I wonder did you
remember
to take the books I left at Gertrude St.
Samuel Beckett
But in all that there was nothing that struck me as morbid.
The misery & solitude & apathy & the sneers were the elements of an index of superior ity & guaranteed the feeling of arrogant "otherness", which seemed as right & natural & as little morbid as the ways in which it was not so much expressed as implied & reserved &
258
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
kept available for a possible utterance in the future. It was not
until that way of living, or rather negation of living, developed
such terrifying physical symptoms that it could no longer be
pursued, that I became aware of anything morbid in myself. In
short, if the heart had not put the fear of death into me I would
be still boozing & sneering & lounging around & feeling that I
was too good for anything else. It was with a specific fear & a
specific complaint that I went to Geoffrey, then to Bion, to learn
that the "specific fear & complaint" was the least important
symptom of a diseased condition that began in a time which I
could not remember, in my "pre-history", a bubble on the pud
dle; and that the fatuous torments which I had treasured as
denoting the superior man were all part of the same pathology.
That was the picture as I was obliged to accept it, and that is still
largely the picture, and I cannot see that it allows of any philo
sophical or ethical or Christlike imitative pentimenti, or in what
way they could redeem a composition that was invalid from the
6
Ifl cod myself with all this I cod myself & that is all. It will
7
Reavey has been active, founding a branch of his International Bureau over here, or something equally interesting. Your
259
word "go" & has to be broken up altogether.
bubbles it is because the puddle has not been drained, and the fact of its bubbling more fiercely than ever is perhaps open to receive consolation from the waste that splutters most, when the bath is nearly empty.
If the heart still
havebeenanexpensivecanular. Ihavetriedtofacethepossi bility of its failing to render the business of remaining alive tolerable, & I have not been able to. It claims to do more, but if it does as much the year of two fears or three fears will seem to me better spent than any others I can point to up till now.
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
defection at the 6 Bells was still present in his mind. I was wishing I had his precious Anthologie Surrealiste to return to him. But he will be back in a fortnight. He is full of translations, anthologies, adaptations & centos & transactions of every kind. He showed me a poem that surprised me it was so much better than anything I had seen ofhis hitherto. 8
The Lucia ember flared up & fizzled out. But more of that viva voce.
I do not see much of Hester, but it always goes very well when I go round, and we play the Pavane with special reference to the obeisances in the dance. 9
The news from home is good. I sent Mother Morton's In the
1
I spent an evening with Geoffrey and to-day I am going down to Eden Park to spend afternoon & evening. He is in excellent form and is now attached to the outpatients psychological department at Bart's, so that he can proceed to little analyses on his own! 11
I went to the Lener playing the Rasumovsky Quartets at Queen's Hall yesterday & was very disappointed. Their playing seemed dry & finickety to the point of Old Maidishness & Ludvig never so Rembrandtesque. 12
Stella's exhibition with Louise Jacobs & Mary Duncan was really lamentable. She had a 10 year old portrait of Jack Yeats priced at £100! The place was packed with the chosen & faithful for the opening day. I was talking to Louise Jacobs, on whose work alone the eye could rest, & who personally seems an agreeable woman. 13 Seumas says he will publish my four wan lines about the surrogate goodbyes in his April number. But that means nothing. 14
I have been reading Wahrheit und Dichtung in Hester's copy and have got to the Strassberg [for Strasburg] period & contact
260
StepsoftheMasterforherbirthday&shewasdelighted. °Frank never writes.
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
with Herder. I find parts of it absorbing, for example the literary picture during his Leipzig phase. The early years in Frankfurt, long description ofcrowning ofKing ofHesse etc. , are dull. What an awful shit ofa Father he had. 15 They are doing The Alchemist at the Embassy next week & I hope to go. What an admirable dramatic unity of place the besieged house provides & how much he makes of it. The feverish, obsidional atmosphere of Nourri dans le serail etc-16
I spend most of my time, when not with Bion or walking, reading on top of the fire. Snow yesterday. I occasionally see Maccarthy. Ethna has had her picture taken away for removal to Dublin. 17
Do hurry up & come over.
My best wishes for comfort & contentment to your mother. The Spring should make things a bit gayer for her.
Love ever Sam
ALS; 3 leaves, 6 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co Kerry. Irish Free State; pm 11-3-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/73. Dating: from pm; concert by Lener Quartet at Queen's Hall, 9 March 1935.
1 SB may use the term "Grillen," as Goethe frequently did, "to denote his moodi ness and troubles" (Mark Nixon, '"Scraps ofGerman': Samuel Beckett reading German Literature," Notes Diverse Halo, Special issue SBT/A 16 [2006[ 265).
2 German-borntheologianThomasaKempis(neThomasHaernrnerlein,1380-1471) wrote what is known in English as The Imitation of Christ in 1441; it was first published in 1471. Latin citations that follow in this and related notes are from Thomas a Kempis, De imitatione Christi libri quatuor: sacrae scripturae textuum adnotatione et variis rerum indiabus lorupletata, new edn. (Mechliniae, Belgium: H. Dessain, 1921); sections and subsections of the text are given in roman numerals followed by the page reference in arabic numerals. Modern English translations are taken from Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, ed. Ernest Rhys, EveI}'1l1an's Library (London: J. M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1910), which is widely available. Rhys's translation is based on the first English translation, De imitatione Christi, ed. J. K. Ingram, Early English Text Society Extra Series (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Turner and Co. , 1893). For the convenience of readers as well as scholors of the classical text, page references are given to both English translations. SB's notes are in his Notebook for
261
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
Dream of Fair to Middling Women, BIF, UoR, MS 5000; see Pilling (ed. ), Beckett's Dream Notebook, 80-87.
"Qui melius scit pati, majorem tenebit pacem" (II. iii, 87) ("He that can well suffer shall find most peace") (Rhys, 66; Ingram, 43).
"Nolle consolari ab aliqua creatura, magnae puritatis, et internae fiduciae signum est" (II. vi, 93) ("For a man not to wish to be comforted by any creature is a token ofgreat purity") (Rhys, 72; Ingram, 47).
"Per viam pacis, ad patriam perpetuae claritatis" (III. lxiv, 296) ("Direct him by the way of peace to the country of everlasting clearness") (Rhys, 228; Ingram, 150).
3 In"OfEschewingSuperfluityofWords"(l. x),ThomasaKempisaskswhywedo not simply avoid conversation, since "seldom we come home without hurting of conscience"; he suggests that "we seek comfort each from the other and to relieve the heart that is made weary with divers thoughts," but concludes that "such outward comfort is a great hindering ofinward and heavenly consolation" (Rhys, 16; Ingram, 11).
From I. xx, "OfLove ofSilence and to Be Alone," Thomas a Kempis cites: "Be ye sorry in your chambers" (from Isaiah 26:20) (Rhys, 37; Ingram, 25). He advises withdrawal from the world: "Laetus exitus tristem saepe reditum parit: et laeta vigilia serotina triste mane facit" ("glad going out ofttimes bringeth forth a sorrowful coming home and a glad watching over evening bringeth forth a sorry morning") (Rhys, 38; Ingram, 25).
From N. xii, "With how great Diligence he ought to prepare himself that should receive the Sacrament of Christ. " Thomas a Kempis's advice is to shut oneself in as "passer solitarius in tecto" ("a solitary bird under the evesings leaves]") (Rhys, 268; Ingram, 276).
4 "Pleroma"(Gk. ,fullness,abundance),relatedtoGnosticism.
From Kempis, l. v, "Of Reading of the Scriptures": "If thou wilt draw profit in reading read meekly simply and truly, not desiring to have a name of knowledge" (Rhys, 10; Ingram, 107).
"Oeuvres pies" (works of piety).
SB seems to be quoting from McGreevy's letter to him which has not been found.
5 "Pretiosamargarita"(preciouspearl),ananalogytotheKingdomofHeaven(see Matthew 13:45-46).
