445. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 11–12.
[Hope End]
Saturday night. [7 April 1832] [1]
I like your blank verse translation very much indeed,—but after all, I am quite obstinate in thinking that what is lyrical in Greek should be lyrical in English—& that in losing the sudden transition from one measure to another, you lose a great deal of what is animated expressive & beautiful. That is my creed,—& one not founded, I do assure you, upon any prejudice in favour of my own translation which I have sent to the tomb of the Capulets, & without a resurgam by way of epitaph.
I was pleased to receive your letter,—as, you know, I am apt to be on such occasions. What made you expect to hear from me this week?– Your letter is dated Thursday, & I was with you on Tuesday,—and you did not ask me to write immediately. The other thing which you did ask me to do, I have done. I leave Arabel to speak for herself. Both you & I appear to me to have acted wrong, or at least with what the Westminster Review elegantly terms, unwisdom. When you mean to repent I dont know,—but I began to do so last Tuesday.
Yes! I liked the article in the Times which you like,—at least if you like the one in which poor Lord Grey is looked upon with a prophetic eye as an “archangel ruined”. [2] Papa thought it was extravagant,—but I thought nothing of the kind. After all the bill will pass–
Whigs or no Whigs, their votes will turn to Grey–
See if it will not be so. If it will not, I would as soon be in the cholera hospital as in Downing street. The king will make new peers, or the people will unmake old ones: and either way, our end will be answered.
I am in hopes that our affairs must come to a crisis before very long. My aunt’s going away to Kinnersley in such a very sudden manner, without giving herself time even to write & tell them of her intention,—& her deciding upon returning in four days, prove to me that something is impending. She said to me with tears in her eyes, that nothing should induce her to remain a day longer away from us,—& that if I would consent to go with her, she would remain away only two days. But that, I could not & would not do. I dread one thing—the probability of Papa going to London again—& when the cholera is there. And yet there may be no cause for this dread. If he goes, it may not be to London,—& he may not go alone. My aunt left us, out of spirits & unwilling to leave us, even for so short a time. She had intended to spend some weeks with her brother,—& there certainly must be a reason for this sudden movement of hers.
The poney’s feet are not very well, & I have been warned not to make any use of him for a week,—which week will not be at an end until Wednesday. The Miss Mushets [3] will be disappointed in hearing Mr Curzon tomorrow,—but Mr Preace is to be the substitute, & is reported “a good preacher”. I did not receive your letter until today——!
Ever yours affectionately
E B Barrett.
Address, on integral page: H S Boyd Esqr / Ruby Cottage / Malvern Wells–
Publication: Diary, pp. 305–306.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by Diary entry (p. 233) concerning EBB’s aunt’s departure to Kinnersley Castle on 5 April.
2. Paradise Lost, I, 588. EBB’s reference is to the editorial of 3 April.
3. Henrietta Mushet and her elder sister Margaret (1799–1885).
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