiments when it was swamped. Then there would be two separate things and no question of a fight between them or rather of a rout. 5
I brought Maurice Sinclair to see J. B. Y. last Saturday. He did
not seem at all perturbed about his brother. There was only
himself and all went very well. I can't ask him to let me have
the picture for nothing & I can't raise the amount of even a
6
I lunched with Denis Devlin last Monday. He was meeting a
girl that night at Brinsley MacNamara's premiere. He has called
his poems Intercessions. What the hell is Reavey doing? Not a
word from him & still the outstanding copies in abeyance. Not
7
slowly home by Provence & Paris. He asks for news of Murphy.
There is none. There only remain three chapters of mechanical
writing, which I haven't the courage to begin, choking myself
off with assistance to young Sinclair, who is up for Schol, & to
Ethna Maccarthy, who is doing Ruddy's Provern;al in T. C. D.
8
modestfirstinstalment. Thepolicybeingtokeepmetightso that I may be goaded into salaried employment. Which reads more bitterly than it is intended.
that I have need of them.
A letter from Charles who is giving up Athens & coming
Parallel by the way between Felibres & Gaels very exact. I wonder what is the present state of "notre beau parler de Saint-Remi". I heard that Ruddy had been complaining of my neglect, so walked over one afternoon to see him, to find him in
312
a thick TCD atmosphere, O'Toole & Liddell (the new German
man from Manchester - pernicious - German-Scottish). Ruddy
himself is apparently quite well again - but of course liable to
9
il piede cammina, il cuore gode. "Gode" is rather strong. "Posa" would be better. For hours last Sunday along the ridge between Glendalough & Glenmalure. And alone anything from 5 to 10 miles locally daily. It saves cafard & masturbation. 10
I like the title of Huxley's new novel announced in Chatto's
Spring List: Eyeless in Gaza (Samson Agonistes). Footless in
Dublin. What about a new series of yams: Less Kicks than
11
Gate's last season. It appears they are unlikely to return. He is
running a company in their absence and the Drama League is
once more in full Fragonard. 12 And Denis Johnson [for Johnston]
13
Have just read the ! \'l_andragola & started Clizia. He apolo gises as uom saggio e grave, for writing so frivolously, in what de Sanctis calls "cattivi versi ma strazianti". I quote them because I think they will please you:
6 February {1936}, McGreevy
another fulmination any time.
Have been walking feverishly, with Frank & alone. Quando
Pricks or More More Pricks.
Longford lost God knows how many thousands in the
talks to the Old Dublin Society ofSwift & Stella in Capel Street. Beecham is coming with London Philharmonic next Saturday & Sunday week, but no programme announced. I am taking Mother a tout hasard. 14
Scusatelo con questo, che s'ingegna Con questi van pensieri
Fare il suo tristo tempo piu soave: Perche altrove non ave
Dove voltare il visa: Che gli e stato interciso
313
6 February {1936], McGreevy
Monstrar con altre imprese altra virtue,
15
I want to get hold of Folengo & Berni and the Cardinal of
Bibbiena (La Calandra) and the theatre of Bruno & much else
besides. I picked up Reid's complete works in good condition in
18th century edition at Green's [for Greene's] for sixpence.
16
ALS; 2 leaves, 3 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens. Chelsea, London S W 3; pm 7-2-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/88. Dating: from pm; response to letter 29 January 1935 [for 1936] re: coat and Pudovkin.
1 ThecoatthatMcGreevyre-senttoSB:see29January1935[for1936]. "Cmvee"(chore).
2 Ernest Newman (ne William Roberts, 1868-1959), Music Critic of The Sunday Times, reviewed new work by Constant Lambert (1905-1951). Newman wrote that Lambert's masque for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, "Summer's Last Will and Testament," was "not likely to prove a serious rival to the splendid 'Rio Grande'" (for piano, chorus, and orchestra, 1927) ("This Week's Music: Chamber Music," The Sunday Times 2 February 1937: 7). McGreevy was a friend of Lambert and had written the libretto for the work that became the ballet Pomona.
