[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 9th Jan. 1868.]
There is a good genius presiding over your gifts--they are so
felicitous. You always give me something of which I have felt the want
beforehand, and can use continually. It is eminently so with my pretty
mittens; there was no little appendage I wanted more; and they are
just as warm at the wrist as I could have wished them to be--warming,
too, as a mark of affection at a time when all cheering things are
doubly welcome.
Mr. Lewes came home last night, and you may imagine that I am glad.
Between the bad weather, bad health, and solitude, I have been so far
unlike the wicked that I have not flourished like the green bay-tree.
To make amends, he--Mr. Lewes, not the wicked--has had a brilliant
time, gained great instruction, and seen some admirable men, who have
received him warmly.
I go out of doors very little, but I shall open the drawer and look at
my mittens on the days when I don't put them on.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_Jan._--Engaged in writing Part III. of "Spanish Gypsy."
_Feb. 27._--Returned last evening from a very pleasant visit to
Cambridge.[4] I am still only at p. 5 of Part IV., having had a
wretched month of _malaise_.
_March 1._--Finished Guillemin on the "Heavens," and the 4th Book of
the "Iliad." I shall now read Grote.
_March 6._--Reading Lubbock's "Prehistoric Ages."
_March 8._--Saturday concert. Joachim and Piatti, with Schubert's
Ottett.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 17th Mch. 1868.]
We go to-morrow morning to Torquay for a month, and I can't bear to go
without saying a word of farewell to you. How sadly little we have
seen each other this winter! It will not be so any more, I hope, will
it?
We are both much in need of the change, for Mr. Lewes has got rather
out of sorts again lately. When we come back I shall ask you to come
and look at us before the bloom is off. I should like to know how you
all are; but you have been so little inspired for note-writing lately
that I am afraid to ask you to send me a line to the post-office at
Torquay. I really deserve nothing of my friends at present.
[Sidenote: Letter to Miss Sara Hennell, 22d Mch. 1868.]
I don't know whether you have ever seen Torquay. It is pretty, but not
comparable to Ilfracombe; and, like all other easily accessible
sea-places, it is sadly spoiled by wealth and fashion, which leave no
secluded walks, and tattoo all the hills with ugly patterns of roads
and villa gardens. Our selfishness does not adapt itself well to these
on-comings of the millennium.
I am reading about savages and semi-savages, and think that our
religious oracles would do well to study savage ideas by a method of
comparison with their own. Also, I am studying that semi-savage poem,
the "Iliad." How enviable it is to be a classic. When a verse in the
"Iliad" bears six different meanings, and nobody knows which is the
right, a commentator finds this equivocalness in itself admirable!
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, end of Mch. 1868.]
Mr. Lewes quite agrees with you, that it is desirable to announce the
poem. His suggestion is, that it should be simply announced as "a
poem" first, and then a little later as "The Spanish Gypsy," in order
to give a new detail for observation in the second announcement. I
chose the title, "The Spanish Gypsy," a long time ago, because it is a
little in the fashion of the elder dramatists, with whom I have
perhaps more cousinship than with recent poets. Fedalma might be
mistaken for an Italian name, which would create a definite
expectation of a mistaken kind, and is, on other grounds, less to my
taste than "The Spanish Gypsy."
This place is becoming a little London, or London suburb. Everywhere
houses and streets are being built, and Babbacombe will soon be joined
to Torquay.
I almost envy you the excitement of golf, which helps the fresh air to
exhilarate, and gives variety of exercise. Walking can never be so
good as a game--if one loves the game. But when a friend of Mr.
Lewes's urges him angrily to play rackets for his health, the prospect
seems dreary.
We are afraid of being entangled in excursion trains, or crowds of
Easter holiday-makers, in Easter week, and may possibly be driven back
next Wednesday. But we are loath to have our stay so curtailed.
Mr. Lewes sends his kind regards, and pities all of us who are less
interested in ganglionic cells. He is in a state of beatitude about
the poem.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 4th April, 1868.]
We find a few retired walks, and are the less discontented because the
weather is perfect. I hope you are sharing the delights of sunshine
and moonlight. There are no waves here, as you know; but under such
skies as we are having, sameness is so beautiful that we find no
fault, and there is a particular hill at Babbacombe of the richest
Spanish red. On the whole, we are glad we came here, having avoided
all trouble in journeying and settling. But we should not come again
without special call, for in a few years all the hills will be parts
of a London suburb.
How glorious this weather is for the hard workers who are looking
forward to their Easter holiday! But for ourselves, we are rather
afraid of the railway stations in holiday time. Certainly, we are ill
prepared for what Tennyson calls the "To-be," and it is good that we
shall soon pass from this objective existence.
[Sidenote: Letter to Madame Bodichon, 6th April, 1868.]
I think Ruskin has not been encouraged about women by his many and
persistent attempts to teach them. He seems to have found them wanting
in real scientific interest--bent on sentimentalizing in everything.
What I should like to be sure of, as a result of higher education for
women--a result that will come to pass over my grave--is their
recognition of the great amount of social unproductive labor which
needs to be done by women, and which is now either not done at all or
done wretchedly. No good can come to women, more than to any class of
male mortals, while each aims at doing the highest kind of work, which
ought rather to be held in sanctity as what only the few can do well.
I believe, and I want it to be well shown, that a more thorough
education will tend to do away with the odious vulgarity of our
notions about functions and employment, and to propagate the true
gospel, that the deepest disgrace is to insist on doing work for which
we are unfit--to do work of any sort badly. There are many points of
this kind that want being urged, but they do not come well from me.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 17th April, 1868.]
