T. S. ELIOT AND MYSTICISM T. S. Eliot and Mysticism. The Secret History of Four Quartets PAUL MURRAY Lecturer in Mystical Theology Dominican Studium, Tallaght, and Angelicum University, Rome M ©Paul Murray 1991 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 9HE. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1991 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LID Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-0-333-47585-0 hardcover ISBN 978-0-333-61406-8 ISBN 978-1-349-13463-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-13463-2 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Reprinted 1993, 1994 (with corrections) To Siun the well known is what we have yet to learn T. S. Eliot Contents Preface X List of Abbreviations xiv Introduction 1 A. A Sceptic with a Taste for Mysticism 2 B. Mysticism and Four Quartets 6 C. The Question of Sources 9 PART ONE 'BURNT NORTON': AT THE STILL POINT 1 Mysticism and Music 17 A. The Music of Imagery 18 B. Music and Meaning 22 2 The Philosophy of Stillness 26 A. Richard of St Victor and Aristotle 27 B. The Mystical Attitude of Henri Bergson 32 C. The Philosophy of the Poet and of the Poem 37 3 Eliot in Meditation 41 A. Meditation and Poetry 42 B. The Structure of a Meditation 47 PART TWO 'EAST COKER': THE WAY OF NEGATION 4 The Ascetic Vision 57 A. A Dance of Death 59 B. The Good Friday Lyric 64 C. Poetry and Asceticism 70 D. The Poet 'between two worlds' 72 vii viii Contents 5 Mysticism and Incarnation 76 A. Two Types of Mysticism 78 B. The Meaning of Incarnation 83 6 The Influence of St John of the Cross 88 A. The Language of Paradox 89 B. The Theology of the Dark Night 95 PART THREE 'THE DRY SALVAGES': VISIONS AND REVISIONS 7 Mysticism under Scrutiny: The Influence of Ssren Kierkegaard 103 A. Mysticism and Meaning 104 B. A I<ierkegaardian Perspective 107 C. The Recovery of Dread 116 8 The Brahmin and Buddhist Influence 125 A. 'Burnt Norton' 128 B. 'East Coker' 131 C. 'The Dry Salvages' 138 D. 'Little Gidding' 141 9 Mysticism and Magic 153 A. 'As above, so below': Meditation and the Occult 155 B. The Ghost of W. B. Yeats 158 C. A Minor Source: Maurice Maeterlinck 164 D. P. D. Ouspensky and Charles Williams 167 PART FOUR 'LITTLE GIDDING': AN END OF EXPLORATION 10 The Language of Patriotism: Rudyard Kipling and Rupert Brooke 177 A. Rudyard Kipling: the Patriot and the Seer 178 B. Rupert Brooke: a Vision of England 189 Contents ix 11 Mysticism and Myth- 1: The Shakespeare Pattern 197 A. The Mythical Method and Four Quartets 200 B. The Theme of Death and Rebirth: IDiot and G. Wilson Knight 205 C. Journey through Darkness into Light: Eliot and Colin Still 214 D. The Question of Belief 221 12 Mysticism and Myth - II: The Dantean Parallel 225 A. Eliot 'in the middle way' 226 B. The Journey towards Spiritual Freedom 230 C. Visionary Imagination 239 D. The States of 'heaven and damnation' 244 Conclusion 256 Notes 266 Selected Bibliography 300 Index 316 Preface When I first discovered Four Quartets I was about eighteen or nineteen, and I had in my possession no commentary nor any critical study of the work on which to rely for assistance. At first, and not surprisingly, much of the meaning of the work eluded me. Yet, somehow, to my astonishment, the poems at once aroused my deepest interest. My attention was drawn and held by their strange 'chamber music'. And the simple hearing of this music probably communicated to me more of the poems' essential meaning than I have since gained from my study of learned, critical commentaries. Eliot himself remarked in 1961: Good commentaries can be very helpful: but to study even the best commentary on a work of literary art is likely to be a waste of time unless we have first read and been excited by the text commented upon even without understanding it. For that thrill of excitement from our first reading of a work of creative literature which we do not understand is itself the beginning of understanding. Understanding begins in the sensibility: we must have the experience before we attempt to explore the sources of the work itself. 