Friday August 12.
A hard day’s work .. I finished the 10th. & read the 11 & 12 books of my emperor. Done with him.— I wish I were as good a philosopher as he is, or was: but I wonder if he practised what he thought, as little as I do, what I read. If he had been a poet; I know I shd. have canonized him. Why not? Bolidori reports Petrarch to have been received into the number of the elect, there to receive the reward of his belli versi:[1] and Antoninus’s wd. have been belli too. They wd. have been inharmonious enough, I dare say; but very energetic & original & full of picturesque imagery. Well! there is no use in contending against destiny. He was not a poet: & I am not a philosopher!—
Miss Glasco called here today,—& we walked back with her to the gate which ushers you in to the green path parallel with our road. She said “Where shall we meet next? Recollect where we parted.” She goes to Cheltenham tomorrow, & remains three weeks away.
An agreable, a very agreable woman—and a kind amiable warmhearted woman besides. Bummy Henrietta & I were met, on our returning hatless, by Lane who brought an open letter from Papa to Bro, sent by Bro to Bummy. She dared not read it before us—. I could see that very well. Bro met us in our tribulation .. He was riding down the road on his way to a pic nic party on the Malvern hills—the Webbs the instigators.[2] So to Bro, Bummy applied—“What am I to do with this letter?” “Read it—all of you read it—there is nothing in it.” Nothing in it? Then we may breathe. Yes! there was nothing,—except an order for the discharge of those workmen who could get situations. Nothing besides.
I did not go out again. I felt too unwell for it: but I finished Antoninus: & then I began & nearly finished the Messeniennes by Casimir De la vigne.[3] He is an energetic poet for a frenchman; but does not bring with him the certificate of his baptism in Helicon.[4] No No!—I would not take a poetical oath by him. I would not rank him among the Θεοι—but the παρεδροι!—[5] So much for Casimir.
Unwell, very unwell all the evening! A strange nervous depressed feeling, as if I were both soulless & boneless!—
1. Bolidori has not been identified among the biographers of Petrarch, but E.B.B.’s handwriting is quite clear.
2. It is not clear whether the reference is to the family of Thomas Webb, banker and magistrate, of Ledbury, or to that of Richard Webb, of Donnington Court, 3 miles from Ledbury.
3. Casimir Jean François Delavigne, Trois Messéniennes. Elégies sur les Malheurs de la France (Paris, 1818).
4. The springs of Helicon in Bœotia, sacred to the Muses, were held to give inspiration.
5. Θεοἰ: “the gods”; πὰρεδροι: “those sitting near.”
