1196. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 36–38.
[London]
March 31– 1843–
My ever dearest Georgie, it is your turn to reproach, you think,—and indeed I am by no means sure that I am not ashamed of myself!– The fact is, that I have been busy with all sorts of persecutions on the part of the East wind & Pan,—the former exhorting me to lie still in an apathy, & the latter insisting ‘on the part of’ Mr Kenyon, that I should correct all his corrigible faults & improve him by new stanzas & write him out fair. You understand the Pan I mean—not your Pan of the rural districts & flocks & herd, but mine of the lyrical poem which you did so much honor to, one evening in this room by your euphonic delivery—the Pan who “is dead.” It happened after this fashion– One day Mr Kenyon asked me to send him one or two of my ms poems .. so I sent him ‘Pan’ & some sonnets &c– He was delighted with Pan, & ‘jealous’ he said of his prosperity .. & to prove the jealousy he made various criticisms & threw me into a maze of difficulties from the necessity of altering passages with unique rhymes at the end of them. At last I have come to a prosperous conclusion,—to dear Mr Kenyon’s satisfaction & to my own—& Pan is much the better for his various chastisements, & I am at liberty to write to you without sending to you unaware news from the gods– Mr Kenyon says “You will never write anything better than that.” We shall see.
My dearest George you were twice mentioned in the Hereford paper, [1] & that’s all we know of your prosperity. You speak of it very vaguely—most briefly of your briefs. We may go to hear of them to the Eleusinian mysteries [2] ––& come back again without information.
The Martins are in London—& I saw Mr Martin on Saturday & Mrs Martin on Sunday, & have seen neither of them since– You understand about the ‘great pump cause’ at Ledbury, [3] as they wd say at Little Peddlington, [4] —& how it unfortunately happened to come to a compromise before it came into court. Otherwise you wd have had the business—for Mr Martin recommended you graciously to the prosecutors–
We are all very well—& I am pretty well. The East wind made me uncomfortable, but I have hopes that it is gone, or about to go– As an amends, Mr Tennyson did write to me—“He had reason to be obliged to the reviewer—but far more was he gratified by the good opinion of a British poetess”– It was a very kind note .. & ended “yours very truly”– Mind, George, if you see Mr Venables, [5] to make him comprehend that I am sensible of the honor of being written to by Mr Tennyson, & that I am ready to kiss his shoetyes any day. This is not in joke—it is grave, solemn earnest–
Moreover Mr Wordsworth had the great kindness to send me a little printed, not published, poem, of some four pages, called ‘Grace Darling,’ [6] with his ‘very kind regards’—and I should have written to him today if I were not bound irresistably to you–
Moreover, Mr Moxon calling upon Mr Kenyon yesterday morning, Mr Kenyon repeated one of my sonnets to him,—whereupon Mr Moxon cried out .. “I do hope you delivered that message to Miss Barrett– I do hope she understands that whenever she is inclined to publish, I shall be most happy to undertake the business”–
Nevertheless, George, I am ... sulky, or something as incapacitating—only dont say so loud out again, in your next letter. My inclination for publishing this year has in fact passed away .. Next year it may be different.
Poor Southey has passed through many forms of death to his repose—having a few weeks ago an attack of apoplexy, & dying at last of typhus fever– He recovered no light of intellect—& went without transition from the darkness & blank & silence to which he had been reduced, without transition, without dawn, full into the perpetual glory & resounding Hallelujah– Who can weep for him? Not his tenderest friend. Least of all, his tenderest friend.
Can you believe it possible, that that woman, his new-made wife, [7] would only permit his daughter to see him for one hour during the week!– She now says bitterly “I have got my father back again.” Is there not a thrilling truth in those words?
Poor Emma Monro! I suppose you have heard that she is at Charlton with her husband, & that his case is represented to be “perfectly hopeless, altho’ he may survive one or two months.”
I will write to you soon again my dearest George! May God bless you! I think of you & long to have you at home .. so please the briefs– Miss Mitford has £1500–
Write to me George–
Your attached Ba–
Address: G G M Barrett Esqr / Barrister at Law / Oxford Circuit; redirected: Hereford Sessions / Mr Dillon’s / Bye St; redirected: Gloucester / Oxford Circuit.
Publication: B-GB, pp. 91–94.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. The Hereford Times of 18 March 1843 listed George Moulton-Barrett as one of the counsel at the Quarter Sessions and gave details of two cases of theft in which he appeared for the prosecution; one of the accused was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for stealing a shirt; the other was found not guilty.
2. The most secret of the rites associated with the worship of Demeter and Persephone, celebrating the coming of spring.
3. We found nothing in the Hereford papers to clarify this reference.
4. An imaginary village of quackery, cant, egotism and affectation delineated in Little Pedlington and the Pedlingtonians (1839), by John Poole (1786?–1872).
5. George Stovin Venables, another lawyer on circuit, was the dedicatee of Tennyson’s The Princess (1847).
6. See Reconstruction, A2491.
7. Southey’s second wife, Caroline Anne (née Bowles), whom he had married in 1839, was detested by her stepchildren (DNB).
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