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diff --git a/31072.txt b/31072.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3ca7b5 --- /dev/null +++ b/31072.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9930 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter Book, by George Saintsbury + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: A Letter Book + Selected with an Introduction on the History and Art of Letter-Writing + +Author: George Saintsbury + +Release Date: January 25, 2010 [EBook #31072] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Note | + | | + | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in | + | this text. For a complete list, please see the bottom of | + | this document. | + | | + | Text printed using the Greek alphabet in the original book | + | is shown as follows: [Greek: logos]. | + | | + | Superscript text in the original book is shown as follows: | + | w^ch | + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +A LETTER BOOK + + + + +A LETTER BOOK + +SELECTED WITH AN INTRODUCTION +ON THE HISTORY AND ART OF +LETTER-WRITING + +BY + +GEORGE SAINTSBURY + + +LONDON +G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. +NEW YORK: HARCOURT, BRACE AND CO. +1922 + + + + +PREFACE + + +When my publishers were good enough to propose that I should undertake +this book, they were also good enough to suggest that the Introduction +should be of a character somewhat different from that of a +school-anthology, and should attempt to deal with the Art of +Letter-writing, and the nature of the Letter, as such. I formed a plan +accordingly, by which the letters, and their separate Prefatory Notes, +might be as it were illustrations to the Introduction, which was +intended in turn to be a guide to them. Having done this with a proper +_Pourvu que Dieu lui prete vie_ referring to both book and author, I +thought it well to look up next what had been done in the way before me, +at least to the extent of what the London Library could provide me in +circumstances of enforced abstinence from the Museum and from "Bodley." +From its catalogue I selected a curious eighteenth-century _Art of +Letter Writing_, and four nineteenth and earliest twentieth century +books--Roberts's _History of Letter Writing_ (1843) with Pickering's +ever-beloved title-page and his beautiful clear print; the _Litterature +Epistolaire_ of Barbey d'Aurevilly--a critic never to be neglected +though always to be consulted with eyes wide open and brain alert; +finally, two Essays in Dr. Jessopp's _Studies by a Recluse_ and in the +_Men and Letters_ of Mr. Herbert Paul, once a very frequent associate of +mine. The title of the first mentioned book speaks it pretty +thoroughly. "The Art of Letter Writing: Divided into Two Parts. The +First: Containing Rules and Directions for writing letters on all sorts +of subjects [_this line as well as several others is Rubricked_] with a +variety of examples equally elegant and instructive. The Second: a +Collection of Letters on the Most interesting occasions of life in which +are inserted--The proper method of Addressing Persons of all ranks; some +necessary orthographical directions, the right forms of message for +cards; and thoughts upon a multiplicity of subjects; the whole composed +upon an entirely new plan--chiefly calculated for the instruction of +youth, but may be [_sic_] of singular service to Gentlemen, Ladies and +all others who are desirous to attain the true style and manner of a +polite epistolary intercourse." May our own little book have no worse +fortune! Mr. Roberts's avowedly restricts itself to the fifth century as +a _terminus ad quem_, though it professes to start "from the earliest +times," and its seven hundred pages deal very honestly and fully with +their subjects. The essays of Dr. Jessopp and Mr. Paul are of course +merely Essays, of a score or two of pages: though the first is pretty +wide in its scope. There would be nothing but good to be said of either, +if both had not been, not perhaps blasphemous but parsimonious of +praise, towards "Our Lady of the Rocks." It cannot be too often or too +solemnly laid down that an adoration of Madame de Sevigne as a +letter-writer is not crotchet or fashion or affectation--is no result of +merely taking authority on trust. The more one reads her, and the more +one reads others, the more convinced should one be of her absolute +non-pareility in almost every kind of genuine letter (as apart from +letters that are really pamphlets or speeches or sermons) except pure +love-letters, of which we have none from her. As for _Litterature +Epistolaire_, it is a collection of some two dozen reviews of various +modern reprints of letters by distinguished writers--mostly but not all +French. The author has throughout used the letters he is considering +almost wholly as tell-tales of character, not as examples of art: and +therefore he does not, except in possible glances, require further +attention, though the book is full of interesting things. Its judgment +of one of our greatest, and one of the greatest of all, +letter-writers--Horace Walpole--is too severe, but not, like Macaulay's, +superficially insistent on superficial defects, and ought not to be +neglected by anyone who studies the subject. + +If, however, there was no need to rely on any of these books, they did +nothing to hinder in the peculiar way in which I had feared some +hindrance. For it is a nuisance to find that somebody else has done +something in the precise way in which you have planned doing it. I have +not yet encountered that nuisance here. Dr. Jessopp's general plan is +most like mine--indeed some similarity was unavoidable: but the two are +not identical, and I had planned mine before I knew anything about his. + +So with this prelude let us go to business, only premising further that +the object, unlike that of the anonymous Augustan, is not to "give rules +and instructions for writing good letters," except in the way (which far +excels all rules and instructions) of showing how good letters have been +written. Let us also modestly trust that the collection may deal with +some "interesting occasions of life" and contain "thoughts on a [fair] +multiplicity of subjects." Having been, as above observed, unable during +the composition of this book to visit London or Oxford, I have had to +rely occasionally on friendly assistance. I owe particular thanks (as +indeed I have owed them at almost any time these forty years) to the +Rev. William Hunt, D.Litt., Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford: +and I am also indebted to Miss Elsie Hitchcock for some kind aid at the +Museum given me through the intermediation of Professor Ker. + +Besides the thanks given to Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, Mr. Kipling and Dr. +Williamson in the text in reference to certain new or almost new +letters, we owe very sincere gratitude for permission to reprint the +following important matters: + + _His Honour Judge Parry._ Two letters from "Letters from + Dorothy Osborne to Sir William Temple." + + _Messrs. Douglas & Foulis._ A letter to Joanna Baillie, from + "Familiar Letters of Sir Walter Scott." + + _Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co._ Two letters from Mrs. + Carlyle's "Letters and Memorials," and one letter from Sir + G. O. Trevelyan's "Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay." + + _Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Ltd._ Three letters from "The + Letters of Charles Dickens"; one letter by FitzGerald and + one by Thomas Carlyle, from "Letters and Literary Remains of + Edward FitzGerald"; one letter from "Charles Kingsley: his + Letters and Memories of his Life"; and two extracts from + "Further Records, 1848-1883," by Frances Anne Kemble. + + _Mr. John Murray._ One letter from "The Letters of Elizabeth + Barrett Browning." + +GEORGE SAINTSBURY. + +1 ROYAL CRESCENT, BATH, +_October, 1921_. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + +PREFACE v + + +INTRODUCTION ON THE HISTORY AND ART OF LETTER-WRITING 1 + + I. Ancient History. II. Letters in English--before + 1700. III. The Eighteenth Century. IV. Nineteenth + Century Letters--Early. V. Nineteenth + Century Letters--Later. VI. Some Special Kinds + of Letter. VII. Conclusion. + + +APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION: + + GREEK LETTERS--SYNESIUS 100 + + (i) To his Brother--Preparations to meet Raiders. + (ii) To Hypatia--Longing but unable to come + to her. + + LATIN LETTERS--PLINY 102 + + Accepts a Brief for a Lady. + + LETTERS OF THE "DARK" AGES--SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS 105 + + The exploits of Ecdicius. + + EARLY MEDIAEVAL (TWELFTH CENTURY) LETTER 108 + + Duchess of Burgundy to King Louis VII.--Matchmaking. + +ENGLISH LETTERS + +THE "PASTON" LETTERS 111 + + 1. A Channel Fight. + 2. Margery is Willing. + +ROGER ASCHAM 116 + + 3. "Up the Rhine." + 4. Nostalgia for Cambridge. + +LADY MARY SIDNEY 122 + + 5. Have you no room at Court? + +GEORGE CLIFFORD, EARL OF CUMBERLAND 125 + + 6. A Death-bed letter. + +JOHN DONNE 129 + + 7-10. Letters to Magdalen Lady Herbert. + +JAMES HOWELL 135 + + 11. "Long Melford for Ever." + 12. The White Bird. + +JOHN EVELYN 139 + + 13. How to take care of ears, eyes and brains. + +DOROTHY OSBORNE 146 + + 14. A discourse of Flying, and several other things. + 15. Some testimonies of kindness. + +JONATHAN SWIFT 154 + + 16. Letter-hunger. + +LADY MARY WORTLEY-MONTAGU 159 + + 17. Directions for running away with her. + +PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 164 + + 18. Some manners that make a gentleman. + +GEORGE BALLARD 173 + + 19. The wickedness of Reviewers. + +THOMAS GRAY 180 + + 20. Romanities and Plain English. + 21. Kent, Rousseau, Lord Chatham, etc. + +HORACE WALPOLE (AND W. M. THACKERAY) 187 + + 22. What Horace wrote. + 23. What Horace might have written. + +TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT 195 + + 24. Of Johnson, and Johnson's Frank--To Wilkes. + +WILLIAM COWPER 197 + + 25. About a Greenhouse. + +SYDNEY SMITH 201 + + 26. Vegetation, stagnation, and assassination. + 27. His "hotel." Hasty judgments deprecated. + +SIR WALTER SCOTT 206 + + 28. Authors and Morals. + +SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE 212 + + 29. From Spinosa to Go_b_win through things in general. + +ROBERT SOUTHEY 217 + + 30-33. The _Lingo Grande_. + +CHARLES LAMB 221 + + 34. A Sigh for Solitude. + +GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON 228 + + 35. Of Pictures, and Sepulture, and his Daughters. + +PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 233 + + 36. Of Pictures only. + +JOHN KEATS 239 + + 37. A Voyage, and the _Quarterly_ and Charmian. + +THE CARLYLES 244 + + 38. Thomas on _Latrappism_. + 39. Jane Welsh on her Travels. + 40. Jane Welsh on the blessings of Photography. + +THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY 253 + + 41. Outfits, and Election Dinners. Miss Berry and + Lady Holland. + +THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES 258 + + 42. Stage-coach tricks, and stage-play ghosts. + +ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING 263 + + 43. An extended Honey-moon. + +EDWARD FITZGERALD 270 + + 44. Of Bath, and Oxford, and some Immortals. + +FRANCIS ANNE KEMBLE 275 + + 45. A Ghost in Flannel. + 46. Bakespearism. + +WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 279 + + 47. As himself. + 48. In character. + +CHARLES DICKENS 286 + + 49. Straight dealing with the personages of _Nicholas + Nickleby_. + 50. Advice to an Innocent in London. + 51. Mr. and Mrs. Harris. + +CHARLES KINGSLEY 292 + + 52. _Tom Brown's Schooldays_; Pike fishing; and a + pretty thing with Garth's. + +JOHN RUSKIN 296 + + 53. The Servant question. + +ROBERT LOUIS BALFOUR STEVENSON 303 + + 54. John Gibson Lockhart, and an Umbrella. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +THE HISTORY AND ART OF LETTER +WRITING + + + + +I + +ANCIENT HISTORY + + +On letter-writing, as on most things that can themselves be written and +talked about, there are current many _cliches_--stock and banal sayings +that express, or have at some time expressed, a certain amount of truth. +The most familiar of these for a good many years past has been that the +penny post has killed it. Whether revival of the twopenny has caused it +to exhibit any kind of corresponding resurrectionary symptoms is a +matter which cannot yet be pronounced upon. But it may be possible to +avoid these _cliches_, or at any rate to make no more than necessary +glances at them, in composing this little paper, which aims at being a +discussion of the Letter as a branch of Literature, no less than an +introduction to the specimens of the kind which follow. + +If, according to a famous dictum, "Everything has been said," it follows +that every definition must have been already made. Therefore, no doubt, +somebody has, or many bodies have, before now defined or at least +described the Letter as that kind of communication of thought or fact to +another person which most immediately succeeds the oral, and supplies +the claims of absence. You want to tell somebody something; but he or +she is not, as they used to say "by," or perhaps there are circumstances +(and circum_standers_) which or who make speech undesirable; so you +"write." At first no doubt, you used signs or symbols like the feather +with which Wildrake let Cromwell's advent be known in _Woodstock_--a +most ingenious device for which, by the way, the recipients were scantly +grateful. But when reading and writing came by nature, you availed +yourself of these Nature's gifts, not always, it is to be feared, +regarding the interconnection of the two sufficiently. There is probably +more than one person living who has received a reply beginning "Dear +So-and-So, Thanks for your interesting and _partially legible_ epistle," +or words to that effect. But that is a part of the matter which lies +outside our range. + +On the probable general fact, however, some observations may be less +frivolously based. If this were a sentimental age, as some ages in the +past have been, one might assume that, as the first portrait is supposed +to have been a silhouette of the present beloved, drawn on her shadow +with a charcoaled stick, so the same, or another implement may have +served (on what substitute for paper anybody pleases) to communicate +with her when absent. But the silliness of this age--though far be it +from us to dispute its possession of so prevailing a quality--does not +take the form--at least _this_ form--of sentiment. + +[Sidenote: THE BEGINNINGS] + +There is, moreover, nothing silly or sentimental, though of course there +is something that may be controverted, in saying that except for purely +"business" purposes (which are as such alien from Art and have nothing +to do with any but a part, and a rather sophisticated part, of Nature) +the less the letter-writer forgets that he is merely substituting pen +for tongue the better. Of course, the instruments and the circumstances +being different, the methods and canons of the proceedings will be +different too. In the letter there is no interlocutor; and there is no +possibility of what we may call accompanying it with personal +illustrations[1] and demonstrations, if necessary or agreeable. But +still it may be laid down, with some confidence, that the more the +spoken word is heard in a letter the better, and the less that word is +heard--the more it gives way to "book"-talk--the worse. Indeed this is +not likely to be denied, though there remain as usual almost infinite +possibilities of differences in personal opinion as to what constitutes +the desirable mixture of variation and similarity between a conversation +and a letter. Let us, before discussing this or saying anything more +about the principles, say something about the history of this, at best +so delightful, at worst so undelightful art. For if History, in the +transferred sense of particular books called "histories," is rather apt +to be false: nothing but History in the wider and higher sense will ever +lead us to truth. The Future is unknown and unknowable. The Present is +turning to Past even as we are trying to know it. Only the Past itself +abides our knowledge. + +[Sidenote: BIBLICAL EXAMPLES] + +Of the oldest existing examples of epistolary correspondence, except +those contained in the Bible, the present writer knows little or +nothing. For, except a vanished smattering of Hebrew, he "has" no +Oriental tongue; he has never been much addicted to reading +translations, and even if he had been so has had little occasion to draw +him to such studies, and much to draw him away from them. There +certainly appear to be some beautiful specimens of the more passionate +letter writing in ancient if not exactly pre-Christian Chinese, and +probably in other tongues--but it is ill talking of what one does not +know. In the Scriptures themselves letters do not come early, and the +"token" period probably lasted long. Isaac does not even send a token +with Jacob to validate his suit for a daughter of Laban. But one would +have enjoyed a letter from Ishmael to his half-brother, when his +daughter was married to Esau, who was so much more like a son of Ishmael +himself than of the amiable husband of Rebekah. She, by the way, had +herself been fetched in an equally unlettered transaction. It would of +course be impossible, and might be regarded as improper, to devote much +space here to the sacred epistolographers. But one may wonder whether +many people have appreciated the humour of the two epistles of the great +King Ahasuerus-Artaxerxes, the first commanding and the second +countermanding the massacre of the Jews--epistles contained in the +Septuagint "Rest of the Book of Esther" (see our Apocrypha), instead of +the mere dry summaries which had sufficed for "the Hebrew and the +Chaldee." The exact authenticity of these fuller texts is a matter of no +importance, but their substance, whether it was the work of a Persian +civil servant or of a Greek-Jew rhetorician, is most curious. Whosoever +it was, he knew King's Speeches and communications from "My lords" and +such like things, very well indeed; and the contrast of the mention in +the first letter of "Aman who excelled in wisdom among us and was +approved for his constant good will and steadfast fidelity" with "the +wicked wretch Aman--a stranger received of us ... his falsehood and +cunning"--the whole of both letters being carefully attuned to the +respective key-notes--is worthy of any one of the best ironists from +Aristophanes to the late Mr. Traill. + +Between these two extremes of the Pentateuch and the Apocrypha there is, +as has been remarked by divers commentators, not much about letters in +the Bible. It is not auspicious that among the exceptions come David's +letter commanding the betrayal of Uriah, and a little later Jezebel's +similar prescription for the judicial murder of Naboth. There is, +however, some hint of that curious attractiveness which some have seen +in "the King's daughter all glorious within--" and without (as the +Higher Criticism interprets the Forty-Fifth Psalm) in the bland way with +which she herself stipulates that the false witnesses shall be "sons of +Belial." + +There is a book (once much utilised as a school prize) entitled _The +History of Inventions_. I do not know whether there is a "Dictionary of +Attributed Inventors." If there were it would contain some queer +examples. One of the queerest is fathered (for we only have it at second +hand) on Hellanicus, a Greek writer of respectable antiquity--the +Peloponnesian war-time--and respectable repute for book-making in +history, chronology, etc. It attributes the invention of letters--_i.e._ +"epistolary correspondence"--to Atossa--not Mr. Matthew Arnold's Persian +cat but--the Persian Queen, daughter of Cyrus, wife of Cambyses and +Darius, mother of Xerxes, and in more than her queenly status a sister +to Jezebel. Atossa had not a wholly amiable reputation, but she was +assuredly no fool: and if, to borrow a famous phrase, it had been +necessary to invent letters, there is no known reason why she might not +have done it. But it is perfectly certain that she did not, and no one +who combines, as all true scholars should endeavour to combine, an +unquenchable curiosity to know what can be known and is worth knowing +with a placid resignation to ignorance of what cannot be known and would +not be worth knowing--need in the least regret the fact that we do not +know who did. + +There are said to be Egyptian letters of immense antiquity and high +development; but once more, I do not profess direct knowledge of them, +and once more I hold that of what a man does not possess direct +knowledge, of that he should not write. Besides, for practical purposes, +all our literature begins with Greek: so to Greek let us turn. We have a +fair bulk of letters in that language. Hercher's _Epistolographi Graeci_ +is a big volume, and would not be a small one, if you cut out the Latin +translations. But it is unfortunate that nearly the whole, like the +majority of later Greek literature, is the work of that special class +called rhetoricians--a class for which, though our term "book-makers" +may be a little too derogatory, "men of letters" is rarely (it is +sometimes) applicable, as we use it when we mean to be complimentary. +These letters are still close to "speech," thus meeting in a fashion our +initial requirement, but they are close to the speech of the +"orator"--of the sophisticated speaker to the public--not to that of +genuine conversation. In fact in some cases it would require only the +very slightest change to make those exercitations of the rhetors which +are not called "epistles" definite letters in form, while some of the +best known and characteristic of their works are so entitled. + +[Sidenote: THE RHETORICIANS] + +It was unfortunate for the Greeks, as it would seem, and for us more +certainly, that letter-writing was so much affected by these +"rhetoricians." This curious class of persons has perhaps been too much +abused: and there is no doubt that very great writers came out of +them--to mention one only in each division--Lucian among the extremely +profane, and St. Augustine among the greatest and most intellectual of +divines. But though their habitual defects are to be found abundantly +enough in modern society, these defects are, with us, as a rule +distributed among different classes; while anciently they were united in +this one. We have our journalists, our book-makers (literary, not +sporting), our platform and parliamentary palaverers, our popular +entertainers; and we also have our pedagogues, scholastic and +collegiate, our scientific and other lecturers, etc. But the Rhetorician +of old was a Jack of all these trades; and he too frequently combined +the triviality, unreality, sophistry and catch-pennyism of the one +division with the priggishness, the lack of tact and humour, and above +all the pseudo-scientific tendency to generalisation, classification +and, to use a familiar word, "pottering" of the other. In particular he +had a mania in his more serious moods for defining and sub-defining +things and putting them into pigeon-holes under the sub-definitions. +Thus the so-called Demetrius Phalereus, who (or a false namesake of his) +has left us a capital _general_ remark (to be given presently) on +letter-writing, elaborately divides its kinds, with prescriptions for +writing each, into "friendly," "commendatory," "reproving," +"objurgatory," "consolatory," "castigatory," "admonishing," +"threatening," "vituperatory," "laudatory," "persuasive," "begging," +"questioning," "answering," "allegorical," "explanatory," "accusing," +"defending," "congratulatory," "ironic" and "thankful," while the +neo-Platonist, Proclus, is responsible for, or at least has attributed +to him, a list of nearly double the length, including most of those +given above and adding many. Of these last, "love-letters" is the most +important, and "mixed" the _canniest_, for it practically lets in +everything. + +This way, of course, except for purely business purposes--where +established forms save time, trouble and possible litigation--no +possible good lies; and indeed the impossibility thereof is clearly +enough indicated in the above-glanced-at general remark of Demetrius (or +whoever it was) himself. In fact the principle of this remark and its +context in the work called "Of Interpretation," which it is more usual +now to call, perhaps a little rashly, "Of Style," is so different from +the catalogue of types that they can hardly come from the same author. +"You _can_ from this, as well as from all other kinds of writing, +discern the character of the writer; indeed from none other can you +discern it so well." Those who know a little of the history of Criticism +will see how this anticipates the most famous and best definitions of +Style itself, as being "the very man," and they may perhaps also think +worthy of notice another passage in the same context where the author +finds fault with a rather "fine" piece of an epistle as "not the way a +man would talk to his friend," and even goes on to use the most familiar +Greek word for talking--[Greek: lalein]--in the same connection. + +[Sidenote: ALCIPHRON. JULIAN] + +Of such "talking with a friend" we have unfortunately very few +examples--hardly any at all--from older Greek. The greater +collections--not much used in schools or colleges now but well enough +known to those who really know Greek Literature--of Alciphron, +Aristaenetus, Philostratus and (once most famous of all) Phalaris +are--one must not perhaps say obvious, since men of no little worth were +once taken in by them but--pretty easily discoverable counterfeits. They +are sometimes, more particularly those of Philostratus, interesting and +even beautiful;[2] they have been again sometimes at least supposed, +particularly those of Alciphron, to give us, from the fact that they +were largely based upon lost comedies, etc., information which we should +otherwise lack; and in many instances (Aristaenetus is perhaps here the +chief) they must have helped towards that late Greek creation of the +Romance to which we owe so much. Nor have we here much if anything to do +with such questions as the morality of personating dead authors, or that +of laying traps for historians. It is enough that they do not give us, +except very rarely, good letters: and that even these exceptions are not +in any probability _real_ letters, real written "confabulations of +friends" at all. Almost the first we have deserving such a description +are those of the Emperor Julian in the fourth century of that Christ for +whom he had such an unfortunate hatred; the most copious and thoroughly +genuine perhaps those of Bishop Synesius a little later. Of these +Julian's are a good deal affected by the influence of Rhetoric, of which +he was a great cultivator: and the peculiar later Platonism of Synesius +fills a larger proportion of his than some frivolous persons might +wish. Julian is even thought to have "written for publication," as Latin +epistolers of distinction had undoubtedly done before him. Nevertheless +it is pleasant to read the Apostate when he is not talking Imperial or +anti-Christian "shop," but writing to his tutor, the famous sophist and +rhetorician Libanius, about his travels and his books and what not, in a +fashion by no means very unlike that in which a young Oxford graduate +might write to an undonnish don. It is still pleasanter to find Synesius +telling his friends about the very thin wine and very thick honey of +Cyrenaica; making love ("camouflaged," as they say to-day, under +philosophy) to Hypatia, and condescending to mention dogs, horses and +hunting now and then. But it is unfortunately undeniable that the bulk +of this department of Greek literature is spurious to begin with, and +uninteresting, even if spuriousness be permitted to pass. The Letters of +Phalaris--once famous in themselves, again so as furnishing one of the +chief battle-grounds in the "Ancient and Modern" quarrel, and never to +be forgotten because of their connection with Swift's _Battle of the +Books_--are as dull as ditchwater in matter, and utterly destitute of +literary distinction in style. + + * * * * * + +[Sidenote: ROMAN LETTER-WRITING] + +It is a rule, general and almost universal, that every branch of Latin +literature is founded on, and more or less directly imitative of Greek. +Even the Satire, which the Romans relied upon to prove that they could +originate, is more apparently than really an invention. Also, though +this may be more disputable, because much more a matter of personal +taste, there were very few such branches in which the pupils equalled, +much fewer in which they surpassed, their masters. But in both respects +letter-writing may be said to be an exception. Unless we have been +singularly unlucky in losing better Greek letters than we have, and +extraordinarily fortunate in Fate's selection of the Latin letters that +have come down to us, the Romans, though they were eager students of +Rhetoric, and almost outwent their teachers in composing the empty +things called Declamations, seem to have allowed this very practice to +drain off mere verbosity, and to have written letters about matters +which were worth pen, ink, paper and (as we should say) postage. We have +in Greek absolutely no such letters from the flourishing time of the +literature as those of Cicero, of Pliny[3] and even of Seneca--while as +we approach the "Dark" Ages Julian and Synesius in the older language +cannot touch Sidonius Apollinaris or perhaps Cassiodorus[4] in the +younger. Of course all these are beyond reasonable doubt genuine, while +the Greek letters attributed to Plato, Socrates and other great men are +almost without doubt and without exception spurious. But there is very +little likelihood that the Greeks of the great times wrote many +"matter-ful" letters at all. They lived in small communities, where they +saw each other daily and almost hourly; they took little interest in the +affairs of other communities unless they were at war with them, and +when they did travel there were very few means of international +communication. + +Women write the best letters, and get the best letters written to them: +but it is doubtful whether Greek women, save persons of a certain class +and other exceptions in different ways like Sappho and Diotima,[5] ever +wrote at all. The Romans, after their early period, were not merely a +larger and ever larger community full of the most various business, and +constantly extending their presence and their sway; but, by their unique +faculty of organisation, they put every part of their huge world in +communication with every other part. Here also we lack women's letters; +but we are, as above remarked, by no means badly off for those of men. +There have even been some audacious heretics who have preferred Cicero's +letters to his speeches and treatises; Seneca, the least attractive of +those before mentioned, put well what the poet Wordsworth called in his +own poems "extremely va_loo_able thoughts"; one of the keenest of +mathematicians and best of academic and general business men known to +the present writer, the late Professor Chrystal of Edinburgh, made a +special favourite of Pliny; and if people can find nothing worse to say +against Sidonius than that he wrote in contemporary, and not in what was +for his time archaic, Latin, his case will not look bad in the eyes of +sensible men. + +[Sidenote: SIDONIUS] + +Sidonius, like Synesius, was a Christian, and, though the observation +may seem no more logical than Fluellen's about Macedon and Monmouth, +besides being in more doubtful taste, there would seem to be some +connection between the spread of Christianity and that of +letter-writing. At any rate they synchronise, despite or perhaps because +of the deficiency of formal literature during the "Dark" Ages. It is not +really futile to point out that a very large part of the New Testament +consists of "Epistles," and that by no means the whole of these epistles +is occupied by doctrinal or hortatory matter. Even that which is so, +often if not always, partakes of the character of a "live" letter to an +extent which makes the so-called letters of the Greek Rhetoricians mere +school exercises. And St. Paul's allusions to his journeys, his +salutations, his acknowledgment of presents, his reference to the cloak +and the books with its anxious "but especially the parchments," and his +excellent advice to Timothy about beverages, are all the purest and most +genuine matter for mail-bags. So is St. Peter's very gentleman-like (as +it has been termed) retort to his brother Apostle; and so are both the +Second and the Third of St. John. Indeed it is not fanciful to suggest +that the account of the voyage which finishes the "Acts," and other +parts of that very delightful book, are narratives much more of the kind +one finds in letters than of the formally historical sort. + +However this may be, it is worth pointing out that the distrust of other +pagan kinds of literature which the Fathers manifested so strongly, and +which was inherited from them by the clergy of the "Dark," and to some +extent the Middle Ages, clearly could not extend to the practice of the +Apostles. If from the Dark Ages themselves we have not very many, it +must be remembered that from them we have little literature at all: +while from the close of that period and the beginning of the next we +have one of the most famous of all correspondences, the Letters of +Abelard and Heloise. Of the intrinsic merit of these long-and far-famed +compositions, as displaying character, there have been different +opinions--one of the most damaging attacks on them may be found in +Barbey d'Aurevilly's already mentioned book. But their influence has +been lasting and enormous: and even if it were to turn out that they are +forgeries, they are certainly early forgeries, and the person who forged +them knew extremely well what he was about. There is no room here to +survey, even in selection, the letter-crop of the Middle Ages; and from +henceforward we must speak mainly, if not wholly (for some glances +abroad may be permitted), of _English_ letters.[6] But the +ever-increasing bonds of union--even of such union in disunion as +war--between different European nations, and the developments of more +complex civilisation, of more general education and the like--all tended +and wrought in the same direction. + + + + +II + +LETTERS IN ENGLISH--BEFORE 1700 + + +Exceptions have sometimes been taken to the earliest collection of +genuine private letters, not official communications written in or +inspired by Latin--which we possess in English. "The Paston Letters" +have been, from opposite sides, accused of want of literary form and of +not giving us interesting enough details in substance. The objections in +either case[7] are untenable, and in both rather silly. In the first +place "literary form" in the fifteenth century was exceedingly likely to +be bad literary form, and we are much better off without it. Unless Sir +Thomas Malory had happened to be chaplain at Oxnead, or Sir John +Fortescue had occupied there something like the position of Mr. +Tulkinghorn in _Bleak House_, we should not have got much "literature" +from any known prose-writer of the period. Nor was it wanted. As for +interestingness of matter, the people who expect newspaper-correspondent +fine writing about the Wars of the Roses may be disappointed; but some +of us who have had experience of that dialect from the Russells of the +Crimea through the Forbeses of 1870 to the chroniclers of Armageddon the +other day will probably not be very unhappy. The Paston Letters are +simply genuine family correspondence--of a genuineness all the more +certain because of their commonplaceness. It is impossible to conceive +anything further from the initial type of the Greek rhetorical "letter" +of which we have just been saying something. They are not, to any but an +excessively "high-browed" and high-flying person, uninteresting: but the +chief point about them is their solidity and their satisfaction, in +their own straightforward unvarnished way, of the test we started with. +When Margaret Paston and the rest write, it is because they have +something to say to somebody who cannot be actually spoken to. And that +something is said. + +[Sidenote: ASCHAM] + +The next body of letters--Ascham's--which seems to call for notice here +is of the next century. It has not a few points of appeal, more than one +of which concern us very nearly. Most of the writers of the Paston +Letters were, though in some cases of good rank and fairly educated, +persons entirely unacademic in character, and their society was that of +the last trouble and convulsion through which the Early Middle Ages +struggled into the Renaissance, so long delayed with us. Ascham was one +of our chief representatives of the Renaissance itself--that is to say, +of a type at once scholarly and man-of-the-worldly, a courtier and a +diplomatist as well as a "don" and a man of letters; a sportsman as well +as a schoolmaster. And while from all these points of view his letters +have interest, there is one thing about them which is perhaps more +interesting to us than any other: and that is the fact that while he +begins to write in Latin--the all but mother-tongue of all scholars of +the time, and the universal language of the educated, even when not +definitely scholarly, throughout Europe--he exchanges this for English +latterly, in the same spirit which prompted his famous expression of +reasons for writing the _Toxophilus_ in our own and his own tongue. +There is indeed a double attraction, which has not been always or often +noticed, in this change of practice. Everybody has seen how important it +is, not merely as resisting the general delusion of contemporary +scholars that the vernaculars were things unsafe, "like to play the +bankrupt with books," but as protesting by anticipation against the +continuance of this error which affected Bacon and Hobbes, and was not +entirely without hold even on such a magician in English as Browne. But +perhaps everybody has not seen how by implication it acknowledges the +peculiar character of the genuine letter--that, though it may be a work +of art, it should not be one of artifice--that it is a matter of +"business _or_ bosoms," not of study or display. + +Contemporary with these letters of Ascham, and going on to the end of +the century and the closely coincident end of the reign of Elizabeth, we +have a considerable bulk of letter-writing of more or less varied kinds. +The greatest men of letters of the time--to the disgust of one, but not +wholly so to that of another, class of "scholar"--give us little. +Spenser is the most considerable exception: and his correspondence with +Gabriel Harvey, though it is personal to a certain extent and on +Gabriel's side sufficiently character-revealing, is really of the hybrid +kind, partaking rather more of pamphlet or essay than of letter proper. +Indeed a good part of that very remarkable pamphlet-literature of this +time, which has perhaps scarcely yet received its due share of +attention, takes the letter-form: but is mostly even farther from +genuine letter-writing than the correspondence of "Immerito" and +"Master G. H." We have of course more of Harvey's; we have laments from +others, such as Lyly and Googe, about their disappointments as +courtiers; we have a good deal of State correspondence. There are some, +not very many, agreeable letters of strictly private character in whole +or part, the pleasantest of all perhaps being some of Sir Philip +Sydney's mother, Lady Mary Dudley. Others are from time to time being +made public, such as those in Dr. Williamson's recent book on the +Admiral-Earl of Cumberland. As far as mere bulk goes, Elizabethan +epistolography would take no small place, just as it would claim no mean +one in point of interest. But in an even greater degree than its +successor (_v. inf._) this _corpus_ would expose itself to the criticism +that the time for perfect letter-writing was not quite yet, in this day +of so much that was perfect, that the style was not quite the right +style, the knack not yet quite achieved. And if the present writer--who +swore fealty to Elizabethan literature a full third of a century ago +after informal allegiance for nearly as long a time earlier--admits some +truth in this, there probably is some. The letters included in it +attract us more for the matter they contain than for the manner in which +they contain it: and when this is the case no branch of literature has +perfected itself in art. + +[Sidenote: THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY] + +The position of the seventeenth century in England with regard to +letter-writing has been the subject of rather different opinions. The +bulk of its contributions is of course very considerable: and some of +the groups are of prominent importance, the most singular, if not the +most excellent, being Cromwell's, again to be mentioned. As in other +cases and departments this century offers a curious "split" between its +earlier part which declines--not in goodness but like human life in +vitality--from, but still preserves the character of, the pure +Elizabethan, and its later, which grows up again--not in goodness but +simply in the same vitality--towards the Augustan. This relationship is +sufficiently illustrated in the actual letters. The great political +importance of the Civil War of course reflects itself in them. Indeed it +may almost be said that for some time letters are wholly concerned with +such things, though of course there are partial exceptions, such as +those of Dorothy Osborne--"mild Dorothea" as she afterwards became, +though there is no mere mildness of the contemptuous meaning in her +correspondence. In most remarkable contrast to these stand the somewhat +earlier letters of James Howell--our first examples perhaps of letters +"written for publication" in the fullest sense, very agreeably varied in +subject and great favourites with a good many people, notably +Thackeray--but only in part (if at all) genuine private correspondence. + +Not a few men otherwise distinguished in literature wrote +letters--sometimes in curious contrast with other productions of theirs. +The most remarkable instance of this, but an instance easily +comprehensible, is that of Samuel Pepys. Only a part of Pepys' immense +correspondence has ever been printed, but there is no reason to expect +from the remainder--whether actually extant, mislaid or lost--anything +better than the examples which are now accessible, and which are for the +most part the very opposite in every respect of the famous and +delectable Diary. They are perfectly "proper," and for the most part +extremely dull; while propriety is certainly not the most salient +characteristic of the Diary; and the diarist manages, in the most +eccentric manner, to communicate interest not merely to things more +specially regarded as "interesting," but to his accounts and his +ailments, his business and his political history. His contemporary and +rather patronising friend Evelyn keeps his performances less far apart +from each other: but is certainly, though a representative, not a great +letter-writer, and the few that we have of Pepys' patronised +fellow-Cantabrigian Dryden are of no great mark, though not superfluous. +In the earlier part of the century Latin had not wholly shaken off its +control as the epistolary language; and it was not till quite the other +end that English itself became supple and docile enough for the purposes +of the letter-writer proper. It was excellent for such things as formal +Dedications, semi-historical narratives, and the like. And it could, as +in Sir Thomas Browne's, supply another contrast, much more pleasing than +that referred to above, of domestic familiarity with a most poetical +transcendence of style in published work. Yet, as was the case with the +novel, the letter, to gain perfection, still wanted something easier +than the grand style of the seventeenth century and more polished than +its familiar style. + + + + +III + +THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY + + +[Sidenote: THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY] + +But whatever may be the position of the seventeenth in respect of +letter-writing it is impossible for anything but sheer ignorance, +hopeless want of critical discernment, or idle paradox to mistake, in +the direction of belittlement, that of the eighteenth. By common consent +of all opinion worth attention that century was, in the two European +literatures which were equally free from crudity and decadence--French +and English--the very palmiest day of the art. Everybody wrote letters: +and a surprising number of people wrote letters well. Our own three most +famous epistolers of the male sex, Horace Walpole, Gray and +Cowper--belong wholly to it; and "Lady Mary"--our most famous +she-ditto--belongs to it by all but her childhood; as does Chesterfield, +whom some not bad judges would put not far if at all below the three men +just mentioned. The rise of the novel in this century is hardly more +remarkable than the way in which that novel almost wedded +itself--certainly joined itself in the most frequent friendship--to the +letter-form. But perhaps the excellence of the choicer examples in this +time is not really more important than the abundance, variety and +popularity of its letters, whether good, indifferent, or bad. To use one +of the informal superlatives sanctioned by familiar custom it was the +"letterwritingest" of ages from almost every point of view. In its least +as in its most dignified moods it even overflowed into verse if not into +poetry as a medium. Serious epistles had--of course on classical +models--been written in verse for a long time. But now in England more +modern patterns, and especially Anstey's _New Bath Guide_, started the +fashion of actual correspondence in doggerel verse with no thought of +print--a practice in which persons as different as Madame d'Arblay's +good-natured but rather foolish father, and a poet and historian like +Southey indulged; and which did not become obsolete till Victorian +times, if then. At the present moment one does not remember an exact +equivalent in England to the story of two good writers in French if not +French writers[8] living in the same house, meeting constantly during +the day, yet exchanging letters, and not short ones, before breakfast. +But very likely there is or was one, and more than one. + +For those no doubt estimable persons who are not content with facts but +must have some explanations of them, it is less difficult to supply such +things than is sometimes the case. One--the attainment at last of a +"middle" style neither grand nor vulgar--has already been glanced at. It +has been often and quite truly observed that there are sentences, +passages, paragraphs, almost whole letters in Horace Walpole and Lady +Mary Wortley Montagu, in Fanny Burney and in Cowper, which no one would +think old-fashioned at the present day in any context where modern slang +did not suggest itself as natural. But this was by no means the only +predisposing cause, though perhaps most of the others were, in this way +or that, connected with it. Both in France and in England literature +and social matters generally were in something like what political +economists call "the stationary state" till (as rather frequently +happens with such apparently stationary states) the smoothness changed +to the Niagara of the French Revolution, and the rapids of the +quarter-century War. There were no great poets:[9] and even +verse-writers were rarely grand: but there was a greater diffusion of +competent writing faculty than had been seen before or perhaps--for all +the time, talk, trouble, and money spent on "education,"--has been +since. New divisions and departments of interest were accumulating--not +merely in Literature itself[10] (as to which, if people's ideas were +rather limited, they _had_ ideas), but in the arts which were in some +cases practised almost for the first time and in all taken more +seriously, in foreign and home politics, commerce, manufactures, all +manner of things. People were by no means so apt to stay in the same +place as they had been: and when friends were in different places they +had much easier means of communicating with each other. Nor should it be +forgotten that the more elaborate system of ceremonial manners which +then prevailed, but which has been at first gradually, and latterly with +a run, breaking down for the last hundred years, had an important +influence on letter-writing. One does not of course refer merely to +elaborate formulas of beginning and ending--such as make even the +greatest praisers of times past among us smile a little when they find +Dr. Johnson addressing his own step-daughter as "Dear Madam," and being +her "most humble servant" though in the course of the letter he may use +the most affectionate and intimate expressions. But the manners of +yester-year made it obligatory to make your letters--unless they were +merely what were called "cards" of invitation, message, etc.--to some +extent _substantive_. You gave the news of the day, if your +correspondent was not likely to know it; the news of the place, +especially if you were living in a University town or a Cathedral city. +If you had read a book you very often criticised it: if you had been to +any kind of entertainment you reported on it, etc. etc. Of course all +this is still done by people who really do write real letters: but it is +certainly done by a much smaller proportion of letter-writers than was +the case two hundred, one hundred, or even fifty years ago. The +newspaper has probably done more to kill letters than any penny post, +halfpenny postcard or even sixpenny telegram could do. Nor perhaps have +we yet mentioned the most powerful destructive agent of all, and that is +the ever increasing want of leisure. The dulness of modern Jack, in +letters as elsewhere, arises from the fact that when he is not at work +he is too desperately set on playing to have time for anything else. The +Augustans are not usually thought God-like: but they have this of Gods, +that they "lived _easily_." + +There is perhaps still something to be said as to the apparently almost +pre-established harmony between the eighteenth century and +letter-writing. It concerns what has been called the "_Peace_ of the +Augustans"; the at least comparative freedom alike from the turmoil of +passion and the most riotous kinds of fun. Tragedy may be very fine in +letters, as it may be anywhere: but it is in them the most +dangerous,[11] most rarely successful and most frequently failed-in of +all motives--again as it is everywhere. Comedy in letters is good: but +it should be fairly "genteel" comedy, such as this age excelled in--not +roaring Farce. An "excruciatingly funny" letter runs the risk of being +excruciating in a sadly literal sense. Now the men of good Queen Anne +and the first three Georges were not given to excess, in these ways at +any rate; and there are few better examples of the happy mean than the +best of their letters. The person who is bored by any one of those sets +which have been mentioned must bring the boredom with him--as, by the +way, complainers of that state of suffering do much oftener than they +wot of. Nor is much less to be said of scores of less famous epistolers +of the time, from the generation of Berkeley and Byrom to that of Scott +and Southey. + +[Sidenote: SWIFT] + +To begin with Swift, it is a scarcely disputable fact that opinions +about this giant of English literature--not merely as to his personal +character, though perhaps this has had more to do with the matter than +appears on the surface, but as to his exact literary value--have +differed almost incomprehensibly. Johnson thought, or at least +affected to think, that _A Tale of a Tub_ could not be Swift's, +because it was too good for him, and that "Tom Davies might have +written _The Conduct of the Allies_": while on the other hand +Thackeray, indulging in the most extravagant denunciation of Swift as +a man, did the very fullest, though not in the least too full, homage +to his genius. But one does not know many things more surprising in +the long list of contradictory criticisms of man and genius alike, +than Mr. Herbert Paul's disapproval of the _Journal to Stella_ as +letters while admitting its excellence as "narrative."[12] To other +judges these are some of the most perfect letters in existence, some +of the most absolutely genuine and free from the slightest taint of +writing for publication; some of the most extraordinarily blended of +intense intimacy which is neither ridiculous nor productive of the +shame-faced feeling that you ought not to have heard it; and full of +that dealing with matters less intimate but still interesting to both +correspondents which displays the "narrative" excellence conceded by +this acute critic. It must of course be remembered that these +"Journal-letters" are by no means Swift's only proofs of his +epistolary expertness. The Vanessa ones perhaps display a little of +the hopelessly enigmatic character which spreads like a mist over the +whole of that ill-starred relationship: but they make all the more +useful contrast to the "wholeheartedness"--one may even use that word +in reference to the little bit of what we may call constructive +deception as to "the other person"--of those to her rival.[13] Those +to Pope (of which so shabby a use was made by their strangely +constituted recipient), to Bolingbroke and others are among the best +of friendly letters: and the curious batch to the Duchess of +Queensberry might be classed with those "court-paying" letters of man +to woman which are elsewhere more particularly noted. But the "Stella" +or "Stella-cum-Dingley" division (if that most singular of +value-completing zeros is to be brought in) is a thing by itself. +Perhaps appreciating or not appreciating the "little language" is a +matter very largely of personal constitution, and the failure to +appreciate is (like colour-blindness or other physical deficiencies) a +thing to be sorry for, not to condemn. But one might have thought that +even if what we may call "feeling" of this were absent there would be +an intellectual understanding of the way in which it completes the +whole-heartedness just mentioned--the manner in which the writer deals +with politics, society, letters, the common ways of life, and his own +passion--this last sometimes in the fore-sometimes in the background, +but never far off. Other letters, from Horace Walpole's downwards, may +contain a panorama of life as brilliant as these give, or more +brilliant. Yet it is too frequently a panorama or a puppet show, or at +the best a marvellously acted but somewhat bloodless drama. On the +other hand, the pure passion-letters lack as a rule this +many-sidedness. With Swift we get both. Seldom has any collection +shown us more varied interests. But through it all there is an +anticipation of the knell of this commerce of his--"Only a woman's +hair"--and that hair threads, in subtle fashion, the whole of the +Journal, turning the panorama to something felt as well as seen, and +the puppet-show to realities of flesh and blood. + +That this magical transforming element is wanting in a most remarkable +pair of contemporaries, Chesterfield and "Lady Mary," has been generally +allowed; though a strong fight has been made by some of her sisters for +"my lady" and though the soundest criticism allows that "my lord" did +not so much lack as dissemble heart and even sometimes showed the heart +he had. It would be out of our proper line to discuss such questions +here at any length. It may be enough to warn readers who have not yet +had time to look into the matter for themselves that Pope's coarse +attacks on Lady Mary and Johnson's fine rhetorical rebuff of +Chesterfield were unquestionably outbursts of hurt personal pride. +Horace Walpole made hits at both for reasons which we may call personal +at second-hand, because the one was a friend of his sister-in-law and +the other an enemy of his father. As for Dickens' caricature of "Sir +John Chester" in _Barnaby Rudge_ it is not so much a caricature as a +sheer and inexcusable libel. Anyhow, the letters of the Earl and the +Lady are exceedingly good reading. Persons of no advanced years who have +been introduced to them in the twentieth century have been known to find +them positively captivating: and their attractions are, not merely as +between the two but even in each case by itself, singularly various. +Lady Mary's forte--perhaps in direct following of her great forerunner +and part namesake, Marie de Sevigne, though she spoke inadvisedly of +her--lies in description of places and manners, and in literary +criticism.[14] Her accounts of her Turkish journey in earlier days, and +of some scenes in Italy later, of her court and other experiences, etc., +rank among the best things of the kind in English; and her critical +acuteness, assisted as it was by no small possession of what might +almost be called scholarship, was most remarkable for her time. Also, +she does all these things naturally--with that naturalness at +which--when they possess it at all--women are so much better than men. +People say a lady can never pass a glass without looking at herself. +(One thinks by the way one has seen men do that.) But after all what the +glass gives is a reflection and record of nature: and women learn to see +it in others as well as in themselves. + +[Sidenote: CHESTERFIELD] + +Few English writers have suffered more injustice in popular estimation +than Chesterfield. Even putting aside the abuse by which, as above +mentioned, Johnson showed (on Fluellen's principles convincingly) that +he had more in common with the Goddess Juno than the J in both their +names--that is to say an _insanabile vulnus_ of vanity--there remain +sources of mistakes and prejudice which have been all too freely tapped. +The miscellaneous letters--which show sides of him quite different from +those most in evidence throughout the "Letters to his Son"--are rarely +read: these latter have been, at least once and probably oftener, made +into a schoolbook for translation into other languages--an office by no +means likely to conciliate affection. And even when they are not +suspected of positive immorality there is a too general idea that they +are frivolously and trivially didactic--the sort of thing that Mr. +Turveydrop the elder might have written on Deportment--if he had had +brains enough. Yet again, unbiassed appreciation of them has been +hampered by all sorts of idle controversies as to the kind of man that +young Stanhope actually turned out to be--a point of merely gossiping +importance in any case, and, whatever be the facts of this one, having +no more to do with the merit of the letters than the other fact that +some people make mistakes in their accounts after having learnt the +multiplication table has to do with the value of that composition. As a +matter of relevant fact the letters--except (and even here the +accusations against them are much exaggerated) from the point of view of +very severe morality in regard to one or two points--perhaps no more +than one--are full of sound advice, clear common-sense, and ripe +experience of the world. The manners they recommend are not those of any +but a very exceptional "dancing master," they are those of a gentleman. +The temper that they inculcate and that they exhibit in the inculcator +is positively kindly and relatively correct. Both these and the other +batch of "Letters to his Godson" and successor in the Earldom (the Lord +Chesterfield for forging whose name Dr. Dodd was hanged) show the most +curious and unusual pains on the part of a man admitted to be in the +highest degree a man of the world, and sometimes accused of being +nothing else, to make himself intelligible and agreeable to young--at +first very young--boys. In his letters to older folk, both men and +women, qualities for which there was no room in the others arise--the +thoughts of a statesman and a philosopher, the feelings of a being quite +different from the callous, frivolous, sometimes "insolent"[15] +worldling who has been so often put in the place of the real +Chesterfield. And independently of all this there is present in all +these letters--though most attractively in those to his son--a power of +literary expression which would have made the fortune of any +professional writer of the time. If Chesterfield's literary taste was +too often decided by the fashionable limitations of this time, it was, +within those limitations, accomplished: and it was accompanied, as mere +taste very often is not, by no small command of literary production. He +could and did write admirable light verse; his wit in conversation is +attested in the most final fashion by his enemy Horace Walpole, and some +of the passages in the letters where he indulges in description or even +dialogue are by no means unworthy of the best genteel comedy of the +time. But he could also, as was said of someone else, be "nobly +serious," as in his "character" writing and elsewhere. His few +contributions to the half-developed periodical literature of his day +show how valuable he would have been to the more advanced Review or +Magazine of the nineteenth century: and if he had chosen to write +Memoirs they would probably have been among the best in English.