Today’s post is the third in our planned series of guest blog posts written by students of English who have used the Beckett manuscripts collection. Our author today is Cianan Monaghan.
Although now into my third year in Trinity, I had never entered the Old Library gift shop, let alone the Old Library itself. I have been treating the Manuscripts Reading Room, the Book of Kells and the Old Library as I do museums more generally – for access during recreation. As I entered, on Tuesday 3 October 2017, I felt the pressure of expectation knowing I was gaining access to manuscripts that only a tiny percentage of the population would ever have access to, as well as the awareness that the majority could not care less. As an undergraduate arts student, I had not decided yet if I valued having this access beyond it being a unique experience.
At the introductory class, when manuscripts arrived and were placed on the desk in front of the class, there was a collective hesitation to approach. After Dr. Jane Maxwell explained the protocol regarding handling of the manuscripts, the class gathered around closer to the documents that, to my convenience, were place directly in front of me. After a while, I began to read Beckett’s notebook entitled Imagination Morte Imaginez (1960s, TCD MS 11223) or ‘Fancy Dead Dying’ (crossed out), relating to Beckett’s short prose work Imagination Dead Imagine. Each verso page was clearly for rough work, and observations, as it was mostly empty except some random sentences or graphs. The recto page held early drafts of the short prose work written in blue pen, and barely legible for a first-time reading. An easier to read red pen was used on a space above and/or below the blue writing. Each recto page had an X written across it further suggesting to me that these were early drafts of Imagination Dead Imagine.
The next notebook I looked at was easier to read, but far less revealing. Rather than being notes and rough work on a play, it was Beckett’s personal notes (1926-36, TCD MSS 10962-10971) made when studying Italian works such as Dante’s The Divine Comedy. Given how legible his writing was in this notebook, it seemed Beckett took more care with his writing while studying in Italy than he did in some of the other manuscripts. I then moved on to the Pat Magee letters (1958-87, TCD MS 11313), written on A4 paper. I tried to discern Beckett’s handwriting, and had a better time of it than I had discerning the hand writing of Imagination Morte Imaginez.
The most consistent feature I observed regarding Beckett’s prose and playwriting is his fixation with choreography. By this I mean his obsession with word order, timing and appearance on the page, and with physical shape as described in prose or represented on the stage. In a second reading of Imagination Morte Imaginez, on 1 November 2017, I noticed that Beckett typically doodled within the margin, known as the gutter, on the verso side. Though some may be able to find relevance in those doodles, to me they seemed an exercise of the idle mind, such as the horse head on page 28. However, doodles on the verso page, outside of the margin at times, showed some relevance to the final text. For example, on page 34 there appears a series of eight squares with lines intersecting them in an ‘N’ and reversed ‘N’ shape. Beckett began drawing some versions of this randomly on the page until he very purposefully drew the eight at the bottom:
The directions North-South-East-West and the letters ABCD are in the same position for each square, though the contents of the square turn 90 degrees anticlockwise each time. Beckett appeared to be working out position and shape as would be described in Imagination Dead Imagine:
‘Diameter three feet, three feet from ground to summit of the vault. Two diameters at right angles AB CD divide the white ground into two semicircles ACB BDA. Lying on the ground two white bodies, each in its semicircle… Still on the ground, bent in three, the head against the wall at B, the arse against the wall at A, the knees against the wall between B and C, the feet against the wall between C and A, that is to say inscribed in the semicircle ACB, merging in the white ground were it not for the long hair of strangely imperfect whiteness, the white body of a woman finally.’
Although the shapes and positions drawn do not directly match the final image described above, it seems to be an early version of the image. This reminded me of the play Quad, and the movement of the four figures; White, Blue, Red and Yellow. Though the movements are identical -‘Course 1: AC, CB, BA, AD, DB, BC, CD, DA’ (2006, p.451) – the specific percussion sound that accompanies each figure is used to characterise them individually.
The pattern that Beckett directed and was first transmitted by the station Süddeutscher Rundfunk is slightly different to the image Beckett detailed in his original stage directions. The figures always turn left, including when they approach E in the diagram, though the image in the stage directions show the figures turning right around E: ‘E supposed danger zone. Hence deviation. Maneuver established at outset by first solo at first diagonal (CB)’.
There is a similarity with the diagram of Quad and the diagram of the eight squares on page 34 of Imagination Morte Imaginez. The strict attention to detail regarding movement, positioning and timing can be seen in both, and shows that Beckett valued this even at a younger age, and may have carried it with him almost twenty years later. My discovery of the physical nature of Beckett’s writing, and the choreography he employs, gave me a new perspective with which to analyse his work. Access to the manuscripts gave me a somewhat fractured image of this process in motion which would inform his later work. The first visit acted as an effective introduction for myself and the class to what was conceptually an academic hurdle in our studies.
Cianan Monaghan.
3rd Year Arts