4118. John Ruskin to EBB & RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 25, 12–14.
[London]
24th January [1858] [1]
Dear Mr & Mrs Browning
I only received your letters yesterday evening—and am so very sorry you vexed yourselves for a moment about my letters [2] —for I know you care for me—as I do for you, to the point of full faith that whether we write or not we are not forgetful of each other—and all that I needed to be assured of was that Casa Guidi was enough address—& knowing that, I will write whenever I like, & never question about answers or any other forms—only indeed—I had no letter about Penini from Lucca—it must have miscarried– I heard he had been ill only lately, through Miss Heaton. My mother rejoices in his getting stronger after eight, which she declares to be a critical age—and I rejoice in your being teazed out of the rosy domino. I do think that is a piece of civilization which profoundly needs recalling; it is so tiresome that one can’t meet some people without recognition—it would be delightful to be able to wear masks again. Now for the questions. First, touching Spurgeon. His doctrine is simply Bunyan’s—Baxter’s—Calvin’s & John Knox’s [3] —in many respects not pleasant to me but I dare not say that the offence is the doctrine’s—& not mine. It is the doctrine of Romish saints—and of the church of England– Why should we find fault with it specially in Spurgeon and not in St Francis or Jeremy Taylor. [4] The “Turn or Burn” [5] is merely a vulgar modernism of Proverbs 1, 23 to 32—but the vulgarity of it is the precise character which makes it useful to vulgar people; and it is certainly better to save them vulgarly than lose them—gracefully—as our polite clergymen do. Evangelicalism—(Dissenter’s Evangel at least) is I confess, rather greasy in the finger;—sometimes with train oil—but Spurgeon[’]s is olive—with the slightest possible degradation sometimes—in the way of Castor. As for his views of dancing, [6] —no—I won’t say that—but just—before we say more on the subject—look at this enclosed woodcut from Punch [7] —and be so kind as to compare it with the dance in Simon Memmi’s– No—in whosoever’s the last German professor says it is—call of St Ranieri [8] in the Campo Santo of Pisa, and tell me your conclusions thereupon.
Next—for my last little book; I am so glad it has been calumnied to you—(iated is a nasty long useless finish of an ugly word, is’nt it?) because you really will be pleased when you see what it does say about Italy. [9] I dispatch it to Casa Guidi by this post. I can’t write any more this evening. I[’]ll write again in no time—all our loves to you both
Ever your affectionate
J Ruskin
The leaf of Punch will be sent in another letter––it might be seen through this and stopped–
My mother likes me to read my letters to her when I can—but I can’t read this bit to her—so it comes separate. I did obtain that audience of Turner [10] —and cross examined him: but he would’nt answer rationally at all—and knew nothing about any of his own pictures except those publicly exhibited at Marlborough House. [11] He said many curious things however—some so like what Turner would have said—and so clever besides that I was much interested—but only interested in the thing as a curious display of human sympathy and imagination—directed to a suggested subject. I did not in the least suspect imposture—only hallucination. Many things were said which Turner never would have said– One or two, sublime, though disagreeable were related of his spiritual state.
I should like to investigate the thing further but am not a person endowed with any of the required faculties. No hats or tables will ever turn when I come near them—my terrible materialism weighs on them like so much lead.
But I don’t laugh at it– Only all the people who take it up entirely seem to say very silly things by help of the spirits.
Publication: Cook, pp. 275–276 (in part).
Manuscript: University of Texas.
1. Year provided by Ruskin’s reference to an illustration in Punch (see note 7 below).
2. In a 7 December 1857 letter, Ruskin told Ellen Heaton that he had “sent four letters … to the Brownings” but had received no replies (see SD2123 in vol. 24).
3. John Knox (ca. 1514–72), leading figure of Protestant reformation in Scotland; John Bunyan (1628–88), Non-conformist preacher and author of The Pilgrim’s Progress (1678); Richard Baxter (1615–91), Puritan preacher and religious writer; and John Calvin (1509–64), French theologian, whose teachings formed the basis of Calvinism, Presbyterianism, and other Protestant sects.
4. Jeremy Taylor (1613–67), Anglican Bishop of Down and Connor.
6. Ruskin has written and crossed out “he & I agree in them altogether.”
7. Illustrating a skit in Punch of 16 January 1858, entitled “The Spurgeon Quadrilles,” that depicts a droll assemblage of all-male dancing partners, “as authorized by the reverend gentleman who has discovered that dancing is proper, but that partners being of opposite sexes is not so” (p. 28).
8. This fresco, also known as “The Conversion of San Ranieri,” is now attributed to Andrea da Firenze (Andrea di Bonaiuto), (fl. 1346). In Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Northern Italy (1858), it is titled “St. Ranieri’s Call” and attributed to Simone Memmi (Simone Martini), (1284?–1344). The fresco shows the saint holding a cembalo, which he has just stopped playing, “while the gay assemblage of damsels are still dancing” (part II, p. 490).
9. The Political Economy of Art, drawn from two lectures delivered at Manchester in July 1857, was published in mid-December. Regretting the careless destruction of Italian art, Ruskin writes: “Sad as you will feel this to be, I do not say that you can directly prevent it; you cannot drive the Austrians out of Italy, nor prevent them from building forts where they choose. But I do say* that you, and I, and all of us, ought to be both acting and feeling with a full knowledge and understanding of these things” (pp. 105–106). The asterisk corresponds to a footnote that quotes 29 lines from “Mrs. Browning’s beautiful appeal for Italy” (Casa Guidi Windows, 1851, II, 628–656). Ruskin’s presentation copy to the poets sold as part of lot 791 in Browning Collections; present whereabouts unknown (see Reconstruction, A1984).
10. By means of a séance, as Ruskin indicates below. We have been unable to trace any further information about it.
11. Upon the settlement of J.M.W. Turner’s contested will in 1856, all of his own works in his possession at the time of his death became the property of the nation. In late January 1857, 102 of the works were displayed at Marlborough House in Pall Mall. They were transferred to South Kensington Museum in 1859, when the Prince of Wales required Marlborough House as residence. The “Turner Bequest” would come to include over 30,000 works, most of which are now in the holdings of the Tate Gallery, London.
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