4645. EBB to Henry Fothergill Chorley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 270–272.
Rome– 28 Via del Tritone–
13. April [1860] [1]
My dear Mr Chorley,
It is always better to be frank than otherwise—& sometimes it is necessary to be frank,—that is when one would fain keep a friend, yet has a thing against him which burns in one. I shall put my foot on this spark in a moment,—but first I must throw it out of my heart you see—and here it is–
Dear Mr Chorley, you have not been just to me in the matter of my ‘Poems before Congress’– Why have you not been just to me?– You are an honest man & my friend. Those two things might go together. Your opinions critical or political are free from stress of friendship. I never expected from you favor or mercy because you were my friend, (it would have been unworthy of us both) but I did expect justice from you although you were my friend– That is reasonable–
And I consider that as a conscientious critic you were bound to read through the whole of the “rhyme” called “A curse for a nation” before ticketting it for the public,—and I complain that after neglecting to do so & making a mistake in consequence, you refuse the poor amends of printing my letter in full– A loose paragraph like this found today in your Athenæum .. about Mrs Browning “wishing to state” that the ‘Curse’ was levelled at America quoad negro-slavery, & the satisfaction of her English readers in this correction of what was “generally thought,”—as if Mrs Browning “stated” it arbitrarily (perhaps from fright) and as if the poem stated nothing distinctly, and as if the intention of it could be “generally thought” what the Athenæum critic took it to be, except by following his lead or adopting his process of a general skipping of half the said poem, .. this loose paragraph does not cover a great fault, it seems to me. [2] Well– I have spoken.
As to the extent of the “general thought,’[’] we cannot of course judge here, where it is so difficult to get access to periodicals– We have seen however two virulent articles from enemies .. in Blackwood [3] & the Saturday Review, [4] .. the latter sparing none of its native mud through three columns .. not to speak of a renewal of the charge in several political articles with a most flattering persistency. [5] Both these writers (being enemies,) keep clear of the “general thought” suggested by a friend, and accepted indeed by friendly & generous reviewers in the Atlas & Daily News. [6] Therefore I feel perfectly unaggrieved by all the enemies’ hard words– They speak from their own point of view, & have a right to speak–
In fact, in printing the poems, I did not expect to help my reputation in England, but simply to deliver my soul .. to get the relief to my conscience & heart, which comes from a pent-up word spoken, or a tear shed– Whatever I may have ever written of the least worth, has represented a conviction in me .. something in me felt as a truth. I never write to please any of you—not even to please my own husband– Every genuine artist in the world (whatever his degree) goes to Heaven for speaking the truth– It is one of the beatitudes of Art, & attainable without putting off the flesh– [7]
To be plain, and not mystical, it is obvious that if I had expected compliments & caresses from the English press to my ‘Poems before Congress,’ the said poems would have been little deserved in England, & a greater mistake on my part than any committed by the Athenæum … which is saying much.
There!– I have done– The spark is under my shoe. If in “losing my temper” I have “lost my music,” [8] dont let it be said that I have lost my friend by my own fault & choice also.
For I would not willingly lose him, though he should be unjust to me thrice .. instead of this once throughout our intercourse.
Affectionately yours, dear Mr Chorley,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Publication: LEBB, II, 378–379.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Year provided by EBB’s references to reviews of Poems Before Congress.
2. The Athenæum of 7 April 1860 ran the following item: “Mrs. E. B. Browning wishes us to state that the verses in her ‘Poems before Congress,’ entitled ‘A Curse for a Nation,’ are levelled—not against England, as is generally thought—but against the United States; not on account, she now tells us, of any remissness on the Italian Question, but on account of the Negro Question. Every English reader of Mrs. Browning will rejoice in this assurance. We may be allowed to ask, in extenuation of our own hasty and incorrect inference,—why a rhyme on Negro Slavery should appear among ‘Poems before Congress’”? (no. 1693, p. 477).
3. A notice of Poems Before Congress appeared under the title “Poetic Aberrations” in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine for April 1860, pp. 490–494. Written by William Edmonstoune Aytoun (1813–65), a professor at Edinburgh University, the first part of the five-page review is a diatribe against women interfering in politics. Turning to EBB, Aytoun continued: “We have not made those remarks without an appropriate text. We have just received a thin volume of verses—for we cannot call them poems—by one who we are proud otherwise to style as a real poetess … and very sincerely do we regret, for her sake, that she has fallen into the error of publishing anything so ineffably bad.” For the full text of this review, see pp. 371–374.
4. Poems Before Congress was reviewed in The Saturday Review of 31 March 1860, pp. 402–404. The reviewer, Charles Synge Christopher Bowen (1835–94), remarks: “The priestess, or Pythoness, who delivers the commination is, like the bearded exile of the Imperialist eulogy, an English resident abroad, who seems to cultivate patriotic attachment to every country but her own” (p. 404). For the full text of this review, see pp. 367–370.
5. The only articles in The Saturday Review of 31 March that mention EBB are the review (see the preceding note) and an article entitled “The Eagle of Boulogne” (see letter 4642, note 14). Although the two other “political articles” in this issue, “Italy” (pp. 390–391) and “Historical Allies” (p. 394), do not allude to EBB, they are highly critical of Napoleon III’s intentions towards Italy and Europe.
6. See letter 4640, note 2 and letter 4643, note 4.
7. Cf. Colossians 2:11.
8. EBB paraphrases Chorley’s comments in his review of Poems Before Congress: “Mrs. Browning’s Art suffers from the violence of her temper. Choosing to scold, she forgets how to sing” (The Athenæum, 17 March 1860, p. 371). For the full text of this review, see p. 358.
___________________
