1903. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 192–196.
[London]
Friday. May 2. 1845.
Ever dearest friend,
No letter—no letters. It is dreadful to grow deaf & dumb all at once, & to have nobody to blame for it,—& it is just so with me, or seems so!– I think of you faithfully every day, & say nothing & hear nothing. I beseech you to write to me—I must hear & speak. There is a crisis to most diseases & silences.
Oh—but I have had so much to do in the way of writing—business-letters that knocked violently at the door for an answer .. such make-believe-business letters as come to me. And every day I have expected a letter from you like the lark at the window ‘bidding good morrow’ [1] —— I long to hear from you, if I have a claim to it or not. And here is May, & I have a claim to the right of seeing you—which is better! better than all!——
Also I have been intriguing with the oysters to get some to go to you, but they keep in their shells & wont be entreated. The fishmongers say that there never was a season like the present .. or late .. oyster season—never, in the memory of an oyster-monger! Echo says of the oysters, ‘where are they’ [2] —& their place in the patés knoweth them no more. [3] So you must be resigned while I am vexed that I have none to send you—& I will take out my vexation in pickles & ginger presently. The shaddocks on examination were too bruised for travelling—but we shall have another cask of them before long.
The best good news I have to tell you, is the safe arrival of my Ægyptian brothers,—Storm & Henry, .. who after a voyage of nearly four months, .. head winds all the way .. are now à Sandgate Creek, [4] keeping quarantine for the plague. Very absurd,—is it not? & especially, .. when they let the pilots go out & in as they please?– My poor brothers are locked up in a hulk for three or four days of purification, in as ill a humour as possible. I fancy that Stormie has had enough of a ship-life, at last. They were sailing round & round in the Mediterranean between two & three months till they had eaten & drunken all their bread & water, [5] & in a state of famine & drought put in at Carthagena for a little refreshment. Then again, came the spinning round & round towards home—they reached the forelands nearly, .. on Kent, .. & had to put back to Plymouth, at the risk of being driven again into the Atlantic. Adverse winds—head winds .. all the way, implacably. My gazelle (did I tell you that they were bringing me a gazelle?) broke its leg in the cabin, & so died! Resolute (did I tell you that they took the great German dog with them?) bore up well & faithfully, though he grew thin during the famine. And Papa’s cargo is not injured, to signify. Also they are in good spirits & full of jests upon their misfortunes—it is only the hulk that is de trop. [6] The quarantine is the drop of overflow, & throws them into a fit of misanthropy against that part of human nature which enters into the constitution of Boards of trade. But perhaps it is as well for Stormie that he should rage himself into a little exhaustion before he comes to the reading & understanding of all this petitioning & Exeter hall-talking against the Maynooth grant: the previous passion will bleed him down from the excesses of the righteous indignation– [7] For my part, I am angry at full innocuous ease, as I cannot throw knives about! & I cannot help saying that our friends the dissenters are disgracing themselves as a body. It is deplorable to think how love of liberty & love of free opinion mean after all .. love of me!– People cannot understand the doctrine of rights, unless it be of their own rights. In the hand of their opposite neighbour, the rights instantly become wrongs. “O liberty, liberty! what crimes are committed in thy name”!– I say so with Madme Roland. [8]
Not that I would not willingly, of course, accept the grand alternative .. as others would, .. of giving to Ireland the voluntary system on a broad ground .. & of disendowing the Irish established church instead of endowing Maynooth——but as that cannot be done in the present state of parties & countries,—to withhold the poor present justice which is in question, never could enter into my mind: & it is wonderful to me how men of liberal opinions generally, can argue & think so! But the Dissenting bodies are narrow in the main, with all their good & uprightness—a deep furrow runs through this green field. Witness the education question—the Presbyterian chapel question—& the present one!– [9] When we have found truth, .. or think that we have found it, .. what use do we put it to? Why[,] we hate with it, instead of loving with it ..
Oyez, oyez! I have found Lucien. And I have found ‘La Torpille’! And I have found all the Lousteau, & Finot, & Nathan, & Du Chatelet people, parted from in “Le grand homme du province”! And I have found, in fact, the continuation of David Sichard .. ‘tout rond’. [10] Now what do you say to me? It is ‘Esther’ in two volumes, & to all appearance full of life, & interest, & most atrocious wickedness, .. to judge from the first two chapters, & from the fact of “La Torpille” being the heroine .. en “fille repentie” [11] —! I quote from the title of the early pages. Pray send me a leaf of your dead bay tree, & congratulations for two. Wicked or not, it made my heart leap up [12] to catch sight of Lucien’s dress coat at the opera ball, & hear him called “de Rubempré’[’] after all, by grant of the king. And now we shall know what the Spanish priest wanted with him, & have the whole story out! I am delighted. Send for ‘Esther’.
And I see in the catalogue “Argow le pirate,” which must be the beginning to ‘Annette et le Criminel’—only I fear the authorship to be not Balzac’s but Aubin’s, .. who is quite a different writer as to power. [13] By the way, in Madme Gay’s ‘Salons celebres,’ where she speaks of Gerard’s salon (the artist’s) she says .. “M. Mérimée y causait avec l’auteur de Rouge et Noir, Mademoiselle Godefroy avec Mdme de Mirbel, Mdme de Bawr avec Mdme Ancelot, et M. de Balzac avec tout le monde, car chacun voulait jouir de son esprit si animé, de ses récits fantastiques et de sa gaieté scintillante.” [14] That sounds very well; does it not? I like the “récits fantastiques.” What would I give to be sitting on a stool to hear them all? oh—for a ‘récit fantastique’! In the meantime, here is ‘Esther’.
