1025. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 105–107.
[London]
Oct. 15th 1842–
Yes! and when you say that Mr Townsend complains of the obscurity of Mr Browning, you shd add that your Elizabeth Barrett does the like, of both of them! Nevertheless Mr Townsend & I are not peers of Mr Browning’s. I have a high admiration of Mr Browning & recognize all the poet in him, if a little of the riddle-maker,—& often great thoughts, which while they love the cloud, have the glory of the lightening. He is defective in harmony it strikes me: but the power of objecting dies away before the palpable presence of poetic genius everywhere, from Paracelsus to these last dramatic scenes. [1] His conceptive faculty is far beyond Milnes’s: and Mr Townsend’s is none at all .. at least in exercise. Do you observe of Mr Townsend that capable as he is of pretty thoughts, beautiful thoughts, most poetic thoughts, he has no idea whatever of attempting a whole of poetic creation? I have doubted whether the defect arose from his habit of giving broken moments instead of whole days to composition—or whether from a deeper source; and I do suspect that it is from the deeper source.
As to my own “shadows clouds & darkness” [2] you are very very kind to compare them to Rembrandt [3] —but I receive the kindness as bare mercy—and I must & will work myself a clearer atmosphere. In the meantime the stanzas I sent you yesterday my beloved friend, deserved, I do believe, to be too late—& I am glad they were, .. since so, they made room for verses of your own: & I only hope & trust that in the rest I have done you no injury in proportion to the good I intended. It will be hard to run the gauntlet of all the critics, & hear not a word in dispraise! And supposing such a word to come, I shall feel it as I never did critic’s crossness before, like a galvanic battery through & through me–
Ah—the chloride of lime! It is very purifying to the air, & its appropriate unpleasantness you may perhaps fumigate away with the pastilles. Here are two more boxes of the latter, waiting to hear if you will have them. I am so very very glad that the grapes were acceptable, & I shall send you more of the same on Monday. Do, I beseech you, keep out in the air as much as possible. Otherwise you destroy yourself & unavailingly. And when you are not in the external air, do not let the alternative be the bedside while he sleeps—but go up stairs & lie on your own bed or on the sofa, so as to preserve your strength & serenity as far as you can! I beseech you my dearest dearest Miss Mitford, be persuaded by me in this thing. My hopes are full of much future happiness for you, & perhaps of some happiness to be enjoyed with you,—and if you destroy yourself now, if you ruin your health for ever by a sacrifice without usefulness, what shall I say to you? Be persuaded, my beloved friend.
And now I will tell you of a kindness done to me by your friend Mr Haydon. Henrietta & Arabel both went to see the cartoon some days ago, .. nay, many days ago, .. & were delighted, full of admiration. [4] He showed them among other pictures, an unfinished portrait of Wordsworth for which he sate this last summer,—& upon the sight of which Arabel exclaimed,—“Oh, how my sister wd like to see this!” “Then she shall see it” said the kind Mr Haydon: and accordingly on the very same evening, the picture was sent to me,—& here it is still, because I was desired to keep it until it was sent for. [5] Is it not kind? And the sort of pleasure the picture has given me I shd describe with difficulty. A magnificent head, its white hair glittering like a crown! I mean to send a sonnet back with it as a witness to my feeling. [6]
May God bless you my beloved friend, & your dear sufferer. I think of you all day long.
Ever your
EBB–
If you have had time to read the Bishop of London’s wonderful charge, you will smile a little. [7] There has been a something better account of dear Dr Scully. Mr Ticknor’s Christian name is just what we wanted to learn.
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 48–49.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. King Victor and King Charles, published in March 1842 as the second in the Bells and Pomegranates series.
2. Cf. Joel, 2:2.
3. Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606–69) was noted for his masterly use of light and shade. Apparently Miss Mitford had commented adversely on the obscurity of portions of EBB’s work.
4. The Commissioners of Fine Arts had published, in April 1842, the rules for a contest for designs to decorate Barry’s new Houses of Parliament. Haydon had commenced his “Adam and Eve” on 18 July and completed it on 28 September (Pope, V, 280, 597). An exhibition of 140 works entered in the contest, including Haydon’s, was mounted in Westminster Hall in June 1843.
5. Haydon’s portrait of “Wordsworth on Helvellyn” (reproduced as frontispiece) is now in the National Portrait Gallery. EBB kept it in her room until Haydon exchanged it for a less finished portrait in April 1843.
6. EBB wrote a sonnet on the portrait at the end of her letter of thanks to Haydon (no. 1026).
7. Charles James Blomfield (1786–1857) became Bishop of London in 1828, on translation from the see of Chester. The Times of 12 October reported an address given by him at the conclusion of the service at St. Paul’s on 10 October, in which he deplored the “great degree of laxity” that had “of late years crept into the church” in the observance of the Thirty-Nine Articles of faith which all ordinands swore to uphold. He spoke in particular of the doctrine of regeneration by baptism, fundamental to the Christian faith, and deplored the extensive practice of omitting portions of the baptismal rubric mandated by The Book of Common Prayer. He also commented on various ceremonial observances, such as worshipping facing the east, the use of candles on the altar, and the dress of the clergy. It was doubtless his reference to these minutiæ that caused EBB, who did not believe in such emphasis on ritual, to prophesy that Miss Mitford would “smile a little” on reading his speech.
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