1571. EBB to John Kenyon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 261–262.
[London]
Tuesday– [?19] [March 1844] [1]
My very dear cousin, I have read your letter again & again, [2] & feel your kindness fully & earnestly. You have advised me about the poem, entering into the questions referring to it with the warmth rather of the author of it than the critic of it––and this I am sensible of as absolutely as anyone can be. At the same time, I have a strong perception rather than opinion about the poem,—& also if you wd not think it too serious a word to use in such a place,—I have a conscience about it. It was not written in a desultory fragmentary way,—the last stanzas thrown in, as they might be thrown out, .. but with a design, which leans its whole burden on the last stanzas. In fact, the last stanzas were in my mind to say,—& all the others presented the mere avenue to the end of saying them. Therefore I cannot throw them out .. I cannot yield to the temptation even of pleasing you by doing so—I make a compromise with myself,—& do not throw them out, & do not print the poem. Now say nothing against this my dear cousin—because I am obstinate as you know .. as you have good evidence for knowing. I will not [3] either alter or print it. Then you have your m∙s. copy which you can cut into any shape you please, .. as long as you keep it out of print—and seeing that the poem really does belong to you, having had its origin in your paraphrase of Schiller’s stanzas, [4] I see a great deal of poetical justice in the manuscript copyright remaining in your hands– For the rest I shall have quite enough to print & to be responsible for, without it; and I am quite satisfied to let it be silent for a few years, until either I or you (as may be the case even with me!!!) shall have revised our judgements in relation to it.
This being settled, you must suffer me to explain (for mere personal reasons, & not for the good of the poem) that no mortal priest (of St Peters or otherwise) is referred to in a particular stanza; but the Saviour himself; who is “the High Priest of our profession,” & the only “priest” recognized in the new testament. In the same way the altar-candles are altogether spiritual—or they cd not be supposed, even by the most amazing poetical exaggeration, to “light the earth & skies.” [5] I explain this, only that I may not appear to you to have compromised the principle of the poem, by compromising any truth (such in my eyes) for the sake of a poetical effect.
And now I will not say any more. I know that you will be inclined to cry “print it in any case”—but I will entreat of your kindness,—which I have so much right to trust in while entreating,—not [6] to say one such word. Be kind, & let me follow my own way silently. I have not indeed, like a spoilt child in a pet, thrown the poem up because I wd not alter it—though you have done much to spoil me. I act advisedly—& have made up my mind as to what is the wisest & best thing to do, & personally the pleasantest to myself, after a good deal of serious reflection. ‘Pan is dead’—& so best, for the present at least.
I shall take your advice about the preface in every respect—and thanks for the letter & Taylor’s memoirs. [7]
Miss Mitford talks of coming to town for a day, & of bringing Flush with her, as soon as the weather settles: and today looks so like it that I have mused this morning on the possibility of breaking my prison doors & getting into the next room– Only there is a forbidding north wind, they say.
Dont be vexed with me, dear Mr Kenyon! You know there are obstinacies in the world as well as mortalities, & thereto appertaining– And then, you will perceive, through all mine,—that it is difficult for me to act against your judgement, so far as to put my own tenacity into print.
Ever gratefully & affectionately yours
EBB–
I hear that one of my notes was put under the door!!! Do ask.
Address: John Kenyon Esqr / 40 York Terrace / Regent’s Park.
Publication: LEBB, I, 129–131 (as ca. March 1843).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. EBB’s thanks for Taylor’s memoirs place this letter ahead of letter 1573, in which EBB comments on his correspondence with Southey.
2. Doubtless one of the letters in the collection of Aurelia Brooks Harlan, to which we have been denied access (see List of Absent Letters).
3. Underscored three times.
4. A headnote to “The Dead Pan” acknowledges Kenyon’s “graceful and harmonious paraphrase” of Schiller’s “Götter Griechenlands” and dedicates the poem “to that dear friend and relative.”
5. EBB’s references are to lines 240 and 241 of “The Dead Pan.”
6. Underscored three times.
7. A Memoir of … the Late William Taylor of Norwich, Including His Correspondence … With the Late Robert Southey, Esq., and Other Eminent Men, ed. J.W. Robberd (1844).
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