BR TO CONSTANCE MALLESON, [6 AUG. 1919]
BRACERS 19519. 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
Wednesday.3

My Darling Love

I gave C.A.4 your messages, to which he sent suitable replies. — Never mind about E.G. Smith5 in connection with the Trojan Women6 — I am so glad about it — Don’t put on your fair wig for Helen: she must be dark.7 I don’t believe Homer ever describes Helen. He tellsa how towards the end of the Siege, when Troy was in a bad way, the Elders are discussing the disasters, and she passes, and they all agree that she is worth it all — But she remains a myth, a vision, not a concrete woman to be described — at least I think that is so. I long to come, but I can’t unless Nicod8 fails: he and his wife are coming from France specially, and are due on Sep. 1, so I simply must be here. It is very unlucky. — Darling it does make me so happy when you say I am a help with your parts — I do hope I shall be able to come up for 2 nights in time to hear you in the Trojan Women.

Remember you needn’t send me a cheque, if you will tell me when you have the money, as I have a blank cheque you sent me and can fill it in myself —

C.A. has taken a violent dislike to Mrs Streatfeild,9 and I think he is right. Littlewood10 is a queer fish. The cousin11 is ugly, angular, boyish and very stupid. He sits reading his mathematics and pays no attention to either — I think they both bore him, but the cousin wants him to marry her, and perhaps he will — (This is all guess-work.)

I heard from Elizabeth12 — she seems happy at the Chalet13 —

Goodbye my Beloved — I love you with all my being, every moment. I long to feel your arms about me and all your tender strength — I love you, love you, love you —

B.

• 1

  [document] Document 200506.

• 2

  [envelope] The Lady Constance Malleson | 6 Mecklenburgh Square | London W.C.1. Pmk: WEST LULWORTH | 6 AU | 19

• 3

  [date] Colette wrote“6 Aug 1919” on the envelope.

• 4

  C.A. (Reginald) Clifford Allen (1889–1939). For information on him, see BRACERS 19046, n.7.

• 5

  E.G. Smith There is a possibility that this could be Emma Goldman. She lectured and wrote on theatre, as E.G. Smith.

• 6

  Trojan Women A play by Euripides, translated by Gilbert Murray.

• 7

  fair wig for Helen: she must be dark Helen has traditionally been depicted through the centuries as fair, but the golden imagery began around the time of Euripides’s Helen which was written three years after The Trojan Women (“Was it for this you cut away the long curls of your yellow hair?”, Helen, line 1224). However, the Helen in this play has a much different character than the one in Trojan Women. The golden Helen is an innocent while the Helen in Trojan Women is a dangerous woman, not trusted by the other women in Troy. BR is correct in stating that Homer does not describe Helen’s physical appearance; her beauty is “too important, too powerful ... to shackle with portraits or words” (Bettany Hughes, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore [New York: Knopf, 2005], p. 116). Helen was, of course, Greek, not Trojan.

• 8

  Nicod Jean Nicod (1893–1924), philosopher and logician, one of BR’s logic students in the autumn of 1916. His wife was Thérèse.

• 9

  Mrs Streatfeild The wife of Dr. Raymond Streatfeild, she had two children, Philip and Ann Streatfeild, with J.E. Littlewood.

• 10

  Littlewood John Edensor Littlewood (1885–1977), mathematician, was renting Newland Farm with BR.

• 11

  The cousin Miss Budden.

• 12

  Elizabeth ElizabethRussell (1866–1941), novelist. For information on her, see BRACERS 19080, n.7.

• 13

  at the Chalet The chalet Elizabeth had built in Switzerland in 1910 — the Château Soleil near Randogne-Sur-Sierre, Valais.

Textual Notes

• a

  tells after deleted only