[Beaulieu-sur-Mer]
Your letter of March 21 (I think it is) arrived on Saturday – the letter from Beaulieu – Itravels, trips and plansEH's 1934–5 year in Europe;b4L'Escargot lunch on EH's return;d4 did not answer it till now because I wanted first to readjust April 11th, which I shall keep free, and hope you will at least lunch with me at the Escargot Bienvenu which is as peaceful a place for talking as I know – the Etoile is only good at night but not at noon – 1.15 at 48, Greek Street. ONLY, if you have all the journey from and to Campden that day, and leave again for Guernsey on the next day, I am rather afraid of your getting overtired. But you must explain to me what your arrangements are to be. I hope that the holiday with Jean is not to be abandoned, as I think it will be very timely for you and needed at that moment. When we meet, we must discuss ways and means for your carrying out as much as possible of the second part of your Florence doctor’s prescription, which involves visits to London.
IPerkinses, theTSE encourages EH's independence from;f4 will try, my dear, to help you to look at next year in the way which will make it easier for you to bear, and which at the same time should be the way to make it most profitable for you spiritually – for there is no point in just ‘bearing’ unless one can find a way which will make one stronger and sweeter. And the ideal of ‘giving without a thought of receiving’ may easily become too stoical – just sterile endurance. I feel that if I can learn to give in the right way then I shall inevitably be receiving as good as I give – not necessarily in direct exchange from the person to whom one is giving, but from life, from God.1 What one receives may indeed be only greater power to give, but that in itself is a great possession. I don’t think I agree that you ‘receive more than any one person’s share, over and over’. However, it has always seemed to me that I received just what I deserved, both good and bad, pleasure and plain – so long as I have no illusions about the good, and no exaggerations of the bad: but one cannot feel that way about any life but one’s own.
OfScripps College, Claremontrefuses EH's return;e6 course, when I wrote, I was feeling the irony of the fact that your sense of duty towards your relatives, and that alone, had led you to delay replying to Scripps in order to seek out possibilities further East; and your reward for your conscientiousness had resulted in your having no job at all; and I felt rather bitter.2
I'drugs'activity ('being useful');a1 know how you crave activity and positive usefulness, and I know how hard it will be for you to be deprived, even temporarily, of this active and public life. Perhaps only because I lead an active life, and see no chance of my ever leading anything else, so long as I remain capable, I see something of the other side of it. I am afraid of activity being a drug, of giving me the sense of power which a person thwarted on one side of their life is apt to desire to exercise; and I am terrified of finding myself, once deprived of activity, spiritually empty and meaningless. ItChristianityretreat and solitude;c9;a5 is to strengthen one in this way that Retreats are instituted. What I see is that your life next year must not be merely a compliant adaptation to the wishes of those who you will be with; but that even under those conditions, you must have your own order, your own privacy and sanctuary, and insist upon it.
Don’tHale, Irene (née Baumgras)descends on Campden;a1 try too hard to look on your aunt’s (Mrs Hale’s) coming with pleasure!3 Very likely you can succeed – only the general rule is that nobody can love all of their relatives all of the time – and I sometimes think that you sometimes try to be more than human – which is presumption, my dear, presumption – and when I would pay cash down to hear you say something horrid or spiteful about someone. And one can take one’s own virtues and vices too seriously.
ToTreaty of Versaillesand Germany's subsequent violations;a3 switch the subject suddenly – as I like to do – IFranceFrench politics;b4post-Versailles;a4 don’t want you to think that I am too Gallophile at this moment. IGermanyin light of Versailles;a8 do not consider that the Germans are under any obligation to observe the Treaty of Versailles, once they are in a position to break it – it was in some important respects a wicked treaty – and NO nation will respect a treaty which it finds humiliating. I think that the French have been hard and cruel and grasping. INazismTSE on;a1 wish that the Germans might have made this stand under almost any other regime than what they have – which I detest – but for the existence of this regime the French have themselves to blame. ItFrancesynonymous, for TSE, with civilisation;a3 is only that, if it came to war – pray God it may not – I should want the French to win. I can put up with the vices of the French better than with the virtues of the Germans – that is an emotional, temperamental matter. No France, no civilisation.
I believe that Simon is at odds with the Foreign Office, and is genuinely anxious to conciliate Germany; and that the F.O. is ready to play in with the Franco-Russian encirclement. (Did I ever mention that his daughter is the god-mother of my god-daughter?) Not that I like Simon either. OnMosley, Sir Oswald ('Tom')his Albert Hall rally;a5 theanti-Semitismand Mosley's Albert Hall rally;b3 other hand we have Mosley yesterday declaiming at the Albert Hall against the Jews.4 So one can’t be very warmly on either side.
