687. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 130–136.
[Torquay]
April 10th [1839] [1]
My beloved friend,
The east wind is here instead of the fish—& it seems that we must wait longer for the latter than one of us can, to reply to the dear interesting letter you sent me. I like the tour plan so much—so very much! [2] and I am so very anxious to know your decision as soon as it is made, with regard to the book which is to play a more graceful part than the monument at Calais [3] & mark the footsteps of la desireè. You see I talk of a book—because you talked of two volumes. I conclude however from your reference to Wordsworth’s work, [4] that you mean the publication to take place every month & in numbers—& that the “two volumes” are the prophetic summing up of all. What “my public” is likely to be graciously pleased to be pleased with, is very often beyond prophecy—but if Casandra told me that it would be pleased with you & your undertaking, verily I should believe her– [5] As to Finden, supposing you & Mr Tait [6] keep to your coalition, why should not your friend’s drawings [7] take the place of the tableaux, & the memorabilia of your journey wind Wye like amongst them. It would give a novel character to the whole—& the room for tradition & descriptions & antiquarian references of all sorts would be almost ample enough.
With reference to my own self my dearest Miss Mitford, you know very well that I am a slave to the genius of your lamp [8] —if the title be not too high for me always. In the present case I am afraid it is most surely so—although I thank you for the proud pleasure suggested to me by the very idea of being associated with you in your undertaking. There never was a more empty-headed body than I am, as to antiquities or local traditions—a more wonderfully empty-headed body, considering my delight from childhood until now in unbelievable irrational things––in all such wild stories as are most apt to stride down to us by tradition. But as to localizing or caring for the localities of any, just there is my deficiency—& here is a proof––that, living for years & years a three miles distance from Ledbury, I never had an opportunity of believing in St Catherine until Wordsworth gave me one. [9] Would that I were at least so far fit for localizing as to be loco-motive—& do something for you in the way of local tradition-hunting in books! Dear Sir Uvedale Price used to say that I was a very good ferret—& so I am––an indoor ferret. But what can I do bound hand & foot in this wilderness, in the way of book-ferreting? with a physician who groans in the spirit [10] whenever he sees within my reach any book larger & graver looking than “the last new octavo neatly bound”? Luckily my Plato looks as good as a novel on the outside—but you tempted me with Bishop Andrews, & the Bishop is in folio, & I was in an obstinate fit—& I did read––& was scolded [11] —& “all for the love of you” [12] —& for Mr Cary’s [13] praise of the Bishop. By the way, the scolding went for nothing with me. He is not so high in compositional art (it seems to me) as Hooker, much less Barrow—nor in genius as Taylor [14] —but his heart is holy & beautiful & runs away into eloquence. But I must’nt run away from your antiquities. If you come into Devonshire, you wont forget Browne & his Pastorals [15] —and if you go near Malvern you are sure to think of Langlande & Piers Plowman [16] —and wherever you go, there is the Polyolbion to go with you [17] – I wish I [18] could go with you!– Notwithstanding my ignorances, if I can pick up sticks for you, [19] do let me try to do it! You shall have as many rhimes as you please, & as you want, for Finden or anything besides, if the subjects are within my reach. Only I want you to know my want of knowledge—& that I cant do what I cant do!——& that my head is more like Bottom’s, [20] than an Antiquarian’s!—— Remember—writing for you will do me no harm. Believe me it will not. And I consider myself bound with promises nine times round me, [21] & inducements of a softer kind besides, to do your bidding whenever I can—as slave of the genius of your lamp, not as “preserved pineapple” in your “apple tart”!!– [22] What a simile dearest Miss Mitford! And what faces your gentle readers would make when the pine apple turned out a crab-apple!
Why is the poor novel the last resource? [23] I do hope, only because you cant do all things at once! But indeed I observe that you never assign to it any place of honor, & I cant help suspecting you of willing it away into the corner––for our penance I suppose! Mr Kenyon’s report made me feel sure of its crowning you in the Capitol [24] —but you would rather go down the Wye than up the Capitol stairs—and indeed it will be much the same thing in the end.
Did you see Miss Roberts’ Memoir of L E L– It is surely badly & injudiciously written—altho’ its affectionate warmth shd be allowed to stand between it & criticism. But really there is no individualizing in the character—& as to the defence or explanation of that afflicting catastrophe how very strange to suggest as she does, that if it issued from a voluntary act, the act was more probably induced by impatience of bodily than of mental pain!– [25] ‘Save me from my friends!’– [26] I do wish something satisfactory even in a measure, were known. Do you know whether the maid has appeared yet?–
How is Mrs Joanna Baillie?—& Lady Dacre?——
Is Alfred Tennyson among your personal acquaintances? I heard of him the other day as having an unduly large head, handsome features, & a fathoming eye—& that they had all settled into a cottage in Devonshire where he smoked & composed poems all day, [27] suffering many of the latter to escape him for lack of industry to write them down—& separating from his family because they distracted him– This was told to my brother by a friend of Mr Tennyson’s, but may be very gossip after all.
