Olivia Shakespear (; 17 March 1863 – 3 October 1938) was a British novelist, playwright, and
patron of the arts
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...
. She wrote six books that are described as "marriage problem" novels. Her works sold poorly, sometimes only a few hundred copies. Her last novel, ''Uncle Hilary'', is considered her ''
magnum opus
A masterpiece, ''magnum opus'' (), or ''chef-d’œuvre'' (; ; ) in modern use is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, ...
''. She wrote two plays in collaboration with
Florence Farr
Florence Beatrice Emery (''née'' Farr; 7 July 1860 – 29 April 1917) was a British West End leading actress, composer and director. She was also a women's rights activist, journalist, educator, singer, novelist, and leader of the occult ...
.
Olivia was the daughter of a retired
adjutant general
An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer.
France
In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...
, and had little formal education. She was well-read however, and developed a love of literature. In 1885 she married London
barrister
A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...
Henry Hope Shakespear, and in 1886 gave birth to their only child,
Dorothy
Dorothy may refer to:
*Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name.
Arts and entertainment
Characters
*Dorothy Gale, protagonist of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum
* Ace (''Doctor Who'') or Dorothy, a character playe ...
. In 1894 her literary interests led to a friendship with
William Butler Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
that became physically intimate in 1896. He declared that they "had many days of happiness" to come,
[qtd. in Carpenter (1988), p. 104] but the affair ended in 1897. They nevertheless remained lifelong friends and corresponded frequently. On October 20, 1917, Yeats went on to marry
, Olivia Shakespear's step-niece and Dorothy's best friend.
Olivia began hosting weekly
salons frequented by
Ezra Pound and other
modernist
Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...
writers and artists in 1909, and became influential in London
literary society
A literary society is a group of people interested in literature. In the modern sense, this refers to a society that wants to promote one genre of writing or a specific author. Modern literary societies typically promote research, publish newsle ...
. Olivia's daughter
Dorothy Shakespear
Dorothy Shakespear (14 September 1886 – 8 December 1973) was an English artist. She was the daughter of novelist Olivia Shakespear and the wife of American poet Ezra Pound. One of a small number of women vorticist painters, her art work was p ...
married Pound in 1914, despite the less than enthusiastic blessing of her parents. After their marriage, Pound would use funds received from Olivia to support
T. S. Eliot and
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
. When Dorothy gave birth to a son,
Omar Pound
Omar Shakespear Pound (10 September 1926 – 2 March 2010)
''The New York Times'', 10 March 2010. was an Anglo-American ...
, in France in 1926, Olivia assumed guardianship of the boy. He lived with Olivia until her death twelve years later, in 1938.
Early life and marriage
Olivia's father, Henry Tod Tucker, was born in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
and joined the
British Indian Army as an
ensign
An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...
at age 16. He rose to the rank of Adjutant General in
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
, but retired in 1856 at age 48 owing to ill health. Within a year of returning to Britain he married Harriet Johnson (b. 1821) of
Bath. The couple moved to the
Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Isle of ...
where their two daughters were born: Florence in 1858 and Olivia on 17 March 1863. Soon after they relocated to
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
where their third child, Henry, was born in 1866. In 1877 the family moved to London and raised their daughters in a social world that encouraged the pursuit of leisure.
Olivia often visited her many Johnson relatives in the country, and became particularly fond of her cousin
Lionel Johnson
Lionel Pigot Johnson (15 March 1867 – 4 October 1902) was an English poet, essayist, and critic (although he claimed Irish descent and wrote on Celtic themes).
Life
Johnson was born in Broadstairs, Kent, England in 1867 and educated at Win ...
—the only one of many uncles and cousins not to join the military—who went on to become a poet and friend to
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
. It is likely that Olivia received little formal education; she may have been educated by tutors, and appears to have become well-read as a young woman.
[Hassett (2010), p. 11]
In 1885 Olivia married Henry Hope Shakespear, a man described by Terence Brown in ''The Life of W.B. Yeats: A Critical Biography'' as "worthy" but "dull". Born in India in 1849, he was descended from 17th-century
East London ropemakers and, like Olivia, came from a military family, although of less prestige and wealth than the Tuckers and Johnsons.
Henry had attended
Harrow, studied law, and joined a law practice in 1875. The couple were married on 8 December 1885, and honeymooned in
Boulogne and Paris. Olivia's father endowed them with a comfortable income in the form of a trust. Nine months after the wedding their only child,
Dorothy
Dorothy may refer to:
*Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name.
Arts and entertainment
Characters
*Dorothy Gale, protagonist of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum
* Ace (''Doctor Who'') or Dorothy, a character playe ...
