560. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 227–229.
74 Gloucester Place
Monday. [6 March 1837] [1]
Dearest Miss Mitford,
Mr Kenyon was here on Saturday, & then & before then I was longing to write to you to tell you how your mournful letter was responded to by my mournful thoughts,—& how sadly they dwelt upon your being ill & out of spirits, & disappointed in persons (worse than any disappointment in things) to whom you had granted the praise of your confidence. It is difficult to know what Mr Forrest can mean by his strange inconsistent proceeding. I suppose the whole resolves itself into another echo of the ancient words “Arise & depart hence—this is not thy rest—it is polluted—” [2] or into another manifestation of the Recklessness & heartlessness which “strew about” in the wide world their coldnesses & their cruelties,—& most thickly beneath the feet of those who are fearless & unguarded because they are generous & true. I confine myself to such sympathy,—not knowing & not daring anything beyond. Mr Kenyon may write something better. I am sure he will put his head, as his heart put itself, into the subject. My own hope is, that the very end, as far as concerns it, will not be sheer disappointment: & I do persist in hoping besides that you will come to London before our London summer is quite smoked away. Can you not hope my dear friend, that, after all, everything may terminate happily,—& that what justice & honor failed to extort, self interest when it has had time to be better considered, may. At any rate my imagination fails me, when I attempt to think of a work of yours thrown by as waste paper. I could as soon, in idea, separate Mr Forrest’s Niagara (but it shant be Mr Forrest’s Niagara!) from its sound, as a work of yours from its result. It is the prerogative of some minds, that no labour of theirs, beneath the sun or, beneath the rain, can be unproductive first & last; & their consolation under all difficult & disappointing circumstances ought to be, a recurrence to this consciousness.
And so, I do entreat you dearest Miss Mitford not to despond, & above all things not to injure your health with too much labour. Now ought you not—just now when you are not well—to put by the papers, & go to bed early, & think of nothing as far as the earth is concerned, except Dash’s ears, or the flowers which shall be in another two months? Now ought you not—if it were but for a touching motive—for your father’s sake? The earthly good of this world is its happiness; & its happiness, like its sorrow, issues from its affections—& if you make him unhappy by making or keeping yourself ill, what other good cd you find, with all your seeking, which wd be a good to him? How impertinent all this is! Do I deserve ever to be written or spoken to again? But then again, have you not “adopted” me? Am I not your very own relation?—your ‘niece’? or at least your friend? And so have I not a right to be just as impertinent as I please, without the reproach of a word or a thought? At any rate I have .. to be forgiven.
Of course the knowledge of your kind permission to read Otto in MS, makes me very anxious to do it—but Mr Chorley is gone to Liverpool, [3] as Mr Kenyon made out when, some days ago, he called upon him. Mr Kenyon is looking very well, & happy in the prospect of seeing his brother [4] in London this summer!–
May God bless you my dear friend! When this troublesome letter is put out of sight, you must still remember the sympathy & affection of
E B Barrett
Do give to Dr Mitford my very kind remembranc<e> & receive yourself whatever you will accept.
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 26–27 (as [late February or early March 1837]).
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by reference to Forrest’s declining to put on Miss Mitford’s play.
2. Micah, 2:10.
3. Owing to Forrest’s sudden change of mind about Otto of Wittelsbach, the play did not appear in print until 1854. Apparently, Miss Mitford had lent her manuscript copy to Chorley.
4. Kenyon’s younger brother, Edward (1786?–1856), who was a semi-invalid, had been living abroad for some time.
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