13 Although Rudmose-Brown's health was reported as improving, it was announced that his Trinity College Dublin
lectures
during the term would be given by other members of the staff (The Irish Times 25 January 1936: 6).
Samuel Beckett
37 (12 September 1936) 1260.
Hester Dowden and Thomas Holmes Ravenhill.
14 SeanO'SullivanhadbeeninParistosketchJamesJoyceforaportraitcommis sioned by Joyce's friend Constantine Curran (1880-1975) ijames Joyce to Constantine Curran, 18 September 1935, in Joyce, Letters of]ames]oyce, I, 384). See a drawing from this sitting dated 1935 (NG! , 2027).
Paul Leon.
Fouquet's was Joyce's favorite restaurant, 99 Avenue des Champs-Elysees. "Parait que Lucia est a Londres" (Appears that Lucia is in London). Actually Lucia Joyce was in St. Andrew's Hospital, Northampton, for ten weeks from mid-December 1935 through February 1936 (Shloss, Lucia Joyce, 373-374; Jane Lidderdale and Mary Nicholson, Dear Miss Weaver: Haniet Shaw Weaver 1876-1961 [London: Faber and Faber, 1970] 355-356).
29 January 1935 {for 1936}, McGreevy
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
29/1/35 [for 1936]
Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Thanks for your letter. Galley & page of home counties
1
I went round to JBY last Sat. week, found him all alone & Mrs
invisible with a 'acking corf. He has painted a lot of new small
pictures for exhibition in London in March, I forget where but
2
sound last two straws. Hope they are paying you pro rata.
[. . . ]
notatAlpine,somegalleryinVigoSt. Ithink. Thenewstuff, some of it, is superb. One small picture especially, Morning, almost a skyscape, wide street leading into Sligo looking west as usual, with boy on a horse 30 pounds. If I had ten I would beard him with an easy payments proposition. But I have not.
303
29 January 1935 lfor 1936}, McGreevy
I let fall hints here that were understood but not implemented. But I have not given up hope of raising it. Do you think he would be amenable to instalments. It's a long time since I saw a picture I wanted so much. I ran into him again yesterday in the library, but he was uneasy & looked ill and wouldn't have a drink. I hope to bring young Sinclair round to see him next Sunday. 3
I was at the Gate to see Berkeley Square, ragged adaptation
ofthe ragged Sense ofthe Past, last Tuesday. Quite well played in
parts by Mace. [for MacL], to whom in the comp[an]y ofMme. &
M. Jammet I was presented earlier in the afternnoon. Ofcourse it
is not a play at all, but a very interesting psychological situation
with all kinds of unuttered obiters that are scarcely developed in
4
Dublin was there, from Longfords & bloodshot blue eyed fourth
estaters to Seumas [for Seamus] McCall & Skeffington mit Frau.
McCall now highly successful journalist, novelist & biographer,
with as many publishers as he has faculties. He has done 25,000
on T. Moore and is commissioned to do a large work on Mitchel,
by what London firm I forget, as [has] he that he owes me best
part of a pound. He is so morally self-righteous, living in "Fort of
the Oak", Dalkey, & at the same time so widely read, that I sent
5
Good coffee & fine. But it didn't go. They are the enemy & one
shouldn't go near them. The commercial attache, M. Lyord (? ),
deaf, bald & obesely wizened, complete with Gaeltacht fiancee,
Miss Larkin ("c'est une Titiane! "), was there, walking up & down
6
the book either as well as I remember. The whole of dirty
him a copy of the Bones.
Last night I went across to the Jammet's in Blackrock.
sopping up oeufs sur le plat with sandwiches ofsaumon fume. TSE has been all over the place, speaking at National to a motion affirmed by Rev. Burke-Savage, S. J. , who savaged what he
304
didn't burke, & then alone next day on Relation of Literatures,
tralalala. Shem "an unconscious tribute to a Catholic education
acquired at a time when few people were educated at all. " The old
fall back on pedagogics. His murder was played by the National
Dramatic. I think he was staying with Curran. 7 I haven't seen
anything more of Devlin, who was reading his poems at [2]RN last
night. He thinks of calling his poems with Reavey Intercessions,
8
cinema from young Montgomery, who is certainly a curious little
card: Pudovkin, Arnheim & back numbers of Close Up with stuff
by Eisenstein. How I would like to go to Moscow and work under
Eisenstein for a year. Then one would be beautifully qualified for
9
It is good of you to be willing to see Bion, but I think the
less that scab is scratched the better. As you say, he has been as
probe as he could, with the probities respectively homologous
11
29January 1935 [for 1936}, McGreevy
whichIthinkisanexcellenttitle. Iborrowedalotofworkson
the execrations on another plane. Nothing by the way from Reavey, not a word about the poems & no sign of the oustanding copies that are due to me. Nor from Coffey, who promised me Geulincx & Eluard informations. And no reactions here to the poems of any kind whatsoever. 10
to mother & me.
