The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers Vol II: 1937-1943: From Novelist to Playwright

1937

Behind the scenes

At the beginning of 1937, Dorothy L. Sayers was still involved with the reception of her play, Busman’s Honeymoon, and with the timing of the publication of the novel she had made of it. Gradually her commitment to the play for Canterbury Cathedral was to demand more and more of her attention.¹

24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex

TO MURIEL ST CLARE BYRNE²

4 January 1937

Dear Muriel,

To set against the pronouncements of some of our London critics,³ who complain that they do not know whether we meant to write farce, melodrama, or sentimental comedy, here is the considered judgement of my gardener. I may say that this came out of him entirely unsolicited and unprompted, and that I have reproduced his words as exactly as I can remember them:

What I thought was, it was meted out just right. There was a bit of everything – a bit of a thrill and then a bit of a laugh and then a bit of what I call the sob-stuff. That’s what I like – not the same thing all the time, but go on just so long and then you’re off on to something else. It’s natural, ain’t it? because life’s always a mix-up. You may say, ‘I’ve had seven years’ good luck, or seven years’ bad luck’ – but when you come to look at it in detail, like, even those years have been a mix-up. Something sad, and then something funny comes along of it – that’s how life is.

I really do not think, if we had tried with both hands for a fortnight, we could have stated our own theory – or Will Shakespeare’s practice – very much more forcibly or concisely.

I hope you’re having a good rest. Mine was a dose of flu, all right. It didn’t hurt much at the time, but it’s left me curiously shaky, and not altogether eager to tackle 120 Somervillians⁴ at the end of the week. However, London will probably cheer up the old system, and so long as the cast escape the Scourge I don’t much mind what happens. In the meantime I have asked various people to various meals – nobody replies to my letters or tells me anything!!⁵

Bless you, dear, and all the best,

Dorothy

1 The terms of the contract had been settled in November 1936.

2 Muriel St Clare Byrne (1895–1983), O.B.E., a contemporary at Somerville and close friend, part-author with D. L. S. of the play Busman’s Honeymoon. See The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899–1936.

3 The play seems to have made some of the critics very cross indeed. (From her letter to Maurice Browne, 31 December 1936, The Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899–1936, p. 414.)

4 She was about to attend a meeting of the Somerville College Council.

5 An echo of John Galsworthy’s James Forsyte: Nobody tells me anything.

[24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex]

TO VICTOR GOLLANCZ¹

17 January 1937

Dear Mr Gollancz,

We were all very sorry that you were unable, after all, to join us on Monday night. As I said to you on the telephone, I can see no objection to the distribution of advance copies of Busman’s Honeymoon² to the book-sellers; the only danger I foresee, would arise if mere were too much advance publicity to the public so as to disappoint them when they could not get the book. Thank you for sending Mr Cadness Page’s³ letter; he wrote me one himself in somewhat similar terms. I am very much pleased to have approval of this novel from him and from one or two other men, since while the woman’s side of a honeymoon novel would be easy for me to write, the man’s side of it is bound to be more conjectural. I am so sorry that we are having to hold you up like this on the novel, but as I think Miss Pearn⁴ explained to you, I feel deeply responsible to the management and to the cast, and have pledged myself to do nothing that might hamper the run of the play. I do feel that at this moment publication would be a mistake; for one thing there would be people like my Aunt, who, having read the novel beforehand, felt a little bewildered by the play, feeling that a great deal had been left out of it. For another thing, one has to reckon with the critics, who may very well say that here is the novelist doing her own proper business, which is novels, and that therefore the novel is better than the play. If the play succeeds in establishing itself, then I think its objections will disappear. In any case we will keep our fingers firmly on the pulse of the thing and give you good warning when the time comes for publishing.

What has particularly interested me in the writing of the novel has been the problem of rethinking the story in terms of narrative, and of writing a book which should not be the ordinary novel of the play, but a distinct novel of the same [name]. I know that it would probably not fit in with your publicity scheme to tackle the thing along those lines, but I suggest that if the play should run, it might become desirable to look at the thing from this point of view in order to protect ourselves against the general feeling that there doubtless is about the novel of the play. Of course we do not yet know how long the present business is going to keep up,⁵ but we are at present playing to extraordinarily steady sheets, especially taking into consideration the influenza epidemic.

