1577. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 268–271.
[London]
March 22. 1844
My beloved friend you will wonder what in the world has happened to me. I will tell you another day. Only I have been vexed, .. anxious, .. pained beyond common expression. The vexation began about my book, .. but it ends (that passing away) in a worse pain, .. the prospect of my parting from Crow. You will feel for me in this thing—I cried till I was faint with crying. Think of what this change will be to me, with my morbid feeling about strangers, & my bodily weakness. Well—to talk of it more, must be for another day. [1]
Only I must say, that I do not blame her for leaving me—& that there has not been a harsh word between us, from the first day to this day—& no reason for it.
The vexation about the book, was a fit of despondency, after the exultation of the composition, .. to which I do not know if everybody is as miserably subject as I. My ms. of Eden was as near the fire as ever ms approached—and only that Mr Kenyon came into the room by a mere chance & took it away with him to read & pronounce judgement on, nothing cd have saved it or me. To dearest Mr Kenyon my gratitude is inexpressible. He has saved me. My nerves were shattered to pieces; & he set them. Never was such a friend! And I, with so little courage left in me, that I could not even ask him for help!–
All this, I write in the greatest haste,—& you will scarcely make out a great deal of sense from the midst of it.
Miss Martineau’s letter, however, I enclose at last—but I received it back from Mr Crabbe Robinson (for whom Mr Kenyon borrowed it) only this morning. [2] Also, I send a criticism on Orion, which Mr Horne “permits” me (under the circumstances, a command!) to forward “to Miss Mitford.” [3] I agree with you as to the combination of Douglas Jerrold’s name & Sydney Smith’s & Fonblanque’s .. decidedly,—& a little also as to that of Leigh Hunt’s with Wordsworth’s. Leigh Hunt is a true poet, to my mind; & I admit the article in the main—while I go with you in wishing that the two names (certainly on different levels) had not been joined together. It’s like making a nosegay of a hollyhock & violet. But then Mr Horne wd defend it on the ground of contemporaneousness .. as well as the ground of association by oppositions. He owns the parentage of the criticism on Tennyson. [4]
Mrs Walter’s silence strikes me exactly as it strikes you—& it makes me hope more than I hoped before, that if he does print the elegy, it will be written cautiously, & without names or significant circumstances. [5]
Dearest dearest Miss Mitford! How I smiled at your judgement of “Moustache”!– I knew so well you wd like it, were it three times as naughty! yes, and I do suspect, at the bottom of my prophetic nature, [6] that you will like Paul de Kock better than all the rest of the French writers of the day, altogether.
I have a plan, .. if you will let me have it, .. of subscribing to a French library for you & arranging the conveyance—but it cant be for another six weeks,—at the end of which my next ‘quarter’ begins, [7] & it can be done without anybody knowing a word of it—& the mythology of the <…> [8] mystery will be delightful for me to arrange. Be kind, & indulge me in doing it—& then, I shall pluck the fruit in being able to talk, & hear you talk, of these esoteric mysteries, between you & me!
This is all written with something like the end of a poker .. not quite a poker, but its equivalent. [9] May God bless you, my beloved friend! My m∙s. is with Moxon at last—& the American edition is to come out at the same time, or rather before, in numbers of the Home Library, [10] —the Americans promising half-profits & undertaking the expenses. There will probably be two volumes.
What do you think of the engravings to the Spirit of the Age? how do you like Tennyson’s head? And is not Southwood Smith’s very fine? [11] And when do you come? last & chiefest!. Your ever attached
EBB
Mr Kenyon went out of town today, & returns on tuesday. He goes to get rid of his cough by change of air,—it being only better & by no means removed.
No, no—my dearest friend. The fault is that too much personal kindness is visible in the article on me; & the truth is, I shd not have been put so prominently forward– A single half page of quiet remark in the shade, wd have really pleased me twice as much. Only .. not a word of this to Mr Horne! He meant the very kindest. And then the circumstance of your name being mentioned (as it is once) in connection with me, goes very far to reconcile me to my position as an Hebraic monster who lives in the dark. [12] Also, I shall appear much tamer for it in the eyes of the public.
I am delighted about the annuity—& so is Mr Kenyon. [13]
Address: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / Near Reading.
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 398–400.
Manuscript: Fitzwilliam Museum.
1. As previously noted (letter 1573, note 7), Crow had secretly married the butler; she was now having to leave because of her pregnancy. EBB discusses the situation at greater length in letter 1585.
2. This was the letter EBB had intended to send with letter 1567.
3. Although EBB mentions Orion, it is apparent that she means the review of A New Spirit, sent her with letter 1574, and which Horne said she might pass on to Miss Mitford.
4. This, of course, is an evasion, concealing her contribution to the paper on Tennyson, the exact extent of which is shown in Appendix IV (pp. 360–367).
5. The elegy on the death of Miss Walter that Horne intended to print privately (see letter 1567).
6. Cf. Hamlet, I, 5, 40.
7. The interest from the legacies left EBB by her paternal grandmother and her uncle Sam was made available to her quarterly. Letter 1601 confirms that EBB paid for a six-month subscription for Miss Mitford at Pietro Rolandi’s library.
8. EBB has here obliterated nearly half a line.
9. The density of the writing varies considerably, indicating problems with pen and ink.
11. These are reproduced on the following two pages.
12. Horne, in his chapter on EBB, spoke of her existing “in darkness almost equal to night,” and reading “the Hebrew Bible from Genesis to Malachi.” Saying he himself had “no absolute knowledge” of EBB’s existence, he cited a letter from Miss Mitford to a friend as proof of it (II, 134–136 and our Appendix IV, pp. 342–343).
13. Possibly a reference to the annuity that Miss Mitford had feared losing (see letter 1364).
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