Thomas a Kempis wrote: "Quam multi ore tenus praedicant, sed vita longe dissen tiunt: ipsa tamen est pretiosa margarita, a multis absc6ndita" (III. xxxvii, 213) ("Many preach with the mouth but in living they depart far therefrom. Nevertheless it is a precious margaret (pearl) and hid from many") (Rhys, 167; Ingram, 108).
SB wrote "<terrors> shudders. " "Macche" (It. colloq. , Come off it! ). 6 "Pentimenti"(actsofcontrition).
7 "Canular"(EcoleNormaleSuperieureslang,practicaljoke).
8 WithMarcLvovichSlonim(1894-1976),GeorgeReaveyhadfoundedtheBureau Litteraire Europeen, 4, Square Leon Guillot, Paris XV; for several years, following work on The European Caravan, he had been interested in establishing a London base for his agency as the European Literary Bureau.
The Six Bells was a pub on King's Road near Glebe Place, Chelsea. Petite Anthologie poetique du surrealisme, ed. Georges Hugnet (Paris: Editions Jeanne Bucher, 1934).
With Slonim, Reavey edited and translated from the Russian Soviet Literature: An Anthology (London: Wishart and Co. , 1933; tr. into French as Anthologie de la litterature
262
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
sovietique, 1918-1934 [Paris: Gallimard, 19351). His edition ofPaul Eluard's poems, Thorns of Thunder, included many translated by SB; it was released in conjunction with The International Surrealist Exhibition in London (11 June to 4 July 1936).
Reavey had embarked on the first of his translations of the works of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948), Smysl istorii (1923; The Meaning of History, 1936).
Reavey's current poetry was based on centos: e. g. the two collections he published in 1935: Faust's Metamorphoses: Poems; Nostradam: A Sequence of Poems, Europa Poets 1 (Paris: Europa Press, 1935); Signes d'adieu (Frailty of Love), tr. Pierre Chamay, Europa Poets (Paris: Editions Europa, 1935). It is not known which poem Reavey had shown SB.
9 LuciaJoyceinLondon:see20February[1935],n. 10.
SB and Hester Dowden were playing Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante defunte for piano,
four hands (24 February 1931, n. 4).
10 In the Steps of the Master (1934) by H[enry] V[ollam] Morton (1892-1979). May Beckett's birthday was 1 March.
11 Eden Park, an area of southeast London, near Beckenham. St. Bartholomew's Hospital (Barts). Westsmithfield, London, EC 1.
12 TheLenerStringQuartetplayedallofBeethoven'sRasumovskyQuartets,op. 59,at Queen's Hall on 9 March 1935.
13 The exhibition Landscapes from Donegal to Yorkshire: 20 February [1935], n. 15.
Estella Solomons's portrait ofJack Yeats, painted in 1922, is now in the collection of the Sligo County Library and Museum; she had included her portraits in the exhibition at the urging of Louise Jacobs (Louise Jacobs to Stella Solomons Starkey, 10 October 1934, TCD, MS 4644/1208). Jacobs's paintings included landscapes (The Cafe Montmartre, A Tournament in Toyland, Red Roofs of Whitby) as well as portraits (TCD, MS 4644/3521; Michael Jacobs).
14 SBwasdisappointed:"TheDublinMagazineisout,butmypoemnotin"(SBto McGreevy, 26 April 1935, TCD, MS 10402/74). In a letter to Leventhal, SB wrote: "[O'Sullivan] has a quatrain ofmine, due in the last awful issue, but perhaps he has smoked its indiscriminate application to death-bed & whoral turns"; SB enclosed the poem "Da Tagte Es" (7 August [1935], TxU).
15 Goethe's autobiography Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit (1811-1833; Memoirs of Goethe: Written by Himself ). SB may have read an edition that presented the title in "inverted word order," namely Aus meinem Leben: Wahrheit und Dichtung, of which there are several. Notes on his reading of Goethe can be found in TCD, MS 10971/1; for a description: Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10971/1: German Literature," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue SBT/A 16 (2006) 115-116, 120-123.
SB had read as far as Goethe's meeting with the German philosopher, Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) (Book X). Goethe himself depicts his father as imperious, yet respected.
16 TheactionofBenJonson'sTheAlchemist(1610)issetinasinglehouseofadoctor. SB quotes from Racine's Bajazet (1672): "Nourri dans le serail, j'en connais ! es detours"
263
10 March {1935), McGreevy
("In the Seraglio reared, I know its ways") Uean Racine, Bajazet [Paris:Editions du Seuil, 1947] 124; Jean Racine, Complete Plays, II, tr. Samuel Solomon, [New York: Modem Library, 1969] 64).
17 MacCarthy'spainting:see20February[1935],n. 13.
GEORGE REAVEY PARSI
[15 March 1935]
34 Gertrude St London S. W. 19.
[no greeting]
Not Poems after all, but: Echo's Bones, and Other Precipitates.
2
TPCI; 1 leaf, 2 sides; to Monsieur George Reavey, Bureau LitteraireEuropeen, Rue Bonaparte 13, Paris 6me; pm 15-3-35, London, pm 16-3-35, Paris; AN recto, in another hand Giacometti, 46 Rue Hippolyte, XVI Maindron Rue d'Alesia; AN verso, in another hand 6 March 1935; TxU. Dating: from pm.
1 Forthetitleofthebook,SBchosethetitleofthefinalpoeminthecollection. 2 "C'estplusmodeste. "(Itismoremodest. )
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
5/5/35 Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
My dear Tom
Glad to hear that Devlin's visit was a success. Did you see his
poem in Saturday's Irish Times? An agreeable change from all
1
1
C'est plus modeste. S. B.
the Hymns Ancient & Modern.
264
Except for the heart bad a couple of nights, things have been
pretty well with me. I have been a lot with Mother, & note with
pleasure that she forgets to be wretched more often than for
merly. Also walking enormously. Quando il piede cammina il
2
Madame, from 3 to past 6, and saw some quite new pictures. He
seems to be having a freer period. The one in the Academy - Low
Tide - bought by Meredith for the Municipal is overwhelming. 3
He can only recall my watercolour very vaguely, as being prob
4
the advisability of your not failing to apply for the Gallery, though
saying nothing to make it appear that he was in the know. 5 He
had some story from Miss Purser of the Lun;:at, now exposed in
the Municipal, having been attacked with spits & sticks. In the
end we went out, down to Charlemont House to find out about
Sunday opening, & then to Jury's for a drink. He parted as usual
with an offer to buy me a Herald. I hope to see him again before
6
I went one evening with Leventhal to see Ethna. She has some kind of a job in the Castle. The Pourbus seems held up
7
I have found some charming and playable de Falla of my own.
I am getting on well with the Torre. It is a pity that he can't keep off the flowers of speech. The precedent hunting seems very brilliant, though I imagine a historian would cavil at the Revolution as merely an episode in a national tradition of anti feudalism, and at the sequitur from the rejection of the Reform
to the convocation of the States General. But for me the simpli
5 May 1935, McGreevy
cuore gode.
Yesterday afternoon I had Jack Yeats all to myself, not even
ablythefishmarketinSligo. Hewasaskingforyou,andstressed
I leave, but do not expect ever to have him like that again.
[. . . ]
indefinitelyintheCustoms. ShelentmetwovolumesofAlbeniz.
8
fication & easy going dogmatism is good enough.
9
265
5 May 1935, McGreevy [. . . ]
I suppose you remember the little Del Mazo Musicians in the Gallery. I seem to remember your having spoken of it as a pet of yours. It is charming, with something of Watteau in it. The Wilson Tivoli views are good, one is almost a replica of the one in Dulwich. 10
Second lesson at church this evening was the passage of Christ's commission to Peter. "Care my lambs, care my sheep, care my sheep", & the "Peter, lovest thou me" thrice. Poor Peter, he was always getting it in threes. Anyway I remembered the Raphael Cartoon of the Commission, & the rest of the service was easy, even a sermon all about demes & 1/120th part of a [? lav] per caput (si on peut dire). 11
Dublin is lovely with no trams & buses, the hills & sea seem to have crept nearer. 12
I expect to stay the month, which means I would be back in London to-morrow fortnight. I don't want to accept this life quite yet, but I loathe the thought of returning to London. However, it must be.
