1371. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 308–311.
[London]
Sept. 4th 1843.
My dearest friend I am very very sorry & vexed! Araminta must be bewitched I think to persecute you so; [1] & I cant make out how she manages to justify it to herself. No!—I will take no notice! and of course your manner of answering will be effective in changing the plan. Still the design upon the rabbits comes next to a design on the heiress, & disappoints & vexes me to no common degree. I quite wonder at it—indeed & indeed!– It is very inconsiderate—very much out of taste—and for my own part I feel inclined to ask your pardon for the trouble you have run into by a friend of mine. Oh surely, your answer will be a finality measure! Tell me that it is, as soon as you can, dearest Miss Mitford!
As you speak of review-writing as a line of literature not objectionable to you, why not write for the Athenæum rather than another periodical? There can be no difficulty—and Mr Chorley is at the doors if there could be any difficulty—& half a guinea a column is their pay. The objection is to the residence out of London—but still if the convenience shd be less, the degree of inconvenience does not amount to an obstacle—and you might not dislike the variety in composition; & the irresponsibility might have its attraction for you. What periodical did Mr Horne mention? Perhaps you wd prefer a ground for more elaborate articles—essays in fact,—in the manner of the Quarterleys.?
I heard from Mr Kenyon the other day that poor Miss Martineau’s disease has given evidence lately of increase, [2] —& that the slight hope of her friends, founded upon the stationary character of her symptoms, is painfully vanishing. It is with something like .. nay, it is altogether like a regret for a friend, that I think of this—so deeply have her letters touched me & induced upon me a sense of the sweetness & benignity of her character as a woman. Mrs Jameson is going down to see her, Mr Kenyon says, almost immediately. She can enjoy still with a sensibility lively as ever, but suffers intensely in the pauses of morphine which suspends the pain. Three times a week she takes this morphine. Why not every day, one naturally & ignorantly wonders—! A great & admirable woman to perish so, pang by pang!– But we do not, need not wonder at that! The cross is the Hieroglyphic of our Human destination.
To pass abruptly to another subject, do you read the Chuzzlewitts, & are you not (if you do) irritated .. to use a meek word .. with Mr Dickens for his ingratitude to the Americans? I am irritated in the precise sense of the word. I move about my head & hands & feet as if there was no repose for me, .. I am vexed at heart with the “true & lawful” [3] (perhaps) but certainly very outrageously ungrateful & forgetful Boz. To think of a man .. a man with a heart .. going to a great nation to be crowned—for they did no less than crown him .. his travels from city to city amounted to a triumph—& then to come home & hiss at them with all the venom in his body!– The last number of Chuzzlewitt, & one former number, are worse than malignant—& Mrs Trollope is charity herself compared to the Boz of them! [4] Is it not too bad—quite too bad? I am as angry as if I were an American.
My poor Flushie! Think of what has happened to him. You know that his great joy & distinction are to be allowed to go out with the great dogs Catiline & Resolute—Catiline is as savage as Cerberus, [5] with his one head as large as all Cerberuses put together, & glittering cruel looking tusks in it—but then Catiline is generally, either from disdain or magnanimity, very gentle to Flushie,—never doing more in the chiefest moment of exasperation, than roll him over & over in the dirt,—the worst catastrophe of which is that Flushie must be washed when he comes home. Well, but the evening before last, something occurred to irritate Flush, who relying upon Catiline’s usual serenity towards him, positively growled & barked at him. Not a word said Catiline in reply—& Flush rising in earnestness of passion in proportion to the passiveness of his enemy, flew at him, just as I might at an elephant. You may fancy the result. Flush was overthrown & bitten deep with the great tusks in one moment, & was flying in terror from the battle-field the moment after. My poor, poor Flushie! A wound in his side it is, half an inch deep—& he was in terrible spirits, never moving from the sofa all yesterday. Today he has recovered his vivacity, & tomorrow I hope he will be well again—but it is strange—is it not?—that this little dog,—no hero (as I have explained to you)—& generally given to move cautiously away from the neighbourhood of a month old kitten, shd have thrown himself in headlong passion against such a tiger of a savage dog as Catiline the Cuba bloodhound. I [6] say,—willing to save Flush’s reputation in the turmoil, .. “Let nobody call him a coward any more.” But then I hear—“It was nothing but insolence in Flush, & no courage at all! He only trusted to Catiline’s generosity, & gave way to his temper because he thought he might do it with impunity.” Arabel was repeating this malignant rumour in the presence of Flush yesterday—& straightway he put up his head & cried & cried & cried most piteously. I never heard a dog cry as pathetically as Flush always does when he sets about it, & this he did at that moment. So I said .. “I dont believe it was Flush’s fault at all. Flush is very good—and Catiline was naughty—& that is my opinion”.
Now I am beginning to be childish; & you wont expect to hear anything even as wise as usual from me for the rest of my letter. I had better put an end to it here. Do let me hear how you disentangle yourself from your entanglements, & how you are in health.
May God bless you, dearest friend!–
I am ever your
EBB.
George had pleasure & honor in being of use to you—& felt that he had both. [7] It is cooler today I am happy to say—& ‘cooler’ means something under oven heat—but under favor of a little breath besides I am going out in the chair. Oh, your Mr Taylor is delightful! It does one good to hear of such a man! Yes—I have much reverence for the medical profession.
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 293–296.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. Apparently Horne was anxious to pay a second visit to Miss Mitford.
2. Miss Martineau had left London for Tynemouth, where she was being treated by her brother-in-law, T.M. Greenhow, and where she was writing Life in the Sick-Room, published in 1843. From a description of her symptoms, but denied a physical examination, a Venetian physician diagnosed prolapse of the uterus and polypous tumours (see Harriet Martineau: A Radical Victorian, by Robert K. Webb, 1960, pp. 193–194).
3. III Henry VI, I, 2, 23.
4. The July and September numbers of Martin Chuzzlewit (chapters 16 and 17, 21–23) contained derogatory references to America and Americans. Mrs. Trollope’s Domestic Manners of the Americans (1832), similarly written after a visit to America, had also given offence to many.
5. Pluto’s dog, guardian of the gates of the underworld, is usually described as having three heads, but Hesiod credits him with 50 (Theogony, 310–312).
6. Underscored twice.
7. In attempting to trace Mr. Illingsworth for Miss Mitford (see letter 1364).
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