Pièce 51 - Letter from Lascelles Abercrombie to R. C. Trevelyan

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Ryton, Dymock, Glos. - Thanks Bob for the "Operatic Fable" ["The New Parsifal "]; has read and enjoyed it again, finding it a 'very admirably constructed joke.. with a commendable moral', though he thinks Bob has been a 'trifle unfair to Goethe and Nietzsche'; particularly Goethe, who was a real classicist, unlike Nietzsche who 'only tried hard to be, & could never succeed'. Does not matter much, and the work is a 'good joke in good poetry - which is a rare thing' and much needed. Admires how Bob has kept in the "Mona Lisa"; says in the next edition he should bring in [his own anthology] "New Numbers", and hopes Bob will have this soon. Sorry to read about Bob's father's illness in Saturday's paper ["Condition Of Invalids." Times, 21 Feb. 1914, p. 11]; hopes it is not serious and he recovers soon. Wonders in a postscript what the critics will make of Bob's 'hexameters etc'; finds a 'good few of the rhythms, even when most unexpected... completely successful', but 'did rather boggle at' others.