Joyce, he took the young writer around to meet people he thought might be useful to him, finding him â unexpectedly amiableâ.
Joyceâs amiability took a sudden turn for the worse soon after he arrived in Paris. In December 1902 he wrote to Lady Gregory, telling her that âto create poetry out of French life is impossibleâ. In March 1903 he was asked by the literary editor of the Daily Express in Dublin, to whom Lady Gregory had introduced him, to review her Poets and Dreamers. Despite his intermittent use of a toothbrush, his teeth were sharp enough to bite the hand. In her book, he wrote, Lady Gregory âhas explored in a land almost fabulous in its sorrow and senilityâ. The storyteller from whom Lady Gregory took the stories had a mind, he wrote, âfeeble and sleepy ⦠He begins one story and wanders from it into another story, and none of the stories has any satisfying imaginative wholeness ⦠In fine, her book, wherever it treats of the âfolkâ, sets forth in the fullness of its senility a class of mind which Mr Yeats has set forth with such delicate skepticism in his happiest book The Celtic Twilight. â
On the same day as the review appeared, Synge reported to Lady Gregory from Paris that Joyce wasâbeing won over by the charm of French lifeâ while remaining penniless and indolent. âI cannot think he will ever be a poet of importance,â Synge wrote, âbut his intellect is extraordinarily keen and if he keeps fairly sane he ought to do excellent essay-writing.â Later that same year, as his mother was dying, Joyce came back to Dublin and crashed a party at Lady Gregoryâs; a fellow guest watched him âwith his air of half-timid effrontery, advancing towards his unwilling hostess and turning away from her to watch the crowdâ. A year later, as he was getting ready once more to leave Ireland, he managed to touch Lady Gregory for five pounds. Her reward was to be one of Yeatsâsâgiddy damesâ in his broadside âThe Holy Officeâ, which he had the good sense not to send to her when he published it in Pola in 1905. The following year he wrote to his brother to say that âW.B. Yeats ought to marry Lady Gregory â to kill talkâ, and in âGas from a Burnerâ in 1912 he referred to her as âGregory of the Golden Mouthâ. Twenty years later, just after the publication of Ulysses, he wrote her a very rude letter in reply to her request for permission to quote from a letter of his: âWhile thanking you for the friendly remembrance contained in it, and for acts of kindness in the past, I shall feel very much obliged if you will omit from your forthcoming book, which I understand is largely a history of the Irish literary movement , all letters of mine and all mention of me. In doingso you will be acting in strict accordance with the spirit of that movement, inasmuch as since the date of my letter, twenty years ago, no mention of me or of my struggles or of my writings has been made publicly by any person connected with it ⦠May I ask you to be kind enough to convey to Mr Yeats, for whose writing I have always had the greatest admiration, my thanks for his favourable opinion [of Ulysses ], which I value very highly.â
It would be easy to read this as an example of an arrogant young genius becoming a middle-aged curmudgeon, but it discloses something more interesting and revealing. Once her Cuchulain translation was in print and the Abbey Theatre established, Lady Gregory held power in Ireland. Many young men and woman of talent followed her, writing peasant plays or acting in them, going west in search of knowledge and wisdom, believing in the uncomplicated tradition she had invented. The stories she wrote were simple, and her aim too was simple: to add dignity to Ireland, to revive the national spirit. The cultural nationalist movement was diverse: it contained Griffith and
Joyceâs amiability took a sudden turn for the worse soon after he arrived in Paris. In December 1902 he wrote to Lady Gregory, telling her that âto create poetry out of French life is impossibleâ. In March 1903 he was asked by the literary editor of the Daily Express in Dublin, to whom Lady Gregory had introduced him, to review her Poets and Dreamers. Despite his intermittent use of a toothbrush, his teeth were sharp enough to bite the hand. In her book, he wrote, Lady Gregory âhas explored in a land almost fabulous in its sorrow and senilityâ. The storyteller from whom Lady Gregory took the stories had a mind, he wrote, âfeeble and sleepy ⦠He begins one story and wanders from it into another story, and none of the stories has any satisfying imaginative wholeness ⦠In fine, her book, wherever it treats of the âfolkâ, sets forth in the fullness of its senility a class of mind which Mr Yeats has set forth with such delicate skepticism in his happiest book The Celtic Twilight. â
On the same day as the review appeared, Synge reported to Lady Gregory from Paris that Joyce wasâbeing won over by the charm of French lifeâ while remaining penniless and indolent. âI cannot think he will ever be a poet of importance,â Synge wrote, âbut his intellect is extraordinarily keen and if he keeps fairly sane he ought to do excellent essay-writing.â Later that same year, as his mother was dying, Joyce came back to Dublin and crashed a party at Lady Gregoryâs; a fellow guest watched him âwith his air of half-timid effrontery, advancing towards his unwilling hostess and turning away from her to watch the crowdâ. A year later, as he was getting ready once more to leave Ireland, he managed to touch Lady Gregory for five pounds. Her reward was to be one of Yeatsâsâgiddy damesâ in his broadside âThe Holy Officeâ, which he had the good sense not to send to her when he published it in Pola in 1905. The following year he wrote to his brother to say that âW.B. Yeats ought to marry Lady Gregory â to kill talkâ, and in âGas from a Burnerâ in 1912 he referred to her as âGregory of the Golden Mouthâ. Twenty years later, just after the publication of Ulysses, he wrote her a very rude letter in reply to her request for permission to quote from a letter of his: âWhile thanking you for the friendly remembrance contained in it, and for acts of kindness in the past, I shall feel very much obliged if you will omit from your forthcoming book, which I understand is largely a history of the Irish literary movement , all letters of mine and all mention of me. In doingso you will be acting in strict accordance with the spirit of that movement, inasmuch as since the date of my letter, twenty years ago, no mention of me or of my struggles or of my writings has been made publicly by any person connected with it ⦠May I ask you to be kind enough to convey to Mr Yeats, for whose writing I have always had the greatest admiration, my thanks for his favourable opinion [of Ulysses ], which I value very highly.â
It would be easy to read this as an example of an arrogant young genius becoming a middle-aged curmudgeon, but it discloses something more interesting and revealing. Once her Cuchulain translation was in print and the Abbey Theatre established, Lady Gregory held power in Ireland. Many young men and woman of talent followed her, writing peasant plays or acting in them, going west in search of knowledge and wisdom, believing in the uncomplicated tradition she had invented. The stories she wrote were simple, and her aim too was simple: to add dignity to Ireland, to revive the national spirit. The cultural nationalist movement was diverse: it contained Griffith and
Similar Books
