735. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 244–245.
Torquay.
Feby 31 [sic, for ?3 March], [1840] [1]
Tell me my dearest Miss Mitford what I am to say for you to Mr Kenyon—that is unless you will write to him yourself. He desires me to write to him at Rome—& I forgot to ask you for at least a message, & I must have it before I write, and if I dont write soon my letter may miss him. So tell me. But he wd rather, I know by instinct, have your own words in your own ink—only you may not be in a generous mood, having heaps of businesses in your right hand instead of a cornucopia–
By the way, I suspect you of some great scheme .. some gunpowder plot [2] for blowing people up into ecstasies. I long to hear all about it. I did hear a secret last night by the post—a very highly connected literary secret too .. but I mean to keep inviolate my integrity & not tell even you. Mr Horne told me. He had two to tell & promised them to me upon my making affidavit of secrecy [3] .. & then said in his humourous way that he wd communicate one at a time “to see whether I shd just mention it in the course of a week”. So I mean to do despite to his suspicions & my own femineity, by not telling even you.
Thank you again & again, my dearest kindest Miss Mitford, my beloved friend, for all your affectionateness—all your kindnesses of word & thought & deed. My heart leaps up [4] always to meet your letters! No—to be sure—if the people had not been talking, you wd not have miscalled me so!– There was a strangeness in the ‘Miss Barrett’, which, as people were not talking round me, struck me at once. Oh no!– I belong to you my beloved friend by either of my names, Elizabeth .. or the other one sagaciously hinting at my immaturity in several respects .. ‘Ba’.. by—but the courtesy of the prefix & the “chivalry” of the Barrett are put aside between us .. are they not?—for ever?—— [5]
Dear Dr Mitford! To know my writing!—& without spectacles!– Thank you for telling me everything!– And thank you—thank you both—for liking my poem, which I really did not hope you wd like half so well. I wondered whether you might like it—but not at all about the Queen’s liking it or seeing it– You are probably quite right in your devination that neither gods nor goddesses made her poetical– Otherwise she wd care more for Shakespeare. Still there is much in her that interests me.
As to naming the poem to Miss Cocks, even if I were in habits of intercourse with her, I wd as soon do such a thing as go to court myself with the Athenæum twisted into a foolscap!– Lady Margaret is my friend. I have not seen Miss Cocks, since she grew up–
But do just as you please, in regard to Miss Skennet. [6] I will not say that I shd not be pleased to hear of the Queen’s having seen it—because I shd, altho’ you first suggested the thought. Only believe me to be as honest in assuring you besides that no Queen’s look or Queen’s smile cd be worth either to my heart or mind, your approving words!——
Good bye– Terrible east wind—making my hands hot & pulse fast. But I bear up, thank God upon the whole! I thank Him that you are better! & remain with best love to dear Dr Mitford,
yours in truest affection,
EBB–
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 182–184.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by the reference to EBB’s verses on the Queen’s wedding.
2. The Catholic plot to blow up James I, together with Lords and Commons, at the opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605. Barrels of gunpowder had been hidden under the House of Lords; because of this, a ceremonial search of the vaults is carried out before each opening of Parliament by the Sovereign.
Miss Mitford’s “great scheme” involved publication of some of her letters.
3. Despite the “affidavit of secrecy,” letter 746 appears to divulge the two secrets, namely, that Horne had asked EBB to write for The Monthly Chronicle, and that Horne was writing a new tragedy, not for the stage—this was Gregory VII, published in April 1840.
4. Cf. Wordsworth’s lines “My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold” (1802).
5. In the following letter, Miss Mitford speaks of writing “in the midst of a quantity of people”; apparently while distracted, she had addressed EBB formally, instead of in her usual, more intimate style. EBB’s comment about “chivalry” doubtless refers to the passage in letter 727 in which she said that “Barrett” meant “helmet.”
6. EBB has misread Miss Mitford’s handwriting. As SD1115.1 makes clear, Miss Mitford intended to send a copy of The Athenæum of 15 February, containing EBB’s “The Crowned and Wedded Queen,” to her friend, Marianne Skerrett, the Queen’s Dresser, in the hope of its reaching the Queen. Before she did so, however, she wanted to be sure that EBB had not already taken steps in that direction through the offices of Lady Margaret Cocks, whose niece, Caroline Margaret Cocks, was one of the Queen’s Maids of Honour.
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