3948. EBB to Julia Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 173–175.
Florence–
Dec 29– 1856.
My dearest Mrs Martin,
I am very, very sorry– I feel for you to the bottom of my heart. [1] But she was a pure spirit .. leaning out the way God had marked for her to go, and you had not associated this world too much with her, as if she could have been meant to stay long in it. Always you felt that she was about to go .. did you not, dear friend? .. and so, that she does not stay, cannot be an astonishment to you. The pain is the same—only it cant be the bitter unnatural pain of certain separations– Her sweetness has gone to the sweet, her lovely nature to the lovely—no violence was done to her in carrying her home– May God enable you to dwell on this till you are satisfied, .. glad & not sorry– That the spirits do not go far, & that they love us still, has grown to me surer & surer– And yet, how death shakes us!
Yes indeed– I, too, have been very, very sad– This Christmas has come to me like a cloud– I can scarcely fancy England without that bright face & sympathetic hand, that princely nature, in which you might put your trust more reasonably than in princes– [2] These ten years back he has stood to me almost in my father’s place—& now the place is empty .. doubly– Since the birth of my child, (seven years since) he has allowed us .. rather insisted on our accepting (for my husband was loth) a hundred a year; &, without it, we should have often been in hard straights– His last act was to leave us eleven thousand pounds [3] —& I do not doubt but that, if he had not known our preference of a simple mode of life & a freedom from worldly responsibilities (born artists as we both are) the bequest would have been greater still. As it is we shall be relieved from pecuniary pressure, & your affectionateness will be glad to hear this,—but I shall have more comfort from the consideration of it presently than I can at this instant, when the loss, the empty chair, the silent voice, the apparently suspended sympathy, must still keep painfully uppermost–
You will wonder at a paragraph from the Athenæum, [4] —which Robert thought out of taste, until he came to understand the motive of it, .. that there had been (two days previous to its appearance) a brutal attack on the will, .. to the effect that literary persons had been altogether overlooked in the dispositions of the testator, in consequence of his being a disappointed literary pretender himself– [5] Therefore we were brought forward, you see, together with Barry Cornwall, & Dr Southey .. producing a wrong impression on the other side .. only I cant blame the Athenæum writer for it, [6] nor can anyone, I think. The effect however to ourselves is most uncomfortable, as we are overwhelmed with ‘congratulations’ on all sides, just as if we had not lost a dear, tender, faithful friend & relative:—just as if, in fact, some stranger had made us a bequest, as a tribute to our poetry!– People are so obtuse in this world:—as Robert says, so “dense”:—as Lord Brougham says, so ‘crass.’ [7]
Whatever may be your liking or disliking of ‘Aurora Leigh,’ you will like to hear that it’s a great success, and in a way which I the least expected,—for, a fortnight after the day of publication, it had to go to press for the second edition. The extravagancies written to me about that book, would make you laugh, .. if you were in a laughing mood:—& the strange thing is, that the press, the daily & weekly press, upon which I calculated for furious abuse, has been, for the most part, furious the other way. The Press newspaper, the Post, & the Tablet are exceptions—but, for the rest, the Athenæum is the coldest in praising. It’s a puzzle to me, altogether– I dont know upon what principle the public likes & dislikes poems. Any way, it is very satisfactory, at the end of a laborious work, (for much hard working, & hard thinking have gone to it) to hear it thus recognized, however I must think with some bitterness, that the beloved & sympathetic friend to whom it was dedicated, scarcely lived to know what would have given him so much pleasure as this–
Dearest Mrs Martin, mind you tell me the truth exactly– I should like much to have pleased you & Mr Martin—but I like the truth best of all, from you–
On Christmas day, a ray of light came in with a letter from Arabel, giving a much improved account of papa– Thank God for that– He is better, she says, than he has been all the summer– Bummy was to pay a visit this winter to Wimpole Street; & aunt Jane was going there almost directly, in order to look round for a house for the season. Alfred’s wife is staying with Henrietta for three weeks, till Alfred shall arrive from Madeira– He is coming, flushed with expectation of a consulship. She was nearly lost on the passage, through a concussion of vessels– [8]
When you write, mind you dont leave out what I care most to hear, the mention of how you both are. We missed you at Boulogne, through being too late, and at Paris, through not waiting to put one’s foot in the street– When shall we meet again? May God bless & keep you through this new year & others– Robert’s love– Penini is radiant with Christmas joy, poor child–
Dear friends, keep kind thoughts of
your affectionate
Ba.
Publication: LEBB, II, 248–250 (in part).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Because of the death of Mrs. Martin’s grandniece Letitia Brabazon (1839–56); see letter 3034, note 2. We have been unable to determine the day or cause of her death.
2. Cf. Psalm 146:3.
3. Kenyon’s bequest to the Brownings was £10,500; see SD1993.
5. We have been unable to trace this “attack.”
6. Unidentified.
7. Lord Brougham seems to have been widely associated with the expression “crass ignorance.” In a scathing notice of his translation of an oration of Demosthenes, The Times of 21 March 1840 listed all the aspects of ancient Greek society and government that a capable translator should know: “But this volume proves him guilty of ignorance on all these points, so crass,—we thank him for teaching us that word,—as to be almost incredible” (p. 6).
8. We have been unable to trace a report of this “concussion.”
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