Item 271-272 - Letter from R. C. Trevelyan to Sir George Trevelyan

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The Shiffolds. - Hopes his parents had a comfortable journey to Wallington. Bessie's nephew Johannes Röntgen has now gone to Geneva to see his fiancée; they will both come to the Shiffolds in August for a visit before the Trevelyans go north. Robert and Bessie are therefore 'mostly alone for some time', until Julian returns from school, where he now seems 'quite happy'. Bessie intends to visit him at the end of next week.

Asks if his father has 'ever looked into the fragments of Euripides'; says they are 'more extensive and interesting than those of the other two [Aeschylus and Sophocles]', mentioning Phaethon and Hypsipyle. Can 'understand the Orestes being so popular. The characters, however unpleasant, are wonderfully drawn, and there is a good deal of grim humour'; it also 'must have been very splendid and effective on the stage'. He and Bessie have just finished Pride and Prejudice; likes Elizabeth [Bennett] 'as much as any of [Austen's] heroines. She is certainly the wittiest'; suspects she is 'more like Jane Austen herself than any of the others'. If he remembers correctly, Milton 'preferred Euripides to the other tragedians'.

They are 'anxiously waiting for the rain, which is badly wanted', as it is elsewhere. Sends love to his mother.

On two sheets; the second has mistakenly been assigned a separate number.