I had American letters this last packet from Mr Lowell & Mrs Sigourney—or did I tell you that before? No—I think not. Both are of the kindest. [15]
And yesterday I had a visit from Mrs Jameson & much pleasure from it. Wordsworth is in London,—having been ‘invited’ up to town to the queen’s ball, .. of course as commanding an invitation as one of Juno’s. Rogers lent him a courtsuit & sword—& he was presented so suddenly (at last) to the fair Majesty of England that she was quite ‘fluttered’ & could only say that she ‘was glad to see him & had never seen him before.’ [16] Mrs Jameson thought she ought to have had a queenly compliment on her lips,—but I, for my part, thought the being ‘fluttered’ the highest of all. The court news is, that she confessed the other day to having never read Wordsworth’s poems—upon which a Maid of honour answered quite broadly & earnestly,—“That is a great pity—they would do your Majesty good.” Miss Murray [17] told Mrs Jameson so, & assured her, that it was not only said, but abruptly said. Moreover she spoke all manner of good of the queen—called her ‘earnest & genuine’—& ex.pressed not merely personal attachment as from subject to queen, but attachment & esteem as from woman to woman.
No more writing for today!
It is your turn now.
Your ever affectionate
EBB.
Have you made any discoveries, in the catalogue or out of it, in proportion to mine? Do you know Mdme de Bawr, & if she is worth more than Mdme Ancelot who is weak? Elie Berthet is ‘wishy washy’. Jules Sandeau is ‘so & so’—what is Victor Ducange? [18]
‘Rouge et Noir’ you positively must read—& really my dearest dear friend you are “in affectations,” [19] when you pretend to be too delicate for “incubuses,” at this time of the night!—oh—I wont let you off from ‘Rouge et Noir’. Read it you shall. Two years ago, your excuses wd have been availing, but not now, [20] if you please.
Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 102–106.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Cf. Milton, “L’Allegro” (1673), line 46.
2. Cf. Byron, The Bride of Abydos, II, 27, line 663.
3. Cf. Psalm 103:16.
4. One and a half miles W.S.W. of Folkestone in Kent.
5. Cf. I Kings 13:22.
6. “Too much,” i.e., their quarantine, or confinement in the hulk, is just too much coming on top of the other tribulations of the journey.
7. As an admirer of O’Connell (see letters 1124 and 1292), Charles John (Stormie) would have had a particular interest in the Maynooth issue. Exeter Hall (see letter 1808, note 7) was a popular meeting place for public discussions and lectures.
8. She uttered this memorable cry before being guillotined in 1793.
9. The controversy surrounding the Maynooth College grant ended with the passing of the bill in late April. The “education question” perhaps refers to the “Ministerial Measure for the Establishment of New Colleges without Religious Distinctions” introduced about this time by Sir James Graham. The “Presbyterian question” is doubtless a reference to the dispute a few years before, regarding the independence of chapels, which resulted in a great number of ministers leaving the church.
10. “All complete.” In letter 1797, EBB had told Miss Mitford that “David Sechard ends uncomfortably”; however, she has now found the continuation of Balzac’s story in Esther, ou les Amours d’un vieux banquier (1843), also known as Splendeurs et Misères des Courtisanes, of which La Torpille formed the first few chapters. The characters EBB mentions, Lousteau, Finot, etc., all figure prominently in the Human Comedy.
11. “As a repentant woman,” or “Magdalen.”
12. Cf. Wordsworth, “My Heart Leaps Up” (1807), line 1.
13. Annette et le criminel (1824) was published under Balzac’s pseudonym, Horace de Saint-Aubin.
14. “Monsieur Mérimée chatted with the author of The Red and the Black, Mademoiselle Godefroy with Madame de Mirbel, Madame de Bawr with Madame Ancelot, and Monsieur de Balzac with everybody, because everybody wanted to enjoy his most animated spirit, his fantastic stories, and his scintillating gaiety” (Salons Célèbres, par Madame Sophie Gay, 1837, pp. 195–196). François Gerard (1770–1836), a student of David, became a court painter to Louis XVII; Prosper Mérimée (1803–70) wrote Chronique du régne Charles IX (1829), see letter 1736; the editors of EBB-MRM suggest that Mlle. Godefroy was related to Frédéric Godefroy (1826–97), who was a dictionary writer; Mme. Mirbel was doubtless the wife of Charles François Brisseau de Mirbel (1776–1854), director of the gardens at La Malmaison and author of numerous books on botany; Alexandrine Sophie de Bawr (née Goury de Champgrand, 1773–1860), was an actress and author of dramatic works; Marguerite Virginie Ancelot (née Chardon, 1792–1875) was the wife of Jacques François Ancelot, and they were both authors of drama.
15. She had told Miss Mitford about these letters; see no. 1885, note 9.
17. Amelia Matilda Murray (1795–1884), fourth daughter of Lord George Murray, was a maid of honour to Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1856. She was the author of Remarks on Education in 1847 (1847) and Letters from the United States, Cuba, and Canada (1856).
18. French novelist and dramatist, Victor Henri Ducange (1783–1833) was imprisoned for six months for an article that appeared in his journal Le Diable rose (1822). Élie Bertrand Berthet (1815–91), whose pseudonym was d’Élie Raymond, was a novelist and journalist.
19. Cf. William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims (1718), pt. II, no. 116.
20. Underscored three times.
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