[No surviving envelope]
This has been a difficult week. Theappearance (TSE's)teeth;c2remaining upper teeth removed;b4 visits to the dentist and one to the doctor, a board meeting and an extra important committee as well as the usual Wednesday committee, the visit of a distinguished French man of letters, andDuncan, Ronaldintroduces TSE to Britten;a2 aBritten, Benjamindisastrous meeting with;a1 promise made some weeks ago which has to be fulfilled tonight, toBritten, BenjaminThe Rape of Lucretia;a2 go to hear anDuncan, RonaldThe Rape of Lucretia;a4 opera with the Composer (Britten)1 and the Librettist (Duncan), and a slight cold.2 So I have had no mornings for my own affairs. The operation, I was told, proved a rather difficult one – I did not come out of the anaesthetic for over twelve hours; and then two days in the home eating what I could with no teeth. I got them in on Monday, but they had to be readjusted on Wednesday – now I can eat with them comfortably though slowly, but I don’t yet like eating in public as the top set have a tendency to drop out – I believe quite usual at this stage: after the gums set they can be adjusted more exactly – anyway, other people’s seem to stay in! And I shan’t try to speak in public for some little time.
Now the weather has broken, and the re-adaptation to the normal climate, after a phenomenally long warm summer – from the middle of July until a few days ago – and still no sign of rain, but a new rawness and chill which has produced colds on every hand. For the first time, I have the electric heater on: I confidently expect that we shall be told in January that there will be no heat at all.
NowHale, Emilybirthdays, presents and love-tokens;w2EH sends TSE provisions;f3 you have sent another parcel, and I must repeat my injunction to you to wait until I let you know that we are actually starving before you send any more. This again however contained most useful things, including the silver polish, which is probably better than what we get here. But what I shall want to know, when you have run your establishment long enough to know yourself, is how much difficulty you have in making ends meet; and whether the expense of the flat means that you are having to pinch uncomfortably on clothes, and especially on food. There is just as much, and probably more danger, that persons in your situation in America will gradually weaken through progressive slight under-nourishment, as there is for us. OurEnglandpost-war privations;b9 defect is rather the unappetisingness of food, so that one often tends to under-eat from lack of interest in eating. I make a good breakfast, with porridge and usually some kind of fish – once a week or so an egg; get lunch out; and our good housekeeper always provides plenty of quantity at night, and a glass of milk for me at bed time when there is enough. AndFabers, the;h6 this week we had a pheasant with the Fabers.
I am awaiting eagerly your first letter after you have got properly installed; and want to know how your time is spent, and how much of it is given to the Boston teaching, which must have begun by now.
Your birthday is in 10 days – I shall try to time it –
1.BenjaminBritten, Benjamin Britten (1913–76), British composer, conductor, pianist, pacifist. His compositions include A Boy was Born (1934), Peter Grimes (1945), The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (1945), The Turn of the Screw (1954) and War Requiem (1962). In 1948 he co-founded the Aldeburgh Festival; in 1952 he was made a Companion of Honour; in 1965 he was appointed to the Order of Merit; and in 1976 he was created a life peer.
2.A performance of The Rape of Lucretia: music by Benjamin Britten, libretto by Ronald Duncan; designed by John Piper, and directed by Eric Crozier. First performed at Glyndebourne in 1946, the production transferred to the Sadler’s Wells Theatre.
SeeDuncan, Ronaldon TSE's meeting with Britten;a3n Duncan, Working with Britten: A Personal Memoir (Welcombe, Bideford, Devon: Rebel Press, 1981), 93–4: ‘I … persuaded Eliot to meet Ben [Britten]. The former had given us both lunch at the Russell Hotel. The meeting between them had been a failure. Eliot never approved of my wasting my time writing libretti, and did not encourage my working with Britten any more than he approved of my adapting Cocteau.
‘“You’re very profligate with your time, Ronnie,” he used to say, “and not very discerning in your choice of friends.” I said nothing […]
‘In 1947 The Rape of Lucretia was given at Covent Garden. As T. S. Eliot had published the libretto I thought he should see the piece although I knew he cared little for opera, and as I have said, less for my collaborating with Ben. But Eliot agreed to come. I was quite surprised […] We sat in the Dress Circle. I had great hopes that Tom would be impressed by the work. But to my dismay, I found that the flush in the gents lavatory behind our seats continued incessantly to interrupt and spoil Britten’s music. I knew what the trouble was: a stuck ball-valve in the cistern. I’d often mended such gadgets at home. The opera reached Lucretia’s Lullaby, but the urinal accompanied it.
‘“I’ll fix that bloody thing,” I whispered to Eliot and strode to the lavatory, climbed up to the cistern and bent the copper bar up to prevent it constantly flushing. This silenced the thing. I regained my seat. Eliot listened to the rest of the opera in silence without disturbance.
‘As we walked out of the Opera House I ventured to ask him if he’d enjoyed the work.
‘“Not exactly, Ronnie,” he said, “but I was most impressed with your plumbing.”
‘I never told Ben of Possum’s antipathy to him. The irony that his last but one composition was to set The Journey of the Magi did not escape me.’
1.BenjaminBritten, Benjamin Britten (1913–76), British composer, conductor, pianist, pacifist. His compositions include A Boy was Born (1934), Peter Grimes (1945), The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra (1945), The Turn of the Screw (1954) and War Requiem (1962). In 1948 he co-founded the Aldeburgh Festival; in 1952 he was made a Companion of Honour; in 1965 he was appointed to the Order of Merit; and in 1976 he was created a life peer.
3.RonaldDuncan, Ronald Duncan (1914–82): British poet, playwright, librettist, autobiographer: see Biographical Register.