589. EBB to Eleanor Page Bordman
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 282–284.
[London]
[Postmark: 28 September 1837]
<***> & we have paid one bridal visit, & wd have paid more, if it had not been for the small pox. She [1] is very very happy, I do believe, & Mr Hayes “the husband of her soul” looks happy too & appears very fond of her.
Mother Frederick [2] was kind enough to come to the church at the time of the ceremony; but to the wedded wife [s]he has paid no visit, except in the shape of a beautiful black Parisian Mantilla, for a wedding gift.
Oh! how I do wish that she may be blessed by the Blessed God, & taught to be happy. People think in general that happiness requires no teaching. I think it does—& more than Sanscrit.
I am so glad that you have heard from our dear friend Mr Curzon. I mean soon again to write to him.
Have I not before an[n]ounced to you the birth of a new little cockney dove.? I am dreadfully proud of it,—& in consequence of its appearance I opine that there must be a development upon my cranium, of the organ of self-esteem. Everybody said that nothing alive cd come out of an egg rolled backwards & forwards every day under my fingers—& behold a little Dove!– It is just like a ball of floss silk (the effect of the rolling) & its present acquirements are confined to eating & drinking (which I am sorry to say it was not precocious in acquiring by its own act) & sleeping. As to sleeping, it combines all the talents of the seven sleepers in one! [3] When it has eaten it sleeps! When it has drunk, it sleeps! When I have kissed it, it sleeps! When I have given it a lesson in flying, it sleeps! When the sun shines, it goes to sleep in it! And when the wind blows, it goes to sleep from it. In short, it very seldom has an eye open—& when it has, it is scarcely ever more than one at a time! This is no poetical license or exaggeration.
I am very glad to hear of all that you enjoyed at Herne Bay, & of Mrs Bordman’s & your own benefit from the excursion. I liked so much to hear of it!—and I was particularly interested in the account you gave me of the green & silent field near Canterbury, where the last Martyrs died! The silence & the greenness make no strange, I mean no unusual contrast, dearest Miss Bordman—altho’ you seem to think so! Oh! it is always in the beauty & the calm of this surrounding nature, that we see & hear the corruption & the passion of this humanity, to the uttermost of what is loathsome & turbulent! The “Peace, be still” [4] of Jesus—is needed in the calm! For there, how loud, how most loud from contrast, is the heart of man!–
Is it very unpardonable of me that I have not yet been to see you & Mrs Bordman! Do try both of you, to pardon me! You could not help it, if you knew how very much I should like to go. And I shall contrive it, some day—if I live.
When may I hope to see you here?—unreasonable that I am!——
Do write sometimes, when you can without being troublesome to yourself—
& believe me dearest Miss Bordman
Your affectionate E B Barrett
Address, on integral page: Miss Bordman / Bromley College / Bromley.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. i.e., Annie Boyd, now Mrs. Hayes.
2. An article in Notes and Queries (7, 1859, 523) identifies Hayes as being an Irish Roman Catholic. If this was so, “Mother Frederick” may well have been a nun known to him; this assumption, however, is weakened by the ceremony being conducted in a non-Roman Catholic church, and Annie’s not having embraced the faith, both facts likely to be anathema to a member of a Catholic order.
3. According to legend, seven Christian youths had fled Ephesus during the persecution under Diocletian (A.D. 250) and had sought refuge in a cave. This was walled up by their pursuers, and the youths fell asleep, to awake some 200 years later. After seeking provisions, they fell asleep again, to await the resurrection.
4. Mark, 4:39.
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