[c/o MissHale, Emilytravels to Yorkshire;j5 Brooke-Gwynne, Buckden, Skipton, Yorks.]
I was disappointed by not getting an answer to my wire, saying that you would turn up this afternoon – I should have had to make arrangements at very short notice! but that would not have mattered, and it would have been lovely to have seen you for an evening, a week before expectation. Itravels, trips and plansEH's 1937 summer in England;c7EH travels to Yorkshire;b4 assume that you are getting to Yorkshire direct tomorrow, but I shall not write a long letter now; I will write again in the morning; and if you cannot go to Yorkshire, I have no doubt I shall hear from you by the first post. But I do hope you can – I applaud the decision, which seems to me judicious – and think the visit will do you good. And I want to see you very well and at your best at the end of the week, don’t I? MoiraGwynne, M. Brookehosts EH in Yorkshire;b1 Gwynn [sic] is the lady who came to tea with me, and whose class in Southampton Row I talked to? and who lived with an infirm uncle at Thorp-le-Soken? I think so. She was very nice indeed.
FirstFlat 3, 11 Emperor's GateEH stays in;a5 a practical point. I hope you will be here on Friday night; but, please let me know as soon as possible, because my club is closed for annual cleaning and holidays, until a week hence, and I shall have to make other arrangements. That is easy enough, if I know by Thursday. Andtravels, trips and plansEH's 1937 summer in England;c7TSE's 21 August Campden visit;b3 would you mind coming down by the 1.45 instead of the 10.15? Because I am to be on duty at the office on Saturday morning – I have been out of town a good many Saturdays lately, so I could not arrange a change over; but if you came with me it would be more fun to take the 1.45, and you would lunch with me in the restaurant car. Another reason for your letting me know your plans soon: it might be as well if I took the tickets in advance and reserved two places, and then we could meet at the train – otherwise, I should have to ask you to call for me at Russell Square at 12.30, or meet at the booking office. But if you come up to London, as I hope you will, you won’t mind waiting over a train and travelling down with me in the afternoon, will you dear? You see, you thought you were preventing me from coming on Friday, and as it turns out I am asking you to wait over a train. And remember that you should know how much I enjoy train journeys in your company.
I shall write again tomorrow (toDawson, Christopher;a6 Skipton, Yorks. that’s where Christopher Dawson lives, I wonder if Miss Gwynne knows him) aboutHale, Irene (née Baumgras);b4 Mrs Hale, and somewhat about my travels, though that might wait till I see you. ForFabers, the1937 summer holiday with;d8 thetravels, trips and plansTSE's 1937 Faber summer holiday;c8leaves TSE sunburnt;a4 moment, it will do to say that I had very good weather, and have got very sunburnt, though that may have disappeared before I see you; that I think I am very well, but am rather tired from being always in company; and that I have spent a good part of the last two days sleeping in an armchair in the United University Cub, where the armchairs are not so well formed for sleeping as my own, and the neighbourhood is noisy. AndRidler, Anne (née Bradby);a6 IEliot, Revd Frederick May (TSE's first cousin);a7 hear from Miss Bradby that my good cousin Fred is coming to tea with me tomorrow.
TheCheetham, Revd Ericadvice in case of fire;c9 vicar is away on holiday, and you will have this place to yourself and Elizabeth, who has just returned from a visit to her family in Essex, and perhaps Miss Bingham. The vicar says that in case of fire one walks out of my window along the roofs, and he prefers to trust himself to roofs and not to ladders, but I mean to get a ladder for myself. TomorrowChurch Timesto which it responds and is corrected;a6 I have a number of letters to write: including one to the Church Times – DarkDark, Sidneypart of Church Times contretemps;a11 not only printed my previous letter, but referred to it in his leader, and I must correct his interpretation of it.2 Andreading (TSE's)Shakespeare;f3 I'Development of Shakespeare's Verse, The'TSE reading Shakespeare in preparation;a2 have been reading Shakespeare, six plays in two days; because I think that my two lectures in Edinburgh in the autumn must be about Shakespeare; and I am wondering whether I might talk about the development of his blank verse? Is there anything left to say, I wonder? What do you think? It seems to me that I might be better qualified to talk about his versification than about his dramatic technique. But Goodness Knows I don’t want to be lecturing at all. Edinburgh has been kind to me, and I must reciprocate; but I am afraid that I consider this only as something to be cleared away so as to get back to my own play. But if I can make these two lectures somewhat good, then they may be of use to me elsewhere: they could be repeated in Copenhagen and Paris if I have to go there.3
ImpressionShakespeare, WilliamAll's Well that Ends Well;b1 atShakespeare, WilliamMeasure for Measure;c1 theShakespeare, WilliamTroilus and Cressida;d2 momentShakespeare, WilliamTimon of Athens;d1: All’s Well that Ends Well a poor piece of work – one great line by Parolles (and that in prose) ‘simply the thing I am’. Measure for Measure, Troilus, and Timon (what is Shakespeare in it) of the very best. The interesting question: why are some of his best plays box-office failures to this day?
