Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Grateful for the detailed information about Bessy and Paul. Has been reading about 'little Paul in Dombey' [Dickens's "Dombey and Son"]; thinks it the 'best account of a child' in literature which he knows, even better than "David Copperfield"; contrasts it with 'a clever, self-conscious woman or man writing about a child' like George Elliot on the Tullivers [in "Mill on the Floss"]. Thanks God that Paul Trevelyan will have a 'better constitution' than Paul Dombey. Sends an 'amusing letter' from [William?] Everett, which Robert need not return; Everett lacks 'front' and is 'at once the youngest and the oldest of human beings'. Is reading [Plautus's] "Trinummus" slowly, as he is getting tired over the end of his book ["The American Revolution"].
Interlacken [sic: Interlaken]. - Glad everyone 'got home uninjured after the hunt'. Caroline is very well and enjoying their tour, which is very comfortable; they started at Lausanne, went to Les Avants, and go on to Mürren. Height above sea level given for each place. They were 'swindled' out of a small amount at Lausanne, and 'shockingly' at Paris, but everything is 'honest and hearty' in Switzerland. Is enjoying re-reading Gibbon and Plautus's Epidicus
Letter from B [?] Dunn to Gow, sent from 18 Brookside, Cambridge, and referring to the '... typescript of Housman'.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Caroline received a most interesting letter from Bessy this morning; he has ordered Drummond [his banker] to pay thirty five pounds into Robert's account for Julian's 'little affair' [an operation on an umbilical hernia]; 'quod optime eveniat!' [Latin: may this turn out well]. Sends George's account of their 'little ceremony of Boxing Day'; asks for it back. Has been reading Herodotus, 'with a play of Plautus between each book'; has reached the last book and wishes there were nine more; Plautus grows on him more with each reading, as also happened to Macaulay when he read and re-read him in India. Is now going to read Thucydides, again with a Plautus play between each book. Sir John Simon stayed last week, and mentioned that he had shown Thucydides 2.71-74 to Asquith as 'a curious parable to the story of Belgium'. Was glad to find the narrative easy to read.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Most relieved to hear from Elizabeth this morning; the news of 'the dear little boy' [Julian, after an operation for an umbilical hernia] was as good as can be expected. Would be glad to know that Julian, like Sir George, is 'not disagreeably affected by anaesthetics'. In an 'idle hour', took part in a 'literary discussion in the New York "Nation"; encloses his letter to the paper and asks him to send it back as soon as; the "Times" is printing it in its next "Educational Supplement", where he has put in a reference to the 'passionate feeling for Plautus entertained by Cicero and St Jerome' and altered the last paragraph.
Plautus has little of the obscenity of Aristophanes, Niebuhr, preparing for his week in Marlborough.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Robert's letter has brought 'a breath of Italy'; wishes he could be there; asks to be remembered kindly to Robert's hosts and wishes he could see Berenson's library. Books now his 'medium for everything': foreign countries, past times, 'vanished friends and opponents'. Has now read the elegiac and iambic fragments in Bergk, and will go on to read the '"Melic poets" as one reads Keats and Shelley'. Has also finished Plautus's "Casina"; a great coincidence 'utterly unimportant in itself' like all great coincidences, that the last time he did so, in 1916, Morton and Kate Philips came to stay as they are doing tonight for the first time since then. Is reading Robert's Tchernov [sic: Chekhov] and thinks the stories may give even 'more vivid and real' a picture of Russian life than Turgenev and Tolstoy, while being 'far less repulsive' than Dostoevsky; though he does not approve of the 'sordid little pictures of conjugal infidelity', which is better done in many French novels and he is 'many years too old for it in any language'.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - The increased subscription seems reasonable; has written to George and will see that both are paid soon. Interested to hear about Robert's 'Aeschylean work' [his translation of the "Oresteia"]; he himself is "Euripides-struck". Gives his schedule of winter reading of Euripides, Plautus and Plato; notes the coincidence that he began reading the "Phaedrus" for the first time the day after his uncle [Macaulay] died, and sixty two years later will begin it on the same day and date. Next Christmas, 'if I am alive', he plans to read four more plays of Euripides and the last four plays of Plautus.