[No surviving envelope]

T. S.Eliot
EmilyHale
TS
The Criterion
24 February 1936
Dear Love, my Emilie,

Saturday passed off pleasantly enough. BelgionBelgion, Montgomerytakes TSE and Saurat to the Ivy;a9 providedSaurat, Denis;a2 as usual an excellent lunch at the Ivy, and I found Saurat interesting. He is a professor of French at London University, but something of an authority on English literature as well; and especially Milton. So'Note on the Verse of John Milton, A';a2, asRead, Herbertbegrudged contribution to Milton volume;b5 I have had to be writing a short paper on Milton to oblige Herbert Read, who is editing a volume for the English Association, I was glad of the opportunity to talk about Milton with a man who knows the subject more intimately than I, who can only judge him from the point of view of poetry and language, and have [sic] never really penetrated his thought. I found that Saurat was able to accept most of what I said – talking from my essay – aboutJoyce, Jameshis Miltonic ear;c6 Milton’sMilton, Johnappealing to the ear;a4 imagination being almost solely for beauty appealing to the ear, not to the eye, and my comparison of the effect of blindness upon him and upon Joyce, combined with great musical gifts.

TheKennerleys, thewatch Modern Times with TSE;a2 Kennerleys also did things very well. There was just themselves and me, and a wealthy aunt of his, a Scotswoman whose husband had been an American, who lives in Cadogan Gardens with a pet dog and a pet butler. Dinner at Quaglino’s, a grand restaurant which I had never been taken to before, and the best seats at the film. IChaplin, CharlieTSE finds increasingly over-deliberate;a1 must say that Charlie Chaplin does not excite me in his modern films as his early ones did. I think that is partly because he has become more conscious, and is trying to convey a deliberate moral message of rather vague humanitarianism and sympathy for the poor: whereas his real gifts are intuitive and unconscious, and he hasn’t the intelligence to do these things deliberately. InClair, RenéÀ Nous la liberté;a1 this respect, the film was something of a pastiche of, and very much inferior to, René Clair’s A Nous la Liberté, which is as brilliant, and witty and intelligent a film as I ever saw.1 And I think that the sentimentality of Chaplin is a little bit out of date. ButChaplin, CharlieCity Lights;a4 of course there was some brilliant inventive fun in it, and the ending was better than that of City Lights 2 – though again, somewhat suggested by the end of A Nous la Liberté. WeDisney, WaltMickey's Polo Team disappoints;a2 had also a good Micky Mouse – the Polo Game3 – but I feel that Disney is beginning to come to the end of his apparently inexhaustible imagination, and is starting to introduce things into his films that don’t belong there. Instead of sticking to his set convention of animal abstractions, he is beginning to introduce caricatures – very good ones – of celebrated Hollywood figures (Laurel & Hardy, Laughton etc.) TheDisney, WaltThe Band Concert TSE's favourite;a3 Band Concert was as good a Disney film as ever I saw.4 There was also a good [sic] of the kind I like best – I don’t care much for the cinema really – one of bird life in the Farne Islands (which is a bird sanctuary which has just escaped being converted into a bombing station) which were really marvellous.

TheKennerleys, thedescribed for EH;a3 Kennerleys are very nice young people – protegésMorley, Frank Vigor;f2 of Frank Morley’s but they move in a very different world of ‘smart’ society and cocktail parties, though are really quite unspoilt by that, at bottom. They are the sort who have ‘rich friends’, some of whom I dare say are rather flashy, such as Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress. You met him one afternoon at Russell square when he came into my room – a tall young man, half English half American. Frank employs him to look after the firm’s advertising.

SundayCheetham, Revd Eric;c1 as usual, except for a talk with the vicar about church affairs before lunch, which, as you may imagine, made lunch rather late; andHayward, John;e4 spent the evening with John Hayward. AshChristianitythe Church Year;d8season for meditation and reading;b5 Wednesday is just ahead, and the meditations of Lent. IMurder in the Cathedral1935–6 Mercury Theatre revival;d8at the box-office;a5 suppose Dukes adheres to his programme of continuing ‘Murder’ through Lent and into April, as so far as I can gather the attendance keeps up – the weekly reports he sends show that.

