The Letters of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Volume I Part 11

I shall have room for praising Gregory in these papers.

[Footnote 61: The series of papers on the Greek Christian Poets appeared in the _Athenaeum_ for February and March 1842; they are reprinted in the _Poetical Works_, v. 109-200.]

[Footnote 62: This scheme took shape in the series of papers on the English Poets which appeared in the _Athenaeum_ in the course of June and August 1842 (reprinted in _Poetical Works_, v. 201-290).]

_To H.S. Boyd_ February 4, 1842.

My dear Friend,--You must be thinking, if you are not a St. Boyd for good temper, that among the Gregorys and Synesiuses I have forgotten everything about you. No; indeed it has not been so. I have never _stopped_ being grateful to you for your kind notes, and the two last pieces of Gregory, although I did not say an overt 'Thank you;' but I have been very very busy besides, and thus I answered to myself for your being kind enough to pardon a silence which was compelled rather than voluntary.

Do you ever observe that as vexations don't come alone, occupations don't, and that, if you happen to be engaged upon one particular thing, it is the signal for your being waylaid by bundles of letters desiring immediate answers, and proof sheets or ma.n.u.script works whose writers request your opinion while their 'printer waits'? The old saints are not responsible for all the filling up of my time. I have been _busy upon busy_.

The first part of my story about the Greek poets went to the 'Athenaeum' some days ago, but, although graciously received by the editor, it won't appear this week, or I should have had a proof sheet (which was promised to me) before now. I must contrive to include all I have to say on the subject in _three parts_. They will admit, they tell me, a fourth _if I please_, but evidently they would prefer as much brevity as I could vouchsafe. Only two poets are in the first notice, and _twenty_ remain--and neither of the two is Gregory.

Will you let me see that volume of Gregory which contains the 'Christus Patiens'? Send it by any boy on the heath, and I will remunerate him for the walk and the burden, and thank you besides. Oh, don't be afraid! I am not going to charge it upon Gregory, but on the younger Apollinaris, whose claim is stronger, and I rather wish to refresh my recollection of the height and breadth of that tragic misdemeanour.

It is quite true that I never have suffered much pain, and equally so that I continue most decidedly better, notwithstanding the winter. I feel, too--I do hope not ungratefully--the blessing granted to me in the possibility of literary occupation,--which is at once occupation and distraction. Carlyle (not the infidel, but the philosopher) calls literature a 'fireproof pleasure.' How truly! How deeply I have felt that truth!

May G.o.d bless you, dear Mr. Boyd. I don't despair of looking in your face one day yet before my last.

Ever your affectionate and obliged E.B.B.

Arabel's love.

_To H.S. Boyd_ March 2, 1842.

My ever very dear Friend,--Do receive the a.s.surance that whether I leave out the right word or put in the wrong one, you never can be other to me than just _that_ while I live, and why not after I have ceased to live? And now--what have I done in the meantime, to be called 'Miss Barrett'? 'I pause for a reply.'

Of course it gives me very great pleasure to hear you speak so kindly of my first paper. Some _bona avis_ as good as a nightingale must have shaken its wings over me as I began it; and if it will but sit on the same spray while I go on towards the end, I shall rejoice exactly four-fold. The third paper went to Mr. Dilke to-day, and I was so fidgety about getting it away (and it seemed to cling to my writing case with both its hands), that I would not do any writing, even as little as this note, until it was quite gone out of sight. You know it is possible that he, the editor, may not please to have the _fourth_ paper; but even in that case, it is better for the 'Remarks' to remain fragmentary, than be compressed till they are as dry as a _hortus siccus_ of poets.

Certainly you do and must praise my number one too much. Number one (that's myself) thinks so. I do really; and the supererogatory virtue of kindness may be acknowledged out of the pale of the Romish Church.

In regard to Gregory and Synesius, you will see presently that I have not wronged them altogether.

As you have ordered the 'Athenaeums,' I will not send one to-morrow so as to repeat my ill fortune of being too late. But tell me if you would like to have any from me, and how many.

It was very kind in you to pat Flush's[63] head in defiance of danger and from pure regard for me. I kissed his head where you had patted it; which a.s.sociation of approximations I consider as an imitation of shaking hands with you and as the next best thing to it. You understand--don't you?--that Flush is my constant companion, my friend, my amus.e.m.e.nt, lying with his head on one page of my folios while I read the other. (Not _your_ folios--I respect _your_ books, be sure.) Oh, I dare say, if the truth were known, Flush understands Greek excellently well.

I hope you are right in thinking that we shall meet again. Once I wished _not_ to live, but the faculty of life seems to have sprung up in me again, from under the crus.h.i.+ng foot of heavy grief.

Be it all as G.o.d wills.

Believe me, your ever affectionate

E.B.B.

[Footnote 63: Miss Barrett's dog, the gift of Miss Mitford. His praise is sung in her poem, 'To Flush, my Dog' (_Poetical Works_, iii. 19), and in many of the following letters. He accompanied his mistress to Italy, lived to a good old age, and now lies buried in the vaults of Casa Guidi.]

