1674. Harriet Martineau to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 83–84.
[Tynemouth]
Thursy night. [8 August 1844] [1]
Dear Miss Barrett
I must just thank you for your delectable letter, wh was the best part of this morng’s breakft. I want particularly to say that you have discharged my one doubt about writing to you so freely as you desire about your approaching vols. I was not sure that I could, without good assurance that any possible fault-finding wd not set your blood careening in the way it is too apt to do. Low—very low—as my opinion of poetry ought to be rated,—& sure as I was of your mental strength & rectitude, shown in the request, (as in much else,) I cd not have felt sure of your nerves, without such a guarantee as this letter gives. I now do promise a true & full opinion, only earnestly desiring to convince you how little it is worth,—how little you need regard any doubts or dislikes I may have to express. I do wish (in reference to your words before me on the subject) that your mode of expression were simpler,—freer from—not so much obscurity as manner. I do fear that some of the precious value of many of your ideas is lost by their expression not being as simple, direct & modern as they deserve. If all you write were as nearly simple as this dear letter, now, how wd your readers gain! of you en suite! [2] I will trust to find it so in these new vols. And here am I finding fault already! It is, as you kindly remind me, proving my trust in you. I see no bounds to what yr writings might be & do, if you cd alter this one peculiarity: & so thinks a very eminent man & author, [3] who wrote me a critical letter lately, almost full of the topic. He so honours your Muse that he longs to see her rely on her own nobility, so that the most captious shd never be able to dream of taxing her with affectation. But for his letter, I shd not have spoken of this,—I do feel it so absurd for me to be criticizing poetry to a poet.
I am telling Mrs Reid of her possible chance of seeing you. Can you let Mr Kenyon bring her to you? She starts for Italy in 3 weeks.
Wd “uncles & aunts” &c admit as any reason my wish that you & she shd meet, she being our go-between? Her gentle eyes cd not cause you any fatigue or trouble, I do think– She is not appreciated, generally; & I don’t blame any body (or not many) [4] for it. From absence of mind, & want of womanish quickness & dexterity, she often says things wh might be called “stupid,” & is provokingly awkward especy in travelling. Her mother has much to answer for in this; & it is a cruel disadvantage to her. She did not know till last week (though intimate with Sir J. Clark) that another Royal baby was expected; [5] —had never heard of the electrotype process till Monday,—& so on: & she forgets to put tea into the teapot, as well as hot water. But I,—the most “particular” of maiden ladies & invalids,—I who never spilled, broke or lost a thing (any more than Flush)—I, who in shameful truth prefer needlework to all other pursuits whatever, & am (like all deaf people) liable to run all into one faculty—observation—I find it well worth while to put away all expectation of such things from Mrs Reid, & all vexation that she has them not, for the sake of what she has. Her letters are about the very cleverest I ever get. Her thoughts on Life, in all its experiences,—her striking insight in moral affairs,—her wandering angels of thoughts—fresh from the sky—are inestimable to me. As for her morale,—Lady Byron has hit it, in a recent letter,—“a more chivalrous soul never dwelt in man or woman.” [6] But this is enough,—for I must write to her,—& all the house is in bed.
If you have any interest whatever,—you or yours—with the Govrs of the Consumptive Hospital at Chelsea, or with the Sanatorium, wd some one drop me a line,—or tell Mrs Reid so– I know not what to do in the case of a high-spirited young Irish gentn, [7] whom I have never seen, but who has put his fate in my hands; & just when he was working his way a little (in authorship) he has broken a blood-vessel in the lungs; & he must stop attempting to write: but he is destitute, & has no relations or friends. My excellent, Xn-hearted friend Milnes has taken up the case: but every body is leavg town. Something must be done; & I must write tonight to prepare his proud spirit for its coming trials.– So goodnight, & my love to you!
Ever yours
H. Martineau.
This is nothing. I will write when I have read what is coming from you.
Address: Miss Barrett / 50. Wimpole St / London.
Publication: Browning Society Notes, vol. 9, no. 3 (December 1979), 10 (in part, as 9 August 1844).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. This letter is postmarked 9 August 1844, a Friday.
2. “In consequence.”
3. Unidentified.
4. Parenthetical passage is written above the line.
5. Prince Alfred, afterwards Duke of Edinburgh and Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, was born on 6 August.
6. We have not been able to verify this statement attributed to Lady Byron.
7. Presumably Mr. Langtree, whom Miss Martineau mentions by name in letter 1691.
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