\n\(j \ THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE \ THE LETTERS OF ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE The Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne POSTHUMOUS WORKS POSTHUMOUS POEMS. 6/- net. THE AGE OF SHAKESPEARE. Vol. II. 6/- net. COLLECTED POETICAL WORKS In six volumes. 36/- net the set. I. POEMS AND BALLADS. First Series. II. SONGS BEFORE SUNRISE and SONGS OF TWO NATIONS. III. POEMS AND BALLADS, Second and Third Series, and SONGS OF THE SPRINGTIDES. IV. TRISTRAM OF LYONESSE, THE TALE OF BALEN, ATALANTA IN CALYDON, ERECH THEUS. V. STUDIES IN SONG, A CENTURY OF ROUNDELS, SONNETS ON ENGLISH DRAMATIC POETS, THE HEPTALOGIA, etc. A MIDSUMMER HOLIDAY, ASTROPHEL, A CHANNEL PASSAGE AND OTHER POEMS. THE GOLDEN PINE EDITION In five Tolumes. 3/6 net Cloth, 6/- net in Limp Leather, of the following volumes. I. POEMS AND BALLADS. First Series. II. POEMS AND BALLADS. Second and Third Series. III. SONGS BEFORE SUNRISE, including A Song of Italy. IV. ATALANTA IN CALYDON and ERECHTHEUS. V. TRISTRAM OF LYONESSE. VI. A STUDY OF SHAKESPEARE. LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN The Letters of Algernon Charles S^vinburne ' I V Edited by Edmund Gosse, C.B. and Thomas James Wise Vol. I LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN A A- London: PFilliam Heinemann, 191 8. INTRODUCTION Algernon Charles Swinburne was born on the 5th of April, 1837, and died on the loth of April, 1909, Mr. Heinemann, having acquired the copy- right in the entire writings of Swinburne, has entrusted to us the task of making a first collection of the poet's letters. The Corre- spondence of an eminent author is bound to be given to the public in successive stages, and in the last resource is condemned to imperfection. No collection of the Complete Letters of a writer is likely ever to be published. Those of Cowper and of Johnson have occupied the closest attention of the learned for more than a hundred years, yet additions to them are for ever turning up. The case of Charles Lamb, that enchanting letter-writer, is in point. Tal- fourd produced in 1837 a slender first collection, which was presently extended by himself, and then successively by Fitzgerald, by Hazlitt, and by Ainger, nor can it be certain that even Mr. V INTRODUCTION Lucas's edition will never undergo enlargement. It must be borne in mind by the reader of the ensuing volumes that vs^e make no pretence of presenting the " complete " correspondence of Swinburne, of which much must at present remain unknown even to ourselves. We are, in fact, aware of the existence of more than one group of letters, an inspection of which is still denied to the general public. What we are able to give is, however, and will probably remain, a very considerable portion of Swinburne's Correspondence, for three reasons : the first, that no one, except his Mother, appears to have kept his early letters, so far at least as we have hitherto been able to discover ; the second, that a good deal of what must have been very familiar and interesting has, as we have learned on inquiry, been destroyed ; the third, that in comparison with most recent authors of great eminence Swinburne wrote few letters. He experienced, as I have explained elsewhere, a physical difficulty in the exercise of penmanship, and yet even during the closing years of his life he refrained from availing himself of the services of a secretary. The bare idea of Swinburne's using a type-writing machine brings a smile to the lips of any one who recollects his capitulation at the approach of any species of mechanism. The whole of his compositions, transcripts for the press as well as drafts, and his private vi INTRODUCTION letters to the end, are holograph. Yet the act of holding a pen was cumbrous to him, and he avoided it as often as he could, never, or scarcely ever, copying his own poems, and preferring the risk of losing his MSS. in the post to the labour of making a duplicate. A letter, there- fore, represented a toilsome act to him, and it was one which he did not face without a strong impulsion. With him there can be no question that the strongest impulsion came from literature, and mainly from poetical literature. It is therefore not surprising that questions of metrical tech- nique and of the history of verse recur inces- santly in Swinburne's correspondence, as they did in his conversation. He lived in a perpetual converse with the Muses, and ubi Thesaurus ibt Cor, as Coleridge wished his own epitaph to confess. But the treasure-heap over which Swinburne's heart loved most to gloat was that formed by the almost innumerable quarto plays of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period. These are discussed in his correspondence with a gusto which surpasses anything which Charles Lamb himself could show, and which reflects the obsession of his everyday talk, in the course of which he seldom refrained for any length of time from an allusion to Arden of Feversham or some such tragic drama. It will be observed that this part of Swinburne's correspondence has vli INTRODUCTION a surprising unity of method. The eye of the illustrious enthusiast is fixed throughout upon his subject, and it moves away to no other. It might have been thought impossible to deal with matters so technical without a touch of pedantry, yet here is nothing that smells of the lamp. We have a scholar talking to some other scholar of things intimately seductive to them both, and he does it with what is almost the ardour of a schoolboy. The revelation is moral as well as intellectual, for no one can attentively read these letters without seeing shine out of them the courtesy, the generosity, the delicate glow of friendship, which were characteristic of this noble poet. Swinburne's extraordinary devotion to the minor dramatists of the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- turies dates from his schoolboy days. Once, when he was looking over my bookshelves, he took down a copy of Lamb's Specimens of the English Dramatic Poets, and, turning to me, said, " that book taught me more than any other in the world — that and the Bible ! " The original edition (1808) of this great work does not, how- ever, present the extracts from the lesser and obscurer dramatists. When Swinburne writes, in one of the ensuing letters, that Charles Lamb " made 'Tottenham Court familiar to me ever since my thirteenth year," he proves that it was not the Specimens in their original form which he viii INTRODUCTION studied. In 1827 Lamb had contributed to Hone's liable-Book the extracts from the Garrick Plays which were Swinburne's pecuUar delight. Here, and here alone, in his Eton days, could Nabbes, Davenport, Yarington, Arden