if you will. Of the two coats I sent to myself here before leaving London, identically addressed & declared, one came through without demand, the other with demand for 3/6 which I refused to pay & sent the parcel away from the door, thinking I could go into the offices in town after Xmas & explain about it. When I went in the other day they said they had sent it back to the sender according to the regulations, which means that it ought now to be with Mrs. Frost, though I have no intimation from her. Would you go round & see? If [it] is there you might address it to me marked: old leather coat, bought in Dublin,
305
But there is one thing you might do for me
29 January 1935 {for 1936), McGreevy
personal belongings. It appears the personal is the keyword.
Mother is most anxious that the gardener should enjoy it before
the Spring sets in. Forgive me for bothering you. Ifit is not there
don't bother about it any further. And love to Mrs Frost et
12
he has been complaining about me. It is very hard to get from here. He is so much better now that he is up but will not be lecturingthisterm. EthnaMaccarthyhasgotthejobofdoinghis Provern;:al lectures and I have been helping her out of the Tresor du Felibrige. Aubanel seems the best of them. They have Mistral's Mireio & Memori et Raconte. She is doing medicine in
13
behind by outgoing tenant, Machiavelli's plays including the Mandragora, nice editions ofManzoni and that old bumsucking pedantVarchi (cinquecento) and the Gerusalemme. Also Giusti's poetry. All bought at Florence by Maud Joynt, at the end of last century. She might have been nice to know. 14
I have got all my stuff together in this little room at last, and
shelves up. I wish you could see my four old men over the
mantelpiece, the Chartres Aristotle & Pere Eternel, the
Buonarotti Crepusocolo [for Buonarroti Crepuscolo] & the Tete
du Christ du Calvaire from the Puits de Moi:se at Dijon. If you
15
famille.
I have not been able to get over to see Ruddy again, & I hear
TCD now and the two are too much for her.
Cissie pushed up some Italian books that had been left
I have done next to no work on Murphy, all the sense & impulse seem to have collapsed. There are three, four, chapters to write, only about 12000, but I don't think they will be. Yes, sometime I hope I may get away, perhaps to Bavaria in the early summer. Then it would be too late for Spain. Or better still to Luneburg & Hanover, from Cove to
Hamburg etc. 16 306
can't get a woman . . .
29January 1935 [for 1936}, McGreevy
I met one Fitzgerald, cinematography expert, I think the father of Jelly. He was very nice and showed a little film on a pillow cover. He has a good 16mm. camera & projector and seems to know a lot about the actual tricks of phot[o]graphy. Mais pauvre en genie. And no interest in montage. How should one set about getting into a decent studio, or even a bad one, simply to pick up the trade? Se munir d'un scenario? 17
Mother keeps well, having added a family of measles to
her good works. Yesterday she actually took herself to the pictures.
Frank blooms. Yesterday he walked from Rathfarnham to here
via Glendoo, Featherbed, Glencree, Enniskerry, Scalp, Kilternan,
Carrickmines. Only the best part of 20 miles. T[h]en brought his
18
I wonder did you notice about a months [sic] ago in Irish
Times a short letter from Vera Esposito, soft soaping Smyl[l]ie
for his tolerance of colonial expansion in the case ofJapan and
19
TU: 2 leaves, 3 sides; TCD, MS 10402/87. Dating: TCD, MS 10402/87 includes a T env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15, Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, London S. W. 3. ; pm 8-2-36, Dublin; however, for reasons given below, this envelope is incorrectly linked to 29 January 1935 [for 1936].
Although the letter is typed with a blue ribbon, and the envelope is typed with a black ribbon, it is possible that the ribbon was changed or that two different type writers were used; furthermore, because the envelope differs in quality of paper and in size from others that SB used at this time, it is possible that SB prepared the envelope from a location other than his home. However, internal evidence makes the 8 February 1936 postmark impossible for this letter: SB gives McGreevy instruc tions for sending his coat in this letter, and his letter to McGreevy of6 February [1936], postmarked 7 February 1936 (TCD, MS 10402/88), acknowledges receipt of the coat. The year 1936 is confirmed by the context of the Jetter.
girl to see the Bergner at the Royal in Escape me Never.
making Italy a parallel case.
