[c/o MissHale, Emilyvacations at New Bedford;k1 Knowles, 47 Morelands Terrace, New Bedford; forwarded to 22 Paradise Rd., Northampton, Mass.]
The weather, after having been exceptionally sharp and frosty, has turned mild just before Christmas, and this morning quite sunny. And the labours of the season have eased off now, so that I have a morning of leisure. One more present to buy, two lots of flowers (OttoMorrell, Lady Ottoline;g9 andRead, Margaret (née Ludwig)in nursing home;a1 Mrs. Herbert Read who is in a nursing home) and the cables to send. TheJanes, W. L.his Christmas dinners with TSE;a3 ardours are not over until Tuesday: thereHayward, JohnChristmas Day with;h8 is Janes to be dined with on Christmas Day, and John to be supped with, andTandys, theTSE's Hampton weekends with;a1 on Sunday afternoon to go to the Tandys for the night (I hope that will be a warm evening) andFabers, theSchool for Scandal with;e1 on Monday night the theatre with the Faber family. AndMorleys, theTSE's New Years celebrated with;d5 of course the Morleys for the following weekend, for Hogmany [sic]: but I shall be able to start work again on Tuesday morning.
InMurder in the Cathedral1938 American tour;f6preparatory re-rehearsal for;b1 addition to everything else, there has been some vigorous re-rehearsing of ‘Murder in the Cathedral’: IMercury Theatre, LondonMurder in re-rehearsal at;b7 spent Monday afternoon, and Tuesday evening till midnight, at the Mercury. ISpeaight, Robertperformance pruned in re-rehearsal;d1 thinkBrowne, Elliott Martin1938 American Murder tour;c4re-rehearsing actors for;a1 Martin is handling the situation very well. He has got Bobby back to something nearer standard performance. It is thought that Bobby is rather chastened by the last tour not having been a thundering success; and Martin says that if Bobby could have a week off, every six weeks, for rehearsing, he could be kept at the top of his form all the time. The chorus struck me as first-rate; they are the nine picked out of about twenty-five; and they are highly excited by the prospect of an American tour. ChristopherCasson, Christopher T.on American Murder tour;a1 Casson1 is good, I think, and has an excellent voice; and there is a good new Hugh de Morville; the new Fitz Urse looks the part fairly well, but does not yet articulate very well – not used to verse speaking. ChidgeyChidgey, Norman;a12 (Tracy) is very sound and reliable. I do not grudge the time spent in attending rehearsals, because I think it is all good training for future work.
Your letter of the 12th came yesterday, with its Christmas card and provisional change of addresses. I had written one letter c/o Miss Blake, and will send this to new Bradford [sc. New Bedford]. I am glad that you are going there. I presume that you go to Milton on Christmas Day? I have started again to make a tick in my diary when I write to you, so that I can check the letters later; because I do not understand your having no letter for a whole week; but when I have kept a record I never found a letter going astray.
I am not surprised that you should feel tired at the end of term (and the last sheet from your engagement block was covered with appointments); I should not worry about that if you only got a reasonable holiday. A fortnight is not enough, especially when a week of it is before Christmas; for one cannot begin to rest until Christmas is over, and you ought to have two clear weeks after Christmas. So I hope you will lay careful plans and make the most of your Easter holiday.
IChristianitythe Church Year;d8Easter preferred to;b2 also wish that one could approach Christmas more quietly and meditatively, in withdrawal. YouSenexet, Woodstock;a6 would I am sure have liked three or four days at Senexet, though I am not sure that there is enough silence there. IChristianityretreat and solitude;c9;a7 always find the complete silence imposed in retreat most helpful, restorative and conducive to the right thought and feeling – it is complete except of course for taking part in the liturgical offices several times a day. The difficulty of combining the religious and the secular Christmas is always a strain, andChristianitythe Church Year;d8preserved from public engagements;c1 I look forward always more joyfully to the period before Easter, when I can arrange to have no engagements and no distractions for at least a week beforehand.
ICaetani, Marguerite (née Chapin)saga of unsettled debts;a8 enclose a (belated) letter from Marguerite! It does not strike me as very satisfactory: she is very sweet about it, of course, as my letter seemed to me, and was intended to be, rather excoriating – and I cannot feel that leaving debts unpaid afflicts her conscience as much as it does mine. Curiously enough, after giving her three weeks in which to deal with the matter, I had paid the bill the day before. It will be interesting to see what her attitude is when she finds this out. I don’t want to pass any judgement in any case, because I don’t feel that I know her very well, or know what her domestic life really is: but I confess I had something of a struggle of self-examination in order to get rid of a feeling of superiority and power in winding this matter up. Sometimes when one thinks one is acting simply from a sense of justice and duty, one is only acting from pride.
You will be very much in my thoughts during this season – not exactly more than usual! – but in a way heightened by the occasion.
ThePerkinses, the;h2 Perkins’s Christmas card is the most charming and tasteful that I have so far received.
[Various letters enclosed including a copy of one to Marguerite de Bassiano dated 20 Dec. 1937 – and some light verses, headed ‘To S.M.K. and A.J.K. July ?8 1937’ (they are presumably addressed to unidentified members of the Knowles family, of New Bedford, New Hampshire) – which are not by TSE.]
1.ChristopherCasson, Christopher T. T. Casson (1912–96), stage, screen and TV actor; younger son of the actors Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson.
2.NormanChidgey, Norman Chidgey (1901–81), actor.
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.MargueriteCaetani, Marguerite (née Chapin) Caetani, née Chapin (1880–1963) – Princesse di Bassiano – literary patron and editor: see Biographical Register. LéliaCaetani, Lélia Caetani (1913–77), sole daughter, was to marry Hubert Howard (1908–87), a scion of the English Catholic House of Howard, who worked to preserve the Caetani heritage at Rome and at the castle of Sermoneta.
1.ChristopherCasson, Christopher T. T. Casson (1912–96), stage, screen and TV actor; younger son of the actors Sybil Thorndike and Lewis Casson.
11.JohnHayward, John Davy Hayward (1905–65), editor and critic: see Biographical Register.
4.W. L. JanesJanes, W. L. (1854–1939), ex-policeman who worked as handyman for the Eliots. Having been superannuated from the police force early in the century, he worked for a period (until about 1921) as a plain-clothes detective in the General Post Office. TSE reminisced to Mary Trevelyan on 2 Apr. 1951: ‘If I ever write my reminiscences, which I shan’t, Janes would have a great part in them’ (‘The Pope of Russell Square’). TSE to Adam Roberts (b. 1940; godson of TSE), 12 Dec. 1955: ‘I … knew a retired police officer, who at one period had to snoop in plain clothes in the General Post Office in Newgate Street – he caught several culprits, he said’ (Adam Roberts). HisJanes, Ada wife was Ada Janes (d. 1935).
4.LadyMorrell, Lady Ottoline Ottoline Morrell (1873–1938), hostess and patron: see Biographical Register.
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.