THE OSCHOLARS LIBRARY

'Ich rechne vor allen anderen von jetzt ab vor allem auf Sie':
The unpublished correspondence between Carl Sternheim and his English translator B. J. Morse.

Rhys W. Williams
(University College, Swansea).

[This article was originally published in  Rhys W. Williams: Carl Sternheim 1878-1942. Londoner Symposium,ed. Andreas Rogal and Dugald Sturges, Stuttgart, Verlag Hans-Dieter Heinz, 1995, pp. 151-68,and  is reproduced here by kind permission of Professor Williams.  It is of particular interest where it deals with Sternheim's play Oskar Wilde and his dealings with Lord Alfred Douglas — Editor, THE OSCHOLARS]

The collaboration between Sternheim and his translator, B.J. Morse, is a story of failure. It took place within a very brief period in Carl Sternheim's life from November 1931 to January 1936, a period which was, with a notable exception of the production Die Marquise von Arcis in1935, disastrous both for Sternheim personally and for most German Jewish writers.  Its background was Sternheim's increasingly desperate concern to publish his works in English translation, or to have his plays performed on the English stage, at a time when it became perfectly clear to him that his sources of income were threatened in Germany by the rise of National Socialism.  If the scope of the article is a narrow one, it has wider resonance as a reminder of the pressures which writers in exile faced. Sternheim has not figured in accounts of exile literature, largely by default. There are two reasons for this omission. Firstly, he 'emigrated' for the last time in 1930, three years before Hitler's rise to power. Secondly, he lived for long periods outside Germany: he spent the years from 1912to 1919 largely in Belgium; indeed, he may be regarded with some justification as an exile writer of the First World War. In immediate post-war years,too, he was largely based in Uttwil in Switzerland. In 1930, some two years after his divorce from Thea, he again left Germany, opting to settle, not in Paris, which he seriously considered, but in Brussels, where he felt he had some roots.  His delight that certain restaurateurs and shopkeepers recognized him (and perhaps his memories of happier times in Belgium with Thea) prompted him to return there after his serious mental and physical collapse.  His letters to Thea suggest something of a desire to revisit a part of his life which had given him happiness: in a letter of April1930, he can claim: 'Ich habe in all den Tagen in Belgien sehr dicht an Dich gedacht' (Briefe II, 382).   His fate in Belgium from 1930 onwards, however, was unquestionably that of an exile writer.

The final break from Thea and his new short-lived marriage to Pamela Wedekind was accompanied by a period of chronic illness, which affected Sternheim profoundly and marked a personal cæsura in his life. One may speak, with justification, of a virtual cessation of his creative talent. In April 1930 he married Pamela, and by November his legal wranglingswith Thea over the divorce settlement became so vehement that she broke off all dealings with him.  It was not until 1935 that she was willing to re-establish contact with him.  In October 1934 Sternheim and Pamela Wedekind were divorced.  The period, then, of Sternheim's greatest personal upheaval coincided with a political situation which threatened his financial security (and, for that matter, Pamela Wedekind's). This experience supplies the background to Sternheim's increasingly desperate efforts to have his plays performed in Paris and London.  After 1933,of course, no other means of financial security were available to him, at least from German sources.

It was on 21 November 1931 that Sternheim wrote his first letter to Benjamin Joseph Morse (1899-1978), clearly in reply to an inquiry from Morse about the possibility of his translating Sternheim's plays into English. In the correspondence which I shall cite Morse's letters have not survived, though their contents may be reconstructed relatively easily from Sternheim'sreplies.  The correspondence, consisting of ninety-four letters and cards  sent by Sternheim to Morse, documents, more vividly perhaps than any other source, the plight of exile for Sternheim; and it throws new light on a fascinating chapter in Anglo-German literary relations in the early 1930s, even though it is a record of failure.

