Item 39 - Letter from Alice Walker to R. B. McKerrow

1 single sheet

2 Bankfield Lane, Southport.—Sends 3 Henry VI, Act I. The main points on which she needs guidance are collation notes referring to the Contention, and inconsistencies in the treatment of stage directions and stage names. Has received the rest of 3 Henry VI.

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Transcript

2 Bankfield Lane, Southport.
23 June 1936.

Dear Dr. McKerrow,

Herewith the first act of 3 Henry VI. There seem to be a lot of slips, but they mainly concern the small points I mentioned in my last letter. There are one or two major matters, however, on which I should like some guidance. The first concerns the Contention. You will see that I have inserted a fair number of references (among the slips) to this, mainly where it seemed to me that the Contention may have suggested (or at any rate gives some support to) a reading already recorded in your collation notes. I have passed over, however, a small number of readings adopted by 18th century editors where the Contention seems preferable to F1 (generally for metrical reasons)—see, for example, the Cambridge collation notes to I. i. 76 and I. iii. 7—and I have omitted to mention as well one or two cases where the line in F1 halts and efforts have been made to make it run more smoothly (e.g. I. ii. 38). Would you prefer me to mention this kind of thing?

The other matter is by now, I expect, a sore subject!—stage directions and stage names etc. Now that I have Theobald and Capell here and a little more material to work on I am getting rather worried about the inconsistencies I have probably left in the plays I have been through. Accordingly I set out a number of the stage directions I was doubtful about in this act and tried to reduce the business to some kind of system. Can you bear to look at the enclosed regulations and slips and tell me whether I have interpreted your intentions rightly? It would be a great help if I knew more exactly what your ruling is about these and some kind of formula to work by would save time now and later.

You will see that I have ticked Theobald’s readings in green as a reminder that these havn’t been checked with the first edition. I havn’t found much to say about the notes. Most of the suggestions concern words now current with a slightly different meaning from the Elizabethan as I think they are more likely to be misunderstood than obsolete words where the reader isn’t likely to be led astray by familiar associations.

The rest of 3 Henry VI and your letter reached me this morning. I am glad you manage to decipher my writing! Most people find it quite incomprehensible and I know I tend to write far too fast to make the individual letters clear. May I add in return for your encouragement, that I very rarely indeed have any difficulty with yours and that it certainly looks a lot tidier than mine!

I agree that it is quite impossible to be quite consistent in the collations and, in any case, you won’t want the notes to look too precise in every part or machine-made, but now that I have permission to warn you of departures from the norm, I shall do so with fewer misgivings. The difficulty I find with your sweet disorders in collations is that I am not always sure that the wantonness is intentional!

I hope the atmosphere on the Chilterns has cleared. At the week-end {1} it was like a mangrove swamp here. Normally I thrive in heat, but I am very glad of cooler and even sunless weather for a change.

Yours sincerely,
Alice Walker.

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Typed, except the signature.

{1} 20th and 21st.

Sent with MCKW A4/40.