Your letter came just at the right time to greet us. Thanks for that
pretty remembrance. We are glad to be at home again with our home
comforts around us, though we became deeply in love with Torquay in
the daily heightening of spring beauties, and the glory of perpetual
blue skies. The eight hours' journey (one hour more than we paid for)
was rather disturbing; and, I think, Mr. Lewes has got more zoological
experience than health from our month's delight--but a delight it
really has been to us to have perfect quiet with the red hills, the
sunshine, and the sea.
I shall be absorbed for the next fortnight, so that I cannot allow
myself the sort of pleasure you kindly project for us; and when May
begins, I want you to come and stay a night with us. I shall be ready
by and by for such holiday-making, and you must be good to me. Will
you give Dr. Congreve my thanks for his pamphlet, which I read at
Torquay with great interest? All protests tell, however slowly and
imperceptibly, and a protest against the doctrine that England is to
keep Ireland under all conditions was what I had wished to be made.
But in this matter he will have much more important concurrence than
mine. I am bearing much in mind the great task of the translation.
When it is completed we shall be able and glad to do what we were not
able to do in the case of the "Discours Préliminaire," namely, to take
our share, if we may, in the expenses of publication.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_April 16._--Returned home, bringing Book IV. finished.
_April 18._--Went with Mr. Pigott to see Holman Hunt's great picture,
Isabella and the Pot of Basil.
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 21st April, 1868.]
I send you by to-day's post the MS. of Book IV., that it may be at
hand whenever there is opportunity for getting it into print, and
letting me have it in that form for correction. It is desirable to get
as forward as we can, in case of the Americans asking for delay after
their reception of the sheets--if they venture to make any
arrangement. I shall send the MS. of Book V. (the last) as soon as
headache will permit, but that is an uncertain limit. We returned from
Torquay on the 16th, leaving the glorious weather behind us. We were
more in love with the place on a better acquaintance: the weather, and
the spring buds, and the choirs of birds, made it seem more of a
paradise to us every day.
The poem will be less tragic than I threatened: Mr. Lewes has
prevailed on me to return to my original conception, and give up the
additional development, which I determined on subsequently. The poem
is rather shorter in consequence. Don't you think that my artistic
deference and pliability deserve that it should also be better in
consequence? I now end it as I determined to end it when I first
conceived the story.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_April 25._--Finished the last dialogue between Silva and Fedalma. Mr.
and Mrs. Burne Jones dined with us.
_April 29._--Finished "The Spanish Gypsy."
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 29th Aug. 1868.]
I send you by to-day's post the conclusion of the poem in MS., and the
eighteen sheets of revise. The last book is brief, but I may truly use
the old epigram--that it would have taken less time to make it longer.
It is a great bore that the name of my heroine is wrongly spelled in
all the earlier sheets. It is a fresh proof of the fallibility of our
impressions as to our own doings, that I would have confidently
affirmed the name to be spelled Fedalma (as it ought to be) in my
manuscript. Yet I suppose I should have affirmed falsely, for the _i_
occurs in the slips constantly.
As I shall not see these paged sheets again, will you charitably
assure me that the alterations are safely made?
Among my wife's papers were four or five pages of MS. headed,
"Notes on the Spanish Gypsy and Tragedy in General." There is
no evidence as to the date at which this fragment was
written, and it seems to have been left unfinished. But there
was evidently some care to preserve it; and as I think she
would not have objected to its presentation, I give it here
exactly as it stands. It completes the history of the poem.
[Sidenote: Notes on "The Spanish Gypsy."]
The subject of "The Spanish Gypsy" was originally suggested to me by a
picture which hangs in the Scuola di' San Rocco at Venice, over the
door of the large Sala containing Tintoretto's frescoes. It is an
Annunciation, said to be by Titian. Of course I had seen numerous
pictures of this subject before; and the subject had always attracted
me. But in this my second visit to the Scuola di' San Rocco, this
small picture of Titian's, pointed out to me for the first time,
brought a new train of thought. It occurred to me that here was a
great dramatic motive of the same class as those used by the Greek
dramatists, yet specifically differing from them. A young maiden,
believing herself to be on the eve of the chief event of her
life--marriage--about to share in the ordinary lot of womanhood, full
of young hope, has suddenly announced to her that she is chosen to
fulfil a great destiny, entailing a terribly different experience from
that of ordinary womanhood. She is chosen, not by any momentary
arbitrariness, but as a result of foregoing hereditary conditions: she
obeys. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord." Here, I thought, is a
subject grander than that of Iphigenia, and it has never been used. I
came home with this in my mind, meaning to give the motive a clothing
in some suitable set of historical and local conditions. My
reflections brought me nothing that would serve me except that moment
in Spanish history when the struggle with the Moors was attaining its
climax, and when there was the gypsy race present under such
conditions as would enable me to get my heroine and the hereditary
claim on her among the gypsies. I required the opposition of race to
give the need for renouncing the expectation of marriage. I could not
use the Jews or the Moors, because the facts of their history were too
conspicuously opposed to the working-out of my catastrophe. Meanwhile
the subject had become more and more pregnant to me. I saw it might be
taken as a symbol of the part which is played in the general human lot
by hereditary conditions in the largest sense, and of the fact that
what we call duty is entirely made up of such conditions; for even in
cases of just antagonism to the narrow view of hereditary claims, the
whole background of the particular struggle is made up of our
inherited nature. Suppose for a moment that our conduct at great
epochs was determined entirely by reflection, without the immediate
intervention of feeling, which supersedes reflection, our
determination as to the right would consist in an adjustment of our
individual needs to the dire necessities of our lot, partly as to our
natural constitution, partly as sharers of life with our
fellow-beings. Tragedy consists in the terrible difficulty of this
adjustment--
"The dire strife of poor Humanity's afflicted will,
Struggling in vain with ruthless destiny."