That the correspondence between Morse and Sternheim came to light at all was largely fortuitous. Sifting through the Sternheim 'Nachlaß 'in Marbach as a research student in the early 1970s, I came across a postcard addressed by Sternheim to 'West Street, Gorseinon, near Swansea'. As a native of Swansea myself, I was obviously intrigued and swiftly established that the recipient, B. J. Morse, was a Welsh intellectual of some distinction. I say Welsh advisedly, because Morse was Welsh-speaking with Welsh Nationalist sympathies.  Educated at Aberystwyth University, Morse travelled in Germany and Italy, corresponding assiduously with contemporary literary figures. He wrote to notable authors in Germany, Rilke, Martin Buber and Alfred Mombert, and later spent time in Trieste, where he was acquainted with Stanislaus Joyce and Italo Svevo. He published essays on the Rossettis, Rilke and Joyce, as well as a number of volumes of poetry; in 1961 Morse edited a selection of Alfred Mombert's letters, Briefe 1893-1942, and in 1965 Mombert's Briefe an Vasanta 1922-1937, both published by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, Darmstadt. In the early 1930s, when he first made Sternheim's acquaintance, Morse had just appointed to the post of Lecturer in Education at Cardiff and in 1940 he moved into the Italian Department. He retained close ties with the University of Cardiff even after he retired and still occupied a room in the College up to his death in 1978. Having discovered Benjamin Morse's whereabouts, I first made contact with him in 1975, though he steadfastly refused to grant m ean interview. The reasons for his evasiveness were complex; but he was most insistent that Sternheim belonged to a chapter in his life which was now closed, and repeatedly denied that he possessed any original Sternheim material, claiming that he had given the originals away to another researcher in the 1930s and had kept only photocopies. It was clear, however, from the photocopies which he gave me (and from a slightly different set which he copied for Dr Manfred Linke) that these must have been part of a larger corpus of letters to which he still had access. Over the three years before his death, Morse continued to deny that he had any interest in Sternheim, while at the same time responding to my interest repeatedly and tantalizingly by sending me further copies of letters, even signed editions of Sternheim's plays. I began to suspect that he and Sternheim must have quarrelled—a highly unoriginal insight, since, at that period of his life, Sternheim quarrelled with practically everybody—or that the correspondence contained material which was embarrassing. When I approached the Italian Department in Cardiff after Morse's death in 1978, I was given permission to read his papers, and there, carefully locked away in the bottom of a filing cabinet, were two ring-binders embossed in gold lettering, containing ninety-four letters and postcards from Sternheim.

The correspondence bears moving, and sometimes unconsciously amusing, testimony to Sternheim's increasingly frantic efforts to have his work staged in London; it also helps to explain Morse's own reticence about Sternheim, for it is an account of a close relationship which ended in acrimony and disappointment. In the opening letter Sternheim announces that he is 'nach langer Krankheit beschäftigt, den Vertrieb meiner Werke in allen Ländern zu starten' (21 November 1931)  and, to this end, he confers on Morse the right to translate Der Snob into English, on the sole condition that this would be the 'Anfang einer dauern den Verbindung zwischen uns'.  Sternheim would receive 7%, his translator3%, of the income from performances of his plays.  When no immediate reply was forthcoming, Sternheim wrote again to enquire whether Morse had indeed received the letter, 'da die belgische Post unzuverlässig ist'(9 December 1931).  This opening gambit sets the tone for the correspondence: Sternheim is at once arrogant, anxious to affirm the unique importance of his literary work, and pathetically dependent on Morse's willingness both to translate the plays and to act as a kind of unofficial business manager in Britain.  In his initial reaction to Sternheim's proposal, Morse must have reminded Sternheim that he was a full-time university teacher and had little time for the activity which Sternheim was proposing, but Sternheim insisted on giving him an option on two plays: Die Hose and Der Snob, provided that the proposed publisher (Heinemann) had received a copy of both translations by 1 April 1932. Morse, whose workload was considerable, must have found the deadlines intolerable, and dark hints of illness must have punctuated his next few letters, for Sternheim wished him a speedy recovery from illness: 'ich beglückwunsche Sie zu Ihrer Genesung, die sicher auch in meinem großen Interesse war' (5 February 1932). Certainly, Morse must have been working with alacrity, for on 15 February 1932, Sternheim confirms receipt of two typescripts 'Rooms to Let' (Die Hose) and 'A Place in the Sun' (Der Snob).  Sternheim declared himself delighted with the translations, and wrote at length a day later:

Auch in England . . . werden die Maskes ein unsterbliches litterarisches [sic] Leben in Ihrer Fassung haben!  Aus Ihrer Übertragung erkenneich,  wie gründlich Sie sich in Ihrem Leben bisher zu der Prägnanzder Begriffe erzogen haben, ohne die - bei einer wankenden Außen/Scheinwelt- der gesetzteste Charakter nicht leben kann. In den fünf/sechs Personenist das bürgerlichste Zeitalter wesentlich geistig auf die Spitzegebracht, und zwar, das war des Pudels Kern, der Sie zur Übersetzunggerade meines Werkes brachte, auf die germanische Spitze.  Denn wieich noch kürzlich feststellte, daß englisch schlechthin fast die gesamte Terminologie aus lateinischen Stämmen nimmt, erscheintin Ihrem Text fast ausschließlich das angelsächsische Symptom, das, wie das deutsche, durch die Oberfläche auf Urmerkmale der Rassegreift. (16 February 1932)

Then, as if warming to Morse after his strenuous efforts, Sternheim adds: 'mich interessieren brennend Gorseinon/Swansea'.