God love thee & write very soon.
s/ S
1 ItisnotknownwhatMcGreevyhadbeenaskedtodo. 2 JackYeatsreceivedvisitorsonSaturdayafternoons.
307
29 January 1935 [for 1936}, McGreevy
Yeats's exhibition was at the Dunthorne Gallery, 5 Vigo Street, London ("Jack B. Yeats: Recent Paintings," opening 19 March 1936); it included a number of small (9 in. x 14 in. ) paintings that were exhibited for the first time in this show: The Eye ofAffection (Pyle 475, Warren S. Halbourne, Bermuda); Boy and Horse (Pyle 476, private collection); Below the Golden Falls (Pyle 478, private collection); The Falls of Sheen (Pyle 479, Waddington Galleries, London) (Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil
Paintings, I, 431, 433; II, 1098; III, 203, 204).
3 SB refers to Jack Yeats's painting A Morning, now in the National Gallery of Ireland (NG! 4628, Pyle 482) (Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, I, 436).
Morris Sinclair.
4 Berkeley Square (1931) was revived at the Gate Theatre from Tuesday, 28 January 1936; John Lloyd Balderston (1889-1954) and John Collings Squire (1884-1958) adap ted for the stage the fragment of a novel by Henry James (1843-1916) that was posthumously edited by Percy Lubbock (1879-1965), "The Sense of the Past" (1917). Micheal MacLiamm6ir (ne Alfred Willmore, 1899-1978), actor and founder of the Gate Theatre, played Peter Standish in this production.
Having taken it over from his father, Louis Jammet (1894-1985) was owner of Jammet's Restaurant from 1927 to 1967; his wife was the artist, Yvonne Jammet (nee Auger, 1900-1967).
5 Lord Longford, patron of the Gate Theatre (1931-1936), was Director of The Longford Players from 1936.
Seamus MacCall (1892-1964) had written a biography, Thomas Moore (1935), and was writing another, Irish Mitchel: A Biography (1938); he had also recently published a novel, Gods in Motley (1935). McCall lived at "Dun Daire" (Ir. , Fort Oak), Mount Salus, Dalkey. SB wrote "<anthologist> biographer. "
Owen Sheehy Skeffington (1909-1970) was then Lecturer in French at Trinity College Dublin; his wife was the French-born writer Andree Sheehy Skeffington (nee Denis, 1910-1998). "Mit Frau" (with wife).
6 The home of Louis and Yvonne Jammet was "Clonmore," 8 Queen's Park, Blackrock. Although he assumed the title of commercial attache only in February 1939, Eugene Lestocquoy (1895-? ) had been a French commercial agent in Ireland from 1932; Miss Larkin has not been identified.
"Fine" (old brandy). "Gaeltacht" (Ir. , one of the Gaelic-speaking regions of Ireland). "C'est une Titiane! " (She is a Titian! ). "Oeufs sur le plat" (fried eggs). "Saumon fume" (smoked salmon).
7 T. S. EliotspokeinDublinasaguestoftheUniversityCollegeDublinHistorical, Literary, and Aesthetical Society in the Council Chamber, Ear! sfort Terrace, on 23 January 1936. Reverend Roland Burke-Savage SJ (1913-1998) read an address, "Literature at the Irish Crossroads," to which T. S. Eliot was one of the respondents. Burke-Savage called for an Irish literature that would parallel the revival of the Irish language. He claimed that Anglo-Irish literature "had run the whole gamut of pagan ism" from "romanticism" to "cynicism," "nihilism," "materialism," and "despair," and proposed that a true Irish literature lay in acceptance of the Catholic tradition. In his response, Eliot agreed that the new generation oflrish writers could not simply take its direction from the current mainstream, and he paid tribute to Yeats and
308
29January 1935 {for 1936}, McGreevy
claimed that Joyce was "the most Irish" and "most Catholic writer in English of his generation" ("Literature at the Cross-Roads," The Irish Times 24 January 1936: 8; SB's quotation also comes from this article). Texts of both address and response can be found at Harvard, Houghton Library, T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965 Papers, bMS Am 1791/28-30.
