TO CHASE--SOMERSET, AUGUST 27, 1959
This morning I wrote my ninth letter to the Customs and Excise Office in London re ballpoint pens. I have had to get a license to import, 4 letters, fill in forms, 3 letters. I have now told them if they cannot deliver the damn things to confiscate them and throw them in the ocean. Once you get involved with any government bureau, you are in trouble. I could probably sell my correspondence to Punch.
Yesterday to Amesbury and spent the day with the Antrobus who owns it and until recently owned Stonehenge. He took us all over the place. Nothing left of the early church except suggestions.
Their tradition (family) is that the name Amesbury or Almsbury comes from Ambrosius Aurelius and that this was the seat of that family and hence the property of Arthur, this being the reason Guinevere was sent back to it. In the church there is a carved head they presume to be that of Aurelius Ambrosius, but on looking closely I found a crown of fleur de lys. They are charming people. He is 83 and looks 60. I asked about his odd name, Antrobus. It is a Cheshire family, quite an old baronetcy. He said they thought it might come from entre bais of French origin. He was astonished and interested when I suggested it might be the Greek word anthropos. If El Greco could live in Spain and Xeno in Greece, why not Antropos in England? The idea delighted him.
Going to Glastonbury today to watch more digging. Next week we go south to cover the whole Cornwall complex. We may be gone a week or ten days. All storing up for the future. I am dissatisfied with my whole approach, completely dissatisfied. Maybe something will emerge. I don't know.
I'll write later and give you future plans. We plan to leave here Oct. 1, go to London for two weeks, and sail for home on the fifteenth on Flandre if we can get space.
Isn't it odd that Malory, who knew the route from Amesbury to Glastonbury, didn't mention Stonehenge although he had to pass it. I think I know why. But will tell you that when I see you.
TO ERO--SOMERSET, SEPTEMBER 10, 1959
It was a very good trip. We were out eight days and I now know the coast from the Thames to the Bristol Channel in great detail. Someday I will do the Welsh coast out around St. David's Head and on up and some further day the east coast. Coasts seem to be very important to me. I don't quite know why.
As for my own work--I am completely dissatisfied with it. It just sounds like more of the same, a repetition of things I have written before. Maybe the flame has gone out. That has been known to happen and I don't know why it should not happen to me. I put things down with excitement and they turn out to be the same old stuff, nothing new or fresh, nothing that hasn't been said better. Maybe the future is clever little trick pieces with a semblance of originality and not any depth.
Anyway, we can discuss this when I get home. I have my arms full of material and I don't know what to do with it and I am too old to kid myself about it.
Please tell Chase that I finally got the pens after I had written the final letter telling them to throw them in the sea or anything else they wanted.
TO ERO--LONDON, OCTOBER 2, 1959
Now about work. I have been thinking and thinking and thinking. It seems to me that I might have an answer but I would prefer to tell it to you if possible with some samples. Meanwhile I am inspecting the thought like a woman shopping in Klein's basement. It would, if I could do it, take care of most of the difficulties. Anyway, I'll keep going over it.
We are going to the river now. I'll write again soon.
TO ERO--NEW YORK, (undated?) 1959 (WEDNESDAY)
I hope Chase doesn't feel that I cut him off short. I can't think of anything until I get this done. Also I stopped in and had long coffee with Pat. He sad-jokingly urges me to get to work on the Malory so he can "live to see it." And he isn't really joking, you know. I don't plan to write a single word on it until after Jan. 1. Too much yet to read and think about quietly. And Chase has such a mass of material for me.
[No correspondence on Morte d'Arthur from end of 1959 to below date.]
TO CHASE--SAG HARBOR, MAY 15, 1965
I thoroughly agree with you that the list of ms., artifacts, and illuminations you have listed in the enclosed would be very valuable and interesting in relation to our work in showing the great distribution of the Arthurian theme as well as its almost universal acceptance, and that at a very early period. You will find these and many more evidences in Italy and I hope you will keep after it.
I have some other things I think it would be valuable for you to do, if it or rather they can be done in the course of your travels in Italy.
It would be good if you could find Professor Sapori and talk with him. He is a Florentine but he has held a history chair in the University of Pisa, and I think still does. As you know, he is the recognized authority in the economics of the Middle Ages, and since Florence was the node of the economic system of all Europe, he is well placed.
