707. EBB to Lady Margaret Cocks
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 187–189.
[Torquay]
[mid-August 1839] [1]
My dear Lady Margaret,
I am so much obliged to you for your kind letter that I cannot delay answering it. And you always seem nearer to me at Eastnor, & the law of attractions is the more imperative (is it not?) in proportion to the nearness– I believe this is so in physics– I am sure it is in morals—at any rate, & surest of all, I find myself wishing to write to your Ladyship & writing.
To your question as to my health, I will not wrong your kindness by putting off my answer to the last page. Dr Barry considers that I am better & that I shall be still better—and from his report to Dr Chambers whom he saw in London a month ago, much satisfaction was expressed by the metropolitan authority, & the assurance given that it “exceeded his expectation”. The worst of it all is that I am constrained by advices from every quarter, & by the medical sentence that my going home this winter wd involve an “act of absolute suicide”, to look forwards to a prolonged exile, notwithstanding the earnest wishings & leanings of my heart. I must stay I suppose, here until next spring again—and indeed it is grievous to think of such an absence—grievous not merely on my own account but on my poor dearest Papa’s whose comforts it breaks up in many ways. His tender affection for me has expressed itself so touchingly & disinterestedly that I am deeply moved in adverting to it—and now he has made presents to me of my brother George who is here for his law vacation (he is to be called to the bar in November) & my sister Arabel who is coming to me immediately by some element or other,—which, I cannot guess at. And Papa too is coming—and I am as happy as I can be under the circumstance of feeling that they must one after another before the winter, go away again & leave me to the consciousness of exile & east winds. But it is ingratitude to God’s mercy—(is it not, dear Lady Margaret?) to be sad now .. to begin to shiver before the time comes for lighting fires?
If you shd see dear Mrs Martin before she leaves England, do ask her to write to me—not to Henrietta,—but to me. I never forget her, & shd like both to hear from her & to write to her–
I was glad very glad of your good news about the Commelines. Mention them sometimes. Charlotte Peyton told Arabel & Arabel told me that Mr Commeline did not despise my book, [2] although he complained,—as you say & as I know most reasonable people do,—of its obscurity– But I felt pleased at his not despising it altogether—having desired his good opinion. Do you know I was “astonied” [3] the other day by hearing from the publisher that to his astonishment as well as mine, & in the teeth of the railroads, it was selling?!! I had expected most of the copies to be sent to me for waste paper by this time—& had put off all my notable sewing, as well as curling my hair, from last year, that I might peradventure come into an inheritance of thread papers & curling papers– You know Milton’s idea of fame is, “to think to burst out into sudden blaze”. [4] But in this utilitarian age, (& I wd not be behind my age for the world!) I cd not think of putting my books into the fire!– No! not for a ‘sudden blaze’ in our east wind!——
No poetry now? Have you seen Mr Milnes’s? If you have not—do! He shall prove to you that there is poetry, now. Believe me about it, dear Lady Margaret, rather than the Quarterly Review—which makes out that Mr Milnes is only best of the bad. [5] Mr Moiles’s ‘State Trials’ too have power & poetry—and yet I wd rather say power & eloquence. He is not such a poet as Mr Milnes– I hesitate to call him a born poet—but he has singular vehemence & eloquence of language [6] —& a versification parta-<***>
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: James Elizabeth Hervey-Bathurst.
1. Dated by the reference to Arabella Moulton-Barrett’s impending arrival; SD1024 speaks of her leaving London for Torquay on 19 August.
2. i.e., The Seraphim, published the previous year.
3. An archaic form of “astonished,” used by Chaucer and others.
4. “Lycidas,” line 74.
5. The Quarterly Review, in its June issue (pp. 59–64), spoke of the “unprecedented number of literary aspirants among the classes of society most favoured by fortune” and went on to say of Milnes’ Memorials of a Residence on the Continent and Poems that his verses “contain abundant evidence that he possesses great cultural abilties … but we think, upon the whole, he has shaken the tree a great deal too soon … [but] in spite of all their weaknesses and affectations, they contain better English verses than have as yet been produced to the public by any living writer not on the wrong side of the Mezzo Cammin.”
6. State Trials—Specimen of a New Edition, by Nicholas Thirning Moile (pseudonym of Henry Bliss, 1797–1873), was a poetic treatment of three famous trials: Anne Ayliffe’s for heresy; Sir William Stanley’s for treason; and that of Mary Queen of Scots. The Athenæum of 20 July (no. 612, pp. 538–539), in its review of the work, said “By turns impassioned, tender, and sarcastic, he touches every chord of human feeling … so easy and unfettered is our author’s style, that it rather resembles a brilliant improvisation than a studied and elaborate work.”
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