[No surviving envelope]
I have not had a moment all day – myMendonça, Antonio S. de;a1 Portuguese diplomat turned up at 5.30 at last, and HOW Portuguese!1 but that will keep – to thank you for your letter of the 26th – INew English Weeklydiscussed with Mairet;a3 wouldMairet, Philip;a2 write at length this evening but have to go to talk to Mairet about the N.E.W. – so must dash off a short note during the half hour before dinner. ThisMurder in the Cathedral1935 Canterbury Festival production;d7in rehearsal;a1 morning largely spent inFogerty, Elsiein rehearsal;a6 Miss Fogerty’s chorus rehearsal – she is a wonderful drillmaster – but that will keep. YouHale, Emilyvisit to the Russian ballet;f5 have mistaken my mention of the ballet, ISadler's Wells Theatre;a9 did not mean the Sadlers’ Ballet, but the Ballet, the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo,2 which begins its season on the 11th – the week after – and I meant that you should spend a night in town again before going to Canterbury – please read letter again unless destroyed. SoHale, Emilyand TSE attend The Gondoliers;f4 having got tickets for the Gondoliers for Monday the 3d. IHale, Emilyand TSE attend 1066 And All That;f7 will try to get tickets for the 10663 or something for the Tuesday and leave the Wednesday night to be settled later. Your remarks on actual plays noted. Will you come by the morning train on Monday? I shall be ready for you, but try not to evince consternation if you do find me in my rooms – ITandys, theTSE's Hampton weekends with;a1 am going to the Tandy’s [sic] for the weekend, and shall come in to put things straight on Monday morning before going to my committee, and please meet me for lunch unless otherwise engaged. Other points in your letter must be dealt with tomorrow. ThereDoyle, Sir Arthur ConanHolmes quoted on false modesty;a3 is a good sermon on false modesty to be preached from a text of Sherlock Holmes.4 I am very sorry you are to have a weekend alone, so your stay in London must be made all the pleasanter.
AMcPherrin, Jeanettewhom she visits;c1 very charming letter has come from Jean about her visit to the Maritains.5
1.PresumablyMendonça, Antonio S. de Antonio S. de Mendonça, Manager of Casa de Portugal (Portuguese Information Bureau), London.
2.The Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo, formed after the death of Sergei Diaghilev, ran from 1932 to 1936. The director was Wassily de Basil; artistic director, René Blum.
3.1066 And All That: A Comic History with Music in Three Acts, by Reginald Arkell and Alfred Reynolds – adapted from the book of the same title by R. J. Yeatman and W. C. Sellar (1930) – was staged at the Strand Theatre, London.
4.‘My dear Watson,’ said he, ‘I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues. To the logician all things should be seen exactly as they are, and to underestimate one’s self is as much a departure from truth as to exaggerate one’s own powers. When I say, therefore, that Mycroft has better powers of observation than I, you may take it that I am speaking the exact and literal truth’ (‘The Greek Interpreter’, Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes).
5.McPherrin to TSE, 24 May 1935: ‘The impression I had of the Maritains’ household was so strong and at the same time so intangible that it is difficult to describe it without wandering off into sentiment. It was a feeling that they had defined “the good life” according to their clearest vision and were actually living their definition. Monsieur Maritain is one of those rare people whose presence in a room is an important thing even if he doesn’t say a thing, and Madame Maritain is a dear (good word unfortunately worn thin by use on people who aren’t dears). She has a genuine interest in what other people say that makes a real hostess and a lack of self-consciousness that is charming and almost unbelievable in an adult person. There was a varied collection of French guests including a priest who told entertaining anecdotes of Oriental travels, and two young Englishmen, one of whom could not have known more about your literary and philosophical tenets if he had roomed with you all your life. I am afraid I did you no great credit because my after-vacation flood of French had subsided about a week before (did you ever notice that the ebb-tide occurs about two weeks after the “rentrée”?) and I was also visited with an attack of shyness which sometimes descends upon me out of the blue without regard to persons or places. But my mute of [?or] stuttering tongue did not prevent my getting the flavour of that afternoon, and I shall remember it as one of the very good things this country has offered me. Monsieur Maritain went to the door with me when I left and we exchanged words about your sterling qualities over the umbrella stand. He spoke of you in a way that I liked and wished you might have heard.’
2.ElsieFogerty, Elsie Fogerty, CBE, LRAM (1865–1945), teacher of elocution and drama training; founder in 1906 of the Central School of Speech and Drama (Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft were favourite pupils). Fogerty was to train the chorus for the Canterbury premiere in 1935 of TSE’s Murder in the Cathedral.
2.JeanetteMcPherrin, Jeanette McPherrin (1911–92), postgraduate student at Scripps College; friend of EH: see Biographical Register.
8.PhilipMairet, Philip Mairet (1886–1975): designer; journalist; editor of the New English Weekly: see Biographical Register.
1.PresumablyMendonça, Antonio S. de Antonio S. de Mendonça, Manager of Casa de Portugal (Portuguese Information Bureau), London.