Brontës (184 page)

60.
Dungeons held a peculiar fascination for all the Brontës. Under the school on Vision Island, for example, there were dungeons for naughty schoolchildren: ‘These cells are \dark, vaulted/ arched and so far down in the earth that the loudest shreik could not be heard by any inhabitant of the upper world': CB, Tales of the Islanders, vol i, 30 June 1829: MS pp.2–3, Berg [JB
CBJ
, 8].

61.
PBB, The History of the Young Men, 15 Dec 1830–7May 1831: MS Ashley 2468 pp.1, 8, BL [Neufeldt, i, 138, 153]. Only one of the ninepins was still extant by January 1831.

62.
A sample, by Parry, goes ‘“Hellow! Dear! Oi tee troy bowt's cawming oup tow us” (i.e. – Hello there! I see 3 boats coming up to us)': ibid., p.5[Neufeldt, i, 144]. Charlotte uses the ‘old young men tongue' when describing Parry's land in a way which suggests she saw it as baby talk rather than simply an attempt to reproduce broad Yorkshire dialect: see below, p.189.

63.
PBB, The History of the Young Men, 15 Dec 1830–7May 1831: MS Ashley 2468 pp.10, 16, BL [Neufeldt, i, 158, 168–9]. See also below p.1028, n.76.

64.
CB, Tales of the Islanders, vol i, 30 June 1829: MS pp.9, 10, Berg [JB
CBJ
, 8–9].

65.
EJB/AB, Diary Paper, 24 Nov 1834: MS Bon 131 p.1, BPM [JB
BLL
, 29].

66.
CB, Tales of the Islanders, vol ii, 6 Oct–2 Dec 1829: MS pp.1–2, Berg [JB
CBJ
, 17].

67.
PB,
LI
, 15 Jan 1829 p.4, 29 Jan 1829 p.4 and 5Feb 1829 p.4[
LRPB
, 64–6, 66–8; the third letter is omitted]. Opposing letters from Morgan and Roberson were published with Patrick's second letter: ibid., 29 Jan 1829 p.4.

68.
Ibid., 15 Jan 1829 p.3The phrase was quoted and supported by Morgan in his letter the following week, despite his virulent attack on Patrick's attribution of the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Catholics.

69.
Ibid., p.4[
LRPB
, 65].

70.
Ibid., 29 Jan 1829 p.4[
LRPB
, 68].

71.
Ibid., 5Feb 1829 p.4.

72.
PB,
LM
10 Jan 1829 p.4[
LRPB
, 63].

73.
PBB,
History of the Rebellion in My Fellows, 1828: MS BS 112, BPM [Neufeldt, i, 2–6]; PBB, Battel Book, 12 March 1827: MS BS 110, BPM [JB
ST
no.35]; CB, ‘There was onc[e] a litle girl', n.d.: MS Bon 78, BPM [CA, i, 3]. The last was probably written for Anne and, like Branwell's Battel Book, is illustrated with tiny watercolours.

74.
PBB, [Branwell's Blackwood's] Magazine, Jan 1829: MS Lowell 1(8), Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 7–9]. Charlotte described the origin of the ‘O Dears' plays in CB, The History of the Year, 12 Mar 1829: MS Bon 80(11) p.4, BPM [JB
CBJ
, 3]. Neufeldt, i, 7 n.2 and CA, i, 6transcribe the name as O Dean, WG
CB
, 25 as O'Deay but it appears to me to be O Dear.

75.
PBB, [Branwell's Blackwood's] Magazine, Jan 1829: MS Lowell 1(8), Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 8]. American politics featured in later issues of the magazine: CB, ‘An American Tale', YMM for Nov 1829, 9 Sept 1829: MS Lowell 1(4), Harvard [JB
CBJ
, 68–70].

76.
PBB, [Branwell's Blackwood's] Magazine, Jan 1829: MS Lowell 1(8) p.4, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 8–9]. CA
EW
, 35 suggests that Charlotte was ‘unimpressed' by the old tongue and did not use it but this letter appears to be by her, like her letter as Goodman ‘in his Handwritin' in PBB, History of the Rebellion in My Fellows, 1828: MS BS 112 p.3, BPM [Neufeldt, i, 8].

