2865. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 16, 159–161.

Florence–

July 8. [1850] [1]

My dearest Miss Mitford I this moment have your note; and as a packet of ours is going to England, I snatch up a pen to do what I can with it in the brief moments between this & post time. I dont wait till it shall be possible to write at length, because I have something immediate to say to you. Your letter is delightful, yet it is not for that, that I rush so upon answering it– Nor even is it, for the excellent news of your consenting for dear Mr Chorley’s sake, to give us some more of your “papers” .. though ‘Blessed be the hour, & month & year” [2] when he set about editing the ‘Ladies companion’ & persuading you to do such a thing– No—what I want to say is strictly personal to me– You are the kindest, warmest hearted, most affectionate of critics, and precisely as such it is, that you have thrown me into a paroxysm of terror. My dearest friend, for the love of me .. I dont argue the point with you .. but I beseech you humbly, kissing the hem of your garment, [3] and by all sacred & tender recollections of sympathy between you & me, dont [4] breathe a word about any juvenile performance of mine .. dont, [4] if you have any love left for me. Dear friend, “disinter” anybody or anything you please, but dont disinter me, unless you mean the ghost of my vexation to vex you ever after– “Blessed be she, who spares these stones”. [5] All the saints know that I have enough to answer for since I came to my mature mind, & that I had difficulty enough in making most of the Seraphim volume presentable a little in my new edition, because it was too ostensibly before the public to be caught back,—but if the sins of my rawest juvenility are to be thrust upon me; & sins are extant of even twelve or thirteen, or earlier, .. I was in print once when I was ten, I think [6] .. what is to become of me .. I shall groan as loud as Christian did. [7] Dearest Miss Mitford, now forgive this ingratitude which is gratitude all the time—I love you & thank you .. but right or wrong, mind what I say, & let me love & thank you still more. When you see my new edition you will see that everything worth a straw I ever wrote, is there—and if there were strength in conjuration I wd conjure you to pass an act of oblivion on the stubble, that remains .. if anything does remain indeed. Now, more than enough of this!—– For the rest, I am delighted—I am even so generous as not to be jealous of Mr Chorley for prevailing with you when nobody else could. I had given it up long ago– I never thought you wd stir a pen again .. By what charm, did he prevail<?> Your series of papers will be delightful, I do not doubt,—though I never could see anything in some of your heroes .. American or Irish. Longfellow is a true poet [8] .. I dont refer to him. Still, whatever you say will be worth hearing, & the guide through “Pompeii” will be better than many of the ruins. “The Pleader’s Guide” I never heard of before. [9] Praed has written some sweet & tender things. [10] Then, I shall like to hear you on Beaumont & Fletcher, & Andrew Marvell.– [11]

I have seen nothing of Tennyson’s new poem. Do you know, if the echo-song [12] is the most popular of his verses, it is only another proof to my mind of the no-worth of popularity. That song would be eminently sweet for a common writer—but Tennyson has done better surely—his eminences are to be seen above. As for the laurel, in a sense he is worthier of it than Leigh Hunt– Only Tennyson can wait—that is the single difference.

So anxious I am about your house– Your health seems to me mainly to depend on your moving, and I do urge your moving—if not there, elsewhere. May God bless you, ever dear friend!

I dare say you will think I have given too much importance to the rococo verses you had the goodness to speak of—but I have a horror of being disinterred—there’s the truth! Leave the violets to grow over me. [13] Because that wretched school-exercise of a version of the Prometheus had been named by two or three people, was’nt I at the pains of making a new translation before I left England, so to erase a sort of half visible & half invisible “Blot on the ’Scutcheon”? After such an expenditure of lemon-juice, [14] you will not wonder that I should trouble you with all this talk about nothing–

Little Babe’s hair curls all over his head in short golden curls—but he looks pale & delicate with the extreme heat, .. & we are in the midst of a hundred schemes as to how to get away from Florence, & where– The villas near the sea are too dear, & those in the mountains too out of the way .. but we must decide something, for Wiedeman tosses about instead of sleeping, & I cant bear seeing him look pale. If we go we shall stay away about two months,—only remember we shall receive our letters as usual.

I am so delighted that you are to lift up your voice again, & so grateful to Mr Chorley.

Ah yes, if we go to Paris, we shall draw you. Mr Chorley shant have all the triumphs to himself.

Not a word more, says Robert .. or the post will be missed. God bless you! Do take care of yourself! And dont stay in that damp house! And do make allowances for & love

your ever affectionate

How glad I shall be if it is true that Tennyson is married! [15] I believe in the happiness of marriage, for men especially.

Address, on integral page: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / near Reading.

Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 304–307.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Year provided by postmark.

2. Cf. Byron, Don Juan, III, cii, 1–2.

3. Cf. Matthew 9:20.

4. Underscored three times.

5. Cf. Shakespeare’s epitaph at Stratford-on-Avon: “Blest be the man that spares these stones, / And curst be he that moves my bones.”

6. EBB’s earliest published work, The Battle of Marathon, was privately printed on 6 March 1820, her fourteenth birthday.

7. The hero of Pilgrim’s Progress (1678–84) by John Bunyan.

8. Miss Mitford’s “Readings of Poetry, Old and New” did not cover American poets.

9. The Pleader’s Guide, A Didactic Poem, … By the late J.S. Esquire, Official Pleader, and Barrister at Law. (5th ed., 1808). Both the DNB and the British Library Catalogue identify “J.S.” as “J. Surrebutter” a pseudonym for John Anstey (d. 1819). “Comic Poets.—J. Anstey” appeared as the fourth part of “Readings of Poetry, Old and New” in the 24 August 1850 issue of The Ladies’ Companion.

10. Winthrop Mackworth Praed (1802–39), Member of Parliament and poet of light verse.

11. Beaumont and Fletcher appear in the second part of “Readings of Poetry, Old and New” in the 20 July 1850 issue of The Ladies’ Companion. Marvell was not included in the series.

12. Presumably a reference to “The Bugle Song,” which appeared in the 1850 edition of The Princess.

13. See letter 2859, note 6.

14. Used to make invisible ink that would appear when held up to sunlight or any other source of warm light.

15. Alfred Tennyson and Emily Sellwood (1813–96) were married on 13 June 1850 at Shiplake Church in Shiplake on Thames. She was the eldest of three daughters of Henry Sellwood (1782–1867), a solicitor in Horncastle, Lincolnshire, and his wife Sarah (née Franklin, 1788–1816).

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