Unable to dine
Typescript with ms. corrections, 11 pp.
References to the works of John Stuart Mill, William Hamilton and Herbert Spencer. Some later additions and annotations in Sidgwick's hand, and some pencilled annotations in another hand re. existing notes and on reverse of last page.
S. S. Mongolia - Has been reading the proof [of 'Totemism and Exogamy'?] and makes suggestions for changes to the section on Indian totemism.
Letter to Frances Jackson dated 12 Sept. 1846. The sermon, The Marriage in Cana of Galilee. A Sermon Referring to the 10th March, 1863 by W. H. Brookfield, London, 1863 carries an inscription to Olivia Jackson dated 10 March 1863.
Accompanied by a letter from Franz Bretano to Jackson dated 5 May 1912.
RJ looked at the appearance of a friend's first book with great pleasure [WW, 'An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics', 1819]: 'The Book they tell me is pronounced good but the introduction a puzzle - in truth I think while writing it you forgot for a moment the thick darkness by which you are surrounded - 9 tenths of the people old and young at Tonbridge I take it know exactly nothing about the question as to constant precessions of phenomena efficient courses[,]etc. and you have earnt nothing but abuse and curses by paying them the compliment of supposing they did - for myself I find fault with you for using the term necessary truth as applied to physical conclusions for thinking you escape, from what even you mean in spite of your former pretty promises to think the blot of an experimental foundation to your statics'. RJ believes WW does this by resorting to metaphysics. He thinks that one must always suppose some sort of experiment and induction before one can get through it to a physical conclusion - 'will you fight?'. RJ's Rectorship in Wales has been postponed. Rose [Hugh Rose] has been preaching at RJ's with 'great applause from the better sort as well as the mob'. Rose tells RJ 'that the old mathematics have died and faded away with scarcely an audible groan before the bright flood of analytic love which has been poured in upon them and you therefore I take it have been revelling uncontrolled in the luxury of long brackets filled with cabalistical characters - I give you joy but alas for the poor geometers! methinks I hear their mutterings loud and deep echo through the sympathising courts of St. Johns and Queens'.
Wolverhampton Art and Industrial Exhibition, 1902, Gresham Chambers, Lichfield Street, Wolverhampton. - Was very sorry to miss Trevelyan on Tuesday; the Committee had a 'long jangling quarrel which dragged like an Alexandrine'. Will send the Yeats book tomorrow, and thinks Trevelyan will like it. Has been reading Gorky 'with disappointment'; thinks Bart Kennedy, the author of "Sailor Tramp" which he recommended, is far superior and disapproves of too much philosophy in a tramp.
Given at the Foreign Office, London, with signature of Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Secretary.
Various stamps in Cyrillic, one will additional cursive Cyrillic filled in by hand, Apr 13.
Telegram, 16 July 1947, from Christopher Hassall to R. C. Trevelyan, inviting him to give a twenty-five minute talk on Catullus on 27 August. Reply from Trevelyan regretting that he cannot give the talk. Subsequent reply cancelling previous reply and saying Trevelyan would 'much like to write script' if the offer is still open.
Letter, 5 May 1898, from George Lillie Craik, Macmillan & Co Ltd, St. Martin's Street, London, W.; sent to R. C. Trevelyan at the National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place, S.W.. - They have asked a 'friend' to help them decide about Trevelyan's poems ["Mallow and Asphodel"]; his opinion is 'favourable' and therefore they are willing to publish the work on commission; advises Trevelyan to add some 'poems on modern themes' if he can as this will increase the book's appeal. They will keep the manuscript until Trevelyan says where he would like it to be sent; expects he will want to look through it before it goes to the printers.
Gathering of printed page proofs for the 1898 publication of "Mallow and Asphodel" by Macmillan, with numerous duplicate pages. Date stamp, '28 May '98'; extensive corrections in manuscript.
9 pages (versos blank) from a lined notebook, with the "Archilochus" poems from "Mallow and Asphodel" written out, with corrections, in Trevelyan's hand.
Four copies of galley proofs of poems from "Mallow and Asphodel", with Cambridge University Press date stamps from 11 November 1937 to 4 January 1938. All have extensive corrections in Trevelyan's hand; two copies have attached printed "First Proof" labels from Cambridge University Press. Seemingly from a "Collected Works" or other anthology, but Trevelyan's "Collected Works" was in fact published in two volumes by Longmans in 1939. One copy contains two sides of a typed revision of the final lines of Trevelyan's "Orpheus"; the verso of the second sheet has draft [?] lines in pencil, "Seven years have I now loved you..." in Trevelyan's hand.
