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658 J A M E S [1932-1935]to the point where blindness in it was almost inevitable. His preliminaryrecommendation was that he perform two operations on it, though theprognosis was doubtful, and if they succeeded, he would then operate onthe left eye. 49He warned Joyce that both eyes would profit from 'psychischeRuhe,' but this was not easy for a man with an insane daughterto come by. Vogt's proposed treatment was so radical that Joyce wroteDrs. Hartmann and Collinson in Paris, who disagreed with Vogt andthought the eye not fitfor an operation. 50 George Joyce and even Luciawarned their father against it by letter.*Five weeks in Zurich left Joyce indignant that the 'best ophthalmologistin the world' should live in 'the worst eye-climate.' 52The reports fromthe Jolases about Lucia were reassuring, but Joyce feared they were 'rigged.'Lucia's own letters worried him by their 'lack of even casual connections,'though he found some of her phrases 'very fine.' 53She kept suggestingthat she come to Zurich, and in part to forestall more scenes atrailroad stations Joyce and Nora went to the Hotel Lowen at Feldkirchand stayed there from August 10 to September 6. For a time Lucia wasquiet and worked on her decorative alphabet, reaching the letter O, andher father wrote everyone, and had Leon and Pinker write also, to arrangefor the use of the initial letters in some book of children's poemsgrouped in alphabetical order. At last he hit upon the notion of usingher letters in A Chaucer ABC, which was published with a preface byLouis Gillet in 1936.1 A few of Lucia's designs were used in October*To make up for the fees which Vogt refused for treatment, Joyce asked Paul Leon todevise some way of publicizing the fact that Joyce was Vogt's patient. Joyce wrote on July31- i93 2 >Can you, fine mouche, without exposing me think of a way out. The Pressdesires nothing better. ... I will consent to reading again about J. J., author of thebanned book U[lysses] who lives in Paris in the Eiffel Tower so that he can alwayslisten in to his friend Sullivan of the Metropolitan Opera the only living bass whocan sing the title role in Rossini's La ]uive has gone to the famous seaside resortZurich in the south of Portugal accompanied by his wife who was recently marriedto him for the third [time] for supernatural reasons to consult the great oculist VOGT'who has already operated on him more than fifty times. Mr J contracted his terribleailment at the early age of 16 on a windy day in Dublin, his home village, whenhis eyes were suddenly startled by the sight of his life et une autre chose encore queje n'ose pas dire. Mr J never goes out in Paris except in perambulator wheeled byhis Greek and Roman nurse Miss Pavel Leopoldovitch who reads to him while hesleeps passages from Adolphe Benjamenin's curious poem about love matching entitledConstancy."Leon succeeded in getting Vogt's name into the papers.t Joyce wrote to Sylvia Beach on October 23, 1932, 'I spent a wobbly half hour on thetop of your ladder today looking for the father of English literature but could not findhim. Can you lend me a complete Chaucer for a few days? Mine is locked up. 1 want toread his poem ABC (every stanza begins with a letter of the alphabet) as Lucia has finishedher 26 letters A-Z. It is a translation from an old French poem. I put Clough,Colum, Chesterton, Coleridge etc all back in their places.'