James Elroy Flecker

FL E CK ER H I S o o m s AT A M B R D G E . , IN R C I

Fron tisp wce. J A M E S E L R O Y F L E C K E R

AN APPRECIATION WITH SO ME B I O GRA PHICA L N OTES

B Y D OU GLA S GOLD RIN G

LON D ON CH PM N H A L LTD A A L , .

1 1 HEN RIETTA TREET w c 2 , S , . . 1 922

PREFA CE

HE chapters which follow have b e e n written in the conﬁdent belief that the subj ect of them has secured a permanent position in English literary history, that his poetry will be read and admired centuries after those who were his contemporaries have passed away , and that in the years t o come generations o f poetry lovers will be eager to know what kind o f man he was , what he looked like , what his circle thought o f him . It has seemed worth

o t while , therefore , to j down the impressions and reminiscences o f a few o f his friends w ho have been kind enough t o search their

t o memories at my request , and to add this

a m terial my own . My excuse for under

LI B RARf JAMES ELROY FLE CKER — taking the work is the fact that ﬁrst as editor and contributor and then as pub — lishe r and author Flecker and myself were closely associated during the greater part of l his iterary life , and I was thus fortunate in hearing more o f his lite rary plans and o f his ideas about his own poems than most

Who of his other friends , including many knew him far more intimately than I

did . This small volume certainly makes no pretensions to be described as a Life of

Flecker ; but it will, I trust, be found to contain a certain amount of information which lovers o f his poetry will ﬁnd of in

t e re st .

As a complete biography of the poet will

doubtless be issued in due course , I have refrained deliberately from tapping many

important sources of information . I have ,

r howeve , gratefully to acknowledge the help which I have received from (among others) vi JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Mr . Henry Danielson , Mr . Frank Savery ,

. I n e n . Mr Roger gp , Mr Trelawney Dayrell

Ma r o rda t o . . v o Reed , and Mr John g To

Mr . Danielson I am expressly indebted for the bibliographical information given at the end of the book .

DOU GLAS GOLD RIN G.

Ma 22nd 1 922 y , . ILLU STRATION S

FLECK ER N HI S OOMS A T CAMB R D GE Frontis ices , I R I p

Facing pa g e

Tw NGL HMEN FLE K ER A N D J D . B EAZ LEY o E I S ( C . ) — ENJ OYI NG TH EMSELVES I N GERMANY FROM A D RAW

I N G B Y J D B EAZ LEY . .

J AMES ELROY FLECK ER (1 9 09)

“ ’ CORRE CT ON S To OA K A N D L VE I N FLECK ER S I O I ,

HAND WR I TING

P U EC LIAR glamour surrounds , in

retrospect , the fourteen and a half years which separated the end of

’ the nineties from the outbreak o f the Great

. 1 9 22 War Looking back , in , those of us

’ w ho are now in the middle thirties c a n see

fu ourselves playing, all unmind l of our doom , in a world that then seemed almost shadowless . School days , undergraduate

— t o days , early manhood life seemed grow better and better as the years slipped away which divided us from the great catastrophe . 1 9 1 3 and the summer of 1 9 1 4 must always have that historic interest which the human “ ” imagination attaches t o last moments . But if we like t o dwell on this queer pre war period , to think about it , to try to get 3 JAMES ELROY FLECKER it in perspective and disentangle some o f the main threads from its jumble o f ten d e nc ie s and ideas , and to keep green the memory of friends w ho died before the Great Adventure had been revealed t o stricken

no t humanity as the Great Illusion , it is because we wish it back again or are mere praisers o f time past . Let us admit that

o f if the present is a period short commons , f bewilderment , and suf ering, there is no

i — ha Ve time like t except the future . We struggled through our disasters to man ’ s — estate ; we are compared with those of o u r contemporaries whose li ves ended before

— - the war grown u p . We have gained much

o f in the process , changed our sense values , ” become politically responsible , realised , however dimly and imperfectly, the human bonds which unite us with our fellow - men and women the world over . In these circumstances it is only natural that o u r ideas o f Beauty shoul d have JAMES ELROY FLECKER

o f - — changed also . The artist to day poet , n — painter, ovelist , sculptor, musician is dis satisﬁed with much that might have given him pleasure a decade a go . He seeks more than what is at times contemptuously ” termed Beautiful Beauty ; and if he is taunted with accepting ugliness in its h place , he can reply that w at he seeks is — signiﬁcance not the pretty Chinese lantern ,

o but the naked light within . S it is that much of the art produced between 1 9 0 0— 1 4 has become almost unbearable with the passage o f years . Reputations have

ﬂourished and withered , fashionable ﬁgures have had their day and night has covered

- them : even the war poets have wilted . If the casualties in regard to reputation are u m l s o . expected , the survivors are equa ly Very few can claim t o have foretold on the publication of The Golden Journey to Samarkand that the status o f James Elroy

- Flecker would be as high as it is to day . 5 JAMES ELROY FLECKER If it was the visible world which enthralled

Flecker, and if the beauty that he sought t o create was an obvious , almost a tangible

o f beauty , he had at least the advantage never

being fashionable , and he had that quality of queerly detached effort which differentiates the pains taken by genius from those

which are taken by talent . He worked at

’ his poems for his poems sake ; was de lib e rat e ly ascetic and austere in regard t o

his art ; deliberately obj ective . He sup

pressed ephemeral emotion , just as he ” suppressed the ephemeral message ,

- And fashionable philosophy , or what not .

so , with everything of a merely momentary

signiﬁcance expunged , the precious metal

of his verse has survived , has held its own and will continue t o be treasured perhaps

as long as our language lasts .

Having said this much , it must be added that James Elroy Flecker was at the same

o time peculiarly the product f his age . He 6 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

- was deﬁnitely , entirely pre war . He

’ died with the pre - war public schoolboy s

idea of war undamaged , intact , and the dying embers o f his life were waked into their final flame by its fierce breath . But if his work is (as I believe) of a lasting worth , then like some masterpiece of Greek sculpture , it will be found to epitomise its period and will give the historian of the future some valuable clues as t o the nature and character of the age in which he lived . At present we are very much t o o near the decade in which Flecker grew to man

t o t o d o hood , wrote and died , be able

more than speculate , very tentatively , as to what may subsequently appear t o have been its salient features . It was f a strange period . It saw the birth o

En lish Revie w t o the g , the rise fame of

Ma se ﬁ e ld John and Walter de la Mare , of

Mr . Granville Barker and Joseph Conrad .

George Bernard Shaw and H . G Wells JAMES ELROY FLECKER produced in it a good deal o f their ﬁnest

work ; it witnessed a cult of the open air and the open road ; of nut cutlets and no

— a t — a hats , and all events , at Oxford tre

’ m e ndo u s - o f cult of the eighteen nineties ,

l o f Wi de , of Beardsley , Verlaine , Baudelaire ,

and Ernest Dowson . Another dominating inﬂuence on English poetry during the period

was A . E . Housman . Theatrical interest was divided between the imported musical comedies sta ged so superbly by the late

Mr . George Edwardes (who that saw it will

o f Les M erveilleu ses forget his production ,

’ at Daly s and the activities o n a dif

fe re nt plane of Mr . Shaw and Mr . Granville

Barker , the Stage Society, etc . Of the

social gaieties of the period , culminating in the Bacchanalian crescendo which ended 1 9 1 4 in July, , it is scarcely necessary to

speak . A generation hence , volumes of memoirs will pour from the press making a vain attempt to describe what those w ho 8

JAMES ELROY FLECKER and James Elroy Flecker was essentially of the ﬁne ﬂew of our public school and Uni versity system - it was a time of unusual

- opportunity for intellectual ﬂower gathering . It provided a little of everything and

. a do le s nothing long Perhaps , by giving cent boys and girls so many lovely things t o think about , it helped to deprive them in matters of which , after crossing an ocean

- so de re s of blood and tears , we can to day p — singly see the importance o f all capacity fo r thought . The world was so full of a num ber of things —! who can blame them if they were happy

An d , indeed , for the young things of the

privileged classes , it was a happy time . In the world o f art and letters the absinthe sodden gloom of the ’ nineties had dis

o f appeared , with much the Victorian

puritanism which had provoked it . The

sun was shining again , the lark , etc . , were

functioning t o perfection . Who can blame 1 0 JAMES ELROY FLECKER those young men and women fo r not troubling to investigate problems so banausic as those of foreign politics ? They had the world

t o full of toys play with , and for to admire they had the ﬂowers and men and mo untains that decorate it so ” superbly .

t o Looking back , it is delightful remem ber that stern moralists o f the Kipling type found much t o distress them in the pre - war

t o public school . Bullying had a large extent disappeared from the unofﬁcial cur

“ ’ ri l m - - c u u . The treat em rough prefect , who was almost a subaltern and had almost

t o a moustache , was beginning make way for sixth - form boys with a real interest in

fo r l the classics and some feeling iterature , w ho were almost undergraduates . It ceased t o be altogether shameful t o read the English poets in the school library on a

Sunday afternoon . A wave of what our

6 ‘ reactionaries wou ld call softness and 1 1 JAMES ELROY FLECKER outside observers might have described as civilisation broke over our crusted insti — t u t io n s those institutions in which normal intelligence has still t o make such a desperate

struggle for existence . The change in the

public schools was reﬂected at Oxford . Instead of the ﬁerce and violent reactions

’ o f the nineties , when those who could not bear the public school atmosphere signalised their escape from the prison - house by ru sh ing to extremes of morbid decadence , there was a more widely diffused cultivation o f the arts and less persecution of the poseur , with the result that young men became on the whole less closely wedded t o their “ l poses . To be a d e c a do ng was real y

more of a rag than anything else , and I

’ don t suppose that any of the youths w ho in slightly intoxicated moments recited the credo of a despairing decadent ” would

t o have gone the stake for it , though one o r t o two were induced ( their disgust), by 1 2 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

a gloomy ass w ho controlled one of the

t o smaller colleges , take the train to Cam

bridge . The ’ nineties were cultivated with rapture

- e xt ra va in the nineteen hundreds , and the gances and eccentricities of the earlier period were reproduced with painstaking zeal ;

u V but , as I have s ggested , the point of iew ” was changed , the ennui was factitious .

Of plutocratic Oxford in the pre - war period

Mr . Compton Mackenzie , in the second volume o f Sinister Street has proved a faithful recorder , endowed with a prodigious — memory . Of conventional Oxford which

no w then as , comprised such a large propor — tion of the undergraduates n o recorder is or ever will be necessary . The system took their money and at the end o f three or four years produced them like rabbits from a conjuror ’ s hat and distributed them among c uracies and assistant - masterships

’ o ﬂi c e s t o and lawyers , continue the work 1 3 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

“ ’ 3 ro of perpetu ating the system . The p portion of undergraduates , however , whose main interest was in literature , art , and

— a — scholarship the esthetes , in short deserve some reminiscent pages . Poetry or , to be exact , shockingly bad verse , was written by the ream , and the fashionable thing was to be wondrous , more wondrous than anyone had ever been before . One had

t o t o also be sensitive and rather frail , culti

’ 9 vate ennui , to be gnawed by secret H despairs . o w much of a camouﬂage was this frail and lily - like attitude was once agreeably displayed by a friend of Flecker ’ s

o f o w n w ho and my , on being debagged at

Merton , horriﬁed the aghast rowing men by a boxing display which left quite a number of them prostrate . The outraged poet then resumed his trousers with a dignity which struck awe into all beholders . The despairs were the greatest possible fun . Don ’ t imagine from the following lines that 1 4 JAMES ELROY FLECKER the author of them was not enj oying himself hugely .

he e no ne w h e t o be h e d T r is op op for , The re is no ne w w ord t o be s a id All e nd a re a s ha d w ha d w s s o s of s o s , l t n Pa e ghos s of t hi gs d e ad .

The d a nd t he e v l w hat a re t he goo i , y I a m w e a ry of e a se a s of st rife The da y s a s t he y dra g a re m a de he a vy t l t n l Wi h oa hi g of ife .

Before composing this work he had , I believe , lunched unwisely . After luncheon , in a mauve silk shirt , he had punted on the Cherwell and sadly and regretfully he had been seasick into it . The tragedies of youth !

Other lines , I think they must be from the same delightful source , have lingered in my memory . I hope their author (if he sees this book) will forgive me for quoting them . After all , the prompting motive is as much sentiment as a sense o f humour ! 1 5 JAMES ELROY FLECKE‘ R

o f Here , then , are the opening stanzas My Lilies

’ ’ I n m l a de n m id a t an le d be d y sou s g r , g , l A fe w poor li ie s gre w .

B ut no w ala t he ale l he d . , s is ir p g ory s u fe The y w e re b t w .

Sa dly t he w hit e le a ve s s e ve re d o ne by o ne And fe ll upon t he be d The ﬂ w e I ha d a re a de d t he e a re n ne o rs f , r o t r n t e Tha a e o d ad .

My poor ﬂow e rs t he ga rden of m y soul I s e m pt y n o w an d ba re

I ha ve no l l e le t I a ve t he m a ll i i s f , g l t t A l ha t he re w e re .

Besides lilies , we were nearly all of us “ ” greatly addicted t o lassitude ; none more so than the friend from whose works

I cull these gems . Here is one example o f it

e d Se t e m e a n d t he a n all n all n Tir p b r r i is f i g , f i g,

W t h a nd t t e la t de t de i sou of u r ssi u , ou si U p t he ga rde n I c an se e t he gra y m ist s cra wlin g

Ove e - e d e e l t wh a a he ﬂ w e ha e d e d . r ros b s r , s , o rs v i 1 6

JAMES ELROY FLECKER Frank Savery has recorded that even as a schoolboy he already wrote verses with ” ap palling facility . He imitated with enthusiasm and without discrimination , and , the taste in those long - gone days being fo r Oscar Wilde ’ s early verse and Swinburne ’ s complacent swing, he turned out a good

w a deal of decadent stuff, that s, I am con ' vinc e d no t , much better than the rubbish written by the rest o f his generation at

Oxford . What interested me in Flecker in ” “ those days , Mr . Savery continues , was — the strange contrast between the man o r — bo . rather, the y and his work Cultured l Oxford in general, I shou d add , was not very productive at that time : a sonnet a month was about the maximum output of l f the lights o f Ba liol . The general style o literature in favour at the time did not lend itself to a generous outpouring . Hence there was a certain piquancy in the ex uberant ﬂ o w o f passionate verse which 1 8 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ - issued from Flecker s ever ready pen , in spite of his entire innocence of any e xpe ri ence whatever .

— a Furthermore , he was a wit great wit

n o — I used to think , but humorist and , like

“

. l most wits , he was combative He ta ked best w hen someone baited him . At last it go t to be quite the fashion in Oxford t o ask Flecker to luncheon and dinner - parties

- simply in order to talk . The sport he f af orded was usually excellent . Look ing back on it now, I believe I was right in thinking that in those days he had no humour (there is very little humour in Oxford) ; n o r am I so entirely sure that his wit was bad . I had , at any rate , a

im growing feeling that , in spite of his maturity and occasional bad taste , he was the most important of any o f us : his immense productiveness was , I vaguely but

u rightly felt , better and more val able than our ﬁnicky and sterile good taste . 1 9 JAMES ELROY FLECKER By 1 9 0 6 he had developed greatly largely thanks to the companionship o f an

Oxford friend whom , in spite of long absence and occasional estrangements , he loved f deeply till the end o his life . Even his decadent poems had improved poor as are

’ most of the poems in The Bridge of Fire , they are almost all above the level o f

Oxford poetry , and there are occasional verses which forecast some of his mature ” work .

If, as Mr . Savery tells us , Flecker during his Oxford life poured out an almost cease

o f less stream bad and imitative verse , we can , I think , regard this chieﬂy as the emotional overﬂow from his intellectual development . I have dwelt at some length o n o f - the sillier aspects pre war Oxford , but it would be giving a hopelessly wrong im pression t o represent such asininities as being

t o all that Oxford meant, those who indulged in them . All Universities are , I suppose , 2 0 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

divided into two camps , the ﬁrst consisting of those w ho acquire learning fo r a deﬁnite — ulterior motive money, position , and so forth ; the second , those who read for their own delight and intellectual enrichment ,

’ w ho v those ha e the true scholar s instinct , who would not insult any branch of study by taking thought as to its utility or proﬁt .

