Delphi Complete Works of the Brontes Charlotte, Emily, Anne Brontë (Illustrated) (458 page)

“Weary with a day’s hard work . . . I am sitting down to write a few lines to my dear E.  Excuse me if I say nothing but nonsense, for my mind is exhausted and dispirited.  It is a stormy evening, and the wind is uttering a continual moaning sound, that makes me feel very melancholy.  At such times — in such moods as these — it is my nature to seek repose in some calm tranquil idea, and I have now summoned up your image to give me rest.  There you sit, upright and still in your black dress, and white scarf, and pale marble-like face — just like reality.  I wish you would speak to me.  If we should be separated — if it should be our lot to live at a great distance, and never to see each other again — in old age, how I should conjure up the memory of my youthful days, and what a melancholy pleasure I should feel in dwelling on the recollection of my early friend! . . . I have some qualities that make me very miserable, some feelings that you can have no participation in — that few, very few, people in the world can at all understand.  I don’t pride myself on these peculiarities.  I strive to conceal and suppress them as much as I can; but they burst out sometimes, and then those who see the explosion despise me, and I hate myself for days afterwards . . . I have just received your epistle and what accompanied it.  I can’t tell what should induce you and your sisters to waste your kindness on such a one as me.  I’m obliged to them, and I hope you’ll tell them so.  I’m obliged to you also, more for your note than for your present.  The first gave me pleasure, the last something like pain.”

* * * * *

The nervous disturbance, which is stated to have troubled her while she was at Miss W — -’s, seems to have begun to distress her about this time; at least, she herself speaks of her irritable condition, which was certainly only a temporary ailment.

“You have been very kind to me of late, and have spared me all those little sallies of ridicule, which, owing to my miserable and wretched touchiness of character, used formerly to make me wince, as if I had been touched with a hot iron; things that nobody else cares for, enter into my mind and rankle there like venom.  I know these feelings are absurd, and therefore I try to hide them, but they only sting the deeper for concealment.”

Compare this state of mind with the gentle resignation with which she had submitted to be put aside as useless, or told of her ugliness by her school-fellows, only three years before.

“My life since I saw you has passed as monotonously and unbroken as ever; nothing but teach, teach, teach, from morning till night.  The greatest variety I ever have is afforded by a letter from you, or by meeting with a pleasant new book.  The ‘Life of Oberlin,’ and ‘Leigh Richmond’s Domestic Portraiture,’ are the last of this description.  The latter work strongly attracted and strangely fascinated my attention.  Beg, borrow, or steal it without delay; and read the ‘Memoir of Wilberforce,’ — that short record of a brief uneventful life; I shall never forget it; it is beautiful, not on account of the language in which it is written, not on account of the incidents it details, but because of the simple narrative it gives of a young talented sincere Christian.”

* * * * *

About this time Miss W — - removed her school from the fine, open, breezy situation of Roe Head, to Dewsbury Moor, only two or three miles distant.  Her new residence was on a lower site, and the air was less exhilarating to one bred in the wild hill-village of Haworth.  Emily had gone as teacher to a school at Halifax, where there were nearly forty pupils.

“I have had one letter from her since her departure,” writes Charlotte, on October 2nd, 1836: “it gives an appalling account of her duties; hard labour from six in the morning to eleven at night, with only one half-hour of exercise between.  This is slavery.  I fear she can never stand it.”