[16] Now +the Memoir and the Letter are perhaps the most straitly and intimately +connected forms of literature. + +[Sidenote: HORACE WALPOLE] + +Horace Walpole--like his two contemporaries, fellow-members of English +aristocratic society, acquaintances and objects of aversion just +discussed--has been the subject of very various opinions. Johnson (of +whom he himself spoke with ignorant contempt and who did not know his +letters, but did know some of his now half-forgotten published works) +dismissed him with good-natured belittlement. Macaulay made him the +subject of some of the most unfortunately exaggerated of those +antitheses of blame and praise which, in the long run, have done the +writer more harm than his subjects. To take one example less likely to +be known to English readers, the wayward and prejudiced, but often very +acute French critic already mentioned, Barbey d'Aurevilly, though he +admits Horace's _esprit_ pronounces it _un fruit brillant, amer, et +glace_. There are undoubtedly many things to be said against him as a +man--if you take the "Letters-a-telltale-of-character" view, especially +so. He was certainly spiteful, and he had the particularly +awkward--though from one point of view not wholly unamiable--peculiarity +of being what may be called spiteful at second hand. To stand up for +your friends at the proper time and in the proper place is the duty, and +should be the pleasure, of every gentleman. But to bite and for the most +part, if not almost always, to _back_-bite your friends' supposed +enemies--often when they have done nothing adverse to those friends on +the particular occasion--is the act at the best of an intempestively +officious person, at the worst of a cur. And Horace was always doing +this in regard to all sorts of people--his abuse of Johnson himself, of +Chesterfield and Lady Mary, of Fielding and others, having no personal +excuse or reason whatsoever. + +His taste in collecting, building, etc., is not a matter in which men of +other times should be too ready to throw stones, for taste in all such +matters at almost all times, however sure a stronghold it may seem to +those who occupy it, is the most brittle of glass-houses to others. He +had also a considerable touch of almost original genius in important +kinds of literature, as _The Mysterious Mother_ and _The Castle of +Otranto_ showed--a touch which undoubtedly helped him in his letters. +But of critical power he had nothing at all; and his knowledge (save, +perhaps in Art) was anything but extensive and still less accurate. +Politically he was a mere baby, all the eighty years of his life; though +he passed many of them in the House of Commons and might have passed +several in the House of Lords, had he chosen to attend it. When he was +young he was a theoretical republican rejoicing in the execution of +Charles I.: when he was old the French Revolution was to him anathema +and he was horrified at the execution of Louis XVI. He was incapable of +sustaining, perhaps of understanding, an argument: everything with him +was a matter, as the defamers of women say it is with them, of personal +and arbitrary fancy, prejudice, or whim. + +But all this does not prevent him from being one of the best +letter-writers in the English language: and if you take bulk of work +along with variety of subject; maintenance of interest and craftsmanship +as well as bulk, perhaps the very best of all. The latest standard +edition of his letters, to which additions are still being made, is in +sixteen well-filled volumes, and there are probably few readers of good +taste and fair knowledge who would object if it could be extended to +sixty. There is perhaps no body of epistles except Madame de Sevigne's +own--which Horace fervently admired and, assisted perhaps by the +feminine element in his own nature, copied assiduously--exhibiting the +possible charm of letter-writing more distinctly or more copiously. + +To examine the nature of this charm a little cannot be irrelevant in +such an Introduction as this: and from what has just been said it would +seem that these letters will form as good a specimen for examination as +any. They are not very much "mannerised": indeed, nobody but Thackeray, +in the wonderful chapter of _The Virginians_ where Horace is made to +describe his first interview with one of the heroes, has ever quite +imitated them. Their style, though recognisable at once, is not a matter +so much of phrase as of attitude. His revelations of character--his own +that is to say, for Horace was no conjuror with any one else's--are +constant but not deeply drawn. He cannot, or at least does not, give a +plot of any kind: every letter is a sort of _review_ of the +subject--larger or smaller--from the really masterly accounts of the +trial of the Jacobite Lords after the "Forty-five" to the most trivial +notices of people going to see "Strawberry"; of remarkable hands at +cards; of Patty Blount (Pope's Patty) in her autumn years passing his +windows with her gown tucked up because of the rain. Art and letters +appear; travelling and visiting; friendship and society; curious belated +love-making with the Miss Berrys; scandal (a great deal of it); charity +(a little, but more than the popular conception of Horace allows for); +the court-calendar, club life, almost all manner of things except +religion (though it is said Horace had an early touch of Methodism) and +really serious thought of any kind, form the budget of his letter-bag. +And it is all handled with the most unexpected equality of success. +There is of course nothing very "arresting." Cooking chickens in a sort +of picnic with madcap ladies, and expecting "the dish to fly about our +ears" is perhaps the most exciting incident[17] of the sixteen volumes +and seven or eight thousand pages. But everywhere there is interest; and +that of a kind that does not stale itself. + +The fact would seem to be that the art of letter-writing is a sort of +mosaic or macedoine of nearly all departments of the general Art of +Literature. You want constant touches of the art narrative, and not very +seldom some of the art dramatic. Always you want that of +conversation--subtly differentiated. Occasionally, though in the +ordinary letter not very often, you want argument: much oftener +description. Pathos, tenderness, etc., are more exceptionally required: +and it is, in modern times at least, generally accepted that in the +letter consolatory, that almost greatest of Shakespearian magic phrases, +"the rest is silence" should never be forgotten and very quickly +applied. Wit is welcome, if it be well managed: but that is a pretty +constant proviso in regard to the particular element. Perhaps the +greatest negative caution of all is that the letter should not be +_obviously_ "written for publication." + +Now the curious thing about Walpole is that his letters were, pretty +certainly in some cases (those to Mann) and not improbably in nearly +all, written with some view to publication if only of a limited sort, +and yet that the intention is rarely prominent to an offensive degree. +Even if we did not know the curious and disgusting tricks that Pope +played with his, we should be certain that he was always thinking of the +possibility of somebody else than the reader to whom they were +addressed reading them. With nearly an equal presumption as to the fact +in the case of Horace (though to do him justice he did not indulge in +any ignoble tricks with them) this fact rarely occurs and never offends. +An unkind critic with a turn for rather obvious epigram might say that +the man's nature was so artificial that his artifice seems natural. If +so, all the more credit to him as an artificer. And another feather in +his cap is that, although you can hardly ever mistake the writer, his +letters take a slight but sufficient colour of difference according to +the personality of the recipient. He does not write to Montagu exactly +as he writes to Mann; to Gray as to Mason; to Lady Upper-Ossory as to +earlier she-correspondents. So once more, though there are large and +important possible subjects for letters on which "Horry" does not write +at all, it is questionable whether, everything being counted in that he +has, and no unfair offsets allowed for what he does not attempt, we have +in English any superior to him as a letter-writer. + +[Sidenote: GRAY] + +The case of another famous eighteenth-century epistoler--Walpole's +schoolfellow and except for the time of a quarrel (the blame of which +Horace rather generously took upon himself but in which there were +doubtless faults on both sides)[18] life-long friend--is curiously +different. Gray was a poet, while Walpole, save for a touch of fantastic +imagination, had nothing of poetry in him and could not, as some who +are not poets can, even appreciate it. In more than one other +intellectual gift he soared above Horace. He was essentially a scholar, +while his friend was as essentially a sciolist. He even combined the +scientific with the literary temperament to a considerable extent: and +thus was enabled to display an orderliness of thought by no means +universal in men of letters, and (at least according to common +estimation) positively rare in poets. His tastes were as various as his +friend's: but instead of being a mere bundle of casual likings and +dislikings, they were aesthetically conceived and connected. He was not +exactly an amiable person: indeed, though there was less spitefulness in +him than in Horace there was, perhaps, more positive "bad blood." As for +the feature in his character, or at least conduct, that impressed itself +so much on Mr. Matthew Arnold--that he "never spoke out"--it might be +thought, if it really existed, to have been rather fatal to +letter-writing, in which a sense of constraint and "keeping back" is one +of the very last things to be desired. And some of the positive +characteristics and accomplishments above enumerated (not the +poetry--poets have usually been good epistolers) might not seem much +more suitable. + +As a matter of fact, however, Gray _is_ a good letter-writer--a very +good letter-writer indeed. His letters, as might be expected from what +has been said, carry much heavier metal than Horace's; but in another +sense they are not in the least heavy. They are very much less in bulk +than those of the longer lived and more "scriblative" though hardly more +leisured writer:[19] and--as not a defect but a consequence of the +quality just attributed to them--they do not quite carry the reader +along with them in that singular fashion which distinguishes the others. +But no one save a dunce can find them dull: and their variety is +astonishing when one remembers that the writer was, for great part of +his life, a kind of recluse. He touches almost everything except love +(one wonders whether there were any unpublished, and feels pretty sure +that there must have been some unwritten, letters to Miss Speed which +would have filled the gap) and with a result of artistic success even +more decided than that assigned to Goldsmith's versatility by Gray's +enemy or at least "incompatible" Johnson.[20] His letters of travel are +admirable: his accounts of public affairs, though sometimes extremely +prejudiced, very clever; those of University society and squabbles among +the very best that we have in English; those touching "the picturesque" +extremely early and remarkably clear-sighted; those touching literature +among the least one-sided of their time. If there are, as observed or +hinted above, some unamiable touches, his persistent protection of the +poor creature Mason; his general attitude to his friends the Whartons; +and his communications with younger men like Norton Nicholls and +Bonstetten, go far to remove, or, at least, to counterbalance, the +impression. + +This last division indeed, and the letters to Mason, emphasize what is +evident enough in almost all, a freedom on his part (which from some +things in his character and history we might not altogether have +expected) from a fault than which hardly any is more disagreeable in +letters. This is the manifestation of what is called, in various more or +less familiar terms, "giving oneself airs," "side," "patronising," etc. +He may sometimes come near this pitfall of "intellectuals," but he never +quite slips into it, being probably preserved by that sense of humour +which he certainly possessed, though he seldom gave vent to it in verse +and not very often in prose. Taking them altogether, Gray's letters may +be said to have few superiors in the combination of intellectual weight +and force with "pastime" interest. To some of course they may be chiefly +or additionally interesting because of such light as they throw or +withhold on a rather problematic character, but this, like the allegory +in Spenser according to Hazlitt, "won't bite" anyone who lets it alone. +They are extremely good letters to read: and the more points of interest +they provide for any reader the better for that reader himself. Once +more too, they illustrate the principle laid down at the beginning of +this paper. They are good letters because they are, with the usual +subtle difference necessary, like very good talk, recorded.[21] + +[Sidenote: COWPER] + +Nor is there any more doubt about the qualifications of the fifth of our +selected eighteenth-century letter-writers. Cowper's poetry has gone +through not very strongly marked but rather curious variations of +critical estimate. Like all transition writers he was a little too much +in front of the prevailing taste of his own time, and a little too much +behind that of the time immediately succeeding. There may have been a +very brief period, before the great romantic poets of the early +nineteenth century became known, when he "drove" young persons like +Marianne Dashwood "wild": but Marianne Dashwoods and their periods +succeed and do not resemble each other.[22] He had probably less hold on +this time--when he had the best chance of popularity--than Crabbe, one +of his own group, while he was destitute of the extraordinary +appeals--which might be altogether unrecognised for a time but when felt +are unmistakable--of the other two, Burns and Blake, of the poets of the +seventeen-eighties. His religiosity was a doubtful "asset" as people say +nowadays: and even his pathetic personal history had its awkward side. +But as to his letters there has hardly at any time, since they became +known, existed a difference of opinion among competent judges. There may +be some unfortunates for whom they are too "mild": but we hardly reckon +as arbiters of taste the people for whom even brandy is too mild unless +you empty the cayenne cruet into it. Moreover the "tea-pot pieties" (as +a poet-critic who ought to have known better once scornfully called +them) make no importunate appearance in the bulk of the correspondence: +while as regards the madness this supplies one of the most puzzling and +perhaps not the least disquieting of "human documents." A reader may +say--by no means in his haste, but after consideration--not merely +"Where is the slightest sign of insanity in these?" but "How on earth +did it happen that the writer of these _ever_ went mad?" even with the +assistance of Newton, and Teedon, and, one has to say, Mrs. Unwin. + +For among the characteristics of Cowper's letters at their frequent and +pretty voluminous best, are some that seem not merely inconsistent with +insanity, but likely to be positive antidotes to and preservatives from +it. There is a quiet humour--not of the fantastic kind which, as in +Charles Lamb, forces us to admit the possibility of near alliance to +_over_-balance of mind--but _counter_-balancing, antiseptic, _salt_. +There is abundant if not exactly omnipresent common-sense; excellent +manners; an almost total absence in that part of the letters which we +are now considering of selfishness, and a total absence of +ill-nature.[23] It is no business of ours here to embark on the problem, +"What was the dram of eale" that ruined all this and more "noble +substance" in Cowper? though there is not much doubt about the agency +and little about the principal agents that effected the mischief. But it +is quite relevant to point out that all the good things noticed are +things distinctly and definitely good for letter-writing. And sometimes +one cannot help regretfully wondering whether, if he--who dealt so +admirably with such interests as were open to him--had had more and +wider ones to deal with, _we_ should not have had still more varied and +still more delightful letters, and _he_ would have escaped the terrible +fate that fell on him. For although Cowper was the reverse of selfish +in the ordinary sense, he was intensely self-centred, and his life gave +too much opportunity for that excessive self-concentration which is the +very hotbed of mental disease. + +It is not a little surprising from this point of view, and it perhaps +shows how imperative the letter-writing faculty is when it is +possessed--that Cowper's letters are as good as they are: while that +point of view also helps us to understand why they are sometimes not so +good. + + Of all the floating thoughts we find + Upon the surface of the mind, + +as he himself very happily sums up the subjects of letter-writing, there +are few in his case which are of more unequal value than his criticisms. +Cowper had more than one of the makings of a critic, and a very +important critic. He was, or at any rate had been once, something of a +scholar; he helped to effect and (which is not always or perhaps even +often the case) helped _knowingly_ to effect, one of the most +epoch-making changes in English literature. But for the greater part of +his life he read very little; he had little chance of anything like +literary discussion with his peers; and accordingly his critical remarks +are random, uncoordinated, and mostly a record of what struck him at the +moment in the way of like and dislike, agreement or disagreement. + +But then there is nothing that we go for to Cowper as a letter-writer so +little as for things of this kind: and even things of this kind take the +benefit of what Coleridge happily called--and what everybody has since +wisely followed Coleridge in calling--his "divine chit-chat." As with +Walpole--though with that difference of idiosyncrasy which all the best +things have from one another--it does not in the least matter what, +among mundane affairs at least, Cowper was talking about. If his +conversation--and some of the few _habitues_ of Olney say it was--was +anything like his letter-writing, it is no wonder that people sat over +even breakfast for an hour to "satisfy sentiment not appetite" as they +said with that slight touch of priggishness which has been visited upon +them heavily, but which perhaps had more to do with their merits than +more mannerless periods will allow. + +And not even Walpole's show to quite the same degree, that extraordinary +power of making anything interesting--of entirely transcending the +subject--which belongs to the letter-writer in probably a greater +measure than to any man-of-letters in the other sense, except the poet. +The matter which these letters have to chronicle is often the very +smallest of small beer. The price, conveyance and condition of the fish +his correspondents buy for him or give him (Cowper was very fond of fish +and lived, before railways, in the heart of the Midlands); one of the +most uneventful of picnics; hares and hair (one of his most +characteristic pieces of quietly ironic humour is a brief descant on +wigs with a suggestion that fashion should decree the cutting off of +people's own legs and the substitution of artificial ones); the height +of chairs and candlesticks--anything will do. He remarks gravely +somewhere, "What nature expressly designed me for, I have never been +able to conjecture; I seem to myself so universally disqualified for the +common and customary occupations and amusements of mankind." Perhaps +poetry--at least poetry of the calibre of "Yardley Oak," and "The +Castaway," of "Boadicea" and the "Royal George" in one division; of +"John Gilpin" in the other, may not be quite properly classed among the +"common and customary occupations of mankind." But letter-writing might +without great impropriety be so classed: and there cannot be the +slightest doubt that Nature intended Cowper for a letter-writer. Whether +he writes "The passages and events of the day as well as of the night +are little better than dreams" or "An almost general cessation of +egg-laying among the hens has made it impossible for Mrs. Unwin to +enterprise a cake" one has (but perhaps a little more vividly) that +agreeable sensation which at one time visited Tennyson's Northern +Farmer. One "thinks he's said what he ought to 'a said" in the exact +manner in which he ought to have said it. + +[Sidenote: MINORS] + +It is however most important to remember that these Five are only, as it +were, commanding officers of the great Army, representative of the very +numerous constituents, who do the service and enjoy the franchise of +letter-writing in the eighteenth century. There is hardly a writer of +distinction in any other kind whose letters are not noteworthy; and +there are very numerous letter-writers of interest who are scarcely +distinguished in any other way. Perhaps Fielding disappoints us most in +this section by the absence of correspondence, all the more so that the +"Voyage to Lisbon" is practically letter-stuff of the best. From +Smollett also we might have more--especially more like his letter to +Wilkes on the subject of the supposed impressment of Johnson's negro +servant Frank, which we hope to give here. Sterne's character would +certainly be better if his astonishing daughter had suppressed some of +his epistles, but it would be much less distinct, and they are often, if +sometimes discreditably so, amusing if not edifying. The vast mass of +Richardson's correspondence would correspond in another sense to the +volume of his novels. We have letters from Berkeley at the beginning and +others from Gibbon at the end--these last peculiarly valuable, because, +as sometimes but not perhaps very often happens, they do not merely +illustrate but supplement and complete the published work. From ladies, +courtly, domestic, literary and others, we have shelves--and cases--and +almost libraries full; from the lively chat of the Lepels and Bellendens +and Howards of the early Georgian time to those copious and unstudied +but never dull, compositions which Fanny Burney poured forth to "Susan +and Fredy," to Maria Allen and to "Daddy Crisp" and a score of others; +those of the Montagu circle; the documents upon which some have based +aspersion and others defence of Mrs. Thrale; and the prose utterances of +the "Swan of Lichfield," otherwise Miss Seward.[24] There are +Shenstone's letters for samples of one kind and those of the Revd. Mr. +Warner (the supposed original of Thackeray's Parson Sampson) for another +and very different one. Even outside the proper and real "mail-bag" +letter all sorts of writings--travels, pamphlets, philosophical and +theological arguments, almost everything--throw themselves into the +letter form. To come back to that with which we began there is no doubt +that the eighteenth century is the century of the letter with us. + + + + +IV + +NINETEENTH CENTURY LETTERS. EARLY + + +[Sidenote: EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY GROUPS] + +There is, however, not the slightest intention of suggesting here that +the art of letter-writing died with the century in which it flourished +so greatly. In the first place, periods of literary art seldom or never +"die" in a moment like a tropical sunset; and, in the second, the notion +that centennial years necessarily divide such periods, as well as the +centuries in which they appear, is an unhistorical delusion. There have +been dates in our history--1400 was one of them--where something of the +kind seems to have happened: but they are very rare. Most ships of +literature at such times are fortunately what is called in actual ships +"clinker-built"--that is to say overlappingly--and except at 1600 this +has never been so much the case as two hundred years later and one +hundred ago. When the eighteenth century closed, Wordsworth, Coleridge, +Scott and Southey were men approaching more or less closely, thirty +years of age. Landor, Hazlitt, Lamb and Moore were at least, and some of +them well, past the conventional "coming of age"; De Quincey, Byron and +Shelley were boys and even Keats was more than an infant. In the first +mentioned of these groups there was still very marked eighteenth-century +idiosyncrasy; in the second some; and it was by no means absent from +Byron though hardly present at all in most respects as regards Shelley +and Keats. Certainly in none of the groups, and only in one or two +individuals, is there much if any shortcoming as concerns +letter-writing. Wordsworth indeed makes no figure as a letter-writer, +and nobody who has appreciated his other work would expect him to do so. +The first requisite of the letter-writer is "freedom"--in a rather +peculiar sense of that word, closest to the way in which it has been +employed by some religious sects. Wordsworth could _preach_--nearly +always in a manner deserving respect and sometimes in one commanding +almost infinite admiration; but when the letter-writer begins to preach +he is in danger of the waste-paper basket or the fire. Coleridge's +letters are fairly numerous and sometimes very good: but more than one +of his weaknesses appears in them. + +The excellence of Scott's, though always discoverable in Lockhart, was +perhaps never easily appreciable till they were separately collected and +published not very many years ago. It may indeed be suggested that the +"Life and Letters" system, though very valuable as regards the "Life" is +apt a little to obscure the excellence of the "Letters" themselves. Of +this particular collection it is not too much to say that while it threw +not the least stain on the character of one of the most faultless (one +singular and heavily punished lapse excepted) of men of letters, it +positively enhanced our knowledge of the variety of his literary powers. + +Perhaps however the best of letter-writers amongst these four +protagonists of the great Romantic Revival in England (the inevitable +attempt sometimes made now to quarrel with that term is as inevitably +silly) is the least good poet. Southey's letters, never yet fully but +very voluminously published, have not been altogether fortunate in +their fashion of publication. There have been questionings about the +propriety of "Selected" Works; but there surely can be little doubt that +in the case of Letters a certain amount of selection is not only +justifiable but almost imperative. Everyone at all addicted to +correspondence must know that in writing to different people on the same +or closely adjacent days, if "anything has" in the common phrase +"happened" he is bound to repeat himself. He may, if he has the sense of +art, take care to vary his phrase even though he knows that no two +letters will have the same reader; but he cannot vary his matter much. +Southey's letters, in the two collections by his son and his son-in-law, +were edited without due regard to this: and the third--those to Caroline +Bowles, his second wife--might have been "thinned" in a different way. +But the bulk of interesting matter is still very large and the quality +of the presentation is excellent. If anyone fears to plunge into some +dozen volumes let him look at the "Cats" and the "Statues" of Greta +Hall, printed at the end of the _Doctor_, but both in form and nature +letters. He will not hesitate much longer, if he knows good letter-stuff +when he sees it.[25] + +[Sidenote: LANDOR] + +Most of the second group wrote letters worth reading, but only one of +them reaches the first rank in the art; it is true that he is among the +first _of_ the first. The letters of Landor supply not the least part of +that curious problem which is presented by his whole work. They +naturally give less room than the _apices_ of his regular prose and of +his poetry for that marvellous perfection of style and phrase which is +allowed even by those who complain of a want of substance in him. And +another complaint of his "aloofness" affects them in two ways rather +damagingly. When it is present it cuts at the root of one of the chief +interests of letters, which is intimacy. When it is absent, and Landor +presents himself in his well-known character of an angry baby (as for +instance when he remarked of the Bishop who did not do something he +wanted, that "God alone is great enough for him [Walter Savage Landor] +to ask anything of _twice_") he becomes merely--or perhaps to very +amiable folk rather painfully--ridiculous. De Quincey and Hazlitt +diverted a good deal of what might have been utilised as mere +letter-writing faculty into their very miscellaneous work for +publication. Moore could write very good letters himself: but is perhaps +most noted and notable in connection with the subject as being one of +the earliest and best "Life-and-Letters" craftsmen in regard to Byron. + +But none of these restrictions or provisos is requisite, or could for a +moment be thought of, in reference to Charles Lamb. Of him, as of hardly +any other writer of great excellence (perhaps Thackeray is most like him +in this way) it can be said that if we had nothing but his letters we +should almost be able to detect the qualities which he shows in his +regular works. Some of the _Essays of Elia_ and his other miscellanies +are or pretend to be actual letters. Certainly not a few of his letters +would seem not at all strange and by no means unable to hold up their +heads, if they had appeared as Essays of that singularly fortunate +Italian who had his name taken, _not_ in vain but in order to be titular +author of some of the choicest things in literature. + +Indeed that unique combination of bookishness and native fancy which +makes the "Eliesque" quality is obviously as well suited to the letter +as to the essay, and would require but a stroke or two of the pen, in +addition or deletion, to produce examples of either. One often feels as +if it must have been, as the saying goes, a toss-up whether the _London +Magazine_ or some personal friend got a particular composition; whether +it was issued to the public direct or waited for Serjeant Talfourd to +collect and edit it. The two English writers whom, on very different +sides of course, Lamb most resembles, and whom he may be said to have +copied (of course as genius copies) most, are Sterne and Sir Thomas +Browne. But between the actual letters and the actual works of these +two, themselves, there is a great difference, while (as has just been +noted) in Lamb's case there is none. The reason of course is that though +Sir Thomas is one of our very greatest authors and the Reverend Yorick +not by any means unplaced in the running for greatness, both are in the +highest degree artificial: while Lamb's way of writing, complex as it +is, necessitating as it must have done not a little reading and (as +would seem almost necessary) not a little practice, seems to run as +naturally as a child's babble. The very tricks--mechanical dots, dashes, +aposiopeses--which offend us now and then in Sterne; the unfamiliar +Latinisms which frighten some and disgust others in Browne, drop from +Lamb's lips or pen like the pearls of the Fairy story. Unless you are +born out of sympathy with Elia, you never think about them as tricks at +all. Now this naturalness--it can hardly be said too often here--is the +one thing needful in letters. The different forms of it may be as +various and as far apart from each other as those of the other Nature +in flora or fauna, on mountain and sea, in field and town. But if it is +there, all is right. + +[Sidenote: BYRON] + +There are few more interesting groups in the population of our subject +than that formed by the three poets whom we mentioned last when +classifying the epistolers of the early nineteenth century. There is +hardly one of them who has not been ranked by some far from contemptible +judgments among our greatest as poets; and merely as letter-writers they +have been put correspondingly high by others or the same. It is rather +curious that the most contested as to his place as a poet has been, as a +rule, allowed it most easily as a letter-writer. The enormous vogue +which Byron's verse at once attained both at home and abroad--has at +home if not abroad (where reputations of poets often depend upon +extra-poetical causes) long ceased to be undisputed: indeed has chiefly +been sustained by spasmodic and not too successful exertions of +individuals. It was never, of course, paralleled in regard to his +letters. But these letters early obtained high repute and have never, in +the general estimate, lost it. Some good judges even among those who do +not care very much for the poems, have gone so far as to put him among +our very best epistolers; and few have put him very much lower. +Acceptance of the former estimate certainly--perhaps even of the +latter--depends however upon the extent to which people can also accept +recognition in Byron of the qualities of "Sincerity and Strength." That +he was always a great though often a careless craftsman, and sometimes a +great artist in literature, nobody possessed of the slightest critical +ability can deny or doubt. But there are some who shake their heads over +the attribution of anything like "sincerity" to him, except very +occasionally: and who if they had to translate his "strength" into Greek +would select the word _Bia_ ("violence") and not the word _Kratos_ +(simple "strength") from the _dramatis personae_ of the _Prometheus +Vinctus_. Now "sincerity" of a kind--even of that kind which we found in +Walpole and did not find in Pope--has been contended for here as a +necessity in the best, if not in all good, letters; and "violence" is +almost fatal to them. Of a certain kind of letter Byron was no doubt a +skilful practitioner.[26] But to some it will or may always seem that +the vital principle of his correspondence is to that of the real "Best" +as stage life to life off the stage. These two can sometimes approach +each other marvellously: but they are never the same thing. + +[Sidenote: SHELLEY] + +When Mr. Matthew Arnold expressed the opinion that Shelley's letters +were more valuable than his poetry it was, of course, as Lamb said of +Coleridge "only his fun." In the words of another classic, he "did it to +annoy, because he knew it teased" some people. The absurdity is perhaps +best antagonised by the perfectly true remark that it only shows that +Mr. Arnold understood the letters and did not understand the poetry. But +it was a little unfortunate, not for the poetry but for the letters, +against which it might create a prejudice. They are so good that they +ought not to have been made victims of what in another person the same +judge would have called, and rightly, a _saugrenu_[27] judgment. Like +all good letters--perhaps all without exception according to Demetrius +and Newman--they carry with them much of their author's idiosyncrasy, +but in a fashion which should help to correct certain misjudgments of +that idiosyncrasy itself. Shelley _is_ "unearthly," but it is an entire +mistake to suppose that his unearthliness can never become earthly to +such an extent as is required. The beginning of _The Recollection_ ("We +wandered to the pine forest") is as vivid a picture of actual scenery as +ever appeared on the walls of any Academy: and _The Witch of Atlas_ +itself, not to mention the portrait-frescoes in _Adonais_, is quite a +_waking_ dream. The quality of liveness is naturally still more +prominent in the letters, because poetical transcendence of fact is not +there required to accompany it. But it _does_ accompany now and then; +and the result is a blend or brand of letter-writing almost as unlike +anything else as the writer's poetry, and in its own (doubtless lower) +kind hardly less perfect. To prefer the letters to the poems is merely +foolish, and to say that they are as good as the poems is perhaps +excessive. But they comment and complete the Shelley of the Poems +themselves in a manner for which we cannot be too thankful. + +[Sidenote: KEATS] + +The letters of Keats did not attract much notice till long after those +of Byron, and no short time after those of Shelley, had secured it. This +was by no means wholly, though it may have been to some extent +indirectly, due to the partly stupid and partly malevolent attempts to +smother his poetical reputation in its cradle. The letters were +inaccessible till the late Lord Houghton practically resuscitated Keats; +and till other persons--rather in the "Codlin not Short" manner--rushed +in to correct and supplement Mr. Milnes as he then was. And it was even +much later still before two very different editors, Sir Sidney Colvin +and the late Mr. Buxton Forman, completed, or nearly so, the +publication. Something must be said and may be touched on later in +connection with a very important division of our subject in general, as +to the publication by the last-named, of the letters to Fanny Brawne: +but nothing in detail need be written, and it is almost needless to say +that none of these letters will appear here. No one but a brute who is +also something of a fool will think any the worse of Keats for writing +them. A thought of _sunt lacrimae rerum_ is all the price that need be +paid by any one who chooses to read them, nor is it our business to +characterise at length the taste and wits of the person who could +publish them.[28] + +But putting this question aside, it is unquestionable that for some +years past there has been a tendency to value the Letters as a whole +very highly. Not only has unusual critical power been claimed for Keats +on the strength of them, but general epistolary merit; and though +nobody, so far as one knows, has yet paralleled the absurdity above +mentioned in the case of Shelley, Keats has been taken by some +credit-worthy judges as an unusually strong witness to the truth of the +proposition already adopted here, that poets are good letter-writers. + +He certainly is no exception to the rule; but to what exact extent he +exemplifies it may not be a matter to be settled quite off hand. There +is no doubt that at his best Keats is excellent in this way, and that +best is perhaps to be found with greatest certainty, by anyone who +wants to dip before plunging, in the letters to his brother and +sister-in-law, George and Georgiana. Those to his little sister Fanny +are also charming in their way, though the peculiar and very happy +mixture of life and literature to be found in the others does not, of +course, occur in them. His letters of description, to whomsoever +written, are, as one might expect, first-rate; and the very late +specimen--one of his very last to anyone--to _Mrs._ not Miss Brawne is +as brave as it is touching. As for the criticism, there are undoubtedly +(as again we should expect from the author of the wonderful preface to +_Endymion_) invaluable remarks--the inspiration of poetical practice +turned into formulas of poetical theory. On the other hand, the famous +advice to Shelley to "be more of an artist and load every rift with +ore"--Shelley whose art transcends artistry and whose substance is as +the unbroken nugget gold, so that there are no rifts in it to load--is, +even when one remembers how often poets misunderstand each other,[29] +rather "cold water to the back" of admiration. + +It may, however, not unfairly introduce a very few considerations on the +side of Keats's letters which is not so good. All but idolaters +acknowledge a certain boyishness in him--a boyishness which is in fact +no mean source contributary of his charm in verse. It is perhaps not +always quite so charming in prose, and especially in letters. You do not +want self-criticism of an obviously second-thought kind in them. But you +do want that less obtrusive variety which prevents them from appearing +unkempt, "down-at-heel" etc. Perhaps there is, at any rate in the +earlier letters, something of this unkemptness in Keats as an epistoler. + +A hasty person may say "What! do you venture to quarrel with letters +where, side by side with agreeable miscellaneous details, you may +suddenly come upon the original and virgin text of 'La Belle Dame sans +Merci'?" Most certainly not. Such a find, or one ten times less +precious, would make one put up with accompaniments much more than ten +times worse than the worst of Keats's letters. But it may be observed +that the objection is only a fresh example of the unfortunate +tendency[30] of mankind to "ignore elenchs" as the logicians say, or, as +less pedantic phraseology has it, to talk beside the question. A man +might put a thousand pound note (and you might spend many thousand pound +notes without buying anything like the poem just mentioned) in a coarse, +vulgar, trivial or in other ways objectionable letter. The note would be +most welcome in itself, but it would not improve the quality of its +covering epistle. Not, of course, that Keats's letters are coarse or +vulgar, though they are sometimes rather trivial. But the point is that +their excellency, _as_ letters, does not depend on their enclosures (as +we may call them) or even directly on their importance as biography +which is certainly consummate. Are they good letters as such, and of how +much goodness? Have they been presented as letters should be presented +for reading? These are points on which, considering the title and range +of this Introduction, it may not be improper to offer a few +observations. We have already ventured to suggest that, if not the "be +all and end all," at any rate the quality to be first enquired into as +to its presence or its absence in letters, is "naturalness." And we have +said something as to the propriety or impropriety of different modes of +editing and publishing them. The present division of the subject seems +to afford a specially good text for adding something more on both these +matters. + +As to the first point, the text is specially good because of the +position of Keats in the most remarkable group in which we have rather +found than placed him. To the present writer, as a reader, it seems, as +has been already said whether justly or unjustly, that the element of +"naturalness"--it is an ugly word, and French has no better, in fact +none at all: though German is a little luckier with _natuerlichkeit_ and +Spanish much with _naturaleza_--is rather conspicuously deficient in +Byron. In Shelley it is pre-eminent, and can only be missed by those who +have no kindred touch of the nature which it reflects. Shelley could be +vague, unpractical, mystical; he could sometimes be just a little silly; +but it was no more possible for him to be affected, or to make those +slips of taste which are a sort of _minus_ corresponding to the _plus_ +of affectation, than it was (after _Queen Mab_ at least) to write +anything that was not poetry. Thus in addition to the literary +perfection of his letters, they have the _sine qua non_ of naturalness +in perfection also. + +But with Keats things are different. Opinions differ as to whether he +ever quite reached maturity even in poetry to the extent into which +Shelley struck straight with _Alastor_, never losing it afterwards, and +leaving us only to wonder what conceivable accomplishment might have +even transcended _Adonais_ and its successors. That with all his +marvellous promise and hardly less marvellous achievement, Keats was +only reaching maturity when he died has been generally allowed by the +saner judgments.[31] Now _im_maturity has perhaps its own naturalness +which is sometimes, and in a way, very charming, but is not the +naturalness pure and simple of maturity. Children are sometimes, nay +often, very pretty, agreeable and amusing things: but there comes a time +when we rather wish they would go to the nursery. Perhaps the +"sometimes" occurs with Keats's earlier letters if not with his later. + +[Sidenote: EDITING OF LETTERS] + +He is thus also a text for the second part of our sermon--the duty of +editors and publishers of correspondence. There is much to be said for +the view that publication, as it has been put, "is an unpardonable sin," +that is to say, that no author (or rather no author's ghost) can justly +complain if what he once deliberately published is, when all but the +control of the dead hand is off, republished. _Il l'a voulu_, as the +famous tag from Moliere has it. But letters in the stricter sense--that +is to say, pieces of private correspondence--are in very different case. +Not only were they, save in very few instances, never _meant_ for +publication: but, which is of even more importance, they were never +_prepared_ for publication.[32] Not only, again, did the writer never +see them in "proof," much less in "revise," as the technical terms go, +but he never, so far as we know, exercised on them even the revision +which all but the most careless authors give before sending their +manuscripts to the printer. Some people of course do read over their +letters before sending them: but it must be very rarely and in special, +not to say dubious, cases that they do this with a view to the thing +being seen by any other eyes than those of the intended recipient. It is +therefore to the last degree unfair to plump letters on the market +unselected and uncastigated. To what length the castigation should +proceed is of course matter for individual taste and judgment. Nothing +must be put in--that is clear; but as to what may or should be left out, +"there's the rub." Perhaps the best criterion, though it may be admitted +to be not very easy of application, is "Would the author, in publishing, +have left it out or not?" Sometimes this will pass very violent +expressions of opinion and even sentiments of doubtful morality and +wisdom. But that it should invariably exclude mere trivialities, faults +of taste, slovenlinesses of expression, etc., is at least the opinion of +the present writer. And a "safety razor" of such things might perhaps +with advantage have been used on Keats's, though he has written nothing +which is in the least discreditable to him. + + + + +V + +NINETEENTH CENTURY LETTERS. LATER + + +[Sidenote: A NINETEENTH CENTURY GROUP] + +Part at least of these general remarks has a very special relevance to +the rest of our story. There may be differences of respectable opinion +as to the system of editing just advocated; but they will hardly concern +one point--that the susceptibilities of living persons must be +considered. To some extent indeed this is a mere counsel of selfish +prudence: for an editor who neglects it may get himself into serious +difficulties. Even where such danger does not exist, or might perhaps be +disregarded, it is impossible for any decent person to run the risk of +needlessly offending others. It will be seen at once that this +introduces a new matter for consideration in regard to most--practically +all--of the correspondences which we have still to survey. Even those +just discussed have only recently passed from under its range. Shelley's +son died not so very long ago: grandchildren of Byron much more +recently; and if Keats had lived to the ordinary age of man and had, as +he very likely would have done, married not Fanny Brawne, but somebody +else later, a son or daughter of his (daughters are particularly and +sometimes inconveniently loyal to their deceased parents) might be alive +and flourishing now. As this constraint extends not merely to the +families of the writers but to those of persons mentioned by them (not +to speak of these persons themselves in the most recent cases), it +exercises, as will at once be seen, a most wide-ranging cramp and brake +upon publication. Blunders are occasionally made of course: the most +remarkable in recent times was probably an oversight of the editor of +Edward FitzGerald's letters, than which hardly any more interesting +exist among those yet to be noticed. FitzGerald, quite innocently and +without the slightest personal malevolence but thinking only of Mrs. +Browning's work, had expressed himself (as anybody might in a private +letter) to the effect that perhaps we need not be sorry for her death. +Unfortunately the letter was published while her husband was still +alive: and many people must remember the very natural and excusable, but +somewhat excessive and undignified, explosion which followed on his +part. + +Such things must of course be avoided at all costs; and the consequence +is that nineteenth century letters must frequently--in fact with rare if +any exceptions--have appeared in a condition of expurgation which cannot +but have affected their spirit and savour to a very considerable extent. +It is for instance understood that Mr. Matthew Arnold's were very +severely censored; and, while readily believing this and acquiescing in +its probable propriety, the old Adam in some readers may be unable to +refrain from regret. + +Again, there is something to be said about the less good effects of that +"Life-and-Letters" system which has been quite rightly welcomed and +praised for its better ones. Drawing on the Letters--with good material +to work on and good skill in the worker--improves the Life enormously; +but it is by no means certain--indeed it has been hinted already--that +the Letters themselves do not to a certain extent lose by it. Indeed +from one point of view, the word "loss" may be used in its most literal +meaning. The compiler of one very famous biography was said, for +instance, to have--with a disregard of the value of letters as +autographs which was magnificent perhaps in one way but far from "the +game" in others--cut up the actual sheets and pasted the pieces on his +manuscript, sending the whole to the printers and chancing the survival +even of what was sent, when it came back with the proofs. + +But there is another sense of "loss" which has also to be reckoned. The +framework of biography is, or at least ought to be, something more than +a mere frame: and it distracts attention from the letters themselves, +breaks up their continuous effect, and in many cases necessitates at +least occasional omission of parts which an editor of them by themselves +would not think of excluding. Of course this is no argument against the +plan as such: but it has, together with what was said recently, to be +taken into account when we compare the epistolary position of the last +century with that of its immediate predecessor.[33] + +These remarks are made not in the least by way of depreciating or even +making an apology for nineteenth century letters, but only in order to +put the reader in a proper state for critical estimation of them. Nor is +it necessary to repeat--still less to discuss--the more general +lamentations with some reference to which we started as to any decay of +letter-writing. Provisos and warnings may be taken as having been made +sufficiently: and we pass to the actual survey. + +It may have been noticed in reference to the principal group of +letter-writers in the eighteenth that, with the exception of Cowper, +they were all acquainted with each other. Walpole knew Lady Mary, +Chesterfield and Gray; while Gray, if he did not know the other two, +knew Walpole very well indeed. Something of the same sort might be +contended for among those whom we have selected on the bridge of the +eighteenth and nineteenth. Wordsworth, Coleridge, Southey and Lamb were +of course intimately connected: Southey knew Landor and Shelley, Keats +knew Shelley, Wordsworth and Lamb; while Byron and Shelley, however +unequally, were pretty closely yoked together. It is not meant that in +all these groups everybody wrote to each other; but that the writing +faculty was curiously prominent--diffused like a kind of atmosphere--in +all. Now if we look in the nineteenth for such a group it will be found +perhaps less readily. But one such at least certainly exists, to wit +that which includes Tennyson, Thackeray, Edward FitzGerald, Carlyle and +his wife, Fanny Kemble, Sterling and one or two more. There are of +course numerous others outside this group, and even in it Tennyson +himself is not a very remarkable letter-writer, any more than his great +rival, Browning, was. But there was the same diffusion of the +letter-writing spirit which has been noticed above, and Thackeray, +FitzGerald, the Carlyles, and perhaps Fanny Kemble are quite of the +greater clans among our peculiar people. + +The most remarkable of all these--and as it seems to the present writer, +one of the most remarkable of all English letter-writers is one whose +letters have never been collected,[34] and from whom, until +comparatively lately, we had only few and as it were accidental +specimens. It is hoped that, notwithstanding the great changes of taste +recently as to reticence or indiscretion, there are still many people +who can not only understand but thoroughly sympathise with Thackeray's +disgust at the idea of having his "Life" written; and the even greater +reluctance which he would certainly have felt at that of having his +letters published. But, as has been suggested on a former occasion, when +things _are_ published there is nothing disgraceful in reading them: and +it may be frankly admitted that lovers of English literature would have +missed much pleasure and the opportunity of much admiration if the +"Brookfield" letters, those to the Baxter family and others in America, +those finally included in the "Biographical" edition, and yet others +which have turned up sporadically had remained unknown. It may be +doubted whether there is anything like them in our literature--if indeed +there is in any other--for the double, treble or even more complicated +gift of view into character, matter of interest, positive literary +satisfaction, and (perhaps most remarkable of all) resemblance to and +explanation of the author's "regular literature," as it has been called. +In some respects they resemble the letters of Keats; but there is absent +from them the immaturity which was noted in those, and which extended to +both matter and style. They are more various in subject and tone than +Shelley's. They are not deliberately quaint like Lamb's; and they +naturally lack (whether this is wholly an advantage or not, may admit, +though not here, of dispute) the restraint[35] which, in greater or less +degree and in varied kind, characterizes the great eighteenth century +epistolers. + +[Sidenote: THACKERAY] + +One additional charm which many of them possess may be regarded by +extreme precisians as of doubtful legitimacy as far as comment here is +concerned: but this may be ruled out as a superfluous scruple. It is the +illumination of the text "by the author's own candles" as he himself +says in a well-known Introduction: the actual "illustration" by +insertion in the script, of little pen-drawings. The shortcomings of +Thackeray's draughtsmanship have always been admitted: and by nobody +more frankly than by himself. But they hardly affect this sort of +"picturing" at all. The unfortunate inability to depict a pretty face +which he deplored need do no harm whatever: and his lack of +"composition" not much. A spice of caricature is almost invariably +admissible in such things: and the same tricksy spirit which prompted +the hundreds of initials, _culs-de-lampe_ etc. contributed by him to +_Punch_ and to be found collected in the "Oxford" edition of his works, +was most happily at hand for use in letters. Some years ago there +appeared, in a catalogue of autographs for sale, an extract of text and +cut which was irresistibly funny. The author and designer had had a +mishap by slipping on that peculiarly treacherous suddenly frozen rain +for which (though we are liable enough to it in England and though some +living have seen the entire Strand turned into one huge pantomime +scene, roars of laughter included, as people came out of theatres) we +have no special name. (The French, in whose capital it is said to be +even more frequent, call it _verglas_.) In telling it he had drawn +himself sitting (as involuntarily though one hopes not so eternally as +_infelix Theseus_) with arms, legs, hat, etcetera in disorder suitable +to the occasion and with a facial expression of the most ludicrous +dismay. It can hardly have taken a dozen strokes of the pen: but they +simply glorified the letter. + +In no sense, however, can the value and delight of Thackeray's letters +be said to depend upon this _bonus_ of illustration. Without it they +would be among the most noteworthy and the most delectable of their +kind. One sees in them the "first state" of that extraordinary glancing +at all sorts of side-views, possible objections and comments on "what +the other fellow thinks," which is the main secret in his published +writings. If the view of him as a "sentimentalist" (which nobody, unless +it is taken offensively, need refuse to accept) is strengthened by them, +that absurd other view, which strangely prevailed so long, of his +"cynicism" is utterly destroyed. We see the variety of his interests; +the keenness of his sensations; the strange and kaleidoscopic rapidity +of the changes in his mood and thought. And through the whole there runs +the wonderful style which was so long unrecognised--nay, which those who +go by the trumpery machine-made rules of "composition books" used +gravely to stigmatise as "incorrect." Time lifts a great many (though +not perhaps all) the restraints upon publication which have been +discussed and advocated above: and it will probably be possible some day +for posterity to possess, not only a collected body of the now scattered +Thackeray letters, but a considerably larger one than has ever appeared +even in extracts and catalogues. It will be an addition to our +Epistolary Library which can bear comparison with any previous occupant +of those shelves: and one of the books which deserve, in a very peculiar +sense, the hackneyed praise of being "as good as a novel." For it will +be almost the equivalent of an additional novel of its author's own--a +_William Makepeace Thackeray_ in the familiar novel-form of title, and +in the old Richardsonian form of contents--but oh! how different from +anything of Richardson's save that it might possibly make you hang +yourself, not because you could not get to the story, but because you +had come to the end of it. + +[Sidenote: FITZGERALD] + +If, however, anyone insists on a formal and more or less complete +presentation, already existing, of nineteenth century "Letters" in a +body by a single writer, the palm must probably be given to those +(already referred to) of the translator or paraphrast of Omar Khayyam. +Besides their great intrinsic interest and peculiar idiosyncrasy, they +have, for anyone studying the subject as we are endeavouring to do, a +curious attraction of comparison. Letter-writing, though by no means +exclusively, would appear to be specially and peculiarly the _forte_ of +men who live somewhat special and peculiar lives--men without the +ordinary family ties of wife and children--sometimes though by no means +always, recluses; possibly to some extent "originals," "humourists," +"eccentrics," as they have been called at different times and from +different points of view. Even Walpole, fond as he was of society, +belongs to the class after a fashion, as do also Chesterfield[36] and +Lady Mary, while Gray, Cowper, and at a later period Lamb, are eminently +of it. But hardly anyone so unquestionably comes under the +classification as Edward FitzGerald. He certainly was for a time +married, but that marriage as certainly was not made in Heaven, if it +was not conspicuously of the other origin: and actual cohabitation +lasted but a short time. He had no children, and though he frequently +foregathered with the family from which he sprang, he was essentially a +"solitary." Such solitaries, even if they do not ticket and advertise +themselves as such after the fashion of Rousseau and Senancour and the +author of _Jacopo Ortis_, naturally enough find in letters the outlet +for communication with their fellows[37] which others find in +conversation, and the occupation which those others have ready-made, in +society, business of all kinds etc. That some copious and excellent +letter-writers, such as for instance Southey, have been extremely busy, +and "family men" of the most unblemished character, merely shows that +the rule is not universal. But it may be observed that their letters +usually have less intense idiosyncrasy than those of the others. + +Of such idiosyncrasy, both in letters and in other work, few men have +had more than the author of _Euphranor_ and (as we have had to say +before) the "translator or paraphrast" not merely of Persian but of +Spanish and Greek masterpieces. It is indeed notorious that it was in +this latter capacity that he showed the individuality of his genius most +strongly. It is a frequently but perhaps idly[38] disputed question how +much is Omar and how much FitzGerald, while the problem might certainly +be extended by asking how much is Aeschylus and how much Calderon in his +versions of those masters: but it does not concern us here. What does +concern us is the fact that he has contrived to make his most famous +exercise in translation signally, and the others to some extent, not +dead "versions," but as it were reincarnations of the original, the +spirit or the flesh (whichever anyone pleases) being his own, or both +being blended of his and the author's. To do this requires a "strong +nativity" though not in the equivocal sense in which another great +translator of FitzGerald's own type[39] used that term. It shows in his +scanty "original" work: but it shows also and perhaps more strongly in +his letters. Everyone who has studied the history of the English +Universities in connection with that of English literature knows, even +if he has not been fortunate enough to experience it, the remarkable +fashion in which, at certain times, colleges and coteries at Oxford and +Cambridge have seemed to throw a strange and almost magical influence +over a generation (hardly more) of undergraduates. There was +unmistakably such an _aura_ or atmosphere about in Trinity College, +Cambridge, during the last of the twenties and the first of the thirties +of the nineteenth century--a spirit of literature and humour, of +seriousness and jest, of prose sense and half mystical poetry--which +produced things as diverse as _The Dying Swan_ and Clarke's _Library of +Useless Knowledge_, _Vanity Fair_ and the English _Rubaiyat_. + +Of this curiously blended mood-combination--of which in their different +ways Tennyson and Thackeray, as universally known, Brookfield, W. B. +Donne, G. S. Venables, as less known, but noteworthy instances suggest +themselves as examples--FitzGerald was certainly not the least +remarkable. He had, as eccentrics usually and almost necessarily have, +not a few limitations, some of which possibly were, though others +certainly were not, deliberately assumed or accepted. He would not allow +that Tennyson had ever in his later work (not latest by any means) done +anything so good as his earlier. In that unlucky though quite blameless +observation on Mrs. Browning which was referred to above, he ignored or +showed himself unable to appreciate the fact that the poetess had never +done anything better than, if anything so good as, some of her very +latest work.[40] It cannot be considered an entirely adequate cause for +ceasing to live with your wife,[41] that her dresses rustle; and many +other instances of what may be called practical and literary +_non-sequiturs_ might be alleged against him. But all these +"queernesses" are evidence of a temperament and a mode of thinking which +are likely to produce very satisfactory letters. They are sure not to be +dull: and when the queerness is accompanied by such literary power as +"Fitz" possessed they are not likely to be merely silly, as some things +are which attempt not to be dull. As a matter of fact they are +delightful: and their variety is astonishing. Odd stories and odd +experiences seem, despite his almost claustral life, to have had a habit +of flying to FitzGerald like filings to a magnet--as for instance the +irresistible anecdote of the parish clerk who insisted on giving out for +singing casual remarks of the parson above him as if they were verses of +a hymn, and who was duly echoed by the congregation. Even when he does +not make you laugh he satisfies you: even when you do not agree with him +you are obliged to him for having expressed his heresy. + +[Sidenote: FANNY KEMBLE] + +One of FitzGerald's special correspondents was, for reasons then +imperative, not a member of the Cambridge group itself, but as closely +connected with it as possible: being the sister of one of its actual +members. John M. Kemble, one of our earliest and best Anglo-Saxon +scholars in modern times, was, like others of his famous family (so far +as is generally known) a person of varied talents, though he showed +these neither in letter writing nor in the direction which Tennyson +incorrectly augured in the "Sonnet to J. M. K." His sister Frances +(invariably, like most though by no means all ladies of her name, called +"Fanny"[42]) was a very remarkable person indeed. After taking early and +with brilliant success to the stage which might almost be said to be +hers by inheritance,[43] she married an American planter with even worse +results (they were actually divorced) than her friend FitzGerald's +marriage brought about later: and for many years returned to public +life, not as an actress but as a reader. She wrote and published both +prose and verse of various kinds: but her best known work and that which +places her here, is a voluminous series of "Records," etc., much of +which is composed of actual letters, while practically the whole of it +is what we have called "letter-stuff." It has perhaps been published +_too_ voluminously: and it is certain that, as indeed one might expect, +its parts are not equal in interest. But experienced and balanced +judgment must always sum up in her favour as possessing, in letter- and +even other writing, more than ordinary talent, perhaps never quite +happily or fully developed. Merely as a person she seems to have +exercised an extraordinary attraction without being exactly amiable[44]: +and from the intellectual and artistic sides as a writer (we have +nothing here to do with her histrionic powers) to have been what has +sometimes in others been called "inorganic," "ill-regulated," "not +brought off," etc., but of extraordinary capacity. + +This may have had something to do with her sudden and exceptional +success, when at barely twenty, and with no training except what +heredity might give her, she "took the town [and the country] by storm" +as Juliet, and very soon afterwards "carried" America likewise. But her +"records" of these and other things are of almost the first quality: and +this power of "recording" continued and was perhaps stimulated by the +less as well as the more fortunate events of her life. It may be said +indeed that in her time a young woman of full age (she was five and +twenty), unusual experience of the world, and still more unusual wits, +had no business to marry a planter in the Southern States, knowing that +she was to live there, unless she had reconciled herself to the +institution of slavery. Nor can anybody without prejudice deny this. But +the inconsistency and the troubles it developed gave occasion to some +very remarkable "recording," and the same had been the case earlier with +her life, whether at home, on the stage, or in society, and was the case +later whether she lived in England, in the Northern States, or on the +Continent of Europe. Perhaps you never exactly like her: an unusual +experience in the reading of letters, which for the most part are +singularly reconciling from the mere fact of their explanatory quality. +There is indeed no better confirmation of the well-known French saying +_tout comprendre c'est tout pardonner_. Here, however, there are, as +elsewhere, exceptions--Gray being perhaps one[45] as our present subject +is another. But there are few things more interesting, though their +interest may be somewhat tragic, than the spectacle of the way "things +go wrong" so easily, so finally, so fatally. Fanny Kemble had a sister +Adelaide, afterwards Mrs. Sartoris, with whom everything appears to have +gone right: but with herself it "seemed otherwise to the Gods." And her +letters or memoirs, or whatever they are to be called, are the record +thereof, as well as of other things. + +[Sidenote: THE CARLYLES] + +The letters and "letter-stuff" of the Carlyles, husband and wife, +according to the inevitable misfortune attending so much of our +subject--supplied the occasion of volumes of that disgusting and most +idle controversy which has made many people of taste pray that nothing +biographical may ever be published about them. Far be it from us to take +part in a game which if it does not always, like the unpleasant +personage in the old ballad, + + Come for ill and never for good, + +certainly comes for the former much oftener than for the latter purpose +and result. _Sunt lacrimae rerum_ is--once more and as so often--the +best and the sufficient observation. But there remains in the letters of +both, and especially in those of the lady, plenty of wholesome interest +and of justifiable--not spying or eavesdropping--information as to +character. Judged comparatively, they certainly do not contradict the +notion formerly referred to, that in some respects letter-writing is a +specially feminine gift. Carlyle's own letters[46] have plenty of merit +and attraction--some of the descriptive ones especially: and they +demonstrate, in the infallible way which letters and letters alone can +supply in the absence of long personal familiarity, that the general +tone and key of his writings was no falsetto but a perfectly genuine +thing--that the often urged contrast of the _Life of Schiller_, instead +of evidencing affectation in the later work, only proves constraint in +the earlier. At the same time, except for what may be called +side-illustration of the works, and completion of the biography for +those who want it, there is not very much in Carlyle's letters which +would be a serious loss. + +With his wife the case is different. Without her "Letters and Memorials" +we might (it is rather improbable that we _should_, owing to the +misdemeanours of more persons than one and the blow-fly appetite of a +part of the public for sore places) have escaped a good deal of the +ignoble wrangling above referred to. But we should not only have failed +to appreciate a very remarkable character, but have missed some of the +very best of our now existing contributions to epistolary literature. +Personally Mrs. Carlyle was by no means a general favourite. She had a +fearfully sharp tongue, and a still sharper wit in directing it upon her +victims; her experiences were not very likely to edulcorate her acids +and mollify her asperities. The letters show that, as so often happens, +there was plenty of sweetness within the sharp exterior, and that her +strength was the strength of passion, not of obduracy. But this is not +all. There might have been biographical whitewashing of this kind +without much gain to pure literature. But the letters showed likewise a +power of expression, both lighter and more serious, which is hardly +inferior to that found in any correspondence of man or woman, genuine or +fictitious. Some people, not given to rash superlatives and pretty +extensively acquainted with literature, have held that the letter +describing her visit after many years to Haddington, and the +reminiscences it called forth, has no superior in the vast range of our +subject for pure pathos perfectly expressed, without constraint on +nature yet without loss of dignity.