138. EBB to Henrietta Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 1, 135–136.
[Gloucester]
[ca. November 1821] [1]
My own ever dear Addles will not expect any very brilliant corruscations of the imagination or very glowing ebullitions of wit from my pen when she considers that the Muse who deigns to visit me in my present disconsolate state must either take the uninspiring form of Dr Baron or that of his illustrious coadjutor little Tommy Cook. Now whether the Nine have some insuperable—some unaccountable objection to the faculty, or whether Apollo is jealous of little Tommys medical skill remains to be determined, but certain it is that I never felt more of the dross of Mortality—never more thoroughly unintellectual than I do at this instant! I would thank my beloved Henrietta for her kind and most entertaining letters– I would thank her for the interest of the Composition and her attentive affection could I find words to express my surprise at the merit of the former or eloquence to describe my gratitude for the latter! As it is, Silence perhaps may speak stronger to the heart than the most sublimated rhetoric! “Words pay no debts” says Shakespeare [2] – “Thanks have no intuitive value” responds a young lady on her back! I am unwilling to enter on the subject of my illness—it is an endless theme– Suffice it to declare that there is decidedly a sure tho slow improvement in my health!!–
Give my most affectionate love to all those so very, very dear to me, whether I shall behold them all this Winter & have the happiness of gazing on my dear ever dear Addles is under our beloved Puppys consideration! This you however of course have heard!
God for ever bless you all!—
Your fondly affectionate Ba–
My best love to Mrs Orme! Tell her how sincerely I trust her headaches continue better–
In the distribution of loves let not my dear Minny be forgotten—she never can [3] be by me!!–
Thank my dearest Mama for the entertainment her affecte letters afford me—
Address, on integral page: Miss H Barrett. / Hope End.
Publication: None traced.
Source: Transcript in editors’ file.
1. Dated by reference to forthcoming winter, and to Mrs. Orme’s headaches, which are also mentioned in a letter from Mary Moulton-Barrett to Henrietta dated 14 October 1821 (SD411).
2. Troilus and Cressida, III, 2, 55.
3. Underscored three times.
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