Yours very sincerely,

[Dorothy L. Sayers]

1 Victor Gollancz (1893–1967), her publisher, knighted in 1965. For further particulars, see The letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899–1936., pp. 262–263.

2 The novel Busman’s Honeymoon was first published in New York by Harcourt Brace on 18 February 1937. Gollancz published the play in February and the novel in June of the same year.

3 Cadness Page wrote: "I have been an ardent follower of Miss Sayers from the beginning but I am sure that in this book she has far surpassed anything she has written before. The humanity and character drawing in the book are first-class and many sides of her talent as a writer are admirably illustrated in Busman’s Honeymoon. I am sure it will be very successful".

4 Her literary agent, Nancy Pearn (nicknamed Bun), of the firm of Pearn, Pollinger and Higham.

5 The play ran for nine months at the Comedy Theatre and was then transferred to the Victoria Palace.

[24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex]

TO ELIZABETH HAFFENDEN¹

17 January 1937

Dear Miss Haffenden,

I was at Canterbury last week talking over with Miss Babington² and Mr Laurence Irving³ the matter of the Canterbury Play, and they felt that the time had come when I ought to get into touch with you about the designs for the costumes. I have so far only sketched out the first section of the play, and the pageant which ends it,⁴ but as this pageant contains most of the really difficult problems of stage management and design, the bits I have done will perhaps afford us sufficient basis for discussion. Mr Irving was very keen that we should have a final tableau full of colour and splendour bringing in all the various craftsmen⁵ and so on who contribute to the building and furnishing of the church, and I feel that we ought to be able to have some fun over planning the costumes for this. There is also a matter of certain gigantic angelic figures forming a kind of chorus to the play about which we shall have to talk. I understand from Mr Irving that there are some costumes in existence which could be adapted for these angels. What I particularly want is to find out from you how far one may go in the matter of fantastic design, and how far angels could be expected to move about when encumbered by, what I understand will be, large quantities of gold american cloth!

I have to be in Town next Wednesday the 20th, and it would be very convenient if we could manage to meet on that date, or if it does not suit you I could manage to stay over until Thursday. Perhaps you could come along to my flat either morning or afternoon as suits you best, when I could show you the bits of the play I have done and go into all these questions. As I shall be away from home on Tuesday, would you very kindly either write to me at 24, Great James Street, Bloomsbury, W.C.I. or ring me up there on Wednesday morning – HOLborn 9156.

Yours very truly,

[Dorothy L. Sayers]

1 Elizabeth Haffenden had designed the costumes for Charles Williams’ play Thomas Cranmer of Canterbury, written for the Festival of 1936. She was also to design the costumes for D. L. S.’ second Canterbury drama, The Devil to Pay (see illustrations). She later became well known as a designer of costume for films.

2 See following letter.

3 Laurence Irving (1897–1988) designed the permanent sets in the Chapter House of the Cathedral against which the play was performed. He was the son of H. B. Irving and the grandson of Sir Henry.

4 The pageant was later omitted.

5 The Canterbury Festival of 1937 was designed to celebrate Arts and Crafts.

[24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex]

TO MARGARET BABINGTON¹

18 January 1937

Dear Miss Babington,

Thank you so much for your letter. I am so glad you like the title The Zeal of Thy House:² it was Mr Irving’s inspiration, and though I sat grinding my teeth with jealousy for two hours, I could not think of anything half as good! I am delighted to confirm it, since it has your approval; as you say, it is the imaginative touch about it which is so delightful. By all means get the postcards out at once.

I have already written to Miss Haffenden suggesting an appointment in Town for next Wednesday or Thursday; I hope we shall be able to make good progress and get your embroiderers on to the job without delay.

I had, in a half jesting manner – and explaining of course that casting did not come within my province – mentioned the subject of archangels to Mr Alan Napier.³ I have now heard from him and he says that he would seriously be delighted to be Michael if called upon. This is, of course, just a suggestion, but if you did think of strengthening the cast with one or two professionals, I do think we could not possibly find a more suitable leading archangel. He is, as I told you, six foot four, and magnificently built; good-looking in rather a severe way with a very fine voice, and excellent training in the speaking of verse. He is a young man, and has a considerable reputation as a rising actor. I do not think, however, that he would be out of the way as regards fees. A further recommendation, perhaps, is that having been brought up more or less in the bosom of the church and a highly intelligent man, he would act his part with understanding and in the right spirit. I am not, of course, trying in any way to force him on you; but if he should be free in June I think it would be worth while considering him. I see that he is opening early next month in London in a new play Because We Must,⁴ with Howard Wyndham⁵ and Bronson Albery; it is, however, possible that the play may not run for five months.

