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Correspondence from William Butler Yeats to Lady Gregory
18 Woburn Buildings Euston Road London
April 25th [1900]
My dear Lady Gregory: after writing to you last I came to the conclusion that my late indigestion may come from influenza. However I thought better however to keep the appointment you so kindly made for me—as that would commit me to nothing. Here are the dentists words as well as I can remember "I cannot of course say that your indigestion is caused by the state of your teeth but what ever is the cause the state of your teeth must make it worse". He said that I want to have several teeth stopped as well new ones and I regret to say put the price at £20 "perhaps less not more". This is a dreadful lot of money and I do not feel inclined to do anything in the matter at present. Being a dentist and being but human he may perhaps exaggerate the bad effect of the state of my teeth. I wonder should I ask a doctor. I am sorry to say that the dentist condemned the teeth I got some years ago altogether. He said I paid my £12 for 10/- worth of materials and that the teeth I got were apart from material quite useless. He said 'Toomey' (the name of the dentist I had gone to) with indescribable scorn.
I have had a bad time of it lately. I told you that I was putting Macgregor [Macgregor Mathers] out of the Kaballa. Well last week he sent a mad person [Aleister Crowley]—whom we had refused to initiate—to take possession of the rooms and papers of the society. This person seized the rooms and on being ejected, attempted to retake possession wearing a black mask and in full highland costume and with a gilt dagger by his side. Having failed in this he has taken out a summons on the grounds that he is Mathers "envoy", and that there is nothing in the constitution of the society to enable us to depose Mathers. Charles Russell, the son of the Lord Chief Justice is acting for us, and is trying to keep my name out of the business. The case comes on next Saturday and for a week I have been worried to death with meetings law and watching to prevent a sudden attack on the rooms. For three nights I did not get more than 4 1/2 hours sleep any night. The trouble is that my Kabalists are hopelessly unbusinesslike and thus minnuts and the like are in complete confusion. I have had to take the whole responsibility for everything and to decide on every step. I am hopeful of the result. Fortun[ate]ly this wretched Envoy has any number of false names and has signed the summons in one of them. He is also wanted for debt and a trade union representative is to attend court on Saturday. The envoy is really one [Aleister] Crowley a quite unspeakable person. He is I believe seeking vengeance for our refusal to initiate him. We did not admit him because we did not think that a mystical society was intended to be a reformatory.
I [indicted] arraigned Mathers on Saturday last before a chapter of the order. I was carefully polite and I am particularly pleased at the fact that in our correspondence and meetings not one word has been written or said which forgot the past and the honour that one owes even to a fallen idol. What ever happens the archives of the society will have nothing unworthy to pass down to posterity. We have barbed our arrows with compliments and regrets and to do him justice he has done little less. The 'Envoy' alone has been bitter and violent and absurd. Mathers like all despots must have a favourite and this is the lad.
I sent you my last thing on the Queen. Graved has resigned his secretary ship of the Irish Lit Society on the ostensible ground of health; but really I am told because the fact that I have come out second on the list of those elected for Committee—with the largest number of votes I have ever got—shows, he considers, that the society is 'disloyal'. His brother Charles Graves has been bothering him.
Yr ev
W B Yeats
[On back of envelope] Just got telegram about law case. We have won.[1] Other side fines £5.
1—[In fact, Crowley was persuaded to withdraw his case because of incriminating evidence against him, and because the property of the Order had been valued at a figure above the limits of the Police Court's jurisdiction. He had also been confounded to find himself up against such distinguished legal opposition. The £5 was an order for the defence costs rather than a fine.]
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