[No surviving envelope]
You have no idea what a relief it was to get your letter on Thursday morning, and how anxious we had been about you. OnPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt);a9 Wednesday Mrs. Perkins rang me up, very worried, to ask whether I had any news of you, as she had had nothing but your wire of the previous Saturday; I of course had nothing to tell her but that I had had a wire on Sunday evening which differed from hers only by the addition of the portentous signature BUSY EMILY which seemed to forbid further solicitude. I said that it was unlikely that I should hear if she didn’t, but when I did hear would ring her up. IYeats, William Butler ('W. B.')TSE lectures on;a4 found your letter on returning from my 9 a.m. lecture – on W. B. Yeats – and telephoned and compared news. The placid tone of your account was characteristic, and was meant to be reassuring – whether the night was not more terrifying than you admit – with some nervous girls – I wonder. The momentary anxiety & possibility of a world without Emily in it was not pleasant.
I have had no time to write till now; onCharles Eliot Norton Lectures (afterwards The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism)'The Modern Mind';c3TSE on giving the lecture;a2 Thursday I was still working on my lecture for Friday – which went off with fair success – thenLowes, John Livingstonwhisky-fuelled discussion with;a7 had to spend part of the evening with Lowes – whisky & soda – discussing problems of education – then came back to elaborate my lecture for Saturday morning on the Irish Theatre – got to bed about 2:30. TalkedGregory, Lady AugustaThe Dragon;a2 about Lady Gregory – Synge – Yeats: butHale, Emilyas director ('producer');v9Lady Gregory's The Dragon;a2 I cannot find any play of Lady Gregory named ‘The Dragon’; is it possible that I have failed to decypher your writing?1 IGregory, Lady AugustaThe Rising of the Moon;a3 usedSynge, John Millington ('J. M')The Playboy of the Western World;a2 chiefly The Rising of the Moon, The Playboy, andYeats, William Butler ('W. B.')At the Hawk's Well;c5 the Hawk’s Well2 – which last I saw the first performance of, at Lady Cunard’s years ago, with Ito, the Japanese dancer, superb as the Guardian of the Well – the play was written for him.3 Tell me more about the Dragon. YesterdaySignet Society, TheTSE reads Sweeney Agonistes to;a1 afternoon I slept for an hour, as I had to speak at a Signet dinner at which Mr. Lowell was presented with a silver bowl;4 ISweeney Agonistesrecited for Signet Society;a4 readVassar Collegeand Sweeney Agonistes;a1 them a little of Sweeney Agonistes – I wish I could be at Vassar to see what they make of it5 – you see that Vassar is more advanced than the Siddons Club!
ForMore, Paul Elmer;a4 the next fortnight I shall be very busy; IPrinceton UniversityTSE engaged to lecture at;a3 go to Princeton on Thursday to stay with Paul More; thenceHotsons, the;a1 on'Study of Shakespeare Criticism, The'tarted up for Haverford;a1 Friday to Haverford to stay with the Hotsons; lectures in both places.6 WhyLowell, Abbott Lawrencehis pronunciation;a6 does Lowell pronounce ant exactly like aunt I wonder; it confused me at first. When my Norton lectures are over I shall feel that the most important has been done; butAnglo-Catholic Congress, Elizabeth, New JerseyTSE speaks at;a1 in April and May there are various engagements – several unpaid – the clergy of the Diocese of Massachusetts, some Unitarian clergy, an Anglo-Catholic Congress at Elizabeth N.J. AndOxford Movement CentenaryTSE committed to speaking at;a1 in July I have to speak several times in London and Oxford in connexion with the Oxford Movement Centenary.7 I thought that in the peculiar circumstances I should be justified in keeping quiet; butUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wellsagainst TSE shirking Oxford Movement Centenary;b3 Underhill tells me I ought to accept. What a strange life.
1.TheHale, Emilyas director ('producer');v9Lady Gregory's The Dragon;a2 Dragon: A Wonder Play in Three Acts (1919), by Augusta, Lady Gregory (1852–1932), dramatist, folklorist and theatre manager; close associate of W. B. Yeats. An unidentified cutting in Scripps, ‘Drama’, enthused: ‘Miss Hale and the Siddons Club surpassed themselves in a superlative production of Lady Gregory’s elaborate Irish fantasy, ‘The Dragon”.’
2.Lady Gregory, The Rising of the Moon (1907); John Millington Synge, The Playboy of the Western World (1907); W. B. Yeats, At the Hawk’s Well (performed 1916; published 1917).
3.At the Hawk’s Well, in The Wild Swans at Coole (Churchtown, Dundrum, 1917). TSE to Patricia Greacen, 26 May 1961: ‘My recollection of that drawing-room performance of The Hawk’s Well is that Lady Cunard was occupying a house in Grosvenor Square, not Cavendish Square, but that could possibly be checked and I may be mistaken. I have only a dim recollection of everything except that marvellous [sic] performance by Ito, the Japanese dancer in the role of the Hawk.’ The masks and costumes were designed by Edmund Dulac.
4.TSE spoke at the forty-eighth annual dinner of the Signet Alumni Association, 18 Mar. (The Signet Society, of which TSE had been a student member, was founded in 1870.)
5.The directorFlanagan, Hallie Hallie Flanagan (1890–1969), a Professor at Vassar College, was planning to produce Sweeney Agonistes at the Experimental Theater that she had founded at Vassar.
6.TSEHotson, Leslie stayed with Leslie andHotson, Mary Mary Hotson at Haverford College, where he lectured on ‘The Development of Shakespearean Criticism’ in Roberts Hall on 24 Mar.
7.In July 1932 TSE consented to join ‘the wider General Committee’ of the Executive Committee of the Oxford Movement Centenary (1933), chaired by the Rt Revd The Lord Bishop of Salisbury.
5.The directorFlanagan, Hallie Hallie Flanagan (1890–1969), a Professor at Vassar College, was planning to produce Sweeney Agonistes at the Experimental Theater that she had founded at Vassar.
6.TSEHotson, Leslie stayed with Leslie andHotson, Mary Mary Hotson at Haverford College, where he lectured on ‘The Development of Shakespearean Criticism’ in Roberts Hall on 24 Mar.
6.TSEHotson, Leslie stayed with Leslie andHotson, Mary Mary Hotson at Haverford College, where he lectured on ‘The Development of Shakespearean Criticism’ in Roberts Hall on 24 Mar.
1.AbbottLowell, Abbott Lawrence Lawrence Lowell (1856–1943), educator and legal scholar; President of Harvard University, 1909–33.
1.JohnLowes, John Livingston Livingston Lowes (1867–1945), American scholar of English literature – author of the seminal study of Coleridge’s sources, The Road to Xanadu: A Study in the Ways of the Imagination (1927) – taught for some years, 1909–18, at Washington University, St. Louis, where he was known to TSE’s family. He later taught at Harvard, 1918–39.
4.PaulMore, Paul Elmer Elmer More (1864–1937), critic, scholar, philosopher: see Biographical Register.
2.Revd Francis UnderhillUnderhill, Revd Francis, Bishop of Bath and Wells, DD (1878–1943), TSE’s spiritual counsellor: see Biographical Register.
4.W. B. YeatsYeats, William Butler ('W. B.') (1865–1939), Irish poet and playwright: see Biographical Register.