77.
PBB, Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine, June 1829: MS Lowell 1(7) pp.4–6, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 13]. This contains the second part of the story so the first must have appeared in an earlier issue now lost. Charlotte's own version of the story, set in Paris, was written on 2 leaves of what appears to be a dismantled little book: CB, The Enfant, 13 July 1829: MS Bon 80(9), BPM [CA, i, 34–6].

78.
PBB, Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine, July 1829: MS Lowell 1(9) p.21, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 30]. Branwell, imitating contributors to
Blackwood's Magazine
, used the same 3 Greek characters as a pseudonym in PBB, The Travels of Rolando Segur, MS n.l. [Neufeldt, ii, 10]; they seem to have no meaning.

79.
CB, Fragment, 8 Aug 1829: MS Bon 80(10), BPM [CA, i. 4].

80.
CB, Anecdotes of the duke of Wellington, 8July–2Oct 1829 and 4 Nov 1829–4Jan 1831: MSS Bon 81 and E2009.11/2, BPM [CA, ii, 88–9]. The latter unpublished ms is untitled and unfinished: it begins with anecdote vi and ends with the heading for viii.

81.
CB, ‘Silence', YMM for Nov 1830, 26 Aug 1830: MS BS 12 pp.3–10 [CA, i, 241–55, where it is wrongly dated to 16 Aug].

82.
For spectral visions see CB, ‘Military Conversations', YMM for Oct 1829, 2Sept 1829: MS Lowell 1(5), Harvard; CB, The Keep of the Bridge, 13 July 1829: MS Berg; CB, ‘Liffey Castle', YMM for Aug 1830, 12 Aug 1830: MS Bon 84 pp.3–9, BPM [CA, i, 74–6, 36–8, 216–20]. For premonitory dreams see CB, ‘Strange Events', YMM for Dec 1830 no.1, 29 Aug 1830 and fairy transformations CB, ‘Fairy Gift', Visits in Verreopolis, 18 Dec 1830: MSS in Law [CA, i, 257–60, 319–27].
Blackwood's Magazine
ran many series on the supernatural such as ‘On Some Popular Superstitions in Wales', iii (1818), 170–96; ‘Legends and Traditions of Southern Ireland', xviii (1825), 55–61; ‘An Autumnal Night's Dream in Ireland', xxii (1827), 68–91; ‘Fairies, Brownies and Witches', xxiii (1828), 214–17, 509–19.

83.
CB, ‘An Extraordinary Dream', YMM for Dec 1830, no.2, 2Sept 1830: MS Bon 86 p.7, BPM [CA, i, 271–2]; ‘The Buried Alive',
BM
, x (1821), 262–4in which the ‘corpse' revives as it is about to be dissected by Resurrectionists. Branwell was also writing about Resurrectionists at the same time as Charlotte, describing how James Bellingham falls into the hands of Dr Hume and is only just saved from being dissected alive by the timely intervention of the duke of Wellington: PBB, Letters from an Englishman, vol i, 6 Sept 1830: MS pp.14–17, Brotherton [Neufeldt, ii, 122–4]. The Resurrectionists crop up again in CB, An Interesting Passage in the Lives of Some Eminent Men of the Present Time, 17–18 June 1830: MS Lowell 1(1), Harvard [CA, i, 170–7].

84.
See, for example, Arthur Wellesley's revival in CB, Tales of the Islanders, vol ii, 6Oct 1829: MS p.5, Berg [JB
CBJ
, 20–1] and Captain Tree's in CB, The Poetaster, vol ii, 12 July 1830: MS MA 2696 R-V, PM [CA, i, 196].

85.
CB, Description of the Duke of Wellington's Small Palace situated on the Banks of the Indiva, 16 Jan 1830: MS MA 2538, PM [CA, i, 130–3].

86.
CB, ‘Review of “The Chief Geni in Council” by Edward De Lisle', YMM, Dec 1829 no.2: MS Ashley 157 p.2, BL [CA, i, 114]. As CA
EW
, 241 points out, passages such as these owe as much to biblical visions of the New Jerusalem as to the
Arabian Nights' Entertainment
.

