1668. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 72–75.
[London]
August 4. 1844.
My ever dearest George, what evil are you thinking of me? for evil it must be! Come, let us shake hands & be friends! And that I may not appear over-arrogant in expecting such a reconciliation after such an offence on my side, let me explain how it happened that my silence has grown to the said height or depth.
I fancied I had done with my poems,—that I had sent away my last proof, & might like a gentlewoman of England sit down at ease, & economize my new idleness. On a sudden came a ukase from Mr Moxon, who having weighed the two volumes & found the second heavier by seventy pages than the first, insisted that it shd be denuded of half of the seventy, & the other invested with them. Think of such a thing! That my ‘Dead Pan,’ whom as a flourish of trumpets & to please Mr Kenyon, I had kept for the last, shd be rent away by violent hands & thrown back down the staircase. Papa said, [‘]‘If I were you, I never wd consent to such a thing.” And what was I to do? I wrote & proposed to transplant one or two of the shorter poems, instead,—& to see in the meantime if I cd finish another poem I had in hand .. Mr Moxon was particularly anxious (said the reply!) to bring the work out instantly,—in fact, wd not wait a moment. So I took up the ballad-poem you know I had begun, & of which half was done, .. & wrote the other half .. that is, wrote nineteen of the printed pages, on one day, .. feeling that if I cd finish it then, well, .. & that if not, I must give it up. I finished it on one day—feeling just as if I were in a dream from morning to night,—transcribed the whole, the day after, & satisfied everybody, [1] —the first volume having now a continuation of forty pages in the shape of a ballad-poem called “Lady Geraldine’s Courtship, a Romance of the Age”. But all this, & various troubles it brought with it, & the dreadful haste I have been in to get the whole of the remaining proofs, Geraldine & all, ready for the American mail yesterday, present my excuse to you for a silence inexcusable under life’s stringent circumstances– Do I stand excused? Answer benignantly—& above all, do not quote my example as a negligent letter-writer, without having ten briefs a day to bring you up to my level of justifying analogy!–
Well, and now I have really, really done. Volumes nearly on an equilibrium—first v (with preface) 250 pages, second vol: 275 pages—so that important matter is satisfactory to Mr Moxon. Then, title arranged, .. after a tempestuous discussion,—in which Miss Mitford struck down the ‘Drama of Exile’ & proposed “New Poems,” .. & Mr Moxon struck down “New Poems” & proposed “Poems”, .. & I cd not propose anything, & therefore was “meek as an af<…>” .. title arranged under Mr Moxon’s auspices, to be plain “Poems.” It is sure to be taken for a re-publication—but as he says it wont, why I yield. I enclose a title-page. Tear it up when you have read it. In the course of the present week you shall have the books, according to my vow, .. & I beg you to read Geraldine, which has more story & more love in it than any poem I ever wrote. Tell me if it is clear & intelligible, & if you feel any impulse <…>. I had great interest in writing it– Yesterday I received from Mr Langley, my New York publisher, the Democratic Review with half the Drama of Exile in it, & a few words of introduction mentioning the opinion “by a competent judge” that “it is the finest poem since Manfred” [2] —also an extract of all Mr Horne says of the author in the “New Spirits of the Age.” In another part of the Review however is a critical essay on the said “New Spirits” very depreciatory of it, [3] (Mr H’s book) .. & letting down English poetry of the present day humiliatingly low: the writer being of opinion that in a strict high se<nse> [4] there is no true poet in England alive except Wordsworth––although “Leigh Hunt, Barry Cornwall, Tennyson & Elizabeth Barrett were so, in a lower sense”—while in a “still lower deep came Elliot the corn law rhymer, [5] Milnes, & Mrs Norton”!– Of course I individually feel myself praised by a depreciation which leaves my name in the same clause with Tennyson’s, .. but still, on the other hand, the praise of a judgement which cd deny true poetical genius in the highest & strictest sense, to Tennyson & Leigh Hunt, is scarcely worth the having. All this is egotistical to the quintessence of ego—only I know that tu will like to hear it.