I see that Deerbrook is highly spoken of in the Athenæum. [28] I confess my own disappointment. It seems to me all on a level, as some people say the earth was, before the flood—& I long for a flood to break it into pieces, because in that case beautiful & noble bits of landscape might be extracted for high admirations. As it is, I cant help fancying that the illustrations of Political economy suggested the existence of more vivid powers, more imaginat[i]vely vivid, than any visible here. Besides if I had been the hero I shd have managed to emerge from the last embarassment in half his time, tho’ with but the thousandth part of his philosophy. [29] Tell me what you think.
They carried me down stairs into the drawing room for two weary hours about ten days ago—but the weather has since kept me upstairs. I have had no new attack from this east wind—but feel very oppressed & uncomfortable– Dr Barry considers that upon a change of temperature I shall certainly come to the surface again—& it is satisfactory to be sure that I have gained strength surprisingly during the last two months, or rather six weeks. For weeks before I was reduced to all but the harmlessness of babyhood—lifting a spoon to my own lips being the only point on which I cd claim precedence. Even now I am sure I cd not stand a moment alone—but here is summer, coming tho’ not in sight—& she sends a sort of mental sunshine before. It is wonderful that I should have rallied at all from the last attacks—& I cant help feeling very often that I am to rally from everything & fulfil some of those affectionate prayers of yours for which, in reference to all results I do most tenderly thank you. Of one thing I am very sure––the God of hope is the fulfiller of hope—of the hope of all such who look to his face thro’ the agony of His Son! But we err in straightening hope to low & narrow objects, when we shd expand it to the embracing of Good in the abstract, & leave the meaning of good to the Supreme Mind. The God of hope will give the hopeful, Good––whether by life or death. May He forbid that I limit my conception of Good to only life—!——
Oh!—they were so delighted (in Wimpole St) with the seeds [30] —& Arabel’s pleasure in hearing from you [31] (such kind words she said they were!) was worth a garland full-blown. You wd laugh to see the primroses in this room—& the branch of yellow heath which I like better than all the rest, because it seems to me a token more directly from Nature’s own heart! And yet it is a shame to bring them into the dark, to die,—& I could, if I tried, get up a very pretty tragedy of remorse about it.
Give my kind & grateful regards to dear Dr Mitford! How kind of him to drink my health,—& to think of me at anytime. He shall have more fish when they will be caught. Did you send the basket? We have not heard of it!– [32]
Pray pray do not fancy that I am suffering under any expectation of popularity, sooner or later. I wd just as soon cry for the Pope’s tiara––& as vainly!——
Mr. Reade has power—a power of elancement [33] both of thought & language; but I do not think his Italy wd have been “equal to Childe Harold if the latter had not been written first” [34] —simply because I do think that under such an hypothesis Italy wd not have been written at all. It is the only poem of Mr Reade’s I ever read; & without impugning any faculty of its author’s, I may confess to you that it provoked me. He can walk alone & he ought to walk alone. There is an individuality in all minds, which requires only an internal energy & a power of outward expression, to become an originality. Mr Reade who has both, stands without excuse in that very singular watch beside a shrine selected by the idiosyncracy of his ambition. Oh!—how impertinent all this is!– Do forgive it & me. Your kindness tempts me & spoils me into impertinence. Mr Naylor’s book I never saw– [35]
Here must be the end, dearest Miss Mitford.
I am ever & ever
Your gratefully attached
E B Barrett.
Ld Methuen has the gout in his franking hand—& Ld Sinclair [36] lives a mile off. But I shall struggle for a frank– Do remember,—this letter was written April 10th.
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 116–122.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by internal references.
2. Miss Mitford was contemplating a tour of Herefordshire and serial publication of her impressions; EBB’s knowledge of the area would have been helpful to her. However, nothing came of this plan.
3. EBB’s reference is not clear; she may have had in mind the column erected outside Calais to mark the spot where Jean Pierre Blanchard (1753–1809) descended after the first cross-Channel balloon flight in 1785.
4. Wordsworth had undertaken a walking tour in Scotland in 1831, and this formed the basis for a series of poems published in The Literary Souvenir in 1833, later incorporated in his Yarrow Revisited and Other Poems (1835).
5. Cassandra’s misfortune, of course, was that none of her prophecies was believed.
6. From the context, it would appear that EBB meant Mr. Tilt, the proprietor of Findens’ Tableaux, rather than William Tait, the publisher of Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine.
7. The friend in question was Lucy Anderdon.
8. A punning reference to the genie who materialized to do Aladdin’s bidding whenever the magic lamp was rubbed (“Aladdin or the Wonderful Lamp” in The Arabian Nights’ Entertainments).
9. “St. Catherine of Ledbury,” dealing with St. Catherine Audley (ca. 1400), was included in Wordsworth’s Yarrow Revisited.