87.
CB, ‘Liffey Castle', YMM for Aug 1830, 12 Aug 1830: MS Bon 84 p.3, BPM [CA, i, 216].

88.
CB, ‘Conversations', YMM, Dec 1829 no.2: MS Ashley 157 p.10, BL [CA, i, 118].

89.
CB, ‘Review of Causes of the Late War by the Duke of Wellington', YMM for Aug 1829, 24 July 1829: MS Lowell 1(6), Harvard [CA, i, 56].

90.
CB, ‘A Day at Parry's Palace', YMM for Oct 1830, 22 Aug 1830: MS Bon 85 pp.3–4, BPM [CA, i, 230].

91.
Ibid., p.5 [CA, i, 229–33].

92.
CB, An Interesting Passage in the Lives of Some Eminent Men of the Present Time, 17–18 June 1830: MS Lowell 1(1), Harvard [CA, i, 170–7]; PBB, The Liar Detected, 19 June 1830: MS Bon 139 p.1, BPM [Neufeldt, i, 92].

93.
Ibid., p.6[Neufeldt, i, 94–5].

94.
CB, The Poetaster, vol i, 3–6July 1830: MS Lowell 1(2), Harvard [CA, i, 181].

95.
Ibid., vol ii, 12 July 1830: MS MA 2692 R-V, PM [CA, i, 194–7]. The literary allusions are discussed in Melodie Monahan (ed.), ‘Charlotte Brontë's
The Poetaster
: Text and Notes',
Studies in Romanticism
, xx (1981), 475–8.

96.
PBB, The Monthly Intelligncer, 27 Mar–6Apr 1833: MS BS 117, BPM [Neufeld, i, 250–65]. The paper was modelled on the
Leeds Intelligencer
.

97.
PBB, ‘The Nights', Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine, June 1829: MS Lowell 1(7) p.10, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 16].

98.
PBB, A Collection of Poems by Young Soult the Ryhmer, 30 Sept 1829: MS BS 114 p.17, BPM [VN
PBB
, 25]. The second volume of this work is MS BS 115, BPM [VN
PBB
, 14–30]. For Chateaubriand see
BM
, ix (1821), 187–91.

99.
PBB, ‘REVEIW OF BUDS commentary on Ossian', Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine, July 1829: MS Lowell 1(9) pp.14–15, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 27–9]. The Brontës owned a copy of James Macpherson's
Poems of Ossian
(London, 1819) upon which one of them, probably Branwell, wrote various derogatory comments such as ‘poopooh nonsense Branwell poopoo' and ‘Bombast': HAOBP:bb203 pp.220, 270, BPM.

100.
PBB, Laussane: A Dramatic Poem by Young Soult, 18–23 Dec 1829: MS Bon 138, BPM [VN
PBB
, 37–46]. The ms is described as ‘a dramatic poem' on the title page but as ‘A Trajedy' on the front cover. The Horae Germanicae series ran for several years from 1819 in
Blackwood's Magazine
: it included translations from Goethe, Schiller and Müllner.

101.
PBB, Caractacus: a dramatic poem, 26 June 1830: MS in Brotherton, and PBB, The Revenge: a Tradgedy in 3 Acts, 23 Nov–18 Dec 1830: MS BS 116, BPM [VN
PBB
, 48–62, 62–71]. The count's son in ‘The Revenge' is called Werner, after Byron's tragic hero of that name: ‘Werner' was reviewed by Timothy Tickler and Morgan O'Doherty in
BM
, xii (1822), 10–19, 782–5. Another character, Lodbrog, was based on the king of Denmark of that name who was a contemporary of Charlemagne: see ibid., xxxiii (1833), 910–23.

102.
PBB, The Revenge: a Tradgedy in 3Acts, 23 Nov–18 Dec 1830: MS BS 116 p.1, BPM [VN
PBB
, 371]. The quotation in Caractacus is slightly different: ‘In Dramatic poetry the passions are the cheif thing and in Proportion as exelence in the depicting of these is obtained so the writer of the poem takes his class among Dramatic authors C BUD'S Synopis of the Dramatic writing Vol I. p.130': PBB, Caractacus: a dramatic poem, 26 June 1830: MS p. 1, Brotherton [VN
PBB
, 369–70].