I am eagerly waiting to hear if anything has come from Virginia, or of anything else, and as always eager for even your most trivial daily events, and how you spend your time, or even for a scrap of your handwriting if you told me nothing at all. And I love you with all my heart and soul,5 and I bless you.

Emily from
her Tom.

1.Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936) was accused at the time of borrowing motifs and certain scenes from À Nous la liberté (1931), written and directed by René Clair. Chaplin claimed never to have seen Clair’s film, and Clair for his part was flattered by the possibility.

2.City Lights (1931), written and directed by, and starring, Charlie Chaplin. The film was in fact released some months before À Nous la liberté, and could not have been influenced by it.

3.Mickey’s Polo Team, with Walt Disney himself voicing Mickey, was released in Feb. 1936.

4.The Band Concert – a 9-min. short – was released in Mar. 1935.

5.‘Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul’ (Jeremiah 32: 41).

Belgion, Montgomery, and Alida Monro dine chez Eliot, expensive club dinner with, accompanies TSE to Othello, and Charles Williams dine with TSE, accompanies TSE to Henry IV, Part II, to Garrigou-Lagrange lecture, takes TSE and Saurat to the Ivy, weekend's walking in Sussex with, in Criterion inner-circle, drink with Tom Burns and, accompanies TSE to Cranmer, and Mairet to lunch, accompanies TSE to Witch of Edmonton, arranges dinner for Murder, accompanies TSE to Uncle Vanya, to Measure for Measure, to Richard III, to Volpone, lonely, hosts dinner at Chinese restaurant, reviews Christian Society, on leave in London,

4.MontgomeryBelgion, Montgomery (‘Monty’) Belgion (1892–1973), author and journalist: see Biographical Register.

Chaplin, Charlie, TSE finds increasingly over-deliberate, resembles Robert Helpman, identified as highbrow, City Lights, Modern Times,
Cheetham, Revd Eric, TSE's rent to, as landlord at 9 Grenville Place, asks TSE to be churchwarden, to which TSE agrees, invited to Sweeney Agonistes, taken ill, offers prayers for EH's passage, his pageant for Mothers' Union, on London colds, given wine for Christmas, possible flatmate, pleased to welcome EH, advice in case of fire, unfolds tale of French holiday, and St. Stephen's wartime finances, remembers TSE's birthday, indifferent to rationing, during Blitz, paid to house TSE's books, starts lending library in tube, living in modern penthouse, TSE drafts testimonial letter for, hosts TSE in penthouse, his testimonial, requests TSE's presence for Bishop of London, by whom he is chastened, and Elvaston Place, exhausted by war, prevented from giving TSE customary birthday greeting, one of TSE's few intimates, TSE on, hounded by Time, and the Bishop of Tokyo, retires under doctor's orders, TSE's outgoing tribute and succession, apparently in Hong Kong, leaves affairs in a mess, insouciant letter to parishioners,

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.

