The Richard Burton Diaries (275 page)

167
Alexander H. Cohen (1920–2000).

168
An adaptation of Henry David Thoreau's (1817–62) line, ‘The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation’.

169
The Book of Isaiah 6: 6–7, in the King James version, ‘Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.’

170
George Moore (1852–1933), novelist, poet, playwright, who wrote that ‘a man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it’. John Millington Synge (1871–1909), playwright and poet.

171
Thomas Wolfe (1900–38), novelist, author of
You Can't Go Home Again
(1940).

172
A reference to the line in W. B. Yeats (1865–1939),
The Second Coming
(1919), ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.’

173
Laurie Lee (1914–97),
As I Walked Out One Midsummer Morning
(1969).

174
During the filming of
Alexander the Great
, which took place in Spain in 1955.

175
Coal hewer is an acceptable term for one who cut the coal, an alternative to collier, and more precise in its specification of the task than ‘coal miner’.

176
Thomas J. Roblin, choirmaster of the Afan Glee male choral society, who lived in Cwmafan and taught at the Cwmafan Boys’ School.

177
Burton is presumably here referring to Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (1230–82), Welsh prince, also known as Llywelyn ein llyw olaf (Llywelyn our last prince or Llywelyn the last).

178
Burton played Henry V at the Old Vic during the 1955–6 season. Arturo Toscanini (1867–1957), conductor.
Lohengrin
(1850), opera by Richard Wagner (1813–83).

179
Robert Burns (1759–96). The reference is to the lines from Burns's poem ‘To a Mouse’ (1786): ‘Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie / O what a panic's in thy breastie!’.

180
El Molar, due north of Madrid.

181
John Sullivan was a stuntman on
Alexander the Great
, also on
The Longest Day
and was Burton's stunt double in
Cleopatra
.

182
General Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Head of State in Spain following the victory of the Nationalists over the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War in 1939.

183
David Ffolkes (1912—) was in charge of costumes for
Alexander the Great
.

184
A reference to the assassinations of President Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) in 1865, of President John F. Kennedy in 1963, of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and of Martin Luther King (1929–68), civil rights leader, in 1968. Macarthy is presumably Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908–57) of the 1950s anti-Communist witch-hunts, and Wallace is George Wallace (1919–98), Governor of Alabama (1963–7, 1971–9, 1983–7), 1968 candidate for the presidency. Wallace was the victim of an assassination attempt in 1972.

185
Lord Kinross (1904–76),
Between Two Seas: The Creation of the Suez Canal
(1968).

186
Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805–94), creator of the Suez Canal.

187
The taffrail is the aftermost portion of the poop-rail of a ship.

188
From Rupert Brooke's ‘The Old Vicarage, Grantchester’ (1912): ‘To smell the thrilling-sweet and rotten / Unforgettable, unforgotten / River-smell’.

189
From Edmund Spenser,
Prothalamian
: ‘Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song’.

190
David Ryder, a 21-year-old victim of polio, walked from the length of mainland Britain from John O'Groats to Land's End, leaving on 21 June and arriving on 22 August. An article featuring him appeared in the
Sun
on 26 July.

191
Sir Alan Patrick Herbert (1890–1971), writer, novelist and politician.

192
The metric system had begun to be introduced into the United Kingdom in 1965.

193
Quayle's autobiography,
A Time to Speak
(1990), mentions a holiday he spent with his mother's lover in Pontypridd.

194
In London's Harley Street and Wigmore Street are to be found the practices of many leading doctors.

195
Marne Maitland (1916–91) played the part of Campeggio. He had played the part of Euphranor in
Cleopatra
.

196
Robert Beatty (1909–92) had played the part of Cartwright-Jones in
Where Eagles Dare
.

197
A colloquial Welsh term for a very attractive woman.

198
A reference to a line in Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem ‘Pied Beauty’ (1877): ‘Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls’.