of Fevers- ham and Doctor Dodypol be discovered. But Hone's Table-Book was an ephemeral affair, and it was not until after Lamb's death that, in 1835, the Garrick Extracts became accessible in the pretty edition in which Moxon appended them to his reprint of the Specimens. It may be taken for granted that it was this two-volume edition which came into Swin- burne's hands in his thirteenth year, that is, 1849-50. He induced his mother to buy for him Dyce's edition of the works of Marlowe when it was quite a new book ; and this was published in 1850. There is no doubt that he was strictly correct when he attributed to him- self a love and some budding knowledge of the rarer Elizabethans at the extremely precocious age of thirteen. In order to facilitate the read- ing of these letters to those who are not quite so conversant with the small spinosities of Eliza- bethan bibliography as were the poet and his correspondents, we have occasionally added a few brief notes at the foot of the text. Swinburne's correspondence with French and Italian contemporaries must have been consider- able, and would certainly have great value in the ix INTRODUCTION comprehension of his republican poetry. We have made great efforts to trace his letters to Mazzini, but without success. We do not, however, despair; these may turn up when they are least expected, and we know that they are still being searched for. They may reward the patience of some deserving editor when we are dead and gone, and I can hardly wish him a greater piece of good fortune, since I am con- vinced that as the magnanimity of Swinburne to Hugo inspired him with a noble eloquence, so he poured out to Mazzini, as to a father confessor, the very innermost convictions of his soul. Of his foreign correspondence, one very inter- esting and important section will be found here in the letters to Stephane Mallarme. The daughter of that poet, Madame Bonniot, gener- ously consented to search for me among the confusion of papers at Valvins, and it is to her kindness that we owe the letters written by Swinburne to Mallarme in 1875 and 1876. It will not be overlooked that they present valu- able evidence of the English poet's competence in the use of the French language, both in prose and verse. One of them, as will be seen, was modified by Mallarme when he printed it in La Repub/ique des Lettres^ but so slightly as to emphasize its general correctness. All are given here exactly as Swinburne wrote them. The letters of Mallarme to which these are repHes INTRODUCTION have disappeared, and were probably destroyed. But even if they w^ere found, they could not be published, as Mallarme left stringent directions that no letter of his, of whatever kind, was to be printed after his death, and this wish is rigidly confirmed by his executors. The tone of admiration in which Swinburne writes to Mallarme will not fail to attract the reader's attention. It is remarkable, because in 1875 the author of V Apres-jnidi (Tun Faune was still but little recognised in France, and his very name was totally unknown in England. It was the English poet's warm approval of the French- man's translation of Poe which started the esteem. Swinburne can, at that time, have seen very little of Mallarme's original work. But he was ac- quainted with he Parnasse Contemporain of 1866, and with the Second Parnasse of 1869 ; each of these contained lyrics by Mallarme the merit of which Swinburne, with his rapid and faultless perception, did not fail to recognise. He had seen '* Le phenomene futur," and it is within my personal memory that, in Le To??ibeau de Theophik Gautier — a book in which Swinburne took an almost feverish interest — he particularly observed the mysterious merit of " Toast Funebre." It must not, however, be gathered that Swin- burne accepted, or comprehended, the obstinate and intricate theories of Mallarme regarding poetic art. I do not recollect, in later years, xi INTRODUCTION that he occupied himself much, or at all, with the development of Symbolism. His sentiment towards Mallarme was one of delicate and cour- teous sympathy with a man whom he felt to be an artist to the tips of his fingers, and who recommended himself to him through the friend- ship of Manet, Whistler, and Fantin, the en- thusiasm of Theodore de Banville and Catulle Mendes, and the imperial complaisance of Victor Hugo. Perhaps I may be excused a word of explana- tion regarding the abrupt change of tone between the first and the second of those ensuing letters which are addressed to myself. It represents, alas ! a loss of material which I can never cease to deplore. When I wrote to Swinburne in 1867 I was in my eighteenth year, and had but lately left school, while he was in his thirty-first year, and was surrounded by the splendour and scandal of his then recent Poems and Ballads. Remote from all literary society and supported by no private sympathy, I was living a feverish and absurd existence, infatuated with poetry and with the desire to excel in the writing of verses ; torn between the claims of a dying puritanism and those of a vaguely invading paganism. In this unhealthy mood, I ventured to send some of my painful compositions to the poet who had lately flooded our horizon with radiance. It was the first time that I inflicted such an indiscretion xii INTRODUCTION on a stranger, and it was to be the last. The result of receiving Swinburne's wise and straight- forward reply was that I burned all that I had written, and set about a new and more sober study of the great masters of our literature. But it was not until three years later, at the close of 1870, that I made the poet's personal acquaintance, and it was in the beginning of 1 87 1 that we began to be friends. This relation ripened into a close intimacy at the opening of 1873, and from that time forward our inter- course was frequent and confidential. I saw him very often indeed, and when he was absent from London we wrote to one another. There was a bundle of letters, dating from 1871 to the end of 1873, which would naturally have contributed passages of critical interest and biographical im- portance to the present collection, but unhappily it is lost. In the course of a change of lodgings in 1874 a desk of papers disappeared, and with it all the letters which I had received from Swinburne since our friendship began. This is the reason why, after the stiffness of an opening reply to an unknown aspirant, the reader is plunged into the midst of a familiar friendship. The extreme simplicity of Swinburne's nature is revealed in all his personal correspondence. Not a letter here, except those which were addressed to Edmund C. Stedman with a definite