On 24 January, Eliot lectured at University College Dublin on a literary tradition that developed from broad reading and fertilization from older or foreign cultures, rather than one formed merely on the patterns of the previous generation, claiming that "poetry could not flourish in an intellectual vacuum" ("Originality in Poetry: Fertilisation ofLiterature," The Irish Times 25 January 1936: 6). A production of Murder in the Cathedral (1935) was performed by the College Dramatic Society, with Eliot in the audience ("Irishman's Diary," The Irish Times 25 January 1936: 6). It is not known ifEliot stayed with Constantine Curran.
8 Denis Devlin read his poems on Radio Athlone on 29 January 1936 ("A Poet Reads," no. 3, Denis Devlin, The Independent 28 January 1936: 6). Devlin's poems were to be published by Reavey in the Europa Poets series; in a letter to Reavey, Devlin indicated that the title for his collection was Intercessions (18 January 1936, TxU).
9 Niall Montgomery (1914-1987), Dublin poet and architect, son ofFilm Censor James Montgomery (1866-1948). Film Technique (1930, rev. 1933) byVsevolod Pudovkin (1893-1953), Film (1933) by RudolfAmheim (1904-2007), and issues ofClose Up Uuly 1927 - December 1933) in which Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) had published essays about his approach to cinema, including: Eisenstein, W. I. Pudowkin, and G. V. Alexandroff (also Grigory Aleksandrov, 1903-1983), "The Sound Film: A Statement from the U. S. S. R. ," 3 (October 1928) 10-13; Eisenstein, "The New Language ofCinematography," 4 (May 1929) 10-13; "The Fourth Dimension in the Kino," 6 (March 1930) 184-194; "Filmic Art and Training (in an interview with Mark Segal)," 6 (March 1930) 195-197; "The Fourth Dimension in the Kino II," 6 (April 1930) 253-268; "The Dinamic Square," 8 (March 1931) 2-16 and Uune 1931) 91-95; "The Principles of Film Form," 8 (September 1931) 167-181; "Detective Work in the GIK," 9 (December 1932) 287-294; and "Cinematography with Tears! : The Way ofLeaming," 10 (March 1933) 3-17.
10 CopiesofEcho'sBones:see9January1935[for1936],n. 1.
Brian Coffey returned to Paris early in January; he had proposed that SB prepare a monograph on Geulincx. Coffey had SB's copy ofThis Quarter with his translations ofpoems by Eluard (see 9 January 1935, [for 1936], n. 2).
11 ItisnotknownwhyMcGreevyofferedtoseeW. R. Bion.
12 Thecustomsdutyonovercoatswas60percentofvalueunlesspersonallyowned and substantially worn. SB had lodged in London with Mrs. Frost at 34 Gertrude Street. "Et famille" (and family).
13 Although Rudmose-Brown's health was reported as improving, it was announced that his Trinity College Dublin lectures during the term would be given by other members of the staff (The Irish Times 25 January 1936: 6). Ethna Maccarthy was responsible for his lectures on the Provern;al poets; she was a Scholar and Senior Moderator in Modem Languages (1926), although by this time she had begun medical studies at TCD.
309
29 January 1935 [for 1936}, McGreevy
The "Felibrige" was a literary movement for the restoration of the "langue d'oc" (a language of southern France), begun in 1864 by Frederic Mistral (1830-1914), Theodore Aubanel (1829-1886), and Joseph Roumanille (1818-1891). Mistral edited Lou Tresor dbu felibrige ou Dictionnaire proven�al-fran�ais embrassant les divers dialectes de la langue d'oc modeme . . (1878-1886). Readings for the course included Mireio (1859) and Memori et raconte (1901) by Mistral, a Nobel laureate in 1904. SB's notes on Mistral and the Felibrige Poets can be found in TCD MS 10971/4; see Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10971/4: Frederic Mistral and the Felibrige Poets," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue, SBT/A 16 (2006) 133-136.
14 CissieSinclairgaveSBbooksleftbehindat85MoyneRoadbytheformertenant Maud Joynt (1869-1940). Joynt, who had a wide knowledge of languages, translated and/or edited from Latin, French, and Gaelic, and was an Editor of the Royal Irish Academy's Irish Dictionary (1939).
La Mandragola (1518), a play by the Italian politician and writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). The collected works of Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) run to ten volumes; SB is mostly likely to have acquired I promessi sposi (1827; The Betrothed). 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
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.
