1707. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 128–130.
[London]
Saturday. [7 September 1844] [1]
Oh no—my dearest friend—not a ‘goose’. The letters are only specialities—Carlyle on letter paper. Indeed I was very grateful for them, & value them at more than diamond-worth. Not that I think him right in his first principle,—nor that I think it consistent with his second. In fact he is a poet himself with a rhythm of his own,—& while he thinks he fights, he is often singing. [2]
Thank you much for the Essay on Moly which I return to you. [3] You never mentioned it to me before although you speak as if you had done so.
The John Bull has honoured me, then, by striking me with a baton consecrated to you!– [4] Well—now I mind it less than ever. The Westminster Review, I am told, says briefly that “Elizabeth Barrett’s poems are of the highest order of excellence, & that they intend to review them at large by an early opportunity.” [5] I tell you this, knowing that you will care a little to hear it,—the Westminster being next, I suppose, in weight, to the Edinburgh & Quarterly.
No—I have not read yet ‘Le Juif Errant.’ [6] It is difficult for a person not at hand ready to snatch a book, to have the first fruits of the libraries,—&, then, I was the less anxious, from the consideration that by waiting I shd have the whole romance at once, instead of reading it piece-meal, by volumes. You do amuse me so, by your erotophobia, & hatred for the tender passion! Well—but Balzac does not always write love-romances,—he does not draw life out at one end only—he has written Eugenie Grandet as well as ‘Le Lis,’ and “Cæsar Birotteau” as well as “La femme de trente ans.” [7] But you wont love Balzac, whether he “loves love” or not. I confess I come to a note of admiration (that is, of astonishment) at your not liking Balzac,—but you dont,—and I will not vainly try to talk him into you. Oh—I do not doubt that his style may be criticised,—& George Sand’s also—and Victor Hugo’s also, .. both by French & Russians. I can fully see that, as Addison’s prose passes with a high critical class in England, for standard English, & the prose of more various & expressive colourists, for barbaric English, .. so the “classical” writers of Louis Quatorze take standard places in the face of these romanticists whose very diction throbs & glows again with the passion at their hearts. After all however the French do read their Balzac, George Sand & Hugo, .. & are moved deeply by them, .. & their works overflow into Russia like a flood, .. attesting its power by its extension. And after all, too, .. not to be arrogant in judging of a foreign style .. this style & diction have a power, & suggest imagery, .. & assume to my apprehension, more variety & expression & subtlety of analysis & even harmony, than I ever dreamed of finding in the diction of a French book. The language seems to me transfigured in these writers, & glorified in the change. I never thought to read such French, & call it French still.
Your triumph in drawing back Colonel Jackson [8] is assuredly a greater triumph than any over the race of booksellers—& I do not wonder that it shd have pleased you. I told Mr Kenyon what your books had done—and his answer was .. “I can well fancy that” .. and so can I. I see in the Athenæum today that a Miss Beale has been imitating you in her “Vale of Towey—sketches of south wales”—of which the reviewer says properly that what in you is “engaging communicativeness,” is apt to deteriorate in your imitators to all manner of evil. [9] I am so glad to hear of the illustration from your suggestion. Blackwood has just come in to be read.
From Mr Kenyon I have not heard,—& he is still away—& I miss him in proportion to his kindness when here. Neither have we heard from our voyagers,—but this could scarcely be yet,—& we must be patient through the long anxiety. There is truth in what you say—but all Stormie[’]s shyness & impotencies arise from his social position. [10] He can rough it excellently,—but he cannot struggle against carpet difficulties. I am not in fact sure that the scheme is one likely to benefit him essentially,—but we shall see. To begin with, I heard him say to Henry .. “Do not fancy that I will go with you into the midst of those people at Gibraltar—I shall be off to the cork wood by myself.” This only because Henry spoke of seeing a <***>
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 446–448.
Manuscript: Folger Shakespeare Library and Wellesley College.
1. Dated by reference to letters from Carlyle which EBB had sent to Miss Mitford with letter 1706.
2. See letter 1706.
3. Unidentified.
4. We have been unable to clarify this reference.
5. The Westminster Review for September 1844 (p. 264) made the following announcement: “The poems of Elizabeth Barrett are of the highest order of excellence. We shall take an early opportunity of noticing them at length.” The promised review appeared in the December 1844 issue (pp. 381–392); for the text, see pp. 374–378.
6. Eugène Sue’s novel began to appear in 1844.
7. Balzac’s novels La Femme de trente ans (1832), Eugénie Grandet (1833), and César Birotteau (1837).
8. Unidentified.
9. The Vale of Towey: or Sketches in South Wales (1844) by Anne Beale was reviewed in The Athenæum for 7 September 1844 (no. 880, p. 810). The reviewer stated that what is in Miss Mitford a “pleasant and engaging communicativeness, becomes with her imitators affectation and twaddle.”
10. i.e., as eldest son.
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