1228. EBB to John Kenyon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 101–102.
[London]
May 1– 1843.
My dear cousin,
Here is my copy-right for you—& you will see that I have put ‘word’ instead of ‘sound,’ as certainly the proper ‘word’– [1] Do let me thank you once more for all the trouble & interest you have taken with me & in me– Observe besides that I have altered the title according to your unconscious suggestion, & made it ‘The Dead Pan,’ which is a far better name, I think, than the repetition of the refrain. [2]
But I spoil my exemplary docility so far, by confessing that I dont like “scornful children” half .. no, not half so well as my “railing children” [3] —although, to be sure, you proved to me that the last was nigh upon nonsense. You proved it—that is, you almost proved it———for dont we say, .. at least, might’nt we say, .. “the thunder was silent”?? [4] ‘thunder’ involving the idea of noise, as much as ‘railing children’ do–. Consider this—I give it up to you.
I am ashamed to have kept Carlyle so long, but I quite failed in trying to read him at my usual pace—he wont be read quick. After all, & full of beauty & truth as that book is, [5] & strongly as it takes hold of my sympathies, there is nothing new in it, … not even a new Carlyleism .. which I do not say by way of blaming the book, .. because the author of it might use words like the apostle’s, … “To write the same things even to you, to me indeed is not grievous, & to you it is safe–” [6] The world being blind & deaf & rather stupid, requires a re-iteration of certain uncongenial truths.
Dear Miss Mitford was so unwell & depressed when she arrived at Bath, that she wrote to me very doubtfully as to going farther—& even in her letter of today, which is brighter & blyther, the question does not seem fully determined. I advise for the perseverance—the inconveniences having been simply from sickness, which is likely to yield, I shd hope, to time & a succession in the changes. She is delighted with the beauty of Bath (the most beautiful town to my mind, which I ever saw!) & has obeyed your commands, I am desired to say, as to points of view—in relation to which she observes, .. “It’s odd that Miss James shd be perched on one of the hills to which Mr Kenyon sent me—Lansdown crescent—& Miss Waddington on the other .. Beachen cliff.” Miss Waddington is a novelist—author of [‘]‘The Monk & the married man” &c [7] —& Miss James is an intimate friend—and of Miss Pickering, she knows something—& Mrs Trollope is at Clifton … & she enquires about the ‘Sketcher’ [8] ––therefore, you see, she is by no means living in the wilderness upon locusts & wild honey– [9]
Thank you for the address–
Ever affectionately yours
EBB–
I observe that the most questionable rhymes are not objected to by Mr Merivale [10] .. also .... but this letter is too long already–
Publication: LEBB, I, 136–137 (in part).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. EBB probably refers to an alteration in lines 40 and 47 of “The Dead Pan,” which, when printed in Poems (1844), read respectively: “Not a word the Naiads say” and “Not a word the Dryads say.”
2. Two of the extant manuscript copies are entitled “Pan is Dead” (see Reconstruction, D186 and D190).
3. However, the published version accepts Kenyon’s suggestion (line 131).
4. This phrase did not appear in the final text.
5. Carlyle’s Past and Present.
6. Philippians, 3:1.
7. Julia Rattray Waddington’s most recent work was Newstoke Priors (1842); The Monk and the Married Man was published in 1840.
8. i.e., John Eagles (see letter 910, note 1).
9. Matthew, 3:4.
10. John Herman Merivale (1779–1844) was “an accurate and elegant scholar, accomplished alike in classical and romantic literature” (DNB). His works included Poems, Original and Translated (1838) and translations of The Minor Poems of Schiller (1844), a copy of which he gave EBB (see Reconstruction, A2019). For his comments on “The Dead Pan,” see SD1189 and SD1190.
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