Correspondence

1147.  EBB to Benjamin Robert Haydon

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 317.

[London]

Feb. 7th 1843–

I congratulate you my dear friend upon the Curtius. The Morning Chronicle gives me good news of it as the finest work of art in the exhibition [1] —and my cousin Mr Kenyon, with whom I talked of it yesterday, said that it was a “grand conception” .. praised the “serene look not exaggerated in serenity” of the hero, .. & the wild, plunging turbulence of the horse—& observed that you almost tremble while you look at it lest you shd be overwhelmed bodily by man & horse. You may be certain how much pleasure I feel in your success.

 

.. moi qui ne suis rien,

Pas même Academicien!– [2]

& how, although I cannot see it, I imagine the grandeur of the contrast & antithesis between that calm human will & that violent animal agony!—

Thank you for acceding to my thought about Chaucer. Your Fool is excellent– [3]  There, too, will be antithesis!– And if your mind is to be generous & admit Gower, … why not? & going upon a pilgrimage to St Saviour’s church Southwark you will find him in monumental effigies, ready to be painted from– [4]

Most truly yours .. between this & my monument.–

Elizabeth B Barrett.

Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 28–29.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. The Morning Chronicle of 6 February, although not enthusiastic about “C’est Lui,” praised “Curtius,” saying “The horse is full of fire and spirit” and concluding that “This is decidedly the finest work on a large scale in the exhibition.”

2. “I who am nothing, not even an Academician” (Alexis Piron, 1689–1773, Mon Epitaphe).

3. In letter 1173, Haydon says he is adding the Fool to “The Black Prince Entering London”; EBB was presumably commenting on his preparatory sketch.

4. John Gower (1325?–1408), the author of Confessio Amantis, was a friend of Chaucer and the two of them were depicted as onlookers in “The Black Prince Entering London.” He was buried in the chapel of St. John the Baptist in the church of St. Mary Overies, commonly called St. Saviour’s, in Southwark. His effigy, still extant, lies beneath a triple-arched canopy, with his head resting on three volumes inscribed with the titles of his principal works.

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