2024. EBB to Thomas Westwood
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 11, 64–65.
50 Wimpole Street
September 6. 1845
[‘]‘Your crooked little thing,” according to Pope’s analysis of a note of interrogation, “asks no impertinent question” [1] of me, dear Mr Westwood,—& is thoroughly justified in putting me ‘to the question’ pertinently. In fact, I do confess to having appeared ungrateful, negligent .. & various negatives of bad repute besides,—& that I shd have written long since to you, if but to thank you for Edgar Poe’s ballad .. of which (see how prophetic you are!) two copies were lying by me when yours came, .. one from some anonymous American, & one from the author himself, [2] … but which by no means prevented my being greatly & rightly obliged to you for your kind thoughts of me. For the ballad,—you will wonder at me perhaps .. but I do not exactly know how to make up my mind to a conclusion about it. There is a certain power in it, no doubt,—but if the writer had been mad .. professedly mad you know .. I shd have appreciated the power better. It is not the madness of passion, I think .. it is as of an intellect dis[t]raught. There is a ludicrousness which tickles me through & through the melancholy. The ‘Sir or Madam’ for instance!——how do you bear that? No—I do not think it a legitimate growth of passion .. that ballad! It makes me open my eyes—& no more!– Tell me what your thought is.
If I guess at your news .. at the ‘change’ which is not a ‘chance’ [3] .. why I come near to a supposition .. receiving the oracle from your own lips you know .. that perhaps Mr Westwood may be about to be married!!—— If it is so, … but I will not run the risk of throwing my golden wishes into the air .. I will wait for the promised information. In the meantime, you will forgive me a little of my negligence when you hear that I am likely to leave England in pursuit of health & in flight before the winter’s cold, at the end of this month or beginning of the next, perhaps—my place of destination being Italy .. Pisa .. where Dr Chambers sends me. I have been surprisingly better throughout the summer, & am hoping more peradventure than I shall find, from the change of climate .. which is ‘change & chance’ together, taking it at the best. Separations are before me .. & my heart overflows occasionally with sadness.
To you I wish the happiness which is better than prosperity & which is not always dependent upon it!—— Do you know any reviewer who wd review as goodnaturedly as his conscience will let him, a little prose work sent to me from America? [4] .. sent to me, who can do nothing! People think there is help in me—& there is none!– More’s the pity!– [5]
Dear Mr Westwood
I remain
very faithfully yours
Elizabeth B Barrett.
Address: T. Westwood Esqre / Chase Side / Enfield.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. We have been unable to locate the source of this quotation; consequently, EBB’s exact meaning is unclear.
2. Presumably these were all from the newspaper publications of “The Raven.” In a letter dated [25 January 1846], EBB told RB that the poem had been sent to her “from four different quarters besides the author himself.” Letters 1910 and 1911 indicate that the copy from the author had been sent via Horne the previous May. See also SD1228, in which Horne communicated to Poe that EBB “thinks there is a fine lyrical melody in it.”
3. Cf. Shelley, Prometheus Unbound (1820), II, iv, 119.
4. Mathews had sent EBB a copy of his Big Abel, and the little Manhattan (1845), which she tried unsuccessfully to have reviewed in England; see letter 2047 in which she asked Horne if he knew anyone who might review it. She finally wrote to Mathews in early December 1845 (letter 2128) and reported that she had not been able to get it reviewed. However, the poem was reviewed in England. The Critic for 8 November 1845 said: “We cannot discern its meaning or discover its drift. … it is not likely to find favour with the English public” (p. 567); and The Westminster Review for December 1845 said: “We would ask—not in disparagement—is not this equal to anything in Boz?” (pp. 546–548).
5. Cf. I Henry IV, II, 4, 468.
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