315. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 158–161.
Hope End
Friday. [11 July 1828] [1]
My dear friend,
I did not think I should be able to send a letter to you till Sunday,—but, as an opportunity is likely to offer itself this evening, I cannot help taking advantage of it. I will not keep Miss Muschett’s poem, [2] —notwithstanding your kind permission. If you received it from the author, you really should not give it away,—and, if you did not, I am still as able as you to procure another copy. My general impression of the poem is this,—that it is very elegantly & feelingly & pleasingly written; but it is deficient in harmony, and the ideas seem to me much diluted by a wordiness in the expression. This wordiness not only enfeebles, but obscures whole passages. Diffuseness, as well as conciseness, sometimes produces obscurity: there is ice at the south pole as well as at the north!– I do not like the word style in the third stanza: it is not appropriate or poetical or dignified. I like the 20th and 21st stanzas best. I should like the 12th, very much, if it were not for the concluding lines,—and I may observe the same of the 8th, which begins beautifully, but ends in a rather weak commonplace manner. The “silent heart”, for the pulseless heart is a beautiful expression,—and, I think, original,—for Wolfe’s poems were, I believe, published subsequently to Miss Muschett’s stanzas. Sir Uvedale Price once pointed out to me, two lines of an exquisitely pathetic little poem,—“To Mary”,—by Wolfe, author of the Elegy on Sir John Moore. Sir Uvedale thought them very original & striking; and I, who thought the same, will submit them to your judgment.
Still would I press thy silent heart—
And where thy smiles have been! [3]
Is there not a touching beauty in this manner of adverting to the lips, without naming them?–
I hope that Miss Muschett’s present opinion upon the Greek question, is a newly formed one,—and that she did not write her 13th stanza, merely that she might write poetically. It is a bad thing to employ in composition, a different mind from the ordinary mind,—because, with that habit, it is impossible to be a natural writer: and when a writer ceases to be natural, he must cease to be poetical.
You see, I return the Classical Journal! [4] If you will reflect a little, you will perceive that,—without any superabundant modesty,—I could not very well or becomingly, make the use which you permitted me to make of your letter,—tho’ I am anything but ungrateful (that word is not prohibited!) for the honor of being laudata a laudato. [5] “The hint towards the correction of a passage in Æschylus” in page 185 of the Journal, will certainly enrage you. You will observe that the critic adopts your correction without acknowledgement, & supports it by quoting “an author whom Æschyulus was very fond of imitating.” [6]
Speaking of imitations, when you mentioned to me that poem by Shelley, which you met with in the Examiner, [7] its quaint form put me strongly in mind of something I had read somewhere; but I would not tell you so at the time, on account of the extreme indistinctness of my recollection. The recollection however, became less indistinct, when I thought it over afterwards. Is not the prototype of Shelley’s poem to be found in Anacreon’s ode, beginning. ‘Η γη μελαινα πινει, [8] —where, because the trees drink the earth, & the sea drinks the rivers, & the sun drinks the sea, & the moon drinks the sun, the poet considers it quite allowable to drink too?–
Will you tell me whether you believe Dr Dunbar or the writer of the Adversaria literaria (vide page 268 of the Journal!) to be right, in the interpretation of the epithet χερσαιον as applied to κυμα by Æschylus?– I hope you will say the Professor. The meaning which he attaches to the word is unquestionably the most poetical & expressive—whether it be philologically correct, or not. [9]
Your indignation about Irving’s scholarship, prevented my telling you what I was going to tell you respecting his Æschylan application of the verb to see to sounds. You will recollect the expression in his Orations. Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine has an elaborately abusive article on Irving, which animadverts something in the following way on this expression: “We have heard of pigs seeing the wind, but we believe that Mr Irving is the first who ever saw a voice.” [10] The accomplished critic need not have looked into Æschylus for the purpose of “seasoning his admiration”, [11] —for the first chapter of the Revelations might have satisfied him in a moment. St John says “And I turned to see the voice that spake unto me!” [12]
I would write a longer letter,—but I am told that, if I attempt to do so, I shall lose my chance of sending this today; and I do not like to detain the Classical Journal from you any longer. Yesterday I was tantalized by being taken within two miles of you without being enabled to see you, for which, I was naturally & vainly sorry. You cannot blame my will. I wish I could tell you how deeply I felt the happiness & advantage of those Horæ Atticæ [13] I passed with you,—and yet how can I do so,—& at the same time attend to your request? A Poet once constructed a long poem without the letter t. That must have been very difficult; but it would be still more difficult for me to speak of last Monday, without using the three proscribed words––“gratitude—grateful—gratefully”!!