[47] On the other hand, the half +comic accounts of her domestic troubles etc. are worthy of Fielding or +Thackeray. The fact is that Mrs. Carlyle possessed what is rare in +women--humour. And she exemplified, as few other women and not so very +many men have done, Anne Evans's matchless definition of it as "thinking +in jest while feeling in earnest." Moreover while, as all true +humourists can, she could drop the jest altogether when necessary, she +could, as is the case with them likewise, never quite discard the +earnest. + +[Sidenote: MACAULAY AND DICKENS] + +Some of the most distinguished of Carlyle's contemporaries, the great +men of letters of the mid-nineteenth century, have left letters more or +less copious and more or less valuable from one or both of the two +sides, biographical and literary, but not eminently so. Macaulay's +letters and diaries suit biography excellently, and have been +excellently used in his. They lighten and sweeten the rather boisterous +"cocksureness" of the published writings: and help his few but very +remarkable poems other than the _Lays_ (which are excellent but in a +different kind) to show the soul and heart of the man as apart from his +mere intellect. But they are not perhaps intrinsically very capital. So +also in Dickens's case the "Life-and-Letters" system is excellently +justified, but one does not know that the letters in themselves would +always deserve a first class in this particular school of _Literae +Humaniores_. Letter-writing admits--if it may not even require--a +certain kind of egotism. But it must be what the French call an _Egoisme +a plusieurs_--a temper which takes, if only for the moment, other people +into itself and cares for them there. "The Inimitable" was perhaps too +generally thinking of that Inimitable himself or of the fictitious +creations of his marvellous genius. If, like his own Mr. Toots, he could +have written some letters to or from _them_ it would have been a very +different thing. In this respect he does not, as in others he does, +resemble Balzac, whose egotism was in a way as intense as his own and +like it extended to his creations, but could extend farther: while the +contrast with Thackeray is even more salient than in other cases from +this same point of view. At the same time it must not be supposed that +there is any intention here of belittling Dickens, either as a +letter-writer or in any other way. It is only suggested that he lacks +one of the things necessary to perfect letter-writing. Perhaps his most +noteworthy productions in the style are his editorial criticisms--rather +limited in taste and purview, but singularly shrewd within other limits. +And many of the others tell their substance with that faculty of +"telling" which he possessed as few have ever done, while the comedy of +those given here is "the true Dickens." + +[Sidenote: SOME NOVELISTS] + +Mention of the three greatest novelists (English and French) of the +mid-nineteenth century naturally suggests the rest of a class so +predominant in that century's literary production. Their record in the +matter is rather chequered, for reasons, in some respects and cases at +any rate, not difficult to discover. Reference is elsewhere made to the +disappointment experienced (perhaps not too reasonably) by some readers +of the letters of George Eliot. A not dissimilar feeling had been +expressed earlier in regard to those of Miss Austen: which, however, +were intrinsically far superior. Except to her sister, and it may be +even to her, Jane Austen was not at all likely to indulge in what is +called in French _epanchement_: it was not in the least her line, +whether in writing for publication or otherwise. Only one full year +passed between the death of Miss Austen and the birth of Miss Evans, and +the two illustrated very fairly the comfortable if not invariably +accurate idea that when one human being dies another is born to succeed +him or her in their special functions. But, as in other respects, they +differed here remarkably; and though in neither case was the nature of +the writer exactly expansive, this want of expansiveness was very +differently conditioned. Miss Austen no doubt could, if she had chosen, +(she has done something like it as it is) have written most delightful +letters. A hundred scenes in the novels from Catherine Morland's tremors +and trials, or John Dashwood's progressive limitations of generosity for +his sisters, to some of the best things in _Persuasion_, would take +letter form with the happiest results. But she did not choose that it +should be so. George Eliot, on the other hand, after her earlier days, +had ensconced herself in such a chrysalis of quasi-philosophical and +quasi-scientific thought and speech that she could hardly have recovered +the freedom of expression which is almost the soul of letter-writing. + +Some of Bulwer's (the first Lord Lytton's) letters are remarkable in +ways, especially that of literary criticism, which might hardly be +expected by anyone who had insufficiently taken the measure of his +strangely unequal and imperfect, yet as strangely varied, talent. But as +the century went on a new prohibitory influence arose in the enormous +professional production which began to be customary with +novelists--principally tempted no doubt by the corresponding gain of +money, but perhaps also by the nobler desire of increasing, or at least +living up to, their reputations. Even short of the unbroken drudgery +which, it is said, compelled one lady novelist, of high rank for a time, +to scribble her novels as she was actually receiving and talking to +morning callers, the production of three or four novels a year--and +those not the cock-boats we often see now but attempts at least at "the +old three-decker" in its fullest dimensions--could leave little time or +inclination for extensive letter-writing. There were, however, some +exceptions. Charles Kingsley--who, though his novels were not very +numerous, supplemented them with all sorts of miscellaneous writing for +publication, was a diligent sportsman, an active cleric, and a busy man +in many kinds and ways--wrote certainly good and probably many letters. +The two brighter stars in the Bronte constellation, especially +Charlotte, were scarcely less remarkable with the pen in this way than +in others: and Mrs. Gaskell, Charlotte's biographer, has been put high +by some. The unconquerable personality of Charles Reade showed itself +here as elsewhere[48]: and others might be mentioned.[49] But perhaps +the most distinguished novelist next to Thackeray of the nineteenth +century, who was also a most distinguished letter-writer, was one who +died in middle age not long before its end--Robert Louis Stevenson. + +[Sidenote: STEVENSON] + +Stevenson had in fact practically all the qualifications necessary for a +good practitioner of our art. He had, eminently, that gift which the +Romans called _facundia_ and the French can translate, if with a slight +degradation of meaning, by _faconde_; but for which we, though the +adjective "facund" has, one believes, been tried, possess no noun, +"Eloquence" being too much specified to "fine" writing or speaking. +"Facility of expression" perhaps comes nearest. Whether he corrected or +corrupted this native gift by his famous "sedulous aping" of stylists +before him is a debated question: but one quite unnecessary to touch +here. It is sufficient to say that he never aped anyone in his letters, +unless playfully and in a sort of concert with his correspondent. Indeed +he possessed, quintessentially, that "naturalness" of matter and form on +which so much stress has been laid. He had a disposition equally +favourable to the business--if business we may call it. A person who is +habitually gloomy may write capital letters of an impressive character +now and then: but is likely to produce little but boredom if he extends +his practice. Louis Stevenson did not habitually "regard the world +through a horse collar" (as it was once put), but he certainly did not +pass through it gnashing his teeth or holding his handkerchief to his +eyes. Although he did a good deal of work, sometimes under no small +difficulties, he had very little if any of that _collar_-work--that +grinding "in Gaza at the mill with slaves" which takes the spring out of +all but the springsomest of men. He had widely varied experience of +scene, occupation, personal society. He knew plenty of books without +being in the least bookish; had, as the old saying goes, "wit at will," +and, though he never made deliberate and affected efforts to _get_ out +of ruts, _kept_ out of them without the least trouble. He was as little +of a "poser" or of a "rotter" as he was of a prig, and there was not a +drop of bad blood in his veins. If these things could not make a good +letter-writer nothing could; and there is little doubt that he will hold +his place as such as long as English literature lasts. It is a great +pleasure to me to give, as I hope to do, one unpublished letter of his +to myself as a sort of _bonus_ to the reader of this little book--a +letter of rather unusual interest in literary as in other respects. + +At this point, perhaps, actual survey may, and indeed had best, stop: +not merely because space is closing in. Lovers of letters will of course +detect what seem to them omissions in what has gone before and what +comes after. Some of these, no doubt, will have been real oversights. +Others, for this or that reason deliberate, such as Gibbon and +Newman--the latter not merely for his re-statement of the +character-value of correspondence, but for his exemplifications of +it--might certainly have been more fully noticed. But in regard to later +writers there are several obstacles in the path. Of some it would not be +easy to speak on account of their own lives being too recent: in regard +of nearly all the same fact must have occasioned exercise of +"censorship" to a degree which makes absolute judgment of their +competence as epistolers rash, and comparative judgment almost +impossible. To take up once more one example of men who were born a full +or almost a full century ago, Mr. Paul,[50] speaking apparently with +intimate knowledge of the originals, speaks also of the "severe process +of excision and retrenchment to which these [_the letters of Mr. Matthew +Arnold_] have been exposed." And he thinks that very few letters "could +have endured" it. Those who remember the appearance of these letters +will also remember that some critics doubted whether even "these" had +exactly "endured it"--that is to say, whether the expected salt of the +author of so much published _persiflage_ had not been left out or had +singularly lost its savour. To take another from the next generation, it +is pretty certain that Mr. Swinburne's letters, though we have judicious +selections from them, must have needed much more excision or +retrenchment than Mr. Arnold's, unless he wrote them in a manner +remarkably different both from his conversation and from his published +works. In such cases it is best, the evidence being not fully before us, +not to anticipate either the privileges or the decisions of posterity. + + + + +VI + +SOME SPECIAL KINDS OF LETTER + + +A few more general remarks, however, on _kinds_ of letter-writing--as +distinguished from personality and accomplishment of letter-writers--may +not improperly be added. + +[Sidenote: LETTERS AND THE NOVEL] + +One extremely curious application of the Letter has not yet been +noticed, except by a glance or two: and that is the way in which--when +after birth-struggles for some two thousand years the novel at last got +itself born--letter-writing was pressed into its service. Historically, +as was briefly indicated near the beginning of this, one may connect +Greek Rhetoric and Greek Romance, and suggest the connection as the +origin of the "novel-in-letters." In the romance proper--that is to say +that of the Middle Ages--letters do not play any very important part, +just as they played none in life. But in the "Heroic" variety of the +late sixteenth and the whole of the seventeenth centuries they play a +much larger--partly no doubt because of the influence (here noted) of +the Greek Romance itself, but more because of the increased frequency +and importance of actual correspondence in life and society. We need +not, however, attribute too much to this influence of imitation in +seeking for the cause or causes which made Richardson adopt the form: +nor need we even put down to Richardson's own popularity, abroad as well +as at home, the very general further adoption and continuance of a form +which has perhaps more to be said against it than for it. Most serious +students of the history of prose fiction must have noticed, and some of +them have already pointed out, the curious, rather naif, but quite +obvious feeling on the part of the earlier practitioners of such fiction +that somebody might ask them, in more polite language than that in which +Cardinal Ippolito d'Este asked Ariosto a similar question, "Where they +got their stories from?" The feeling seems sometimes to have affected +poets, but much more rarely: the Muse being allowed to possess and +confer a certain immunity from such cross-examination. Of the +unnecessary and sometimes unnatural devices invented to answer this +inconvenient question Scott in one well-known passage,[51] and others +elsewhere, have made ironic lists: and not the least characteristic of +Miss Austen's satiric touches is the passage where Catherine Morland +expects palpitating interest from a bundle of washing-bills in a +wardrobe-cupboard. But the anticipation of such a question, though +perhaps it became conventional before it disappeared altogether, was +certainly at one time real. + +At any rate, helped by the example of Richardson--Father of English +novels as he is with whatever justice called--and by that overmastering +fancy for letter-writing itself, which, as should have been already made +clear, affected the century in which English novels were born--the +practice spread and held its ground. Fielding was too perfect an artist +in the higher and purer kind of fiction to favour it: and though Sterne +himself was a sufficiently characteristic letter-writer, the form would +not have suited the peculiar eccentricity of his two novels. But +Smollett's best, _Humphrey Clinker_, adopts the method, and is perhaps +one of its most successful examples. It suited the author's preference +for a succession of scenes rather than a connected plot; for the sharp +presentation of "humours" in character and incident. And it continued to +be practised both early in the nineteenth century--examples had swarmed +at the end of the eighteenth--and later. _Redgauntlet_ (which some have +thought one of the best of Scott's novels and which few good judges +would put much lower) is written in it to a great extent, but not +wholly. And it may be noticed that this combination of Letters and +narrative, which came in pretty early, is rather tell-tale. It is a sort +of confession of what certainly is the fact--that the novel entirely by +letters is a clumsy device, constantly getting in the way of the +"story." Indeed the method of _Redgauntlet_ is a kind of retreat to the +elder and more modern--one may say the more artistic and rational--plan +of _introducing_ letters, but only occasionally as auxiliaries to, and +as it were illustrations of, the actual narrative, not as substitutes +for, or at any rate main constituents of, it.[52] Indeed, in order to +make a novel wholly composed of letters thoroughly and absorbingly +attractive, either charm of style such as to make the kind of literature +in which it appears, more or less indifferent; or passion which is more +suitable to poetry or drama than to prose; or both, may seem +unnecessary. + +[Sidenote: LETTERS AND BIOGRAPHY] + +It was also in the eighteenth century--_the_ century once more of +letter-writing--that letters, this time genuine not fictitious, began +to play, to an important extent, a subsidiary part in yet another +department of literature--biography. They had always done so, of course, +to an extent less important in History, of which Biography is really a +subdivision. The truth expressed in that dictum of the pseudo-Demetrius +quoted above as to the illuminative power of letters on character could +be missed by no historian and by no biographer who had his wits about +him--even if he had less striking examples at hand than that letter of +the Emperor Tiberius to the Senate which is one of the Tacitean flashes +of lightning through the dark of history. But the credit of using +letters as a main constituent of biography--of originating the +"Life-and-Letters" class of books which fills so large a part of modern +library-shelves--has been given, as far as English is concerned, to +Mason in his dealings with Gray. There is so little to be said in favour +of Mason, that we need not enquire too narrowly into his right to this +commendation: though critical conscience must be appeased by adding that +he abused his privilege as an editor and "literary executor" by garbling +unblushingly. Boswell did Mason honour by acknowledging his example, and +much more also by following it; and this practically settled the matter. +Except in short pieces, which had need be of special excellence like +Carlyle's _Sterling_, the plan has always been followed since: and there +can here at least be no question that with a little favour of +circumstances, it is the best plan possible. You get, as has been said, +your character at first hand; if the letters include epistles to as well +as from him or her, you get invaluable side-lights; you get, except in +cases of wilful deception or great carelessness, the most trustworthy +accounts of fact; and you can, or ought to be able to, hear the man +talking. + +At the same time it must be admitted that this "Life-and-Letters" +scheme, like every kind of art, requires care: and like most human +things, is exposed to dangers and difficulties in addition to some +previously noticed. To begin with, the _quality_ of the letters has to +be considered. It so happened that Mason, the originator by courtesy, +had unusually good material to work with. Gray, as is above pointed out +and as is also, with some provisos already made or very soon to be made, +universally admitted, is one of our best letter-writers. But not +everybody--not every considerable man or woman of letters even--can +write good letters. + +And besides this--besides the temptation to rely on the letters and +merely to print them whether they deserve it or not--there is the +further difficulty--to judge by the scarcity of good biographies a very +great and insistent one--of composing the framework of the biography +itself so as to suit the letters--to give the apples of gold in a +picture not too obviously composed of some metal baser than silver. +Unless this is done it would be better simply to "calendar" the letters +themselves, with the barest schedule of dates and facts to assist the +comprehension of them. But to consider the different methods of doing +this--still more of presenting letters apart from deliberate +biographical intention--would lead us too far. Carlyle's _Cromwell_--the +presentation of an extraordinarily difficult set of documents not merely +with connecting narrative, but with a complete explanatory commentary +including paraphrase, is as remarkable an achievement as, and a far more +elaborate one than, his _Sterling_ in the way of biography pure and +simple. It is perhaps, though less delectable, not less admirable in its +style than the other in its own. But it has, of course, the drawback of +carrying with it a distinctly controversial character and, indeed, +intention. We have more recently had at least two examples of the +fullest possible comment with the least possible controversy in Mr. +Tovey's "Gray," and of less voluminous but excellently adequate editing +in Mrs. Toynbee's "Walpole." + +[Sidenote: "LETTERS FROM UNKNOWNS"] + +One not very large, but extremely curious division of letter-writing +closely connected with those most recently mentioned, invites if it does +not insist upon a word or two. Many people--almost all who have happened +to be at any time "in the lime-light" as a modern phrase goes--that is +to say in positions of publicity--must have had experience of the +strange appetite of their fellow-creatures for writing them letters +without previous acquaintance, without excuse of introduction, and on +the most flimsy pretexts of occasion. The present writer once received +from Australia a long list of queries on a book of his--most if not all +of which could have been answered from the ordinary reference-bookshelf +in the writing-room of such a club as that--never mind whether it was in +Sydney or Melbourne or Adelaide--from which the querist dated his +epistle. Indeed, on another occasion somebody demanded a catalogue of +"the important references to the medical profession in French +literature"! This tendency of humanity sometimes exercises and magnifies +itself into really remarkable correspondences. There is perhaps none +such in English quite to match those _Lettres a une Inconnue_ which +(after standing the brunt of not a little unfavourable criticism, +provoked not so much by their contents as by the personal, political, +and above all religious or anti-religious idiosyncrasy of their author, +Prosper Merimee) have taken their place, for good and all, among the +classics of the art. Our most curious example perhaps is to be found in +the _Letters of the Duke of Wellington to Miss J._, the genuineness of +which has been a matter of some controversy, but which are rather more +inexplicable as forgeries than as authentic documents. Authors, from +Richardson onwards, have been the special targets of such +correspondents: and romance reports some, perhaps even history might +accept a few, instances of the closest relations resulting. On the other +hand, one of the very best of Miss Edgeworth's too much neglected +stories, "L'Amie Inconnue" not only may be useful as a warning to the +too open-hearted but has probably had not a few parallels in fact. +Generally, of course, the uninvited correspondent is merely a passing +phenomenon--rarely perhaps welcome except to persons of very much +self-centred temperament with a good deal of time on their hands; +tolerated and choked off placably by the good-natured and well-mannered; +answered snappishly or not answered at all by moroser victims. + +[Sidenote: LOVE LETTERS] + +There is yet a kind of letter, fictitious or real examples whereof are +not usually given in books which (as the Articles say of the Apocrypha) +are to be read "for example of life and instruction of manners," though +it is in a way the most interesting of all; and that is the love-letter. +It is, however, so varied in kind and not so very seldom so pre-eminent +as an illustration of the epistolary ideal--"writing as you would +talk"--that it would be absurd to say nothing about it in this +Introduction, and that it may even be possible to give some examples of +it--one such of Swift's must be given--in the text. Of those which, as +it was said of one famous group (those of Mlle. de Lespinasse) "burn the +paper," those of which the Abelard and Heloise collection, with those of +"The Portuguese Nun," Maria Alcoforado, and Julie de Lespinasse herself +are the most universally famous--we have two pretty recent collections +in English from two of the greatest poets and one of the greatest +poetesses in English of the nineteenth century. They are the letters, +referred to above, of Keats to Fanny Brawne, and those of the Brownings +to each other. + +There are, it is to be hoped, few people who read such letters (unless +they are of such a date that Time has exercised his strange power of +resanctifying desecration and making private property public) without an +unpleasant consciousness of eavesdropping. But there is another class +which is not exposed to any such disagreeable liability: and that is the +very large proportion of love-letters where the amativeness is, so to +speak, more or less concealed, or where, though scarcely covered with +the thinnest veil, it is mixed with jest sometimes, jest rather on the +wrong side of the mouth, perhaps, but jest exercising its usual power of +embalming. (Salt and sugar both preserve: but in this particular +instance the danger is of oversweetness already.) There can--or perhaps +we should say there could, but for some differences of opinion worth +attending to--be no doubt that Swift owes much to this mixture: and if +anybody ever undertook a large collection of the best private +love-letters he would probably find the same seasoning in the best of +them. For examples in which the actual amatory element is present but as +it were under-current, like blood that flushes a cheek but does not +show outside it, some of the best examples are those of Scott to Lady +Abercorn. Those recently published, and already glanced at, of Disraeli +to various ladies would seem to be more demonstrative and more +histrionic. But the section as admitted lies, for us, on the extreme +border of our province. It is too important to be wholly omitted and +therefore these paragraphs have been given to it. And it may require +future touching in reference to some particular writers, especially that +greatest and most unhappy of all Deans of Saint Patrick, the greatest +perhaps of all Deans that ever were with the exception of John +Donne--himself no small epistoler, but greatest in those verse-letters +which are denied us.[53] + +It is perhaps superfluous, but for completeness' sake may be +permissible, to say a very little about the use of letters for purposes +other than that of genuine personal communication. Indeed in doing so we +are only executing the time-honoured manoeuvre of returning to the point +whence we set out, and bringing the wheel full circle.[54] The strictly +"business" letter--which is, of course, a personal communication in a +way--and the "despatch" which is a form of it intended sooner or later +for more general information, require no notice or at best mere mention. +But in times past if not also in those present, "Letters" have been +used--specially perhaps in that century of letters, the eighteenth--for +purposes of definite instruction, argument, propaganda and so forth. +There are obvious advantages in the form for certain of the lighter of +these purposes as it is used in Montesquieu's _Lettres Persanes_ or +Goldsmith's _Citizen of the World_. But why Bishop Hurd's _Letters on +Chivalry and Romance_ (really valuable as they are) should have been +"Letters" at all, except for fashion's sake, it is difficult to say. +There is perhaps more excuse for the pamphlet, especially the political +pamphlet, assuming the title of letter as it has so often done in +instances from the great example of Bolingbroke and Burke downwards.[55] +You have, with less unreality, the advantage of the classical "speech" +addressed often to a single person, who is supposed to be specially +aware of the facts or specially to need instruction and encouragement, +or modified remonstrance, as to them. It was probably from these great +exemplars--perhaps also aided by the custom of eighteenth century +periodicals, that pamphlets of all kinds became titular epistles such as +"A Letter to the deputy-manager of a Theatre Royal, London, on his +lately acquired notoriety in contriving and arranging the 'Hair Powder +Act'" (but this was satire), or "A letter writ by a clergyman to his +neighbour concerning the kingdom and the allegiance due to the King and +Queen."[56] + +[Sidenote: LETTERS TO THE PAPERS] + +For a last class may be taken the ever increasing body of things +"written to the papers." It is unnecessary to consider the justice of a +sarcastic division of mankind into "those who write to the papers and +those who do not read the letters," or to discuss what men have been +heard to say--that the people who write _to_ papers are people who have +not written _in_ them. It is quite certain that, for many years past, +the less frivolous kind of newspaper-correspondence has been of admitted +interest and importance; indeed a paper might conceivably maintain its +position after its repute has sunk in other ways, simply because more +letters of importance appear in it than in others. As a source of +illustrations of how to write and how not to write letters this modern +development of the art could hardly be quite neglected; and it offers a +curious study of various kinds. Except with very guileless writers the +character-index quality is of course less certainly present than in +letters written _not_ for publication. A man must be, in the old Greek +phrase, "either a God or a beast," if he does not prepare for print--if +not exactly with a touch of "stage-fright," at any rate with the +premeditation with which even stage-fright-free actors go on the stage. +But it requires a great master or mistress of dissimulation to write +even these letters at all frequently without a certain amount of +self-revelation. And there is perhaps no more curious and interesting +part of that most curious and interesting business of editing than +(when it is not merely tedious), the reading of offered correspondence. +There is the pure lunatic, such as the man who for years sends +despatches in a sort of cuneiform cipher, probably quite meaningless and +certainly not likely to meet with a decipherer; there is the abusive +person who (less piquantly than Reade in the letter quoted above) gives +his opinion of your paper; the volunteer-corrector of obvious misprints; +the innocent who merely wants to see his own signature in print, and who +generally tries to bribe his way into it by references to "your powerful +journal," etc. They are all there--waiting for the waste-paper basket. + + + + +VII + +CONCLUSION + + +A few more general remarks may close this Introduction. Something on the +Art of Letter-writing and also something on its history, especially in +English, was promised. It is hoped that the promise has not been too +much falsified, at least to the extent necessary for illustration and +understanding of the specimens which should follow, and which in their +turn should illustrate it and make it more intelligible. The History +part requires little or no postscript; whether ill or well done it +should pretty well speak for itself. What touches the Art may require +certain cautions and provisos. + +This is especially the case with regard to the stress laid above on +"naturalness." It is (as the present writer at least believes) the very +passport of admission to the company of good letter-writers. But it must +not be misconstrued. It is quite possible that too little care may be +taken with the matter and style of letters. After all they +correspond--in a certain, if in the most limited degree--to appearance +"in company," and require as that does a certain etiquette of +observance. Complete deshabille[57] on paper is not attractive: and +there are letters (it is unnecessary to specify any particular +examples) which somewhat exaggerate "simplicity." + +Cowper is perhaps the accepted classic in this style who has the least +of _apparatus_: but even Cowper bestows a certain amount of +care--indeed, a very considerable amount--on the dress of his letter's +body, on the cookery of its provender. If you have only small beer to +chronicle you can at the worst draw it and froth it and pour it out with +some gesture. In this respect as in others, while letter-writing has not +been inaccurately defined or described as the closest to conversation of +literary forms that do not actually reproduce conversation itself, it +remains apart from conversation and subject to an additional degree of +discipline. + +[Sidenote: CONCLUSION] + +Enough should have been said earlier of the opposite fault by excess of +dressing, which has, however, for a sort of solace the fact that it may +pass as literature though not exactly as letter-writing. Actually +beautiful style--not machine-made "fine writing," but that embodiment of +thought which is a special incarnation of it--is the one thing secure of +success and survival, whatever literary form it takes. And even short of +this supreme beauty accomplished literary manner can never be quite +unwelcome. The highest place in letter-writing has been refused here to +Pope: and unfortunately there is hardly a division of his work which, +when you know a little more about it and him, excites more disgust at +the man's nature. But, at the same time, hardly even his verse convinces +one more of that extraordinary power of expression as he wished to +express things which this Alexander, in some ways the infinitely +Little, possessed. Yet it gives in the first place a rather +sophisticated enjoyment, open only to those whom the gods have made, or +who have made themselves, critical. And in the second, whether +sophisticated or not, what it gives is the enjoyment of literature not +of life:[58] whereas the direct satisfaction which genuine letters +afford is almost identical with that given by actual intercourse with +other human beings. However, it is unnecessary to "go on refining." + +Perhaps indeed, after all, the artificial letters may be permitted if +only in an "utmost, last, provincial band," to add to the muster of +pleasure-giving things which epistolary literature so amply provides. +Even fiction itself, which, as has been said often, draws on this +source, cannot supply anything more "pastimeous"; even drama anything +more arresting to the attention. Indeed good letters may be said to be +constantly presenting little stories, little dramas, little +pictures--all of them sometimes not so _very_ little--which are now +practically complete; now easily filled up by any reasonable +intelligence; now perhaps tantalizingly, but all the more interestingly +enigmatic. For those people (one may or may not sympathise with them, +but they are certainly pretty numerous) who cannot take interest or can +only take a reduced interest in things that "did not really happen"; +letters may be even more interesting than novels. Only to very wayward +or very unimaginative ones can they be less so, if they are in any +respect good of their kind. + +One of their main attractions is, with the same caution, their +remarkable _variety_. It has been complained with a certain amount of +truth that fiction, whether in prose or verse, is a little apt to fall +into grooves: that all the histories are told, all the plays acted. This +is undoubtedly the curse of Art, and every now and then we see it +acknowledged in the most convincing manner by the frantic efforts made +to be "different." But that real things and persons are never quite +identical is not merely a philosophical doctrine but a practical fact. +The "two peas" of one saying are never so much "alike" as the "two +blades of grass" of another are unlike. + +Now as letters--that is to say letters that deserve to exist at all--are +bound to reproduce the personality of their writers, it will follow that +a refreshing diversity must also belong to them. And as a matter of fact +this will be found to be the case. Even the eighteenth century--the +century of rule and class, of objection to "the streaks of the tulip," +of machine-made verse, etc.,--has, except in the case of letters +artificially made to pattern, shown this signally. + +One last recommendation. A bad letter-writer is sure to betray himself +almost everywhere, and letters are as a rule short. Most people must +have attempted books of other classes, especially novels, and hoping +against hope turned them over, and dipped and peeped till repeated +disappointment compelled the traditional flinging to the other end of +the room, or simply dropping the thing in less explosive weariness. You +never need do that with letters. If a man's letters are not worth +reading you will "have a confessing criminal" at once; if they are he +will hardly be able to keep the quality latent whenever he goes beyond +the shortest business note. The man of one book, in the sense of having +read it, is proverbially formidable but in fact too frequently a bore. +The man of one letter, in the sense of having written a good one and no +more, probably never existed.[59] + + + + +APPENDIX TO INTRODUCTION + + +I + +GREEK LETTERS.--SYNESIUS (_c._ 375-430) + + English readers may know something, from Kingsley's + _Hypatia_, of the excellent bishop of Ptolemais who, at the + meeting of the fourth and fifth centuries, combined the + functions of neo-Platonist philosopher, Christian prelate, + country gentleman, and most efficient yeomanry officer + against the ancestors, or at least forerunners, of the + present Senussi, who were constantly raiding his diocese and + its neighbourhood. These two letters--to Hypatia herself and + to his brother--show him in different, but in each case + favourable lights. + + +LETTER CVIII. (TO HIS BROTHER) + +I have already got 300 spears and as many cutlasses, though I had, even +before, only half a score two-edged swords: and these long flat blades +are not forged with us. But I think the cutlasses can be struck more +vigorously into the enemies' bodies, and so we shall use them. And at +need we shall have bludgeons--for the wild olive trees are good with +us.[60] Some of our men have single-bladed axes at their belts with +which those of us who have no defensive armour shall chop their[61] +shields and make them fight on equal terms. The fight will, at a guess, +come off to-morrow: for when some of the foe had fallen in with scouts +of ours and pursuing them at their best speed had found them too good to +catch, they bade them tell us what pleased us mightily--if indeed we may +no more have to wander in the footsteps of those fellows who made off +into the wastes of the interior. For they said they were going to stay +where they were and wanted to find out what sort of fellows _we_ were, +who dared to separate ourselves so many days' journey from our own place +that we might fight with men of war, nomads in way of life, and whose +civil polity was like our discipline in war-time. Therefore, as one who +by God's help shall to-morrow conquer--nay, conquer again if needful +(for I would say nothing of bad omen) I commit to thee the care of my +children: for it is fitting that thou, their uncle, shouldest carry over +thine affection to them. + + +LETTER CXXIV + +"But if oblivion be the lot of the dead in Hades yet will _I_, even +there, remember" my dear Hypatia. Beset as I am by the sufferings of my +country, and sick, as I see daily weapons of war about me and men +slaughtered like altar-victims; drawing as I do breath infected by +rotting corpses; expecting myself a similar fate, (for who can be +hopeful when the very atmosphere is weighed down and dusky with the +shadow of carnivorous birds?) yet do I cling to my country. For what +else would my feeling be, born and bred as I am, and with the not +ignoble tombs of my fathers before my eyes? For thee alone does it seem +to me that I could neglect my country, and if I could get leisure, force +myself to run away.[62] + + +LATIN LETTERS.--PLINY (62-114) + + The most famous letters of the younger Pliny are those which + describe his country houses, that which gives account of his + uncle's death in the great eruption of Vesuvius, and his + correspondence with Trajan. But the first mentioned are + rather long and require a good deal of technical + annotation;[63] the second is to be found in many books; and + the letters which make up the third (except those concerning + Christianity, which are again to be found in many places) + are mostly short and on points of business merely. The one I + have chosen is extremely characteristic, in two respects, of + the author and of Roman ways generally. It shows Pliny's + good-nature and right feeling, but it shows also a certain + "priggishness" with which he has been specially and + personally charged, but which, to speak frankly, he shared + with a great many of his famous countrymen. Priggishness was + almost unknown among the Greeks--though one may suspect its + presence among those Spartans who have told so few tales of + themselves. But it flourished at Rome, and was one of + Rome's many--and one of her worst--legacies to us moderns. + Secondly, the letter is amusing because one thinks what an + English judge would surely think and would probably say, if + counsel for a lady were to inform the court _uberius et + latius_ what an extremely good opinion that lady's father + had of him, the learned speaker. A minor but still + interesting difference is in Pliny's slight hesitation about + taking a brief against a consul-elect. The subtleties of + Roman etiquette are endless. + + +PLINIUS TO HIS ASINIUS GALLUS--HEALTH + +You both advise[64] and ask me to take up the cause of Corellia in her +absence against C. Caecilius, Consul elect. I am obliged to you for +advising me but I complain of your _asking_. I ought to be advised that +I may know the fact, but not asked to do what it would be most +disgraceful for me _not_ to do. Could I doubt about protecting the +daughter of Corellius? True, there is between me and him against whom +you call on me, not exactly close friendship but still some friendship. +There is also to be taken into account the man's worth and the honour to +which he is destined, a thing which I ought to hold in the greater +respect that I have myself already enjoyed it. For it is natural that +things which one has oneself attained, one should wish to be regarded +with the greatest respect. But when I think that I am to help Corellius' +daughter, all this appears idle and empty. I seem to see the man than +whom our age had no one more dignified, more pious, of an acuter mind; +the man whom, when I had begun to like him out of admiration I admired +more, contrary to what usually happens, the more thoroughly I knew him. +For I did know him thoroughly; he kept nothing hid from me, neither +jocular nor serious, neither sad nor glad. I was quite a young man: but +already he held me in honour and I will dare to say respect--as if I +were his contemporary. He gave me his vote and interest in my standings +for honours; he, when I entered upon them, was my introducer and +companion; when I carried them out, my adviser and guide. In fact, in +every business of mine, though he was an old man and in weak health, he +was as forward as if he were young and strong. How much he furthered my +reputation, privately, publicly, and even with the Chief of the State! +For when by chance, in the presence of the Emperor Nerva, the +conversation had turned on young men of worth, and several persons spoke +in praise of me, he kept silence for a little, which gave him the more +authority. Then in the weighty manner you know, "I must needs," he said, +"say all the less about Secundus[65] because he never does anything but +by my advice." By saying this he gave me the credit (which it would have +been extravagant in me to hope for) of never doing anything in other +than the wisest way, seeing that I always acted on the advice of the +wisest man. Moreover, when dying, he said to his daughter, as she is +wont to declare, "I have provided you, as if I were myself to live +longer, many friends: but for the chief of them Secundus and Cornutus." +Now when I remember this, I see I must take care not in any way to +disappoint the trust in me of this most fore-thoughtful man. Therefore I +will come to Corellia's help without the least delay and will not refuse +to undergo inconveniences: though I think I shall secure not merely +pardon but even praise from the very person who as you say is bringing +a new action as against a woman, if it should happen to me to say these +same things in court more amply and fully than the narrow room of a +letter permits, either to excuse or indeed commend myself. Farewell. + + +LETTER OF THE "DARK" AGES + +SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS (431?-482-4) + + Caius Sollius Sidonius Apollinaris is one of the most + interesting figures of the troubled and obscure period + intervening between the fall of the Roman Empire _proper_ + and the rise of mediaeval Europe. He was born at Lyons, + married Papianilla, daughter of Flavius Avitus, who was to + be one of the ephemeral "Emperors" of the West and the + Decadence, but was not injured by his father-in-law's + dethronement, and enjoyed various civil honours and posts. + In 471, though a married layman, he was peremptorily made a + bishop, and accordingly took orders, put away his wife, and + discharged his sacred duties as creditably as he had + discharged his profane ones. Sidonius was a not contemptible + poet, and an interesting letter-writer. Like most literary + men of his class he was given to what we call flattery; and + this Ecdicius, of whom he made a sort of Dark Age Admirable + Crichton, was his brother-in-law, an Emperor's son, and + Count or Duke (the titles were often interchangeable) of the + district. But it is fair to say that Gregory of Tours, the + accepted historian of the period, and living only in the + next century, makes the exploit over the Goths even more + signal--for he reduces the troopers to _ten_. The Arverni + (inhabitants of Auvergne and its neighbourhood) were the + strongest tribe in Southern Gaul when the Romans first came + into contact with them, retained much prominence in Caesar's + time, and had not lost individuality, if they had lost + independence, by this (5th) century. The mixture of "Arms" + and the "Gown" is noteworthy. + + +BOOK III. LETTER III + +SIDONIUS TO HIS ECDICIUS--HEALTH + +If ever, now you are longed for by my Arvernians, whose love for you +subdues them remarkably, and indeed for all sorts of reasons. First, +because a man's native land has the greatest part in creating affection +for him.[66] Then, because in your time you are about the only mortal +who was longed for before his birth as much as he was rejoiced in after +it.... I say nothing of such things--common to all, but no mean +incitement to affection--as that you crawled as a child on the same turf +with them. I pass over the grass which you first trod, the river you +first swam, the woods you broke through in hunting. I leave out the fact +that it was here you first played ball[67] and backgammon,[68] that you +hawked, coursed, rode, shot with the bow. I omit the fact that for the +sake of your boyish presence students of letters came hither from all +parts; and that it was due to you as an individual that our nobility, +anxious to shed the slough of Celtic speech, imbued itself now with the +style of oratory, now with the measures of the Muse. And this specially +kindled the love of the community[69] that you forbade those whom you +had already made Latins[70] to remain barbarians.[71] For it could never +slip the memory of our citizens what and how great you seemed, to every +age and rank and sex on the half-ruined mounds of our walls, when, +accompanied by scarcely eighteen horsemen, you cut your way through some +thousands of Goths in full daylight and (which posterity will hardly +believe) in the open field. A well trained army stood aghast at the +sound of your name and the sight of your person: so that the leaders of +the enemy, in their astonishment, hardly knew how many were their +followers, how few yours. Their line was then withdrawn to the brow of a +steep hill; it had before been gathered together to storm, but on your +appearance was not deployed for battle. Meanwhile you, having slain some +of their best men whom not sloth but courage had made the rearmost of +the troop, occupied the level ground alone, though such a fight gave you +not so many comrades as your table is wont to contain guests. And when +you returned to the town at your leisure what came to meet you in the +way of official compliments, applause, tears, rejoicings can be better +guessed than described. One might see in the crammed halls of the +spacious palace that happy ovation for your thronged return. Some caught +up the dust of your footsteps to kiss it: others took out the horses' +curbs stained with blood and foam; others prepared the stands for the +saddles drenched with the horses' sweat; others, when you were about to +put off your helmet, unbuckled the clasps of its plated chin-straps, or +busied themselves with unlacing your greaves. Yet others counted the +notches on the swords, blunted with slaughter, or measured with +livid[72] fingers the rings of the corslets, slashed or pierced by +weapons.[73] + + +EARLY MEDIAEVAL LETTER (TWELFTH CENTURY) + + Of the other persons mentioned in this letter besides the + widowed Duchess and King Louis VII., the first is Ralph, + Count of (Peronne and) Vermandois, a leper. The lady's name + was Eleanor, and she also was probably a widow; the + Duchess's son Hugh was third of that name as Duke of + Burgundy. Ivo, Count of Soissons, was the guardian of the + Count of Vermandois, incapacitated legally by his plague. + The proposed marriage did not come off. The business-like + tone of the letter will only surprise those who do not + really know the "Ages of Romance." I owe the selection of it + to my friend the Rev. W. Hunt, D.Litt., who came to my aid + in the dearth of books of this period which circumstances + imposed on me. + +To Louis[74] most excellent King of the Franks by the grace of God, and +her most beloved Lord, Mary, Duchess of Burgundy--health and due +respect. It is known to your Majesty that my son is your liegeman, and, +if it please you, your kinsman also. Whatsoever he can do is yours: and +if he could do more it were yours. And so I all the more confidently ask +your highest affection for my son. For it has been told me that Count +Ralph of Peronne has a certain marriageable sister who, as has been +reported to me and her own people, would be a suitable wife for my son. +For this reason, most beloved Lord, I and he ask that you would look to +this matter yourself and speak about it to the Count of Soissons, and +settle how this marriage may be contracted. You must know that though my +son might marry in another kingdom, I greatly prefer that he should +take a wife in yours, rather than in any other. The nearer he becomes +connected with you the more will he be yours and altogether a profit to +you. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] It may of course be "illustrated" in the other sense by a second use +of the pen; and we shall have instances of this kind to notice. + +[2] As has often been pointed out Ben Jonson's exquisite "Drink to me +only with thine eyes" is a verse-paraphrase or mosaic from this writer's +prose. + +[3] Pliny, if he did not always "write for publication," deliberately +"published," as we should say, his letters. Indeed, he is one of the +first to use the word in this sense, even if he uses it immediately of +an oration not a letter. Some think Cicero meant publication; and he was +very likely to do so. + +[4] The Latin statesman, like the Greek bishop, condescends to write +about wine and even more fully. One of the most interesting and +informing things on the subject is his discourse on _vinum acinaticium_, +a sort of Roman Imperial Tokay made from grapes kept till the frost had +touched them. + +[5] Genuine letters of Sappho would have been of the first interest to +compare with those of Heloise, and the "Portuguese Nun" and Mademoiselle +de Lespinasse. Diotima's might have been as disappointing as George +Eliot's: but by no means must necessarily have been so. Aspasia's, +sometimes counterfeited, ought to have been good. + +[6] It is part of the plan to give, as a sort of Appendix to the +Introduction, and extension of it towards the main body of text, some +specimens of Greek, Roman (classical and post-classical) and Early +Mediaeval letter-writing, translated for the purpose by the present +writer. The _continuity_ of literary history is a thing which deserves +to be attended to, especially when there is an ever-growing tendency to +confine attention to things modern--albeit so soon to be antiquated! I +owe the last of these specimens, in the Latin from which I translate it, +to the kindness of my friend the Rev. W. Hunt, D.Litt., to whom I had +recourse as not myself having access to a large library at the moment, +and who has assisted me in other parts of this book. + +[7] Yet others, as to authenticity, have, I believe, been rejected by +all competent scholarship. + +[8] Benjamin Constant and Madame de Charriere. + +[9] Some of us think Blake a great poet; but this is scarcely a general +opinion, and he does not appear till the century was three parts over. +Burns (whose own letters by the way do him little justice) hardly comes +in. + +[10] Especially the most popular and voluminous if not the most +important of all--the periodical and the novel. + +[11] The danger being of many sorts--usually in the direction of various +kinds of _excess_. A _quietly_ tragic letter may be a masterpiece: +perhaps there is no finer example than one to be again referred to, of +Mrs. Carlyle's. + +[12] Mr. Paul thinks that "the baby language" is terribly out of +character, and that there is "too much of it"; that Swift "would try to +make love though he did not know what love meant"; and that the whole +rings hollow and insincere. Others, women as well as men, have held that +the "little language" is only less pathetic than it is charming; that +Swift was one of the greatest, if one of the unhappiest lovers of the +world; and that the thing is as sincere as if it had been written in the +Palace of Truth and only hollow as is the space between Heaven and Hell. + +[13] It should never be, but perhaps sometimes is, forgotten that +"Stella" was a lady of unusual wits, and of what Swift's greatest +decrier called in his own protegee Mrs. Williams "universal curiosity," +that is to say not "inquisitiveness" but "intelligent interest." The +politics etc. are not mere selfish attention to what interests the +writer only. + +[14] It must not be forgotten that she was Fielding's cousin. And after +the remark above on Swift it is pleasant and may be fair to say that Mr. +Paul is a hearty "Marian." + +[15] Johnson is again the chief and by no means trustworthy witness for +this "insolence." But in the same breath he admitted that Chesterfield +was "dignified." Now dignity is almost as doubtfully compatible with +insolence as with impudence. + +[16] It is difficult to think of anyone who has combined statesmanship +(Chesterfield's accomplishments in which are constantly forgotten), +social gifts and literary skill in an equal degree. + +[17] Excluding of course purely historical and public things like the +trials of the '45 and the riots of '80. + +[18] They were travelling together (always rather a test of friendship) +in Italy, and Horace, as he confesses, no doubt gave himself airs. But +it is pretty certain that Gray had not at this time, if he ever had, +that fortunate combination of good (or at least well-commanded) temper +and good breeding which enables a gentleman to meet such conduct with +conduct on his own side as free from petulant "touchiness" as from +ignoble parasitism. + +[19] Gray was not, like Walpole, a richly endowed sinecurist. But to use +a familiar "bull" he seems never to have had anything to do, and never +to have done it when he had. His poems are a mere handful; his excellent +_Metrum_ is a fragment; and as Professor of History at Cambridge he +never did anything at all. + +[20] They do not seem to have known each other personally. But (for +reasons not difficult to assign but here irrelevant) Johnson was on the +whole, though not wholly, unjust to Gray, and Gray seems to have +disliked and spoken rudely of Johnson. + +[21] The varieties of what may be called literary _exercise_ which have +been utilised for educational or recreative purposes, are almost +innumerable. Has anyone ever tried "breaking up" a letter (such as those +to be given hereafter) into a conversation by interlarded comment, +questions, etc.? + +[22] As far as the accidents are concerned. The essentials vary not. +Marianne is eternal, whether she faints and blushes, or jazzes and--does +not blush. + +[23] One unfortunate exception, the _ex-post facto_ references to the +split with Lady Austin, may be urged by a relentless prosecutor. But +when William has to choose between Mary and Anna it will go hard but he +will _have_ to be unfair to one of them. + +[24] This "swan's" utterances in poetry were quite unlike those of +Tennyson's dying bird: and her taste in it was appalling. She tells +Scott that the Border Ballads were totally destitute of any right to the +name. + +[25] For a singular misjudgment on this point see Prefatory Note +_infra_. + +[26] Particularly when he is able to apply the _Don Juan_ mood of +sarcastic if rather superficial life-criticism in which he was a real +master. + +[27] _I.e._ "violently and vulgarly absurd." + +[28] It may, however, be suggested that the extraordinary _bluntness_ +(to use no stronger word) of both is almost sufficiently evidenced in +the fact that in his last edition of Keats Mr. Forman committed the +additional outrage of distributing these letters according to their +dates among the rest. The isolation of the agony gives almost the only +possible excuse for revealing it. + +[29] It is of course true that Shelley himself did not at first quite +appreciate Keats. But _Adonais_ cancels the deficit and leaves an almost +infinite balance in favour. One can only hope that, had the +circumstances been reversed, Keats would have set the account right as +triumphantly. + +[30] This tendency makes it perhaps desirable to observe that in the +_particular_ context of the _Belle Dame_ there is nothing whatever to +cavil at. + +[31] The recent centenary saw, as usual, with much welcome appreciation +some uncritical excesses. + +[32] In not a few cases they may be said to have been deliberately +_un_prepared--intended though not labelled as "private and +confidential." + +[33] In which, be it remembered, the "Life-and-Letters" system only came +in quite late. + +[34] At the very moment when this is being written a considerable new +body of them is announced for sale. + +[35] The word "restraint" may be misunderstood: but it is intended to +indicate something of the general difference between "classical" ages on +the one side and "romantic" or "realist" on the other. + +[36] Chesterfield's deafness might, without frivolity, be brought in. It +is a hindrance to conversation, but none to letter-writing. + +[37] Or at least expression of themselves. + +[38] Idly: because he himself expressly and repeatedly disclaims _mere_ +"translation." + +[39] Dryden, in reference to Shadwell. + +[40] "The Great God Pan" piece ("A Musical Instrument"), one of the +last, was perhaps her _very_ best. But he may have been thinking of +_Poems before Congress_, which are poor enough. + +[41] Lucy, daughter of that curious Quaker banker's clerk Bernard +Barton, whose poetry is negligible, but who must have had some strong +personal attraction. For he was a favourite correspondent of two of the +greatest of contemporary letter-writers, Lamb and FitzGerald, though he +constantly misunderstood their letters; he received from Byron--on an +occasion likely to provoke one of the "noble poet's" outbursts of +pseudo-aristocratic insolence--a singularly wise and kindly answer; and +having as a perfect stranger lectured Sir Robert Peel he was--invited to +dinner! + +[42] Some have attempted to make a distinction, alleging that there are +Franceses who can be called "Fanny" and others who can not. But it is +doubtful whether this holds. Of two great proficients of "letter-stuff" +in overlapping generations Fanny Burney was eminently a "Fanny." Fanny +Kemble, though always called so, was not. + +[43] She was the niece of Mrs. Siddons and of John Kemble, generally +considered the greatest tragic actor and actress we have had; the +daughter of Charles Kemble, a player and manager of long practice and +great ability; while she had yet another uncle and any number of more +distant relations in the profession. + +[44] See Prefatory Note on her letters _infra_, for an illustration of +what is said of her here and of Mrs. Carlyle a little further. + +[45] Gray may not produce this effect of slight repulsion on everyone: +but on the other hand it is pretty generally admitted that the more you +read Walpole the more does the prejudice, which Macaulay and others have +helped to create against him, crumble and melt. + +[46] They grow more and more numerous; a fresh batch having been +announced while this Introduction was being written. + +[47] I see that Mr. Paul also has made special reference to this letter +and no wonder. From the time of its first publication I have regarded it +as matchless. But it seems to me that while it is lawful to mention it, +it should not have been published and that to republish it here would be +at least questionable. + +[48] The present writer remembers as a boy reading (he supposes in the +newspaper to which it was addressed but is not sure) this very +remarkable epistle of Reade's to an editor: "Sir, you have brains of +your own and good ones. Do not echo the bray of such a very small ass as +the...." There was more, but this was the gist of it. Whether it has +ever reappeared he cannot say. + +[49] Anthony Trollope did not choose to make his Autobiography a +"Life-and-Letters." But he has used the inserted letter very freely and +sometimes with great effect in his novels, for instance Mr. Slope's to +Eleanor Harding in _Barchester Towers_. + +[50] In his Essay mentioned in Preface. + +[51] The "Answer to the Introductory Epistle" of _The Monastery_. + +[52] This plan was older than the "novel _by_ letters," and had, as +noticed above, been largely used in the sixteenth and seventeenth +century "heroic" romance. + +[53] There is of course a class exactly opposite to the +love-letter--that of more or less modified hate or at least dislike. +Johnson's epistle to Chesterfield is an example of the dignified form of +this; Hazlitt's to Gifford of the undignified. But considering our +deserved reputation for humour we are less strong than might be expected +in letters which make the supposed writer make _himself_ ridiculous. +Sydney Smith's "Noodle's Oration" is the sort of thing in another kind: +and some of the letters in the _Spectator_ class of periodical are fun +in the kind itself. Defoe's _Shortest Way with the Dissenters_ comes +near. But we have nothing like the famous _Epistolae Obscurorum +Virorum_, which are the very triumph of the style. + +[54] See the extensive classification of the Greeks, as noticed and +reproduced before. + +[55] The "Letter to Sir W. Windham" of the one and the "Letter to a +noble Lord" of the other, have ample justification. _Letters on a +Regicide Peace_, great as they are in themselves, have less claim to +their title. But it was a favourite with both writers. + +[56] The King was William and the Queen Mary, which limits considerably +the otherwise rather illimitable "concerning the kingdom." + +[57] This word is of course a _vox nihili_, being neither French nor +English. But it has usage in its favour, and I do not see that it is +improved by writing it "_dis_habille." If anyone prefers the actual +French form he can add the accents. + +[58] The account of the journey with Lintot the publisher is sometimes +quoted in disproof of this. It is amusing, but has still to some tastes +Pope's factitiousness without the technical charm of his verse to carry +it off. + +[59] There is one small but rather famous class of letters which perhaps +should receive separate though brief notice. It is that of laconic and +either intentionally or unintentionally humorous utilisations of the +letter-form. Of one sort Captain Walton's "Spanish fleet taken and +destroyed as per margin" is probably the most noted type: of another the +equally famous rejoinder of the Highland magnate to his rival "Dear +Glengarry, When you have proved yourself to be my chief, I shall be +happy to admit your claim. Meanwhile I am Yours, Macdonald." In pure +farce of an irreverent kind, the possibly apocryphal interchange between +a Royal Duke and a Right Reverend Bishop, "Dear Cork, Please ordain +Stanhope, Yours, York," and "Dear York, Stanhope's ordained. Yours, +Cork," has the palm as a recognised "chestnut." But these things are +only the frills if not even the froth of the subject; and those who +imitate them should exercise caution in the imitation. The +police-courts, and even more exalted, but still more unwholesome abodes +of