Hester Dowden and Thomas Holmes Ravenhill.
14 SeanO'SullivanhadbeeninParistosketchJamesJoyceforaportraitcommis sioned by Joyce's friend Constantine Curran (1880-1975) ijames Joyce to Constantine Curran, 18 September 1935, in Joyce, Letters of]ames]oyce, I, 384). See a drawing from this sitting dated 1935 (NG! , 2027).
Paul Leon.
Fouquet's was Joyce's favorite restaurant, 99 Avenue des Champs-Elysees. "Parait que Lucia est a Londres" (Appears that Lucia is in London). Actually Lucia Joyce was in St. Andrew's Hospital, Northampton, for ten weeks from mid-December 1935 through February 1936 (Shloss, Lucia Joyce, 373-374; Jane Lidderdale and Mary Nicholson, Dear Miss Weaver: Haniet Shaw Weaver 1876-1961 [London: Faber and Faber, 1970] 355-356).
29 January 1935 {for 1936}, McGreevy
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
29/1/35 [for 1936]
Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
Dear Tom
Thanks for your letter. Galley & page of home counties
1
I went round to JBY last Sat. week, found him all alone & Mrs
invisible with a 'acking corf. He has painted a lot of new small
pictures for exhibition in London in March, I forget where but
2
sound last two straws. Hope they are paying you pro rata.
[. . . ]
notatAlpine,somegalleryinVigoSt. Ithink. Thenewstuff, some of it, is superb. One small picture especially, Morning, almost a skyscape, wide street leading into Sligo looking west as usual, with boy on a horse 30 pounds. If I had ten I would beard him with an easy payments proposition. But I have not.
303
29 January 1935 lfor 1936}, McGreevy
I let fall hints here that were understood but not implemented. But I have not given up hope of raising it. Do you think he would be amenable to instalments. It's a long time since I saw a picture I wanted so much. I ran into him again yesterday in the library, but he was uneasy & looked ill and wouldn't have a drink. I hope to bring young Sinclair round to see him next Sunday. 3
I was at the Gate to see Berkeley Square, ragged adaptation
ofthe ragged Sense ofthe Past, last Tuesday. Quite well played in
parts by Mace. [for MacL], to whom in the comp[an]y ofMme. &
M. Jammet I was presented earlier in the afternnoon. Ofcourse it
is not a play at all, but a very interesting psychological situation
with all kinds of unuttered obiters that are scarcely developed in
4
Dublin was there, from Longfords & bloodshot blue eyed fourth
estaters to Seumas [for Seamus] McCall & Skeffington mit Frau.
McCall now highly successful journalist, novelist & biographer,
with as many publishers as he has faculties. He has done 25,000
on T. Moore and is commissioned to do a large work on Mitchel,
by what London firm I forget, as [has] he that he owes me best
part of a pound. He is so morally self-righteous, living in "Fort of
the Oak", Dalkey, & at the same time so widely read, that I sent
5
Good coffee & fine. But it didn't go. They are the enemy & one
shouldn't go near them. The commercial attache, M. Lyord (? ),
deaf, bald & obesely wizened, complete with Gaeltacht fiancee,
Miss Larkin ("c'est une Titiane! "), was there, walking up & down
6
the book either as well as I remember. The whole of dirty
him a copy of the Bones.
Last night I went across to the Jammet's in Blackrock.
sopping up oeufs sur le plat with sandwiches ofsaumon fume. TSE has been all over the place, speaking at National to a motion affirmed by Rev. Burke-Savage, S. J. , who savaged what he
304
didn't burke, & then alone next day on Relation of Literatures,
tralalala. Shem "an unconscious tribute to a Catholic education
acquired at a time when few people were educated at all. " The old
fall back on pedagogics. His murder was played by the National
Dramatic. I think he was staying with Curran. 7 I haven't seen
anything more of Devlin, who was reading his poems at [2]RN last
night. He thinks of calling his poems with Reavey Intercessions,
8
cinema from young Montgomery, who is certainly a curious little
card: Pudovkin, Arnheim & back numbers of Close Up with stuff
by Eisenstein. How I would like to go to Moscow and work under
Eisenstein for a year. Then one would be beautifully qualified for
9
It is good of you to be willing to see Bion, but I think the
less that scab is scratched the better. As you say, he has been as
probe as he could, with the probities respectively homologous
11
29January 1935 [for 1936}, McGreevy
whichIthinkisanexcellenttitle. Iborrowedalotofworkson
the execrations on another plane. Nothing by the way from Reavey, not a word about the poems & no sign of the oustanding copies that are due to me. Nor from Coffey, who promised me Geulincx & Eluard informations. And no reactions here to the poems of any kind whatsoever. 10
to mother & me.