Sternheim's next letter, of 20 February 1932, contained a 'Modellvertrag' for all dealings with publishers and theatres and a favourable response to the information that a Dublin theatre had shown some interest in Der Snob.  But by late February he was pressing Morse to take advice from the PEN Club.  The Dublin theatre had offered only 5% royalties, and Sternheim was ill-prepared to compromise: 'da das Werk als sich schon überragt,müßten wir logisch teurer als die Konkurrenz sein'. Sternheim appears to have vastly overestimated Morse's position and likely influence when he adds:

Dazu [publicising Sternheim's works] haben Sie in England,was meinem französischen und italienischen Übersetzer felht, als Hochschullehrer die Macht.  Sie wirken dirkt auf die geistige Elite der Heranwachsenden, die nichts lieber als Apostel durch Ihrer Aufklärungund Belehrung sein möchten. Sie kennen Sternheim-Verehrer. Sammeln Sie das zu einem Stoßtrupp und eröffnen Sie durch Vermittlung der Einflußreichen eine Presse- und Journalkampagne für das Werk und vermitteln die Erwartung und Neugier auf es an das Publikum. (23February 1932)

Morse must have reacted by bewailing the difficulty of finding a publisher for his translations, to which Sternheim replied with the usual vituperative remarks on the evils of theatre managers and publishers, and offered further encouragement to his translator: 'Versuchen Sie, einen Aufsatz über mich von Ihnen ein einer großen englischen oder irischen Revue zu placieren. Ich glaube auch, daß Sie mit den Verlegern schriftlich zu nichts kommen, nur durch persönliche Ansprache' (8March 1932).  Having persuaded Morse to discover what Bernard Shaw earned in stage royalties, Sternheim insisted, in a letter of 9 March 1932, on demanding identical terms, and reaffirmed his suggestion that Morse should publish a critical appreciation to attract public interest. Morse must have attempted to explain away the problems which he was facing in successfully negotiating the performance of Sternheim's plays by attacking the cultural values and tastes of the theatre-going public in Britain, for Sternheim replied enthusiastically: 'Der Brief vom 14. März [war]das Vorurteils-loseste, Auklärendste, was ich nicht nur überEngland in der letzten Zeit gehört habe, aber meine Correspondenten in den anderen Ländern waren nicht annähernd imstand, ein soselbständiges Bild ihrer diversen Vaterländer zu geben' (16 March 1932). This excuse sets a pattern for later exchanges: by blaming wider public taste for his failures, Morse taps a rich vein of cultural pessimism in Sternheim, deflecting attention away from his own shortcomings, and ensuring for himself Sternheim's immediate sympathy and support.

By April 1932 Morse had virtually completed the translation of 1913,news which prompted Sternheim's enthusiastic reaction:

Es giebt in dieser beispiellosen Zeit eines interim in jeder Beziehung nichts Besseres als eine gewissenhafte geistige neue Vorbereitung des völlig verwahrlosten Menschengeschlechts durch Bereitstellunggeistiger Depots für bessere Zeiten. Sie erweisen auch Ihrer Nation, in der das dichterische Genie letzthin nicht üppig blühte, einen entschieden en Dienst, zeigen Sie ihr in meinem Werk den krüden Germanenzu Ende des vorigen und Anfang dieses Jahrhunderts für Menschen der Zukunft in Ihrem Vaterland. (22 April 1932)

Sternheim had not received a copy of 1913 by 9 May 1932 and was becoming anxious.  The typescript arrived in Brussels while Stermheim was in Paris, attempting to interest theatre producers in his plays. His impressions of theatrical and literary life in Paris were profoundly pessimistic; the Parisian theatres seemed, to Sternheim, less and less likely to stage his plays, and consequently his hopes lay increasingly in London. The translation of 1913, under the title 'Such is life' he found 'ganzausgezeichnet' (27 May 1932). 'Und auf english in Ihrer Übertragungfast noch unmittelbarer! Die Sprache - englisch - ist himmlisch in ihrer Vereinigung von lateinischer Erfahrung-Allgemeingut und germanischem Individualismus und Heutigkeit' (28 May 1932).

