Thursday, May 11, 2006

Charlotte Street, Literary connections...

Yeats:

"He [Lionel Johnson] and Horne and Image and one or two others shared a man-servant and an old house in Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, typical figures of transition, doing as an achievement of learning and of exquisite taste what their predecessors did in careless abundance. All were Pre-Raphaelite, and sometimes one might meet in the rooms of one or other a ragged figure, as of some fallen dynasty, Simeon Solomon, the Pre- Raphaelite painter, once the friend of Rossetti and of Swinburne, but fresh now from some low public house."

(Nowadays, Fitzroy Sq, leads into Fitzroy St., which then becomes Charlotte st. Not sure whether Yeats has misremembered things or whether Charlotte street extended further back then).

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Had to chuckle at my ignorance when just now read this one for the nth time: I had absolutely missed the tone in previous readings. At least, had missed the tone that now think I can ascribe to it, and which makes me appreciate it. Thanks, too, for the directions to Charlotte Street. Is this in London or Dublin? (Ignorance, thou art afoot!)

Mark Bowles said...

Charlotte Street is in central London (parallel to Tottenham Ct Rd). Charlotte St. (Charlottenstrasse) is also Gregor Samsa's place of residence).