1606. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 308–311.
[London]
May 3. 1844
My ever dearest friend, I throw you just the line you ask for,—& then I must go to this printer’s work which is really, almost too much for me,—the east wind at the same sitting! And that reminds me of being provoked & frightened, both at once, when I found you had taken away the proof—& one, which is most especially unlikely to give you hope of any pleasure in the poem itself. [1] Dont judge of it or me by that proof, I beseech you. It will be hard enough for me when I come up to judgement with every possible advantage. Dear Mr Kenyon has seen all the proofs—he being such a next door neighbour, [2] & so eager & active in kindness—I never never shall forget his kindness to me in this matter,—never, as long as I rhyme & live. So bold & true he has been in his objections,—& yet so uninsisting on their being received in every case as papal bulls .. the right of judgement left to me so generously!– He blames the poem often—but thinks it .. calls it .. after all, the best thing I ever did, .. & moreover the clearest. He encourages me to believe that I have all but conquered my obscure devil. Too good to believe,—is’nt it?
You see I am better, my beloved friend. What besides was so sure of making me better as your intention of coming on Monday, fortnight? My dearest friend,—what great, great joy, it will be to me! Take care of yourself,—do,—more care than usual!—lest you shd not be able to come—and that wd be the end of the world to me .. in a sense! Do come, my beloved Miss Mitford! without putting off .. & quite to the letter of the promise. And will it be necessary for you to take more than a bedroom in chapel street? Would not the bedroom secure the independence! You know you cd see the whole world in any room you pleased, of this house,—holding it for yourself. Think of this—& arrange it precisely as you prefer, .. without any teazing of mine. And you cd dine at an elected hour—at one .. two .. if you pleased!
The elegy .. the elegy! [3] The sword drops from my hand, with which I have so often defended Mr Horne,—& not a flash of it, can I hazard in this cause. No,—no! I acknowledge at once & unhesitatingly, that the man who cd throw his love from one woman to another,—has a love, worth no more than a (cotton) handkerchief, to throw. In such a case there cd be no pure love—no true sensibility. I am very sorry! I believed better of my friend,—& of Orion,—both! My opinion of him fails & bows in a greater degree before this last fact, than before all the rest! The baldheartedness is ten times over worse than the baldheadedness.
Not that I believe now, .. even now .. that he is otherwise than kind, generous, feeling in common relations!– I believe it all still! But the refined sensibility which I attributed to him, is altogether incompatible with this latter-day bandying of loves—& my bubble has broken on its brightest side. On saturday, propose to Bessie—on Monday, make love to Katy—and a fortune on either side with its dreadful damning [4] coincidence! [5] I am very, very sorry.
For the rest I agree with you, & yet disagree. If it had been a pure love, .. my hero-worship is of so strict a service, & my opinion of Mr Horne’s genius is so high, .. that, in my mind, he wd have been justified in proposing to any woman,—& what is more, any woman wd have been justified in accepting him proudly. I think that the pure love of a man of genius is a lofty thing. That is my opinion,—belief,—conviction. But [6] when instead of pure love, it is worldly choice .. the question instantly changes its complexion. The man who cd pretend to love & intend to marry upon worldly motives, degrades himself (whatever his genius) down to the level of the world, & is to be judged of, from that moment, according to worldly relations. According to which, Mr Horne (I agree with you) is by no means worthy of aspiring to Miss Browne or Miss Walter—though the author of Orion with a singlehearted & pure love, wd have been quite adequately worthy in my mind, of a fairer & richer (if possible) than either. As it is, .. I give him up on the point in question. He is indefensible. He had ‘no right’—it was ‘presumptuous,’—I agree with you word for word!
And now … can it be possible that Miss Browne cd have mistaken some poetical, very poetical, gallantry, for the warmer feeling? I do wish I cd think it possible.
As it is, the elegy cd only be what it is. ‘Goddess shoulders’ indeed! [7] Oh—how I shd like to see it—or a little bit of it!—I am very curious.
Do tell me how poor Mrs Walter bears it.
Now I must go.
In greatest haste & truest affection
Your EBB.
Mr Kenyon goes a-touring for seven or eight days, today, with his brother & sister–
Put the proof into the fire when you have done with it.
I knew of Mr Lennox .. his brother. But Mr Horne himself is not professional—never was, .. in any way: & his brother quitted the family name when he determined to work out his own fancy. [8] There is no disgrace in it, I think.
Address: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / Near Reading.
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 408–410.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. i.e., “A Drama of Exile.”
2. York Terrace was about a five-minute walk from Wimpole Street.
3. The comments that follow show that Horne had apparently gone ahead with his intention of printing his elegy on the death of Miss Walter; we have, however, failed to trace a copy.
4. Inserted as an afterthought.
5. During and after Horne’s visit to Miss Mitford, there were several references to his supposed pursuit of Catherine Walter and Bessie Browne, both heiresses, with Miss Mitford’s suggesting that their money was the prime attraction (see, for example, letter 1377).
6. Underscored three times.
7. Apparently Miss Mitford had quoted from the elegy.
8. The implication of this paragraph is obscure—it is not clear whether EBB is referring to Mr. Lennox’s brother or one of Horne’s two brothers. Mr. Lennox has not been identified; quite possibly he was related to the Mrs. Lennox of Eastbourne, with whom Horne stayed in later years.
___________________
