965. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 357–361.
[London]
28th May. 1842
My dearest friend, I beg your pardon & my own too, for teazing each of us so far more than the occasion required—for really I had made up my mind that something very bad was the better [sic, for matter] either with yourself or with dear Dr Mitford––whereas it was only with my imagination. Your letter was ‘twice blessed’ [1] in consequence of it however, —& now I beseech you to forget, to throw out of the window into the midst of the flowers so as to be buried evermore, the remembrance of the dunning, .. & not to write a bit oftener to me than comes by the inspiration of your kindness, instead of by the exhortation of my never-to-be-satisfied-ibleness!–
No to be sure!– May is not the time for doing anything but standing out in the new grass under the new sun, with the running of a stream threading all the mixed sounds of jubilee, as clear in sound as its own water though so soft!– It is a beautiful, beautiful month! the prophecy,—the hope of the year—with an earnest of performance besides! I wish you my beloved friend, all the May wishes in the world—ah benedicite! as old Chaucer says at the first thought of May. [2]
But then, there is this terrible work about the Findens. Are you aware that the publication has actually begun? I had understood that it was only a prospectus which had been seen—and now George tells me that he saw long ago a first number at the Temple, containing my ‘Child’s dream’ [3] among other things, & which was sent to him at his chambers in the way that those cheap periodicals have the fashion of passing round. Still, on the ground of remuneration, & also of arresting the further publication, you must be safe. George says there can be no question about it—particularly as your retention of right of copyright was mentioned in your agreement. Do not be too vexed I beseech you—& do not be uneasy at all—if the thing be possible. You will see that everything will work right again. And as to this partial publication——why it must really be partial in every sense. Not an advertisement have I seen of it, by ‘any kind of light’ [4] —& I am a surveyor general of advertisements of books, always looking to them as my “leading article’[’] in a newspaper. So I do encourage myself into hoping strenuously that after all the engagement with Colburn may stand good & profitable. [5] Tell me, my dearest friend,—I beg of you to tell me, the whole event of it.
You must make allowances for the weakness (in reason & philosophy) of such people who living themselves in London would fain transplant you out of the woods to have & to hold & to water gently in a flowerpot of their own. We know very well that you laugh us to scorn all the time—and yet I stand by Mr Kenyon, & Mr Kenyon stands by me & we both wish you lived close to us!–
And that throws me into party-spiriting, & makes me take Mr Kenyon’s part again in the affair of the travelling. You would’nt care to see Italy by the light of that sun? nor the “great sublime” [6] of nature in the Alpine passes? nor the Hartz mountains of Germany?– You wdnt fly, if you could? Now I would! Nay—in the exaggeration of my malignancy, I would have you with me & fly so!–
Are you afraid of me my beloved friend—of the consummating strength of my wishes, .. which is in your creed I know? Yet do not be afraid. The thing is too impossible—taking the full sum [7] of my weakness & your unwillingness—to be wished very hard!—and—(which I sigh for most of all!) my evil eye [8] might be twice as evil as it is, without achieving any evil to you, seeing that it cannot see you!–
& [9] all this illnature comes of yours to the generation of poor poets. You talk with a Bilboa blade [10] for a tongue, when you talk of them—that is certain! Tell me how far is a young lady who trembles when she is asked to sing, less morally morbid & naughty than the worst of the poor poets, scolded so for being sensitive? Tell me again. Is not the very extremity of the sensitiveness in question compatible with a sensitive sympathy? Tell me again– You who were ennobled out of these “base uses” [11] by the holiest of affections, are you not also lifted away from the comprehension of them by another circumstance .. to whit [sic], your own literary success from the beginning? Suppose it had ever occurred to you to feel yourself depreciated .. your right price denied .. your place in literature given to the unworthy before you! Such things have been, [12] as we all know—& Wordsworth was not the last victim we all fear. [13] Can you not conceive the bitterness—yes, the bitterness embittering in its turn? the injustice, can you not shrink at the very imagination of that .. you who speak so expressively in this very last letter of the deep inward feeling which a sense of injustice, even pecuniary, involves?– Do, do forgive me for my surpassing impertinence. I quite wonder at myself for my impertinence I assure you—& so you may well open your eyes!—very well, as long as you dont at the same moment, knit the broad Coleridgian department above them! [14] To be sure you are by no means a hero-worshipper—& I am, by all manner of means!–
I am so glad you have had Martha with you. What she said … I was glad to hear it! because it was a reflection in the glass, of the face of your kindness!