I am trying to get on now with the middle part of the play, though I have been unexpectedly interrupted this week by the B.B.C. who have suddenly arranged a broadcast of Busman’s Honeymoon for tomorrow, so that I shall have to go up and see to it.

I hope, however, to be able to report progress before very long.

Yours sincerely,

[Dorothy L. Sayers]

1 Margaret Babington (d. 1958), Festival organizer and steward and treasurer of the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral, had written to D. L. S. on 6 October 1936 inviting her to write a play for 1937. She said that she did so at the suggestion of Charles Williams. See letters to her dated 7, 18 October, 14, 27 November 1936 (Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899–1936, pp. 400–401, 402, 405, 406). The tall, trim figure of Margaret Babington on her ancient bicycle was likened to Boadicea. She had a genius for organization and for securing volunteers and always marked her letters to the Dean ‘Urgent’.…She held together the vast numbers of volunteers needed for the Festival for thirty years.…By the time of her death Miss Babington had enrolled 6000 Friends of the Cathedral and had helped raise over £100,000 for the Restoration of the Building. (Kenneth W. Pickering, Drama in the Cathedral: The Canterbury Festival Plays 1928–1948, Churchman Publishing, 1985.)

2 The phrase is taken from Psalm 69, verse g: For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

3 (Sir) Alan Napier (1903–1988), then best known in the roles of Captain Shotover in Heartbreak House and the Marquis of Shayne in Bitter Sweet. In 1937 the part of Michael was played by (Sir) Anthony Quayle (1913–1989). Alan Napier played the part in 1938 at the Westminster Theatre. (See letter to Maurice Browne, 5 March 1938.)

4 By Ingaret Gifford, staged at Wyndham’s Theatre from 5 to 20 February 1937. Vivien Leigh was also a member of the cast.

5 Howard Wyndham, theatre manager (1865–1949), son of Sir Charles Wyndham, associated with his father’s theatres, the Criterion, Wyndham’s and the New, which he managed with (Sir) Bronson Albery (1881–1971).

[24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex]

TO JAMES PASSANT¹

19 January 1937

Dear Mr Passant,

Thank you for your letter. I am so much looking forward to our team’s visit to Cambridge.

I am glad you enjoyed the play, in spite of an unsatisfactory Harriet; the part, though small, is a very difficult one. I think you would like the way Veronica Turleigh² plays it in Town, she is so distinguished and so sympathetic. I am sorry that the love scene made your bowels heave; I can imagine that in the wrong hands it probably would! I expect the wretched people started to act. Dennis Arundell³ and Veronica Turleigh put over the serious part with the very minimum of acting and the quietest possible intonation, and it never fails to hold the house. It was so good of you to write and let me know your reactions to the performance, which unfortunately, neither my collaborator⁴ nor I was able to attend owing to pressure of business and flu in our respective circles.

Yours sincerely,

[Dorothy L. Sayers]

Dennis Arundell and Veronica Turleigh as Lord and Lady Peter Wimsey in Busman’s Honeymoon

1 A Fellow of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, member of the Confraternitas Historica, the historical society which invited Dorothy L. Sayers, Helen Simpson, Muriel St Clare Byrne and Wilfrid Scott-Giles to read papers on the Wimsey family. The meeting was held on 7 March 1937. See Barbara Reynolds, The Passionate Intellect: Dorothy L. Sayers’ Encounter with Dante (Kent State University Press, 1989), pp. 244–245.

2 Veronica Turleigh (1903–1971) also played the part of Helena in The Emperor Constantine.

3 Dennis Arundell (1898–1988) was the first Lord Peter Wimsey. See D. L. S.’ comments on the interpretation of the role by Basil Foster in her letter to Muriel St Clare Byrne, 13 September 1937.

