1194. Cornelius Mathews to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 31–34.
New-York. 14 Pine-Street.
March 30th. 1843.
I am afraid, my dear Miss Barrett, you count my simple services—when you applaud them so—rather in a coin minted in your own generous fancy, than in any measure of deserving of mine. Is it no pleasure to me, do you think, to know at times that once in a while a ‘God bless You’ is breathed for me up from that London Street?– To know, that humble as I am and far removed, I may at times by the mere act of doing well secure a kind thought where my face has never been looked upon—my voice listened to? You bind me to my pleasant duty, you do indeed, when you tell me that you lie in the bond of sickness, and that letters with stray gifts of papers and parcels are, mostly, the only visitors you receive from the Outer World.
I am glad your own face greeted you in the Extracts you encountered in the American Papers. I will confess to a little surprise at your acknowledgement of the Articles in the Athenæum as your own: [1] I had read them with pleasure, not dreaming at the time (which may be warrant for my dullness) they were yours. I wish you would point to other papers of yours, that I may track you in your tastes and pursuits more closely than I have yet been allowed. The heartiness with which you chastize that “Prometheus” is truly mirthful: [2] no self-convicted friar ever ‘laid on’ [3] seemingly with half the zeal. Are you not over-eager in the flagellation: can you not, with a good conscience, abate a stroke or two?– I think you might venture, without peril to your soul. I will do no such thresher’s work on my own poor sheaves (spare heads too, you will say) I assure you.
And now I am arrived at a trying point in your kind letter: Ah, little did you dream, my dear Miss Barrett, when you extended a welcome in England to a young author of America what trials lay before you. It did not occur to you when you took him kindly by the hand and spoke a word of friendly invitation to a frail Poem of his [4] —that he, monster as he proves—would branch out Briareus-like [5] —an arm in every direction and claim the diligence of twenty ‘graspers’ to give him due reception. The knowledge that your humble correspondent is the ‘writer of several works of fiction’ [6] has overtaken you & you half repent do you not?—that you have brought the calamity of their perusal into your sick chamber. I was going to say I would make a bold face of it & march to the Confessional at once, but I am afraid I am there already in a Pamphlet on Copyright [7] (lately addressed to you through Messrs Wiley & Putnam, with spare copies for friends) the cover of which has by this time enlightened you as to the extent of my offences. As I doubt whether the Books in question are attainable at any library or libraries in the British Dominions—not having the good fortune to be there thumb-soiled, with that stain of reading, precious to the author’s eye—as is your “Seraphim” on the table of our City Library– You will perhaps be willing to accept them from the author, from time to time, as they are issued. I think you will receive the first two Numbers containing the Motley Book and Behemoth [8] in a month or two—on the express condition that you do not determine my fate as an author till you have seen the whole series in solid or straggling column, as they prove, when finally enrolled together. I am too anxious for the good opinion of Miss Barrett to allow misprision in a case like this and I may therefore seem to dwell on trifles not worth entertaining. You ask whether I have written any poetry before Wakondah: but in a breath recover yourself, to know rather whether I have published before? A wise afterthought—for you know the Soul poetic & prosaic, too, come to that, is but too eager to spoil paper: Written?– Not a little; which some good angel thrust long ago into pantrie, and inaccessible chests, boxes, & garret-hiding-places: Published? Nothing of account: a piece or two in the Magazines, with a few Sonnets. I date in poetry, as far as the Public knows or cares about the matter, from the fragment of ‘Wakondah’ which I hope yet to complete in such fashion as to vindicate you over Miss Mitford: in making up a general judgement with regard to whose talents, by the way[,] you may be in the right. It is painful, indeed, to know that this lady suffers after a life of pure & hopeful labor; and I wish to Heaven it were in our power, on this side of the water, to alleviate her condition: We owe her not a little & should pay it: but I am afraid an attempt to aid her, at this time, would fail: so that good wishes must go into the treasury to help brighten the substantial good of her own country-people.