Christianity, and human isolation, and modern economics, Ada on TSE's personal piety, scheme for 'Pro Fide' bookshop, among the Eliot family, and beauty, its sects like different clubs, Anglo-Catholicism, TSE's conversion to, which he dates to Eccleston Square meeting, Anglican Missal sought for EH, but unfortunately out of print, discussed at Boston Theological School, and the Petrine Claims, apostolic succession, over Roman Catholicism, as refuge from VHE, and the Reformation, asceticism, discipline, rigour, the necessity for, and TSE's daily exhortation, making and breaking habits, mastering emotions and passions, as salubrious, only remedy for a prurient culture, confession and communion, more possible during Harvard year, the case for unattainable ideals, in time of war, gets TSE up before 7 o'clock, hereditary with TSE, belief, and good poetry, faced with Second World War, and conversion, antidote to TSE's skepticism, Christendom, TSE ponders the decline of, TSE on his prominence within, its ruin, the Church Visible and Invisible, and TSE's war work, the Malabar Church, prospect of total reunion within, confession, helps to objectify sin, more dreaded than dentist, harder in the morning, death and afterlife, the struggle to prepare for, consoles TSE in life, and cremation, Requiem Mass, gives meaning to life, and what makes a desirable burial place, the nature of eternal life, divorce, unrecognised by Anglo-Catholic Church, which TSE regrets, in church law, would separate TSE from Church, evil, TSE's belief in, and moral percipience, guilt, and the New England conscience, hell, TSE's 1910 vision of, and damnation, according to TSE, liturgy, TSE's weekly minimum, Mass of the Pre-sanctified, Requiem Mass versus Mass of Good Friday, and whether to serve at Mass, Imposition of Ashes, at Christmas, High Mass over Mattins, aversion to Low Church Mattins, Roman service in Wayland, Tenebrae, in country parish church, as guest at Kelham, remarkable sermon, over Christmas, Tenebrae and Family Reunion, during Holy Week, Mass of Charles King and Martyr, love, loving one's neighbour, marriage, TSE's need for privacy within, mysticism and transcendence, interpenetration of souls, intimations of life's 'pattern', 'doubleness', arrived at through reconciliation, orthodoxy, only remedy for contemporary culture, and pagans, sets TSE at odds with modernity, necessarily trinitarian, 'Christian' defined, iniquities of liberal theology, and creed, authority, Transubstantiation, TSE disclaims 'self-centredness' in maintaining, politics, the Church and social change, how denomination maps onto, need for working-class priests, church leaders against totalitarianism and Nazism, Christianity versus Fascism and Communism, Papal Encyclical against Nazi Germany, the 'Dividend morality', Presbyterianism, TSE quips on the meanness of, Quakerism, resignation, reconciliation, peace, TSE's love allows for, 'peace that passeth all understanding', the struggle to maintain, following separation from VHE, retreat and solitude, EH at Senexet, the need for, a need increasing with age, and TSE's mother, Roman Catholicism, TSE's counter-factual denomination, Rome, sacraments, Holy Communion, marriage, sainthood, TSE's idea of, the paradoxes of, susceptible of different sins, sins, vices, faults, how to invigilate, the sense of sin, the sinner's condition, bound up with the virtues, as a way to virtue, TSE's self-appraisal, when humility shades into, when unselfishness shades into, among saints, proportionate to spiritual progress, daydreaming, despair, lust, pride, perfection-seeking pride, spiritual progress and direction, TSE's crisis of 1910–11, EH's crisis, versus automatism, TSE's sense of, towards self-knowledge, in EH's case, as personal regeneration, temptation, to action/busyness, the Church Year, Advent, Christmas, dreaded, happily over, TSE rebuked for bah-humbugging, church trumps family during, season of irreligion, thoughts of EH during, unsettling, fatiguing, in wartime, Easter preferred to, Ash Wednesday, Lent, season for meditation and reading, prompts thoughts of EH, Lady Day, Holy Week, its intensity, arduous, preserved from public engagements, exhausting but refreshing, excitingly austere, Easter, better observed than Christmas, missed through illness, Unitarianism, the Eliots' as against EH's, the prospect of spiritual revival within, as personified by TSE's grandfather, regards the Bible as literature, as against Catholicism, divides EH from TSE, and whether Jesus believed himself divine, according to Dr Perkins, in England as against America, over-dependent on preachers' personality, TSE's wish that EH convert from, outside TSE's definition of 'Christian', the issue of communion, baptism, impossibly various, virtues heavenly and capital, bound up with the vices, better reached by way of sin, charity, towards others, in Bubu, TSE's intentness on, delusions of, as against tolerance, chastity, celibacy, beneath humility, TSE lacks vocation for, faith, and doubt, hope, a duty, TSE's struggle for, humility, distinguished from humiliation, comes as relief, greatest of the virtues, propinquitous to humour, not an Eliot virtue, opposed to timidity, danger of pride in, is endless, TSE criticised for overdoing, theatre a lesson in, most difficult of the virtues, possessed by EH, possessed by EH to a fault, TSE compares himself to EH in, the paradox of, distinguished from inferiority, self-discovery teaches, possessed by Dr Perkins, patience, recommended to EH, its foundations, possessed by Uncle John, purity, distinguished from purification, temperance, with alcohol, beneath humility,
Clair, René, À Nous la liberté, Le Million,
Disney, Walt, The Night Before Christmas heralded, Mickey's Polo Team disappoints, The Band Concert TSE's favourite, Fantasia attended alone,
Hayward, John, in TSE's thumbnail description, his condition and character, what TSE represents to, VHE complains about TSE to, TSE's new chess-playing neighbour, meets EH over tea, hosts TSE, GCF and de la Mare, on EH, on EH (to TSE), gives TSE cigars for Christmas, calls EH TSE's 'sister', and the Dobrées on Boxing Day, and TSE play a prank on guests, backstage at The Times, taken for walk, on Jenny de Margerie, Empson, TSE and Sansoms call on, evening with Spender, Jennings and, exchanges Christmas presents with TSE, exchanges rare books with TSE, sends luxuries to convalescent TSE, TSE's only regular acquaintance, dines with TSE and Camerons, lent Williams's Cranmer, accompanied to the Fabers' party, hosts discussion about Parisian Murder, inspects French translation of Murder, and TSE's Old Buffers' Dinner, gives TSE bath-mitts, given wine for Christmas, one of TSE's dependents, at Savile Club Murder dinner, Empson takes TSE on to see, possible housemate, in second line of play-readers, walked round Earl's Court, and Bradfield Greek play, and TSE drive to Tandys, and TSE give another party, corrects TSE's Anabase translation, watches television with TSE, Christmas Day with, introduced to Djuna Barnes, meets Christina Morley, walk round Brompton Cemetery with, Hyde Park excursion with, moving house, at his birthday-party, honoured at F&F, displaced to the Rothschilds, where TSE visits him, among TSE's closest friends, his conversation missed, the prospect of Christmas without, excursions to Cambridge to visit, 'my best critic', gives TSE American toilet-paper, helps TSE finish Little Gidding, possible post-war housemate, protector of TSE's literary remains, foreseeably at Merton Hall, discusses plays with TSE, flat-hunting with, and Carlyle Mansions, his furniture, installed at Carlyle Mansions, further handicapped without telephone, undermines TSE's aura of poetic facility, irritates except in small doses, helps with adjustment of TSE's OM medal, at the Brighton Cocktail Party, hounded by Time, quid pro quo with TSE, arranges first-night party for Cocktail Party, arranges Confidential Clerk cast dinner, and TSE's Selected Prose, and TSE entertained by Yehudi Menuhin,

