[41 Brimmer St., Boston]
Last week was a pretty full one, andShaw, George BernardHeartbreak House;b1 after everything else we went on Saturday night to ‘Heartbreak House’,1 theLockyer, Isobel;a1 last performance of the run, with Vivienne’s friends Mrs. & Miss Lockyer,2 who are very agreeable, though fatigueingly [sic] talkative. Have you ever seen it? ItHardwicke, Sir Cedricbrilliant in Heartbreak House;a1 is odd that after your mentioning Cedric Hardwicke in the letter received the day before, he should be in the chief rôle – I had never seen him before; his rendering of Captain Shotover was brilliant.3 I had never read the play, and so found it difficult to follow, especially as it is very fantastic; I am going to read it now, and make up my mind what I think about it. ItShaw, George BernardMethusaleh;b2 is the first Shaw play that I have seen for many years – except one act of ‘Methusaleh’.4 WhatShaw, George BernardTSE on;a3 I feel with ‘Heartbreak House’ is what I have felt about Shaw for a long time: that it all springs from an abnormally clever and agile brain – I should hardly deny him the term genius – but never from profound feeling; and that it is the absence of any deep emotional experience of life on his part that makes his personages so unreal. Without great emotional sensibility I doubt whether a dramatist can make his characters even coherent; Shaw’s characters have only the most superficial consistency. In feeling he seems to be just a clever child. There is a good deal of talk about breaking hearts in the play; but I just could not believe that Shaw really knows what heartbreak means. Have you ever acted in a Shaw play? if so, you would know much more about the matter than I do. ButEvans, Edithunmissable even when playing Bernard Shaw;a2 any play is worth seeing that has Edith Evans in it; I wish that you might see her and compare impressions. ItEvans, Edithcompared to Athene Seyler;a3 is largely due, I think, to her knowing how to move with consummate grace for dramatic effect, and partly a wonderful dramatic voice. When she comes onto the stage she brings a standard of acting with her, and you suddenly feel that all the other actors are clumsy tyros, however good they are. TheSeyler, AtheneEdith Evans compared to;a1 only woman I have seen who could stand up to her in the same play is Athene Seyler – IWycherley, WilliamThe Country WifeAthene Seyler and Edith Evans remembered in;a2 saw them together in ‘The Country Wife’ once – and I doubt whether Athene Seyler has the same range; she is more limited to light comedy.5
DerbyEnglandEnglish traditions;c4Derby Day;a1 Daytravels, trips and plansthe Eliots' Derby Day excursion;a4related;a2, as I said, passed off well enough. TheHodgsons, theaccompany the Eliots to Derby Day;a4 weather was fine and hot – it has been bitter cold since then until to-day. I don’t think I want to drive a car to a big race meeting again – for the last mile or two we simply crawled on first gear inhaling the exhaust of the cars in front. By good luck I managed to get into a parking place at Tattenham Corner from which we could see about fifty yards of the course at the Corner. The crowd I should think might have been a couple of hundred thousand; and Derby Day always attracts thousands of people who never go to any other race meeting, and who know nothing whatever about horses. There is also, of course, all the riff-raff of the racing world: bookies and their touts, usually in bowler hats and rough Newmarket coats in spite of the heat, and looking such complete rogues that you wonder anyone trusts them with a penny. There was also the usual concourse of gypsies, in bright colours, and looking oddly distinguished in spite of their mendicancy (the time-honoured phrase is ‘cross my hand with silver for luck’) and fortune-telling. Of the races, of course, we had only a glimpse; and as the day was rather hazy it would have been impossible to distinguish the racing colours; and I suppose that only a very favoured few saw any more than we did; but what people get from such an event – and it is, I am persuaded, something that humanity craves from time to time – is a pleasant feeling of corporate excitement. Anyway, it’s a harmless enough outlet and relief from the boredom of their existence, and brightens the lives of everybody for a fortnight before hand. We did not make any bets; but it is a pardonable exaggeration to say that every servant girl, charwoman, bus conductor, clerk – the whole populace – has been listening to tips for two weeks and usually has some horse which he or she fancies and has backed for half a crown. Derby Day is perhaps the liveliest interest which the British people have in common with each other.
MyCharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism)preoccupying TSE;a5 chieffinances (TSE's)TSE's Income Tax;a1 jobs at present are to fill up my U.S.A. income tax form, work out a scheme of eight lectures, try to think up a few subjects for the outside lectures and if possible furbish up a few old papers to use in that way, andCriterion, Thearrangements in TSE's absence;a4 to work out the routine of the Criterion during my absence – I have already, I think, nearly enough contributions: the chief problem is to arrange so that the right people will get the right books to review. I can hardly believe that I shall be starting for Boston in just over three months; nor do I see yet just how the difficulties are to be overcome. Whentravels, trips and plansTSE's 1932–3 year in America;a7TSE's itinerary;a8 you say Scripps does not open until the 19th, do you mean SEPTEMBER or OCTOBER? The 19th September seems very early and the 19th October very late; how wonderful, though, if it should prove to be the latter, as then I might have a chance of seeing you before you went west. But I am afraid that you must mean the 19th September. <I fear it is impossible for me to arrive before then.> I should like to arrive in Boston about September 25th; I shall be writing tomorrow to enquire about the C.P.R. sailings, and will let you know as soon as fixed. For what you say about the ‘simplicity of acceptance’ and the ‘greater freedom of attitude’ in Boston, much thanks. And I imagine that I was reflecting, not the attitude of London society, but the distortions of my own immediate environment.
1.George Bernard Shaw, Heartbreak House: A Fantasia in the Russian Manner on English Themes (1919).
2.VivienLockyer, Isobel, in a letter to Aurelia (Hodgson) dated 27 Mar. 1932, refers to ‘Mrs & Miss [Isobel] Lockyer, friends of my Mother’s & mine’ (Beinecke).
3.SirHardwicke, Sir Cedric Cedric Hardwicke (1893–1964), redoubtable stage and screen actor.
4.Back to Methuselah (A Metabiological Pentateuch) (1921).
5.AtheneSeyler, Athene Seyler (1889–1990), celebrated stage and screen actor. Awarded CBE, 1959.
TSE, ‘A Commentary’, Criterion 2 (Apr. 1924), 231–5: ‘Miss Seyler is probably the finest living actress of comedy in England; her personality commands the scene whenever she appears. SheSeyler, Athenecompared to Marie Lloyd and Nellie Wallace;a2n played the part of Lady Fidget [in The Country Wife] with a kind of cold ferocity, a pure and undefiled detachment which make her worthy to rank in that supreme class which includes Marie Lloyd and Nellie Wallace. Miss Seyler has also a gift of expression and gesture; beautiful hands, and knows how to use them; distinctions extremely uncommon amongst the usual suburban manners of the comedy stage.’
MarySeyler, Athenecontemplated for The Cocktail Party;a3n Trevelyan noted on 3 Apr. 1950: ‘We talked of the possibility of getting Athene Sayler for Julia in the new cast of “The Cocktail Party”, but decided she might steal the show too much’ (‘The Pope of Russell Square’ [1950], 4).
2.EdithEvans, Edith Evans (1888–1976), versatile stage and screen actor; enduringly celebrated for her appearance as Lady Bracknell in the film of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest (1952). Evans won her reputation during her long association (from 1925) with the Old Vic, London: her other notable roles included Judith Bliss in Noel Coward’s Hay Fever on the stage and the movie Tom Jones (1963). DBE, 1946.
3.SirHardwicke, Sir Cedric Cedric Hardwicke (1893–1964), redoubtable stage and screen actor.
2.VivienLockyer, Isobel, in a letter to Aurelia (Hodgson) dated 27 Mar. 1932, refers to ‘Mrs & Miss [Isobel] Lockyer, friends of my Mother’s & mine’ (Beinecke).