3 SB had translated many of the texts in the surrealist number of This Quarter (5. 1 [September 19321); for a list of the texts by Breton, Eluard, and Rene Creve! translated by SB, see Federman and Fletcher, Samuel Beckett: His Works and His Critics, 92-93. SB also refers to essays written by both Breton and Eluard that he translated for this issue: "The Possessions," "Simulation of Mental Debility Essayed," "Simulation of General Paralysis Essayed" (119-125); SB also translated Crevel's "Simulation of the Delirium oflnterpretation Essayed" (126-128).
4 Pudovkin understood the art of filmmaking as a process of selection of scene, angle, balance oflight and shadow; in Film Technique he emphasizes the development of the scenario, cinematographic analysis in the shooting-script, and the close relation ship between technical knowledge and the creative faculty.
"Trues" with reference to "truquage" (special effects): 10 May [1934], n. 3.
5 By applying the technicolor processing employed in cartoons by the Disney Studios (founded by Walt Disney, 1901-1966), Becky Sharp (1935) marked a turning point in the cinema industry. However, the unnamed Cinema Correspondent for The Irish Times called it a "rather poor film. " noting that the novelty of color could reduce the demand for quality, as did the introduction of sound with the "Talkies"
314
Non sendo premio alle fatiche sue.
Translate Fracastoro's Sifilide e poi mori. Love ever
Sam
6 February {1936}, McGreevy ("Film Notes," 28 January 1936: 4). The film did not run at the Savoy, but at the Capitol
Theatre, Dublin, from 24 to 30 January 1936 to record audiences.
6 W. B. Yeats had suffered a heart attack on 29 January 1936 in Palma, Majorca ("Illness ofMr. W. B. Yeats: Improvement Reported," The Irish Times 1 February 1936: 9). SB wrote to Morris Sinclair on 31 January 1936 to arrange to go with him to see Jack Yeats the following day: "Bring £30 (thirty pounds) & we'll buy the Morning" (Sinclair).
7 TheGrandHouseintheCitybyBrinsleyMacNamara(1890-1963)openedonMonday, 3 February 1936, at the Abbey Theatre.
Denis Devlin's collection ofpoems, Intercessions, was to be published in the Europa Poets series by George Reavey, but Reavey deferred publication until August 1937 (Devlin to Reavey, 4 March 1936, TxU). Echo's Bones, published in November 1935, had not been reviewed or distributed in Ireland; Devlin had reported to Reavey that Combridge's order had not been filled (18 January 1936, TxU), and Brian Coffey had advised Reavey to approach Dublin booksellers directly himself (14 January 1936, TxU).
8 Charles Prentice, having retired as a Director ofChatto and Windus, had been pursuing archeological interests in Greece.
Morris Sinclair was preparing for the Foundation Scholarship examination in Trinity College Dublin.
Ethna Maccarthy was teaching Rudmose-Brown's course in the Provem;:al Poets during his illness. Both the Felibres (modern Provem;:al poets) and the Gaels (the Gaelic poets ofthe Irish renaissance) sought to recover the past through language.
9 By"notrebeauparlerdeSaint-Remi"(Saint-Remyspeech),SBreferstotheOccitan language ofSouthern France, here associated with the town and region ofSaint-Remy de-Provence. In his notes taken from Gaston Paris, Penseurs et poetes, ed. Calmann Levy (Paris: Ancienne Maison, Michel Levy Freres, 1896), SB cites Paris's observation ofa similarity: "how the spoken language of San-Remi (Mistral's center for Felibriges) became a new literary language . . . [and] how the Florentine dialect did the same for Tuscany" (Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10971/4: Frederic Mistral and the Felibrige Poets," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue SBT/A 16 [2006] 135).
Rudmose-Brown was confined to his home (8 Shanganagh Terrace, Killiney) while recovering from illness. Eamonn O'Toole (1883-1956) was Professor oflrish at Trinity College Dublin from 1929 to 1954. Maximilian Friedrich Liddell (1887-1968) was Professor of German and Lecturer in Anglo-Saxon at Trinity College Dublin from 1933 to 1968; Liddell was not at Manchester earlier in his career, but he taught at the University ofBirmingham from 1920 to 1932.
to "Quandoiipiedecammina,iicuoregode":see5May1935,n. 2. "Posa"(rests).
