1559. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 238–242.
[London]
March 4. 1843 [sic, for 1844] [1]
I enclose back to you Mr Horne’s note,—& do not envy you the position towards Mrs Walters. [2] It is painful to touch a string, still vibrating, of such anguish as hers. Did you ever think of writing, rather than speaking?
As to Jersey, my dearest friend, you must be prepared for the various species of angers, (which presume tenderer emotions) in all hearts that love you at all, (more or less) in respect to your Jersey design. We of course consider ourselves sacrificed, & cannot quite smile over the knife—sacrificed perhaps to sufficient considerations & upon a reasonable occasion—but still undoubtedly sacrificed, cast off in our social relations, & made nothing of in comparison to certain idealities of hill & dale, cheap prices, & new acquaintances. For my own part, I do not disguise from you or from myself that I am very angry—I cant help it—so if you scold me for it, you will only make me more angry still .. you will do no manner of good to me. If we were sacrificed to a certain advantage for yourself,—after grieving, in the manner of human nature, that our love might not pass as the greatest advantage of all, .. I shd be angry with myself for being angry; & try to learn to be generous, & rejoice in your abstract happiness. But as it is, .. forgive me—I see no certain advantage. I cannot see it. Mr Kenyon cannot see it. Papa cannot see it. Mr Kenyon came to tell me the other day that his friends could not leave Jersey so suddenly but that another housebreaking came upon them to prove still further the primitive innocence of the place. [3] And as to Inglis, [4] he is so incorrect, that General Ryal, who followed his book in Spain, is confident that he had never seen many places described by him in detail. [5] And then for the society ..: how is it that the traditions vary in so uneven a manner?– Certainly, if you like the society of halfpay officers, you would find it in every cheap watering place in England [6] —while in evening parties, tea drinkings & pic nics during the summer, consists the social pleasure of twenty such places, from Torquay to Hastings. There is nothing peculiar to Jersey in anything you have told me—not even of the climate & vegetation. Parts of Devonshire bloom with all the shrubs & flowers you represent your “isle of the Blessed” [7] as so glorious in—parts of Devonshire & Cornwall. Even the orange trees grow in the open air, at Salcombe—and myrtles, geraniums, hydrangias, camelias, & cactuses grow universally, from Sidmouth to Torquay. But then you have that mild damp air, which softens the winters & subdues the summers, & is, as I always understood, highly injurious to you, in Devonshire & Cornwall, as in Jersey & Guernsey. Ah—you will go!– I do not hope to dissuade you from it. You will go. But my comfort is, that you will come back afterwards repentant.
In respect to libraries, I do not know—you may have information which I have not. But in a contracted society .. chiefly military—& certainly not literary, .. is it probable that you will find an excellent library with a copious supply of new books?– Would it not be easier for you to have books from London .. at the distance you are, .. than to conjure them at Jersey? I believe so. The idea of your going to Jersey in search of literary advantages, from the neighbourhood of London .. does really strike me as something wonderful & sorrowful, both at once!–
Oh—I am so angry! And then Papa throws coal upon coal on the fire,—to say nothing of dry wood!– If you could but hear Papa.!!
But on the contrary, I am struck with the ‘Mysteries of Paris.’ I think it is a work full of genius .. even fuller of genius than of extravagance. Why shd you think that I do not admire the power of the book, up to the brim? Only because I did not speak of it to you? But then I told you why I did not speak of it to you. It was because I believed that the school of the writer wd displease you. [8] You do not remember all you have said to me on the subject of work done in the fire & the mud, after the fashion of this school. It is a triumph for Eugene Sue; & I consider it a high triumph for him, .. to have enchanted .. not so much the queen, as you. He did not wait to be popular, generally however, for this work; he has written enough to establish his reputation without it, as one of the most powerful writers of his day & country. Only his equality, far less his superiority, to Victor Hugo, you are .. must be .. quite alone in maintaining. Such a thought never once passed my mind. The occasional brilliancy of the representations of refined society in the ‘Mysteries,’ you will find still more attractive graceful & striking I think, in ‘Mathilde’, which has, by the way, less taint & darkness otherwise. Dumas is powerful also .. but he is an inferior writer on the whole—with less height & depth. Not so, Balzac,—who is to my mind a great artist. Of George Sand also, I have an opinion which is as much higher than yours is of her, .. as St Paul’s is higher than this house. No character & no story in Indiana!! nor in Consuelo!!– [9] We shall never agree. I could as soon praise you for going to Jersey!– George Sand is to my mind the greatest female poet the world ever saw. The French language grows divine as she speaks it.