The cycle of flattery and indignation over Morse's signal failure to devote his whole time to the promotion of Sternheim's work continued: one imagines how Morse's heart must have sunk when Sternheim announced on 30June 1932 the exciting news that he was planning a six-volume edition of his collected works in German, French and English and was charging Morse with the task of finding between ten and twenty 'Sternheim-Verehrer' in the USA, Britain and Ireland who could amass the not inconsiderable sum of £2000 (a minimum of £100 each) to finance the publication. This project was to be Sternheim's 'erster übernationaler geistiger Impuls in dieser mental verwahrlosten Zeit' (30 June 1932).  The plan was to offer the volumes by monthly subscription and print between five and ten thousand copies in each language.  One gains, even from the one-sided correspondence, a powerful impression that Sternheim is desperately trying to force Morse into committing himself to promotional activities which he was ill-qualified and unwilling to perform.  A mere three weeks later, Sternheim's tone was one of depression and resignation: an article in the Völkischer Beobachter (Schlösser, 'Das Ende des Systemtheaters') had named Sternheim as one of the pernicious influences' des November-, Juden-, und Systemtheaters' (X/2, 1269).  The German part of the publishing project now 'hängt von den Wahlen ab' (18 July1932). The tone is now realistic, if pessimistic: 'ich halte es für durchaus möglich, das die Barberei in Deutschland demnächst die Theater schließt, und es wäre für mich auch eine Existenfrage, begännen England oder Amerika meine Stücke zu spielen, zu verfilmen'(18 July 1932).  To further encourage Morse, Sternheim sent him a copy of a letter to the Samuel French theatrical agency in New York in which a Mr Barrett was encouraged to contact the 'autorisierter Übersetzer B J Morse, Gorseinon, der Sie beraten und übersetzen wird, was erfür den Anfang für am geeignetsten hält' (30 July 1932).

In reaction to the fact that the projected Dublin production of Der Snob appeared not to have materialized, Sternheim played, on 4 September1932, what he believed was a trump card: he encouraged Morse to write toMax Reinhardt, inviting Reinhardt to produce Sternheim in England. Sternheimset out exactly what Morse was to write:

Sehr geehrter Herr Professor Reinhardt, der Klang Ihres Namensbeginnt, sich von London aus über England zu verbreiten, in dem Sinn, daß man in Ihnen den berühmten Vermittler zeitgenössischer deutscher Theaterkunst erblickt. Leider ließ ihr Londoner Programmbisher die Perlen dieser Kunst vermissen, was besonders mich [überrascht], den Übersetzer der Werke Carl Sternheims, der in Großbritannieneine ausgebreitete Gemeinde in der Elite besitzt, die sein Schaffen gründlichkennt und für die, die täglich wächst, ich drei Werke der Masketrilogie 'Hose', 'Snob'' '1913' bisher zur vollen Zufriedenheit des Dichters übersetzt habe, während ich als Lehrer and der Hochschulein Swansea [sic] durch Kollegs und Vorträge auf Reisen nach Kräftenfür Sternheims weitestes Bekanntwerden in dem Vereinigten Königreichwirke.

Vor allem erstaunt mich, daß Sie 'den Snob', der sogar in England als eine Spitzenleistung Ihrer hohen Regiekunst bekannt ist und in Fachkreisen ein Mythos hat, bisher nicht in London und anschließend, da er ganzkleines Personal hat, auf einer Tournee gespielt haben, und indem ich voraussetze, daß Sie durch langen Aufenthalt in London unsere Sprache beherrschen, sende ich Ihnen gleichzeitig das Manuskript. (4 September 1932)

Reinhardt, whose relationship with Sternheim had been fraught for at least a decade and a half, would have had little difficulty in spotting this as Sternheim's own inimitable style; his secretary, Auguste Adler, replied on Reinhardt's behalf on 10 September 1932 in non-committal tones:'Ihr Vorschlag hat ihn sehr interessiert. Gewiss würde er gerne ein Werk Sternheims in England inszensieren. Die Unternehmer aber, die einder artiges Gastspiel im Ausland entrieren und financieren, behalten sichselbstverständlich die Wahl des Stückes vor. Trotz dem wird er Ihre Übersetzung gerne kennen lernen....'  On 27 October 1932, Auguste Adler returned Morse's translation and commented, in English: 'Your translation of the 'Snob' you kindly sent to Professor Dr. Reinhardt was read according to his wish. He asked me to send it back to you, as for the moment he does not see any chance of producing it in England. But he is very glad to know of the existence of such a good translation. If ever there was a chance to produce a Sternheim play in English he will remember it and consider it earnestly'.

Sternheim clearly sought to exploit Morse's interest and position as an academic for the letter to Reinhardt is not the only example of Sternheim's manipulation of the market: indeed, he was adept at the technique, for in his very next communication, of 15 September 1932, he encloses a further model letter to be sent by Morse to Kiepenheuer: Morse was to announce that he was going to lecture on Sternheim's Oscar Wilde and request twelve copies of the text.  The total cost of the purchase would not exceed twenty-eight Reichmarks, for which outlay Sternheim would reimburse him.  The effect of this sale, Sternheim triumphantly announced, would be that Kiepenheuer would be legally obliged to reprint the work and pay Sternheim a large advance.

