SB may have been read ing Torre's Literaturas europeas de vanguardia (1925); Torre was a founder of La Gaceta
Literaria
(Madrid) and had contributed to The New Review 1,4 (Winter 1931-1932).
Samuel Beckett
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. 4. SB writes about the damage in "La Peinture des van Velde ou le Monde et le Pantalon," Cahiers d'Art, 20-21(1945-1946) 349; rpt. in Samuel Beckett, Disjecta, 119.
Jury's Hotel was then located at 6-8 College Green; Yeats was a regular reader of the Evening Herald(1891- ).
7 Ethna MacCarthy's painting by Pourbus: see 20 February [1935], n. 13. Her posi tion in Dublin Castle is not known.
8 ItisnotknownwhichofthepianoscoresofIsaacAlbenizhadbeenlenttoSBby Ethna Maccarthy. Manuel de Falla's compositions for piano are numerous and include piano adaptations of music from his ballet scores.
9 GuillermodeTorre(1900-1971),Spanishcritic,wasamemberofanexperimental poetic movement, "ultraism"(fl. 1919-1923); in South America it included such poets as Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) and Chilean poet and diplomat
267
5 May 1935, McGreevy
Pablo Neruda (ne Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, 1904-1973).
SB may have been read ing Torre's Literaturas europeas de vanguardia (1925); Torre was a founder of La Gaceta Literaria (Madrid) and had contributed to The New Review 1,4 (Winter 1931-1932).
10 The Musicians (NG! 659) by Spanish painter Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo (c. 1613-1667) is compared to paintings by Antoine Watteau. Of the two paintings by Richard Wilson in the collection of the National Gallery oflreland, A View of Tivoli over the Campagna (NG! 746) and A View of Tivoli (NG! 747), the first is more similar in composition to Dulwich's Tivoli, the Cascatelle and the "Villa ofMaecenas" (DPG 171).
11 Christ's commission to Peter Uohn 21:15-17) was one of the lessons in the Jectionary appointed for the evening service on the second Sunday after Easter (5 May 1935).
SB refers to Christ's Charge to Peter, one of the seven Raphael cartoons in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (see 20 February [1935], n. 12; www. vam. ac. ukf).
SB's reference to "Demes" is unclear. A legal term of minimum repayment is 1/120th part of the remains of a debt. The second lesson for the evening service was Philippians 3:7-21; verse 9 speaks of the difference between worldly possession and faith: "not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but . . . the righteousness which is of God by Faith" (The Book of Common Prayer . . . The Church of Ireland [Dublin: Association for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Church of Ireland, 1927] xxxvii).
"Si on peut dire" (to put it that way).
12 TramandbusdriverswereonstrikeinDublin;serviceresumedonlyon18May 1935 ("Sixty Days of Tramway Strike," The Irish Times 1 May 1935: 8; "Trams and Buses To-Day," The Irish Times 18 May 1935: 9).
13 SBreferstoThompson'scourtshipofUrsulaStenhouse;"c'est! 'amour"(it'slove). "Schone Griisse" (warm greetings). Hester Dowden, Geraldine Cummins (Dilly).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London s_w. 10
Cher ami
Nostradamus et Michel de ! 'Hospital en collaboration,
1
astres et cadastres, vraie cellule de l'histoire. Tes poemes en retirent la membrane. Poles et principes male et femelle, cast agnettes de meme si tu veux, c'est plutot a celui-ci que je me surprends a songer par tous les secteurs de ton cycle, ce qui est
268
imprevisible, celle du tres Saint-Barthelemy, qui n'est apres tout
qu'une fa�on de . . gemir, et dont le firmament n'est guere plus
3
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London S. W. 10
Dear George,
Nostradamus and Michel de l'Hospital in collaboration, cel
estial bodies and terrestrial plots, a true cell of history. 1 Your poems pull the membrane from it. Male and female poles and principles, ditto castanets if you like, this is the one I catch myself musing over through all the sectors of your cycle, which is no doubt part of your design. 2 But congratulations above all on that threat or promise, swelling like some orgasm whose term is unpredictable, of the very Saintly Bartholomew, which is after all only a manner of . . . moaning, something no more consoling to the firmament than afart on fire. 3
All signs are offarewell. 4 Let me have one all the same. All the best
Sam
1 For the sequence of poems Nostradam, Reavey cites as an epigraph lines from D. H. Lawrence's poem '"The Ship of Death":
269
23 May 1935, Reavey
danstondesseinsansdoute. 2 Maisfelicitationsavanttoutdecette
menace ou promesse grandissant comme orgasme a echeance
console que d'un pet en combustion.