I have other odds and ends – about the play for example – but these will keep for my next (and last) letter to Beaulieu.
1.Cf. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, ‘Dejection: An Ode’ (1802): ‘O Lady, we receive but what we give’.
2.See too EH to Ruth George, 6 Dec. 1935: ‘AllScripps College, ClaremontEH on not returning;e8n my energies must be devoted to finding some sort of position for the coming year, of course. I feel I cannot return to Scripps, unless Dr Jaqua makes the first move and even if he did, I do not know that I could be confident of my future standing at the college. I grieve more over this forced severing of a possible return, than over the actual mess of last year’ (Scripps).
3.IreneHale, Irene (née Baumgras) Hale, née Baumgras, widow of Philip Hale, celebrated as the prolific and influential music critic of the Boston Herald. Irene Hale, who was herself an accomplished pianist, had studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where she gained the Springer Gold Medal 1881, and continued with her studies in Europe under Raif and Moritz Mosckowski: she later wrote music under the name Victor Rene.
TSE to Jeanette McPherrin, 30 May 1935 (Letters 7, 647–8): ‘MrsHale, Irene (née Baumgras)TSE on;a2n. H. is rather terrible. When we sat down to lunch she looked at me piercingly and remarked that I looked like her deceased husband; and before I got over that, she added that very likely he was in the room with us now. She is addicted to spiritualism. I am afraid that E. will be worn out between the marteau and the enclume – between being fatigued by Mrs. P. and being fatigued trying to save Mrs. P. from Mrs. H., though I think Mrs. P. is much better able to stand it than E. For myself, I should find Mr. H. much the easier to deal with. Mrs. H. is a rather pathetic fool, and she is not a powerful personality. Besides, E. is able to regard her with a good deal of detachment, whereas she seems haunted by the feeling that she ought to be a great deal happier with Mrs. P. than she actually is. MrsPerkins, Edith (EH's aunt)in TSE's private opinion;b4n. P. is a type of stupid woman that I have come across before, and I know that the only way to save oneself from them in the long run is to run away. She is terrifically powerful; her husband is only a pawn in her hands. This type has a gentle relentlessness that no one can stand up to. But I mustnt think about such people too long at a time, or I shall rave.’
TSE to Susan (Stearns) Hinkley, 7 June 1935 (Letters 7, 655–7): ‘At present Emily is at Camden [sic] – a beauty-spot of England, or an eyesore, according as you look at it – withHale, Irene (née Baumgras)compared to Mrs Perkins;a3n Dr. and Mrs. Perkins and Mrs. Philip Hale. The last is very trying, of course, and she will wear Emily out. But in a deeper way, I don’t feel that even Mrs. Philip Hale is as bad for one as Mrs. Perkins. At any rate, Emily doesn’t feel it her duty to admire Mrs. Hale, and is able to say just what she thinks about her; but she forces herself to feel towards Mrs. Perkins what I don’t believe she really feels. Mrs. Perkins strikes me as one of those gentle, stupid, kind, tyrannous, prejudiced, oppressive and tremendously powerful personalities who blight everyone about them. I may be wrong. I may be completely wrong. But she makes my back hair bristle; and confound it one can’t help trusting that bristle. DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle)TSE on;b6n. Perkins is a very lovable, lazy-minded, muddleheaded man who is completely dominated by his wife, and who is really happier in Emily’s company than he is with Mrs. Perkins, but he doesn’t know it.’
4.VivienEliot, Vivien (TSE's first wife, née Haigh-Wood)on Mosley Albert Hall rally;e1n Eliot was at this time a supporter of the British Union of Fascists. On 25 Mar. 1935 she recorded in her diary attending the BUF rally at the Albert Hall – the rally to which TSE refers with distaste in this letter to EH – and noting with approval: ‘I have never seen such a meeting in my life. It was COLOSSAL. VAST. Epoch-making. Sir Oswald Mosley’s organisation must be the best in this country. It is perfectly marvellous. And all the Fascists are bright, healthy, good & kind people & very very clever’ (Bodleian).
3.IreneHale, Irene (née Baumgras) Hale, née Baumgras, widow of Philip Hale, celebrated as the prolific and influential music critic of the Boston Herald. Irene Hale, who was herself an accomplished pianist, had studied at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where she gained the Springer Gold Medal 1881, and continued with her studies in Europe under Raif and Moritz Mosckowski: she later wrote music under the name Victor Rene.
3.SirMosley, Sir Oswald ('Tom') Oswald Mosley, 6th Bt (1896–1980), founder in 1932 of the British Union of Fascists.
3.DrPerkins, Dr John Carroll (EH's uncle) John Carroll Perkins (1862–1950), Minister of King’s Chapel, Boston: see Biographical Register.