Notebook with dark red covers, inscribed on the front cover in capitals`WHOROSCOPE' 11 x 17 cm

BC MS 3000/1

Undated

Original manuscript notes relating to Murphy, included in the ‘Whoroscope’ notebook. Undated. 17 x 11 cm. Relevant notes ff.1-17. The notes here are written by Beckett in black and blue inks. No pagination. The notes are divided by Beckett into sections of varying lengths, and numbered 1-34. Sections 1-18 contain notes on ideas which crystallise and inform the book, while sections 19-35 are synopses of actual episodes and chapters which Beckett plans to expand and include in his book. There is a table of names and qualities which are related to astrology. This includes equations of planets with colour and a metallic element. Thus, for example, ‘Saturn/grey/lead’ and ‘Venus/yellow/copper’. The days of the week are allied to their appropriate gods in a later table. The section also includes notes on ‘judicial astrology’ and a short bibliography of astrological works noted by Beckett. The length of the sections dealing with the projected content of the novel may be as short as one line, or as long as over two pages in the case of section 29. This is a section sub-divided into three, and deals with the scenes and characters, for example Ticklepenny, in the Magdalen Mental Mercyseat. Section 32 is a list of statistics regarding the dimensions and volumes of the Venus de Milo, attributed to Celia, with slight amendment, at the opening of Chapter 2 of Murphy. Section 33 deals with the episode of the ginger biscuit. The ‘Whoroscope’ notebook also includes a list, written in soft blue pencil by Beckett, headed ‘Murphy turned down by:’. There follow the names of twelve publishing houses who had rejected the manuscript as sent by Beckett. Eleven are in blue pencil and a single later addition – Faber and Faber – in ordinary pencil. The list, on f.37 of the notebook, includes most of the major London publishing houses but not the eventual publishers of Murphy, Routledge. [The Beckett Archive also includes a first edition of Murphy (London, Routledge, 1938) inscribed by Samuel Beckett to Peter Gidal, London, May 1979 and donated by Mr Gidal to the Archive on 20 November 1988]. Notebook with dark red covers, inscribed on the front cover in capitals ‘WHOROSCOPE’, surrounded by six-point stars. 17 x 11 cm. 146 leaves, middle portion blank. Mostly undated but one date given on f.33: Germany, 2 October 1936. A notebook which contains a startling variety of manuscript material in note form, in several languages other than English including French, German, Italian and Latin. These notes are accompanied throughout by prolific doodles. The book is extraordinarily wide-ranging but includes: A) Notes divided into thirty-four sections of unequal length related to Murphy. Some entries crossed through in blue crayon, some ticked in same. Notes embrace Cartesian theory, the ‘topography’ of Dante’s Purgatorio and extensive tabulation of astrological details: this third group incorporates references to Murphy’s horoscope. B) Second section begins with a lengthy sequence of epigrammatic and punning phrases in a variety of languages. There follow notes on Ixion, Sisyphus and Tantalus, among other figures from classical mythology. A list of ‘books sent home’ is included. C) A listing of twelve publishers who, at the time of writing, had turned down Murphy. D) Music and libretto from The Marriage of Figaro. E) Academic notes. Much scientific material in this notebook in French and English: notes on Newton, Pythagora and Hippasus, aloingside notes on the theory of relativity, the principles of dynamic physics, astronomy, and a table of the Geological Eras. Also a substantial set of notes copied from Mauthner, along with quotations from a variety of writes and philosophers, including Kant, Spinoza, Aristotle, Darwin, Pascal. Long section in English on cultural and literary history of Ancient Greece, very well organised and tabulated. F) Passages copied from Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy. G) At rear of notebook, a sketch on inside back cover. Facing page contains material headed ‘For Interpolation’.

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