And all these
questions
I ask myself?
Samuel Beckett
Florence,352,354,362,364 Roe,Maria Belis (Molly),318,320,535,
537,689 Rolland,Romain,668,669,695 Romains. Jules (ne LouisFarigoule),20,
427,433
Ronsard,Pierre de,213,711 Rosa,Salvator,222,225,227,467 Rosalba (Carriera Rosalba),444,448,
496-497,499
Rossi,Mario Manlio,150,151,370,372 Rousseau,Jean-Jacques,145,146,228,
230,282,285 Routledge,244,573,574,636,638,718
see also Murphy, Routledge,
publication by
Rowe,Charles Henry,55,56,288 Rowohlt-Verlag,418,426,427,433,501,
505,508,520,702
Royal Dublin Society,68,70,319,321 Royal Hibernian Academy (Dublin),34,
101,153,155 Exhibitions,159,163,265,267,344,
347,466,488,490,491,492,497, 500,553,555,608,659,661,706, 712,714
Rubens,Peter Paul,123,222,225,252, 253,255,429,430,432,438,470. 472,479,483,539
Rudmose-Brown,Thomas Brown (Ruddy),4,10,15,23,26,30-34,44, 46,48-50,54,55,69,73,79,84,86, 88,89,91,92,94,95,104,115,121, 123,138,142,158,195,198,200, 297,300,302,304,306,312-313, 315,324,326,351,354,488,492, 502,505,508,524-525,526-527, 528,590,591,704,711
Ruisdael,Jacob van,222,226 Rupe,Hans,470,472-473,480,483
776
Ruskin. John,36,37-38 Russell,George William (pseud. AE),10,
13,19,20,124,223,226,282,285,
487,491,605,606,706 Ruwoldt,Hans Martin,392,480,483 Ruysdael,Salomon van,222,223,
225,226
Sade,Marquis de,223,226,577,604, 605-606,609,610,611,622, 634,635
St. Bartholomew's Hospital,see Thompson Arthur Geoffrey
Sainte-Beuve,Charles-Augustin,144- 146,150,152,497,503,506,715
St. Francis of Assisi,553,555 St. Patrick,132,194,197,199 Salkeld,Blanaid,322,323,325,328,
509,512,651,659,661 see also
Gayfield Press
Salkeld,Cecil ffrench,325,327,328,
329,445,450,475,476,503,506,
661,703,714
Salvado,Giovanni Girolamo,429,434 Salzburg School, 361, 363
"Sanies 1" (initial title "Weg du
Einzige! "),147,152,156,163,297 "Sanies 2" (initial title "There was a
Happy Land"),104,116,144 Sanssouci (Potsdam),417,431-432,
437-438,443,448 Sarto,Andrea del,428-429,434 Sarton,May,462,465,570,572 Sartre,Jean-Paul,626,628,642,653,
654,668,669,684,697,700,
712,717 Saucke,Kurt,379,410,413,415,687 Sauerlandt,Alice,387,391,392,427,433 Sauerlandt,Max,387,391,427,433,452 Schapire,Rosa,383-384,385,387,
391-392,426-427,433 Scharl,Josef,473,502,505 Schiller,Friedrich,417,421,423,432,
438,648 Schmidt-Rottluff,Karl,383-384,385,
387,391,392,427,433,439 Schopenhauer,Arthur,33,34-36,38,43,
45,50-51,353,509,511,550,551 Schubert,Franz,68,71 Schuch,Carl,543,544
Schumann. Robert,173,178,182,184 Schuwer,Camille,616,628
"Sedendo et Quiescendo,",20,60,79-80,
81,82,95,103,116,128,132,717 Segers, Hercules,283,286
"Serena 1,",104,121,123,125,126,
129-131,132,133,136,144,235,521 "Serena 2,",104,139-142,143
"Serena 3,",148,168,289,290
Seward, Anna,511,637,639 Shakespeare,William,37,43,44,102,
136,138,213,240,299,301,302,
322,384,385,461,465 Shakespeare and Company,see Beach
Sylvia
Shaw,George Bernard,19,20,26,29,44,
46,64,66,659,661,696,710,717 Sheehy, Edward,487,492,549,551,
553,555,596,638
Sheehy Skeffington,Andree,302,306,
495-496,498
Sheehy Skeffington,Owen,302,306,
495,498 Sheppard,Oliver,344,346 Sheridan,Richard Brinsley,62,64 Sibelius,Jean,282,284,284 Signorelli,Luca,425,426,431,432 Simon and Schuster,271,273,275,278,
282,285,286,290,343,345,349,
351,356,357,374,376,465 Sinclair,Annabel Lilian (Nancy),85, 149,240,241,281,502,505
Sinclair,Deirdre,26,30,85,121,123, 281,502,505
Sinclair,Frances Beckett (Fanny,Cissie), • SB's aunt,12-14,26,30,73,75,84, 85,121-123,132,148,149,150, 178,181,194,196,197,199,216, 241,247,249,278,284,299,306, 310,326,340,343,393,401,418, 487,495,498,501,502,503,505, 506,530,532,539,542,546,550, 551,554,555,596,597,601,622, 624,635,637,639,648,712,713
Kassel,5,6,11,13,128,150,375,451, 501,624,712
Kragenhof,11,13
Moyne Road,Rathgar,278,281,310,
495,498 photo of,Plate,4
General index
Sinclair,Henry Morris (Harry),31, 33,55,239,281,335-336,363, 418,495,498,499,502,505,550, 554,555,557,558,559,566, 567,580,582,608,609,622,637, 639,713
Harris and Sinclair,33,239,241. 498-499,511
libel action,418,419,495,498-499, 504,505,549-550,551,554,555, 557-559,560,561,566,567,568, 571,580,582,608,609,637, 639,713
Sinclair,Morris (Sunny,Sonny, Maurice),*,13,85,148,183,206, 214,216,241,246,281,291,308, 312,315,324,326,335,336,340, 342,346,348,359,360,361, 363-364,389,393,401,403,437, 487,491,502,505,532,538,554, 555,597,637,639,712-713
photo of,Plate,6
Sinclair,Ruth Margaret (Peggy),*,4-6,
12,14,21,23,26,30,85,128,132,
147,216,538,713 Death of, 158,538,713 photo of,Plate,5
Sinclair,Sara Estella (Sally),85,121, 123,148
Sinclair,William Abraham (Boss),* viii, 12-14,26,30,33,84,128,148,150, 151,155,180,183,199,202,205, 206,214-216,239,240,241,278, 281,284,299,342,344,361,363, 375,378,389,393,401,403,418, 487,491,494,495,498,501,503, 710,713
Painting, 713
photo of,Plate,3 Sintenis,Renee,439,470,473 Slonim,Marc,262-263,680,682 "The Smeraldina's Billet Doux," see
Dream ofFair to Middling Women and
More Pricks Than Kicks Smith,Oliver Harrison (also Hal),
485,521
Smyllie,Robert Maire,307,311,425,
495,498
Society ofFriends ofthe National
Collections oflreland,142,267 777
General index
Solomons,Estella (Stella),61,63,73,75, 80,81, 153,237,250,251,254,256,
Stuttgart,444,450,461,469,474,477,702 Styrian School,361,363
Sullivan,John (ne John O'Sullivan),
602,693
The Sunday Times, 115,287,301,314,327,
346,348,364
surrealism,22, 137,342,364,367,393,
470,618,619,657,698,699 International Surrealist Exhibition
(London),263,291,321,323,340,
260,263,343,486,491,707,712, 713-714 see also Landscapes from Donegal and Yorkshire
"Sonnet " ("At last I find. . . "),20 Sordello da Goito,189,190,193 Sorel,Albert,249,251 Soupault,Philippe,17,21,22,24,28,33,
40-41,65,66,367,700,701 Soutes, 577,613,616,620,633,708 Spaniards Inn,125,126,186,191 Spanish Civil War,292,508,510,651,
342,344,345,627 Swedenborg,Emanuel,192-193 Sweeney,JamesJohnson,639,640,700 Swift. Jonathan,150,151,152,189,192,
662,694
The Spectator,104,118,120,175,290,
313,316,370
Synge,John Millington,207,208,209,
327,366,367,613,615 Spinoza,Baruch,229,330,361,370-371,
210,699
373
"Spring Song,",107,116 Starcke,Heiner,158,163,538 Starkey,James,see O'Sullivan Seumas Starkie,Walter,70,84,86,110,351,
Taine,Hippolyte-Adolphe,145,146
II Talpino,539,542 Tasso,Torquato,133,306,310,319,321,
354,370,372,525,528 Stein,Gertrude,515,519,521,716 Stella,see Johnson Esther Stendhal,100,102,228,229 Stenhouse,Ursula,249,251,266,268,
361,364
Tate,Allen,109,695
Tate,Robert William,430,436,526,528 Tate Gallery (London),227,229,532 Tavistock Clinic (London),251,691,716 Taylor,Jeremy,172,173 Taylor,John,509,511 Tchaikovsky,Pyotr,71,286 Terriers,David,the younger,246,248,
280,287 Stephens,James,157,162,208,210 Stepun,Fedor,417,455,456 Stem,James Andrew,610,611-612 Stem,Tania,610,611 Steme,Laurence,637,638 Stevenson,Robert Louis,90,92 Stewart,Gerald Pakenham,338,339,
341,343,471 Stitch,Wilhelmina,157,162 Stoss,Veit,460,463,464,479 Strauss,Richard,388,393,450 Stravinsky,Igor,11,26,30,143,245,
277,278,280 Stuart,Francis (ne Henry Francis
Montgomery Stuart),*,185,190,
778
253,375,377
Ter Borch,Gerard,246,248,429,435 "Text,",17,44,103,107,123,697 Thackeray,William Makepeace,114,
240,241,419,554,555,703,714
Black List Section H,714
The Coloured Dome, 185,190
The Great Squire, 554,555
"ARacehorseattheCurragh,",240,241 Thomas,Dylan,612-613,615
Women and God, 190 Thomas. Jean,*,14,61,63,91,93,155,459,
125,126
Theatre Royal (Dublin),142,172,173 "There was a Happy Land," see "Sanies 2 " Therive,Andre,26,29-30
"They come,",577,594,599,662
"They Go Out for the Evening," see
Dream ofFair to Middling Women
Thibaud,Jacques,194,198,200
This Quarter,17,23,24,104,105,112,116,
124,128,132,137,145,146,295, 296,709,716 see also SB, translations
Thoma,Richard,87,89
The Studio, 570,571,573,575,665,705 462,555-556,559,566,568,714-715
from Italian and from French
Ecole Normale Superieure,Agrege repetiteur,Secretaire general,14, 714-715
letter ofreference for SB,153,155, 527-528
President de la Commission de la Republique Franr;:aise pour ! 'education,la science,et la culture,andUNESCO Director of Cultural Activities,Assistant Director General,715
Thompson,Alan H. ,338,339,367, 490,494
Thompson,Arthur Geoffrey,',4,217, 218,227,229,230,237,260,268, 273,275,311,325,338,339,342, 346,362,365,367,383,385,388, 393,404,446,469,502,505,523, 528,540,570,595,597,610,611, 613,615,620,630,633,637,639, 659,691,715-716,and passim
Titian,41,42,252,304,308,429,430, 435,444,449,615,617
Titus,Edward,",103,112,116,122,128, 132,135,137,138,142,144,145, 146,147,149,151,157,162,168, 311,709,716
commissioned translation by SB "The Drunken Boat" (Rimbaud's "Le Bateau ivre"),103,124,393, 406,407