- Now, in the pre war period it was the spirit of this second camp which was in the aseen dant at Oxford and was t o a most notable degree embodied in James Flecker . It was a time when men read the literature of

Greece and Rome , of France and of England , much in the spirit in which Keats read

’ Chapman s Odyssey . And they are scarcely t o be blamed if they combined with some of the aesthetic ardour o f the Renaissance not a little o f its j oyous obscenity and hearty appetite fo r life .

’ Flecker s obscenity amounted to a gift, and many of his most famous witticisms and 2 1 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ jeu w d e sprit (written down and illustrated in a MS . volume bound in art linen , “ ” called the Yellow Book of Japes , the j oint production of Flecker and of his greatest Oxford friend) are scarcely likely t o ﬁnd their way into print . One may be

fo r forgiven , perhaps , for regretting this , they were the outcome of enormous high spirits and of a wholly charming gusto for — life a rapturous enj oyment which so many

so of us can experience in retrospect, few, like Flecker, at the moment . Ever is

Now, says the philosopher . But only those whom the gods love know his meaning by instinct and without being taught .

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ a fellow - passenger whether a bus went in a certain direction , the individual whom he addressed , mistaking him for a foreigner , insisted on pointing out several landmarks ,

’ such as the Law Courts , St . Paul s Cathe

’

so o n . dral , and Flecker s disgust can be imagined . When the vehicle arri ved at the

Bank , and he prepared to descend , he

w ho o bvi growled at his informant , was o u sly about t o show him the Royal Ex change , Damn it all , I may have seen it before He had several moustaches during his early manhood , and shaved them off ; but

t o he stuck a moustache in the end , and it “ certainly suited him . You can hear it ” whistle as it grows , he once pathetically remarked about his beard , while he was shaving .

Flecker was born in Lewisham , on Novem

5t h 1 884 . ber , He was christened Herman Elroy —James was a name which he adopted 2 6 JAMES ELROY FLECKER at Oxford — and was the eldest of the four children of the Rev . William Herman

D . D . Flecker, , now the headmaster of Dean

Close School , Cheltenham . He was edu

’ c a t e d at his father s school at Uppingham , and at Trinity College , Oxford . He was at Oxford from 1 9 0 2 t o 1 9 0 7. During his last year at the University (or just after he went down) he paid his ﬁrst visit to Italy with the friend t o whose inﬂuence and inspiration he owed so much . This

ﬁrst Italian visit was a turning - point in his career , and had a marked reaction upon his poetry . Soon after he left Oxford (in 1 9 07) he became fo r a time a master at the preparatory branch of University College l School at Hol y Hill , Hampstead , of which the late Mr . Charles Simmons was then l principal . F ecker had rooms at the top o f Holly Hill , opposite the Mount Vernon

Hospital . He was certainly an original and probably 27 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

an extremely able teacher . The whole s ubj ect of education was one of his deepest intellectual interests until the end of his life , and he was an ardent educational reformer, as his dialogue The Grecians indicates clearly enough . What his general attitude was towards learning and towards the con ve nt io na l education o f his time may be guessed in part from the following sentences ,

’ taken from the preface t o his Scholar s Italian Book

Finally , I express the hope that some headmasters may ﬁnd in this book a useful recreation for a sixth form exhausted by successful labours in scholarship - hunting ; and that many scholars may be induced by me to spend a holiday fortnight studying a language which all those who know love . N o attempt has been made in the ensuing pages to produce a work of commercial or military value . My sole obj ect has b een t o enable any intelligent student who 28 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

knows some Latin and French t o learn with the minimum of labour to read a great ” literature . Although Flecker was only at Holly Hill

fo r one term , he made a great and lasting

' o n o f impression some his pupils . Many

of his translations from the French , which

were subsequently printed , after revision ,

were ﬁrst drafted in the schoolroom , and written in chalk on the blackboard after the

o w n boys had produced their attempts , as

o f ho w an illustration it could be done .

’ Leconte de Lisle s Hjalmar speaks t o the

Raven was translated in this way . Flecker threw himself with characteristic gusto into

- the school life , and took an active part in the school games , which he played with immense enthusiasm and no skill . He was popular , but he must have startled everyone in the school , from the boys upwards . He certainly once shocked one of the school mistresses by informing her at l uncheon 29 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

that he had been t o the Oxford M u sic Hall the night before When he left Hampstead he went for a

t o a few months Mill Hill , but he found

its Nonconformist atmosphere antipathetic . After leaving Mill Hill he gave up teaching

t o o fo r altogether , and decided g in the

Consular service , the training for which would enable him t o spend t w o years at Cambridge in the study of Oriental lan guages . I think the ﬁrst set of verses which Flecker ever got into print in a London

paper was the poem called Desire , which

I dler 1 9 0 7. appeared in the in January , It “ ” is signed H . E . Flecker , and is worth

quoting, because , though immature and ,

no indeed , of great value , it is nevertheless characteristic and bears the impress of

’ the writer s personality .

La n h t he alle a l ld u c g y , s i ors bo w e d w it h il ve ha a n d ld Pro s r , s rp co ,

W n e d w t h ilk and a e d w t h ld . i g i s , o r i go 30 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Silve r st re am in viole t night Silke n clouds in soft m oonlight

Golde n st a rs in sha dow y he ight .

St a rs a nd st re a m a re unde r cloud

S nk t he alle lve - w e d i s g y , si r pro ,

l l e li e Si ke n s a i s a r k a shroud .

’ Fle c ke r s fondness fo r the precious metals is traceable through all his work In this short poem it will be noticed that silver appears three times and golden once . He probably had several little poems in

I dler the , and other early work was printed in a motor j ournal of which a friend of his was editor . But he was a sufﬁciently good

- n o t re self critic , even at this period , to print all these ephemeral pieces in “ The ”

h . Bridge of Fire , w ich Mr Elkin Mathews published for him in t he Vigo Cabinet Series ” in 1 9 07. The Bridge of Fire was origin ally to have been illustrated , by Mr . Tre la w ne l - w ho y Dayre l Reed , made a set of

o ne o f Beardsleyesque drawings , in which 3 1 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

the poet was caricatured , in much the same way that Beardsley caricatured Wilde

in one of the Salome illustrations . I

d o no t know why the proj ect was abandoned .

Expense , most likely . The friend to whom I am indebted for information about Flecker ’ s schoolmastering experiences at Holly Hill has give n me the

’ following notes abou t Flecker s London life

at this period .

He had a great liking fo r Hampton

u Co rt, and was never weary of wandering through the picture gallery or around the

beautiful gardens . He was one of the very few Englishmen I have ever met who went o ten f to the British Museum , Tate and

National Galleries . When he was in London he would frequently arrange to meet people opposite such - and - such a picture in the

o f National Gallery , regardless the fact that it generally took his friend ten minutes to

r ﬁnd out whe e it was situated . He was fond 32

JAMES ELROY FLECKER Government under an obligation (the revolt

was then already near collapse) . His com

. . w ho panion was J J Knox , afterwards

went (I think) t o Teheran . But very likely y o u have had this story already from some

one else . “ Flecker told it very vividly — they were

sitting in a café when a mob rushed up ,

A N o crying, la lanterne one could

o f believe they were both English , because

’ the excellence of Knox s accent . On

peut passer vingt ans a Paris - o u n e perd

’ ’ j amais l a c c e nt anglais . Flecker was much amused at what he regarded as a certain childishness and

’ ’ f na ivete a rt ic u af ected in Cambridge men , p

’ l r a ly King s men . He typiﬁed this by an

’ ’ ‘ imaginary King s man s dream : Do you know I had such a wonderful dream last l night . I dreamt that I was wa king in a ! beautiful garden , all by myself “ He always had a gre at desire to herd 36 ‘ ‘ B E A /J J J Y J O Y G V ) D . Two E N G LI S I I M B ( FL EL K PR A N ! J . ) EN IN

R A Y 1 H l IN G E M N .

Fa r1 my pa ge 30

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

t o his friends round him , establish a sort — of society of them c alling them all Brother

w o and so o n . I think the people h impressed him most at Cambridge were

A . W . Verrall and Prof. E . G . Browne none of his contemporaries at Cambridge had an inﬂuence on him in any way comparable to that of J . D . Beazley at Oxford . He was very enthusiastic about

Apuleius , and once started an admirable translation of the Golden Ass . He read me

o f K I t h part the Book , but he never ﬁnished

’ it : I m afraid my criticism of detailed points discouraged him , which was the last thing I meant . l Of particular visua recollections of him , one of the vividest is o n a river picnic above

’ Byron s Pool , when we all bathed , and Flecker marched about up t o his waist in the river , holding a canoe upside down over his head , entirely hiding it . He was an expert both at punting and canoeing, and 37 JAMES ELROY FLECKER had a justiﬁable contempt for Cambridge standards in these arts . He translated Arabic stories delight fully : I recollect very clearly hearing him read the story o n which he based the Ballad

of Iskander . His version was entrancing, and I thought he spoiled it in the poem by the metaphysical colouring he there gave it . I remember how furious he was at

‘ o f being called , in some review The Last

’ Generation , a grim disciple of H . G . Wells

at his grimmest . He was at Caius ,

’ bu t I don t think he had many friends there

or took much part in the life of the College .

’ His friends were chieﬂy, I think , King s and Trinity men That Caius was not altogether a happy

’ choice for a man o f ' Fle c ke r s temperament is conﬁrmed by another Cambridge con

temporary , from whose letter (to a third party) I am permitted to quote some pass

r o f u ages : I emember , course , that l nch 38 JAMES ELROY FLECKER in Rupert ’ s (Rupert Brooke ’ s) rooms in 1 9 0 8 May, , when you and Flecker also were there . Flecker , I remember , was not very happy here . The men of Caius were not sympathetic to him . Almost any other l co lege would have been more congenial , and either King ’ s or Trinity obviously the

t o best . The Caius people tried be kind to

’ him , but I don t think he found much

m enjoyment in breakfast at 8 a . with Rugby blues and students of law and medi cine . He saw a good deal of Rupert and of other members o f the Carbonari circle in

’

. no w King s Arthur Schloss , Waley , was ,

’ I think , his greatest friend in King s . They were both lovers o f the East . I think he

o f j oined the Fabian Society those days , as nearly everyone did w ho was in or on the

’ fringes of these King s circles . But he

’ wasn t much interested in politics . He was inclined to dislike the poor and t o be bored with them and to regard the large 39 JAMES ELROY FLECKER proj ects o f o u r young hopes as waste of ” time . At Oxford Flecker had been the (then) i l convent ona high Tory in politics . He liked

o f the idea of Emperors and Kings , and magniﬁcent courts , because he associated them with a lavish patronage of the arts . His view was that the best art was produced

e . . under an autocracy , g Velasquez and the Russian Ballet under the late Czar — and

a th t nothing else much mattered . The plebs , he felt , in their own best interests , should be governed ﬁrmly, from above . By the time he reached Cambridge , however , his ideas on political matters were rather “ ” more serious . Cambridge made him a

Liberal , even an enthusiastic Liberal . At one time he seems to have played with the proj ect o f throwing up his career in the Consular service and standing for Parlia

t o ment . For several reasons , I venture disagree with the statement o f the Cam 40

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

modern age is a calamity for art . Whether

these century - old poets preached an idea

as Shelley, Byron , and Wordsworth , ran

t o counter it , as Crabbe , or neglected it , as

Keats , they had the inestimable advantage of living in a society rent by the enthusiasm

and hatreds o f the French Revolution . In those good days Shelley was not an in effectual angel whose pretty lyrics might

s be read by impering girls , but a most

ff o f - e ectual Devil, like a socialist to day ,

attacking the very foundations of society . Only d uring the last year has there arisen in England a political crisis worthy of the pen , and in this revived bitterness of strife lies at least some hope for the future of ” English Poetry .

In regard to his life at Cambridge , although his attempt to recover the old raptu re of University life may not have been entirely successful (any more than an amorous

’ chau a e re ﬁ g can be entirely successful), he 4 2 JAMES ELROY FLECKER certainly did not regret the years he spent there . He played strenuous tennis ; punted a good deal wore his beloved blazers when ever he got a chance ; at times sported a corduroy coat ; talked ; made many friends ; contributed to various Cambridge papers such as The Ca m bridge Review and The

Gownsm an — t o , and more important him than anything else — made progress in the

t To art o which his life was devoted . me he often referred with great satisfaction t o the fact that he had had the peculiarly delight ful experience o f life at both Universities .

After leaving Cambridge , Flecker was 1 9 1 0 sent to Constantinople in June , ; was taken ill there in August of the same year , returned to England in September and went t o a sanatorium in the Cotswolds . In

1 9 1 1 t o a March , , he returned his post , p

are nt l p y quite recovered , and was trans 1 9 1 1 ferred to Smyrna in April . In May , , he went on leave to Athens , where he 43 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

He llé Skia da re ssi married a Greek lady, Miss ,

whom he had met the year before . He spent three months ’ holiday mostly in Corfu (where “ ” a the poem called Ph eacia was written),

t o and was sent Beirut , Syria , in Septem

1 9 1 1 . ber, Flecker did not really like the

o r Ea st e rns t o East , the , when he got know

them well , although he had an instinctive

understanding of them . His ﬁrst impres

sions of Constantinople were , however , happy

. t o enough Writing a friend about it , he

: says It is very beautiful , and , as I tell

’ o u r everybody, not a bit like Earl s Court

Exhibition , as I feared it might be . I am

going to stay here for two months more , at

so least , I hope I shall enjoy myself indeed ,

I do . I ride a horse and take photographs and swim in the Bosphorus and play tennis and talk to Turks in the loveliest country in the world . But I am lonely at times . He undoubtedly missed his wide circle of friends in London and at the Universities . 44 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

At Beirut he seems t o have been particularly homesick , and he admitted afterwards that he spent most of his time there dreaming of Oxford But it was not s o bad t o start

N o t with . a bad life here , he says in

o f r one his lette s , riding, bathing (bathed

N o v . 22 , sea quite warm), decent rooms , ” piano people mostly fools .

1 9 1 2 o n In December, , he came back leave

t o for a few weeks England , and visited

t o 1 9 1 3 . Paris , returning Beirut in January , 1 9 1 3 ill In March , , he was again taken , and after a few weeks on the Lebanon (Brumana)

t o he went Switzerland , where he remained f r o the last eighteen months of his life . He

t o went ﬁrst Leysin , but moved on to

t o Montreux , then to Montana , Locarno ,

1 9 1 4 t o . and ﬁnally , in May , , Davos He

3rd 1 9 1 5 died at Davos on January , , and was buried at Cheltenham at the foot of the Cotswold Hills .

JAMES ELROY FLECKER we could only have known o ne another very slightly on the evening when I walked over from my Bloomsbury lodgings t o his . I remember very well telling myself, as I

no t t o crossed Russell Square , be impressed ” by the Flecker legend . Already, after a few months of j ournalism in London , I had begun to be rather contemptuous both of

Oxford wit and Oxford reputations . Flecker was the great man among my

o f circle friends in those days , and his name — — ’ and j okes were upon everybody s lips .

I had got rather sick of hearing it . The house in which he was staying was the usual slightly dingy Bloomsbury board

- f ing house , dif ering hardly at all from the one which I was temporarily inhabiting myself. I well remember its gloomy hall ,

’ o f lit by a meagre speck gas , the landlady s folded arms and suspicious eye , the dark

t o - ﬂ o o r stairs leading up the second back , and the bright line of light gleaming under 50 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ Flecker s door . When I opened the door , I found the poet striding about under the

u balef l glare of unshaded incandescent gas , amid an indescribable confusion o f books and pictures and belongings . He was pack ” ing up , he said , in preparation for a j ourney to France with a friend of his called Knox . They were going t o investigate the rising among the vignerons of the Bordeaux dis l triet , where Catho icism was in conﬂict with

— a the Republic romantic adventure , with

v ! revol ers in it Flecker had bought his , and its barrel glittered in the gaslight as he showed it t o me .