Justice, have sometimes been the consequences of misguided satire in +letters. Even in Captain Walton's case the Spaniards are said to have +endeavoured to show that his ironical laconism (which, moreover, +tradition has perhaps exaggerated in form) was not strictly in +accordance with fact. + +[60] Wild olive, with more peaceful uses, was also the usual material +for the _un_peaceful club, or quarter-staff, often iron-shod, of the +ancients. It was probably like the _lathi_ which the mild Hindoo takes +with him to political meetings. The [Greek: pelekys] of the ancients was +generally double-bladed, hence the limitation here. This would be +lighter and more convenient to carry in the belt. + +[61] Of course "the enemies'." + +[62] Synesius addresses his letters to Hypatia [Greek: te +philosopho]--"To _the_ Philosophess." This contains at least two of the +unapproachable "portmanteau" words in which Greek, and especially late +Greek abounds--[Greek: philochoron], "loving one's country," and [Greek: +metanasteuein], a rare and complicated compound in which I have ventured +to see a hint of ironic intention. He feels that he will be a sort of +shirker or deserter ([Greek: meta] often imparts this meaning) but he +will be coming to _her_. + +[63] This necessity of annotating beyond suitable limits was what +prevented me, after due re-reading for the purpose, from giving any +letter of Cicero's. + +[64] _Admoneo_ in Latin not unfrequently has our commercial sense of +"advise" = inform, or remind of a fact. It will be remembered that in +Elizabethan English this sense was not limited to business, as in "Art +thou avised of that." + +[65] The younger Pliny's full name was C. Plinius _Secundus_. + +[66] Among other natives of course. + +[67] Doubtless the game still played in Italy (_pallone_) and the South +of France, with a wooden hand-guard strapped to the arm. + +[68] _Pyrgus_ is not exactly backgammon. The Romans had a sort of +combined dice-box and board--the latter having a kind of tower fixed on +the side with interior steps or stops, among which the dice tumbled and +twisted before they fell out. + +[69] _Universitas_: but though the context seems tempting, it is too +early for "university" as a translation. + +[70] _I.e._ in citizenship. + +[71] _I.e._ in speech. + +[72] Why _livescentibus_ I am not sure. "Bruised by the rough mail"? But +Lucretius has _digiti livescunt_: and Sidonius, like other poets of +other decadences, is apt to borrow the phrases of his great +predecessors. + +[73] Sidonius has nearly as much more of this curious story: but the +picture of the excitable Celts mobbing their heroes is vivid enough to +make a good stopping-place. If things really went as described, one must +suppose that a sudden panic came on the Goths, and that they took +Ecdicius and his handful of troopers as merely _eclaireurs_ of a sally +in force, and drew back to the higher ground to resist it. + +[74] His own experience of marriage cannot have made the subject wholly +agreeable to him: for he was, it may not be quite impertinent to remind +the reader, the first husband of Eleanor of Guienne. + + + + +ENGLISH LETTERS + + + + +THE PASTONS. FIFTEENTH CENTURY + + + Few families in England have achieved a permanent "place i' + the story" after such a curious fashion as the Pastons of + Paston (Pastons "of that ilk") in Norfolk. They were not + exactly "great people" and no member of the family was of + very eminent distinction in any walk of life, though they + had judges, soldiers, and sailors etc. among them, and + though, some time before the house became extinct, its + representative attained the peerage with the title of Earl + of Yarmouth. But they were busy people in the troublesome + times of the Roses, and they obtained a good deal of + property, partly by the death of Sir John Fastolf, noted in + the French wars and muddled by posterity (there seems to + have been no real resemblance between them except an + accusation of cowardice, probably false in both cases, and + an imperfectly anagrammatised relation of names) with + Shakespeare's "Falstaff." But they produced, received, and + kept a great mass of letters which, despite the extinction + of the family in 1732 survived, were partially printed later + in the century by Fenn, and more fully a hundred years after + by the late Mr. Gairdner. Although (see Introduction) of no + particular literary merit they are singularly varied in + subject and authorship, and they give us perhaps a more + complete view of the domestic experiences of a single family + (not dissociated from public affairs) than we have from any + period of English history till quite modern times. Indeed, + it would not be easy to put the finger on an exact parallel + to them at _any_ time. I have selected from a great mass of + documents two--one of love and one of war according to the + good old division. John Jernyngan's letter to Margaret + Mauteby--wife of John Paston, and one of the most notable + and businesslike, though not the least affectionate of wives + and mothers--is interesting for its combination of the two + motives (were there also _two_ "Mistress Blanches"?) and for + the delightfully English frankness of its confession that + "we were well and truly beat." On the other hand, that of + Miss Margery Brews to John Paston the youngest (the John + named above had two sons of his own name) is one of the most + agreeable pieces of "plain and holy innocence," as Miranda + calls it, on record. It is immediately preceded in the + collection by another in which she is equally loving, and + quotes some of the shockingly bad fifteenth century verse. + One regrets to say that her "Valentine" had, apparently, + more than one string to his bow at the moment. However, + after vicissitudes in the "matter," as she delicately calls + it, John and Margery did marry, and from them proceeded the + later stages of the family. Whether things went equally well + with Mr. Jernyngan and his Blanche (or either of his + Blanches) does not seem to be recorded. (It has been thought + better, though the taste of the moment seems to go rather + the other way, not to encumber the reader with the original + spelling, but there is no further modernisation.) + + +1. LETTER 317 (GAIRDNER) + +Date June 1, 1458 + +Right worshipful and my most best beloved mistress and cousin, I +recommend me to you as lowly as I may, ever more desiring to hear of +your good welfare; the which I beseech almighty Jesus to preserve you +and keep you to his pleasure and to your gracious heart's desire. And, +if it please you to hear of my welfare, I was in good heal(th) at the +making of this letter, blessed be God. + +Praying you that it please you for to send me word if my father was at +Norwich with you at this Trinitymas or no, and how the matter doth +between my mistress Blanche Witchingham and me and if ye suppose that it +shall be brought about or no, and how ye feel my father, if he be well +willing thereto or no; praying you lowly that I may be recommend(ed) +lowly to my mistress Arblaster's wife, and to my mistress Blanche her +daughter specially. + +Right worshipful cousin, if it please you for to hear of such tidings as +we have here, the embassy of Burgundy shall come to Calais the Saturday +after Corpus Christi day, as men say, 500 horse of them. Moreover on +Trinity Sunday in the morning came tidings unto my Lord of Warwick that +there were 28 sails of Spaniards on the sea, and whereof there was 16 +great ships of forecastle. And then my Lord[75] went and manned 5 ships +of forecastle and three carvells, and four pinnaces, and on the Monday, +in the morning after Trinity Sunday, we met together afore Calais at 4 +at the clock in the morning and fought that (_sic_) gether till 10 at +the clock. And there we took six of their ships and they slew of our men +about four twenties and hurt a two hundred of us right sore; and there +were slain on their part about twelve twenties and hurt a five hundred +of them. + +And (it) happened me at the first aboarding of us, we took a ship of +three hundred ton, and I was left therein and 23 men with me; and they +fought so sore that our men were fain to leave them, and then come they +and aboarded[76] the ship that I was in and there I was taken, and was +prisoner with them 6 hours, and was delivered again for their men that +were taken before. And as men say, there was not so great a battle upon +the sea this forty winters. And forsooth we were well and truly beat: +and my Lord hath sent for more ships, and like to fight together again +in haste. + +No more I write unto you at this time, but that it please you for to +recommend me unto my right reverend and worshipful cousin your husband, +and mine uncle Gurney, and to mine aunt his wife and to all good masters +and friends where it shall please you; and after the writing I have from +you, I shall be at you in all haste. Written on Corpus Christi day in +great haste by your own humble servant and cousin, + +JOHN JERNYNGAN. + + +2. LETTER 784 (GAIRDNER) + +Date Feb. 1477 + +Right worshipful and well-beloved Valentine, in my most humble wise I +recommend me unto you. And heartily I thank you for the letter which +that ye send me by John Beckerton, whereby I am informed and know that +ye be purposed to come to Topcroft in short time, and without any errand +or matter but only to have a conclusion of the matter between my father +and you. I would be most glad of any creature in life so that the +matter might grow to effect. And there as ye say, an ye come and find +the matter no more towards you than ye did aforetime, ye would no more +put my father and my lady my mother to no cost nor business, for that +cause, a good while after--which causeth mine heart to be full heavy: +and if that ye come, and the matter take to none effect, then should I +be much more sorry and full of heaviness. + +And as for myself I have done and understood in the matter that I can +and may, as good[77] knoweth: and I let you plainly understand that my +father will no more money part withal in that behalf but L100 and one +mark which is right far from the accomplishment of your desire. + +Wherefore if that ye could be content with that good, and my poor +person, I would be the merriest maiden on ground. And if ye think not +yourself so satisfied, or that ye might have much more good, as I have +understood by you afore--good, true, and loving Valentine,[78] that ye +take no such labour upon you as to come more for that matter but let it +pass and never more be spoken of, as I may be your true lover and +bedeswoman[79] during my life. + +No more unto you at this time but Almighty Jesus preserve you both body +and soul. + +By your Valentine, + +M. B. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[75] It is to be feared that "My Lord's" action was rather piratical. +The "Spanish Fleet" was of merchantmen ("convoyed" perhaps) on their way +to the North with iron etc. for fish, silk, etc., and we were not +definitely at war with Spain. But Henry the IV. of Castile was an ally +of France. Warwick had just been appointed "Captain of Calais," and it +was a general English idea that anything not English in the Channel was +fair prize. Warwick's conduct was warmly welcomed in London. + +[76] This use of "abord" and that just before are slightly different +derivatives of the French _aborder_, which means to "approach," +"accost," "come together with" as well as to "board" in the naval sense. +The first use here is evidently of the more general, the second of the +particular kind. + +[77] This may be a mere mis-spelling of "God," or a sort of euphemism +like the modern "thank _goodness_!" to avoid the more sacred name. + +[78] "I would" or "take care" or something similar to be supplied to +make a somewhat softened imperative. + +[79] One who prays for you. + + + + +ROGER ASCHAM (1515-1568) + + + Although the old phrase about "the schoolmaster being + abroad" has never before had anything like the amount of + applicableness which it now possesses, there is perhaps + still a certain prejudice against schoolmasters. Indeed even + some who have more than served time in that capacity will + admit that it is a dangerous employment, profession, or + vocation. But if all of us had been ever, or ever would try + to be, like Roger Ascham, our class would never have + deserved, or would victoriously wiped off, any obloquy. It + was extraordinary good quality, or more extraordinary good + fortune, that made the same man write _Toxophilus_ and _The + Schoolmaster_. And there need hardly be any admission of + possible good luck as causing, though some certainly helped, + his performance as a letter-writer. Something was said + before as to the importance of his "getting to English" in + this matter. But it may be permissible to remind, or perhaps + even inform, some readers of the curious combination which + made this importance. As a Renaissance scholar; as a College + tutor before the middle of the sixteenth century; as a + Secretary of Embassy on the Continent; and as Latin + Secretary at Court, he was positively _un_likely to favour + the vernacular. Nor could anyone be a warmer or wiser lover + of the classics than he was. But what he, being all these + things, did for English was all the more influential, while + the manner of his doing it could hardly be bettered. + + Ascham's letters being partly in English and partly in + Latin, there is a certain temptation to translate one of the + latter and put it side by side with one of the former. But + the process might not be fair: and to give the fairer chance + of comparison between originals in the two tongues would be + out of the scheme of this book. I therefore choose a part of + one of his long letters of travel to Cambridge friends--one + of the earliest of the many "Up the Rhines" in English + literature--and another part of his letters to Cecil. He has + been reproached with the "begging" character of these, but + it was the way of the time with Renaissance scholars. In the + first "ioney" (Giles's text) must be wrong and towards the + end "vile" is an amusing blunder for "_o_ile." "Peter + Ailand" a Cambridge friend's child. "Brant" = "steep." In + the second "Denny" is Sir Anthony D., a great favourite of + Henry VIII. and Edward VI. who was now dead. "Cheke" the + still better known "Sir John" had "taught Cambridge and King + Edward Greek," and so raised the "goodly crop" but had taken + to politics, which were to bring him into trouble.[80] + + +3. TO MR. EDWARD RAVEN [EXTRACT] + +AUGSBURG Jan. 20 1551 + +13 Octob. We took a fair barge, with goodly glass windows, with seats of +fir, as close as any house, we knew not whether it went or stood. Rhene +is such a river that now I do not marvail that the poets make rivers +gods. Rhene at Spires having a farther course to rin into the ocean sea +than is the space betwixt Dover and Barwick is broader over a great deal +than is Thames at Greenwich when it is calm weather. The Rhene runs fast +and yet as smooth as the sea water stands in a vessel. + +From Colen this day we went to Bonna, the bishop's town, the country +about Rhene here is plain and ioney. We were drawn up Rhene by horses. +Little villages stand by Rhene side, and as the barge came by, six or +seven children, some stonenaked, some in their shirts, of the bigness of +Peter Ailand, would run by use on the sands, singing psalms, and would +rin and sing with us half a mile, whilst they had some money. + +We came late to Bonna at eight of the clock: our men were come afore +with our horse: we could not be let into the town, no more than they do +at Calise, after an hour. We stood cold at the gate a whole hour. At +last we were fain, lord and lady, to lie in our barge all night, where I +sat in my lady's side-saddle, leaning my head to a malle, better lodged +than a dozen of my fellows. + +14 Octob. We sailed to Brousik: 15 miles afore we come to Bonna begin +the vines and hills keeping in Rhene on both sides for the space of five +or six days journey as we made them almost to Mayence, like the hills +that compass Halifax about, but far branter up, as though the rocks did +cover you like a pentice (pent-house): on the Rhene side all this +journey be pathways where horse and man go commonly a yard broad, so +fair that no weather can make it foul: if you look upwards ye are afraid +the rocks will fall on your head; if you look downwards ye are afraid to +tumble into Rhene, and if your horse founder it is not seven to six that +ye shall miss falling into Rhene, there be many times stairs down into +Rhene that men may come from their boats and walk on his bank, as we did +every day four or five miles at once, plucking grapes not with our hands +but with our mouths if we list. + +The grapes grow on the brant rocks so wonderfully that ye will marvel +how men dare climb up to them, and yet so plentifully, that it is not +only a marvel where men be found to labour it, but also almost where men +dwell that drink it. Seven or eight days journey ye cannot cast your +sight over the compass of vines. And surely this wine of Rhene is so +good, so natural, so temperate, so ever like itself, as can be wished +for man's use. I was afraid when I came out of England to miss beer; but +I am more afraid when I shall come into England, that I cannot lack this +wine. + +It is wonder to see how many castles stand on the tops of these rocks +unwinable. The three bishops electors, Colen, Trevers and Mayence; be +the princes almost of whole Rhene. The lansgrave hath goodly castles +upon Rhene which the emperor cannot get. The palatine of Rhene is also a +great lord on this river, and hath his name of a castle standing in the +midst of Rhene on a rock. There be also goodly isles in Rhene, so full +of walnut trees that they cannot be spent with eating, but they make +vile of them. In some of these isles stand fair abbeys and nunneries +wonderfully pleasant. The stones that hang so high over Rhene be very +much of that stone that you use to write on in tables; every poor man's +house there is covered with them. + + +4. TO CECIL [EXTRACT] + +BRUSSELS March 24. 1553 + +If I should write oft, ye might think me too bold: and if I did leave +off, ye might judge me either to forget your gentleness, or to mistrust +your good will, who hath already so bound me unto you, as I shall rather +forget myself, and wish God also to forget me, than not labour with all +diligence and service to apply myself wholly to your will and purpose; +and that ye shall well know how much I assure myself on your goodness, I +will pass a piece of good manners, and be bold to borrow a little of +your small leisure from your weighty affairs in the commonwealth. +Therefore, if my letters shall find you at any leisure, they will +trouble you a little in telling you ate length, as I promised in my last +letters delivered unto you by Mr. Francis Yaxeley, why I am more +desirous to have your help for my stay at Cambridge still than for any +other kind of living elsewhere. I having now some experience of life led +at home and abroad, and knowing what I can do most fitly, and how I +would live most gladly, do well perceive there is no such quietness in +England, nor pleasure in strange countries, as even in St. John's +college, to keep company with the Bible, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes, +and Tully. Which my choice of quietness is not purposed to lie in +idleness, nor constrained by a wilful nature, because I will not or can +not serve elsewhere, when I trust I could apply myself to mo kinds of +life than I hope any need shall ever drive me to seek, but only because +in choosing aptly for myself I might bring some profit to many others. +And in this mine opinion I stand the more gladly, because it is grounded +upon the judgment of worthy Mr. Denny. For the summer twelvemonth before +he departed, dinner and supper he had me commonly with him, whose +excellent wisdom, mingled with so pleasant mirth, I can never forget: +emonges many other talks he would say oft unto me, if two duties did not +command him to serve, the one his prince, the other his wife, he would +surely become a student in St. John's, saying, "The Court, Mr. Ascham, +is a place so slippery, that duty never so well done, is not a staff +stiff enough to stand by always very surely, where ye shall many times +reap most unkindness where ye have sown greatest pleasures, and those +also ready to do you most hurt to whom you never intended to think any +harm." Which sentences I heard very gladly then, and felt them soon +after myself to be true. Thus I, first ready by mine own nature, then +moved by good counsel, after driven by ill fortune, lastly called by +quietness, thought it good to couch myself in Cambridge again. And in +very deed, too many be pluckt from thence before they be ripe, though I +myself am withered before I be gathered, and yet not so for that I have +stood too long, but rather because the fruit which I bear is so very +small. Yet seeing the goodly crop of Mr. Cheke is almost clean carried +from thence, and I in a manner alone of that time left a standing +straggler, peradventure though my fruit be very small, yet because the +ground from whence it sprung was so good, I may yet be thought somewhat +fit for seed, when all you the rest are taken up for better store, +wherewith the king and his realm is now so nobly served. And in such a +scarcity both of those, that were worthily called away when they were +fit, and of such as unwisely part from thence, before they be ready, I +dare now bolden myself, when the best be gone, to do some good among the +mean that do tarry, trusting that my diligence shall deal with my +disability, and the rather because the desire of shooting is so well +shot away in me, either ended by time or left off for better purpose. +Yet I do amiss to mislike shooting too much, which hath been hitherto my +best friend, and even now looking back to the pleasure which I found in +it, and perceiving small repentence to follow after it, by Plato's +judgment I may think well of it. No, it never called me to go from my +book, but it made both wit the lustier, and will the readier, to run to +it again, and perchance going back sometimes from learning may serve +even as well as it doth at leaping, to pass some of those which keep +always their standing at their book. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[80] The allusions to the writer's own _Toxophilus_ at the end require, +it is to be hoped, no annotation. + + + + +LADY MARY SIDNEY (?[81]-1586) + + + This "old Molly," as she so agreeably calls herself, was + very unfortunate in her father (that intrusive holder for a + short time of the title of Northumberland, who was offensive + in success and abject in adversity) and not too lucky in her + brother, Leicester. But she must have been far too good for + her own breed; she had an excellent husband, Sir Henry + Sidney, Deputy of Ireland and President of Wales, one of + Elizabeth's best deserving and worst treated servants, and + she was the mother of "Astrophel" and Astrophel's sister. + "One has known persons more unfortunate," as a famous phrase + of a French poem not very long after her own time has it. + And she must have thoroughly deserved good fortune: for her + letters show her as one of the best of wives and mothers (if + not of spellers): though it is quite possible that she might + not have made a good jurywoman or a good member of + parliament. As her husband was not merely governor + (repeatedly and with such success as was possible) of + Ireland, but "President of Wales," they usually, when in + England but not at Court or at Penshurst, lived at Ludlow + Castle and so enjoyed two of the most beautiful homes in the + country. But Sir Henry in these and other functions had seas + of trouble, great expenses, and according to "Gloriana's" + wont, very small thanks for it all. He is said, indeed, to + have had his life shortened by weariness and worry. But his + son and daughter[82] may have been a comfort to him: and his + wife must have been so. The letter itself, as will be seen, + is not to himself but to his secretary: and there was more + correspondence on the subject of their lodging and its + difficulties. Lady Mary was not well, and there must be a + place to see friends, and the Queen might come in! The + original letter[83] is better spelt than others of hers, the + principal curiosity being the form "hit" for "it," which, + however, is by no means peculiar. + + +5. TO EDWARD MOLINEUX, ESQ. + +You have used the matter very well; but we must do more yet for the good +dear Lord [her husband] than let him be thus dealt withal. Hampton Court +I never yet knew so full as there were not spare rooms in it, when it +has been thrice better filled than at the present it is. But some would +be sorry, perhaps, my Lord should have so sure a footing in the Court. +Well, all may be as well when the good God will. The whilst, I pray let +us do what we may for our Lord's ease and quiet. Whereunto I think if +you go to my Lord Howard, and in my Lord's name also move his Lordship +to shew his brother my Lord, (as they call each other)--to show him a +cast of his office[84] and that it should not be known allege your +former causes, I think he will find out some place to serve that +purpose. And also if you go to Mr Bowyer,[85] the gentleman-Usher, and +tell him his mother requireth him (which is myself) to help my Lord +with some one room, but only for the dispatch of the multitude of Welsh +and Irish people that follow him; and that you will give your word in my +Lord's behalf and mine, it shall not be accounted as a lodging[86] or +known of, I believe he will make what shift he can: you must assure him +it is but for the day-time for his business, as indeed it is. + +As for my brother's answer of[87] my stay here for five or six days, he +knows I have ventured far already with so long absence, and am ill +thought of for it,[88] so as that may not be. But when the worst is +known, old Lord Harry and his old Moll will do as well as they can in +parting[89] like good friends the small portion allotted our long +service in Court, which as little as it is, seems something too +much.[90] And this being all I can say to the matter, farewell, Mr. Ned. + +In haste this Monday 1578, + +your assured loving mistress and friend, + +M. SYDNEY. + +If all this will not serve, prove[91] Mr Huggins, for I know my Lord +would not for no good be destitute in this time for some convenient +place for his followers and friends to resort to him, which in the case +I am in, is not possible to be in _my_ chamber till after sunset, when +the dear good Lord shall be, as best becomes him, Lord of his own. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[81] Her birth-date does not seem to be known, but she was married in +1551. + +[82] He had another, of the (for an English girl) very unusual name of +"Ambros[z]ia" who died unmarried, at twenty. + +[83] Most kindly copied for me by the Rev. W. Hunt from Arthur Collins's +_Sydney Papers_. + +[84] An agreeable phrase, not in the least obsolete, though I have known +ignorant persons who thought it so. The "office" was that of Lord +Chamberlain; the holder was Lord Howard of Effingham, afterwards famous +in the Armada fights. + +[85] See _Kenilworth_ (chap. xvi.), where Scott brings him in as +experiencing Gloriana's extreme uncertainty of temper. + +[86] _I.e._ a permanent one such as Hampton Court affords to some. + +[87] "About"? + +[88] Either by the Queen herself, whose touchiness is well known, or by +jealous and mischief-making fellow courtiers. + +[89] "Sharing." + +[90] "Is grudged." + +[91] We should say "try." + + + + +GEORGE CLIFFORD EARL OF CUMBERLAND +(1558-1605) + + + This not very fortunate or wholly blameless but very + remarkable and representative person was the third holder of + the earldom and the sixteenth of the famous barony of + Clifford. He was great-grandson of Wordsworth's "Shepherd + Lord"; father of Anne Countess of Dorset, Pembroke and + Montgomery (pupil of Daniel the poet and a typical great + lady of her time); one of the foremost of Elizabeth's + privateering courtiers; one of the chief victims of her + caprice and parsimony; a magnificent noble, but a great + spendthrift, something of a libertine, never unkindly but + hardly ever wise. This remarkable deathbed letter (the + giving of which depended on the kindness of Dr. G. C. + Williamson of Hampstead, author of the _Life and Voyages of + G. Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland_, Cambridge University + Press, 1920, in which it appeared, p. 270-1), pretty well + explains itself. "Sweet Meg," his wife, was Lady Margaret + Russell, daughter of the Earl of Bedford. The pair were on + very affectionate terms for many years: but had latterly + been estranged by certain infidelities on the Earl's part + and by money disputes and difficulties, so that when his + last illness attacked him Lady Cumberland was not with him. + She was not, however, proof against this repentant appeal: + but returned with her daughter. Both were present at his + death in the Savoy soon after he wrote. He had made, + personally or by deputy, ten if not twelve voyages against + the Spaniards, and though there was a good deal of + mismanagement about them he took Porto Rico in one; + captured, but made little profit out of, an enormously + valuable prize, the _Madre de Dios_, in another; gave the + warning which enabled Lord Thomas Howard to escape, but + which Sir Richard Grenville refused to take "at Flores, in + the Azores"; and built at his own expense, the largest + privateer then or perhaps ever constructed, the _Malice + Scourge_--for the remarkable subsequent history of which, + see Mr. David Hannay's article, "_The Saga of a Ship_," in + _Blackwood_, May, 1921. + + +6. + +Sweet and dear Meg, + +Bear[92] with, I pray thee, the short and unapt setting together of +these my last lines, a token of true kindness, which I protest cometh +out of an unfeigned heart of love to thee. For whose content, and to +make satisfaction for the wrongs done to thee I have, since I saw thee +more desired to return than for any other earthly cause. But being so +low brought that, without God's miraculous favour, there is no great +likelihood of it I, by this, if so it please God that I shall not, in +earnestness make my last requests, which as ever thou lovest me lying +so, I pray thee perform for me being dead. First, in greedy earnestness +I desire thee not to offend God in grieving too much at His disposing of +me: but let my assured hope that He hath done it for the saving of my +soul rather comfort thee, considering that we ought most to rejoice, +when we see a thing that it is either for the good of our souls or of +our friends. And further I beg of thee that thou wilt take, as I have +meant, in kindness the course I have set down for disposing of my estate +and things left behind. Which truly, if I have not dealt most kindly +with thee in, I am mistaken, and as ever thou lovest, (which I know thou +hast done faithfully and truly) sweet Meg, let neither old conceit, new +opinion, nor false lying tale, make thee fall to hard opinion nor suit +with my brother. For this I protest now, when I tremble to speak that +which upon any just colour may be turned to a lie, thou hast conceived +wrong of him, for his nature is sweet, and though wrong conceit might +well have urged him, yet he hath never to my knowledge said or done +anything to harm thee or mine, but with tears hath often bemoaned +himself to me that he could not devise how to make thee conceive rightly +of him. And lastly, before the presence of God, I command thee, and in +the nearest love of my heart I desire thee, to take great care that +sweet Nan[93] whom God bless, may be carefully brought up in the fear of +God, not to delight in worldly vanities, which I too well know be but +baits to draw her out of the heavenly kingdom. And I pray thee thank thy +kind uncle and aunt for her (?) and their many kindnesses to me. Thus, +out of the bitter and greedy desire of a repentant heart, begging thy +pardon for any wrong that ever in my life I did thee, I commend these my +requests to thy wonted and undeserved kind wifely and lovely +consideration, my body to God's disposing and my love (soul?) to His +merciful commisseration. + +Thine as wholly as man was ever woman's, + +GEORGE CUMBERLAND. + +To my dear wife, the Countess of Cumberland, give this, of whom, from +the bottom of my heart in the presence of God, I ask forgiveness for all +the wrongs I have done her. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[92] There is, as often, little or no punctuation in the original, of +which Dr. Williamson's beautiful book gives a facsimile. I have ventured +to adjust that of the printed text, here and there, to bring out the +meaning. + +[93] Lady Anne was at this time only 15. She seems to have been fond of +her father and proud of him: nor is there any direct evidence that the +fear of God was not in her. But she had no fear of man: and no excessive +respect for her father's will. During the lives of her uncle Francis and +her cousin Henry, 4th and 5th Earls, she fought it hard at law: and at +last, Henry dying without issue, and the title lapsing, came into +possession of the great Clifford estates in the North. She lived to be +86, and was masterful all her days. + + + + +JOHN DONNE (1573-1631) + + + "The first poet in the world for some things,"--as Ben + Jonson, who nevertheless did not like his metric, thought he + would perish for not being understood, and perhaps did not + understand him--called Donne with justice, might not be + thought likely to be among the first letter-writers. The + marvellous lightning-flashes of genius in a dark night of + context which illuminate his poetry and his sermons, can + hardly be expected--would indeed be almost out of place--in + ordinary letter-writing. Moreover, Donne is, perhaps, with + Browne, the most characteristic exponent of that magnificent + seventeenth century style which accommodates itself ill to + merely commonplace matters. + + Browne, a younger man by an entire generation who lived far + into the age of Dryden, could drop this style when he chose: + with Donne it was rather the skin--if not even the very + flesh and bone and all but spirit--than the cloak of his + thought. Nevertheless there is no exact contemporary of + his--and certainly none possessing anything like his + literary power--who deserves selection as a representative + of his own school and time better than he does; and there is + something in him which adds distinction to any company in + which he appears. As mentioned in the Introduction, his + verse-epistles were even more noteworthy, but in prose he is + noteworthy enough. + + The batch of letters here chosen was most fortunately + preserved by Izaak Walton, who published the first of them + _in_ the life not of Donne but of George Herbert, while the + rest were "added" to it in 1670.[94] The lady to whom they + were written, Magdalen Newport by maiden name, was mother + not only of the pious and poetical George, but of Edward + Lord Herbert of Cherbury, himself not a very bad poet but by + no means in the usual sense pious, a very great coxcomb, and + a hero chiefly by his own report. His mother, however, seems + to have been one of those "elect ladies" who were among the + chief glories of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth + centuries, and were fortunately numerous. After her + widowhood she lived at Oxford for some time, but seems to + have moved to London when Donne, about 1607, wrote these + letters. He was himself living at Mitcham (spelt "Michin" in + one letter), not yet famous for golf though perhaps already + for lavender. Later he visited her at Montgomery Castle, the + famous seat of the Herberts. She is said to have been very + beautiful, and the subtle touch of not in the least fatuous + or foppish "devotion" is most agreeable. + + +7. TO THE LADY MAGDALEN HERBERT + +Madam, + +Your favours to me are everywhere. I use them, and have them. I enjoy +them at London, and leave them there: and yet find them at Mitcham. Such +riddles as these become things inexpressible: and such is your goodness. +I was almost sorry to find your servant here this day, because I was +loath to have any witness of my not coming home last night, and indeed +of my coming this morning. But my not coming was excusable, because +earnest business detained me; and my coming this day is by example of +your St. Mary Magdalen, who rose early upon Sunday, to seek that which +she loved most; and so did I. And, from her and myself, I return such +thanks as are due to one, to whom we owe all the good opinion that they, +whom we need most, have of us. By this messenger and on this good day, I +commit the enclosed Holy Hymns and Sonnets--which for the matter not the +workmanship have yet escaped the fire,--to your judgment and to your +protection too, if you think them worthy of it; and I have appointed +this enclosed Sonnet to usher them to your happy hand. + + Your unworthiest servant unless your accepting + him to be so have mended him + +JO. DONNE. + +(MITCHAM July 11. 1607) + +TO THE LADY MAGDALEN HERBERT: OF ST. MARY MAGDALEN + + Her of your name, whose fair inheritance + Bethina was, and jointure Magdalo, + An active faith so highly did advance, + That she once knew, more than the church did know, + The Resurrection! so much good there is + Delivered of her, that some Fathers be + Loath to believe one woman could do this; + But think these Magdalens were two or three. + Increase their number, Lady, and their fame: + To their devotion, add your innocence; + Take so much of the example as the name + The latter half--and in some recompense + That they did harbour Christ Himself--a guest + Harbour these Hymns, to His dear Name addressed. + + +8. TO THE LADY MAGDALEN HERBERT + +Madam, + +Every excuse hath in it somewhat of accusation; and since I am innocent, +and yet must excuse, how shall I do for that part of accusing. By my +troth, as desperate and perplexed men, grow from thence bold; so must I +take the boldness of accusing you, who would draw so dark a Curtain +betwixt me and your purposes, as that I had no glimmering, neither of +your goings, nor the way which my Letters might haunt. Yet, I have given +this Licence to Travel, but I know not whither, nor it. It is therefore +rather a Pinnace to discover; and the entire Colony of Letters, of +Hundreds and Fifties, must follow; whose employment is more honourable, +than that which our State meditates to _Virginia_ because you are +worthier than all that Country, of which that is a wretched inch; for +you have better treasure and a harmlessness. If this sound like a +flattery, tear it out. I am to my Letters as rigid a Puritan as Caesar +was to his Wife. I can as ill endure a suspicious and misinterpretable +word as a fault; and of the grossest flatteries there is this good use, +that they tell us what we should be. But, _Madam_, you are beyond +instruction, and therefore there can belong to you only praise; of +which, though you be no good hearer, yet allow all my Letters leave to +have in them one part of it, which is thankfulness towards you. + +_Your unworthiest Servant +Except your accepting +have mended him_ + +JOHN DONNE. + +MITCHAM, July 11, 1607. + + +9. _To the worthiest Lady, Mrs._ MAGDALEN HERBER(T) + +_Madam_, + +This is my second Letter, in which though I cannot tell you what is +good, yet this is the worst, that I must be a great part of it; yet to +me, that is recompensed, because you must be mingled. After I knew you +were gone (for I must, little less than accusingly tell you, I knew not +you would go) I sent my first Letter, like a _Bevis of Hampton_, to seek +Adventures. This day I came to Town, and to the best part of it, your +House; for your memory is a State-cloth and Presence; which I reverence, +though you be away; though I need not seek that there which I have about +and within me. There, though I found my accusation, yet anything to +which your hand is, is a pardon; yet I would not burn my first Letter, +because as in great destiny no small passage can be omitted or +frustrated, so in my resolution of writing almost daily to you, I would +have no link of the Chain broke by me, both because my Letters interpret +one another, and because only their number can give them weight. If I +had your Commission and Instructions to do you the service of a Legier +Ambassador here, I could say something of the Countess of _Devon_: of +the States, and such things. But since to you, who are not only a World +alone, but the Monarchy of the World your self, nothing can be added, +especially by me; I will sustain myself with the honour of being + +_Your Servant Extraordinary +And without place_ + +JOHN DONNE. + +LONDON +July 23, 1607 + + +10. _To the worthiest Lady, Mrs_. MAGDALEN HERBERT + +_Madam_, + +As we must die before we can have full glory and happiness, so before I +can have this degree of it, as to see you by a Letter, I must almost +die, that is, come to _London_, to plaguy _London_; a place full of +danger, and vanity, and vice, though the Court be gone. And such it will +be, till your return redeem it: Not that, the greatest virtue in the +World, which is you, can be such a Marshal, as to defeat, or disperse +all the vice of this place; but as higher bodies remove, or contract +themselves, when better come, so at your return we shall have one door +open to innocence. Yet, Madam, you are not such an Ireland, as produceth +neither ill, nor good; no Spiders or Nightingales, which is a rare +degree of perfection: But you have found and practised that experiment, +That even nature, out of her detesting of emptiness, if we will make +that our work to remove bad, will fill us with good things. To abstain +from it, was therefore but the Childhood and Minority of your Soul, +which hath been long exercised since, in your manlier active part, of +doing good. Of which since I have been a witness and subject, not to +tell you some times, that by your influence and example I have attained +to such a step of goodness, as to be thankful, were both to accuse your +power and judgment of impotency and infirmity. + +_Your Ladyship's in all Services_, + +JOHN DONNE.[95] + +August 2d, 1607. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[94] Mr. Gosse (who has inserted them in his _Life and Letters of +Donne_) is perhaps right in putting letter 7 last. I give no opinion on +this but merely keep the order in which they originally appeared in the +text and in an appendix to the _Life of Herbert_ (1670 edit.). I am not +certain to which "first" the "second" in letter 9 refers. "Bevis of +Hampton" generally for "knight errant"; "Legier," a _resident_ +Ambassador; "States" in the plural--always then "the Dutch"; +_Snake_lessness is more often assigned to Ireland than spiderlessness. + +[95] The first of these letters, with the sonnet, appears, I think, in +all editions of Walton, who has apparently entered the date wrongly. The +other three were copied for me from the 1670 original by Miss Elsie +Hitchcock, I have slightly modernised a few spellings in them. + + + + +JAMES HOWELL (1593-1666) + + + "The Father" of something is an expression in the history of + literature which has become, more justly than some other + traditional expressions, rather odious to the modern mind. + For in the first place it is an irritatingly conventional + phrase, and in the second the paternity is usually + questionable. But "the priggish little clerk of the + Council," as Thackeray (who nevertheless loved his letters) + calls Howell, does really seem to deserve the fathership of + all such as in English write unofficial letters "for + publication."[96] He wrote a great deal else: and would no + doubt in more recent times have been a "polygraphic" + journalist of some distinction. And he had plenty to write + about. He was an Oxford man; he travelled abroad on + commercial errands (though by no means as what has been more + recently called a "commercial traveller"); he was one of Ben + Jonson's "sons," a Royalist sufferer from the Rebellion, and + finally Historiographer Royal as well as Clerk to the + Council. His letters, which are sometimes only titularly + such[97] but sometimes quite natural, deal with all sorts of + subjects--from the murder of Buckingham by Felton to the + story of the Oxenham "White Bird" which Kingsley has + utilised in _Westward Ho!_ And, to do him justice, there is + a certain character about the book which is not _merely_ the + expression of the character of the writer, though no doubt + connected with it. Now the possession of this is what makes + a book literature. It has been usual to select from Howell's + letters of travel, and from historical ones like the + Buckingham one above mentioned. I have preferred the "White + Bird"; and before it one of several documents, of the same + or nearly the same period, which deal with the old English + life of country houses--between the mediaeval time and the + degradation of the "servant" class, which came in with the + eighteenth century or a little earlier. Howell would + evidently have echoed Isopel Berners--that admirable girl + whom George Borrow slighted--in saying, "Long Melford for + ever!" though the house would not with him, as with her, + have meant a workhouse. Neither letter seems to require + annotation. + + +11. TO DAN CALDWELL, ESQ., FROM THE LORD SAVAGE'S HOUSE IN LONG MELFORD + +My dear Dan, + +Tho' considering my former condition of life, I may now be called a +countryman, yet you cannot call me a rustic (as you would imply in your +letter) as long as I live in so civil and noble a family, as long as I +lodge in so virtuous and regular a house as any, I believe, in the land, +both for economical government and the choice company; for I never saw +yet such a dainty race of children in all my life together. I never saw +yet such an orderly and punctual attendance of servants, nor a great +house so neatly kept; here one shall see no dog, nor a cat, nor cage to +cause any nastiness within the body of the house. The kitchen and +gutters and other offices of noise and drudgery are at the fag-end; +there's a back-gate for the beggars and the meaner sort of swains to +come in at; the stables butt upon the park, which, for a cheerful rising +ground, for groves and browsings for the deer, for rivulets of water, +may compare with any of its bigness in the whole land; it is opposite +to the front of the great house, whence from the gallery one may see +much of the game when they are a-hunting. Now for the gardening and +costly choice flowers, for ponds, for stately large walks green and +gravelly, for orchards and choice fruits of all sorts, there are few the +like in England; here you have your Bon Chretien pear and Burgamot in +perfection; your Muscadel grapes in such plenty that there are some +bottles of wine sent every year to the King: and one Mr. Daniel, a +worthy gentleman hard by who hath been long abroad, makes good store in +his vintage. Truly this house of Long Melford tho' it be not so great, +yet is so well compacted and contriv'd with such dainty conveniences +every way; that if you saw the landskip of it, you would be mightily +taken with it and it would serve for a choice pattern to build and +contrive a house by. If you come this summer to your Manor of Sheriff in +Essex, you will not be far off hence; if your occasions will permit, it +will be worth your coming hither, tho' it be only to see him, who would +think it a short journey to go from St. David's Head to Dover Cliffs to +see and serve you, were there occasion; if you would know who the same +is, 'tis-- + +Yours, + +J. H. + +20. May, 1619. + + +12. TO MR. E. D. + +Sir, + +I thank you a thousand times for the noble entertainment you gave me at +Bury; and the pains you took in showing me the antiquities of that +place. In requital, I can tell you of a strange thing I saw lately here, +and I believe 'tis true. As I passed by St. Dunstan's in Fleet Street +the last Saturday, I stepped into a lapidary, or stone-cutter's shop, +to treat with the master for a stone to be put upon my father's tomb; +and casting my eyes up and down, I might spy a huge marble with a large +inscription upon't, which was thus to my best remembrance: + + _Here lies _John Oxenham_, a goodly young man, in whose + chamber, as he was struggling with the pangs of death, a + bird with a white breast was seen fluttering about his bed, + and so vanished._ + + _Here lies also _Mary Oxenham_, the sister of the said + _John_, who died the next day, and the said apparition was + seen in the room._ + +Then another sister is spoke of, then, + + _Here lies hard by _James Oxenham_, the son of the said + _John_, who died a child in his cradle a little after; and + such a bird was seen fluttering about his head, a little + before he expired, which vanished afterwards._ + +At the bottom of the stone there is: + + _Here lies _Elizabeth Oxenham_ the mother of the said + _John_, who died sixteen years since, when such a bird with + a white breast was seen about her bed before her death._ + +To all these there be divers witnesses, both squires and ladies, whose +names are engraven upon the stone. This stone is to be sent to a town +hard by Exeter, where this happened. Were you here, I could raise a +choice discourse with you hereupon. So, hoping to see you the next term, +to requite some of your favours, + +I rest-- + +Your true friend to serve you, + +J. H. + +WESTMINSTER, 3 July. 1632 + +FOOTNOTES: + +[96] _Epistolae Hoelianae or Familiar Letters_ (1657). + +[97] Indeed his correspondents are probably sometimes, if not always, +imaginary: and many of the letters are only what in modern periodicals +are called "middle" articles on this and that subject, headed and tailed +with the usual letter-formulas. + + + + +JOHN EVELYN (1620-1706) + + + As is naturally the case with writers of "Diaries," + "Memoirs," "Autobiographies," and the like, a good deal of + matter is deflected into Evelyn's famous _Diary_ from + possible letters: while his numerous and voluminous + published works may also to some extent abstract from or + duplicate his correspondence. But there is enough of + this[98] to make him a noteworthy epistoler. And it is + interesting, though not perhaps surprising, to find that + while his Diary is less piquant than his friend Mr. Pepys's, + his letters are more so. Not surprising--first, because + official letter-writers (Evelyn did a good deal of public + work but was never _exactly_ an official) often get into a + habit of noncommittal; and secondly, because there is, in + these things as in others, a principle of compensation. + Evelyn was almost sure to be a good letter-writer[99] for he + had a ready pen, a rather extraordinary range of interests + and capacities, plenty of time and means, extensive + knowledge of the world, and last but not least, a + tendency--not missed by the aforesaid Mr. Pepys--to bestow + his information and opinion freely upon less fortunately + endowed and equipped mortals. If he never quite reaches in + letters the famous passages of the Diary, describing the + great Fire, and Whitehall on the eve of Charles the Second's + mortal seizure, he sometimes comes near to this, and + diffuses throughout a blend of humanism, and humanity, of + science and art, which is very agreeable. His wife also was + no mean letter-writer, but only one of the minor stars of + that day round the moon, Dorothy Osborne, to whom we come + next. Of Evelyn's own letters several are specially + tempting. His curious plan (a particularly favourite craze + of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) for a small + "college" or lay convent of ladies and gentlemen, a sort of + miniature "Abbey of Thelema" is one. His magnificent eulogy + of the Duchess of Newcastle (Lamb's "dear Margaret"), which + puzzled his editor Bray (from this and other notes a rather + stupid man), is another: and his very interesting letter to + Pepys on Dreams (Oct. 4, 1689) a third. But on the whole I + have preferred the following, which may remind some readers + of Mr. Kipling's charming poem on the wonderful things our + fathers did and believed, with its invaluable reminder that + after all it would be lucky for us if we were no worse than + they. The date is not given: but the letter is printed + between one of August and one of September, 1668. [Greek: + kollourion] = Collyrium = "eyewash." "Stillatim" = "drop by + drop." "Lixivium" (Fr. "lessive") = "lye," "soapwater." + "Catoptrics" and "otacoustics" (though the "ot" = "ear" has + gone)--are fairly modern words, "phonocamptics" scarcely so. + In fact, I do not remember seeing it elsewhere. It does not + appear to be a classical Greek compound, but should mean + "the art of guiding and managing the voice."[100] The Tom + Whittal story shows that Evelyn, though given to + seriousness, could (God rest his soul) be a merry man + sometimes. The other proper names, from Mr. Oldenburg to + Thom. Fazzello, could be expounded without difficulty, but + with unnecessary expenditure of space. + + +13. JOHN EVELYN TO DOCTOR BEALE + +Sir, + +I happened to be with Mr Oldenburg some time since, almost upon the +article of his receiving the notice you sent him of your fortunate and +useful invention; and I remember I did first of all incite him, both to +insert it into his next transactions, and to provoke your further +prosecution of it; which I exceedingly rejoice to find has been so +successful, that you give us hopes of your further thoughts upon that, +and those other subjects which you mention. You may haply call to +remembrance a passage of the Jesuit Honorati Fabri, who speaking of +perspectives, observes, that an object looked on through a small hole +appears magnified; from whence he suggests, the casting of two plates +neatly perforated, and fitted to look through, preferable to glasses, +whose refractions injure the sight. Though I begin to advance in years +(being now on the other side of forty), yet the continuance of the +perfect use of my senses (for which I bless Almighty God) has rendered +me the less solicitous about those artificial aids; which yet I foresee +I must shortly apply myself to, and therefore you can receive but +slender hints from me which will be worthy your acceptance upon that +argument; only, I well remember, that besides Tiberius of old (whom you +seem to instance in), Joseph Scaliger affirms the same happened both to +his father Julius and himself, in their younger years. And sometimes, +methinks, I myself have fancied to have discerned things in a very dark +place, when the curtains about my bed have been drawn, as my hands, +fingers, the sheet, and bedclothes; but since my too intent poring upon +a famous eclipse of the sun, about twelve years since, at which time I +could as familiarly have stared with open eyes upon the glorious planet +in its full lustre, as now upon a glow-worm (comparatively speaking), I +have not only lost the acuteness of sight, but much impaired the vigour +of it for such purposes as it then served me. But besides that, I have +treated mine eyes very ill near these twenty years, during all which +time I have rarely put them together, or composed them to sleep, before +one at night, and sometimes much later: that I may in some sort redeem +my losses by day, in which I am continually importuned with visits from +my neighbours and acquaintance, or taken up by other impertinencies of +my life in this place. I am plainly ashamed to tell you this, +considering how little I have improved myself by it; but I have rarely +been in bed before twelve o'clock as I said, in the space of twenty +years; and yet I read the least print, even in a jolting coach, without +other assistance, save that I now and then used to rub my shut eye-lids +over with a spirit of wine well rectified, in which I distil a few +rosemary flowers much after the process of the Queen of Hungary's water, +which does exceedingly fortify, not only my sight, but the rest of my +senses, especially my hearing and smelling; a drop or two being +distilled into the nose or ears, when they are never so dull; and other +[Greek: kollourion] I never apply. Indeed, in the summer time, I have +found wonderful benefit in bathing my head with a decoction of some hot +and aromatical herbs, in a lixivium made of the ashes of vine branches; +and when my head is well washed with this, I immediately cause abundance +of cold fountain water to be poured upon me _stillatim_, for a good +half-hour together; which for the present is not only one of the most +voluptuous and grateful refreshments imaginable, but an incredible +benefit to me the whole year after: for I never need other powdering to +my hair, to preserve it bright and clean, as the gallants do; but which +does certainly greatly prejudice transpiration by filling up, or lying +heavy upon the pores. Those, therefore, who (since the use of perukes) +accustom to wash their heads, instead of powdering, would doubtless find +the benefit of it; both as to the preventing of aches in their head, +teeth, and ears, if the vicissitude and inconstancy of the weather, and +consequently the use of their monstrous perukes, did not expose them to +the danger of catching colds. When I travelled in Italy, and the +Southern parts, I did sometimes frequent the public baths (as the manner +is), but seldom without peril of my life, till I used this frigid +effusion, or rather profusion of cold water before I put on my garments, +or durst expose myself to the air; and for this method I was obliged to +the old and noble Rantzow, in whose book _De conservanda valetudine_ I +had read a passage to this purpose; though I might have remembered how +the Dutchmen treated their labouring horses when they are all over in a +froth, which they wash off with several buckets of cold water, as I have +frequently observed it in the Low Countries. + +Concerning other aids; besides what the masters of the catoptrics, +phonocamptics, otacoustics, &c., have done, something has been attempted +by the Royal Society; and you know the industrious Kircher has much +laboured. The rest of those artificial helps are summed up by the Jesuit +And. Schottus. I remember that Monsieur Huygens (author of the +pendulum), who brought up the learned father of that incomparable youth +Monsieur de Zulichem, who used to prescribe to me the benefit of his +little wax taper (a type whereof is, with the history of it, in some of +our Registers) for night elucubrations, preferable to all other candle +or lamp light whatsoever. And because it explodes all glaring of the +flame, which by no means ought to dart upon the eyes, it seems very much +to establish your happy invention of tubes instead of spectacles, which +have not those necessary defences. + +Touching the sight of cats in the night, I am not well satisfied of the +exquisiteness of that sense in them. I believe their smelling or hearing +does much contribute to their dexterity in catching mice, as to all +those animals who are born with those prolix smelling hairs. Fish will +gather themselves in shoals to any extraordinary light in the dark +night, and many are best caught by that artifice. But whatever may be +said of these, and other senses of fish, you know how much the sagacity +of birds and beasts excel us; how far eagles and vultures, ravens and +other fowls will smell the carcase; _odorumque canum vis_, as Lucretius +expresses it, and we daily find by their drawing after the games. Gesner +affirms that an otter will wind a fish four miles distance in the water, +and my Lord Verulam (cent. 8) speaks of that element's being also a +medium of sounds, as well as air. Eels do manifestly stir at the +cracking of thunder, but that may also be attributed to some other +tremulous motion; yet carps and other fish are known to come at the call +and the sound of a bell, as I have been informed. Notorious is the story +of Arion, and of Lucullus's lampreys which came _ad nomen_; and you have +formerly minded me of Varro's Greek pipe, of which Lucian and Cicero (ad +Atticum) take occasion to speak. Pliny's dolphin is famous, and what is +related of the American Manati: but the most stupendous instance, that +of the xiphia or sword-fish, which the Mamertines can take up by no +other strategem than a song of certain barbarous words, as the thing is +related by Thom. Fazzello. It is certain that we hear more accurately +when we hold our mouths a little open, than when we keep them shut; and +I have heard of a dumb gentleman in England who was taught to speak (and +therefore certainly brought to hear in some degree) by applying the head +of a base viol against his teeth, and striking upon the strings with the +bow. You may remember the late effect of the drum extending the tympanum +of a deaf person to great improvement of his hearing, so long as that +was beaten upon; and I could at present name a friend of mine, who +though he be exceedingly thick of hearing, by applying a straight stick +of what length soever, provided it touch the instrument and his ear, +does perfectly and with great pleasure hear every tune that is played: +all which, with many more, will flow into your excellent work, whilst +the argument puts me in mind of one Tom Whittal, a student of Christ +Church, who would needs maintain, that if a hole could dexterously be +bored through the skull to the brain in the midst of the forehead, a man +might both see and hear and smell without the use of any other organs; +but you are to know, that this learned problematist was brother to him, +who, preaching at St. Mary's, Oxford, took his text out of the history +of Balaam, Numb. xxii., "Am I not thine ass?" Dear Sir, pardon this +rhapsody of, + +Sir, your, &c. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[98] Some 400 pages from and to him in the most compendious edition. + +[99] He thought, writing to Lord Spencer about 1690, that we have "few +tolerable letters of our own country" excepting--and that only in a +fashion--those of Bacon, Donne and Howell. + +[100] "_Odorumque canum vis_--as Lucretius expresses it"--perhaps +requires a note. Evelyn ought to have known his Lucretius, the first +book of which he translated and which he was only prevented from +completing by some foolish scruples which Jeremy Taylor wisely but +vainly combated. And Lucretius is fond of _vis_ as meaning "quality" or +"faculty." But Evelyn almost certainly was thinking also, more or less, +of Virgil's "odora canum vis," _Aen._ iv. 132. + + + + +DOROTHY OSBORNE (1627-1695) + + + This very delightful lady--who became the wife of Sir + William Temple, famous in political and literary history, + and, by so doing or being, mistress of the household in + which Swift lived, suffered, but met Stella--was the + daughter of Sir Peter Osborne, one of the stoutest of + Royalists who, as Governor of Guernsey, held its Castle + Cornet for years against the rebels. Whether she was (in + 1627) born there--her father had been made _Lieutenant_ + Governor six years earlier--is not known and has been + thought unlikely: but the present writer (who has danced, + and played whist within its walls) hopes she was. When we + come to know her she was living at Chicksands in + Bedfordshire and hoping to marry Temple, though the course + of love ran by no means smooth. Attention was first drawn to + her letters, and some of them were partly printed, in + Courtenay's _Life_ of her husband--a book which was reviewed + by Macaulay in a famous essay, not overlooking Dorothy. But + as a body, they waited till some half century later, when + they were published by Judge Parry and received with joy by + all fit folk. They were written between 1652 and 1654. The + first passage is in her pleasant mood and touches on a + subject--aviation--which interested that day and interests + this. The second strikes some people as one of the most + charming specimens of the love-letter--written neither in + the violent delight that has violent end, nor in namby-pamby + fashion.