1203. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 54–56.
[London]
April 4– 1843–
My dearest George,
I wrote to you some two or three days ago, but as I was judicious enough to direct my letters to you .. Barrister at Law[,] Oxford .. without a word of a ‘circuit,’ [1] .. it is likely to go for nothing in a very literal sense. Therefore, & also because you have had the kindness to write to me again, you shall hear from me tomorrow & enjoy the collateral priveledge of being tolerably well scolded for some of the wisdom in your last letter– Really George, it was too bad of you to write as you did. Had you no instincts? Could you not understand without an explanation, that it might’nt be agreeable to me, to be exposed as the patroness of organists to the whole of this house?– [2] Could you not have deferred the delivery of certain messages quoad bishops & deans, until you & I stood face to face, & my door was shut? In your first letter you kept your duty of silence about Moxon very sorrily [3] .. by a mysteriousness of expression which excited more questions than the truth without the mystification need have done! And now .. here you are with sin the second. If Stormie had not taken away your letter & lost it by accident, I shd have been perplexed in the extreme. As it is, I am satisfied with sending you this humble remonstrance–
You are far more like a vulture George, than a dove; & all your pretensions to the romantic might be covered by the second volume of Blackstone– [4] So be sure you do write to us every day—there is no denying that. Suppose you leave out the last syllables of your applicatory Latin .. Nulla dies sine li.... [5] The application is undeniable so–
I have written, but very briefly this time, to Wordsworth [6] .. and in the meantime Mr Kenyon has sent him a sonnet of mine & some of the stanzas of ‘Pan’ .. in hopes that he will ask for the rest. Mr Kenyon talked also of sending the whole to Mr Landor .. & to Mr Browning .. and to several other of the demigods– I put in a new stanza about Bacchus who had been left out before– [7]
It is whispered that the poor Laureate told Moxon a few years ago, of his intention to leave a posthumous poem which wd bring as much money as Lallah Rookh did. [8] Moxon said so the other day to Moore who smiled scornfully at the thought, … poet’s profits being so merely mythic now a days–
Dear Miss Mitford’s subscription has past the sixteenth hundred,—& nothing is yet received from America .. upon which I “calculate”– She is going almost immediately into Devonshire, viâ Bath where she will stay a week: & has resolved, I am happy to know, to settle finally in her old residence at Three Mile Cross, the landlady having lowered the rent by five pounds in the year.
The Theodore Monros are expected in London this evening, in passing through to Brighton where the medical men have sent him … ‘to die easily’ I suppose .. for there remains no ground for hope whatever– Mr Mackintosh is dying. [9] But poor Emma!– I return to her!
I would give my Kingdom [10] for some news to tell you .. but I say so as vainly as Richard did when he had lost his. Be informed, however, that Mr & Mrs Martin are travelling towards you while I write, & that if you are inclined to visit them at Colwall, they will be at home, & probably very glad to see you– They had wished to remain here longer—but Mrs Hanford’s ill health & anxiety to be at home forced them away as her companions—and I cd not remonstrate or grumble much, altho’ I was disappointed at this cutting short of pleasure in my own selfish consciousness– Mrs Martin said to me (now dont talk openly of this! pray do be discreet, George, for once in your life!) that they shd probably resolve on spending some months of every year in London .. as Mr Martin enjoyed exceedingly being at the root of the world & seeing it grow .. & as this great city presents the only equivalent for continental variety, … and as, besides, nearly all their friends are here, & very few of them in Herefordshire. I am afraid also, that poor Mrs Hanford is in a precarious state .. & that that last tie may break too soon.
You go away from Hereford– Where do you go? That’s what you dont say. I eagerly came to the conclusion that you wd be at home on wednesday—& you wont I suppose. Papa was scarcely pleased at their not employing you in the Ledbury murder case– [11] Have you flourished generally in murders? Are burglaries up? If you go to Gloucester, as certain of us suppose, you will see Bummy again (dear Bummy!) & be enticed into the Cheltenham soirées– Henrietta & one or two of them dine at the Biddulphs today.
My heart has acknowledged a moderator in the late & present soft winds .. that is in the winds of the last three days. I have no fire––not even a comet—for you see what the learned called a comet, has turned into a zodiacal light.
May God bless you my dearest dearest George. I love you more than I could say if I tried.
Ever & Ever your attached
Ba–
I had a whole sheet full in a letter from Mr Haydon last monday .. ditto last tuesday; & all about the Duke of Wellington & Napoleon!–
Address: G G M Barrett Esqr / Barrister at Law / Oxford Circuit. Redirected: Glo[uce]ster.
Publication: B-GB, pp. 94–97.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. We assume EBB refers to letter 1196, in which case her memory is at fault; the direction did include the words Oxford Circuit.
2. As George’s letter is lost to us, this reference remains obscure, but EBB frequently chided him for his lack of discretion.
3. Presumably the reference here is to the approach made to Moxon to publish EBB’s Poems (1844).
4. William Blackstone (1723–80), judge and legal writer, published his Commentaries on the Laws of England in four volumes (1765–69).
5. EBB’s pun omits the final syllable of linea (“Not a day without a line,” Pliny, Naturalis Historiæ, xxxv, 36, 84).
7. Stanza XIV, commencing “Bacchus, Bacchus! on the panther”.
8. Having refused an offer of 2,000 guineas from Murray for Lalla Rookh, Moore wrote to Longman’s on 17 December 1814: “Upon my giving into your hands a poem of the length of [Scott’s] Rokeby, I am to receive from you the sum of 3000l” (Memoirs, Journal, and Correspondence of Thomas Moore, ed. Lord John Russell, 1853–56, II, 57–58).
9. Assumed to be the father of the children mentioned in letter 1175, note 2.
10. Cf. King Richard III, V, 4, 7.
11. John Webb, aged 40, a labourer, was tried at Hereford Crown Court on 30 March for the wilful murder of his mother at Ledbury. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity (The Hereford Times, 1 April 1843).
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