Looking at individual lots, I seemed to see in each the same story,
wrought out with more or less of tragedy, and I determined the
elements of my drama under the influence of these ideas.
In order to judge properly of the dramatic structure it must not be
considered first in the light of doctrinal symbolism, but in the light
of a tragedy representing some grand collision in the human lot. And
it must be judged accordingly. A good tragic subject must represent a
possible, sufficiently probable, not a common, action; and to be
really tragic, it must represent irreparable collision between the
individual and the general (in differing degrees of generality). It is
the individual with whom we sympathize, and the general of which we
recognize the irresistible power. The truth of this test will be seen
by applying it to the greatest tragedies. The collision of Greek
tragedy is often that between hereditary, entailed Nemesis and the
peculiar individual lot, awakening our sympathy, of the particular man
or woman whom the Nemesis is shown to grasp with terrific force.
Sometimes, as in the Oresteia, there is the clashing of two
irreconcilable requirements, two duties, as we should say in these
times. The murder of the father must be avenged by the murder of the
mother, which must again be avenged. These two tragic relations of the
individual and general, and of two irreconcilable "oughts," may
be--will be--seen to be almost always combined. The Greeks were not
taking an artificial, entirely erroneous standpoint in their art--a
standpoint which disappeared altogether with their religion and their
art. They had the same essential elements of life presented to them as
we have, and their art symbolized these in grand schematic forms. The
Prometheus represents the ineffectual struggle to redeem the small
and miserable race of man, against the stronger adverse ordinances
that govern the frame of things with a triumphant power. Coming to
modern tragedies, what is it that makes Othello a great tragic
subject? A story simply of a jealous husband is elevated into a most
pathetic tragedy by the hereditary conditions of Othello's lot, which
give him a subjective ground for distrust. Faust, Rigoletto (Le Roi
s'Amuse), Brutus. It might be a reasonable ground of objection against
the whole structure of "The Spanish Gypsy" if it were shown that the
action is outrageously improbable--lying outside all that can be
congruously conceived of human actions. It is _not_ a reasonable
ground of objection that they would have done better to act otherwise,
any more than it is a reasonable objection against the Iphigenia that
Agamemnon would have done better not to sacrifice his daughter.
As renunciations coming under the same great class, take the
renunciation of marriage, where marriage cannot take place without
entailing misery on the children.
A tragedy has not to expound why the individual must give way to the
general; it has to show that it is compelled to give way; the tragedy
consisting in the struggle involved, and often in the entirely
calamitous issue in spite of a grand submission. Silva presents the
tragedy of entire rebellion; Fedalma of a grand submission, which is
rendered vain by the effects of Silva's rebellion. Zarca, the struggle
for a great end, rendered vain by the surrounding conditions of life.
Now, what is the fact about our individual lots? A woman, say, finds
herself on the earth with an inherited organization; she may be lame,
she may inherit a disease, or what is tantamount to a disease; she
may be a negress, or have other marks of race repulsive in the
community where she is born, etc. One may go on for a long while
without reaching the limits of the commonest inherited misfortunes. It
is almost a mockery to say to such human beings, "Seek your own
happiness." The utmost approach to well-being that can be made in such
a case is through large resignation and acceptance of the inevitable,
with as much effort to overcome any disadvantage as good sense will
show to be attended with a likelihood of success. Any one may say,
that is the dictate of mere rational reflection. But calm can, in
hardly any human organism, be attained by rational reflection.
Happily, we are not left to that. Love, pity, constituting sympathy,
and generous joy with regard to the lot of our fellow-men comes
in--has been growing since the beginning--enormously enhanced by wider
vision of results, by an imagination actively interested in the lot of
mankind generally; and these feelings become piety--_i.e._, loving,
willing submission and heroic Promethean effort towards high
possibilities, which may result from our individual life.
There is really no moral "sanction" but this inward impulse. The will
of God is the same thing as the will of other men, compelling us to
work and avoid what they have seen to be harmful to social existence.
Disjoined from any perceived good, the divine will is simply so much
as we have ascertained of the facts of existence which compel
obedience at our peril. Any other notion comes from the supposition of
arbitrary revelation.
That favorite view, expressed so often in Clough's poems, of doing
duty in blindness as to the result, is likely to deepen the
substitution of egoistic yearnings for really moral impulses. We
cannot be utterly blind to the results of duty, since that cannot be
duty which is not already judged to be for human good. To say the
contrary is to say that mankind have reached no inductions as to what
is for their good or evil.
The art which leaves the soul in despair is laming to the soul, and is
denounced by the healthy sentiment of an active community. The
consolatory elements in "The Spanish Gypsy" are derived from two
convictions or sentiments which so conspicuously pervade it that they
may be said to be its very warp, on which the whole action is woven.
These are: (1) The importance of individual deeds. (2) The
all-sufficiency of the soul's passions in determining sympathetic
action.
In Silva is presented the claim of fidelity to social pledges. In
Fedalma the claim constituted by an hereditary lot less consciously
shared.
With regard to the supremacy of love: if it were a fact without
exception that man or woman never did renounce the joys of love, there
could never have sprung up a notion that such renunciation could
present itself as a duty. If no parents had ever cared for their
children, how could parental affection have been reckoned among the
elements of life? But what are the facts in relation to this matter?
Will any one say that faithfulness to the marriage tie has never been
regarded as a duty, in spite of the presence of the profoundest
passion experienced after marriage? Is Guinivere's conduct the type of
duty?
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Bray, 7th May, 1868.]
Yes, I am at rest now--only a few pages of revise to look at more. My
chief excitement and pleasure in the work are over: for when I have
once written anything, and it is gone out of my power, I think of it
as little as possible. Next to the doing of the thing, of course, Mr.