[101] + + + +14. TO SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE + +Sir,-- + +You say I abuse you; and Jane says you abuse me when you say you are not +melancholy: which is to be believed? Neither, I think; for I could not +have said so positively (as it seems she did) that I should not be in +town till my brother came back: he was not gone when she writ, nor is +not yet; and if my brother Peyton had come before his going, I had +spoiled her prediction. But now it cannot be; he goes on Monday or +Tuesday at farthest. I hope you did truly with me, too, in saying that +you are not melancholy (though she does not believe it). I am thought +so, many times, when I am not at all guilty on't. How often do I sit in +company a whole day, and when they are gone am not able to give an +account of six words that was said, and many times could be so much +better pleased with the entertainment my own thoughts give me, that 'tis +all I can do to be so civil as not to let them see they trouble me. This +may be your disease. However, remember you have promised me to be +careful of yourself, and that if I secure what you have entrusted me +with, you will answer for the rest. Be this our bargain then; and look +that you give me as good an account of one as I shall give you of +t'other. In earnest I was strangely vexed to see myself forced to +disappoint you so, and felt your trouble and my own too. How often I +have wished myself with you, though but for a day, for an hour: I would +have given all the time I am to spend here for it with all my heart. + +You could not but have laughed if you had seen me last night. My brother +and Mr. Gibson were talking by the fire; and I sat by, but as no part of +the company. Amongst other things (which I did not at all mind), they +fell into a discourse of flying; and both agreed it was very possible to +find out a way that people might fly like birds, and despatch their +journeys: so I, that had not said a word all night, started up at that, +and desired they would say a little more on't, for I had not marked the +beginning; but instead of that, they both fell into so violent a +laughing, that I should appear so much concerned in such an art; but +they little knew of what use it might have been to me. Yet I saw you +last night, but 'twas in a dream; and before I could say a word to you, +or you to me, the disorder my joy to see you had put me into awakened +me. Just now I was interrupted, too, and called away to entertain two +dumb gentlemen;--you may imagine whether I was pleased to leave my +writing to you for their company;--they have made such a tedious visit, +too; and I am so tired with making of signs and tokens for everything I +had to say. Good God! how do those that live with them always? They are +brothers; and the eldest is a baronet, has a good estate, a wife and +three or four children. He was my servant heretofore, and comes to see +me still for old love's sake; but if he could have made me mistress of +the world I could not have had him; and yet I'll swear he has nothing to +be disliked in him but his want of tongue, which in a woman might have +been a virtue. + +I sent you a part of _Cyrus_ last week, where you will meet with one +Doralise in the story of Abradate and Panthee. The whole story is very +good; but the humour makes the best part of it. I am of her opinion in +most things that she says in her character of "L'honnest homme" that she +is in search of, and her resolution of receiving no heart that had been +offered to anybody else. Pray, tell me how you like her, and what fault +you find in my Lady Carlisle's letter? Methinks the hand and the style +both show her a great person, and 'tis writ in the way that's now +affected by all that pretend to wit and good breeding; only, I am a +little scandalized to confess that she uses that word faithful,--she +that never knew how to be so in her life. + +I have sent you my picture because you wished for it; but, pray, let it +not presume to disturb my Lady Sunderland's. Put it in some corner where +no eyes may find it out but yours, to whom it is only intended. 'Tis not +a very good one, but the best I shall ever have drawn of me; for, as my +Lady says, my time for pictures is past, and therefore I have always +refused to part with this, because I was sure the next would be a worse. +There is a beauty in youth that every one has once in their lives; and I +remember my mother used to say there was never anybody (that was not +deformed) but were handsome, to some reasonable degree, once between +fourteen and twenty. It must hang with the light on the left hand of it; +and you may keep it if you please till I bring you the original. But +then I must borrow it (for 'tis no more mine, if you like it), because +my brother is often bringing people into my closet where it hangs, to +show them other pictures that are there; and if he miss this long +thence, 'twould trouble his jealous head. + + +15. + +Sir,-- + +Who would be kind to one that reproaches one so cruelly? Do you think, +in earnest, I could be satisfied the world should think me a dissembler, +full of avarice or ambition? No, you are mistaken; but I'll tell you +what I could suffer, that they should say I married where I had no +inclination, because my friends thought it fit, rather than that I had +run wilfully to my own ruin in pursuit of a fond passion of my own. To +marry for love were no reproachful thing if we did not see that of the +thousand couples that do it, hardly one can be brought for an example +that it may be done and not repented afterwards. Is there anything +thought so indiscreet, or that makes one more contemptible? 'Tis true +that I do firmly believe we should be, as you say, _toujours les +mesmes_; but if (as you confess) 'tis that which hardly happens once in +two ages, we are not to expect the world should discern we were not like +the rest. I'll tell you stories another time, you return them so +handsomely upon me. Well, the next servant I tell you of shall not be +called a whelp, if 'twere not to give you a stick to beat myself with. I +would confess that I looked upon the impudence of this fellow as a +punishment upon me for my over care in avoiding the talk of the world; +yet the case is very different, and no woman shall ever be blamed that +an inconsolable person pretends to her when she gives no allowance to +it, whereas none shall 'scape that owns a passion, though in return of a +person much above her. The little tailor that loved Queen Elizabeth was +suffered to talk out, and none of her Council thought it necessary to +stop his mouth; but the Queen of Sweden's kind letter to the King of +Scots was intercepted by her own ambassador, because he thought it was +not for his mistress's honour (at least that was his pretended reason), +and thought justifiable enough. But to come to my Beagle again. I have +heard no more of him, though I have seen him since; we meet at Wrest +again. I do not doubt but I shall be better able to resist his +importunity than his tutor was; but what do you think it is that gives +him his encouragement? He was told I had thought of marrying a gentleman +that had not above two hundred pound a year, only out of my liking to +his person. And upon that score his vanity allows him to think he may +pretend as far as another. Thus you see 'tis not altogether without +reason that I apprehend the noise of the world, since 'tis so much to my +disadvantage. + +Is it in earnest that you say your being there keeps me from the town? +If so, 'tis very unkind. No, if I had gone, it had been to have waited +on my neighbour, who has now altered her resolution and goes not +herself. I have no business there, and am so little taken with the place +that I could sit here seven years without so much as thinking once of +going to it. 'Tis not likely, as you say, that you should much persuade +your father to what you do not desire he should do; but it is hard if +all the testimonies of my kindness are not enough to satisfy without my +publishing to the world that I can forget my friends and all my interest +to follow my passion; though, perhaps, it will admit of a good sense, +'tis that which nobody but you or I will give it, and we that are +concerned in't can only say 'twas an act of great kindness and something +romance, but must confess it had nothing of prudence, discretion, nor +sober counsel in't. 'Tis not that I expect, by all your father's offers, +to bring my friends to approve it. I don't deceive myself thus far, but +I would not give them occasion to say that I hid myself from them in the +doing it; nor of making my action appear more indiscreet than it is. It +will concern me that all the world should know what fortune you have, +and upon what terms I marry you, that both may not be made to appear ten +times worse than they are. 'Tis the general custom of all people to make +those that are rich to have more mines of gold than are in the Indies, +and such as have small fortunes to be beggars. If an action take a +little in the world, it shall be magnified and brought into comparison +with what the heroes or senators of Rome performed; but, on the +contrary, if it be once condemned, nothing can be found ill enough to +compare it with; and people are in pain till they find out some +extravagant expression to represent the folly on't. Only there is this +difference, that as all are more forcibly inclined to ill than good, +they are much apter to exceed in detraction than in praises. Have I not +reason then to desire this from you; and may not my friendship have +deserved it? I know not; 'tis as you think; but if I be denied it, you +will teach me to consider myself. 'Tis well the side ended here. If I +had not had occasion to stop there, I might have gone too far, and +showed that I had more passions than one. Yet 'tis fit you should know +all my faults, lest you should repent your bargain when 'twill not be in +your power to release yourself; besides, I may own my ill-humour to you +that cause it; 'tis the discontent my crosses in this business have +given me makes me thus peevish. Though I say it myself, before I knew +you I was thought as well an humoured young person as most in England; +nothing displeased, nothing troubled me. When I came out of France, +nobody knew me again. I was so altered, from a cheerful humour that was +always alike, never over merry but always pleased, I was grown heavy and +sullen, froward and discomposed; and that country which usually gives +people a jolliness and gaiety that is natural to the climate, had +wrought in me so contrary effects that I was as new a thing to them as +my clothes. If you find all this to be sad truth hereafter, remember +that I gave you fair warning. + +Here is a ring: it must not be at all wider than this, which is rather +too big for me than otherwise; but that is a good fault, and counted +lucky by superstitious people. I am not so, though: 'tis indifferent +whether there be any word in't or not; only 'tis as well without, and +will make my wearing it the less observed. You must give Nan leave to +cut a lock of your hair for me, too. Oh, my heart! what a sigh was +there! I will not tell you how many this journey causes; nor the fear +and apprehensions I have for you. No, I long to be rid of you, am afraid +you will not go soon enough: do not you believe this? No, my dearest, I +know you do not, whatever you say, you cannot doubt that I am yours. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[101] The second passage needs little annotation except that Wrest, in +Bedfordshire, where Dorothy met her importunate lover, was the seat of +Anthony Grey, Earl of Kent. There is said to be a picture there of Sir +William Temple--a copy of Lely's. Wrest Park is only a few miles from +Chicksands. In the first "Lady Carlisle" is Lucy Percy or Hay, a "_great +person_" in many ways--beauty, rank, wit, influence etc.--but hardly a +good one. As for "Doralise" Dorothy is quite right. She is one of the +brightest features of the huge _Grand Cyrus_. Perhaps it may be just +necessary to remind readers that "servant" constantly = "lover"; that +"side" refers to the sheet of paper she is using; and that "abuse" = +"deceive," not "misuse" or "vituperate." + + + + +JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745) + + + The Introduction has dealt rather more fully with Swift than + with some others: and a further reference to a dominant + influence or conflict of influences on his letters will be + found below in the head-note on Thackeray. But a little more + may be said here. It is rather unfortunate that we have not + more _early_ letters from him (we have some, if only + fragments, from Thackeray, and they are no small "light"). + We should like some concerning that curious career at + Trinity College, Dublin, which was ended _speciali gratia_, + leaving the usual wranglers to their usual wrangle whether + the last word meant "grace" or "_dis_grace." Others, written + in various moods from the time when Sir William Temple + "spoiled a fine gentleman," and Esther Johnson set running a + life-long course of _un_-smooth love, would be more welcome + still. They would no doubt be stumbling-blocks to those apt + to stumble, just as the existing epistles are: but they + would be stepping-stones for the wise. As it is, we have to + do without them and perhaps, like most things that are, it + is better. For the stumblers are saved the sin of stumbling, + and the wise men the nuisance of seeing them do it, and + trying to set them right. And there might have been only + more painful revelations of the time when, to adjust the + words of the famous epitaph "fierce indignation still + _could_ lacerate the heart," that had felt so fondly and so + bitterly what it had to feel. + + What follows is characteristic enough[102] and intelligible + enough to those who will give their intelligence fair play, + asking only for information of _facts_. These latter can be + supplied at no great length even to those who are + unacquainted with Swift's biography. "M. D." is the pet name + for Stella, and her rather mysterious companion Mrs. Dingley + who lived with her in Dublin and played something like the + part of the alloys which are used in experimenting with some + metals.[103] "Presto" is Swift himself. "Prior" is the poet. + "Sir A. Fountaine" was a Norfolk squire and a great + collector of artistic things, most of which were sold not + very long ago. "Sterne" (John) was an Irish clergyman and + afterwards a bishop, but not of the same family as the + novelist. "Cousin _Dryden_ Leach" reminds us that Swift was + also a cousin of Dryden the poet. "Oroonoko" refers to Afra + Behn's introduction of the "noble savage" to English + interest. "Patrick" was Swift's very unsatisfactory + man-servant. "Bernage" a French Huguenot refugee. "George + Granville," of the family of the hero of the _Revenge_, was + a great Tory, a peer a little later with the title of + Lansdowne, and a rather better poet than Johnson thought + him. "St. John" and "Harley," if not also "Masham," should + not need annotation. Notice the seven, (literally seven!) + leagued word at the end. Swift calls their attention to it + when beginning his next instalment. + + +16. TO STELLA + +LONDON, January 16, 1710-11. + +O faith, young women, I have sent my letter N. 13, without one crumb of +an answer to any of MD's; there's for you now; and yet Presto ben't +angry faith, not a bit, only he will begin to be in pain next Irish +post, except he sees MD's little hand-writing in the glass frame at the +bar of St James's Coffeehouse, where Presto would never go but for that +purpose. Presto's at home, God help him, every night from six till bed +time, and has as little enjoyment or pleasure in life at present as any +body in the world, although in full favour with all the ministry. As +hope saved, nothing gives Presto any sort of dream of happiness, but a +letter now and then from his own dearest MD. I love the expectation of +it, and when it does not come, I comfort myself, that I have it yet to +be happy with. Yes, faith, and when I write to MD, I am happy too; it is +just as if methinks you were here, and I prating to you, and telling you +where I have been: Well, says you, Presto, come, where have you been +to-day? come, let 's hear now. And so then I answer; Ford and I were +visiting Mr Lewis, and Mr Prior, and Prior has given me a fine Plautus, +and then Ford would have had me dine at his lodgings, and so I would +not; and so I dined with him at an eating-house; which I have not done +five times since I came here; and so I came home, after visiting Sir +Andrew Fountaine's mother and sister, and Sir Andrew Fountaine is +mending, though slowly. + +17. I was making, this morning, some general visits, and at twelve I +called at the coffeehouse for a letter from MD; so the man said he had +given it to Patrick; then I went to the Court of Requests and Treasury +to find Mr Harley, and after some time spent in mutual reproaches, I +promised to dine with him; I staid there till seven, then called at +Sterne's and Leigh's to talk about your box, and to have it sent by +Smyth. Sterne says he has been making inquiries, and will set things +right as soon as possible. I suppose it lies at Chester, at least I hope +so, and only wants a lift over to you. Here has little Harrison been to +complain, that the printer I recommended to him for his Tatler is a +coxcomb; and yet to see how things will happen; for this very printer is +my cousin, his name is Dryden Leach; did you never hear of Dryden Leach, +he that prints the Postman? He acted Oroonoko, he's in love with Miss +Cross.--Well, so I came home to read my letter from Stella, but the dog +Patrick was abroad; at last he came, and I got my letter; I found +another hand had superscribed it; when I opened it, I found it written +all in French, and subscribed Bernage: faith, I was ready to fling it at +Patrick's head. Bernage tells me, had been to desire your recommendation +to me to make him a captain; and your cautious answer, "That he had as +much power with me as you," was a notable one; if you were here, I would +present you to the ministry as a person of ability. Bernage should let +me know where to write to him; this is the second letter I have had +without any direction; however, I beg I may not have a third, but that +you will ask him, and send me how I shall direct to him. In the mean +time, tell him, that if regiments are to be raised here, as he says, I +will speak to George Granville, Secretary at War, to make him a captain; +and use what other interest I conveniently can. I think that is enough, +and so tell him, and don't trouble me with his letters when I expect +them from MD; do you hear, young women, write to Presto. + +18. I was this morning with Mr Secretary St John, and we were to dine +at Mr Harley's alone, about some business of importance, but there +were two or three gentlemen there. Mr Secretary and I went together +from his office to Mr Harley's, and thought to have been very wise; +but the deuce a bit: the company staid, and more came, and Harley went +away at seven, and the Secretary and I staid with the rest of the +company till eleven; I would then have had him come away, but he was +in for't; and though he swore he would come away at that flask, there +I left him. I wonder at the civility of these people; when he saw I +would drink no more, he would always pass the bottle by me, and yet I +could not keep the toad from drinking himself, nor he would not let me +go neither, nor Masham, who was with us. When I got home I found a +parcel directed to me, and opening it, I found a pamphlet written +entirely against myself, not by name, but against something I writ: it +is pretty civil, and affects to be so, and I think I will take no +notice of it; 'tis against something written very lately; and indeed I +know not what to say, nor do I care; and so you are a saucy rogue for +losing your money to-day at Stoyte's; to let that bungler beat you, fy +Stella, an't you ashamed? well, I forgive you this once, never do so +again; no, noooo. Kiss and be friends, sirrah.--Come, let me go sleep; +I go earlier to bed than formerly; and have not been out so late these +two months; but the secretary was in a drinking humour. So good night, +myownlittledearsaucyinsolentrogues. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[102] As such, it has commended itself to other selectors. But +duplication, though it has been sedulously avoided here, is sometimes +almost inevitable. + +[103] _I.e._ the part of facilitating the operation, and disappearing in +the results aimed at. + + + + +LADY MARY WORTLEY-MONTAGU (1689-1762) + + + The ratio of importance between life and letters varies a + good deal with different writers: and the circumstances of + the life have seldom been of more importance to the letter + than in the case of "Lady Mary"--Pierrepont as she was born. + When she was a girl she held an unusual place in the house + of her widowed father the Duke of Kingston. Her courtship + by, or with, or of (one doubts as to the preposition) Edward + Wortley-Montagu, a descendant of Pepys's Lord Sandwich, had + peculiarities, and her marriage with him more. She was a + sort of pet at George the First's court; she went with her + husband to Constantinople as Ambassadress; she introduced + inoculation into England; she was, under imperfectly known + circumstances, first the idol and then the abomination of + Pope; she lived for more than twenty years in France and + Italy, having left her husband without, apparently, any + quarrel between them; and she only came home in 1761 to die + next year. Like her predecessor as Queen of letter-writers, + Madame de Sevigne (to whom she was amusingly and rather + femininely unjust), she had a favourite daughter (who became + Lady Bute[104]); but, unlike her, she had a most + objectionable son who was apparently half mad. There was, + however, not the slightest madness about Lady Mary--in fact, + most of the objectors (perhaps unjust ones) to her have + held that her head was very much better than her heart. Her + most popular letters have usually been the Turkish ones, + and, at the other end of her life, her Italian descriptions: + but selections almost invariably pitch on the curious early + one in which she, so to speak, "proposes" to her future + husband rather more than, or at least as much as, she + accepts his proposal. I prefer, both as less popularised and + as more unique still, the following most business-like[105] + plan and programme of an elopement. Like Mr. Foker's fight + with the post-boy it "didn't come off" as first planned; but + Fortune favoured it later. + + +17. TO MR. WORTLEY-MONTAGU + +Saturday morning (August, 1712) + +I writ you a letter last night in some passion. I begin to fear again; I +own myself a coward.--You made no reply to one part of my letter +concerning my fortune. I am afraid you flatter yourself that my F. +[father] may be at length reconciled and brought to reasonable terms. I +am convinced, by what I have often heard him say, speaking of other +cases like this, he never will. The fortune he has engaged to give with +me, was settled on my B. [brother's] marriage, on my sister and on +myself; but in such a manner, that it was left in his power to give it +all to either of us, or divide it as he thought fit. He has given it +all to me. Nothing remains for my sister, but the free bounty of my F. +[father] from what he can save; which, notwithstanding the greatness of +his estate, may be very little. Possibly after I have disobliged him so +much, he may be glad to have her so easily provided for, with money +already raised; especially if he has a design to marry himself, as I +hear. I do not speak this that you should not endeavour to come to terms +with him, if you please; but I am fully persuaded it will be to no +purpose. He will have a very good answer to make:--that I suffered this +match to proceed; that I made him make a very silly figure in it; that I +have let him spend L400 in wedding-cloaths; all which I saw without +saying any thing. When I first pretended to oppose this match, he told +me he was sure I had some other design in my head; I denied it with +truth. But you see how little appearance there is of that truth. He +proceeded with telling me that he never would enter into treaty with +another man, &c., and that I should be sent immediately into the North +to stay there; and, when he died, he would only leave me an annuity of +L400. I had not courage to stand this view, and I submitted to what he +pleased. He will now object against me,--why, since I intended to marry +in this manner, I did not persist in my first resolution; that it would +have been as easy for me to run away from T. [Thoresby] as from hence; +and to what purpose did I put him, and the gentleman I was to marry, to +expences, &c.? He will have a thousand plausible reasons for being +irreconcileable, and 'tis very probable the world will be of his side. +Reflect now for the last time in what manner you must take me. I shall +come to you with only a night-gown and petticoat, and that is all you +will get with me. I told a lady of my friends what I intend to do. You +will think her a very good friend when I tell you she has proffered to +lend us her house if we would come there the first night. I did not +accept of this till I had let you know it. If you think it more +convenient to carry me to your lodgings, make no scruple of it. Let it +be where it will: if I am your wife I shall think no place unfit for me +where you are. I beg we may leave London next morning, wherever you +intend to go. I should wish to go out of England if it suits with your +affairs. You are the best judge of your father's temper. If you think it +would be obliging to him, or necessary for you, I will go with you +immediately to ask his pardon and his blessing. If that is not proper at +first, I think the best scheme is going to the Spa. When you come back, +you may endeavour to make your father admit of seeing me, and treat with +mine (though I persist in thinking it will be to no purpose). But I +cannot think of living in the midst of my relations and acquaintance +after so unjustifiable a step:--unjustifiable to the world,--but I think +I can justify myself to myself. I again beg you to hire a coach to be at +the door early Monday morning, to carry us some part of our way, +wherever you resolve our journey shall be. If you determine to go to +that lady's house, you had better come with a coach and six at seven +o'clock tomorrow. She and I will be in the balcony that looks on the +road: you have nothing to do but to stop under it, and we will come down +to you. Do in this what you like best. After all, think very seriously. +Your letter, which will be waited for, is to determine everything. I +forgive you a coarse expression in your last, which, however, I wish had +not been there. You might have said something like it without expressing +it in that manner; but there was so much complaisance in the rest of it +I ought to be satisfied. You can shew me no goodness I shall not be +sensible of. However, think again, and resolve never to think of me if +you have the least doubt, or that it is likely to make you uneasy in +your fortune. I believe to travel is the most likely way to make a +solitude agreeable, and not tiresome: remember you have promised it. + +'Tis something odd for a woman that brings nothing to expect anything; +but after the way of education, I dare not pretend to live but in some +degree suitable to it. I had rather die than return to a dependancy upon +relations I have disobliged. Save me from that fear if you love me. If +you cannot, or think I ought not to expect it, be sincere and tell me +so. 'Tis better I should not be yours at all, than, for a short +happiness, involve myself in ages of misery. I hope there will never be +occasion for this precaution; but, however, 'tis necessary to make it. I +depend entirely on your honour, and I cannot suspect you of any way +doing wrong. Do not imagine I shall be angry at any thing you can tell +me. Let it be sincere; do not impose on a woman that leaves all things +for you. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[104] The likeness, however, ended with the favouritism: for Madame de +Grignan, in spite of good looks and good wits, was apparently detested +by everybody, except her mother, and deserved it: while nobody has +anything to say against Lady Bute. + +[105] It is, of course, not _merely_ business-like--the mixture of +something else makes it rather fascinating. They were curiously fond of +elopements in the eighteenth century, Sheridan's satire in _The Rivals_ +having ample justification. Nor was this merely due to the more severe +exercise of paternal authority. For they often preferred (as the +philosophical parent of the celebrated Mrs. Greville remarked when his +daughter ran away with Mr. G.) to "get out of the window when there was +not the slightest objection to their passing through the door." + + + + +PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, EARL OF +CHESTERFIELD (1694-1773) + + + As was suggested in the Introduction, where perhaps enough + has been said of his actual letters, the fourth Earl of + Chesterfield is too commonly known, or rather _mis_known, + only by Johnson's refusal of his patronage and condemnation + of his manners and morals, by Dickens's caricature, and by + Thackeray's not untrue but merely fragmentary sketch of him + as a gambler. Therefore, though these preliminary notes are + not as a rule biographical, this may be one of the + exceptions; for his life was anything but that of a mere + idler and _grand Seigneur_. He entered the House of Commons + before he was of age, and had much to do with political and + literary as well as Court society before, in 1725, he + succeeded to the peerage. A year or two afterwards he went + as ambassador to the Hague, a post which he held, doing some + important business, for four years. On coming home he became + a formidable opponent of Walpole, and at one time led the + opposition in the Upper House. He was a most successful + Viceroy in Ireland at the difficult period of the "'45," and + a judicious "Secretary for the North" after it. He conducted + the reform of the Calendar through Parliament, and only gave + up active participation in home politics because of his + increasing deafness. In foreign affairs he was an adroit and + successful diplomatist, and made an early and remarkably + clear-sighted anticipation of the French Revolution. It is + not extravagant to say that, if he had had his fortune and + position to make, he might have been one of the foremost + men of his time in politics or letters or both; and that he + was not far below such rank in either. The following letter + is one of the most characteristic of those at which it has + been the fashion to sneer. All one can say of it is, "What a + blessing it would be if a good many people in the twentieth + century, and in places varying from the streets to the House + of Commons, would obey at least some of its precepts!" + + +18. LORD CHESTERFIELD TO HIS SON + +LONDON. Sept. 22, O.S., 1749 + +Dear Boy, + +If I had faith in philters and love potions, I should suspect that you +had given Sir Charles Williams some, by the manner in which he speaks of +you, not only to me, but to everybody else. I will not repeat to you +what he says of the extent and correctness of your knowledge, as it +might either make you vain, or persuade you that you had already enough +of what nobody can have too much. You will easily imagine how many +questions I asked and how narrowly I sifted him upon your subject: he +answered me, and I daresay with truth, just as I could have wished; +till, satisfied entirely with his accounts of your character and +learning, I inquired into other matters, intrinsically indeed of less +consequence, but still of great consequence to every man, and of more to +you than to almost any man; I mean, your address, manners and air. To +these questions, the same truth which he had observed before, obliged +him to give me much less satisfactory answers. And, as he thought +himself in friendship both to you and me, obliged to tell me the +disagreeable as well as the agreeable truths, upon the same principle I +think myself obliged to repeat them to you. + +He told me, then, that in company you were frequently most _provokingly_ +inattentive, absent, and _distrait_. That you came into a room, and +presented yourself very awkwardly; that at table you constantly threw +down knives, forks, napkins, bread, etc., and that you neglected your +person and dress, to a degree unpardonable at any age, and much more so +at yours. + +These things, however immaterial soever they may seem to people who do +not know the world and the nature of mankind, give me, who know them to +be exceedingly material, very great concern. I have long distrusted you, +and therefore frequently admonished you upon these articles; and I tell +you plainly, that I shall not be easy till I hear a very different +account of them. I know of no one thing more offensive to a company, +than that inattention and _distraction_. It is showing them the utmost +contempt; and people never forgive contempt. No man is _distrait_ with +the man he fears, or the woman he loves; which is a proof that every man +can get the better of that _distraction_ when he thinks it worth his +while to do so; and, take my word for it, it is always worth his while. +For my own part, I would rather be in company with a dead man than with +an absent one; for if the dead man gives me no pleasure, at least he +shows me no contempt; whereas the absent man, silently indeed, but very +plainly, tells me that he does not think me worth his attention. +Besides, can an absent man make any observations upon the characters, +customs, and manners of the company? No. He may be in the best companies +of his lifetime (if they will admit him, which, if I were they, I would +not), and never be one jot the wiser. I never will converse with an +absent man; one may as well talk with a deaf one. It is, in truth, a +practical blunder, to address ourselves to a man, who we see plainly +neither hears, minds, nor understands us. Moreover, I aver that no man +is, in any degree, fit for either business or conversation, who cannot, +and does not, direct and command his attention to the present object, be +that what it will. + +You know, by experience, that I grudge no expense in your education, but +I will positively not keep you a flapper. You may read, in Dr. Swift, +the description of these flappers, and the use they were of to your +friends the Laputans; whose minds (Gulliver says) are so taken up with +intense speculations, that they neither can speak, nor attend to the +discourses of others, without being roused by some external taction upon +the organs of speech and hearing; for which reason, those people who are +able to afford it, always keep a flapper in their family, as one of +their domestics, nor ever walk about, or make visits, without him. This +flapper is likewise employed diligently to attend his master in his +walks, and, upon occasion, to give a soft flap upon his eyes; because he +is always so wrapt up in cogitation, that he is in manifest danger of +falling down every precipice, and bouncing his head against every post, +and, in the streets, of jostling others, or being jostled into the +kennel himself. If _Christian_ will undertake this province into the +bargain, with all my heart; but I will not allow him any increase of +wages upon that score. + +In short, I give you fair warning, that when we meet, if you are absent +in mind, I will soon be absent in body; for it will be impossible for me +to stay in the room; and if at table you throw down your knife, plate, +bread, etc., and hack the wing of a chicken for half an hour, without +being able to cut it off, and your sleeve all the time in another dish, +I must rise from table to escape the fever you would certainly give me. +Good God! How I should be shocked if you came into my room, for the +first time, with two left legs, presenting yourself with all the graces +and dignity of a tailor, and your clothes hanging upon you like those in +Monmouth Street, upon tenter-hooks! Whereas I expect, nay require, to +see you present yourself with the easy and gentle air of a man of +fashion who has kept good company. I expect you not only well dressed, +but very well dressed; I expect a gracefulness in all your motions, and +something particularly engaging in your address. All this I expect, and +all these it is in your power, by care and attention, to make me find; +but, to tell you the plain truth, if I do not find it, we shall not +converse very much together; for I cannot stand inattention and +awkwardness; it would endanger my health. + +You have often seen, and I have as often made you observe, L[yttelton]'s +distinguished inattention and awkwardness. Wrapped up like a Laputan in +intense thought, and possibly sometimes in no thought at all--which, I +believe, is very often the case with absent people--he does not know his +most intimate acquaintance at sight, or answers them as if they were at +cross purposes. He leaves his hat in one room, his sword in another, and +would leave his shoes in a third, if his buckles, although awry, did not +save them; his legs and arms, by his awkward management of them, seem to +have undergone the _question extraordinaire_; and his head, always +hanging upon one or other of his shoulders, seems to have received the +first stroke upon a block. I sincerely value and esteem him for his +parts, learning, and virtue; but, for the soul of me, I cannot love him +in company. This will be universally the case, in common life, of every +inattentive awkward man, let his real merit and knowledge be ever so +great. + +When I was of your age, I desired to shine, as far as I was able, in +every part of life; and was as attentive, to my manners, my dress, and +my air, in company on evenings, as to my books, and my tutor in the +mornings. A young fellow should be ambitious to shine in everything; +and, of the two, rather overdo than underdo. These things are by no +means trifles; they are of infinite consequence to those who are to be +thrown into the great world, and who would make a figure or a fortune in +it. It is not sufficient to deserve well, one must please well too. +Awkward, disagreeable merit, will never carry anybody far. Wherever you +find a good dancing master, pray let him put you upon your haunches; not +so much for the sake of dancing, as for coming into a room and +presenting yourself genteelly and gracefully. Women, whom you ought to +endeavour to please, cannot forgive a vulgar and awkward air and +gestures; _il leur faut du brillant_. The generality of men are pretty +like them, and are equally taken by the same exterior graces. + +I am very glad that you have received the diamond buckles safe: All I +desire in return for them, is, that they may be buckled even upon your +feet, and that your stockings may not hide them. I should be sorry you +were an egregious fop; but I protest that, of the two, I would rather +have you a fop than a sloven. I think negligence in my own dress, even +at my age, when certainly I expect no advantages from my dress, would be +indecent with regard to others. I have done with fine clothes; but I +will have my plain clothes fit me, and made like other people's. In the +evenings I recommend to you the company of women of fashion, who have a +right to attention, and will be paid it. Their company will smooth your +manners, and give you a habit of attention and respect; of which you +will find the advantage among men. + +My plan for you, from the beginning, has been to make you shine, equally +in the learned and in the polite world; The former part is almost +completed to my wishes, and will, I am persuaded, in a little time more, +be quite so. The latter part is still in your power to complete; and I +flatter myself that you will do it, or else the former part will avail +you very little; especially in your deportment, where the exterior +address and graces do half the business; they must be harbingers of your +merit, or your merit will be very coldly received: all can, and do judge +of the former, few of the latter. + +Mr. Harte tells me that you have grown very much since your illness: if +you get up to five feet ten, or even nine inches, your figure will, +probably, be a good one; and if well dressed and genteel, will probably +please; which is a much greater advantage to a man than people commonly +think. Lord Bacon calls it a letter of recommendation. + +I would wish you to be an _omnis homo_, _l'homme universel_. You are +nearer it, if you please, than ever anybody was at your age; and if you +will but, for the course of this next year only, exert your whole +attention to your studies in the morning, and to your address, manners, +air, and _tournure_ in the evenings, you will be the man I wish you, and +the man that is rarely seen. + +Our letters go, at best, so irregularly and so often miscarry totally, +that, for greater security, I repeat the same things. So, though, I +acknowledged by last post Mr Harte's letter of the 8th September, N.S., +I acknowledge it again by this to you. If this should find you still at +Verona, let it inform you, that I wish you to set out soon for Naples; +unless Mr. Harte should think it better for you to stay at Verona, or +any other place on this side Rome, till you go there for the Jubilee. +Nay, if he likes it better, I am very willing that you should go +directly from Verona to Rome; for you cannot have too much of Rome, +whether upon account of the language, the curiosities, or the company. +My only reason for mentioning Naples, is for the sake of the climate, +upon account of your health; but, if Mr. Harte thinks your health is now +so well restored as to be above climate, he may steer your course +wherever he thinks proper; and, for aught I know, your going directly to +Rome, and consequently staying there so much the longer, may be as well +as anything else. I think you and I cannot put our affairs into better +hands than in Mr. Harte's; and I will take his infallibility against the +Pope's, with some odds on his side. _A propos_ of the Pope; remember to +be presented to him before you leave Rome, and go through the necessary +ceremonies for it, whether of kissing his slipper or...; for I would +never deprive myself of anything I wanted to do or see, by refusing to +comply with an established custom. When I was in Catholic countries, I +never declined kneeling in their churches at the elevation, nor +elsewhere, when the Host went by. It is a complaisance due to the custom +of the place, and by no means, as some silly people have imagined, an +implied approbation of their doctrine. Bodily attitudes and situations +are things so very indifferent in themselves, that I would quarrel with +nobody about them. It may indeed be improper for Mr. Harte to pay that +tribute of complaisance, upon account of his character. + +This letter is a very long, and possibly a very tedious one; but my +interest for your perfection is so great, and particularly at this +critical and decisive period of your life, that I am only afraid of +omitting, but never of repeating, or dwelling too long upon anything +that I think may be of the least use to you. Have the same anxiety for +yourself that I have for you, and all will do well. Adieu, my dear +child! + + + + +GEORGE BALLARD (1706-1755) + + + The extreme wickedness of reviewers has been a conviction + with many authors--who have sometimes, it would seem, + succumbed to it themselves and retaliated in reviewing + others. The following letter to Dr. Lyttelton, Dean of + Exeter, is a very early (1753) and not unamusing example of + this conviction: and is given as such, though the writer has + no wide fame. His history is, however, interesting and + shows, among other things, how entirely erroneous is the + idea that till recently (and even now to some extent) + opportunities of showing themselves able to profit by + education were and are denied to the "lower classes" in + England. Ballard was apprenticed to a staymaker + ("habit-maker" as others say) at Chipping-Campden, but + betook himself in his leisure hours to the study of + Anglo-Saxon. Hearing of which fact the gentlemen of the + local hunt (the boozy squire-tyrants of popular tradition) + subscribed for an annuity of L100 a year to him, but he + would only accept L60. With this he went up to Oxford to + enjoy the Bodleian, was made a "clerk" at Magdalen and later + an esquire-bedell to the University. He did much good work + of the antiquarian kind, and died a year or two after + writing this letter, having (one hopes) relieved himself by + his protest and been consoled by a kind answer from + Lyttelton.[106] + + + +19. TO DR. LYTTELTON, DEAN OF EXETER + +A DEFENCE OF THE HISTORY OF LEARNED LADIES + +Revd. and Hond. Sir, + +My best acknowledgments are due for the favour of two epistles; the +first of which I received a few minutes after my last set forward for +Exeter. I would have answered it immediately, but that I thought a +little respite might be agreeable, before I gave you the trouble of +another long letter. + +The day before I received your first epistle, a Gent. of my acquaintance +brought me the _Monthly Review_ for February, that I might see what the +candid and genteel authors of that work had said of mine. They observe +to the publick, that _I have said_ C. Tishem was so skilled in the Greek +Tongue, that she could read Galen in its original, which very few +Physicians are able to do. Whether this was done maliciously, in order +to bring the wrath of the AEsculapians upon me, or inadvertently, I +cannot say: but I may justly affirm, that they have used me very ill in +that affair; since if they had read with attention, which they ought to +have done before they attempted to give a character of the Book, they +must have known that the whole account of that lady (which is but one +page) is not mine, but borrowed with due acknowledgment from the +_General Dictionary_. They are likewise pleased to inform the world +that I have been rather too industrious in the undertaking, having +introduced several women who hardly deserved a place in the work. I did +not do this for want of materials; neither did I do it rashly, without +advising with others of superior judgment in those affairs, of which +number Mr. Professor Ward was one. But those pragmatical Censors seem to +have but little acquaintance with those studies, or otherwise they might +have observed that all our general Biographers, as Leland, Bale, Pits, +Wood, and Tanner, have trod the very same steps; and have given an +account of all the authors they could meet with, good and bad, just as +they found them: and yet, I have never heard of anyone that had courage +or ill-nature enough, to endeavour to expose them for it. While I was +ruminating on these affairs, three or four letters came to my hands, and +perceiving one of them come from my worthy friend the Dean of Exeter, I +eagerly broke it open, and was perfectly astonished to find myself +charged with _party zeal_ in my book; and that from thence the most +candid reader might conclude the author to be both a Church and State +Tory. But after having thoroughly considered all the passages objected +to, and not finding the least tincture of either Whig or Tory principles +contained in them, I began to cheer up my drooping spirits, in hopes +that I might possibly out-live my supposed crime; but, alas! to my still +greater confusion! when I opened my next letter from a Tory +acquaintance, I was like one thunderstruck at the contents of it. He +discharges his passionate but ill-grounded resentment upon me most +furiously. He tells me, he did not imagine Magdalen College could have +produced such a rank Whig. He reproaches me with want of due esteem for +the Stuart Family, to whom he says I have shewn a deadly hatred, and he +gives me, as he imagines, three flagrant instances of it. 1. That I have +unseasonably and maliciously printed a letter of Queen Elizabeth's, in +order to blacken the memory of Mary Queen of Scots, and that too, at a +time when her character began to shine as bright as the Sun. 2dly. That +I have endeavoured to make her memory odious, by representing her as +wanting natural affection to her only son, in my note at p. 162, where +he says I have printed part of a Will, &c. And 3dly, tho' she was cut +off in such a barbarous and unprecedented manner, yet she has fallen +unlamented by me. I am likewise charged with having an affection to +Puritanism; the reasons for which are, my giving the Life of a Puritan +Bishop's Lady, which it seems need not have been done by me, had I not +had a particular regard for her, since it had been done before by +Goodwin who reprinted her Devotions. And not content with this, I have +blemished my book with the memoirs of a Dissenting teacher's wife, and +have been kind enough to heighten even the character given her by her +indulgent husband: and that I am very fond of quoting Fox and Burnet +upon all occasions. These are thought strong indications of the +above-mentioned charge. It may be thought entirely unnecessary to answer +any of the objections from Exeter, after having given you this Summary +of my kind Friend's Candid Epistle; but to you, Sir, to whom I could +disclose the very secrets of my soul, I will endeavour to say a word or +two upon this subject, and make you my Confessor upon this occasion; and +I will do it with as much sincerity, as if I lay on my death-bed. Before +I was fourteen years old, I read over Fox's Acts and Monuments of the +Church, and several of the best books of Polemical Divinity, which +strongly fortified me in the Protestant Religion; and gave me the +greatest abhorrence to Popery. And soon after I perused Mercurius +Rusticus, The Eleventh Persecution, Lloyd, Walker's Sufferings of the +Clergy, and many others, which gave me almost as bad an opinion of the +Dissenters. But then I learned in my childhood _to live in Charity with +all Men_, and I have used my best endeavours to put this doctrine in +practice all my life long. I never thought ill, or quarrelled with any +man merely because he had been educated in principles different to mine; +and yet I have been acquainted with many papists, dissenters, &c. and if +I found any of them learned, ingenuous, and modest, I always found my +heart well-disposed for contracting a firm friendship with them: and +notwithstanding that, I dare believe that all those people will, with +joint consent, vouch for me, that I have ever been steady in my own +principles. + +I can truly affirm that never any one engaged in such a work, with an +honester heart, or executed it with more unbiassed integrity, than I +have done. And indeed, I take the unkind censures passed upon me by the +furious uncharitable zealots of both parties, to be the strongest proof +of it. And after all, I dare challenge any man, whether Protestant, +Papist, or Dissenter, Whig or Tory, (and I have drawn up and published +memoirs of women who professed all those principles) to prove me guilty +of partiality, or to shew that I have made any uncharitable reflections +on any person, and whenever that is done, I will faithfully promise to +make a public recantation. I wish, Sir, you would point out to me any +one unbecoming word or expression which has fell from me on Bishop +Burnet. Had I had the least inclination to have lessened his character, +I did not want proper materials to have done it. I have in my possession +two original letters from Bishop Gibson and Mr Norris of Bemerton, to +Dr Charlett, which, if published, would lessen your too great esteem for +him. And what, I beseech you, Sir, have I said in praise of Mrs Hopton +and her pious and useful labours, which they do not well deserve, and +which can possibly give any just offence to any good man? I dare not +censure or condemn a good thing merely because it borders upon the +Church of Rome. I rather rejoice that she retains any thing I can fairly +approve. Should I attempt to do this, might I not condemn the greater +part of our Liturgy, &c.? and should I not stand self-condemned for so +doing? I cannot for my life perceive that I have said any thing of that +excellent woman, which she does not merit; and I must beg leave to say +that I think her letter to F. Turbeville deserves to be wrote in letters +of gold, and ought to be carefully read and preserved by all +Protestants. Mary Queen of Scots fell under my notice, no otherwise than +as a learned woman. The affairs you mention would by no means suit my +peaceable temper. I was too well acquainted with the warm disputes, and +fierce engagement both of domestic and foreign writers on that head, +once to touch upon the subject. And indeed, unless I had been the happy +discoverer of some secret springs of action which would have given new +information to the public, it would have been excessive folly in me to +intermeddle in an affair of so tender a nature, and of so great +importance. + +I have often blamed my dear friend Mr. Brome for destroying his valuable +collections, but I now cease to wonder at it. He spent his leisure hours +pleasantly and inoffensively, and when old age came on, which not only +abates thirst, but oftentimes gives a disrelish to these and almost all +other things, which do not help to make our passage into eternity more +easy, he then destroyed them (I dare believe) in order to prevent the +malicious reflections of an ill-natured world. + +I have always been a passionate lover of History and Antiquity, +Biography, and Northern Literature: and as I have ever hated idleness, +so I have in my time filled many hundred sheets with my useless +scribble, the greater part of which I will commit to the flames shortly, +to prevent their giving me any uneasiness in my last moments.[107] + +[May 22, 1753.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[106] Ballard's _Memoirs of Learned Ladies of Great Britain who have +been celebrated for their writings or skill in the Learned Languages +Arts & Sciences_, appeared at Oxford in 4to (1752) and 8vo (1775). It +contains some sixty lives, the most noteworthy names being those of +Queens Elizabeth and Mary of Scotland, Lady Jane Grey, Margaret Countess +of Richmond (_the_ "Lady Margaret"), the Duchess of Newcastle, Lady +Winchelsea, the two Countesses of Pembroke ("Sidney's sister" and Anne +Clifford), Dame Juliana Barnes or Berners, Dryden's Anne Killigrew, +Dorothy Pakington (the alleged author of _The Whole Duty of Man_), and +"the matchless Orinda." + +[107] Perhaps a note should be added on "Mrs. Hopton" and "F. +Turbe(r)ville." The former, born Susanna Harvey (1627-1709), was the +wife of a Welsh judge, and wrote devotional works. The latter, Henry T. +(d. 1678: the "F" of text is of course "Father"), was a writer of +doctrinal and controversial manuals on the Roman side. + + + + +THOMAS GRAY (1716-1771) + + + The chief thing to add to what has been said of Gray in the + Introduction is something that may draw attention to a + curious feature of his letters, not there distinctly + noticed. Letters, it must be sufficiently seen even from + this little book, have a curious _variety_ of relation to + the characters, personal and literary, of their writers. + Sometimes they show us phases entirely or almost entirely + concealed in the published works; sometimes again, without + definitely revealing new aspects, they complete and enforce + the old; while, in yet a third, though perhaps the smallest, + class of instances, they are as it were results of the same + governing formula as that of the published works themselves, + the difference lying almost wholly in the subjects and in + the methods and circumstances of treatment. Gray belongs to + this last division. There is not, of course, in his letters + the same severity of discipline and restriction of + utterance, that we find in his poems. But that, in letters, + was impossible--at least in letters that should supply + tolerable reading. Yet the same general principle, which was + somewhat exaggerated in the phrase about his "never speaking + out," appears in them. There is always a certain restraint + (at least in all that have been published) and it would + probably have extended in proportion to others, however + little their subject might seem compatible with it. In what + we have it gives a curious _seasoning_--something which + preserves as well as flavours like salt or vinegar. Of those + which follow the first is an early one. Mason's apologetic + note is to the effect that it "may appear whimsical" but it + gives him an opportunity of remarking that Mr. Gray was + "extremely skilled in the customs of the ancient Romans," + both utterances being characteristic, to some extent of the + time but to a greater of the writer. The second letter, to + Gray's most intimate friend Dr. Wharton, and more than a + quarter of a century later, is a good example of the + _variety_ of these epistles--scenery, literature, politics, + science, gossip and what not, being all dealt with. + + +20. TO RICHARD WEST [EXTRACT] + +ROME, May, 1740. + +I am to-day just returned from Alba, a good deal fatigued; for you know +the Appian is somewhat tiresome. We dined at Pompey's; he indeed was +gone for a few days to his Tusculan, but, by the care of his Villicus, +we made an admirable meal. We had the dugs of a pregnant sow, a peacock, +a dish of thrushes, a noble scarus just fresh from the Tyrrhene, and +some conchylia of the Lake with garum sauce: For my part I never eat +better at Lucullus's table. We drank half-a-dozen cyathi a-piece of +ancient Alban to Pholoe's health; and after bathing, and playing an hour +at ball, we mounted our essedum again, and proceeded up the mount to the +temple. The priests there entertained us with an account of a wonderful +shower of bird's eggs that had fallen two days before, which had no +sooner touched the ground, but they were converted into gudgeons; as +also that, the night past, a dreadful voice had been heard out of the +Adytum, which spoke Greek during a full half-hour, but nobody understood +it. But quitting my Romanities, to your great joy and mine, let me tell +you in plain English, that we come from Albano. The present town lies +within the inclosure of Pompey's Villa in ruins. The Appian way runs +through it, by the side of which, a little farther, is a large old +tomb, with five pyramids upon it, which the learned suppose to be the +burying-place of the family, because they do not know whose it can be +else. But the vulgar assure you it is the sepulchre of the Curiatii, and +by that name (such is their power) it goes. One drives to Castle +Gandolfo, a house of the Pope's, situated on the top of one of the +Collinette, that forms a brim to the basin, commonly called the Alban +lake. It is seven miles round; and directly opposite to you, on the +other side, rises the Mons Albanus, much taller than the rest, along +whose side are still discoverable (not to common eyes) certain little +ruins of the old Alba Longa. They had need be very little, as having +been nothing but ruins ever since the days of Tullus Hostilius. On its +top is a house of the Constable Colonna's, where stood the temple of +Jupiter Latialis. At the foot of the hill Gandolfo, are the famous +outlets of the lake, built with hewn stone, a mile and a half under +ground. Livy you know, amply informs us of the foolish occasion of this +expence, and gives me this opportunity of displaying all my erudition, +that I may appear considerable in your eyes. This is the prospect from +one window of the palace. From another you have the whole Campagna, the +City, Antium, and the Tyrrhene sea (twelve miles distant) so +distinguishable, that you may see the vessels sailing upon it. All this +is charming. Mr. Walpole says, our memory sees more than our eyes in +this country. Which is extremely true; since, for realities, Windsor or +Richmond Hill is infinitely preferable to Albano or Frescati. I am now +at home, and going to the window to tell you it is the most beautiful of +Italian nights, which, in truth, are but just begun (so backward has the +spring been here, and every where else, they say) There is a moon! there +are stars for you! Do not you hear the fountain? Do not you smell the +orange flowers? That building yonder is the convent of S. Isidore; and +that eminence, with the cypress trees and pines upon it, the top of M. +Quirinal. This is all true, and yet my prospect is not two hundred yards +in length. + + +21. TO WHARTON + +Dear Doctor + +Whatever my pen may do, I am sure my thoughts expatiate nowhere oftener +or with more pleasure, than to Old-Park. I hope you have made my peace +with Miss Deborah. it is certain, whether her name were in my letter or +not, she was as present to my memory, as the rest of the little family, +& I desire you would present her with two kisses in my name, & one +a-piece to all the others: for I shall take the liberty to kiss them all +(great & small) as you are to be my proxy. + +In spite of the rain, w^ch I think continued with very short intervals +till the beginning of this month, & quite effaced the summer from the +year, I made a shift to pass May & June not disagreeably in Kent. I was +surprised at the beauty of the road to Canterbury, which (I know not +why) had not struck me in the same manner before. The whole country is a +rich and well-cultivated garden, orchards, cherry-grounds, hop-gardens, +intermix'd with corn & frequent villages, gentle risings cover'd with +wood, and everywhere the Thames and Medway breaking in upon the +Landscape with all their navigation. It was indeed owing to the bad +weather, that the whole scene was dress'd in that tender emerald-green, +w^ch one usually sees only for a fortnight in the opening of spring, & +this continued till I left the country. My residence was eight miles +east of Canterbury in a little quiet valley on the skirts of +Barhamdown. In these parts the whole soil is chalk, and whenever it +holds up, in half an hour it is dry enough to walk out. I took the +opportunity of three or four days fine weather to go into the Isle of +Thanet, saw Margate (w^ch is Bartholomew-Fair by the sea side), +Ramsgate, & other places there, and so came by Sandwich, Deal, Dover, +Folkstone, & Hithe, back again. The coast is not like Hartlepool: there +are no rocks, but only chalky cliffs of no great height, till you come +to Dover. There indeed they are noble & picturesque, and the opposite +coasts of France begin to bound your view, w^ch was left before to range +unlimited by anything but the horizon: yet it is by no means a +_shipless_ sea, but everywhere peopled with white sails & vessels of all +sizes in motion. And take notice (except in the Isle, w^ch is all +corn-fields, and has very little inclosure) there are in all places +hedgerows & tall trees even within a few yards of the beach. +Particularly Hithe stands on an eminence cover'd with wood. I shall +confess we had fires of a night (ay, & a day too) several times even in +June: but don't go & take advantage of this, for it was the most +untoward year that ever I remember. + +Your Friend Rousseau (I doubt) grows tired of M^r Davenport and +Derbyshire. He has picked a quarrel with David Hume & writes him letters +of 14 pages Folio upbraiding him of all his _noirceurs_. Take one only +as a specimen, he says, that at Calais they chanced to sleep in the same +room together, & that he overheard David talking in his sleep, and +saying, _Ah! Je le tiens, ce Jean-Jacques la._ In short (I fear) for +want of persecution & admiration (for these are real complaints) he will +go back to the Continent. + +What shall I say to you about the Ministry? I am as angry as a +Common-council Man of London about my L^d Chatham: but a little more +patient, & will hold my tongue till the end of the year. In the mean +time I do mutter in secret & to you, that to quit the house of Commons, +his natural strength; to sap his own popularity & grandeur (which no one +but himself could have done) by assuming a foolish title; & to hope that +he could win by it and attach to him a Court, that hate him, & will +dismiss him, as soon as ever they dare, was the weakest thing, that ever +was done by so great a Man. Had it not been for this, I should have +rejoiced at the breach between him & L^d Temple, & at the union between +him & the D: of Grafton & M^r Conway: but patience! we shall see! +St:[108] perhaps is in the country (for he hoped for a month's leave of +absence) and if you see him, you will learn more than I can tell you. + +Mason is at Aston. He is no longer so anxious about his wife's health, +as he was, tho' I find she still has a cough, & moreover I find she is +not with child: but he made such a bragging, how could one choose but +believe him. + +When I was in town, I mark'd in my pocket-book the utmost limits & +divisions of the two columns in your Thermometer, and asked Mr. Ayscough +the Instrument-Maker on Ludgate Hill, what scales they were. He +immediately assured me, that one was Fahrenheit's, & shew'd me one +exactly so divided. The other he took for Reaumur's, but, as he said +there were different scales of his contrivance, he could not exactly +tell, w^ch of them it was. Your Brother told me, you wanted to know, +who wrote Duke Wharton's life in the Biography: I think, it is chiefly +borrowed from a silly book enough call'd _Memoirs of that Duke_: but who +put it together there, no one can inform me. The only person certainly +known to write in that vile collection (I mean these latter volumes) is +D^r Nicholls, who was expell'd here for stealing books. + +Have you read the _New Bath-Guide_?[109] it is the only thing in +fashion, & is a new & original kind of humour. Miss Prue's Conversion I +doubt you will paste down, as S^r W: S^t Quintyn did, before he carried +it to his daughter. Yet I remember you all read _Crazy Tales_[110] +without pasting. Buffon's first collection of Monkeys are come out (it +makes the 14^th volume) something, but not much, to my edification: for +he is pretty well acquainted with their persons, but not with their +manners. + +I shall be glad to hear, how far M^rs Ettrick has succeeded, & when you +see an end to her troubles. my best respects to Mrs. Wharton, & +compliments to all your family: I will not name them, least I should +affront any body. Adieu, dear S^r, + +I am most sincerely yours, + +TG: + +August 26, 1766, Pembroke College. + +Mr. Brown is gone to see his Brother near Margate. When is L^d Str:[111] +to be married? If M^r and M^rs Jonathan are with you, I desire my +compliments. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[108] "St." is Richard Stonhewer, a Fellow of Peterhouse, secretary to +the Duke of Grafton, and a man of considerable, though not public, +importance in politics. + +[109] Anstey's--referred to in the Introduction. + +[110] By Sterne's friend, John Hall Stevenson. + +[111] Lord Strathmore. + + + + +HORACE WALPOLE (1717-1797) + +[AND W. M. THACKERAY]. + + + As much has been already said of Horace Walpole's letters, + but practically nothing of his other works except his novel + and his play, something more may be added here to show that + he was not _merely_ a "trifler." His private press at + "Strawberry" was mainly a means of amusement to him, like a + billiard-room or a tennis-court. But it provided some useful + books--such as editions of Anthony Hamilton's _Memoirs of + Grammont_, of Lord Herbert of Cherbury's _Life_ and of part + of Gray's _Poems_. He had neither historic knowledge nor + historic sense enough to deal satisfactorily with such a + subject as _Historic Doubts on Richard III._, though the + subject itself was quite worth dealing with. But his + _Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors_, his _Anecdotes of + Painting in England_, and his _Catalogue of Engravers_ are + not without value; and he could usefully handle the history + of his own time, with proper corrections for his prejudices, + etc. He was weakest of all as a literary critic: and his + dealings with Chatterton were most unfortunate, though the + mischief done was not intentional, and might not have been + serious in any other case. These things have been said with + a definite purpose--that of showing that Horace's interests, + if seldom deep, were unusually wide. Now though width of + interest is not, as Cowper's case shows, indispensable to + goodness of letter-writing, it is a very great qualification + for it, as giving to the result variety, colour, and "bite." + At the same time, unless one had space on a very different + scale from any possible here, it would be _im_possible to + illustrate this "extensive curiosity" as they called it + then: and Horace ought to be shown here in his _most_ native + element as a chronicler of "society." I have thought it + worth while to subjoin for comparison Thackeray's wonderful + _pastiche_ in _The Virginians_, which is almost better + Horace than Horace himself.