113. Edward Moulton-Barrett (brother) to EBB

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 102–103.

[London]

Septimo die Octobris [1820] [2]

Mea carissima Ba

Duas a te accepi litteras ex quibus una mandata mei delectissimi patris continent, quæ me exire a scholâ prohibent etiam ad ludos spectandos nisi cum urbem venerit et domum alicujus nunquam adire cum mea proava in urbe non sit. Me valde piget quód tuam epistolam citius non accepi ut aliquod periculum incurrerem potius quam meo patri displiceam. Dominus McSwiney, cujus in me amicitiæ semper memor ero cùm scholam venisset me videre perspexit me tussi et frigore laborare et dixit se venturum saturno die scire quomodo valebam et cúm me pejus vidisset putabat esse melius venire domum Dominæ Williams [3] ut medicum consultarem qui dixit me non posse redire sine magno periculo utpote qui haberem aliquantum febris et magnum dolorem pectoris séd redeam cras. Vale

Mea delictissima soror.

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My dearest Ba

I received your kind letters this morning from Mr Mc who called here as usual to hear me my lessons (for that he has done ever since I have been at home so that I have not lost any thing of the schools lessons) I thank you a thousand times for them, particularly as they are Post Paid. When Mr Mc called on wedensday week last at the Charter House to see me I had a cold with a pain in my chest of which both he and I thought but slightly and therefore did not take particula<r> notice of it however on his calling on saturday after he thought it so bad that he determined upon taking me somewhere to get advice and not knowing where else to take me and having no place of his own to receive me as he would wish we went to Mrs W. [3] where Mr Green [4] saw me and declared to Mr Mc who asked him particularly that if he had not brought me home an inflammation of the lungs <***>

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Eton College Library.

Translation:

Seventh day of October.

My dearest Ba,

I received two letters from you, one of which contained the orders of my most esteemed father, which prohibited me from leaving school, even to watch games, except when he came to the city, and from ever going to someone’s home when my grandmother was not in town. I am really disgusted that I did not receive your letter sooner as I might have met with some danger of displeasing my father in some manner. Master McSwiney, whose friendship toward me I shall always remember, saw when he came to the school to visit me that I laboured with a cough and cold and said that he would return on Saturday to see how I was doing, and when he saw I was worse, he thought it would be better if I went to the house of Mistress Williams [3] to consult a doctor, who said I could not return without great danger seeing that I had some fever and severe chest pain, but I may return tomorrow. Goodbye

my most delightful sister.

1. Explaining an ink blot at the top of the page.

2. Bro began attending Charterhouse in 1820. He was elsewhere (with EBB) at this particular time of the year in 1821; had he written the letter in a still later year he would have mentioned his brother Sam, who entered the school in 1822.

3. Mrs. Elizabeth Barrett Williams (née Waite), who lived near Mrs. Moulton in London. Mrs. Williams (1754–1834) had had a long relationship “without benefit of clergy” with Mrs. Moulton’s brother, Samuel Barrett (1765–94), and had borne him four sons. Bro was taken to her house instead of his grandmother’s, because Elizabeth Moulton was out of town.

4. Possibly Dr. Jonathan Green (1788?–1864), of Gt. Marlborough Street, who qualified in 1810.

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