Showing 10 results

Ford Place, Arundel. - Thanks Trevy for the 'brilliant & delightful book' ["The New Parsifal"]: found it 'witty beyond words, dramatic & exciting' with the 'rush of splendid verse; of which Trevy is the 'only modern master'. Believes there is a 'lot of fine aesthetic thinking' in it as well. Was even more impressed when reading it than he was when he heard it read: all the things he criticised then 'justify themselves in print'. Has ordered some copies and will do what he can to 'make it known'. Asks if he should write to the 'editor of the Webb's paper, the "New Statesman"' [Clifford Sharp]; has 'no influence with the "Nation"', and supposes the "Times" is 'all right' [has been communicated with].

11 St Leonard's Terrace, Chelsea, S.W.3. - Thanks Bob for the book [his "Collected Works"], in which he has been 'browsing'; knew most of the poems already, but thinks they 'gain by being all put together', as well as showing that Bob's 'talent has many facets'. Some poems were new to him, such as the 'exquisite translation from that naughty old Strato of Sardis'. Bob should be 'cheered' that his most recent work is his best: the last epistle to Desmond [MacCarthy] is 'perfect in tone and diction', while he finds everyone thinks the elegy on Goldie [Lowes Dickinson] is 'the finest elegy written in this century'. He would have said so if he had been writing Desmond's review. Hopes Bob will 'be up soon'; congratulates him on his 'oeuvre', the 'fine mellow fruit of the ripening years'.

Ennoblement has no political significance: Liphook

1, Wellington Place, Tunbridge Wells:- Thanks his mother for her letter, which arrived yesterday. Is staying the night at Tunbridge Wells; his hosts [his aunt Anna Maria Philips and Sophie Wicksteed] are 'both in good spirits, and Sophie certainly not ill'. Is going for a few days next week to Failand near Bristol, the 'country house of Roger [Fry]'s family'. Will then go on to Welcombe, he thinks taking the places of the Webbs [Sidney and Beatrice, friends of his brother Charles?], 'for we have to wait our turn like aspirants for office'. Will be glad to get away from London, where he has been leading 'a miserable bus-riding rattle-of-bus-fretted existence since September'.

Thinks it will become a 'downright cruel winter' soon, as it is quickly getting colder 'after a long merciful delay'; if it does, London will be 'uninhabitable for a season, at least to work in', and he does not expect he will return. Will not come to his parents in Rome, as it 'would be absurd' not to see the sights which she 'describe[s] so temptingly' on his first visit, and this would 'not fall in with' his intention to work. Believes [Edward] Marsh is in Rome, or 'will be soon', since Robert 'just missed him in London'.

Will send the Pageant [magazine recently published by Ricketts and Shannon, see 46/38] if she likes, 'though there is much bad in it'. For him, its 'chief value' is that it has 'several old [D. G.] Rossettis and Mi[l]ais', as well as Rickett's Oedipus. Shannon's drawings have 'both been badly reproduced, and are by no means his best work'; in fact several contributors, such as Swinburne, Bridges, and Robert's friend [T.S.] Moore 'have not done themselves justice'. Does not know if his mother has 'ever tasted of Maeterlinck's strange vintage before'; he himself 'neither scoff[s] nor adore[s]' but the play in the Pageant is 'fairly typical' of him; thinks his poem, as well as Verlaine's, good. The Pageant should 'amuse [her] as decadent in an extreme though not particularly offensive form'.

The 'American affair is deplorable': fears it 'may lead to real trouble', though the general view in England, both among individuals and newspapers is that 'Jonathan will begin to see in a few days that he is making an exhibition of himself ['Uncle' is written before 'Jonathan' then crossed out: perhaps Robert Trevelyan confused 'Brother Jonathan', a representative figure of New England sometimes used to stand for the entire United States, with Uncle Sam - or was about to use the latter term then changed his mind]'. Glad she finds Italian politics interesting; he 'used to read the political articles in the Sera and Tribuna' to 'pick up a little of what was going on'.

