1358. Harriet Martineau to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 289–290.
Tynemouth
Thursday evg. [17 August 1843] [1]
Dear Miss Barrett.
Here I am again already! It is not only gratitude for your kind & most welcome note which makes me write again so soon,—but a longing excited by your P.S. I have not very many books,—cannot afford to buy books,—& therefore have not your volume of the Seraphim. As you do hint an inclination to send it me, I cannot help telling you that my friend, Lady Mary Lambton, is coming from town in a few days to Lambton, & will be paying me a visit directly after: & she begs to bring me books, or any kind of parcel. I rather think Lady Emily’s marriage, (for which alone they are staying in town) will take place next week, [2] —immediately after which, Lady Mary will set out hither. Now, if you are still disposed to make me this welcome present, could it be left at Lord Durham’s, in Cleveland Row, (addressed to me) in time for Lady Mary? If you think me very bold, please consider how much there is in the note before me to make me so.
I will do a bolder thing still, & query about two words in Pan. If I am wrong, what I say will go for nothing. Otherwise,—it seems a pity,—so perfect as the detail of the heathen part appears to be, to have the least doubt about any detail in the Xn part. You say “Calm at eve &c” & then “’Twas the hour when One &c” [3] Now, is it not certain that the Cross was elevated at 9 A.M, & that He expired at 3.P.M?—the Jewish day reckoning from 6 in the morng, & the “third” & “ninth” hours being specified? [4] And also, the “preparation for the Sabbath” was invariably set about at four in the afternoon. This looks rather like trifling: but one would have so thoroughly noble a poem quite without blemish. This being my reason, you will pardon me, if you do not agree with me.
I agree in all you say on the essential point (for so I regard it) of the poem; & religion & poetry must be to me very different from what they are if I could even conceive of thinking otherwise. How deeply conscious I was of these very thoughts when, many years ago, I translated Schiller’s “Gods of Greece”! [5] Your glorious company of the “discrowned & desecrated” [6] have now, after fifteen years, risen up to illustrate the deep objection that my spirit then urged against Schiller,—a dissent which refused to be put down by my adoration of him. Is he not adorable?
Your kind & holy wishes for me are laid by in my heart.
May God bless & support you through the sufferings of your much-tried life!
I am most truly yours
H. Martineau.
Address: Miss Barrett / 50. Wimpole St / London.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by the postmark, 18 August 1843.
2. Lady Mary Louisa and Lady Emily Augusta Lambton were the daughters of John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, by his second wife. Lady Emily married Col. William Henry Cavendish on 19 August 1843. In 1846, Lady Mary became the wife of James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin.
3. “Calm at eve” does not appear in the published version; it was perhaps an earlier form of line 162: “Calm, of old, the bark went onward”. Line 183 reads “’Twas the hour when One in Sion”.
4. Mark, 15:25, 34–37.
5. In letter 1402, Miss Martineau told EBB that this was never published.
6. “The Dead Pan,” line 157.
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