2098. EBB to Henry Fothergill Chorley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 11, 171–172.
50 Wimpole Street
[?14] November– 1845. [1]
I must trouble you with another letter of thanks, [2] dear Mr Chorley, now that I have to thank you for the value of the work as well as the kindness of the gift—for I have read your three volumes of ‘Pomfret’ with interest & moral assent, & with great pleasure in various ways:—it is a pure, true book without effort, which, in these days of gesture & rolling of the eyes, is an uncommon thing. Also you make your ‘private judgement’ work itself out quietly as a simple part of the love of truth, instead of being the loud heroic virtue it is so apt in real life to profess itself,—seldom moving without drums & trumpets & the flying of party-colours. All these you have put down rightly, wisely, & boldly; & it was, in my mind, no less wise than bold of you to let in that odour of Tyrrwhitism into the folds of the purple, & so prevent the very possibility of any ‘prestige’. [3] If I complained, it might be that your ‘private judgement’ confines its reference to ‘public opinion’ & shuns, too proudly perhaps, the higher & deeper relations of human responsibility. But there are difficulties, I see,—& you chose your path advisedly, of course. The best character in the book I take to be Rose. I cannot hesitate in selecting him. He is so lifelike, with the world’s conventional life, that you hear his footsteps when he walks—& indeed I think his boots were apt to creak just the soupçon of a creak, .. just as a gentleman’s boots might: & he is excellently consistent, even down to the choice of a wife whom he could patronize. I hope you like your own Mr Rose .. & that you will forgive me for jilting Grace for Helena, which I could not help any more than Walter could. But now .. may I venture to ask a question? Would it not have been wise of you if, on the point of reserve, you had thrown a deeper shade of opposition into the characters or rather manners of these women? Helena sits like a statue (& could Grace have done more?) when she wins Walter’s heart in Italy. Afterwards, & by fits at the time, indeed, the artist-fire bursts from her—but there was a great deal of smouldering when there should have been a clear heat, to justify Walter’s change of feeling. And then .. in respect to that .. do you really think that your Grace was generous .. heroic .. (with the evidence she had of the change) in giving up her engagement? For her own sake, could she have done otherwise? I fancy not: the position seems surrounded by its own necessities, & no room for a doubt. I write on my own doubts you see, & you will smile at them, or understand all through them that if the book had not interested me like a piece of real life, I should not find myself backbiting as if all these were ‘my neighbours.’ The pure tender feeling of the closing scenes touched me to better purpose, believe me!—and I applaud from my heart & conscience your rejection of that low creed of “poetical justice” which is neither justice nor poetry; which is as degrading to virtue as false to experience; & which, thrown from your book, raises it into a pure atmosphere at once.
I could go on talking, but remind myself (I do hope in time) that I might show my gratitude better with sincere wishes for the success of the work, (for just see how practically we come to trust to poetical justices after all our theories. I, [4] .. I mean, & mine!) & with respect & esteem for the writer, .. I remain
very truly yours
Elizabeth Barrett Barrett.
Publication: LEBB, I, 271–273.
Manuscript: Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to Pomfret, which she had apparently finished reading by the 14th; see letters 2093 and 2095.
2. In addition to letter 2090.
3. EBB is referring to the Tyrwhite family in Pomfret, as well as possibly alluding to Robert Tyrwhitt (1735–1817), who was one of the founders of the London “Unitarian Society.”
4. Underscored twice.
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