From Laragh, the walk from Glendalough (site ofSt. Kevin's churches) south along a ridge to Glenmalure follows the upper reaches ofthe Avonbeg River, Co. Wicklow.
"Cafard" (low spirits, gloom).
11 AldousHuxley'sEyelessinGaza(1936)takesitstitlefromJohnMilton'sdramatic poem SamsonAgonistes (1671) in which the blind Samson is held captive in Gaza by the Philistines.
12 Lord Longford began a new company, the Longford Players, that planned to present modern plays at the Gate Theatre while the Gate company, Jed by Hilton
315
6 February {1936}, McGreevy
Edwards, was on tour (The Irish Times 4 February 1936: 4). In addition, Lennox Robinson, Lord Longford, Mrs. W. B. Yeats [George], and Olive Craig (Mrs. Frank Craig, n. d. ) revived the Dublin Drama League to produce "uncommercial" plays on Sundays and Mondays; their first performances in the new series included Orpheus (Orphee, 1925) by Jean Cocteau, His Widow's Husband (El marido de su viuda, 1908) by Jacinto Benavente (1866-1954), Hotel Universe (1930) by Philip Barry (1896-1949), and Murder in the Cathedral (1935) by T. S. Eliot (The Irish Times 14 January 1936: 4).
"Full Fragonard" invokes the French court painter Jean-Honore Fragonard (1732-1806), probably an allusion to opulent color and display.
13 Denis Johnston's talk to the Old Dublin Society on 3 February 1936, "Some Dublin Relics of the Late Doctor Swift" (The Irish Times 4 February 1936: 8). Stella lived in Capel Street.
14 Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Theatre Royal, Dublin on 15 and 16 February; the programs were announced in The Irish Times 14 February 1936: 6.
"A tout hasard" (on spec. ).
15 La Mandragola and Qizia (1525), plays by Machiavelli. "Uom saggio e grave" (a man wise and serious) is taken from the line "D'un uom che voglia parer saggio e grave" ("For one who likes to be thought wise and serious") (Mandragola in Tutte le opere di Niccolo Machiavelli, II, ed. Francesco Flora and Carlo Cordie [Milan and Verona: Arnoldo Mondadori, 1950] 561; Mandragola in The Literary Works of Machiavelli, tr. J. R. Hale [London: Oxford University Press, 1961] 6).
Italian literary historian Francesco de Sanctis (1817-1883) wrote of the passage that SB quotes from the prologue to La Mandragola: "Cattivi versi, ma strazianti" (bad verses, but heart-rending) (Storia della letteratura italiana, ed. Niccolo Gallo, II [Turin: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1958] 598).
Forgive him: for he tries with idle dreams To make the hour less bitter than it seems. Bitter, for he can turn no other way
To show a higher worth, do what he may; For graver themes
He sees no chance of patronage or pay.
(Mandragola in The Literary Works ofMachiavelli, 6)
16 SBexpressesthewishtoreadthreeItalianwritersoftheCinquecento,whose work is characterized by robust humor and earthy satire: Teofila Folengo (ne Girolamo, pseud. Merlin Coccalo or Cocai, 1491-1544), the most important of the "macaronic poets" whose best-known work is Baldus (1517): Francesco Berni (c. 1497-1535); Bernardo Bibbiena (ne Bernardo Dovizi, 1470-1520), whose most cele brated work was La Calandra (1513; Calandra), perhaps the most scurrilous play of the 1400s; and the philosopher Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) whose only play was n Candelaio (c. 1582; The Candle-Bearer).
Thomas Reid (1710-1796), Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. There were many eighteenth-century three-volume editions of Reid's Essays on the Intellectual and Active Powers of Man, collecting essays published in 1785 and 1788; however, the earliest collected edition was The Works of Thomas Reid (Edinburgh: Bell and Bradfute, 1803).
316
2 March 1936, Eisenstein
Italian physician Girolamo Fracastoro (1478-1553) wrote the epic poem Syphilis sive de morbo gallico (1530: Syphilis or the French Disease), whose central figure Syphilis suffers from the disease that now bears his name.
SB adapts the famous line about Naples, "Vedi Napoli e poi muori" (See Naples and die).