If he really was packing up , there was certainly nothing t o indicate that the enter prise had got very far . The tables and all the chairs were piled with books — beauti l fu ly bound classical texts , French and

ia Ital n novels in paper covers , copies of

’ ” L Assie t t e a u Beurre and of Jugend , — dictionaries , volumes of the poets and , 5 1 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

- half buried among the piles , were such things

as a typewriter, a bottle of Maraschino and

u another of Chianti , tumblers , pictures , man

scripts . Pictures were piled u p against the

- o r skirting boards , lay on their faces on the ﬂoor in imminent danger o f being crushed under their owner ’ s feet as he paced up and

down the room . My disinclination t o be impressed vanished

in a very few minutes . I was immensely

impressed . Flecker was precisely what I

thought a poet ought t o be . We were most

o f us sentimental francophiles in those far - o ff

days , and I was full of yearnings and illu sions about the Latin Quarter and Mont martre and the Moulin de la Galette and the

’ u a t z Bal Bullier and the Bal des Q Arts , and — so on knowing nothing at all about them

rs - at ﬁ t hand . But Flecker had already tasted and explored these long - dreamed - o f delights , and his accounts of his visits to

Paris thrilled me with excitement . He 52 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

l ta ked of Paul Marinier and Lucien Boyer,

f t e inle n o f o S and Aristide Bruant , the Chat Noir (ye gods and of the N o c t a m

’ o f d Ha rc o u rt bules , the Café and the

’ ’ Boul Mich , of poets and painters and their mistresses . He was an admirable talker , even before an audience of one speechless and ecstatic acquaintance , and he had a plea sant knack of giving a vivid and amusing description of incidents and events in which he had played a part . He had a gentle ,

- high pitched , enthusiastic voice , singularly l attractive t o listen to . He turned ife always and all the time into a tremendous adventure . Like most creative artists , he

t o was egoistic , and used talk in a strain which would have seemed like megalomania if it had n o t been lightened by wit . On this occasion he read me two magniﬁcent ” poems which he had recently ﬁnished Ideal ” and “ The Town without a

Market . I shall never forget the gusto 53 JAMES ELROY FLECKER with which he read the line (from Ideal

Friend , we will go to hell with thee . ” l Hell , I remember thinking s yly , was

o f t o j ust the sort big, vague , decisive spot which anyone of Flecker ’ s enthusiastic nature wou ld think of accompanying a

friend . But his enthusiasm , if it carried

o ff him at times his feet , carried him also throughout his life and throughout his work

- away from all meanness .

Said I The w orld w a s m a de for kings To him w ho w orks an d w orkin g sings Com e jo y a n d m a je st y a nd pow e r l An d st e a dfa st love wit h roy a wings . The poet and the painter were to him the real kings of this world —this world given them to enj oy to the utmost as a

reward for their work . The ﬁrst t w o chapters o f one of the many

’ versions of Flecker s novel , The King of ” Alsa nde r o ff , fell the table during the

evening, and at my request he read them to

me . I was sufﬁciently under the spell of his 5 4 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

personality to think them marvellous . (Alas , when nearly seven years later the completed manuscript came to me in my capacity as

’ u adviser to Flecker s p blishers , it was a bitter disappointment to ﬁnd how time had robbed the poor old King ” of nearly all his glamour ! ) When the chapters of the King of Al sander had been read and discussed , our talk reverted to poetry and to Flecker ’ s own poems . His arrangements regarding The Bridge o f Fire had just been con l c uded with Mr . Elkin Mathews , and he was looking forward with tremendous ex c it e m e t n t o its appearance . He read me a few more of the poems which the book was to contain , including Riouperoux a poem for which I have retained a particular f af ection ev er since .

As I walked home that night , ﬁlled with excitement and warmed , no doubt , with

t o Chianti and Maraschino , I felt that be 55 JAMES ELROY FLECKER l a poet was the most wonderfu , the most romantic adventure in a world full of the maddest and most delicious possibilities . I had never before encountered anybody

’ with anything like Flecker s rapturous jo y

. o f of living Most us , at that time , cul t iva t e d a mask of artiﬁcial gloom There

n o t o no is new hope be hoped for, there is new word to be said which ineffectively

o u r . concealed high spirits Flecker , I think , t o some extent reversed this process . His eyes were always sad eyes , and there was a certain sadness latent in his smile which added much t o its charm . It has been asserted , particularly by critics who never knew him , that the occasional undernote of melancholy in some of his poems was

t o purely factitious . This , my mind , is a very superﬁcial view, based not only on ignorance o f Flecker but on ignorance o f

To the human heart as well . me it seems

’ impossible not t o connect Flecker s extra 56

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

After the evening I have described , Flecker and I met very frequently in a queer ﬂat in

o f e Brixton, the home a lady of many a com

lishm e nt s w a s p , not the least of which a capacity for appreciating young poets and their verses . The atmosphere of the ﬂat

- l was ultra Parisian . French novels (not a ways o f a very prudish kind) and volumes o f French verse lay about everywhere , and the walls of the sitting- room were decorated

St e inle ns St e inle n a . with , principally c ts Here we used to gather and read one a n other ’ s verses and sing the songs from Paris c a barets o f which Flecker and o u r hostess between them seemed t o have an almost

’ inexhaustible repe rt o ire . Paul Marinier s long - forgotten Ninon was a great favourite . I fancy the chorus went like this

All n n n N n n ne dis a s no n l o s , Ni o i o , p ’ ’ L Am o u r e st bo n e t u n é hé m n n , c s p c ig o . t t e de e nd v t e e n a he e Pour y gou r sc s i c c tt , in n ne t t e N o , Ni 58 JAMES ELROY FLECKER Flecker was very fond of Navaho and ” La Branche de Lilas , and I can see him now, sitting at the piano, dressed in a scanty Japanese kimono , smiling his pleasant, sardonic smile , and picking out

o f the tunes , while the rest us shouted the choruses .

Both Flecker and his friend , J . D . Beazley , had a habit of writing out their poems very neatly in tiny little manuscript books and presenting them t o the lady o f the ﬂat . Several such volumes were in circulation

o u r among group and are still , I hope , in existence , though it is hardly likely that in Flecker ’ s case there is much unpublished work o f any real value which has yet t o ﬁnd its way into print .

- At these far off parties , literary as ,

do n o t indeed , they were , I remember that there was much ﬂow of conversation as (for example) the Dublin intellectuals under w stand the ord , or as the modern under 5 9 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

graduate understands it . The hours were

devoted to singing and to laughter ; the problems o f the world were let go hang ;

taste , Shakespeare and the musical glasses

al were neglected utterly . Flecker nearly ways kept the room in a roar when he was

present , by his constant ﬂow of wit and his

almost unvarying high spirits . I remember ,

o ne however, amusing occasion on which the tables were turned against him and his

repartee extinguished . I had taken to dinner at the Brixton ﬂat a friend of mine

who was anxious to meet Flecker, but who “ ” had a rooted obj ection t o Bohemia . Our hostess — it was in the days when Society was beginning t o be badly bitten — with stage - mania had recently been tour ing the suburban music - halls in a sketch written by one of her friends , and in the course o f her wanderings had made the acquaintance of a little Cockney dancer

o f named Gertie . It was Gertie whom , out 60 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

t o sheer naughtiness , she invited make the

fourth at this particular dinner . From the

beginning nothing went well for Flecker . Whenever he caught the ball of conversation

Gertie snatched it ruthlessly . She was

exceedingly plain , the blameless wife of a

Brixton dentist , and by no means in her

o n ﬁrst youth . But in her w strange world — that of the smaller music - halls Gertie was as outstanding a character as Flecker was

in his . Her humour was the humour of

- the New Cut , her back chat surpassed a

’ South London bus conductor at his best . Never before have I listened to such a torrent of “ lip ” as this true descendant

Pe a c m f a of Mrs . hu and o Dian Trapes

’ poured out on the poet s (for once) defen ce

less head . Whenever poor Flecker g o t in

- a rapier thrust , he was promptly bludgeoned by devastating references to Jerusalem and w holly libellous innuendoes connecting his swarthiness with a neglect of baths ! 6 1 JAMES ELROY FLECKER I think this was the only occasion on which I ever knew him t o be verbally at a dis advantage . The incident which really formed the beginning o f my more intimate acquaintance with Flecker was connected with his ﬁrst “ ” volume of poems , The Bridge of Fire . We were all o f us in a great state of excite

ment about the book before its appearance , and I had arranged with the editor to review

it in The A c a dem y . When I received my ! copy I found that, alas it did not come

t o up my exaggerated expectations , and in my disappointment I proceeded t o a dm inis ter a perfectly sincere if rather j ej une

’ slating . My notice , when it came out , caused surprise and wrath among our little

l . circ e All my friends were , indeed , ex l — t re m e y angry with me except Flecker . I think Flecker must have been amused and interested to hear o n e note of honest eriti

c ism , however amateurish , amid a chorus of 62 JAMES ELROY FLECKER rather fatuou s praise . In any case he con tented himself with sending a rej oinder t o

The A ca dem y, which was published the — week after my notice a rej oinder which showed gre a t skill and the most exemplary good manners . And when , a year or two later, I gathered up my own stray verses from the periodicals w hich had printed them and issued my ﬁrst book , he took the trouble to review it in a Cambridge paper in characteristically generous terms .

Our connection of author and publisher ,

t o which was last until his death , began 1 9 1 0 l when , in , I started a month y magazine of earnest literary aspirations . In the ﬁrst number of this periodical , J . D . Beazley , of

’ Ox Christchurch , Flecker s most intimate ford friend , had let me print a poem of his ” called The Visit , which Trelawney Dayrell l Reed i lustrated . And Flecker himself became a fairly frequent contributor . The poems ” “ a c lled In Memoriam , Pillage , and 63 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

The War Song of the Saracens , ﬁrst appeared in its pages . It was some time in 1 9 1 0 that I got the ﬁrm which owned the magazine to issue a

’ o f t o new volume Flecker s verses , which he ” - gave the title Thirty Six Poems . But l the concern having, unfortunate y, more good intent than capital o r business manage

n o t ment, the volume did prosper , and on the death of my magazine after a year ’ s struggle fo r existence, the sheets of the book were

t . . transferred o Messrs . J M Dent and

Sons , Ltd . Messrs . Dent reissued the 1 9 1 1 book in , with six additional pieces ,

- Tw o under the more familiar title , Forty

Poems . During Flecker ’ s Cambridge years I only met him occasionally during vacation , and my memory in regard t o details is less trustworthy than for the earlier period . But I recall an extraordinary luncheon at

Pe tit Riche the restaurant, just after his 64

JAMES ELROY FLECKER the last time I saw him in the ﬂesh was at

’ a luncheon at B égu in o t s in Old Compton

Street , when J . J . Knox was present . On that occasion I heard once again the story of their adventures during the Wine riots , a story which has been retold in an earlier chapter . When I look back on James Flecker and

’ remember what he meant t o his wide circle of friends , it is to feel much more than a t sense of personal loss . It is o feel that something has gone o u t of life which the new generation does not know, perhaps can

not be expected to know, in view of the grisly shadow under which it h as grown up — something rare and irrecoverable a radi

ance , a generosity of heart and mind , a natural (no t stimulated) ecstasy which the rob u st commercialism o f the present day

’ r neither produces no encourages . Flecker s attitude towards life was what that o f the

i t o ar stocrat is supposed be, but usually is 66 J AM ES ELROY FLE CK E R

a e in) Fun ny p g ,

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

not . He had caught some of the spirit of the Italian renaissance ; and , in com

e nsa t io n p for the shortness of his days , he was given the capacity to live them with t he intensity of one o f those ﬁgures whom

t o a re Cellini has described for us , and pp

’ ciate the earth s loveliness in a w a y which has been given t o few men since that fierce sweet renewal of springtime in the Western world . He was , as far as I know, completely without ulterior motive or base ambitions . He never could have played the now too familiar game of literary and social intrigue by which verse - writers o f only moderate talent inflate themselves into great figures . His conception o f what is required o f those w ho practise the art of poetry would have made any such proceeding simply unthink — a fo r . able game bagmen , not for kings Even in his critical appreciations and denun

' c ia t io ns e rre d o n , which I think often the side of over - enthusiasm and were occa 67 JAMES ELROY FLECKER sio na ll y at fault , he was at all events never cheap . Nothing, in this connection , showed him in a more favourable light than his rage when some of the English vers librists and their associates were leading a hue - and cry against the Victorians , damning Tenny s o n and Browning right and left in a noisy effort to call attention to their own n o t

’ very successful experiments . Flecker s sense o f the continuity of the English poetic tradition made this kind of vulgarity u n bearable ; a wanton breaking o f the fou rth commandment I have put down these odds and ends o f recollections for whatever they may be

s o worth , in the hope that by doing I may encourage others w ho knew him better t o search their memories before it is t o o late

6 ” For , if Flecker was not a great genius , he was a man of great intellectual integrity and courage , a superb craftsman with a real devotion to his art . His work has certainly 68 JAMES ELROY FLECKER t he u ali q ties of permanence , and the interest

I n his personality and in the details of his short; life is very likely unrealised at present

who were contemporaries .

FTER Flecker ’ s departure for the East I heard very little news of 1 9 1 3 him until the beginning of , w hen I became associated with the new publishing ﬁrm of Max Goschen . (Owing to

w ho the regretted death of its proprietor , l was ki led in the early days of the war , this firm no longer exists and its copyrights have been distributed among other publishers . ) Whether we corresponded at all during the interval , I cannot remember . I suppose we must have done , since I knew his address .

n o t But , unfortunately , I have kept any of l the early letters . The ﬁrst etter from Flecker on which I have been able t o lay my hands is dated January 22 F 73 JAMES ELROY FLECKER It is addressed from the British Consulate

General , Beyrouth , Syria , and was written ,

t o apparently, in answer my request to be allowed to use some of his work in an anthology of modern verse which I was intending, at that time , to compile . The letter ru ns as follows

MY G N DEAR OLDRI G , I was in London a few days in Decem — — ber and asked after you but n o one seemed to know where you were . I tried

’ hard to get a j ob in town but coul dn t . I never get paid a penny for anything and

my book has not yet sold 20 0 copies . I am trying to place a play . I am in utter despair and suppose I shall have t o live in this bloody country all my life .

Of course take anything you like . I hate all modern poetry and think it perfect — except Yeats and Kipling : these Mase

ﬁ e lds - though he was a great man once 74 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Gibsons , Pounds , Abercrombies , and people make me fume with rage . ’ t Q . s Victorian Verse has go my

Saracens ,

u Rioupero x , and my friend Marsh has go t

’ The Queen s Song,

Joseph and Mary . Don ’ t take any of the above but any thing else you like .

fo r I have much to thank you , my dear

Goldring . I am fairly well known no w that is to say , about as known as Ezra — £50 0 Pound or T . Sturge Moore but for a year and a berth in England I ’ d turn

Wesleyan .

Yours bitterly ,

JAME S ELROY FLECKER .

I dropped the idea of making an a n t ho lo gy as soon as I discovered what a j ob 75 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

t o of work it was going be , and , instead , determined to try to get for my ﬁrm a

’ volume of Flecker s poetry . By this time my belief in him was unshakable and I knew that sooner or later he was bound to

t o come into his own . I wrote offering take the ﬁnancial risk of a new book by him (he had previously been forced t o pu b

lish on commission , except in the case of

Thirty - Six Poems and t o pay a small

£1 0 . advance , , on account of royalties Flecker ’ s reply was dated March 6t h and runs as follows Just a line on some ﬁlthy imported notepaper to thank you very much indeed for your kindness in getting me the offer £1 0 of . I think there is enough for a volume — but — I had some idea of adding a preface would ,

in fact , if needed .

’ I don t want the issue of my poems t o 76 JAMES ELROY FLECKER clash w ith the publication of my novel

’ there ought t o be a month s interval . I t suggest that y o u get Messrs . Goschen o ask

when he is going to publish the novel , and act according . I have only just sent the

’ ’ n o MS . I have proofs and shan t get em for some time . All my press notices should be either with you or with Dent . There have been some

D ail N e ws A thence nm good ones ( y , ) of the

42 . Could you tell me the name of a press agent less indecently slipshod than Messrs .

The press notices on the cap of the 42

. ho w were rottenly chosen I bar the idea , ever , of printing them inside the book unless

’ it s done in very small print and o n different

’ paper . Even then it s pretty horrid . The most eulogistic o f the dogs write such terrible

alas .