Lewes's delight in it is the cream of all sympathy, though I care
enough about the sympathy of others to be very grateful for any they
give me. Don't you imagine how the people who consider writing simply
as a money-getting profession will despise me for choosing a work by
which I could only get hundreds, where for a novel I could get
thousands? I cannot help asking you to admire what my husband is,
compared with many possible husbands--I mean, in urging me to produce
a poem rather than anything in a worldly sense more profitable. I
expect a good deal of disgust to be felt towards me in many quarters
for doing what was not looked for from me, and becoming unreadable to
many who have hitherto found me readable and debatable. Religion and
novels every ignorant person feels competent to give an opinion upon,
but _en fait de poésie_, a large number of them "only read
Shakespeare." But enough of that.
[Sidenote: Letter to Frederic Harrison, 25th May, 1868.]
Before we set off to Germany I want to tell you that a copy of "The
Spanish Gypsy" will be sent to you. If there had been time before our
going away I should have written on the fly-leaf that it was offered
by the author "in grateful remembrance." For I especially desire that
you should understand my reasons for asking you to accept the book to
be retrospective and not prospective.
And I am going out of reach of all letters, so that you are free from
any need to write to me, and may let the book lie till you like to
open it.
I give away my books only by exception, and in venturing to make you
an exceptional person in this matter, I am urged by the strong wish
to express my value for the help and sympathy you gave me two years
ago.
The manuscript of "The Spanish Gypsy" bears the following
inscription:
"To my dear--every day dearer--Husband."
[Sidenote: Letter to Frederic Harrison, 26th (?) May, 1868.]
Yes, indeed, I not only remember your letter, but have always kept it
at hand, and have read it many times. Within these latter months I
have seemed to see in the distance a possible poem shaped on your
idea. But it would be better for you to encourage the growth towards
realization in your own mind, rather than trust to transplantation.
My own faint conception is that of a frankly Utopian construction,
freeing the poet from all local embarrassments. Great epics have
always been more or less of this character--only the construction has
been of the past, not of the future.
Write to me _Poste Restante_, Baden-Baden, within the next fortnight.
My head will have got clearer then.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_May 26._--We set out this evening on our journey to Baden, spending
the night at Dover. Our route was by Tournay, Liége, Bonn, and
Frankfort, to Baden, where we stayed nine days; then to Petersthal,
where we stayed three weeks; then to Freiburg, St. Märgen, Basle,
Thun, and Interlaken. From Interlaken we came by Fribourg, Neuchâtel,
Dijon, to Paris and Folkestone.
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 7th July, 1868.]
We got your letter yesterday here among the peaceful mountain-tops.
After ascending gradually (in a carriage) for nearly four hours, we
found ourselves in a region of grass, corn, and pine woods, so
beautifully varied that we seem to be walking in a great park laid
out for our special delight. The monks, as usual, found out the
friendly solitude, and this place of St. Märgen was originally nothing
but an Augustinian monastery. About three miles off is another place
of like origin, called St. Peter's, formerly a Benedictine monastery,
and still used as a place of preparation for the Catholic priesthood.
The monks have all vanished, but the people are devout Catholics. At
every half-mile by the roadside is a carefully kept crucifix; and last
night, as we were having our supper in the common room of the inn, we
suddenly heard sounds that seemed to me like those of an accordion.
"Is that a zittern?" said Mr. Lewes to the German lady by his side.
"No--it is prayer." The servants, by themselves--the host and hostess
were in the same room with us--were saying their evening prayers,
men's and women's voices blending in unusually correct harmony. The
same loud prayer is heard at morning, noon, and evening, from the
shepherds and workers in the fields. We suppose that the believers in
Mr. Home and in Madame Rachel would pronounce these people "grossly
superstitious." The land is cultivated by rich peasant proprietors,
and the people here, as in Petersthal, look healthy and contented.
This really adds to one's pleasure in seeing natural beauties. In
North Germany, at Ilmenau, we were constantly pained by meeting
peasants who looked underfed and miserable. Unhappily, the weather is
too cold and damp, and our accommodations are too scanty, under such
circumstances, for us to remain here and enjoy the endless walks and
the sunsets that would make up for other negatives in fine, warm
weather. We return to Freiburg to-morrow, and from thence we shall go
on by easy stages through Switzerland, by Thun and Vevay to Geneva,
where I want to see my old friends once more.
We shall be so constantly on the move that it might be a vain trouble
on your part to shoot another letter after such flying birds.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_July 23._--Arrived at home (from Baden journey).
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 24th July, 1868.]
We got home last night--sooner than we expected, because we gave up
the round by Geneva, as too long and exciting. I dare say the three
weeks since we heard from you seem very short to you, passed amid your
usual occupations. To us they seem long, for we have been constantly
changing our scene. Our two months have been spent delightfully in
seeing fresh natural beauties, and with the occasional cheering
influence of kind people. But I think we were hardly ever, except in
Spain, so long ignorant of home sayings and doings, for we have been
chiefly in regions innocent even of _Galignani_. The weather with us
has never been oppressively hot; and storms or quiet rains have been
frequent. But our bit of burned-up lawn is significant of the dryness
here. I believe I did not thank you for the offer of "Kinglake," which
we gratefully accept. And will you kindly order a copy of the poem to
be sent to Gerald Massey, Hemel-Hempstead.
A friendly gentleman at Belfast sends me a list of emendations for
some of my verses, which are very characteristic and amusing.
I hope you have kept well through the heat. We are come back in great
force, for such feeble wretches.
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 28th July, 1868.]