Press cuttings, sent to Trevelyan by Macmillan and Co. or cuttings agencies, from the: "Scotsman"; "Academy" (two copies); "Glasgow Herald"; "Literature"; "Speaker"; "Bookman"; "Oxford Magazine"; "Leeds Mercury"; and "Times". Dates between 1 September 1898 and 4 October 1899.
Trevelyan's address c/o G[ordon] Bottomley, The Sheiling, Silverdale, near Carnforth. - Strachey's article in last week's "Spectator" [see 26/12/5] gave Trevelyan much pleasure: it is a 'rare experience to be appreciated at once so generously and so understandingly'. Was very glad Strachey quoted the chorus on Man from the "Antigone", as he thinks his own 'somewhat dangerous experiment of trying to reproduce the Greek metre comes nearest to success' there. What Strachey says about his translation of Theocritus is also 'very gratifying': Trevelyan had worried that the 'expectations and the absence of rhyme in that metre would prove a stumbling block'. Expected that few people would agree with his comment about [Theocritus's] "Sorceress" being the 'greatest of love poems": perhaps he 'went too far', but did not intend to compare it with dramas, short lyrics and sonnets; even among long poems he admits Chaucer's "Troilus [and Criseyde]" and Marlowe's "Hero and Leander" could be argued to be 'greater'. Hoped to 'provoke dissent' but so far Strachey is the only critic to have challenged his assertion. Very pleased to find someone who understands and generally agrees with what he says about metre in "Thamyris"; thinks he could have been more convincing with more space for illustrations, and would also have liked to have given some examples of 'good and bad poetic rhetoric'. Has always thought Campion's ' "Rose-cheeked Laura" was a 'very remarkable invention"; Strachey may have noticed that he translated several Theocritean epigrams into it. Is himself 'no enemy of rhyme' but thinks there are 'great possibilities in unrhymed lyrical verse in English' which modern vers libre writers have not explored fully.
Lines copied out by Trevelyan from the 1833 publication of Tennyson’s “The Lotos Eaters” and “The Lady of Shalott” [perhaps comparing the differences with the 1842 edition?]. Draft verse addressed to Thanatos; prose about Meliance of Lys.
Notebook also used from opposite end in: draft prose narrative; notes on Wilson’s “Hindu Theatre” [Horace Hayman Wilson’s “Specimens of the Theatre of the Hindus” and [Charles Henry] Tawney’s translation of “Mālavikāgnimitra”; draft verse [or translation] on the Grail myth.
Text of play on recto only, with additions and corrections on facing pages. Inside covers also used.
Also contains notes for Trevelyan's toast to 'Absent Brothers' [at the annual dinner of the Cambridge Apostles], in which he explains that [his brother] George is 'in the Balkans, visiting battlefields' [during the Second Balkan War]; Brooke is in America, and Dickinson in China. Trevelyan suggests that Brooke should instead go to India as '9th reincarnation of Vishnu', play the flute and be followed by 'troops of adoring Gopi maidens. He would make a wonderful God'. If this new religion should prove a nuisance to the government, McTaggart, Russell and Moore should be 'at hand to check and expose him'; they would also find helpful roles in India, as would Fry, Lytton Strachey, George Trevelyan, and Mayor.
Titles listed inside: Lovesong; Old Dutch dance; Wish; Sicilian Serenade; Intermezzo; Merry thoughts; Poet's solitude; Wedding march.
George Allen & Unwin Ltd account dated 10 Oct 1919 for copies sent and postage, with list of names; crosses indicate people also to receive Trevelyan's "The Death of Man". Four printed order forms, not filled in, for "The Ajax of Sophocles" and "The Foolishness of Solomon".
Press cuttings, most sent by Durrant's Press Cuttings to R. C. Trevelyan, dating between 30 Oct 1919 and 21 Feb 1920. Reviews of "The Ajax of Sophocles" from the "Times Literary Supplement"; "Manchester Guardian" (two copies, also reviewing "The Death of Man and Other Poems"); the "Tablet" (two copies); the "Yorkshire Observer", the "Daily News & Leader"; the "Athenaeum (two copies); the "Journal of Education"; and the "Southport Guardian".
King's College, Cambridge. - Thanks Trevelyan for granting permission to use his translation of Sophocles' "Antigone": it is just right for the purpose, and Sheppard has 'always ranked it very high'; when he saw it acted by the girls of Hawnes School near Bedford fifteen months ago he was 'delighted'. Glad that Trevelyan agrees with him on the interpretation of [line 523, "οὔτοι συνέχθειν, ἀλλὰ συμφιλεῖν ἔφυν"], which he thinks expresses the 'most important part of the play'. Will go through the text carefully before printing and let Trevelyan know if he thinks of anything else, as well as showing him the introduction. Has just heard from May Lowes Dickinson that she and her sister are very pleased with Trevelyan's poem about [their brother] Goldie; Sheppard did not know it had been printed [in the "New Statesman"] but is pleased that it has; Maynard [Keynes] showed it him a while ago, and they 'agreed that it was very beautiful and true'.