purpose, shows any consciousness of a possible xiji INTRODUCTION " general public." They are absolutely un- affected responses to the appeals of private friends. Scarcely any references to events of passing history are to be found in these letters ; Swinburne left these to the newspapers, he was absorbed in other matters. It is said that Scaliger, who was transcribing a Hebrew manuscript in the heart of Paris, lived through the day of St. Bartholomew without observing that anybody was being massacred in the street below his window. A similar story records that Archi- medes could not be drawn from his mathematical reflections by the noises of the sack of Syracuse. Our poet was capable of an abstracted application which was not surpassed by either of these historical instances. Our sincere thanks are due to all those many friends who have courteously permitted us to transcribe the letters in their possession. Among them a foremost place is due to Lord Morley, who has been so gracious as to offer me access to the whole of such letters from the poet as he had preserved, and to give me his counsel in my selection from them. Our thanks for special help from the Marquess of Crewe, and from Sir George Otto Trevelyan, which I have already acknowledged in my Life of Swinburne, we take this opportunity of gratefully repeating. Edmund Gosse. xiv LETTER I To Edwin Hatch ^ Oxford. February 17/i, [1858]. My dear Hatch, I commiserate you sincerely ; but I have two things to comfort you with : — (i) Morris's book is really out. Reading it, I would fain be worthy to sit down at his feet ; but I have a painful recollection of Aurora Leigh : Almost all the birds IVill sing at dawn ; and yet zve do not take The chattering swallow for the holy lark I Such, however, is the invincible absurdity of all poets, that he ventured to prefer Kosamond"^ to Peter Harpdon^ in a repeatedly rebuked and resolutely argued statement. It appears to me 1 Edwin Hatch (i 835-1 889), afterwards a distinguished theologian, had just been appointed to an East End curacy. 2 Not Rosamond., the second of the two dramas in Swin- burne's volume of i860, but an earlier play which is still unprinted. ^ 5/r Feter Harpdons End., by William Morris, Printed in The Defence of Guenevere and Other Poems., 1858, pp. 65-109. VOL. I. B SWINBURNE'S LETTERS simple mania ; but certainly I am glad of his words, for Rosamond is about my favourite poem, and is now verging on a satisfactory completion. The first scene as rewritten is an acknowledged improvement. But after all ! (2) I have a message to you from Edith,-"- which I enclose in her own words. Of course if you like I will write for your book, and she can get another copy ; you must not let her interfere between you and what you value. She would be in a great state of mind at the idea. Now (to have done with the practical at once) could you tell me if about Easter I could find a day's lodging near you if I came up ? I should love to see all you speak of, and also to talk with you sooner than otherwise. This is a vague vision, and certainly cool on my part to give you the trouble ; but we might make something of it. In redemption of my words, I enclose two of my latest grinds, regardless of postage. Lose not the priceless uniques lest the world demand the account thereof at your hands. 'The Golden House is of course Rudel in Paradise. The other I can only describe as a dramato-lyrico-phantas- magorico-spasmodic sermon on the grievous sin of flirtation. It was written off one evening and has never been corrected. Verdicts differ 1 Miss Edith Burden, sister of Miss Jane Burden ; she after- wards became Mrs. William Morris. SWINBURNE'S LETTERS concerning it. Morris attacks it as weak and spasmodic. Nichol (in whose opinion I often trust) thinks it rather a good dramatic story than otherwise. It is of course meant for a picture of exceptional weakness ; inaction of the man, impulsive irresolution of the woman ; mutual ignorance of each other and themselves, with an extra dash of sensuous impulse ; finally, with no ostensible cause, rupture and spiflication. Pray abuse it if you feel inclined ; I am not (as you know) over-delicate and timid concerning my scribbles, and I have no tenderness for this ; and if it is not what it ought to be, it is a decided failure. But I suspect I must be Eglamor to Morris as Sordello. I long to be with you by firelight between the sunset and the sea to have talk of Sordello ; it is one of my canonical scriptures. Does he sleep and forget .? I think yes. Did the first time Palma's mouth trembled to touch his in the golden rose-lands of Paradise, a sudden power of angelic action come over him ? I suspect, not utterly companionless. Sometimes one knows — not now : but I suppose he slept years off before she kissed him. In Heaven she grew too tired and thin to sing well, and her face grew whiter than its aureole with pain and want of him. And if, like the other Saint, she wept, the tears fell upon his shut lids and fretted the eyes apart as they trickled. Who knows these 3 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS matters ? Only we keep the honey-stain of hair. I write more folly to you than I dare read over, because I think you wise. So take my stupidity as a compliment. If you like, and if it prospers, I will send you specimens of a new poem on Tristram which I am about. I envy you your work of corrupting the young idea with Shelley. I hope you will also introduce Morris — the first edition must pay well. If you like or care to amuse yourself therewith, my poems are at your service. I don't care about privacy. I shudder at the idea of a young man in the sixth form being tainted by such reading as Shelley, Morris, and the unworthiest of their admirers. I should like to review myself and say " that I have an abortive covetousness of imitation in which an exag- geration of my models — /. e. blasphemy and sensuality — is happily neutralised by my own imbecility." I flatter myself the last sentence was worthy of the Saturday Review. I also envy your musical and architectural work. Upon the whole, if your pupils in poetry and profanity are convcrsible, I think that one might be worse off than you. I am sure, but for Morris, I should be. One evening — when the Union was just finished — Jones and I had a great talk. [Spencer] Stanhope and Swan attacked, and we SWINBURNE'S LETTERS defended, our idea of Heaven, viz. a rose-garden full of stunners. Atrocities of an appalling nature were uttered on the other side. We became so fierce that two respectable members of the University — entering to see the pictures — stood mute and looked at us. We spoke just then of kisses in Paradise, and expounded our ideas