Taus les signes sont d'adieu. 4 Ll. che-moi en [for Lache-m'en]
un tout de meme. Amities
s/ Sam
ALS; 1 leaf. 1 side; TxU.
23 May 1935, Reavey
"Build then the ship ofdeath, for you must take The longest journey[,] to oblivion.
And die the death, the long and painful death That lies between the old selfand the new. " ([31)
The poems in the first section ofNostradam, "A Word for Nostradamus" (9-22), explore political and religious upheaval following the death ofHemy II (1519-1559), as predicted by French physician and astrologer Nostradamus (Latin name ofMichel de Notredame, 1503-1566). Michel de ! 'Hospital (c. 1505-1573) represented Henry II at the Council ofTrent (1545-1563), and, after the King's death, became Chancellor ofFrance from 1560 to 1568; he advocated policy reform and religious toleration, but as the Wars of Religion (Catholics vs. Huguenots) resumed in 1567, L'Hospital and the moderates were discredited.
Reavey's epigraph for this section is drawn from Nostradamus, I, 53, although it modernizes some words:
"Lorsqu'on [for Las qu'on] verra grand peuple tourmente Et la Joy sainte [for Loy Saincte] en totale ruine
Par autres fois [for loix] toute la Chrestiente Quand d'or d'argent trouve nouvelle mine. "
("Alas, how a great people shall be tormented
And the Holy Laws in total ruin,
By other laws, all Christianity troubled,
When new mines ofgold and silver will be found. ")
(The Complcte Prophecies ofNostradamus, ed. and tr. Henry C. Roberts, [New York: Crown, 1947] 26)
Reavey dedicated the poem "Tell me that Dream" to SB; it considers Nostradamus's dream ofdeath (Nostradam, 13).
2 ThesecondsequenceofsixpoemsinReavey'sNostradamisentitled"ALaBelle Dame -Sans Merci" (21-28). SB alludes to the contrasts between the two sections of Nostradam.
3 On the feast day of St. Bartholomew in 1572, a massacre of French Huguenots began in Paris and continued in the countryside for a month.
"Fa�on de . . gemir" (manner of. . moaning, adapted from "fa�on de parler" [manner ofspeaking])
4 SBalludestoReavey'sSignesd'adieu. GEORGE REAVEY
LONDON
23/6/35 34 Gertrude St London SW 10
270
plaisent plus que tout ce que j'ai lu de toi jusqu'ici.
Comme
articulation - lyrisme succinct, pensee qui n'insiste pas, litote
sans secheresse - ils ne risquent guere de se perdre. (Femmes si
2
23 June 1935, Reavey
Cher ami
Oui, elle et lui foyers de la vie ellipse de solitudes. On finira
bien par ne plus se donner la peine de verifier les distances.
Je suis bien aise de pouvoir te dire que tes Signes me
1
reelles et quatre derniers vers de Souci Tristesse).
Mais c'est
avant tout comme temperament que j'en admire la qualite,
temperament que je ne me souviens pas d'avoir trouve ailleurs
sinon dans les ! I"agiques de Jouve, qui l'a toutefois beaucoup
3
traduction est excellente. Merci infiniment.
A toi Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
Dear George
Yes, he and she sources oflife ellipsis ofsolitudes. We shall
end up not troubling to check the distances.
I am very pleased to be able to tell you that I like your Signes
1
plus indique.
Je n'ai pas besoin de }'original pour comprendre que la
4
more than anything I've read ofyours up till now.