103.
PBB, Letters from an Englishman, in 6 vols, 6Sept 1830–2 Aug 1832: MSS in Brotherton [Neufeldt, ii, 118–24, 170–203, 210–21, 230–9].

104.
See, for example, Margaret Lane,
The Brontë Story
(Otley, 1990), 115.

105.
The motto is introduced in part 6of the ‘Noctes Ambrosianae',
BM
, xii (1822), 693.

106.
‘Maxims of Morgan O'Doherty', ibid., xv (1824), 597–605, 632–42. See also, for example, ‘The Bishop of Bristol', ibid., v (1819), 668.

107.
CB, ‘A Frenchman's Journal', YMM for Dec 1830 no.2, 4Sept 1830: MS Bon 86 p.14, BPM [VN
CB
, 59–60]. For further examples see VN
CB
, 7, 11.

108.
From an early age Branwell's work was full of classical allusions: for example, the cast of characters from ‘Nights' included Epimanondas [sic] Johnson (for the Theban general Epaminondas) and Cicero Stephenson (for the Roman orator): PBB, Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine, June 1829: MS Lowell 1(7) p.7, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 15]. All his learned characters are classicists from his alter ego Alexander Percy to the revolutionary H.M.M. Montmorency, whose library is full of appropriate books on ancient history; Percy's blue-stocking wife Zenobia reads Seneca's letters ‘in the original' in her leisure hours: PBB, Life of feild Marshal the Right Honourable ALEXAN[D]ER PERCY, vol i, [spring, 1834]: MS pp.7, 12–13, Brotherton [Neufeldt, ii, 114, 133, 136]; PBB, Real Life in Verdopolis, vol i, May 1833: MS p.2, Brotherton [Neufeldt, i, 269]; Ibid, vol ii, 17 Aug 1833: MS pp.1, 2, Brotherton [Neufeldt, i, 298–9]. Branwell later wrote and rewrote a long poem on the battle of Thermopylae and translated the first book of Horace's
Odes
: see below, p.380–90.

109.
See, for example, CB, ‘An American Tale', YMM for Nov 1829, 9 Sept 1829: MS Lowell 1(4), Harvard and CB, ‘Visits in Verreopolis', 11 Dec 1829: MS in Law [CA, i, 83–4, 299, 301].

110.
The ms is divided between the Taylor Colln, Princeton and MS BS 13(1), BPM [VN
CB
, 64–9]. ‘The Violet' contains allusions to Aeolian music, ‘Cim[m]erian shade', the river Eurotas and Mount Parnassus as well as to Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus and Virgil. The violet, perhaps significantly, was the personal emblem of Napoleon:
BM
, xiii (1823), 695–8.

111.
PB, [French Phrasebook], 1842: MS BS 178, BPM [partial L&D, 302–3].

112.
Charlotte's copy of
La Henriade
inscribed ‘Charlotte Bronte's Book price 3s purchased May: 1830 Anno Domini La Henriad, un Epique Poeme par Voltaire' is in Harvard. Her English translation of the first book, written in a little book, is MS Eng 35.5, Harvard.

113.
CB, ‘Journal of a Frenchman', YMM for Aug 1830, 13 Aug 1830: MS Bon 84 pp.11–15, BPM [CA, ii, 221–3]; the series is continued as ‘A Frenchmans Journal' in YMM for Sept, Nov and Dec 1830 nos.1 and 2.

114.
LM
, 25 July 1829 p.3.

115.
CB to PB, 23 Sept 1829: MS Bon 159, BPM [
LCB
, i, 105]. Jane Branwell Fennell, their mother's aunt, had died on 26 May 1829. Her tombstone, from Cross Stone churchyard, is inscribed with the following moving lines: Farewell blest saint thou dear and faithfull friend/ Beloved in life lamented in thine end/ Instructed long in sharp afflictions school/ To make submission to the Lord thy rule/ To find when every hope of life was past/ Thy best thy choicest comforts were thy last/ Thou now with HIM eternally shall dwell/ Blest saint thou dear and faithful friend/ FAREWELL'. For her burial by Charles Musgrave, vicar of Halifax, see Register of Burials, 1813–32, Cross Stone Church, 170 no.1353, [29 May 1829]: Microfilm, WYAS, Calderdale.