1222. EBB to Cornelius Mathews
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 91–94.
50 Wimpole Street–
April 28. 1843
My dear Mr Mathews, In replying to your kind letter I send some more verse for Graham’s, [1] praying such demi-semi-gods as preside over contributors to magazines, that I may not appear over-loquacious to my editor. Of course it is not intended to thrust three or four poems into one number: My pluralities go to you simply to “bide your time’[’], & be used one by one as the opportunity is presented– In the meanwhile you have received, I hope, a short letter [2] written to explain my unwillingness to apply as you desired me at first, to Wiley & Putnam, an unwillingness justified by, what you told me afterwards. I did not apply—nor have I applied—& I wd rather not apply at all– Perhaps I shall hear from them presently. The pamphlet on International Copyright [3] is welcome at a distance,—but it has not come near me yet; and for all your kindness in relation to the prospective gift of your works I thank you again & earnestly. You are kind to me in many ways—& I wd willingly know as much of your intellectual habits as you teach me of your genial feelings– This Pathfinder (what an excellent name for an American journal) I also owe to you—with the summing up of your performances in it [4] —& with a notice of Mr Browning’s Blot on the ’Scutcheon which wd make one poet furious (the “infelix Talfourd”) & another a little melancholy, namely Mr Browning himself. [5] There is truth on both sides—but it seems to me hard truth on Browning. I do assure you I never saw him in my life .. do not know him even by correspondence!—and yet whether through fellow-feeling for Eleusinian mysteries, or whether through the more generous motive of appreciation of his powers, I am very sensitive to the thousand & one stripes with which the assembly of critics doth expound its vocation over him—& The Athenæum for instance made me quite cross & misanthropical last week– [6] The truth is, & the world shd know the truth, it is easier to find a more faultless writer than a poet of equal genius– Dont let us fall into the category of the sons of Noah– Noah was once drunk indeed! [7] —but once he built the ark. Talking of poets, would your Graham’s Miscellany care at all to have occasional poetical contributions from Mr Horne?– I am in correspondence with him & I think I could manage an arrangement upon the same terms as my engagement rests on, if you please & your friends please–—that is, .. & without a formality,––if it shd give you any pleasure– He is a writer of great power I think. And this reminds me that you may be looking all this while for the Athenæum’s reply to your friend’s proposition, [8] of which I lost no time in apprizing the editor Mr Dilke,—& here are some of his words .. “An American friend who had been long in England & often conversed with me on the subject, resolved on his return to establish such a correspondence. In all things worth knowing, all reviews of good books” (which “are published first or simultaneously,” says Mr Dilke, “in London”) “he was anticipated: and after some months he was driven of necessity to geological surveys, centenary celebrations, progress of railroads, manufactures &c, & thus the project was abandoned altogether”– Having made this experiment Mr Dilke is unwilling to risk another––neither must we blame him for the reserve. When the International Copyright shall at once protect the national meum & tuum [9] in literature & give it additional fulness & value, we shall cease to say insolently to you that what we want of your books, we will get without your help—but as it is, the Mr Dilkes of us, have nothing much more courteous to do– I wish I could have been of any use to your friend– I have done what I could– In regard to critical papers of mine, I wd willingly give myself up to you, seeing your good nature—but it is the truth that I never published any prose papers at all except the series on the Greek Christian poets & the other series on the English poets in the Athenæum of last year, & both of which you have probably seen. Afterwards I threw up my brief, & went back to my poetry,—in which I feel that I must do whatever I am equal to doing at all. That Life is short & Art long, [10] appears to us more true than usual when we lie all day on a sofa & are as frightened of the east wind as if it were a tiger. Life is not only short but uncertain—& Art is not only long but absorbing. What have I to do with writing ‘scandal’ (as Mr Jones wd say) [11] upon my neighbour’s work, when I have not finished my own?