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Charlotte Mew

Page 26

by Penelope Fitzgerald

fierce and shy with strangers 45, 110, 114–15, 156, 204

  haunted by recurrent images 17–19, 99, 113

  indifference (apparent) 31, 114, 131

  interest in prostitutes 13, 50, 56, 126

  like a boy 32, 117

  as ‘Miss Lotti’ 45, 66, 69, 91, 97, 125, 133, 138, 183, 190

  love of or longing for:

  children 21, 41–2, 116, 123, 184

  Christmas 11

  cigarettes 60, 84, 101, 111

  tries to give up 128

  fisherman’s life 101, 114, 133

  friends 114–15, 128, 224, 225

  France 182, 186, 193

  London and Londoners 12, 48, 49

  Nature 48–9, 191

  sea 15, 63–4, 101

  thought of death 99, 182, 226

  trees 19, 195

  lover of women 29–30, 60, 84–5, 119, 137–8

  practical side 46, 68

  religious experience 15–16, 31, 76–7, 126–7, 185–6

  sense of guilt 16, 42, 56–7, 89, 100, 113, 197, 215, 223

  small size 10, 20, 32, 110, 172

  taste in clothes 26, 32, 57, 83, 154, 155, 177–8, 221

  POEMS:

  Afternoon Tea (quoted) 45

  A Quoi Bon Dire 176, 240

  Changeling, The 20, 116, 128, 153, 155, 234–36

  Exspecto Resurrection 10

  Fame 112–13, 114, 133

  Farmer’s Bride, The 102–7, 110, 111, 116, 123, 144, 145, 153, 160, 164, 203, 204

  (as title of collection) 162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 170, 174–5, 176, 177, 187, 191, 206, 210, 229–30

  Fête 126, 130, 133, 159

  Fin de Fête 196–7, 220, 225, 258

  Forest Road, The 126

  From a Window 259

  I so liked Spring 262

  In Nunhead Cemetry 72–3, 87, 111, 204, 231–3

  Ken 39–40, 96, 144, 161, 237–9

  Left Behind 29

  Madeleine in Church 113, 126–8, 135, 159, 161, 162, 180, 187, 204, 244–51

  Monsieur Qui Passe 85

  Ne Me Tangito 143

  Not for that City 260

  On the Asylum Road 39, 40

  Pêcheresse 128, 133, 158

  Pedlar, The 116, 128

  Péri en Mer 99

  Quiet House, The 87–9, 96, 225, 241–3

  Requiescat 96, 102, 210

  Rooms 85, 96

  Sacré-Coeur, Le 85

  Saturday Market 113, 143, 144, 179, 187, 197, 253–4 (title of The Farmer’s Bride in U.S.A.) 187

  Sea Love 15, 181, 187, 207, 255

  Shade-Catchers, The 49, 188, 252

  To a Child in Death 10

  Trees Are Down, The 195, 260–1

  PROSE:

