THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

Hotel Suisse,
Ospedaletti-Ligure,
Riviera,
Italy.

[Autumn/Winter 1913]

On 2^nd thoughts – if you have not already done anything better for Mary’s arioso I think I cd. do it out of 8 lines from your original song, thus

 ‘Oh no! the fighters come –
 I hate all hate and cruelty,
 Nought suffers, but a sting
 Pierces my very heart, while he
 Gloats o’er their suffering;
 And must I now, I too, I too,
 My youth beneath this knife,
 And must I fall like you, like you,
 His victim – caled his wife.’

Do you approve?
R.V.W.