When I read these books I always do it quietly & silently, my dearest Miss Mitford—& without any critical words said aloud. I shd not like to be the conduit of this tainted literature into this house—you will understand that. They have enough to read without these books .. bristling & burning as they are with evil, .. & opening frightful insights into the worst social maladies. Do you know anything of Paul de Kock? He is disdainful towards the elements of morality—virtue in its ordinary sense, is the blacking of his shoes: but altho’ I can scarcely read him at all, from natural opposition, he is a very clever writer, & fuller of character than any one is, in the new French literature. It has struck me that his least tainted books .. Zizine for instance .. would please you exceedingly from the pictures of society & the humour. Or ‘Moustache’! [10] You wd certainly like ‘Moustache’.——
The Examiner has been praising Orion as Orion shd be praised. [11] Did Mr Horne tell you that much of his new work was written by “other hands”.? Because my own belief is, that he has written nearly the whole of it himself,—& that the mask of editorship is just a precaution. He told me that you would be in it,—altho’ his publishers, .. going upon the circumstance of Mr Chorley having introduced you bodily, .. would permit no repetition, in the form of an independent article. [12] On the same ground, there is no paper on Rogers, nor on Joanna Baillie &c. And the apparent contradiction of giving one to Wordsworth & Leigh Hunt, he explains by treating them, he says, in reference to their influence on the age. <…> [13] I confess I am curious about the work—expecting much more from it than you do. Commonplace in criticism is as easy to write & as hard to read, as commonplace in romance, philosophy, or poetry—but I expect something more than commonplace criticism from the author of Orion. We shall see.
And now I must end! May God bless you my beloved friend. One of your parcels has come—& if the other does not come today, I will send the first to you at once.
Ever your own
EBB.
You did not send Mr Reade’s letter—& I shd like much to see it if I might. Ah—Leigh Hunt! A man of true genius surely, surely!
When do you dream of coming to London? When? Is it to stay a few days? May I rest on it for a moment, in real pleasure.
Do not however come to say ‘goodbye’ & then go to Jersey. That wd be cruel kindness. [14] To come & say .. “I love you—& am going away by my choice,—never to see you again”!——
See how angry I am.
Yes—I liked to hear it of the queen. It was better than queenly. [15]
Moreover—Jersey is beyond the Rowland Hill priveleges. [16] I shall be cut off twice from you .. in the body & in the spirit. [17] No more letters following each other quick as words!——
Alas——
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 390–393.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. The year is provided by Miss Mitford’s design to move to Jersey.
2. Letter 1567 makes it clear that Horne had determined to make known his attachment to the late Miss Walter, and to print an elegy in her memory; EBB is perhaps suggesting that his actions may put Miss Mitford in an embarrassing position vis-à-vis Mrs. Walter.
3. As part of EBB’s attempt to dissuade Miss Mitford from moving to Jersey, she had recounted the vulnerability to burglary of unmarried ladies living there, citing friends of Kenyon who were being forced to move from the island (see letter 1539).
4. Henry David Inglis (1795–1835) wrote a number of works recording his travels, including Spain in 1830 (1831) and, in 1834, a description of the Channel Islands.
5. Sir Phineas Riall fought in Canada and the United States in 1813–14, being wounded at the battle of Chippewa in the latter year; he was appointed colonel of the 74th Regiment of Foot in 1835, and gazetted general in 1841.
6. When not on active service, all but the highest-ranking officers of the Army and Navy were placed on half-pay, hence the attraction of places offering the cheapest living.
7. The Islands of the Blest, or the Fortunate Islands, were an imaginary abode where the souls of the good lived in eternal bliss.
9. George Sand’s novels, published in 1832 and 1843 respectively.
10. Charles Paul de Kock (1793–1871) wrote numerous novels; Zizine was published in 1836, Moustache in 1838.
12. Miss Mitford was one of the writers treated in Chorley’s The Authors of England (1838). Horne made only passing references to her in A New Spirit (I, 188; II, 19 and 136).
13. EBB obliterated nearly half a line here.
14. Cf. Hamlet, III, 4, 178.
15. EBB’s reference earlier in the letter to the Queen’s being enchanted suggests that Miss Mitford’s friend, Miss Skerrett, had told her that Sue was one of the novelists enjoyed by Victoria.
16. i.e., beyond the reach of the penny postage.
17. Cf. I Corinthians, 7:34.
___________________