199
The line is from Shakespeare's
Coriolanus
, Act III, scene iii, spoken by Coriolanus: ‘There is a world elsewhere’.

200
Frederick F. Van de Water (1890–1968),
Glory-Hunter: A Life of General Custer
(1934). Although these are not direct quotations, they are true to the flowery style of the original. For example, p.67: ‘Foremost rode the Michigan Brigade and at its head a youngster whose face was hardly less radiant than the newly risen sun.’

201
Philip Hope-Wallace (1911–79), music and theatre critic.

202
Dame Peggy Ashcroft (1907–91) had appeared with Taylor in
Secret Ceremony
. Dame Flora Robson (1902–84). Joan Plowright (1929—), who was to be made a Dame in 2004, had married Laurence Olivier in 1961. She would appear with Burton in the film
Equus
.

203
Maggie Smith (1934—), had appeared with Burton and Taylor in
The V.I.P.s
.

204
'Charlie Brown’, the central human character in the
Peanuts
comic strip.

205
Richard Harris (1932–2002), actor, who would appear with Burton in
The Wild Geese
, and take over from him in the stage production of
Camelot
in 1981.

206
William Squire (1916–89) played Thomas More in
Anne of the Thousand Days
. Squire had been born in Neath, had played alongside Burton in the Stratford productions of
Henry IV (Part 2)
and
Henry V
in 1951, and in the Old Vic productions of
Hamlet, King John, Twelfth Night
, and
Coriolanus
in 1953–4. He had also played the part of Thomas in
Where Eagles Dare
.

207
Josip Broz (1892–1980), Marshal Tito, President of Yugoslavia.

208
Shw'd ichi heddi
is Welsh for literally ‘How are you today?’ In this context it means someone of easy charm, with a hint of superficiality and insincerity.

209
Anthony Quayle had a leading role in
Tarzan's Greatest Adventure
(1959), in which Gordon Scott (1926–2007) played the part of Tarzan.

210
The Marlowe Society is the Cambridge University equivalent of OUDS.

211
Alan Badel (1923–82) had appeared at Stratford with Burton in
Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2), The Tempest
and
Henry V
. He would also feature in
The Medusa Touch
.

212
Harry Fleetwood Andrews (1911–89) had appeared at Stratford with Burton in
Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2)
. He had played alongside him in
Alexander the Great
and would do so again in
Equus
.

213
Emile Zola (1840–1902), novelist.

214
Richard II, Richard III, Hamlet
.

215
Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867–1900), poet. Alfred Edward Housman (1859–1936), poet. Burton presumably means William McGonagall (1825–1902), poet.

216
Marat/Sade
, the Peter Weiss play, translated into English and directed by Peter Brook in 1964, which ran on Broadway from 1965 to 1967. Peter Brook also directed the 1967 film version. Simone Signoret (1921–85), actor.

217
Quayle's (second) wife was Dorothy Hyson (1914–96), actor.

218
From Francis Bacon (1561–1626),
Of Studies
.

219
Burton's nickname for Bob Wilson's wife Alice.

220
J. Paul Getty (1892–1976), industrialist and multimillionaire.

221
Roman Polanski (1933—). Sharon Tate (1943–69). Charles Manson (1934—) was the leader of the group that carried out the murders.

222
In which Michael related the story of his thwarted attempt to leave Hawaii, his desire to rejoin Elizabeth and Richard in Europe, and his discovery of ‘Jesus and Universal Love’.

223
Colicos remained married to his wife, Mona McHenry, until 1981.

224
'Over the hills and far away’ is an English song of the eighteenth century. ‘Will ye no come back again’ is a Scottish song, written in the nineteenth century, about the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. ‘Where is my wandering boy tonight’ was a music hall song written by Clarence Wainwright Murphy and Albert Hall in 1894.

225
Burton was at South Moreton, Oxfordshire.

226
Molly and Emlyn Williams, Brook's parents.

227
An adaptation of Enobarbus's line about Cleopatra, in Shakespeare's
Antony and Cleopatra
, Act II, scene ii: ‘Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / her infinite variety’.