One of Sapori's fields is the relations with the Arab traders of the period of the founding of the Amalfi League and on. As far as I know, it has never been asked whether the Arthurian cycle got a foothold in Islam and/or whether there was a parallel to be discovered. Also whether the legend can be traced to an Indo-European base. We know that the Legend of St. George did come in from the East. One of the first references occurs in Egypt. It would be interesting to see whether there is any Hindi or Sanscritic name which sounds in any way like Arthur or Artu or any variations of this sound.
We know that Arthur was accepted as one of the nine worthies and sometimes of the Three Immortals, but when that came into being I for one do not know. The theme probably got into Sicily with its Norman rulers, but on the other hand it may there have run head on into the same thing coming west from the Arabs.
You should, if you possibly can, get into the Vatican Library. Permission can be got through the United States Information Service. There are very many other things to investigate and I will send them to you as they occur to me.
I hope all goes well with your plans.
TO J.S. FROM CHASE--NEW YORK, JUNE 18, 1965
When we talked in April about the great spread of Arthurian material in all of Europe we mentioned Italy as a country where general knowledge of this material was known to the man in the street as early as A.D. 1100. It was entertainment certainly, but much more.
In May I sent you a brief list of manuscripts and carvings that still survive in Italy. We both felt that if I could see and evaluate some of this material, it would prove to be helpful to you in planning your work on King Arthur. These talks resulted in a trip to Italy, just completed. The trip justifies our concept of a great interest in Arthurian material among the people of the streets as well as the people of the castles. For several centuries Arthurian stories, legends, readings were the number-one entertainment items.
In Rome the carved ivory mirror case is interesting. The best mirror case is in France at the Cluny.
At the Bargello in Florence they have a Sicilian quilt with many Arthurian scenes. This was made about 1395 A.D.
In the Biblioteca Nationale in Florence there is a Venetian manuscript dated 1446, showing many of the Arthurian characters and scenes. This excellent library has more Arthurian material.
In Modena the cathedral has an archivolt over one doorway, showing Arthur, Gawain, and several other Arthurian characters; this doorway according to some scholars is dated as early as 1106. I learned in Italy that microfilm copies of any of this material you may need can be ordered. I have supplied pictures of some of these items and I will show you some additional pictures and notes.
As you have said, "This is a never-ending search."
TO CHASE--SAG HARBOR, JUNE 22, 1965
I have your letter of recent date together with your report of your findings of Arthurian material on your recent trip to Italy. Very interesting, and I think you are now convinced that the trip was necessary, as I suggested. It is true that most of the lists and pieces of the puzzle are known, but as I have repeatedly pointed out, it is their position, where th
ey are placed architecturally. For example, the placing of Arthur on an arched doorway must be evaluated through the relation to other figures on the same doorway, which is important. At various times, as you know, King Arthur was accepted as one of the "Nine," the "Seven," and the "Three." Relationships of these shifts in importance can only, because of the lack of literature, be understood by dating the buildings where they occur in relation to one another.
I would be glad if you would continue the study of the Sicilian bedspreads again, relating the figures one to another in importance. I have a strong feeling that, as in most symbolic folk art, these relationships hold a code or message which is only mysterious to us because we have not understood them.
All in all, Chase, I think your Italian investigation, while not complete, has opened a door on a new field of research and one which I hope you will want to pursue. As in most things, there are whole areas of interest and importance which have not been inspected with the new eye we are able to employ.
It is my hope that on your next trip you will find your way into the Vatican Library in Rome. As you know--fifteenth-century English gentry almost invariably appealed to the Pope in one controversy or another. I myself found some Malorian material in the Vatican, and I am sure there is more. See (Monks Kirby etc.). To the end that such future work on your part may be facilitated, I propose to write to the Monsignore who superintends the Vatican files to prepare for you permission for access and help in going through the records. I have always found these authorities extremely cooperative in any area except only the Holy Office, which is not in our pasture anyway.
And before I forget it, let me congratulate you on your recent findings. It was not only luck as you protest. It was also learning what to look for and how to see it once you found it.
I can now see light at the end of the passage of this long, long job. I hope we can soon get together and plan the clean-up operation.
Meanwhile get some rest and prepare yourself for future effort. There's no rest for the curious.
TO ERO--NEW YORK, JULY 8, 1965
I go struggling along with the matter of Arthur. I think I have something and am pretty excited about it but I am going to protect myself by not showing it to anybody so that after I get a stretch of it done, if it seems bad, I can simply destroy it. But right now I don't think it is bad. Strange and different, but not bad.
1 John's opening words, dedicated to his sister Mary, are reproduced on the dedication pages.
John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights
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