1784. EBB to Thomas Westwood
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 274–275.
[London]
December 11. 1844.
My dear Mr Westwood
I have gone to the length of my tether & beyond it, in detaining the Woods [1] -Spenser, & can only repose my hope of pardon on your habit of kindness. With many thanks cordial & true, I thank you for the pleasure I have enjoyed in connection with these proofs of genius. Power & expression are everywhere—& if the sense of beauty does not appear to me the most developped of the artist’s senses, it is certainly not for want of a full artistic faculty. Probably that is for the hereafter. His Una will come after his satyrs. [2] To be honest, it is my own personal opinion (I give it to you for as much as it is worth! not much!.) that many of the subjects of these drawings are unfit for graphic representation. What we can bear to see in the poet’s vision, & sustained on the wings of his divine music, we shrink from a little, when brought face to face with, .. as drawn out in black & white. For instance, the strangling of Error is simply horrible. [3] Who can look again at that tongue–? I wd as soon, almost, go to an execution. You will understand from this what I mean. The horror & terror preponderate in the drawings; & what is sublime in the poet, is apt to be extravagant in the artist,—& this, not from a deficiency of power in the latter, but from a treading on ground forbidden except to the poet’s foot. I may be wrong perhaps. I do not pretend to be right. I only tell you (as you ask for them) what my impressions are. You will do me justice in believing that I admire & appreciate the power of your friend as highly as you would have me,—notwithstanding those impressions, & the feeling besides, that the Una is not Spenser’s Una for beauty. [4] She is pure enough,—but she has not all the grace of purity: Has she? Now you shall not think that I am carping. If I did not admire so much, I should not dare to find fault at all——and then we have agreed to be true. In spite of my impression about the investment in “too solid” form, of allegorical horrors, the drawing called ‘The end of the combat’ [5] strikes me as very fine—very expressive of power in the monster. My favorites are however the two drawings which represent the lion & Una in the forest. [6] In the first, I seem to hear the crashing of boughs—it is very expressive, & makes the heart beat to look at it– I need not say that I wish all manner of success to your friend the artist,—& laurels of the weight of gold, while of the freshness of grass– Alas! an impossible vegetable!—fabulous as the Halcyon! [7]
I ventured to send the illustrations for Mr Haydon to glance over, and I enclose you the letter he returned– His opinion is worth having—and if your friend likes to keep the letter containing it, it is at his service.
When I consider that an artist of so much faculty has done me the honor of making a poem of mine a subject for his Art, I feel glad & proud. If there shd ever be any hope for me of seeing the drawings, you will allow me to do so—will you not? [8] In the meantime my interest in the successes of Mr Woods, remains associated with my own self love.
And now, my dear Mr Westwood, you will write to me soon, I hope, & ask, just to say that you are not the worse for this ‘long & strong pull’ [9] of the early winter. The weather is trying indeed—and I trust that exposure is not a necessary part of your daily duty–
The kind interest you have taken in my poems, prompts me to tell you that the new volumes are doing well, among the buyers as well as among the critics. I did not in the act of publication, anticipate so much prosperity.
May God bless you.
I remain
faithfully your friend
Elizabeth B Barrett.
Publication: LEBB, I, 224–225 (in part).
Manuscript: British Library.
2. Una, the heroine of book I of The Faerie Queene, is taken to represent truth, or the true religion. During her search for the Red Cross Knight, she is captured by Sansloy, and eventually rescued by fauns and satyrs.
3. The Faerie Queene, I, i, 19.
4. As the personification of Truth, Una was both beautiful and graceful.
5. A reference to the Red Cross Knight slaying the dragon (The Faerie Queene, I, xi).
6. The Faerie Queene, I, iii.
7. Halcyon, or Alcyone, the daughter of Æolus, whose husband, Ceyx, was drowned while on his way to the oracle. Alcyone, warned in a dream of her husband’s death, found his body washed ashore, and threw herself into the sea. She and her husband were both changed into birds which reputedly keep the seas calm when they nest at the time of the winter solstice.
8. Presumably the illustrations of “The Legend of the Browne Rosarie” and “The Romaunt of Margret” (see letter 1473, note 4).
9. As previously noted, cf. “A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together” (Frederick Marryat, Jacob Faithful, 1834, ch. 12).
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