THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

[7th November 1939]

My Dear

What a lovely copy of P.P.¹ Do you really want the original? I will save it [for] you if you do.
I think your suggestion of masks for the fair is just right. About Apollyon I am not quite sure. I do not think I want any movement on the stage. I know the passage in Wisdom² – it is very wonderful – some of it has been used by Elgar in “The Kingdom”³.
I don’t know whether you made a carbon of P.P. in case you did I send a list of small corrections – many of them my fault.
With all my love

RVW

P.S. I think it perfectly marvellous what you’ve done when I see my script. The Act II..sc. 2 takes place next day.

1.  UW had typed out the libretto for Pilgrim’s Progress.
2.  The passage in question was Wisdom of Solomon, II 5-8: ‘For our time is a very shadow that passeth away: and after an end there is no returning; for it is fast sealed, so that no man cometh again. Come on therefore, let us enjoy the good things that are present and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine & ointments; & let no flower of the spring pass by us. Let us crown ourselves with rosebuds, before they be withered.’
3.  In fact verse 7 is used by Elgar in The Apostles.