As to the reviews, we expected them to be written by omniscient
personages, but we did _not_ expect so bad a review as that Mr. Lewes
found in the _Pall Mall_. I have read no notice except that in the
_Spectator_, which was modest in tone. A very silly gentleman, Mr.
Lewes says, undertakes to admonish me in the _Westminster_; and he
thinks the best _literary_ notice of the poem that has come before him
is in the _Athenæum_. After all, I think there would have been good
reason to doubt that the poem had either novelty or any other
considerable intrinsic reason to justify its being written, if the
periodicals had cried out "Hosanna!" I am sure you appreciate all the
conditions better than I can, after your long experience of the
relations between authors and critics. I am serene, because I only
expected the unfavorable. To-day the heat is so great that it is
hardly possible even to read a book that requires any thought. London
is a bad exchange for the mountains.
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 30th July, 1868.]
I enclose a list of corrections for the reprint. I am indebted to my
friendly correspondent from Belfast for pointing out several
oversights, which I am ashamed of, after all the proof-reading. But,
among the well-established truths of which I never doubt, the
fallibility of my own brain stands first.
I suppose Mudie and the other librarians will not part with their
copies of the poems quite as soon as they would part with their more
abundant copies of a novel. And this supposition, if warranted, would
be an encouragement to reprint another moderate edition at the same
price. Perhaps, before a cheaper edition is prepared, I may add to the
corrections, but at present my mind resists strongly the effort to go
back on its old work.
I think I never mentioned to you that the occasional use of irregular
verses, and especially verses of twelve syllables, has been a
principle with me, and is found in all the finest writers of blank
verse. I mention it now because, as you have a certain _solidarité_
with my poetical doings, I would not have your soul vexed by the
detective wisdom of critics. Do you happen to remember that saying of
Balzac's, "When I want the world to praise my novels I write a drama;
when I want them to praise my drama I write a novel"?
On the whole, however, I should think I have more to be grateful for
than to grumble at. Mr. Lewes read me out last night some very
generous passages from the _St. Paul's Magazine_.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_August._--Reading 1st book of Lucretius, 6th book of the "Iliad,"
"Samson Agonistes," Warton's "History of English Poetry," Grote, 2d
volume, "Marcus Aurelius," "Vita Nuova," vol. iv. chap. i. of the
"Politique Positive," Guest on "English Rhythms," Maurice's "Lectures
on Casuistry."
_Sept. 19._--We returned from a visit to Yorkshire. On Monday we went
to Leeds, and were received by Dr. Clifford Allbut, with whom we
stayed till the middle of the day on Wednesday. Then we went by train
to Ilkley, and from thence took a carriage to Bolton. The weather had
been gray for two days, but on this evening the sun shone out, and we
had a delightful stroll before dinner, getting our first view of the
Priory. On Thursday we spent the whole day in rambling through the
woods to Barden Tower and back. Our comfortable little inn was the Red
Lion, and we were tempted to lengthen our stay. But on Friday morning
the sky was threatening, so we started for Newark, which we had
visited in old days on our expedition to Gainsborough. At Newark we
found our old inn, the Ram, opposite the ruins of the castle, and then
we went for a stroll along the banks of the Trent, seeing some
charming, quiet landscapes.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 20th Sept. 1868.]
This note comes to greet you on your return home, but it cannot greet
you so sweetly as your letter did me on our arrival from Leeds last
night. I think it gave me a deeper pleasure than any I have had for a
long while. I am very grateful to you for it.
We went to Leeds on Monday, and stayed two days with Dr. Allbut. Dr.
Bridges dined with us one day, and we had a great deal of delightful
chat. But I will tell you everything when we see you. Let that be
soon--will you not? We shall be glad of any arrangement that will give
us the pleasure of seeing you, Dr. Congreve, and Emily, either
separately or all together. Please forgive me if I seem very fussy
about your all coming. I want you to understand that we shall feel it
the greatest kindness in you if you will all choose to come, and also
choose _how_ to come--either to lunch or dinner, and either apart or
together. I hope to find that you are much the better for your
journey--better both in body and soul. One has immense need of
encouragement, but it seems to come more easily from the dead than
from the living.
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 24th Sept. 1868.]
Your letter gave an additional gusto to my tea and toast this morning.
The greater confidence of the trade in subscribing for the second
edition is, on several grounds, a satisfactory indication; but, as you
observe, we shall be still better pleased to know that the copies are
not slumbering on the counters, but having an active life in the hands
of readers.
I am now going carefully through the poem for the sake of correction.
I have read it through once, and have at present found some ten or
twelve _small_ alterations to be added to those already made. But I
shall go through it again more than once, for I wish to be able to put
"revised" to the third edition, and to leave nothing that my
conscience is not ready to swear by. I think it will be desirable for
me to see proofs. It is possible, in many closely consecutive
readings, not to see errors which strike one immediately on taking up
the pages after a good long interval.
We are feeling much obliged for a copy of "Kinglake," which I am
reading aloud to Mr. Lewes as a part of our evening's entertainment
and edification, beginning again from the beginning.
This week we have had perfect autumnal days, though last week, when we
were in Yorkshire, we also thought that the time of outside chills and
inside fires was beginning.
We do not often see a place which is a good foil for London, but
certainly Leeds is in a lower circle of the great town--_Inferno_.
[Sidenote: Letter to Madame Bodichon, 25th Sept. 1868.]
I can imagine how delicious your country home has been under the
glorious skies we have been having--glorious even in London. Yesterday
we had Dr. and Mrs. Congreve, and went with them to the Zoological
Gardens, and on our return, about 5 o'clock, I could not help pausing
and exclaiming at the exquisite beauty of the light on Regent's Park,
exalting it into something that the young Turner would have wanted to
paint.