I read through your poems . Honestly , I 77 JAMES ELROY FLECKER like them extremely . I confess they seem to me to have a charming atmosphere of taking seriously a fashion of thought that is just out — o f date but that is a very great charm

’ and I think of Pater s essay on Lamb . It seems to me you aim at something simple h and graceful and attain it, while ot er rotters with their Exultations and Sicilian Idyll aim very high and write God - forsaken formless mu ck . With many thanks for getting me a good f of er and for sending me your volume ,

Ever yours ,

J . E . FLECKER . Your little poems of London streets make me feel rottenly sentimental , imprisoned perhaps for life in this godless sunshiny palm - tree hole without an intelligent soul to ” speak t o .

I was delighted when Flecker fell in with our suggestion still more so when the MS . 78

JAMES ELROY FLECKER Preface and sent it within about a week of I getting the letter . a m no w w aiting f or

ro o s o the Pre a ce a nd the extra oem s p f f f p ,

a ll c which must be published at osts , and

’ I m u st see the proofs because they re most l terrib y hashed . The other proofs are cor re c t e d . I have sent o ff everything . I am very ill again and probably shall

’ come t o England . Can t work at much and hardly at this letter . The Preface was an awful strain . If the printers make a fuss

I will pay for the rather heavy alterations . I m u st have the book just as good as it can be . I am anxiously awaiting proofs of the preface and remaining poems .

no t o f t o Flecker did , course , return England (which he was never t o see again)

’ but on his doctor s advice went instead t o

. 5t h Switzerland His next letter, dated June ,

came from Leysin - sur - Aigle

80 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Thank the Lord this place is curing me .

The j ourney nearly killed me . There is — nothing terribly wrong but I shall take a month or two to recover, and always have to live w ith precaution . Meantime many thanks for your kind letter . Here with I have sent the proofs complete .

’ v — o r Please look over the re ise Taoping,

o u t in its new version , will come in a hash . Left o u t ﬁrst page of Preface as being rather babyish . You might let me know what you think o f the book - and especially o f my alterations t o Gates of Damascu s

9 and Taoping . I am immensely proud of

’ it . I ve turfed o u t all the rot . It seems — to me and t o the few critics w ho have seen — ‘ ’ it t - o be miles ahead of the Forty two . If the publisher wants t o puff me he can safely say that the Oriental Poems are unique in English . I do wish one could have a few de lu a e 8 1 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

do copies (as they in France), on ﬁne paper with ﬁne binding .

I have , alas lost a good deal more than £1 0 in not having time to get all the poems l into mags . In particular Oak and O ive wa s F o rtni htl being kept by the g y , and they sent it back because they had no time to

’ publish it by June . But never mind , let s out with the book at once I have some glorious translations from

Paul Fort and other modern Frenchmen , but I preferred to keep The Golden Journey original from beginning t o end .

I heard from him again a week later , still — from Leysin a long and very lucid business ” Alsa n de r letter , chieﬂy about The King of , and the behaviour of another publisher w ho , after accepting the book and getting

t o Flecker alter it two or three times ,

t o eventually declined bring it out, on the 8 2 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

ground that he had lost interest . (It is only fair to the publisher in question t o assume that there were two sides t o the dispute . )

H T BE VE O EL L DERE ,

S I N W Z N . LEY , S IT ERLA D

J u ne 1 1 th

MY G N DEAR OLDRI G ,

( 1 ) Many thanks for your letter . I am most frightfully glad about the Edition de luxe : I suppose I shall be allowed one or t w o copies for myself. But what about sending round notices o f it ?

’ ’ As for the Printer s note , I ll pay any

’ thing in reason — but I don t consider myself liable for additions or omissions of complete poems . Against the omissions can be put my writing the Preface specially to please the publishers . I am liable to pay for Al ’ teration to Gates of Damascus ,

’ One verse altered in Hyali ,

’

do . . do Oak and Olive , 83 JAMES ELROY FLECKER About six lines altered at beginning of

Preface ,

Alteration of Taoping,

v 1 0 . as far as they are abo e per cent, etc , as per contract . The apparently extensive minor alterations in the ﬁrst few pages of the proofs are due to the gross carelessness of the 0 printers . The last few pages were 2 times — better done except that the fellow, appar

ently by way of a dirty j oke , put tips instead o f lips in n o less than four separate — ’ places obviously on purpose . I don t think the j oke was very funny .

The advertisement is excellent . (2) I have long had a scheme fo r bringing out an anthology of French verse . Poets of — To - day and Yesterday from after Hugo and Musset and not including them , to the present day . Each poet would be preceded by a short notice . In the idea of the short notice and in the period traversed the book would thus re 84 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ semble VVa lc h s great three - vol ume w ork

but in no other way . ( 1 ) There would be a la rge and very different choice of the more important people and none o f the pages o f dreary rot by the

great unknown . (2) The criticism at the beginning would t be original and n o borrowed . (3) The whole book would n o t be more than one volume .

It would mean a lot of toil , but very — w pleasant toil , doing this book but hat I — want t o know is would it pay ? I think if a sale in France could be arranged for it might . But the sale in France would ha ve to be arranged through the ﬁl erc ure de

Fra nce so , as to facilitate matters of copy right for the more modern fellows . I should want three or four pounds fo r buying books to cut up , typing, copying , and other exes . (3) I told you was going t o publish a novel . He made me revise it twice , the 85 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

- last time in December . I half killed myself getting it ﬁnished this January —and sent it

o ff . N O answer for three months , and then the inconceivable person returns the novel and says he doesn ’ t feel like publishing it after all this time , as he has lost interest in it . And he is u nder c ontra ct t o publish it .

He no w will no t answer my letter . Give

’ o t me some advice . I ve g my contract

- a t somewhere Cheltenham I think , but my papers are disturbed . I must obviously take legal action and claim abo ut £200 4 damages . I had put in altogether mortal

’ months work on the novel .

The novel , originally a very poor pro

n o w duction , is a very j olly and fantastic

’ work . Whether it will sell or not I don t believe a publisher in the world could say .

’ ’ It may take or it mayn t . I ll send it you

if you like . But

( a ) Messrs . Goschen may well ﬁght shy of a book which another publisher has 86

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

experience , that he did not stand very much

chance of receiving any damages , whether

by legal o r any other kind o f action .

Eventually he sent the book t o Messrs .

Goschen .

When the MS . of The King of Alsand e r reached me I must confess that my heart

sank a little , in spite of all the pleasant memories which the opening chapters re i v ve d . I did not think the book had much

o f o r a rt ic u chance selling, , indeed , that it p la rl t o r y deserved to sell , and I wrote Flecke explaining my reasons for this opinion . His reply is dated June 2l st ( 1 9 1 3)

Thanks so much for writing promptly and at such length . The novel is a most — patchy affair I quite agree with you . I

’ am n o t a novelist because I don t really — think novels worth writing a t the bottom

n o t of my heart . Yet I did burn the old

’ Alsa nde —it King of r is , by God , seven 88 JAMES ELROY FLECKER years since I lost the ﬁrst three chapters of it on the way to Paris with and — of your acquaintance because it has , with all its faults , some passages which I think rather j olly, and because even if a bit

u laboured in parts , it is such a j oyo sly silly performance . I have written t o Goschens accepting their offer .

A drama is a thing , now , that is worth writing . I have had most encouraging letters about my work in that direction from

o f Drinkwater , the Birmingham Repertory

Theatre ; but I hope that Granville Barker

‘ ’ no and other will take up Hassan , my

o Oriental play . It may interest y u to know — that Yasmin is out o f my play was written for it — and also ‘ The Golden Journey to

’ Samarkand is nothing but the ﬁnal scene . I admit a little verse into my play here a n d there . Read the poem called ‘ The Golden G 8 9 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ ‘ Journey, and consider the pilgrim with

’ t o the beautiful voice be Hassan , the l hero of a who e drama , and think what it would sound like actually on the stage , — with Granville Barker scenery moonlight .

- More alive to day . I hope the novel may

o f o u succeed after all . It is pleasant y to

s be o prompt . The misery of literary people ! The Specta tor and The N a tio n will return o r accept pretty quick . The

C 9 6 9 is hopeless , utterly . are , I think , mad . Good God , if one ran the rottenest of little Vice - Consulates in the

9 ’ way the is run , there d be a row in a month

Ever yours thankfully ,

J . E . FLECKER .

t o P. S. Should much like read your

’ ’ novel ; didn t know you d written one . — (2) What d o you think if by chance — The Golden Journey gets known o f 9 0

JAMES ELROY FLECKER The Golden Journey to Samarkand

was issued in the early part of July , and was

a success almost from the ﬁrst . Mr . Frank Savery has kindly given me permission to print the following letter analysing the c o n

Of tents the book , which Flecker addressed t o him from Leysin at the time o f its appear ance

H T B VE O EL EL DERE ,

LEYSI N . J l u Sa turda . ( y , y

MY S N DEARE T FRA KO ,

Ever so many thanks fo r your letter

e lé t of criticism . H l told me particularly o tell you that she agreed with you practically

o . in everything . So d I I think you under rate Santorin ’ much admired by Dun

sany , by the way . Lord Arnaldos was after all a translation . Otherwise I agree

with you , particularly in your damnations . I might explain that the Publishers wrote 9 2 JAMES ELROY FLECKER asking if I had anything for them at once and I very hurriedly replied — nothing but a new volume of poetry . I packed o ff a weird collection of stuff to make up a volume — including a revision o f the Bridge of ’ w t Fire . I then sat do n o write the book and it was after I go t the pro ofs I managed t o hoof out all sorts of godless rot , and replace

’ ’ them by In Hospital , Brumana , Taop

’ ing ; and also j ust at the last minute I suddenly rewrote The Gates o f Damascus and enlarged it . There are I reckon still t w o rotten poems in the book Ph aeacia (an unconscious imitation of Yeats and Jack Beazley) and the Sacred Incident both of which I should , however , describe as harmless rather than offensive . It may amuse you t o know a little of the history of these things : you certainly de serve to be told if it amuses you .

The Prefa c e . Written when I was pretty ill — like all the later poems — is not quite 9 3 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

t o sincere . My chief desire was say what I thought was wanted to shake up the critics

t o not expound the essence of poetry , which would take 50 0 pages . The beginning is ugly enough with theory repeated so often — but I reread the end with pleasure

’ and thank you for the word manly .

2 . The Epilogue is the last scene of — Hassan o r rather I wrote Hassan to lead up to the Epilogue . A moonlight scene , a sudden burst into poetry (you know my trick from D o n Juan and the singer with the beautiful voice is the chief character of the play —the famous singer Ishak

’ anim a na tura liter c hristiana . If it doesn t give the public shivers down the back when

’ it is acted in its place , I ll never write again . f ’ o . 3 . The Gates Damascus I consider — this t o be my greatest poem and I am

glad you seem t o agree . It was inspired by

Damascus itself by the way . I loathe the East and the Ea st e rns and spent all my 9 4

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

the island (which exists), but I passed it in the night — and I have seen many isles of the ZEge a n .

’ le end 9 . Don t you think the g at least of Santorin one o f the loveliest in the world I wonder if y o u weird Catholics realise that the Middle Age is still in ﬂower in the

’

ZE e a n . r g That man married a Sy en , said — a peasant once t o my wife and Showed the man !

’ 1 0 . A ship an isle you don t mention . A very subtile poem , Frank , and when you read

Henri de Regnier you will ﬁnd some more .

’ 1 1 . Oak and Olive . A j est after all in

’

Old . N o the good manner , I wouldn t have

’ it out of the volume , though , of course , it s very slight . 9 — i 1 2 . Brumana . Horrible misprint n — lines y o u quoted m ou ntain should be m oun

tains .

Poem sincere enough , good God , was thinking of the Bournemouth pines . 9 6 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

La vda n o n is the Greek name o f the

Cytisus , a rock rose which makes the woods lovely in Syria . It has a queer little scent . 3 ‘ ’ 1 . Areiya was , as it says , written in j ust three minutes and never altered . it 1 4 . My wife likes Bryan I hate o r rather ﬁnd it cold . But the story (a

Greek story again) is j olly enough .

1 5 . Damned clever of me to write a poem as far out of myself as the Painter ’ s Mis

t . tress . My wife has n o ceased wondering

’ Suggested by a play of B a t t a ille s and written on the Lebanon .

1 6 . Oh , I did sweat when very ill over

‘ ’ Taoping , and turned it from rot into a good poem of workmanship . Suggested by a strange amazing book o f one D a gu e rc he s l cal ed Consolata ﬁlle du Soleil .

t e h . Concerning Chinese Frank , I almost D accuse y o u of insincerity . o you really Shudder at a Japanese print ? D O you

‘ ’ really believe in the inhuman Oriental 9 7 JAMES ELROY FLECKER myth Or d o y o u think you ou ght t o believe in the myth

’ Don t y o u think that the healthy honest way for a European t o look at a Chinaman

’ or a nigger is t o laugh at him Don t you think they are there for the j oy of the picturesque — as I portray them in Taop ing 9

The Turks too . I hate them because I

a am a modern civilised man . C tholics

should and do love them . Why is Turkey rotten ? Why is the Turk an inefﬁcient

gentleman ? Islam ? Nonsense : not e u t ire l y . Simply because he thinks middle

age and is middle age . Saladin and Richard

were both very near each other . They

be talked the same language . They both lie ve d in Aristotle . But Saladin is still Saladin —argu ing with a twist —because his Aristotle was translated for him and he

never learnt Latin at the Renaissance .

Richard is now King George V . 9 8

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ e t l Préside nt e t a lu s de publique y a , y p

’ b le a ines .

That should send y o u round t o the

Bookshop .

SO sorry you have neuralgia : hope you are better .

Hassan nearly ended . Yo u shall see it when complete . Write again soon as your letters are a great jo y . I don ’ t believe in Barbey ’ s Catholicism a bit . See Jules Lemaitre on him .

Thine ,

JAME S .

Flecker at about this time moved from

t o Leysin Montana , and the next letter from him which I preserved came from the latter place and is dated August 3l st .

I have been a most shameful time answering your delightful and enthusiastic 1 0 0 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

fo r letter of congratulation , which I thank — you most heartily . The reviews especially — The Tim es and the M orning Post have been

good enough for Shakespeare : I do hope they will even be enough to sell a few copies o f the book ; I should hate Goschens t o be badly had by the transaction . I have been bothered lately trying t o

t o ﬁnd a new place live in , and only got here after a frightful lot of bother . I am pretty

’ sick of life . I ve ﬁnished my play , but I

’ don t suppose it will ever be played . Would you be so awfully good as to tell me what a poor ought to do if he wa nts t o make a little gold by writing (and drawing — m y wife can draw) ad vertisements I

a dve r mean , is it any good just inventing

’ t ise m e nt s fo r Pears soap and sending it

’ o r straight to Manager , Pears Soap , ought o n e to work through an advertising agency

do u e x e ri and , if so , you know one Yo r p ence of these things is so vast . It seems to 1 0 1 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

me one might do something p a ying in that

line .

’ I don t think y o u answered me about my idea of making a ! mas illustrated book

out of my Eastern poems . Trelawney could

d o it very well . I shall write a book one day on how

to spend money in a j olly way, for men

o f moderate income a year) .

Tell the they ought to travel . The book will sell by the hundred thousand

’ million o n the railways bookstalls .

Do tell me abou t advertisements .

Ever yours ,

JAME S ELROY FLECKER . Hope you had or are having a sumptuous

holiday .

From this time onwards , inspired perhaps by the splendid reception which nearly all the critics accorded t o The Golden Journey ” t o Samarkand, he sent me a stream of pro 1 0 2

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Seriously , this is exactly the title I intend t o give the book , with which I am well advanced already . The book is simply an

’ attempt t o d o a translation of Virgil as ’ ’ — satisfactory as Fitzgerald s Omar a translation which will utterly eclipse the very numerous and very feeble attempts hitherto existing . The ten prefaces will be as combative as

’ Bernard Shaw s , and occupy some forty pages . They will be on the translation of

o n sounds , blank verse , on Hell literature ,

’ on preceding translations of Virgil , on

’ Modern Scholarship , on the Modern ’ l Spirit, etc . , and shou d irritate everyone as

’ effectually as my preface to Samarkand .