11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.

Joyce, James, appears suddenly in London, admired and esteemed by TSE, takes flat in Kensington, lunches with TSE at fish shop, gets on with Osbert Sitwell, GCF on, consumes TSE's morning, dines in company chez Eliot, obstinately unbusinesslike, bank-draft ordered for, indebted to Harriet Weaver, writes to TSE about daughter, his place in history, evening with Lewis, Vanderpyl and, TSE appreciates loneliness of, TSE's excuse for visiting Paris, insists on lavish Parisian dinner, on the phone to the F&F receptionist, TSE's hairdresser asks after, defended by TSE at UCD, for which TSE is attacked, qua poet, his Miltonic ear, requires two F&F directors' attention, anecdotalised by Jane Heap, part of TSE's Paris itinerary, in Paris, strolls with TSE, and David Jones, and EP's gift of shoes, his death lamented, insufficiently commemorated, esteemed by Hugh Walpole, TSE's prose selection of, Indian audience addressed on, TSE opens exhibition dedicated to, TSE on the Joyce corpus, TSE on his letters to, Anna Livia Plurabelle, Joyce's recording of, Dubliners, taught in English 26, Ulysses, modern literature undiscussable without, Harold Monro's funeral calls to mind, its true perversity, likened to Gulliver's Travels, F&F negotiating for, 'Work in Progress' (afterwards Finnegans Wake), negotiations over, conveyed to London by Jolas, 'very troublesome', new MS delivered by Madame Léon,
see also Joyces, the

1.JamesJoyce, James Joyce (1882–1941), Irish novelist, playwright, poet; author of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916), Ulysses (1922), Finnegans Wake (1939).

