3354. EBB to Mary Brotherton
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 134–135.
[Rome]
Friday morning. [10 March 1854] [1]
My dear Mrs Brotherton, The poems needed none of the elegance of this Roman binding to be acceptable to me from the hands of their author [2] —and I thank you with all my heart– You have been far too kind to me. I wish I had a copy of something to send you (exchanging gifts in the manner of Greek heroes) [3] but we could not be troubled with such “impedimenta” as our own books, in travelling in Italy. When people ask me sometimes to lend them a volume of my husband’s poetry, I feel half ashamed to have to say that I have’nt such a thing with me—as if it were a piece of wifely infidelity on my part .. or at least a gross misprision of conjugal meritoriousness–
About ‘self-deception’ I altogether agree with you. Between insanity and mendacity .. between the imputation of those two things .. between those two bundles of hay, every ass-infidel of them all must stand fixed. [4] You must be mad or wicked—or the wonder must be admitted. If somebody observed to our friend in Brussels, “I dont remember at this moment if I ever learnt Chinese—peutêtre oui, peutêtre non,” [5] .. Mr Westwood would suggest to some common acquaintance the necessity of bleeding or dry cuffing on the head of the said somebody, by way of remedy for the doubt– It’s amazing how the reason wriggles unreasonably to get out of unpleasant positions– “Fights upon its stumps” [6] you say?—but there’s not a stump to fight on, my dear Mrs Brotherton.
I shall be interested by whatever is written in the Critic. [7] Mr Hemans’s card was found somewhere here when he rang unavailingly I fear, everybody being out except me, & I not hearing. You are not alone in this gift, you are aware of course. For many persons (in America chiefly) have written languages without understanding them .. & according to Professor Bush the Hebrew professor at New York, Hebrew & various of the oriental languages have been so written– Moreover, if testimony is to be received, pencils have written per se .. without the hands–!!
But you show more reverence for your gift than any “inspired” person I have yet heard of,—and, after all, I dont quite accept your view– I dont believe in aristocracies .. not even in spiritual aristocracies—that is I dont believe in the superiority which lies simply in circumstances– As a serf may be nobler than his lord, even so you may be <…> & higher, though you are in the body, that <…> out of the body, [8] who makes you write Greek– Mind—I dont decide between you. I only say that it does not follow, in my view of the question, that a disembodied spirit is better than an embodied spirit– Simply, his circumstances are better. To look at facts, a great number of these spirits are foolish .. just as foolish as Mr Tennyson represents .. only he misrepresents, when he calls them all foolish– There seems to be as much diversity among spirits as among men– Good & evil, weak & wise come in, in this general influx. Some of them, even, seem to delight, like fairies, in practical jests & tales– It is all very strange.
And without being irreverent to the agency which acts through yourself, it strikes me strongly that the relation being established with you, of its own free <…> selection, you could not act unacceptably <…>ing a question– For my part, I honor you for being so little of an Eve as not to have done so long ago. After all, we women are belied creatures. I suspect that Pandora shaved—dont you?
Most truly yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
I am guilty of detaining Haydon from you. Forgive me, will you for a few days longer?
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: University of Texas.
1. Date provided by EBB’s thanking Mrs. Brotherton for a copy of her Poems; see note 2.
2. Mrs. Brotherton presented EBB with a rebound copy of The Forest-House, and Other Poems (1850) where the title-page reads “Poems by Mary Brotherton”; it is now at the Pierpont Morgan Library. The volume is inscribed on the title-page: “To Mrs Browning—with the Writer’s very kind regards. Rome. March 9. ’54.”
3. In The Iliad, Book VII, Hector and Ajax exchange gifts after doing battle.
4. EBB is referring to a philosophical comparison known as “Buridan’s Ass”: “the will[,] unable to act between two equally balanced motives,” is compared “to an ass dying of hunger between two equal and equidistant bundles of hay” (EB). The comparison has been misattributed to Jean Buridan (ca. 1297–ca. 1358), French philosopher.
5. “Maybe yes, maybe no.”
6. Cf. “The More Modern Ballad of Chevy Chace” in Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1765), line 212.
7. As Charles Hemans is mentioned immediately after The Critic, we assume Mrs. Brotherton had told EBB of his forthcoming review of Frederick Tennyson’s Days and Hours; see letter 3402, note 4.
8. Cf. II Corinthians 12:2.
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