Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland. - Very interesting to hear about Mr Tovey [see 8/147, letter from Duncan Crookes Tovey to Robert]; suspects that Macaulay was quoting Pope directly. Glad to have Robert's account of the [Apostles'] dinner, and that he spoke; thoughts on preparing for speeches and speaking ex tempore. His finger is improving. Gave Robert's message to Aunt Annie [Philips], who is well and looking forward to her tour of Italy and Sicily. Glad Bessie likes his "Greek War" ["An Ancient Greek War", a piece in his "Interludes in Verse and Prose"]; at least the 'extreme elaboration' of the piece differentiates it from the rest of the considerable literature on those times. Pleased to hear of a measure condemning Boriell's [?] Bill at a large meeting at Smithfield being defeated 'by an enormous majority' after an 'excellent speech by Mr Harper'
[Tom] Paynter has informed WW that HJR has 'a curiosity to know whether you have puzzled me about Pope & Poetry. You would have the less merit in doing so as I have completely puzzled myself. I have vacillated among systems of criticism till I am rather giddy - and seem to myself to be advancing fast to that glorious state of poetical scepticism in which no one principle of criticism is more certain than its opposite: and this by arguments wh., according to Hume's admirable definition of scepticism, admit of no answer and produce no conviction. At present however I have not time to reason or even to doubt upon such matters: instead of the "feast" & the "flow" of poetical analysis to which your letter tempted me, I must pick the dry bones and swill the watery soup wh. are the preparatory diet of the gymnasium here. - I hope you will allow this - viz the having you, myself, the college examination, and very possibly truth also for antagonists, - to be a satisfactory reason for not attempting sooner or for not attempting at all to defend the opinions that you attribute to me. However that you may not consider me as absolutely one of the ungodly and those that perish, or, what is much worse, live & do not admire good poetry - that you may not fancy me fallen away from a state of poetical grace beyond even the saving influence of Wordsworth - I must disclaim some of the opinions you give me - a sceptic may deny though he may not assert - though he is very likely to be troubled with doubts whether denial be not a species of assertion. I do not, then, make Pope my idol. I should not rejoice to see his style restored. I do not perceive in him or from him the love of nature. I do not even insist upon his being called a poet. It is sufficient for me, who would not break the king's peace for a definition, that I receive from his writing pleasure greater & of a different kind from that wh. I should receive from similar writings in prose. - You may certainly analyse the pleasure his pieces give into many elements wh. are not generally understood to be poetical elements; wit for instance, wh. all the world can understand & delight in at all times wh. is more than you can say for feeling of any kind. - He is moreover invariably alive to the ridicule wh. in polished society lies in wait for bursts of feeling wh. are not selon les regles - but everyman - except Adam before the creation of Eve - has had his feelings and the manifestation of them in some measure regulated by regard for the opinions & views of others and then come the sceptic's questions how far? - where to stop & why? - But as for defining poetry or analysing the feelings which it puts in action - explaining what it is or may be or ought to be what is its origin its laws and its end - cela me passe. I have been much delighted by several critical works but convinced by none - the negative part of most systems seems good. A little while back I was in great transports with Schlegel - if you have not read the book I think you will find it will repay you for the perusal. Hare [Julius Hare] considers it as the ideal of criticism. Even if you do not believe it, wh. I think you will in a great measure, you will allow it to be fine writing - a little German or so but still fine. - But as Cicero's interlocutor says of Plato, when I laid down the book I could not recall the conviction. In fact I think you will find when you examine, that most of the good criticism you see produces its effect rather as eloquence than as philosophy - rather excites poetical emotions than analyses them. I was much astonished to find that Coleridge takes his critical ground so low. - It is not so much the absolute extent of his disapprobation of Wordsworth wh. made me consider it as indicating a revolution in Lake criticism, as the principles on wh. he founds it - and those are obviously such that they will irresistibly extend themselves much further than he has carried them - his critique on the daffodils for instance might serve as a model for similar strictures on all Wordsworth's Wordsworthian poems. It pleases me to find that it is in consequence of his theory that Wordsworth is got wrong - what has a poet to do with a theory? - let him mind his business or it will be worse for him. As for Coleridge he has almost too metaphysical a head to be a good poet - a man who is always looking for symptoms in himself will not often be healthful - a man who studies all the motions of all his limbs will not probably be graceful - and a man who is everlastingly watching the operations of his own mind & imagination is not likely to think or to feel truly. - By this time you will begin to suspect that the tendency of all this profound reasoning is to prove my right to be inconsistent. I hope I have fully established that, and that [therefore], if you think it inconsistent to admire both Wordsworth and Pope, you will do me the favour to believe that it may nevertheless be my case: nay, more, that I may admire one or the other, or neither, according to the state of the barometer'. Deighton [Cambridge printer] expects them to pay for the carriage of the Lacroix [Silvestre F. Lacroix] paper to him. If HJR comes to Cambridge would he be interested in resuming the plan [presumably to translate Lacroix].