* * * * *

When the sisters met at home in the Christmas holidays, they talked over their lives, and the prospect which they afforded of employment and remuneration.  They felt that it was a duty to relieve their father of the burden of their support, if not entirely, or that of all three, at least that of one or two; and, naturally, the lot devolved upon the elder ones to find some occupation which would enable them to do this.  They knew that they were never likely to inherit much money.  Mr. Brontë had but a small stipend, and was both charitable and liberal.  Their aunt had an annuity of 50
l
., but it reverted to others at her death, and her nieces had no right, and were the last persons in the world to reckon upon her savings.  What could they do?  Charlotte and Emily were trying teaching, and, as it seemed, without much success.  The former, it is true, had the happiness of having a friend for her employer, and of being surrounded by those who knew her and loved her; but her salary was too small for her to save out of it; and her education did not entitle her to a larger.  The sedentary and monotonous nature of the life, too, was preying upon her health and spirits, although, with necessity “as her mistress,” she might hardly like to acknowledge this even to herself.  But Emily — that free, wild, untameable spirit, never happy nor well but on the sweeping moors that gathered round her home — that hater of strangers, doomed to live amongst them, and not merely to live but to slave in their service — what Charlotte could have borne patiently for herself, she could not bear for her sister.  And yet what to do?  She had once hoped that she herself might become an artist, and so earn her livelihood; but her eyes had failed her in the minute and useless labour which she had imposed upon herself with a view to this end.

It was the household custom among these girls to sew till nine o’clock at night.  At that hour, Miss Branwell generally went to bed, and her nieces’ duties for the day were accounted done.  They put away their work, and began to pace the room backwards and forwards, up and down, — as often with the candles extinguished, for economy’s sake, as not, — their figures glancing into the fire-light, and out into the shadow, perpetually.  At this time, they talked over past cares and troubles; they planned for the future, and consulted each other as to their plans.  In after years this was the time for discussing together the plots of their novels.  And again, still later, this was the time for the last surviving sister to walk alone, from old accustomed habit, round and round the desolate room, thinking sadly upon the “days that were no more.”  But this Christmas of 1836 was not without its hopes and daring aspirations.  They had tried their hands at story-writing, in their miniature magazine, long ago; they all of them “made out” perpetually.  They had likewise attempted to write poetry; and had a modest confidence that they had achieved a tolerable success.  But they knew that they might deceive themselves, and that sisters’ judgments of each other’s productions were likely to be too partial to be depended upon.  So Charlotte, as the eldest, resolved to write to Southey.  I believe (from an expression in a letter to be noticed hereafter), that she also consulted Coleridge; but I have not met with any part of that correspondence.

On December 29th, her letter to Southey was despatched; and from an excitement not unnatural in a girl who has worked herself up to the pitch of writing to a Poet Laureate and asking his opinion of her poems, she used some high-flown expressions which, probably, gave him the idea that she was a romantic young lady, unacquainted with the realities of life.

This, most likely, was the first of those adventurous letters that passed through the little post-office of Haworth.  Morning after morning of the holidays slipped away, and there was no answer; the sisters had to leave home, and Emily to return to her distasteful duties, without knowing even whether Charlotte’s letter had ever reached its destination.

Not dispirited, however, by the delay, Branwell determined to try a similar venture, and addressed the following letter to Wordsworth.  It was given by the poet to Mr. Quillinan in 1850, after the name of Brontë had become known and famous.  I have no means of ascertaining what answer was returned by Mr. Wordsworth; but that he considered the letter remarkable may, I think, be inferred both from its preservation, and its recurrence to his memory when the real name of Currer Bell was made known to the public.

“Haworth, near Bradford,
“Yorkshire, January 19, 1837.

“Sir, — I most earnestly entreat you to read and pass your judgment upon what I have sent you, because from the day of my birth to this the nineteenth year of my life, I have lived among secluded hills, where I could neither know what I was, or what I could do.  I read for the same reason that I ate or drank; because it was a real craving of nature.  I wrote on the same principle as I spoke — out of the impulse and feelings of the mind; nor could I help it, for what came, came out, and there was the end of it.  For as to self-conceit, that could not receive food from flattery, since to this hour, not half a dozen people in the world know that I have ever penned a line.

“But a change has taken place now, sir: and I am arrived at an age wherein I must do something for myself: the powers I possess must be exercised to a definite end, and as I don’t know them myself I must ask of others what they are worth.  Yet there is not one here to tell me; and still, if they are worthless, time will henceforth be too precious to be wasted on them.