Later in September 1932, Morse must have sent the first bland reply from Reinhardt's secretary to Sternheim, who seized on it immediately: it suggested to him a willingness in principle on the part of Reinhardt to produce one of his plays and this hint alone might signal a breakthrough. Accordingly, Morse was encouraged to write to Samuel French Ltd, suggesting that Reinhardt has told him 'streng vertraulich' of his desire to produce Der Snob in London.  Whether Morse carried out Sternheim's wishes is doubtful, for reminders from Sternheim arrive at regular intervals. Morse, a man of some integrity, must have been embarrassed at having to be so economical with the truth, even in such a worthy cause.  By December 1932, Sternheim was so concerned with the lack of progress made by Morse that he has expressly entrusted his sister Trude, married to a London banker called Manfred Jeffreason, with the task of promoting his work, and the correspondence with Morse virtually ceases.  Not until January 1934 was there further contact between them, when a second phase of the correspondence began.

On 3 January 1934 Sternheim expressed his pleasure at having heard from Morse after a long break, and a month later he insisted: 'Lieber Herr Morse, warum schreiben Sie nicht, auch wenn wie heute selbstverständlich meine Stücke, die allen zu nahe stehen, nicht gegeben werden' (1 February1934). Morse was obviously not particularly keen to rekindle the friendship, for on 7 June 1934 Sternheim wrote regretting that he had received no replyto his letters and suggesting a meeting in London. Sternheim had been in London since the end of April, staying first with his sister, and then in a hotel. After failing to keep one appointment, Morse was finally persuaded to meet Sternheim in late June 1934, a successful encounter, at which the tensions which had emerged between them were swiftly dissipated. Sternheim wrote expressing his pleasure on 30 June 1934:

Ich habe mich herzlich über unser Zusammensein gefreut! Sie sind seit langem nicht nur in England der erste Mann, der des Schöpfers Ansprüchen entspricht. Um so wichtiger, daß unser Sichkennensich hinsichtlich meines Werkes nun von Tag zu Tag produktiver gestaltet, und England und alles, was englisch spricht, durch Sie an meinem Werk teilnehmen kann, das ich glaube, Sie geben mir recht, die letzten 50 Jahre der Nachwelt am überzeugendsten überliefert. Wäre es nicht der notwendigsteerste Schritt, Sie schrieben an passender Stelle das Wesentliche über mein Werk, daß eine englische Elite aufhorcht.... (30 June 1934)

From now on Sternheim regularly urged Morse to compose an essay on his work for a national newspaper and equally regularly complained about the lack of interest shown in him and his work by the British press.

In September 1934 Sternheim insisted that Morse embark on a new project: 'Ich bat Sie übigens, nicht die Kassette sondern Bürger Schippel zu übersetzen, weil die Zeiten für ein so ernstes Stück wie die Kassette zu ernst sind, während der Schippel für den Sie nur einen etwas anderen, sehr ähnlichen Namen setzen brauchen, hochaktuell und erschütternd romantisch-komisch ist und von Reinhardts Aufführung in Berlin her einen ganz großen Ruf hat' (25 September1934).  Morse must have complied with this proposal, for on 12 October1934 Sternheim congratulated him on his decision to translate first Bürger Schippel and only then Die Kassette, by which time Morse would have translated five of Sternheim's most successful comedies. On 18 November 1934 Sternheim reported a major success with the French première of Le Pantalon in Brussels and Paris, though the short-lived interest in Sternheim which the production aroused did not lead to a major revival of his work on the French stage, notwithstanding strenuous negotiations.  Sternheim returned to London to pursue the opportunities offered in England.  Despite several communications from Sternheim in November and December 1934, Morse maintained a silence, which was due, in part, to his illness. Sternheim, too, reported a series of nervous problems at this time. No further communication took place until 11 April 1935, when Sternheim wrote to inform Morse of the production of Die Marquise von Arcis, which had gone into rehearsal in the West End.