General index
engagement and marriage to Ursula Stenhouse,238,266,268,277, 280,283,286,284,287,325,327
14,17,20,89,94,95,103,116,120, 128,291,329,331,332,333,334, 335,340,342,348,362,364,365, 367,538,544,561,562,567,578, 633,634,635,640,694,699,700, 701,705,707,716-717
editor: Black Manikin Press,137,168 This Qµarter, 104,116,122,124,128,
Bethlem Royal Hospital (also Bedlam), 242,243,246,248,249,251,253, 255,277,280
132,137,146,168,311 Tocher,E. W. (pseud. ; see Johnston
William Denis Toksvig,Signe,351,354 Toller,Ernst,424,426
Tomorrow, 703,714 Tonks,Henry,345,346,347 Torquemada,Tomas de,209,504,506 Torre,Guillermo de,265,267-268 Toscanini,Arturo,388,393 Toulouse-Lautrec,Henri de,191,373,
378,385,543,544,628 Trakl,Georg,516,520,521
transition (1927-1938),5,7,11,12,13,
Institute ofMarital Studies,716 Maudsley Hospital,300,303,351 photo of,Plate,9
St. Bartholomew's Hospital (Barts. ),
260,263,715
71 Harley Street,London,364,401,
Transition (1948-1950),700,717 Traven,B. ,see Feige,Hermann Travers-Smith,Dorothy,62,64,85,273,
404,446,451 Tavistock Clinic,251
Thompson,Ursula,351,354,362,364, 446,451,570,597,620,637,639,716
275,276,279,351,354,360,488,
581,695,696,711,and passim Trench,Wilbraham Fitzjohn,68,70,281 Trinity College Dublin (TCD),3,4,5,10,
15,17,18,23,28,29,32,44,47,50, 56,63,70,74,75,80,84,86,89,93, 95,99,101,102,103,110,118,120, 138,156,169,190,191,200,214,215, 216,218,248,258,281,288,297,303, 306,308,309,315,321,326,338,339, 343,357,370,377,436,451,471,523, 524,525,526,527,538,547,556,621, 623,624,639,660,662,677,689,695, 697,698,703,704,707,708,711,712, 715,717
779
Thoms of Thunder, see Eluard Paul Thrale,Henry,396,398,489,493,522 Thrale,Hester Lynch,396,395,397,398,
399,489,493,506,522,529-530,
531,532,571,639 Tiedtke,Irma,389,394 Tiepolo,Giovanni Battista,459,463,
663-664,665,666
Time and Tide, 120,327
Times Literary Supplement (TLS),290,
327,704
Tischbein,Johann Heinrich,375,378 Tischbein,Johann Jacob,375,378
General index
Trinity College Dublin (TCD) (cont. ) Exchange Lecteurs from ENS to TCD,
621,623,634,641,647,648,665,
666,717
Cappagh (Ussher's family home),209,
211,292,327,329,418,508,510, 511,532,715,717
Vail,Laurence,608,609,668,698 Valentin,Karl,418,480,484 Valery,Paul,541,695 Velzquez,111,114,214-216,429,
435-436 Varchi,Benedetto,306,310 Velde,van,Abraham Geraldus (Bram),
646,673,679,680,681,682,
683,684
Velde,van,Elizabeth (nee Joki; Lisi),
578,596,597,629,632,634, 641,642,644,645,646,667,670, 671,710
Photo of,plate,17 Velde,van,Geraldus (Geer),561,566,
568,578,580,582,583,587,596, 597,604,605,610,611,615,617, 618-619,620,621,623,624-625, 627,628,629,632,633,634,641, 642,644,645,646,654,667,668, 670,671,679,680,681,698,710
photo of,Plate,17 Verlaine,Paul,19,20,590,591 Vermeer,Jan van Delft,429,435,444,
449,478,482,496,499,619 Verschoyle,Derek Hugo,104,118,120 Verticalist Manifesto,see Jolas Eugene Vessiot,Ernest,9,10,15,23 Vico,Giambattista,109,110,112,
118,120
Victoria and Albert Museum (London),
246,248,253,256,266,268,
444,449
Vienna,5,14. 359-360,363,497,499,
541,542,544,546 Vigny,Alfred-Victor,Comte de,637,638 Viking Press,192,251,485,586,658 Vinci,Leonardo da,438,439,617 Virgil,185,189,190,193 Vischer,Peter,the elder,253,256,460,
463,464,479
Vitali,Tomas Battista,194,198,200 Vivarini, Alvise, Antonio, and
Bartolomeo,429,435
and from TCD to ENS,see Ecole Normale Superieure; Foundation
Scholarship,4,324,326,335,
336,338,339,340,342,451 Library,109,299,318,323,329,377 Little Go,637
Modem Languages Society,18,55,70 Sizarship,214,216
T. C. D. : A College Miscellany, 5,59,
78,80
[? ] "True-bornJackeen,",188,192 Truman and Knightley,104,112,115,
119,120 Uccello,Paolo,167,170,208,211,
253,255
Uden,Lucas van,375,377
Ulster Art Gallery and Museum (Belfast),
32,34
"Undertaker's Man," see "Malacoda " United Arts Club (Dublin),34,616,695 Universities of: Lyon,559,715
Paris,Sorbonne,55,74,109-110, 189,295,353,559,670,693,694, 702,715
Poitiers,557,559,691,715 University Colleges: Dublin (UCO),85, 267,291,304,308,309,343,506,
690,692,693,694
College Dramatic Society,305,309 Galway,491
London,691
Universities of: Cape Town,86,155,418, 502,505,510,523-528,530,535, 536,547,548,550,554,569,571
Witwatersrand,112,115 Untitled ode on public lavatory,44 "UPTHEREPUBLIC,",508,510-511 Ussher,Arlan,see Ussher Percival
Arland Ussher,Emily,475,476,510 Ussher,Henrietta Owen,475,
476,665
Ussher,Percival Arland (Percy,Arland),
122,124,149,187,191,209,211, 240,292,327,328,329,414,418, 451,475,476,508,510,511,516, 520,532,544,545,578,609,611,
780
Voight,FrederickAugustus,621,622,623 Vollard,Ambroise,298,301
Volontes, 566,568,613,614,616,620,
627,628,707 Voltaire,137,431-432,437-438 Vries,RoelofJansz de,334,336 Vulliamy,Colwayne Edward,398,399,
493,531
"The Vulture ",107,331
Wagner,Richard,26,30,134,137,144, 163,173,201,204,206,362,364, 437,460,464
Walker,John Crampton,486,491 "Walking Out," see More Pricks Than Kicks Watteau,Jean-Antoine,222,225,266,
268,361,364,431,437,443,
535-536,538,540,598,601 Waugh,Evelyn,29,707 Weaver,Harriet Shaw,21,23,69,255,
567,658,661 Webster. John,461,465
"Weg du Einzige! " see "Sanies 1 " Weimar,100,422,432,438,439,
445,477 Weise,Felix,439,445,450,477 Weise,Marie (nee Herold),439,445,
450,477
Wells,H. G. ,187,191
West. Rebecca,65,66,70,76,187,191 Westminster Theatre(London),286,353 "A Wet Night," see Dream ofFair to
Middling Women
Weyden,Rogier van der,429,436 "What a Misfortune," see More Pricks Than
Kicks
Whelan,Michael Leo,159,163 "Whiting," see "Ooftish "
Whoroscope, 17,28-29,30,32,34,41,42,
123,413,414,499,510,687,693 Wilde,Oscar,12,14,136-138 Wilson,R. N. D,122,124 Wilson,Richard,222,225,266,268,
346,347-348
Wisdom. John Oulton,446-447,451 Wishart,104,123,128,132,367 With,Pieter de,361,363,429,435 Witz,Konrad,474,475-476,629,632 Wodehouse,P. G. ,125,126 Woizikovsky,Leon,277,279
Wolf(SB's dog),418,468,471,474,475, 487,491
Wolf,Hugo,284,286,389,393 Wolfe,Thomas,427,433 Wolfenbiittel(Lower Saxony),293,
386,395,400,401,402,403,408,
411,413 Wolgemut,Michael,460,461,463,
464,479 Wollman,Maurice,455,456
Woolf, Leonard,112,114-115,117,120 Woolf,Virginia,114,115
World War I,3,56,92,347,696,700,704 World War II,374,394,395,403,404,
413,414,434,511,687,689,690,
691,700,705,706,709,714,716,717 Wiirzburg (Bavaria),417,446,455,459,
463,479,664,665
Xerxes the Great,223,226
Yeats,George(nee Bertha Georgie Hyde Lee),14,301,316
Yeats,Jack B. UBYJ,*,18,27,30,44,50, 55,59,61,65,66,88,111,113,122, 139,142,158,167,237,239,260, 263,265,267,284,291,299,301, 303,307,312,315,319,321, 328-329,342,344,345-346,361, 363,365,367,372,418,437,461, 487,490,497,500,506,508,530, 535-536,538,540,546,596, 599-600,601,602,609,613,634, 636,638,694,703,704,715-716, and passim
letter to Routledge on behalf of Murphy, 566,568,569
Paintings: Below the Gold Falls, 308
Boy and Horse, 308,486,490,497,500,
503,508 California, 601
Comer Boys, 265,267,284,287,333, 335,503,506
General index
Dancing on the Deck, 490 Dusty Rose, 370,372
An Evening in Spring, 490 The Eye ofAffection, 308 The Falls ofSheen, 308 Helen, 636,638
Life in the West ofIreland, 718
781
General index
Yeats,Jack B. OBY)," (cont. )
Little Waves ofBreffity, 486,490,497, 500,506
Low Tide,265,267,486,491
In Memory ofBoucicault and Bianconi,
538,601
Moore Street, 365,367
A Morning,291,303-304,308,312,
315,333,335,365,366,367, 368,503,506,566,568,581, 583,718
A Morning in a City,490
A Rose (also known to SB as Tyranny of
the Rose),370,372 Rose Dying, 372
Shelling Green Peas, A Stonn/Gallshion,
540,542
In Tir na n6g (The Land ofthe Young),
359,360,365,367 While Grass Grows, 490,497,
500,503
Works (literary): The Amaranthers, 328,
330,366,367,486,491
(SB's review of,292,334,335,336,
337,340,342,358,359,718) The Channed Life, 568,599,601
Yeats,Mary Cottenham (Cottie, Cotty),265,267,303,370,372,418, 486,491,497,502-503,506,636, 638,717
Yeats,William Butler,4,122,124,279, 308,310,312,315,341,354,366, 368,424,426,462,505,637,696, 699,703,706,710,717
editor,The Oxford Book ofModem Verse: 1892-1935,298,301
Works: Cathleen ni Houlihan, 639 King ofthe Great Gock Tower, 217,
218,219
"Lapis Lazuli,",500
On Baile's Strand, 639,706
Purgatory, 578,638,639,640 Resurrection, 217,218
"The Words Upon The Window Pane:
A Commentary,",152 "Yellow," see More Pricks Than Kicks "Yoke ofLiberty" (initial title "Moly "),
17,44,60,123,134,136,176,231, 235,697
Zwemmer's (bookshop,London),250, 252,625,627
782