, was born on 14 September 1886; Olivia realised soon that the marriage was devoid of passion. Yeats' biographer Alexander Jeffares writes, "she was unselfcentered, unselfish, deeply imaginative and sympathetic and, until she met Yeats, she seems to have accepted the fact of her unhappy loveless marriage".
[Jeffares (2001), 60–61]
Shakespear dissolved his legal partnership in the late 1880s—his partner may have been embezzling from clients' trusts—and formed his own practice. Harwood writes that Shakespear's attitude to the situation showed a certain amount of "timidity" on his part and a definite "dislike of scenes". During this period Olivia moved from socialising with military wives to literary women: Valentine Fox (unhappily married to a
Kent
Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...
brewer) and Pearl Craigie, a divorced American writer who published as
John Oliver Hobbes
Pearl Mary Teresa Richards (November 3, 1867 – August 13, 1906) was an Anglo-American novelist and dramatist who wrote under the pen-name of John Oliver Hobbes. Though her work fell out of print in the twentieth-century, her first book ''Som ...
.
[Harwood (1989), 21–30]
W. B. Yeats
Friendship
![Yeats Celtic Twilight](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Yeats_Celtic_Twilight.png)
On 16 April 1894, accompanied by Pearl Craigie, Olivia attended a literary dinner to launch ''
The Yellow Book
''The Yellow Book'' was a British quarterly literary periodical that was published in London from 1894 to 1897. It was published at The Bodley Head Publishing House by Elkin Mathews and John Lane, and later by John Lane alone, and edited by th ...
'', and was seated opposite W. B. Yeats.
Recently returned from visiting
Maud Gonne
Maud Gonne MacBride ( ga, Maud Nic Ghoinn Bean Mhic Giolla Bhríghde; 21 December 1866 – 27 April 1953) was an English-born Irish republican revolutionary, suffragette and actress. Of Anglo-Irish descent, she was won over to Irish nationalism ...
in Paris, Yeats was in London for the production of his play ''
The Land of Heart's Desire
''The Land of Heart's Desire'' is a play by Irish poet, dramatist, and 1923 Nobel laureate William Butler Yeats. First performed in the spring of 1894, at the Avenue Theatre in London, where it ran for a little over six weeks,Yeats, William Butl ...
''. The two were not introduced that evening but Yeats, probably through Lionel Johnson (who became disruptively drunk at the dinner), enquired about the woman seated opposite.
[Hassett (2010), 12] Yeats was deeply affected, later writing in his memoirs of the encounter: "I noticed opposite me .... a woman of great beauty ... She was exquisitely dressed ... and suggested to me an incomparable distinction."
Soon after, Olivia attended a showing of ''The Land of Heart's Desire'', and found herself moved by the performance. She wanted to meet the "tall and black haired" poet and asked Johnson to invite Yeats to tea on 10 May 1894, adding in her handwriting to the invitation, "I shall be so glad to see you". In his ''Memoirs'' Yeats referred to her as "Diana Vernon", writing, "In this book I cannot giver her real name—Diana Vernon sounds pleasantly in my ears and will suit as well as any other".
They quickly established a strong friendship, with Olivia listening sympathetically to his obsessive love for Maud. When Yeats later described their friendship, he wrote, "I told her of my love sorrow, indeed it was my obsession, never leaving by day or night".
Writing in ''The Last Courtly Lover'', Gloria Kline suggests Olivia and Yeats began a friendship based on the discussion of literature and his willingness to review her work.
John Unterecker, writing in "Faces and False Faces", sees friendship as the most important aspect in the relationship, explaining, "she found in Yeats, as he in her, a person who could discuss literature and ideas ... she was one of the few persons with whom he could be completely relaxed". Comparing the difference between Maud and Olivia he writes, "Maud Gonne offered Yeats subject matter for poetry, the 'interesting' life he had hoped for, and Olivia Shakespear offered him repose".
According to Kline, Yeats compared Olivia to
Diana and Maud to
Helen
Helen may refer to:
People
* Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world
* Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress
* Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
Places
* Helen, ...
; he was attracted to dark coloured women, describing Olivia's skin as "a little darker than a Greek's would have been and her hair was very dark". Literary scholar
Humphrey Carpenter
Humphrey William Bouverie Carpenter (29 April 1946 – 4 January 2005) was an English biographer, writer, and radio broadcaster. He is known especially for his biographies of J. R. R. Tolkien and other members of the literary society the Inkl ...
writes that Yeats' impression of Olivia was one of a woman with "a profound culture, a knowledge of French, English, and Italian and seemed always at leisure. Her nature was gentle and contemplative, and she was content, it seems, to have no more of life than leisure and the talk of her friends".
Nevertheless, she was working on her third novel, ''Beauty's Hour.'' It is likely that Yeats read the manuscript, suggested revisions, and he may have contributed to the characterisations.