Hollygrove Lodge, Worstead, Norwich [on embossed notepaper for The Norfolk Club]. - Houghton acknowledged the copy of Morgan's Alexander Pope letter by stating that he no longer collected autographs; Morgan was not offering the original but merely seeking Houghton's opinion as to date and recipient; perhaps he would now return it.
Manuscript entitled 'A Common-Place Book, after the Plan recommended by Mr. Locke'. Written below this, 'The Collection was commenced at an early Age, and consequently in the first Pages many Things are inserted, which might as well, and without any Injury to the Book, have been omitted'.
Headings include 'Love', 'Mediocrity', 'Laugh', 'Deluge', 'Liberty', 'Sleep', 'Bees', 'East India Company' ('Surely, as Sovereigns, the company are monopolising against their own interest...', 'Gold',' Women', 'Wit and Humour', 'Impeachment' etc. Beneath these are passages from sources including Shakespeare, Addison, The Spectator and The Tatler, Burney, especially Camilla, Pope, Johnson (especially the Dictionary) and Rousseau.
Much of the material dates from Owen's time at Trinity College; several verses have a strong Cambridge connection, for example 'Song Imitated from Voltaire by Mr Rough, Trin. Coll. Cant.', presumably William Rough. Owen includes his own compositions; his verseas are frequently addressed to young women, eg. 'To Miss Susan Moore. Verses addressed to a beautiful young Lady, on her leaving the pleasant village of Aspley', 'Ode to a young Lady (the same as above) oppressed with the Head-ache', and 'On Miss Stephens, of the Theatre-Royal Covent Garden'. Catherine Philips and 'Miss Fanny Fripp' are each the subject of several poems.
Text is arranged in double columns until around the end of Owen's time at Cambridge; thenceforth, sentences are written across the whole page, but Locke's structure is retained.
Zonder titel2 Bankfield Lane, Southport.—Sends 3 Henry VI, Act IV, and comments on her queries.
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Transcript
2 Bankfield Lane, Southport.
5 July 1936.
Dear Dr. McKerrow,
Herewith Act IV of 3 Henry VI. Most of the fairly numerous slips concern small adjustments in names etc. that still want making in the text. There is only one thing in this act that has seri-ously disturbed me and that is finding Pope bracketed in the note at V. vii. 76. Somehow I had got the idea firmly fixed in my mind that small adjustments in wording were ignored when the collation note concerned line division. How I got this notion I can’t think. I suppose I must have seen from the Cambridge collation notes that in a similar case Pope had eliminated a syllable or a word to satisfy his own taste in the decasyllabic line and as his reading wasn’t in brackets probably assumed that his manipulation of the text didn’t matter. Ought verbal omissions, alterations etc. to be indicated in such cases? I will look back through the Cambridge notes and try to find out what fixed this conviction so firmly in my mind—but it is not worth while holding back Act IV while I do this.
Yours sincerely,
Alice Walker.
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Typed, except the signature.
(The latter is unsigned.)
West Hackhurst, Abinger Hammer, Dorking. - Is ‘all right again’; only did not go to the Wednesday concert in Dorking as he was ‘hearing music in London instead’. As soon as ‘the air stops being like ice and the ground like glass’, hopes to visit, but ‘even the blackbirds can’t stand up when they walk to a crumb, so what help is there for humans?’.
Has been much enjoying ‘the Berenson poem in the Abinger Chronicle [Vol. 1. No. 2. To Bernhard Berenson; it is ‘not as good as the Goldie [Dickinson] one, but Berenson is not as good as Goldie, and within the limits he imposes Bob has turned out a very lovely and moving tribute to civilisation’. Has been reading a book about M[atthew] Arnold by ‘an America, called Trilling’; does not think he ‘has much feeling for poetry, but he is very good otherwise’, and gives Forster ‘surer ground’ for his admiration of Arnold.
Has ‘also read Elizabeth [von Arnim]’s frothy new novel Mr Skeffington’; it ‘has a touching denouement and was not badly built, and might have been good if she hadn’t such a frilly undi-fied [? undignified] mind. Has also read [Pope’s] Dunciad. Remembers Evelina [the book by Fanny Burney?]as ‘rather too little of a good thing’. His ‘trousers caught on fire at the Woolfs, and the house caught on fire at the Bells, but neither fatally’ and he much enjoyed himself. ‘Clive Bell is a charming host’.