1935, then, saw the one success which Sternheim so ardently desired, though Morse had no part in the triumph.  Die Marquise von Arcis, staged at the Ambassador Theatre, was a resounding success.  Vivien Leigh in the title rôle made her West-End début and Sternheim had high hopes that the other major German successes of the early comedies 'Aus dem bürgerlichen Heldenleben', now practically all available in Morse's translations, would be performed.  In one sense Sternheim was profoundly unlucky with his success: it was hardly a typical Sternheim play, and its origins in Diderot's Jacques le fataliste and Schiller's German version of Diderot meant that it was viewed merely as an adaptation. Moreover, the press managed to imply that the English version was actually an adaptation by Ashley Dukes, who was forced (possibly by Sternheim himself)to write to the Times to correct the impression that it was his play.  Sternheim, who had kept Morse informed about the preparations for the première, was at pains to put the record straight:

Die Wirklichkeit voraus: Das Stück ist vollkommen von mir. Wie für 'Hamlet', 'Götz von Berlichingen', 'Wilhelm Tell', 'Die Jungfrau von Orleans' usw. usw., wie bei jedem historischen Stückhabe ich natürlich Quellen über Zeit und Umstände benutzt und als solche hauptsächlich Diderots Roman 'Jacques le fataliste', wo auf einigen Seiten die Fabel, von der ich einige Züge bewahrte, erzählt wird. Der Roman wurde lange nach Diderots Tod im Jahre 1796 (l'an V) bei Berisson Paris veröffentlicht auf 438 Seiten.

Am 22/5 hat die Times auf das Verlangen von Ashley Dukes eine Berichtigung dieses gebracht: 'The Mask of Virtue is the work of Carl Sternheim. His name, although given in headline, is not mentioned in your notice. You will allow me in friendship for a fellow writer to point out this omission, which must be the more embarrassing because the slight changes in his work have been most generously accepted. Mr Ashley Dukes, 19 Campden (sic) Hill Gardens, W. 8.' Trotz dem bringt Sunday Express wieder 'by Ashley Dukes', Daily Telegraph die richtige Form. Im Grunde darf aus Rücksicht auf das am Londoner Theater Gang und Gäbe nur Erprobtes dort empfohlen und gelobt werden und die Zeitungen, die A. D. als Verfasser nennen, glauben womöglich, sie veranlassen das Publikum dadurch ins Theater zu gehen.

Übrigens ist das Theater täglich ausverkauft. Die Henriette, Vivien Leigh schrieb mir heute einen langen Dankbrief, in dem sie feststellte, daß sie hauptsächlich mir und der herrlichen Rolle den Erfolg verdanke. (28 May 1935)

By 6 June 1935 a further problem has emerged to exacerbate the already strained relations between Sternheim and Morse, namely, the complex negotiations connected with the attempts to stage Sternheim's Oskar Wilde.

The case was confused.  Mr Terence de Marney had persuaded Lord Alfred Douglas (who appears as a character in the play) to give his provisional consent to the production early in 1935.  But when he was apprised by a third party (Mr Norman Marshall of the Gate Theatre) of the content of the play Lord Alfred changed his mind and withdrew permission, setting out his reasons, not to Sternheim, but to Morse.  In a letter dated2 June 1935, Lord Alfred insisted that it was practically certain that he would not give his consent to a production, since he had gathered the gist of Sternheim's play and regarded it as libellous on him and a falsification of the facts of the Oscar Wilde affair. Morse attempted to salvage the situation by sending Lord Alfred Douglas a copy of Sternheim's foreword to the play. To this Lord Alfred replied on 6 June 1935 indicating that, as he did not understand German, the quotation from Sternheim's foreword was unintelligible; he accepted what Morse had told him about Sternheim's good intentions, but still objected to the play. On the same day, 6 June1935, Sternheim wrote to Morse expressing puzzlement that Lord Alfred Douglas had been drawn into a premature involvement in the matter, and, moreover, that Morse was directly involved. Sternheim asked Morse for an immediate response, by telegramme, to whether a meeting between them was useful ornot. On 8 June, Morse declined to see Sternheim in London to discuss the matter, and Sternheim's letter of 14 June 1935 indicates that relations are so strained as to have reached breaking-point: Morse had omitted, as he had twice promised to do, on the 19 May and 24 May 1935, to write to The Observer and other English newspapers protesting at the omission of references to Sternheim's name from the reviews of Die Marquise von Arcis. Moreover, the translation of Bürger Schippel, a project which Morse had agreed to undertake the previous October was not yet complete. Worse still, Morse had become personally involved in the complex Oskar Wilde negotiations. Morse must have defended himself against this assault by stressing the academic pressures which he faced, an excuse which Sternheim was not disposed to accept:

'Sie können über Dienstpflichten kaum einen Briefschreiben, geschweige anderes. Dann ist es erstaunlich, daß Sie, ohne von mir beauftragt zu sein, überhaupt an D[ouglas], lange bevor eine Tatsache spruchreif ist, sich gewandt haben und meine, Ihnen anvertrauten Exemplare des Stückes, die ich sofort zur zuckzusenden bitte, unnötig Reaktionären Ihrer Bekanntschaft überlassen und damit unberechtigt eine voreilige Veröffentlichung auf eigene Faust ins Werk setzen...'(17 June 1935).