SERGEI EISENSTEIN MOSCOW
2/3/36 6 Clare Street Dublin
Irish Free State
Monsieur
I write to you on the advice of Mr Jack Isaacs of London, to
ask to be considered for admission to the Moscow State School of
1
teur d'anglais at Ecole Normale, Paris. Worked with Joyce, colla
borated in French translation of part of his Work in Progress
(N. R. F. , May 1931) and in critical symposium concerning same
2
I have no experience of studio work and it is naturally in the
scenario and editing end ofthe subject that I am most interested.
It is because I realise that the script is function of its means of
realisation that I am anxious to make contact with your mastery
ofthese, and beg you to consider me a serious cineaste worthy of
3
s/
( Samuel Beckett )
Cinematography.
Born 1906 in Dublin and "educated" there. 1928-1930 lec
(Our Exagmination, etc. ). Published Proust (essay, Chatto & Windus, London 1931), More Pricks Than Kicks (short stories, do. , 1934), Echo's Bones (poems, Europa Press, Paris 1935).
admissiontoyourschool. Icouldstayayearatleast. Veuilliez [for Veuillez] agreer mes meilleurs hommages.
4
317
2 March 1936, Eisenstein
TLS; 1 leaf, 1 side; Russian State Archive ofLiterature and Art, Eisenstein archive 1923- 1-1642; copy, Museum of Modern Art. Oxford; previous publication (transcription with variants): Jay Leyda, ed. , Eisenstein 2: A Premature Celebration ofEisenstein's Centenary, tr. Alan Y. Upchurch, et al. (Calcutta: Seagull Books, 1985; rpt. London: Methuen, 1988) 59, and transcription in "Scripted by Beckett," Rolling Stock 7 (1984), 4.
1 Jack Isaacs {1896-1973), Professor of English Language and Literature at Queen Mary College (London). was a founding member ofthe Film Society {1925-1938). He perforn1ed in Eisenstein's film, Lost, and when Eisenstein came to London, Isaacs was his guide.
2 ForJamesJoyce,"AnnaLiviaPlurabelle,"see29May1931,n. 2. Beckett, "Dante . . . Bruno. Vico. . Joyce," Our Exagmination.
3 Describing the curriculum at the GIK (Gosudarstvenni institut kinematografii [State Institute ofCinematography]) in Moscow, Eisenstein wrote: "To realize how it is done and actually participate in the process seems to me most advantageous and instructive for students" ("Cinematography with Tears! " 9). The scenario was the phase between narrative treatment and its cinematographic analysis, the "shooting script" (Vsevolod Pudovkin, On Film Technique, tr. Ivor Montagu [London: V. Gollancz, 1929J 176-177).
4 "Veuillezagreermesmeilleurshommages"(Yoursrespectfully).
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
5/3/36 Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
I hope you are feeling better & with perhaps some birds in a
bush somewhere.
It is difficult to write from the appalling sameness, blankness,
apathy, stupidity, pusillanimity, day after day, herE [sic]. Molly the cousin from Wales is over till the Grand National, an epidemic
1
I have been reading Geulincx in T. C. D. , without knowing why exactly. Perhaps because the text is so hard to come by. But
318
having released her from her dummy pianos. She is held to be company for mother. Thus she is not an evil communication.
5 March 1936, McGreevy
that is rationalisation & my instinct is right & the work worth
doing, because of its saturation in the conviction that the sub
specie aetemitatis vision is the only excuse for remaining alive.
He does not put out his eyes on that account, as Heraclites did &
Rimbaud began to, nor like the terrified Berkeley repudiate
2
Schwarmerei turned in-ward, Janus or Telephus eyes, like those
of Frenhofer in the Chef d'Oeuvre Inconnu, when he shall have
3
the greatest literary artist (as distinct from poet) of them all
perhaps & Goethe's Tasso, than which, except for some good
rhetoric, anything more disgusting would be hard to devise. If he
wants to state a personal position, as seems the case here, why
can't he do so directly, even if only with the directness of the
Wahlverwandtschaften, without soliciting precedents from
among the installed, whereby he is condoned & they falsified?
them. Onefeelsthemverypatientlyturnedoutward,&without
forgotten Mabuse & ceased to barbouiller.
