2105. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 11, 185–187.
[London]
Friday. [21 November 1845] [1]
Day by day I have had my heart almost in my pen to write to you, ever dearest Miss Mitford, & the sun sets somewhere behind the fog without my doing it. The obstacle has been the thought of the ‘list of books’ [2] which was to be wrung from my reluctant memory—but write I must today let the memoirs be ever so un-come-at-able .. & I write. Have you seen (to make amends) a work of Balzac, ‘late St Aubin’ says the title page, called ‘L’Israelite’? [3] It is not new of course—& I have nothing good or bad to say of it, but it is just sent to me from the library, & ‘my heart leaps up’ [4] .. as hearts of the innocent do at the rainbow, you know. By the way ‘Paula Monti’ is nothing but ‘L’Hotel Lambert,’ which we both know. I mentioned to you .. did I not? .. ‘Paula Monti’ by Eugene Sue—& also ‘Les deux Histoires’ [5] for which however I dun Rolandi in vain. Tell me if you have heard of any other works from these French writers—& tell me too of dear Flush & his ear: I shall be so glad to have good news of him.
Have you read Pomfret? [6] Have you quick access to it—or would you like me to send it to you from hence? The books are lent at this moment, but they will come back & you shall have them, if you do not from Mr Lovejoy .. which is probable; & let me hear what you think of the work when you have finished the reading. I hold it to be the most successful work of imagination produced by Mr Chorley, [7] .. only not precisely a strong book. He wants sustaining & developing power. But it is a good true & natural book—& I like the noiseless unassuming acting out of the ‘private judgement’, without any rustling of silks & stamping of cothurns. The best .. the most lifelike & complete .. character in the book is that of ‘Mr Rose’ I think. Now see if it is’nt. Neither of the heroines altogether pleases me .. but the author’s heroine, least of all—& the hero (who, by the way, has no “judgement” whatever, for private or public uses) can please nobody. There are scenes of quiet touching pathos which you will like—& the pure, good intention is everywhere. And now see if your thoughts are of the colour of mine—let us hold them together!–
The amateur comedy was crowned with success—the theatre, crowded, & every seat, equally in boxes & gallery, went for a guinea—and Mr Fo[r]ster & Dickens were admirable, the cry is on all sides. There is to be another performance .. of the Alchymist it is supposed, .. for the benefit of Miss Kelly. You know that ‘Every man in his humour’ was played this last time & the time before. [8] Yes—& the next news is, that Boz the universal is on the threshold of an immense undertaking .. no less a one than the editing of a newspaper, a daily newspaper, to represent ultra politics at the right end .. anti-corn law interests & the like. It is said that some twentyfive thousand pounds have been subscribed to the speculation by great capitalists, & that five first rate reporters have been engaged for three years at the rate of seven guineas a week: also that the newspaper is to combine literature with politics as in the French journals.– What do you think of this? Is Dickens fit for it? [9]
My next news is that Mrs Butler arrived in England some ten days ago with the intention of assisting her father in the readings by which he is making sixty guineas a week,—but was followed so closely by a letter .. from her husband, the conjecture goes,—some letter of influence .. that she changed her mind & is about to go back straight to the land of stripes (according to the scandal) & stars undramatic! [10]
Then Mrs Jameson is said to be in London after her wanderings in Germany & Italy. I have not seen her yet.
How much news (for me!) I have sent you today. Methinks I deserve a letter back again. Mr Browning has published a new ‘Bell & Pomegranate’ .. a new number, .. full of power & various & original faculty, .. on which Landor has addressed him in some beautiful verses, worthy, I think, of the praised & the praiser. Though you are an unbeliever I shall write them down for you underneath. See.
“There is delight in singing, though none hear
Beside the singer; and there is delight
In praising though the praiser sit alone
And see the praised far off him, far above.
Shakespeare is not our poet but the world’s,
Therefore on him no speech, & short for thee
Browning!– Since Chaucer was alive & hale
No man hath walked along our roads with step
So active, so inquiring eye, or tongue
So varied in discourse. But warmer climes
Give brighter plumage, stronger wing: the breeze
Of Alpine heights thou playest with, borne on
Beyond Sorrento & Amalfi, where
The Siren waits thee, singing song for song.”
W.S Landor [11]
After which I say goodbye–
Your ever affectionate
EBB.
I find by a glance at L’Israelite that it is just ‘Clothilde’ .. alas–
Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 144–147.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by the enclosure of Landor’s verses, which EBB had received from RB the day before.
2. In a letter to Charles Boner, dated 6 June 1846, Miss Mitford wrote: “You will wonder to see my name on the title-page of a French book. Mr. Rolandi came to me to select from the two hundred volumes of Alexandre Dumas one volume of five hundred pages fit for ladies and families, and young people, our first customer being the Head Master of Eton, who takes one hundred copies” (Mary Russell Mitford: Correspondence with Charles Boner & John Ruskin, ed. Elizabeth Lee, 1914, p. 51). The “French book” has been identified as Fragments des Œuvres d’Alexandre Dumas choisis à l’usage de la jeunesse par Miss Mary Russell Mitford (1846). From the context, it seems that Miss Mitford had asked EBB for recommendations.
3. As EBB points out at the end of this letter, it was actually Clotilde de Lusignan, ou le Beau Juif, and it was not “new,” having been published in 1822 under Balzac’s pseudonym, Lord R’Hoone. Perhaps EBB refers to Vols. XI–XII, entitled L’Israelite, from the edition of the Œuvres complètes de Horace St. Aubin (16 vols., 1836–40). Horace de Saint-Aubin was another pseudonym used by Balzac in his earlier writings.
4. Wordsworth, “My Heart Leaps Up” (1807), line 9.
5. Sue’s Deux histoires (1840) and Paula Monti, ou l’Hotel Lambert (1842).
6. Chorley’s Pomfret had just been published. EBB was the recipient of one of only two presentation copies, according to RB in the following letter.
7. For more of EBB’s opinions of Chorley’s novel, see letter 2098.
8. This second performance of Jonson’s Every Man in His Humour was given by Dickens and his amateur players on 15 November in the presence of Prince Albert and the Duke of Wellington, among others, as a benefit for Southwood Smith’s nursing home. The first performance had occurred on 20 September (see letter 2041). On 3 January 1846, a benefit performance for Frances Maria Kelly (1790–1882) was given in her theatre in Dean Street, Soho; however, the play performed was not Jonson’s The Alchemist but The Elder Brother by Philip Massinger and John Fletcher, as adapted by Forster.
9. The first issue of The Daily News appeared on 21 January 1846 under the editorship of Dickens, but he soon relinquished the post to Forster in early February.
10. The Athenæum for 22 November 1845 (no. 943) reported that “According to letters from Liverpool, Mrs. Butler (formerly Fanny Kemble), has landed in that port from Philadelphia, with the intention of resuming her place on the English stage. The latter part of this announcement we can take upon us to contradict:—Mrs. Butler has no such intention” (p. 1128). See letter 1807.
11. Landor’s lines appeared in The Morning Chronicle the following day, 22 November 1845.
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