Sternheim was clearly furious at Morse's direct involvement with Lord Alfred, but was mollified by Morse's reply to his diatribe:

Ausgezeichnet Ihr menschlicher Brief vom 21/6 und bringt unser nahes Verhältnis vollkommen in Ordnung! Hätten Sie eher geschrieben, daß sich die Öffentlichkeit mit der Wilde Sache beschäftigt, wären meine letzten Briefe anders gewesen, deren gedämpfter Tondie unmittelbare Folge Ihrere schroffen Erklärung war, Sie hätten keinen Augenblick Zeit für mein Werk und müßten Ihr Brotverdienen. Woran ich doch nichts ändern konnte! Wenigstens hätten Sie mir Lord Douglas' Adresse in Brighton sofort mitteilen müssen, aber in einem desequilibriert en England glaubt jeder, der Dichter habe nichts, aber alles der Manager, Agent, Übersetzer, Schauspieler, Zettelverkäufer usw. mit seinem Stück zu tun. (24 June 1935)

It was a week later, on 30 June 1935, that Sternheim himself visited Lord Alfred in Hove in the company of Terence de Marney and persuaded himt o permit the production on condition that any changes which he required would be agreed to. Since Lord Alfred had not, at that stage, seen th eEnglish version and was awaiting a copy, that commitment was itself only provisional, as Lord Alfred pointed out in a third letter to Morse on 1July 1935. It was Trude Jeffreason, Sternheim's sister, who had approached de Marney in the first instance, and it was now through her involvement that Lord Alfred Douglas actually had a translation read to him, at which point he realized that the play would have to be re-written entirely if he were to approve it.  While Sternheim continued to believe that Lord Alfred would agree to a performance after insisting on some changes,it was clear that Lord Alrfred, having read the play, had withdrawn his consent. It was not until 3 August 1935 that Sternheim learned that theplay was unacceptable.  Even as Die Marquise von Arcis was being performed for the hundredth time, plans for a production of Oskar Wilde had collapsed.

If the Oskar Wilde affair remained a sore point between Sternheim and Morse, their relationship improved considerably in July 1935,when Morse completed his translation of Bürger Schippel: 'Glänzend, mein Lieber, der englische Schippel, ich habe Tränen gelacht! Das ist urgermanisch, kann irgendwann und irgendwo in germanischen Ländern spielen! Das soll uns Hitler erst einmal nachmachen! Und welcher Besitzsolcher goldiger Humor und Fürsten und Jungfrauen und Männergesang und alle traumhaften Möglichkeiten. Das müßte - an weithinsichtbarer Stelle - in London gespielt - wie ein Wunder aus Tausend und einer Nacht in dieser heutigen europäischen Kirchhofstimmung wirken!' (26 July 1935). Even here, however, Sternheim's enthusiasm is tempered by cyncism and resignation; Europe is no place for Sternheim heroes: 'Keinen Don Juan und keinen Schippel. Eine Karikatur des Letzteren hat Deutschlandins Massengrab gestürzt; eine Karikatur des Ersteren rottet Italienmit Stumpf und Stiel aus' (26 July 1935). As the title of his autobiography, Vorkriegseuropa im Gleichnis meines Lebens, implies, Sternheim was prone to interpret the rejection of his plays as evidence of universal cultural barbarism.

Morse visited Sternheim in Brussels in late August 1935, but there was little further correspondence. Sternheim enquired briefly about Morse's health in October 1935, a heavy hint that a letter was overdue. It had become increasingly clear to Sternheim that his hopes of a further stage success in London had evaporated, and that Morse, having translated thebest of Sternheim's comedies, could now do little more to help.  Sternheim'slast letter - of 4 January 1936 - was in the nature of an epitaph on a relationship; Sternheim appeared to be drawing down the curtain on a collaboration which was intensive, but in the last analysis completely without success:

Lieber Herr Morse, aus Ihren Briefen, die viele Jahre zurückliegen, stelle ich zweifellos fest: Sie danken mir, unaufgefordet, einem Drangefolgend, für das schöne Dasein meines Werkes in der Zeit und auch der englischen Welt, wohin es schon seinen Weg gefunden hatte, und gaben dieser Sie belebenden und immer bereichernden Bewunderung nicht nurdurch Übertragung einiger meiner Theaterstücke, aber in jedem Wort und jeder geschriebenen Zeile über den Abend der Aufführung der 'Marquise von Arcis' in London im Mai ergreifenden Ausdruck.
Ich aber sah in Ihnen den Briten geistigen Bereichs schlechthin, selbstWissen an einer Hochschule verbreitend, und war gerührt, daß Engländer Ihrer Umstände meinem Werke über Englisches hinaushuldigten, und fand das in sonst peinlichen Zeitumständen angenehm und hocherfreulich! Woran auch die Tatsache nicht rüttelte, daßsich im Frühling 1935 der von mir nicht beauftragte Übersetzerder 'Marquise', der Manager, der sie aufführte, Verleger, der siedruckte, und was mir sonst an intellektueller Männlichkeit in London begegnete, nicht über das auf dem Festland Übliche erhoben.