I wonder did you remember to take the books I left at Gertrude St. to the library?
No news from Geoffrey. C'est ! 'amour.
13
ALS; 3 leaves. 6 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 6-5-35, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/75.
1 Denis Devlin had joined the Department of External Affairs and was traveling in connection with his work. Devlin's poem "Moments" was in three parts, each beginning from a specific observation; whereas earlier poems had been drawn principally from religious or historical contexts ("Moments," The Irish Times 4 May 1935: 7; see Denis Devlin, Collected Poems ofDenis Devlin, ed. J. C. C. Mays [Dublin: Dedalus Press, 1989] 93-99, 107-108).
266
Schone Griisse to Hester & Dilly. Love ever
Sam
5 May 1935, McGreevy 2 "Quando ii piede cammina ii cuore gode" (When the foot walks, the heart
gladdens). Source unknown, probably proverbial.
3 YeatswasawareofSB'spreference,ashewrotetoMcGreevyon13February1935: "I tried to get Beckett on the phone one day but he was away. I wanted to arrange a day for him to come here - when there wouldn't be other visitors as he doesn't so much like having them about" (TCD, MS 10381/125). His wife was artist Mary Cottenham Yeats(nee White, known as Cottie, 1867-1947).
Low Tide(1935, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, no. 727; Pyle 454) was shown in the 1935 Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition; it was sold to Justice James Creed Meredith(1875-1942), who in 1937 presented it to the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art(Pyle. Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, I, 312; III, 196).
4 ThewatercolorisCornerBoys(privatecollection,Pyle701)(Pyle,JackB. Yeats:His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels [Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993] 165).
5 ThepositionofDirectoroftheNationalGalleryoflrelandwasadvertisedfortwo weeks from 9 April 1935; the advertisement announced a closing date for applications of 21 May 1935 and stated that "Personal canvassing of members of the Board is prohibited" (The Irish Times 9 April 1935: 6). Jack Yeats counseled McGreevy: "I wish you were certain to get the directorship of the National Gallery here. I am sure you have a good chance"(13 February 1935, TCD, MS 10381/125); later he sent a copy of the advertisement, and wrote: "I daresay that the field will be so overwhelming on each other that, if you came ghost up along, determinedly, you might, just, get it"(15 April 1935, TCD MS 10381/126). Brian Coffey, whose father Dr. Denis Coffey(1865-1945) was President of University College Dublin and a member of the Board, also encouraged McGreevy(16 May 1935, TCD MS 8110/19). McGreevy applied for the position on 18 May, but he was not invited to interview.
6 TheattackonLurc;:at'sDecorativeLandscape(DublinCityGalleryTheHughLane,no. 709) was reported to the City Manager by the Curator, John J. Reynolds(n. d. , Curator from 14 April 1924 to 30 September 1935)(26, 27 April 1935, Records of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art). SB reported to McGreevy: "A large hole was clean through the middle sky, with scratches extending left to the 'magic' ! edgy passage, & what looked like spit marks"(15 May 1935, TCD, MS MS 10402/76). Sarah Purser, Dublin artist and art patron, had accepted the Lurc;:at painting on behalf of the Society of Friends of the National Collections of Ireland: 4 November [for 3 November 1932], n. 4. SB writes about the damage in "La Peinture des van Velde ou le Monde et le Pantalon," Cahiers d'Art, 20-21(1945-1946) 349; rpt. in Samuel Beckett, Disjecta, 119.
Jury's Hotel was then located at 6-8 College Green; Yeats was a regular reader of the Evening Herald(1891- ).
7 Ethna MacCarthy's painting by Pourbus: see 20 February [1935], n. 13. Her posi tion in Dublin Castle is not known.
8 ItisnotknownwhichofthepianoscoresofIsaacAlbenizhadbeenlenttoSBby Ethna Maccarthy. Manuel de Falla's compositions for piano are numerous and include piano adaptations of music from his ballet scores.
9 GuillermodeTorre(1900-1971),Spanishcritic,wasamemberofanexperimental poetic movement, "ultraism"(fl. 1919-1923); in South America it included such poets as Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) and Chilean poet and diplomat
267
5 May 1935, McGreevy
Pablo Neruda (ne Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, 1904-1973). SB may have been read ing Torre's Literaturas europeas de vanguardia (1925); Torre was a founder of La Gaceta Literaria (Madrid) and had contributed to The New Review 1,4 (Winter 1931-1932).
10 The Musicians (NG! 659) by Spanish painter Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo (c. 1613-1667) is compared to paintings by Antoine Watteau. Of the two paintings by Richard Wilson in the collection of the National Gallery oflreland, A View of Tivoli over the Campagna (NG! 746) and A View of Tivoli (NG! 747), the first is more similar in composition to Dulwich's Tivoli, the Cascatelle and the "Villa ofMaecenas" (DPG 171).
11 Christ's commission to Peter Uohn 21:15-17) was one of the lessons in the Jectionary appointed for the evening service on the second Sunday after Easter (5 May 1935).
SB refers to Christ's Charge to Peter, one of the seven Raphael cartoons in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (see 20 February [1935], n. 12; www. vam. ac. ukf).
SB's reference to "Demes" is unclear. A legal term of minimum repayment is 1/120th part of the remains of a debt. The second lesson for the evening service was Philippians 3:7-21; verse 9 speaks of the difference between worldly possession and faith: "not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but . . . the righteousness which is of God by Faith" (The Book of Common Prayer . . . The Church of Ireland [Dublin: Association for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Church of Ireland, 1927] xxxvii).
"Si on peut dire" (to put it that way).
12 TramandbusdriverswereonstrikeinDublin;serviceresumedonlyon18May 1935 ("Sixty Days of Tramway Strike," The Irish Times 1 May 1935: 8; "Trams and Buses To-Day," The Irish Times 18 May 1935: 9).
13 SBreferstoThompson'scourtshipofUrsulaStenhouse;"c'est! 'amour"(it'slove). "Schone Griisse" (warm greetings). Hester Dowden, Geraldine Cummins (Dilly).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London s_w. 10
Cher ami
Nostradamus et Michel de ! 'Hospital en collaboration,
1
astres et cadastres, vraie cellule de l'histoire. Tes poemes en retirent la membrane. Poles et principes male et femelle, cast agnettes de meme si tu veux, c'est plutot a celui-ci que je me surprends a songer par tous les secteurs de ton cycle, ce qui est
268
imprevisible, celle du tres Saint-Barthelemy, qui n'est apres tout
qu'une fa�on de . . gemir, et dont le firmament n'est guere plus
3
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London S. W. 10
Dear George,
Nostradamus and Michel de l'Hospital in collaboration, cel
estial bodies and terrestrial plots, a true cell of history. 1 Your poems pull the membrane from it. Male and female poles and principles, ditto castanets if you like, this is the one I catch myself musing over through all the sectors of your cycle, which is no doubt part of your design. 2 But congratulations above all on that threat or promise, swelling like some orgasm whose term is unpredictable, of the very Saintly Bartholomew, which is after all only a manner of . . . moaning, something no more consoling to the firmament than afart on fire. 3
All signs are offarewell. 4 Let me have one all the same. All the best
Sam
1 For the sequence of poems Nostradam, Reavey cites as an epigraph lines from D. H. Lawrence's poem '"The Ship of Death":
269
23 May 1935, Reavey
danstondesseinsansdoute. 2 Maisfelicitationsavanttoutdecette
menace ou promesse grandissant comme orgasme a echeance
console que d'un pet en combustion.