As articu
lation - succinct lyricism, unobtrusive thought, litotes with
out dryness - they are in no danger oflosing their way. ("Femmes
2
sireelles"andlastfourlinesof"Soucitristesse"). Butitisabove all for their temperament that I admire the quality of them, a temperament that I cannot remember finding anywhere except in Jouve's Tragiques, where in any case it is much more insistent. 3
271
23 June 1935, Reavey
I do not need the original to understand that the translation
4
Yours Sam
1 Reavey,Signesd'adieu. 2 Reavey'spoem:
Femmes si reelles votre realite n'est pas sure quant a ce qui est des caresses
signes d'adieu d'etoiles mourantes apposition des mains mesintelligence
des levres et des yeux l'enchainement de certains moments et l'inconsequence de la plupart.
SB discusses the four last lines of:
Souci tristesse
ainsi parle cette musique
mais le coeur s'y laisserait prendre? Jamais! c'est une ravine ou ! 'on s'affaisse 6 destin plus fort que l'acier
et plus puissant que tout vouloir
ii est la tapi dans cette musique
et le desir vous effleure
mais dans Jes failles des montagnes
la neige s'ecoule en torrents.
is excellent.
Very many thanks
(21)
(16) 3 Tragiques(1923),acollectionofpoemsbyPierre-Jeanjouve(1887-1976).
4 Signesd'adieu,theFrenchtranslationofReavey'spoems:10March[1935],n. 8;an English edition, Frailty ofLove, was announced, but it was not published.
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, IRELAND
8 Sep [1935] 34 Gertrude St [London]
272
8 September {1935}, McGreevy The discrepancy between mind and body is terrible. It is
1
I have been as you know me. I miss you greatly. I had a card
2
round, less Cytherean. We had a lovely walk in Battersea Park. 3
I would like to live in a perpetual September. One does one's best
to prefer Spring, in vain. I had a letter from Simon & Schuster,
asking to see all available material. I told Chatto's to send Proust &
Pricks. Parsons expressed himself overcome by the sound of my
voice after so long. Were he not just on the point of going on
holiday, etc. When could Chatto's look forward to hearing from
me in my hack's capacity. So long now since. No news of Charles
if not a card from the midlands, where wonderful dinners are
4
of proofs which have not come. The Undertaker's Man is the
hardest to mitigate. It never was a poem and the best I can do
now is to cut my losses. Yet it has something that will not let me
leave it out altogether. They will provoke the irritated guffaw &
heehaw all right. Deja quelquechose. I have also been working
5
Miss Costello turned up from Las Palrnas, but Poggioli was the best I could put up. Their spaghetti alla B. are very aphrodis iac, pace Geoffrey and the courting extremists. We went to a brief Spanish colour film in Tottenham Court Rd. , La Cucaracha. 6 That
273
My dear Tom
somethingthatthefourofyouaretogether. Andthatyouhave been able to feel close to her if only briefly. May it all be over soon, for her and for you all.
from Hester announcing remove to Sorrento. Geoffrey was
being had by him. No inquiries for you.
I have been working over the poems, in the expectation
at other stuff, I fear involontairement trivial. Well if it is so and I am so, amen. Really anything at all is better than the perpetual blankness and obliteration before the fact. I hope to keep at it.
8 September {1935}, McGreevy
cooled me off. And a good thing, with such an unclitoridian companion.
[. . . ]
I begin to think I have gerontophilia on top of the rest. The
little shabby respectable old men you see on Saturday afternoon
and Sunday, pottering about doing odd jobs in the garden, or
flying kites immense distances at the Round Pond, Kensington.
Yesterday there was a regular club ofthe latter, with a sprinkling
of grandchildren, sitting in a crescent waiting for a wind. The
kites lying in the grass with their long tails beautifully cared for,
all assembled and ready. For they bring them in separate pieces,
the sticks and tail rolled up in the canvas and a huge spool of
string. Some have boats as well, but not the real enthusiasts.
