[No surviving envelope]
FirstTrouncer, Margaretloses baby;a6, I must enclose this letter from Tom Trouncer which will sadden you as it did me.1 I enclose it to ask for your advice. I can’t think why she would want to see me, at such a time: but I can’t very well go to see her without admitting to her that he wrote to me; because I didn’t see any notice in the paper, and if there was I don’t suppose that it mentioned the address of her nursing home. Does he merely say ‘please on no account answer this letter’ merely out of modesty? I have only met him twice, once for a moment in a tube lift, when his wife introduced us, and when I went to dinner, when he spoke hardly a word. Of course if it really would please her I would go, but I am a very slight acquaintance. Please think this over and tell me in the evening what I should do. Would it not be better if I sent her some flowers and if you perhaps called at the nursing home? I think he may be a little distraught, so don’t know where to take him literally and where not. It is very sad for them after having waited so long, and having moved to another house in expectation. Perhaps she overdid herself. I pray that they may have another in due time.
I was going to write this evening in any case – and even had you not mentioned correspondence last night I should have done so – but this letter arrived this morning, and so I put it first. ICheetham, Revd Eric;b5 enclose also a note from the Vicar, which may amuse you.2
AsMurder in the Cathedral1935–6 Mercury Theatre revival;d8in rehearsal;a2 for my day: IMercury Theatre, Londonrehearsal at;a8 went to the Mercury this morning, and watched the rehearsal. ISpeaight, Robert;b1 was greeted cordially by SpeaightBrowne, Elliott Martin1935–6 Mercury Theatre Murder revival;a7keen that EH attend rehearsals;a2 and Browne, and lunched with them afterwards. The rehearsing is in its first stages. Browne asked after you and expressed regret that you had not come, but hoped that you would come to a rehearsal soon. I shall probably go again on the morning of Tuesday week, and should be delighted if you could come then. It is too early to tell, but I think that the production may be better than at Canterbury. TheFogerty, Elsie;b1 chorus, Browne thinks, will be better, because Elsie won’t be directing the chorus personally, butThurburn, Gwynneth L.;a1 Gwynneth Thurburn her assistant,3 who is easier to deal with, and they will have a longer period rehearsing in the theatre with the rest. And the fact that Miss Thurburn has had the previous experience with the same choruses helps a great deal. There will be four of the original Canterbury girls and six new ones. AccordingMurder in the Cathedral1936 BBC radio version;d9broadcast fixed;a2 toBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)Barbara Burnham production of Murder;a6 Speaight the broadcast performance also is almost a certainty, towards the end of November.4 IDukes, Ashleywith which he is pleased;a5 am pleased with the prospects: and Ashley Dukes appears enthusiastic.
This afternoon was wholly taken up by the committee that should have sat in the morning; so I have accomplished little else. Tonight'Introduction' (to Poems of Tennyson);a3 I must re-type my Tennyson introduction and get it off; 5 andLincoln Diocesan Conference;a1 think a little more about my address to the Lincoln Diocesan Conference.
I like to write in between when I am seeing you frequently: becausewritingto someone as against speaking;b4 there is always a great deal to say when one wants to talk, and partly I think because writing is, for me, not merely a substitute for speech, but a different medium, for saying either the same or other things. Perhaps this is merely because I have had so much more exercise in writing to you than in talking to you – and I dare say I do better! There is this difference too, that when I have failed to say a thing I feel that I have lost an opportunity which will not return, and when I have failed to write anything I can always send a postscript. Last night was a strange and dizzy experience. IfStudent Christian Movementpoetry reading for;a1 halfHale, Emilywatches TSE read to Student Christian Movement;h2 of what you said about the success of the reading was true, I feel that the success was due to your presence: which made it more difficult – at first – but infinitely more stimulating, and made me want to do my best, both in reading and in talking in the room afterwards – it was all very queer, because I was so much more aware of your presence than of that of the young people I was talking to. It was living on two planes at once. And I am always – and think I always shall be – quite puzzled and dumbfounded to think why you should be so good and kind to me. Wherever you are, you become surrounded by people who draw sustenance from you and depend upon you more than you depend upon them: and of the four people most dependent upon you in the present circumstances, I feel that I draw the most vitality from you, and give but little in return – perhaps nothing. And as I study and memorise more exactly every contour of your face and shade of expression, so it appears to me more and more and more beautiful.
This is a Note. Until just after six tomorrow.
1.Not found. Mrs Trouncer had been due to have a baby on 27 Sept.
2.Not found.
3.GwynnethThurburn, Gwynneth L. L. Thurburn (1899–1993), Vice-Principal, Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art.
4.BBCMurder in the Cathedral1936 BBC radio version;d9BBC memo on;a3n radioBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)Barbara Burnham production of Murder;a6 broadcast of Murder in the Cathedral, Jan. 1936. The suggestion started out with a memo from Laurence Gilliam to the Drama Director of the BBC, 12 July 1935: ‘I would recommend that this play should be seriously considered for broadcasting. It has the merit of a clear cut dramatic situation, some extremely good verse by Eliot, particularly choruses.
‘The production at Canterbury aroused considerable interest and a broadcast, preferably not at a peak listening hour, would have considerable significance for, admittedly, a minority audience. Another consideration is that this is certainly the best effort made in the current movement to provide modern verse drama and a broadcast production would be a valuable opportunity for studying both the method and the audience of this type of programme.
‘In my opinion the writing of the choruses is the best thing about this play and, although these were effective at Canterbury, they could be still more effective if produced in a rather different way.’
Fr Iremonger (BBC Director of Religion) seconded Gilliam’s memo.
5.Poems of Tennyson, with an introduction by T. S. Eliot (London & Edinburgh, 1936).
4.E. MartinBrowne, Elliott Martin Browne (1900–80), English director and producer, was to direct the first production of Murder in the Cathedral: see Biographical Register.
4.RevdCheetham, Revd Eric Eric Cheetham (1892–1957): vicar of St Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road, London, 1929–56 – ‘a fine ecclesiastical showman’, as E. W. F. Tomlin dubbed him. TSE’s landlord and friend at presbytery-houses in S. Kensington, 1934–9. See Letters 7, 34–8.
4.AshleyDukes, Ashley Dukes (1885–1959), theatre manager, playwright, critic, translator, adapter, author; from 1933, owner of the Mercury Theatre, London: see Biographical Register.
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.RobertSpeaight, Robert Speaight (1904–77), actor, producer and author, was to create the role of Becket in Murder in the Cathedral in 1935: see Biographical Register.
3.GwynnethThurburn, Gwynneth L. L. Thurburn (1899–1993), Vice-Principal, Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art.
2.MargaretTrouncer, Margaret Trouncer (1903–82), author of A Courtesan of Paradise: The Romantic Story of Louise de la Vallière, Mistress of Louis XIV (F&F, 1936). See http://archive.thetablet.co.uk/article/18th-december-1982/23/obituary-margaret-trouncer