The Letters of Samuel Beckett offers for the first time a comprehen sive range of letters of one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century. This volume includes letters written between 1929 and 1940. It provides a vivid and personal view of Western Europe in the 1930s, marked by the gradual emergence, against his own hesitations and the indifference or hostility of others, of Beckett's unique voice and sensibility. Even in the tentativeness of the early writing, the letters show his care for his work as well as what he must share or relinquish to allow it to have a life beyond himself. Detailed introductions, translations, explanatory notes, profiles of major correspondents, chronologies, and other contex tual information accompany the letters. For anyone interested in twentieth-century literature and theatre this edition offers not only a record of achievements but a powerful literary experience in itself.
fiotel Deutrdie troube
lnh. : H, SCHOTT Berl j n O 1 Nordon 121e Am Stettlner Fern- und Untergrundt>chnhof
Samuel Beckett to Mary Manning Howe, 13 December 1936 Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
The University of Texas at Austin
NAtte 8,1,hnhot fll'rl•drloh•ttoe. �nd L•1'1111W Bahnhol
Konferenzzlmmer, Restaurant, Garege Flle8endes warmes und kattes Wasser Bl! der - oo Batten
BERLIN N . . . den I nYalldenelre Be a. a
'The prospect of reading Beckett's letters quickens the blood like none other's, and one must hope to stay alive until the fourth volume is safely delivered. '
Tom Stoppard
'Knowing as we do that Samuel Beckett is
the only writer who can sum up the agonies and ecstasies of the twentieth century, if we had any doubts as to his relevance today, they would be dispelled by the amazing treasure trove contained in his letters-at last we are made privy to the full range of his passion for art and beauty, which is neither na:ive nor sentimental, to the pyrotechnics of his savage wit, and more lastingly perhaps, to his deep humanity. '
Jean-Michel Rabate, Vartan Gregorian Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania
1111 Ill
ISBN 978-0-521-86793-1
9 780521 867931 >
Where now? Who now? When now? Unquestioning. I, say I. Unbelieving. Questions, hypotheses (call them that). Keep going, going on (call that going, call that on). Can it be that one day (off it goes), that one day I simply stayed in (in where? ) instead of going out, in the old way, out to spend day and night as far away as possible? (It wasn't far. ) Perhaps that is how it began. You think you are simply resting (the better to act when the time comes, or for no reason) and you soon find yourself powerless ever to do anything again. No matter how it happened. (It, say it, not knowing what. ) Perhaps I simply assented at last to an old thing. (But I did nothing. ) I seem to speak (it is not I) about me (it is not me). These few general remarks to begin with. What am I to do (what shall I do, what should I do? ) in my situation? How proceed? By aporia pure and simple? Or by affirmations and negations invalidated as uttered (or sooner or later)? (Generally speaking. ) There must be other shifts. Otherwise it would be quite hopeless. But it is quite hopeless. (I should mention before going any further - any further on - that I say "aporia" without knowing what it means. ) Can one be ephectic otherwise than unawares? I don't know. With the yesses and noes it is different: they will come back to me as I go along. And now, like a bird, to shit on them all without exception. The fact would seem to be (if in my situation one may speak of facts) not only that I shall have to speak of things of which I cannot speak, but also (which is even more interesting) that I shall have to, I
forget, no matter. And at the same time I am obliged to speak. I shall never be silent. Never.
I shall not be alone, in the beginning. (I am of course alone. ) Alone. That is soon said. (Things have to be soon said. ) And how can one be sure, in such darkness? I shall have company. In the beginning. A few puppets. Then I'll scatter them, to the winds, if I can. And things? What is the correct attitude to adopt towards things? And (to begin with) are they necessary? What a question! But I have few illusions: things are to be expected. The best is not to decide anything (in this connection) in advance. If a thing turns up, for some reason or other, take it into consideration. Where there are people (it is said) there are things. Does this mean that when you admit the former you must also admit the latter? Time will tell. The thing to avoid (I don't know why) is the spirit of system. People with things, people without things, things without people - what does it matter? I flatter myself it will not take me long to scatter them, whenever I choose, to the winds. (I don't see how. ) The best would be not to begin. But I have to begin. That is to say I have to go on. Perhaps in the end I shall smother in a throng: incessant comings and goings, the crush and bustle of a bargain sale. No, no danger. (Of that. )
Malone is there. Of his mortal liveliness little trace remains. He passes before me at doubtless regular intervals. (Unless it is I who pass before him? No, once and for all: I do not move. ) He passes, motionless. But there will not be much on the subject of Malone, from whom there is nothing further to be hoped. Personally I do not intend to be bored. (It was while watching him pass that I wondered if we cast a shadow. Impossible to say. ) He passes close by me, a few feet away - slowly, always in the same direction. I am almost sure it is he. The brimless hat seems conclusive. With his two hands he props up his jaw. He passes without a word. Perhaps he does not see me. One of these days I'll challenge him. I'll say, I don't know, I'll say something, I'll think of something when the time comes. (There are no days here, but I use the expression. ) I see him from the waist up: he stops at the waist, as far as I am concerned. The trunk is erect. But I do not know whether he is on his feet or on his knees. (He might also be seated. ) I see him in profile. Sometimes I wonder if it is not Molloy. Perhaps it is Molloy, wearing Malone's hat. But it is more reasonable to suppose it is Malone, wearing his own hat. (Oh, look, there is the first thing! Malone's hat! ) I see no other clothes. Perhaps Molloy is not here at all. Could he be, without my knowledge? (The place is no doubt vast. Dim intermittent lights suggest a kind of distance. ) To tell the
truth I believe they are all here (at least from Murphy on). I believe we are all here. But so far I have only seen Malone. Another hypothesis: they were here, but are here no longer. I shall examine it after my fashion. Are there other pits, deeper down? To which one accedes by mine? (Stupid obsession with depth! ) Are there other places set aside for us - and this one where I am, with Malone, merely their narthex? (I thought I had done with preliminaries. ) No, no, we have all been here forever, we shall all be here for ever. I know it.
No more questions. Is not this rather the place where one finishes vanishing? Will the day come when Malone will pass before me no more? Will the day come when Malone will pass before the spot where I was? Will the day come when another will pass before me, before the spot where I was? I have no opinion, on these matters.
Were I not devoid of feeling his beard would fill me with pity. It hangs down, on either side of his chin, in two twists of unequal length. Was there a time when I too revolved thus? No, I have always been sitting here, at this selfsame spot, my hands on my knees, gazing before me like a great barn-owl in an aviary. The tears stream down my cheeks from my unblinking eyes. What makes me weep so? (From time to time. ) There is nothing saddening here. Perhaps it is liquefied brain. Past happiness in any case has clean gone from my memory, assuming it was ever there. (If I accomplish other natural functions it is unawares. ) Nothing ever troubles me. And yet I am troubled. Nothing has ever changed since I have been here. But I dare not infer from this that nothing ever will change. Let us try and see where these considerations lead. I have been here, ever since I began to be (my appearances elsewhere having been put in by other parties). All has proceeded, all this time, in the utmost calm, in the most perfect order (apart from one or two manifestations the meaning of which escapes me). (No, it is not just their meaning escapes me, my own escapes me just as much. ) Here all things. No, I shall not say it, being unable to. I owe my existence to no one: these faint fires are not of those that illuminate or burn. Going nowhere, coming from nowhere, Malone passes. These notions of forbears, of houses where lamps are lit at night, and other such: where do they come to me from?