if you will. Of the two coats I sent to myself here before leaving London, identically addressed & declared, one came through without demand, the other with demand for 3/6 which I refused to pay & sent the parcel away from the door, thinking I could go into the offices in town after Xmas & explain about it. When I went in the other day they said they had sent it back to the sender according to the regulations, which means that it ought now to be with Mrs. Frost, though I have no intimation from her. Would you go round & see? If [it] is there you might address it to me marked: old leather coat, bought in Dublin,
305
But there is one thing you might do for me
29 January 1935 {for 1936), McGreevy
personal belongings. It appears the personal is the keyword.
Mother is most anxious that the gardener should enjoy it before
the Spring sets in. Forgive me for bothering you. Ifit is not there
don't bother about it any further. And love to Mrs Frost et
12
he has been complaining about me. It is very hard to get from here. He is so much better now that he is up but will not be lecturingthisterm. EthnaMaccarthyhasgotthejobofdoinghis Provern;:al lectures and I have been helping her out of the Tresor du Felibrige. Aubanel seems the best of them. They have Mistral's Mireio & Memori et Raconte. She is doing medicine in
13
behind by outgoing tenant, Machiavelli's plays including the Mandragora, nice editions ofManzoni and that old bumsucking pedantVarchi (cinquecento) and the Gerusalemme. Also Giusti's poetry. All bought at Florence by Maud Joynt, at the end of last century. She might have been nice to know. 14
I have got all my stuff together in this little room at last, and
shelves up. I wish you could see my four old men over the
mantelpiece, the Chartres Aristotle & Pere Eternel, the
Buonarotti Crepusocolo [for Buonarroti Crepuscolo] & the Tete
du Christ du Calvaire from the Puits de Moi:se at Dijon. If you
15
famille.
I have not been able to get over to see Ruddy again, & I hear
TCD now and the two are too much for her.
Cissie pushed up some Italian books that had been left
I have done next to no work on Murphy, all the sense & impulse seem to have collapsed. There are three, four, chapters to write, only about 12000, but I don't think they will be. Yes, sometime I hope I may get away, perhaps to Bavaria in the early summer. Then it would be too late for Spain. Or better still to Luneburg & Hanover, from Cove to
Hamburg etc. 16 306
can't get a woman . . .
29January 1935 [for 1936}, McGreevy
I met one Fitzgerald, cinematography expert, I think the father of Jelly. He was very nice and showed a little film on a pillow cover. He has a good 16mm. camera & projector and seems to know a lot about the actual tricks of phot[o]graphy. Mais pauvre en genie. And no interest in montage. How should one set about getting into a decent studio, or even a bad one, simply to pick up the trade? Se munir d'un scenario? 17
Mother keeps well, having added a family of measles to
her good works. Yesterday she actually took herself to the pictures.
Frank blooms. Yesterday he walked from Rathfarnham to here
via Glendoo, Featherbed, Glencree, Enniskerry, Scalp, Kilternan,
Carrickmines. Only the best part of 20 miles. T[h]en brought his
18
I wonder did you notice about a months [sic] ago in Irish
Times a short letter from Vera Esposito, soft soaping Smyl[l]ie
for his tolerance of colonial expansion in the case ofJapan and
19
TU: 2 leaves, 3 sides; TCD, MS 10402/87. Dating: TCD, MS 10402/87 includes a T env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15, Cheyne Gardens, Chelsea, London S. W. 3. ; pm 8-2-36, Dublin; however, for reasons given below, this envelope is incorrectly linked to 29 January 1935 [for 1936].
Although the letter is typed with a blue ribbon, and the envelope is typed with a black ribbon, it is possible that the ribbon was changed or that two different type writers were used; furthermore, because the envelope differs in quality of paper and in size from others that SB used at this time, it is possible that SB prepared the envelope from a location other than his home. However, internal evidence makes the 8 February 1936 postmark impossible for this letter: SB gives McGreevy instruc tions for sending his coat in this letter, and his letter to McGreevy of6 February [1936], postmarked 7 February 1936 (TCD, MS 10402/88), acknowledges receipt of the coat. The year 1936 is confirmed by the context of the Jetter.
girl to see the Bergner at the Royal in Escape me Never.
making Italy a parallel case.