– So I threw up my brief into Mr Dilke’s hands, & went back to my verses. Whenever I print another volume you shall have it, if Messrs Wiley & Putnam will convey it to you– How can I send you, by the way, anything I may have to send you? Why will you not as a nation, embrace our great Penny Post scheme & hold our envelopes in all acceptation? You do not know—cannot guess what a wonderful liberty our Rowland Hill has given to British spirits,—& how we “flash a thought” instead of ‘wafting’ it from our extreme south to our extreme north, paying “a penny for our thought” & for the electricity included– I recommend you our Penny Postage as the most successful revolution since the “glorious three days” [12] of Paris–——
And so, you made merry with my scorn of my Prometheus. Believe me,—believe me absolutely,—I did not strike that others might spare, but from an earnest remorse– When you know me better you will know I hope that I am true, whether right or wrong—& you know already that I am right in this thing, the only merit of the translation being its closeness–
Can I be of any use to you dear Mr Mathews? When I can, make use of me– You surprise & disappoint me in your sketch of the Boston poet,—for the letter he wrote to me struck me as frank & honest. [13] I wonder if he made any use of the verses I sent him—& I wonder what I sent him—for I never made a note of it through negligence, & have quite forgotten– Are you acquainted with Mrs Sigourney? She has offended us much by her exposition of Mrs Southey’s letter, [14] & I must say not without cause– I rejoice in the progress of ‘Wakondah’—wishing the influences of mountain & river to be great over him & in him– And so I will say the ‘God bless you’ your kindness cares to hear, & remain
sincerely & thankfully yours
Elizabeth B Barrett
Address, on integral page: Cornelius Mathews Esqr / 14 Pine Street / New York / United States.
Docket, in EBB’s hand: By Steamer. / April 28– 1843.
Docket, in the hand of Mathews: E. B. Barrett / London / recd May 12th 1843.
Publication: LEBB, I, 132–135 and The Collector, December 1891, pp. 51–52.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. EBB had sent four sonnets with letter 1155, assumed to be “The Soul’s Expression”; “Seraph and Poet”; “The Child and the Watcher”; and “Catarina to Camoens”; these were published between July and October 1843. Those now being sent were presumably “The Lady’s Yes”; “Loved Once”; and “Pain in Pleasure”; these appeared in the magazine between January and August 1844.
2. Letter 1176.
3. See letter 1194.
4. The Pathfinder of 1 April 1843, under the heading “Literary Intelligence,” announced that “A uniform edition of various writings, by Cornelius Matthews, will be issued … to be completed in eight octavo numbers, the first to appear next Wednesday.... The price of the whole will be one dollar.”
5. For the text of the review in the issue of 1 April 1843, see pp. 396–397. The writer referred to Ion, which “has a charmed circle in which the author sat spell bound and there sedet eternumque sedebit, infelix Talford [sic]” (“there sits and will sit for ever, unhappy Talfourd”). Mention was also made of RB’s “harsh and perplexed” language and “frequent affectations of prosiness.”
6. The Athenæum of 22 April (no. 808, p. 385) had said “Mr. Browning’s style is, therefore, primâ facie evidence against his muse.” (For the full text of the review, see pp. 397–399.)
7. Genesis, 10:32 and 9:21.
8. See letter 1194 for the suggestion that Duyckinck might act as American correspondent for The Athenæum.
9. “Mine and thine.”
10. The famous aphorism of the Greek physician Hippocrates of Cos, quoted by Seneca in De Brevitate Vitæ, I, 1.
11. Jones, writing in Graham’s Magazine, had said “Criticism is for men; when women assume it, they write scandal” (see letter 1155).
12. “Les Trois Glorieuses,” a three-day upheaval in July 1830 leading to the overthrow of Charles X of France.
13. Letter 1088. In letter 1194, Mathews had described Lowell as a “specimen of mature & rampant conceit … overtly treacherous.”
14. See letters 1152 and 1198.
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