And all these questions I ask myself? It is not in a spirit of curiosity: I cannot be silent. About myself I need know nothing. Here all is clear. No, all is not clear. But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities. Rhetoric. These lights, for instance (which I do not require to mean anything): what is there so strange about them, so wrong? Is it their irregularity, their instability, their shining strong one minute and weak the next, but never
beyond the power of one or two candles? Malone appears and disappears with the punctuality of clockwork, always at the same remove, the same velocity, in the same direction, the same attitude. But the play of the lights is truly unpredictable. It is only fair to say that to eyes less knowing than mine they would probably pass unseen. But even to mine do they not sometimes do so? They are perhaps unwavering and fixed, and my fitful perceiving the cause of their inconstancy. I hope I may have occasion to revert to this question. But I shall remark without further delay (in order to be sure of doing so) that I am relying on these lights (as indeed on all other similar sources of credible perplexity) to help me continue and perhaps even conclude. I resume, having no alternative. Where was I? Ah yes: from the unexceptionable order which has prevailed here up to date may I infer that such will always be the case? I may of course. But the mere fact of asking myself such a question gives me to reflect. It is in vain I tell myself that its only purpose is to stimulate the lagging discourse: this excellent explanation does not satisfy me. Can it be I am the prey of a genuine preoccupation, of a need to know as one might say? I don't know. I'll try it another way. If one day a change were to take place, resulting from a principle of disorder already present, what then? That would seem to depend on the nature of the change. (No: here all change would be fatal and land me back, there and then, in all the fun of the fair. ) I'll try it another way. Has nothing really changed since I have been here? No, frankly, hand on heart wait a second no, nothing to my knowledge. But, as I have said, the place may well be vast, as it may well measure twelve feet in diameter. It comes to the same thing, as far as discerning its limits is concerned. I like to think I occupy the centre, but nothing is less certain. In a sense I would be better off at the circumference, since my eyes are always fixed in the same direction. But I am certainly not at the circumference. For if I were it would follow that Molloy, wheeling about me as he does, would issue from the enceinte at every revolution (which is manifestly impossible). But does he in fact wheel? Does he not perhaps simply pass before me in a straight line? No, he wheels, I feel it. And about me, like a planet about its sun. And if he made a noise, as he goes, I would hear him all the time (on my right hand, behind my back, on my left hand) before seeing him again. But he makes none. For I am not deaf, of that I am convinced (that is to say half-convinced). From centre to circumference in any case it is a far cry and I may well be situated somewhere between the two. It is equally possible (I do not deny it) that I too am in perpetual motion, accompanied by Malone (as the earth by its moon). In which case there would be no further grounds for my complaining about the disorder of the lights, this being due simply to my insistence on regarding them as always the same lights and viewed
always from the same point. (All is possible - or almost. ) But the best is to think of myself as fixed and at the centre of this place (whatever its shape and extent may be). This is also probably the most pleasing to me. In a word: no change apparently since I have been here. Disorder of the lights perhaps an illusion. All change to be feared. Incomprehensible uneasiness.
That I am not stone deaf is shown by the sounds that reach me. For though the silence here is almost unbroken, it is not completely so. I remember the first sound heard in this place (I have often heard it since). For I am obliged to assign a beginning to my residence here, if only for the sake of clarity. Hell itself, although eternal, dates from the revolt of Lucifer. It is therefore permissible (in the light of this distant analogy) to think of myself as being here forever, but not as having been here forever. This will greatly help me in my relation. Memory notably (which I did not think myself entitled to draw upon) will have its word to say, if necessary. (This represents at least a thousand words I was not counting on. I may well be glad of them. ) So after a long period of immaculate silence a feeble cry was heard, by me. (I do not know if Malone heard it too. ) I was surprised (the word is not too strong): after so long a silence a little cry (stifled outright). What kind of creature uttered it - and (if it is the same) still does, from time to time? Impossible to say. Not a human one in any case, there are no human creatures here (or if there are they have done with crying). Is Malone the culprit? Am I? (Is it not perhaps a simple little fart? They can be rending. ) Deplorable mania, when something happens, to inquire what. If only I were not obliged to manifest! And why speak of a cry? Perhaps it is something breaking? Some two things colliding? There are sounds here, from time to time, let that suffice. This cry to begin with (since it was the first). And others, rather different. I am getting to know them. (I do not know them all: a man may die at the age of seventy without ever having had the possibility of seeing Halley's comet. )
It would help me, since to me too I must attribute a beginning, if I could relate it to that of my abode. Did I wait somewhere for this place to be ready to receive me? Or did it wait for me to come and people it? By far the better of these hypotheses (from the point of view of usefulness) is the former, and I shall often have occasion to fall back on it. But both are distasteful. I shall say therefore that our beginnings coincide: that this place was made for me, and I for it, at the same instant. And the sounds I do not yet know have not yet made themselves heard. But they will change nothing. (The
cry changed nothing, even the first time. And my surprise? I must have been expecting it. )
It is no doubt time I gave a companion to Malone. But first I shall tell of an incident that has only occurred once, so far. (I await its recurrence without impatience. ) Two shapes then, oblong like man, entered into collision before me. They fell and I saw them no more. (I naturally thought of the pseudo-couple Mercier-Camier. ) The next time they enter the field, moving slowly towards each other, I shall know they are going to collide, fall and disappear, and this will perhaps enable me to observe them better. Wrong. I continue to see Malone as darkly as the first time. My eyes being fixed always in the same direction I can only see (I shall not say clearly, but as clearly as the visibility permits) that which takes place immediately in front of me - that is to say (in the case before us) the collision, followed by the fall and disappearance. Of their approach I shall never obtain other than a confused glimpse, out of the corner of the eye. (And what an eye! ) For their path too must be a curve (two curves), and meeting (I need not say) close beside me. For the visibility (unless it be the state of my eyesight) only permits me to see what is close beside me. I may add that my seat would appear to be somewhat elevated, in relation to the surrounding ground. (If ground is what it is. Perhaps it is water or some other liquid. ) With the result that, in order to obtain the optimum view of what takes place in front of me, I should have to lower my eyes a little. But I lower my eyes no more. In a word: I only see what appears close beside me. What I best see I see ill.
Why did I have myself represented in the midst of men, the light of day? (It seems to me it was none of my doing. We won't go into that now. ) I can see them still, my delegates. The things they have told me! About men, the light of day! I refused to believe them. But some of it has stuck. But when, through what channels, did I communicate with these gentlemen? Did they intrude on me here? No, no one has ever intruded on me here. Elsewhere then. But I have never been elsewhere. But it can only have been from them I learnt what I know about men and the ways they have of putting up with it. (It does not amount to much. I could have dispensed with it. I don't say it was all to no purpose. I'll make use of it, if I'm driven to it. It won't be the first time. ) What puzzles me is the thought of being indebted for this information to persons with whom I can never have been in contact. Can it be innate knowledge? Like that of good and evil? This seems improbable to me. Innate knowledge of my mother (for example): is that conceivable? Not for me. She was one of their favourite
subjects, of conversation. They also gave me the low-down on God. They told me I depended on him, in the last analysis. They had it on the reliable authority of his agents at Bally-I-forget-what (this being the place - according to them - where the inestimable gift of life had been rammed down my gullet). But what they were most determined for me to swallow was my fellow-creatures. In this they were without mercy. I remember little or nothing of these lectures. I cannot have understood a great deal. But I seem to have retained certain descriptions, in spite of myself. They gave me courses on love, on intelligence (most precious, most precious). They also taught me to count, and even to reason. (Some of this rubbish has come in handy on occasions, I don't deny it - on occasions which would never have arisen if they had left me in peace. I use it still, to scratch my arse with. ) Low types they must have been, their pockets full of poison and antidote. (Perhaps all this instruction was by correspondence. And yet I seem to know their faces. From photographs perhaps? ) When did all this nonsense stop? And has it stopped? (A few last questions. ) Is it merely a lull? There were four or five of them at me: they called that presenting their report. One in particular (Basil I think he was called) filled me with hatred. Without opening his mouth, fastening on me his eyes like cinders with all their seeing, he changed me a little more each time into what he wanted me to be. Is he still glaring at me, from the shadows? Is he still usurping my name (the one they foisted on me) up there in their world, patiently, from season to season? No no, here I am in safety, amusing myself wondering who can have dealt me these insignificant wounds.
The other advances full upon me. He emerges as from heavy hangings, advances a few steps, looks at me, then backs away. He is stooping and seems to be dragging invisible burdens. What I see best is his hat. The crown is all worn through, like the sole of an old boot, giving vent to a straggle of grey hairs. He raises his eyes and I feel the long imploring gaze, as if I could do something for him. Another impression (no doubt equally false): he brings me presents and dare not give them. He takes them away again (or he lets them fall) and they vanish. He does not come often (I cannot be more precise), but regularly assuredly. His visit has never coincided, up to now, with the transit of Malone. But perhaps some day it will. That would not necessarily be a violation of the order prevailing here. For if I can work out to within a few inches the orbit of Malone (assuming perhaps erroneously that he passes before me at a distance of say three feet), with regard to the other's career I must remain in the dark. For I am incapable not only of measuring time (which in itself is sufficient to vitiate all calculation in this connection) but also of comparing their respective velocities. So I
cannot tell if I shall ever have the good fortune to see the two of them at once. But I am inclined to think I shall. For if I were never to see the two of them at once, then it would follow (or should follow) that between their respective appearances the interval never varies. No, wrong. For the interval may vary considerably (and indeed it seems to me it does) without ever being abolished. Nevertheless I am inclined to think (because of this erratic interval) that my two visitors may some day meet before my eyes, collide and perhaps even knock each other down. I have said that all things here recur sooner or later. (No, I was going to say it, then thought better of it. ) But is it not possible that this does not apply to encounters? The only encounter I ever witnessed, a long time ago now, has never yet been re-enacted. (It was perhaps the end of something. ) And I shall perhaps be delivered of Malone and the other (not that they disturb me) the day I see the two of them at one and the same time: that is to say, in collision. Unfortunately they are not the only disturbers of my peace. Others come towards me, pass before me, wheel about me. (And no doubt others still, invisible so far. ) I repeat they do not disturb me. But in the long run it might become wearisome. (I don't see how.
