117. EBB to Editor of The Literary Gazette
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 109–112.
[?Hope End]
[ca. 1821] [1]
What honors that
“But tedious waste of time, to sit and hear
So many hollow compliments, and lies,
Outlandish Flatteries?” [2]
Milton
“Davus) Non hercle intelligo! Simo) Non? hem! Davus) Non!
Davus sum, non Œdipus”— [3]
Ter[ence]
Mr Editor,
I am one of those unfortunate beings who are too conscientious to be happy, and who have sacrificed the world at the eternal altar of Truth. I have pursued the unprofitable meteors of ideal pleasure, admired the glittering kaleidescope of Fashion and gazed with anxious expectation on the bodiless visions of enjoyment, but Mr Editor I have turned with listless impatience from the animated scene, for in my search after happiness, sincerity has faded from my sight. It had never been my intention to lay the tale of my misfortunes before the public eye, but yesterday morning, finding at my booksellers a number of your most valuable publication, I have endeavoured to awaken myself from the constitutional indifference, which has lately siezed my intellectual powers, that the world may learn how disgusting to the votary of truth, is the prevailing taste for insincerity, and compliment.
“Con arte ed inganno
Si vive mezzo l’anno
Con inganne et [sic] con arte
Si vive l’altra parte” [4]
I do not however desire to stigmatize complimenters in general, it is the hyperbolical compliment that I would accuse, that universal rage for complimenting which renders it impossible for an old fashioned, plain spoken man like myself to pass thro’ society without fixing on my unhappy shoulders the opprobrium of being a boor, or what perhaps is as bad .. a philosopher!— Nothing is composed of such delicate Materials as a compliment and it may not improperly be compared to the rainbow whose lovely tints cease to be exquisite when deprived of the reflecting rays of Candours bright and ineffable luminacy!—At least the shadow of truth should be conspicuous, for without it Praise ceases to please and must unavoidably disgust. When Pliny composed his magnificent “Panegericus Theodosio Augusto dictus” he displayed the whole depth of his Philosophical knowledge in that inimitable declaration,—“Neminem magis laudare Imperatorem decet, quam quem minus necesse est”. [5] Preceded by such a sentiment the fine Panegeric that follows could not appear extravagant, and could not produce disgust even in the mind of the elegant Theodosius; for praise only sinks into adulation when it is not spontaneous. Shakespeare might have intended a satire on extravagant compliment in the well known dialogue between Viola and Olivia in the “Twelfth Night”—
Olivia) “Come to what is important, I forgive you the praise.
Viola) Alas! I took great pains to study it, and tis poetical!
Olivia) It is the more like to be feigned, I pray you keep it in–” [6]
Bacon says “There be so many false points of praise, that a Man may justly hold it in suspect–” [7] The remark is philosophical, but perhaps the Philosopher himself was not invulnerable to the irresistable might of vanity! as Pope once said “It is vanity which makes the rake at twenty, the worldly man at forty, and the retired man at sixty”. [8] I always admired the sincerity of Sir Godfrey Kneller, when he frankly acknowledged his fallibility, and human weakness. “I cant do so well” exclaimed he to the immortal Poet, who was in silence gazing on the beautiful delineations of the Artist’s pencil, “I cant do so well as I should do unless you flatter me a little; pray flatter me Mr Pope, you know I love to be flattered”—— [9]
Swift was not perhaps a man of exquisite refinement, or peculiar delicacy, but when a member of the present adulatory school assured him, that he loved him better than his nearest relatives and best friends, silence alone expressed the Deans disgust who afterwards exclaimed “The man’s a fool”—! And yet when Rollin assailed Swift with a letter of elegant compliment, he was not displeased for while his vanity was flattered by it, his good sense was unoutraged! [10]
