Correspondence

364.  EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 2, 230–231.

Hope End.

Saturday. [2 January 1830] [1]

My dear Mr Boyd,

I am not sure that I am doing right in sending you the letter; but as you wish to have it read to you, I cannot hesitate. Do not let the subject be mentioned out of your own house,—for that would not be fair towards Mrs Mushet,—nor would it be pleasant to me to think that I had “published in Gath” [2] what was written to me in confidence. I believe I ought to have been silent about it altogether, but I did not like to conceal from you anything which you might feel curious to know; & the great packet seemed a sufficient stimulus for a little curiosity. You see I am apologizing to my conscience for unintentionally causing your ebullitions poetical & prosaic, against poor Mrs Mushet. I maintain that her act, granting it to be ill-judged, & knowing it to be unusual, still is a benevolent act, inasmuch as its motive & end are clearly distinct from any selfish interest & advantage. And I am quite sure that to some minds, (& why not to her’s?) the making such an application as she made, would be infinitely more painful, more difficult, & involving a greater effort & sacrifice, than the lending or giving of a thousand pounds, could. Therefore (now we come to the ergo) it seems to me that people ought not to call an act like Mrs Mushet’s, “sovereign impudence,”—& that no Hekeebolos [3] has a right to shoot at her in consequence of it, with his poetical cross-bow.

The enclosed letters, I have returned. They were from Mr Robert’s late master at Winchester, & his present tutor at the university, in answer to letters of Mrs Mushets, & merely speak generally as to his good conduct, abilities, & embarassed circumstances. No light is thrown by them on his particular situation with regard to his family, or on the motives ostensible or supposed, of his family’s conduct towards him. On these points Mrs Mushet should certainly dilate more than she has done to me, if she wishes to be successful in making similar applications to others [4] —but I did not tell her so, for fear she should suspect me of hinting at my own curiosity.

You have almost made your epitaph a cat o’ nine tails. I like the additional lines very much indeed, & think you have brought in the mē-ou extremely well, & produced a good effect by the neighbouring mew. Do send the whole to the Classical Journal,—or have it printed somewhere. [5]

Now I will end this scribble & fold it up, that it may be ready to take advantage of the conveyance which has been promised, today.

Your ever sincere friend

E B Barrett.

Address, on integral page: H. S. Boyd Esqr

Docket, in unidentified hand: Janry 1830.

Publication: EBB-HSB, pp.92–93.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Dated by the docket and the reference to Mrs. Mushet’s letter, spoken of in letter 362.

2. Cf. II Samuel, 1:20.

3. “Far darter,” Homeric term for Apollo.

4. EBB recalled this application for aid in a letter to Miss Mitford on 6 March 1840.

5. The Classical Journal ceased publication in 1829. We have not located Boyd’s verse in any other magazine.

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