1428. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 36–38.
[London]
Nov. 8th 1843
Ah my dearest friend, it is a fatality indeed!—— On monday & tuesday, the weather taught me to forbode the arrival of your letters, & they were scarcely a disappointment. But when today, the sun shone bright out of spite (there’s rhyme & reason together!) & your [‘]‘nay” came through the sunshine to confound me, what was I to do but confess my bankruptcy of all possible philosophy, & moralize crossly upon the glory of Flush’s new collar which had been don[n]ed for the purpose of seeing you?– Moreover the cause of your not coming is even worse than the fact——where am I to go for consolation? ‘To next week, to be sure,’ is the ready answer—‘to next week ..’ is the only answer!
And you are not very unwell my ever dearest Miss Mitford? You will not tell me so in the letter which you are bound in duty to send me tomorrow in order to reconcile me to ‘fatality’—I hope you will not. Still, if you are only a little so, I applaud Ben’s prudence in not suffering you to come,—and wd not myself have had you run the very least & slightest risk, could I have had the choice of a risk, believe me & believe me. Oh no, no! Stay at home until the weather is settled, and until the very tendency to be unwell has gone from you. Do not I entreat you, suffer me to be the cause of your suffering anything,—I, who wd aspire so, to occasion you to enjoy. No, no! Not even next week, my dearest friend,—if you are not well! The prospect of seeing you is enough to thank you for & to be cheerful upon,—& I will thank you & be cheerful, & embrace the fragrant cloud, [1] until it shall turn gradually into a goddess. [2] In the meantime, Mr Kenyon came here yesterday (missing a line I sent him) at three oclock, for the especial purpose of finding you here,—& he left me under contract to let him know, directly your orient became visible on the horizon. He & I will wait in all “patience of hope.” [3] And as to Flush, .. although he by no means approves of his new collar being put away for the present,—he must certainly be content to wear a second best one until your arrival takes place. So go to sleep, Flushie! And dont think any more of pushing your nose into the corner of that table-drawer.
After all .. the sun which shone this morning, steadily, comes in & out now; & the rain descends & the wind blows at intervals. It is not a good day,—a day worthy of the event, .. after all, today: and yesterday & the day before, there was a misty trickling rain, off & on, from dawn to sunset. But London .. London! how London is marvellously wronged in the matter of weather & fog!!– I often observe that it is—and here is a fact, that when last Sunday, you had a fog which cd only be “cut with a knife,” we had the sun shining & the sky clear, nearly the whole day. Mr Kenyon tells me too that in returning from Brighton a few days ago, he made comparisons of the same class in our favor, .. issuing out of fog & cloud, the nearer he came to London!– I entreat you to draw from these premises, a sufficient conclusion.
Stupid of me to confound Mrs Cox & Mrs Cockburn! [4] You must have opened your eyes wide at me,—so often as I have heard both those names from you. Well—I am glad that I was wrong—very glad!
Did you receive the newspaper quite safely today? I sent it yesterday—& send after it now, twenty thanks. Also, yesterday I wrote to Miss Martineau, & put up my ‘royal flag,’ as I told you I would, in your message. Mr Kenyon told me that he had heard from authority unquestionable, the fact of her having bought an annuity to the amount of a hundred a year, with the subscribed sums of money. [5]
I have heard from America again, & Mr Mathews tells me of his intention to send you a copy of some poems which he is publishing——oh, did I tell you before? Moreover he desires me to make known as far as I can reach, the establishment in New York of a copyright club (for the protection of destitute authors) Mr Bryant being the president & Mr Mathews, secretary thereof. He says that it is to stop the plague of piracy; & I hope that it may. Shakespeare’s “land-thieves, I mean pirates” [6] which sounds so like a bull, is just the expression, shaped prophetically, for the Belgian & American book-traders. [7]
‘Stale & flat,’ [8] to take more from Shakespeare, is this talking by pen & ink, in comparison to the talking I had aspired towards for this hour! But let us be philosophers. It is growing dark,—& had you come, .. I shd be growing dark too, .. at the thoughts of the approaching farewell. Three hours more, & I shall be absolutely consoled—for I grow bright in thinking of next week.
My pretty cousin Isabel Butler can change her mind no more: she is married. [9]
“And in my mynde of all mankynde
I love but thee alone.”– [10]
She must act for the future,—whether she thinks & feels it or not. If I were a man I would by no means consent to risk my happiness upon even so pretty a peradventure. But her lover is blind with love, & thinks, I believe, that she has performed the part of a very absolute angel throughout, & that if anybody did anything wrong, it was himself & not herself. I speak lightly—but I feel rather grave. If it were a game at battledoor & shuttlecock, a rapid conclusion to quick vicissitudes, might be well—but here is …
Here is Crow come for my letter! Do write—though I cannot any more. I wrote the other day to Mr Merry.
May God bless you. In true affection
Ever your EBB.
Address: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / Near Reading.
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 337–339.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Cf. Marvell, “A Dialogue Between the Resolved Soul, and Created Pleasure” (Miscellaneous Poems, 1681), line 27.
2. After being seated at the table of the gods, Ixion, King of Thessaly, attempted to seduce Juno, but Jupiter thwarted him by fashioning a cloud in her likeness, with which Ixion lay, resulting in the birth of Centaurus, the father of the Centaurs.
3. I Thessalonians, 1:3.
5. The Westminster Review of December 1843 (p. 522) announced that the amount raised totalled £1,358 8s. 10d.
6. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, I, 3, 23–24.
7. At this time, neither Belgium nor the United States offered copyright protection to foreign writers.
8. Cf. Hamlet, I, 2, 133.
10. Lines 47–48 of “The Not-Browne Mayd” in Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry.
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