Kline believes the two began a friendship based on the discussion of literature; Yeats biographer Foster adds they were drawn together by a mutual interest in the
occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
. For Yeats, then aged 30, an important aspect of their friendship was the opportunity it presented for a sexual relationship with a woman, something he had not then experienced.
In August Yeats returned to Ireland, continuing his correspondence with Olivia, writing to her about Maud's recently giving birth to a daughter,
Iseult. In her letters Olivia may have been honest about her feelings toward him; in April 1895 he wrote to her, "I no more complain of your writing of love, than I would complain of a portrait painter keeping to portraits".
[Harwood (1989), pp. 45–48]
Love affair
Yeats delayed visiting Olivia in London a month later; he instead tended to Johnson, who was involved in the
Wilde case and descending into the alcoholism that would kill him. Yeats appeared to have persuaded himself that Olivia and her cousin shared a flaw, writing, "here is the same weakness I thought ... Her beauty ... dark and still, had the nobility of defeated things, and how could it help but wring my heart. I took a fortnight to decide what I should do". He constructed a plan to reconcile his desire with what he believed to be her wickedness: he would ask that she leave her husband to live with him. Until then their friendship would remain platonic.
Yeats finally visited Olivia at her Porchester Square home a few weeks later to present his well-thought-out intentions but, to his bewilderment, Olivia declared her love for him. Unsure of himself, he took another absence, during which he decided that if Maud was unattainable, or unavailable due to circumstances, he would have Olivia, writing "but after all if I could not get the woman I loved it would be a comfort for a little while to devote myself to another".
For Yeats, Olivia was willing to lose her daughter, financial security, social standing, and the goodwill of her family. Although her husband had grounds to sue Yeats and consequently destroy his reputation, her best hope against complete ruin was Shakespear's strong dislike of public scenes. Then Yeats lost his nerve again, suggesting instead each seek advice from a friend (a "sponsor"). He probably chose Florence Farr to be his sponsor while Olivia chose Valentine Fox—Harwood speculates that the sponsors advised the two to go ahead with the affair, perhaps to Yeats' discomfort.
On 15 July 1895, Yeats and Olivia travelled to Kent to visit Valentine Fox; the trip Harwood says "would have been, emotionally speaking a highly charged outing". Of the railway trip, Yeats wrote in his memoirs, "when on our first railway journey together—we were to spend the day at Kent—she gave the long passionate kiss of love, I was startled & a little shocked".
[Yeats (1973), 86] They went on to share more passionate kisses in art galleries and at her home.
Still distressed about Lionel, Yeats turned to
Arthur Symons for companionship, moving into a room adjacent to his in October 1895. One day while preoccupied and thinking about Maud he locked himself out just before Olivia and her sponsor arrived to visit; as soon as she left, he stayed up all night telling Symons about Maud. She arrived in London a few weeks later for a brief visit.
Yeats was ambivalent about Olivia despite the advice of the sponsors; with no money to support her, he suggested she seek a legal separation (instead of a divorce), sparing her social ostracism and financial ruin. Ezra Pound's biographer Jay Wilhelm suggests Shakespear knew that Olivia loved Yeats but seemed more concerned about the loss of social status in the event of divorce, causing Yeats and Olivia to decide that "it was kinder to simply deceive him than totally abandon him".
In January 1896 Yeats moved again, into a small flat in Woburn Place, so as to be nearer to her.
[Ellmann (1999), p. 160] Finally after a charged bed-buying session, with Yeats describing "an embarrassed conversation upon the width", and his nervousness preventing them at first from becoming lovers, he eventually wrote in January 1896, "at last she came to me in my thirtieth year .... and we had many days of happiness".
Yeats' happiness is apparent in the poems he wrote at that period, and for the duration of their affair, Olivia appears to have acted as a muse to the poet.
[Hassett describes Yeats' "He Remembers Forgotten Beauty", published in ''The Savoy in January 1896, as a "moving encomium to Olivia" in which she is symbolically cast as a White Goddess or lunar goddess. See Hassett (2010), pp. 18–19.]
Six months later Yeats had returned Ireland, and in August Olivia was visiting Valentine Fox with her husband where she received news of her father's death. She left for an extended stay in
Torquay
Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...
, where she stayed until September before leaving for a visit to Scotland with her husband. Yeats left Ireland for Paris to visit Maud in November, and did not return to London until January 1897, with Maud following close behind and arriving in London in February. Yeats wrote of Maud's visit: "Maud wrote to me ... she was in London & would I come to dine. I dined with her & my trouble increased—she certainly had no thought of the mischief she was doing – & at last one morning ....
liviafound my mood did not answer hers and & burst into tears—'There is someone else in your heart' she said. It was the breaking between us for many years". The affair ended that spring when Yeats again returned to Ireland.