You refer to Mr. Browning’s New Tragedy, [9] which opportunely came into my hands a present from Mr. Moxon a little while after your letter: and which I have read with great pleasure. It is sustained and straightforward, in general, free from certain peculiarities of his earlier writings & shewing according to my judgement a true capacity for dramatic composition. I send you an American Journal in which a friend whom I mentioned in a previous letter (Mr. Evert A. Duyckinck) has given his opinion of this production. [10] This brings me to ask you whether your relations to the Athenaeum are such that you could with propriety address a line to its editor to further an object which this gentleman has in view. Mr. Duyckinck proposes—& it seems plausible enough to me—to become the American correspondent at New York of the Athenaeum, & to furnish as may suit the plans of that Journal, a monthly or semi-monthly letter on Literature, the Fine Arts, the Book-Trade &c in this country. [11] He has contributed to a former Quarterly, the New York Review, is an accomplished man & in every way capable of performing what he undertakes. I might add that he is a friend & admirer of Miss Barrett, but I know this is not necessary to secure your friendly services. He sends by the present steamer a specimen letter, which laboring under the constraint of all new correspondence, does not fairly I should say disclose, the resources at his command.
With the names you mention in your letter, circling about Wimpole-Street like so many stars you breathe a golden atmosphere indeed: to show you what contrasts this little narrow planet of ours affords, I send you a ‘Boston Miscellany’ in which you will find a sketch setting forth, somewhat fancifully the ‘surroundings’ of your New-World Antipody. [12] Of Mr. Kenyon I have heard & most favorably, by general report. I do not happen to know [or] have met any one lately who enjoys his acquaintance.
The Mr. Lowell who procured from you contributions from you for a Boston Magazine I should tell you (meaning to keep you advised on all these American points, as far as you will allow me) is a young gentlemen [sic] of considerable cleverness but by all odds the most amusing specimen of mature & rampant conceit I ever happened to encounter. I should have mentioned this at the beginning of the letter & it would have furnished an ample mirth to the end. I tell you this to add that he is overtly treacherous—not a little selfish withal, so that one should have a caution in their dealings. His Magazine is, I believe, lately stopped. [13]
Your contributions (which with the poems you first sent ‘The Cry of the Human’ & Four Sonnets are all that have ever reached me) have been duly delivered to the editor of Graham’s Magazine. I am in doubt whether your draft at Mess[rs] Wiley & Putnam’s has been honored or not, as on inquiry its payment seems to have been contingent (as it should not be) on the sales of Graham’s Mags. in London. I have written to Phila to-day, [14] & shall restore the matter to a proper footing so that you may be relieved from any delay (if any has arisen) in the matter.
Having like an awkward surveyor misjudged my ground I am obliged to retreat to this remote corner to write, my
Yours sincerely
Cornelius Mathews.
Address, on integral page: To / Elizabeth B. Barrett, / 50 Wimpole-Street, / London.
Publication: BBIS-23, p. 19 (in part).
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
2. EBB had told Mathews that she did all she could to prevent the circulation of Prometheus Bound, an “unworthy misprision of the Greek” (see letter 1155).
3. Cf. Macbeth, V, 8, 33.
4. i.e., Wakondah; see letter 1059.
5. The giant Briareus was said to have 50 heads and 100 hands.
6. For details of works published by Mathews see letter 1155, note 6.
7. An Address to the People of the United States in Behalf of the American Copyright Club (1843). Mathews was one of the founders of the Copyright Club.
8. Motley Book was published in 1838, Behemoth, a Legend of the Moundbuilders in 1839.
9. EBB commented on A Blot in the ’Scutcheon in letter 1155.
10. EBB’s comments in letter 1222 show this to be the notice in The Pathfinder of 1 April 1843. (For the text, see pp. 396–397.)
11. EBB tells Mathews in letter 1222 of Dilke’s response to this proposal.
12. Probably “Sympathy and Antipathy,” by W.W. Story, in the August 1842 issue (pp. 79–98).
13. Only three numbers of The Pioneer were published, the last, which contained EBB’s “The Maiden’s Death,” being dated March 1843.
14. See SD1188.
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