on the celestial development of that necessity of life ; and after listening five minutes to our language, they literally fled from the room ! Conceive our mutual ecstasy of delight. All my people desire to be remembered to you. I had a long letter from Edith the other day : I know you will be glad to hear this, as I am to think of Morris's having that wonderful and most perfect stunner of his to — look at or speak to. The idea of his marrying her is insane. To kiss her feet is the utmost man should dream of doing. Mind you send for his book at once ; read it, and repent your former heresies, or I will review it somewhere and say that he is to Tennyson what Tennyson is to Dobell or Dobell to Tupper. Believe me, ever yours truly, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — Morris sends his love to you and hopes you are getting settled. The Albigenses are not yet organised ; I must read more, and then dash at it in wrath. SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER II To Edwin Hatch Oxford. April z6th, [1858], My dear Hatch, I am very sorry to have missed seeing you, before you left us for the improving recreation of canes and chemistry, Gregorians and castigation. I trust you will some day have had enough, and set up the staff of your tent even among Philistines to whom the penetralia of Chambers's Magazine are unknown land. Have you yet seen Montegut's article on Kingsley in the Revue des Deux Monde s ? Get it up when you have time, it is well worth while. Item : a review of Guenevere in The Tablet — I believe by Pollen, certainly the best as well as most favourable review Morris has had. That party has given us no signs of life as yet; in vain has the Oxford Comity Chronicle been crammed with such notices as the following : " If W. M. will return to his disconsolate friends, all shall be forgiven. One word would relieve them from the most agonising anxiety — why is it withheld.? " " If the Gentleman who left an MS. (appar- ently in verse) in George St. will communicate 6 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS with his bereaved and despairing Publishers, he will hear of something to his advantage. Other- wise the MS. will be sold (to pay expenses) as waste paper, together with the stock in hand of a late volume of Poems which fell stillborn from the press." Even this latter — a touching effusion of the creative fancy and talented pen " which now traces these imperfect records with a faltering hand " — has failed to move him. The town- crier is to proclaim our loss to-morrow: " Lost, stolen, or strayed, an eminent artist and promising litterateur. (The description of his person is omitted for obvious reasons.) Had on when he was last seen the clothes of another gentleman, much worn, of which he had possessed himself in a fit of moral — and physical — abstraction. Linen (questionable) marked W. M. Swears awfully, and walks with a rolling gait, as if partially intoxicated." Enough of so painful a subject. I hope you are not breaking your brains upon Sordelio. Read the other poets now alive (whom it would be invidious to particularise too minutely) and you will outgrow your absurd veneration for " an author of some talent, but more extrava- gance " — vide Saturday Review^ Art. Men and Women. I shall be busy till Whitsuntide, so this elegant epistle is my last for some time. SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Receive the assurance of my respectful con- sideration, and believe me Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER III To Richard Monckton Milnes (Afterwards Lord Houghton) 1 6, Grafton Street, Fitxroy Square. October i$th, i860. My dear Mr. Milnes, I send you to-morrow, as you wished, my article on Wells's Joseph and his Brethren., which has been some time doing, but I wanted to make it as satisfactory as I could without transcribing half the book. It is still finer, I think, than it seemed in my recollection of it after the first reading, and I should be very glad if I had anything to do with helping it to a little of the credit it must gain in the end. I have consulted with Rossetti about the choice of extracts. How on earth a copy could now be got, I can't think. I was driven to the dolorous expedient of hunting up the British Museum copy (entered in the wildest way in that slough of a catalogue) so as to collate it with a MS. copy sent to Rossetti by the author. SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I ought to have thanked you before both for my parcel which came on safely to mc at the Trevclyans', and for the invitation you sent me from Lady de Grey ; I had a very nice week with them. Since I came back to London about a fortnight since, I have done some more work to Chastelard, and rubbed up one or two other things. My friend George Meredith has asked me to send some to 0?ice a Week, which valuable publication he props up occasionally with fragments of his own. Rossetti has just done a drawing of a female model and myself embracing — I need not say in the most fervent and abandoned style — meant for a frontispiece to his Italian Trans- lations.^ Everybody who knows me already salutes the likeness with a yell of recognition. When the book comes out, I shall have no refuge but the grave. I would also have kept another promise, and send you my De la Touche, but until I know it will go straight to your hands I dare not trust La Reine cTEspagne out of my sight. Reserving always your corresponding promise that I am yet to live and look upon the mystic pages of the martyred Marquis de Sade, ever since which ^ The Early Italian Poets, Translated by D. G. Rossetti. 8vo, 1 86 1. The "drawing" in question, though duly engraved upon wood, was not ultimately employed for the purpose for which it had been prepared. 