1793. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 291–294.
[London]
Christmas eve. 1844.
Ever dearest Miss Mitford,
What has become of me you will wonder. And yet in this simoom of the north, it is natural to hide one’s face in the snow of life, & be as silent & lost as possible. It is warmer of course, than it was,—& for several days, was quite warm—but the east wind prevails, & the frost, however modified, is present. I wd willingly forget myself—if I could do it without forgetting you—the last being neither possible nor agreeable.
Mary Wolstonecraft!—yes. I used to read Mary Wolstonecraft,—(the ‘Rights of woman’,) .. when I was twelve years old, & “quite agree with her.” [1] Her eloquence & her doctrine were equally dear to me at that time, when I was inconsoleable for not being born a man. Ah—if I had thought that I shd have lived all my life without leaving my petticoats, both in the actual & metaphorical sense, how, at ten years old, I shd have frowned myself to scorn! And yet after all, it is true what you say. Except in a moment of exaltation & strong excitement, it wd be very painful to me to affront certain charges—I could not bear it. I shd rather for instance (between you & me) remain ill, as poor Miss Martineau was, than be submitted to the vile insults & insinuations, .. such as we know her to have suffered from. But then I admire her all the more!! I mean, all the more for being brave beyond my capacity. Do you not see?– I am of opinion secretly that if she had deferred the statement, it wd have been more expedient,—& also that if she had observed more logic in her passion, it wd have been more impressive: I see contradictions just as you do. But, when all is done, I admire her courage in speaking the truth as she conceives of it, at her personal cost,—I admire that, in the abstract precisely as I admire Godiva’s sacrifice <for the redemption of her fellow citizens.> [2] Certainly there are social restraints which are necessary,—& I do not decry them. But the tendency to exalt the form above the substance, the figment above the essence, I see everywhere, & with indignation & fear. Is reputation to be dearer than virtue? If the Godivas are to sit at home, it must be on that principle. It is painful too to observe how the tendency of women is to glorify themselves in their weakness & deficiencies, both of the body & mind. Do you not see this yourself? For matters of literature, perhaps I shrink even more than you have seemed to do lately, from the thought of opening the floodgates, & letting in for the miscellaneous reading of everybody in England such books as we know the names of. I do not object so much on account of sex & youth—but generally. What a thing a book is! what power it has! It is a devil or an angel for power,—if a real, living book. Therefore I wd not to any one person, except to professional readers (so to say) & critical thinkers, talk of these books as a body. It is a matter of conscience with me.The books are too good, to be bad without a consequence.
I remember that Mr Horne in the preface to Chaucer talks of Cowden Clarke who published an edition of the old poet, but I never heard before of his lectures. [3] Also I observe an advertisement of his wife’s concordance. [4] As to Mr Horne, he appears to be faithful as the Vicar of Bray was consistent, [5] —he will live and die the lover of a nymph of Berkshire. I am glad there is a heart in waiting, Miss Hayward [6] failing the succession.
You speak specific truths of Frederic Soulié, & seem to know him so well that I am less anxious for you to increase your acquaintance with him. I was under the false impression that you denied his power,—& power, he certainly has. He was one of the first of the new French school I ventured to approach, & he made me open my eyes very wide indeed. But he has power—and the Conseiller d’Etat is coloured with more mellowness, consistency & care than is his custom. [7] The Memoires of Madme d’Abrantés, comprising the history of the ‘Restauration’ as well as of the ‘Empire,’ consist of some eighteen volumes, [8] I think—they are delightfully infinite. In respect to the ‘Salons,’ I have been cheated still worse than you,—as they sent me only three vol, .. & I had no idea whatever of the existence of the other three. [9] The libraries are abominations of iniquity, for bad management. The poor Duchesse died, I have heard, in a hospital, where she received frequent visits to the last,—and I do hope it must have been some sort of ‘maison de santé’ [10] & not a mere refuge of desease & poverty. She lets you live heart to heart with her in her memoirs, & really I scarcely know, (of the class) a more bewitching book. If you do not remember the memoires of ‘La Grande Mademoiselle’ as she was called, mind to read them again. [11] They made me laugh & cry,—at her & with her. I am just going to begin ‘Les Chouans’. [12] Thank you for telling me.