God love thee & write very soon.
s/ S
1 ItisnotknownwhatMcGreevyhadbeenaskedtodo. 2 JackYeatsreceivedvisitorsonSaturdayafternoons.
307
29 January 1935 [for 1936}, McGreevy
Yeats's exhibition was at the Dunthorne Gallery, 5 Vigo Street, London ("Jack B. Yeats: Recent Paintings," opening 19 March 1936); it included a number of small (9 in. x 14 in. ) paintings that were exhibited for the first time in this show: The Eye ofAffection (Pyle 475, Warren S. Halbourne, Bermuda); Boy and Horse (Pyle 476, private collection); Below the Golden Falls (Pyle 478, private collection); The Falls of Sheen (Pyle 479, Waddington Galleries, London) (Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil
Paintings, I, 431, 433; II, 1098; III, 203, 204).
3 SB refers to Jack Yeats's painting A Morning, now in the National Gallery of Ireland (NG! 4628, Pyle 482) (Pyle, Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, I, 436).
Morris Sinclair.
4 Berkeley Square (1931) was revived at the Gate Theatre from Tuesday, 28 January 1936; John Lloyd Balderston (1889-1954) and John Collings Squire (1884-1958) adap ted for the stage the fragment of a novel by Henry James (1843-1916) that was posthumously edited by Percy Lubbock (1879-1965), "The Sense of the Past" (1917). Micheal MacLiamm6ir (ne Alfred Willmore, 1899-1978), actor and founder of the Gate Theatre, played Peter Standish in this production.
Having taken it over from his father, Louis Jammet (1894-1985) was owner of Jammet's Restaurant from 1927 to 1967; his wife was the artist, Yvonne Jammet (nee Auger, 1900-1967).
5 Lord Longford, patron of the Gate Theatre (1931-1936), was Director of The Longford Players from 1936.
Seamus MacCall (1892-1964) had written a biography, Thomas Moore (1935), and was writing another, Irish Mitchel: A Biography (1938); he had also recently published a novel, Gods in Motley (1935). McCall lived at "Dun Daire" (Ir. , Fort Oak), Mount Salus, Dalkey. SB wrote "<anthologist> biographer. "
Owen Sheehy Skeffington (1909-1970) was then Lecturer in French at Trinity College Dublin; his wife was the French-born writer Andree Sheehy Skeffington (nee Denis, 1910-1998). "Mit Frau" (with wife).
6 The home of Louis and Yvonne Jammet was "Clonmore," 8 Queen's Park, Blackrock. Although he assumed the title of commercial attache only in February 1939, Eugene Lestocquoy (1895-? ) had been a French commercial agent in Ireland from 1932; Miss Larkin has not been identified.
"Fine" (old brandy). "Gaeltacht" (Ir. , one of the Gaelic-speaking regions of Ireland). "C'est une Titiane! " (She is a Titian! ). "Oeufs sur le plat" (fried eggs). "Saumon fume" (smoked salmon).
7 T. S. EliotspokeinDublinasaguestoftheUniversityCollegeDublinHistorical, Literary, and Aesthetical Society in the Council Chamber, Ear! sfort Terrace, on 23 January 1936. Reverend Roland Burke-Savage SJ (1913-1998) read an address, "Literature at the Irish Crossroads," to which T. S. Eliot was one of the respondents. Burke-Savage called for an Irish literature that would parallel the revival of the Irish language. He claimed that Anglo-Irish literature "had run the whole gamut of pagan ism" from "romanticism" to "cynicism," "nihilism," "materialism," and "despair," and proposed that a true Irish literature lay in acceptance of the Catholic tradition. In his response, Eliot agreed that the new generation oflrish writers could not simply take its direction from the current mainstream, and he paid tribute to Yeats and
308
29January 1935 {for 1936}, McGreevy
claimed that Joyce was "the most Irish" and "most Catholic writer in English of his generation" ("Literature at the Cross-Roads," The Irish Times 24 January 1936: 8; SB's quotation also comes from this article). Texts of both address and response can be found at Harvard, Houghton Library, T. S. Eliot, 1888-1965 Papers, bMS Am 1791/28-30.