9 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS the vision of that illustrious and ill-requited benefactor of humanity has hovered by night before my eyes. With best remembrances to Mrs. Milnes, I remain, yours most sincerely, A. C. Svy^INBURNE. LETTER IV To Paulina, Lady Trevelyan Maison Laurenti, Mentone. January \C)th, [1861]. My dear Lady Trevelyan, (Which a nice place it is to date from !) Many thanks for your letter, which a comfortable letter it v^as, but creates violent wishes to get back to England. For of all the beasts of countries I ever see, I reckon this about caps them. I also strongly notion that there ain't a hole in St. Giles's which isn't a paradise to this. How any professing Christian as has been in France and England can look at it, passes me. It is more like the land- scape in Browning's Childe Poland than anything I ever heard tell on. A calcined, scalped, rasped, scraped, flayed, broiled, powdered, leprous, blotched, mangy, grimy, parboiled country with- 10 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS out trees, water, grass, fields — with blank, beastly, senseless olives and orange-trees like a mad cabbage gone indigestible ; it is infinitely liker hell than earth, and one looks for tails among the people. And such females with hunched bodies and crooked necks carrying tons on their heads, and looking like Death taken seasick. Ar-r-r-r-r ! Gr-r-r-rn ! Wal, I feel kind of better after that. But the aggravation of having people about one who undertake to admire these big stone-heaps of hills and hideous split-jawed gorges ! I must say (in Carlylese) that " the (scenery) is of the sort which must be called, not in the way of profane swearing, but of grave, earnest and sorrowing indignation, the d sort." (I wd. rather die than write it at length.) I am very glad you like my book ^ ; if it will do anything like sell I shall publish my shorter poems soon. They are quite ready. I have done a lot of work since I saw you. Rossetti says some of my best pieces : one on St. Dorothy and Theophilus (I wanted to try my heathen hands at a Christian subject, you com- prehend, and give a pat to the Papist interest) ; also a long one out of Boccaccio,^ that was begun ages ago and let drop. Item many songs and ballads. I am trying to write prose, which ^ The Queen-Mother and Rosamund^ i860. ^ The Two Dreams^ originally entitled The White Hind. II SWINBURNE'S LETTERS is very hard, but I want to make a few stories each about three or six pages long. Likewise a big one about my blessedest pet which her initials is Lucrezia Estense Borgia. Which soon I hope to see her hair as is kep at Milan " in spirits in a bottle." Which puts me in mind of a favour I want to ask you. In the beginning (probably) of Feb. I am going to Venice and through all the chief towns I can, and perhaps to Florence if I could find out whether Mr. Browning is there. Now there is nobody within reach who knows as much of art as a decently educated cockroach ; and I want you to have the extreme goodness to tell me what to go to and how to see Venice — buildings especially as well as pictures — before it gets bombarded — out of the British tourist's fashion. If you are not awfully busy wd you write me a letter wh : I cd get say by the week after next ? considering I have read no books and am not content with the British Murray. I wish I had anything to do besides my proper work if I can't hve by it. Which it's very well to pitch into a party like brother Stockdolloger, but what is one to do .? I can't go to the bar : and much good I shd do if I did. You know there is really no profession one can take up with and go on working. Item — boetry is quite work enough for any one man. Item — who is there that is anything 12 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS besides a poet at this day except Hugo ? And though his politics is excellent and his opinions is sound, he does much better when he sticks to his work and makes Ratbert and Ruy Bias. / don't want to sit in [a] room and write, gracious knows. Do you think a small thing in the stump-orator line wd do ? or a Grace- Walker ? Seriously what is there you wd have one take to ? It's a very good lecture but it is not practical. Nor yet it ain't fair. It's bage. Have you heard the report that old Landor is going to republish all his suppressed libels in verse and prose and more new ones ? Isn't he a marvel of heaven's making .? I suppose a British public will bust at once if it's nipped and frizzled and churned up to an etarnal smash any more : which by the by America seems to be at this writing. I am in love with Paris — you know I never saw it before. What a stunner above stunners that Giorgione party with the music in the grass and the water-drawer is, that Gabriel made such a sonnet on. Then that Stephen preaching of Carpaccio ! I never heard a word of it ; but it seems to me lovely, with wonders of faces. Item the Velasquez. Item things in general. Item the little Uccello up at the top of the gallery. My parents should no doubt send all proper messages, but are probably in bed and (let us 13 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS hope) enjoying a deep repose. For the hour is midnight. On this account I will now con- clude with my duty and respects to Sir Walter ; and am with a filial heart, Al. C. Swinburne. I wish to goodness you would send me out some eligible companions. I shall have to go alone to Turin. For the English here are mainly false friends. Don't you think we shall yet live to see the last Austrian emperor hung ? Is Garibaldi the greatest man since Adam, or is he not .? LETTER V To John Ruskin 22 Dorset Street. Wednesday [February (f) 1862]. Dear Ruskin, I am glad you like my little essay, and gladder to hear that you think of coming to look me up. But I do not (honestly) understand the gist of what you say about myself. What's the matter with me that I should cause you sorrow or suggest the idea of a ruin ? I don't feel at all ruinous as yet. I do feel awfully old, and well may — for in April I believe 1 shall be twenty-five, which is " a horror to think of." 14 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Mais — / what have I done or said, to be likened to such terrific things ? You speak of not being able to hope enough for me. Don't you think we had better leave hope and faith to infants, adult or ungrown ? You and I and all men will probably do and endure what we are destined for, as well as we can. I for one am quite content to know this, without any ulterior belief or conjecture. I don't want more praise and success than I de- serve, more suffering and failure than I can avoid ; but I take what comes as well and as quietly as I can ; and this seems to me a man's real business and only duty. You compare my work to a temple where the lizards have sup- planted the gods ; I prefer an indubitable and living lizard to a dead or doubtful god. I recalcitrate vigorously against your opinion of " Felise," which is rather a favourite child of mine. As to the subject, I thought it clear enough, and likely to recall to most people a similar passage of experience. A young fellow is left alone with a woman rather older, whom a year since he violently loved. Meantime he has been in town, she in the country ; and in the year's lapse they have had time, he to be- come tired of her memory, she to fall in love with his. Surely I have expressed this plainly and "cynically" enough ! Last year I loved you, and you were puzzled, and didn't love me — 15 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS quite. This year (I perceive) you love me, and I feel puzzled, and don't love you — quite. " Sech is life," as Mrs. Gamp says ; ''Deus vult ; it can't be helped." As to the flowers and hours, they rhyme naturally, being the sweetest and most transient things that exist — when they are sweet. And the poem, it seems to me, is not long enough to explain what it has to say. Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER VI To Paulina, Lady Trevelyan Fryston Hall, Ferrybridge, Yorkshire. December znd, 1862. (Anniversary of the Treason of L. Buonaparte) My dear Lady Trevelyan, I am leaving here next Monday and want to know if you could have me then as you was so kyind as ax. Gabriel Rossetti is or will be at Scotus', so that haven is pre- sumably barred. William Rossetti is here and desires to be remembered to you. I have Quaggified an eminent Saturday Reviewer who had before seen no merit in the great Sala, but is now effectually converted to The Grace- 16 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Walking religion, wh. hitherto he allays licked. I have to run down to Sussex this week to attend my grandmother's funeral -^ ; but am coming back here for a day or two at the end of the week to meet other eminent men. So this is my direction till Monday. Please let me know if I am to turn up. With my respectful duty to all friends, notam- ment to Sir Walter and to Miss Lofft. I remain, ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER VII To Paulina, Lady Trevelyan Turf Hotel, 'Newcastle. Monday [December 1862]. My dear Lady Trevelyan, I hope you are prepared for one thing, the natural consequence of your unnatural con- duct; viz. to come and bail me out when the hated minions of oppressive law have haled me to a loathsome dungeon for inability to pay a fortnight's unlooked-for hotel expenses. Nothing on earth is likelier ; and all because I relied with filial shortsightedness on that rather fallacious letter of invitation which carried me off from 1 Charlotte, Countess of Ashburnham, died Nov. 26, 1862. VOL. I. J -7 c SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Fryston. If I had but heard in time, I should have run down to London, and come up later. As it is I see Destitution and Despair ahead of me, and have begun an epitaph in the Micawber style for my future grave in the precincts of my native County's jail. If by any wild chance — say by offering the head waiter a post-obit, or a foreclosure, or a mortgage, or a bill payable at three months, or a Federal bond, or an African loan, or a voucher, or something equally practicable — I can stave off the period of my incarceration so as to get to Wallington on Wednesday, I shall take the train that leaves Morpeth at 2.15 and gets to Scotus's Gap ^ at 2.50. But I cannot disguise for myself, and will not for you, that this contingency is most remote. It is far more probable that posterity will appear, a weeping pilgrim, in the prison-yard of this city, to drop the tear of indignant sympathy on a humble stone affording scanty and dishonourable refuge To The Nameless Dust of A. C. S. 1 Scott's G?p is the name of the station which serves Wallington. 18 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER VIII To Lord Houghton Jlbergo della Gran Bretagna. March \th, [1864]. My DEAR Lord Houghton, I meant to write you a word two days since, and a sufficiently dolorous epistle you would have had, but luckily an equivocal and occasionally beneficent Providence intervened. With much labour I hunted out the most ancient of the demi-gods [Landor] at 93 Via della Chiesa, but (although knock-down blows were not, as you anticipated, his mode of salutation) I found him, owing I suspect to the violent weather, too much weakened and confused to realise the fact of the introduction without distress. In effect, he seemed so feeble and incompatible that I came away in a grievous state of disappointment and depression myself, fearing I was really too late. But taking heart of grace I wrote him a line of apology and explanation, saying why and how I had made up my mind to call upon him after you had furnished me with an intro- duction. That is, expressing (as far as was expressible) my immense admiration and rever- ence in the plainest and sincerest way I could manage. To which missive of mine came a note of invitation which I answered by setting iq SWINBURNE'S LETTERS off again for his lodging. After losing myself for an hour in the Borgo S. Frediano I found it at last, and found him as alert, brilliant, and altogether delicious as I suppose others may have found him twenty years since. I cannot thank you enough for procuring me this great pleasure and exquisite satisfaction. I am seri- ously more obliged for this than for anything that could have been done for me. I have got the one thing I wanted with all my heart. If both or either of us die to-morrow, at least to- day he has told me that my presence here has made him happy ; he said more than that — things for which of course I take no credit to myself but which are not the less pleasant to hear from such a man. There is no other man living from whom I should so much have prized any expression of acceptance or goodwill in re- turn for my homage, for all other men as great are so much younger, that in his case one sort of reverence serves as the lining for another. My grandfather was upon the whole mieux conserve^ but he had written no Hellenics. In answer to something that Mr. Landor said to-day of his own age, I reminded him of his equals and predecessors, Sophocles and Titian ; he said he should not live up to the age of Sophocles — not see ninety. I don't see why he shouldn't, if he has people about him to care for him as he should be cared for. I should like to throw up 20 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS all other things on earth and devote myself to playing valet to him for the rest of his days. I would black his boots if he were chez moi. He has given me the shock of adoration which one feels at thirteen towards great men. I am not sure that any other emotion is so endurable and persistently delicious as that of worship, when your god is indubitable and incarnate before your eyes. I told him, as we were talking of poems and such things, that his poems had first given me inexplicable pleasure and a sort of blind relief when I was a small fellow of twelve. My first recollection of them is The Song of Hours in the Iphigenia. Apart from their executive perfec- tion, all those Greek poems of his always fitted on to my own way of feeling and thought infinitely more than even Tennyson's modern versions do now. I am more than ever sure that the Hamadryad is a purer and better piece of work, from the highest point of view that art can take, than