Letters of Edward FitzGerald to Fanny Kemble (1871-1883) Part 39

'Certainly you are no stranger to me. I have heard so often from Carlyle, and I have read so much in his letters, about your exertions, and about your entertainment of him at various times, that I can hardly persuade myself that I never saw you.

'The letters you speak of must be very interesting, and I would ask you to let me see them if I thought that they were likely to be of use to me; but the subject with which I have to deal is so vast that I am obliged to limit myself, and so intricate that I am glad to be able to limit myself. I shall do what Carlyle desired me to do, _i.e._ edit the collection of his wife's letters, which he himself prepared for publication.

'This gift or bequest of his governs the rest of my work. What I have already done is an introduction to these letters. When they are published I shall add a volume of personal recollections of his later life; and this will be all. Had I been left unenc.u.mbered by special directions I should have been tempted to leave his domestic history untouched except on the outside, and have attempted to make a complete biography out of the general materials. This I am unable to do, and all that I can give the world will be materials for some other person to use hereafter. I can explain no further the conditions of the problem. But for my own share of it I have materials in abundance, and I must avoid being tempted off into other matters however important in themselves.

'I may add for myself that I did not seek this duty, nor was it welcome to me. C. asked me to undertake it. When I looked through the papers I saw how difficult, how, in some aspects of it, painful, the task would be.

'Believe me, 'faithfully yours, 'J. A. FROUDE.'

{245a} Printed in 'Letters,' ii. 332.

{245b} July 30th.

{247} Printed in 'Letters,' ii. 333.

{248} Here begins second half-sheet, dated 'Monday, Sept. 5.'

{249} Partly printed in 'Letters,' ii. 335.

{250a} See letter of June 23rd, 1880.

{250b} Reprinted in 'A Book of Sibyls,' 1883.

{251a} _The Promise of May_ was acted at the Globe Theatre, November 11th, 1882.

{251b} See letter of November 13th, 1879.

{252a} Mrs. Wister's son.

{252b} See letter of March 28th, 1880.

{253a} 'John Leech and other Papers,' 1882.

{253b} November 18th, 1882.

{257} See 'Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle,' ii. 249.

{259} For May 1883: 'Mrs. Carlyle.'

{260} Tennyson's 'Brook.'

{261} In a letter to Sir Frederick Pollock, March 16th, 1879, he says:--

"I have had Sir Walter read to me first of a Night, by way of Drama; then ten minutes for Refreshment, and then d.i.c.kens for Farce. Just finished the Pirate--as wearisome for Nornas, Minnas, Brendas, etc., as any of the Scotch Set; but when the Common People have to talk, the Pirates to quarrel and swear, then Author and Reader are at home; and at the end I 'fare' to like this one the best of the Series. The Sea scenery has much to do with this preference I dare say."

{263} See 'Letters,' ii. 344.