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3 May 1928
Vienna, IX. Berggasse 19
Dear Jones,
Glad to have got at last an answer of yours.1 Your silence was beginning to become uncanny to me. If I did not write what you had expected, it was for good reasons. I know of only two avenues of consolation in such a case. The one is bad, because it devalues life itself, and the other, more effective, is of use only to the elderly, not young people such as you and your poor wife. You can easily guess what this second one is. I therefore wrote you what I know was untimely only in order to keep in touch with you.
Let me continue in this vein, for, as an unbelieving fatalist, I can only sink into a state of resignation when faced with the horror of death. I was dissatisfied with your information about Looney. I recently read his book again and this time I was even more impressed by it. I believe it is unfair to say that he only triumphs after making promises, like so many other riddle solvers. The explanation of the sonnets and the contributions to the analysis of Hamlet seem to me—besides others—to justify his conviction well. Of course I did not know that recent research has added so much to our knowledge of the man from Stratford; that would change the state of affairs. Can you tell me where one can find information about this? In any case, the existence of de Vere provides material for new investigations which can yield interesting positive and negative results. We know Lady Oxford remarried after her husband's death, but do not know the date. What would our position be if this justified the reproach of unseemly haste which Hamlet makes to his mother? And many similar things.
You touch on the fact that in a few days I shall be seventy-two years old. I am expecting my Ernst, his wife, and Eitingon for this occasion, and I am writing you today in view of the fact that I may not get around to it for a while. As you know, I have decided that until my seventy-fifth birthday I shall not celebrate any others, and you can readi