We went to Leeds last week--saw your favorite, David Cox, and thought
of you the while. Certainly there was nothing finer there in landscape
than that Welsh funeral. Among the figure-painters, Watts and old
Philip are supreme.
We went on from Leeds to Bolton, and spent a day in wandering through
the grand woods on the banks of the Wharfe. Altogether, our visit to
Yorkshire was extremely agreeable. Our host, Dr. Allbut, is a good,
clever, graceful man, enough to enable one to be cheerful under the
horrible smoke of ugly Leeds; and the fine hospital, which, he says,
is admirably fitted for its purpose, is another mitigation. You would
like to see the tasteful, subdued ornamentation in the rooms which are
to be sick wards. Each physician is accumulating ornamental objects
for his own ward--chromo-lithographs, etc.--such as will soothe sick
eyes.
It was quite cold in that northerly region. Your picture keeps a
memory of sunshine on my wall even on this dark morning.
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 21st Oct. 1868.]
I have gone through the poem twice for the sake of revision, and have
a crop of small corrections--only in one case extending to the
insertion of a new line. But I wish to see the proof-sheets, so that
"Revised by the Author" may be put in the advertisement and on the
title-page.
Unhappily, my health has been unusually bad since we returned from
abroad, so that the time has been a good deal wasted on the endurance
of _malaise_; but I am brooding over many things, and hope that coming
months will not be barren. As to the criticisms, I suppose that better
poets than I have gone through worse receptions. In spite of my reason
and of my low expectations, I am too susceptible to all discouragement
not to have been depressingly affected by some few things in the shape
of criticism which I have been obliged to know. Yet I am ashamed of
caring about anything that cannot be taken as strict evidence against
the value of my book. So far as I have been able to understand, there
is a striking disagreement among the reviewers as to what is best and
what is worst; and the weight of agreement, even on the latter point,
is considerably diminished by the reflection that three different
reviews may be three different phases of the same gentleman, taking
the opportunity of earning as many guineas as he can by making easy
remarks on George Eliot. But, as dear Scott's characters say, "Let
that fly stick in the wa'--when the dirt's dry, it'll rub out." I
shall look at "Doubles and Quits," as you recommend. I read the two
first numbers of "Madame Amelia," and thought them promising.
I sympathize with your melancholy at the prospect of quitting the
country; though, compared with London, beautiful Edinburgh is country.
Perhaps some good, thick mists will come to reconcile you with the
migration.
We have been using the fine autumn days for flights into Kent between
Sundays. The rich woods about Sevenoaks and Chislehurst are a delight
to the eyes, and the stillness is a rest to every nerve.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_Oct. 22._--Received a letter from Blackwood, saying that "The Spanish
Gypsy" must soon go into a third edition. I sent my corrections for
it.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 27th Oct. 1868.]
At last I have spirit enough in me to thank you for your valuable
gift, which Emily kindly brought me in her hand. I am grateful for
it--not only because the medallion[5] is a possession which I shall
always hold precious, but also because you thought of me among those
whom you would choose to be its owners.
I hope you are able to enjoy some walking in these sunshiny mornings.
We had a long drive round by Hendon and Finchley yesterday morning,
and drank so much clear air and joy from the sight of trees and fields
that I am quite a new-old creature.
I think you will not be sorry to hear that the "Spanish Gypsy" is so
nearly out of print again that the publishers are preparing a new,
cheaper edition. The second edition was all bought up (subscribed
for) by the booksellers the first day.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 30th Oct. 1868.]
Your pretty letter is irresistible. May we then be with you on Tuesday
somewhere about twelve, and return home on Wednesday by afternoon
daylight? If the weather should be very cold or wet on Tuesday we must
renounce or defer our pleasure, because we are both too rickety to run
the risk of taking cold. So you see we are very much in need of such
sweet friendliness as yours gives us faith in, to keep us cheerful
under the burden of the flesh.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_Nov. 3._--Went to dine and sleep at the Congreves, at Wandsworth.
_Nov. 4._--We set off for Sheffield, where we went over a great iron
and steel factory under the guidance of Mr. Benzon. On Saturday, the
7th, we went to Matlock and stayed till Tuesday. I recognized the
objects which I had seen with my father nearly thirty years
before--the turn of the road at Cromford, the Arkwrights' house, and
the cottages with the stone floors chalked in patterns. The landscape
was still rich with autumn leaves.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, Thursday evening, 12th Nov. 1868.]
We got home last night after delicious days spent at Matlock. I was so
renovated that my head was clearer, and I was more unconscious of my
body than at the best of times for many months. But it seemed suddenly
colder when we were in London, and old uneasy sensations are
revisiting us both to-day.
I wonder whether you will soon want to come to town, and will send me
word that you will come and take shelter with us for the night? The
bed is no softer and no broader; but will you not be tempted by a new
carpet and a new bit of matting for your bath?--perhaps there will
even be a new fender? If you want to shop, I will take you in the
brougham.
I think you will be just able to make out this note, written by a
sudden impulse on my knee over the fire.
[Sidenote: Letter to Madame Bodichon, 16th Nov. 1868.]
No oracle would dare to predict what will be our next migration. Don't
be surprised if we go to the borders of the White Sea, to escape the
fitful fast and loose, hot and cold, of the London climate.
We enjoyed our journey to the north. It was a great experience to me
to see the stupendous iron-works at Sheffield; and then, for a
variety, we went to the quiet and beauty of Matlock, and I recognized
all the spots I had carried in my memory for more than five-and-twenty
years. I drove through that region with my father when I was a young
grig--not very full of hope about my woman's future. I am one of those
perhaps exceptional people whose early, childish dreams were much less
happy than the real outcome of life.
[Sidenote: Letter to Miss Sara Hennell, 20th Nov. 1868.]
