672. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 106–108.
[Torquay]
[late November 1838] [1]
Ever dearest Georgie,
My gratitude has been rankling sore within me for very very long! And I am sure that your anxiety for my morals demonstrated by the advice accompanying your present, [2] must have been rankling within you—& that my silence has been suggesting to you the probability of this want of thankfulness being a symptom of a more general corruption of the moral sense. Acquit yourselves dearest Georgie & Beaumont & Fletcher. You are yet innocent of corrupting me—& I am innocent of being ungrateful to any one of you!– And though upon the appearance of the great poets I did feel properly indignant with the great lawyer for his breach of all consistency (except the consistency of his own dear always remembered kindness to me) yet the “blushing apparitions” [3] of my wrath owed most of their colour to a very glowing affection & gratitude which have not left me at this present writing. But really Georgie, I did think that you considered it very improper to give anything away! I at least, if I had done such a thing, shd never have heard the last of it.
You are obeyed to the letter. I jump over all the puddles—& when I stand upon the dry ground & look round, the scenery is exquisite! Whatever light falls upon my poetry from Fletcher’s—& some must—I shall remember that it came thro’ you—you are the conveyancer—& my thankfulness holds the fee!——
Dearest Georgie, do you know it is very impertinent of you to write anything in Arabel’s letters to me, not addressed to me. I really cant allow such a thing any more. Why wont you write yourself to me? You promised & vowed to me that you would. Do you think nothing of perjury?–
The manner of your introduction to Mr Wyghtman [4] made me pleased in spite of all prejudices poetical. And after all, there is a nobleness in the act of concentrating the mind, whatever the object upon which it is concentrated, may be. The law is a low object (suffer a poet to assume so much) but mind contemplating Law is sublime in itself, & in that energy of contemplation. At any rate (I wont puzzle about the reason) I am proud of your energy & stedfastness of purpose Georgie—& if I live to witness your success in your profession I shall be very proud. The most consistent of us—even you [5] —& far less I!! grow inconsistent sometimes.
May God bless you my dearest Georgie!——
Your attached Ba.
Address, on integral page: George Goodin Barrett, Esqr
Publication: B-GB, pp. 37–38.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. The dating is approximate. George was in Torquay with EBB at the end of September 1838; the letter (watermark 1838) was probably written subsequent to that visit, but before letter 679, in which EBB taxes George with extravagance for sending her another gift.
2. The three-volume edition of the Dramatic Works of Beaumont and Fletcher, ed. George Colman (1811); see Reconstruction, A178.
3. Much Ado About Nothing, IV, 1, 159.
4. William Wightman (1784–1863), an eminent lawyer who was highly regarded by his peers for his accuracy and learning. He served on two Royal Commissions deliberating on legal matters, was appointed a judge of the Queen’s Bench in 1841 and was knighted. In a letter to Miss Mitford of 21 February 1842, EBB confirmed that George “was Mr. Wightman’s pupil” (i.e., articled clerk). There is also a reference in SD1059 to George’s being in Mr. Wightman’s chambers.
(In this note, and some others relating to the series of letters to George Moulton-Barrett, we have drawn on material researched by Professor Paul Landis for his Letters of the Brownings to George Barrett. We here record our debt to his scholarship.)
5. Underscored four times.
___________________
