Item 24 - Letter from Alice Walker to R. B. McKerrow

C/o Mrs Chattaway, 151 Woodstock Road, Oxford.—Sends 2 Henry VI, Act I. Is still troubled by difficulties relating to punctuation and stage directions.

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Transcript

c/o Mrs Chattaway,
151 Woodstock Road, Oxford.
2 June 1936.

Dear Dr. McKerrow,

I am sending herewith 2 Henry VI Act I. I am afraid my query-slips look rather dog-eared and are very badly written. I hope you will make them out. I damaged my right thumb and forefinger a day or two ago and wasn’t very good at manipulating a pen when I wrote them. I am still much troubled by some of the punctuation problems I raised in my last set of queries and by the difficulties that arise out of stage-directions. Why do editors always want to delete a name when F1 has a direction like Exit Humfrey {1} but, on the other hand, always try to stick something in when F1 has a mere Exit? I all but lost my temper over I. iii. 34. {2} I hope my markings in the second (carbon) copy of the collation notes are clear. As you havn’t protested against my practice I have done what I did in I Henry VI—but it occurs to me that my ticks etc. may not be as clear to you as they are to me and that you may be too polite to say so! There are one or two words I still want to look up in the N.E.D. but I shan’t get to the Bodleian before I tie up this parcel so if anything further wants adding I will put it in a separate envelope.

I shall probably be going home before the week-end (probably on Friday) {3} but I shan’t know exactly when until tomorrow. I will let you know where I am and won’t disappear into the void with 2 Henry VI! I shall be here until at any rate Friday morning.

Yours sincerely,
Alice Walker.

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Typed, except signature. Sent with MCKW A4/25.

{1} e.g. I. iii. 140.

{2} The reference is probably in fact to line 39, where F1 has ‘Exit.’ and the Globe (for instance) has ‘Exit Servant with Peter.’

{3} 5th.