537,689 Rolland,Romain,668,669,695 Romains. Jules (ne LouisFarigoule),20,
427,433
Ronsard,Pierre de,213,711 Rosa,Salvator,222,225,227,467 Rosalba (Carriera Rosalba),444,448,
496-497,499
Rossi,Mario Manlio,150,151,370,372 Rousseau,Jean-Jacques,145,146,228,
230,282,285 Routledge,244,573,574,636,638,718
see also Murphy, Routledge,
publication by
Rowe,Charles Henry,55,56,288 Rowohlt-Verlag,418,426,427,433,501,
505,508,520,702
Royal Dublin Society,68,70,319,321 Royal Hibernian Academy (Dublin),34,
101,153,155 Exhibitions,159,163,265,267,344,
347,466,488,490,491,492,497, 500,553,555,608,659,661,706, 712,714
Rubens,Peter Paul,123,222,225,252, 253,255,429,430,432,438,470. 472,479,483,539
Rudmose-Brown,Thomas Brown (Ruddy),4,10,15,23,26,30-34,44, 46,48-50,54,55,69,73,79,84,86, 88,89,91,92,94,95,104,115,121, 123,138,142,158,195,198,200, 297,300,302,304,306,312-313, 315,324,326,351,354,488,492, 502,505,508,524-525,526-527, 528,590,591,704,711
Ruisdael,Jacob van,222,226 Rupe,Hans,470,472-473,480,483
776
Ruskin. John,36,37-38 Russell,George William (pseud. AE),10,
13,19,20,124,223,226,282,285,
487,491,605,606,706 Ruwoldt,Hans Martin,392,480,483 Ruysdael,Salomon van,222,223,
225,226
Sade,Marquis de,223,226,577,604, 605-606,609,610,611,622, 634,635
St. Bartholomew's Hospital,see Thompson Arthur Geoffrey
Sainte-Beuve,Charles-Augustin,144- 146,150,152,497,503,506,715
St. Francis of Assisi,553,555 St. Patrick,132,194,197,199 Salkeld,Blanaid,322,323,325,328,
509,512,651,659,661 see also
Gayfield Press
Salkeld,Cecil ffrench,325,327,328,
329,445,450,475,476,503,506,
661,703,714
Salvado,Giovanni Girolamo,429,434 Salzburg School, 361, 363
"Sanies 1" (initial title "Weg du
Einzige! "),147,152,156,163,297 "Sanies 2" (initial title "There was a
Happy Land"),104,116,144 Sanssouci (Potsdam),417,431-432,
437-438,443,448 Sarto,Andrea del,428-429,434 Sarton,May,462,465,570,572 Sartre,Jean-Paul,626,628,642,653,
654,668,669,684,697,700,
712,717 Saucke,Kurt,379,410,413,415,687 Sauerlandt,Alice,387,391,392,427,433 Sauerlandt,Max,387,391,427,433,452 Schapire,Rosa,383-384,385,387,
391-392,426-427,433 Scharl,Josef,473,502,505 Schiller,Friedrich,417,421,423,432,
438,648 Schmidt-Rottluff,Karl,383-384,385,
387,391,392,427,433,439 Schopenhauer,Arthur,33,34-36,38,43,
45,50-51,353,509,511,550,551 Schubert,Franz,68,71 Schuch,Carl,543,544
Schumann. Robert,173,178,182,184 Schuwer,Camille,616,628
"Sedendo et Quiescendo,",20,60,79-80,
81,82,95,103,116,128,132,717 Segers, Hercules,283,286
"Serena 1,",104,121,123,125,126,
129-131,132,133,136,144,235,521 "Serena 2,",104,139-142,143
"Serena 3,",148,168,289,290
Seward, Anna,511,637,639 Shakespeare,William,37,43,44,102,
136,138,213,240,299,301,302,
322,384,385,461,465 Shakespeare and Company,see Beach
Sylvia
Shaw,George Bernard,19,20,26,29,44,
46,64,66,659,661,696,710,717 Sheehy, Edward,487,492,549,551,
553,555,596,638
Sheehy Skeffington,Andree,302,306,
495-496,498
Sheehy Skeffington,Owen,302,306,
495,498 Sheppard,Oliver,344,346 Sheridan,Richard Brinsley,62,64 Sibelius,Jean,282,284,284 Signorelli,Luca,425,426,431,432 Simon and Schuster,271,273,275,278,
282,285,286,290,343,345,349,
351,356,357,374,376,465 Sinclair,Annabel Lilian (Nancy),85, 149,240,241,281,502,505
Sinclair,Deirdre,26,30,85,121,123, 281,502,505
Sinclair,Frances Beckett (Fanny,Cissie), • SB's aunt,12-14,26,30,73,75,84, 85,121-123,132,148,149,150, 178,181,194,196,197,199,216, 241,247,249,278,284,299,306, 310,326,340,343,393,401,418, 487,495,498,501,502,503,505, 506,530,532,539,542,546,550, 551,554,555,596,597,601,622, 624,635,637,639,648,712,713
Kassel,5,6,11,13,128,150,375,451, 501,624,712
Kragenhof,11,13
Moyne Road,Rathgar,278,281,310,
495,498 photo of,Plate,4
General index
Sinclair,Henry Morris (Harry),31, 33,55,239,281,335-336,363, 418,495,498,499,502,505,550, 554,555,557,558,559,566, 567,580,582,608,609,622,637, 639,713
Harris and Sinclair,33,239,241. 498-499,511
libel action,418,419,495,498-499, 504,505,549-550,551,554,555, 557-559,560,561,566,567,568, 571,580,582,608,609,637, 639,713
Sinclair,Morris (Sunny,Sonny, Maurice),*,13,85,148,183,206, 214,216,241,246,281,291,308, 312,315,324,326,335,336,340, 342,346,348,359,360,361, 363-364,389,393,401,403,437, 487,491,502,505,532,538,554, 555,597,637,639,712-713
photo of,Plate,6
Sinclair,Ruth Margaret (Peggy),*,4-6,
12,14,21,23,26,30,85,128,132,
147,216,538,713 Death of, 158,538,713 photo of,Plate,5
Sinclair,Sara Estella (Sally),85,121, 123,148
Sinclair,William Abraham (Boss),* viii, 12-14,26,30,33,84,128,148,150, 151,155,180,183,199,202,205, 206,214-216,239,240,241,278, 281,284,299,342,344,361,363, 375,378,389,393,401,403,418, 487,491,494,495,498,501,503, 710,713
Painting, 713
photo of,Plate,3 Sintenis,Renee,439,470,473 Slonim,Marc,262-263,680,682 "The Smeraldina's Billet Doux," see
Dream ofFair to Middling Women and
More Pricks Than Kicks Smith,Oliver Harrison (also Hal),
485,521
Smyllie,Robert Maire,307,311,425,
495,498
Society ofFriends ofthe National
Collections oflreland,142,267 777
General index
Solomons,Estella (Stella),61,63,73,75, 80,81, 153,237,250,251,254,256,
Stuttgart,444,450,461,469,474,477,702 Styrian School,361,363
Sullivan,John (ne John O'Sullivan),
602,693
The Sunday Times, 115,287,301,314,327,
346,348,364
surrealism,22, 137,342,364,367,393,
470,618,619,657,698,699 International Surrealist Exhibition
(London),263,291,321,323,340,
260,263,343,486,491,707,712, 713-714 see also Landscapes from Donegal and Yorkshire
"Sonnet " ("At last I find. . . "),20 Sordello da Goito,189,190,193 Sorel,Albert,249,251 Soupault,Philippe,17,21,22,24,28,33,
40-41,65,66,367,700,701 Soutes, 577,613,616,620,633,708 Spaniards Inn,125,126,186,191 Spanish Civil War,292,508,510,651,
342,344,345,627 Swedenborg,Emanuel,192-193 Sweeney,JamesJohnson,639,640,700 Swift. Jonathan,150,151,152,189,192,
662,694
The Spectator,104,118,120,175,290,
313,316,370
Synge,John Millington,207,208,209,
327,366,367,613,615 Spinoza,Baruch,229,330,361,370-371,
210,699
373
"Spring Song,",107,116 Starcke,Heiner,158,163,538 Starkey,James,see O'Sullivan Seumas Starkie,Walter,70,84,86,110,351,
Taine,Hippolyte-Adolphe,145,146
II Talpino,539,542 Tasso,Torquato,133,306,310,319,321,
354,370,372,525,528 Stein,Gertrude,515,519,521,716 Stella,see Johnson Esther Stendhal,100,102,228,229 Stenhouse,Ursula,249,251,266,268,
361,364
Tate,Allen,109,695
Tate,Robert William,430,436,526,528 Tate Gallery (London),227,229,532 Tavistock Clinic (London),251,691,716 Taylor,Jeremy,172,173 Taylor,John,509,511 Tchaikovsky,Pyotr,71,286 Terriers,David,the younger,246,248,
280,287 Stephens,James,157,162,208,210 Stepun,Fedor,417,455,456 Stem,James Andrew,610,611-612 Stem,Tania,610,611 Steme,Laurence,637,638 Stevenson,Robert Louis,90,92 Stewart,Gerald Pakenham,338,339,
341,343,471 Stitch,Wilhelmina,157,162 Stoss,Veit,460,463,464,479 Strauss,Richard,388,393,450 Stravinsky,Igor,11,26,30,143,245,
277,278,280 Stuart,Francis (ne Henry Francis
Montgomery Stuart),*,185,190,
778
253,375,377
Ter Borch,Gerard,246,248,429,435 "Text,",17,44,103,107,123,697 Thackeray,William Makepeace,114,
240,241,419,554,555,703,714
Black List Section H,714
The Coloured Dome, 185,190
The Great Squire, 554,555
"ARacehorseattheCurragh,",240,241 Thomas,Dylan,612-613,615
Women and God, 190 Thomas. Jean,*,14,61,63,91,93,155,459,
125,126
Theatre Royal (Dublin),142,172,173 "There was a Happy Land," see "Sanies 2 " Therive,Andre,26,29-30
"They come,",577,594,599,662
"They Go Out for the Evening," see
Dream ofFair to Middling Women
Thibaud,Jacques,194,198,200
This Quarter,17,23,24,104,105,112,116,
124,128,132,137,145,146,295, 296,709,716 see also SB, translations
Thoma,Richard,87,89
The Studio, 570,571,573,575,665,705 462,555-556,559,566,568,714-715
from Italian and from French
Ecole Normale Superieure,Agrege repetiteur,Secretaire general,14, 714-715
letter ofreference for SB,153,155, 527-528
President de la Commission de la Republique Franr;:aise pour ! 'education,la science,et la culture,andUNESCO Director of Cultural Activities,Assistant Director General,715
Thompson,Alan H. ,338,339,367, 490,494
Thompson,Arthur Geoffrey,',4,217, 218,227,229,230,237,260,268, 273,275,311,325,338,339,342, 346,362,365,367,383,385,388, 393,404,446,469,502,505,523, 528,540,570,595,597,610,611, 613,615,620,630,633,637,639, 659,691,715-716,and passim
Titian,41,42,252,304,308,429,430, 435,444,449,615,617
Titus,Edward,",103,112,116,122,128, 132,135,137,138,142,144,145, 146,147,149,151,157,162,168, 311,709,716
commissioned translation by SB "The Drunken Boat" (Rimbaud's "Le Bateau ivre"),103,124,393, 406,407
General index
engagement and marriage to Ursula Stenhouse,238,266,268,277, 280,283,286,284,287,325,327