I think your birthday comes after mine; but I am determined to write
beforehand to prove to you that I bear you in my thoughts without any
external reminder.
I suppose we are both getting too old to care about being wished
_many_ happy returns of the day. We shall be content to wish each
other as many more years as can carry with them some joy and calm
satisfaction in the sense of living. But there is one definite
prospect for you which I may fairly hope for, as I do most
tenderly--the prospect that this time next year you will be looking
back on your achieved work as a good seed-sowing. Some sadness there
must always be in saying good-bye to a work which is done with love;
but there may--I trust there _will_--be a compensating good in feeling
that the thing you yearned to do is gone safely out of reach of
casualties that might have cut it short.
We have been to Sheffield at the seducing invitation of a friend, who
showed us the miraculous iron-works there; and afterwards we turned
aside to beautiful Matlock, where I found again the spots, the turns
of road, the rows of stone cottages, the rushing river Derwent, and
the Arkwright mills--among which I drove with my father when I was in
my teens. We had glorious weather, and I was quite regenerated by the
bracing air. Our friend Mr. Spencer is growing younger with the years.
He really looks brighter and more enjoying than he ever did before,
since he was in the really young, happy time of fresh discussion and
inquiry. His is a friendship which wears well, because of his
truthfulness. He always asks with sympathetic interest how you are
going on.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_Nov. 22._--The return of this St. Cecilia's Day finds me in better
health than has been usual with me in these last six months. But I am
not yet engaged in any work that makes a higher life for me--a life
that is young and grows, though in my other life I am getting old and
decaying. It is a day for resolves and determinations. I am meditating
the subject of Timoleon.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Bray, 30th Nov. 1868.]
I like to think of you painting the physiological charts, although
they tire your eyes a little; for you must be sure that the good of
such work is of a kind that goes deep into young lives. "Fearfully and
wonderfully made" are words quite unshaken by any theory as to the
making; and I think a great awe in the contemplation of man's delicate
structure, freighted with terrible destinies, is one of the most
important parts of education. A much-writing acquaintance of ours one
day expressed his alarm for "the masses" at the departure of a
religion which had _terror_ in it. Surely terror is provided for
sufficiently in this life of ours--if only the dread could be directed
towards the really dreadful.
[Sidenote: Letter to Madame Bodichon, 12th Dec. 1868.]
We have been having a little company, and are rejoicing to think that
our duties of this sort are done for the present. We like our studies
and our dual solitude too well to feel company desirable more than one
day a-week. I wish our affection may be with you as some little
cheering influence through the dark months. We hardly estimate enough
the difference of feeling that would come to us if we did not imagine
friendly souls scattered here and there in places that make the chief
part of the world so far as we have known it.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 16th Dec. 1868.]
Tell Dr. Congreve that the "mass of positivism," in the shape of "The
Spanish Gypsy," is so rapidly finding acceptance with the public that
the second edition, being all sold, the third, just published, has
already been demanded to above 700. Do not think that I am becoming an
egotistical author. The news concerns the doctrine, not the writer.
[Sidenote: Letter to the Brays, 19th Dec. 1868.]
I am moved to congratulate you on writing against the ballot with such
admirably good sense--having just read your "slip" at the
breakfast-table. It has been a source of amazement to me that men
acquainted with practical life can believe in the suppression of
bribery by the ballot, as if bribery in all its Protean forms could
ever disappear by means of a single external arrangement. They might
as well say that our female vanity would disappear at an order that
women should wear felt hats and cloth dresses. It seems to me that you
have put the main unanswerable arguments against the ballot with
vigorous brevity.
[Sidenote: Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 29th Dec. 1868.]
Thanks for letting me know about the meeting. I shall not be able to
join it bodily, but I am glad always to have the possibility of being
with you in thought. I have a twofold sympathy on the occasion, for I
cannot help entering specially into your own wifely anxieties, and I
shall be glad to be assured that Dr. Congreve has borne the excitement
without being afterwards conscious of an excessive strain.
[Sidenote: Journal, 1868.]
_Dec. 30._--I make to-day the last record that I shall enter of the
old year 1868. It has been as rich in blessings as any preceding year
of our double life, and I enjoy a more and more even cheerfulness and
continually increasing power of dwelling on the good that is given to
me and dismissing the thought of small evils. The chief event of the
year to us has been the publication and friendly reception by the
public of "The Spanish Gypsy." The greatest happiness (after our
growing love) which has sprung and flowed onward during the latter
part of the year is George's interest in his psychological inquiries.
I have, perhaps, gained a little higher ground and firmer footing in
some studies, notwithstanding the yearly loss of retentive power. We
have made some new friendships that cheer us with the sense of new
admiration of actual living beings whom we know in the flesh, and who
are kindly disposed towards us. And we have had no real trouble. I
wish we were not in a minority of our fellow-men! I desire no added
blessing for the coming year but this--that I may do some good,
lasting work, and make both my outward and inward habits less
imperfect--that is, more directly tending to the best uses of life.
[Sidenote: Letter to John Blackwood, 31st Dec. 1868.]
Many thanks for the check, which I received yesterday afternoon. Mr.
Lewes is eminently satisfied with the sales; and, indeed, it does
appear from authoritative testimony that the number sold is unusually
large even for what is called a successful poem.
The cheap edition of the novels is so exceptionally attractive in
print, paper, and binding, for 3_s._ 6_d._, that I cannot help
fretting a little at its not getting a more rapid sale. The fact
rather puzzles me, too, in presence of the various proofs that the
books really are liked. I suppose there is some mystery of reduced
prices accounting for the abundant presentation of certain works and
series on the bookstalls at the railways, and the absence of others,
else surely those pretty volumes would have a good chance of being
bought by the travellers whose taste shrinks from the diabolical
red-and-yellow-pictured series. I am sure you must often be in a state
of wonderment as to how the business of the world gets done so as not
to ruin two thirds of the people concerned in it; for, judging from
the silly propositions and requests sometimes made to me by
bald-headed, experienced men, there must be a very thin allowance of
wisdom to the majority of their transactions.
