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1 rue Budé, IVième, Isle Saint-Louis. - Is 'ashamed' not to have answered Trevelyan's 'two kind letters' for so long a time, and 'very grateful' to him for taking so much trouble; Trevelyan's second letter reached Du Bos on the 'very day Pearsall Logan Smith [sic: Logan Pearsall Smith] was here'. Still hoped then that he might be able to carry out 'so very pleasant a plan' [see perhaps 4/195, a postcard from E. M. Luce suggesting that Du Bos could stay in her room in London while she is away in June] but regrets that he will be 'tied down to [his] work all through summer' and cannot hope to get away. Will keep Trevelyan's 'invaluable indications' and hopes he will be able to use them one day. Much regrets that Trevelyan will not, as he offered, be able to introduce him to Desmond MacCarthy: admired MacCarthy's 'article of Souvenirs on Henry James' very much; if MacCarthy ever comes to Paris, asks Trevelyan to give him his address. Was unable to go to Jelly d'Arányi's concert due to 'pressure of work'; heard through some of his friends at "La Revue Musicale" that the Bela Bartok concert was very successful, and hopes she will come to visit Paris for a longer time one day, and will 'then report herself to the Ile Saint-Louis'.

Asks if Trevelyan's article on Shelley's "Epypsychidion" has appeared in the "New Statesman": is 'very impatient' to read it. Their conversations 'two years ago and the other day' on the 'tempo' of both Keats and Shelley were 'very interesting and fruitful': is increasingly interested in that subject and feels 'starved' of it when Trevelyan is out of Paris. Is sending a 'little notice' of his "Collection d'Auteurs Etrangers" [series published under his supervision]: now seems decided they will also publish either "Heloise and Abelard" or "The Brook Kerith" by George Moore. Has seen the Countess de Rohan-Chabot; is revising B.B.s translation [into French: of one of Berenson's books on Italian art] with her and has just written to him about it. Heard an interesting lecture by Valéry at Adrienne Monnier's recently on the 'ideas of Edgar Poe'; wishes Trevelyan could have been there. [John Middleton] Murry was there and 'enjoyed it greatly'; he is 'kindly' trying to get Du Bos 'regular employement [sic]' at the "Times". Sure if Trevelyan hears of anything permanent at the "New Statesman" or elsewhere he will remember Du Bos. His wife sends 'many messages' [of regard]. Adds postscript saying they lunched with [Edmond] Jaloux recently, who asked lots of questions about Trevelyan.

30 Bruton Street, Berkeley Square, W. - Hopes Bob is still at Naples; his letter [15/270] made him 'extremely dissatisfied with London'. Has seen [Wilde's] "Ideal Husband" acted mostly by understudies, which 'showed it up rather'. Has also seen '"the 3rd Mrs Tanqueray twice' ["The Notorious Mrs Ebbsmith", Pinero's follow up to "The Second Mrs Tanqueray"?]; thinks it 'really superior to the 2nd' though 'not nearly so thrilling'; Mrs P[atrick] C[ampbell] is 'splendid', as is [John] Hare. Next week the Independent Theatre is putting on 'a wonderful French company (bossed by a descendant of Edgar Poe [Aurélien Lugné-Poë]' performing [Ibsen's] "Rosmersholm" and "Master Builder", and two plays by Maeterlinck, whom Marsh will see at an At Home he is attending on Monday. Hopes Bob will 'find some relics of the orgies of Tiberius [on Capri]'; tells him to write 'a lost book of Tacitus'. Asks if he knows of the theory that what is known as Tacitus's work was in fact 'the work of Poggio Bracciolini'. Bob should '[r]oll Messalina & Agrippina & Lollia Paulina into one for the heroine, and invent some entirely new form of vice'; should be easy as 'there don't seem to be so very many'. Is reading Thomas de Quincey's autobiography ["Autobiographic Sketches"?], 'one of the most entertaining books [he has] come across'. Will write again when he has a permanent address for Bob. Has just been invited by Shipley to dinner with a 'Scotch novelist' [John Watson, pen name Ian Maclaren] so must spend the afternoon reading his novel '"[Beside] the Bonnie Briarbush' it's foolishly called'.