  Aglaë 216

  China Bowl, The 63, 64, 66, 70, 92, 111, (dramatized version) 115

  Country Sunday, The 92

  Governess in Fiction, The 71, 92

  London Sunday, The 92

  Mademoiselle 92

  Mark Stafford’s Wife 92

  Mary Stuart in Fiction 92

  Minnow Fishers, The 47–8, 51

  ‘Miss Bolt’ 12, 78

  Notes in a Brittany Convent 74, 78, 81, 97

  Old Servant, An (quoted) 9–10

  Passed 54–7, 58, 63, 128

  Poems of Emily Brontë, The 94

  Some Ways of Love 78

  Wedding Day, A 50, 51

  Mew, Christopher Barnes (CM’s brother) 9

  Mew, Ethel Louisa (CM’s cousin) 156, 214, 222, 225

  Mew, Florence Ellen Mary (later Sister Mary Magdalen, CM’s cousin) 15, 76, 222

  Mew, Freda Kendall (CM’s sister), born 9

  beautiful, ‘like a flame’ 21

  doted on by parents 37–8

  mental breakdown 38, 57, 65, 68, 71, 157, 192, 199

  CM leaves money for her support 222

  Mew, Frederick (CM’s father), background 1–2

  articled to Manning and Mew 2

  transfers to H.E. Kendall 2–3

  junior partnership and marriage 5–6

  supposed to turn himself into a gentleman 7

  fails 8

  battle over children’s names 9

  makes his daughters a doll’s house 10

  cast off suits 12

  career 13

  holiday 14

  ‘on his knees’ to Miss Harrison 27

  commission for Hampstead Vestry Hall 32, 34

  distrusted by Kendall women 35

  later commissions 36

  loses heart 36, 42–3

  arranges Anna Maria’s annuity 43

  death 68

  ‘the villain of the piece’ 157, 199–200

  Mew, Frederick George (CM’s brother) 9

  Mew, George (CM’s uncle) 1–2

  Mew, Henry (CM’s grandfather) 1, 3

  Mew, Henry Herne (CM’s elder brother) 9, 11, 22, 37

  insane 37–8, 68

  death 75, 164

  Mew, James (CM’s uncle) 1–2

  Mew, Maggie (CM’s aunt) 104

  Mew, Richard (CM’s great-uncle) 1

  Mew, Richard Cobham (CM’s brother) 9

  Mew, Walter Barnes (CM’s cousin) 43, 68, 191

  Mew, Old Mrs 15

  Meynell, Alice 24, 162

  To a Daisy 24–5

  Meynell, Gerard 162

  Mid-Sussex Railway 14

  Mill on the Ross, The 23

  Millard, Elsie see O’Keefe

  Millard, Evelyn (friend of Anne and CM) 49, 59, 77, 115, 224

  in The Second Mrs Tanqueray and The Prisoner of Zenda 49

  in The Importance of Being Earnest 67

  in Madam Butterfly 140

  in Drake 140

  Monro, Harold (poet, publisher and bookseller), early career 147–8

  nightmares 148

  wants ‘to do something about poetry’ 148

  edits Georgian Poetry 149–50

  meets Alida 150–3

  can’t admit homosexuality 151

  publishes The Farmer’s Bride 160–6

  difficulties with CM 162–5

  abused by other poets 162–3

  called up 166–7

  ‘Dear child, what shall I do?’ 167

  discharged as unfit 169

  promotes CM’s work 170

  marries Alida 184

  fights alcoholism 194, 209

  ‘period of horror’ begins 221

  Monro, Alida, described 150–1

  loves Harold Monro 151–2

  ‘emancipated’ 151

  works in Poetry Bookshop 151

  Ralph Hodgson tries to kiss her 152

  invites CM to Bookshop 153

  gives reading of The Changeling 153, 155

  friendship with CM and Anne 155–60

  bewildered by lesbianism 159

  keeps Bookshop going during war 166, 168

  makes CM write to SCC 171

  marriage 184

  asked to destroy Wek 189–90

  trip to France 194

  invited to meet Walter de la Mare 204

  wants to publish more of CM’s poems 209

  fear of age 210

  visits to CM 212

  letter about CM 215

  CM tells of Anne’s illness 217

  worn out by moving Bookshop 220

  last visit to CM 225

  Charlotte Mew – A Memoir 156

  Monroe, Harriet 130

  Moore, Virginia 145

  Morrell, Lady Ottoline 206, 210, 217

  Morris, William 172, 185

  Mudie’s Library 201

  Munro, Dr Henry 141

  Nation, The 96, 102, 104, 106, 153, 165

  Newcombe, Mrs (school housekeeper) 28

  Newfairlee Farm 1, 9, 15, 18

  Newlyn, Cornwall 63–4, 111

  Newlyn School of painters 63–4

  Newport, Isle of Wight 1, 3, 14–15, 17, 143

  New Weekly, The 133

  North London C
ollegiate School 22

  Noyes, Alfred, The Old Sceptic 99–100

  Nunhead Cemetery, S.E. London 72–3, 225

  O’Keefe, Elsie (Elsie Millard, friend of Anne and CM) 49, 60, 116, 183

  marries 77

  ‘Elsie understands’ 79

  with CM to Brittany 97–8

  Oliver, Professor Daniel 26, 74, 217

  Oliver, Edith (CM’s school friend) 26, 28, 60, 114

  with CM in Brittany 74, 77, 97

  CM’s ‘blues’ 77, 209