Taus les signes sont d'adieu. 4 Ll. che-moi en [for Lache-m'en]
un tout de meme. Amities
s/ Sam
ALS; 1 leaf. 1 side; TxU.
23 May 1935, Reavey
"Build then the ship ofdeath, for you must take The longest journey[,] to oblivion.
And die the death, the long and painful death That lies between the old selfand the new. " ([31)
The poems in the first section ofNostradam, "A Word for Nostradamus" (9-22), explore political and religious upheaval following the death ofHemy II (1519-1559), as predicted by French physician and astrologer Nostradamus (Latin name ofMichel de Notredame, 1503-1566). Michel de ! 'Hospital (c. 1505-1573) represented Henry II at the Council ofTrent (1545-1563), and, after the King's death, became Chancellor ofFrance from 1560 to 1568; he advocated policy reform and religious toleration, but as the Wars of Religion (Catholics vs. Huguenots) resumed in 1567, L'Hospital and the moderates were discredited.
Reavey's epigraph for this section is drawn from Nostradamus, I, 53, although it modernizes some words:
"Lorsqu'on [for Las qu'on] verra grand peuple tourmente Et la Joy sainte [for Loy Saincte] en totale ruine
Par autres fois [for loix] toute la Chrestiente Quand d'or d'argent trouve nouvelle mine. "
("Alas, how a great people shall be tormented
And the Holy Laws in total ruin,
By other laws, all Christianity troubled,
When new mines ofgold and silver will be found. ")
(The Complcte Prophecies ofNostradamus, ed. and tr. Henry C. Roberts, [New York: Crown, 1947] 26)
Reavey dedicated the poem "Tell me that Dream" to SB; it considers Nostradamus's dream ofdeath (Nostradam, 13).
2 ThesecondsequenceofsixpoemsinReavey'sNostradamisentitled"ALaBelle Dame -Sans Merci" (21-28). SB alludes to the contrasts between the two sections of Nostradam.
3 On the feast day of St. Bartholomew in 1572, a massacre of French Huguenots began in Paris and continued in the countryside for a month.
"Fa�on de . . gemir" (manner of. . moaning, adapted from "fa�on de parler" [manner ofspeaking])
4 SBalludestoReavey'sSignesd'adieu. GEORGE REAVEY
LONDON
23/6/35 34 Gertrude St London SW 10
270
plaisent plus que tout ce que j'ai lu de toi jusqu'ici.
Comme
articulation - lyrisme succinct, pensee qui n'insiste pas, litote
sans secheresse - ils ne risquent guere de se perdre. (Femmes si
2
23 June 1935, Reavey
Cher ami
Oui, elle et lui foyers de la vie ellipse de solitudes. On finira
bien par ne plus se donner la peine de verifier les distances.
Je suis bien aise de pouvoir te dire que tes Signes me
1
reelles et quatre derniers vers de Souci Tristesse).
Mais c'est
avant tout comme temperament que j'en admire la qualite,
temperament que je ne me souviens pas d'avoir trouve ailleurs
sinon dans les ! I"agiques de Jouve, qui l'a toutefois beaucoup
3
traduction est excellente. Merci infiniment.
A toi Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
Dear George
Yes, he and she sources oflife ellipsis ofsolitudes. We shall
end up not troubling to check the distances.
I am very pleased to be able to tell you that I like your Signes
1
plus indique.
Je n'ai pas besoin de }'original pour comprendre que la
4
more than anything I've read ofyours up till now.
As articu
lation - succinct lyricism, unobtrusive thought, litotes with
out dryness - they are in no danger oflosing their way. ("Femmes
2
sireelles"andlastfourlinesof"Soucitristesse"). Butitisabove all for their temperament that I admire the quality of them, a temperament that I cannot remember finding anywhere except in Jouve's Tragiques, where in any case it is much more insistent. 3
271
23 June 1935, Reavey
I do not need the original to understand that the translation
4
Yours Sam
1 Reavey,Signesd'adieu. 2 Reavey'spoem:
Femmes si reelles votre realite n'est pas sure quant a ce qui est des caresses
signes d'adieu d'etoiles mourantes apposition des mains mesintelligence
des levres et des yeux l'enchainement de certains moments et l'inconsequence de la plupart.
SB discusses the four last lines of:
Souci tristesse
ainsi parle cette musique
mais le coeur s'y laisserait prendre? Jamais! c'est une ravine ou ! 'on s'affaisse 6 destin plus fort que l'acier
et plus puissant que tout vouloir
ii est la tapi dans cette musique
et le desir vous effleure
mais dans Jes failles des montagnes
la neige s'ecoule en torrents.
is excellent.
Very many thanks
(21)
(16) 3 Tragiques(1923),acollectionofpoemsbyPierre-Jeanjouve(1887-1976).
4 Signesd'adieu,theFrenchtranslationofReavey'spoems:10March[1935],n. 8;an English edition, Frailty ofLove, was announced, but it was not published.
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, IRELAND
8 Sep [1935] 34 Gertrude St [London]
272
8 September {1935}, McGreevy The discrepancy between mind and body is terrible. It is
1
I have been as you know me. I miss you greatly. I had a card
2
round, less Cytherean. We had a lovely walk in Battersea Park. 3
I would like to live in a perpetual September. One does one's best
to prefer Spring, in vain. I had a letter from Simon & Schuster,
asking to see all available material. I told Chatto's to send Proust &
Pricks. Parsons expressed himself overcome by the sound of my
voice after so long. Were he not just on the point of going on
holiday, etc. When could Chatto's look forward to hearing from
me in my hack's capacity. So long now since. No news of Charles
if not a card from the midlands, where wonderful dinners are
4
of proofs which have not come. The Undertaker's Man is the
hardest to mitigate. It never was a poem and the best I can do
now is to cut my losses. Yet it has something that will not let me
leave it out altogether. They will provoke the irritated guffaw &
heehaw all right. Deja quelquechose. I have also been working
5
Miss Costello turned up from Las Palrnas, but Poggioli was the best I could put up. Their spaghetti alla B. are very aphrodis iac, pace Geoffrey and the courting extremists. We went to a brief Spanish colour film in Tottenham Court Rd. , La Cucaracha. 6 That
273
My dear Tom
somethingthatthefourofyouaretogether. Andthatyouhave been able to feel close to her if only briefly. May it all be over soon, for her and for you all.
from Hester announcing remove to Sorrento. Geoffrey was
being had by him. No inquiries for you.
I have been working over the poems, in the expectation
at other stuff, I fear involontairement trivial. Well if it is so and I am so, amen. Really anything at all is better than the perpetual blankness and obliteration before the fact. I hope to keep at it.
8 September {1935}, McGreevy
cooled me off. And a good thing, with such an unclitoridian companion.
[. . . ]
I begin to think I have gerontophilia on top of the rest. The
little shabby respectable old men you see on Saturday afternoon
and Sunday, pottering about doing odd jobs in the garden, or
flying kites immense distances at the Round Pond, Kensington.
Yesterday there was a regular club ofthe latter, with a sprinkling
of grandchildren, sitting in a crescent waiting for a wind. The
kites lying in the grass with their long tails beautifully cared for,
all assembled and ready. For they bring them in separate pieces,
the sticks and tail rolled up in the canvas and a huge spool of
string. Some have boats as well, but not the real enthusiasts.
Then great perturbation to get them off at the first breath of
wind. They fly them almost out of sight, yesterday it was over
the trees to the south, into an absolutely cloudless viridescent
evening sky.
