1245. Cornelius Mathews to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 126–128.
New York
May 15th 1843.
My Dear Miss Barrett,
You must account this letter or rather letterling as no more than an acknowledgement of your two which I have lately received and which, with odd stitches to be taken up in previous notes, shall have worthier answer soon. The Poems are received (you could not have been happier in a subject for Graham’s Magazine than the ‘Lady’s Yes’) [1] and will be put in the Editors hands immediately. I regret on many accounts that it did not suit the views of Mr. Dilke to ‘retain’ an American correspondent: [2] among other reasons it seems to me it would have been worth his while if, for no more, to learn the treatment to which English Books are subjected in America. I know that you did what you could and that satisfies me:– The Numbers I was to send to you are now forwarded through Mess[rs] Wiley & Putnam (by whose English Agency at Amen Corner, Paternoster Row, I shall be most happy to receive anything Miss Barrett may at any time have it in her heart to send): The humble writings (humble I call them because I desire to do something better, if life & opportunity serve) in which you are good enough to take an interest are now publishing in Cheap numbers in this City [3] &, as no better Edition will be published for many months you must, perforce, accept them, if you will, in their present rude apparel.– [4] You ask me if you can be of any use to me! and I will answer you as I am prompted. I desire nothing more—nothing so much, as far as this life is concerned as to add something, how little soever, to the good name of my country in Literature, among the true Readers of the English tongue, wherever spoken. And do you wonder if I say that with none more than such as stand by the very side of the old Fountains and who for centuries, themselves & their predecessors, have dispensed it, rich flowings to the World?– Presumptuous wish for a young heart! but not to be yielded up readily. If I therefore acknowledge a solicitude to Enter among my Fathers & my brethren, in your glorious Island, at such gatherings as shall give me best chances of welcome—will you blame me, my dear Friend?– And now, sinking to a much humbler key as I come to these two rude numbers that lie before you– I ask you, how I shall approach the British Judges. You see that all I can show will come presently to you, as complete as their imperfections allow, in Eight like parcels. Will it be wisest to defer my appearance at the Court of English Criticism till they are all made up—or shall I come in detail. What you have by you, completes two ‘books,’ you will observe. [5] I shall venture to send the copy I intend for the Athenæum (unless you forbid me) through you: and other copies, as I have a late Pamphlet [6] which should be in your hands by this time, for such uses as you may put them to.
I have learned long ago in my own heart that you are (what you superfluously hope I will yet have the knowledge of) True: Are there not currents that set back and forth over the ocean, truer than the Ocean-tides,—wiser than the Mesmeric Aurea—which interchange the images of the True and the Faithful. —In which latter category, by the way, you are not inclined to admit our American Mrs. Sigourney. [7] In your version of her proceedings from Bell’s London ‘Story-Teller’ (the new magazine) or from more particular information? [8] Mrs. Sigourney has an account of her own, which I will endeavour to find in some of our newspapers & send to you—and which puts her right in this matter. I confess I could not at the first exactly understand on what principle a familiar letter, for so it seems, found itself exposed to the glare of the multiform type of 1000 (or fewer) American Newspapers.
The “Boston ‘Pioneer’[”] is stopped & I cannot tell what Poems you sent to it nor to what account they have been turned. [9] With Mrs. Sigourney I am not acquainted nor have I been able to discover in her writings anything on which a very profound sympathy or admiration could be built. I should add though that I have not been a very careful extensive reader of her productions.
When I have added a wholesome caution that you do not, by continuing my authorship into the covers of the Numbers I send you, classify me with the advertising authors (denounced in a late Edgh Review)– [10] My pilot bal[l]oon is despatched with a promise of others soon to follow, dilating in bulk perhaps, & diminishing in matter, and write myself, with great satisfaction,
Yours Truly & Sincerely
Cornelius Mathews.
To
Elizabeth Barrett Barrett
London.
Publication: BBIS-23, p. 21 (in part).
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. This was printed in the January 1844 issue of Graham’s Magazine (p. 18).
2. See Mathews’ proposal in letter 1194 and EBB’s reply in letter 1222.
3. The Pathfinder of 15 April announced the first part of a uniform edition of his writings, saying “That they should have attracted any attention at all, in the midst of the deluge of foreign books that has overwhelmed the reading world for the last three years, is a pretty strong evidence of their merit” (p. 119).
4. Cf. II Henry IV, I, 2, 18.
5. These were Motley Book and Behemoth, a Legend of the Moundbuilders, mentioned in letter 1194.
6. His pamphlet on literary copyright, also referred to in letter 1194.
7. Mathews is responding to EBB’s comments in letter 1222.
8. The Story-Teller, May 1843, carried an article “Mrs. Sigourney and Her Traducers,” regretting that her American friends “are not more judicious in their attempts to protect her character against the just indignation of the literary world” for publishing, with her own interpolations, a private letter from Mrs. Southey. The discussion was continued in the June and July numbers.
9. Only one of the poems sent to Lowell, “The Maiden’s Death,” was printed before The Pioneer ceased publication (see letter 1112, note 2).
10. “The Advertising System” in the February 1843 issue of The Edinburgh Review (pp. 1–43) criticized authors “when so many are found resorting to the most shameless arts of puffery; and the practice of begging subscriptions is nearly as rife as ever” (p. 16).
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