“I produced [Clive] without difficulty and got some initial hints for him from a slight academic acquaintance … thought it was I who gave Clive his ‘hellenic’ temperament and flung him into Maurice’s affectionate arms. Once there, he took charge, he laid down the lines on which the unusual relationship should proceed. He believed in platonic restraint and induced Maurice to acquiesce, which does not seem to me at all unlikely. Maurice at this stage is humble and inexperienced and adoring, he is the soul released from prison, and if asked by his deliverer to remain chaste he obeys. Consequently the relationship lasts for three years – precarious, idealistic and peculiarly English: what Italian boy would have put up with it? – still it lasts until Clive ends it by turning to women and sending Maurice back to prison. “Henceforward Clive deteriorates, and so perhaps does my treatment of him. He has annoyed me. … This works well enough for Maurice, for it accelerates his descent into Hell and toughens him there for the final reckless climb. But it may be unfair on Clive who intends no evil and who feels the last crack of my whip in the final chapter, when he discovers that his old Cambridge friend has relapsed inside Penge itself, and with a gamekeeper.”
Green Violin Bow 