Letter from Edward Thomas to the poet Gordon Bottomley. No address. Archival ref: 424/1/1/1/10/127
12.vi.09

My dear Gordon
I am in town a day or two & must send
you a word thanking you for your letter & also
saying I think the beginning of July would be
a good time for Gunnar but after that
not till September. I hope it will be July though.
Guthrie is impatient but he stands it better than
some do fortune. Garner's play I might also to
tell you is out & I have read it. It is a very
fine heroic shape to hang good voices &
dresses on. In fact Helen & I came up
chiefly to see it played & a good deal of
it was excellent. Thanks for the Guardian.
I suspect the critic - Martyne - was too
kind to the players when [illegible] he writes to
encourage & for when I saw them all but 3 or
4 were fearfully stagey & even the
beautiful heroine, Mona Limerick, didn't know
when to let her voice go easy. I had read the
play of course, & thought nearly all of it
carried well. The end, a scene where the
heroine cuts the bonds of her family's
enemy & a powerful man whom she
wholly hates & half loves, & puts out
the torch of the prison to give herself up 5
him, was extraordinarily hard to do. To
act as the thing would have occurred was
impossible perhaps, & the symbols chosen were
faulty. The thing does not interfere with
Gunnar in any way. Perhaps they would be
glad to use the dresses etc of 'The Feud' for
your play?
Oh I do humble myself over Ezra
Carns. It is not & cannot ever be
very good. Certainly he is not what I
mesmerised myself - out of pure love of
practising this new & poetry! - into
saying he was & I am very much
ashamed & only hope I shall never meet
the man. My greater humiliation is
such regret for cheapening praise &
using the same words about such a
man as about say, Sturge Moore, though
of course I did indicate the chaos of the
work
What a good time you had in London
notwithstanding. You are lucky to see just
the [illegible] The Yorkshire tax is impossible now,
I expect.
Now Helen & I are taking my
mother to 'The Playboy of the Western World'
Synge's 'Riders to the Sea' is
wonderful & equal to the Greek, isn't
it?
I hope Emily & you ware well again
now & fit to plan your next
hazard in London.
Yours Ever
Edwin Thomas