14,17,20,89,94,95,103,116,120, 128,291,329,331,332,333,334, 335,340,342,348,362,364,365, 367,538,544,561,562,567,578, 633,634,635,640,694,699,700, 701,705,707,716-717
editor: Black Manikin Press,137,168 This Qµarter, 104,116,122,124,128,
Bethlem Royal Hospital (also Bedlam), 242,243,246,248,249,251,253, 255,277,280
132,137,146,168,311 Tocher,E. W. (pseud. ; see Johnston
William Denis Toksvig,Signe,351,354 Toller,Ernst,424,426
Tomorrow, 703,714 Tonks,Henry,345,346,347 Torquemada,Tomas de,209,504,506 Torre,Guillermo de,265,267-268 Toscanini,Arturo,388,393 Toulouse-Lautrec,Henri de,191,373,
378,385,543,544,628 Trakl,Georg,516,520,521
transition (1927-1938),5,7,11,12,13,
Institute ofMarital Studies,716 Maudsley Hospital,300,303,351 photo of,Plate,9
St. Bartholomew's Hospital (Barts. ),
260,263,715
71 Harley Street,London,364,401,
Transition (1948-1950),700,717 Traven,B. ,see Feige,Hermann Travers-Smith,Dorothy,62,64,85,273,
404,446,451 Tavistock Clinic,251
Thompson,Ursula,351,354,362,364, 446,451,570,597,620,637,639,716
275,276,279,351,354,360,488,
581,695,696,711,and passim Trench,Wilbraham Fitzjohn,68,70,281 Trinity College Dublin (TCD),3,4,5,10,
15,17,18,23,28,29,32,44,47,50, 56,63,70,74,75,80,84,86,89,93, 95,99,101,102,103,110,118,120, 138,156,169,190,191,200,214,215, 216,218,248,258,281,288,297,303, 306,308,309,315,321,326,338,339, 343,357,370,377,436,451,471,523, 524,525,526,527,538,547,556,621, 623,624,639,660,662,677,689,695, 697,698,703,704,707,708,711,712, 715,717
779
Thoms of Thunder, see Eluard Paul Thrale,Henry,396,398,489,493,522 Thrale,Hester Lynch,396,395,397,398,
399,489,493,506,522,529-530,
531,532,571,639 Tiedtke,Irma,389,394 Tiepolo,Giovanni Battista,459,463,
663-664,665,666
Time and Tide, 120,327
Times Literary Supplement (TLS),290,
327,704
Tischbein,Johann Heinrich,375,378 Tischbein,Johann Jacob,375,378
General index
Trinity College Dublin (TCD) (cont. ) Exchange Lecteurs from ENS to TCD,
621,623,634,641,647,648,665,
666,717
Cappagh (Ussher's family home),209,
211,292,327,329,418,508,510, 511,532,715,717
Vail,Laurence,608,609,668,698 Valentin,Karl,418,480,484 Valery,Paul,541,695 Velzquez,111,114,214-216,429,
435-436 Varchi,Benedetto,306,310 Velde,van,Abraham Geraldus (Bram),
646,673,679,680,681,682,
683,684
Velde,van,Elizabeth (nee Joki; Lisi),
578,596,597,629,632,634, 641,642,644,645,646,667,670, 671,710
Photo of,plate,17 Velde,van,Geraldus (Geer),561,566,
568,578,580,582,583,587,596, 597,604,605,610,611,615,617, 618-619,620,621,623,624-625, 627,628,629,632,633,634,641, 642,644,645,646,654,667,668, 670,671,679,680,681,698,710
photo of,Plate,17 Verlaine,Paul,19,20,590,591 Vermeer,Jan van Delft,429,435,444,
449,478,482,496,499,619 Verschoyle,Derek Hugo,104,118,120 Verticalist Manifesto,see Jolas Eugene Vessiot,Ernest,9,10,15,23 Vico,Giambattista,109,110,112,
118,120
Victoria and Albert Museum (London),
246,248,253,256,266,268,
444,449
Vienna,5,14. 359-360,363,497,499,
541,542,544,546 Vigny,Alfred-Victor,Comte de,637,638 Viking Press,192,251,485,586,658 Vinci,Leonardo da,438,439,617 Virgil,185,189,190,193 Vischer,Peter,the elder,253,256,460,
463,464,479
Vitali,Tomas Battista,194,198,200 Vivarini, Alvise, Antonio, and
Bartolomeo,429,435
and from TCD to ENS,see Ecole Normale Superieure; Foundation
Scholarship,4,324,326,335,
336,338,339,340,342,451 Library,109,299,318,323,329,377 Little Go,637
Modem Languages Society,18,55,70 Sizarship,214,216
T. C. D. : A College Miscellany, 5,59,
78,80
[? ] "True-bornJackeen,",188,192 Truman and Knightley,104,112,115,
119,120 Uccello,Paolo,167,170,208,211,
253,255
Uden,Lucas van,375,377
Ulster Art Gallery and Museum (Belfast),
32,34
"Undertaker's Man," see "Malacoda " United Arts Club (Dublin),34,616,695 Universities of: Lyon,559,715
Paris,Sorbonne,55,74,109-110, 189,295,353,559,670,693,694, 702,715
Poitiers,557,559,691,715 University Colleges: Dublin (UCO),85, 267,291,304,308,309,343,506,
690,692,693,694
College Dramatic Society,305,309 Galway,491
London,691
Universities of: Cape Town,86,155,418, 502,505,510,523-528,530,535, 536,547,548,550,554,569,571
Witwatersrand,112,115 Untitled ode on public lavatory,44 "UPTHEREPUBLIC,",508,510-511 Ussher,Arlan,see Ussher Percival
Arland Ussher,Emily,475,476,510 Ussher,Henrietta Owen,475,
476,665
Ussher,Percival Arland (Percy,Arland),
122,124,149,187,191,209,211, 240,292,327,328,329,414,418, 451,475,476,508,510,511,516, 520,532,544,545,578,609,611,
780
Voight,FrederickAugustus,621,622,623 Vollard,Ambroise,298,301
Volontes, 566,568,613,614,616,620,
627,628,707 Voltaire,137,431-432,437-438 Vries,RoelofJansz de,334,336 Vulliamy,Colwayne Edward,398,399,
493,531
"The Vulture ",107,331
Wagner,Richard,26,30,134,137,144, 163,173,201,204,206,362,364, 437,460,464
Walker,John Crampton,486,491 "Walking Out," see More Pricks Than Kicks Watteau,Jean-Antoine,222,225,266,
268,361,364,431,437,443,
535-536,538,540,598,601 Waugh,Evelyn,29,707 Weaver,Harriet Shaw,21,23,69,255,
567,658,661 Webster. John,461,465
"Weg du Einzige! " see "Sanies 1 " Weimar,100,422,432,438,439,
445,477 Weise,Felix,439,445,450,477 Weise,Marie (nee Herold),439,445,
450,477
Wells,H. G. ,187,191
West. Rebecca,65,66,70,76,187,191 Westminster Theatre(London),286,353 "A Wet Night," see Dream ofFair to
Middling Women
Weyden,Rogier van der,429,436 "What a Misfortune," see More Pricks Than
Kicks
Whelan,Michael Leo,159,163 "Whiting," see "Ooftish "
Whoroscope, 17,28-29,30,32,34,41,42,
123,413,414,499,510,687,693 Wilde,Oscar,12,14,136-138 Wilson,R. N. D,122,124 Wilson,Richard,222,225,266,268,
346,347-348
Wisdom. John Oulton,446-447,451 Wishart,104,123,128,132,367 With,Pieter de,361,363,429,435 Witz,Konrad,474,475-476,629,632 Wodehouse,P. G. ,125,126 Woizikovsky,Leon,277,279
Wolf(SB's dog),418,468,471,474,475, 487,491
Wolf,Hugo,284,286,389,393 Wolfe,Thomas,427,433 Wolfenbiittel(Lower Saxony),293,
386,395,400,401,402,403,408,
411,413 Wolgemut,Michael,460,461,463,
464,479 Wollman,Maurice,455,456
Woolf, Leonard,112,114-115,117,120 Woolf,Virginia,114,115
World War I,3,56,92,347,696,700,704 World War II,374,394,395,403,404,
413,414,434,511,687,689,690,
691,700,705,706,709,714,716,717 Wiirzburg (Bavaria),417,446,455,459,
463,479,664,665
Xerxes the Great,223,226
Yeats,George(nee Bertha Georgie Hyde Lee),14,301,316
Yeats,Jack B. UBYJ,*,18,27,30,44,50, 55,59,61,65,66,88,111,113,122, 139,142,158,167,237,239,260, 263,265,267,284,291,299,301, 303,307,312,315,319,321, 328-329,342,344,345-346,361, 363,365,367,372,418,437,461, 487,490,497,500,506,508,530, 535-536,538,540,546,596, 599-600,601,602,609,613,634, 636,638,694,703,704,715-716, and passim
letter to Routledge on behalf of Murphy, 566,568,569
Paintings: Below the Gold Falls, 308
Boy and Horse, 308,486,490,497,500,
503,508 California, 601
Comer Boys, 265,267,284,287,333, 335,503,506
General index
Dancing on the Deck, 490 Dusty Rose, 370,372
An Evening in Spring, 490 The Eye ofAffection, 308 The Falls ofSheen, 308 Helen, 636,638
Life in the West ofIreland, 718
781
General index
Yeats,Jack B. OBY)," (cont. )
Little Waves ofBreffity, 486,490,497, 500,506
Low Tide,265,267,486,491
In Memory ofBoucicault and Bianconi,
538,601
Moore Street, 365,367
A Morning,291,303-304,308,312,
315,333,335,365,366,367, 368,503,506,566,568,581, 583,718
A Morning in a City,490
A Rose (also known to SB as Tyranny of
the Rose),370,372 Rose Dying, 372
Shelling Green Peas, A Stonn/Gallshion,
540,542
In Tir na n6g (The Land ofthe Young),
359,360,365,367 While Grass Grows, 490,497,
500,503
Works (literary): The Amaranthers, 328,
330,366,367,486,491
(SB's review of,292,334,335,336,
337,340,342,358,359,718) The Channed Life, 568,599,601
Yeats,Mary Cottenham (Cottie, Cotty),265,267,303,370,372,418, 486,491,497,502-503,506,636, 638,717
Yeats,William Butler,4,122,124,279, 308,310,312,315,341,354,366, 368,424,426,462,505,637,696, 699,703,706,710,717
editor,The Oxford Book ofModem Verse: 1892-1935,298,301
Works: Cathleen ni Houlihan, 639 King ofthe Great Gock Tower, 217,
218,219
"Lapis Lazuli,",500
On Baile's Strand, 639,706
Purgatory, 578,638,639,640 Resurrection, 217,218
"The Words Upon The Window Pane:
A Commentary,",152 "Yellow," see More Pricks Than Kicks "Yoke ofLiberty" (initial title "Moly "),
17,44,60,123,134,136,176,231, 235,697
Zwemmer's (bookshop,London),250, 252,625,627
782