10. Cf. John, 11:33.
11. Lancelot Andrewes (1555–1626), successively Bishop of Chichester, Ely, and Winchester, Dean of the Chapel Royal, was one of the eminent churchmen appointed by King James to make new translations of the Bible for an “authorized version.” He was master of 15 languages and the author of many works. EBB’s reference may be to his sermons, 96 of which were published in a folio edition in 1628.
12. Cf. the last line of verses 2 and 3 of Tennyson’s “The Mermaid.”
13. Henry Francis Cary (1772–1844), a friend of Miss Mitford, had published translations of Dante in 1805 and 1812; he had also translated Aristophanes and Pindar.
14. Richard Hooker (1554?–1600) was “the ablest living advocate of the church of England” (DNB), known for Of the Lawes of Ecclesiasticall Politie (1594–97). He was the subject of EBB’s verse “On laying Hooker under my pillow at night” (see Reconstruction, D643). Isaac Barrow (1630–77), Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, classical scholar and mathematician, was the author of Exposition of the Creed, Decalogue, and Sacraments (1669). Jeremy Taylor (1613–67), Bishop of Down and Connor, delivered the “Gunpowder Treason” sermon in Oxford on 5 November 1638 and was the author of many works, including The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living, the 1813 edition of which was sold in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A2259).
15. Britannia’s Pastorals (1613–16) by William Browne (1591–1643?). EBB used some lines from this work as the motto for “A Vision of Poets” in Poems (1844).
16. William Langland or Langley (1330?–1400?), the putative author of The Vision of William Concerning Piers Plowman, in which the poet falls asleep in the Malvern Hills and dreams.
17. This work, published 1613–22, by Michael Drayton (1563–1631), was relevant to Miss Mitford’s proposed tour, its full title being Poly-olbion. Or a Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Rivers, Mountaines, Forests, and other Parts of this renowned Isle of Great Britaine, With intermixture of the most Remarquable Stories, Antiquities, Rarityes, Pleasures, and Commodities of the same.
18. Underscored twice.
19. Cf. the old nursery rhyme, “One, two, buckle my shoe; three, four, shut the door; five, six, pick up sticks.”
20. i.e., an ass’s head, in reference to act III of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
21. Cf. Pope, Ode for Musick. On St. Cecilia’s Day (1713), line 91.
22. See letter 685.
23. A reference to Miss Mitford’s Atherton, in progress but not published until 1854.
24. It was in the Capitol, where Julius Cæsar was to receive the crown, that he was assassinated, 44 B.C.
25. Emma Roberts (1794–1840) contributed a memoir of Miss Landon (Mrs. Maclean) to The Zenana, and Other Poems, By L.E.L. (1839). On p. 14, she said of L.E.L.: “Though enduring illness with fortitude, the fine susceptibility of her nervous system rendered her very impatient under pain; she seemed to suffer more than others from spasms or cramps … judging from my own acquaintance with her, I should say, that she was exactly the person who would fly to the most desperate remedy for relief from pain, but unless in some moment of actual delirium … she never wilfully would have destroyed herself.” EBB’s copy of the book formed lot 812 of Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A1385); it was the gift of Henrietta (see SD986).
26. The derivation of this saying is dealt with by William Carew Hazlitt (1834–1913) in his English Proverbs (1869, p. 328).
27. Tennyson spent the autumn of 1838 in Torquay, where he wrote “Audley Court” (Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir By His Son, 1898–99, I, 165).
28. Harriet Martineau’s novel, Deerbrook, was reviewed in The Athenæum of 6 April 1839 (no. 597, pp. 254–256). After speaking of “close observation of character, and a strong poetical feeling for nature” in her Illustrations of Political Economy, the reviewer spoke of expecting “in this her more mature effort, a work of fiction whose vitality and freshness should put to shame the feverish and conventional things, which are thrust upon us by the hundred, as pictures of human life. Such a work, though not in every point equalling our expectations, is the novel before us.”
29. In Book II of Deerbrook (ch. XX ff.), the hero breaks off his engagement in the belief (based on falsehoods spread by his sister) that his betrothed loves another. All ends well—eventually.
30. Miss Mitford had sent EBB two of the seeds received from Miss Landon (Mrs. Maclean) in Africa (see letter 683).
31. See SD992.
32. EBB had given Miss Mitford instructions for the return, without expense to Miss Mitford, of the basket used for sending fish to Dr. Mitford (see letter 683).
33. “Force; ardour.”
34. For comment on the close parallels between Reade’s Italy and Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, see letter 643, note 3.
35. The book in question was Ceracchi, a Drama and Other Poems (1839) by Samuel Naylor (1809–65). EBB subsequently received from him a presentation copy, which sold in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A1722); she comments on the work in letters 702 and 703.
36. Paul Methuen (1779–1849) had been created 1st Baron Methuen following Victoria’s coronation. From the context, he and Charles St. Clair, 13th Baron Sinclair (1768–1863) were both in Torquay at this time; both had franking privileges as peers.
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