_To H.S. Boyd_ Sat.u.r.day night, March 5, 1842.

My very dear Friend,--I am quite angry with myself for forgetting your questions when I answered your letter.

Could you really imagine that I have not looked into the Greek tragedians for years, with my true love for Greek poetry? That is asking a question, you will say, and not answering it. Well, then, I answer by a 'Yes' the one you put to me. I had two volumes of Euripides with me in Devons.h.i.+re, and have read him as well as Aeschylus and Sophocles--that is _from_ them--both before and since I went there. You know I have gone through every line of the three tragedians long ago, in the way of regular, consecutive reading.

You know also that I had at different times read different dialogues of Plato; but when three years ago, and a few months previous to my leaving home, I became possessed of a complete edition of his works, edited by Bekker, why then I began with the first volume and went through the whole of his writings, both those I knew and those I did not know, one after another: and have at this time read, not only all that is properly attributed to Plato, but even those dialogues and epistles which pa.s.s falsely under his name--everything except two books I think, or three, of the treatise 'De Legibus,' which I shall finish in a week or two, as soon as I can take breath from Mr. Dilke.

Now the questions are answered.

Ever your affectionate and grateful friend, E.B.B.

_To H.S. Boyd_ Thursday, March 10, 1842 [postmark].

My very dear Friend,--I did not know until to-day whether the paper would appear on Sat.u.r.day or not; but as I have now received the proof sheets, there can be no doubt of it. I have been and _am_ hurried and hunted almost into a corner through the pressing for the fourth paper, and the difficulty about books. You will forgive a very short note to night.

I have read of Aristotle only his Poetics, his Ethics, and his work upon Rhetoric, but I mean to take him regularly into both hands when I finish Plato's last page. Aristophanes I took with me into Devons.h.i.+re; and after all, I do not know much more of _him_ than three or four of his plays may stand for. Next week, my very dear friend, I shall be at your commands, and sit in spirit at your footstool, to hear and answer anything you may care to ask me--but oh! what have I done that you should talk to _me_ about 'venturing,' or 'liberty,' or anything of that kind?

From your affectionate and grateful catechumen, E.B.B.

_To H.S. Boyd_.

March 29, 1842.

My very dear Friend,--I received your long letter and receive your short one, and thank you for the pleasure of both. Of course I am very _very_ glad of your approval in the matter of the papers, and your kindness could not have wished to give me more satisfaction than it gave actually. Mr. Kenyon tells me that Mr. Burgess[64] has been reading and commending the papers, and has brought me from him a newly discovered scene of the 'Bacchae' of Euripides, edited by Mr. Burgess himself for the 'Gentlemen's Magazine,' and of which he considers that the 'Planctus Mariae,' at least the pa.s.sage I extracted from it, is an imitation. Should you care to see it? Say 'Yes,'--and I will send it to you.

Do you think it was wrong to make _eternity_ feminine? I knew that the Greek word was not feminine; but imagined that the English personification should be so. Am I wrong in this? Will you consider the subject again?

Ah, yes! That was a mistake of mine about putting Constantine for Constantius. I wrote from memory, and the memory betrayed me. But say nothing about it. n.o.body will find it out. I send you Silentiarius and some poems of Pisida in the same volume. Even if you had not asked for them, I should have asked you to look at some pa.s.sages which are fine in both. It appears to me that Silentiarius writes difficult Greek, overlaying his description with a mult.i.tude of architectural and other far fetched words! Pisida is hard, too, occasionally, from other causes, particularly in the 'Hexaemeron,' which is not in the book I send you but in another very gigantic one (as tall as the Irish giants), which you may see if you please. I will send a coach and six with it if you please.

John Mauropus, of the Three Towns, I owe the knowledge of to _you.

You_ lent me the book with his poems, you know. He is a great favorite of mine in all ways. I very much admire his poetry.

Believe me, ever your affectionate and grateful

ELIZABETH B. BARRETT.

Pray tell me what you think. I am sorry to observe that the book I send you is marked very irregularly; that is, marked in some places, unmarked in others, just as I happened to be near or far from my pencil and inkstand. Otherwise I should have liked to compare judgments with you.

Keep the book as long as you please; it is my own.

[Footnote 64: George Burges, the cla.s.sical scholar. He had in 1832 contributed to the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (under a pseudonym) some lines purporting to be a newly discovered portion of the _Bacchae_, but really composed by himself on the basis of a parallel pa.s.sage in the _Christus Patiens_. It is apparently to these lines that Miss Barrett alludes, though the 'discovery' was then nearly ten years old.]

_To H.S. Boyd_ 50 Wimpole Street: April 2, 1842.

My very dear Friend,--... As to your kind desire to hear whatever in the way of favorable remark I have gathered together for fruit of my papers, I put on a veil and tell you that Mr. Kenyon thought it well done, although 'labour thrown away, from the unpopularity of the subject;' that Miss Mitford was very much pleased, with the warmheartedness common to her; that Mrs. Jamieson [_sic_] read them 'with great pleasure' unconsciously of the author; and that Mr. Home the poet and Mr. Browning the poet were not behind in approbation. Mr.