4 Muriel St Clare Byrne.

[24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex]

TO MRS K. L. R. MOLYNEUX¹

19 January 1937

Dear Bella Donna,

Thank you so much for your two letters. I had put aside the first one meaning to answer it, but day after day went by, and I seemed to be in such a rush that I really have done no private correspondence at all for the last twelve months. I had sent a card to Japan, but I expect you had returned before it got there. So you are back in Oxford again! I rush down there from time to time to attend meetings of the Somerville College Council; we must certainly contrive to meet one day this term or next. At the moment I am spending most of my time tearing up and down to Town over theatrical business. Having just, more or less coped with the agitations of Busman’s Honeymoon (have you seen it yet? It is really doing extraordinarily good business), I find myself plunged into work for this year’s Canterbury play which I have rashly undertaken to write. We are going to have great fun with a lot of musical and scenic effects.

It was nice of you to be so forgiving and write again after my long silence.

Looking forward to seeing you,

Yours affectionately,

[Dorothy L. Sayers]

1 A voice from the past. Mrs Molyneux, a violinist, was a friend of D. L. S. during her Oxford days. (See Letters of Dorothy L. Sayers: 1899–1936, Index.)

[24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex]

TO MARGARET BABINGTON

23 January 1937

Dear Miss Babington,

Many thanks for your letter; I am so glad you feel that it would be a good thing to approach Mr Alan Napier about being the archangel Michael; I really think he would be an excellent choice, and in the hope of getting him, I am allowing myself to give some importance to the part.

Miss Haffenden and I had a long and most fruitful interview; she seems to be immensely keen on the idea of the thing, and I feel sure we shall see eye to eye about the costumes. I have given her a copy of the last section of the play so that she may get started at once on the pageant material which will, of course, mean the heaviest work.

In accordance with Mr Irving’s suggestions, I have now added two extra pageants, that of the Sailors and that of the Royal Gifts, and I am enclosing a copy of this section with these additions. It is now getting pretty long, and I don’t think we ought to put in anything more until the composer¹ and producer have seen what they can do with it. Have we had any reply yet from Mr Harcourt Williams?² It would be a good thing if I could get into touch early with the producer and if Mr Williams has accepted, it might be possible for me to see him when I am in Town at the beginning of the week after next.

Yours very sincerely,

[Dorothy L. Sayers]

1 G. H. Knight, the Cathedral organist.

2 Harcourt Williams (1888–1957) created the part of William of Sens in The Zeal of Thy House. It was recognized as one of his finest achievements. He also produced the play, with the assistance of Frank Napier. In addition he produced D. L. S.’ second Canterbury drama, The Devil to Pay, in which he played the part of Faustus.

[24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex]

TO G. F. WOODHOUSE¹

25 January 1937

Dear Mr Woodhouse,

Thank you so much for your letter and for your most interesting booklet about the change-ringing machine. I remain overwhelmed with astonishment at anybody who could work out a thing like that. It is also exceedingly good of you to let me have the list of errors in The Nine Tailors, and some time, if there is a new edition, I shall hope to go through it with a view to putting these details right.

I only wish I could take up ringing, but the fact is it appears to be such an enthralling pursuit that I am sure if I once started on it I should neglect all my work! It has been a great gratification to me to know that ringers have enjoyed the book, which I so rashly wrote without knowing anything about the subject, and have been so kind to the errors I have fallen into by the way.

Wishing every success to you and your band,²

Yours very truly,

[Dorothy L. Sayers]

1 George Fraser Woodhouse (1875–1952), a science master at Sedbergh School from 1897 to 1930, was a first-class ringer and conductor of hand- and tower-bells. He constructed three ringing machines in all. The booklet to which D. L. S. refers is Change-Ringing Machine: Invented by G. F. Woodhouse of Sedbergh. It contains diagrams and a photograph of the machine. Consisting of 8 pages, it was printed by Came and Cave of Bristol, no date, but presumably [937. An obituary notice of the inventor was published in The Ringing World, 22 March 1957.

2 As part of his service to Sedbergh Church he trained a band up to Surprise Major standard.

The Detection Club

31 Garrard Street

W.I

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW STATESMAN

17 February 1937¹

Dear Sir,

CHEKHOV AT THE WESTMINSTER

A losing bout with the flu germ put me out of action over the week-end, but I hope it is not too late to argue a little with Mr Desmond MacCarthy² about Uncle Vanya.³

I attended the first night at the Westminster under stimulating and, for anyone of my age,⁴ unusual circumstances. I had never previously seen the play, read the play, or heard a single word of discussion about this or any other production of it. Through this strange gap in my education I thus viewed the performance as a stage-play, and not as a venerable institution. This probably accounts for some of the differences between my impressions and those of the seasoned critic.