Grimsby Farm, Long Lane, Coldash, Newbury. - Hopes Trevy has received the letter he wrote to Naples, otherwise he will think Marsh 'rather a beast'. Glad Corpo di Cava was not snowed under, since it has turned out to be 'so delightful'; he himself would have 'preferred Capri for the sake of Tiberius' [see 15/318]. Has just got away from London and finished his first day of work here; his 'flesh crept to such a degree' when he woke on Monday night and started to think about his tripos [examinations] that it 'must have moved on about an inch all round'. Stayed in London a little longer than he should have done because of a 'superior French company' who performed [Ibsen's] "Rosmersholm" and "Master Builder" and a play by Maeterlinck under the direction of M. [Aurélien-François-Marie] Lugné -Poé who 'seems to be a descendant of Edgar Poe'. He is 'a very beautiful man with a pale face & black hair', and reminds Marsh of a 'portrait of some poet', perhaps Poe himself; he 'acts very respectably' and played the Master Builder as 'an American with a straggling beard & a drunken complexion' and 'quite revolutionized' Marsh's idea of the part, since 'the rather vulgar arrogant manner he put on in certain parts' made the character seem more consistent than 'the suavity of Lewis Waller'. Asks if Trevy has ever read Maeterlinck, as it is 'useless to try and explain what he's like' if not; in the 'mixture of great simplicity with an entire rejection of realism' he thinks it goes back to 'the Burne Jones & Morris kind of thing'. Sat next to William Archer, who was 'very nice' to him. Saw many friends at the Ibsen plays: [Erskine] Childers, Crompton [Llewelyn Davies], Gerald Duckworth, J[ohn] Waldegrave, 'the Babe' [William Haynes Smith?] etc. Thinks the Independent Theatre must be 'the worst managed concern in the world': the performances usually begin late 'after the curtain has gone up two or three times, to encourage the audience. You're never safe from the irruption of a cat in the most moving scenes', the actors miss their cues, or the curtain does not go down at the end of the act. The man who is called the Acting Manager [Charles Hoppe] is 'the greatest crook [he] ever met with in a responsible position', who seems unable to sell tickets without asking for assistance and did not even know how many acts there were in "Rosmersholm". Marsh took the Verralls to that play; comments on Arthur Verrall's reaction to theatre: 'he never is, or lays himself out to be, in the least moved by a play' but responds to 'the cleverness or stupidity with which it is written'.

Very glad that George [Trevelyan] got his scholarship, though there was no doubt he and Buxton would; 'very hard luck on [Ralph] Wedgwood. Went to see [Charles] Sanger yesterday in his new rooms at Hare Court. No-one has heard 'anything of [Bertrand] Russell for some time'. Only saw Oswald [Sickert], who had influenza, not serious, once; he has just got 'free from the Werner Company, which has used up the Beauties of Britain, & gone on to Paris [ie, finished publishing "Beautiful Britain]'; hopes he will have time for his novel now. [Maurice] Baring took Marsh to supper with Edmund Gosse on Sunday: a 'most amusing man', whose conversation is 'described in Stevenson's essay on conversation ["Talk and Talkers"] under the name of Purcell. He was in the teakettle mood'. Met [Henry] Harland, the editor of the "Yellow Book" there; thought him 'an awful little man', but 'on getting accustomed to his manner' next day he thought him 'like-able on the whole'. Hopes to go to supper next Sunday with 'the even more distinguished [Robert] Bridges', though he has not read his recent works so 'feels rather ill-equipped'. Met John Davidson briefly recently; he 'seemed a genial and light hearted little man, with a nice Scotch accent'.

Essay.