Poor dearest Henrietta’s mumps are almost gone, but she wont come near me for fear of dispensing some “sweet influences” [6] from them. It is great nonsense—& moreover I say that it shows a wonderful deficiency, in her, of general benevolence in contrast to a redundancy of family love, .. inasmuch as she goes to church with the said mumps, & visits about with them. Now if there is really a risk of dispensing mumps, I hold that she shd shut herself up & see nobody—if there is not, she shd see me! Two horns of a dilemma, [7] as equal, as my two volumes by Mr Moxon’s metronomy—or more equal, certes. I shall be delighted to see her—and to see you also, my very dearest Georgie! Do write in the meantime. I thank you much for the letter you have already written to me, .. but was sorry to find from it that Mr Martin’s cough had not entirely left him. I wonder they do not travel—and I do not wonder that dear Mrs Martin shd be very uneasy at the least & slightest sign common to a disorder which has been so fatal in his family. If I were she, I shd certainly persuade him to travel. The change, & the rescue from the vicissitudes of our climate, wd be two points gained—and then, the safe passage through the shooting season without its pains & penalties of walking through wet grass & staying out (in the nympholepsy of hare or pheasant) under the dew of the evening, is a third!–
Dieppe did him no good, but harm! And why? Because he was up to his knees fishing, a great part of the time. I wd go to Rome for the winter, if I were she. Why not suggest it to her? I am afraid of writing on the subject, or I would—but she has warned me not to write much or gravely about Mr Martin’s health, because it makes him nervous & uncomfortable. But when you see her alone, tell her what I say. Now, mind you do! It wd do him good in every way, nerves, spirits, & all, .. & if there is any susceptibility on the chest, an English winter is a hazardous future for it, unless the subject turns into a patient in the most literal meaning, & shuts himself up between four walls. Also it is easier to get into such a prison than to get out of it——as in my own case.
Tell me if you see Mr Venables, how Mr Tennyson is—now do tell me everything about him. You know what my interest is. Tell me also (by +) [8] if you want your five pound note.
Dear Occy has a very bad cold, .. so bad that he has not been to Mr Barry’s these two days—but he is something better, I understand, this morning. We are all very well otherwise—I, not tired to death– Mr Minto has sailed for the West Indies,—& Mary & her mother for Germany. Other news I have none. Oh, did you know that I had a letter from Miss Martineau? was that last letter before or after you went away? I cant remember. She wrote to ask me to send her my book by somebody, last saturday week.
Arabel is not going to stay with Emma Monro … which I think very stupid, .. as she wished it much, & Papa told her she might do as she liked .. only he did not look so. I certainly think she might have gone, & without displeasing him. She has nearly finished her wedding gift for Emily Mackintosh, [9] all in a broidery of fruit & flowers & watered white silk. A writing case fit for Titania to write love-letters withal, .. but rather too large. Henrietta is embroidering a basket quite as pretty in its way, for Louisa Tulk, & is thinking … intending seriously, I believe .. to carry it herself on the wedding day to Tottridge Park. [10] Somebody else (Daisy I fancy) is invited instead of you.
Well! there is no more to say! May God bless you my dearest dearest George! I love you dearly & always. We have seen your name in the papers .. & look for it. [11] Tell me how you do, in matters of business, .. & all the rest. With everybody’s love I am
Your most attached
Ba.
Address: G G. M Barrett Esqr / Barrister at Law / Oxford Circuit.
Publication: BC, 9, 72–75 (in part).
Manuscript: Eton College Library, Michael Meredith Collection; and Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. In letter 1662, EBB told Boyd that she wrote 140 lines in one day.
2. The United States Magazine, and Democratic Review, July 1844, p. 72; for the text, see p. 319.
3. For the text of this essay, see vol. 8, pp. 418–426.
4. A corner of the manuscript has been cut away.
5. Ebenezer Elliott (1781–1849) wrote the Corn-Law Rhymes (1831).
6. Cf. Job 38:31.
7. Cf. Laurence Sterne, Tristram Shandy (1760–67), bk. IV, ch. 26.
8. Apparently a code George could use to indicate that EBB should send him £5.
9. Emily McIntosh was married to Robert Murray Nolt on 14 August 1844.
10. Sic, for Totteridge Park, in Herts, the seat of Charles Augustus Tulk, and where his second daughter, Louisa Susanna, was married to James Peard Ley on 8 August 1844.
11. In Barrow’s Worcester Journal and The Worcester Herald regarding a case he was trying while on the Oxford Circuit.
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