The letter quoted above was sent t o the

ﬁrm , but the envelope contained also a f letter addressed to mysel , giving more details about his proj ect of translating the

6t h ZEne id . 1 0 4 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Conﬁdentia l .

H T T PHAN O EL S E I ,

MO N TA N A - SU R - SIERRE

S W IT Z ERLAN D .

Su n day . MY G I N DEAR OLDR G , This accompanies a somewhat start ling announcement to Messrs . Max G . that I want them to publish the 6t h [Eneid of

Virgil translated by me into blank verse . 20 0 Seriously the translation , of which lines o u t 9 0 0 so of are ready, will be striking and the prefaces so combative that I think produced in t he way I suggest it may bring in quite good money . Other books of the [ Eneid may follow — but I can ’ t pledge myself .

Suppose 50 0 are sold at Take 75 o ff £2 for review . Call it 0 0 for the ﬁrm after

’ the Bookseller s proﬁts . Production even f £60 in ine style , with advertisements , at H 1 0 5 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

most . A tenner for the author and £1 30

for the publisher and there y o u are .

’ Many thanks for your letter . I m glad t you like the corrections o the novel . It

was very fair - minded of Goschens t o give me

the increased royalty . Would you tell me what you think of this A publisher —friend of mine —writes me (as I told Goschen) will I write a book ‘ The 25 Future of Poetry (2/6 book) . Offers me £ d 0 down in a vance of 1 % royalty .

v Do people e er accept contracts like these , ’ ? my dear Goldring , unless they re starving I would rather like to do the book and I

m ight get chapters of it into Reviews . But 3 months ’ work for £25 ? To a dramatic author whose work Tree is considering with — ’ enthusiasm but there s many a slip , etc . it don ’ t seem brilliant and I haven ’ t yet closed . Of course its damned unlikely such a book would sell more than 200 0 and that

I should ever get more royalty . And if it 1 0 6

JAMES ELROY FLECKER As the discerning reader will easily gather

c o m from this letter, Flecker really had no m e rc ia l o r money - grubbing instinct what t ever . His attempts o be businesslike and

tour de orc e snarky were a delightful f , and they probably did not deceive himself. As everyone who knows anything about the hard facts of book production will be

v £25 aware , the offer of an ad ance of for a half- crown volume on a theme unlikely to attract a big public, was far from being

’ ungenerous ; while the poet s estimate of the publisher ’ s probable proﬁt from the sale of 425 Copies of his translation of the VIt h [ Eneid at can only be described ” as a rich bit of fun .

In another undated letter, written about this period , from Montana , Flecker describes

fo r one more proj ected book , some notes which may have been found among his papers . 1 0 8 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

MY G N DEAR OLDRI G ,

1 . Messrs . have sent me the enclosed . Will you tell me what to

’ reply ? As far as I read my contract the

W do Foreign rights are n o t available . hat they mean though translation , America , o r ? Tauchnitz Are they any damned use ,

‘ ’ ’ . Of . anyhow . If the K A begins to move , I d like to get it hitched on to Tauchnitz . Please return the letter and answer if possible by return .

2 . have I , it is true , a vague scheme fo r a book . I have quaint ideas on — most things literature , of course , but also — current politics and a million other things . I ﬁnd that exile makes it useless trying to work these ideas up into articles , and also that if I d o turn them into articles all my

’ dear ideas become heavy and dull . I don t ,

t o for instance , a bit want write a long

. o t o review on H G . Wells . But I d want 1 0 9 JAMES ELROY FLECKER say and state my opinion for posterity that

his latest work is pompous drivel , and that

o n e o f Mr . Polly is the best things ever

written in any language .

’ ’ I might call the book Poet s Porridge , and should write it very quickly . Under

lit i s Po c . headings Literature , , etc , it would

consist o f little brief paragraphs of rather

Yo u o t pithy comment . may n know that

I am a violent phil - Hellene that will come

in also . (I am writing a magniﬁcent corona

tion o de fo r King Constantine . )

t o l Just mention the idea Goschens , wi l

’ ’ you ? Then if they d like t o see a bit I ll scrape together a few pages and send them as a specimen . There is something no vel about a poet damning round on current events only , of course , I ought to be better known than I am to get a hearing .

t o Flecker , despite much illness , seems have been fairly active during his stay in 1 1 0

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

note of my advertising suggestions) that The

’ ’ Tim es h review , w ich wasn t a review but

a remarkably clever synopsis , should be

o n o f printed in full the front page the cap ,

if it can be done inexpensively . You know my play Hassan is going to be played in London this autumn if all

’ goes well : I ve got an excellent c o llabo r — ator . Goschens shall print it but only after

’ ’ it s played and that s a long way o ff yet . Otherwise I try t o revise another older play of mine and when not sufﬁciently

inspired for that I do the Virgil , which Gilbert Murray has pronounced to be the

best translation of him in English .

’ ’ a nd I can t work much , haven t at present

’ any original ideas in my head . I m only just now managing t o get up t o lunch after

’ ' l t o 3 months il ness . Hope go to Locarno — soon will send you address if I move . As for poems I ’ ve only written 4 since Samar

’ kand and they be small ones . Clement 1 1 2 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

f ’ Shorter of ered me three guineas , and I ve

only been able to send one , whereas he asked

for two .

‘ " Re King of Alsa nde r Dramatic Rights .

I know that Signature o f J . N . Raphael under many an inadequate verse translation from the French and some fairly adequate

Paris gossip . Of course make a bargain for the stage rights . I will write formally o n this subj ect if you like . But I would like to work the play in c o lla bora tion with J . N . R . — if possible a collaboration in which I should take the minor part .

I o w e you many thanks for having intro du c e d me to Goschens . They are certainly advertising excellently . I shall be not only

‘ disappointed but astonished if the K . of

’ ’

. Evenin S an da rd A . don t move The g t review and Glo be are better quoting than

We s ins e w The Tim es . The tm t r revie is a — i ’ mad muddle t seems t o think I m a plot . — ’ How reviewers love prefaces it s astonishing . 1 1 3 JAMES ELROY FLECKER If the Virgil can ’ t be published by Oxford

Press or Riccardi , I may get Goschens to print a few copies , partly at my expense , paper bound and n o advertising . Perhaps if I got G . Murray t o write a preface they would even be pleased to d o it . But I prefer t o publish it in the august quietude of

Oxford if possible . That Poetry and Drama do irritate me

’ (I don t refer t o your excellent review) with

’ its childish anti - Go d rubbish (we re about 20 0 years ahead of these asses , on the

Continent , in the middle of a Catholic reaction , and we leave that sort of vulgarity to the plebs) and its ridiculous abuse of D Tennyson and other Victorians . o they really imagine writes as well as Tenny

’ o r D son Kipling It s astonishing . o write again . Do you ever see D If so remember me to her fondly .

Yours ,

JAME S ELROY FLECKER . 1 1 4

JAMES ELROY FLECKER promises to review the book in some rag or ” other . To judge from the following extract from a

t o . letter Mr Donald Robertson , the change to Locarno made the poet more cheerful even if it did him no good .

1 4 . 8 . IV .

MY D N DEAR O ALD ,

What a pest Are y o u going to make me regret having quitted the ﬁr trees , snows , and thaws of that infernal Montana

2 a o And exactly days g , having procured from Gomme an address of yours in S .

t o Remo , I wrote you there begging you t o try and return by the Gothard and see me .

f . B ut look here . Make a sporting ef ort Come and see me all the same It ’ s a long j ou rney because the steamer from Stresa here (y o u ought to go to Stresa t o see the Borromean islands unless you know them 1 1 6 JAMES ELROY FLECKER otherwise Baveno is a few minutes nearer) 4 is slow ( hours), but the trip is a very j olly

o ne .

In May he moved to Davos Platz — for

s o Flecker , as for many other invalids , the

- final resting place before the end . The last three o f the letters or postcards which I was able to retrieve from my files were sent from Davos . The first of these , a card , is dated June 1 .

MY G N DEAR OLDRI G,

1 l . P ease send a copy of The Golden

Journey to at my expense . 2 D . O send me any news there is going .

’

3 . don t No , my dear fellow , ask me if I can write a book about Greece —descriptive tour . I can only preserve the rotten rem nants of my life by lying in bed here for

— in years the ugliest hole God e ver created .

4 . But I d o intend t o publish my great 1 1 7 JAMES ELROY FLECKER o de t o Greece separately with a forty - page preface of a most violent kind , full of abuse

- - and invective of pro Turks , pro Bulgars , the

Liberal Press , with history of the Eastern

question . I should much value an assurance that Goschens would take this ; it might

create a bit of a stir . ’ t 5 . I m still waiting o hear from Oxford

’ ’ about my Virgil , and haven t done a

t o t o line more it , or , indeed , anything for months . I need encouragement . Tell

o n Goschens I want to write a play Judith ,

’ t o D o n and I ought revise my Juan , and

’ I ve g o t to work Hassan with my collabo rator . And day after day I do nothing . I m u st try for that photo : The Sphe re wants

t o o one , and a poem

Ever yours ,

JAME S ELROY FLECKER .

’ I d give all my poems t o be a healthy

’ na vvy f

1 1 8

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ ’ s I m o damned ill I m almost in despair .

Sorry I wrote a crusty letter last time .

’ Seems I ve lost the Polignac prize , damn it .

f r Mu rray Yeats voted o me . Damn everything .

’ As far as I can recall , all Flecker s pro je c t s for books were welcomed by me o n behalf of my ﬁrm , though not a page of

MS . ever reached us of any of them . In regard to the translation of Virgil ’ I felt

t o bound urge him , in his own interests , t o let the Oxford Press issue it , if they would . At this period , although it was within a few months of his death , I had n o idea that he was in any imminent danger or that a complete recovery was impossible . The last letter I can ﬁnd from him is

1 2t h 1 9 1 4 . dated October ,

1 20 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

“ S N B ARA TE LLI MAI O ,

D A vo s PLA Tz .

MY G N DEAR OLDRI G,

I should much like t o hear from you

’ but perhaps you re at the war . Wish I

’ were We ve go t a ﬂat and I amuse myself by lying in bed all day . I can write only a very little in the morning . Have pupped a war poem and some prose . Could we send a dozen of our novels t o the Navy : the

f t o o O ﬁcers , it seems , have only much time fo r reading ! And they must weary of the

Strands and illustrateds people send them . If my War poem gets published by The Tim es (80 lines blank verse) we might make a Broadsheet of it . Unlikely , however , D that Tim es will be up t o scratch . o give me news post is quite safe about 7 days .

’ ’ Let s have news of you . Why don t you send me your novel ? ”

3rd 1 9 1 5 . He died on January , 1 2 1

‘ w ho is 7 Y the way , Flecker Is he any good

It was Ezra Pound , I remember , w ho asked me this question , in all good

o f faith , some time after the publication ” The Golden Journey to Samarkand . The question impressed me because it seemed to

’ emphasise o n e o f Flecker s most valuable

: qualities he was never fashionable , never j oined any mutual admiration society , and never depended , for inspiration , upon the reactions of any gang o r clique . He met

- very few o f his brother poets . After his Oxford days he could never be said to have belonged t o any particular set and though he was , with some notable exceptions , gener o u sly treated by reviewers (despite his strie 1 25 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

tures upon them), he was never boomed by

’ any one circle of critics . I don t suppose that he even knew the names Of any o f the critics w ho noticed his books in the principal

London papers . The literary people who admired him were scattered , widely diver

t o . gent types , mostly unknown one another

As a poet he stood upon his own feet . He followed his own path , looking neither to

t o the right nor the left, and as soon as he had “ found himself ” he was apparently but little inﬂuenced by any o f his contem i o ra r e s . p Flecker , at a very early age , must have been perfectly conscious that he was a poet ; and , having a passion for the

t o art of poetry for its own sake , he set work t o make himself as ﬁne a poet as it was within his nature and capacity t o become . Allied with his extraordinary facility went an equally extraordinary power of restraint and of self- criticism ; and he knew all about the value of taking pains . 1 26

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

tion of his capacities or inspiration than t o

the ravages o f the disease from which he

died . Even so , four poems at least , written after the publication of the Golden ” ” Journey Stillness , The Pensive ” ” - A Prisoner , The Old War ship blaze, and The Old Ships — are equal to any If thing he ever did . the Collected

Poems has its dull pages , it must always be borne in mind that it contains much the

publication or re - publication o f which the

u ve n poet himself never authorised . The J ilia are , on the whole , of little interest

except for the second Glion poem , Glion ” — Evening, where we have an early indica

o f tion his love of precision , of the clear image

t o and the vivid picture as opposed a lazy , emotional vagueness .

From Glion w he n t he su n de cline s The w orld be low is cle a r t o se e I count t he e sca ladin g pine s U n t he k Me lle e po roc s of i ri . 1 28 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Like a dull be e t he st e a m e r plie s An d s e t t le s o n t he jut t in g pi e r

The a e t a n e a lin t t e ﬂ e b rqu s , s r g s i g bu r i s , l l dl e e Round id e he a d ands i y v r .

These two stanzas achieve with success f the ef ect aimed at, and the more closely they are examined the better the workman

t o ship appears . The w remaining stanzas of the poem are not quite up to the same ” - level . Glion Evening is dated July, 1 9 0 4 , and was thus written before the poet was twenty . It was towards the end o f his time at Oxford that Flecker ’ s real personality ﬁrst began to show itself in his work . In the

’ ” ﬁrst stanza of A New Year s Carol, Flecker sings unmistakably with his own voice

Aw a ke a w ake The w ld n , or is you g For a ll it s w e a ry ye a rs of t hought The t a ke t ﬁ ht m t t ll be ht s r s g s us s i foug , The m t os surprisin g songs be sun g .

’ And t o get any real insight into the poet s 1 29 JAMES ELROY FLECKER nature it must also be realised that the poem Envoy is equally authentic , equally revealing

The n m e n le a a nd t t he lde n ha y ou g p , oss ir go ir,

Run nd t he la n d a l a t he e a rou , or s i cross s s

B u t o n e w a s t ke n w t h a e d e a e s ric i sor is s , l t t The e a n a nd sw a r hy poe of de spa ir .

K n w m e t he l a ve e a a n d de a t h and ha m e o , s of f r s ,

A sa d C m e d a n a m t t a l o i , os r gic Foo , Sha ll w m e e t a h ne d w it h t le o , i p rf c , f s io ou ru , t l The doub fu sha dow of a d e m on ﬂam e .

His dej ections were inevitably the counter

o f part his enthusiasms , and could safely be deduced from them , even if he had never given them poetic expression .

