802. EBB to Richard Hengist Horne
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 29–30.
[Torquay]
March 10th 1841
My dear Mr Horne,
I have seen Orpheus, & write just to thank you for the pleasure of the vision. ‘Oh then I see that Keats had been with you’—in the manner of dealing romantically with classical subjects—painting out statues—not otherwise of course. There is plenty of your own massiveness (that best word for you)—notwithstanding which & the number of fine lines, the whole wd have differed by excelling, had it been written now. You have gathered power, intensity, freedom of versification– But in my brain
——“slow the Argo ploughs her way
Like a dun dragon spreading moonlit wings”, [1]
to suggest certain unsurpassable lines. That dun dragon with moonlit wings with its grand solemn movement is very fine. You are worthy of naming the Argo– [2]
I have a little spaniel called Flush the descendant of Miss Mitford’s spaniel, Flush the Famous, which she sent me for company & besides to remind me of her. He is spoilt of course—it could’nt be helped under the circumstances– For in addition to the association, he gave me most ready affection notwithstanding all my dulness as a playmate—& it was only natural that I shd murmur when my maid told me she had been obliged to whip him for a misdemænor.
His sin at its first aspect, looked a heavy one. He had torn up into fragments like a critic, a volume of Lamartine’s poems,—into fragments an inch square. [‘]‘Oh—but” I said,—“how cd he know any better?”
There’s an apology for the critics! “He shd be taught” she replied—“or he’ll tear up all the books in the house. He’ll tear them all to pieces if he’s not whipped”.
Think of that!—‘Gregory VII’ Cosmo & all! Did the critics do you much harm formerly, dear Mr Horne, when you went for sympathy to Echo? [3] —or was it a mere pestilent silence? But you may whip them for ever, without making them better—I lose my moral so–
Ever truly yours
Elizabeth B Barrett.
Publication: The Pall Mall Gazette, 2 April 1890, p. 7 (in part).
Manuscript: Harvard University.
1. We have not been able to trace a published poem called “Orpheus” by Horne, containing these lines. It was, perhaps, sent to EBB in manuscript.
2. Jason’s galley, in which he went to search for the Golden Fleece.
3. Echo was Jupiter’s confidante before being deprived of speech by Juno.
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