1847. RB to Alfred Domett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 88–91.
New Cross, Hatcham, Surrey.
Feb 23. 1845.
My dear Domett,
I wrote to you, about the end of last July, and mentioned, I believe, that I was going to Italy—soon after. I did go (to Naples, by sea)—and at Rome, to my great delight, the first of your two last letters was sent me (in substance) by my sister, who abstracts very well. —I returned to England in the middle of December—and, a month ago, came newspapers and a letter—which I did not acknowledge earlier for want of a ship your way. I write now, with a pleasant half-belief that writing is no use in the world and that you will be here when this present is sorrowfully pitched into the Unclaimed Box at Nelson—for you must be intending to come back as fast as possible– Law at Nelson! All the bitter, and none of the sweets which time and prescription, and sociality, and classicality of a sort, and lucri odor, [1] help to wring out of London Law-life! Do come back .. the reasons are too many and obvious for me to urge them—and we are all in a cry, all your friends here,—I cannot even write legibly—so oddly it feels that I should be at pains to point out to you what you must be seeing like a great wall before you! Arnould .. (that is, Mrs Arnould) tells me something about a crop of potatoes, and net expenses, and loss .. horrible! Arnould is a happiness to see and know– Law does him no harm in the world; and I send, with this, a Review with an article of his—“Rabelais”—which I know you will be delighted with as I have been– [2] Come and do likewise! [3] You will find no change .. in this room, where I remember you so well, I turned my head, last line, to see if it was you came up with hat above the holly hedge: Poor Dowson, though, you would find sadly grieved by the misfortune he has had– I have not seen him yet, poor fellow. [4] Your verses (to talk about something else) are capital and hit no harder, I dare say, than the case requires; I sent them to Arnould. You wrote rather querulously about his silence—if he has been silent (for I don’t know—) his real love is, and has been, loud enough on all occasions—he wanted to starve you into writing, most likely: so with his wife:—I & you have no stauncher friends.
All you say about my poems greatly pleases me, and should profit– I do my best at all times,—and really hope to be doing better already. The literary gossip you are benignant about, I can furnish but scantily—there is nothing doing, or announcing itself as to be done, except Carlyle’s Life of Cromwell—of which he is going to publish the prolegomena in the shape of “Letters & Speeches,” with annotations—for he says, if he can get people to read them, they will save him much trouble in telling them whether they have judged wisely of Cromwell or no. Himself seems to entertain a boundless admiration for the man. I spent this day-fortnight’s evening with Carlyle, and never remember him more delightful—the intensity of his Radicalism, too, is exquisite. He has a remarkable brother, Dr C., [5] physician .. whom I know also, and who was there– A man like and unlike him. What did you think of Patmore’s little book? some things were very beautiful—and yet, it seems that while I was away there appeared a brutal paper in Blackwood, [6] of the old kind, which had the old almost-fabulous effect,—the poor fellow despairs, and the sale of his book stops short,—whereat Moxon smiles grimly with a super-Ossianic joy of grief, and says calmly “I published that one book at my own risk: when I publish another …”! The worst is, the father of Patmore it is, not himself, these critics want to hurt—he having been the second in a noted duel which ended in the death of Scott, the Editor of the London Mag—about 20 years ago, or more, and probably before the son was born– Patmore Senr, could have prevented the duel, they say—which is easily said– [7] I wanted to introduce the Son to an influential critic at a party one night and “No”—said he,—“because of that bloody-minded father”—who stood by, silent in his white cravat, and grateful to me for speaking to “his boy”– Are not these things fit to make an Apostle swear? But there have come out some divine things by Miss Barrett, whose first book you liked, I remember: if you don’t come, after all, I must send them.
If you will write Articles for Reviews, like this of Arnould’s, or lighter, or heavier, or verse or “worse” (as C. Lamb said) [8] —I can go-between now,—knowing more Editors &c than I did. I occasionally do something for poor Hood, who is dying fast: and shall have some poetry in his next magazine—do you ever see it? His own contributions are admirable—I mean his verses—one, Waterloo-bridge, is alone in its generation, I think. And the Haunted House of No 1, was of admirable power. [9]
The papers will tell you of the shocking end of poor Laman Blanchard, [10] —a dear-tempered, clever .. (more than merely clever, as his little early red-covered blossom of a book showed) .. genial friend of everybody’s. Nearly the last time I saw him he talked, as we walked homewards, about his wife—how he was all but dead of a fever once, and she nursed him, (being, I think, his cousin) and as he just turned the edge of the grave, he said, quite naturally, and for all courtship,—“well, you know, when I get better, we will marry and go live at” &c &c “and since then” he said “she has saved my life a dozen times”—with more of it: now she has pulled him strangely into the grave after her. He was to come and see me here, but never did.