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Thanks Robert for his Menander, which he will keep until he has got through his 'present course of reading', and send back before they leave Welcombe; intends to 'study the "Arbitrantes" ["Epitrepontes"] most thoroughly. Lists his planned schedule of reading, including Euripides and Plato; very grateful to Robert for introducing him to [Euripides's] "Hercules Furens", and hopes he will be rewarded by a pleasant time in Italy.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Has heard from Elizabeth that Robert has a 'light attack' of mumps and sympathises; he himself had it in the winter of 1875-1876, still ill from typhoid fever and overworking on the "The life and letters of Lord Macaulay", 'combined with politics'; Caroline was at Welcombe 'engaged in the production of George'; had the worst pain he can remember on two days. Hopes Robert will be well enough to go to and enjoy Florence in April; he and Caroline went to Italy in march and found it a month too early for Spring, but George stayed into April and 'saw Tuscany all come out green in a single week'. Thanks Robert again for recommending [Euripides's] "Hercules Furens"; has now also read the "Supplices" with 'quite unexpected admiration' and the "Rudens" [of Plautus]; lists his future reading plans. Is very glad to pass 'the end of what was often an over-busy life' by reading Euripides. Asks Robert to thank Berenson when he sees him for his share in the recommendation of the Francia.
Welcombe, Stratford on Avon. - Glad that Robert has returned well, and saw [Bernard] Berenson before leaving Italy. Good that Elizabeth is coming here next week; Caroline will be well enough to enjoy her visit then. Glad Julian has returned to school 'under good auspices'. Thanks Robert for his Menander, which 'interested, and taught' him, though he did not care for it, thinking it 'trivial and petty' compared with Plautus and Terence; the Romans 'must have lent their own vigour and force'. Never tires of Euripides; 'delighted' by his "Andromache" in the same way as by the "Hercules Furens", since he 'feels a sort of personal pride in his grand old men' like Peleus and Amphitryon who 'have kept their pluck, and power of righteous indignation'; will soon have read all nineteen of Euripides's plays.
Typed transcript of Housman's notes, lent to assessors in the Classical Tripos part II, 1932.
Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland. - Glad that Elizabeth and Robert were at Holly Lodge [for the unveiling of the blue plaque commemorating Lord Macaulay]; envies him that and [his reading of? Aristophanes's] "Birds". Has just read the "Epidicus", and enjoyed it, though thinks Jeremy Collier was 'preposterous' to call it Plautus's masterpiece. Very pleased with Robert's opinion of "The American Revolution" and relieved by what he says about Wesley and the soldiers [see 46/87]. Will be glad when the settlement with the Vaughan Williamses [for the land on which to build Robert and Elizabeth's new house] is concluded. Will enclose a few letters: two from historians which are 'satisfactory testimony' to his accuracy; and three from James, Colonel [John] Hay the Secretary of State, and [Joseph Hodges] Choate, which he asks Robert to show to nobody but Elizabeth. A postscript on a separate sheet says he will send the letters in a few days. Asks if Robert could look at a book in an auction for him which as 'a lover of Horace'. he is thinking of buying.
Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland. - Glad that Robert and Elizabeth have the house organised, and fine weather to enjoy it. Caroline is sending the "Times [Literary] Supplement" with an article [of his own "Interludes in Verse and Prose"] which is very pleasing, particularly the writer's appreciation of the Trevelyan 'family way of viewing the classics'. Has recently read [Plautus's] "Rudens" with much delight, and [Sophocles's] "Ajax" with less; Greek tragedy is not his 'special province', but he has much admired Jebb's translation of phrases in Charles's old school edition. Awaiting 'the event at Cambo' [the birth of Charles and Mary's daughter, Pauline]; thinks 'expectation keeps Charley idle, which is good for him'. The casts he has made from his photographs of Alexander's sarcophagus at Constantinople are most beautiful; not right to call his art 'idleness', but it is better for him as a change from writing and speaking.