576. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 258–259.
[London]
Monday. [17 July 1837] [1]
I appear before you in fear & trembling, dearest Miss Mitford,—& yet strengthened in a measure by the assurance that you will keep the promised condition, & send back my ballad, if you should feel half a wish of doing so. [2] I am afraid I have past the verge of my time; but I have been interrupted, & have waited besides, a day or two, for dear Mr Kenyon’s critical breath—that it might breathe away some of those everlasting clouds which haunt me you know, just as they do a rainy St Swithin. I have made a ballad story as you desired—& this is the reason of there being this multitude of stanzas which I am ashamed to send,—& which my little brother Sette thinks quite unpardonable—“so like singing all night, when you are asked for one song!” But indeed I could not get the story into fewer.
And now, let me ask one thing more—that, in case you should be content enough with the ballad, you would accept it graciously my very dear friend: & that means, that you would send none of Mr Tilt’s money payment to me, [3] & spoil the pleasure I have in thinking it done for you & for friendship’s sake. You are too kind to spoil willingly anybody’s pleasure—& you would not, except by a very perforce, spoil your niece’s!—— [4] As to a copy of the work, I shall thank you much for that, if you have any to give away. But all is of course dependent on your judgment of the poem—and in regard to it I entreat you to keep honestly & kindly too, the promise you gave me–
Why should we [‘]‘metre balladmongers” [5] have so much to say of ourselves, when the ‘Country stories’ lie cut & read upon the table? They have the Mitford-charm all over them!– Whatever else you lose—and that delightful sunny chapter upon the Lost dahlia, [6] is full in my mind—you never do lose the power of charming—& by a dove’s eyes instead of a serpent’s. [7] The characteristic of your mind seems to me to be—the power of bringing from the surfaces of things that freshness of beauty, which others seek for in the profundities of nature. While others lose their breath in diving, you are gathering pearls on the shore—& scarcely stooping to do so. Indeed it is a beautiful book–
But I have no time for many words more, even about it. I must send my packet for the last frank, as there will probably be a dissolution tomorrow. [8] Forgive the hurry in which I write. And do let me tell you, for all of it, that my doves are sitting by turns on a hard white orthodox egg—& that the cock my favorite & a most erratic genius, is so delighted with this prosperity that he waives every ceremony & instinct, & will insist upon sitting the whole day long,—nay! once sate the whole night long, to the great dissatisfaction of the lady dove. Next friday is the hatching day.
How ungrateful, never to thank you for the splendid flowers you sent me so kindly. The sunshine seemed to come in at the door with them! And did Mr Kenyon tell you how he was gazed at, & talked at too, as he brought them along the streets? Thank you dearest Miss Mitford!—& thank you for the too kind letter which came with them!——
Your ever affectionate
EBB–
I shall not be at all surprised if you return the ballad. The wish of doing it well & for you, instead of being an inspiration as it ought to have been, only made me nervous & restrained.
Address, on integral page: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / near Reading. (This appears in EBB’s hand near the seal. The address panel is blank, having been intended for franking.)
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 38–39.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by the reference to the dissolution of Parliament by the Queen’s Proclamation of 17 July 1837, published in The Times the following day.
2. EBB’s contribution to Findens’ Tableaux, “A Romance of the Ganges.”
3. Miss Mitford had explained (letter 573) that she had been given £30, being £5 for each of the six contributors, and that each would also be given a complimentary copy of the book.
4. A reference to Miss Mitford’s “adoption” of EBB (see letter 560).
5. I Henry IV, III, 1, 128.
6. This story appears in chapter ten of Country Stories.
7. Cf. Solomon’s Song, 1:15.
8. On the dissolution of Parliament, the elected members lost their franking privilege.
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