Notes on: The Nature of Capital and Income, Irvine Fisher; Sweated Industries, Clementina Black; Some Chapters in Industrial Democracy, Sydney and Beatrice Webb; The Scope and Method of Political Economy, John Neville Keynes; The Labour Movement in Australia, Victor Selden Clark

Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland. - Was as pleased with the 'kindness' with which Bob talked about his troubles this year as with the way he talked to George last summer about 'the way in which I might help to make the family life more cheerful'; these suggest that George will be understood when he writes now to explain 'several things' which Bob does not know but will be glad to. There is not a 'tacit conspiracy of disapproval' of Bob: George thought this was untrue when Bob said so, but writes on the subject now as he has talked to their mother and Charles.

Charles began by saying that he thought Bob and Elizabeth were 'getting happy and at home here'; George mentioned something of what Bob had told him of the way their father talked to him, and Charles was 'disturbed' and 'distinctly more vexed [than George had been]'. Thinks Bessie had seen, even if Bob had not, that Charles had done his best to 'make [them] both happy and to get on good terms', with 'all idea of the other sort of thing... completely shoved behind him, in the past when we were all 3 very disagreeable youths'. Wants to assure Bob that both of his brothers are his friends, and hopes that he will not be angry with him. Charles is in truth 'quite as kind' as George is, and perhaps even more tolerant; though he is not literary and does not have as many common interests with Bob as George. True that all three brothers have 'chosen different lines of life, and have very [emphasised] constituted minds', but George does not see why they should 'ever quarrel again'.

Caroline began by telling George about her conversation with Bob about Sir George, saying that she had 'urged Papa in vain not to broach on the general subject of [Bob's] life and work' and was 'really distressed that he did not take her advice'. When George said what he thought, she urged him to speak to Sir George, which he would 'never have ventured to do' himself. So the only conspiracy is one 'to get Papa to forebear', as well as 'a kindness and an eagerness to do things for Elizabeth and [Bob]' which should not have been as 'obscure' to Bob as it seemed when he was 'annoyed about the music'.

Thinks his words in Bob's favour with Sir George this morning were a 'success'; will now 'take the liberty of talking in his favour' to Bob: he was 'never proposing' that Bob should 'give up poetry', and mentioned article-writing because Bob himself had told him last year that he was planning to take it up; he also did not intend to 'continually' return to the subject, and only meant, in the conversation about Sidney Webb, that Bob could interest himself 'in some bye employment at education or politics, which many literary persons have found consistent with literary schemes', and has 'no intention... of saying anything to annoy [Bob] on the subject'.

All three brothers have 'adopted unremunerative professions' and are 'dependent on Papa as three sons very seldom are'; he has never hindered 'any wish or whim' of any one of them 'whatever he has said [emphasised]' and they should therefore put themselves 'under his direction and meet his wishes as regards living within [their] incomes', all the more so as they are 'as a family burdened with landed estates'; Sir George treats Bob exactly as he treats George and Charles, and George thinks he is 'mainly in the right and ultimately wise', though he 'may use language that is exaggerated about the moral aspect'.

2, Cheyne Gardens. - Has sent Bob's letter to [Kenneth?] Swan. Glad that Bob is returning to the Lake Hunt. Has been hearing a lot about India from 'various persons, white and brown' and has become 'quite a Tagorite, under the teaching of Yeats, W[illiam] Rothenstein' and a pupil of Tagore. Tagore has 'stopped Yeats being mad on magic and small green elephants' and without 'his magic nonsense, Yeats is one of the really splendid people'. The [First] Balkan war 'bids fair to end very well'. Wonders 'whether Goldie [Dickinson] will like his Chinaman as little as the Webbs [Sidney and Beatrice] when he meets (and smells) them'. Sees from the address that Bessie has given that Bob will be there for this 'great meeting'; hopes that Goldie will not be like Matthew Arnold, whom H[enry] Sidgwick said judged 'everything by its smell' like a dog. Glad that Bob has had some good bathes, but tells him not to be 'eaten of [sic] crocodiles', since Mary would never be able to read "Peter Pan" again if Bob 'suffered the fate of Capt. Hook'. Has just finished writing "[The Life of John] Bright" and hopes to publish it in May or June.