1 I first became interested in the question of the sources of Four Quartets when, for a period of two to three years at the Angelicum University in Rome, I had the opportunity of studying several major authors in the Western mystical tradition. I found that the more familiar I became with the philosophy and literature of mysticism the more definite was my impression of a unique and profound connection between the mystical tradition and the poetry of Four Quartets. And it was, in part, to verify and test my own intuition that I undertook the writing of the present study. Once I had decided to take part in the critical debate concerning Four Quartets I was immediately made aware of an almost overwhelming number of books, articles and reviews on the X Preface xi subject of Eliot's poetry. But I also found considerable encourage­ ment for my work in a remark which Eliot made in 1932 concerning Dante studies: 'The very vastness of the subject leaves a possibility that one may have something to say worth saying.'2 A number of the commentators to whose books, articles and reviews I have occasion to refer, are for me far more than mere names. They represent the finest of Eliot's readers and the best of his critics. Without their work and the living current of ideas which it has produced, my own work would have been imposs­ ible. I am, moreover, grateful not merely to those critics whose views on Eliot appear to support and complement my own, but also to those with whom I have found myself at times in serious disagreement: 'Thoughts that are the same as our own leave us unmoved; but it is contradiction that makes us productive.'3 A number of years spent in the preparation of a doctoral thesis were the occasion of most of the research for this study. During that time, and in the intervening years, I have incurred debts of gratitude to many people. One of the largest has been to Mrs Valerie Eliot for affording me access, at the beginning of my research, to the Eliot archives at King's College Library, Cambridge, and also for giving me permission to quote a number of hitherto unpublished extracts from Eliot's work. I wish also to record my gratitude to the late Dame Helen Gardner for sending me copies of unpublished correspondence between herself and Professor Zaehner on the subject of Eliot's mysticism. Roberto Ombres O.P. has been a steadfast friend during the years of work on the manuscript and I am particularly grateful for the assistance he gave in correcting the proofs. My thanks are also due to Edward Malatesta, S.J., Luke Dempsey, O.P., Miceal 0 Regan, O.P., and Edward Booth, O.P., who encouraged me to begin my work and to persevere with it in spite of difficulties in the early stages. To Professor Seamus Deane, my tutor at University College, Dublin, I owe a unique debt of gratitude. But for his kindness and erudition my work would be much the poorer. I am also indebted to Professor Stephen Medcalf, Michael Paul Gallagher, S.J., and Vivian Boland, O.P., who offered useful suggestions on particular points and on the handling of the chapters as a whole. To Mr Michael Halls, the present librarian of King's College, Cambridge, I would like to express my thanks, and also to record my debt to his predecessor the late Mr Peter Crofts. I am also grateful for the help I received from the generous and patient xii Preface staffatUniversityLibrary,Cambridge.Otherpeoplewho assisted me in various ways include the members of my own immediate family, the Dominican communities at San Clemente, Rome, Blackfriars, Oxford and Cambridge, and StMary's, Tallaght. For eminently prac­ tical assistance, including hospitality, given to me at different stages of my work, I am also indebted to Dr Stephen Dunning, John and Helen Murphy, Thomas Jordan, O.P., Maurice Fearon, O.P., Dennis O'Driscoll, Cathal Hutchinson, O.P., Paul McCormick, Frances Arnold, Sarah Roberts West, Margaret Cannon, Louis B. Hughes, O.P., Mavis E. Pindard, Anne Graham, Dr Martin Henry, David and Sheelah Kellet, Margaret Fitzgerald, O.P. and Santiago Saiz, O.P. In conclusion, it is a pleasure for me here to acknowledge the immense debt I owe Philip McShane, O.P. Although, perhaps, he has already forgotten most of his labour, I do not forget his kindness or the active interest and solidarity he showed at every stage of my work. Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to quote from T. S. Eliot's work, as follows: Reprinted by permission of Mrs Valerie Eliot and Faber and Faber, Ltd: lines from the drafts of Four Quartets in The Composition of Four Quartets by Dame Helen Gardner; selections from T.