Tasso again also with boredom, & Ariosto, feeling him to be
He really invites one very patiently to think of him as a machine
a mots, a cliche separator, & a bunker of the suffering that has
not proved its merit in a thousand impressions, or a vademecum
4
or rather Limerick, freedom of which had just been conferred on him, would rather be a good Irishman than a great painter! Brigit [for Brigid] is marrying a dentist [. . . ] 5
I haven't seen JBY for a fortnight. Last time I was there with
a crowd including Fearon grinding out mots and Miss Purser
scuttling along the treetops; and Miss MacCardle (for Macardle],
6
edition.
Dermod O'Brien, to come down to heaven, addressing Cork
smelling of Castle Cromer. HE is I think OFF to the Alpine next week, before when I hope to see him. 7 I perceived Miss Purser again at the R. D. S. the following Monday at Cortot's
319
5 March 1936, McGreevy
recital which was a disappointment. I think he was very ill. He played all the Preludes, Children[']s Comer & Liszt's 2nd
8
having dragged in Herbert Reid [for Read] to the Eluard party. I have not had a word from him for months, & no news of the
9
he want stamps licked in Clare Street. Though I fear my present saliva would bum a hole in the envelope.
Love Sam
ALS; 2 leaves, 2 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, London; pm 6-3-36, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/91.
1 Maria Belis Roe (known as Molly, 1903-1986), SB's cousin, daughter ofEdward Price Roe, May Beckett's brother. Molly taught music at Howell's School in Denbigh, Wales, which at that time was closed on account of an outbreak of measles. The Irish Grand National steeplechase was run on 13 April in 1936, but Molly left on 2 April 1936 ("The cousin left this day week," SB to McGreevy, 9 April [1936], TCD, MS 10402/93).
2 In Ethica (Opera philosophica, III), Arnold Geulincx advocates total submission to God, "sub specie aeternitatis" (in the perspective of eternity). See also 16 January [1936], n. 5.
SB mentions philosophers and a poet who repudiated literal reality (as perceived through the eyes). According to Dante's account, "Heraclitus wept," see 27 February 1934, n. 3. For Rimbaud's "eye-suicide," see 11 March 1931, n. 7. The "immaterialist hypothesis" of George Berkeley denied the existence of matter, and claimed that material objects have no existence outside ofthe mind; see 8 September 1934, n. 18).
3 "Schwarmerei" (effusiveness). The Roman god Janus was symbolized by a double-faced head looking in opposite directions. When Telephus, the son of Hercules, was wounded in battle by Achilles, the Delphic Oracle said that only rust from the spear that wounded him would cure his wounds.
In Balzac's "Chef d'Oeuvre Inconnu" (1837; "The Unknown Masterpiece"), the character ofthe aging artist Frenhofer, who is the only pupil ofthe Flemish painter Mabuse (neJan Gossart, c. 1478-1532), has been working on a secret painting for years; when, after his disappearance, it is revealed, all that can be seen is a mass oflines and layers ofpaint. "Barbouiller" (to daub, or slap on paint).
320
Rhapsodie.
A letter from Brian this morning, furious with Reavey for
Bones from any quarter.
Murphy will not budge. I am thinking of asking Frank does
SB refers to Goethe's verse play Torquato Tasso (1788-1790) and his Die Wahlverwandtschaften (1809; Elective Affinities ).
"Machine a mots" (word machine).
5 Dermod O'Brien. who was born in Co. Limerick, received the "Freedom of the City" award in Limerick (The Irish Times 29 February 1936: 11). Brigid O'Brien married dental surgeon and writer Andrew Ganly (1908-1982) on 19 May 1936.
6 William Robert Fearon (1892-1959) was a Professor ofBiochemistry (1934-1959) at Trinity College Dublin as well as a playwright, author ofParnell ofAvondale (1934).
"Mots" (witticisms).
Sarah Purser.
Dorothy Macardle (1899-1958), historian, playwright. novelist, and drama critic; she
was active in the Irish War oflndependence and the Irish Civil War and as a journalist with the League of Nations in Geneva. At this time she was writing The Irish Republic (1937), a history commissioned by Eamon De Valera, founder and President ofFianna Fail, and later President oflreland (1959-1963). Castlecromer is a coal mining town in Co. Kilkenny.