“Do pardon me, sir, that I have ventured to come before one whose works I have most loved in our literature, and who most has been with me a divinity of the mind, laying before him one of my writings, and asking of him a judgment of its contents.  I must come before some one from whose sentence there is no appeal; and such a one is he who has developed the theory of poetry as well as its practice, and both in such a way as to claim a place in the memory of a thousand years to come.

“My aim, sir, is to push out into the open world, and for this I trust not poetry alone — that might launch the vessel, but could not bear her on; sensible and scientific prose, bold and vigorous efforts in my walk in life, would give a farther title to the notice of the world; and then again poetry ought to brighten and crown that name with glory; but nothing of all this can be ever begun without means, and as I don’t possess these, I must in every shape strive to gain them.  Surely, in this day, when there is not a
writing
poet worth a sixpence, the field must be open, if a better man can step forward.

“What I send you is the Prefatory Scene of a much longer subject, in which I have striven to develop strong passions and weak principles struggling with a high imagination and acute feelings, till, as youth hardens towards age, evil deeds and short enjoyments end in mental misery and bodily ruin.  Now, to send you the whole of this would be a mock upon your patience; what you see, does not even pretend to be more than the description of an imaginative child.  But read it, sir; and, as you would hold a light to one in utter darkness — as you value your own kindheartedness —
return
me an
answer
, if but one word, telling me whether I should write on, or write no more.  Forgive undue warmth, because my feelings in this matter cannot be cool; and believe me, sir, with deep respect,

“Your really humble servant,
“P. B. Brontë”

The poetry enclosed seems to me by no means equal to parts of the letter; but, as every one likes to judge for himself, I copy the six opening stanzas — about a third of the whole, and certainly not the worst.

So where he reigns in glory bright,
Above those starry skies of night,
Amid his Paradise of light
   Oh, why may I not be?

Oft when awake on Christmas morn,
In sleepless twilight laid forlorn,
Strange thoughts have o’er my mind been borne,
   How he has died for me.

And oft within my chamber lying,
Have I awaked myself with crying
From dreams, where I beheld Him dying
   Upon the accursed Tree.

And often has my mother said,
While on her lap I laid my head,
She feared for time I was not made,
   But for Eternity.

So “I can read my title clear,
To mansions in the skies,
And let me bid farewell to fear,
   And wipe my weeping eyes.”

I’ll lay me down on this marble stone,
And set the world aside,
To see upon her ebon throne
   The Moon in glory ride.

Soon after Charlotte returned to Dewsbury Moor, she was distressed by hearing that her friend “E.” was likely to leave the neighbourhood for a considerable length of time.

“Feb. 20th.

“What shall I do without you?  How long are we likely to be separated?  Why are we to be denied each other’s society?  It is an inscrutable fatality.  I long to be with you, because it seems as if two or three days, or weeks, spent in your company would beyond measure strengthen me in the enjoyment of those feelings which I have so lately begun to cherish.  You first pointed out to me that way in which I am so feebly endeavouring to travel, and now I cannot keep you by my side, I must proceed sorrowfully alone.  Why are we to be divided?  Surely, it must be because we are in danger of loving each other too well — of losing sight of the
Creator
in idolatry of the
creature
.  At first, I could not say ‘Thy will be done!’  I felt rebellious, but I knew it was wrong to feel so.  Being left a moment alone this morning, I prayed fervently to be enabled to resign myself to
every
decree of God’s will, though it should be dealt forth by a far severer hand than the present disappointment; since then I have felt calmer and humbler, and consequently happier.  Last Sunday I took up my Bible in a gloomy state of mind: I began to read — a feeling stole over me such as I have not known for many long years — a sweet, placid sensation, like those, I remember, which used to visit me when I was a little child, and, on Sunday evenings in summer, stood by the open window reading the life of a certain French nobleman, who attained a purer and higher degree of sanctity than has been known since the days of the early martyrs.”