1217. EBB to Benjamin Robert Haydon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 83–85.
[London]
Friday. [21] April– 1843. [1]
Nothing is impossible said Napoleon [2] —certainly not that I should procure for you the reading of Sir David Wilkie’s Life—& you shall have it accordingly, together with the Athenæum & Examiner critiques upon it. The extracts given in the latter affect one painfully through the inferiority of what Victor Cousin distinguishes as ‘l’homme’ from ‘le grand homme.’ [3] The writer of certain subservient letters not only “acted”, but acted low comedy parts– Better to die in the ‘Whig union’, than to live on opulently, with one’s soul & its nobility coined into thirty thousand sovereigns!– [4] Better & happier & more worthy, to die so! and yet I hope you never may die so! I hope you wrote those words, my dear Mr Haydon, rather in self-approbation than in despondency; rather in assent to the moral superiority of the ‘Whig union’ position, than in anticipation & personal application of it’s evils– You are yet in the middle of your career & should not wonder at the dust of your own chariot. The goal will bring repose & a clearer air–
In the meantime the Wilkie biography has excited you back again into your own—& I am very glad indeed of it– Ah—do—do—send me the ms .. the journal .. anything you dare trust with me: & remember that albeit a woman I can keep a secret pretty well– As to the publication, there will be no difficulty about it—only do not part with the m∙s. with too much facility. Bentley would be glad, I shd think, to purchase it; as would Saunders & Otley, Colburn .. Whittaker perhaps. I am not personally acquainted with any of these booksellers—& they look so coldly on the genus poet, that I doubt whether my own publisher Saunders wd stretch out his hand to you with the least degree more courtesy from any introduction I cd give you– Nevertheless your work appears to me of a very saleable character—you should have money for it. One previous consideration is that you could scarcely name the names of living persons & discuss their merits quite as frankly & freely now, as if the publication were to take place hereafter. If you publish now, you must soften a little—& I would moreover, if I were you, abbreviate & subdue certain parts of your ms. .. particularly the opening of it .. where you speak boldly & openly your own genius– I like the consciousness of genius—& I do not object to truth under any aspect. But you must be aware that the world & the great mass of readers are irritated by assertion into denial; & are apt to call all such gloryings, if not mistaken vanity, mispoken bad taste. I would therefore if I were you, spare the provocative. Now remember—this is not to advise insincerity, but simply one shade more of reserve—! and really it just strikes me that you have every reason for returning my counsel back to me, & that I am growing impertinent– Forgive the impertinence—the freedom!– When the lion roars, he need not say “I am a lion”: we know it while we stand beside the wood. And the conventional tactics & proprieties of this age are such, that if he shD say “I am a lion”, all the monkeys on the palmtrees are sworn to cry out … “No lion!. but a jackall”–
The urn, the urn!– [5] And you & Mrs S. C Hall!!– Is it possible? Two people in the world understand “every word” of me!! [6] I ought indeed to be in “a superb humour.” I ought’nt indeed to say “I wont” again, altho’ I were to grow ever so much better & stronger! No acme of convalescence cd justify it!– I am to drink tea with the Immortals! And two intelligent persons can understand what I say!!! Why, indeed, dear Mr Haydon, I grow giddy with prosperity–
But seriously—for we all come to seriousness at last, & I sooner than most people–—, I am grateful to both of you for understanding me & for having a good hope for my futurity– All my earthly futurity as an individual, lies in poetry– In other respects, the game is up. [7] If it were not for this poetry which I feel within as a destiny to be worked out, I think I shd wish to die tomorrow—that is, as far as relates to my own will, & apart from the pain my dying would give to the few immediately connected with me. But poetry which came first, lingers last[;] it is like a will to be written– How I understand you, with your Alexander thrust in defence between you & the actual!– May the thorns not pierce through!
Mrs S.C. Hall is an agreeable & graceful writer, & I am one of her many readers, & am glad to be able to put by her name among those who are my friends through kindness. From her husband I had one or two kind notes once, when he had the editorship of Colburn’s magazine & I was a contributor to the same. [8]
But the urn, the urn—what am I to say? You do me too much honor Mr Haydon—that is the first thing to say. And being unworthy, should I accept it? Ah—perhaps no! Well—if you send it—(but re-consider the matter & do not send, if you have misgivings) .. if you send it, I will look at it reverently & try to be worthier from this time forwards. Or shall I propose a compromise; & instead of drinking tea from it, drink hot water in abasement of spirit? Peradventure that wd be “the more excellent way.” [9]
I like your Alexander with the lion’s look in him, & your lion with Alexander’s!– It is true of you, what I have repeatedly heard admitted by those who are coldest in your praise, .. that “Haydon is certainly a poetical painter.” You are very poetical in your conceptions—may your Alexander conquer a new world for you!–
As for languages, there is no lower attainment– If I ever worked hard at Greek, it was for poetry’s sake purely.
Ever sincerely yours
EBB.
Our friend, dear Miss Mitford, sets out next tuesday for Devonshire, & intends to be some three weeks or a month away–
May I offer my thankful acknowledgements to Mrs Haydon for her kind message? I hope I may have the pleasure one day of making her personal acquaintance, .. notwithstanding that terrible oath taken by one of us two!– [10] The miniatures shall be ready.
Here are the Examiner & Athenæum, which you may keep– [11] I have sent to the library for Wilkie’s Life, & am promised it “in a few days.” I suppose the first reading has been siezed upon.
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 81–84.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Date provided by EBB’s promising the loan of Wilkie’s Life, requested by Haydon in letter 1214.
5. The urn that had “made tea for so many immortals” (see letter 1214), sent to EBB with the following letter.
6. Haydon had told EBB in letter 1214 that Mrs. Hall “understood every word” of EBB’s poetry.
7. Cymbeline, III, 3, 107.
8. Samuel Carter Hall (1800–99) was sub-editor, then editor, of The New Monthly Magazine in 1830–36. The only extant early correspondence is EBB’s letter 542.
9. I Corinthians, 12:31.
10. i.e., not to receive visitors.
11. The Examiner, in the issue of 15 April 1843 (pp. 228–230) found “examples of bad taste in the compilation of this book” and spoke of the “deference Wilkie loves to pay (and his biographer to record) towards the great when in possession of all his fame.” The Athenæum spread its review over three issues, but EBB could only have been sending the first of them, 15 April 1843 (pp. 357–359).
___________________
