4723. EBB to Isa Blagden
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 100–102.
[Florence]
[mid-August 1860] [1]
Dearest Isa, Very gentle my critic is– [2] I am glad I got him out of you– But tell dear Mr Trollope he is wrong nevertheless, & that my ‘thought’ was really & decidedly anterior to my ‘allegory’. Moreover it is my thought still. I meant to say that the poetic organization implies certain disadvantages—for instance an exaggerated general susceptibility .. which may be shut up, kept out of the way in everyday life, & must be, (or the man is “marred” [3] indeed, made a Rousseau or a Byron of) but which is necessarily; for all that, cultivated in the very cultivation of Art itself. There’s an inward reflection & refraction of the heats of life .. doubling pains & pleasures, .. doubling therefore the motives (passions) of life–– I have said something of this in AL– [4] Also there’s a passion for essential truth (as apprehended) & a necessity for speaking it out at all risks, inconvenient to personal peace. Add to this & much else, the loss of the sweet unconscious cool privacy among other “reeds” .. which I, for one, care so much for—the loss of the priviledge of being glad or sorry, ill or well without a ‘notice’– I say nothing about having lovers invented for one before the French Institute, (rising youth taking notes)– That may have its glory to certain minds– But most people would be glad to “stir their tea in silence” when they are grave, or even to talk nonsense (“much too frivolously”) [5] when they are merry, without its running the round of the newspapers in two worlds perhaps– You know I dont invent Isa– In fact I am sorely tempted to send Mr Trollope a letter I had this morning, as an illustra[tion] of my view, & a reply to his criticism—only this letter (anonymous) begins with too many fine speeches. Still it seems written by somebody in earnest & with a liking for me– The main object is to complain of the cowardly morality in Pan– Then a stroke on the Poems before Congress– The writer has heard that I “had been to Paris, was fêted by the emperor, & had had my head turned by Imperial flatteries”,—in consequence of which I had taken to “praise & flatter the tyrant & try to help his selfish ambition”.
Well—one should laugh & be wise– But somehow one doesn’t laugh– A letter beginning, “You’re a great teacher of truth,” & ending “you’re a dishonest wretch,” makes you cold somehow; & ill-disposed towards the satisfactions of literary distinction– Yes, and be sure, Isa, that the “true gods” sigh, & have reason to sigh, for the cost & pain of it, [6] —sigh only .. dont haggle about the cost, dont grudge a crazia—but sigh, sigh .. while they pay honestly.
On the other hand, there’s much light talking & congratulation– Excellent returns to the pocket for the poem in the Cornhill– [7] Pleasant praise from dear Mr Trollope .. with all drawbacks. A good opinion from Isa, worth its gold– And Pan laughs–
But he’s a beast up to the waist– Yes, Mr Trollope—a beast. He’s not a true god–
And I am neither god nor beast if you please—only a Ba
Publication: B-IB, pp. 358–360, as [early July 1860].
Manuscript: Huntington Library.
1. Date suggested by EBB’s description of an anonymous letter, received “this morning.” In letter 4729, she tells Fanny Haworth that she received an “anonymous letter … the other day.”
2. The “critic” was Anthony Trollope. Isa had shown EBB a letter from him to his brother Thomas Adolphus Trollope that contained remarks on “A Musical Instrument” (see SD2392). It appears from EBB’s references to “Mr. Trollope” that she assumed Thomas was the critic. In What I Remember (2 vols., 1887), T.A. Trollope recalls that both EBB and Isa thought he was the critic. After showing the letter to EBB, Isa wrote to him: “I send you back your criticism and Mrs. B’s rejoinder. She made me show it to her, and she wishes you to see her answer” (II, 176).
3. EBB is referring to Anthony Trollope’s proposed revision of “A Musical Instrument,” line 39 (see SD2392). The original reads: “Making a poet out of a man.”
4. See Aurora Leigh, V, 373–382.
5. Possibly, EBB is quoting from an unpublished part of Anthony Trollope’s letter.
6. Cf. “A Musical Instrument,” line 40.
7. “Ten Guineas,” as indicated in letter 4714.
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