  lends CM teamaker 79

  letters to her from France 81–5, 133

  checks on Anne’s health 100

  joins Q.A.N.Y. 140

  stays with Olivers 201

  helps after Anne’s death 217

  Owen, Wilfred 147

  Miss Paget’s Girls’ Club 91

  Pall Mall Magazine, The 46, 78

  Paris 81–5, 101

  Parsons, Mrs Clement 70, 95, 111

  her daughter obsessed with CM 158

  Patmore, Coventry 24, 25

  Paul, Sir John 4

  Pear Tree Press 162

  Peasant Shop, Devonshire Street 194

  Peckham Hospital 37, 71

  Peter Pan 184

  Poems for To-Day 187

  Poetry 125, 130

  Poetry Bookshop: described 145–7, 147

  readings at 153–4

  during war 152, 168

  in difficulties 194–5

  moves to Great Russell Street 220

  Pound, Ezra 112, 119, 125

  advice to CM 125

  accepts her fête for The Egoist 130

  cost of publishing 160

  Imagist poetry 144, 188

  The Goodly Fere 150

  Power of Silence, The 224

  Pugin, Augustus Welby 3

  Punch 187

  Queen Alexandra’s Nursing Yeomanry 140

  Queen Mary’s doll’s house 224

  Quimper, Brittany 97

  Radclyffe Hall, Margaret 138

  Reeth, N. Yorkshire 125

  Richards, Grant 160

  Righton, Katherine (friend of Anne and CM) 193, 214, 222

  Rimbaud, Arthur, Illuminations 61, 97

  Robinson, Mary, Emily Brontë 93

  Rolfe, Frederick (‘Baron Corvo’) 57, 59, 61

  Rosherville, Kent 18

  Rossetti, Christina 24, 25, 31

  Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, Jenny 54

  Royal Academy 2, 97, 211

  Royal Female School of Art 43–5, 49

  Royal Institute of British Architects 4, 5, 8, 43

  Royal Literary Fund 202

  Ruskin, John 25, 172, 185

  Salisbury, Wilts 191

  Samurai Society 148

  Sappho of Lesbos 111, 144

  Sassoon, Siegfried 176, 181, 187, 206, 207

  Satuday Review, The 46

  St George’s, Bloomsbury 6

  St Gildas de Rhuys (convent) 74–6

  St James’s, Spanish Place 54

  St John’s Wood N.W. London 134, 141

  St Paul’s, Barton, I.O.W. 2, 15–16, 77

  Schubert, Franz 114

  Scott, Mrs Amy Dawson (‘Sappho’, founder of International PEN) 107–8, 109

  ‘takes up’ CM 108

  described 108–10

  ‘Mrs Sappho’ 108

  organizes poetry readings 110–11

  ‘hard to keep back tears’ 111

  CM writes to 114, 126, 132

  fascinated by CM 117

  introduces CM to May Sinclair 123

  CM relies on her kindness 128

  CM describes Pound to her 130

  CM’s passion for May 134, 137

  friendship with CM broken 140

  organizes Women’s Defence League 140

  May’s comments on 144, 145

  CM conceals true nature from 159

  Scott, Christopher Dawson 116, 128

  Scott, Marjorie Dawson 116–17

  (as Mrs Marjorie Watts) 138

  Scott, Dr: avoids wife’s literary friends 109

  thinks CM mad 126

  joins RA.M.C. 140

  Scull, Edith (CM’s school friend) 28

  Shakespeare, William 24, 49, 210

  Sharp, Evelyn 59, 60, 165

  Unfinished Adventure 58–9

  Sheffield New School of Design 2

  Shelley, Percy Bysshe 96, 137

  Shelley, Mary 121

  Shorter, Clement 94

  Shove, Fredegond 170

  Sidney, Sir Philip 25

  Sinclair, May described 117–18, 119–21

  on genius and sexual experience 121

  helps to found Medico-Psychological Clinic 123

  recommends CM’s poetry to Ezra Pound 130–1

  CM househunts for her 132, 193

  CM misunderstands her encouragement 137

  scene in bedroom 137–8

  ‘wasting your perfectly good passion’ 138

  in Belgium 140–1

  analyses CM in The Pinprick 141–3

  no definite break with CM 144

  ‘I know one poet …’ 144

  helps CM 155, 160, 165

  ‘complete friendship 157–8

  and Thomas Hardy 177

  strength of mind 189

  The Combined Maze 122 The Creators 120

  Defence of Idealism A 121

  Journal of Impressions of Belgium, A 141

  La Morte (poem) 136

  Mr and Mrs Neville Tyson 120

  Pinprick, The 141–3

  Three Brontës, The 121

  Sisson, C.H. 148

  Sitwell, Edith 187, 199

  Southall, Middlesex 109, 110, 128

  Spectator, The 46

  Sphere, The 46, 187

  Steer, Philip Wilson, Portrait of a Lady 81

  Stephen, Vanessa 69

  Stern, G.B. 137

  Stevenson, R.L., A Child’s Garden of Verses 207

  Strand, The 46–7

  Swinburne, Algernon 111, 137

  Symons, Arthur 54, 94

  Stella Maris 54

  Synge, J.M., Riders to the Sea 65, 115

  Syrett, Netta 58–9, 138

  The Sheltering Tree 58

  Tansley, Professor A.G. 71–2

  Tansley, Elsie (Elsie Chick, CM’s schoolfriend) 26, 60, 72, 78