The Letters of Samuel Beckett offers for the first time a comprehen sive range of letters of one of the greatest literary figures of the twentieth century. This volume includes letters written between 1929 and 1940. It provides a vivid and personal view of Western Europe in the 1930s, marked by the gradual emergence, against his own hesitations and the indifference or hostility of others, of Beckett's unique voice and sensibility. Even in the tentativeness of the early writing, the letters show his care for his work as well as what he must share or relinquish to allow it to have a life beyond himself. Detailed introductions, translations, explanatory notes, profiles of major correspondents, chronologies, and other contex tual information accompany the letters. For anyone interested in twentieth-century literature and theatre this edition offers not only a record of achievements but a powerful literary experience in itself.
fiotel Deutrdie troube
lnh. : H, SCHOTT Berl j n O 1 Nordon 121e Am Stettlner Fern- und Untergrundt>chnhof
Samuel Beckett to Mary Manning Howe, 13 December 1936 Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center,
The University of Texas at Austin
NAtte 8,1,hnhot fll'rl•drloh•ttoe. �nd L•1'1111W Bahnhol
Konferenzzlmmer, Restaurant, Garege Flle8endes warmes und kattes Wasser Bl! der - oo Batten
BERLIN N . . . den I nYalldenelre Be a. a
'The prospect of reading Beckett's letters quickens the blood like none other's, and one must hope to stay alive until the fourth volume is safely delivered. '
Tom Stoppard
'Knowing as we do that Samuel Beckett is
the only writer who can sum up the agonies and ecstasies of the twentieth century, if we had any doubts as to his relevance today, they would be dispelled by the amazing treasure trove contained in his letters-at last we are made privy to the full range of his passion for art and beauty, which is neither na:ive nor sentimental, to the pyrotechnics of his savage wit, and more lastingly perhaps, to his deep humanity. '
Jean-Michel Rabate, Vartan Gregorian Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania
1111 Ill
ISBN 978-0-521-86793-1
9 780521 867931 >
Where now? Who now? When now? Unquestioning. I, say I. Unbelieving. Questions, hypotheses (call them that). Keep going, going on (call that going, call that on). Can it be that one day (off it goes), that one day I simply stayed in (in where? ) instead of going out, in the old way, out to spend day and night as far away as possible? (It wasn't far. ) Perhaps that is how it began. You think you are simply resting (the better to act when the time comes, or for no reason) and you soon find yourself powerless ever to do anything again. No matter how it happened. (It, say it, not knowing what. ) Perhaps I simply assented at last to an old thing. (But I did nothing. ) I seem to speak (it is not I) about me (it is not me). These few general remarks to begin with. What am I to do (what shall I do, what should I do? ) in my situation? How proceed? By aporia pure and simple? Or by affirmations and negations invalidated as uttered (or sooner or later)? (Generally speaking. ) There must be other shifts. Otherwise it would be quite hopeless. But it is quite hopeless. (I should mention before going any further - any further on - that I say "aporia" without knowing what it means. ) Can one be ephectic otherwise than unawares? I don't know. With the yesses and noes it is different: they will come back to me as I go along. And now, like a bird, to shit on them all without exception. The fact would seem to be (if in my situation one may speak of facts) not only that I shall have to speak of things of which I cannot speak, but also (which is even more interesting) that I shall have to, I
forget, no matter. And at the same time I am obliged to speak. I shall never be silent. Never.
I shall not be alone, in the beginning. (I am of course alone. ) Alone. That is soon said. (Things have to be soon said. ) And how can one be sure, in such darkness? I shall have company. In the beginning. A few puppets. Then I'll scatter them, to the winds, if I can. And things? What is the correct attitude to adopt towards things? And (to begin with) are they necessary? What a question! But I have few illusions: things are to be expected. The best is not to decide anything (in this connection) in advance. If a thing turns up, for some reason or other, take it into consideration. Where there are people (it is said) there are things. Does this mean that when you admit the former you must also admit the latter? Time will tell. The thing to avoid (I don't know why) is the spirit of system. People with things, people without things, things without people - what does it matter? I flatter myself it will not take me long to scatter them, whenever I choose, to the winds. (I don't see how. ) The best would be not to begin. But I have to begin. That is to say I have to go on. Perhaps in the end I shall smother in a throng: incessant comings and goings, the crush and bustle of a bargain sale. No, no danger. (Of that. )
Malone is there. Of his mortal liveliness little trace remains. He passes before me at doubtless regular intervals. (Unless it is I who pass before him? No, once and for all: I do not move. ) He passes, motionless. But there will not be much on the subject of Malone, from whom there is nothing further to be hoped. Personally I do not intend to be bored. (It was while watching him pass that I wondered if we cast a shadow. Impossible to say. ) He passes close by me, a few feet away - slowly, always in the same direction. I am almost sure it is he. The brimless hat seems conclusive. With his two hands he props up his jaw. He passes without a word. Perhaps he does not see me. One of these days I'll challenge him. I'll say, I don't know, I'll say something, I'll think of something when the time comes. (There are no days here, but I use the expression. ) I see him from the waist up: he stops at the waist, as far as I am concerned. The trunk is erect. But I do not know whether he is on his feet or on his knees. (He might also be seated. ) I see him in profile. Sometimes I wonder if it is not Molloy. Perhaps it is Molloy, wearing Malone's hat. But it is more reasonable to suppose it is Malone, wearing his own hat. (Oh, look, there is the first thing! Malone's hat! ) I see no other clothes. Perhaps Molloy is not here at all. Could he be, without my knowledge? (The place is no doubt vast. Dim intermittent lights suggest a kind of distance. ) To tell the
truth I believe they are all here (at least from Murphy on). I believe we are all here. But so far I have only seen Malone. Another hypothesis: they were here, but are here no longer. I shall examine it after my fashion. Are there other pits, deeper down? To which one accedes by mine? (Stupid obsession with depth! ) Are there other places set aside for us - and this one where I am, with Malone, merely their narthex? (I thought I had done with preliminaries. ) No, no, we have all been here forever, we shall all be here for ever. I know it.
No more questions. Is not this rather the place where one finishes vanishing? Will the day come when Malone will pass before me no more? Will the day come when Malone will pass before the spot where I was? Will the day come when another will pass before me, before the spot where I was? I have no opinion, on these matters.
Were I not devoid of feeling his beard would fill me with pity. It hangs down, on either side of his chin, in two twists of unequal length. Was there a time when I too revolved thus? No, I have always been sitting here, at this selfsame spot, my hands on my knees, gazing before me like a great barn-owl in an aviary. The tears stream down my cheeks from my unblinking eyes. What makes me weep so? (From time to time. ) There is nothing saddening here. Perhaps it is liquefied brain. Past happiness in any case has clean gone from my memory, assuming it was ever there. (If I accomplish other natural functions it is unawares. ) Nothing ever troubles me. And yet I am troubled. Nothing has ever changed since I have been here. But I dare not infer from this that nothing ever will change. Let us try and see where these considerations lead. I have been here, ever since I began to be (my appearances elsewhere having been put in by other parties). All has proceeded, all this time, in the utmost calm, in the most perfect order (apart from one or two manifestations the meaning of which escapes me). (No, it is not just their meaning escapes me, my own escapes me just as much. ) Here all things. No, I shall not say it, being unable to. I owe my existence to no one: these faint fires are not of those that illuminate or burn. Going nowhere, coming from nowhere, Malone passes. These notions of forbears, of houses where lamps are lit at night, and other such: where do they come to me from?