Then great perturbation to get them off at the first breath of
wind. They fly them almost out of sight, yesterday it was over
the trees to the south, into an absolutely cloudless viridescent
evening sky. Then when the string is run out they simply sit
there watching them, chucking at the string, the way coachmen
do at a reins, presumably to keep them from losing height. There
seems to be no competition at all involved. Then after about an
hour they wind them gently in and go home. I was really rooted
to the spot yesterday, unable to go away and wondering what
was keeping me. Extraordinary effect too of birds flying close
to the kites but beneath them. My next old man, or old young
man, not of the big world but of the little world, must be a
kite-flyer. So absolutely disinterested, like a poem, or useful in
the depths where demand and supply coincide, and the prayer is
the god. Yes, prayer rather than poem, in order to be quite clear,
7
because poems are prayers, of Dives and Lazarus one flesh. Then there is the "old boy" of the house opposite, whose seizure of course remains the felony that was first described to
274
8 September {1935], McGreevy
me, and whose cup is still on the sill where he left it, though the
crusts have been taken away. I suppose they keep hens in the
back. Well, I suppose the less dirty clouds of dirty glory people
trail about with them, the more likeable they are, and so the
clean old man takes the eye. The doctrine of reminiscence may
8
for anyone but the failures". I thought that was quite the nicest thing anyone had said to me for a long time.
You know all I wish for you. That the hope of your Arrangement be not much longer deferred, to begin with. 9 Then the rest.
Love ever s/ Sam
TIS; I leaf, 2 sides; TCD, MS 10402/80. Dating: in a letter of 31 August 1935 (TCD), SB writes to McGreevy that his brother Frank is in Donegal for a fortnight, and on 22 September 1935 that Frank and May Beckett have moved to Killiney. Previous publication: The paragraph beginning "I begin to think . . . " is published in Deirdre Bair, Samuel Beckett: A Biography (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978) 207.
1 McGreevywrotetoRichardAldington:"Mymotherhasbeenverybadbutiseasier now. her mind as clear as ever" (10 September 1935, TxU: Derek Patmore). Two of McGreevy's six sisters were with him in Tarbert - Honora Phelan and Margaret McGreevy.
2 Hester Dowden was on holiday in Ireland; having stayed in Bray with her friend Geraldine Cummins, she was now visiting her daughter Dolly Robinson at her home, "Sorrento," in Dalkey (Cummins to Thomas McGreevy, 14 August 1935, TCD MS 8111).
3 GeoffreyThompson. BatterseaPark,LondonSW11,ontheThames.
4 TheNewYorkpublishers,SimonandSchuster.
Ian Parsons (1906-1980) was an Editor at Chatto and Windus. By "hack work" SB refers to his critical writing. In 1932, he had proposed a study of Gide to Chatto and Windus (see 13 [September 1932J, n. 3).
Charles Prentice had retired as a Director at Chatto and Windus at the end of 1934 (Prentice to Harold Raymond [1887-1975], a Partner in Chatto and Windus, 3 January 1935, enclosing a copy of the "Deed of Release, duly signed & witnessed" [UoR, MS 2444 CW 54/131). SB reports Parsons's latest news ofPrentice; unsurprisingly,
275
hold for turds. And even they cool quickly.
Miss Costello said to me: "You haven't a good word to say
8 September {1935), McGreevy
McGreevy misunderstood this to mean that Prentice had stayed in contact with SB, though not with him: "Sam gets an odd postcard with no mention of me ever" (McGreevy to Richard Aldington, 11 September 1935, TxU, Derek Patmore collection).
5 SB was expecting to receive proofs of his first collection of poems, Echo's Bones, published by The Europa Press in November 1935. By "The Undertaker's Man," he refers to "Malacoda" [33-34[.
"Deja quelquechose" [for quelque chose] (better than nothing); "involontairement" (involuntarily).
6 Nuala Costello. Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Poggioli was an Italian restaurant, 5 Charlotte Street, Soho. La Cucaracha (1934), directed by Lloyd Corrigan (1900-1969).
7 "Gerontophi! ia"isatermincludedinSB'snotestakenonErnestJones'sPapersin Psycho-Analysis (1923) (TCD, MS 10971/8/18).
SB wrote "<prayers> poems are prayers. "
"Dives and Lazarus" refers to the parable of the rich man, Dives, whose petition was not granted, whereas that of Lazarus was (Luke 16:19-31).