Olivia did not visit him again at Woburn Place for many years, according to Yeats biographer Richard Ellmann.
Pembroke Mansions
Olivia's life is not well documented between 1897 and 1908. She visited her cousin Lionel for the last time in 1897 before he was isolated by his alcoholism. He died alone of a
cerebral haemorrhage in 1902. In 1899 the family suffered an unspecified financial setback that forced them to move into an apartment in
Bayswater to Pembroke Mansions, which a friend described by as "an uninviting Bayswater slum". A few months later Olivia's mother died. Within a week Olivia received a letter of condolence from Yeats, which may have been the first letter she received from him in two years, since 1897.
Several scholars and biographers speculate that they resumed their love affair at some point between 1903 and 1910; Pound biographer Wilhelm believes they reconciled as early as 1903,
[Wilhelm (2008), pp. 14–17] while Yeats biographers Jeffares and Ross suggest the affair likely reignited for a period in 1906.
For a short time in 1901 Olivia held a position as a book reviewer for ''The Kensington Review'', a small literary magazine, until it succumbed to poor sales. After, she dabbled in the
occult
The occult, in the broadest sense, is a category of esoteric supernatural beliefs and practices which generally fall outside the scope of religion and science, encompassing phenomena involving otherworldly agency, such as magic and mysticism a ...
and became friendly with prominent London occultists. In 1902 she co-wrote with Florence Farr — who for a time led the
Order of Golden Dawn — two plays on the occult, ''The Beloved of Hathor'' and ''The Shrine of the Golden Hawk'', which were subsequently published as a pair.
[Tryphonopoulos (1990), p. 79]
Although the family received an inheritance from Olivia's mother, they continued to live in Bayswater.
[Harwood (1989), pp. 105–06] For a period Dorothy was at boarding school, after which she was sent to a finishing school in
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
.
To save money, the family often left London during the summer, to take long visits to relatives in the country, in particular her brother Henry Tucker.
[Reynolds (1985)] Not until 1905 did the family lease a house in Brunswick Gardens, near
Kensington Palace, when Dorothy returned home to live with her parents.
[Harwood (1989), p. 123]
Dorothy and Ezra Pound
Records of Olivia's life resume through Dorothy's letters and diaries surrounding the arrival of the American poet
Ezra Pound in London in 1909. Following her friends in
Kensington
Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, West of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up b ...
society, Olivia opened her home once a week for a
salon
Salon may refer to:
Common meanings
* Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments
* French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home
* Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment
Arts and entertainment
* Salon (P ...
, beginning an important period in her life. When Yeats returned to London that year, Olivia became the centre of a blossoming literary movement. Yeats held a Monday evening salon; those who attended usually also visited Olivia's. She hosted, and became a nexus for, much of the pre-war literary activity in London. Notable attendees included Pound,
Hilda Doolitle, Yeats,
Wyndham Lewis
Percy Wyndham Lewis (18 November 1882 – 7 March 1957) was a British writer, painter and critic. He was a co-founder of the Vorticist movement in art and edited ''BLAST,'' the literary magazine of the Vorticists.
His novels include ''Tarr'' ( ...
,
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (né Gaudier; 4 October 1891 – 5 June 1915) was a French artist and sculptor who developed a rough-hewn, primitive style of direct carving.
Biography
Henri Gaudier was born in Saint-Jean-de-Braye near Orléans. In 1910, ...
,
Walter Morse Rummel,
Richard Aldington
Richard Aldington (8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962), born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet, and an early associate of the Imagist movement. He was married to the poet Hilda Doolittle (H. D.) from 1911 to 1938. His 50-year w ...
,
William Carlos Williams
William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet, writer, and physician closely associated with modernism and imagism.
In addition to his writing, Williams had a long career as a physician practicing both pedia ...
,
T. E. Hulme
Thomas Ernest Hulme (; 16 September 1883 – 28 September 1917) was an English critic and poet who, through his writings on art, literature and politics, had a notable influence upon modernism. He was an aesthetic philosopher and the 'father ...
and
John Cournos
John Cournos, born Ivan Grigorievich Korshun () (6 March 1881 – 27 August 1966), was a writer and translator of Russian Jewish background who spent his later life in exile.
Early life
Cournos was born in Zhytomyr, Russian Empire (now in Ukrain ...
.
[Harwood (1989), pp. 130–37] The gatherings were held in her drawing room, a place Pound described in a letter as "full of white magic".
Olivia was by now a well-known occultist and hosted
séances in her drawing room.
She became well-versed in
astrology
Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...
and
palmistry
Palmistry is the pseudoscientific practice of fortune-telling through the study of the palm. Also known as palm reading, chiromancy, chirology or cheirology, the practice is found all over the world, with numerous cultural variations. Those who ...