And all these questions I ask myself? It is not in a spirit of curiosity: I cannot be silent. About myself I need know nothing. Here all is clear. No, all is not clear. But the discourse must go on. So one invents obscurities. Rhetoric. These lights, for instance (which I do not require to mean anything): what is there so strange about them, so wrong? Is it their irregularity, their instability, their shining strong one minute and weak the next, but never
beyond the power of one or two candles? Malone appears and disappears with the punctuality of clockwork, always at the same remove, the same velocity, in the same direction, the same attitude. But the play of the lights is truly unpredictable. It is only fair to say that to eyes less knowing than mine they would probably pass unseen. But even to mine do they not sometimes do so? They are perhaps unwavering and fixed, and my fitful perceiving the cause of their inconstancy. I hope I may have occasion to revert to this question. But I shall remark without further delay (in order to be sure of doing so) that I am relying on these lights (as indeed on all other similar sources of credible perplexity) to help me continue and perhaps even conclude. I resume, having no alternative. Where was I? Ah yes: from the unexceptionable order which has prevailed here up to date may I infer that such will always be the case? I may of course. But the mere fact of asking myself such a question gives me to reflect. It is in vain I tell myself that its only purpose is to stimulate the lagging discourse: this excellent explanation does not satisfy me. Can it be I am the prey of a genuine preoccupation, of a need to know as one might say? I don't know. I'll try it another way. If one day a change were to take place, resulting from a principle of disorder already present, what then? That would seem to depend on the nature of the change. (No: here all change would be fatal and land me back, there and then, in all the fun of the fair. ) I'll try it another way. Has nothing really changed since I have been here? No, frankly, hand on heart wait a second no, nothing to my knowledge. But, as I have said, the place may well be vast, as it may well measure twelve feet in diameter. It comes to the same thing, as far as discerning its limits is concerned. I like to think I occupy the centre, but nothing is less certain. In a sense I would be better off at the circumference, since my eyes are always fixed in the same direction. But I am certainly not at the circumference. For if I were it would follow that Molloy, wheeling about me as he does, would issue from the enceinte at every revolution (which is manifestly impossible). But does he in fact wheel? Does he not perhaps simply pass before me in a straight line? No, he wheels, I feel it. And about me, like a planet about its sun. And if he made a noise, as he goes, I would hear him all the time (on my right hand, behind my back, on my left hand) before seeing him again. But he makes none. For I am not deaf, of that I am convinced (that is to say half-convinced). From centre to circumference in any case it is a far cry and I may well be situated somewhere between the two. It is equally possible (I do not deny it) that I too am in perpetual motion, accompanied by Malone (as the earth by its moon). In which case there would be no further grounds for my complaining about the disorder of the lights, this being due simply to my insistence on regarding them as always the same lights and viewed
always from the same point. (All is possible - or almost. ) But the best is to think of myself as fixed and at the centre of this place (whatever its shape and extent may be). This is also probably the most pleasing to me. In a word: no change apparently since I have been here. Disorder of the lights perhaps an illusion. All change to be feared. Incomprehensible uneasiness.
That I am not stone deaf is shown by the sounds that reach me. For though the silence here is almost unbroken, it is not completely so. I remember the first sound heard in this place (I have often heard it since). For I am obliged to assign a beginning to my residence here, if only for the sake of clarity. Hell itself, although eternal, dates from the revolt of Lucifer. It is therefore permissible (in the light of this distant analogy) to think of myself as being here forever, but not as having been here forever. This will greatly help me in my relation. Memory notably (which I did not think myself entitled to draw upon) will have its word to say, if necessary. (This represents at least a thousand words I was not counting on. I may well be glad of them. ) So after a long period of immaculate silence a feeble cry was heard, by me. (I do not know if Malone heard it too. ) I was surprised (the word is not too strong): after so long a silence a little cry (stifled outright). What kind of creature uttered it - and (if it is the same) still does, from time to time? Impossible to say. Not a human one in any case, there are no human creatures here (or if there are they have done with crying). Is Malone the culprit? Am I? (Is it not perhaps a simple little fart? They can be rending. ) Deplorable mania, when something happens, to inquire what. If only I were not obliged to manifest! And why speak of a cry? Perhaps it is something breaking? Some two things colliding? There are sounds here, from time to time, let that suffice. This cry to begin with (since it was the first). And others, rather different. I am getting to know them. (I do not know them all: a man may die at the age of seventy without ever having had the possibility of seeing Halley's comet. )
It would help me, since to me too I must attribute a beginning, if I could relate it to that of my abode. Did I wait somewhere for this place to be ready to receive me? Or did it wait for me to come and people it? By far the better of these hypotheses (from the point of view of usefulness) is the former, and I shall often have occasion to fall back on it. But both are distasteful. I shall say therefore that our beginnings coincide: that this place was made for me, and I for it, at the same instant. And the sounds I do not yet know have not yet made themselves heard. But they will change nothing. (The
cry changed nothing, even the first time. And my surprise? I must have been expecting it. )
It is no doubt time I gave a companion to Malone. But first I shall tell of an incident that has only occurred once, so far. (I await its recurrence without impatience. ) Two shapes then, oblong like man, entered into collision before me. They fell and I saw them no more. (I naturally thought of the pseudo-couple Mercier-Camier. ) The next time they enter the field, moving slowly towards each other, I shall know they are going to collide, fall and disappear, and this will perhaps enable me to observe them better. Wrong. I continue to see Malone as darkly as the first time. My eyes being fixed always in the same direction I can only see (I shall not say clearly, but as clearly as the visibility permits) that which takes place immediately in front of me - that is to say (in the case before us) the collision, followed by the fall and disappearance. Of their approach I shall never obtain other than a confused glimpse, out of the corner of the eye. (And what an eye! ) For their path too must be a curve (two curves), and meeting (I need not say) close beside me. For the visibility (unless it be the state of my eyesight) only permits me to see what is close beside me. I may add that my seat would appear to be somewhat elevated, in relation to the surrounding ground. (If ground is what it is. Perhaps it is water or some other liquid. ) With the result that, in order to obtain the optimum view of what takes place in front of me, I should have to lower my eyes a little. But I lower my eyes no more. In a word: I only see what appears close beside me. What I best see I see ill.
Why did I have myself represented in the midst of men, the light of day? (It seems to me it was none of my doing. We won't go into that now. ) I can see them still, my delegates. The things they have told me! About men, the light of day! I refused to believe them. But some of it has stuck. But when, through what channels, did I communicate with these gentlemen? Did they intrude on me here? No, no one has ever intruded on me here. Elsewhere then. But I have never been elsewhere. But it can only have been from them I learnt what I know about men and the ways they have of putting up with it. (It does not amount to much. I could have dispensed with it. I don't say it was all to no purpose. I'll make use of it, if I'm driven to it. It won't be the first time. ) What puzzles me is the thought of being indebted for this information to persons with whom I can never have been in contact. Can it be innate knowledge? Like that of good and evil? This seems improbable to me. Innate knowledge of my mother (for example): is that conceivable? Not for me. She was one of their favourite
subjects, of conversation. They also gave me the low-down on God. They told me I depended on him, in the last analysis. They had it on the reliable authority of his agents at Bally-I-forget-what (this being the place - according to them - where the inestimable gift of life had been rammed down my gullet). But what they were most determined for me to swallow was my fellow-creatures. In this they were without mercy. I remember little or nothing of these lectures. I cannot have understood a great deal. But I seem to have retained certain descriptions, in spite of myself. They gave me courses on love, on intelligence (most precious, most precious). They also taught me to count, and even to reason. (Some of this rubbish has come in handy on occasions, I don't deny it - on occasions which would never have arisen if they had left me in peace. I use it still, to scratch my arse with. ) Low types they must have been, their pockets full of poison and antidote. (Perhaps all this instruction was by correspondence. And yet I seem to know their faces. From photographs perhaps? ) When did all this nonsense stop? And has it stopped? (A few last questions. ) Is it merely a lull? There were four or five of them at me: they called that presenting their report. One in particular (Basil I think he was called) filled me with hatred. Without opening his mouth, fastening on me his eyes like cinders with all their seeing, he changed me a little more each time into what he wanted me to be. Is he still glaring at me, from the shadows? Is he still usurping my name (the one they foisted on me) up there in their world, patiently, from season to season? No no, here I am in safety, amusing myself wondering who can have dealt me these insignificant wounds.
The other advances full upon me. He emerges as from heavy hangings, advances a few steps, looks at me, then backs away. He is stooping and seems to be dragging invisible burdens. What I see best is his hat. The crown is all worn through, like the sole of an old boot, giving vent to a straggle of grey hairs. He raises his eyes and I feel the long imploring gaze, as if I could do something for him. Another impression (no doubt equally false): he brings me presents and dare not give them. He takes them away again (or he lets them fall) and they vanish. He does not come often (I cannot be more precise), but regularly assuredly. His visit has never coincided, up to now, with the transit of Malone. But perhaps some day it will. That would not necessarily be a violation of the order prevailing here. For if I can work out to within a few inches the orbit of Malone (assuming perhaps erroneously that he passes before me at a distance of say three feet), with regard to the other's career I must remain in the dark. For I am incapable not only of measuring time (which in itself is sufficient to vitiate all calculation in this connection) but also of comparing their respective velocities. So I
cannot tell if I shall ever have the good fortune to see the two of them at once. But I am inclined to think I shall. For if I were never to see the two of them at once, then it would follow (or should follow) that between their respective appearances the interval never varies. No, wrong. For the interval may vary considerably (and indeed it seems to me it does) without ever being abolished. Nevertheless I am inclined to think (because of this erratic interval) that my two visitors may some day meet before my eyes, collide and perhaps even knock each other down. I have said that all things here recur sooner or later. (No, I was going to say it, then thought better of it. ) But is it not possible that this does not apply to encounters? The only encounter I ever witnessed, a long time ago now, has never yet been re-enacted. (It was perhaps the end of something. ) And I shall perhaps be delivered of Malone and the other (not that they disturb me) the day I see the two of them at one and the same time: that is to say, in collision. Unfortunately they are not the only disturbers of my peace. Others come towards me, pass before me, wheel about me. (And no doubt others still, invisible so far. ) I repeat they do not disturb me. But in the long run it might become wearisome. (I don't see how.