8 The"oldboy"andhisfelonyaredescribedinBair,SamuelBeckett,207,whereno source is given.
9 McGreevy'snovelArrangement,alsoentitledNeitherwillI,wasneverpublished(see TCD, MS 8039/55).
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
Sunday [22 September 1935]
34 Gertrude St.
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. 4. SB writes about the damage in "La Peinture des van Velde ou le Monde et le Pantalon," Cahiers d'Art, 20-21(1945-1946) 349; rpt. in Samuel Beckett, Disjecta, 119.
Jury's Hotel was then located at 6-8 College Green; Yeats was a regular reader of the Evening Herald(1891- ).
7 Ethna MacCarthy's painting by Pourbus: see 20 February [1935], n. 13. Her posi tion in Dublin Castle is not known.
8 ItisnotknownwhichofthepianoscoresofIsaacAlbenizhadbeenlenttoSBby Ethna Maccarthy. Manuel de Falla's compositions for piano are numerous and include piano adaptations of music from his ballet scores.
9 GuillermodeTorre(1900-1971),Spanishcritic,wasamemberofanexperimental poetic movement, "ultraism"(fl. 1919-1923); in South America it included such poets as Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) and Chilean poet and diplomat
267
5 May 1935, McGreevy
Pablo Neruda (ne Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, 1904-1973).
SB may have been read ing Torre's Literaturas europeas de vanguardia (1925); Torre was a founder of La Gaceta Literaria (Madrid) and had contributed to The New Review 1,4 (Winter 1931-1932).
10 The Musicians (NG! 659) by Spanish painter Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo (c. 1613-1667) is compared to paintings by Antoine Watteau. Of the two paintings by Richard Wilson in the collection of the National Gallery oflreland, A View of Tivoli over the Campagna (NG! 746) and A View of Tivoli (NG! 747), the first is more similar in composition to Dulwich's Tivoli, the Cascatelle and the "Villa ofMaecenas" (DPG 171).
11 Christ's commission to Peter Uohn 21:15-17) was one of the lessons in the Jectionary appointed for the evening service on the second Sunday after Easter (5 May 1935).
SB refers to Christ's Charge to Peter, one of the seven Raphael cartoons in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (see 20 February [1935], n. 12; www. vam. ac. ukf).
SB's reference to "Demes" is unclear. A legal term of minimum repayment is 1/120th part of the remains of a debt. The second lesson for the evening service was Philippians 3:7-21; verse 9 speaks of the difference between worldly possession and faith: "not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but . . . the righteousness which is of God by Faith" (The Book of Common Prayer . . . The Church of Ireland [Dublin: Association for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Church of Ireland, 1927] xxxvii).
"Si on peut dire" (to put it that way).
12 TramandbusdriverswereonstrikeinDublin;serviceresumedonlyon18May 1935 ("Sixty Days of Tramway Strike," The Irish Times 1 May 1935: 8; "Trams and Buses To-Day," The Irish Times 18 May 1935: 9).
13 SBreferstoThompson'scourtshipofUrsulaStenhouse;"c'est! 'amour"(it'slove). "Schone Griisse" (warm greetings). Hester Dowden, Geraldine Cummins (Dilly).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London s_w. 10
Cher ami
Nostradamus et Michel de ! 'Hospital en collaboration,
1
astres et cadastres, vraie cellule de l'histoire. Tes poemes en retirent la membrane. Poles et principes male et femelle, cast agnettes de meme si tu veux, c'est plutot a celui-ci que je me surprends a songer par tous les secteurs de ton cycle, ce qui est
268
imprevisible, celle du tres Saint-Barthelemy, qui n'est apres tout
qu'une fa�on de . . gemir, et dont le firmament n'est guere plus
3
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London S. W. 10
Dear George,
Nostradamus and Michel de l'Hospital in collaboration, cel
estial bodies and terrestrial plots, a true cell of history. 1 Your poems pull the membrane from it. Male and female poles and principles, ditto castanets if you like, this is the one I catch myself musing over through all the sectors of your cycle, which is no doubt part of your design. 2 But congratulations above all on that threat or promise, swelling like some orgasm whose term is unpredictable, of the very Saintly Bartholomew, which is after all only a manner of . . . moaning, something no more consoling to the firmament than afart on fire. 3
All signs are offarewell. 4 Let me have one all the same. All the best
Sam
1 For the sequence of poems Nostradam, Reavey cites as an epigraph lines from D. H. Lawrence's poem '"The Ship of Death":
269
23 May 1935, Reavey
danstondesseinsansdoute. 2 Maisfelicitationsavanttoutdecette
menace ou promesse grandissant comme orgasme a echeance
console que d'un pet en combustion.