The philosopher would judge of causes from effects, and perhaps if we analyse the present rage for compliment we shall discover that the evil originates from the increasing vanity of humanity. “Omnia vanitas” [11] indeed! As a Philanthropist, Mr Editor, I should desire to believe that that Christian precept, “Do as you would be done by.” occasions the multiplicity of Adulators, but I acknowledge also with due deference that the exalted hyperboles, and complimentary episodes ushered in upon the fashionable stage, are even far above my limited powers of comprehension. I am naturally diffident, and most willingly do I believe that the present race of mortals are far above me both in capacity of intellect, and elasticity of imagination, for certainly my mental powers will expand no further and my fancy is incapable of soaring higher. But the words of Cicero hang in consoling sweetness on my ear “Non est enim parum cognosse, sed etiam in parum cognito turpe atque diu perseverasse stulti est”. [12] I do not desire Mr Editor to persevere in my ignorance, and if it be in your power to initiate me in these mysteries of the complimentary orgies my obligation will be eternal. But alas! how can you reconcile this constant, and habitual practice of deception with the beautiful simplicity which dignifies Truths untutored tongue? How can the glittering web of complimentary ingenuity bear unbroken the holy, and pure drops of sinceritys translucent dew? I can behold dipravity without scorn, audacity without resentment, folly without contempt, but I cannot gaze on deceptions refined tissue of elegant untruths, uninfluenced by feelings of inexpressible indignation, and unutterable disgust!! I have laid before you Mr Editor the sentiments of one, unfortunately addicted to the weak propensity of being vulgarly candid, though I sincerely confess that I consider my own case hopeless. For while the world is vain it will not want Flatterers, and while Deception yet cowers over the earth she will not want an altar. I can no longer even hope to behold Insincerity unmasked: Friendship and Antipathy have changed liveries, Malevolence stalks abroad under the bright semblance of a smile and Hate grins applause with affable serenity. And yet why should I despair? Truth does not turn from me for ever; even now she sometimes gleams in momentary splendour, a sunbeam on a stormy sea. For instance as somebody says,
“Who hangs himself or beats his brains
The devil’s in him, if he [13] feigns” [14] –
EBB.
Publication: None traced.
Source: EBB’s fair copy, Folger Shakespeare Library. A draft is also at the Folger Library, and two incomplete copies exist, one at Bibliotheca Bodmeriana and the other at ABL. All three of these copies vary in differing degrees from the text reproduced here.
1. The cover sheet accompanying ABL’s draft copy bears EBB’s notation: “Essays, poems and Translations … written in the years 1820 and 1821.”
2. Paradise Regained (1671), IV, 122–125.
3. Andria (166 B.C.), act I, sc. 2: Davos) “By Hercules, I don’t follow you.” Simo) “You don’t? Well!” Davos) “I don’t. I’m Davos, Not Œdipus.”
4. Giovan Maria Cecchi (1518–87), L’Esaltazione della Croce (1585), act IV, sc. 9: “By art and swindling here / Men live for half the year; / By swindling and by art / They live the other part.”
5. EBB is confused; Pliny’s Panegyricus was addressed to the Emperor Trajan, not to Theodosius. The passage she quotes appears in the Panegyricus Theodosio Augusto dictus of Latinus Pacatus Drepanius, written in A.D. 391 (MPL, 13, 480). It translates as: “It is fitting to praise no emperor more than the one to whom less praise is necessary.”
6. Twelfth Night, I, 5, 192–194.
7. “Of Praise” (1597) in The Essays of Francis Bacon.
8. Samuel Weller Singer’s edition of Joseph Spence’s Anecdotes, Observations, and Characters, of Books and Men. Collected from the Conversation of Mr. Pope (1820, Sec. V, 203).
9. Op. cit., Sec. IV, 180. Kneller (1646–1723) settled permanently in England in 1678, after being commissioned to make a portrait of Charles II; he subsequently became the principal court painter, and ten reigning sovereigns sat for him. After his death, Pope wrote the epitaph for his monument in Westminster Abbey.
10. Op. cit., Sec VII, 256.
11. “All is vanity.”
12. “For it is no small thing to have understood, but to have continued in that little knowledge shamelessly and long is the mark of a fool” (De Inventione, II, cap. 3).
13. Underscored three times.
14. Samuel Butler’s Hudibras, Part II (1663), I, 497–498, slightly misquoted.
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