1727. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 166–169.
[London]
Monday. Oct 1 [sic, for 30 September] 1844 [1]
Ah my dearest friend,—it will never do, I fear. I know Mr Kenyon’s face so well, before I appeal to it, that I dare’nt do it!– Besides, you see, what he might forgive, if done, he would never advise as a good thing to do,—that is sure & certain. As to Papa, why he knows nothing of Madame Dudevant,—& I dont feel inclined to explain her to him. Of course if I were to say .. “she is a great genius, & no better than she should be, .. and I have read her books & want to write to her,”—he wd think I was mad & required his paternal restraint in all manner of ways. He has very strict ideas about women & about what they shd read, (you wd not think so now, from me!) & I heard him say once that he could not think highly of the modesty of any woman who could read Don Juan.!! He used to keep a canto of Don Juan locked up from wandering eyes,—& does the same at this time, with the Heloise—Don Juan & the nouvelle Heloise being Hanah More & Wilberforce by the side of certain books that we wot of. [2] At the same time, I fancy that he has a high opinion of my curiosity about books, & is content that I shd be supposed to have read them, right & left, through a filter, without having done myself much harm. Only if I were to ask him for that copy of the Eloise locked up in the drawer, .. my dearest Miss Mitford,—he wd as soon give me Prussic acid if I were thirsty!–
For the rest, I think as you do, that the man-woman, called George Sand, is kind, generous, noble, .. & that she wd meet us in a generous spirit, & you, in a grateful one. Well—shall we wait, & consider! You will be going to France yourself next year; & in any case, we shall have opportunities. There is no hurry about it, my dearest friend, .. & time to think, will do no harm. If we did it, need anybody know? I mean, need we subject ourselves to any stress of conventional opinion, which of course wd go against us? You see, if Mr Kenyon heard that we had done it, he is the very man to smile kindly & make the best excuses possible,—but if we put him into a chair, & asked his “opinion,” .. why then with all his fervour & generosity, he is the very man to have the fear of the London drawing rooms before his eyes, & to be thinking of what Mr So & so wd say in an epigram. Now is’nt it so? is’nt it just so? Well—we can consider. As to Papa, if we do send, I wont tell him that the “French authoress” who is to be the recipient, smokes cigars & is discontented with the decencies of life. I shall keep that among the ‘Mysteries of Paris.’
The dangerous point in George Sand, appears to me to lie in the irresistible power she attributes to human passion. The moral of “Jacques,”—to apply such a term to the most immoral of lessons, .. isjust that Love, guilty love, observe, .. cannot be resisted by the strongest will & most virtuous individuality. Then the disgusting tendency she has towards representing the passion of love under its physical aspect! I could not read Lelia,for all its eloquence. [3] After all, however, she is great, & capable of noble elevations both intellectual & moral: & I shd not be ashamed before the whole world, toconfess my sense of this. If I had a reputation like her own, I would do it the next moment. As it is, the question is different——only I shall be always grateful to you my dearest indulgent friend for not being ashamed of “going up” with me (as they say at school) & for being willing (even in a fancy) to carry my name close to yours into another country. Every now & then I catch myself loving you better!–
While I write, comes another letter from Miss Martineau. She is able now to “walk a mile,” & feels quite well, except for nervous weakness!—!! She says that when she “meets a dog in her walks,” she thinks directly of Flush! That is kind,—is’nt it? That is unstoical! That is’nt a bit like the Emperor Marcus Antoninus! [4] Ah—you must not judge the other thing I told you, too austerely,—because, you see, she has probably met with all kinds & degrees of flattery in her life, & has been rendered heart-sick of falseness. Also it is in her creed, as it is in the Quakers’, to put away embroideries. And indeed she did write me the very kindest, the very most extravagantly kind of letters, about my book,—and I am grateful for it. And about this recovery, I am overjoyed!– She is desired to give up letter-writing & every mental fatigue for the present, so as to concentrate herself on the business of recovery—for though she can walk a mile (how wonderful that sounds!) she does not feel as sure, she says, of ultimate restoration, as her friends do. But the rapid recovery of active power strikes me as nearly miraculous! Her last letter mentioned the power of reaching the ‘grass plot before the door’ as only exercised the wednesday before!– Her last letter was written only a week ago!– And when we consider what it is to recover power after long exhausting illnesses, .. how tedious the process, .. how impossible to trace any improvement from day to day, even in the most improving, .. I come to a pause in my astonishment.
In the meantime, I had such a letter from my aunt Mrs Hedley from Paris this morning, … conjuring me not to touch the unholy thing of mesmerism,—much as if she were treating of Diablerie proper! Dreadful experiences, she says she has heard of it! and she “only hopes & entreats & desires” … &c!!
Yes,—but “Annette” reminded me of Bulwer’s Eugene Aram,—& I cd not help thinking that Balzac had been reminded of it before. But the French work is very striking & vivid, & fuller of movement, as you observe, than Balzac is usually. The ‘Vicaire des Ardennes’ I do not like much. It was violently handled, I fancy, from the author’s complaints, by the guardians of liberty of the press in France, on the grounds of latitudinarianism. [5] Thank you for telling me of Scribe’s vaudeville. “Le Notaire de Chantilly” by Gozlan, [6] has faculty in it. What is singular in respect to Balzac, is, that he wrote for many years under a nom de guerre as Henri St Aubin, [7] making no impression on the public whatever,—then, on a sudden, took his own name up together with a power which no one had dreamed of in him, & astonished Paris.
My dearest friend, you are the only person in the world, to whom I dare to write on these subjects,—& it is such a treat & priveledge!– No more, however, today– The post is too near! Do be careful of yourself, my beloved friend, & avoid the cold & damp which react upon you by night. Papa is not returned yet, & I long for him. Tomorrow I get back again to my own room, to my & Flushie’s satisfaction in all ways—and then .. & then .. when may I begin to dream dreams of seeing visions? [8] .. you .. for instance?
Dear Mr Kenyon is returned, & I saw him yesterday, .. & he goes to Paris in a few more days.
May God bless you, my dearest Miss Mitford! How indulgent you are to me! how gratefully I love you!
Your EBB–
Address: Miss Mitford / Three Mile Cross / near Reading.
Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 461–464.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. This letter is postmarked 30 September 1844, a Monday.
2. Byron’s Don Juan (1819–24) and Rousseau’s Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse (1761). Hannah More (1745–1833) and William Wilberforce (1759–1833) were reformers and religious writers.
4. Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor (121–180), wrote, in Greek, The Meditations of Marcus Antoninus which outlined his philosophy of stoicism.
5. Balzac’s Annette et le criminel, ou suite du Vicaire des Ardennes (1824) was a continuation of Le Vicaire des Ardennes (1822), both of which were published under the pseudonym Horace de Saint-Aubin. Bulwer-Lytton’s Eugene Aram (1832) was based upon a famous murder at York.
6. Léon Gozlan (1803–66), Le Notaire de Chantilly (1836). Augustin Eugène Scribe (1791–1861) was a prolific French dramatist well known for his comedies and vaudevilles.
7. Horace de Saint-Aubin was the pseudonym most often used by Balzac; he also used the pseudonym Lord R’Hoone.
8. Cf. Joel 2:28.
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