It is very very hot indeed! and we want a little wind (not east if you please) but a little more wind of the sweet south-west than we have, first to dilute the strong sunshine & secondly to play on an Æolian harp [15] which Papa has just bought for the drawing room. They (“the boys”) brought it up to my room this morning & held it out of the window … “Blow, Blow” [16] &c—but very few breaths wd come, & all our bravos wd not incite King Æolus to “favor us”!– Think of my being so innocent as never in my whole life to have heard an Æolian harp before! I did just hear it this morning, in a whisper, tho’ “marvellous sweet.” [17]
I do not send you the Athenæum, having no part in this week’s.
And now goodbye– God bless you, my dearest dearest friend!– Oh! but I must tell you!– Flushie was thought to be lost today! quite lost! I did not think so, or know anything of the suppositious danger. Henrietta walking with two strangers (to Flushie) took him out & missed him in Bond Street. Oh! Flush was’nt to be seen—was’nt to be heard of. She came home in despair, & found him here—Mr Flush evidently not liking his company, & coming back all that way by himself half an hour before she came! She wont have Papa told of the adventure—because he prophecied & said just as she left the house “You will lose Flush! and if you do, you had better not come back at all.”!–
You may suppose what high favor Flushie is in with Papa! Perhaps it was a little for love of me—still, love of Flushie was much!
God bless you ever. My love to dear Dr Mitford. Arabel is well again, & she & I too, thank you again & again for your kindest sympathy. Dearest friend,
Always your own
EBB
No more meazles! You wd not have me give up my vision? [18] Oh—surely surely not!–
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 417–420.
Manuscript: Folger Shakespeare Library and Wellesley College.
1. The Merchant of Venice, IV, 1, 186.
2. The Cuckoo and the Nightingale, line 1. In all editions of Chaucer published in EBB’s lifetime, this poem was ascribed to him; since 1878, its author is believed to have been either John Clanvowe (d. 1391) or his son Thomas (d. 1410).
3. “The Dream” was one of EBB’s contributions to the 1840 Findens’ Tableaux. The subject of this paragraph is the alleged infringement of copyright in the material published in Findens’, mentioned in letter 957 and subsequently.
4. Cf. King John, IV, 3, 61.
5. Miss Mitford was concerned that the problem over copyright would diminish her recompense from Colburn, discussed in more detail in a letter from EBB to R.H. Horne ([ca. June 1842]).
6. Pope, “Essay on Criticism” (1711), 680.
7. The Merchant of Venice, III, 2, 157.
8. An ancient belief held that certain individuals had the power to harm or even kill with a glance. Vergil speaks of lambs being so harmed (Eclogues, III, 103).
9. EBB has altered this paragraph by inserting an ampersand.
10. The Spanish city of Bilbao was famous for its finely-tempered sword blades.
11. Hamlet, V, 1, 202.
12. Cf. Macbeth, III, 4, 109.
13. Taken to be a reference to Wordsworth’s having been passed over in favour of Southey for the Laureateship in 1813.
14. EBB had compared Miss Mitford’s forehead to that of Coleridge in letter 828, and Chorley tells how Hablot Knight Browne spoke of “that wonderful wall of forehead” (Chorley, I, 15).
15. An Æolian harp, named after Æolus, ruler of the winds, produced sounds by the passage of air over its strings.
16. As You Like It, II, 7, 174.
17. The Tempest, III, 3, 19.
18. Probably the wish of EBB and Kenyon that Miss Mitford move to London, mentioned in letter 963.
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