AlsoShakespeare, WilliamThe Winter's Tale;d4, IShakespeare, WilliamCymbeline;b5 rather wish I had elected to be taken by you to Stratford to see The Winter’s Tale rather than Cymbeline. Both are masterly; and it would be worth any pains to hear ‘Fear no more the heat o’ the sun’ – but on reading The Winter’s Tale seems to me the finer.
Until I write tomorrow,
1.SidneyDark, Sidney Dark (1872–1947), editor of the Anglo-Catholic Church Times, 1924–41.
2.TSE'Church as an Ecumenical Society, The';a2n delivered his address to the Conference, entitled ‘The Church as an Ecumenical Society’ – published in full for the first time in CProse 5, 497–503 – as the first of three plenary speakers under the session title ‘The Ecumenical Nature of the Church and its Responsibility toward the World’, on 16 July. The address was reported in The Times of 17 July under the heading ‘The Church and the World: Problem of Common Social Action’ (18). A further article in the Church Times (23 July 1937, 83) – ‘Church, Community and State: A Busy Week at the Oxford Conference’ – included a brief summary of TSE’s talk.
SeeChurch Timesdemurral from TSE;a7n too the Church Times editorial, 6 Aug.:
The Life and Work Conference has come to an end. We report elsewhere the proceedings of the Catholic School of Sociology … We have no possible desire to minimize the value and significance of these meetings. They are evidence both of the longing for Christian unity and of the yearning to see Christian principles applied to the solution of contemporary problems. At the same time, as Mr T. S. Eliot urges in a letter which we print this week, there is a grave danger that the significance of these meetings may be over-estimated …
Mr Eliot points out that the Life and Work Conference was dominated by American Protestantism. The Coloured Methodist Episcopal Church and the United Brethren in Christ had exactly the same representation as the Church of Wales and the Episcopal Church of Scotland. Of the four hundred delegates, the Church of England only had eighteen, and of these ‘at most five could be qualified as Catholic’. It seems to us obvious that to describe a body of this sort as ‘œcumenical’ is such a misuse of terms as to lead to misunderstanding and illusion. It is a good thing, as Mr Eliot says, that we should have a closer understanding and a keener appreciation of the members of other Christian communities. But it is an evil thing when fundamental differences are obscured.
See further TSE’s letter to the editor, Church Times, 20 Aug. 1937, 184; Letters 8, 650.
3.See ‘The Development of Shakespeare’s Verse: Two Lectures’, CProse 5, 531–61.
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.
1.SidneyDark, Sidney Dark (1872–1947), editor of the Anglo-Catholic Church Times, 1924–41.
2.ChristopherDawson, Christopher Dawson (1889–1970), cultural historian: see Biographical Register.
2.RevdEliot, Revd Frederick May (TSE's first cousin) Frederick May Eliot (1889–1958) – first cousin – Unitarian clergyman and author: see Biographical Register.
4.M. BrookeGwynne, M. Brooke Gwynne, University of London Institute of Education – ‘a Training College for Graduate students’ – invited TSE on 19 Jan. to participate in their Weds.-morning seminar: ‘Emily Hale suggested that you might possibly consent to come to the Institute to talk to our students; otherwise I should have not felt justified in asking you … The teaching of poetry is the subject most hotly discussed & the subject we should like you to choose if possible.’
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.AnneRidler, Anne (née Bradby) (Bradby) Ridler (30 July 1912–2001), poet, playwright, editor; worked as TSE’s secretary, 1936–40: see Biographical Register.