258
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
kept available for a possible utterance in the future. It was not
until that way of living, or rather negation of living, developed
such terrifying physical symptoms that it could no longer be
pursued, that I became aware of anything morbid in myself. In
short, if the heart had not put the fear of death into me I would
be still boozing & sneering & lounging around & feeling that I
was too good for anything else. It was with a specific fear & a
specific complaint that I went to Geoffrey, then to Bion, to learn
that the "specific fear & complaint" was the least important
symptom of a diseased condition that began in a time which I
could not remember, in my "pre-history", a bubble on the pud
dle; and that the fatuous torments which I had treasured as
denoting the superior man were all part of the same pathology.
That was the picture as I was obliged to accept it, and that is still
largely the picture, and I cannot see that it allows of any philo
sophical or ethical or Christlike imitative pentimenti, or in what
way they could redeem a composition that was invalid from the
6
Ifl cod myself with all this I cod myself & that is all. It will
7
Reavey has been active, founding a branch of his International Bureau over here, or something equally interesting. Your
259
word "go" & has to be broken up altogether.
bubbles it is because the puddle has not been drained, and the fact of its bubbling more fiercely than ever is perhaps open to receive consolation from the waste that splutters most, when the bath is nearly empty.
If the heart still
havebeenanexpensivecanular. Ihavetriedtofacethepossi bility of its failing to render the business of remaining alive tolerable, & I have not been able to. It claims to do more, but if it does as much the year of two fears or three fears will seem to me better spent than any others I can point to up till now.
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
defection at the 6 Bells was still present in his mind. I was wishing I had his precious Anthologie Surrealiste to return to him. But he will be back in a fortnight. He is full of translations, anthologies, adaptations & centos & transactions of every kind. He showed me a poem that surprised me it was so much better than anything I had seen ofhis hitherto. 8
The Lucia ember flared up & fizzled out. But more of that viva voce.
I do not see much of Hester, but it always goes very well when I go round, and we play the Pavane with special reference to the obeisances in the dance. 9
The news from home is good. I sent Mother Morton's In the
1
I spent an evening with Geoffrey and to-day I am going down to Eden Park to spend afternoon & evening. He is in excellent form and is now attached to the outpatients psychological department at Bart's, so that he can proceed to little analyses on his own! 11
I went to the Lener playing the Rasumovsky Quartets at Queen's Hall yesterday & was very disappointed. Their playing seemed dry & finickety to the point of Old Maidishness & Ludvig never so Rembrandtesque. 12
Stella's exhibition with Louise Jacobs & Mary Duncan was really lamentable. She had a 10 year old portrait of Jack Yeats priced at £100! The place was packed with the chosen & faithful for the opening day. I was talking to Louise Jacobs, on whose work alone the eye could rest, & who personally seems an agreeable woman. 13 Seumas says he will publish my four wan lines about the surrogate goodbyes in his April number. But that means nothing. 14
I have been reading Wahrheit und Dichtung in Hester's copy and have got to the Strassberg [for Strasburg] period & contact
260
StepsoftheMasterforherbirthday&shewasdelighted. °Frank never writes.
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
with Herder. I find parts of it absorbing, for example the literary picture during his Leipzig phase. The early years in Frankfurt, long description ofcrowning ofKing ofHesse etc. , are dull. What an awful shit ofa Father he had. 15 They are doing The Alchemist at the Embassy next week & I hope to go. What an admirable dramatic unity of place the besieged house provides & how much he makes of it. The feverish, obsidional atmosphere of Nourri dans le serail etc-16
I spend most of my time, when not with Bion or walking, reading on top of the fire. Snow yesterday. I occasionally see Maccarthy. Ethna has had her picture taken away for removal to Dublin. 17
Do hurry up & come over.
My best wishes for comfort & contentment to your mother. The Spring should make things a bit gayer for her.
Love ever Sam
ALS; 3 leaves, 6 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, Tarbert, Limerick, Co Kerry. Irish Free State; pm 11-3-35, London; TCD, MS 10402/73. Dating: from pm; concert by Lener Quartet at Queen's Hall, 9 March 1935.
1 SB may use the term "Grillen," as Goethe frequently did, "to denote his moodi ness and troubles" (Mark Nixon, '"Scraps ofGerman': Samuel Beckett reading German Literature," Notes Diverse Halo, Special issue SBT/A 16 [2006[ 265).
2 German-borntheologianThomasaKempis(neThomasHaernrnerlein,1380-1471) wrote what is known in English as The Imitation of Christ in 1441; it was first published in 1471. Latin citations that follow in this and related notes are from Thomas a Kempis, De imitatione Christi libri quatuor: sacrae scripturae textuum adnotatione et variis rerum indiabus lorupletata, new edn. (Mechliniae, Belgium: H. Dessain, 1921); sections and subsections of the text are given in roman numerals followed by the page reference in arabic numerals. Modern English translations are taken from Thomas a Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, ed. Ernest Rhys, EveI}'1l1an's Library (London: J. M. Dent; New York: E. P. Dutton, 1910), which is widely available. Rhys's translation is based on the first English translation, De imitatione Christi, ed. J. K. Ingram, Early English Text Society Extra Series (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Turner and Co. , 1893). For the convenience of readers as well as scholors of the classical text, page references are given to both English translations. SB's notes are in his Notebook for
261
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
Dream of Fair to Middling Women, BIF, UoR, MS 5000; see Pilling (ed. ), Beckett's Dream Notebook, 80-87.
"Qui melius scit pati, majorem tenebit pacem" (II. iii, 87) ("He that can well suffer shall find most peace") (Rhys, 66; Ingram, 43).
"Nolle consolari ab aliqua creatura, magnae puritatis, et internae fiduciae signum est" (II. vi, 93) ("For a man not to wish to be comforted by any creature is a token ofgreat purity") (Rhys, 72; Ingram, 47).
"Per viam pacis, ad patriam perpetuae claritatis" (III. lxiv, 296) ("Direct him by the way of peace to the country of everlasting clearness") (Rhys, 228; Ingram, 150).
3 In"OfEschewingSuperfluityofWords"(l. x),ThomasaKempisaskswhywedo not simply avoid conversation, since "seldom we come home without hurting of conscience"; he suggests that "we seek comfort each from the other and to relieve the heart that is made weary with divers thoughts," but concludes that "such outward comfort is a great hindering ofinward and heavenly consolation" (Rhys, 16; Ingram, 11).
From I. xx, "OfLove ofSilence and to Be Alone," Thomas a Kempis cites: "Be ye sorry in your chambers" (from Isaiah 26:20) (Rhys, 37; Ingram, 25). He advises withdrawal from the world: "Laetus exitus tristem saepe reditum parit: et laeta vigilia serotina triste mane facit" ("glad going out ofttimes bringeth forth a sorrowful coming home and a glad watching over evening bringeth forth a sorry morning") (Rhys, 38; Ingram, 25).
From N. xii, "With how great Diligence he ought to prepare himself that should receive the Sacrament of Christ. " Thomas a Kempis's advice is to shut oneself in as "passer solitarius in tecto" ("a solitary bird under the evesings leaves]") (Rhys, 268; Ingram, 276).
4 "Pleroma"(Gk. ,fullness,abundance),relatedtoGnosticism.
From Kempis, l. v, "Of Reading of the Scriptures": "If thou wilt draw profit in reading read meekly simply and truly, not desiring to have a name of knowledge" (Rhys, 10; Ingram, 107).
"Oeuvres pies" (works of piety).
SB seems to be quoting from McGreevy's letter to him which has not been found.
5 "Pretiosamargarita"(preciouspearl),ananalogytotheKingdomofHeaven(see Matthew 13:45-46).
Thomas a Kempis wrote: "Quam multi ore tenus praedicant, sed vita longe dissen tiunt: ipsa tamen est pretiosa margarita, a multis absc6ndita" (III. xxxvii, 213) ("Many preach with the mouth but in living they depart far therefrom. Nevertheless it is a precious margaret (pearl) and hid from many") (Rhys, 167; Ingram, 108).
SB wrote "<terrors> shudders. " "Macche" (It. colloq. , Come off it! ). 6 "Pentimenti"(actsofcontrition).
