864. EBB to George Goodin Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 152–154.
[London]
Thursday. [Postmark: 21 October 1841]
Thank you my dearest George for your obolus– [1] I dont reproach you for not being generous, over-generous I mean, when all I begged you to attain to was the first element of charity. Thank you for the note & the line. I jumped as high as I could for it.
Arabel wrote to you yesterday. I meant to write to you first, although not yesterday—if it were only to prove what ‘a lion’ or a ‘mouse’ I could be in gratitude. That I write to you for pleasure’s sake besides, ceases to be fabulous.
Dearest George! I am trying to be as glad as possible at your being away—particularly since people say that the result of the absence must be your increase round the waist by an inch. I try to be glad by the ell. And if it were not for the wild horses & the guns, I shd wish you to go to Kinnersley & Frocester, & stretch your stay (not stays) & waist together. Oh, you are sure I think, to go to Frocester. I make myself sure of that. Give my love with everybody’s to dear Bummy & Arlette & Cissy [Butler]—& dont forget to say how remorseful I was about remembering them all too late.
Now let me see what there can be to tell you– That Trippy is in your place, Arabel has told you of course. Mrs Orme dined here yesterday & thought me or flattered me “looking better”. Henrietta dined with Lady Bolingbroke on saturday, on monday, & went with her on wednesday (with her & Daisy) to Exeter Hall to hear Spohr’s Judgment. [2] On monday she dined in company with Mrs Whitbread—& yesterday I heard such things of the latter, of her reputation or the lack of it, that I mean you to use your authority in putting an absolute end to the acquaintance– [3] Under Henrietta’s circumstances—unmarried & without a chaperon—it is incumbent that she shd be particular in regard to her associates. I am more annoyed about this business that [sic] I can tell you here, but not more than I will tell you. I am above (or below—which you please—[)] the suspicion of prudery or particularity or I-would-not-do-such-a-thing-ness, but some thing must be done under certain circumstances, the present being those. Well– The scandal will do for some day after tea.
I sent back the third skeleton act of the Psyche, revised & emended, yesterday—& perhaps we may begin to build in the course of another ten days. My hand shakes before it takes up the trowel. The poem looks so well in my head that I am afraid of disappointing myself. But I’ll try—that is sure!– And do you know, George,—my plan is, to bind the book (when it’s done) in a bright, perhaps a rare fashion—so that it may outwit the annuals—and to have the back overspread with mystical figures—perhaps a great rampant lambent silver serpent lifting its solemn crest & uplifting from the earth in the dreadful pressure of its folds, a man—to typify how, according to our subject,—the humanity agonizes within the sense of Psyche’s eternal. Well, then—we need only have some black-&-white spiritual-pictures, by Martin, [4] to put in between the leaves—and the book will “have a run”. That’s my plan, Georgie!
I have Capt Maryatt’s America from the library—& Pepys. [5]
The gossip down stairs is, that Papa is going to have a stove put into the back drawing-room instead of the fire-place. The bookbinder was here this morning & waited for orders about binding the work-table (yes—binding the top of it) but Papa wd give no orders because “Sette was’nt at home”. How could he, they said, when the master of the house was’nt at home?– Sette is studying at the London university, Logic, Metaphysics, ancient & modern history, the English language & literature, to say nothing of debating & gymnastics. I think it must be a little overwhelming. But he is resolved on being a special pleader & wants to be historical & logical & oratorical all at once. Sundry “dreadful notes of preparation” [6] appear to him necessary.
God bless you, dearest dearest George. I am very tolerably well—my voice continuing to make inharmonious progress towards audibility—the sense of fitness & comfort in being here, increasing day by day. God be thanked. He is tenderer to me than I deserve—oh how far! He might well have denied to me this remaining blessing!—— May you have business!—— But dont be discouraged if you have’nt!–
Ever your Ba–
Flush’s love! His present taste is for ratafies, but his affections he says are unchangeable.
Address: George Goodin Barrett Esqr / Mr Palmer’s / Westgate Street / Gloucester.
Publication: B-GB, pp. 74–77.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. EBB is obliquely reproaching George for the brevity of his note; the obolus was a small Greek coin.
2. The Last Judgement, by Ludwig Spohr (1784–1859), was one of the works performed on 20 October 1841 as part of the opening concert under the auspices of the Sacred Harmonic Society. Composed in 1826, it was first performed in England in 1830.
3. We have not been able to identify this lady, or explain “her reputation or the lack of it.”
4. John Martin (1789–1854) was known for his historical and landscape paintings, “Belshazzar’s Feast” (1821) being probably the most noteworthy. Bulwer-Lytton thought him “more original, more self-dependent, than Raphael or Michel Angelo” (DNB).
5. Frederick Marryat (1792–1848), a naval officer and novelist, spent 1837 and 1838 in Canada and the U.S.A., subsequently writing A Diary in America, With Remarks on its Institutions (1839).
The diary of Samuel Pepys (1633–1703), Secretary of the Navy, was first published posthumously in 1825.
6. Henry V, IV, Chorus, 14.
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