Correspondence

1367.  EBB to Cornelius Mathews

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 302–305.

50 Wimpole Street

August 31 1843.

My dear Mr Mathews,

I am afraid that a letter of mine has gone astray from you; which is of more consequence to me than to you, inasmuch as it may cause me to be “punished with your hard thoughts” [1] for more carelessness & ingratitude than belong of right to me. I wrote immediately upon receiving your works in their reprint [2] to acknowledge that kindness——I did not even wait to read a single number through. Pray believe at last, dear Mr Mathews, that I received them gratefully. Since then, I have read them with great attention & recognized the power & talent which are destined, I do not doubt, to develop themselves still farther & in more distinctive forms. There is an inclination to the grotesque which while it gives evidence of a ready fancy, disturbs the effect of the general impression to such readers as I am—and the very faithfulness to American manners & associations while I consistently applaud it, does nevertheless occasionally in spite of myself increase this disturbance. If the book had circulation in England, it might be called a little coarse perhaps in certain parts of it, by certain critics—and I think that the more serious papers would be more sure than the rest, of popularity. I like them best myself indeed—admitting as all readers, whether English or American, must do, the talent & vivacity in description, the varied talent & varied vivacity, of which proof is given both in jest & earnest. And now I wish much to know whether you have directed Messrs Wiley & Putnam to send copies to English reviewers .. to the editors of the Athenæum, New Monthly Mag.[,] Literary Gazette &c &c–? In my lost letter I suggested this necessity to you, as the only means of getting the work into English circulation. Also a few advertisements in the English papers might be of use– It wd give me the greatest pleasure to do anything acceptable to you & useful to the book; but I am more impotent than you perhaps imagine, & could not save my own head from the axe if it pleased any literary executioner to keep his hand in by cutting it off.

And coming to my head I come to an opportunity of touching upon the matter of Graham’s Miscellany– I beseech you, dear Mr Mathews, neither to say nor think a word more on it, [3] .. except that I am obliged to you & shall always remain so, for the interest, very kind & very gratifying to me, which led both of us into a mistake. For the gentlemen of the Miscellany, it wd certainly have been more becoming if they had known their own minds at first, or at least been open & sincere as soon as they knew it,—but the consequence of this is not of the slightest importance to me,—nor is it of force enough in itself to cast even so much as one shadow upon the pleasant consciousness with which I speak the words .. “American kindness”– As to “looking to you for the money” .. you are generous—but the proposition can go no farther, than proving the generosity. Pray neither say nor think any more upon this subject! Only let me know what mss of mine you still have, & then put them into the fire—and remember (this I entreat you to do) that I shall always remember with a cordial obligation both what you have done & wished to do for me!—& not least, the last!–

You are all very angry, I cannot but be so<rry—wi>th the last Chuzzlewitt: I am sure of it through an <an>ger of my own. [4] Nothing in fact can to my mind excuse the ingratitude & obliquity in good feeling of every kind, of those last numbers—by no means the power of them—for the genius of the writer seems to fail & falter through an evil conscience of his cause. The cord of the bow relaxes, & the arrows tremble from the mark. It is a pitiful attack.

As to that upon Mrs Sigourney in all our newspapers, & which you threw light upon by a justifying paragraph of an American paper, sent kindly to me, it is quite clear both by that paragraph & other evidence, that Mrs Southey did not act an honest part in the matter. [5] She wrote cordially to Mrs Sigourney & then moaned calumnies against her to home correspondents: there was a doubleness which certain of her advocates admitted mutteringly as they threw down their briefs. Why cannot men & women take courage to be honest? It was wrong in Mrs Sigourney to print that letter, considering the domestic & peculiar detail in which it abounded. It was more wrong in Mrs Southey to deny her own impressions to Mrs Sigourney, & then disclose them to the sympathy of British critics: I wd rather be wrong with Mrs Sigourney than with Mrs Southey. Poor Southey’s mss were put into the hands of Mr Taylor (van Artevelde) who undertook to write his life—but I understand that the material proving very involved & Mr Taylor’s health being precarious, he has shrunk from the labor, & resolved, on going to Italy instead. I do not know who is likely to take his place– [6] Mr Rogers also is going, or talking of going, abroad—to Munich with Eastlake—a noble pilgrimage for a man past eighty! but he puts the youth of his heart into his feet. I wish I could send you more news from the old world—but I scarcely sit by the windows of it. Except in books, I see no life. I lie on the sofa in my room & hear only the movements of my own soul.

Did you receive a few books which I sent to you by Messrs Putnam & Wiley some time ago? And will you believe me ever,

truly yours

E B Barrett

Address, on integral page: Cornelius Mathews Esqr / 14 Pine Street / New York / United States.

Docket, in Mathews’s hand: Rd Sep. 21st 1843 / E.B.B. London.

Publication: The Collector, January 1892, p. 74.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Cf. As You Like It, I, 2, 183–184.

2. Motley Book and Behemoth, acknowledged by EBB in letter 1310.

3. Mathews had apologized in letter 1344 for the delay in paying EBB for her contributions to Graham’s Magazine.

4. See letter 1306, note 3.

5. EBB adverts to the publication of Mrs. Southey’s letter by Mrs. Sigourney, in Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands (1842, pp. 52–55), mentioned in letters 1222, 1245 and 1310. The Athenæum of 8 April had said that “Mrs. Sigourney, a perfect stranger, wrote to Mrs. Southey to request her correspondence. Mrs. Southey … declined the honour, but simply and politely answered her inquiries as to Mr. Southey’s health. All this, of course, was under the recognized seal of private correspondence … You may judge, then of Mrs. Southey’s astonishment, when she afterwards saw her letter not only printed … but interpolated with phrases implying intimacy … not one of which she ever penned” (no. 806, p. 340). We have not traced the “justifying paragraph” to which EBB refers.

6. Joseph Cottle published Reminiscences of S.T. Coleridge and Robert Southey in 1847. Charles Thomas Browne’s Life of Robert Southey came out in 1854.

___________________

National Endowment for the Humanities - Logo

Editorial work on The Brownings’ Correspondence is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This website was last updated on 3-28-2024.

Copyright © 2024 Wedgestone Press. All rights reserved.

Back To Top