7 "Canular"(EcoleNormaleSuperieureslang,practicaljoke).
8 WithMarcLvovichSlonim(1894-1976),GeorgeReaveyhadfoundedtheBureau Litteraire Europeen, 4, Square Leon Guillot, Paris XV; for several years, following work on The European Caravan, he had been interested in establishing a London base for his agency as the European Literary Bureau.
The Six Bells was a pub on King's Road near Glebe Place, Chelsea. Petite Anthologie poetique du surrealisme, ed. Georges Hugnet (Paris: Editions Jeanne Bucher, 1934).
With Slonim, Reavey edited and translated from the Russian Soviet Literature: An Anthology (London: Wishart and Co. , 1933; tr. into French as Anthologie de la litterature
262
10 March {1935}, McGreevy
sovietique, 1918-1934 [Paris: Gallimard, 19351). His edition ofPaul Eluard's poems, Thorns of Thunder, included many translated by SB; it was released in conjunction with The International Surrealist Exhibition in London (11 June to 4 July 1936).
Reavey had embarked on the first of his translations of the works of Nikolai Aleksandrovich Berdyaev (1874-1948), Smysl istorii (1923; The Meaning of History, 1936).
Reavey's current poetry was based on centos: e. g. the two collections he published in 1935: Faust's Metamorphoses: Poems; Nostradam: A Sequence of Poems, Europa Poets 1 (Paris: Europa Press, 1935); Signes d'adieu (Frailty of Love), tr. Pierre Chamay, Europa Poets (Paris: Editions Europa, 1935). It is not known which poem Reavey had shown SB.
9 LuciaJoyceinLondon:see20February[1935],n. 10.
SB and Hester Dowden were playing Ravel's Pavane pour une Infante defunte for piano,
four hands (24 February 1931, n. 4).
10 In the Steps of the Master (1934) by H[enry] V[ollam] Morton (1892-1979). May Beckett's birthday was 1 March.
11 Eden Park, an area of southeast London, near Beckenham. St. Bartholomew's Hospital (Barts). Westsmithfield, London, EC 1.
12 TheLenerStringQuartetplayedallofBeethoven'sRasumovskyQuartets,op. 59,at Queen's Hall on 9 March 1935.
13 The exhibition Landscapes from Donegal to Yorkshire: 20 February [1935], n. 15.
Estella Solomons's portrait ofJack Yeats, painted in 1922, is now in the collection of the Sligo County Library and Museum; she had included her portraits in the exhibition at the urging of Louise Jacobs (Louise Jacobs to Stella Solomons Starkey, 10 October 1934, TCD, MS 4644/1208). Jacobs's paintings included landscapes (The Cafe Montmartre, A Tournament in Toyland, Red Roofs of Whitby) as well as portraits (TCD, MS 4644/3521; Michael Jacobs).
14 SBwasdisappointed:"TheDublinMagazineisout,butmypoemnotin"(SBto McGreevy, 26 April 1935, TCD, MS 10402/74). In a letter to Leventhal, SB wrote: "[O'Sullivan] has a quatrain ofmine, due in the last awful issue, but perhaps he has smoked its indiscriminate application to death-bed & whoral turns"; SB enclosed the poem "Da Tagte Es" (7 August [1935], TxU).
15 Goethe's autobiography Aus meinem Leben: Dichtung und Wahrheit (1811-1833; Memoirs of Goethe: Written by Himself ). SB may have read an edition that presented the title in "inverted word order," namely Aus meinem Leben: Wahrheit und Dichtung, of which there are several. Notes on his reading of Goethe can be found in TCD, MS 10971/1; for a description: Everett Frost and Jane Maxwell, "TCD, MS 10971/1: German Literature," Notes Diverse Holo, Special issue SBT/A 16 (2006) 115-116, 120-123.
SB had read as far as Goethe's meeting with the German philosopher, Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744-1803) (Book X). Goethe himself depicts his father as imperious, yet respected.
16 TheactionofBenJonson'sTheAlchemist(1610)issetinasinglehouseofadoctor. SB quotes from Racine's Bajazet (1672): "Nourri dans le serail, j'en connais ! es detours"
263
10 March {1935), McGreevy
("In the Seraglio reared, I know its ways") Uean Racine, Bajazet [Paris:Editions du Seuil, 1947] 124; Jean Racine, Complete Plays, II, tr. Samuel Solomon, [New York: Modem Library, 1969] 64).
17 MacCarthy'spainting:see20February[1935],n. 13.
GEORGE REAVEY PARSI
[15 March 1935]
34 Gertrude St London S. W. 19.
[no greeting]
Not Poems after all, but: Echo's Bones, and Other Precipitates.
2
TPCI; 1 leaf, 2 sides; to Monsieur George Reavey, Bureau LitteraireEuropeen, Rue Bonaparte 13, Paris 6me; pm 15-3-35, London, pm 16-3-35, Paris; AN recto, in another hand Giacometti, 46 Rue Hippolyte, XVI Maindron Rue d'Alesia; AN verso, in another hand 6 March 1935; TxU. Dating: from pm.
1 Forthetitleofthebook,SBchosethetitleofthefinalpoeminthecollection. 2 "C'estplusmodeste. "(Itismoremodest. )
THOMAS McGREEVY LONDON
5/5/35 Cooldrinagh [Co. Dublin]
My dear Tom
Glad to hear that Devlin's visit was a success. Did you see his
poem in Saturday's Irish Times? An agreeable change from all
1
1
C'est plus modeste. S. B.
the Hymns Ancient & Modern.
264
Except for the heart bad a couple of nights, things have been
pretty well with me. I have been a lot with Mother, & note with
pleasure that she forgets to be wretched more often than for
merly. Also walking enormously. Quando il piede cammina il
2
Madame, from 3 to past 6, and saw some quite new pictures. He
seems to be having a freer period. The one in the Academy - Low
Tide - bought by Meredith for the Municipal is overwhelming. 3
He can only recall my watercolour very vaguely, as being prob
4
the advisability of your not failing to apply for the Gallery, though
saying nothing to make it appear that he was in the know. 5 He
had some story from Miss Purser of the Lun;:at, now exposed in
the Municipal, having been attacked with spits & sticks. In the
end we went out, down to Charlemont House to find out about
Sunday opening, & then to Jury's for a drink. He parted as usual
with an offer to buy me a Herald. I hope to see him again before
6
I went one evening with Leventhal to see Ethna. She has some kind of a job in the Castle. The Pourbus seems held up
7
I have found some charming and playable de Falla of my own.
I am getting on well with the Torre. It is a pity that he can't keep off the flowers of speech. The precedent hunting seems very brilliant, though I imagine a historian would cavil at the Revolution as merely an episode in a national tradition of anti feudalism, and at the sequitur from the rejection of the Reform
to the convocation of the States General. But for me the simpli
5 May 1935, McGreevy
cuore gode.
Yesterday afternoon I had Jack Yeats all to myself, not even
ablythefishmarketinSligo. Hewasaskingforyou,andstressed
I leave, but do not expect ever to have him like that again.
[. . . ]
indefinitelyintheCustoms. ShelentmetwovolumesofAlbeniz.
8
fication & easy going dogmatism is good enough.
9
265
5 May 1935, McGreevy [. . . ]
I suppose you remember the little Del Mazo Musicians in the Gallery. I seem to remember your having spoken of it as a pet of yours. It is charming, with something of Watteau in it. The Wilson Tivoli views are good, one is almost a replica of the one in Dulwich. 10
Second lesson at church this evening was the passage of Christ's commission to Peter. "Care my lambs, care my sheep, care my sheep", & the "Peter, lovest thou me" thrice. Poor Peter, he was always getting it in threes. Anyway I remembered the Raphael Cartoon of the Commission, & the rest of the service was easy, even a sermon all about demes & 1/120th part of a [? lav] per caput (si on peut dire). 11
Dublin is lovely with no trams & buses, the hills & sea seem to have crept nearer. 12
I expect to stay the month, which means I would be back in London to-morrow fortnight. I don't want to accept this life quite yet, but I loathe the thought of returning to London. However, it must be.