Believe me always
Your very sincere friend
E B Barrett.
My kind remembrances to Mrs & Miss Boyd—I fear Miss Sibree has left Malvern. There is no decision from London—tho’ we had a letter today.
Address, on integral page: Hugh Stuart Boyd Esqr
Docket, in unidentified hand: July 16th 1828. [14]
Publication: EBB-HSB, pp. 51–53.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by reference to the docket and The Classical Journal.
2. Henrietta Mushet (1802–65), the daughter of David Mushet the metallurgist, was an old friend of Boyd and sometimes acted as his amanuensis. We have been unable to trace her poem; it is probable that, following the custom of the time, it was published anonymously. She later married the Rev. George Roberts (1807–87), Curate of Coleford.
3. Charles Wolfe (1791–1823), best remembered for the famous lines on the burial of Sir John Moore (1816). The lines quoted here appear on p. 42 of The Remains of the Late Charles Wolfe, A.B. (1826).
4. No. LXXIV, June 1828, which contained a letter from Boyd (pp. 325–327). See letter 282, note 1.
5. “Praised by the one who has been praised” (cf. Cicero, Ad Familiares, 12, 7).
6. A short article on p. 185 proposed a modified reading of line 345 of Prometheus Vinctus to free it “from a most offensive anapæst in the fourth place.” As EBB noted, Boyd himself had already proposed such a change, and a letter from him appeared in the September issue (LXXV, p. 138) pointing out that on p. 18 of his translation of Agamemnon (1823) he had suggested an emendation “exactly the same as that now offered by your correspondent.”
The author whom Æschylus was fond of imitating was Homer.
7. The index to Shelley and His Circle (vol. VI, 1973, ed. Donald H. Reiman) lists only three of Shelley’s poems published in The Examiner, none of which fits the following comments of EBB. It seems probable that either she or Boyd had a lapse of memory, and that this reference was to “Love’s Philosophy,” published in The Indicator, 22 December 1819 (I, 88).
8. “The black earth drinks” (Anacreontic, 19, 1).
9. The two Greek words translate as “from dry land” and “wave.” The comment on p. 268 says: “Professor Dunbar is certainly mistaken in asserting that χέρσος does not signify terra, nor χερσαῑος terrestris; for this is unquestionably their proper signifaction.” The discussion was over the correct reading of line 64 of Septem Contra Thebas.
George Dunbar (1774–1851) published a number of works on classical subjects, including a Greek lexicon (1831) compiled in collaboration with Boyd’s friend E.H. Barker.
10. A review of For the Oracles of God appeared on pp. 145–162 of No. LXXIX, August 1823. It quoted the phrase “you saw the voice which spake” (found on p. 16 of Irving’s book) and a footnote on p. 155 observed “We have heard of pigs seeing in the wind before, but this is new.”
11. Hamlet, I, 2, 192.
12. Revelations, 1:12, “I” is underscored three times.
13. “Attic hours.”
14. This docket is confusing, as the 16th was a Wednesday and EBB headed the letter “Friday.” It is very improbable that it took five days for Boyd to receive the letter, but we have used the docket to date the letter to the previous Friday. It is, of course, quite possible that the docket denotes the date of Boyd’s reply.
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