1271. Benjamin Robert Haydon to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 165–166.
London
June 1 1843
My dear Friend /
You are a glorious creature, and another evidence of my extraordinary sagacity!—was there ever any thing like it?—here’s a Friend I never saw, to whom I have done what I have not done to her I devote my being to. —Let her read my memoirs!– Confide in her honor as if we were twins—& find every thing end exactly as I foresaw it must!—if that be not a touch beyond the Mortal what is?–
Your letter My dear, is a treasure of sound practical good sense—but dont suppose I have colored my Episode—it is not half up to the reality—a scene which I remember now, is not in—and that is exquisite–
Your Soul is in your remarks—Hazlitt was a perfect fiend!
He wrote me with an execution in his House[,] Haydon Easau [1] sold his birthright– I will sell my Louvre copies for a [£]40 Note at 12 months date–
I went down & gave him a £50 note at a twelvemonth—saved him–
When I was ruined—he came & drank tea with us, & looking like a conscious devil, chuckled out with the smile of one just anticipating evil– “I shall get my copies again for nothing[.”] They were bought at my sale under the Sheriff for £4 .. s10—& he kept them– Is that an Angel? [2]
There is nothing you have ever written, has confirmed so intensely my opinion of your Power of mind—as your letter– I’ll be at you, when we meet[—]get well—get well——
But do not you see the Namby-Pambyism of the age will never be reformed—but by some blows like my memoirs[.]
My dear Friend, about the Academy you were quite right though public feeling was the strongest—of the three, the whole was a complication–
I have just returned from landing my Cartoons safe & sound—in Westminster Hall and even to have landed them there is a triumph[.] [3] How interesting! who should I see but my own Pupil Eastlake—Secretary!– I said Eastlake do you remember taking tea with me 1808, & saying my Conversation, fixed you in being a Painter—Perfectly said he—& Do you remember coming with me to shew me Westminster Hall said Eastlake & drawing with the end of your umbrella, a Gigantic limb on the Walls to prove how finely it was adapted for Painting:?– [4]
We were both very much touched—& think 30 years after I come down with my Cartoons My Pupil, the official to receive the Man to whose instructions he owes his knowledge! Such is Life—— [5]
Pardon Paper. [6]
Ever yours
B R Haydon
Address: Miss B. Barrett / 50 Wimpole St.
Publication: EBB-BRH, pp. 106–107.
Manuscript: University of Vermont.
1. Sic, for Esau (see Genesis, 25:33).
2. Haydon, in his diary, tells how Hazlitt sold these works to him, and then repossessed them cheaply when the sheriff distrained them for debt—“This is the meanest thing Hazlitt ever did” (Pope, III, 132–133).
3. Haydon submitted his “Adam and Eve” and “The Black Prince Entering London in Triumph” for the competition; the public exhibition of the cartoons in Westminster Hall was to open on 3 July.
4. Haydon recorded this conversation in his diary (see Pope, V, 280).
5. Eastlake, who had studied under Haydon, was secretary of the Fine Arts Commission organizing the competition.
6. The last few lines of the letter are written on a torn, half-sheet of paper.
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