May God bless you, my dearest friend! This is Christmas eve—& in the midst of some painful memories tomorrow, I shall interpose a pleasant dear thought of you. May God bless you then & always!– When shall I see you? My voice is better.
Ever your most affecte
EBB–
Yes—I confess that Geraldine’s Courtship is ‘on your principle’ rather than mine. And I mean to write a poem of length on your principle—a sort of novel-poem! [13] I am looking about for a story– Something not too complex, & admitting of high application. The rumour goes that fifteen thousand copies of the Chimes (of which the first edition consisted) were sold on the first day, & that the book is already in the fourth edition. [14] This is popularity! You were too right respecting Wordsworth’s letter—oh, too miserably right! [15] Oysters go to you today.
Address: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / near Reading.
Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 40–43.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Probably a reference to EBB’s “Fragment of an ‘Essay on Woman’,” which reveals EBB’s agreement with Mary Wollstonecraft’s views on women. See Reconstruction, D308, and SBHC, vol. 12, pp. 7–26. A revised and re-edited version of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: With Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects (1792) by Mary Wollstonecraft was published in 1844.
2. The bracketed phrase is inserted above the line.
3. In the introduction to The Poems of Geoffrey Chaucer, Modernized (1841), Horne wrote: “About five years ago Mr. Cowden Clarke produced a volume of selections from Chaucer’s poems.” Charles Cowden Clarke was the author of The Riches of Chaucer (1835) and Tales from Chaucer, In Prose. Designed Chiefly for the Use of Young Persons (1833).
4. An advertisement for The Complete Concordance to Shakspere (1845) by Mary Victoria Cowden Clarke (1809–98) appeared in The Athenæum for 21 December 1844 (no. 895, p. 1184).
5. The subject of the well-known ballad by the same name; he was twice a Papist and twice a Protestant, changing his religious views in successive reigns, so that he remained the vicar of Bray. The “nymph” EBB refers to was probably the late “Katy” Walter of Bear Wood, whose sudden death in January 1844 was a blow to Horne. He evidently had some romantic feelings for her, and had commemorated her with an elegy (see letter 1567).
6. Possibly the daughter of the Mr. Hayward mentioned in letter 1715.
7. See letter 1774, note 10.
8. See letter 1774, note 4.
9. L’Histoire des Salons de Paris (1837–38) by Mme. D’Abrantes was published in six volumes.
10. “Private hospital.” “Her maid Rosemallen moved her in a cab to a maison de santé in the rue des Batailles—the irony in that name. But she was not able to find refuge there. A more hospitable place was found for her at No. 70 rue de Chaillot. There she died on 7 June 1838, in her fifty-fourth year” (Peter Gunn, Napoleon’s ‘Little Pest’, 1979, p. 203).
11. The Memoires of Anne Marie Louise Henriette d’Orléans, Duchesse de Montpensier (1627–93), who was known as “la Grande Mademoiselle,” was published in six volumes in 1728.
12. See letter 1736, note 15.
13. EBB alludes to the difference between her “principle” of “mysticism” and Miss Mitford’s of “humanity” (see letters 1086 and 1797). In letter 1797, she tells Miss Mitford that she wants to write “a poem of a new class,” and in a letter to RB on 27 February 1845, she says that her “chief intention just now is the writing of a novel-poem.” Aurora Leigh, EBB’s novel in verse, was published in 1857.
14. We have not been able to verify the number of copies sold on the first day of publication. In a letter dated 14 April 1845, Dickens wrote that he had received an accounting for sales of the first 20,000 copies (Dickens, IV, 296). In the following letter EBB mentions a seventh edition; the book went into an eleventh edition in 1845.
15. See letter 1788, note 9.
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