The Project Gutenberg eBook of "A Most Unholy Trade," Being Letters on the Drama by Henry James This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this ebook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook. Title: "A Most Unholy Trade," Being Letters on the Drama by Henry James Author: Henry James Engraver: Waldo Murray Illustrator: John Singer Sargent Other: William Heinemann Release date: June 23, 2021 [eBook #65683] Language: English Credits: Charlene Taylor, Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) *** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "A MOST UNHOLY TRADE," BEING LETTERS ON THE DRAMA BY HENRY JAMES *** “A MOST UNHOLY TRADE” [Illustration] “A MOST UNHOLY TRADE” BEING LETTERS ON THE DRAMA BY HENRY JAMES [Illustration] THE SCARAB PRESS PRIVATELY PRINTED MCMXXIII Copyright, 1923, by Dunster House Bookshop, Cambridge, Massachusetts. NOTE The four letters here printed for the first time are part of Henry James’s informal correspondence with William Heinemann, the publisher. They are selected for their unity of subject, in that they concern themselves with James’s impressions of Ibsen’s “Little Eyolf” and contain some general remarks on the drama. Written about the time of the publication of the first and second series of James’s Theatricals, they indicate his ideas at the time when his consideration of the subject was most intense. Acknowledgment is made to Mrs. J. Tucker Murray and to Pierre de Chaignon la Rose, Esq., for permission to print two of these letters. “A MOST UNHOLY TRADE” Wednesday 34, De Vere Gardens. W. My dear Heinemann, I feel as if I couldn’t thank you enough for introducing me to Ibsen’s prodigious little performance! I return it to you, by the same post conscientiously after two breathless perusals,――which leave me with a yearning as impatient, an appetite as hungry, for the rest, as poor Rita’s yearning & appetite are for the missing caresses of her Alfred. Do satisfy me better or more promptly than he satisfied her. The thing is immensely characteristic & immensely――immense. I quite agree with you that it takes hold as nothing else of his has as yet done――it appeals with an immoderate intensity & goes straight as a dose of castor oil! I hope to heaven the thing will reach the London stage: there ought to be no difficulty, if Rita, when she offers herself, can be restricted to a chair, instead of lying on her back on the sofa. Let her _sit_, and the objection vanishes――I mean let her eschew the sofa. Of course I don’t know what the rest brings forth――but this act & a half are a pure――or an impure――perfection. If he really carries on the whole play simply with these four people――& at the same high pitch (it’s the _pitch_ that’s so magnificent!) it will be a feat more extraordinary than any he’s achieved――it will beat “Ghosts.” Admirable, gallant old man! The success of this would be high! I greatly enjoyed our “lovely luxurious” (as Rita wd. say), _fin de soirée_, on Monday. Tree is as dewily infantine as Eyolf! Yours truly, Henry James P.S. _Do_ remember that I’m on the sofa, with my hair down――and pink lamp shades! [Illustration] 34, De Vere Gardens, W. November 22nd, 1894. My dear Heinemann, All thanks for your prompt and adequate relief――the last “go” at Act II. It is a very great little affair. If Act III doesn’t drop, it will be Ibsen’s crown of glory――I mean the whole thing will. It is a little masterpiece. It seems to me that he doesn’t make quite enough――(in form, in the pause to take it in, and the indication of the amazement and emotion of Allmers)――of the revelation of the non-relationship; but that is a detail, and the stroke itself――coming where it does――immense. The thing must and _can_ be represented. This Act 2 is such a crescendo on 1. that if 3 is an equal crescendo on 2, the fortune of the thing will be made, and it will be a big fortune. I hope 3 is already on the stocks of translation. It’s a fine case for the British manager’s fine old demand for a “happy ending!” What I seem dimly to divine is that the she-Eyolf goes the same way as the He! i. e. the way of the fiord. I don’t see what _complete_ tragedy there is for it _but_ that. But the Devil knows what queer card the old Roué has up his sleeve!――Perhaps Rita “has” the roadmaster publicly on the stage, while Asta throws herself into the fiord. Yes, Eyolf No. 2 does by design what Eyolf No. 1 did by accident――and does it conjointly _with_ Alfred (at the risk of repeating Rosmersholm and Hedda and the Wild Duck), while Rita falls upon Borgheim and the Rat wife returns leading in a wild dance of rodents! That, at least, is the way it _should_ be. But come to my aid! I was so full of it yesterday that, being near you, I popped in――tho’ I had already written, but only missed you. Yours ever, H. J. Nov. 28th. 1894. 