7 JackB. Yeats'sexhibitionwasnotattheAlpineClubGalleryinLondon,butatthe Rembrandt Gallery (also known as the Robert Dunthorne Gallery), 5 Vigo Street, London, opening 19 March 1936 (The Times 24 March 1936: 21; Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne oftheOil Paintings. II. 1098; see 29 January 1935 [for 1936], n. 2).
8 Pianist Alfred Cortot performed at the Royal Dublin Society in two programs on 24 February 1936. SB refers to the evening program: Chopin's Twenty-four Preludes, op. 28, and his Andante Spianato in G major, op. 22; Debussy's suite Children's Comer; and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 in C-sharp minor ("Royal Dublin Society Recital: Cortot Plays to Large Audiences," The Irish Times 25 February 1936: 5).
9 BrianCoffey.
British poet, art critic, and essayist Herbert Edward Read (1893-1968) edited Burlington Magazine from 1933 to 1939, wrote regularly on art for The Listener, and published The Meaning ofArt (1933) and Art Now (1933). He was one of the organizers ofthe 1936 Surrealist Exhibition in London.
Paul Eluard chose Herbert Read to write the preface for the English translations of his selected poems, Thoms of Thunder. Eluard wrote to Reavey on 5 May 1936: "'j'avais pense a Herbert Read parce que je crois qu'il a une assez large audience en Angleterre. Mais je serais tres heureux que vous l'ecriviez'" ("I thought of Herbert Read because I think that he has quite a wide audience in England. But I would be very pleased ifyou would write it") (Paul Eluard, Oeuvres completes, I, ed. Marcelle Dumas and Lucien Scheler, Bibliotheque de la Pleiade [Paris: Gallimard, 1968] 1459).
That Read wrote the introduction troubled more than one of Eluard's translators; Denis Devlin wrote to Thomas McGreevy on 15 March 1936: "I demurred at Read, then I found R. [eavey] had not told Br. [ian] and Sam about Read. Anyhow Br. [ian[ & Sam refuse to appear with Read and I too" (TCD MS 8112/9).
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5 March 1936, McGreevy
4 Torquato Tasso: see 29 January 1935 [for 1936], n. 14.
It is probable that SB was readingOrlandojurioso (1532) by Italian poet Lodovico Ariosto (1474-1533), which he had read earlier for his Trinity Moderatorship Examination; see TCD, MS 10962 for SB's notes on Ariosto (Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10962: Machiavelli and Ariosto," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue, SBT/A 16 [2006] 31-32).
12 March {1936}, Reavey
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
12/3 [1936]
6 Clare St [Dublin]
Dear George
Geheimrat Roberts is sublime. 1 Would he care to appoint a
time do you think for me to bend over. Poets' bottoms are so very much the same.
Fail to see the point of holding up Denis's poems. The Fall will not sell them any more than the Rise. 2
IfI succeed in getting away from here it will not be to London.
Several people, including Mrs Salkeld, asked for my poems in Combridges, in vain. They told her they had written to you, in vain. 3
Yours Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; letterhead <Royal Hibernian Hotel Co. Ltd. , Dublin>; TxU. Dating: AN AH l 935 and ? 12/5/36 (pencil) are incorrect dates; Denis Devlin's collection Intercessions was not published until October 1937, after much delay by Reavey; although SB's Echo's Bones was published in November 1935, in 5 March 1936, SB complains that he has not heard from Reavey nor anything of Bones in months. In 25 March 1936 to McGreevy, SB also mentions Roberts, which confirms 1936 as the year of this letter.
1 Michael Roberts had written to George Reavey on 12 February 1936 with his response to Echo's Bones. While it is not clear that Reavey sent the letter to SB, he did send a copy to McGreevy on 8 March 1936, with the note: "Dear Tom. Enclosed critique of pure reason. "
My dear George.
It was most kind of you to send me Samuel Beckett's new book.