, passing on what she knew to Dorothy who shared her interest. Both read
grimoire
A grimoire ( ) (also known as a "book of spells" or a "spellbook") is a textbook of magic, typically including instructions on how to create magical objects like talismans and amulets, how to perform magical spells, charms and divination, and ...
s; Olivia was an expert at "drawing occult symbols" and quite familiar with the symbology of the occult.
Olivia met Pound in January 1909 at a Kensington salon hosted by a friend; she invited him for tea on 16 February 1909, and, at his insistence, introduced Pound to Yeats in May 1909.
Yeats had recently returned to London and began a thorough investigation of spiritualism and the occult, turning to Olivia for advice. She took the young American poet to Yeats' rooms at Woburn Place, fostering their relationship.
Dorothy soon fell in love with Pound.
In late 1909 and early 1910 Olivia and Dorothy attended his lectures at the
London Polytechnic Institution
, mottoeng = The Lord is our Strength
, type = Public
, established = 1838: Royal Polytechnic Institution 1891: Polytechnic-Regent Street 1970: Polytechnic of Central London 1992: University of Westminster
, endowment = £5.1 million ...
; in June 1910 they joined him in
Sirmione
Sirmione ( Brescian: ; vec, Sirmion) is a comune in the province of Brescia, in Lombardy (northern Italy). It is bounded by Desenzano del Garda ( Lombardy) and Peschiera del Garda in the province of Verona and the region of Veneto. It has a h ...
, Italy. For reasons unclear to biographers Olivia forbade the two from writing to each other during his extended visit to New York from 1910-11.
Despite the restriction Dorothy seems to have considered herself engaged to Pound, although uncertain whether he intended to stay in New York or return to London.
In 1910 Yeats thought his
horoscope suggested a return to Olivia; he distanced himself from Maud and in June began to see Olivia more frequently. Pound was fond of Olivia, which may have caused Yeats some jealousy as when, for example, Pound met the two at the theatre and took them afterward to tea—an occasion when Yeats was extremely rude to Pound.
A year later, Olivia introduced Yeats to
, her 18-year-old step-niece and Dorothy's best friend, whom Yeats eventually married.
[Olivia's brother Henry Tucker married Georgie's mother Nelly Hyde-Lees in 1909. See Foster (1997), p. 437.]
Pound returned from America in 1911 and resumed his visits to Olivia and Dorothy, adhering to Olivia's restrictions. That October Pound formally asked to marry Dorothy; her father refused on the basis of Pound's meagre income. Neither Dorothy nor Pound gave up: he again asked for permission to marry her in March 1912 but was again rejected. In Dorothy's mind they continued to be engaged, although they were only allowed short visits in the Family drawing room once a week or every two weeks.
[Harwood (1989), pp. 142–45]
Olivia became concerned about her daughter after Hilda Doolittle, who also believed she was engaged to Pound, arrived in London in 1911. Olivia welcomed H.D. to her home, but she witnessed the interactions between Dorothy, Pound, H.D. and
Richard Aldington
Richard Aldington (8 July 1892 – 27 July 1962), born Edward Godfree Aldington, was an English writer and poet, and an early associate of the Imagist movement. He was married to the poet Hilda Doolittle (H. D.) from 1911 to 1938. His 50-year w ...
, whom H.D. married in 1913.
In September 1912 Olivia wrote a stern letter to Pound, in which she pointedly told him to break off his friendship with Dorothy:
You told me you were prepared to see less of Dorothy this winter. I don't know if you wd rather leave it to me to say I don't think it advisable she should see so much of you etc. or whether you wd rather do it in your own way .... I don't know if she still considers herself engaged to you—but she obviously can't marry you—it's hardly ''decent''! There's another point too—which is the personal inconvenience & bother to myself—I had all last winter, practically to keep 2 days a week for you to come & see her ... She must marry—She & I can't possibly go on living this feminine life practically à deux for ever, & we haven't money enough to separate ... You ought to go away—Englishmen don't understand yr American ways, & any man who wanted to marry her wd be put off by the fact of yr friendship (or whatever you call it) with her. If you had £500 a year I should be delighted for you to marry her!
In 1913, Olivia introduced Pound to
vorticist
Vorticism was a London-based Modernism, modernist art movement formed in 1914 by the writer and artist Wyndham Lewis. The movement was partially inspired by Cubism and was introduced to the public by means of the publication of the Vorticist mani ...
sculptor
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska (né Gaudier; 4 October 1891 – 5 June 1915) was a French artist and sculptor who developed a rough-hewn, primitive style of direct carving.
Biography
Henri Gaudier was born in Saint-Jean-de-Braye near Orléans. In 1910, ...
at an art exhibition at the
Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no governm ...