’ o f Flecker s ﬁrst volume verse , The ” Bridge of Fire , issued by Mr . Elkin Mathews 1 9 0 7 in his Vigo Cabinet Series in , though it contains a good many pieces that the _ poet himself afterwards suppressed o r re

v wrote , bears at the same time very ividly the imp‘ress of his personality and has in it

t o the promise , at least , Of what he was 1 30

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

The faults Of taste , occasional cheapness , ” and mere cleverness , which can be found in The Bridge of Fire (mingled though ' e lan they are with a youthful freshness and ), have also their interest , in that they show

’ us , by contrast , how steadily Flecker s work improved as he grew older . In The Golden Journey to Samarkand ” period he would not have been capable of such a poem as

Mary Magdalen . And his later version of Te ne bris int e rlu c e nt e m is an enormous improvement on the one contained in his

ﬁrst printed volume . Not all his alterations and revisions were as successful as this . In the little poem called We that were Friends he made a change in the ﬁrst verse without improving it , while leaving in the second the unfortunate line whom ” dreams delight and passions please . (What

d o it f ever passions may , is di ﬁcult to think “ — o f them as pleasing anybody except

t o perhaps a ﬁsh , whom a passion might be 1 32 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

a pleasing surprise . ) And his blue pencil ” has failed t o delete the epithet great in the penultimate line , an epithet which is ,

u . to say the least, nhappy Another altera tion which som e of those who possess The Bridge o f Fire will regret occurs in the last verse of The Ballad o f the Student in ” the South . The ﬁrst line of this verse

’ l o u origina ly ran We re of the people , y ” and I . In the version contained in the Collected Poems this has been changed “ ” t o I — a For we are simple , you and “ ” much weaker , because more literary ,

o f way saying the same thing . In neither The Bridge of Fire n o r in the much more mature Forty - Tw o Poems c a n Flecker be said quite t o have found him

. 1 9 1 0 fo r self Up to he still wanted , some

t o unknown reason , write poems about f London , and he retained enough af ection for his failures in this direction to print t w o of the worst . The Ballad o f the Londoner 1 33 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

“ no t o ff does come , while The Ballad of Camden Town ” is perhaps the only one

’ of Flecker s pieces in which , by wallowing l so emnly in false sentiment , he becomes unconsciously funny . In the poems of — this ﬁrst period with the splendid e xc e p ” o f tions of the Ballad Iskander , of “ Pillage and of “ The War Song of the Saracens it is when he is most subj ee tive , when his poems are most intimate and deeply felt, that he is most successful .

o n e As examples , may quote The Senti

” “ ’ ” “ N o To mentalist , Coward s Song, a ” Poet a Thousand Years Hence , and the “ beautiful Dulce Lumen , Triste Numen , ” ﬁrst - Suave Lumen Luminum . The men t io n e d of these poems shows — what is also apparent elsewhere in his work — that Flecker understood the romantic side o f friendship as only very few English poets have understood it . It was no t until Flecker went t o the 1 34

JAMES ELROY FLECKER d can , I think , be state that few poems in our literature show a more passionate love ” u of England than Br mana , a poem , if ever there was one , wrung from the heart by the agony of exile . I quote the opening verse

Oh sha ll I n e ve r n e ve r be hom e a ga in Me a dow s of En gla n d shi n i n g in t he ra in Spre a d w ide y our da isie d la w n s your ra m pa rt s gre e n W t h ia t w t h l m e e n i br r for ify , i b osso scr — Till m y fa r m ornin g a nd O st re a m s t h at slow And e a n d d e e t h h la n a n d l a l a nd pur p roug p i s p y s go , m e l ve a nd all k n t e For y our o your i gcups s or , An d— da k m lit a t he t he n h e r i i of sou r s or , — Old fra gra nt frie nds pre se rve m e t he la st line s Of t ha t l n a a w hi h o u un m e ne o g s g c y s g , pi s ,

Whe n l n e l bo e ne a t h t he h e n t e e , o y y , b c os r l I i t e ne d w it h m e e n t he se a . s , y y s upo

By nature , I do not think that Flecker ever had any tendency to be didactic ; but he very likely had a strong inclination t o be sentimental and subj ective , an inclination which he deliberately restrained and of which he was himself rather afraid . The 1 36 JAMES ELROY FLECKER repression which he exercised in this respect has earned for his poetry a reputation for

frigidity which is , on the whole , undeserved .

He probably adopted his Parnassian theory ,

in the ﬁrst instance , as a disci pline and a

e l corrective . He kn w that both his fee ings ” and his verbal exuberance needed

pruning and canalising : and the Par nas sia ns offered him precisely what he

required . “ A careful study of this theory (the

Parnassian theory), he says , in his preface ” to The Golden Journey to Samarkand ,

however old - fashioned it may by now

c o n have become in France , would , I am

vinc e d , beneﬁt English critics and poets , fo r both our poetic criticism and our poetry

are in chaos . It is a Latin theory , and therefore the more likely to supply the defects o f the Saxon genius . The Par ” “ nassian school , he continues , was a classical reaction against the perfervid

K 1 37 JAMES ELROY FLECKER sentimentality and extravagance of some

i . French romant cs The Romantics in France ,

as in England , had done their powerful

work , and inﬁnitely widened the scope and

enriched the language of poetry . It re mained for the Parnassians to raise the techniqu e of their art to a height which should enable them to express the subtlest ideas in powerful and simple verse . The French Parnassian has a tendency t o

t o use traditional forms , and even employ classical subj ects . His desire in writing poetry is t o create beauty : his inclination is toward a beauty somewhat statuesque . He is apt to be dramatic and obj ective rather than intimate . The enemies of the Parnassians have accused them o f cultivating unemotional frigidity and upholding an ans

tere view of perfection . The unanswerable answers t o all criticism are the works of

Heredia , Leconte de Lisle , Samain , Henri

9 9 de Regnier , and Jean Moreas . 1 38

JAMES ELROY FLECKER These passages are not only interesting

’ in themselves , but they illuminate the poet s

u attit de towards his own work , and enable us to guess that he had as shrewd a notion as anyone could have o f his o w n gifts and weaknesses . Indeed , it may be said that part of Flecker ’ s genius lay in his realisation f l o his capacities . He knew what he cou d d o , and we rarely ﬁnd him groping after things which are t o o high fo r him . I think it can nowhere be said o f him that he wro ught better than he kne w and t o j udge from his love of revision and of emendation he seems t o have had an almost exaggerated distrust of what Mr . Arthur Symons has somewhere called

the plenary inspiration of ﬁrst thoughts .

His hatred of sloppy writing , native wood ” notes , and temperamental gush had its

t o counterpart in his devotion the Classics ,

t o and his resulting desire create , in his “ ” poetry , a beauty somewhat statuesque , 1 39 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

marmoreal , indestructible . Greek names thrilled him all his life , and one can imagine that nothing gave him greater delight than to ﬁt such names as Hylas , Aeolus , Orei t h ia o f . y , into a setting verse But easily traceable as is his love o f Greek and Roman

o p etry throughout all his work , it is possible , nevertheless , that the most fruitful literary inﬂuence which inspired him was that of

Sir Richard Burton , the whole of whose ” K a sida h bo he had , as a y , taken the trouble to transcribe . Perhaps one should qualify this by saying that it was no t so much Burton as the ﬂavour of Persian and Arabic poetry conveyed to him throu gh

u B rton , which so fertilised his mind as to

fo make it possible r him , in the fulness of “ ” u time , to give us Gates of Damasc s , the Prologue and Epilogue of “ The Golden Journey to Samarkand and his “ ” play , Hassan . There is a rare and magical beauty in such lines as these 1 40

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

no t so , he wrote , and when he could write

he lay in bed , dreaming of the great poem which he would accomplish before his eyes

closed fo r ever . The War came to him as the great occasion for which all his life he

t o h had been looking, the occasion w ich

the poet must at all costs rise greatly . The Burial in England was his last

f fo tremendous effort . He ought r life while

he was writing it , fought for strength to

ﬁnish it . It is an heroic attempt , and thus to his friends there is something sacred about these lines wrung from the poet ’ s

rit i brain by so gigantic an effort o f will . C c ism o r , however , must care nothing f senti ment , and if one can put aside the circumstances in which it was written , one has t o admit that the poem is a failure .

It strains all through at the big thing, the

f . big e fect , and never reaches it It is

vou lu : n o t u . , laboured it does ring tr e Its thought has the ephemeral qualities of 1 42 JAMES ELROY FLECKER the newspaper leading article at the end of 1 9 1 4 — when leading articles were scarcely endowed with prophetic insight . Peace , “ ” angry and in arms is represented , we

ﬁnd b , y

The a m e la h n nv n le t h m e n s ug i g , i i cib , oug Who a e a le n E e like a l a g v N po o urop o f, li e an d t n —no t l n a o For s c por io , so o g g

In cold blood , their change of heart seems

. : unduly rapid But no of all poems , this one ought n o t t o be examined in cold blood .

It is the last noble gesture of a dying artist , and we can leave it at that . If Flecker did n o t succeed in his effort t o

r - w ite a war poem on the grand scale , at least in t w o or three of the shorter pieces which he wrote towards the end o f his life

. t w o he reaches his highest level The poems , “ ” Stillness and The Pensive Prisoner , both of them intimate and personal , are among the most beautiful things that he ever produced . And they indicate , also , a 1 43 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

tendency t o free himself from the Parnassian

l o f shackles . Here is the ast stanza Still ness

he n t w t t e n o ut in t he n ht m t h h - d ﬂe e T i ri g ig y oug t bir s , I a m e m pt i e d of all m y dre a m s I nl he a Ea t h t n n nl se e o y r r ur i g, o y ’ Et he l n bankle ss t e am r s o g s r s , And only know I should drow n if yo u laid no t your

hand o n m e .

And here the ﬁrst verse of The Pensive Prisoner

My t hought s c am e drift ing down t he Prison whe re I lay Through t he Windows of t he ir Wings t he st a rs we re shining — The wings bore m e a w a y t he russe t Wings and gre y — Wit h fe at he rs like t he m oon - ble a che d Flowe rs I w a s a Go d re clining ’ B en e at h m e la y m y B ody s Chain and all t he D ra gons born of pai n As I burne d t hrough t he Prison Roof to w alk o n Pa ve

m e nt shinin g .

This is no t the occasion to attempt to ” place Flecker as a poet . Anything in the natu re of a ﬁnal j u dgment upon his 1 44

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

fo r edition , which he had specially bound

so o w n her, that it resembled , exactly , his

copy . He was evidently inﬂuenced by the Catholic Reaction on the Continent (see his letter on page and had come to regard what he calls childish anti - Go d ” w rubbish ith impatience , as a kind of

- vulgarity liable t o attack the half ﬂ e dg e d . This point may appear to have but little

’ direct bearing on Flecker s poetry , but it seems to me essential t o an understanding

o f the man w ho wrote it .

’ As a poet, it will be allowed that Flecker s description o f the Parnassians in the Preface t o The Golden Journey t o Samarkand applied also , in the main , to himself. Like the Parnassians he loathed romantic egoism like them he had a ﬁne sense of language , using words and epithets with the nicest scholarship and taste and again , like them , he preferred as a rule to derive his inspira tion from the classics , from history , from 1 4 6 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

mythology , from places and from beautiful names , rather than from the details of daily f life and personal emotions . As a poet o

actualités he was rarely a success ; and though his mind was often ﬁlled with ideas — of writing magniﬁcent odes in honour

’ of King Constantine s Coronation , or on — some similar theme he was never able successfully t o accomplish anything of the sort . His revised version of Go d Save ” the King is merely funny , with its exotic literary airs and graces

’ Till Erin s I sl and lawn Echoe s t he d ulce t - drawn Song w it h a c ry of D a wn Go d Sa ve t he Ki n g

—and The Burial in England was labour spent in vain . We need n o t regret these failures , for the inception of such poems and they only form a small proportion of his work —came e vidently from the head rather than from the heart . Perhaps the poems 1 47 JAMES ELROY FLECKER were due (despite his Parnassian theory) to a wrong idea o f what constitutes a great poet — the C great poet which he was t always determined o become . It was hardly ever life — either in its ordinariness or in its strangeness —which Flecker succeeded in transmuting into poetry . His work is an escape from life , and only incidentally an interpretation o f it .

His emotional range is limited , perhaps de li be rat e ly . His greatest strength lies in his

t o power create pictures compact , clear in outline and rich in colour ; and in the haunting music Of which he had the secret . Em ana e t Ca m ées would not have made a bad alternative title for his collected poems . There are times when his art seems t o resemble that of the j eweller and o f the worker in precious metals . His poems , if they rise but rarely t o the highest imagina tive level , are yet hammered and worked till they attain a hard , indestructible per 1 48

JAMES ELROY FLECKER the mind will prove any less enchanting to readers in the centuries to come than they

t o - To are day , or that his lines , a Poet a ” t o Thousand Years Hence , will fail carry their message through the ages to some craftsman as conscientious as himself

0 e nd n e e n n n nkn wn fri u s , u bor , u o , St de nt w e e t En l h t n e u of our s g is o gu , e a d o ut m w d at n ht a l ne R y or s ig , o

I wa s a et I w as n . po , you g

S n e I c an ne e se e a e i c v r your f c , And n e e hake o u b t he han d v r s y y , I se n d m y soul t hrough t im e a nd Spa ce

e e t o u Yo u ll nde t an d . To gr y . wi u rs

1 50

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Messrs . Heinemann . There exist also, so

I have heard , one or two other plays ,

: possibly unﬁnished and , when anyone

u s cceeds in collecting them , there is a further delightful prose volume waiting t o

’ be made out o f Flecker s letters . As even the few rather business - like specimens which

I have been able to give show clearly enough , Flecker was an easy and engaging corre s o nd e nt a p , writing frankly from the he rt

without literary airs and graces , writing, indeed , precisely as he talked . His total

o f output prose , intended for publication , was in proportion as restricted as his output of verse which he considered worthy of ” print . With the exception of Hassan ,

which is in a class by itself, the prose is primarily interesting as shedding a light on

- u the mental make p, character and per so na it l y of the poet . He is at his best when “ ” (as in his dialogue , The Grecians ) his occasional a rt iﬁc ia lit y Of style and excess 1 54 JAMES ELROY FLECKER o f polish ﬁt in with the general conception “ and serve t o enhance his effects . The ” Grecians , which for some reason has suf fe re d l almost comp ete neglect , is one of his t most successful prose efforts . And o read it will assist more towards an understanding o f the man and of his poetry than any critical commentary o r appreciation could

t o d o . hope In it , with complete sincerity ,

no with pos es , he shows us the holy places o f his o w n mind and describes in detail the things which have enriched it . The con

n o w no w versation is staged at Bologna ,

be no w . Pistoia , Florence The debate is

t w o Edw inso n tween schoolmasters , the

Classic and Hofman the Scientist, and a

‘ ’ u n beautiful youth , called by the

o f w ho e n romantic name Harold Smith , counters them a t Bologna . The youth listens attentively and sympathetically t o what the schoolmasters have t o say : and

t o then , with much eloquence , expounds 1 55 JAMES ELROY FLECKER them his ideas on the subj ect of education .

Finally , at their request , he reads them a ” paper , on true education , in which he

’ o u t Edw inso n s traces in detail , for and

’ Hofman s beneﬁt, a course of education which he hopes will appeal to the thought

fﬁ . ful as possible , desirable and su cient There is much sound and practical wisdom

in this discourse . Flecker was , as we have seen , not only the son of the headmaster of an English public school , but on several occasions himself a schoolmaster . The whole subj ect o f education was one o f his deepest and most permanent intellectual

interests , and what he has to say in The

9 Grecians is the fruit of long thought and considerable experience and inspired by an

enth usiastic idealism . There are many pass ages , particularly those on school discipline , punishment and the treatment of sexual questions which it would be interesting to

quote . But Flecker is perhaps most self 1 56

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Hope , Maurice Hewlett , Gilbert Chesterton .

no t In regard to poetry, we will give even our youngest boys inferior so - called patriotic

o u t poetry to read , of the false conception that such despicable stuff is specially suit ” able to a childish understanding . On the other hand , we will certainly enliven the interest of the young in verse by giving them t o read such good stories as Sohrab

’ ’ and Rustum , Enid and Geraint, or the

’ White Ship . He has a good deal t o say upon ho w poetry should be read aloud .

They shall read with dignity , slowly ,

o f with realisation the beauty of each word , and of how in verse each word has its value , not only of sense , but of sound and associa tion : they shall pau se at the end of the lines and mark the metre subtly and no t grossly and all this may be taught t o the wise . He advocates the teaching Of English

t o verse , as opposed the conventional elegiacs

o u r and iambics , and , says he , we expect 1 58 JAMES ELROY FLECKER boys t o write m o c k Cicero and Tacitus why , in the name of common sense , can they not write mock Gibbon or Carlyle ? Nor do I think fo r a minute that these exercises will hinder any from forming in later years an original style , but rather the reverse should happen , for boys so instructed will very clearly understand before they leave us that style is attained by scru pulous ” care and individuality o f expression . The art of verse is to be very diligently taught and the boys are t o be initiated by setting them to write verse translations from poems in other tongues . Our criticism will be ruthless : we shall point out vulgarity of ffi idea , insu ciency of thought , staleness of metaphor , harshness of sound . We shall not necessarily produce great poets by this training , but we shall certainly produce young men w ho love poetry and (what is rarer still) w ho understand it . The artist may have an incomplete understanding of 1 59 JAMES ELROY FLECKER poetry ; but only the artist can have a complete understanding o f it . The changes which he advocates in the teaching of Latin and Greek will be heartily endorsed by most English public - schoolboys w ho have no t forgotten hours of u npro fit able boredom . We shall read very quickly in class , and confine ourselves to works

hist o ri which are either good in themselves , cally interesting, or inﬂuential on subsequent thought . We shall divert the young with

’ o f Homer, easiest great poets , with Lucian s

’ o ld Vera Historia , with a few legends of

- Rome from Livy , and with fairy tales from

Apuleius . We will no t weary even Grecians with Thucydides when he talks about dreary expeditions into ZEt o lia ; but all Grecians shall read the fate of the Sicilian expedition , and learn by heart the speech of Pericles .