I wonder did you remember to take the books I left at Gertrude St. to the library?
No news from Geoffrey. C'est ! 'amour.
13
ALS; 3 leaves. 6 sides; env to Thomas McGreevy Esq, 15 Cheyne Gardens, London S. W. 3; pm 6-5-35, Dublin; TCD, MS 10402/75.
1 Denis Devlin had joined the Department of External Affairs and was traveling in connection with his work. Devlin's poem "Moments" was in three parts, each beginning from a specific observation; whereas earlier poems had been drawn principally from religious or historical contexts ("Moments," The Irish Times 4 May 1935: 7; see Denis Devlin, Collected Poems ofDenis Devlin, ed. J. C. C. Mays [Dublin: Dedalus Press, 1989] 93-99, 107-108).
266
Schone Griisse to Hester & Dilly. Love ever
Sam
5 May 1935, McGreevy 2 "Quando ii piede cammina ii cuore gode" (When the foot walks, the heart
gladdens). Source unknown, probably proverbial.
3 YeatswasawareofSB'spreference,ashewrotetoMcGreevyon13February1935: "I tried to get Beckett on the phone one day but he was away. I wanted to arrange a day for him to come here - when there wouldn't be other visitors as he doesn't so much like having them about" (TCD, MS 10381/125). His wife was artist Mary Cottenham Yeats(nee White, known as Cottie, 1867-1947).
Low Tide(1935, Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane, no. 727; Pyle 454) was shown in the 1935 Royal Hibernian Academy Exhibition; it was sold to Justice James Creed Meredith(1875-1942), who in 1937 presented it to the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art(Pyle. Jack B. Yeats: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Oil Paintings, I, 312; III, 196).
4 ThewatercolorisCornerBoys(privatecollection,Pyle701)(Pyle,JackB. Yeats:His Watercolours, Drawings and Pastels [Dublin: Irish Academic Press, 1993] 165).
5 ThepositionofDirectoroftheNationalGalleryoflrelandwasadvertisedfortwo weeks from 9 April 1935; the advertisement announced a closing date for applications of 21 May 1935 and stated that "Personal canvassing of members of the Board is prohibited" (The Irish Times 9 April 1935: 6). Jack Yeats counseled McGreevy: "I wish you were certain to get the directorship of the National Gallery here. I am sure you have a good chance"(13 February 1935, TCD, MS 10381/125); later he sent a copy of the advertisement, and wrote: "I daresay that the field will be so overwhelming on each other that, if you came ghost up along, determinedly, you might, just, get it"(15 April 1935, TCD MS 10381/126). Brian Coffey, whose father Dr. Denis Coffey(1865-1945) was President of University College Dublin and a member of the Board, also encouraged McGreevy(16 May 1935, TCD MS 8110/19). McGreevy applied for the position on 18 May, but he was not invited to interview.
6 TheattackonLurc;:at'sDecorativeLandscape(DublinCityGalleryTheHughLane,no. 709) was reported to the City Manager by the Curator, John J. Reynolds(n. d. , Curator from 14 April 1924 to 30 September 1935)(26, 27 April 1935, Records of the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art). SB reported to McGreevy: "A large hole was clean through the middle sky, with scratches extending left to the 'magic' ! edgy passage, & what looked like spit marks"(15 May 1935, TCD, MS MS 10402/76). Sarah Purser, Dublin artist and art patron, had accepted the Lurc;:at painting on behalf of the Society of Friends of the National Collections of Ireland: 4 November [for 3 November 1932], n. 4. SB writes about the damage in "La Peinture des van Velde ou le Monde et le Pantalon," Cahiers d'Art, 20-21(1945-1946) 349; rpt. in Samuel Beckett, Disjecta, 119.
Jury's Hotel was then located at 6-8 College Green; Yeats was a regular reader of the Evening Herald(1891- ).
7 Ethna MacCarthy's painting by Pourbus: see 20 February [1935], n. 13. Her posi tion in Dublin Castle is not known.
8 ItisnotknownwhichofthepianoscoresofIsaacAlbenizhadbeenlenttoSBby Ethna Maccarthy. Manuel de Falla's compositions for piano are numerous and include piano adaptations of music from his ballet scores.
9 GuillermodeTorre(1900-1971),Spanishcritic,wasamemberofanexperimental poetic movement, "ultraism"(fl. 1919-1923); in South America it included such poets as Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) and Chilean poet and diplomat
267
5 May 1935, McGreevy
Pablo Neruda (ne Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto, 1904-1973). SB may have been read ing Torre's Literaturas europeas de vanguardia (1925); Torre was a founder of La Gaceta Literaria (Madrid) and had contributed to The New Review 1,4 (Winter 1931-1932).
10 The Musicians (NG! 659) by Spanish painter Juan Bautista Martinez del Mazo (c. 1613-1667) is compared to paintings by Antoine Watteau. Of the two paintings by Richard Wilson in the collection of the National Gallery oflreland, A View of Tivoli over the Campagna (NG! 746) and A View of Tivoli (NG! 747), the first is more similar in composition to Dulwich's Tivoli, the Cascatelle and the "Villa ofMaecenas" (DPG 171).
11 Christ's commission to Peter Uohn 21:15-17) was one of the lessons in the Jectionary appointed for the evening service on the second Sunday after Easter (5 May 1935).
SB refers to Christ's Charge to Peter, one of the seven Raphael cartoons in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum (see 20 February [1935], n. 12; www. vam. ac. ukf).
SB's reference to "Demes" is unclear. A legal term of minimum repayment is 1/120th part of the remains of a debt. The second lesson for the evening service was Philippians 3:7-21; verse 9 speaks of the difference between worldly possession and faith: "not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but . . . the righteousness which is of God by Faith" (The Book of Common Prayer . . . The Church of Ireland [Dublin: Association for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Church of Ireland, 1927] xxxvii).
"Si on peut dire" (to put it that way).
12 TramandbusdriverswereonstrikeinDublin;serviceresumedonlyon18May 1935 ("Sixty Days of Tramway Strike," The Irish Times 1 May 1935: 8; "Trams and Buses To-Day," The Irish Times 18 May 1935: 9).
13 SBreferstoThompson'scourtshipofUrsulaStenhouse;"c'est! 'amour"(it'slove). "Schone Griisse" (warm greetings). Hester Dowden, Geraldine Cummins (Dilly).
GEORGE REAVEY LONDON
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London s_w. 10
Cher ami
Nostradamus et Michel de ! 'Hospital en collaboration,
1
astres et cadastres, vraie cellule de l'histoire. Tes poemes en retirent la membrane. Poles et principes male et femelle, cast agnettes de meme si tu veux, c'est plutot a celui-ci que je me surprends a songer par tous les secteurs de ton cycle, ce qui est
268
imprevisible, celle du tres Saint-Barthelemy, qui n'est apres tout
qu'une fa�on de . . gemir, et dont le firmament n'est guere plus
3
23/5/35 34 Gertrude Street London S. W. 10
Dear George,
Nostradamus and Michel de l'Hospital in collaboration, cel
estial bodies and terrestrial plots, a true cell of history. 1 Your poems pull the membrane from it. Male and female poles and principles, ditto castanets if you like, this is the one I catch myself musing over through all the sectors of your cycle, which is no doubt part of your design. 2 But congratulations above all on that threat or promise, swelling like some orgasm whose term is unpredictable, of the very Saintly Bartholomew, which is after all only a manner of . . . moaning, something no more consoling to the firmament than afart on fire. 3
All signs are offarewell. 4 Let me have one all the same. All the best
Sam
1 For the sequence of poems Nostradam, Reavey cites as an epigraph lines from D. H. Lawrence's poem '"The Ship of Death":
269
23 May 1935, Reavey
danstondesseinsansdoute. 2 Maisfelicitationsavanttoutdecette
menace ou promesse grandissant comme orgasme a echeance
console que d'un pet en combustion.