. At the same exhibition the sculptor met
Nina Hamnett
Nina Hamnett (14 February 1890 – 16 December 1956) was a Welsh artist and writer, and an expert on sailors' chanteys, who became known as the Queen of Bohemia.
Early life
Hamnett was born in Shirley House, Picton Road in the small c ...
, whom he subsequently used as a model for a series of nudes bronzes, one of which Olivia bought. In 1914, Olivia translated a grimoire for Yeats and Pound, who spent November 1913 to January 1914 in the countryside at Stone Cottage in Ashdown Forest—Pound acting as secretary to Yeats—researching the occult. They read several grimoires, and Olivia provided for them a translation of the Abbot of Villar's 1670 grimoire ''Le Comte de Gabalis''. Her translation was serialised in the literary magazine ''
The Egoist
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'' later that year.
By 1914 Olivia seems to have realised that Dorothy was determined to marry Pound, and finally consented; ironically Pound was then earning less than he had in 1911. Hope Shakespear relented when the couple agreed to a church wedding rather than a civil ceremony, which took place on 20 April 1914. Olivia gave them two early circus drawings by
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...
.
Later life and death
After Dorothy's wedding much of the documentation of Olivia's life ceases. She moved out of Brunswick Gardens in 1924, throwing away personal correspondence and giving away hundreds of books. Hope Shakespear died on 5 July 1923; within months Olivia moved to an apartment in
West Kensington
West Kensington, formerly North End, is an area in the ancient parish of Fulham, in the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, England, 3.4 miles (5.5 km) west of Charing Cross. It covers most of the London postal area of W14, includ ...
, taking with her two maids who had been with the family for decades. Her life continued unchanged, filled with social events. In September 1926, Dorothy gave birth to a son,
Omar Pound
Omar Shakespear Pound (10 September 1926 – 2 March 2010)
''The New York Times'', 10 March 2010. was an Anglo-American ...
, who in 1927 was brought from France to be raised in England. Olivia became his guardian and Dorothy spent summers with her mother and son.
[Hickman (2005), p. 275]
In 1926 Yeats spent several weeks in London, likely visiting Olivia frequently. He showed regret for his behaviour in 1897, writing to her, "I came across two early photographs of you yesterday ... Who ever had a like profile?—a profile from a Sicilian coin. One looks back to one's youth as to a cup that a mad man dying of thirst left half tasted. I wonder if you feel like that?"
The two maintained their correspondence, as they had for many years.
Olivia continued to socialise and had many friends, one of whom, Wyndham Lewis, painted her portrait; he enjoyed her company despite finding it difficult to relate to others. She stopped writing but remained an avid reader, turning to detective stories for light relief although she also kept up with literary authors. She became friendly with
Thomas MacGreevy
Thomas MacGreevy (born Thomas McGreevy; 26 October 1893 – 16 March 1967) was a pivotal figure in the history of Irish literary modernism. A poet, he was also director of the National Gallery of Ireland from 1950 to 1963 and served on the f ...
, whom she invited for tea, later writing to him, "WBY has given me the new edition of ''Reveries and the Veil'', & I am re-reading it all. It is very beautifully done. He was about 29 when I first knew him". McGreevy told Yeats that Olivia was "always a symbol of elegance, a kind of gold and ivory image". Harwood writes of her, "Olivia Shakespear was avant-garde in literature, agnostic in religion, and conservative in politics, at least later in life".
Olivia's correspondence with Pound continued throughout the 1920s and 1930s, when she acted in part as his agent in London. In 1924, at Pound's request, she welcomed
George Antheil
George Johann Carl Antheil (; July 8, 1900 – February 12, 1959) was an American avant-garde composer, pianist, author, and inventor whose modernist musical compositions explored the modern sounds – musical, industrial, and mechanical – of t ...
into her social circle, procured artwork and books that were sent on to Dorothy and Ezra in
Rapallo
Rapallo ( , , ) is a municipality in the Metropolitan City of Genoa, located in the Liguria region of northern Italy.
As of 2017 it had 29,778 inhabitants. It lies on the Ligurian Sea coast, on the Tigullio Gulf, between Portofino and Chiav ...
, and mediated in a dispute between Pound and Lewis. She was uninterested in Pound's politics and economic views and particularly disliked his later
Cantos
''The Cantos'' by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a ''canto''. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date ...
.
[Harwood (1989), pp. 170–73] After her husband's death, Olivia's income was sufficient to support a comfortable lifestyle. During the 1920s and 1930s she gradually increased Dorothy's income (which was also increased by various family bequests), and in the 1930s she made investments in Dorothy's name, sending the proceeds to Dorothy and Pound. In a very real sense, according to Harwood, Olivia Shakespear is the "unsung heroine" of the modernist period, because much of the money Ezra Pound generously used to support struggling writers such as
T. S. Eliot and
James Joyce
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of ...
came from her.