Into Demosthenes we will only clip ; of Sophocles and Euripides we will select the

a ﬁnest plays and re d them , as well as the 1 60

JAMES ELROY FLECKER their fame is deserved Lucretius and Gatul

lus are t o o obvious to mention ; Tibullus is a sleepy fellow ; and from Propertius we shall select . Tacitus tells us much history ,

and is pleasant to read , nor are the letters o f Pliny the Younger disagreeable ; but C aesar I would abandon t o the historical specialist , and Livy I would read in haste . Of Apuleius only one book is essentially dis

t o o agreeable ; the rest is charming, and ” long neglected .

o n By reading these lines , the youth maintains that the boys will love the classics more and obtain a fuller understanding o f the classical spirit than those t o whom Latin and Greek are a ceaseless drudgery ” “ and evil . I believe , he says , that they

no will learn less than others have learnt,

- from these time honoured studies , that calm

Of and even fervour mind , that sane and serene love of beautiful things , that freedom from religious bigotry and extravagance 1 62 JAMES ELROY FLECKER which marks the writings of the Greeks and that sense of arrangement and justice which marks the writings and still more the ” history o f the Romans . Harold Smith is equally explicit and interesting in his remarks upon what books should be read and what classical works avoided , in the study by his Grecians of

French , German , and Italian . His observa tions upon the Italian language and upon Italy may be taken as expressing one of the

’ strongest of Flecker s enthusiasms . I quote

u the passage in f ll , because of the clear light

’ it casts upon Flecker s personality .

Italian we shall reinvest with the honour and importance which it has so unjustly lost since the ﬁrst half of the nineteenth century . In the days o f Peacock no gentleman with any pretension o f culture could afford to dispense with a smattering o f this delightful l tongue , whose iterature we now imagine 1 63 JAMES ELROY FLECKER t o be represented by Dante , Petrarch , and the Promessi Sposi of Manzoni . It is sad t o think that there are no w not a hundred living Englishmen w ho know and enj oy the

o r calm and classic humour of Ariosto , who care anything for the countless masters of

v early Italian lyrical verse , which Eugenia Le i has collected in her t w o fascinating volumes . Yet no classical scholar can be excused fo r not taking the trouble t o learn t o read this

’ o f easiest languages , when a fortnight s work will enable him t o read any average

Italian prose with ﬂuency and enj oyment .

Our boys shall know a great deal of Dante ,

t w o a little of Petrarch , the great collections o f Italian verse to which we have referred , besides a little anthology of Carducci , which extends to the nineteenth century ; nor shall they neglect to read the splendid

o f Barbarous Odes Carducci himself, which , based on the Horatian metres , form so brave a protest against the natural 1 64

JAMES ELROY FLECKER Have we forgotten that Italy is also the

ﬁrst , and will perhaps be the last , home of the purest and most noble music ? To understand the spirit of the greatest artistic l country the wor d has ever known , greater , in my opinion , than Greece herself, by virtue of Leonardo and Michelangelo , not t o mention Scarlatti and Pergolesi , is surely the direct duty of anyone w ho desires to

ff t o enj oy all that life can o er , and assist ” others t o share his delight .

These long extracts have been given primarily for the purpose of showing the importance o f The Grecians t o anyone who wishes to appreciate fully the quality

’

o f . and nature the poet s mind I hope , ff however , that they may have the e ect of

sending readers t o the book itself. The

V point of iew is , perhaps , likely to become

- old fashioned , and the literary judgments expressed in it , in the main so just and 1 66 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

t o sound , may run counter the taste or preferences of the future , for taste is always

o f changing . But the quality sincerity the dialogue will always have , and it is nowhere seen to better advantage than in the con cluding sentences of the discourse

re - But we will found La Giocosa , and build it anew in England beside the sea that typiﬁes our race . And if I have made n o l t o sing e direct reference patriotism , let

u me say this n o w . Patriotism is not ta ght

iﬂe by bad poetry and bad literature , by r

o n f clubs , or Union Jacks , or essays Tarif l Reform . La Giocosa will give Eng and

o f a n d men intelligence , fit to govern her , not private soldiers fit to be shot down for her in some financial war . And in training Grecians La Giocosa has fulfilled her duty t o England . Ours shall be no ideal school for the ideal youth , but a place where hard work is done , and where boys are toilfully 1 67 JAMES ELROY FLECKER prepared for the diffi culties of a modern

world ; yet where , too, we shall train many to understand and love the sweet pleasures

of the senses . We even hope that a few of

. N o w our scholars will be among the great ,

my friends , our long and toilsome j ourney is ” over and it is evening .

’ Alsa nde r The King of , Flecker s soli

t o tary novel , has always seemed me , since

I ﬁrst read it in its entirety , an unsatisfactory

and unequal performance . It has some

beautiful passages and many amusing ones , ” but it never quite comes o ff . The high

spirits are only intermittent , and there are some dismal slabs of ﬁne writing which

f . destroy all ef ect of spontaneity Flecker , like most poets , had a tendency to adorn

iﬂi c lt his prose t o o richly . It is just as d u for English prose to wear j ewels with success , as it is for an Englishman t o wear diamond studs in his shirt front and Flecker did not 1 68

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

In his critical studies , Flecker gives voice to his literary preferences and opinions with

characteristic impetuousness and vigour , and these pages in his “ Collected Prose ” are

extremely readable and illuminating . Some

t o of his enthusiasms it is not easy share , and occasionally his abuse and denuncia tions seem excessive . One gets the impres sion that be divided authors into those who were magniﬁcent and those w ho wrote ” - Go d . forsaken formless muck Writing, for example , of William Watson , he says The temporary reputation acquired by

Mr . Watson is particularly pernicious to the well - being of Poetry and it is ridiculous as well as aggravating that any notice should ” be taken of his pompous outcries . But in the same essay from which this is taken he shows , in Observation after Observation , that there is technical knowledge and sound sense behind his damning and his praising .

hro . S Of Mr Housman , the author of the p 1 70 JAMES ELROY FLECKER shire Lad (a volume by which he was con s id e ra bly inﬂuenced and from which he

: learnt much), he writes Within metres almost as limited and simple as those employed with ascetic choice by the author

‘ ’ o f Em au x e t . Camées , Mr Housman ex hibit s a great subtlety of workmanship . It

n o t would only be dreadfully prosaic , but also rather unfair t o expose at any length his wizard tricks . The inﬁnite j oys that all true lovers of poetry ﬁnd in the deft manipulation of verbal sounds are almost t o o sacred for explanation . Let a short poem be quoted , almost at random

N o w hollow ﬁre s burn o u t t o bla ck t n l And light s a re ga he ri g o w . S a e h lde li t a k qu r your s ou rs , f y our p c ,

And le a ve your fri e n ds a nd go .

’ 0 n e e e a m an n a ht t o d e a d v r f r , ug s r , t t Look n o t le f no r righ . I n all t he e ndle ss ro a ds y o u t re a d ’ t n ht The re s n ot hin g but he ig .

The quiet and forcible alliterations o f the 1 71 JAMES ELROY FLECKER l ﬁrst and last ines , the surprising vigour of

the third , the impressive slowness of the

ﬁfth line is remarkable . There is , more

o over , an art in the juxtaposition f sounds about which it is rather sacrilegious to talk , not because of any superhuman merit in

this particular poem , but because the art

of melody is one of suggestion , and not of ” code . Here is one poet writing about another with the accent of authority . He can say with impunity much that the lay man would scarcely dare t o say even if he thought it . Flecker may not always be right , but his opinions have at least an intrinsic and lasting interest . Of the art of criticism in general Flecker took a very high view . In his essay on

The Public as Art Critic, he gives a brief but illuminating sketch o f t he ideal “ o f critic of poetry . The critic poetry

a must know all the minuti e of the technique , no t so much that he may be able to carp at 1 72

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

t o the background our tragedy, he must admire , if not the beauty , then the force , the law , the cruelty, and the power . And with this enthusiasm in his soul he will

bitterly condemn dullness , weakness , bad

workmanship , vulgar thought , shoddy senti

ment as being slanders o n mankind ; and in this sense and this sense only —that it is — the glory of man great art is moral . This passage is an additional illustration o f the fact that there must always be a

strain , at least , of true nobility in

every ﬁne artist , and that Flecker had very

much more than a strain of it in him .

’ “ ” Of Flecker s play , Hassan , which in years to come may be considered his master — piece so wonderfully is it compounded of

poetry and farce , of the fantastic and the — beautiful it is t o o early yet t o speak in f detail . I read the MS . o the play in bed in the hotel in Paris in which Oscar Wilde — died o n a rainy January morning . I had 1 74 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

to read it hastily, because the MS . was required of me and I was unable to prolong my stay in France . Before one will have a chance o f judging it adequately it must

u be seen in its printed form , and it m st be seen upon the stage , produced , as near as

’ may be , in accordance with Flecker s ideas .

n o It is to be hoped that , at very distant

t o d o date , it may be possible both these things . Then , unless the impressions which

I gained from the MS . were utterly mistaken , the wider public t o whom Flecker is still a ll but unknown will begin t o realise what manner of man it is whose work they have been content fo r so long t o neglect . Flecker is a poet w ho has had to wait a long time fo r that recognition and accept ance which is his due . But when at last he receives it one may be forgiven for believing that the recognition will be general among educated people : and the acceptance permanent . 1 75

[The following appreciation of James Elroy

Flecker w a s written by Mr . John Mavro

o rdat o 1 4 1 9 1 5 g at Florence , on January , ,

’ less than a fortnight after the poet s death . He has kindly given me permission to

print it here . ERE was something so essentially youthful about the enthusiasm o f

’ J . E . Flecker s poetry that some critics may say that his early death was not unexpected . Poetry for him , as for Keats , meant always a passionate love of beauty , a passionate and impatient love . He was more fortunate than Keats in that his c o n sular appointments took him t o many of the actual places of his coloured dreams ; but his body was being slowly consumed by 1 79 JAMES ELROY FLECKER the tainted ﬂames of the same disease . His last years were spent between his work in Turkey and periods of partial recovery in

England ; until the last attack sent him

u . last s mmer to Davos , where he died

The work o f a vice - consul in the British

Levant Consular service is underpaid , of

course , and not as exciting as it sounds . He often longed for English talk and English

books and the low - toned English country ;

and one of his poems , written in the Lebanon , tells how he used t o dream of England in his

Turkish exile , just as he had dreamed in

England of the East . Some of the few exciting incidents o f his offi cial career he

described in an article , as far as I know his w last published work , hich appeared in

The e w a N St tesm an a few weeks ago . But if his early death was only shocking

as the inevitable end must always be , it

t o was , indeed , a bitter surprise ﬁnd it announced in six inches of The Tim es as a 1 80

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

fo r distance , and depending the most part on ﬂights of letters and postcards t o remind

o f editors his existence . Only at the end of J uly [1 9 1 4] he wrote to me c ha ra c t e rist i cally o n a postcard

Damn Austria . Also damn Could you please be so monstrous kind

’ as to rescue my Paul Fort MS . I can t

get a word o u t of him . I am horribly ill

and can hardly write . Hope some day

’ to ﬁnish Ode on Greece . The savage bitterness of its preface would relieve

’ me . Why don t the Hellenic League

’ protest against - s pompous in e pt i tudes ? All I can do is a few lines

’ 9 9 o f f translation o Virgil .

I don ’ t know whether the article on ” Paul Fort was ever published , by that o r by some other editor ; it would cer t a inly be interesting t o read a criticism of

An e di o r t . 1 82 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ rin ce des o etes France s p p , written by the most individual among England ’ s younger

ff d o poets , di ering as they in style and tem

’ pe ra m e nt . Paul Fort s every thought seems t o run naturally into a rhythmic exuberance , while Flecker ’ s had to be strained by a ﬁne sense of language and reﬁned till it could

’ shine with beauty s clearest ray . He was a scholar and always a student f o languages . What can they know of English w ho only English know ? being for him the best misquotation of that much abused aphorism . So he was a great reader of the modern as well as of the Oriental and classical tongues . Only for him a knowledge of French must include the power to a ppre ciate the experiments of Moreas and the

Co u rt e line squibs of Georges , just as any valuable reading of Latin was bound t o

t o extend Petronius and Apuleius .

This view of Greek and Latin studies , shared , indeed , by some Oxford and Cam 1 83 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

no t bridge scholars , but generally by school

masters , he put forward in a charming

- dialogue on the ideal public school education , called The Grecians it was published

a o im m e di by Dent about ﬁve years g , and

ately forgotten . Towards the better study

o f modern languages he wrote , besides a

o f number translations , an Italian grammar

’ 9 for scholars , in which an outline of the

grammar , explained where possible by refer

t o ence the corresponding Latin forms , was supplemented by a short anthology of Italian

t o literature , from Dante and Boccaccio

’ zi d Annu n o and Carducci . (He sold the copyright for a few pounds , and had the annoyance not only of no t being allowed

Of to see proofs , but also having his work revised by another hand before it was published under his name . ) His only other prose work " was the

N o t to m e n io n a fe w sca e re d ar ic e s and re vie ws o ne t tt t l , , C Sna i h and an f r ins a c n a f J . . o n e o t he e r w o rk o Mr . t , ly t , “ ” e ar am h e c a e d I hink The Las Ge ne ra io n . ly p p l t ll , t , t t 1 84

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

i Oriental metr cal forms there is , for instance , a gh ’ azel (if that is the way to transliterate it) t o Yasmin which contains all the fainting loveliness of the East without fall ing into the sickly convention of the bulbul

’ and the rose . Flecker s diction was never extravagant . He understood the rule that any inversion is sudden death t o a modern lyric . Similarly, his imagery , however ex

u isit e l o r q y conceived expressed , was always based on the simplicity of ordinary percep tions the common life and business of the

East , the ordinary but magic love of a young man , the forms and colours and emanating emotions of trees and hills and sea

t he d a n - e e n t he l m n t he da k r go gr , u i ous , r , ” t he e ent -ha nt e d se s rp u a .

All his poems are the work of a scholar . Not because they make any show of pe d a nt r ru y or e dition , but because they seem t o have been conceived in a mind accus 1 86 JAMES ELROY FLECKER t o m e d t o : classic shapes each poem , that

t o o w n is , seems have a form of its , pre existent in the mind , after a melodic pattern

o f laid up in heaven , like the form a Greek statue pre - existent in the tranquillity of

t o o Pentelicus . Scholarship , , has chosen the diction . The history and associations of every word , as well as the absolute sound , f seem to contribute to the ef ect , as , of course , they should . Words in poetry should

- - be hard , with a clear cut , gem like outline ; but in some of these poems , without ever becoming soft like the vague predications of some of our modern mystics , the language combines this classical purity and d e ﬁnit e ness of shape with a lustre like that of a pearl . It is t o be hoped that some attempt will

’ be made t o collect Flecker s scattered pieces even the plays might be published , as they would give some idea of the robust humour that was part of his character . 1 87 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

His life was not easy , but he found , as

d o o f poets , an intenser enjoyment it than ordinary men ; and he was happy in the power to put the essence of this into his writing . So his work is the proper memorial

- of the tall and foreign looking ﬁgure , dark eyed , and shyly excitable , that passed in a few years from Oxford and Cambridge t o

u Smyrna , from the Cotswold Sanatori m

t o B e ro u t again y , and then tragically to

Switzerland . He was a clear soul burning with many

ﬂames , loving physical beauty in many

t o forms , and longing always immortalise

n o t . it in words . He will be forgotten

1 88

B IB LIOGRA PHY OF JAMES ELROY FLECKER

’ T e M h e an . h We e 1 9 0 6 . H w e B st Eig ts k , oly ll e Ox d Pr ss , for .

e d a t 6 i e a e d . n c a w a e [Issu , s rl t p p r r pp rs , for ’ a e d The e e s l uring Eights W e e k . l tt rpre ss is

a m e nt e e e t he d a w n a re l ost ir ly by Fl ck r , r i gs

M . B Ch O . . e a z e h h x d . by r J D l y , of ristc urc , for

he e no i t e h M e m T r is copy n h Britis us u . ]

The d e e e m a m e e e Bri g of Fir , po s by J s Fl ck r .