When I got your papers and last letter, I spoke of them to your Father at Chapel—he looks wonderfully well– My sister saw him, too, at Dowson’s, while I was away. How glad he will be to see you. But times are mending here; Peel turns Liberal, “with other delights.” [11] I ought to have said there is a brilliant book on the East, [‘]‘Eothen” by the quietest man I know, a barrister to boot! [12] He thought, it appears, to get quietly rid of his recollections and so, to bar with a clear conscience; but fame caught him and is like to keep him: he wrote, too, that article about the Hareem in the last Quarterly [13] —not that I have seen it but it is said to be very clever.
All here send their love,—and hope to see you as soon as may be– Ever, dear Domett,
Yours most faithfully,
R Browning.
Address, on integral page: Alfred Domett Esq / Port Nelson, / New Zealand.
Publication: RB-AD, pp. 109–115.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. “The smell of advantage, or gain” (cf. Juvenal, Satires, xiv, 204, trans. G.G. Ramsay).
2. A review of several different works written by Joseph Arnould, entitled “Rabelais and His Times,” appeared in the January 1845 issue of the The New Quarterly Review, pp. 174–218.
3. Cf. Luke 10:37.
4. RB refers to the death of Christopher Dowson’s eldest daughter and second child, Alice Kate (1839–45), on 20 January. Her mother, Mary Dowson (née Domett, afterwards Browne, 1816–77) was the recipient’s sister.
5. John Aitken Carlyle (1801–79), whom RB had mentioned to Domett in letter 1244.
6. RB had mentioned Patmore’s Poems to Domett in July 1844 (see letter 1664). The general tone of the review in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (September 1844) is evidenced by the closing sentence: “His poetry (thank Heaven!) cannot corrupt into anything worse than itself.”
7. Patmore’s father, Peter George Patmore (1786–1855), had acted as “second” for John Scott (1783–1821), editor of The London Magazine in a duel which took place at Chalk Farm on 16 February 1821, with John Gibson Lockhart, editor of Blackwood’s. Jonathan Henry Christie acted as Lockhart’s representative, with Mr. Traill as his second. Scott was fatally wounded and died ten days later. Miss Mitford’s opinion of the event summarizes what seems to have been the general feeling of outrage over the incident: “He [John Scott] is now the victim of his own contemptible second; a man who is a pawnbroker on Ludgate Hill and a dandy in St. James’s Street; and who egged on his unhappy friend to gratify his own trumpery desire of notoriety. I hope he will be severely dealt with” (L’Estrange (2), II, 128). Patmore, Lockhart and Christie were acquitted after an inquest, and Patmore remained friends with Mrs. Scott. See Portrait of My Family (1935) by Derek Patmore, pp. 30–32.
8. We have been unable to trace where Charles Lamb said this; however, cf. Byron, Don Juan, VI, lix, 7–8.
9. “The Haunted House” appeared in Hood’s Magazine for January 1844 (vol. 1, pp. 1–11), and “The Bridge of Sighs” was first published in Hood’s Magazine for May 1844 (vol. 1, pp. 414–417). In a letter to F.O. Ward in April 1844, Hood wrote: “I have all but done a poem on ‘the Bridge of Sighs’ – ie Waterloo, and its Suicides” (The Letters of Thomas Hood, Toronto, 1973, ed. Peter F. Morgan, p. 600).
10. Samuel Laman Blanchard (1804–45), an author and editor with whom RB had corresponded (see letter 810), committed suicide on 15 February 1845 after his wife’s protracted illness and death.
11. We have not located the source of this quotation.
12. EBB had also commented positively on Kinglake’s book, calling it “a work of genius” (see letter 1761).
13. An article by Alexander William Kinglake on six different works had appeared in The Quarterly Review for December 1844 (pp. 94–125). The article was entitled “Milnes on the Hareem—The Rights of Women.”
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