On 24 January, Eliot lectured at University College Dublin on a literary tradition that developed from broad reading and fertilization from older or foreign cultures, rather than one formed merely on the patterns of the previous generation, claiming that "poetry could not flourish in an intellectual vacuum" ("Originality in Poetry: Fertilisation ofLiterature," The Irish Times 25 January 1936: 6). A production of Murder in the Cathedral (1935) was performed by the College Dramatic Society, with Eliot in the audience ("Irishman's Diary," The Irish Times 25 January 1936: 6). It is not known ifEliot stayed with Constantine Curran.
8 Denis Devlin read his poems on Radio Athlone on 29 January 1936 ("A Poet Reads," no. 3, Denis Devlin, The Independent 28 January 1936: 6). Devlin's poems were to be published by Reavey in the Europa Poets series; in a letter to Reavey, Devlin indicated that the title for his collection was Intercessions (18 January 1936, TxU).
9 Niall Montgomery (1914-1987), Dublin poet and architect, son ofFilm Censor James Montgomery (1866-1948). Film Technique (1930, rev. 1933) byVsevolod Pudovkin (1893-1953), Film (1933) by RudolfAmheim (1904-2007), and issues ofClose Up Uuly 1927 - December 1933) in which Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein (1898-1948) had published essays about his approach to cinema, including: Eisenstein, W. I. Pudowkin, and G. V. Alexandroff (also Grigory Aleksandrov, 1903-1983), "The Sound Film: A Statement from the U. S. S. R. ," 3 (October 1928) 10-13; Eisenstein, "The New Language ofCinematography," 4 (May 1929) 10-13; "The Fourth Dimension in the Kino," 6 (March 1930) 184-194; "Filmic Art and Training (in an interview with Mark Segal)," 6 (March 1930) 195-197; "The Fourth Dimension in the Kino II," 6 (April 1930) 253-268; "The Dinamic Square," 8 (March 1931) 2-16 and Uune 1931) 91-95; "The Principles of Film Form," 8 (September 1931) 167-181; "Detective Work in the GIK," 9 (December 1932) 287-294; and "Cinematography with Tears! : The Way ofLeaming," 10 (March 1933) 3-17.
10 CopiesofEcho'sBones:see9January1935[for1936],n. 1.
Brian Coffey returned to Paris early in January; he had proposed that SB prepare a monograph on Geulincx. Coffey had SB's copy ofThis Quarter with his translations ofpoems by Eluard (see 9 January 1935, [for 1936], n. 2).
11 ItisnotknownwhyMcGreevyofferedtoseeW. R. Bion.
12 Thecustomsdutyonovercoatswas60percentofvalueunlesspersonallyowned and substantially worn. SB had lodged in London with Mrs. Frost at 34 Gertrude Street. "Et famille" (and family).
13 Although Rudmose-Brown's health was reported as improving, it was announced that his Trinity College Dublin lectures during the term would be given by other members of the staff (The Irish Times 25 January 1936: 6). Ethna Maccarthy was responsible for his lectures on the Provern;al poets; she was a Scholar and Senior Moderator in Modem Languages (1926), although by this time she had begun medical studies at TCD.
309
29 January 1935 [for 1936}, McGreevy
The "Felibrige" was a literary movement for the restoration of the "langue d'oc" (a language of southern France), begun in 1864 by Frederic Mistral (1830-1914), Theodore Aubanel (1829-1886), and Joseph Roumanille (1818-1891). Mistral edited Lou Tresor dbu felibrige ou Dictionnaire proven�al-fran�ais embrassant les divers dialectes de la langue d'oc modeme . . (1878-1886). Readings for the course included Mireio (1859) and Memori et raconte (1901) by Mistral, a Nobel laureate in 1904. SB's notes on Mistral and the Felibrige Poets can be found in TCD MS 10971/4; see Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10971/4: Frederic Mistral and the Felibrige Poets," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue, SBT/A 16 (2006) 133-136.
14 CissieSinclairgaveSBbooksleftbehindat85MoyneRoadbytheformertenant Maud Joynt (1869-1940). Joynt, who had a wide knowledge of languages, translated and/or edited from Latin, French, and Gaelic, and was an Editor of the Royal Irish Academy's Irish Dictionary (1939).
La Mandragola (1518), a play by the Italian politician and writer Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). The collected works of Italian writer Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873) run to ten volumes; SB is mostly likely to have acquired I promessi sposi (1827; The Betrothed). 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
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.