[Harwood (1989), pp. 178–82]
Olivia died of complications brought on by
gall bladder
In vertebrates, the gallbladder, also known as the cholecyst, is a small hollow organ where bile is stored and concentrated before it is released into the small intestine. In humans, the pear-shaped gallbladder lies beneath the liver, although ...
disease on 3 October 1938. The day before her death she wrote in a letter to Dorothy: "On Monday I was taken suddenly ill with gall bladder trouble—awful pain—sent for Doctor Barnes—he gave me dope & an injection and pain gradually went ... He says I am going on all right, but of course I feel rather a wreck". She died the following day of a heart attack. John Unterecker believes Olivia's death shattered Yeats, who died only months later, because she added warmth to his life. Yeats wrote of her death:
Olivia Shakespear has died suddenly. For more than forty years she has been the centre of my life in London and during all that time we have never had a quarrel, sadness sometimes but never a difference. When I first met her she was in her late twenties but in looks a lovely young girl. When she died she was a lovely old woman ... She came of a long line of soldiers and during the last war thought it her duty to stay in London through all the air raids. She was not more lovely than distinguished—no matter what happened she never lost her solitude ... For the moment I cannot bear the thought of London. I will find her memory everywhere.[Unterecker (1963), p. 28]
Dorothy was ill when her mother died, unable to travel to London. She sent Pound to organise the funeral and to clear out the house. Ezra sorted through Olivia's correspondence and returned to Yeats many of her letters. Unterecker writes that Yeats made an effort to keep the correspondence private: "Shortly before his death he methodically destroyed a large group of letters to Olivia Shakespear. These, returned to him after her death ... Yeats wanted no one to read".
Novels: description and reception
Olivia had six novels published between 1894 and 1910, which as described by Foster are about women unhappy in love, with insipid and uninspiring male characters.
[Foster (1997), p. 153] The heroines—frequently orphaned, educated by elderly tutors, and depicted in country house libraries—fall in love with much older men in the later novels.
The first two novels were published in 1894 to mixed reviews. ''Love on a Mortal Lease'' (title from
George Meredith
George Meredith (12 February 1828 – 18 May 1909) was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era. At first his focus was poetry, influenced by John Keats among others, but he gradually established a reputation as a novelist. ''The Ord ...
) was released in June, followed in November by ''The Journey of High Honour'', at 30,000 words considerably shorter than the 355 pages of ''Love on a Mortal Lease''. Each novel sold only a few hundred copies. Harwood describes the early work such as ''Love on a Mortal Lease'' as showing stylistic similarities to contemporary women novelists such as Craighie and Rhonda Broughton, with witty dialogue in Craighie's style, although he thinks Olivia brought a more serious voice to her work. He describes ''Love on a Mortal Lease'' as a work in which the heroine is well-characterised but the background is weak.
In the summer of 1896, "The Savoy," edited by Arthur Symons, published a two-part novella by Shakespear called "Beauty's Hour". Anne Margaret Daniel says that the story was inspired by
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...
's "
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" (1886), with the dilemma of good vs. evil translated here into that of an unattractive woman who longs for beauty. In 2016, Valancourt Books published Daniel's edition of "Beauty's Hour", marking the first return to print of Shakespear's fiction for many decades.
She dedicated ''The False Laurel'', published in 1896, to Lionel Johnson. The plot features a poetess who falls in love with and marries an insipid young poet, giving up her own writing to attend to his needs. She becomes bored, writes a successful play, and then goes mad. ''The False Laurel'' was the least successful of her books, selling fewer than 200 copies. It received a poor review from ''
The Bookman'' but a good one from ''The Athenaeneum''.
''Rupert Armstrong'' was published in 1899 by
Harper and Brothers
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City.
History
J. & J. Harper (1817–1833)
James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
, dedicated to Valentine Fox. In this, the fourth of her novels, Harwood believes her writing and voice became more original. The complicated plot—a mother and daughter struggle for "possession of the
ather'sartistic soul"—shows hints of incestuous love, a theme found in her later work. Written during the affair with Yeats, Harwood sees the characters presented "in a precise, bitter intensity unlike anything in the earlier work".
[Harwood (1989), pp. 90–98]
''The Devotees'' was published by Heinemann in December 1900. Like ''Rupert Armstrong'', the plot of ''The Devotees'' depicts a mildly incestuous love: a young man and girl, raised together since childhood, devote themselves for decades to his drug-addicted mother before they marry. The reviews were mostly unkind.
Olivia's final novel, ''Uncle Hilary,'' was published in 1910 and is considered her best work. Of ''Uncle Hilary'' Jane Eldridge Miller writes in ''Rebel Women: Feminism, Modernism, and the Edwardian Novel'', "Shakespear demonstrates the ways in which that ideal leads to disillusionment and resentment".
