1878. EBB to Clementia Taylor
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 145–147.
50 Wimpole Street
April 2. 1845.
My dear Madam, [1]
It would give me great pleasure to receive your visit here, but I am an invalid & unable to receive the visits of many whom I regard & esteem. My slight tenure of health, uncertain as it is, is held only on the condition of excessive quiet & seclusion, & I trust to your goodness to understand the facts well enough to forgive their consequences.
With a lively recollection of the kindness you have expressed towards myself, I address you frankly & as a friend, on the subject of the Corn Law Bazaar. [2]
You are probably unaware,—or appear to be so,—that some weeks ago I received a high compliment in an application from the Leeds’ Ladies Committee (authorized, said the secretary, by the London Council) to the effect of an invitation to write a poem for the Covent Garden bazaar, in exponency of the popular wrong in question. [3] This desire, expressed with infinite kindness, touched & gratified me beyond what I can tell you—; I could have acceded to it with my whole heart, & with all the pride of it,—and my eyes (I may say to you) were not quite free from tears, when I found myself forced to answer with a negative, a proposition, upon which I must always look back with gratitude. Perhaps you will be surprised that, feeling so, I could refuse at all,—but as a woman you know well that women are subject to various influences—and then,—it was represented strongly to me that I could do more, as a poet, for every great cause, & for this cause in particular, by keeping aloof & apart from all colours & positions of party, & by speaking from my own poet-ground & through the open air of the press, rather than from a Bazaar. And perhaps this is true—I have sometimes, certainly, thought & said things like it myself, in relation to general questions, & where my feelings were less interested. But it was painful to me to act on it,—very painful; and not even the trust & graciousness, .. with which, I have heard that the Ladies’ Committee at Leeds received my answer, .. can efface the pain of giving it from my own mind.
And now, dear Mrs Taylor, I tell you all this frankly & fully, that you may be able to judge of my situation in respect to the Bazaar. In the first place I send you my guinea subscription, which you will put to what use you please, & accept in lien of that common stall-work in which I am not an adept. For the autographs, you must take pity on me, & judge for me & explain to me besides. I have given autographs, but not to bazaars, & I am not learned in the manner of it. But especially I am anxious to know how to be consistent you see, & not to offend the Leeds’ committee. Will you judge as a friend whether I can let you make use of my autograph (which you may disdain perhaps, now you know my history!) consistently with the refusal about the poem. Would not the autograph commit the name, as completely the poem? Or would it be a mere autograph, such as you wd put to use from pen-men & pen-women in general, without reference to opinions—?
Oh! I burn within myself, to have to write so,––I, who am not cautious & cold, indeed & indeed!!– I, whose heart is with the people & against the wrong!—& whose chief ambition it is, to lift my voice in my poetry, as high as my heart!– But upon your womanly sympathy & faithfulness I throw myself, and I put trust in you that you will believe what I have written, & direct me how to meet your wishes if I can do so at all, without an offensive retreading of my own steps in the faces of my friends at Leeds—none of them personal friends, or within reach of personal influence & explanation.
After all, can my autograph be worth the gathering from under your feet for such a purpose?– I shd think not.
It is with much deep sympathy in your endeavours, & many earnest wishes for the attainment of your great objects, that
I remain, dear Madam,
very faithfully yours
Elizabeth Barrett Barrett.
I did not see in the papers, what you refer to—and I do hope that the accident involved no material loss to you. [4]
Address: Mrs P. A. Taylor / 5 Charlotte Street / Bedford Square.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Carl H. Pforzheimer Collection.
1. Clementia Taylor (née Doughty, 1810–1908), who, with her husband, Peter Alfred Taylor (1819–91), was active in the anti-corn law agitation.
4. The “accident,” also mentioned in the following letter, was a fire near Mrs. Taylor’s address in Gutter Lane, Cheapside, to which EBB had directed her previous letter (no. 1776). The fire was reported in The Times for 14 March 1845. The present letter is directed to the residence of W.J. Fox, a leading figure in the anti-corn law movement.
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