Kennerleys, the, at the Morleys' farewell dinner, watch Modern Times with TSE, described for EH, at Morleys' Thanksgiving Day party,
Milton, John, on TSE's brain, TSE on Comus, appealing to the ear, TSE's Churchill Club talk on, British Academy lecture on, Frick lecture on, Comus,
Morley, Frank Vigor, TSE on sharing an office with, Criterion monthly meeting regular, returns from New York, indispensable in proofing Selected Essays, Criterion lunch in company with, joins farewell lunch for Hodgson, offers TSE post-separation refuge, acts for TSE during separation, spirits TSE away to Surrey, on TSE at Pike's Farm, as châtelain, acting as TSE's courier, on TSE's relationship to children, music-hall evening with, suggests tour of Scotland, which he plans out, suggests trip to Paris, thanks Joyce for hospitality, on TSE's 1933 tour of Scotland, negotiating for Ulysses, his absence means more work, treasured and missed, gets on famously with Ada, mercifully returned to F&F, produces birthday-cake, peacekeeper between Rowse and Smyth, in on Sherlock Holmes prank, encourages TSE to go to Finland, on TSE's 1935 tour of Scotland, and TSE drink GCF's whisky, takes TSE to Wimbledon, monopolises typewriter for joint story, as tennis-player, overawes GCF, TSE and EH's elected emergency go-between, good with thrusting young authors, backs publication of Nightwood, helps deal with Joyce, naturally projects strength, his French, escapes Criterion gathering to catch last train home, unusually subdued among the French, submits his Johnson Society paper, depends on TSE, on TSE's 1937 tour of Scotland, which Morley describes, two nights' sleep in a caravan with, potential reader for Family Reunion, his father dies, Spender discussed with, sends TSE corrected Anabasis, heads for New York and Baltimore, his energy, returns from America, visiting dying mother, shoulders burden of EP, insufficiently honours EP, Boutwood Lectures submitted to, accepts Harcourt Brace position, what his leaving F&F will mean, taken to tea with Woolfs, remembers EH taking priority, first wartime letter from, which reports on TSE's family, sounds depressed in America, sounds less depressed to GCF, among TSE's closest friends, his conversation missed, on Christian Society's American reception, suspected of indiscretion, EH explains 'Defence of the Islands' to, indifferent to Cats, entrusted with emergency Dry Salvages, America's effect on, gives Henry MS of 'Yeats', suggests 'Night Music' over 'Kensington Quartets', Ada too ill to see, his use of 'poised', puts TSE up in New York, on TSE's 1947 New York stay, presently unemployed, but inherits Graham Greene's job,
see also Morleys, the

4.FrankMorley, Frank Vigor Vigor Morley (1899–1980), American publisher and author; a founding editor of F&F, 1929–39: see Biographical Register.

