1748. EBB to Benjamin Robert Haydon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 205–207.
50 Wimpole Street
October 30. 1844.
It is your own fault, my dear Mr Haydon, if I have not yet quite finished your work. [1] You desired me to read a lecture a day, and I have been as perfect as I could, in my obedience. It is a very interesting work—& the very faults of it .. or what appear to me to be such, .. add something to the interest, by giving an appearance of precipitate & uncalculating ardour on the part of the writer. The individuality also, is marked in broad lines—we have not to deal with lectures on Art by an artist, but with lectures by B R Haydon on his art,—and this of course I like, and others will like. The anatomical parts appear to me to be too much detailed & not sufficiently developped,—I mean, that, without example,—more example than you give, .. a pupil, unacquainted with anatomy, might receive a heap of words in many places, & confused ideas in their connection. I tried it, at least, with myself, and on one or two points your plates appeared to me insufficient. But your argument in favour of the necessity of anatomical studies, I take to be a conclusive argument,—put with great vivacity but supported with no less logic.
Notwithstanding what I said of the good effect of some of the “very faults,” I certainly wish that some of them were away. I wish that your language were more correct & specific than it is sometimes, and that several things had been omitted, which according to my impression, sin against good taste. Also I think you use some disrespectful expressions in speaking of Michael Angelo,—expressions contradictory to the admiration you in another place profess for him. And I do not agree in what you say of Shakespeare, .. in the analogy you suggest between his use of an historical fact, & Raffaell’s use of Michal Angelo’s success in Art. If you had said that Shakespeare triumphed with the language prepared for him by Chaucer, .. you wd have found the right analogy there. But Hollingshead’s suggestions, [2] & even the plots provided by other writers, were no more to Shakespeare, than your models are to you, .. than nature was to both Michal Angelo & Raffael, .. mere material .. “this, & no more.” [3] Will you not agree to this? I could moreover struggle with your text here & there, where it speaks of poetry. Painting is her elder sister,—is she?
“And Painting mute & motionless
Steals but a glance at time.” [4]
Remember that. But you will be satisfied with my veracity in having told you so many free thoughts already, .. & I would not have you dissatisfied with my impertinence. I speak freely, just because I like to tell you what my impressions are, & not at all because I imagine them to have a straw’s value. On the contrary, I am ready to stand corrected wherever you may find it worth while to give me correction, .. and be sure, that with all the liberties in which I indulge, few of your friends can feel towards your faculty & your book, a truer & more ingenuous respect than I do. I wish every success to the book & should fancy that it was likely to be read with interest (much of it at least) by more persons than the professional & the studious. Do tell me whatever good news you may hear of it,—& whether Wordsworth expressed himself much pleased with the dedication. [5] I am interested in all these details. The review (which as you sent for it, I was just thinking of returning) was gratifying, from its intelligent & discriminating character of praise. I see that I am reviewed in Blackwood—& Tait! [6] Do you hear the gnashing of critical teeth? It is feeding time.
And how kind of you to send me Napoleon, .. in a brief vision! [7] You will throw a deeper look into the countenance of course, before you have done—& my criticism is, that he is too much in a corner, .. up against <***>
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 179–180 (in part).
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library and Folger Shakespeare Library.
1. i.e., the first volume of Haydon’s Lectures on Painting and Design (1844). The second volume appeared in 1846.
2. Raphael Holinshed or Hollingshead (d. 1580?) was the author of Chronicles (1577) which was the source for many of Shakespeare’s historical plays.
3. We have not been able to locate the source of this quotation.
4. Cf. Thomas Campbell, “Valedictory Stanzas to J.P. Kemble, Esq.” (1817), lines 19–20.
5. Haydon’s Lectures were “Dedicated to William Wordsworth, the Poet, with Affection, Respect, and Admiration, by the Author. London, September, 1844.” We have not found any response Wordsworth might have made.
6. For the text of the review of EBB’s Poems (1844) in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, see pp. 350–363, and for the text of the review in Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, see pp. 363–368.
7. Perhaps no. 173 in Pope’s checklist, “Napoleon Musing at St. Helena,” which was completed on 31 December 1844 and purchased by the Duke of Devonshire for £25.
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