Printed copy of a manuscript petition to A. J. Balfour, unsigned; and a printed petition to Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, signed in print, and annotated with the signatories' addresses in Frazer's handwriting.
Early manuscript draft, corrected, in J. G. Frazer's hand of pp. 14-17 (the end). Signed and dated by Frazer.
29 Barton Road, Cambridge - Thanks Lady Frazer for the Downie biography; reminisces about first meeting Sir James at Easter 1890 in Athens; has not forsaken them, but does not walk down Causewayside for fear of getting caught by air-raid warnings.
Typescript catalogue, corrected, 239 pp (approximately 4800 titles) [by John Roscoe].
Corrected proof, with emendations in Frazer's hand for inclusion in 'The Gorgon's Head'. Original proof dated Apr. 1921.
85 pp. diary of a train trip made with [James?] Ward from 13 March to 8 April 1883. While in Paris on the way there they attend a performance of "Fedora" starring the 'powerful' Sarah Bernhardt. Travelling via Toulouse, they arrive at the border where Frazer tastes Spanish food for the first time. From there they travel to Barcelona, with a long description of a side trip in which they climb Montserrat, to Tarragona and the monastery of Poblet, to València ('a most uninteresting town'), Córdoba (and a visit to the mosque there ), Granada (the Alhambra, cathedral, and Carthusian monastery), Seville (the Museo [de Bellas Artes de Sevilla], cathedral, and the Alcázar), Madrid (the Prado, a view of the King and Queen ['no cheering whatever'], and a trip to Toledo), Vittoria [Vitoria-Gasteiz], San Sebastián, Irun, thence in short order Biarritz, Bordeaux, Paris, Boulogne, Folkestone, London, and home to Cambridge.
Garden Corner, West Road, Cambridge - Is part of a group of people who are trying to bring pressure to bear on the German government, which has begun reviewing dossiers of academics and dismissing them. Sends a document for Frazer to sign which will be presented to the German government and which will be signed by the Vice Chancellor, the Master of Trinity, and Lord Rutherford; they are also asking Eddington, Hopkins, Pope, Housman, and he will sign himself.
Roundhurst, Haslemere. - Expects he will be at Wallington on 12 [April]; Edward could come then, or earlier in the week; there will be a 'mob of people' he hardly knows such as the Spence Watsons early on but 'the coast will be cleared' after Tuesday; he will get there on Wednesday or Thursday next week. Asks Edward to send Kitty's address [Kitson added in pencil]; they could 'do something to rag him' such as sending a letter 'enclosing a beautiful epithalamium'. 'Here is a fan for Roger [Fry] to paint, which 'may be used to support whichever side of the temperance question you may choose'; includes the text of Bob's poem "For a Fan", with a reference to the Homeric Hymn to Pan.
Irish Office, Gt. Queen St, S.W. [headed notepaper] - Sends this 'by way of a Valentine'; glad Bob was first in his Latin class.
29 Beaufort Street, Chelsea SW. - Jokes that his treatment of Bob has been 'shameful', especially after the 'splendid sonnet' which he compares to 'a piece of very neat cabinet work, not the highest praise perhaps but just what [he] wanted for an occasional thing like this'. Has been ill since he left Bob at Bristol but is now recovering. Has begun his Brighton lectures [for the Cambridge Extension Movement], with a 'large & enthusiastic audience of elderly ladies who palpitate with emotion'; sometimes stays with his sister [Isabel?] and feels it shows 'great nerve to stay at a girls school [Miss Lawrence's School, later Roedean] & have meals in the common room'. Wishes he were with Bob in the sun though agrees Taormina is not the 'best possible' place in Sicily to stay; warns him not to copy his relative [Florence Trevelyan, who married a Taorminan doctor] and marry the innkeeper's daughter. Remembers coming round a hill onto a terrace by the sea and seeing 'the monster' Etna for the first time. Syracuse is nice but he supposes not convenient to stay at. [Dugald] MacColl has just come for dinner.
Returns to the letter after two days. Went to the Fletchers' last night and heard some good music; [Hercules] Brabazon was there, and 'rather pathetic': has been too much for him to 'become at the age of 70 a great artist & consequently an authority on art has been too much for him'. Some good pictures at the Old Masters [exhibition at the Royal Academy], especially a Tintoretto. Has begun the "Odyssey" with the help of Bob's translation. Has 'some manuscript poems of Gerald Hopkins' [sic: Gerard Manley Hopkins] which would make Bob 'tear his hair'; quotes three lines [the opening of "The Windhover"], but won't disturb Bob's 'Sicilian vespers with the clash of footed metres'.