Taus les signes sont d'adieu. 4 Ll. che-moi en [for Lache-m'en]
un tout de meme. Amities
s/ Sam
ALS; 1 leaf. 1 side; TxU.
23 May 1935, Reavey
"Build then the ship ofdeath, for you must take The longest journey[,] to oblivion.
And die the death, the long and painful death That lies between the old selfand the new. " ([31)
The poems in the first section ofNostradam, "A Word for Nostradamus" (9-22), explore political and religious upheaval following the death ofHemy II (1519-1559), as predicted by French physician and astrologer Nostradamus (Latin name ofMichel de Notredame, 1503-1566). Michel de ! 'Hospital (c. 1505-1573) represented Henry II at the Council ofTrent (1545-1563), and, after the King's death, became Chancellor ofFrance from 1560 to 1568; he advocated policy reform and religious toleration, but as the Wars of Religion (Catholics vs. Huguenots) resumed in 1567, L'Hospital and the moderates were discredited.
Reavey's epigraph for this section is drawn from Nostradamus, I, 53, although it modernizes some words:
"Lorsqu'on [for Las qu'on] verra grand peuple tourmente Et la Joy sainte [for Loy Saincte] en totale ruine
Par autres fois [for loix] toute la Chrestiente Quand d'or d'argent trouve nouvelle mine. "
("Alas, how a great people shall be tormented
And the Holy Laws in total ruin,
By other laws, all Christianity troubled,
When new mines ofgold and silver will be found. ")
(The Complcte Prophecies ofNostradamus, ed. and tr. Henry C. Roberts, [New York: Crown, 1947] 26)
Reavey dedicated the poem "Tell me that Dream" to SB; it considers Nostradamus's dream ofdeath (Nostradam, 13).
2 ThesecondsequenceofsixpoemsinReavey'sNostradamisentitled"ALaBelle Dame -Sans Merci" (21-28). SB alludes to the contrasts between the two sections of Nostradam.
3 On the feast day of St. Bartholomew in 1572, a massacre of French Huguenots began in Paris and continued in the countryside for a month.
"Fa�on de . . gemir" (manner of. . moaning, adapted from "fa�on de parler" [manner ofspeaking])
4 SBalludestoReavey'sSignesd'adieu. GEORGE REAVEY
LONDON
23/6/35 34 Gertrude St London SW 10
270
plaisent plus que tout ce que j'ai lu de toi jusqu'ici.
Comme
articulation - lyrisme succinct, pensee qui n'insiste pas, litote
sans secheresse - ils ne risquent guere de se perdre. (Femmes si
2
23 June 1935, Reavey
Cher ami
Oui, elle et lui foyers de la vie ellipse de solitudes. On finira
bien par ne plus se donner la peine de verifier les distances.
Je suis bien aise de pouvoir te dire que tes Signes me
1
reelles et quatre derniers vers de Souci Tristesse).
Mais c'est
avant tout comme temperament que j'en admire la qualite,
temperament que je ne me souviens pas d'avoir trouve ailleurs
sinon dans les ! I"agiques de Jouve, qui l'a toutefois beaucoup
3
traduction est excellente. Merci infiniment.
A toi Sam
ALS; 1 leaf, 1 side; TxU.
Dear George
Yes, he and she sources oflife ellipsis ofsolitudes. We shall
end up not troubling to check the distances.
I am very pleased to be able to tell you that I like your Signes
1
plus indique.
Je n'ai pas besoin de }'original pour comprendre que la
4
more than anything I've read ofyours up till now.
As articu
lation - succinct lyricism, unobtrusive thought, litotes with
out dryness - they are in no danger oflosing their way. ("Femmes
2
sireelles"andlastfourlinesof"Soucitristesse"). Butitisabove all for their temperament that I admire the quality of them, a temperament that I cannot remember finding anywhere except in Jouve's Tragiques, where in any case it is much more insistent. 3
271
23 June 1935, Reavey
I do not need the original to understand that the translation
4
Yours Sam
1 Reavey,Signesd'adieu. 2 Reavey'spoem:
Femmes si reelles votre realite n'est pas sure quant a ce qui est des caresses
signes d'adieu d'etoiles mourantes apposition des mains mesintelligence
des levres et des yeux l'enchainement de certains moments et l'inconsequence de la plupart.
SB discusses the four last lines of:
Souci tristesse
ainsi parle cette musique
mais le coeur s'y laisserait prendre? Jamais! c'est une ravine ou ! 'on s'affaisse 6 destin plus fort que l'acier
et plus puissant que tout vouloir
ii est la tapi dans cette musique
et le desir vous effleure
mais dans Jes failles des montagnes
la neige s'ecoule en torrents.
is excellent.
Very many thanks
(21)
(16) 3 Tragiques(1923),acollectionofpoemsbyPierre-Jeanjouve(1887-1976).
4 Signesd'adieu,theFrenchtranslationofReavey'spoems:10March[1935],n. 8;an English edition, Frailty ofLove, was announced, but it was not published.
THOMAS McGREEVY TARBERT, IRELAND
8 Sep [1935] 34 Gertrude St [London]
272
8 September {1935}, McGreevy The discrepancy between mind and body is terrible. It is
1
I have been as you know me. I miss you greatly. I had a card
2
round, less Cytherean. We had a lovely walk in Battersea Park. 3
I would like to live in a perpetual September. One does one's best
to prefer Spring, in vain. I had a letter from Simon & Schuster,
asking to see all available material. I told Chatto's to send Proust &
Pricks. Parsons expressed himself overcome by the sound of my
voice after so long. Were he not just on the point of going on
holiday, etc. When could Chatto's look forward to hearing from
me in my hack's capacity. So long now since. No news of Charles
if not a card from the midlands, where wonderful dinners are
4
of proofs which have not come. The Undertaker's Man is the
hardest to mitigate. It never was a poem and the best I can do
now is to cut my losses. Yet it has something that will not let me
leave it out altogether. They will provoke the irritated guffaw &
heehaw all right. Deja quelquechose. I have also been working
5
Miss Costello turned up from Las Palrnas, but Poggioli was the best I could put up. Their spaghetti alla B. are very aphrodis iac, pace Geoffrey and the courting extremists. We went to a brief Spanish colour film in Tottenham Court Rd. , La Cucaracha. 6 That
273
My dear Tom
somethingthatthefourofyouaretogether. Andthatyouhave been able to feel close to her if only briefly. May it all be over soon, for her and for you all.
from Hester announcing remove to Sorrento. Geoffrey was
being had by him. No inquiries for you.
I have been working over the poems, in the expectation
at other stuff, I fear involontairement trivial. Well if it is so and I am so, amen. Really anything at all is better than the perpetual blankness and obliteration before the fact. I hope to keep at it.
8 September {1935}, McGreevy
cooled me off. And a good thing, with such an unclitoridian companion.
[. . . ]
I begin to think I have gerontophilia on top of the rest. The
little shabby respectable old men you see on Saturday afternoon
and Sunday, pottering about doing odd jobs in the garden, or
flying kites immense distances at the Round Pond, Kensington.
Yesterday there was a regular club ofthe latter, with a sprinkling
of grandchildren, sitting in a crescent waiting for a wind. The
kites lying in the grass with their long tails beautifully cared for,
all assembled and ready. For they bring them in separate pieces,
the sticks and tail rolled up in the canvas and a huge spool of
string. Some have boats as well, but not the real enthusiasts.
Then great perturbation to get them off at the first breath of
wind. They fly them almost out of sight, yesterday it was over
the trees to the south, into an absolutely cloudless viridescent
evening sky.