British Museum, W. C. - Neither Mrs [Marie] Stopes nor [Ezra] Pound know Japanese, so he 'refuse[s] to be put in the same category'. Mrs Stopes 'talks a little colloquial' but there is 'abundant evidence' that the translations in her work were 'done by her Japanese collaborator [Jōji Sakurai]'. Has not met her, but 'you can tell exactly what she is like from reading her book'; Pound 'knows and dislikes her, which is on the whole in her favour'. Nothing happening about the publication of his poems: Squire has not yet 'moved' about putting some in the "New Statesman". Sent a copy of the '"reprint"' to Ka Cox suggesting it might give Constable [& Co, publishers] a 'less tedious impression than typescript', but has not heard from her. Sent a copy to [Bertrand?] Russell, who was 'very kind about it', as were 'Leonard [Woolf] and his wife, who want to print some, & shall - failing everything else'. Is keenest that people should be led to share his conviction that Po Chu-I is 'one of the great poets of the world', but 'perhaps one cannot prove it by 38 translations'. Believes that the 'Opposition consists... of the Stracheys & Alix [Sargant-Florence?], who will not read them till I do them in Popian couplets, with long 's's, bound in calf'. Does agree with them that 'Pope is the only readable translator of Homer'. Also sent his book to [Gordon] Bottomley.
Enclosing seal fragment and transcript of letter by Alexander Pope.
Woodthorpe, The Thrupp, Nr. Stroud, Glos. - Has now read through Trevelyan's 'valuable gift' [his translations of the "Eclogues and Georgics of Virgil"], and admires its 'fidelity to the original & its sustained excellence of style'. Prefers the "Georgics" to the "Eclogues": Trevelyan knows his 'ear is deaf to some of your harmonies' and would like Trevelyan to read them to him. The accents in the "Georgics" give a 'fine strong effect, so different from Pope's ready-mouthed [?] strain'; has been writing a piece on Pope's "Iliad" for "Notes and Queries". Has copied out [Edward] Fitzgerald's 'free & easy version of the Corycian swain' from "[An] Aftermath" in case Trevelyan does not know it [see 21/107b]. Blames his 'bad handwriting' on the temperature.
Regrets to say that he will not see William the following week. Reports that the latter has written to say that he does not feel well enough to come to the 'Ad Eundem'. Informs her that the marmalade has arrived, 'and is very nice.' Asks her to tell Arthur that they 'lost "the whole ticket" at the elections to Council.' Does not think that it will much matter, and states that '[t]he questions which are coming to the front now in Academic affairs are not of a party character.' Regrets to see that the same state of affairs does not exist 'in the metropolis: and that the worst features of Parliamentary Elections are to be introduced into the Elections of school-boards in the Metropolis'. States that he allowed his name to be put on Miss [Garrett]'s committee for Marylebone. Has learnt that the elections are to cost about £1,000 per candidate, and Miss [Garrett], 'standing on principles of peculiar p[ ] will only spend £500.' Adds that it is 'a terrible waste of money.' Reports that Trevelyan has been there 'in a very triumphant and anti-military state.' Quotes Seeley on opposition to a reform. Asks her opinion of Myers' last poem in Macmillan['s Magazine]. Thinks it 'very fine', and remarks that Myers' ability 'to write anything so like Pope shows great versatility of style.' Adds that he is glad that she liked Catherine Symonds.
Worplesdon Rectory, Guildford. - Don [Donald Tovey] has been 'on one of his very fugitive visits' and read Trevelyan's "Ariadne" ["The Bride of Dionysus"], which gave them so much pleasure that Tovey is writing to tell Trevelyan. Is sure that Trevelyan and Donald's joint work [on the opera] will be 'epochmaking in the history of English history and music'. Only has criticism of the 'most pedantic kind', which he will not bother to write; if the public can stand the Wagnerian legend for the sake of the music, they should really appreciate 'what is truly classical in the best sense'. Encourages Trevelyan to visit, as he promised after they had 'deposited [Henry?] Jackson at the Charing Cross Hotel after that miraculous & bewildering ride in the motor omnibus'. A postscript asks whether [Thomas Babington] Macauley did indeed call Versailles 'a huge heap of littleness'; is sure he did, following [Thomas] Gray's use of a phrase from [Alexander] Pope; invites Trevelyan to see 'how minute [he is] becoming or become'. Also asks Trevelyan whether he is aware that the Arthurian legend exists in Scotland, and that at Meigle in Perthshire 'they show you the tomb of Queen Wander' who was pulled apart by wild horses 'for nae gude that she did', and Wander is Guinevere [see Gray, '"Works" (1825) vol II p. 274].