I find, for instance, that I ought not to have come away filled with enthusiasm for Mr Cecil Trouncer’s⁵ interpretation of Astrov. But I remain impenitent about this. His leading may not be true to tradition, but if it is not true both to human nature and to what Chekhov actually wrote, I will eat my hat. I do not know what the orthodox reading may be, but if one goes by the text of the play it is clear that Astrov is not a man who has lost his soul and looks like it. He is that far more disconcerting figure: the man who has lost his driving-power and does not look like it. All the exterior apparatus of strength is still there: the bodily energy (he does not merely chatter about trees, he plants them); the infectious enthusiasm; the physical attraction which gets not merely Sonia but the unintellectual and unmaternal Elena; what is lost is the inner cohesion and sustained courage to defy circumstance.⁶ His tragicomedy is that he still has his moments of believing in himself. At the end of the play he returns to his trees under the comforting illusion that this time, perhaps, something will really come of it. We know that nothing ever will – and in his moments of self-knowledge, so does he. Incidentally, in the scene where Astrov shows the maps to Elena, Mr Trouncer triumphantly succeeded in convincing me that here was a man genuinely in love with an idea for the first time on any stage, by any actor, in any part whatsoever.

There are other points on which the fresh mind would like to break a lance with Mr MacCarthy; but I believe that where he and I differ fundamentally is in our respective ideas of what the play is about. He thinks that in the final scene the reiteration of the words they’ve gone should affect us like a passing-bell, and that the laughter which greets them at the Westminster destroys the spirit of this drama of futility. That is, in spite of the end of the third act and other plain indications of the playwright’s purpose, he insists on seeing the play as a tragedy. But the whole tragedy of futility is that it never succeeds in achieving tragedy. In its blackest moments it is inevitably doomed to the comic gesture. The sadder, the funnier; and conversely, in the long run, the funnier, the sadder. The English are at one with the Russians in their ability to understand and create this inextricable mingling of the tragic and the absurd, which is the base of Shakespeare’s human (and box-office) appeal. Mr MacCarthy warns us against the conceit of thinking of ourselves first as English in relation to foreigners; but on this particular point we English are far closer in feeling to the foreign Russian than (let us say) the Irishman can ever be to cither of us.

I am,

Yours faithfully,

[Dorothy L. Sayers]

1 Published on 27 February.

2 (Sir) Desmond MacCarthy (1877–1952), critic on The Sunday Times.

3 By Anton Chekhov (1860–1904). Uncle Vanya, his second play, was published in 1900.

4 She was 43.

5 Cecil Trouncer (1898–1953).

6 These were qualities which D. L. S. herself possessed. It is interesting that she defined them as absent in Astrov.

[24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex]

TO LAURENCE IRVING

24 February 1937

Dear Mr Irving,

I am sending herewith, copies of the second and third sections of the play. Can you and Miss Babington and the musical director¹ do with two copies between you, as I want to send one to Mr Harcourt Williams, and I only have four? I am afraid these sections offer a good many difficulties to the producer, but when these have been coped with, the rest will be easy going. I am sorry to have been so long about all this, but the delay was not caused only by my dissipations in Town. I found a good many difficulties in the writing, not only as regards the sequence of the episodes, but also as regards making the relations of William and the Lady Ursula sufficiently defined to be interesting without offending the Dean and Chapter. I hope we may be able to get away with it as it is. I apologise for the frivolity of Simon’s song; my own impression is, that it was probably really something much more rowdy and mediaeval. It does not, by the way, go to any tune that I know of, since the refrain is different from that usually associated with the Noah’s Ark songs; but no doubt the composer can cope with this. Have we got a composer yet, by the way?

I am at work on the fourth section, and hope to be able to let you have this by the end of the week. Mr Williams said something about wanting a read-through in March; could you suggest any sort of date for this? I expect you would like me to come down. At present my engagements for March are for the 7th, when I shall be at Cambridge,² and the 15th and 16th when I have to be in Town. At any other time I could be at your disposal.

With kindest regards to you all,

Yours very sincerely,

[Dorothy L. Sayers]

1 See letter to Margaret Babington, 23 January 1937, note 1.

2 See letter to James Passant, 19 January 1937, note 1.

[24 Newland Street

Witham

Essex]

TO HELEN SIMPSON¹

25 February 1937

Dear Helen,

Many thanks for your letter; I will make Hubert² an Oblate as this seems a very suitable thing for him to