Erst nach Ihrem hiesigen Aufenthalt vom 17-20 August mußte ichnach Ihrer Abreise und den ihr folgenden Monaten bis heute erschütternd feststellen, daß Sie, der mir viel näher als mein französischer, italienischer, holländischer usw. Dolmetscher gestanden hatten, jäh, von einem Tag zum anderen eine eherne Gleichgültigkeit meinem Werkgegenüber darstellen, und für mich daraus die dringende Gefahrentsteht, ich müßte aus dieser nackten Tatsache auf des am geistigen Leben seines Vaterlands beteiligten Briten Charakter und Art und Weiseschließen, da ich Sie ja unmöglich als Sonderling vor aussetzendarf!

Diese an einer Zeitwende weit über uns beide wesentlich dringende Frage: wie weit dem repräsentativen heutigen englischen Mann noch Charakter, die eigene unvergleichlich 'britische Seinsweise' einwohnt, und wie und ob sie anschaffend, formend über sich hinausgeht, müssen Sie mir gentlemanlike ausführlich und verbindlich ausdrücken!

Mit bester Begrüßung, Carl Sternheim. (4 January 1936)

The opprobrium which Sternheim indiscriminately attached to every other representative of European culture was now extended to include Morse himself. Morse could have proved himself an exception only by reaffirming his absolute dedication to furthering Sternheim's career in Britain; it would doubtless have involved his translating Die Kassette and continuing to countenance the fluctuation between flattery and nagging which collaboration with Sternheim inevitably entailed. Morse refused to rise to this bait, and the collaboration was at an end.

The Morse papers in Cardiff contain translations of four of Sternheim's plays:  'Rooms to Let' (Die Hose), 'A Place in the Sun' (Der Snob), 'Such is Life' (1913), and 'Gentlemen are made' (Bürger Schippel).These translations were never published; nor were they ever performed in these versions in Britain. Morse denied until his death that a voluminous correspondence between himself and Sternheim existed.  He feared, I believe, that his own shortcomings in the relationship, his failure to promote Sternheim's work effectively, might be held against him. But, if one takes into account the extent of his translation which he undertook, his promotional activities on Sternheim's behalf, and, not least, the forbearance and patience which he displayed, then he emerges in a most positive light.

NOTES

References to Sternheim's published letters are to Carl Sternheim: Briefe, ed. by Wolfgang Wendler, 2 vols (Darmstadt, 1988).References to the published works are to Carl Sternheim: GesammelteWerke, ed. by Wilhelm Emrich and Manfred Linke, 10 vols (Neuwied andDarmstadt, 1963-76).
Morse's papers were left in his will to University College of Cardiff. The will was contested by Morse's family and access to the papers proved difficult. I am grateful to Professor Fred Jones ofthe Department of Italian in Cardiff for help in gaining access to the papers. I should also like to express my thanks to the Heinrich Enrique Beck-Stiftung for permission to quote from the correspondence.
Morse had inserted the letters and cards into two ring-binders in roughly chronological order. Although I have numbered the letters and cards, for ease of reference I shall refer only to the date on which they were written.

For an account of Sternheim's relationship with Max Reinhardt , see my article 'Max Reinhardt and Sternheim', Max Reinhardt: The Oxford Symposium, ed. Margaret Jacobs and John Warren (Oxford,1986), pp. 96-111.

Copies of the correspondence between Morse and Max Reinhardt form part of the Morse papers in Cardiff.

Die Marquise von Arcis was performed and published under the title The Mask of Virtue. It appeared in the volume Famous Plays of 1935, published by Victor Gollancz (London,1935). The title page bears the legend: 'Carl Sternheim: The Mask of Virtue, a Comedy in Three Act.. Adapted from Die Marquise von Arcis. English version by Ashley Dukes'. Ashley Dukes added a note: 'It should be said at once that The Mask of Virtue owes everything to the initiative of Mr Sydney Carroll, who commissioned this version of Carl Sternheim's Die Marquise von Arcis (a drama itself based on a story by Diderot) and presented it under a title chosen by himself. The distinguished German author will wish to join with me in this acknowledgement. I have personally to thank Herr Sternheim for consenting to the minor changes that have been made in this work' (p. 437).

The three letters from Lord Alfred Douglas to Morse were passed on to me by Benjamin Morse and are in my possession.

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