983. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 29–32.
[London]
[Postmark: 11 July 1842]
My very dearest George,
Having recovered from my surprise at the readiness (only a fortnight after you went away) with which you wrote to me, I proceed first to thank you for the letter, & next to propose “a case” to your consideration.
A asks B to go to H for him: B goes. A asks B to go to W for him: B goes. B will go to L for a word from A—but when A asks B to go simply to C [1] for him, B wont do it for all the eloquence in the alphabet!– Now going to W and going to L include going to C—involve at least the labor of going to C—and why is it that B shd object to C? Pray send me ‘an opinion’ on my case.
You will apply it in a moment. You have gone for me to twenty shops in a day,—& besides other less analogical kindnesses, have written two law letters in defence of my “rights” to Mr March of Hanover Street. Why then refuse the three lines I supplicated for myself, which wd have cost you just one penny and two minutes of time inclusive of the sealing? Why force me, through the lack of it, into the dungeons of a chateau d’ Espagne, [2] when I might be easy about you? I appeal to the logical part of your nature, Georgie!– Only one reason occurs to me for the fortnight’s silence—that perhaps you fancy me not in earnest—that perhaps you think my prayer to write, only a fashion of words & no sign of real uneasiness to come! Be sure for the future, it is not so—& do try, were it only for law’s sake, to be more given to reasoning consequently & writing accordingly. All my reasoning, you will discern, hangs upon the fact of your being one of the very kindest in the world to me, in general. That is my ‘philosophia prima’, [3] —and you wont say that the circumstance shows my gratitude to advantage.
The Hereford newspapers spoke of you, they tell me—for I did not manage to catch a sight of them—and we may congratulate you through the cloud of your silence upon the five or six cases—& the how many at Gloucester & elsewhere? Last week you were at Frocester [4] (what an entertaining letter I am writing!) & now we are wondering whether you are turning your face to Colwall. If so, give my kind love to dear Mrs Martin & to Mr Martin besides, & tell me how they look!
Well, my dearest George! we are missing you very much as we always do—and I am subject still to vibratory turnings towards the door, at the hour for your coming from chambers. We are preparing too for your return—the whole of the window in your room having left its charge to a tarpaulin, while itself is given to renovation– All new wood; & then all new paint, as a corollary: and you will be twice as comfortable dear George, in winter-times & draught-times–
Thank you for your cordial judgment of my last paper—only of course, in the greater part of your criticisms, I am right & you are wrong. Seriously, it pleases me much that what I have written shd in any way have pleased you: & perhaps I think, myself, that dramatic paper the best of the series. Mr Dilke sent me proofs of the last a few days since, with a command that I shd let him have them tomorrow or the next day—so that I suppose the intention to be to make room for me in some chasm of British Association reports, next Saturday. But oh the length, George!—the length—I mean, of my last paper. It is the longest of any ever perpetrated by me—eight columns! [5] And yet I did it all in as little room as I could breathe in—& was short-breathed too.
Mr Boyd wrote to me to say in the midst of great approbation, that of the whole passage about Shakespeare, [6] nobody can find the least sign of its being written “by a female”. It is impossible to help exulting in the compliment.
And my dearest George, three or four days ago, I had a letter from Mr Kenyon who wrote to me in his flight .. containing several little branches & buds out of Wordsworth’s garden, sent to me by Wordsworth himself with kind regards, & affectionate enquiries & all sorts of things. [7] I asked Mr Kenyon to send me a little slip of green which he was to supplicate for himself—but [‘]‘how cd you expect” said Mr Kenyon “that I shd bear the ignominy of such fantastic sentimentality?” So he mentioned my name—& certainly I do not care for the ignominy while I get what I wanted. S[ette]. has planted them—& prophecies are ominous: but I do trust that the Muses will interpose with all manner of invisible dews & secure the sprouting– Ora pro nobis. [8]
The large table for the drawing room has re-appeared today in a satisfactory state, they say. We are low in news. Mr Folkes another friend of Henry’s, dined here last week—son of Sir William, [9] & just called to the bar– He is six feet four & a half—& broad to match,—and Papa must have thought him a compendium of all possible dinner-company when expecting to see one or two ordinary persons, he met him at the drawingroom door.
I have not heard from dear Miss Mitford for several days—she called you “dear Mr George Barrett” when she wrote last, & was thankful for the second accosting of Mr March. Dearest Georgie, may God bless you in all things. [10]
I am wonderfully well—& you may think of me as up at twelve oclock every day– The walking too goes on improvingly: & I have stood up quite alone—altho’ with a tendency to falling backwards or forwards, & Crow close by to catch me. But I stood. Will you write? Will you love your own Ba?
Address: G.G.M. Barrett Esqr / Colwall / near Ledbury.
Publication: B-GB, pp. 84–87 (as [11 September 1842]).
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Underscored twice.
2. The French equivalent of “castle in the air.”
3. “Highest philosophy.”
4. The home of their uncle John Altham Graham-Clarke and his wife Mary.
5. Its length obliged Dilke to divide it between two issues, those of 6 and 13 August.
6. In the third paper, in The Athenæum of 25 June.
8. “Pray for us.”
9. Thought to be Martin William Browne ffolkes (b. 1819), the eldest son of Sir William John Henry Browne ffolkes, although, despite EBB’s comment, there is no entry under Folkes, ffolkes of Foulkes in The Law List for 1842, 1843 or 1844.
10. An unidentified person has drawn two lines in ink, diagonally, through this paragraph and the first five paragraphs.
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