Correspondence

310.  EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 152–154.

Hope End.

Friday. June 27th [–28, 1828] [1]

My dear Sir,

Your letter has pained & gratified me in several ways,—and affected me in every way. I wish I could answer it in the only proper manner, by instantly going to see its writer; but I shall not be able to do this during the present week. We are expecting our relations Mr & Mrs Hedley; and it will not be considered right for me to be out of the way. Besides, I cannot have the carriage either today or tomorrow. That you should receive any pleasure from having me with you,—& that you should feel any regret at my leaving you, are circumstances upon which I am pleased to dwell,—& proud to be permitted to dwell. Certainly I hoped you were a little sorry when I left you on Monday; but I did not think you were half as sorry as I was. It is the only subject, upon which, I could be glad that you should be sorry.

I never could forget to think of, what you forgot to mention—the deprivation, to which you so pathetically allude. As you not only allude to it,—but, for the first time, dwell on your feelings respecting it, I may venture to say to you, what I have thought on the same subject. The common effect of any peculiar & distinguishing affliction is an active & passive selfishness—an inordinate egotism, and an indifference to the welfare of others. I have often been forcibly struck by your total exemption from this contracting influence of suffering. Your mind must be of a very uncommon cast. I have often observed, in speaking of you & thinking of you, how seldom you obtrude your state of deprivation upon the attention of others—& with how much simplicity & dignity you allude to it, when you have occasion to do so. And tho’, in any case, I must have deeply felt the singular kindness I have received from you, my feeling is naturally rendered more deep & earnest, by a consideration of the circumstances under which that kindness has been offered: I hope you will forgive my having said so much on this subject.

With respect to any individuals who may have been deficient in consideration & feeling towards you, I would say with Dante “Behold them—and pass on! [2] —” They are not worthy of a second observation. Is it thro’ a superabundant charity, that you have suffered them to annoy you? Are you pained, because they are degraded? I can find no other reason. You cannot be reasonably surprised, when there is darkness at night,—or ice in winter,—or “unkindness & selfishness in the human heart”! I admit all your powerful reasons,—all your irrisistible claim! I need no other inducement for staying with you, but your wish,—even if it were not so strongly seconded .. by my own. I think,—I am almost sure, that I shall be able ultimately to stay with you—but you know I cannot do everything I like, or everything when I like. I only rule in my own room—where there are no subjects to be ill-governed—except the literary inanimate. At any rate I must see you very soon; and the next time I go to your door, it shall not be with visitors of Marresfield. [3] In a letter by today’s post, Papa says “I sympathize with you about the interruption”. I wish he said something satisfactory respecting the period of his return—but he is not yet able to do so.

A question occurs to me at this moment, which I have long intended, & always forgotten to ask you. For fear it should escape me again, I will put it down here. Which was written first—St Basil’s Homily on the 33d Psalm, or St Gregory’s Oration against the Arians, to which you directed me in the appendix to your Greek edition? In your Select Passages, you trace, or attempt to trace, the origin of Basil’s fine expression πυρ βλεποντες [4] to the Seven Chiefs of Æschylus. Vide. note to Page 236. [5] Now Gregory in his Oration against the Arians, has φονον [sic, for φονιον] βλεπουσαι. [6] Gregory appears rather nearer, of the two, to Æschylus—but of course the decision of the question must depend on dates. The saints are both manifestly in a scrape—one as a direct thief—& the other as a receiver of stolen goods. The Oration against the Arians, in the appendix to Gregory, does not please me so much as it seems to please you. A few passages are nervous & sublime—but there is repetition & verbosity, & occasional languor. Perhaps I am quite wrong—but I like to tell you exactly what I fancy.

Saturday. I hope Mrs Boyd did not suffer from her kindness in driving thr’o the heat to see us yesterday—& that the supplementary sunshine in the garden, did not bring Miss Boyd’s & Miss Sibree’s [7] patience to a finis. My sin of omission, when you were at the Wells, it is impossible to help lamenting,—and yet, considering the five miles & the peacock, perhaps I ought not to lament it. Mrs Boyd was so kind as to ask me to return to Malvern with her. I was obliged to resist that temptation; but I thought I should be able to visit you in the course of next week. Now I am obliged to ask you not to expect me. Perhaps I may be able to go—but they have reminded me, that, while our relations are staying here, my having the carriage may not be possible. It cannot be necessary to say, how little likely I am to delay my visit voluntarily, a day, or an hour.

Here is another question which I am desirous of asking you, & which I will mention at once, before I speak of Mr Harn. You do not care much about Latin, I know; but you may tell me which of the Latin prose writers you prefer—setting aside St Bernard St Cyprian & Lactantius, [8] —& keeping to the orthodox classics .. Do you like Tacitus—? Can you enjoy Sallust—? Can you bear Livy? Erasmus’s student says somewhere, “Decem annos consumpsi in legendo Cicerone”, [9] —and the Greek echo answers Ονε [10] Am I to “write you down an ass [11] by this rule?

Mr Barker was very kind in procuring Mr Harn’s opinion,—& Mr Harn’s opinion was, of course, very gratifying to me. And yet I may assure you, that I received much more gratification from your last letter,—particularly from that part of it, upon which I can scarcely trust myself to speak—where you speak of having received comfort from my acquaintance & correspondence. Could you say anything capable of gratifying me in any equal degree? I am sure you could not! It is inconsiderate & arbitrary in you to desire the exclusion of the word gratitude from my letters .. but you cannot command its exclusion from another place. That is one of the few things which I would not attempt, in order to please you: it being as impossible to withdraw from you my gratitude, as to withhold my regard.

Ever your sincere friend

E B Barrett.

Publication: EBB-HSB, pp. 73–75 (in part, as 26 June [1829]).

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Of the years in which EBB wrote to Boyd from Hope End, 1828 was the only one in which 27 June fell on a Friday. Also dated by reference to the Hedleys’ impending visit. They arrived at Kinnersley Castle, 18 June, to visit the Graham-Clarkes. Hope End was next on their itinerary (see SD659).

2. Inferno, III, 51.

3. Sic, for Madresfield, a village two miles N.E. of Great Malvern.

4. “Looking on fire.” This expression occurs in St. Basil’s Homily on the 33rd Psalm. Boyd’s translation of the passage spoke of “the angels, sad and terrible, looking fire and breathing fire by reason of their dreadful purpose” (pp. 236–237).

5. Boyd’s note reads: “Basil, in this passage, seems to have been warmed with an unusual ardour, and to have caught the genuine spirit of Æschylus,” and then calls the reader’s attention to The Seven Chiefs, lines 42–53 and 498. Æschylus used the term φóβον βλέπων (“looking on fear”).

6. “Looking upon the bloody” (Billy, I, Appendix, 2).

7. Miss Sibree was an acquaintance of the Boyds, but further identification has not been possible.

8. St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153), author of various theological and dogmatic works; St. Cyprian (ca. 200–258), Bishop of Carthage and the first Christian bishop to suffer martyrdom; and Lactantius Firmanius (ca. 260–ca. 340), nicknamed “the Christian Cicero.”

9. “I’ve used up ten years in reading Cicero.” Spoken by the young man in “Echo,” one of the Colloquia of Desiderius Erasmus (p. 401 of the 1650 edition).

10. “O you ass.” (A pun on the assonance of the Greek word and the last syllable of Cicerone.)

11. Cf. Much Ado About Nothing, IV, 2, 76.

___________________

National Endowment for the Humanities - Logo

Editorial work on The Brownings’ Correspondence is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This website was last updated on 3-28-2024.

Copyright © 2024 Wedgestone Press. All rights reserved.

Back To Top