The poems mostly leave me without any definite impression: I mean, they
dont impinge poetically. I get some sort of idea of the kind of person S. B. is, I learn that he knows Dublin, has read Joyce, and gets a lyrical experience from things which used to be thought not to give it. But does he discover new and exciting collisions of words, do his rhythms seem dead accurate, does he create myth, like [C]oleridge in Christabel, does he make a marmoreal moment like Wordsworth in some of the Lucy poems, does he see more in things than most people, like Shakespeare, or do some new thing?
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25 March 1936, McGreevy
I dunno. His ! s]ensibility to language (ifhe claims to do these things) isnt mine. Who is, or will be, his audience? Obviously you see something important in the poems or you wouldn't print 'em. What is their virtue apart from the negative one ofnot expressing any opinion or moral judg ment, and therefore not laying themselves open to irrelevant attacks (c. f. attacks on Eliot & Auden)[. ] Is he afraid that he might be silly or sentimental if he talked? Or does he say: there is so little I can be certain of, I will say only that which I know - i. e. the things I see & touch.
Has he a theory ofverbal rhetoric?
How, in short, is he to be read, and what is the advantage ofreading him?
Yours,
Michael [Roberts[
(TLcc, I leaf, 1 side; A. D. Roberts; TLS copy, TCD, MS 8117/9) "Geheimrat" (Privy Counselor).
2 SBhadwrittentoReaveyaboutthedelayedpublicationofDenisDevlin'spoemsin the Europa Poets series. Devlin's letterof15 March 1936 to McGreevy clarifies SB's concern: My book [. . . ] was to be out last November! Reavey left me without any information whatever for months, then wrote about a fortnight ago saying he had transferred his business to London and that he would not publish me till about the Summer. It makes me mad. Sam advised me to take the affair from him but I can't afford to lose the £20 I have paid him - he would certainly not give that back. He wants just to publish his book of translations ofEluard in time for the Surrealiste exhibition in May next[. . . ] I am bitterly disappointed
that my book should be delayed again & again. (TCD, MS 8112/9)
3 Irish poet Blanaid Salkeld (1880-1958) acted with the Abbey Theatre company under the stage name ofNell Byrne and was known in Dublin for her literary salon.
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
25/3/36 Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Thank you for your letter & enclosure, which I greatly liked
1
I have to sleep with my window closed so that the birds wont wake me at 6 in the morning. The days pass pearly, mild and tolerable. I seldom go to town, unless to read Geulincx in Trinity
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and appreciated.
It is a long time since I was in the country at this time ofyear.
25 March 1936, McGreevy
or do a pressing tot or square for Frank when hard beset. 2 I could
go into the office any time at a small salary, or so I imagine,
though nothing has been said, but shall not. Mary nee Manning,
touting for Houghton Mifflin, writes for more copies of my
works, and urges me to put in for lectures at Harvard, where
3
from bad to worse. I have written to Eisenstein asking him would
he take me on at the Moscow State Institute of Cinematography
if I went over. I have had no reply. Shall probably go soon
4
foralesson. Iexpecthimtogetinwithease. Hehasdugoutsome more Italian books for me, including the Storie Fiorentine, which
pleases me greatly; and I found some for myself at Webb's, left in
by some little Jez called Boyle or Doyle, lepping fresh from Florence,
including the accounts of Dante by the Villani, Boccaccio, Aretino
& Manetti brought together in one volume. 6 I have been reading
wildly all over the place, Goethe's Iphigenia & then Racine's
to remove the taste, Chesterfield, Boccaccio, Fischart, Ariosto &
Pope! "Is there no bright reversion in the sky" is lovely. Pope says
7
Frank had to go down to Galway so I went with him, just two
nights & a day there, a pick day, the Corrib shining & foaming,
and the light coming through the Connaught walls like filigree.
On the way back we stopped at Clonmacnoise, which is inde
8
countless ways. If things do not improve I fear he will not last long. He lent me a rather dull work by one Greene [for Green] called Minuet on 18th century in France & England. Some inter esting information about Retif however. I have asked Brian to get me his Paysan-Paysanne & Monsieur Nicolas, but nothing
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herfather-in-lawisamugwump. Jen'enferairien. Murphygoes
whether or no. I read Pudovkin's new book and disliked it. Maurice Sinclair up for Schol. comes out perhaps once a week
5
bright or white, Goethe golden and Hugo vermeil.
