787. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 3–4.
Torquay.
Jany 2. [1841] [1]
“You are invincible” [2] —you, my beloved friend, & your kindness, & dear Dr Mitford & his—and I have not a word to say about Flush, except grateful ones—thanks upon thanks. Yet for obstinacy’s sake, my obstinacy’s, or rather my perversity’s (that’s dear Mr Kenyon’s word for me!) I must go on being sure that the dog is too good, too caninely noble, for some of my base purposes. But I shall make it up to him, at least something of it, in love & care. I must love him, coming from you—pretty or not—ears or not! The love is a certainty whatever the beauty may be––and if I am to see in his eyes, as you say, your affectionate feelings towards me, why the beauty must be a certainty too.
Well—dearest Miss Mitford– So I open my arms to your Flush—and shall give notice to the coachmen, that he may suffer no cruelty on his Wednesday & Thursday’s journies. And pray do be sure that I did not struggle against your kindness, as if it cd be a burden to be obliged to you– Oh no!– It was not that.
I mean to see the London Journal since you wrote in it—far more for your writing, than the critical article. [3] As to Chaucer I wd have sent him to you with some cream,—but I wanted Cosmo de’ Medici [4] to go besides, & Mr Bezzi is keeping him by weeks– Chaucer is said to prosper.
My dear dear brother Charles John, from the West Indies, & my youngest brother Octavius came yesterday. They came against my will– I wd rather, for love’s sake, they had stayed at home. But since they wished to come & wd come, dear things,—& since the meeting is over—(.. more full of anguish than any parting—) we shall have the comfort if not the enjoyment of those who love each other & are together—& I cannot say to them, looking on their dear faces ‘I wish you had not come’. Indeed looking there, I can scarcely go on wishing it to myself.
But my headache, carried from yesterday, is very bad, & makes this note stupid to some intensity. I conjecture so—not having clear-headiness enough to be sure even of that.
My sense in writing, is simply to welcome Flush. With my most affectionate & earnest wishes for all happiness to you & yours my beloved friend—& my thanks upon thanks for all your kindness,
ever believe me
your EBB——
Publication: EBB-MRM, I, 211–212.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by the impending arrival of Flush.
2. Cf. the answer given by the Oracle of Delphi to Alexander the Great: “My son, thou art invincible.”
3. EBB means The English Journal; the issue of 2 January 1841 carried Miss Mitford’s story, “Little David.” The “critical article” was a review of Chaucer, Modernized (see pp. 385–387).
4. As letter 792 makes clear, Bezzi had borrowed several books from EBB, including Horne’s drama.
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