  Temple Bar 70, 74–5, 78, 91, 95, 111

  Tennyson, Alfred, Lord 111, 202

  Thatched House Tavern 4

  Thomas, Edward 73

  Thompson, Francis 111

  Three Essays on Sexuality 120

  Titbits 46

  Tommy (May Sinclair’s cat) 120

  dies 134, 189

  Tomorrow Club, The 140

  ‘Tomson, Graham’ 57

  Travers, Pamela 184

  Trevelyan, R.C. 187

  Troubridge, Una, Lady 138

  Underhill, Evelyn 111, 114, 123, 134

  Untermeyer, Louis 187, 206

  Verlaine, Paul 114, 136

  Vestry Hall, Hampstead 32, 33, 36

  Victoria, Queen 2, 71, 210

  Victorian Club 59

  Votes for Women 159

  Wagner, Richard 31, 114

  Tannhäuser 31

  Walton’s Albany House Academy 2

  Warner, Val 164

  Webb, Sophia 6

  Wek (the Mews’ parrot) 36, 117

  awkward character 97, 100

  chews up CM’s MSS 157

  poorly 189–90

  CM and Anne distressed at his death 190–1

  Wembley Empire Exhibition 209

  Wessex (the Hardys’ dog) 178

  West, Dame Rebecca 137, 145

  Whelen, Frederic 115

  Whitelands Mental Hospital, Isle of Wight 38, 65, 199

  Wight, Isle of 1, 14–16, 38, 65, 102, 212

  Wilberforce, Bishop 6

  Wilde, Oscar 66, 80

  Importance of Being Earnest, The 67

  Women Authors, Society of 11
8

  Womens’ Defence League 140

  Women Writers’ Suffrage League 118

  Women’s Social and Political Union 118

  Wood, J.T. 5

  Woolf, Virginia (née Stephen) 69

  thinks CM ‘unlike anyone else’ 187

  too shy to speak to CM 208

  A Room of One’s Own 187

  Wordsworth, William 24

  Wylie, I.A.R., My Life with George (quoted) 119

  Wyndham’s Theatre 115

  Yeats, W.B. 111, 164, 202

  Yellow Book, The 51, 52–4, 57, 58, 59, 61, 63, 66, 67, 107, 165

  ‘Yellow Book women’ 59, 60, 74

  Zoo, the London 117, 189, 190

  Acknowledgements

  I should like first of all to thank Mrs Marjorie Watts, daughter of Mrs Dawson Scott, the founder of International PEN. Mrs Watts has been most generous in giving me her own reminiscences of Charlotte Mew, in letting me see Charlotte’s letters to her mother, and in lending me photographs.

  No-one could undertake to write a life of Charlotte Mew without being indebted to the unpublished doctoral thesis by Mary C. Davidow (Brown University, 1960). Mary Davidow made her researches while relations and old friends of the Mew family were still alive, and she was able to interview some of them. She also printed for the first time letters from the F. B. Adams Collection, five unpublished poems and The Minnow Fishers.

  In 1982 Virago Press, in association with Carcanet, published Charlotte Mew: Collected Poems and Prose, edited and introduced by Val Warner. I owe a very great deal to this book, and have given page references to it in my notes whenever I have quoted from Charlotte Mew’s work.

  The following have kindly given me permission to see or use copyright material: Frederick B. Adams (F. B. Adams Collection); New York Public Library (Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection); The State University of New York at Buffalo (The Poetry/Rare Books Collection of the University Libraries); University of California, Los Angeles (William Andrews Clark Memorial Library); Lloyd’s Bank Ltd Trust Division (Florence Hardy estate); The University of Texas at Austin (Humanities Research Center); The Librarian and Governing Body of Somerville College, Oxford; Wilfrid Blunt (S. C. Cockerell’s literary executor); Mrs Marjorie Watts.

  I am most grateful to the following people who have helped me in so many different ways: Percy Birtchnell, secretary of the Berkhamsted Local History Society, Dr T. M. Boll, Patric Dickinson, Dr Robert Gittings, Joy Grant, Jim Hepburn, Michael Holroyd, Mary Knox, Katherine Lyon Mix, Terry Pepper (National Portrait Gallery Archive), Bob Pocock, Ruth Tomalin, Pamela Travers (who gave me Charlotte Mew’s candlesticks), Val Warner, Professor Stanley Weintraub, J. Howard Woolmer, bookseller – and to the staff of the Camden Local History Department, the GLC Record Office, the Isle of Wight Record Office, the Isle of Wight County Reference Library, Kensington and Chelsea Public Library, Marylebone Public Library, the R.I.B.A. Library, Southwark Public Libraries and the Library of the Zoological Society of London.

 

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