34, De Vere Gardens. W. Dear Mr. Pawling, Many thanks for your missive of yesterday & the message from the publisher-dramatist, whose friendly thought of sending me the play I much appreciate. I have read it, and, having done so, feel that such reflections as it may have engendered had better be imparted to Heinemann directly. Therefore I will write to him by the time he shall have returned from Manchester――& I will in returning him the sheets also send back the 3d. act of Ibsen, which I ought already to have restored & of which I spoke perhaps a little too despairingly on Sunday night at Gosse’s. On reading it over more deliberately the next day, I saw more its great intention of beauty. It is meagre & inconclusive, I think; but none the less I can imagine that, played with some real effort――& in a scenic Scandinavian twilight, it may have a certain fine solemnity & poetry of effect. Yours very truly Henry James [Illustration] 34, De Vere Gardens. W. November 30th, 1894. My dear Heinemann, All thanks for the privilege of perusal――which I greatly appreciate. I applaud the boldness with which you attack _de front_ all the difficulties of the damnable little art, and which ought to bring you all honour. It is refreshingly courageous of you, for example, to have staked your fortune on a dramatis personae of 3, when you might, like H.A. Jones, have sought safety in 30 or so. I think the idea of the _First Step_ interesting――the situation of the girl who has become a man’s mistress, but rises in arms at the idea that her sister should do so――but I am not certain that it stands forth, as the _subject_, with that big dotting of the big _i_, that the barbarous art of the actable drama requires. In that art one must specify one’s subject as unmistakeably as one orders one’s _di_nner――I mean leave the audience no trouble to disengage or disentangle it. Forget not that you write for the stupid――that is, that your maximum of refinement must meet the minimum of intelligence of the audience――the intelligence, in other words, of the biggest ass it may conceivably contain. It is a most unholy trade! But you are very brave and gay and easy with it. You have attempted a _tour de force_ in trying to carry on 2 acts with only three people (I can think of no other case but Maupassant’s _Paix du Ménage_――performed at the Français after his death by Bartet, Le Bargy & Worms), and with only one question, as it were, to create in the bosom of the spectator that principle of _suspense_ which is the essence of the function of a theatrical action――the suspense as to whether or no, and _how_, by what means or by what catastrophe, a certain thing will happen or fail. The particular thing, in the _First Step_, is the fate of the young sister’s chastity, the “question” whether or no Annie shall lose her or save her. It is interesting but I am not sure it _fills_ the play enough――and whether in your very laudable desire to be unconventional and real you haven’t simplified too much. However, this will show in the test――though I pity you for the ordeal of interpretation. I can’t help wishing Annie were rather worse herself, for the dramatic effect of the contrast between her own life and character and her intensity about the other girl; in other words, I think you have made her too good and the man she lives with too bad. The situation would have had a fuller force if his entanglement with the actress had been more _represented_――so that (with the actress _introduced_) the action would have been closer and the effect of the circumstances leading Frank to sacrifice the girl more pictured, more dramatic. Excuse this preachment. I didn’t mean to pick holes in your so serious and honourable attempt――but only to show you with what care I have read it and how much it has made me reflect! I owe you also long-delayed thanks for the Ibsen――I mean Act III, which I also return. It is a great――a very great _drop_; but it has distinct beauty and it could, in representation, I think be made fine. All success to your own tragic Muse. She is evidently much in earnest and she is altogether in the movement. Do take with her also, after this, another turn. Yours ever, my dear Heinemann, Henry James. P.S. I long to hear about Manchester. [Illustration] Of this, the first book printed by The Scarab Press, one hundred copies are for sale at Dunster House, 26 Holyoke Street & Mt. Auburn, Cambridge, Massachusetts. [Illustration] The frontispiece was engraved on wood by Waldo Murray of Cambridge, after a drawing by John S. Sargent inscribed to his friend Henry James and published in The Yellow Book, 1894. [Illustration] The cover was designed by Waldo Murray and also cut by him on linoleum. [Illustration] Copy Number 35 * * * * * Transcriber’s Notes: ――Underlined text is enclosed by underscores (_underline_). ――Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected, except when they occur in the four correspondence letters. *** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK "A MOST UNHOLY TRADE," BEING LETTERS ON THE DRAMA BY HENRY JAMES *** Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will be renamed. Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ concept and trademark. 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