Murder in the Cathedral, idea for initially suggested by Laurence Irving, offered to Martin Browne, St. Thomas as TSE's muse, TSE on writing, tentatively, 'The Archbishop Murder Case', uncertainties over title, currently 'Fear in the Way', which proves unpopular, TSE on rewriting, title settled on, final revisions for printer, tentatively critiqued by EH, and EH on TSE as dramatist, chorus copied for EH, Virginia Woolf's aspersions on, the form of its choruses, defended from obscurity, did not test TSE's plotting, book-sales to-date, $1,000 offered for American rights, pays for 1936 American trip, Italian and Hungarian rights sold, and Whiggery, Savile Club dinner to celebrate, compared to next play, discrepancies of Canterbury Text, Martin Browne's initial response to, TSE recognised as author of, TSE on its cheerful title, EH on, abandoned Mercury Theatre premiere, suggested by Yeats and Doone, in the offing, and Doone's response to first draft, EH requested at, imperilled, text copied for Yeats, 1935 Canterbury Festival production, in rehearsal, opening night, reception, final performance, and EH's response, 1935–6 Mercury Theatre revival, Martin Browne pushing for, in rehearsal, which EH attends, compared to Canterbury original, at the box-office, its 100th performance, still running, proposed tour to end, 1936 BBC radio version, BBC bid to produce, broadcast fixed, BBC memo on, in rehearsal, TSE on, abortive 1936 New York transfer, Dukes visits America to arrange, blighted by Brace's actions, quashed by Federal Theatre production, its usurper founders, deferred to autumn, unsolicited 1936 New York production, licensed by Brace, to be directed by Rice, seemingly withdrawn, Rice resigns from, delights EH and Eleanor Hinkley, TSE sent press-cuttings for, EH reports on, TSE speculates as to textual discrepancies, attended by Eleanor Roosevelt, extended and potentially expanded, TSE to the Transcript on, may predispose immigration authorities favourably in future, royalties from, 1936 University College, Dublin student production, described by TSE, rumoured Australian and American productions, 1936 Gate Theatre touring production, TSE's long-held wish, scheduled, 1936 touring production, due at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge, as it was played in Cambridge, 1936 America pirate production, 1937 Duchess Theatre West End transfer, date fixed for, announced in Times, dress-rehearsal attended, reception, reviewed, royalties, still playing, ticket sales pick up, coming to an end, receives royal visit, 1937 touring production, scheduled post-Duchess, beginning in Leeds, then Manchester, going strong, 1937 Harvard University production, 1937 Amherst College production, singled out for praise, 1937 Old Vic production, touring production arrived at, in rehearsal, 1937 Tewkesbury Drama Festival production, 1938 American tour, projected for January 1937, said date seconded by Dukes, deferred to September 1937, confirmed again by Dukes, pre-tour dates in Golders Green, then Liverpool, opening in Boston in January, over which EH is consulted, tour itinerary, Family Reunion keeps TSE from, preparatory re-rehearsal for, pre-crossing Liverpool dates, EH's judgement desired, EH reports on first night, reviewed in The Times, EH sends New York cuttings, prematurely transferred to New York, Dukes reports on, Westminster Cathedral Hall charity performance, 1940 Latham Mercury revival, revival suggested in rep with Family Reunion, wartime modern-dress production suggested, ambushes TSE, in rehearsal, first night, reviewed, Browne's wartime Pilgrim Players' adaptation, Hoellering film, Hoellering's initial approach made, Hoellering's vision for, TSE adapting for screen, reconnoitre of Canterbury for, casting Becket, recording made for, development process described to NYT, non-actor found for Becket, screenings of Groser, set-dressing, screening, approaching release, still in the edit, final screening, and Venice Film Festival, seeking distribution, soon to premiere, opens, initial reception, circulating in shortened version, 1945 Théâtre du Vieux Colombier production, compared to Martin Browne's, royalties, apparently a hit, reviewed, reaches 150 performances, Fluchère's involvement, 1946 German production, 1947 Edinburgh Festival production, 1948 Milton Academy production, 1949 broadcast, 1949 Berlin production, politically resonant, 1952 University of Rennes, Grand Théâtre abridgment, 1952 Théatre National Populaire production, 1953 Old Vic revival, waiting on Donat, TSE on, 1954 Harvard production,
'Note on the Verse of John Milton, A',
Read, Herbert, indebted to Hulme, on Wilfred Owen, part of Criterion inner circle, his divorce, on TSE and children, TSE formulates his dislike for, hosts TSE in Hampstead, his dismal birthday-party, and his old ladies object of TSE and JDH's practical jokes, at Dobrée's farewell lunch, begrudged contribution to Milton volume, clashes with TSE in Criterion, discusses Anglo-French relations with TSE and Saurat, TSE spends weekend with, hosts TSE in Bucks, and Bukhari to lunch with TSE, his political persuasions, wheeled out at Norwegian dinner, on Canterbury excursion,
see also Reads, the

3.Herbert ReadRead, Herbert (1893–1968), English poet and literary critic: see Biographical Register.

Saurat, Denis, arranges TSE's introduction to de Gaulle, at Valéry memorial, at Centre Universitaire Meditérranéen,

3.DenisSaurat, Denis Saurat (1890–1958), Anglo-French scholar, writer, broadcaster; Professor of French Language and Literature, King’s College London, 1926–50; Director of the Institut français du Royaume Uni, 1924–45; author of La Pensée de Milton (1920: Milton: Man and Thinker, 1925).