[On headed notepaper for Wallington, Cambo, Northumberland]: - Was 4th this fortnight; thinks Charlie was 11th. Expects she has heard that Charlie got his fez 'at a second eleven [match]; Davison got his at the same time. Thinks Charlie 'quite deserved it', as he would 'certainly have got it if he had played in the match' [but was recovering from illness so could not]. Went to tea with Houson the Sunday before last, and with [Main Swete?] Walrond, 'a Weldonite in the sixth form', this Sunday; Hicks, who is in Walrond's house, was also there. Walrond is 'very nice indeed' and they had 'great fun'. Is going to tea with Glazer [M. G. Glazebrook?] next Sunday which will be the fourth one in a row he has been out to tea since he went to [J.W.?] Cunningham before.
They are soon going to have a 'trial on Pope's Iliad; this 'counts into the fortnight' and makes a great difference to the marks, so he has 'read it up carefully' and found it 'very interesting'. Around four boys in his form 'have been caught cribbing'. There was a 'concert in speecher [the Speech Room]' last Friday by the band of the Coldstream Guards. Weldon's [house] beat Bozy's [Bosworth Smith's?] today 5-0. His own house 'nearly beat Weldon's' in their match, so they 'cannot be very bad this year'. Hopes his father is 'quite well'.
Garden Corner, West Road, Cambridge. - Always gets the 'greatest pleasure' from Bob's letters about his books, as he thinks Bob is 'perhaps better qualified to judge them as books [emphasised] than any one else' and his corrections and suggestions are always 'so useful and interesting'. Bob's readings of Pope's "Prologue" [to Addison's "Cato"] are 'clearly improvements': George took his text [for "Peace and the Protestant Succession"] from an early copy of the play, but Pope must have made the correcctions Bob gives; discusses Bob's other comments.
Thanks him for his letter. Declares his advice to be good, and states that he is disposed to adopt it. Quotes Alexander Pope: 'To err is human, to succeed Divine', and Francis I: 'Tout est sauvé [ ] l'honneur'.
2 Hampstead Hill Gardens, Rosslyn Hill, N.W.3. - Very good of Trevy to send "From the Shiffolds" as Christmas greetings: he and his wife send best wishes in return. Asks how the Trevelyans are; has not seen any works by Julian recently, though he 'much frequent[s] Picture Galleries'. Nick [their son], his wife, and small daughter are staying here while the house they have bought in Chelsea is repaired; Nick is staying in the Army, and is now an acting Major. He himself is 'always reading poetry in scraps, in the bus, in bed...'; he has recently regained some of his 'old passion for Fitzgerald', and always has Rilke and Horace by him, whom Trevy will call an 'odd couple'; has recently 'turned to Pope - stranger still' but now will 'turn to' Trevy.
(Oxford?)—Suggests examples of books before 1750 containing illustrations, for the bibliography.
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Transcript
Bibliography slip 32
Illustrations before 1750:
Portraits of course, e.g. in:
Drummond’s Works Paris {1} 1709
Pope’s Works 1717
etc. etc.
Fancy Pictures. Rape of the Lock 1714.
Thomson 1730—the four Seasons
Young Night Thoughts 1742—one plate
Pope’s Works Vol. II 1735—tailpieces etc. by Kent
Gay’s Poems 1720
[Gay's] {2} Shepherd’s Week
Philip’s Cyder
[The preceding three lines are braced on the right to:] all rustic subjects | Gay’s Fables!
Rowe’s Quean {1} I think has an allegorical frontispiece.
This is from memory—I think you must modify.
24:12:26 RWC
RBMcK
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{1} Reading uncertain.
{2} Represented by a ditto mark in the original.
Originally enclosing three publicity notices for the "Abinger Chronicle" for Julian and Ursula to distribute to possible subscribers, such as Imogen [Gore-Browne?]; they should avoid people likely to be on Oliver [Lodge], Bob, [E.M.] Forster or Sylvia [Sprigge]'s lists. Max [Beerbohm] and Forster are both contributing to the Christmas number; does not think he himself will have anything ready. Bessie has a persistent cold, but he hopes she will soon get away to Hove for a few days. Hopes that Diana [Brinton-Lee?]'s 'expedition' was successful. Is trying to write an 'epistle in Alexandrines' to B.B. [Bernard Berenson], but it is 'rather uphill work'; quotes Pope ["Essay on Criticism"]. Tom S[turge] M[oore] is 'fairly all right', though Marie is still in Paris.