Taus les signes sont d'adieu. 4 Ll. che-moi en [for Lache-m'en]
un tout de meme. Amities
s/ Sam
ALS; 1 leaf. 1 side; TxU.
23 May 1935, Reavey
"Build then the ship ofdeath, for you must take The longest journey[,] to oblivion.
And die the death, the long and painful death That lies between the old selfand the new. " ([31)
The poems in the first section ofNostradam, "A Word for Nostradamus" (9-22), explore political and religious upheaval following the death ofHemy II (1519-1559), as predicted by French physician and astrologer Nostradamus (Latin name ofMichel de Notredame, 1503-1566). Michel de ! 'Hospital (c. 1505-1573) represented Henry II at the Council ofTrent (1545-1563), and, after the King's death, became Chancellor ofFrance from 1560 to 1568; he advocated policy reform and religious toleration, but as the Wars of Religion (Catholics vs. Huguenots) resumed in 1567, L'Hospital and the moderates were discredited.
Reavey's epigraph for this section is drawn from Nostradamus, I, 53, although it modernizes some words:
"Lorsqu'on [for Las qu'on] verra grand peuple tourmente Et la Joy sainte [for Loy Saincte] en totale ruine
Par autres fois [for loix] toute la Chrestiente Quand d'or d'argent trouve nouvelle mine. "
("Alas, how a great people shall be tormented
And the Holy Laws in total ruin,
By other laws, all Christianity troubled,
When new mines ofgold and silver will be found. ")
(The Complcte Prophecies ofNostradamus, ed. and tr. Henry C. Roberts, [New York: Crown, 1947] 26)
Reavey dedicated the poem "Tell me that Dream" to SB; it considers Nostradamus's dream ofdeath (Nostradam, 13).
2 ThesecondsequenceofsixpoemsinReavey'sNostradamisentitled"ALaBelle Dame -Sans Merci" (21-28). SB alludes to the contrasts between the two sections of Nostradam.
3 On the feast day of St. Bartholomew in 1572, a massacre of French Huguenots began in Paris and continued in the countryside for a month.
"Fa�on de . . gemir" (manner of. . moaning, adapted from "fa�on de parler" [manner ofspeaking])
4 SBalludestoReavey'sSignesd'adieu. GEORGE REAVEY
LONDON
23/6/35 34 Gertrude St London SW 10
270
plaisent plus que tout ce que j'ai lu de toi jusqu'ici.
Comme
articulation - lyrisme succinct, pensee qui n'insiste pas, litote
sans secheresse - ils ne risquent guere de se perdre. (Femmes si
2
23 June 1935, Reavey
Cher ami
Oui, elle et lui foyers de la vie ellipse de solitudes. On finira
bien par ne plus se donner la peine de verifier les distances.
Je suis bien aise de pouvoir te dire que tes Signes me
1
reelles et quatre derniers vers de Souci Tristesse).
Mais c'est
avant tout comme temperament que j'en admire la qualite,
temperament que je ne me souviens pas d'avoir trouve ailleurs
sinon dans les ! I"agiques de Jouve, qui l'a toutefois beaucoup
3
traduction est excellente. Merci infiniment.
A toi Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
Dear George
Yes, he and she sources oflife ellipsis ofsolitudes. We shall
end up not troubling to check the distances.
I am very pleased to be able to tell you that I like your Signes
1
plus indique.
Je n'ai pas besoin de }'original pour comprendre que la
4
more than anything I've read ofyours up till now.
As articu
lation - succinct lyricism, unobtrusive thought, litotes with
out dryness - they are in no danger oflosing their way. ("Femmes
2
sireelles"andlastfourlinesof"Soucitristesse"). Butitisabove all for their temperament that I admire the quality of them, a temperament that I cannot remember finding anywhere except in Jouve's Tragiques, where in any case it is much more insistent. 3
271
23 June 1935, Reavey
I do not need the original to understand that the translation
4
Yours Sam
1 Reavey,Signesd'adieu. 2 Reavey'spoem:
Femmes si reelles votre realite n'est pas sure quant a ce qui est des caresses
signes d'adieu d'etoiles mourantes apposition des mains mesintelligence
des levres et des yeux l'enchainement de certains moments et l'inconsequence de la plupart.
