757. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 274.
[Torquay]
May 17 [1840] [1]
My beloved friend, I must try to write a few lines to you today, lest you shd in yr kindness turn my long silence into sad thoughts for yrself. There have been many many for me—worse than sad—lately. Dearest Miss Mitford, I have been very unhappy—& very ill besides or you shd have heard before. Dreadful news came from the West Indies five weeks ago—& I have lost one of my beloved brothers .. lost him while I was thinking of him as being in health & joyousness & with a long earthly futurity before his feet!– God’s will be done—but it has worked of course much bitter suffering to all of us—worked it in love—I wd not forget that. But I was weak you see, & was struck down instantaneously as by a bodily blow. I have been very ill with fever—passing from delirium at nights to such extreme exhaustion by day, that I never thought to write to you any more– It wd have been very melancholy for poor Papa, if he had lost two children by one stroke—wd it not?
But I am much better now, & have been able to read for these ten day’s past—& for a whole month my dear dear Papa has been with me– I ought to be better .. with him. We are all better now– I am sure you will feel for us .. my beloved friend. Write to me & say how you are, & how dear Dr Mitford is– Dont say much about me– I wd rather hear of you– I love you continually. Is it true that you
<…> [2]
I wd not let my sisters tell you any bad news & make you uneasy about me & so sent the ‘mute fish’ [3] —to reassure you. I am glad you liked to receive them– You shall hear again soon—of Mr Darley &c. The book came quite safe. [4]
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 195–196.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by Sam’s death.
2. The conclusion of the letter is missing, except for the following sentences, cross-written on the first page.
3. William Congreve (1670–1729), The Way of the World (1700), IV, 9, 4.
4. i.e., Darley’s play, Thomas à Becket.
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