Mr. Lewes is attracted by the biographical studies of George the
Second's time; but last night, after he had done reading about
Berkeley, I heard him laughing over "Doubles and Quits." It is
agreeable to think that I have that bit of cheerful reading in store.
Our first snow fell yesterday, and melted immediately. This morning
the sun is warm on me as I write. The doctors say that the season has
been horribly unhealthy, and that they have been afraid to perform
some operations from the low state of vitality in the patients, due to
the atmospheric conditions. This looks like very wise writing, and
worthy of Molière's "Médecin."
Mr. Lewes joins me in sincere good wishes to Mr. William Blackwood, as
well as yourself, for the coming year--wishes for general happiness.
The chief, particular wish would be that we should all in common look
back next Christmas on something achieved in which we share each
other's satisfaction.
[Sidenote: Letter to Hon. Robert Lytton (now Lord Lytton). No date.
Probably in 1868.]
I am much obliged to you for mentioning, in your letter to Mr. Lewes,
the two cases of inaccuracy (I fear there may be more) which you
remembered in the "Spanish Gypsy." How I came to write Zincálo instead
of Zíncalo is an instance which may be added to many sadder examples
of that mental infirmity which makes our senses of little use to us in
the presence of a strong prepossession. As soon as I had conceived my
story with its gypsy element, I tried to learn all I could about the
names by which the gypsies called themselves, feeling that I should
occasionally need a musical name, remote from the vulgar English
associations which cling to "gypsy." I rejected Gitana, because I
found that the gypsies themselves held the name to be opprobrious; and
Zíncalo--which, with a fine capacity for being wrong, I at once got
into my head as Zincálo--seemed to be, both in sound and meaning, just
what I wanted. Among the books from which I made notes was "Pott, die
Zigeuner," etc.; and in these notes I find that I have copied the sign
of the tonic accent in Romanó, while in the very same sentence I have
not copied it in Zíncalo, though a renewed reference to Pott shows it
in the one word as well as the other. But "my eyes were held"--by a
demon prepossession--"so that I should not see it." Behold the
fallibility of the human brain, and especially of George Eliot's.
I have been questioned about my use of Andalus for Andalusia, but I
had a sufficient authority for that in the "Mohammedan Dynasties,"
translated by Gayangos.
It may interest you, who are familiar with Spanish literature, to know
that after the first sketch of my book was written I read Cervantes'
novel "La Gitanélla," where the hero turns gypsy for love. The novel
promises well in the earlier part, but falls into sad commonplace
towards the end. I have written my explanation partly to show how much
I value your kind help towards correcting my error, and partly to
prove that I was not careless, but simply stupid. For in authorship I
hold carelessness to be a mortal sin.
_SUMMARY._
JANUARY, 1868, TO DECEMBER, 1868.
Letter to Mrs. Congreve--Mr. Lewes's return from Bonn--First
visit to Cambridge--Letter to Mrs. Congreve--Month's visit to
Torquay--Letter to Miss Hennell--Reading the "Iliad"--Letter
to John Blackwood--Title of "Spanish Gypsy"--Letter to Madame
Bodichon--Women's work--Letter to Mrs. Congreve--England and
Ireland--Translation of the "Politique"--Return to London
from Torquay--Letter to John Blackwood--Ending of "Spanish
Gypsy"--The poem finished--George Eliot's "Notes on the
Spanish Gypsy and Tragedy in general"--Suggestion of the poem
an Annunciation by Titian, at Venice--Motive--Hereditary
conditions--Gypsy race--Determination of conduct--Nature of
tragedy--Collision between the individual and the
general--Greek tragedy--Hereditary misfortunes--Growth of
human sympathy--Moral sanction is obedience to facts--Duty
what tends to human good--Letter to Mrs. Bray on the writing
of poetry instead of novels--Letter to F. Harrison presenting
copy of "Spanish Gypsy"--Inscription on MS. of "Spanish
Gypsy"--Letter to F. Harrison on suggestion of a poem--Six
weeks' journey to Baden, etc.--Letter to John Blackwood from
St. Märgen--Catholic worship--Return to London--Letters to
John Blackwood--_Pall Mall_ review of "Spanish Gypsy"--Saying
of Balzac--Letter to William
Blackwood--Versification--Reading Lucretius, Homer, Milton,
Warton, Marcus Aurelius, Dante, Comte, Guest, Maurice--Visit
to Dr. Clifford Allbut at Leeds--Visit to Newark--Letter to
Mrs. Congreve--Letters to John Blackwood--Second edition of
"Spanish Gypsy"--"Kinglake"--Criticisms on "Spanish
Gypsy"--Visit to the Congreves--Visit to Sheffield with Mr.
Benzon--Matlock--Letters to Madame Bodichon and Miss Hennell
on Sheffield journey--Herbert Spencer--Meditating subject of
Timoleon--Letter to Mrs. Bray--Physiological charts--Letter
to Madame Bodichon on influence of friends--Letter to Mrs.
Congreve--Positivism in "Spanish Gypsy"--Letter to Charles
Bray on vote by ballot--Retrospect of 1868--Letter to John
Blackwood--The cheap edition of novels--Letter to the Hon.
Robert Lytton--Pronunciation in "Spanish Gypsy"--Cervantes'
"La Gitanélla."
FOOTNOTES:
[4] Visit to Mr. W. G. Clark.
[5] Of Comte.