L nd n . n Ma he w V S e e . o o Elki t s , igo tr t

1 90 7.

T a e e e o 4 5 in he V n . [N . igo C bi t S ri s It conta ins 64 pa ge s a nd is bound in re d printe d pa pe r w ra pp e rs ]

The La e ne a n a t he e st G r tio ; Story of Futur , by T e N e w A e e a m e e e . h J s Elroy Fl ck r g Pr ss ,

4 L 1 90 8 . 1 0 e e e e nd n . Fl t Str t , o o

h a m e 64 a e e d in h [T is is volu of p g s , issu lig t

aw n nt e d a e w a e t he n e f pri p p r r pp rs , fro t cov r e b e a ring a n illust ration of a sc e ne in t h story . o e x m e e he e no It is n w tre ly sca rc . T r is copy i n t he British Mus e u m . ] 1 9 1 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

- h Six e m s a m e e c e . Lo n T irty Po , by J s Elroy Fl k r

o n The Ad e h e ss Lt d . 1 9 1 0 . d , lp i Pr

e d in re d h e e e d a t he a [Issu clot , l tt r cross b ck

a nd o n t he n in . U n e ne d e d e s . The fro t , gilt op g unbound she e ts of this book w e re la t e r tra ns L M M e a d n t d . e e d e . . . n n f rr to ssrs J D t So s , The re a re prob a bly not m ore than 200 bound c opie s in e xiste nce ]

The e an a d a e o n d c a n a m e Gr ci s , i logu E u tio , by J s e e s m e m e h a n Elroy Fl ck r , o ti sc ol r of Tri ity

e e Ox d and de n - n e e e Coll g , for , Stu t i t rpr t r d e nd at a e e a m . L n C ius Coll g , C bri g o o , Lt d N e w Y . M . e n a nd n . J D t So s , ork ,

. n a nd . 1 9 1 0 . E P . Dutto Co

s e d in e e n c h e e e d o n a in [Is u gr lot , l tt r b ck

gilt . ]

’ The h a s It a a n a n n d c n Sc ol r li Book , i tro u tio to t he d t he La n O n a an stu y of ti rigi s of It li , d N . . e c e . L nd n a by J E Fl k r o o , D vi utt , — 5 9 L A e 1 9 1 1 . 7 ong cr .

[Issu e d in blac k c loth le tte re d in gilt o n ba c k . ]

- Tw o e m s b a m e s e c e r. Forty Po , y J Elroy Fl k

L nd n . M . en a nd ns L m e d . o o , J D t So , i it

1 9 1 1 .

s e d in da re d c h e e e d o n bac [Is u rk lot , l tt r k a d i h s m e a e u e o f n front n gilt . T i volu is r iss

- h Six e m w h six ne w o em a dde d . T irty Po s , it p s ] 1 9 2

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

The Old m e L d n h a e e . n S ips, by J s Elroy Fl ck r o o , The e h 35 e n h e e e Po try Books op , D vo s ir Str t , ’ he a d R a C 1 9 1 6 d W . . . T ob l s o ,

a 4 e d in e h e n e d [Foolsc p to . Issu gr yis blu pri t

a e w a e w h a a e a n a p p r r pp rs , it l rg illustr tio of

h w h m e m a d o n e T e m e r s ip it r i n fro t cov r . h m a d w a s m e i e i e li inat d n la te r issu s . ]

Go d a e t he K n a m e e e . S v i g, by J s Elroy Fl ck r

e d in e e n a e w a e M . [Issu gr p p r r pp rs , by r e m e n t e The f w l a h a Cl t Shor r . ollo ing bib iogr p ic l

e a e a o 1 2 : e m and t he n ot pp rs n p . This po a cco m pa nyin g Fore w ord a pp e a re d in The Sphere ha e a n a 1 6t h 1 9 1 5 . w e n c e for J u ry , T ty opi s v b e e n printe d by Cle m e nt Shorte r for distribution a m ong his

The a in n a nd a m e e c e . Buri l E gl , by J s Elroy Fl k r

1 8 e 1 9 1 5 . Born 84 . Di d

i a The [Issu e d n da rk blu e pa p e r w r pp e rs . 2 follow ing bibliogra phica l n ote a pp e a rs o n p . Of h e m ﬁ she d in The S here t is po , rst publi p ne w a e e a 27t h 1 9 1 5 w e n sp p r of F bru ry , , t ty c opie s ha ve b e e n printe d by Cle m e nt Short e r for distribution a m ong his

The e e d e m a m e e e Coll ct Po s of J s Elroy Fl ck r ,

e d e d w h a n n d n . C. it it i tro uctio , by J

e . L nd n Ma n Se e e r be Squir o o , rti k , Num r 1 9 4 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

e hn e e Ade h . On ve rse Fiv Jo Str t , lp i ( of title - pa ge : [Issu e d in blu e cloth w ith pa pe r nam e a nd

e - e titl la b l o n b a ck . ]

m L d n e e e d e m a e e e . n S l ct Po s , by J s Elroy Fl ck r o o

Ma n Se e ke r N m e e hn e e t rti , u b r Fiv Jo Str ,

A h On ve rs e e - a e : de lp i . ( of titl p g [I ssu e d in blu e cloth w ith p a p e r na m e a nd

e - a e n a titl l b l o b ck . ]

B e ll e e d e a m e e e . . Coll ct Pros , by J s Elroy Fl ck r G M M! ! a nd C . Sons .

e d i w n h re d h w h a e [Issu n bro is clot , it p p r

a m - i r n e a nd title la b e l n e d o n b a ck . ]

e e n e m a m e e e w h Fourt Po s , by J s Elroy Fl ck r , it z lithogr a phs by Cha rle s Fre e gro ve Win e r . i re Dijo n : printe d by Ma urice D arant é . MCM! ! I .

h s H l e e m e w a e d M . e lé [T is volu issu by rs Fl ck r ,

’ t he e w d w in a n e d t n m e d 50 0 po t s i o , i io li it to

’

e . e a no he m nt copi s It b rs publis r s i pri , but is (1 9 22 ) obta inabl e in Lond on a t The Poe t ry Book h 3 d i t 5 n . C. an n a a e h e St W . S op , D vo s ir , , P ris ’ k s Sha e a d o . 1 2 are n C ru d l éo . p , e e Od n ]

The Story of Ha ssa n of B a gd a d a nd ho w he ca m e

m a ke t he G de n o u rne a m a a nd to ol J y to S rk ,

a m e e e by J s Elroy Fl ck r .

Aw a t n n [ i i g publica tio . ] [ 9 5 IN D E!

A e m ie La e lle 75 B rm in ham Re e t b rcro b , sc s , i g p r ory Aca dem The 62 63 he at e The 89 y , , , T r , , A le i 160 162 B a Gi vanni 165 pu us , , occ ccio , o , , Arabia n i hts The 185 184 N g , , Arei a 95 97 B e L ie n 53 y , , oy r , uc , A i t L d v 164 B ranche de I/ilas La 59 r os o , u o ico , , , Ari t hane 161 B rid e o ire The 20 31 s op s , g f F , , , , Ari t t le 98 55 62 93 130—3 s o , , , , Athenaeum The 77 B ke R e t 39 , , roo , up r , B E G. wn e e . ro , Prof ssor , , B allad o Cam den o wn The 37 f T , , 134 B wn in R e t 68 ro g , ob r , B a llad o Ha m stead Hea th B ant A i t ide 53 f p , ru , r s , The 1 1 B rum a na 93 136 , 3 , , B a llad o I skander The 9 1 B r a n 97 f , , , y , 1 4 B urial in En land The 142 3 g , , , B a llad o Lo ndo n The 133 147 f , , B allad o the Stu dent in the B rt n Sir R ha d 140 f u o , ic r , So uth The 133 B n L d 42 , , yro , or , B ande ll 165 o , B a ke G anville 7 8 89 90 Cae a J li 162 r r , r , , , , s r , u us , ’ B a e d Aure vill 100 Cai C lle e Cam id e 33 rb y , y , us o g , br g , B at t aille He n i 97 Cam brid e Review The 43 , r , g , , B a de lai e Cha le 8 Ca d i 165 184 u r , r s , r ucc , , B e a d le A e 8 32 Ca l le h m a 159 r s y , ubr y , , r y , T o s , B zl D 7 59 63 93 C t ll Cai ale i 162 e a e J . . 3 a y , , , , , u us , us V r us , B ll M G C llin i B n ve n t 67 e S n e . e e e e o s , ssrs org , , u o , 153 Cha m an Ge e 21 p , org , 1 9 6

JAMES ELROY FLECKER

Glio n - Evenin 1 28 129 K e at J hn 21 4 1 42 179 g, , s , o , , , , Glo be The 1 13 K in o Alsa nder The 54 , , g f , , , Go lden J o u rne to Sam a rk 55 82 88 103 1 1 1 1 1 3 y , , , , , , a nd The 5 79 82 89 90 1 15 153 1 68 1 69 1 85 , , , , , , , , , , , K lin R d a d 1 1 74 ip g , u y r , , , 125 127 128 1 2 1 5 , , , 3 , 3 , 1 1 K 6 1 66 37 4 1 1 x . 5 0 4 146 n J J . 3 , , , o , , , , G he n Ma x 73 77 86 88 K u bla K han 131 osc , , , , , , , 89 101 105—1 7 1 10 , , 0 , ,

1 12 ’ tt u B urre 51 L Assie e a e , Go wnsm n Th 4 a , e 3 , La t enera tion The 38 s G , , , Grecia ns The 28 153—68 , , , , 153 169 1 84 1 84 , , Le m a it e J le 100 r , u s , Le n a d d a in i 1 66 o r o V c , Ham m am am e 141 N , Les M erveilleu ses 8 , Hassan 89 90 94 95 100 , , , , , , Le vi E e nia 1 64 , ug , Liv 160 y , H in m M illia m e e ann e ssrs . W , , Lo rd Arna ldos 92 , 154 L ian 160 uc , He ed a J é Ma ia de 1 38 r i , os r , L e t i t Ca 162 ucr us , Ti us rius , He d t 161 ro o us , He wle t t Ma i e 158 , ur c , Ma kenzie Co m n 13 H m e 160 c , pto , o r , Man z ni 1 64 H e Sir An t h n 158 o , op , o y , Ma inie a l 53 58 H 1 1 r r , P u , , m a A . 8 1 7 n E . 70 ous , , , , Ma h Edw a d 75 H i t 84 rs , r , ugo , V c or , M ar M a da len 132 H ali 8 95 y g , y , 3, Mase ﬁe ld J hn 7 74 , o , , Masu c c io 165 , I dea l The 53 54 , , , Mat he w Elkin 31 55 130 s , , , , I dler The 30 31 , , , Mavro o rdat o J hn vii 179 g , o , , I n e n R e vii gp , og r , Mi ha e lan e l B na t i c g o uo rro , I n Ho s ital 93 p , 1 66 I n M em o riam 63 , Mill H ll 30 i , M t 75 e . S e oor , T urg , J u end 51 M ea 183 g , or s , J uvenilia 128 M o rnin o st The 101 , g P , ,

1 9 8 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

M a e Gil e t lat 161 urr y , Prof ssor b r , P o , 12 la t it M 161 1 1 14 120 . , , P u us , T us , M e t L i Alf e d de 84 lin t he Y n e 162 uss , ou s r , P y ou g r , M Lilies 16 n d Ez a 75 125 y , Pou , r , , ra er 57 P y , a tio n The 90 Pu blic a s Art Critic The 172 N , , , , a vaho 59 N , N w A R a l 1 N . 1 e e e The a h e J . 3 g Pr ss , , p , , N ew Sta tesm a n The 9 1 1 80 Re na d J le 9 1 , , , r , u s , ’ N ew Yea r s Caro l A 129 Ri ha d I Ki n 98 , , c r , g , ’ J a wk 169 Rio u ero u x 55 1 31 N , p , , ’ 0 Co wa rd s So n 57 134 R ian B alle t The 40 N g , , uss , , t t D a vid 153 Nu , , Sa a da ba d 95 141 , , Oa k a nd Olive 82 8 96 Sa cred I ncident 93 , , 3, , Ode o n Gree ce 182 aladin 98 , S , Ode H a e 161 164 Sa m ain 138 s of or c , , , Old Shi s The 128 Sa nto rin 92 96 p , , , ,

Old War- shi Ablaze The Save ank VII 18 20 92 p , ry , Fr , , , , 128 S a lat t i Ale and 166 c r , ss ro , Ov d 161 S hl Ar t h 39 i , c oss , ur , ’ Oxf d U nive it e Scho la r s I talian B o o k 28 or rs y Pr ss , , , The 1 19 12 15 , , 0 3 Sentim enta list The 134 , , a nas ian he The Sha ke e a e William 60 P r s T ory , , sp r , , , 10 1

at e Wa lt e 78 Shaw Ge e B e rna d 7 8 P r , r , , org r , , , Pe ac hu m Mrs 61 1 , , 04 e a k h m a L ve 163 She lle e B he 4 1 P coc , T o s o , y , P rcy yss , , e nsive riso ner The 128 42 P P , , , 143 t K 1 13 Sh e Cle m e nt . or r , , e le i 166 Sim m n Cha le 27 P rgo s , o s , r s , e i le 160 Sinister Stree t 13 P r c s , , e t a h an 164 it h 1 84 e Sna J . C. P r rc , Fr c sco , , , hae ac ia 44 9 1 9 3 So hra b a nd Ru stu m 158 P , , , , hila nthro i sts The 169 S h le 160 P p , , op oc s , i lla e 63 134 S ec ta to r The 90 9 1 P g , , p , , ,

1 9 9 JAMES ELROY FLECKER

S a e S ie t The 8 init C ll e e Oxf d 27 t g oc y , , Tr y o g , or , St e inlen 53 58 urkish Lad The 95 , , T y , , St e e n n R e t L i v so , ob r ou s , 157 U n ve C lle e S h l i rsity o g c oo , Stillness 128 1 2 , , 43 7 Stra nd M a azine The 121 U n ham 27 g , , ppi g , Swin burne A1 e rnon Cha le , g r s , 18 e la e z Die 40 V squ , go , S m n Ar h 139 e laine a l 8 y o s , t ur , V r , P u , ll A 7 e a . W . 3 V rr , , a it Ma Cla d i il E ne id VI 103—105 T c us , rcus u ius , V rg , , , 159 162 —20 , , ao in 81 84 9 1 93 98 T p g, , , , , enn n Al e d L d 68 Visit The 63 T yso , fr , or , , , , 1 14

e e n e 161 Wal h 85 T r c , c , he it 161 Wale A t h r 39 T ocr us , y , r u , hirt - six Po em s 64 76 War So n o the Sara cens T y , , g f , h dide 160 The 64 9 1 134 T ucy s , , , , i ll 162 Wat n Sir W lli am 170 T bu us , so , i , im es Th 1 1 1 l H 8 1 9 G. 7 3 0 e 0 1 2 1 13 We l . T , , , , , s , , , , 121 18 W stm t r The 1 1 , 0 e ins e , , 3 To a o et a ho u sand Years White Shi The 158 P T p, , Hence 134 150 Wilde O a 8 18 32 174 , , , sc r , , , , o wn Witho ut a M a rket The W d w t h Will am 42 T , , or s or , i , 53

a e Diana 61 Yasm in 95 141 1 86 Tr p s , , , , , r Y B 74 93 120 e e Sir He e t B e e e at W . . T , rb r r s , , , , hm 106 Yellow B oo k o J a es 22 bo , f p ,

U N IV ERSITY OF CALIFORN IA LIB RARY Lo s Ang e le s

i k is D E o n h a at S am e e w Th s bo o U t e l st d e t p d b lo .

’ — - Fo rm L9 l om 3 4 s ( A 79 20 ) 4 44