[112] + + +22. TO THE COUNTESS OF OSSORY + +ARLINGTON STREET, +April 31. 1773 + +It is most true, madam, that I did purpose to regale myself with a visit +to Ampthill; but this winter, which has trod hard upon last week's +summer, blunted my intention for a while, though revivable in finer +weather. Oh! but I had another reason for changing my mind; you are +leaving Ampthill, and I do not mean only to write my name in your +park-keeper's book. Yes, in spite of your ladyship's low spirited mood, +you are coming from Ampthill, and you are to be at Strawberry Hill +to-morrow se'nnight. You may not be in the secret, but Lord Ossory and I +have settled it, and you are to be pawned to me while he is at +Newmarket. He told me you certainly would if I asked it, and as they +used to say in ancient writ, I do beg it upon the knees of my heart. +Nay, it is unavoidable; for though a lady's word may be ever so +crackable, you cannot have the conscience to break your husband's word, +so I depend upon it. I have asked Mr. Craufurd to meet you, but begged +he would refuse me, that I might be sure of his coming. Mrs Meynel has +taken another year's lease of her house, so you probably, madam, will +not be tired of me for the livelong day for the whole time you shall +honour my mansion. Your face will be well and your fever gone a week +before to-morrow se'nnight, and you will look as well as ever you did in +your life, that is, as you have done lately, which is better than ever +you did before. You must not, in truth, expect that I your shepherd +should be quite so fit to figure in a fan mount. Besides the gout for +six months, which makes some flaws in the bloom of elderly Arcadians, I +have been so far from keeping sheep for the last ten days, that I have +kept nothing but bad hours; and have been such a rake that I put myself +in mind of a poor old cripple that I saw formerly at Hogarth's auction: +he bid for the Rake's Progress, saying, "I will buy my own progress," +though he looked as if he had no more title to it than I have, but by +limping and sitting up. In short, I have been at four balls since +yesterday se'nnight, though I had the prudence not to stay supper at +Lord Stanley's. That festival was very expensive, for it is the fashion +now to make romances rather than balls. In the hall was a band of French +horns and clarionets in laced uniforms and feathers. The dome of the +staircase was beautifully illuminated with coloured glass lanthorns; in +the ante-room was a bevy of vestals in white habits, making tea; in the +next, a drapery of sarcenet, that with a very funereal air crossed the +chimney, and depended in vast festoons over the sconces. The third +chamber's doors were heightened with candles in gilt vases, and the +ballroom was formed into an oval with benches above each other, not +unlike pews, and covered with red serge, above which were arbours of +flowers, red and green pilasters, more sarcenet, and Lord March's +glasses, which he had lent, as an upholsterer asked Lord Stanley 300l. +for the loan of some. He had burst open the side of the wall to build an +orchestra, with a pendant mirror to reflect the dancers, a la Guisnes; +and the musicians were in scarlet robes, like the candle-snuffers who +represent the senates of Venice at Drury Lane. There were two more +chambers at which I never arrived for the crowd. The seasons, danced by +himself, the younger Storer, the Duc de Lauzun and another, the youngest +Miss Stanley, Miss Poole, the youngest Wrottesley and another Miss, who +is likewise anonymous in my memory, were in errant shepherdly dresses +without invention, and Storer and Miss Wrottesley in banians with furs, +for winter, cock and hen. In six rooms below were magnificent suppers. I +was not quite so sober last night at Mons. de Guisnes', where the +evening began with a ball of children, from eighteen to four years old. +They danced amazingly well, yet disappointed me, so many of them were +ugly; but Dr. Delawarr's two eldest daughters and the Ancaster infanta +performed a pas de trois as well as Mlle. Heinel, and the two eldest +were pretty; yet I promise you, madam, the next age will be a thousand +degrees below the present in beauty. The most interesting part was to +observe the anxiety of the mothers while their children danced or +supped; they supped at ten in three rooms. I should not omit telling you +that the Vernons, especially the eldest, were not the homeliest part of +the show. The former quadrilles then came again upon the stage, and +Harry Conway the younger was so astonished at the agility of Mrs. +Hobart's bulk, that he said he was sure she must be hollow. The tables +were again spread in five rooms, and at past two in the morning we went +to supper. To excuse _we_, I must plead that both the late and present +chancellor, and the solemn Lord Lyttleton, my predecessors by some +years, stayed as late as I did--and in good sooth the watchman went four +as my chairman knocked at my door. + +Such is the result of good resolutions! I determined during my illness +to have my colt's tooth drawn, and lo! I have cut four new in a week. +Well! at least I am as grave as a judge, looked as rosy as Lord +Lyttleton, and much soberer than my Lord Chancellor. To shew some marks +of grace, I shall give up the opera, (indeed it is very bad) and go and +retake my doctor's degrees among the dowagers at Lady Blandford's; and +intending to have no more diversions than I have news to tell your +ladyship, I think you shall not hear from me again till we meet, as I +shall think it, in heaven. + + +23. (_Thackeray imitating_). TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY + +ARLINGTON STREET, Friday night. + +I have come away, child, for a day or two from my devotions to our Lady +of Strawberry. Have I not been on my knees to her these three weeks, and +aren't the poor old joints full of rheumatism? A fit took me that I +would pay London a visit, that I would go to Vauxhall and Ranelagh. +_Quoi!_ May I not have my rattle as well as other elderly babies? +Suppose, after being so long virtuous, I take a fancy to cakes and ale, +shall your reverence say nay to me? George Selwyn and Tony Storer and +your humble servant took boat at Westminster t'other night. Was it +Tuesday?--no, Tuesday I was with their Graces of Norfolk, who are just +from Tunbridge--it was Wednesday. How should I know? + +Wasn't I dead drunk with a whole pint of lemonade I took at White's? + +The Norfolk folk had been entertaining me on Tuesday with the account of +a young savage Iroquois, Choctaw, or Virginian, who has lately been +making a little noise in our quarter of the globe. He is an offshoot of +that disreputable family of Esmond-Castlewood, of whom all the men are +gamblers and spendthrifts, and all the women--well, I shan't say the +word, lest Lady Ailesbury should be looking over your shoulder. Both the +late lords, my father told me, were in his pay, and the last one, a beau +of Queen Anne's reign, from a viscount advanced to be an earl through +the merits and intercession of his notorious old sister Bernstein, late +Tusher, _nee_ Esmond--a great beauty, too, of her day, a favourite of +the old Pretender. She sold his secrets to my papa, who paid her for +them; and being nowise particular in her love for the Stuarts, came over +to the august Hanoverian house at present reigning over us. "Will Horace +Walpole's tongue never stop scandal?" says your wife over your shoulder. +I kiss your ladyship's hand. I am dumb. The Bernstein is a model of +virtue. She had no good reasons for marrying her father's chaplain. Many +of the nobility omit the marriage altogether. She _wasn't_ ashamed of +being Mrs. Tusher, and didn't take a German _Baroncino_ for a second +husband, whom nobody out of Hanover ever saw. The Yarmouth bears no +malice. Esther and Vashti are very good friends, and have been cheating +each other at Tunbridge at cards all the summer. + +"And what has all this to do with the Iroquois?" says your ladyship. The +Iroquois has been at Tunbridge, too--not cheating, perhaps, but winning +vastly. They say he has bled Lord March of thousands--Lord March, by +whom so much blood hath been shed, that he has quarrelled with +everybody, fought with everybody, rode over everybody, been fallen in +love with by everybody's wife except Mr. Conway's, and _not_ excepting +her present Majesty, the Countess of England, Scotland, France and +Ireland, Queen of Walmoden and Yarmouth, whom heaven preserve to us. + +You know an offensive little creature _de par le monde_, one Jack +Morris, who skips in and out of all the houses of London. When we were +at Vauxhall, Mr. Jack gave us a nod under the shoulder of a pretty young +fellow enough, on whose arm he was leaning, and who appeared hugely +delighted with the enchantments of the garden. Lord, how he stared at +the fireworks! Gods, how he huzzayed at the singing of a horrible +painted wench who shrieked the ears off my head! A twopenny string of +glass beads and a strip of tawdry cloth are treasures in Iroquois-land, +and our savage valued them accordingly. + +A buzz went about the place that this was the fortunate youth. He won +three hundred at White's last night very genteelly from Rockingham and +my precious nephew, and here he was bellowing and huzzaying over the +music so as to do you good to hear. I do not love a puppet-show, but I +love to treat children to one, Miss Conway! I present your ladyship my +compliments, and hope we shall go and see the dolls together. + +When the singing-woman came down from her throne, Jack Morris must +introduce my Virginian to her. I saw him blush up to the eyes, and make +her, upon my word, a very fine bow, such as I had no idea was practised +in wigwams. "There is a certain _jenny squaw_ about her, and that's why +the savage likes her," George said--a joke certainly not as brilliant as +a firework. After which it seemed to me that the savage and the savagess +retired together. + +Having had a great deal too much to eat and drink three hours before, my +partners must have chicken and rack-punch at Vauxhall, where George fell +asleep straightway, and for my sins I must tell Tony Storer what I knew +about this Virginian's amiable family, especially some of the +Bernstein's antecedents and the history of another elderly beauty of the +family, a certain Lady Maria, who was _au mieux_ with the late Prince of +Wales. What did I say? I protest not half of what I knew, and of course +not a tenth part of what I was going to tell, for who should start out +upon us but my savage, this time quite red in the face; and in his _war +paint_. The wretch had been drinking fire-water in the next box! + +He cocked his hat, clapped his hand to his sword, asked which of the +gentlemen was it that was maligning his family? so that I was obliged to +entreat him not to make such a noise, lest he should wake my friend Mr. +George Selwyn. And I added, "I assure you, sir, I had no idea that you +were near me, and I most sincerely apologize for giving you pain." + +The Huron took his hand off his tomahawk at this pacific rejoinder, made +a bow not ungraciously, said he could not, of course, ask more than an +apology from a gentleman of my age (_Merci, Monsieur!_) and, hearing the +name of Mr. Selwyn, made another bow to George, and said he had a letter +to him from Lord March, which he had had the ill-fortune to mislay. +George has put him up for the club, it appears, in conjunction with +March, and no doubt these three lambs will fleece each other. Meanwhile, +my pacified savage sat down with us, and _buried the hatchet_ in another +bowl of punch, for which these gentlemen must call. Heaven help us! 'Tis +eleven o'clock, and here comes Bedson with my gruel! + +H. W. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[112] There is an amicable dispute among Thackerayans whether this or +the imitation-_Spectator_ paper in _Esmond_ is the more wonderful of +their joint kind. To facilitate this comparison the letter part (for +there is one) of that paper will be given here under Thackeray's own +name. + + + + +TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT (1721-1771) + + + Smollett's reputation has been of course always mainly, + indeed almost wholly, that of a novelist, though his + miscellaneous work is of no small merit. But that he wrote + his best novel _in_ letters and that perhaps it is one of + the best so written, has been mentioned. His _Travels_ are + also of the letter-kind--especially of the + ill-tempered-letter-kind. Of his actual correspondence we + have not much. But the following has always seemed to the + present writer an admirable and agreeably characteristic + example. Smollett's outwardly surly but inwardly kindly + temper, and his command of phrase ("great Cham of + literature" has, as we say now, "stuck") both appear in it: + and the matter is interesting. We have, so far as I + remember, no record of any interview between Johnson and + Smollett, though they must have met. They were both Tories, + and Johnson wrote in the _Critical Review_ which Smollett + edited. But Johnson's gibes at Scotland are not likely to + have conciliated Smollett: and there was just that + combination of likeness and difference between the two men + which (especially as the one was as typically English as the + other was Scotch) generates incompatibility. How + victoriously Wilkes got over Johnson's personal dislike to + him all readers of Boswell know: and it is one of the most + amusing passages in the book. On this occasion, too, he did + what was asked of him. "Frank" had not been _pressed_, but + had joined for some reason of his own. However, he accepted + his discharge and returned to his master, staying till that + master's death. + + +24. TO JOHN WILKES, ESQ. + +CHELSEA, 16th March, 1759. + +Dear Sir + +I am again your petitioner, in behalf of that great CHAM of literature, +Samuel Johnson. His black servant, whose name is Francis Barber, has +been pressed on board the Stag frigate, Captain Angel, and our +lexicographer is in great distress. He says the boy is a sickly lad, of +a delicate frame, and particularly subject to a malady in his throat, +which renders him very unfit for His Majesty's service. You know what +matter of animosity the said Johnson has against you: and I dare say you +desire no other opportunity of resenting it, than that of laying him +under an obligation. He was humble enough to desire my assistance on +this occasion, though he and I were never cater-cousins; and I gave him +to understand that I would make application to my friend Mr. Wilkes, +who, perhaps, by his interest with Dr. Hay and Mr. Elliot, might be able +to procure the discharge of his lacquey. It would be superfluous to say +more on this subject, which I leave to your own consideration; but I +cannot let slip this opportunity of declaring that I am, with the most +inviolable esteem and attachment, dear Sir, your affectionate, obliged, +humble servant, + +T. SMOLLETT. + + + + +WILLIAM COWPER (1731-1800) + + + It was necessary to say a good deal about Cowper's letters + in the Introduction, but it would hardly do to stint him of + some further comment. It will be a most unfortunate evidence + of degradation in English literary taste if he ever loses + the position there assigned to him, and practically + acknowledged by all the best judges for the last century. + For there is certainly no other epistoler who has displayed + such consummate (if also such unconscious) art in making the + most out of the least. Of course people who must have noise, + and bustle, and "importance" of matter, and so forth, may be + dissatisfied. But their dissatisfaction convicts not Cowper + but themselves: and the conviction is not for want of Art, + but for want of appreciation of Art. Now this last is one of + the most terrible faults to be found in any human creature. + Not everybody can be an artist: but everybody who is not + deficient to this or that extent in sense--to use that word + in its widest and best interpretation, for understanding and + feeling both--can enjoy an artist's work. Nor is there any + more important function of the often misused word + "education" than "bringing out" this sense when it is + dormant, and training and developing it when it is brought + out. And few things are more useful for exercise in this way + than the under-current of artistry in Cowper's "chit-chat." + His letters are so familiar that it is vain to aim at any + great originality in selecting them. The following strikes + me as an excellent example. What more trite than references + to increased expense of postage (rather notably topical just + now though!) and remarks on a greenhouse? And what less + trite--except to tritical tastes and intellects--than this + letter? + + +25. TO THE REV. JOHN NEWTON + +Sept. 18. 1784. + +My dear Friend, + +Following your good example, I lay before me a sheet of my largest +paper. It was this moment fair and unblemished but I have begun to blot +it, and having begun, am not likely to cease till I have spoiled it. I +have sent you many a sheet that in my judgment of it has been very +unworthy of your acceptance, but my conscience was in some measure +satisfied by reflecting, that if it were good for nothing, at the same +time it cost you nothing, except the trouble of reading it. But the case +is altered now. You must pay a solid price for frothy matter, and though +I do not absolutely pick your pocket, yet you lose your money, and, as +the saying is, are never the wiser; a saying literally fulfilled to the +reader of my epistles. + +My greenhouse is never so pleasant as when we are just upon the point of +being turned out of it. The gentleness of the autumnal suns, and the +calmness of this latter season, make it a much more agreeable retreat +than we ever find it in summer; when, the winds being generally brisk, +we cannot cool it by admitting a sufficient quantity of air, without +being at the same time incommoded by it. But now I sit with all the +windows and the door wide open, and am regaled with the scent of every +flower in a garden as full of flowers as I have known how to make it. We +keep no bees, but if I lived in a hive I should hardly hear more of +their music. All the bees in the neighbourhood resort to a bed of +mignonette, opposite to the window, and pay me for the honey they get +out of it by a hum, which, though rather monotonous, is as agreeable to +my ear as the whistling of my linnets. All the sounds that nature utters +are delightful,--at least in this country. I should not perhaps find the +roaring of lions in Africa, or of bears in Russia, very pleasing; but I +know no beast in England whose voice I do not account musical, save and +except always the braying of an ass. The notes of all our birds and +fowls please me, without one exception. I should not indeed think of +keeping a goose in a cage, that I might hang him up in the parlour for +the sake of his melody, but a goose upon a common, or in a farmyard, is +no bad performer; and as to insects, if the black beetle, and beetles +indeed of all hues, will keep out of my way, I have no objection to any +of the rest; on the contrary, in whatever key they sing, from the gnat's +fine treble to the bass of the humble bee, I admire them all. Seriously +however it strikes me as a very observable instance of providential +kindness to man, that such an exact accord has been contrived between +his ear, and the sounds with which, at least in a rural situation, it is +almost every moment visited. All the world is sensible of the +uncomfortable effect that certain sounds have upon the nerves, and +consequently upon the spirits:--and if a sinful world had been filled +with such as would have curdled the blood, and have made the sense of +hearing a perpetual inconvenience, I do not know that we should have had +a right to complain. But now the fields, the woods, the gardens have +each their concert, and the ear of man is for ever regaled by creatures +who seem only to please themselves. Even the ears that are deaf to the +Gospel, are continually entertained, though without knowing it, by +sounds for which they are solely indebted to its author. There is +somewhere in infinite space a world that does not roll within the +precincts of mercy, and as it is reasonable, and even scriptural, to +suppose that there is music in Heaven, in those dismal regions perhaps +the reverse of it is found; tones so dismal, as to make woe itself more +insupportable, and to acuminate[113] even despair. But my paper +admonishes me in good time to draw the reins, and to check the descent +of my fancy into deeps, with which she is but too familiar. + +Our best love attends you both, with yours, + +_Sum ut semper, tui studiossimus_, + +W. C. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[113] "Acuminate" = "sharpen," is a perfectly good word in itself, but +perhaps does not so perfectly suit "despair," which crushes rather than +pierces. + + + + +SYDNEY SMITH (1771-1845) + + + It has been said of Sydney Smith that he was not only a + humourist, but a "good-humourist," and this is undoubtedly + true. Politics, indeed, according to their usual custom, + sometimes rather acidulated his good humour; but anybody + possessed of the noun, with the least allowance of the + adjective, should be propitiated by the way in which the + almost Radical reformer of _Peter Plymley's Letters_ in 1807 + became the almost Tory and wholly conservative maintainer of + ecclesiastical rights in those to Archdeacon Singleton + thirty years later. + + Both, however, were "Letters" of the sophisticated kind: but + we have plenty of perfectly genuine correspondence, also + agreeable and sometimes extremely amusing. Whether Sydney + (his friends always abbreviated him thus, and he accepted + the Christian name) describes the makeshifts of his + Yorkshire parish or the luxuries of his Somerset one; + whether he discusses the effect of a diet of geraniums on + pigs or points out that as Lord Tankerville has given him a + whole buck "this takes up a great deal of my time"--he is + always refreshing. He has no great depth, but we do not go + to him for that: and he is not shallow in the offensive + sense of the word. His gaiety does not get on one's nerves + as does that of some--perhaps most--professional jokers: + neither, as is too frequently the case with them, does it + bore. His letters are not the easiest to select from: for + they are usually short and their excellence lies rather in + still shorter _flashes_ such as those glanced at above; as + the grave proposition that "the information of very plain + women is so inconsiderable that I agree with you in setting + no store by it;" or as this other (resembling a short + newspaper paragraph) "The Commissioner will have hard work + with the Scotch atheists: they are said to be numerous this + season and in great force, from the irregular supply of + rain." But the following specimens are fairly + representative. They were written at an interval of about + ten years: the first from Foston, the second from Combe + Florey. "Miss Berry," the elder of the famous sisters who + began by fascinating Horace Walpole and ended by charming + Thackeray: "Donna Agnes" was the younger. "Lady Rachel," the + famous wife of the person who suffered for the Rye House + plot (Lady Rachel Wriothesley, of Rachel Lady Russell, but + Miss Berry had written a _Life_ of her under her maiden + name). Sydney's politics show in his allusion to the + assassination of the Duc de Berri, son of Charles X. of + France (who had, however, not then come to the throne); in + his infinitely greater sorrow for the dismissal of the + mildly Liberal minister Decazes; and in his spleen at the + supporters of the English Tory government of Lord Liverpool. + (The "little plot" was Thistlewood's). In the second letter + the "hotel" is his new parsonage in Somerset: "Bowood," Lord + Lansdowne's Wiltshire house, a great Whig rallying place. I + suppose "Sea-shore Calcott" is Sir A. W. Calcott the + painter. "Luttrell" (Henry), a talker and versifier very + well known in his own day, but of less enduring reputation + than some others. "Napier's Book," the brilliant if somewhat + partisan _History of the Peninsular War_. I am not quite + certain in which of two senses Sydney uses the word + _caractere_. As ought to be well known this does not exactly + correspond to our "character"--but most commonly means + "temper" or "disposition." It has, however, a peculiar + technical meaning of "official description" or "estimate" + which would suit Sir William Napier well. The Napiers were + "kittle cattle" from the official point of view. + + +26. TO MISS BERRY + +FOSTON, Feb 27th, 1820. + +I thank you very much for the entertainment I have received from your +book. I should however have been afraid to marry such a woman as Lady +Rachel; it would have been too awful. There are pieces of china very +fine and beautiful, but never intended for daily use.... + +I have hardly slept out of Foston since I saw you. God send I may be +still an animal, and not a vegetable! but I am a little uneasy at this +season for sprouting and rural increase, for I fear I should have +undergone the metamorphose so common in country livings. I shall go to +town about the end of March; it will be completely empty, and the drugs +that remain will be entirely occupied about hustings and +returning-officers. + +Commerce and manufacturers are still in a frightful state of stagnation. + + No foreign barks in British ports are seen, + Stuff'd to the water's edge with velveteen, + Or bursting with big bales of bombazine; + No distant climes demand our corduroy, + Unmatch'd habiliment for man and boy; + No fleets of fustian quit the British shore, + The cloth-creating engines cease to roar, + Still is that loom which breech'd the world before. + +I am very sorry for the little fat Duke de Berri, but infinitely more so +for the dismissal of De Cases,--a fatal measure. + +I must not die without seeing Paris. Figure to yourself what a horrid +death,--to die without seeing Paris! I think I could make something of +this in a tragedy, so as to draw tears from Donna Agnes and yourself. +Where are you going to? When do you return? Why do you go at all? Is +Paris more agreeable than London? + +We have had a little plot here in a hay-loft. God forbid anybody should +be murdered! but, if I were to turn assassin, it should not be of five +or six Ministers, who are placed where they are by the folly of the +country gentlemen, but of the hundred thousand squires, to whose +stupidity and folly such an Administration owes its existence. + +Ever your friend, + +SYDNEY SMITH. + + +27. TO N. FAZAKERLY, ESQ. + +COMBE FLOREY, October, 1829. + +Dear Fazakerly, + +I don't know anybody who would be less affronted at being called +hare-brained than our friend who has so tardily conveyed my message, and +I am afraid now he has only given you a part of it. The omission appears +to be, that I had set up an hotel on the Western road, that it would be +opened next spring, and I hoped for the favour of yours and Mrs. +Fazakerly's patronage. "Well-aired beds, neat wines, careful drivers, +etc. etc." + +I shall have very great pleasure in coming to see you, and I quite agree +in the wisdom of postponing that event till the rural Palladios and +Vitruvii are chased away; I have fourteen of them here every day. The +country is perfectly beautiful, and my parsonage the prettiest place in +it. + +I was at Bowood last week: the only persons there were seashore Calcott +and his wife,--two very sensible, agreeable people. Luttrell came over +for the day; he was very agreeable, but spoke too lightly, I thought, of +veal soup. I took him aside, and reasoned the matter with him, but in +vain; to speak the truth, Luttrell is not steady in his judgments on +dishes. Individual failures with him soon degenerate into generic +objections, till, by some fortunate accident, he eats himself into +better opinions. A person of more calm reflection thinks not only of +what he is consuming at the moment, but of the soups of the same kind he +has met with in a long course of dining, and which have gradually and +justly elevated the species. I am perhaps making too much of this; but +the failures of a man of sense are always painful. + +I quite agree about Napier's book. I do[114] not think that any[114] man +would venture to write so true, bold, and honest a book; it gave me a +high idea of his understanding, and makes me very anxious about his +_caractere_ + +Ever yours, + +SYDNEY SMITH. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[114] One would expect either "did" or "other": but the actual +combination is a very likely slip of pen or press. + + + + +SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832) + + + Since this little book was undertaken it has been announced, + truly or not, that the bulk of Scott's autograph letters has + been bought by a fortunate and wise man of letters for the + sum of L1500. Neither life nor literature can ever be + expressed in money value: but if one had L1500 to spend on + something not directly necessary, it is possible to imagine + a very large number of less satisfactory purchases. For as + was briefly suggested in the Introduction, Scott's + letters--while saturated with that singular humanity and + nobility of character in which he has hardly a rival among + authors of whom we know much--are distinctly remarkable from + the purely literary point of view. His published work, both + in verse and prose, has been accused (with what amount of + justice we will not here trouble ourselves to discuss)--of + carelessness in style and art. No such charge could possibly + be brought against his letters, which hit the happy mean + between slovenliness and artificial elaboration in a fashion + that could hardly be bettered. The great variety of his + correspondents, too, provides an additional attraction: for + letters indited to the same person are apt to show a certain + monotony. And Scott is equal to any and every occasion. Here + as elsewhere the "Diary" drains off a certain proportion of + matter: but chiefly for the latest period and in + circumstances scarcely happy enough for letters themselves. + + The following letter was selected because of its admirable + treatment of a theme--the behaviour, responsibility, and + general _status_ of Authors as objects of public + judgment--on which an infinite amount of deplorable and + disgusting nonsense has been talked and written. It starts, + as will be seen, with the quarrel between Lord and Lady + Byron--and then generalises. Not many things show Scott's + golden equity and fairness better. He is perhaps "a little + kind" to Campbell, who was, one fears, an extra-irritable + specimen of the irritable race: but this is venial. And + probably he did not mean the stigma which might be inferred + from the conjunction of "Aphra _and_ Orinda." They were + certainly both of Charles II.'s time: but while poor Aphra + was, if not wholly vicious, far from virtuous, the + "matchless Orinda" (Katherine Philips) bears no stain on her + character. + + +28. TO JOANNA BAILLIE + +(End of April 1816) + +My dear friend, + +I am glad you are satisfied with my reasons for declining a direct +interference with Lord B[yron]. I have not, however, been quite idle, +and as an old seaman have tried to go by a side wind when I had not the +means of going before it, and this will be so far plain to you when I +say that I have every reason to believe the good intelligence is true +that a separation is signed between Lord and Lady Byron. If I am not as +angry as you have good reason to expect every thinking and feeling man +to be, it is from deep sorrow and regret that a man possessed of such +noble talents should so utterly and irretrievably lose himself. In +short, I believe the thing to be as you state it, and therefore Lord +Byron is the object of anything rather than indignation. It is a cruel +pity that such high talents should have been joined to a mind so wayward +and incapable of seeking control where alone it is to be found, in the +quiet discharge of domestic duties and filling up in peace and affection +his station in society. The idea of his ultimately resisting that which +should be fair and honourable to Lady B. did not come within my view of +his character--at least of his natural character; but I hear that, as +you intimated, he has had execrable advisers. I hardly know a more +painful object of consideration than a man of genius in such a +situation; those of lower minds do not feel the degradation, and become +like pigs, familiarised with the filthy elements in which they grovel; +but it is impossible that a man of Lord Byron's genius should not often +feel the want of that which he has forfeited--the fair esteem of those +by whom genius most naturally desires to be admired and cherished. + +I am much obliged to Mrs. Baillie for excluding me in her general +censure of authors; but I should have hoped for a more general spirit of +toleration from my good friend, who had in her own family and under her +own eye such an exception to her general censure--unless, indeed (which +may not be far from the truth), she supposes that female genius is more +gentle and tractable, though as high in tone and spirit as that of the +masculine sex. But the truth is, I believe, we will find a great +equality when the different habits of the sexes and the temptations they +are exposed to are taken into consideration. Men early flattered and +coaxed, and told they are fitted for the higher regions of genius and +unfit for anything else,--that they are a superior kind of automaton and +ought to move by different impulses than others,--indulge their friends +and the public with freaks and caprioles like those of that worthy +knight of La Mancha in the Sierra Morena. And then, if our man of genius +escapes this temptation, how is he to parry the opposition of the +blockheads who join all their hard heads and horns together to butt him +out of the ordinary pasture, goad him back to Parnassus, and "bid him +on the barren mountain starve." It is amazing how far this goes, if a +man will let it go, in turning him out of the ordinary course of life +into the stream of odd bodies, so that authors come to be regarded as +tumblers, who are expected to go to church in a summerset, because they +sometimes throw a Catherine-wheel for the amusement of the public. A man +even told me at an election, thinking I believe he was saying a severe +thing, that I was a poet, and therefore that the subject we were +discussing lay out of my way. I answered as quietly as I could, that I +did not apprehend my having written poetry rendered me incapable of +speaking common sense in prose, and that I requested the audience to +judge of me not by the nonsense I might have written for their +amusement, but by the sober sense I was endeavouring to speak for their +information, and only expected [of] them, in case I had ever happened to +give any of them pleasure, in a way which was supposed to require some +information and talent, [that] they would not, for that sole reason, +suppose me incapable of understanding or explaining a point of the +profession for which I had been educated. So I got a patient and very +favourable hearing. But certainly these great exertions of friends and +enemies have forced many a poor fellow out of the common paths of life, +and obliged him to make a trade of what can only be gracefully executed +as an occasional avocation. When such a man is encouraged in all his +freaks and follies, the bit is taken out of his mouth, and, as he is +turned out upon the common, he is very apt to deem himself exempt from +all the rules incumbent on those who keep the king's highway. And so +they play fantastic tricks before high heaven. + +The lady authors are not exempt from these vagaries, being exposed to +the same temptations; and all I can allow Mrs. Baillie in favour of the +fair sex is that since the time of the Aphras and Orindas of Charles +II's time, the authoresses have been ridiculous only, while the authors +have too often been both absurd and vicious. As to our leal friend Tom +Campbell, I have heard stories of his morbid sensibility chiefly from +the Minto family, with whom he lived for some time, and I think they all +turned on little foolish points of capricious affectation, which perhaps +had no better foundation than an ill-imagined mode of exhibiting his +independence. But whatever I saw of him myself--and we were often +together, and sometimes for several days--was quite composed and manly. +Indeed, I never worried him to make him get on his hind legs and spout +poetry when he did not like it. He deserves independence well; and if +the dog which now awakens him to the recollection of his possessing it, +happened formerly to disturb the short sleep that drowned his +recollection of so great a blessing, there is good reason for enduring +the disturbance with more patience than before. + +But surely, admitting all our temptations and irregularities there are +men of genius enough living to restrain the mere possession of talent +from the charge of disqualifying the owner for the ordinary occupation +and duties of life. There never were better men, and especially better +husbands, fathers, and real patriots, than Southey and Wordsworth; they +might even be pitched upon as most exemplary characters. I myself, if I +may rank myself in the list, am, as Hamlet says, indifferent honest, and +at least not worse than an infidel in loving those of my own house. And +I think that generally speaking, authors, like actors, being rather +less commonly believed to be eccentric than was the faith fifty years +since, do conduct themselves as amenable to the ordinary rules of +society. + +This tirade was begun a long time since, but is destined to be finished +at Abbotsford. Your bower is all planted with its evergreens, but must +for seven years retain its original aspect of a gravel pit. + +(Rest lost.) + + + + +SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834) + + + It is a strange thing, and could hardly have happened in any + country but England, that there is to this day no complete + collection or edition of the works of Coleridge--one of the + most poetical of our poets, one of the most important of our + critics, and one of the most influential, if one of the + least methodical and conclusive, of our philosophers. Indeed + we never knew what good prose he could write till the + fragments called _Anima Poetae_ were published, two-thirds + of a century after his death. But that no collected edition + of his letters appeared till very shortly before this is + explicable without any difficulty. Coleridge's temperament + was not heroic, and his correspondence as well as his + conduct justified, in regard to much more than his nonage, + the ingenious phrase of an American lady-essayist that he + must have been "a very _beatable_ child." To a certain + extent, however, the correspondence does also justify our + adoption (see _Introduction_) of the charitable theory that + enlargement of understanding brings about extension of + pardon. And putting this aside, the letters sometimes give + us an idea of what his admittedly marvellous conversation + (or rather monologue) must have been like. They are not very + easy to select from, for their author's singular tendency to + _divagation_ affects them. But they sometimes display that + humour which he undoubtedly possessed, though his best-known + published writings seldom admit of it: and the divagation + itself has its advantages. In the following Coleridge + appears in curiously different lights. After joking at his + own Pantheism he becomes amazingly practical, for it _was_, + as Scott points out somewhere, a fault of Southey's to + cling to the system of "half-profits," a fault which often + made his enormous labours altogether unprofitable. "I-rise + to I-set" = "getting-up to bed-time" seems to have been a + favourite quip of his. "Stuart," the Editor of the _Morning + Post_ for which Coleridge was then writing. "The + Anthology"--an _Annual_ one edited by Southey. As for the + _Anti-Jacobin_ libel it was, admirable as was the wit that + accompanied it, utterly indefensible; for it accused + Coleridge of having _at this time_ "left his poor children + fatherless and his wife destitute" (the extraordinary thing + is that he actually did this later!) Of course he never + executed the Life of Lessing.[115] "The Wedgwoods" had given + him an annuity. The assault on "Mr. Go_b_win" is one of poor + Hartley Coleridge's most delightful feats. Had he been a + little older, he might have pointed out to the author of + _Political Justice_ that lecturing his mother for his, + Hartley's, fault was quite unjustifiable: and indeed that + objecting to it at all was improper. The right way + (according to that great work itself) would have been to + discuss with Hartley whether the advantage in physical + exercise and animal spirits derived by him from wielding the + nine-pin, outweighed the pain experienced by Go_b_win, and + so was justifiable on the total scheme of things. ("Moshes," + as indeed is obvious, was Hartley's pet-name). + + +29. TO ROBERT SOUTHEY + +Tuesday night, 12 o'clock +(December 24) 1799. + +My dear Southey, + +My Spinosism (if Spinosism it be, and i' faith 'tis very like it) +disposed me to consider this big city as that part of the supreme One +which the prophet Moses was allowed to see--I should be more disposed +to pull off my shoes, beholding Him in a _Bush_, than while I am forcing +my reason to believe that even in theatres _He_ is, yea! even in the +Opera House. Your "Thalaba" will beyond all doubt bring you two hundred +pounds, if you will sell it at once; but _do_ not print at a venture, +under the notion of selling the edition. I assure you that Longman +regretted the bargain he made with Cottle concerning the second edition +of the "Joan of Arc," and is indisposed to similar negotiations; but +most and very eager to have the property of your works at almost any +price. If you have not heard it from Cottle, why, you may hear it from +me, that is, the arrangement of Cottle's affairs in London. The whole +and total copyright of your "Joan," and the first volume of your poems +(exclusive of what Longman had before given), was taken by him at three +hundred and seventy pounds. You are a strong swimmer, and have borne up +poor Joey with all his leaden weights about him, his own and other +people's! Nothing has answered to him but your works. By me he has lost +somewhat--by Fox, Amos, and himself _very much_. I can sell your +"Thalaba" quite as well in your absence as in your presence. I am +employed from I-rise to I-set (that is, from nine in the morning to +twelve at night), a pure scribbler. My mornings to booksellers' +compilations, after dinner to Stuart, who pays _all_ my expenses here, +let them be what they will; the earnings of the morning go to make up an +hundred and fifty pounds for my year's expenditure; for, supposing _all +clear_, my year's (1800) allowance is anticipated. But this I can do by +the first of April (at which time I leave London). For Stuart I write +often his leading paragraphs on Secession, Peace, Essay on the new +French Constitution, Advice to Friends of Freedom, Critiques on Sir W. +Anderson's Nose, Odes to Georgiana D. of D. (horribly misprinted), +Christmas Carols, etc., etc.--anything not bad in the paper, that is not +yours, is mine. So if any verses there strike you as worthy the +"Anthology," "do me the honour, sir!" However, in the course of a week I +_do mean_ to conduct a series of essays in that paper which may be of +public utility. So much for myself, except that I long to be out of +London; and that my Xstmas Carol is a quaint performance, and, in as +strict a sense as is _possible_, an Impromptu, and, had I done all I had +planned, that "Ode to the Duchess" would have been a better thing than +it is--it being somewhat dullish, etc. I have bought the "Beauties of +the Anti-jacobin," and attorneys and counsellors advise me to prosecute, +and offer to undertake it, so as that I shall have neither trouble or +expense. They say it is a clear case, etc. I will speak to Johnson about +the "Fears in Solitude." If he gives them up they are yours. That dull +ode has been printed often enough, and may now be allowed to "sink with +deep swoop, and to the bottom _go_," to quote an admired author; but the +two others will do with a little trimming. + +My dear Southey! I have said nothing concerning that which most +oppresses me. Immediately on my leaving London I fall to the "Life of +Lessing"; till that is done, till I have given the Wedgwoods some proof +that I am _endeavouring_ to do well for my fellow-creatures, I cannot +stir. That being done, I would accompany you, and see no impossibility +of forming a pleasant little colony for a few years in Italy or the +South of France. Peace will come soon. God love you, my dear Southey! +_I_ would write to Stuart, and give up his paper immediately. You should +do nothing that did not absolutely _please_ you. Be idle, be very idle! +The habits of your mind are such that you will necessarily do much; but +be as idle as you can. + +Our love to dear Edith. If you see Mary, tell her that we have received +our trunk. Hartley is quite well, and my talkativeness is his, without +diminution on my side. 'Tis strange but certainly many things go in the +blood, beside gout and scrophula. Yesterday I dined at Longman's and met +Pratt, and that honest piece of prolix dullity and nullity, young +Towers, who desired to be remembered to you. To-morrow Sara and I dine +at Mister Gobwin's, as Hartley calls him, who gave the philosopher such +a rap on the shins with a ninepin that Gobwin in huge pain _lectured_ +Sara on his boisterousness. I was not at home. _Est modus in rebus._ +Moshes is somewhat too rough and noisy, but the cadaverous silence of +Gobwin's children is to me quite catacombish, and, thinking of Mary +Wollstonecraft, I was oppressed by it the day Davy and I dined there. + +God love you and + +S. T. COLERIDGE. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[115] I cannot remember whether anybody has ever made a list of the +books that Coleridge did not write. It would be the catalogue of a most +interesting library in Utopia. + + + + +ROBERT SOUTHEY (1774-1843) + + + One of the strangest things met by the present writer in the + course of preparing this book was a remark of the late Mr. + Scoones--an old acquaintance and a man who has deserved most + excellently on the subject--in reference to Southey's + letters, that they show the author as "dry and + unsympathetic." "They contain too much information to be + good as letters." Well: there certainly is information in + the specimen that follows: whether it is "dry" or not + readers must decide. The fact is that Southey, despite + occasional touches of self-righteousness and of + over-bookishness, was full of humour, extraordinarily + affectionate, and extremely natural. There is moreover a + great deal of interest in this skit on poor Mrs. Coleridge: + for "lingos" of the kind, though in her case they may have + helped to disgust her husband with his "pensive Sara," were + in her time and afterwards by no means uncommon, + especially--physiologists must say why--with the female sex. + The present writer, near the middle of the nineteenth + century, knew a lady of family, position and property who + was fond of the phrase, "hail-fellow-well-met," but always + turned it into "Fellowship Wilmot"--a pretty close parallel + to "horsemangander" for "horse-godmother". Extension--with + levelling--of education, and such processes as those which + have turned "Sissiter" into "Syrencesster" and "Kirton" into + "Credd-itt-on", have made the phenomenon rarer: but have + also made such a _locus classicus_ of the habit as this all + the more valuable and amusing. It may be added that Lamb, in + one of his letters, has a sly if good-natured glance at this + peculiarity of the elder Sara Coleridge in reference to the + aptitude of the younger in her "_mother_-tongue." Southey + has dealt with the matter in several epistles to his friend + Grosvenor Bedford. The whole would have been rather long but + the following mosaic will, I think, do very well. Dr. + Warter, the editor of the supplementary collection of + Southey's letters from which it comes, was the husband of + Edith May Southey, the heroine of not a little literature, + sometimes[116] in connection, not merely as here with Sara + Coleridge the younger, but with Dora Wordsworth--the three + daughters of the three Lake Poets. She was, as her father + says, a very tall girl, while her aunt, Mrs. Coleridge, was + little (her husband, writing from Hamburg, speaks with + surprise of some German lady as "smaller than you are"). + + +30. TO GROSVENOR C. BEDFORD ESQ: + +KESWICK, Sep. 14, 1821 + +Dear Stumparumper, + +Don't rub your eyes at that word, Bedford, as if you were slopy. The +purport of this letter, which is to be as precious as the Punic scenes +in Plautus, is to give you some account (though but an imperfect one) of +the language spoken in this house by ... and invented by her. I have +carefully composed a vocabulary of it by the help of her daughter and +mine, having my ivory tablets always ready when she is red-raggifying in +full confabulumpatus. + + +31. TO GROSVENOR C. BEDFORD ESQ: + +KESWICK, Oct. 7, 1821. + +My dear G, + +I very much approve your laudable curiosity to know the precise meaning +of that noble word _horsemangandering_. Before I tell you its +application, you must be informed of its history and origin. Be it +therefore known unto you that ... the whole and sole inventor of the +never-to-be-forgotten _lingo grande_ (in which, by the bye, I purpose +ere long to compose a second epistle), thought proper one day to call my +daughter a great _horsemangander_, thinking, I suppose, that that +appellation contained as much unfeminine meaning as could be put into +any decent compound. From this substantive the verb has been formed to +denote an operation performed by the said daughter upon the said aunt, +of which I was an astonished spectator. The horsemangander--that is to +say, Edith May--being tall and strong, came behind the person to be +horsemangandered (to wit, ...), and took her round the waist, under the +arms, then jumped with her all the way from the kitchen into the middle +of the parlour; the motion of the horsemangandered person at every jump +being something like that of a paviour's rammer, and all resistance +impossible. + + +32. TO GROSVENOR C. BEDFORD ESQ: + +KESWICK, Oct. 8, 1821. + + * * * * * + +P.S. The name of the newly-discovered language (of which I have more to +say hereafter) is the _lingo grande_. + + +33. TO GROSVENOR C. BEDFORD ESQ: + +KESWICK, Dec. 24, 1822 + +Dear Stumparumper, + +So long a time has elapsed since I sent you the commencement of my +remarks upon the peculiar language spoken by ... which I have +denominated the LINGO-GRANDE, that I fear you may suppose that I have +altogether neglected the subject. Yet such a subject, as you must +perceive, requires a great deal of patient observation, as well as of +attentive consideration; and were I to flustercumhurry over it, as if it +were a matter which could be undercumstood in a jiffump (that is to say +in a momper), this would be to do what I have undertaken shabroonily, +and you might shartainly have reason to think me fuffling and +indiscruckt. Upon my vurtz I have not dumdawdled with it, like a +dangleampeter; which being interpreted in the same _lingo_ is an +undecider, or an improvidentur, too idle to explore the hurtch mine +which he has had the fortune to discover. No, I must be a stupossum +indeed to act thus, as well as a slouwdowdekcum, or slowdonothinger; and +these are appellations which she has never bestowed upon me; though, +perhaps, the uncommon richness, and even exuberance of her language has +not been more strikingly displayed in anything than in the variety of +names which it has enabled her to shower upon my devoted person. + + * * * * * + +And so-o-o, + Dear Miscumter Bedfordiddlededford, + I subcumscribe myself, + Your sincumcere friendiddledend and serdiddledeservant, + ROBCUMBERT SOUTHEY DIDDIEDOUTHEY. + +Student in the Lingo-Grande, Graduate in Butlerology, Professor of the +science of Noncumsensediddledense, of sneezing and of vocal music, P.L. +and LL.D. etc etc. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[116] See Wordsworth's _Triad_. + + + + +CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834) + + + There are not many people about whom it is more + difficult--or more unnecessary--to write than it is about + Lamb. A few very unfortunate people do not enjoy him, and + probably never could be made to do so. Most of those who + care for literature at all revel in him: and do not in the + least need to be told to do so. And, as was said before, + there is hardly any difference between his published works + and his letters except that the former stand a little--a + very little--more "upon ceremony." As to selecting the + letters one remembers Mr. Matthew Arnold's very agreeable + confession, when he was asked to select his poems, that he + wanted to select them all. This being impossible, one has to + confess that, putting subject, scale etc. aside, any one is + almost as tempting as any other, and that whatever is chosen + reminds one, half-regretfully, of the letters that were + left. When a man can write (to William Wordsworth too), "The + very head and sum of the girlery were two young girls," + there is nothing left to do but to repeat, with the slight + alteration of "write to" for "ask," Thackeray's ejaculation + to the supposed host at an unusually satisfactory dinner, + "Dear Sir! do _ask_ us again." And on almost every page of + his letters, whether in Talfourd's original issue of them or + in the more recent and fuller editions of his works, the + spirit is the same everywhere: the volume only differs. If + (but you never know exactly when Lamb is speaking seriously) + at the time he had "an aversion from letter writing," then + most certainly Mrs. Malaprop was justified in saying that + there "is nothing like beginning with a little aversion"! + The letter which follows is, though it may have pleased + others besides myself, not one of the stock examples. But + it seems to me to present a rather unusual combination of + Lamb's attractive qualities, not a little of his rare phrase + ("divine plain face" especially) and a remarkable expression + of that yearning for _solitude_ which some people seem to + think rather shameful, but which to others is a thing no + more to be accounted for than it is to be got rid of. It + will be observed that the letter, ostensibly to Mrs. W., is + really both to her and to her husband. "W. H." is of course + Hazlitt, and the "lectures" are his famous ones on English + Poets. As for Lamb's criticisms on lectures generally, they + would perhaps be endorsed by some who have given, as well as + by many who have received, this form of instruction. The + "gentleman at Haydon's" was the hero or victim of a story + good, but too long to give here. He said some excessively + foolish things and Lamb, after dinner, behaved to him in a + fashion possibly not quite undeserved but entirely + unsanctioned by the conventions of society. + + +34. TO MRS. WORDSWORTH + +East India House. + February 18, 1818. + +My dear Mrs. Wordsworth, + +I have repeatedly taken pen in hand to answer your kind letter. My +sister should more properly have done it, but she having failed, I +consider myself answerable for her debts. I am now trying to do it in +the midst of commercial noises, and with a quill which seems more ready +to glide into arithmetical figures and names of gourds, cassia, +cardamoms, aloes, ginger, or tea, than into kindly responses and +friendly recollections. The reason why I cannot write letters at home +is, that I am never alone. Plato's (I write to W. W. now)--Plato's +double animal parted never longed more to be reciprocally re-united in +the system of its first creation than I sometimes do to be but for a +moment single and separate. Except my morning's walk to the office, +which is like treading on sands of gold for that reason, I am never so. +I cannot walk home from office but some officious friend offers his +unwelcome courtesies to accompany me. All the morning I am pestered. I +could sit and gravely cast up sums in great books, or compare sum with +sum, and write "paid" against this, and "unpaid" against t'other, and +yet reserve in some corner of my mind "some darling thoughts all my +own,"--faint memory of some passage in a book, or the tone of an absent +friend's voice--a snatch of Miss Burrell's singing, or a gleam of Fanny +Kelly's divine plain face. The two operations might be going on at the +same time without thwarting, as the sun's two motions (earth's I mean), +or as I sometimes turn round till I am giddy, in my back parlour, while +my sister is walking longitudinally in the front; or as the shoulder of +veal twists round with the spit, while the smoke wreathes up the +chimney. But there are a set of amateurs of the Belles Lettres--the gay +science--who come to me as a sort of rendezvous, putting questions of +criticism, of British Institutions, Lalla Rookhs, etc,--what Coleridge +said at the lecture last night--who have the form of reading men, but, +for any possible use reading can be to them, but to talk of, might as +well have been Ante-Cadmeans born, or have lain sucking out the sense of +an Egyptian hieroglyph as long as the pyramids will last, before they +should find it. These pests worrit me at business, and in all its +intervals, perplexing my accounts, poisoning my little salutary +warming-time at the fire, puzzling my paragraphs if I take a newspaper, +cramming in between my own free thoughts and a column of figures which +had come to an amicable compromise but for them. Their noise ended, one +of them, as I said, accompanies me home, lest I should be solitary for a +moment; he at length takes his welcome leave at the door; up I go, +mutton on table, hungry as hunter, hope to forget my cares, and bury +them in the agreeable abstraction of mastication; knock at the door, in +comes Mr. Hazlitt, or Mr. Martin Burney, or Morgan Demigorgon, or my +brother, or somebody, to prevent my eating alone--a process absolutely +necessary to my poor wretched digestion. O the pleasure of eating +alone!--eating my dinner alone! let me think of it. But in they come, +and make it absolutely necessary that I should open a bottle of orange; +for my meat turns into stone when any one dines with me, if I have not +wine. Wine can mollify stones; then _that_ wine turns into acidity, +acerbity, misanthropy, a hatred of my interrupters--(God bless 'em! I +love some of 'em dearly), and with the hatred, a still greater aversion +to their going away. Bad is the dead sea they bring upon me, choking and +deadening, but worse is the deader dry sand they leave me on, if they go +before bed-time. Come never, I would say to those spoilers of my dinner; +but if you come, never go! The fact is, this interruption does not +happen very often; but every time it comes by surprise, that present +bane of my life, orange wine, with all its dreary stifling consequences, +follows. Evening company I should always like had I any mornings, but I +am saturated with human faces (_divine_ forsooth!) and voices all the +golden morning; and five evenings in a week would be as much as I should +covet to be in company; but I assure you that is a wonderful week in +which I can get two, or one to myself. I am never C. L. but always C. L. +and Co. He who thought it not good for man to be alone, preserve me +from the more prodigious monstrosity of being never by myself! I forget +bed-time, but even there these sociable frogs clamber up to annoy me. +Once a week, generally some singular evening that, being alone, I go to +bed at the hour I ought always to be a-bed; just close to my bedroom +window is the club-room of a public-house, where a set of singers, I +take them to be chorus-singers of the two theatres (it must be both of +them), begin their orgies. They are a set of fellows (as I conceive) +who, being limited by their talents to the burthen of the song at the +play-houses, in revenge have got the common popular airs by Bishop, or +some cheap composer, arranged for choruses; that is, to be sung all in +chorus. At least I never can catch any of the text of the plain song, +nothing but the Babylonish choral howl at the tail on't. "That fury +being quenched"--the howl, I mean--a burden succeeds of shouts and +clapping, and knocking of the table. At length overtasked nature drops +under it, and escapes for a few hours into the society of the sweet +silent creatures of dreams, which go away with mocks and mows at +cockcrow. And then I think of the words Christabel's father used (bless +me, I have dipt in the wrong ink!) to say every morning by way of +variety when he awoke: + + "Every knell, the Baron saith, + Wakes us up to a world of death" + +or something like it. All I mean by this senseless interrupted tale, is, +that by my central situation I am a little over-companied. Not that I +have any animosity against the good creatures that are so anxious to +drive away the harpy solitude from me. I like 'em, and cards, and a +cheerful glass; but I mean merely to give you an idea, between office +confinement and after-office society, how little time I can call my +own. I mean only to draw a picture, not to make an inference. I would +not that I know of have it otherwise. I only wish sometimes I could +exchange some of my faces and voices for the faces and voices which a +late visitation brought most welcome, and carried away, leaving regret, +but more pleasure, even a kind of gratitude, at being so often favoured +with that kind northern visitation. My London faces and noises don't +hear me--I mean no disrespect, or I should explain myself, that instead +of their return 220 times a year, and the return of W. W. etc., seven +times in 104 weeks, some more equal distribution might be found. I have +scarce room to put in Mary's kind love, and my poor name, + +C. LAMB. + + * * * * * + +W. H. goes on lecturing against W. W. and making copious use of +quotations from said W. W. to give a zest to said lectures. S. T. C. is +lecturing with success. I have not heard either of him or H., but dined +with S. T. C. at Gillman's a Sunday or two since, and he was well and in +good spirits. I mean to hear some of the course but lectures are not +much to my taste, whatever the lecturer may be. If _read_, they are +dismal flat, and you can't think why you are brought together to hear a +man read his works, which you could read so much better at leisure +yourself. If delivered extempore I am always in pain lest the gift of +utterance should suddenly fail the orator in the middle, as it did me at +the dinner given in honour of me at the London tavern.[117] "Gentlemen," +said I, and there I stopped; the rest my feelings were under the +necessity of supplying. Mrs. Wordsworth _will_ go on, kindly haunting us +with visions of seeing the lakes once more, which never can be realised. +Between us there is a great gulf, not of inexplicable moral antipathies +and distances, I hope, as there seemed to be between me and that +gentleman concerned in the Stamp Office, that I so strangely recoiled +from at Haydon's. I think I had an instinct that he was the head of an +office. I hate all such people--accountants' deputy-accountants. The +dear abstract notion of the East India Company, as long as she is +unseen, is pretty, rather poetical; but as she makes herself manifest by +the persons of such beasts, I loathe and detest her as the scarlet +what-do-you-call-her of Babylon. I thought, after abridging us of all +our red-letter days, they had done their worst; but I was deceived in +the length to which heads of offices, those true liberty-haters, can go. +They are the tyrants; not Ferdinand, nor Nero. By a decree passed this +week they have abridged us of the immemorially-observed custom of going +at one o'clock of a Saturday, the little shadow of a holiday left us. +Dear W. W., be thankful for liberty. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[117] Lamb would have enjoyed a recent newspaper paragraph which, +stating that an inquest had been held on some one who, after lecturing +somewhere was taken ill and expired, concluded thus: "Verdict: death +from natural causes." + + + + +GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON (1788-1824) + + + It is one of the commonest of commonplaces that there are + certain subjects and persons who and which always cause + difference of opinion: and something like a full century has + established the fact that Byron is one of them. As far as + his poetry is concerned we have nothing to do with this + difference or these differences. They affect his letters + less, inasmuch as almost everybody admits them to be + remarkably good of their kind. But when the further + questions are raised, "What _is_ that kind?" and "Is it the + best, or even a very good kind?" the old division manifests + itself again. That they are extraordinarily _clever_ is + again more or less matter of agreement. That they make some + people dislike him more than they otherwise might is perhaps + not a fatal objection: for the people may be wrong. Besides, + as a matter of fact, they sometimes make other people _like_ + him more than they would have done without these letters: so + the two things at least cancel each other. The chief + objection to them, which is hardly removable, is their too + frequent artificiality. Byron did not play the tricks that + Pope played: for, he was not, like Pope, an invalid with an + invalid's weaknesses and excuses. But almost more than in + his poems, where the "dramatic" excuse is available, (_i.e._ + that the writer is speaking not for himself but for the + character) the letters provoke the question, "Is this what + the man thought, felt, did, or what he wished to seem to + feel, think, do?" In other words, "Is this _persona_ or + _res_?" The following shows Byron in perhaps as favourable a + light as any that could be chosen, and with as little of the + artificiality as is anywhere to be found. It is true that + even here Moore, his biographer and letter-giver, at first + included, though he afterwards cut out, some attacks on Sir + Samuel Romilly, whom Byron thought guilty of causing or + abetting dissension between Lady Byron and himself. But the + letter loses nothing by the omission and does not even gain + unfairly by it. There is nothing _false_ in the contrast of + comedy and sentiment concerning the cemetery. His impression + by the epitaphs Byron gave in more letters than one. Nor is + there any affectation in his remarks about his own burial, + about his children, or any other subject. They did "pickle + him and bring him home" (a quotation, not quite literal, + from Sheridan's _Rivals_), and his funeral procession + through London is the theme of a memorable passage in + Borrow's _Lavengro_. "Juan" is of course _Don Juan_. + "Allegra," his daughter by Jane (or as she re-christened + herself, Claire) Clairmont--step-daughter of Godwin, through + his second wife, and so a connection though no relation of + Mrs. Shelley--died at five years old. "Ada," his and Lady + Byron's only child, lived to marry Lord Lovelace, and + continued his blood to the present day. "Electra" works out + no further than the fact of her being the daughter of his + "_moral_ Clytemnestra," as he called Lady Byron, from her + having been almost as fatal to his reputation as the actual + Clytemnestra to her husband's life. + + +35. TO MR. MURRAY + +Bologna, June 7. 1817. + +Tell Mr. Hobhouse that I wrote to him a few days ago from Ferrara. It +will therefore be idle in him or you to wait for any further answers or +returns of proofs from Venice, as I have directed that no English +letters be sent after me. The publication can be proceeded in without, +and I am already sick of your remarks, to which I think not the least +attention ought to be paid. + +Tell Mr. Hobhouse that since I wrote to him I had availed myself of my +Ferrara letters, and found the society much younger and better than that +at Venice. I am very much pleased with the little the shortness of my +stay permitted me to see of the Gonfaloniere Count Mosti, and his family +and friends in general. + +I have been picture-gazing this morning at the famous Domenichino and +Guido, both of which are superlative. I afterwards went to the beautiful +cemetery of Bologna, beyond the walls and found, besides the superb +burial ground, an original of a Custode, who reminded me of the +gravedigger in _Hamlet_. + +He has a collection of capuchins' skulls, labelled on the forehead, and +taking down one of them said "This is Brother Desiderio Birro, who died +at forty--one of my best friends. I begged his head of his brethren +after his decease, and they gave it me. I put it in lime and then boiled +it. Here it is, teeth and all, in excellent preservation. He was the +merriest, cleverest fellow I ever knew. Wherever he went he brought joy, +and whenever anyone was melancholy, the sight of him was enough to make +him cheerful again. He walked so actively, you might have taken him for +a dancer--he joked--he laughed--oh! he was such a Frate as I never saw +before, nor ever shall again!" + +He told me that he had himself planted all the cypresses in the +cemetery; that he had the greatest attachment to them and to his dead +people; that since 1801 they had buried fifty-three thousand persons. In +showing some older monuments, there was that of a Roman girl of twenty, +with a bust by Bernini. She was a princess Bartorini, dead two centuries +ago: he said that, on opening her grave, they had found her hair +complete, and "as yellow as gold."[118] Some of the epitaphs at Ferrara +pleased me more than the more splendid monuments at Bologna; for +instance:-- + +"MARTINI LUIGI +IMPLORA PACE." + +"LUCREZIA PICINI +IMPLORA ETERNA QUIETE." + +Can anything be more full of pathos? Those few words say all that can be +said or sought, the dead had had enough of life; all they wanted was +rest, and this they _implore_! + +There is all the helplessness and humble hope, and deathlike prayer, +that can arise from the grave--'implora pace.' I hope, whoever may +survive me, and shall see me put in the foreigners' burying-ground at +the Lido, within the fortress by the Adriatic, will see those two words, +and no more, put over me. I trust they won't think of "pickling, and +bringing me home to clod or Blunderbuss Hall." I am sure my bones would +not rest in an English grave, or my clay mix with the earth of that +country. I believe the thought would drive me mad on my death-bed, could +I suppose that any of my friends would be base enough to convey my +carcass back to your soil. I would not even feed your worms if I could +help it. + +So, as Shakespeare says of Mowbray, the banished Duke of Norfolk, who +died at Venice (see _Richard II._), that he, after fighting + + "Against black Pagans, Turks and Saracens, + And toiled with works of war, retired himself + To Italy, and there, at _Venice_, gave + His body to that _pleasant_ country's earth. + And his pure soul unto his captain, Christ, + Under whose colours he had fought so long!" + +Before I left Venice, I had returned to you your late, and Mr. +Hobhouse's sheets of Juan. Don't wait for further answers from me, but +address yours to Venice as usual. I know nothing of my own movements; I +may return there in a few days, or not for some time. All this depends +on circumstances. I left Mr. Hoppner very well, as well as his son and +Mrs. Hoppner. My daughter Allegra was well too, and is growing pretty; +her hair is growing darker, and her eyes are blue. Her temper and her +ways, Mrs. H. says, are like mine, as well as her features: she will +make, in that case, a manageable young lady. + +I have never heard anything of Ada, the little Electra of my Mycenae. +But there will come a day of reckoning, even if I should not live to see +it. What a long letter I have scribbled. + +Yours &c. + +P.S. Here, as in Greece, they strew flowers on the tombs. I saw a +quantity of rose-leaves, and entire roses, scattered over the graves at +Ferrara. It has the most pleasing effect you can imagine. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[118] No one who has seen the Roman girl's hair at York, nearer two +thousand than two hundred years old, will doubt this, though _her_ +tresses are not "yellow." + + + + +PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822) + + + It may sometimes seem as if there were only two things that + Shelley lacked--humour and common sense. As a matter of fact + he possessed both, but allowed them to be perpetually + stifled by other elements--not in themselves necessarily + bad--of his character. If either--still better both--had + been able to constitute themselves monarchs of his + Brentford, Duumvirs of the rest, his political and religious + extravagances would have been curbed; his less admirable + actions would probably--for he would not have married and + therefore would not have deserted poor Harriet--have been + obviated; and it is by no means necessary that his poetry, + though it could not have been much improved, should have + been in any degree worsened. Shakespeare, one thinks, had + plenty of both. Nor is this consideration irrelevant to the + study of his letters. There are glimmerings of the humour + which shines in _Peter Bell the Third_, and more of the + common sense which is not needed, but by no means negatived, + in the sublimer poems. But in the case suggested we should + certainly have had more of them in a department than which + they could have found no better home. Shelley wrote + everything (after his intellectual infancy) that he did + write, so excellently that he must have excelled here also. + As it is, we must take him as we find him and be thankful. + Since he wrote the following, English readers have perhaps + been satiated with writings about Art. But rather more than + 100 years ago there had been comparatively little of it and + hardly anything, if anything at all, of this quality. And it + may not be absurd to draw attention to the differences + between these descriptions and those in ornate prose that + we have had since from Mr. Ruskin and others. Most of the + latter are essentially prose though often very beautiful + prose: Shelley's, though pure prose in form, are as it were + scenarios for poetry. Indeed by this time poetry had taken + almost entire possession of him, and he of her. + + +36. TO THOMAS LOVE PEACOCK + +BOLOGNA, +Monday, Nov[ember] 9, 1818. + +My dear Peacock, + +I have seen a quantity of things here--churches, palaces, statues, +fountains, and pictures; and my brain is at this moment like a portfolio +of an architect, or a print-shop, or a commonplace-book, I will try to +recollect something of what I have seen; for, indeed, it requires, if it +will obey, an act of volition. First, we went to the cathedral, which +contains nothing remarkable, except a kind of shrine, or rather a marble +canopy, loaded with sculptures, and supported on four marble columns. We +went then to a palace--I am sure I forget the name of it--where we saw a +large gallery of pictures. Of course, in a picture gallery you see three +hundred pictures you forget, for one you remember. I remember, however, +an interesting picture by Guido, of the Rape of Proserpine, in which +Proserpine casts back her languid and half-unwilling eyes, as it were, +to the flowers she had left ungathered in the fields of Enna. There was +an exquisitely executed piece of Correggio, about four saints, one of +whom seemed to have a pet dragon in a leash. I was told that it was the +devil who was bound in that style--but who can make anything of four +saints? For what can they be supposed to be about? There was one +painting, indeed, by this master, Christ beatified, inexpressibly fine. +It is a half figure, seated on a mass of clouds, tinged with an +ethereal, rose-like lustre; the arms are expanded; the whole frame seems +dilated with expression; the countenance is heavy, as it were, with the +weight of the rapture of the spirit; the lips parted, but scarcely +parted, with the breath of intense but regulated passion; the eyes are +calm and benignant; the whole features harmonised in majesty and +sweetness. The hair is parted on the forehead, and falls in heavy locks +on each side. It is motionless, but seems as if the faintest breath +would move it. The colouring, I suppose, must be very good, if I could +remark and understand it. The sky is of pale aerial orange, like the +tints of latest sunset; it does not seem painted around and beyond the +figure, but everything seems to have absorbed, and to have been +penetrated by its hues. I do not think we saw any other of Correggio, +but this specimen gives me a very exalted idea of his powers. + +We went to see heaven knows how many more palaces--Ranuzzi, +Marriscalchi, Aldobrandi. If you want Italian names for any purpose, +here they are; I should be glad of them if I was writing a novel. I saw +many more of Guido. One, a Samson drinking water out of an ass's +jaw-bone, in the midst of the slaughtered Philistines. Why he is +supposed to do this, God, who gave him this jaw-bone, alone knows--but +certain it is, that the painting is a very fine one. The figure of +Samson stands in strong relief in the foreground, coloured, as it were, +in the hues of human life, and full of strength and elegance. Round him +lie the Philistines in all the attitudes of death. One prone, with the +slight convulsion of pain just passing from his forehead, whilst on his +lips and chin death lies as heavy as sleep. Another leaning on his arm, +with his hand, white and motionless, hanging out beyond. In the +distance, more dead bodies; and, still further beyond, the blue sea and +the blue mountains, and one white and tranquil sail. + +There is a Murder of the Innocents, also, by Guido, finely coloured, +with much fine expression--but the subject is very horrible, and it +seemed deficient in strength--at least, you require the highest ideal +energy, the most poetical and exalted conception of the subject, to +reconcile you to such a contemplation. There was a Jesus Christ +crucified, by the same, very fine. One gets tired, indeed, whatever may +be the conception and execution of it, of seeing that monotonous and +agonised form for ever exhibited in one prescriptive attitude of +torture. But the Magdalen, clinging to the cross with the look of +passive and gentle despair beaming from beneath her bright flaxen hair, +and the figure of St. John, with his looks uplifted in passionate +compassion; his hands clasped, and his fingers twisting themselves +together, as it were, with involuntary anguish; his feet almost writhing +up from the ground with the same sympathy; and the whole of this arrayed +in colours of diviner nature, yet most like nature's self. Of the +contemplation of this one would never weary. + +There was a "Fortune," too, of Guido; a piece of mere beauty. There was +the figure of Fortune on a globe, eagerly proceeding onwards, and Love +was trying to catch her back by the hair, and her face was half turned +towards him; her long chestnut hair was floating in the stream of the +wind, and threw its shadow over her fair forehead. Her hazel eyes were +fixed on her pursuer, with a meaning look of playfulness, and a light +smile was hovering on her lips. The colours which arrayed her delicate +limbs were ethereal and warm. + +But, perhaps, the most interesting of all the pictures of Guido which I +saw was a Madonna Lattante. She is leaning over her child, and the +maternal feelings with which she is pervaded are shadowed forth on her +soft and gentle countenance, and in her simple and affectionate +gestures--there is what an unfeeling observer would call a dulness in +the expression of her face; her eyes are almost closed; her lip +depressed; there is a serious, and even a heavy relaxation, as it were, +of all the muscles which are called into action by ordinary emotions: +but it is only as if the spirit of love, almost insupportable from its +intensity, were brooding over and weighing down the soul, or whatever it +is, without which the material frame is inanimate and inexpressive. + +There is another painter here, called Franceschini, a Bolognese, who, +though certainly very inferior to Guido, is yet a person of excellent +powers. One entire church, that of Santa Catarina, is covered by his +works. I do not know whether any of his pictures have ever been seen in +England. His colouring is less warm than that of Guido, but nothing can +be more clear and delicate; it is as if he could have dipped his pencil +in the hues of some serenest and star-shining twilight. His forms have +the same delicacy and aerial loveliness; their eyes are all bright with +innocence and love; their lips scarce divided by some gentle and sweet +emotion. His winged children are the loveliest ideal beings ever created +by the human mind. These are generally, whether in the capacity of +Cherubim or Cupid, accessories to the rest of the picture; and the +underplot of their lovely and infantine play is something almost +pathetic from the excess of its unpretending beauty. One of the best of +his pieces is an Annunciation of the Virgin:--the Angel is beaming in +beauty; the Virgin, soft, retiring, and simple. + +We saw, besides, one picture of Raphael--St. Cecilia: this is in another +and higher style; you forget that it is a picture as you look at it; and +yet it is most unlike any of those things which we call reality. It is +of the inspired and ideal kind, and seems to have been conceived and +executed in a similar state of feeling to that which produced among the +ancients those perfect specimens of poetry and sculpture which are the +baffling models of succeeding generations. There is a unity and a +perfection in it of an incommunicable kind. The central figure, St. +Cecilia, seems rapt in such inspiration as produced her image in the +painter's mind; her deep, dark, eloquent eyes lifted up; her chestnut +hair flung back from her forehead--she holds an organ in her hands--her +countenance, as it were, calmed by the depth of its passion and rapture, +and penetrated throughout with the warm and radiant light of life. She +is listening to the music of heaven, and, as I imagine, has just ceased +to sing, for the four figures that surround her evidently point, by +their attitudes, towards her; particularly St. John, who, with a tender +yet impassioned gesture, bends his countenance towards her, languid with +the depth of his emotion. At her feet lie various instruments of music, +broken and unstrung. Of the colouring I do not speak; it eclipses +nature, yet it has all her truth and softness. + + + + +JOHN KEATS (1795-1821) + + + A good deal has already been said of Keats in the + Introduction; but a little more may be pardoned on that most + remarkable correspondence with his brother and sister-in-law + which is there mentioned, and which it is hoped may be + fairly sampled here. There is nothing quite like it: and one + can only be thankful to the Atlantic (which here at least + can have "disappointed" nobody worth mentioning) for causing + the separation that brought it about. The inspirations which + it shows were happily double. We do not know very much about + George Keats, but John's family affection was of the + keenest, and this was the only member of the family who was, + in all the circumstances, likely to sympathise thoroughly + with the poet in his poetry as in other things. Georgiana is + said to have been personally attractive and mentally gifted + beyond the common: and there is no doubt that this excited + something more than mere family devotion in such an + impressionable person as Keats. The combined reagency of + these relatives has given us what we have from no other + English poet--for the simple reason that no other English + poet has had such a chance of giving it to us. The only + thing to regret is that it could not continue longer: and + that is only a necessary operation of Fate. The particular + passage chosen here is one of the best known perhaps, but it + is also one of the most illuminating: for it gives at once + Keats's natural and simple interest in ordinary things, with + no mere trivialities: his _real_ attitude (so different from + that long attributed to him!) as regards the attacks of + critics, and his passion for beauty apart from mere + hedonism. The "Charmian" was at one time supposed to be + Miss Brawne: but this was an error. She was a Miss Jane Cox, + and nothing is heard of her afterwards. + + +37. TO GEORGE AND GEORGIANA KEATS + +[October 14 or 15, 1818] + +I came by ship from Inverness, and was nine days at Sea without being +sick. A little qualm now and then put me in mind of you; however, as +soon as you touch the shore, all the horrors of sickness are soon +forgotten, as was the case with a lady on board, who could not hold her +head up all the way. We had not been in the Thames an hour before her +tongue began to some tune--paying off, as it was fit she should, all old +scores. I was the only Englishman on board. There was a downright +Scotchman, who, hearing that there had been a bad crop of potatoes in +England, had brought some triumphant specimens from Scotland. These he +exhibited with national pride to all the ignorant lightermen and +watermen from the Nore to the Bridge. I fed upon beef all the way; not +being able to eat the thick porridge which the Ladies managed to manage, +with large, awkward, horn spoons into the bargain. Reynolds has returned +from a six-weeks' enjoyment in Devonshire; he is well, and persuades me +to publish my "Pot of Basil" as an answer to the attacks made on me in +"Blackwood's Magazine" and the "Quarterly Review." There have been two +Letters in my defence in the Chronicle and one in the Examiner, copied +from the Exeter Paper, and written by Reynolds. I do not know who wrote +those in the Chronicle. This is a mere matter of the moment--I think I +shall be among the English Poets after my death. Even as a Matter of +present interest the attempt to crush me in the "Quarterly" has only +brought me more into notice, and it is a common expression among +book-men, "I wonder the Quarterly should cut its own throat." It does me +not the least harm in Society to make me appear little and ridiculous: I +know when a man is superior to me and give him all due respect; he will +be the last to laugh at me; and as for the rest I feel that I make an +impression upon them which insures me personal respect while I am in +sight, whatever they may say when my back is turned. + +The Misses ---- are very kind to me, but they have lately displeased me +much, and in this way: Now I am coming the Richardson! On my return, the +first day I called, they were in a sort of taking or bustle about a +Cousin of theirs, who, having fallen out with her Grandpapa in a serious +manner, was invited by Mrs. ---- to take asylum in her house. She is an +East-Indian, and ought to be her grandfather's heir. At the time I +called, Mrs. ---- was in conference with her upstairs, and the young +ladies were warm in her praises downstairs, calling her genteel, +interesting and a thousand other pretty things to which I gave no heed, +not being partial to nine-days' wonders--Now all is completely +changed--they hate her, and from what I hear she is not without faults +of a real kind: but she has others, which are more apt to make women of +inferior charms hate her. She is not a Cleopatra, but is, at least, a +Charmian. She has a rich Eastern look; she has fine eyes and fine +manners. When she comes into the room she makes an impression the same +as the Beauty of a Leopardess. She is too fine and too conscious of +herself to repulse any Man who may address her; from habit she thinks +that nothing _particular_. I always find myself more at ease with such +a woman: the picture before me always gives me a life and animation +which I cannot possibly feel with anything inferior. I am at such times +too much occupied in admiring to be awkward or in a tremble: I forget +myself entirely, because I live in her. You will, by this time, think +that I am in love with her, so, before I go any further, I will tell you +I am not. She kept me awake one night, as a tune of Mozart's might do. I +speak of the thing as a pastime and an amusement, than which I can feel +none deeper than a conversation with an imperial woman, the very "yes" +and "no" of whose life is to me a banquet. I don't cry to take the moon +home with me in my pocket, nor do I fret to leave her behind me. I like +her, and her like, because one has no _sensations_; what we both are is +taken for granted. You will suppose I have by this had much talk with +her--no such thing; there are the Misses ----on the look out. They think +I don't admire her because I don't stare at her; they call her a flirt +to me--what a want of knowledge! She walks across a room in such a +manner that a man is drawn towards her with a magnetic power; this they +call flirting! They do not know things; they do not know what a woman +is. I believe, though, she has faults; the same as Charmian and +Cleopatra might have had. Yet she is a fine thing, speaking in a worldly +way; for there are two distinct tempers of mind in which we judge of +things--the worldly, theatrical and pantomimical; and the unearthly, +spiritual and ethereal. In the former, Buonaparte, Lord Byron and this +Charmian hold the first place in our minds; in the latter, John Howard, +Bishop Hooker rocking his child's cradle, and you, my dear sister, are +the conquering feelings. As a man of the world I love the rich talk of +a Charmian; as an eternal being I love the thought of you. I should +like her to ruin me, and I should like you to save me. + + "I am free from men of pleasure's cares, + By dint of feelings far more deep than theirs." + +This is "Lord Byron," and is one of the finest things he has said. + + + + +THE CARLYLES--THOMAS (1795-1881) AND +JANE WELSH (1801-1866) + + + A paradoxer, even of a less virulent-frivolous type than + that with which we have been recently afflicted, might + sustain, for some little time at any rate, the argument + against preservation of letters from the case of this + eminent couple. If Mrs. Carlyle had not written hers, or if + they had remained unknown, the whole sickening controversy + about the character and married life of the pair might, as + was said in the Introduction, never have existed. And if + Carlyle himself had written none, persons of any + intelligence would still have had a pretty adequate idea of + him from his _Works_. On the other hand the addition to + knowledge in his case is quite welcome: and in hers it + practically gives us what we could hardly have known + otherwise--one of the most remarkable of woman-natures, and + one of the most striking confirmations of the merciless + adage "Whom the gods curse, to them they grant the desires + of their hearts." For she wanted above all things to be the + wife of a man of genius--and she was. So the _pro_ and the + _con_ in this matter may so far be set against each other. + But there remains to credit a considerable amount of most + welcome and (notably in the instance specified in the + Introduction) almost consummate literature of the epistolary + kind. This instance itself is perhaps too tragic for our + little collection: indeed it might help to spread the + exaggerated idea of the writer's unhappiness which has been + too prevalent already. There is some "metal more attractive" + in her letters, which perhaps, taken all round, put her with + Madame de Sevigne and "Lady Mary" at the head of all + _published_ women letter-writers. And Carlyle's annotations + to them, when not too bilious or too penitent, show him + almost at his best. His own (given below) to FitzGerald (the + way in which epistolary literature interconnects itself has + been noted) appears to me one of his most characteristic + though least volcanic utterances. It was written while he + was in the depths of what his wife called "the Valley of the + Shadow of Frederick," (_i.e._ his vast book on that amiable + monarch) and had retired to _extra_-solitude in consequence. + "Farlingay" refers to a recent stay in Suffolk with + FitzGerald. As often with Carlyle, there may be more than + one interpretation of his inverted commas at "gentleman" as + regards Voltaire, to whom he certainly would not have + allotted the word in its best sense. The phrase about Chaos + and the Evil Genius is Carlyle shut up in narrow space like + the other genius or genie in the Arabian Nights. The "_awful + jangle_ of bells" speaks his horror of any invading sound. + The "Naseby matter" refers to a monument which he and + FitzGerald had planned, and which (with the precedent + investigation as to the battle which F. had conducted years + before for his _Cromwell_), occupies a good deal of + FitzGerald's own correspondence. Indeed, it is thanks to + Naseby that we possess this very letter. FitzGerald says + elsewhere that he kept only these Naseby letters of all + Carlyle's correspondence with him, destroying the rest, as + he did Thackeray's and Tennyson's, lest "private personal + history should fall into some unscrupulous hands." One + admires the conduct while one feels the loss. As for the + monument, it never came off: though it was talked about for + some thirty years. Mrs. Carlyle's--one of the early and, + despite complaints, cheerful time, the other later and, + despite its resignation, from "the Valley of the + Shadow"--require no annotation, save in respect of Carlyle's + own on _Deerbrook_. He might well call it "poor": it is + indeed one of the few novels by a writer of any distinction, + which one tolerably voracious novel-reader has found + incapable of being read. And this is curious: for she had + written good stories earlier. + + +38. TO EDWARD FITZGERALD + +ADDISCOMBE FARM, CROYDON. +15th Septr. 1855 + +Dear Fitzgerald, + +I have been here ever since the day you last heard of me; leading the +strangest life of absolute _Latrappism_; and often enough remembering +Farlingay and you. I live perfectly alone, and without speech at +all,--there being in fact nobody to speak to, except one austerely +punctual housemaid, who does her functions, like an eight-day clock, +generally without bidding. My wife comes out now and then to give the +requisite directions; but commonly withdraws again on the morrow, +leaving the monster to himself and his own ways. I have Books; a +complete Edition of _Voltaire_, for one Book, in which I read for _use_, +or for idleness oftenest,--getting into endless reflexions over it, +mostly of a sad and not very utterable nature. I find V. a 'gentleman,' +living in a world partly furnished with such; and that there are now +almost no 'gentlemen' (not quite _none_): this is one great head of my +reflexions, to which there is no visible _tail_ or finish. I have also a +Horse (borrowed from my fat Yeoman friend, who is at sea-bathing in +Sussex); and I go riding, at great lengths daily, over hill and dale; +this I believe is really the main good I am doing,--if in this either +there be much good. But it is a strange way of life to me, for the time; +perhaps not unprofitable; To let _Chaos_ say out its say, then, and +one's Evil Genius give one the very worst language he has, for a while. +It is still to last for a week or more. Today, for the first time, I +ride back to Chelsea, but mean to return hither on Monday. There is a +great circle of yellow light all the way from Shooter's Hill to Primrose +Hill, spread round my horizon every night, I see it while smoking my +pipe before bed (so bright, last night, it cast a visible shadow of me +against the white window-shutters); and this is all I have to do with +London and its _gases_ for a fortnight or more. My wife writes to me, +there was an awful jangle of bells last day she went home from this; a +Quaker asked in the railway, of some porter, 'Can thou tell me what +these bells mean?'--'Well, I suppose something is up. They say +Sebastopol is took, and the Rushans run away.'--_A la bonne heure_; but +won't they come back again, think you? + +On the whole I say, when you get your little Suffolk cottage, you must +have in it a 'chamber in the wall' for me, _plus_ a pony that can trot, +and a cow that gives good milk: with these outfits we shall make a +pretty rustication now and then, not wholly _Latrappish_, but only +_half_, on much easier terms than here; and I shall be right willing to +come and try it, I for one party.--Meanwhile, I hope the Naseby matter +is steadily going ahead; sale _completed_; and even the _monument_ +concern making way. Tell me a little how that and other matters are. If +you are at home, a line is rapidly conveyed hither, steam all the way: +after the beginning of the next week, I am at Chelsea, and (I dare so) +there is a fire in the evenings now to welcome you there. Shew face in +some way or other. + +And so adieu; for my hour of riding is at hand. + +Yours ever truly, + +T. CARLYLE. + + +39. TO MRS. WALSH, + +CHELSEA: Sept. 5, 1836. + +My dear Aunt, + +Now that I am fairly settled at home again, and can look back over my +late travels with the coolness of a spectator, it seems to me that I +must have tired out all men, women and children that have had to do with +me by the road. The proverb says 'there is much ado when cadgers ride.' +I do not know precisely what 'cadger' means, but I imagine it to be a +character like me, liable to head-ache, to sea-sickness, to all the +infirmities 'that flesh is heir to,' and a few others besides; the +friends and relations of cadgers should therefore use all soft +persuasions to induce them to remain at home.[119] + +I got into that Mail the other night with as much repugnance and +trepidation as if it had been a Phalaris' brazen bull, instead of a +Christian vehicle, invented for purposes of mercy--not of cruelty. There +were three besides myself when we started, but two dropped off at the +end of the first stage, and the rest of the way I had, as usual, half of +the coach to myself. My fellow-passenger had that highest of all +terrestrial qualities, which for me a fellow-passenger can possess--he +was silent. I think his name was Roscoe, and he read sundry long papers +to himself, with the pondering air of a lawyer. + +We breakfasted at Lichfield, at five in the morning, on muddy coffee and +scorched toast, which made me once more lyrically recognise in my heart +(not without a sign of regret) the very different coffee and toast with +which you helped me out of my headache. At two there was another stop of +ten minutes, that might be employed in lunching or otherwise. Feeling +myself more fevered than hungry, I determined on spending the time in +combing my hair and washing my face and hands with vinegar. In the midst +of this solacing operation I heard what seemed to be the Mail running +its rapid course, and quick as lightning it flashed on me, 'There it +goes! and my luggage is on the top of it, and my purse is in the pocket +of it, and here am I stranded on an unknown beach, without so much as a +sixpence in my pocket to pay for the vinegar I have already consumed!' +Without my bonnet, my hair hanging down my back, my face half dried, and +the towel, with which I was drying it, firm grasped in my hand, I dashed +out--along, down, opening wrong doors, stumbling over steps, cursing the +day I was born, still more the day on which I took a notion to travel, +and arrived finally at the bar of the Inn, in a state of excitement +bordering on lunacy. The barmaids looked at me 'with wonder and +amazement.' 'Is the coach gone?' I gasped out. 'The coach? Yes!' 'Oh! +and you have let it away without me! Oh! stop it, cannot you stop it?' +and out I rushed into the street, with streaming hair and streaming +towel, and almost brained myself against--the Mail! which was standing +there in all stillness, without so much as a horse in it! What I had +heard was a heavy coach. And now, having descended like a maniac, I +ascended again like a fool, and dried the other half of my face, and put +on my bonnet, and came back 'a sadder and a wiser woman.' + +I did not find my husband at the 'Swan with Two Necks'; for we were in a +quarter of an hour before the appointed time. So I had my luggage put +on the backs of two porters, and walked on to Cheapside, where I +presently found a Chelsea omnibus. By and by, however, the omnibus +stopped, and amid cries of 'No room, sir,' 'Can't get in,' Carlyle's +face, beautifully set off by a broad-brimmed white hat, gazed in at the +door, like the Peri, who, 'at the Gate of Heaven, stood disconsolate.' +In hurrying along the Strand, pretty sure of being too late, amidst all +the imaginable and unimaginable phenomena which the immense thoroughfare +of a street presents, his eye (Heaven bless the mark!) had lighted on my +trunk perched on the top of the omnibus, and had recognised it. This +seems to me one of the most indubitable proofs of genius which he ever +manifested. Happily, a passenger went out a little further on, and then +he got in. + +My brother-in-law had gone two days before, so my arrival was most +well-timed. I found all at home right and tight; my maid seems to have +conducted herself quite handsomely in my absence; my best room looked +really inviting. A bust of Shelley (a present from Leigh Hunt), and a +fine print of Albert Durer, handsomely framed (also a present) had still +further ornamented it during my absence. I also found (for I wish to +tell you all my satisfaction) every grate in the house furnished with a +supply of coloured clippings, and the holes in the stair-carpet all +darned, so that it looks like new. They gave me tea and fried bacon, and +staved off my headache as well as might be. They were very kind to me, +but, on my life, everybody is kind to me, and to a degree that fills me +with admiration. I feel so strong a wish to make you all convinced how +very deeply I feel your kindness, and just the more I would say, the +less able I am to say anything. + +God bless you all. Love to all, from the head of the house down to +Johnny. + +Your affectionate, + +JANE W. CARLYLE. + + +40. TO MRS. STIRLING, HILL STREET, EDINBURGH. + +5 CHEYNE ROW, CHELSEA: October 21, 1859. + +You dear nice woman! there you are! a bright cheering apparition to +surprise one on a foggy October morning, over one's breakfast--that most +trying institution for people who are 'nervous' and 'don't sleep!' + +It (the photograph) made our breakfast this morning 'pass off,' like the +better sort of breakfasts in Deerbrook,[120] in which people seemed to +have come into the world chiefly to eat breakfast in every possible +variety of temper! + +Blessed be the inventor of photography! I set him above even the +inventor of chloroform! It has given more positive pleasure to poor +suffering humanity than anything that has 'cast[121] up' in my time or +is like to--this art by which even the 'poor' can possess themselves of +tolerable likenesses of their absent dear ones. And mustn't it be acting +favourably on the morality of the country? I assure you I have often +gone into my own room, in the devil's own humour--ready to answer at +'things in general,' and some things in particular--and, my eyes resting +by chance on one of my photographs of long-ago places and people, a +crowd of sad, gentle thoughts has rushed into my heart, and driven the +devil out, as clean as ever so much holy water and priestly exorcism +could have done! I have a photograph of Haddington church tower, and my +father's tombstone in it--of every place I ever lived at as a +home--photographs of old lovers! old friends, old servants, old dogs! In +a day or two, you, dear, will be framed and hung up among the 'friends.' +And that bright, kind, indomitable face of yours will not be the least +efficacious face there for exorcising my devil, when I have him! Thank +you a thousand times for keeping your word! Of course you would--that is +just the beauty of you, that you never deceive nor disappoint. + +Oh my dear! my dear! how awfully tired I was with the journey home, and +yet I had taken two days to it, sleeping--that is, attempting to +sleep--at York. What a pity it is that Scotland is so far off! all the +good one has gained there gets shaken off one in the terrific journey +home again, and then the different atmosphere is so trying to one fresh +from the pure air of Fife--so exhausting and depressing. If it hadn't +been that I had a deal of housemaiding to execute during the week I was +here before Mr. C. returned, I must have given occasion for newspaper +paragraphs under the head of 'Melancholy Suicide.' But dusting books, +making chair covers, and 'all that sort of thing,' leads one on +insensibly to live--till the crisis gets safely passed. + +My dear! I haven't time nor inclination for much letter-writing--nor +have you, I should suppose, but do let us exchange letters now and then. +A friendship which has lived on air for so many years together is worth +the trouble of giving it a little human sustenance. + +Give my kind regards to your husband--I like him--and believe me, + +Your ever affectionate, + +JANE WELSH CARLYLE. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[119] Clever as she was, she surely made a mistake here--unless she did +it on purpose, which is quite possible. "Cadger" is of course only +"beggar," and the proverb is the Scotch equivalent of ours about the +"beggar on horseback," pretty frequently illustrated now-a-days. + +[120] The Deerbrook breakfasts refer to Miss Martineau's poor novel. (T. +C.) + +[121] Turned. (T. C.) + + + + +THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY (1800-1859) + + + There are very few examples in biography where the + publication of letters has had a happier effect on the + general idea of the writer than in Macaulay's case. It is + not here a question of historical trustworthiness, or even + of literary-style, in both which respects he has come in for + severe strictures and sometimes for rather half-hearted + defence. Nor do the letters display any purely literary + gifts in him (except perhaps a playfulness of humour or at + least wit) which do not appear in the _History_ and the + _Essays_. But, as the exception may perhaps partly indicate, + they extend and improve the notion of his personality in the + most remarkable fashion. Even those who did not quarrel with + his views sometimes, before Sir George Trevelyan's book, + disliked and regretted what have been called his "pistolling + ways"--the positive, hectoring "hold-your-tongue" sort of + tone which dominated his productions. With the very rarest + exceptions, themselves sometimes of a revealing and + excusable frankness, this tone is, if not quite absent[122] + from, much seldomer present in, his letters. He jokes + without difficulty; talks without in the least monopolising + the conversation; shows himself often willing to live and + let live; and is on the whole as different a person as + possible from the Macaulay who is sure that "every + schoolboy" knows better than the author he is reviewing, and + who finds Johnson guilty of superstition and Swift of + apostasy. "Happy thrice and more also" are those whose + letters thus vindicate them. I have purposely chosen the + following example (written to his sister) from the most + _mundane_ class. "Appointment" was to the _Indian_ Council, + which explains the "Cotton" and "Muslin" and other things. + "Ellis" (Thomas Flower), a friend of Macaulay's from + Cambridge days and his literary executor in part. + "Lushington" (Stephen), a civilian lawyer of great eminence + as a judge in Admiralty and ecclesiastical matters, but a + rather violent politician. "Town"--Leeds. "Miss Berry" is + annotated elsewhere. "Sir Stratford Canning," later Viscount + Stratford de Redcliffe, George Canning's cousin, and one of + the most famous diplomatists of the nineteenth century, + especially during his long tenure of the Embassy at + Constantinople. _Vivian Grey_--Disraeli's first novel. "Lady + Holland," the most famous hostess on the Whig side in the + first half of the nineteenth century, but, by all accounts, + a person now and then quite intolerable. "Allen" (John), an + _Edinburgh Reviewer_, was familiarly called her "tame + atheist" (All the company were of the Holland House "set"). + "Bobus"--Robert Percy Smith, Sydney's elder brother, a great + wit and scholar. "Cosher," an Irish word, is not always used + in this sense of "chat." + + +41. TO HIS SISTER + +LONDON: November 1833. + +Dear Hannah, + +Things stand as they stood; except that the report of my appointment is +every day spreading more widely; and that I am beset by advertising +dealers begging leave to make up a hundred cotton shirts for me, and +fifty muslin gowns for you, and by clerks out of place begging to be my +secretaries. I am not in very high spirits to-day, as I have just +received a letter from poor Ellis, to whom I had not communicated my +intentions till yesterday. He writes so affectionately and so +plaintively that he quite cuts me to the heart. There are few indeed +from whom I shall part with so much pain; and he, poor fellow, says +that, next to his wife, I am the person for whom he feels the most +thorough attachment, and in whom he places the most unlimited +confidence. + +On the 11th of this month there is to be a dinner given to Lushington by +the electors of the Tower Hamlets. He has persecuted me with +importunities to attend and make a speech for him; and my father has +joined in the request. It is enough, in these times, Heaven knows, for a +man who represents, as I do, a town of a hundred and twenty thousand +people to keep his own constituents in good humour; and the Spitalfields +weavers and Whitechapel butchers are nothing to me. But, ever since I +succeeded in what everybody allows to have been the most hazardous +attempt of the kind ever made,--I mean in persuading an audience of +manufacturers, all Whigs or Radicals, that the immediate alteration of +the corn-laws was impossible,--I have been considered as a capital +physician for desperate cases in politics. However, to return from that +delightful theme, my own praises, Lushington, who is not very popular +with the rabble of the Tower Hamlets, thinks that an oration from me +would give him a lift. I could not refuse him directly, backed as he was +by my father. I only said that I would attend if I were in London on the +11th, but I added that, situated as I was, I thought it very probable +that I should be out of town. + +I shall go to-night to Miss Berry's _soiree_. I do not know whether I +told you that she resented my article on Horace Walpole so much that Sir +Stratford Canning advised me not to go near her. She was Walpole's +greatest favourite. His Reminiscences are addressed to her in terms of +the most gallant eulogy. When he was dying at past eighty, he asked her +to marry him, merely that he might make her a Countess and leave her his +fortune. You know that in _Vivian Grey_ she is called Miss Otranto. I +always expected that my article would put her into a passion, and I was +not mistaken; but she has come round again, and sent me a most pressing +and kind invitation the other day. + +I have been racketing lately, having dined twice with Rogers, and once +with Grant. Lady Holland is in a most extraordinary state. She came to +Rogers's, with Allen, in so bad a humour that we were all forced to +rally, and make common cause against her. There was not a person at +table to whom she was not rude; and none of us were inclined to submit. +Rogers sneered; Sydney made merciless sport of her; Tom Moore looked +excessively impertinent; Bobus put her down with simple straightforward +rudeness; and I treated her with what I meant to be the coldest +civility. Allen flew into a rage with us all, and especially with +Sydney, whose guffaws, as the Scotch say, were indeed tremendous. When +she and all the rest were gone, Rogers made Tom Moore and me sit down +with him for half an hour, and we coshered over the events of the +evening. Rogers said that he thought Allen's firing up in defence of his +patroness the best thing that he has seen in him. No sooner had Tom and +I got into the street than he broke forth: "That such an old stager as +Rogers should talk such nonsense, and give Allen credit for attachment +to anything but his dinner! Allen was bursting with envy to see us so +free, while he was conscious of his own slavery." + +Her Ladyship has been the better for this discipline. She has +overwhelmed me ever since with attentions and invitations. I have at +last found out the cause of her ill-humour, or at least of that portion +of it of which I was the object. She is in a rage at my article on +Walpole, but at what part of it I cannot tell. I know that she is very +intimate with the Waldegraves, to whom the manuscripts belong, and for +whose benefit the letters were published. But my review was surely not +calculated to injure the sale of the book. Lord Holland told me, in an +aside, that he quite agreed with me, but that we had better not discuss +the subject. + +A note; and, by my life, from my Lady Holland: "Dear Mr. Macaulay, pray +wrap yourself very warm, and come to us on Wednesday." No, my good Lady. +I am engaged on Wednesday to dine at the Albion Tavern with the +Directors of the East India Company; now my servants; next week, I hope, +to be my masters. + +Ever yours, + +T. B. M. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[122] Indeed it exemplifies Defoe's favourite proverb about "What is +bred in the bone," etc.--as for instance when, while admitting +Chesterfield's high position in some ways, he calls the _Letters_ "for +the most part trash." It is scarcely too much to call such criticism +itself "trashy." + + + + +THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES (1803-1849) + + + Beddoes belongs to the small but remarkable company of + authors who, making little mark in their own time and none + at all for some time afterwards, before very long come into + something like their due, though they never can be exactly + popular. He was certainly very eccentric and possibly quite + mad: the circumstances of his suicide do more than justify + the hopes of charity and the convention of coroners' juries, + as to the latter conclusion. But he was an extremely + poetical poet and a letter-writer of remarkable + individuality and zest. Little notice seems to have been + taken, by any save a very few elect, of the first collected + publication of his work just after his death: though a + single piece, _The Bride's Tragedy_, not by any means his + best, had obtained praise in 1822--a time between the great + poetical outburst of the early nineteenth century and the + revival of its middle period. But Mr. Gosse's reissue in + completer form of the _Poems_ in 1890 and the _Letters_ four + years later, lodged him at once in the affection of all + competent critics. With something of the more eccentric + spirit of the seventeenth century in him, and something of + the Romantic revival as shown in Coleridge, Shelley and + Keats, he had much of his own, though he never got it + thoroughly or sustainedly organised and expressed. His + mingled passion and humour (especially the latter) + "escape"--make fitful spurts and explosions--in his + correspondence. Latterly this reflects his mental breakdown, + increasingly in the prose; though only a few years before + the end it contains wonderful verse such as the song, "The + swallow leaves her nest," which is a link between Blake and + Canon Dixon. But earlier, as in the following, there is + nothing beyond oddity. Of this there may seem to be a good + share, but a few notes will make it intelligible. It clearly + heralds, though the thing is first definitely indicated in a + later letter, Beddoes' marvellous tragedy _Death's + Jest-book_, which he wrote and re-wrote till it became like + the picture in Balzac's story an "Unknown [and Unknowable] + Masterpiece." The letter is further remarkable as combining + intense admiration for the _old_ masterpieces with a quite + "modern" insistence on "begetting" rather than + "reviving"--on "giving the literature of the age a spirit of + its own," etc. For details: "Sulky" (compare the French + _desobligeante_, celebrated by Sterne)--an obsolete form of + chaise. "Breaking Priscian's head" is familiar enough for + "using bad grammar," which the book-keeper very likely did; + but the explanation may be more remote. "Like a ghost from + the tomb" though not "quoted" is, of course, his beloved + Shelley's ("The Cloud"). "_Biped_ knock" = merely + "double"--the peculiar rat-tat which postmen have mostly + forgotten or not learnt--perhaps regarding it as a badge of + slavery like "tips." _The Fatal Dowry_--attributed to (Field + and) Massinger, and spoilt by Rowe into his nevertheless + popular _Fair Penitent_,--is one of the finest examples of + the second stage of Elizabethan drama. _Ultracrepidarian_--a + term derived from the Latin proverb _ne sutor supra_ (or + _ultra_) _crepidam_ and specially applied to the unpopular + critic Gifford who had been a shoemaker--meaning generally + "some one who _does_ go beyond his last and meddles with + things he does not understand." "McCready's" (Macready, the + famous actor and manager) friend Walker was probably Sidney + Walker the Shakespearian critic. + + +42. TO THOMAS FORBES KELSALL + +26 MALL, CLIFTON. +(Postmark, Jan. 11. 1825) + +Dear Kelsall-- + +Day after day since Christmas I have intended to write or go to London, +and day after day I have deferred both projects; and now I will give you +the adventures and mishaps of this present sunday. Remorse, and +startling conscience, in the form of an old, sulky, and a shying, horse, +hurried me to the 'Regulator' coach-office on Saturday: 'Does the +Regulator and its team conform to the Mosaic decalogue, Mr. +Book-keeper?' He broke Priscian's head, and through the aperture, +assured me that it did not: I was booked for the inside:--"Call at 26 +Mall for me."--"Yes, Sir, at 1/2 past five, A.M."--At five I rose like a +ghost from the tomb, and betook me to coffee. No wheels rolled through +the streets but the inaudible ones of that uncreated hour. It struck +six,--a coach was called,--we hurried to the office but _the_ coach was +gone. Here followed a long Brutus-and-Cassius discourse between a +shilling-buttoned-waistcoatteer of a porter and myself, which ended in +my extending mercy to the suppliant coach-owners, and agreeing to accept +a place for Monday. All well thus far. The biped knock of the post +alighted on the door at twelve, and two letters were placed upon my +German dictionary,--your own, which I at first intended to reply to viva +voce, had not the second informed me of my brother's arrival in England, +his short leave of absence, and his intention to visit me here next +week. This twisted my strong purpose like a thread, and disposed me to +remain here about ten days longer. On the 21st at latest I go to +London. Be there and I will join you, or, if not, pursue you to +Southampton. + +The Fatal Dowry has been cobbled, I see, by some purblind +ultra-crepidarian--McCready's friend, Walker, very likely; but +nevertheless, I maintain 'tis a good play, and might have been rendered +very effective by docking it of the whole fifth act, which is an +excrescence,--re-creating Novall, and making Beaumelle a great deal more +ghost-gaping and moonlightish. The cur-tailor has taken out the most +purple piece in the whole web--the end of the fourth Act--and shouldered +himself into toleration through the prejudices of the pit, when he +should have built his admiration on their necks. Say what you will, I am +convinced the man who is to awaken the drama must be a bold trampling +fellow, no creeper into worm-holes, no reviver even, however good. These +reanimations are vampire-cold. Such ghosts as Marloe, Webster &c. are +better dramatists, better poets, I dare say, than any contemporary of +ours, but they are ghosts; the worm is in their pages; and we want to +see something that our great-grandsires did not know. With the greatest +reverence for all the antiquities of the drama, I still think that we +had better beget than revive; attempt to give the literature of this age +an idiosyncrasy and spirit of its own, and only raise a ghost to gaze +on, not to live with--just now the drama is a haunted ruin. + + * * * * * + + + + +ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING (1806-1861) + + + Mrs. Browning was in the habit of using rather extravagant + language herself: and she has certainly been the victim of + language extravagant enough both in praise (the more + damaging of the two) and blame from others. FitzGerald's + unlucky exaggeration (see Introduction) in one way may be + set off by such opposite assertions as that some of her + poems are "the best of their kind in the English language." + But her letters need cause no such alarums and excursions. + If they are sometimes what is called by youth "Early + Victorian"--"Early Anything," and "Middle Anything" and + "Late Anything," are sure to be found sooner or later by all + wise persons to have their own place in life and history. + And sentimentalism has, in private prose, an infinitely less + provocative character than when it is displayed in published + verse. A distinguished Scotch philosopher of the last + generation laid it down that, in literature, for + demonstrative exhibitions of affection and sorrow "the + occasion should be adequate, and the actuality rare." But + letter-writing, though it can be eminently literary, is + always literature with a certain license attached to it: + arising from the fact that it was not--or ought not to have + been--intended for publication. And that naturalness of + which so much has been said is displayed constantly and by + no means disagreeably in Elizabeth Barrett Browning's + epistles. In fact, you cannot help liking her the better for + them--which in one way at least is the supreme test. The + following, written soon after her marriage--an elopement of + a kind, but certainly justifiable if ever one was--is a very + pleasant specimen in more ways than one, as regards taste, + temper, and descriptive powers. It also contains no + criticism, which in her case was apt to be extremely + uncertain. + + +43. TO MRS. MARTIN + +(PISA) November 5, (1846) + +It was pleasant to me, my dearest friend, to think while I was reading +your letter yesterday, that almost by that time you had received mine, +and could not even seem to doubt a moment longer whether I admitted your +claim of hearing and of speaking to the uttermost. I recognised you too +entirely as my friend. Because you had put faith in me, so much the more +reason there was that I should justify it as far as I could, and with as +much frankness (which was a part of my gratitude to you) as was possible +from a woman to a woman. Always I have felt that you have believed in me +and loved me, and, for the sake of the past and of the present, your +affection and your esteem are more to me than I could afford to lose, +even in these changed and happy circumstances. So I thank you once more, +my dear kind friends, I thank you both--I never shall forget your +goodness. I feel it, of course, the more deeply, in proportion to the +painful disappointment in other quarters.... Am I bitter? The feeling, +however, passes while I write it out, and my own affection for everybody +will wait patiently to be 'forgiven' in the proper form, when everybody +shall be at leisure properly. Assuredly, in the meanwhile, however, my +case is not to be classed with other cases--what happened to me could +not have happened, perhaps, with any other family in England.... I hate +and loathe everything too which is clandestine--we _both_ do, Robert and +I; and the manner the whole business was carried on in might have +instructed the least acute of the bystanders. The flowers standing +perpetually on my table for the last two years were brought there by one +hand, as everybody knew; and really it would have argued an excess of +benevolence in an unmarried man with quite enough resources in London, +to pay the continued visits he paid to me without some strong motive +indeed. Was it his fault that he did not associate with everybody in the +house as well as with me? He desired it; but no--that was not to be. The +endurance of the pain of the position was not the least proof of his +attachment to me. How I thank you for believing in him--how grateful it +makes me! He will justify to the uttermost that faith. We have been +married two months, and every hour has bound me to him more and more; if +the beginning was well, still better it is now--that is what he says to +me, and I say back again day by day. Then it is an 'advantage' to have +an inexhaustible companion who talks wisdom of all things in heaven and +earth, and shows besides as perpetual a good humour and gaiety as if he +were--a fool, shall I say? or a considerable quantity more, perhaps. As +to our domestic affairs, it is not to _my_ honour and glory that the +'bills' are made up every week and paid more regularly 'than bard +beseems,' while dear Mrs. Jameson laughs outright at our miraculous +prudence and economy, and declares that it is past belief and precedent +that we should not burn the candles at both ends, and the next moment +will have it that we remind her of the children in a poem of Heine's who +set up housekeeping in a tub, and inquired gravely the price of coffee. +Ah, but she has left Pisa at last--left it yesterday. It was a painful +parting to everybody. Seven weeks spent in such close neighbourhood--a +month of it under the same roof and in the same carriages--will fasten +people together, and then travelling _shakes_ them together. A more +affectionate, generous woman never lived than Mrs. Jameson[123] and it +is pleasant to be sure that she loves us both from her heart, and not +only _du bout des levres_. Think of her making Robert promise (as he has +told me since) that in the case of my being unwell he would write to her +instantly, and she would come at once if anywhere in Italy. So kind, so +like her. She spends the winter in Rome, but an intermediate, month at +Florence, and we are to keep tryst with her somewhere in the spring, +perhaps at Venice. If not, she says that she will come back here, for +that certainly she will see us. She would have stayed altogether +perhaps, if it had not been for her book upon art which she is engaged +to bring out next year, and the materials for which are to be _sought_. +As to Pisa, she liked it just as we like it. Oh, it is so beautiful and +so full of repose, yet not _desolate_: it is rather the repose of sleep +than of death. Then after the first ten days of rain, which seemed to +refer us fatally to Alfieri's 'piove e ripiove' came as perpetual a +divine sunshine, such cloudless, exquisite weather that we ask whether +it may not be June instead of November. Every day I am out walking while +the golden oranges look at me over the walls, and when I am tired Robert +and I sit down on a stone to watch the lizards. We have been to your +seashore, too, and seen your island, only he insists on it (Robert does) +that it is not Corsica but Gorgona, and that Corsica is not in sight. +_Beautiful_ and blue the island was, however, in any case. It might have +been Romero's instead of either. Also we have driven up to the foot of +the mountains, and seen them reflected down in the little pure lake of +Ascuno, and we have seen the pine woods, and met the camels laden with +faggots all in a line. So now ask me again if I enjoy my liberty as you +expect. My head goes round sometimes, that is all. I never was happy +before in my life. Ah, but, of course, the painful thoughts recur! There +are some whom I love too tenderly to be easy under their displeasure, or +even under their injustice. Only it seems to me that with time and +patience my poor dearest papa will be melted into opening his arms to +us--will be melted into a clear understanding of motives and intentions; +I cannot believe that he will forget me, as he says he will, and go on +thinking me to be dead rather than alive and happy. So I manage to hope +for the best, and all that remains, all my life here, _is_ best already, +could not be better or happier. And willingly tell dear Mr. Martin I +would take him and you for witnesses of it, and in the meanwhile he is +not to send me tantalising messages; no, indeed, unless you really, +really, should let yourselves be wafted our way, and could you do so +much better at Pau? particularly if Fanny Hanford should come here. Will +she really? The climate is described by the inhabitants as a 'pleasant +spring throughout the winter,' and if you were to see Robert and me +threading our path along the shady side everywhere to avoid the +'excessive heat of the sun' in this November (?) it would appear a good +beginning. We are not in the warm orthodox position by the Arno because +we heard with our ears one of the best physicians of the place advise +against it. 'Better,' he said, 'to have cool rooms to live in and warm +walks to go out along.' The rooms we have are rather over-cool perhaps; +we are obliged to have a little fire in the sitting-room, in the +mornings and evenings that is; but I do not fear for the winter, there +is too much difference to my feelings between this November and any +English November I ever knew. We have our dinner from the Trattoria at +two o'clock, and can dine our favourite way on thrushes and Chianti with +a miraculous cheapness, and no trouble, no cook, no kitchen; the prophet +Elijah or the lilies of the field took as little thought for their +dining, which exactly suits us. It is a continental fashion which we +never cease commending. Then at six we have coffee, and rolls of milk, +made of milk, I mean, and at nine our supper (call it supper, if you +please) of roast chestnuts and grapes. So you see how primitive we are, +and how I forget to praise the eggs at breakfast. The worst of Pisa is, +or would be to some persons, that, socially speaking, it has its +dullnesses; it is not lively like Florence, not in that way. But we do +not want society, we shun it rather. We like the Duomo and the Campo +Santo instead. Then we know a little of Professor Ferucci, who gives us +access to the University library, and we subscribe to a modern one, and +we have plenty of writing to do of our own. If we can do anything for +Fanny Hanford, let us know. It would be too happy, I suppose, to have to +do it for yourselves. Think, however, I am quite well, quite well. I can +thank God, too, for being alive and well. Make dear Mr. Martin keep +well, and not forget himself in the Herefordshire cold--draw him into +the sun somewhere. Now write and tell me everything of your plans and of +you both, dearest friends. My husband bids me say that he desires to +have my friends for his own friends, and that he is grateful to you for +not crossing that feeling. Let him send his regards to you. And let me +be throughout all changes, + +Your ever faithful and most affectionate, + +BA. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[123] Anna Jameson (1794-1860) was a woman of letters and an art-critic +at one time of immense influence through her illustrated books on +"Sacred and Legendary" (as well as some other) "Art." But, as somehow or +other happens not infrequently, the objects of her "affection and +generosity" did not include her husband. + + + + +EDWARD FITZGERALD (1809-1883) + + + Not much need be added to what was said in the Introduction + about this famous translator and almost equally, though less + uniquely, remarkable letter-writer. His life was entirely + uneventful and his friendships have been already + commemorated. The version of Omar Khayyam appeared in 1859; + was an utter "drug"--remainder copies going at a few + pence--for a time; but became one of the most admired books + of the English nineteenth century before very long. Some of + his _Letters_ were published at various times from 1889 to + 1901 (those to Fanny Kemble in 1895). It is not perhaps + merely fanciful to suggest that the "uniqueness" above + glanced at does supply a sort of connection between the + _Letters_ and the _Works_. The faculty of at once retaining + the matter of a subject and transforming it in treatment has + perhaps never, as regards translation, been exhibited in + such transcendence as in the English _Rubaiyat_. But + something of this same faculty must belong to every good + letter-writer--and a good deal of it certainly is shown by + FitzGerald in _his_ letters. Indeed one of the processes of + letter-and memoir-study (the memoir as has been said is + practically an "open" letter) is that of comparing the + treatments of the same subject by different persons--say of + the Great Fire by Pepys and Evelyn, of the Riots of '80 by + Walpole and Johnson. He himself, as will be seen, calls the + letter given below "not very interesting." It seems to me + very interesting indeed: and likely to be increasingly so as + time goes on. Few things could be more characteristic of the + writer than his way of "visiting his sister" by living alone + in lodgings all _day_ for a month. The "_old_ + age"--forty-five--is hardly less so. The allusions to + "Alfred" (Tennyson); "old" Thackeray, for whom he constantly + keeps the affectionate school and college use of the + adjective; Landor[124] (who unluckily did _not_ die at Bath + though he might have done so but for one of the last and + least creditable of his eccentricities); Beckford ("Old + Vathek"), and a fourth "old," Rogers (who was one of + FitzGerald's aversions); Oxford (as yet almost unstained by + any modernities spiritual or material); and Bath[125] (to + remain still longer a "haunt of ancient peace")--are + precious. The fifth "old," Spedding, who devoted chiefly to + Bacon talents worthy of more varied exercise, was one of the + innermost Tennyson set, as was "Harry" Lushington, who died + very soon after this letter was written. "Your Book" is F. + Tennyson's _Days and Hours_, a volume of poetry while + reading which probably many people have wondered in what + respect it came short of really great poetry, though they + felt it did so. + + +44. TO FREDERIC TENNYSON + +BATH May 7/54. + +My dear Frederic, + +You see to what fashionable places I am reduced in my old Age. The truth +is however I am come here by way of Visit to a sister I have scarce seen +these six years; my visit consisting in this that I live alone in a +lodging of my own by day, and spend two or three hours with her in the +Evening. This has been my way of Life for three weeks, and will be so +for some ten days more: after which I talk of flying back to more native +counties. I was to have gone on to see Alfred in his "Island Home" from +here: but it appears he goes to London about the same time I quit this +place: so I must and shall defer my Visit to him. Perhaps I shall catch +a sight of him in London; as also of old Thackeray who, Donne writes me +word, came suddenly on him in Pall Mall the other day: while all the +while people supposed _The Newcomes_ were being indited at Rome or +Naples. + +If ever you live in England you must live here at Bath. It really is a +splendid City in a lovely, even a noble, Country. Did you ever see it? +One beautiful feature in the place is the quantity of Garden and Orchard +it is all through embroidered with. Then the Streets, when you go into +them, are as handsome and gay as London, gayer and handsomer because +cleaner and in a clearer Atmosphere; and if you want the Country you get +into it (and a very fine Country) on all sides and directly. Then there +is such Choice of Houses, Cheap as well as Dear, of all sizes, with good +Markets, Railways etc. I am not sure I shall not come here for part of +the Winter. It is a place you would like, I am sure: though I do not say +but you are better in Florence. Then on the top of the hill is old +Vathek's Tower, which he used to sit and read in daily, and from which +he could see his own Fonthill, while it stood. Old Landor quoted to me +'Nullus in orbe locus, etc.,' apropos of Bath: he, you may know, has +lived here for years, and I should think would die here, though not yet. +He seems so strong that he may rival old Rogers; of whom indeed one +Newspaper gave what is called an 'Alarming Report of Mr. Rogers' Health' +the other day, but another contradicted it directly and indignantly, +and declared the Venerable Poet never was better. Landor has some +hundred and fifty Pictures; each of which he thinks the finest specimen +of the finest Master, and has a long story about, how he got it, when, +etc. I dare say some are very good: but also some very bad. He appeared +to me to judge of them as he does of Books and Men; with a most +uncompromising perversity which the Phrenologists must explain to us +after his Death. + +By the bye, about your Book, which of course you wish me to say +something about. Parker sent me down a copy 'from the Author' for which +I hereby thank you. If you believe my word, you already know my +Estimation of so much that is in it: you have already guessed that I +should have made a different selection from the great Volume which is +now in Tatters. As I differ in Taste from the world, however, quite as +much as from you, I do not know but you have done very much better in +choosing as you have; the few people I have seen are very much pleased +with it, the Cowells at Oxford delighted. A Bookseller there sold all +his Copies the first day they came down: and even in Bath a Bookseller +(and not one of the Principal) told me a fortnight ago he had sold some +twenty copies. I have not been in Town since it came out: and have now +so little correspondence with literati I can't tell you about them. +There was a very unfair Review in the _Athenaeum_; which is the only +Literary Paper I see: but I am told there are laudatory ones in +_Examiner_ and _Spectator_. + +I was five weeks at Oxford, visiting the Cowells in just the same way +that I am visiting my Sister here. I also liked Oxford greatly: but not +so well I think as Bath: which is so large and busy that one is drowned +in it as much as in London. There are often concerts, etc., for those +who like them; I only go to a shilling affair that comes off every +Saturday at what they call the Pump Room. On these occasions there is +sometimes some Good Music if not excellently played. Last Saturday I +heard a fine Trio of Beethoven. Mendelssohn's things are mostly tiresome +to me. I have brought my old Handel Book here and recreate myself now +and then with pounding one of the old Giant's Overtures on my sister's +Piano, as I used to do on that Spinnet at my Cottage. As to Operas, and +Exeter Halls, I have almost done with them: they give me no pleasure, I +scarce know why. + +I suppose there is no chance of your being over in England this year, +and perhaps as little Chance of my being in Italy. All I can say is, the +latter is not impossible, which I suppose I may equally say of the +former. But pray write me. You can always direct to me at Donne's, 12, +St. James' Square, or at Rev. G. Crabbe's, Bredfield, Woodbridge. Either +way the letter will soon reach me. Write soon, Frederic, and let me hear +how you and yours are: and don't wait, as you usually do, for some +inundation of the Arno to set your pen agoing. Write ever so shortly and +whatever-about-ly. I have no news to tell you of Friends. I saw old +Spedding in London; only doubly calm after the death of a Niece he +dearly loved and whose deathbed at Hastings he had just been waiting +upon. Harry Lushington wrote a martial Ode on seeing the Guards march +over Waterloo Bridge towards the East: I did not see it, but it was much +admired and handed about, I believe. And now my paper is out: and I am +going through the rain (it is said to rain very much here) to my +Sister's. So Goodbye, and write to me, as I beg you, in reply to this +long if not very interesting letter. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[124] "Fitz's" remarks on Landor's judgment of "Pictures, Books and Men" +are very amusing; for they have been often repeated in regard to his own +on all these subjects. In fact the two, though FitzGerald was not so +childish as Landor, had much in common. + +[125] The curious eulogy--preferring it to Oxford as being "large and +busy" enough to "drown one as much" as London--is also very +characteristic of FitzGerald. You can be alone in the country _and_ in a +large town--hardly in a small one. + + + + +FRANCES ANNE KEMBLE (1809-1893) + + + To what has been said before of this remarkably gifted lady + little need be added. The two letters which follow, derived + from _Further Records_ (London, 1890), were written rather + late in her life, but are characteristic, in ways partly + coinciding, partly divergent, of her strong intellect[126] + and her powers of expression. The note to the ghost-story + leaves open the question whether Fanny did or did not know + the accepted doctrine that the master and mistress of a + haunted house are exempt from actual haunting. The "whiff of + grape-shot" (as Carlyle might have called it) on the + "Bakespearian" absurdity is one of the best things on the + subject that the present writer, in a long and wide + experience, has come across. + + +45. TO H---- [EXTRACT] + +YORK FARM, BRANCHTOWN, +PHILADELPHIA, Monday May 18th, 1874. + +One evening that my maid was sitting in the room from which she could +see the whole of the staircase and upper landing, she saw the door of my +bedroom open, and an elderly woman in a flannel dressing-gown, with a +bonnet on her head, and a candle in her hand come out, walk the whole +length of the passage, and return again into the bedroom, shutting the +door after her. My maid knew that I was in the drawing-room below in my +usual black velvet evening dress; moreover, the person she had seen bore +no resemblance either in figure or face to me, or to any member of my +household, which consisted of three young servant women besides herself, +and a negro man-servant. My maid was a remarkably courageous and +reasonable person, and, though very much startled (for she went directly +upstairs and found no one in the rooms), she kept her counsel, and +mentioned the circumstance to nobody, though, as she told me afterwards, +she was so afraid lest I should have a similar visitation, that she was +strongly tempted to ask Dr. W----'s advice as to the propriety of +mentioning her experience to me. She refrained from doing so, however, +and some time later, as she was sitting in the dusk in the same room, +the man-servant came in to light the gas and made her start, observing +which, he said, "Why, lors, Miss Ellen, you jump as if you had seen a +ghost." In spite of her late experience, Ellen very gravely replied, +"Nonsense, William, how can you talk such stuff! You don't believe in +such things as ghosts, do you?" "Well," he said, "I don't know just so +sure what to say to that, seeing it's very well known there was a ghost +in this house." "Pshaw!" said Ellen. "Whose ghost?" "Well, poor Mrs. +R----'s ghost, it's very well known, walks about this house, and no +great wonder either, seeing how miserably she lived and died here." To +Ellen's persistent expressions of contemptuous incredulity, he went on, +"Well, Miss Ellen, all I can say is, several girls" (_i.e._ +maid-servants) "have left this house on account of it"; and there the +conversation ended. Some days after this, Ellen coming into the +drawing-room to speak to me, stopped abruptly at the door, and stood +there, having suddenly recognized in a portrait immediately opposite to +it, and which was that of the dead mistress of the house, the face of +the person she had seen come out of my bedroom. I think this a very tidy +ghost story; and I am bound to add, as a proper commentary on it, that I +have never inhabited a house which affected me with a sense of such +intolerable melancholy gloominess as this; without any assignable reason +whatever, either in its situation or any of its conditions. My maid, to +the present day, persists in every detail (and without the slightest +variation) of this experience of hers, absolutely rejecting my +explanation of it; that she had heard, without paying any particular +attention to it, some talk among the other servants about the ghost in +the house, which had remained unconsciously to her in her memory, and +reproduced itself in this morbid nervous effect of her imagination. + + +46. To H---- [EXTRACT] + +YORK FARM, Sunday, December 6th, 1874. + +My dearest H----, + +It is not possible for me to feel the slightest interest in the sort of +literary feat which I consider writing upon "who wrote Shakespeare?" to +be. I was very intimate with Harness, Milman, Dyce, Collier--all +Shakespearian editors, commentators, and scholars--and this absurd +theory about Bacon, which was first broached a good many years ago, +never obtained credit for a moment with them; nor did they ever +entertain for an instant a doubt that the plays attributed to William +Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon were really written by him. Now I am +intimately acquainted and in frequent communication with William Donne, +Edward FitzGerald, and James Spedding, all thorough Shakespeare +scholars, and the latter a man who has just published a work upon Bacon, +which has been really the labour of his life; none of these men, +competent judges of the matter, ever mentions the question of "Who wrote +Shakespeare?" except as a ludicrous thing to be laughed at, and I think +they may be trusted to decide whether it is or is not so. + +I have a slight feeling of disgust at the attack made thus on the +personality of my greatest mental benefactor; and consider the whole +thing a misapplication, not to say waste, of time and ingenuity that +might be better employed. As I regard the memory of Shakespeare with +love, veneration, and gratitude, and am proud and happy to be his +countrywoman, considering it among the privileges of my English birth, I +resent the endeavour to prove that he deserved none of these feelings, +but was a mere literary impostor. I wonder the question had any interest +for you, for I should not have supposed you imagined Shakespeare had not +written his own plays, Irish though you be. Do you remember the +servant's joke in the farce of "High Life Below Stairs" where the cook +asks, "Who wrote Shakespeare?" and one of the others answers, with, at +any rate, partial plausibility, "Oh! why, Colley Cibber, to be sure!" + +FOOTNOTES: + +[126] Sometimes one thinks her the wisest woman who ever lived. "Nothing +seems stranger than the delusions of other people _when they have ceased +to be our own_" suggests La Rochefoucauld and comes near to Solomon; but +whosoever may have anticipated or prompted her, he is not at the moment +within my memory. But she is often not wise at all: and even her good +wits are not always left unaffected by her bad temper. It is really +amusing to read Mrs. Carlyle's rather mischievous account of Mrs. Butler +(F. K.'s married name) calling and carrying a whip "to keep her hand +in": and _then_ to come on F. K.'s waspish resentment at these words, +when they were published. + + + + +WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY +(1811-1863) + + + So much has been said of Thackeray's letter-writing powers + in the Introduction that not much need be added here on the + general side. But a few words may be allowed on what we may + call the _conditioning_ circumstances which affected these + powers, and made the result so peculiar. Except in Swift's + case--a thing piquant in itself considering the injustice of + the later writer to the earlier--hardly any body of letters + exhibits these conditions so obviously and in so varied a + fashion. In both there was the utmost intellectual satire + combined with the utmost tenderness of feeling. Thackeray of + course, partly from nature and partly from the influence of + time, did not mask his tenderness and double-edge his + severity with roughness and coarseness. But the combination + was intrinsically not very different. There has also to be + taken into account in Thackeray's case domestic + sorrow--coming quickly and life-long after it began; means + long restricted (partly by his own folly but not so more + tolerable); recognition of genius almost as long deferred; + and yet other "maladies of the soul." The result was a + constant ferment, of which the letters are in a way the + relieving valve or tap. That they are often apparently + light-hearted has nothing surprising in it: for when a man + habitually "eats his heart" it naturally becomes + lighter--till there is nothing of it left. + + He is, however, not easy to "sample," there being, as has + been said, no authorised collection to draw upon and other + difficulties in the way. What follows may serve for fault + of a better: and the _Spectator_ letter-pastiche referred to + above under Walpole, will complete it perhaps more + appropriately than may at first appear. For while the latter + is quite Addisonian, not merely in dress but in body, its + soul is blended of two natures--the model's and the + artist's--in the rather uncanny fashion which makes _Esmond_ + as a whole so marvellous, except to those stalwarts who hold + that, as nobody before the twentieth century knew anything + about anything, Thackeray could not know about the + eighteenth. + + +47. TO MISS LUCY BAXTER + +WASHINGTON, Saturday +Feb. 19. 1853. + +My dear little kind Lucy: + +I began to write you a letter in the railroad yesterday, but it bumped +with more than ordinary violence, and I was forced to give up the +endeavour. I did not know how ill Lucy was at that time, only +remembered that I owed her a letter for that pretty one you wrote me +at Philadelphia, when Sarah was sick and you acted as her Secretary. +Is there going to be always Somebody sick at the brown house? If I +were to come there now, I wonder should I be allowed to come and see +you in your night-cap--I wonder even do you wear a night-cap? I should +step up, take your little hand, which I daresay is lying outside the +coverlet, give it a little shake; and then sit down and talk all sorts +of stuff and nonsense to you for half an hour; but very kind and +gentle, not so as to make you laugh too much or your little back ache +any more. Did I not tell you to leave off that beecely jimnayshum? I +am always giving fine advice to girls in brown houses, and they +always keep on never minding. It is not difficult to write lying in +bed--this is written not in bed, but on a sofa. If you write the +upright hand it's quite easy; slanting-dicular is not so pleasant, +though. I have just come back from Baltimore and find your mother's +and sister's melancholy letters. I thought to myself, perhaps I might +see them on this very sofa and pictured to myself their 2 kind faces. +Mr. Crampton was going to ask them to dinner, I had made arrangements +to get Sarah nice partners at the ball--Why did dear little Lucy +tumble down at the Gymnasium? Many a pretty plan in life tumbles down +so, Miss Lucy, and falls on its back. But the good of being ill is to +find how kind one's friends are; of being at a pinch (I do not know +whether I may use the expression--whether "pinch" is an indelicate +word in this country; it is used by our old writers to signify +poverty, narrow circumstances, res angusta)--the good of being poor, I +say, is to find friends to help you, I have been both ill and poor, +and found, thank God, such consolation in those evils; and I daresay +at this moment, now you are laid up, you are the person of the most +importance in the whole house--Sarah is sliding about the room with +cordials in her hands and eyes; Libby is sitting quite disconsolate by +the bed (poor Libby! when one little bird fell off the perch, I wonder +the other did not go up and fall off, too!) the expression of sympathy +in Ben's eyes is perfectly heart-rending; even George is quiet; and +your Father, Mother and Uncle (all 3 so notorious for their violence +of temper and language) have actually forgotten to scold. "Ach, du +lieber Himmel," says Herr Strumpf--isn't his name Herr Strumpf?--the +German master, "die schoene Fraeulein ist krank!" and bursts into tears +on the Pianofortyfier's shoulder when they hear the news (through his +sobs) from black John. We have an Ebony femme de chambre here; when I +came from Baltimore just now I found her in the following costume and +attitude standing for her picture to Mr. Crowe. She makes the beds +with that pipe in her mouf and leaves it about in the rooms. Wouldn't +she have been a nice lady's-maid for your mother and Miss Bally +Saxter? + +But even if Miss Lucy had not had her fall, I daresay there would have +been no party. Here is a great snow-storm falling, though yesterday +was as bland and bright as May (English May, I mean) and how could we +have lionized Baltimore, and gone to Mount Vernon, and taken our +diversion in the snow? There would have been nothing for it but to +stay in this little closet of a room, where there is scarce room for 6 +people, and where it is not near so comfortable as the brown house. +Dear old b.h., shall I see it again soon? I shall not go farther than +Charleston, and Savannah probably, and then I hope I shall get another +look at you all again before I commence farther wanderings--O, stop! I +didn't tell you why I was going to write you--well, I went on Thursday +to dine with Governor and Mrs. Fish, a dinner in honor of me--and +before I went I arrayed myself in a certain white garment of which the +collar-button-holes had been altered, and I thought of the kind, +friendly little hand that had done that deed for me; and when the +Fisheses told me how they lived in the Second Avenue (I had forgotten +all about 'em)--their house and the house opposite came back to my +mind, and I liked them 50 times better for living near some friends of +mine. She is a nice woman, Madam Fish, besides; and didn't I abuse you +all to her? Good bye, dear little Lucy--I wish the paper wasn't full. +But I have been sitting half an hour by the poor young lady's sofa, +and talking stuff and nonsense, haven't I? And now I get up, and shake +your hand with a God bless you! and walk down stairs, and please to +give everybody my kindest regards, and remember that I am truly your +friend. + +W. M. T. + + +48. + +THE "TRUMPET" COFFEE-HOUSE, +WHITEHALL. + +'Mr Spectator-- + +'I am a gentleman but little acquainted with the town, though I have had +a university education, and passed some years serving my country abroad, +where my name is better known than in the coffee-houses and St. James's. + +'Two years since my uncle died, leaving me a pretty estate in the county +of Kent; and being at Tunbridge Wells last summer, after my mourning was +over, and on the look-out, if truth must be told, for some young lady +who would share with me the solitude of my great Kentish house, and be +kind to my tenantry (for whom a woman can do a great deal more good than +the best-intentioned man can), I was greatly fascinated by a young lady +of London, who was the toast of all the company at the Wells. Everyone +knows Saccharissa's beauty; and I think, Mr. Spectator, no one better +than herself. + +'My table-book informs me that I danced no less than seven-and-twenty +sets with her at the assembly. I treated her to the fiddles twice. I was +admitted on several days to her lodging, and received by her with a +great deal of distinction, and, for a time, was entirely her slave. It +was only when I found, from common talk of the company at the Wells, and +from narrowly watching one, who I once thought of asking the most +sacred question a man can put to a woman, that I became aware how unfit +she was to be a country gentleman's wife; and that this fair creature +was but a heartless worldly jilt, playing with affections that she never +meant to return, and, indeed, incapable of returning them. 'Tis +admiration such women want, not love that touches them; and I can +conceive, in her old age, no more wretched creature than this lady will +be, when her beauty hath deserted her, when her admirers have left her, +and she hath neither friendship nor religion to console her. + +'Business calling me to London, I went to St. James's Church last +Sunday, and there opposite me sat my beauty of the Wells. Her behaviour +during the whole service was so pert, languishing and absurd; she +flirted her fan, and ogled and eyed me in a manner so indecent, that I +was obliged to shut my eyes, so as actually not to see her, and whenever +I opened them beheld hers (and very bright they are) still staring at +me. I fell in with her afterwards at Court, and at the playhouse; and +here nothing would satisfy her but she must elbow through the crowd and +speak to me, and invite me to the assembly, which she holds at her +house, nor very far from Ch--r--ng Cr--ss. + +'Having made her a promise to attend, of course I kept my promise; and +found the young widow in the midst of a half-dozen of card-tables, and a +crowd of wits and admirers. I made the best bow I could, and advanced +towards her; and saw by a peculiar puzzled look in her face, though she +tried to hide her perplexity, that she had forgotten even my name. + +'Her talk, artful as it was, convinced me that I had guessed aright. She +turned the conversation most ridiculously upon the spelling of names and +words; and I replied with as ridiculous, fulsome compliments as I could +pay her; indeed, one in which I compared her to an angel visiting the +sick-wells, went a little too far; nor should I have employed it, but +that the allusion came from the Second Lesson last Sunday, which we both +had heard, and I was pressed to answer her. + +'Then she came to the question, which I knew was awaiting me, and asked +how I _spelt_ my name? "Madam," says I, turning on my heel, "I spell it +with the y." And so I left her, wondering at the light-heartedness of +the town-people, who forget and make friends so easily, and resolved to +look elsewhere for a partner for your constant reader. + +'CYMON WYLDOATS. + +'You know my real name, Mr. Spectator, in which there is no such a +letter as _hupsilon_. But if the lady, whom I have called Saccharissa, +wonders that I appear no more at the tea-tables, she is hereby +respectfully informed the reason y.' + + + + +CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870) + + + There are few better examples by converse of the saying + (familiar in various forms and sometimes specially applied + to writing and answering letters) that it is only idle + people who have no time to do anything, than Dickens. He was + by no means long-lived: and for the last + three-fifths--practically the whole busy time--of his life, + he was one of the busiest of men. He wrote many universally + known books, and not a few, in some cases not so well known, + articles. He travelled a great deal; edited periodicals for + many years, taking that duty by no means in the spirit of + Olympian aloofness which some popular opinion connects with + editorship; only sometimes shirked society; and had all + sorts of miscellaneous occupations and avocations. His very + fancy for long walks might seem one of the least compatible + with letter-writing; yet a very large bulk of his letters + (by no means mainly composed of editorial ones) has been + published, and there are no doubt many unpublished. There + have been different opinions as to their comparative rank as + letters, but there can be no difference as to the curious + full-bloodedness and plenitude of life which, in this as in + all other divisions of his writing, characterises Dickens's + expression of his thoughts and feelings. Perhaps, as might + be generally though not universally expected, the comic ones + are the more delightful: at any rate they seem best worth + giving here. The first--to a schoolboy who had written to + him about _Nicholas Nickleby_--is quite charming; the + second, to the famous actor-manager who after being a + Londoner by birth and residence for half a century had just + retired, is almost Charles Lamb-like; and the third + deserved to have been put in the original mouth of Mrs. + Gamp![127] + + +49. TO MASTER HASTINGS HUGHES + +DOUGHTY STREET, LONDON. +Dec. 12th. 1838. + +Respected Sir, + +I have given Squeers one cut on the neck and two on the head, at which +he appeared much surprised and began to cry, which, being a cowardly +thing, is just what I should have expected from him--wouldn't you? + +I have carefully done what you told me in your letter about the lamb and +the two "sheeps" for the little boys. They have also had some good ale +and porter, and some wine. I am sorry you didn't say _what_ wine you +would like them to have. I gave them some sherry, which they liked very +much, except one boy, who was a little sick and choked a good deal. He +was rather greedy, and that's the truth, and I believe it went the wrong +way, which I say served him right, and I hope you will say so too. + +Nicholas had his roast lamb, as you said he was to, but he could not eat +it all, and says if you do not mind his doing so he should like to have +the rest hashed to-morrow with some greens, which he is very fond of, +and so am I. He said he did not like to have his porter hot, for he +thought it spoilt the flavour, so I let him have it cold. You should +have seen him drink it. I thought he never would have left off. I also +gave him three pounds of money, all in sixpences, to make it seem more, +and he said directly that he should give more than half to his mamma and +sister, and divide the rest with poor Smike. And I say he is a good +fellow for saying so; and if anybody says he isn't I am ready to fight +him whenever they like--there! + +Fanny Squeers shall be attended to, depend upon it. Your drawing of her +is very like, except that I don't think the hair is quite curly enough. +The nose is particularly like hers, and so are the legs. She is a nasty +disagreeable thing, and I know it will make her very cross when she sees +it; and what I say is that I hope it may. You will say the same I +know--at least I think you will. + +I meant to have written you a long letter, but I cannot write very fast +when I like the person I am writing to, because that makes me think +about them, and I like you, and so I tell you. Besides, it is just eight +o'clock at night, and I always go to bed at eight o'clock, except when +it is my birthday, and then I sit up to supper. So I will not say +anything more besides this--and that is my love to you and Neptune; and +if you will drink my health every Christmas Day I will drink +yours--come. + +I am, + +Respected Sir, + +Your affectionate Friend. + +P.S. I don't write my name very plain,[128] but you know what it is you +know, so never mind. + + +50. TO MR. W. C. MACREADY + +Saturday, May 24th, 1851. + +My dear Macready, + +We are getting in a good heap of money for the Guild. The comedy has +been very much improved, in many respects, since you read it. The scene +to which you refer is certainly one of the most telling in the play. And +there _is_ a farce to be produced on Tuesday next, wherein a +distinguished amateur will sustain a variety of assumption-parts, and in +particular, Samuel Weller and Mrs. Gamp, of which I say no more. I am +pining for Broadstairs, where the children are at present. I lurk from +the sun, during the best part of the day, in a villainous compound of +darkness, canvas, sawdust, general dust, stale gas (involving a vague +smell of pepper), and disenchanted properties. But I hope to get down on +Wednesday or Thursday. + +Ah! you country gentlemen, who live at home at ease, how little do you +think of us among the London fleas! But they tell me you are coming in +for Dorsetshire. You must be very careful, when you come to town to +attend to your parliamentary duties, never to ask your way of people in +the streets. They will misdirect you for what the vulgar call "a lark," +meaning, in this connection, a jest at your expense. Always go into some +respectable shop or apply to a policeman. You will know him by his being +dressed in blue, with very dull silver buttons, and by the top of his +hat being made of sticking-plaster. You may perhaps see in some odd +place an intelligent-looking man, with a curious little wooden table +before him and three thimbles on it. He will want you to bet, but don't +do it. He really desires to cheat you. And don't buy at auctions where +the best plated goods are being knocked down for next to nothing. These, +too, are delusions. If you wish to go to the play to see real good +acting (though a little more subdued than perfect tragedy should be), I +would recommend you to see ---- at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. +Anybody will show it to you. It is near the Strand, and you may know it +by seeing no company whatever at any of the doors. Cab fares are +eightpence a mile. A mile London measure is half a Dorsetshire mile, +recollect. Porter is twopence per pint; what is called stout is +fourpence. The Zoological Gardens are in the Regent's Park, and the +price of admission is one shilling. Of the streets, I would recommend +you to see Regent Street and the Quadrant, Bond Street, Piccadilly, +Oxford Street, and Cheapside. I think these will please you after a +time, though the tumult and bustle will at first bewilder you. If I can +serve you in any way, pray command me. And with my best regards to your +happy family, so remote from this Babel. + +Believe me, my dear Friend, + +Ever affectionately yours. + +[CHARLES DICKENS] + +P.S. I forgot to mention just now that the black equestrian figure you +will see at Charing Cross, as you go down to the House, is a statue of +_King Charles the First_.[129] + + +51. TO MR. EDMUND YATES + +TAVISTOCK HOUSE, +Tuesday, Feb. 2nd. 1858. + +My dear Yates, + +Your quotation is, as I supposed, all wrong. The text _is not_ "Which +his 'owls was organs." When Mr. Harris went into an empty dog-kennel, to +spare his sensitive nature the anguish of overhearing Mrs. Harris's +exclamations on the occasion of the birth of her first child (the +Princess Royal of the Harris family), "he never took his hands away from +his ears, or came out once, till he was showed the baby." On +encountering that spectacle, he was (being of a weakly constitution) +"took with fits." For this distressing complaint he was medically +treated; the doctor "collared him, and laid him on his back upon the +airy stones"--please to observe what follows--"and she was told, to ease +her mind, his 'owls was organs." + +That is to say, Mrs. Harris, lying exhausted on her bed, in the first +sweet relief of freedom from pain, merely covered with the counterpane, +and not yet "put comfortable," hears a noise apparently proceeding from +the backyard, and says, in a flushed and hysterical manner: "What 'owls +are those? Who is a-'owling? Not my ugebond?" Upon which the doctor, +looking round one of the bottom posts of the bed, and taking Mrs. +Harris's pulse in a reassuring manner, says, with much admirable +presence of mind: "Howls, my dear madam?--no, no, no! What are we +thinking of? Howls, my dear Mrs. Harris? Ha, ha, ha! Organs, ma'am, +organs. Organs in the streets, Mrs. Harris; no howls." + +Yours faithfully, [C. D.] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[127] One of the pleasantest, _to me_, of Dickens's letters is that in +which, extravagant anti-Tory as he was, he refuses to let a contributor +echo the too common grudges at Lockhart (see _inf._ under Stevenson). +But it is very short, and perhaps of no general interest. + +[128] Referring, I suppose, to the well-known and "inimitable" (but by +no means indispensable) flourish of his signature. + +[129] "The comedy" is Bulwer-Lytton's _Not so Bad as we Seem_, acted by +Dickens and other amateurs for charity at Devonshire House seventy years +ago, and about to be reproduced _in loco_ as these proofs are being +revised. + + + + +CHARLES KINGSLEY (1819-1875) + + + There are some people who, while thinking that the author of + _Westward Ho!_ has not, at least recently, been given his + due rank in critical estimation, admit certain explanations + of this. As a historian and in almost all his writings + Kingsley was inaccurate,--almost (as his friend and + brother-in-law Froude was once said to be) "congenitally + inaccurate"; in his novels and elsewhere he went out of his + way to tread on the corns of all sorts of people; he + constantly ventured out of his depth in such subjects as + philosophy and theology; and he suffered a terrible defeat + by rashly engaging, and by tactical ineptitude, in his + contest with Newman. His politics, in which matter at one + time he engaged hotly, were those of a busier and more + educated Colonel Newcome. His poems, which were his least + unequal work, seem never to have attracted due notice. + + But none of his foibles--not even corn-treading--is a fatal + defect in familiar letter-writing: consequently he has good + chance here, and his _Letters and Memoirs_ have been + deservedly often reprinted. It is true that letters cannot + show in full the really exceptional versatility which + enabled the same man to write _Yeast_ and _Westward Ho!_, + _Andromeda_ and _The Water Babies_, the best of the Essays + and the best of the Sermons, _Alton Locke_ and _At Last_. + But they can and they do show it in part: and it gives them + the interest which has been noticed in other cases. Indeed + in one respect--as a writer--Kingsley is perhaps better in + his letters than in his _Essays_, where he too often affects + a Macaulayesque positiveness on rather inadequate grounds. + The following specimen should show him in pleasantly varied + character--as a thoroughly human person, a good sportsman, + and what Matthew Arnold (by no means himself very liberal of + praise to his literary contemporaries) thought him--"the + most generous man [he had] ever known; the most forward to + praise, the most willing to admire, the most free from all + thought of himself in praising and admiring and the most + incapable of being made ill-natured by having to support + ill-natured attacks upon himself." It is to be feared that + Mr. Arnold did not go far wrong when he declared, "Among men + of letters I know nothing so rare as this." + + It is true that the author of _Tom Brown's Schooldays_ was + an intimate personal friend, and in politics and other + things a close comrade of Kingsley's; but he was as generous + to others, and while the scars of the battle with Newman + were almost fresh, he writes that he has read _The Dream of + Gerontius_ "with admiration and awe." [Greek: thymos], in + this sense = "spirit." "Jaques" = "Jack" = "Pike," while on + the other side we get, through him of _As You Like It_, an + explanation of "melancholies." And in fact the pike is not a + cheerful-looking fish. Even two whom the present writer once + saw tugging at the two ends of one dead trout in a shallow, + did it sulkily. + + +52. TO TOM HUGHES, ESQ. + +Jan. 12. 1857. + +I have often been minded to write to you about 'Tom Brown.' I have +puffed it everywhere I went, but I soon found how true the adage is that +good wine needs no bush, for every one had read it already, and from +every one, from the fine lady on her throne to the red-coat on his +cock-horse and the school-boy on his forrum (as our Irish brethren call +it), I have heard but one word, and that is, that it is the jolliest +book they ever read. Among a knot of red-coats at the cover-side, some +very fast fellow said, 'If I had had such a book in my boyhood, I should +have been a better man now!' and more than one capped his sentiment +frankly. Now isn't it a comfort to your old bones to have written such a +book, and a comfort to see that fellows are in a humour to take it in? +So far from finding men of our rank in a bad vein, or sighing over the +times and prospects of the rising generation, I can't help thinking they +are very teachable, humble, honest fellows, who want to know what's +right, and if they don't go and do it, still think the worst of +themselves therefor. I remark now, that with hounds and in fast company, +I never hear an oath, and that, too, is a sign of self-restraint. +Moreover, drinking is gone out, and, good God, what a blessing! I have +good hopes, of our class, and better than of the class below. They are +effeminate, and that makes them sensual. Pietists of all ages (George +Fox, my dear friend, among the worst) never made a greater mistake than +in fancying that by keeping down manly [Greek: thymos], which Plato +saith is the root of all virtue, they could keep down sensuality. They +were dear good old fools. However, the day of 'Pietism' is gone, and +'Tom Brown' is a heavy stone on its grave. 'Him no get up again after +that,' as the niggers say of a buried obi-man. I am trying to polish the +poems: but Maurice's holidays make me idle; he has come home healthier +and jollier than ever he was in all his life, and is truly a noble boy. +Sell your last coat and buy a spoon. I have a spoon of huge size (Farlow +his make). I killed forty pounds weight of pike, &c., on it the other +day, at Strathfieldsaye, to the astonishment and delight of ----, who +cut small jokes on 'a spoon at each end,' &c., but altered his tone when +he saw the melancholies coming ashore, one every ten minutes, and would +try his own hand. I have killed heaps of big pike round with it. I tried +it in Lord Eversley's lakes on Monday, when the fish wouldn't have even +his fly. Capricious party is Jaques. Next day killed a seven pounder at +Hurst.... We had a pretty thing on Friday with Garth's, the first run +I've seen this year. Out of the Clay Vale below Tilney Hall, pace as +good as could be, fields three acres each, fences awful, then over +Hazeley Heath to Bramshill, shoved him through a false cast, and a +streamer over Hartford Bridge flat, into an unlucky earth. Time +fifty-five minutes, falls plentiful, started thirty, and came in eight, +and didn't the old mare go? Oh, Tom, she is a comfort; even when a bank +broke into a lane, and we tumbled down, she hops up again before I'd +time to fall off, and away like a four-year old. And if you can get a +horse through that clay vale, why then you can get him 'mostwards'; +leastwise so I find, for a black region it is, and if you ain't in the +same field with the hounds, you don't know whether you are in the same +parish, what with hedges, and trees, and woods, and all supernumerary +vegetations. Actually I was pounded in a 'taty-garden,' so awful is the +amount of green stuff in these parts. Come and see me, and take the old +mare out, and if you don't break her neck, she won't break yours. + + + + +JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900) + + + The peculiar wilfulness--the unkind called it + wrong-headedness--which flecked and veined Mr. Ruskin's + genius, had, owing to his wealth and to his entire + indifference to any but his own opinion, opportunities of + displaying itself in all his work, public as well as + private, which are not common. Naturally, it showed itself + nowhere more than in letters, and perhaps not unnaturally he + often adopted the epistolary form in books which, had he + chosen, might as well have taken another--while he might + have chosen this in some which do not actually _call_ + themselves "letters." There is, however, little difference, + except "fuller dress" of expression, between any of the + classes of his work, whether it range from the first volume + of _Modern Painters_ to _Verona_ in time, or from _The Seven + Lamps of Architecture_ to _Unto This Last_ in subject. If + anybody ever could "write beautifully about a broomstick" he + could: though perhaps it is a pity that he so often did. But + this faculty, and the entire absence of bashfulness which + accompanied it, are no doubt grand accommodations for + letter-writing; and the reader of Mr. Ruskin's letters gets + the benefit of both very often--of a curious study of high + character and great powers uncontrolled by logical + self-criticism almost always. The following--part of a still + longer letter which he addressed to the _Daily Telegraph_, + Sep. 11, 1865, on the eternal Servant Question--was of + course written for publication, but so, practically, was + everything that ever came from its author. It so happens too + that, putting aside his usual King Charles's Head of Demand + and Supply, there is little in it of his more mischievous + crotchets, nothing of the petulance (amounting occasionally + to rudeness) of language in which he sometimes indulged, but + much of his nobler idealism, while it is a capital example + of his less florid style. "Launce," "Grumio" and "Old Adam" + are of course Shakespeare's: "Fairservice" (of whom, + tormenting and selfish as he was, Mr. Ruskin perhaps thought + a little too harshly) and "Mattie," Scott's. "Latinity + enough"--the unfortunate man had written, and the newspaper + had printed, _hoc_ instead of _hac_. "A book of Scripture," + Colenso's work had just been finished. "Charlotte Winsor" a + baby-farmer of the day. + + +53. From "THE DAILY TELEGRAPH" + +September 18, 1865. + +DOMESTIC SERVANTS: SONSHIP AND SLAVERY. + +To the Editor of "The Daily Telegraph." + +Sir, + +I have been watching the domestic correspondence in your columns with +much interest, and thought of offering you a short analysis of it when +you saw good to bring it to a close, and perhaps a note or two of my own +experience, being somewhat conceited on the subject just now, because I +have a gardener who lets me keep old-fashioned plants in the greenhouse, +understands that my cherries are grown for the blackbirds, and sees me +gather a bunch of my own grapes without making a wry face. But your +admirable article of yesterday causes me to abandon my purpose; the more +willingly, because among all the letters you have hitherto published +there is not one from any head of a household which contains a complaint +worth notice. All the masters or mistresses whose letters are thoughtful +or well written say they get on well enough with their servants; no +part has yet been taken in the discussion by the heads of old families. +The servants' letters, hitherto, furnish the best data; but the better +class of servants are also silent, and must remain so. Launce, Grumio, +or Fairservice may have something to say for themselves; but you will +hear nothing from Old Adam nor from Carefu' Mattie. One proverb from +Sancho, if we could get it, would settle the whole business for us; but +his master and he are indeed "no more." I would have walked down to +Dulwich to hear what Sam Weller had to say; but the high-level railway +went through Mr. Pickwick's parlour two months ago, and it is of no use +writing to Sam, for, as you are well aware, he is no penman. And, +indeed, Sir, little good will come of any writing on the matter. "The +cat will mew, the dog will have its day." You yourself, excellent as is +the greater part of what you have said, and to the point, speak but +vainly when you talk of "probing the evil to the bottom." This is no +sore that can be probed, no sword nor bullet wound. This is a plague +spot. Small or great, it is in the significance of it, not in the depth, +that you have to measure it. It is essentially bottomless, cancerous; a +putrescence through the constitution of the people is indicated by this +galled place. Because I know this thoroughly, I say so little, and that +little, as your correspondents think, who know nothing of me, and as you +say, who might have known more of me, unpractically. Pardon me, I am no +seller of plasters, nor of ounces of civet. The patient's sickness is +his own fault, and only years of discipline will work it out of him. +That is the only really "practical" saying that can be uttered to him. + +The relation of master and servant involves every other--touches every +condition of moral health through the State. Put that right, and you +put all right; but you will find that it can only come ultimately, not +primarily, right; you cannot begin with it. Some of the evidence you +have got together is valuable, many pieces of partial advice very good. +You need hardly, I think, unless you wanted a type of British logic, +have printed a letter in which the writer accused (or would have +accused, if he had possessed Latinity enough) all London servants of +being thieves because he had known one robbery to have been committed by +a nice-looking girl. But on the whole there is much common sense in the +letters; the singular point in them all, to my mind, being the +inapprehension of the breadth and connection of the question, and the +general resistance to, and stubborn rejection of, the abstract ideas of +sonship and slavery, which include whatever is possible in wise +treatment of servants. It is very strange to see that, while everybody +shrinks at abstract suggestions of there being possible error in a book +of Scripture, your sensible English housewife fearlessly rejects +Solomon's opinion when it runs slightly counter to her own, and that not +one of your many correspondents seems ever to have read the Epistle to +Philemon. It is no less strange that while most English boys of ordinary +position hammer through their Horace at one time or other time of their +school life, no word of his wit or his teaching seems to remain by them: +for all the good they get out of them, the Satires need never have been +written. The Roman gentleman's account of his childhood and of his +domestic life possesses no charm for them; and even men of education +would sometimes start to be reminded that his "_noctes coenaeque Deum!_" +meant supping with his merry slaves on beans and bacon. Will you allow +me, on this general question of liberty and slavery, to refer your +correspondents to a paper of mine touching closely upon it, the leader +in the _Art-Journal_ for July last? and to ask them also to meditate a +little over the two beautiful epitaphs on Epictetus and Zosima, quoted +in the last paper of the _Idler_? + + "I, Epictetus, was a slave; and sick in body, and wretched + in poverty; and beloved by the gods." + + "Zosima, who while she lived was a slave only in her body, + has now found deliverance for that also." + +How might we, over many an "independent" Englishman, reverse this last +legend, and write-- + + "This man, who while he lived was free only in his body, has + now found captivity for that also." + +I will not pass without notice--for it bears also on wide +interests--your correspondent's question, how my principles differ from +the ordinary economist's view of supply and demand. Simply in that the +economy I have taught, in opposition to the popular view, is the science +which not merely ascertains the relations of existing demand and supply, +but determines what _ought_ to be demanded and what _can_ be supplied. A +child demands the moon, and, the supply not being in this case equal to +the demand, is wisely accommodated with a rattle; a footpad demands your +purse, and is supplied according to the less or more rational economy of +the State, with that or a halter; a foolish nation, not able to get into +its head that free trade does indeed mean the removal of taxation from +its imports, but not of supervision from them, demands unlimited foreign +beef, and is supplied with the cattle murrain and the like. There may be +all manner of demands, all manner of supplies. The true political +economist regulates these; the false political economist leaves them to +be regulated by (not Divine) Providence. For, indeed, the largest final +demand anywhere reported of, is that of hell; and the supply of it (by +the broad gauge line) would be very nearly equal to the demand at this +day, unless there were here and there a swineherd or two who could keep +his pigs out of sight of the lake. + +Thus in this business of servants everything depends on what sort of +servant you at heart wish for or "demand." If for nurses you want +Charlotte Winsors, they are to be had for money; but by no means for +money, such as that German girl who, the other day, on her own +scarce-floating fragment of wreck, saved the abandoned child of another +woman, keeping it alive by the moisture from her lips. What kind of +servant do you want? It is a momentous question for you yourself--for +the nation itself. Are we to be a nation of shopkeepers, wanting only +shop-boys: or of manufacturers, wanting only hands: or are there to be +knights among us, who will need squires--captains among us, needing +crews? Will you have clansmen for your candlesticks, or silver plate? +Myrmidons at your tents, ant-born, or only a mob on the Gillies' Hill? +Are you resolved that you will never have any but your inferiors to +serve you, or shall Enid ever lay your trencher with tender little +thumb, and Cinderella sweep your hearth, and be cherished there? It +_might_ come to that in time, and plate and hearth be the brighter; but +if your servants are to be held your inferiors, at least be sure they +_are_ so, and that you are indeed wiser, and better-tempered, and more +useful than they. Determine what their education ought to be, and +organize proper servants' schools, and there give it them. So they will +be fit for their position, and will do honour to it, and stay in it: let +the masters be as sure they do honour to theirs, and are as willing to +stay in that. Remember that every people which gives itself to the +pursuit of riches, invariably, and of necessity, gets the scum uppermost +in time, and is set by the genii, like the ugly bridegroom in the +Arabian Nights, at its own door with its heels in the air, showing its +shoe-soles instead of a Face. And the reversal is a serious matter, if +reversal be even possible, and it comes right end uppermost again, +instead of to conclusive Wrong-end. + + + + +ROBERT LOUIS BALFOUR STEVENSON +(1850-1894) + + + The author of _Treasure Island_ (invariably known to his + friends simply as "Louis," the "Robert" being reserved in + the form of "Bob" for his less famous but very admirable + cousin the art-critic) will perhaps offer to some Matthew + Arnold of posterity the opportunity of a paradox like that + of our Matthew on Shelley. For a short time some of these + friends--not perhaps the wisest of them--were inclined to + regard him as, and to urge him to continue to be, a writer + of criticisms and miscellaneous articles--a sort of new + Hazlitt. Others no sooner saw the _New Arabian Nights_ than + they recognised a tale-teller such as had not been seen for + a long time--such as, in respect of anything imitable, had + never been seen before. And he fortunately fell in with + these views and hopes. But all his tales are pure Romance, + and Romance has her eclipses with the vulgar. On the other + hand his letters are almost as good as his fiction, and not + in the least open to the charges of a certain + non-naturalness of style--even of thought--which could, + justly or not, be brought against his other writings. And it + is perhaps worth noting here that letters have held their + popularity with all fit judges almost better than any other + division of literature. Whether this is the effect of their + "touches of nature" (using the famous phrase without the + blunder so common in regard to it but not without reference + to its context) need not be discussed. + + As, by the kindness of Mr. Lloyd Osbourne, I am enabled to + give here an unpublished letter of Stevenson's to myself, it + may require some explanation, not only of the commentatory + and commendatory kind but of fact. Stevenson, coming to dine + with me, had brought with him, and showed with much pride, a + new umbrella (a seven-and-sixpenny one) which, to my + surprise, he had bought. But when he went away that night he + forgot it; and when I met him next day at the Savile and + suggested that I should send it to him, there or somewhere, + he said he was going abroad almost immediately and begged me + to keep it for him. By this or that accident, but chiefly + owing to his constant expatriations, no opportunity of + restitution ever occurred: though I used to remind him of it + as a standing joke, and treasured it religiously, stored and + unused. This letter is partly in answer to a last reminder + in which I said that I was going to present it to the + nation, that it might be kept with King Koffee Kalcalli's, + but as a memory of a "victor in romance" not of a vanquished + enemy. + + I of course told Mr. Kipling of the contents which concerned + him: and he, equally of course, demanded delivery of the + goods at once. But, half in joke, I demurred, saying that I + was a bailee, and the gift was not formal enough, being + undated and only a "suggestion"; he should have it without + fail at my death, or Stevenson's.[130] + + When alas! this latter came, I prepared to act up to my + promise; but, alas! again, the umbrella had vanished! Some + prated of mislaying in house-removal, of illicit use by + servants, etc.; but for my part I had and have no doubt that + the thing had been enskyed and constellated--like Ariadne's + Crown, Berenice's Locks, Cassiopeia's Chair, and a whole + galaxy of other now celestial objects--to afford a special + place to my dead friend then, and to my live one when (may + the time still be far distant) he is ready for it. + + As for the more serious subject of the letter, I must refer + curious readers to an essay of mine on Lockhart, originally + published in 1884 and reprinted in _Essays in English + Literature_ some years later. To this reprint I subjoined, + _before_ I got this letter from R. L. S., a reasoned defence + of Lockhart from the charge of cowardice and "caddishness": + but it is evident that Stevenson had not yet seen it. When + he did see it, he wrote me another letter chiefly about my + book itself, and so of no interest to the public, but + touching again on this Lockhart question. He avowed himself + still dissatisfied: but said he was sorry for his original + remark which was "ungracious and unhandsome" if not untrue, + adding, "for to whom do I owe more pleasure than to + Lockhart?" + + +54. + +My dear Saintsbury, + +Thanks for yours. Why did I call Lockhart a cad? That calls for an +answer, and I give it. "Scorpion"[131] literature seems at the best no +very fit employment for a man of genius, which Lockhart was--and none at +all for a gentleman. But if a man goes in for such a trade, he must be +ready for the consequences; and I do not conceive a gentleman as a +coward; the white feather is not his crest, it _almost_ excludes--and I +put the "almost" with reluctance. Well, now about the duel? Even +Bel-Ami[132] turned up on the _terrain_. But Lockhart? _Et responsum est +ab omnibus, Non est inventus._[133] I have often wondered how Scott took +that episode.[134] I do not know how this view will strike you;[135] it +seems to me the "good old honest" fashion of our fathers, though I own +it does not agree with the New Morality. "Cad" may be perhaps an +expression too vivacious and not well chosen; it is, at least upon my +view, substantially just. + +Now if you mean to comb my wig, comb it from the right parting--I know +you will comb it well. + +An infinitely small jest occurs to me in connection with the historic +umbrella: and perhaps its infinite smallness attracts me. Would you mind +handing it to Rudyard Kipling with the enclosed note?[136] It seems to +me fitly to consecrate and commemorate this most absurd episode. + +Yours very sincerely, + +ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. + +[_Enclosure_] + + This Umbrella + purchased in the year 1878 by + Robert Louis Stevenson +(and faithfully stabled for more than twelve years in the + halls of George Saintsbury) + is now handed on at the suggestion of the first and + by the loyal hands of the second, + to + Rudyard Kipling. + +PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY ROBERT MACLEHOSE AND CO. LTD. +THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, GLASGOW. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[130] Of this _moratorium_ I believe I duly advised R. L. S. and I don't +think he objected. There was, if I remember rightly, a further reason +for it--that I was living in two places at the time and the subject was +not immediately at hand. + +[131] Lockhart's (self-given) name in the "_Chaldee MS._" was "the +Scorpion that delighteth to sting the faces of men." + +[132] Maupassant's ineffable hero and title-giver. + +[133] Hardly any school-boy of my or Stevenson's generation would have +needed a reference to the _Essay on Murder_. But I am told that De +Quincey has gone out of fashion, with school-boys and others. + +[134] We know now: also what "The Duke" said when consulted. They did +not agree with Stevenson, but then they knew all the facts and he did +not. + +[135] I should have held it myself, if the facts had been what R. L. S. +thought them. + +[136] Which of course is Mr. Kipling's property, not mine. But he has +most kindly joined in, authorising its publication, and that of the rest +of the letter as far as he is concerned. + + + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + +The Peace +of the Augustans + +A Survey of Eighteenth Century Literature +as a Place of Rest and Refreshment + +_Demy 8vo. 10s. 6d. net_ + + "No one living," according to the _Times_, "knows English + eighteenth century literature as well as Mr. Saintsbury + knows it.... If you do not know and like your eighteenth + century, then he will make you; and if you do, he will show + you that even what you thought the dullest parts are full of + rest and refreshment." + + In the opinion of the _Spectator_, "Mr. Saintsbury in his + new book has given to the world a singularly delightful + gift. _The Peace of the Augustans_ is in no sense written + down. Yet every page is so subtly seasoned with amusing + comment, and the whole book is so charmingly garnished that + none but a dullard could fail to find delight in its + perusal, however little he knew of the spirit which animated + the eighteenth century. One can hardly imagine better + reading after a day of hard or uncongenial work." + + "No bush is necessary to proclaim where good wine may be + had," says the _Glasgow Herald_, "and no author's name was + required to indicate the source of this always fresh and in + some respects original treatment of the Augustan + literature.... In literature there are many mansions, and + Mr. Saintsbury is at home in them all.... A book it has been + very pleasant and very profitable to read." + +LONDON: G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. +YORK HOUSE, PORTUGAL STREET, W.C. 2 + + + +Handbooks of +English Literature + +Edited by the late J. W. HALES, M.A. + +Professor of English Literature, King's College, London + +_Small Crown 8vo. 5s. net each_ + + + =THE AGE OF ALFRED= (664-1154). By F. J. SNELL, M.A. + + =THE AGE OF CHAUCER= (1346-1400). By F. J. SNELL, M.A., with + an Introduction by PROFESSOR HALES. _Third edition._ + + =THE AGE OF TRANSITION= (1400-1580). By F. J. SNELL, M.A. In + 2 vols. With Introduction by PROFESSOR HALES, Vol. + I.--Poetry. Vol. II.--Prose and Drama. _Third edition._ + + =THE AGE OF SHAKESPEARE= (1579-1631). By THOMAS SECCOMBE and + J. W. ALLEN. In 2 vols. Vol. I.--Poetry and Prose, with an + Introduction by PROFESSOR HALES. Vol. II.--Drama. _Seventh + edition._ + + =THE AGE OF MILTON= (1632-1660). By Rev. Canon J. H. B. + MASTERMAN, M.A., with an Introduction, &c., by J. BASS + MULLINGER, M.A. _Eighth edition._ + + =THE AGE OF DRYDEN= (1660-1700). By the late RICHARD + GARNETT, C.B., LL.D. _Eighth edition._ + + =THE AGE OF POPE= (1700-1744). By JOHN DENNIS. _Tenth + edition._ + + =THE AGE OF JOHNSON= (1744-1798). By THOMAS SECCOMBE. + _Seventh edition._ + + =THE AGE OF WORDSWORTH= (1798-1832). By PROFESSOR C. H. + HERFORD, Litt.D. _Twelfth edition._ + + =THE AGE OF TENNYSON= (1830-1870). By PROFESSOR HUGH WALKER, + M.A. _Ninth edition._ + +LONDON: G. BELL AND SONS, LTD. +YORK HOUSE, PORTUGAL STREET, W.C. 2 + + + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's Notes | + | | + | Page 108: full stop inserted after "Duke of Burgundy" | + | Page 125: Second opening parenthesis from before "Cambridge | + | University Press" removed | + | Page 245: Removed closing parenthesis following "the Valley | + | of the Shadow of Frederick" | + | Page 260: "sunday" _sic_ | + | | + | Generally spelling, capitalization and punctuation in | + | letters has been retained as per the book, with the | + | following exceptions: | + | | + | Page 305: Removed closing quote marks following "terrain" | + | (Letter 54) | + +--------------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Letter Book, by George Saintsbury + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A LETTER BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 31072.txt or 31072.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/0/7/31072/ + +Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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