[Miller (1997), pp. 74–76] In the complicated plot a young woman unwittingly marries her stepfather, leaves him, and accepts a marriage proposal from her guardian. Harwood believes her loveless marriage, the love affair with Yeats, the frustration with Dorothy, and Pound's unfaithfulness to Dorothy, built in her a strength and acceptance of life that bordered on the spiritual and she no longer needed to write.
Miller writes that in the novel Olivia explores "marriage laws, divorce, and bigamy", with a focus on the nature of romantic love—rejected in favour of spiritual and intellectual pursuits.
Leon Surette writes in ''The Birth of Modernism'', Olivia's ''Uncle Hilary'' highlights the ties between spiritualism, occultism and feminism, seeing ''Uncle Hilary'' as a feminist novel which he describes as "quite readable".
[Surette (1993), p. 232]
Jane Miller characterises the works as "marriage problem" novels in which the wife confronts the reality of marriage, its restrictions, and the need to achieve independence. By finding interests outside marriage the wife loses the overwhelming need for love within the marriage. Miller writes that in ''Uncle Hilary'' Olivia examines issues such as marriage laws, divorce, and bigamy, while focusing on the nature of romantic love. It was in ''Uncle Hilary'' that Olivia wrote of love: "Love is the worst slavery that exists ... it is the most persistent of illusions".
List of works
Novels
* ''Love on a Mortal Lease'' (1894)
WorldCat* ''The Journey of High Honour'' (1894)
WorldCat* ''The False Laurel'' (1896)
WorldCat* ''Rupert Armstrong'' (1898)
WorldCat
* ''The Devotees'' (1904)
WorldCat* ''Uncle Hilary'' (1909)
WorldCatPlays
* ''The Beloved of Hathor'' (1902) – (reprint, also includes ''The Shrine of the Golden Hawk'')
* ''The Shrine of the Golden Hawk'' (1902)
Novella
*"Beauty's Hour" (1896) – (reprint)
External links
*
Notes
References
Sources
* Brown, Terence. ''The Life of W.B. Yeats: A Critical Biography''. Oxford: Blackwell, 1999. .
* Carpenter, Humphrey. ''A Serious Character: the life of Ezra Pound''. London: Faber, 1988.
* Ellmann, Richard. ''Yeats: The Man and the Masks''. New York: Norton, 1999 edition.
* Foster, R.F. ''W.B Yeats: A Life''. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.
* Harwood, John. ''After Long Silence''. New York: St. Martin's, 1989.
* Hassett, Joseph M. ''W.B. Yeats and the Muses''. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2010.
* Hickman, Miranda. "Olivia Shakespear". in Demetres P. Tryphonopoulos and Stephen Adams (eds). ''The Ezra Pound Encyclopedia''. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2005.
* Jeffares, Alexander Norman. ''W.B. Yeats: A New Biography''. London: Continuum, 2001.
* Jeffares, Alexander Norman. ''W.B. Yeats: Man and Poet''. New York: St. Martin's, 1996.
* Kline, Gloria. ''The Last Courtly Lover''. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Research Press, 1983.
* Miller, Jane Eldridge. ''Rebel women: Feminism, Modernism, and the Edwardian novel''. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1997.
* Reynolds, Ann, E. ''Ezra Pound and Dorothy Shakespear: Their Letters 1909–1914''. MagillOnLiterature. 1985.
* Ross, David. ''Critical Companion the William Butler Yeats''. Facts on File, 2009.
* Shakespear, Olivia. "Beauty's Hour." London, 1896; Anne Margaret Daniel (ed)
* Stock, Noel. ''The LIfe of Ezra Pound''. New York: Pantheon, 1970.
* Surette, Leon. ''The Birth of Modernism: Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, W.B. Yeats, and the Occult''. Montreal: McGill UP, 1993.
* Tryphonopoulos, Demetres, "Ezra Pound's Occult Education". ''Journal of Modern Language''. 34 (1): Summer 1990.
* Unterecker, John. "Faces and False Faces". in Unterecker, John (ed). ''Yeats: A Collection of Critical Essays''. Englewood Cliffs, NY: Prentice Hall, 1963.
* Wilhelm, James J. ''Ezra Pound in London and Paris, 1908–1925''. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 2008.
* Wilhelm, James J. ''Ezra Pound: The Tragic Years 1925–1972''. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State UP, 1994.
* Yeats, William Butler. ''Memoirs''. London: Macmillan, 1973.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakespear, Olivia
1863 births
1938 deaths
English women dramatists and playwrights
Fin de siècle
English occultists
Victorian novelists
Victorian women writers
English women novelists
English dramatists and playwrights
People from the Isle of Wight
19th-century English women writers
19th-century British writers
British salon-holders