228
John Milton's epic poem
Paradise Lost
(1667) runs to 10 or 12 books.

229
The Bear at Home Inn, North Moreton.

230
This may refer to the fictional pool player, who appeared in Walter Tevis's novel
The Hustler
(1959) and in the 1961 film of the same name, or it may refer to Rudolf Walter Wanderone (1913–96), who had been known as ‘New York Fats’ until the popularity of
The Hustler
encouraged him to change his nickname, and who had become a minor celebrity by the late 1960s.

231
The Talk of the Town cabaret restaurant, on the corner of Charing Cross Road and Leicester Square.

232
This a reference to a Nehru jacket, a very fashionable cut at the time with a mandarin collar, named after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964).

233
'Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may!’ Is the correct citation from
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley
(1875–1947).

234
A reference to the 1844 poem ‘The Day is Done’ by Henny Wadsworth Longfollow (1807–82), which includes the lines ‘shall fold their tents, like the Arabs, and quietly steal away.’

235
Roughly, ‘she is unattractive. She isn't unattractive but everyone to his own taste’.

236
Didacticism.

237
Khalil Gibran,
The Prophet
, (1923).

238
The New Bell Inn, London Road, Aston Clinton.

239
Carlos Baker,
Ernest Hemingway: A Life Story
(1969).

240
Ernest Hemingway,
For Whom The Bell Tolls
(1940).

241
St Tropez, Provence.

242
Resorts in Corsica and Sardinia.

243
Inn for Trouble
(1960), directed by C. M. Pennington Richards (1911–2005), and starring Peggy Mount (1915–2001) and David Kossoff (1919–2005).

244
Dr Alain Rossier (1930–2006), specialist in spinal injuries at Beausejour Hospital at the University of Geneva, himself paraplegic.

245
Many studies of Mussolini appeared in English in the 1960s. Evelyn Waugh,
Vile Bodies
(1930).

246
Alan Williams (1935—) had at this time published four thrillers. Eric Ambler (1909–98), author of espionage novels and screenwriter.

247
A. E. Housman,
A Shropshire Lad
(1896).

248
Esmond Knight (1906–87), who had acted with Burton in
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
and
Anne of the Thousand Days
. He had been wounded while serving on the battleship the
Prince of Wales
during its encounter with the
Bismarck
.

249
Stewart Alsop (1914–74),
The Center: People and Power in Washington
(1968).

250
The Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva.

251
A reference to the docklands area of Cardiff.

252
Dr J. J. Walsh, Ivor's doctor at Stoke Mandeville.

253
Les Diablerets (3,210m), south of Gstaad.

254
Charles Dickens (1812–70). Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832). Edward Gibbon (1737–94). George Grote (1794–1871), whose
History of Greece
ran to 12 volumes in its original publication (1846–56).

255
Berliner Ensemble: German theatre company established by the playwright, theatre director and poet Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956).

256
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80), writer and philosopher, recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1964. His play
Le Diable et le Bon Dieu
had been published in 1951. Jean-Louis Barrault (1910–94), French director and actor.

257
Goetz is the central character in Sartre's play.

258
Lev Tolstoy (1828–1910), novelist.

259
Burton means L'Hôpital Cantonal.

260
Samuel Johnson (1709–84). Line (from 1777) ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.’

261
The leaf of the aspen tree is renowned for fluttering in very light wind.

262
A reference to St Vitus dance (also known as Sydenham's chorea), a complaint involving uncontrollable movements.

263
Cartier the jewellers. This was the ‘Taylor-Burton’ diamond of 69.42 carats.

264
The Ed Sullivan Show
was a variety show that screened on CBS on Sunday nights from 1948 to 1971, presented by Ed Sullivan (1901–74).

265
Hjordis Niven (1921–97), wife of David Niven.

266
Cook, aged 23, of South Ruislip, Middlesex, had pleaded guilty to 11 charges of stealing cars and other property and asked for eight similar offences to be taken into consideration.