996. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 56–57.
[London]
[late August 1842] [1]
<***> George is ready to try anything in the Tableaux business. [2] Can you suggest a road for him? Is there a statement which he cd make to Mr March .. during the invisible estate of the responsible proprietor? The difficulty is that it wd not do (wd it?) to unite, entangle yourself with gentlemen who may be turned out of the proprietoryship after all—and I believe that a case is actually pending between them & another party professing to have bought the Tableaux for certain thousands of pounds, before the March purchase. It seems to me a swindling sort of business in which it is as well not to be involved, .. at any rate until a legal settlement of the question of ‘who wins’—, .. for mere prudence’s sake. And other reasons are stronger & higher. Nevertheless when the fact of proprietorship is once settled, your suggestion about the editorship seems very suggestible to the proprietor, who surely wd be glad enough to crown his triumph with your name.
Then again is to be considered … whether the Tableaux are A’s or B’s, do they sell among the people? If they do, it is most silently. Nobody hears a word of them—& the advertisements “breathe not their name”. [3] And if they dont .... is it not at least worth trying whether Mr Colburn, considering the whole course of circumstances, wd not close with your old proposition of three volumes of stories, & give you very nearly the originally offered sum for them. [4] The copyright is certainly yours to dispose of, if you have been robbed of any part of it or not—and I shd in your case make an effort to use my property as far as it remained, instead of chasing the robbers.
Ah, but I am worrying you, my beloved friend, with counsels worth nought, when you are overcome enough with many thoughts which are not mine. As you grow lighter-hearted,—as I pray God you may very soon!,—do read, if you have not already done so, an article called “Damned tragedies” in the Fraser of last July. It is a very clever resumè of the damnation of Martinuzzi & Plighted Troth—& both from the humour & the good humour of the whole paper I suspect it to be the production of our friend Mr Horne. Now do read it—it will be sure to amuse you!– [5]
I venture to send some oysters today as an ‘envoy’ to the tamarinds &c yesterday, & because the thought struck me that either your invalid or yourself might care for oysters this hot weather; altho’ they are not “native” (now what that means I have no sort of notion .. it seems a pedantry of the fishmongers!) until September. [6]
Goodbye my dearest dearest friend! Support your heart with the consciousness of that long heroic duty, to the noble performance of which, all who know you, are looking with admiration! [7] Support it upon love—support it upon God’s Love! I love & pray for you faithfully. Do by one word, answer <***>
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 18–19 (as [?August] [1842]).
Manuscript: Folger Shakespeare Library.
1. This letter falls after 993, in which EBB told Miss Mitford that George had returned from circuit duty.
2. i.e., to pursue the dispute over copyright (see letters 965, 967, 975 and 977).
3. Cf. “Oh! Breathe Not His Name” in Thomas Moore’s Irish Melodies.
4. In letter 967, EBB tells Horne that the sum agreed was £250.
5. The article, unsigned, appeared in Fraser’s Magazine (July 1842, pp. 93–102); the references in it to Horne make EBB’s attribution of authorship to him doubtful. The article recounted in humorous vein the events leading up to the production of Martinuzzi at the English Opera House, in an attempt to challenge the monopoly of the patent theatres (see letters 853 and 854), and analyzed the reasons for its disastrous first performance. It then passed to Plighted Troth, “produced under [Macready’s] auspices, with every care that his best judgment, skill, and experience, could suggest” at Drury Lane, with equally dire results, and offered explanations for its failure. As previously noted, Martinuzzi remained in the repertory for a month, whereas a second performance of Plighted Troth was not attempted.
6. Native oysters were normally marketed only between September and April, to avoid disturbing the beds during the breeding season; hence “never eat an oyster unless there’s an ‘R’ in the month.”
7. In a letter of May 1842 to Miss Harrison, Miss Mitford said “My dear father is all and everything to me … to take care of him is my mission” (Chorley, I, 291).
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