Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

graphy! . I have all but finished copying Blake's letters; a task of real enjoyment, for they are indeed supremely interesting, admitting one as far as anything he ever wrote into the 'inner precincts' of his mind. Really Mr. Butts must have been a remarkable man in his way to have had such letters addressed to him-to have been chosen by Blake as the recipient of such soul's confidences."

On the third of January, 1863, Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote: "I am sure you will say with me, that each of us may well wish the other a happier year than the last. I do so most warmly on my side, and am ever yours sincerely, D. G. R."

And on the fifth of January:-" Pray do make a stand for the passage from the Everlasting Gospel about the Woman taken in Adultery. It is one of the finest things Blake ever wrote, and if there is anything to shock ordinary readers, it is merely in the opening, which could be omitted, and the poem made to begin with 'Jesus sat in Moses' chair,' etc. Soon after, the poet

artist wrote :—

[ocr errors]

"My dear Mrs. Gilchrist: To-night at last I send the Chapter. I really found it impossible to know what to say more of the poems, individually, but am sincerely of the opinion I express in the text as to the uselessness of doing so. The truth is that as regards such a poem as 'My Spectre' I do not understand it a bit better than anybody else, only I know better than some may know that it has claims as poetry apart from the question of understanding it, and is therefore worth printing..

SWINBURNE AND MEREDITH.

137

"I, on my side, hardly know how to thank you for so many kind expressions about the little I could do for the book, or rather the arrangement of it. However, such as it is, I would have done it gladly for Blake's or gladly for your husband's or gladly for your sake, and moreover, had always a great wish of my own to do something in this direction, so have much more to be thankful for the opportunity myself, than anyone can have to me for the little done.-Yours very sincerely, D. G. Rossetti.

"Postscript: By the bye, I have been a martyr to unsatisfactory servants here, and have been asking all my friends if they know any desirable ones. Our household consists of four men, two of whom only, myself and Mr. Swinburne, are at all constant inmates. [The other two were George Meredith and William Rossetti]. Our plan, hitherto, has been to get a married couple. The first couple was recommended by an aunt of mine from the country, and would have done well, but London air knocked the man up. The second couple were people I knew well, who did famously, but were conditionally pre-engaged when I took them, and being wanted had to leave me. The third couple I got by advertisement, and are just going to rid me of themselves after driving me half crazy with their stupidity.

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

These nightmares of mine leave now in a few days. Is it possible that you could suggest better people for the place? Pardon my troubling you. . .

[ocr errors]

The long and anxious task of editing the Book' was drawing to a close. The next letter to William

Rossetti concludes the correspondence over the production of the Life and Works of William Blake.'

"Brookbank; May 2nd, 1863.

"I had a little note from Miss Rossetti yesterday, which gave me much pleasure, for it responded very kindly and cordially to my hope of her coming here with you. About the middle of May would suit me quite as well as now.

"I have received since I last wrote to you proofs of the poetical portion of Volume II., and indeed I hardly know how to speak adequately of the satisfaction and delight with which I read them; never, I think, was the task of editorship so admirably performed, if the aim of editorship be to quicken the reader's insight and enjoyment. I need not tell you I read your explanation of the 'Mental Traveller' with wide open eyes.

"Certainly that Idea' binds the most chaotic, disjointed, obscure looking poem that ever was written into a harmonious, connected, nobly pregnant whole. My husband would have been beyond measure pleased with it...

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Now we can leave the book with the publishers: they waited till the autumn of 1863 before launching The Life of William Blake.

[ocr errors]

A

CHAPTER XIV.

LETTER FROM JANE WELSH

[ocr errors]

CARLYLE.

1863. AGE 35.

S soon as The Life of Blake' was finished, Anne Gilchrist wrote to Jane Carlyle (after a lapse of two years) placing Brookbank at Carlyle's disposal, and was answered by a letter which at first sight seems a little gauche, but, we take it to be merely the honest indignation that one clever woman entertains for another of her sex, who is also clever, but who, in addition, is immersed in maternal cares, silently grappling with literary work, with what appears to Jane Carlyle, unreasonable energy and devotion! In this impatient mood the apparently neglected friend writes from Cheyne Row, June 15:

"My dear Mrs. Gilchrist: It is indeed long since we exchanged words, we two! So long that when I received your letter this morning I did not recognise the handwriting; but had to look for the signature; and when I found your name I was struck with astonishment, thinking the letter was from a Catherine Gilchrist whom I used to correspond with 45 years ago!! And yet I have often thought of you and often talked of

you in

the past year and have not thought of Catherine Gilchrist the least in the world! What a thorough belief in your total forgetfulness of me did this little fact indicate, that my mind should have leapt back forty-five years for the writer of that letter!

"I answer it in a hurry, having to go up to town for groceries, etc.-before dinner time, which is now balf-past three with us!

"I should like much to go and see you in your country home-not with any view to our own convenience-but just to see you and talk with you-and refresh our friendship which seemed in the way of fading out like a photograph!

"But I cannot go just at present. I have been to St. Leonards on a visit for a week-am just come home, and have a great many things to see after before I could leave Mr. Carlyle again. I was to have gone with a lady [Miss Davenport Bromley] to Folkestone on Wednesday, for a few days, and broke off my engagement, on account of Mr. Carlyle not liking I should go away again just when I had come home. So I could not go in another direction on Wednesday.

"Tell me when you return from Essex, and there is a little time to choose a day out of, and I shall be only too glad to go!

"Mr. Carlyle is getting on very peaceably with his work, suffering nothing from heat as yet-and it would be most imprudent, while that is the case, to not let well alone. Shifting his quarters for more than a day or two, is always for him a most dangerous measure! I want him to go to the sea for a few days-and I think he will

« ZurückWeiter »