SB discusses the four last lines of:
Souci tristesse
ainsi parle cette musique
mais le coeur s'y laisserait prendre? Jamais! c'est une ravine ou ! 'on s'affaisse 6 destin plus fort que l'acier
et plus puissant que tout vouloir
ii est la tapi dans cette musique
et le desir vous effleure
mais dans Jes failles des montagnes
la neige s'ecoule en torrents.
is excellent.
Very many thanks
(21)
(16) 3 Tragiques(1923),acollectionofpoemsbyPierre-Jeanjouve(1887-1976).
4 Signesd'adieu,theFrenchtranslationofReavey'spoems:10March[1935],n. 8;an English edition, Frailty ofLove, was announced, but it was not published.
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, IRELAND
8 Sep [1935] 34 Gertrude St [London]
272
8 September {1935}, McGreevy The discrepancy between mind and body is terrible. It is
1
I have been as you know me. I miss you greatly. I had a card
2
round, less Cytherean. We had a lovely walk in Battersea Park. 3
I would like to live in a perpetual September. One does one's best
to prefer Spring, in vain. I had a letter from Simon & Schuster,
asking to see all available material. I told Chatto's to send Proust &
Pricks. Parsons expressed himself overcome by the sound of my
voice after so long. Were he not just on the point of going on
holiday, etc. When could Chatto's look forward to hearing from
me in my hack's capacity. So long now since. No news of Charles
if not a card from the midlands, where wonderful dinners are
4
of proofs which have not come. The Undertaker's Man is the
hardest to mitigate. It never was a poem and the best I can do
now is to cut my losses. Yet it has something that will not let me
leave it out altogether. They will provoke the irritated guffaw &
heehaw all right. Deja quelquechose. I have also been working
5
Miss Costello turned up from Las Palrnas, but Poggioli was the best I could put up. Their spaghetti alla B. are very aphrodis iac, pace Geoffrey and the courting extremists. We went to a brief Spanish colour film in Tottenham Court Rd. , La Cucaracha. 6 That
273
My dear Tom
somethingthatthefourofyouaretogether. Andthatyouhave been able to feel close to her if only briefly. May it all be over soon, for her and for you all.
from Hester announcing remove to Sorrento. Geoffrey was
being had by him. No inquiries for you.
I have been working over the poems, in the expectation
at other stuff, I fear involontairement trivial. Well if it is so and I am so, amen. Really anything at all is better than the perpetual blankness and obliteration before the fact. I hope to keep at it.
8 September {1935}, McGreevy
cooled me off. And a good thing, with such an unclitoridian companion.
[. . . ]
I begin to think I have gerontophilia on top of the rest. The
little shabby respectable old men you see on Saturday afternoon
and Sunday, pottering about doing odd jobs in the garden, or
flying kites immense distances at the Round Pond, Kensington.
Yesterday there was a regular club ofthe latter, with a sprinkling
of grandchildren, sitting in a crescent waiting for a wind. The
kites lying in the grass with their long tails beautifully cared for,
all assembled and ready. For they bring them in separate pieces,
the sticks and tail rolled up in the canvas and a huge spool of
string. Some have boats as well, but not the real enthusiasts.