Engineer-in-Chief's Office, General Post Office, E.C. - Will send publication refuting Rufus Griswold's allegations against Edgar Allan Poe; is writing own biography in defence of Poe. Poe's sister Rosalie is living in Baltimore in great poverty; requests contribution; Tennyson, Swinburne and Rossetti have promised aid.

Account of the first ascent of the Croda da Lago via the west face [by Leone Sinigaglia], with the guides Zaccaria Pomponia and Angelo Zangiacomi, in August 1895 and of the first ascent by Sinigaglia and Pietro Dimai [in 1893] via the north ridge (2 sheets). Another sheet with quotations about mountains by Sinigaglia and others (some crossed through), and names of books about the Dolomites.

Table showing ascents of the Croda da Lago between Jul 1884 and Aug 1893, showing date, mountaineer, route, and any remarks. Paper looks to be an unused exam answer sheet, with 'This margin may not be written on' at the top. Sticker on top right of the sheet has a reference to The Alpine Journal vol VI (1872-1874) p 204, this is from 'Alpine Byeways' by W. E. Utterson Kelso, and is also a reference to a climb by the Crodao. On the reverse are notes on some failed early attempts, then a detailed account of Sinigaglia's ascent via the west face in 1895. Notes in the margins on books about mountaineering, continued onto a part sheet of the same paper.

Poem, 'Light on the Mountains'; first line 'Dreary and chill the snowfield stretches wide...' (1 sheet)

Poem, 'The Snowstorm'; first line 'Over hill and vale a frigid trail...' (1 sheet)

Sheet with drafts of several pieces of poetry, including part of a parody of Poe's The Raven, ending 'Say - Oh Raven - Evermore?'. Passage from Parson Kelly by A. E. W. Mason and Andrew Lang, about walking at night, on other side.

Poem, 'Discontent'; first line 'The break of the day that is over...' On other side of sheet, part draft of poem; game of 'Hangman', with text to guess a line from Keats' 'The Eve of St Agnes'; some shorthand.

Cud Hill House, Upton Saint Leonards, Glos. - Bob has given him great pleasure [by sending him his book "Windfalls"]: finds himself drawn first to the essays with personal names: Browning, Virginia Woolf, Meredith; these are all '[d]elightful', with '[s]uch sensitive discrimination in the literary criticism', combined with 'personal pictures - so vivid', such as 'Meredith's thumps with his stick in honour of the lovely Lucy Duff Gordon'; asks which of Meinhold's works Duff Gordon translated. Praises Bob's literary criticism: calls his defence of rhetoric 'timely needed & excelled'; might not have had Marlowe and the University poets 'without the Schools of Rhetoric of Oxford & Cambridge', and without Marlowe, there might have been no Shakespeare. Comments on 'how neatly' Bob 'refute[s] Edgar Poe's heresy!'. Likes what Bob says about Shelley's "Music when soft voices die": has sometimes read the last stanza as 'addressed by Shelley to himself'; cites 'Less oft is peace in Shelley's mind...' [from "To Jane: The Recollection"] as another instance of self-address. Diana [his wife] and the children are going to Sennen at Land's End on Monday; he himself is not, since he always finds South Cornwall 'too damp'; will go instead to the 'Brit[ish] Ass[ociation for the Advancement of Science]' in Broghton from 7-14 September. His eldest son [Oliver] is engaged to be married to Rosemary Phipps, a 'charming girl' living at Fairford on the upper Thames; she and Oliver have been to visit. Tom [his other son] is staying with Lodge's sister [Barbara Godlee?] near Manchester, but will join the rest of the family in Cornwall. He is 'very musical-studying'. Bob's grandson Philip is here, playing in the garden with Colin; he is a 'dear little boy'. Sends love to both Trevelyans; hope Bob's has a 'good holiday & enjoy[s] Italy'. Asks if 'the cause of Virginia Woolf's death [was] ever known'. Adds a postscript to say her heard a 'marvellous Beethoven piece' on the radio last night, the String Quartet in B flat, Op. 18 no. 6.