BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [7 SEPT. 1919]
BRACERS 19552. ALS. McMaster
Edited by S. Turcon. Reviewed by K. Blackwell

<West Lulworth>
<letterhead>
70, Overstrand Mansions,
Prince of Wales Road,
Battersea, S.W.1^, 2
Sunday mg.3

My dearest Darling

I was glad of your telegram4 yesterday — I had been longing to know how Helen5 went off. I hope there will be a letter for me this morning. — Young Heaven6 is a bigger part but you won’t have the worry of Eve.7 — I am sitting out in the garden — the sea is a sheet of gold beneath the sun — it has begun to be heavenly autumn weather and our party is settling down. Madame Nicod8 is not really ugly — she is intelligent, intense, Bolshevik, intolerant, without humour or poetry, heartless, passionate and unsatisfied; very jealous of Miss Wrinch,9 because Nicod and Miss W. talk work together. I dislike her and can’t think of anything to say to her. But nevertheless we all get on quite well together.

It will be too divine if you can come here10 on the 24th — I keep longing for you — I am glad you are happy about Helen11 Beloved. Goodbye my heart’s Life — I send you all my heart and infinite thoughts of love.

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200539.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | London W.C. | WEST LULWORTH | 7 SP | 19

• 3

  [date] The date is taken from the envelope’s postmark.

• 4

  your telegramyesterday Unfortunately this telegram is not extant.

• 5

  Helen Colette’s role in The Trojan Women.

• 6

  Young Heaven A play by Colette’s husband, Miles Malleson; it was staged on 8 September 1919 in Oxford.

• 7

  worry of Eve Evelyn Walsh Hall did not have a role in Young Heaven. She had caused some kind of trouble in the Oxford production of The Trojan Women where she had taken the role of Hecuba because Sybil Thorndike was not free at the time. For information on her, see BRACERS 19394, n.8.

• 8

  Madame Nicod Thérèse Nicod, wife of Jean Nicod (1893–1924), philosopher and logician.

• 9

  Miss Wrinch Dorothy Maud Wrinch (1894–1976), mathematician and theoretical biologist.

• 10

  here To Newlands Farm, Lulworth, which BR had rented for the summer.

• 11

  happy about Helen Colette recollects in her autobiography that she acted the role “in a trance”, and everything she did “turned out right”.  Gilbert Murray praised her, writing to Lewis Casson that she “had got the psychology of the scene exactly right” (After Ten Years [London: J. Cape, 1931], p. 133). Unfortunately, this was not to last. Colette had a crisis of confidence over her performance as Helen when she performed it again in October at the Old Vic. In the London performances Hecuba was played by Sybil Thorndike, who got rave reviews. Colette does not mention this casting change in After Ten Years.