Then great perturbation to get them off at the first breath of
wind. They fly them almost out of sight, yesterday it was over
the trees to the south, into an absolutely cloudless viridescent
evening sky. Then when the string is run out they simply sit
there watching them, chucking at the string, the way coachmen
do at a reins, presumably to keep them from losing height. There
seems to be no competition at all involved. Then after about an
hour they wind them gently in and go home. I was really rooted
to the spot yesterday, unable to go away and wondering what
was keeping me. Extraordinary effect too of birds flying close
to the kites but beneath them. My next old man, or old young
man, not of the big world but of the little world, must be a
kite-flyer. So absolutely disinterested, like a poem, or useful in
the depths where demand and supply coincide, and the prayer is
the god. Yes, prayer rather than poem, in order to be quite clear,
7
because poems are prayers, of Dives and Lazarus one flesh. Then there is the "old boy" of the house opposite, whose seizure of course remains the felony that was first described to
274
8 September {1935], McGreevy
me, and whose cup is still on the sill where he left it, though the
crusts have been taken away. I suppose they keep hens in the
back. Well, I suppose the less dirty clouds of dirty glory people
trail about with them, the more likeable they are, and so the
clean old man takes the eye. The doctrine of reminiscence may
8
for anyone but the failures". I thought that was quite the nicest thing anyone had said to me for a long time.
You know all I wish for you. That the hope of your Arrangement be not much longer deferred, to begin with. 9 Then the rest.
Love ever s/ Sam
TIS; I leaf, 2 sides; TCD, MS 10402/80. Dating: in a letter of 31 August 1935 (TCD), SB writes to McGreevy that his brother Frank is in Donegal for a fortnight, and on 22 September 1935 that Frank and May Beckett have moved to Killiney. Previous publication: The paragraph beginning "I begin to think . . . " is published in Deirdre Bair, Samuel Beckett: A Biography (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978) 207.
1 McGreevywrotetoRichardAldington:"Mymotherhasbeenverybadbutiseasier now. her mind as clear as ever" (10 September 1935, TxU: Derek Patmore). Two of McGreevy's six sisters were with him in Tarbert - Honora Phelan and Margaret McGreevy.
2 Hester Dowden was on holiday in Ireland; having stayed in Bray with her friend Geraldine Cummins, she was now visiting her daughter Dolly Robinson at her home, "Sorrento," in Dalkey (Cummins to Thomas McGreevy, 14 August 1935, TCD MS 8111).
3 GeoffreyThompson. BatterseaPark,LondonSW11,ontheThames.
4 TheNewYorkpublishers,SimonandSchuster.
Ian Parsons (1906-1980) was an Editor at Chatto and Windus. By "hack work" SB refers to his critical writing. In 1932, he had proposed a study of Gide to Chatto and Windus (see 13 [September 1932J, n. 3).
Charles Prentice had retired as a Director at Chatto and Windus at the end of 1934 (Prentice to Harold Raymond [1887-1975], a Partner in Chatto and Windus, 3 January 1935, enclosing a copy of the "Deed of Release, duly signed & witnessed" [UoR, MS 2444 CW 54/131). SB reports Parsons's latest news ofPrentice; unsurprisingly,
275
hold for turds. And even they cool quickly.
Miss Costello said to me: "You haven't a good word to say
8 September {1935), McGreevy
McGreevy misunderstood this to mean that Prentice had stayed in contact with SB, though not with him: "Sam gets an odd postcard with no mention of me ever" (McGreevy to Richard Aldington, 11 September 1935, TxU, Derek Patmore collection).
5 SB was expecting to receive proofs of his first collection of poems, Echo's Bones, published by The Europa Press in November 1935. By "The Undertaker's Man," he refers to "Malacoda" [33-34[.
"Deja quelquechose" [for quelque chose] (better than nothing); "involontairement" (involuntarily).
6 Nuala Costello. Las Palmas, Gran Canaria. Poggioli was an Italian restaurant, 5 Charlotte Street, Soho. La Cucaracha (1934), directed by Lloyd Corrigan (1900-1969).
7 "Gerontophi! ia"isatermincludedinSB'snotestakenonErnestJones'sPapersin Psycho-Analysis (1923) (TCD, MS 10971/8/18).
SB wrote "<prayers> poems are prayers. "
"Dives and Lazarus" refers to the parable of the rich man, Dives, whose petition was not granted, whereas that of Lazarus was (Luke 16:19-31).
8 The"oldboy"andhisfelonyaredescribedinBair,SamuelBeckett,207,whereno source is given.
9 McGreevy'snovelArrangement,alsoentitledNeitherwillI,wasneverpublished(see TCD, MS 8039/55).
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, CO. KERRY
Sunday [22 September 1935]
34 Gertrude St.
