4082. William Johnson Fox to EBB & RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 193–194.
London
Oct 20, 1857
Dear Mrs Browning
It is a mystery to myself that I have never yet, thro’ all these months, written to thank you for the gift of Aurora Leigh; [1] or for your giving it to the world, on whose part I ought also to feel intensely grateful. With reference to both, it is a glorious & blessed gift; & judging by myself of its Influence on others, I shd say that many & many a long year may come & go, without bringing in its hand any such power, so graceful & yet so strong, so wise, benignant, enlightening, heart-stirring, & elevating. At first, I delayed writing because I wd wait till I cd sit down undisturbedly & drink it in fairly & fully—then I preferred reading it again—& then again—then bustling events came, & I resorted to it for refreshment & revival, glimpses of heaven’s own sunshine in the turmoil & storm—& since then, I can account for the delay no better than by not knowing certainly of yr whereabouts, & all the other excuses by wh delay generates & palliates delay. But thro’ it all I have never lost the sense of what was due to one who has produced the Book of the Age, of the present age looked at with the purer vision & broader Man of a future age. I am glad to find how steadily & surely it is winning its way, notwithstanding the low & stupid Critiques (the commendating as disgusting as the depreciating) wh have hitherto appeared, & wh are so utterly unworthy of it. I confess I have not yet been able to read it as a Critic; I love it too much; & love too much also its loving power over me. And yet I have some perception how well it wd stand the severest action of the dissecting knife—everything about it—the delicate constructive art of the story; the felicity with wh its transitions are achieved from one state of things, inward or outward, to another; the varied harmony of the versification, running thro’ the musical gamut, from lightest familiarity to grandest declamation; the happy & touching pictures & passages, so perfect in themselves, & yet so in keeping with the whole; the broad strokes wh pourtray character, & the very fine minute touches wh are equally essential to the sense of reality; the noble views of Art & its functions; the deep probings of human miseries & falsehoods; the penetratings to the very core of great moral questions; & the almost supra-natural tone & spirit, yet playful as sublime, & pathetic as both, wh fuses all into one magnificent whole; these not only invite & brave Criticism but make the Poem a School for Criticism, in wh that Art may well be studied; as indeed it is ever best studied, in the admiring contemplation of great masterpieces.
To return to what I began with—I feel it not only as a world-good but as a personal good—& never recur to it but that I feel happier, &, as I think, wiser & better—no such book has crossed my long path of life before—& now that weariness with life & its interests is creeping fast upon me I bless heaven that I have lived to see it, & that I have not grown incapable of experiencing its power.
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My dear Browning—the foregoing has long been in my desk– I thought we shd have seen you all in London this Summer or Autumn– If you think it worth shewing, do; if not, put it in the fire. I suppose you, Immortals, care little for the homage of us Ephemerals—such as it is, you have it; & from the heart. I only work for the passing hour; & am content to do so. Brief as it is, there sometimes flits across it the shadow of the Eternal—thrown by her or you. Love to Pennini,
Yours ever
W. J. Fox
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Eton College Library, Michael Meredith Collection.
1. We have been unable to trace this presentation copy.
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