J M Barrie to Sylvia Llewelyn Davies - 1906

Description

Letter from Barrie to Sylvia, 2 October 1906

[No original available]

Transcription

Leinster Corner, Lancaster Gate, W.
Oct. 2, 1906.

Dearest Jocelyn,
Dr. Rendel is to write you about the sleeping draught. I always feel you are one of those who can’t take them without bad effects afterwards, and if he gives you anything, do take it only as he tells you, and very, very seldom.
I think our interview with Mr. Roughton leaves everything much as it was, as indeed we expected. Arthur seemed to me a bit brightened by our visit to Mr. Mason. Of course he was making an effort but I do think the time passed pleasantly for him.
Maarten Maartens is in town for this week, and I must see him once, but I shall come down soon again. With my dear love,
J.M.B.

Peter's commnts:

It has come as news to me, in going through these letters, that Alf [A.E.W.] Mason was so closely concerned with Arthur in his last months, and doing what he could to help. (He was present at Arthur’s funeral).

Maarten Maartens [AB: pen name of Jozua Marius Willem van der Poorten Schwartz (1858-1915)] was a Dutch novelist who wrote in English and in whom J.M.B. for some reason never clear to me closely interested himself.

Alfred Mason died November, 1948. [AB: Born in 1865, Mason was an actor turned novelist – “The Four Feathers” (1902) being his most famous. He was elected as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Coventry in the 1906 Election, and was a keen cricketer, being a member of Barrie’s Allahakbarries. He declined a knighthood, declaring that “such honours meant nothing to a childless man.”]