such magnificent hashes and stews of old and new with a sharp sauce of personality as Qinorie and Ulysses. Not that I am disloyal to Tennyson, into whose church we were all in my time born and baptized as far back as v/e can remember at all. But he is not a Greek nor a heathen, and I imagine does not want to be. I greatly fear he believes it pos- sible to be something better ; an absurdity 21 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS which should be left to the Brownings and other blatant creatures begotten on the slime of the modern chaos. If I let myself loose I shall go on giving you indirect thanks for bringing me acquainted with Landor, till time and paper fail me, and patience fails you. Even if I did so, I could hardly tell you what pleasures I have had to-day in a half- hour's intercourse with him : nor what delicious things he said in recognition of my half- expressed gratitude to him. It is comfortable when one does once in a way go in for a complete quiet bit of hero-worship, and an honest interlude of relief to find it taken up instead of thrown away. And the chance of this I owe to you ; and you must simply take my thanks for granted. It is better than a publisher to me ; what more can a rimailleur inedit possibly say .? I begin to remember that there are other things on the earth within the sphere of corre- spondence ; and that I ought to tell you how pleasant my one day's stay at Genoa was made by the note you gave me for Miss W. The other sister not only received me in that strange land with all kindness, but also put me in the way of doing what was to be done in the way of pictures — the one good office I supremely appreciate in an unknown city. I have just now come in from dining with Mr. Leader, and 22 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS write this before going to bed. He (the last- named) is going to call for me to-morrow and show me some chapel or other full of frescoes by Gozzoli. So you see if I begin to indulge in the deleterious virtue of gratitude there will be no end to my letter. Happily, when most overburdened with direct or indirect benefits, I remember the precept of a great and good man : " La reconnaissance est une chimere vraiment meprisable. Toutes les formes de la vertu sont pour le veritable philosophe des execrations digfie de la potence de la roue ; mais celle-ci .^ " As to the pictures here, I will add but one word : Paolo Veronese's " Martyrdom of St. Justine " seems to me painfully and ludicrously inadequate. Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER IX To Seymour Kirkup ^ [Probably summer of 1864.] [The first sheet of this letter is lost. — Eds.] . . . names, that the publisher of the biography (a very contemptible cur) took fright and would not forsooth allow them to be duly analysed. ^ The Barone Seymour Kirkup (1788-1880) had been the friend of Blake. He resided almost all his life in Florence, and was a great authority on Dante. Swinburne went to see him in 1864. 23 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS He will receive chastisement, and the subject elucidation, when my commentary appears, as they both respectively deserve. Meantime I need not say how valuable any notices, or recol- lections, or other assistance which I might owe to your kindness would be to me. My book will at least handle the whole question of Blake's life and work with perfect fearlessness and with thorough admiration. I wish I could send you for Inspection any of the engraved and coloured Books of Prophecy, but unhappily the few copies now existing fetch so many more pounds than Blake received shillings for them when alive, that only millionaires can afford to collect them, when by any rare chance they come Into the market. Some of their effects in colour, notwithstanding Blake's scorn of colourlsts, are so exquisite and inventive that Rossetti, who In common with all great and good artists now among us admires him at his best almost beyond words, told me once that he regarded Blake as a positive discoverer of new capacities [and po]wers even In mere executive colouring. Did you ever read his great prose-poem. The Marriage of Heaven and Helif For profound humour and subtle imagination, not less than for lyrical splendour and fervour of thought. It seems to me the greatest work of Its centurv. We all envy you the privilege of having known a man so great in so many ways. 24 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I don't know whether Rossetti has found time to answer your letter forwarded through Reade to me ; I know that he received it with the greatest pleasure, and expressed to me his sense of your kindness. His pictures of this year are magnificent ; they recall the greatness, the perfect beauty and luxurious power, of Titian and of Giorgione. Excuse the length and bad penmanship of this scrawl, which I trust may not be inde- cipherable ; and believe me, my dear Mr. Kirkup, with many thanks Yours most sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. Seymour Kirkup, Esq. LETTER X To Lord Houghton 124, Mount Street. August 6th, [1864]. Dear Lord Houghton, If I had not been a day or two out of town you would have got this note of thanks a day or two sooner. I need not say how much I value Landor's pamphlet. I only wish it could have been then, or could be now, so circulated as to be of some general and practical use. To 25 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS me it is simply a pleasure to read a confirmation of my own previous convictions. Please tell me whether my tv^elve — and fourteen — year-old elegiacs have given you any satisfaction. " Full sense " was given me for the second copy (I hope you can construe that Eton phrase), and I am rather proud of it to this day. I hope that Lady Houghton is better, and gains health with the summer in the country. With all remembrances. Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XI To Seymour Kirkup 22 Dorset Street, Poriman Sg., London, W. Aug. nth, [1864]. My dear Mr. Kirkup, I cannot leave town again without answering your letter. I wish you could make it convenient to pay at last a flying visit to the country which after all is originally your own. No one understands more than I do, how dif- ficult it must be to tear oneself away for a week 26 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS even from the most divine land and city in the world. But if you came over for a month or so now that you can make the journey in less than a week, you would at all events meet many who would be glad of the chance of meeting you, and see where art is now among us. I do not add that you would give great pleasure to many, and not least to me. I forget whether I told you that your portrait of my Mother as a girl has been brought down to my Father's country-house, and hangs now in the drawing-room, to the delight of us all. Before my grandmother died, it was always kept by her, and I never saw it till this year. I was much struck by the passage in your last letter to me, where you speak of the Theory of Transmigration. Whether or not it be affirmed or denied by spirits I know that it has always appeared to me a very probable article of faith. I certainly do not remember having been another man before my birth into this present life, but I have often felt that I have been once upon a time a cat, and worried by a dog. I cannot see a cat without caressing it, or a dog, without feeling its fangs in my flanks. I envy you your experience of snakes. I should like of all things to have them play with me and my cats. Notwithstanding I have not yet read Me iu sine. It may interest you to know that to-day, in 27 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS the sale of Lord Charlemont's-'- library by auction there was sold a MS. of the Roman de la Rose with many beautiful illuminations, given by the poet Baif to Charles IX., and having also the autograph of Philippe Desportes. It has been a wonderful sale for amateurs and bibliophiles, including a book with autograph notes by Milton, and many early editions of Shakespeare. Gilchrist's Life of Blake is published by Mac- millan, 2 vols. 8vo. I hope my treatise may appear before long,^ when of course I shall send it to you. What do you think of this dogma of Blake's (inspired, as he asserts, not invented) ? Swedenborg uttered no new truths, and did utter all the old falsehoods. Because he consulted Angels, who are ignorant about religion ; instead of Devils, who hate religion and enjoy know- ledge ; whereas Blake piques himself on having received no information — inspiration from hell instead of heaven. I have not yet thanked you for the present of your Arthurian notes, which to me are very valuable, and full of interest. I am glad to know that I may keep them without robbing you. Did you ever meet with that rare book con- taining some of Blake's poems and headed by a frontispiece mainly designed (but not engraved) 1 This was the second Earl of Charlemont (i 775-1 863). ^ Swinburne's William Blake did not appear until 1868. 28 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS by Blake, A Father s Memoirs of His Child^ by a D. A. Malkin ? Apart from the interest of its connection with Blake, it is in my opinion the most astonishing study of physiology I ever met with. This child died at six, and left stories, maps, letters, etc., full of invention and imagina- tion, and sketches of landscape which earned (after his death) the approbation of Blake. As far as I know, the instance is unique, for it is not a sample of forcing but of native and instinctive genius. Believe me. Yours very faithfully, A. C. Swinburne. S. Kirkup, Esq. LETTER XII To J. Bertrand Payne '36, Wilton Crescent. February jth, [1865]. My dear Sir, I must ask you to let me have back from the printers the missing leaves of my MS.^ as I want to preserve it for reference. Two I think are wanting (one returned by myself) between those received Friday and the last ^ The MS. of Atalanta in Calydon. 29 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS batch ; and others beginning from the second Chorus in the play. I hope the proofs will be read more regularly and quickly as I am impatient to have the work over this week, which I really think it ought to be. I see no recent advertisement in the weekly papers. I must request that there may be enough of them inserted — as many as you think fit or useful, and as prominently. I am expect- ing the residue (unbound) copies of my former book,^ which according to your suggestions I will forward to you as they come, to be re- advertised with a fresh title-page. Yours very truly, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XIII To Paulina, Lady Trevelyan 36, Wilton Crescenty S.W. March i$th, 1865. My dear Lady Trevelyan, 1 have just got your letter which has given me the greatest pleasure I have yet had with regard to my book.^ I was in hopes it would find favour with you, as I think it is the ^ The Oueen-Mother and Rosamund. 2 Atalanta in Calydon^ 410, 1865. 30 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS best executed and sustained of my larger poems. It was begun last autumn twelvemonth, when we were all freshly unhappy, and finished just after I got the news in September last of Mr. Landor's death, which was a considerable trouble to me as I had hoped against hope or reason that he who in the spring at Florence had accepted the dedication of an unfinished poem would live to receive and read it. You will recognise the allusion to his life and death at pp. 25, 26. As it is he never read anything of mine more mature than Rosamund. In spite of the funereal circum- stances which I suspect have a little deepened the natural colours of Greek fatalism here and there, so as to have already incurred a charge of " rebellious antagonism " and such-like things, I never enjoyed anything more in my life than the composition of this poem, which though a work done by intervals, was very rapid and pleasant. Allowing for a few after insertions, two or three in all, from p. 66 to 83 (as far as the Chorus) was the work of two afternoons, and from p. 83 to the end was the work of two other afternoons : so you will understand that I enjoyed my work. I think it is pure Greek, and the first poem of the sort in modern times, combining lyric and dramatic work on the old principle. Shelley's Prometheus is magnificent and un-Hellenic, spoilt too in my mind by the infusion of philanthropic doctrinaire views and "progress of the species"; 31 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS and by what I gather from Lewes's life of Goethe the Iphigenia in l^auris must be also impregnated with modern morals and feelings. As for Pro- fessor Arnold's Merope^ the clothes are well enough, but where has the body gone ? So I thought and still think the field was clear for me. At the time when you were so ill I got bulletins constantly through Aunt Ju,^ and when things began to improve I thought of writing, but it was considered better not. I could have heard nothing more than I did, and said nothing that you did not know. At least I hope and suppose all of you know what a bad time it was for me as for others. I am raging in silence at the postponement from day to day of Mr. Carlyle's volumes. He ought to be in London tying firebrands to the tails of those unclean foxes called publishers and printers. Meantime the world is growing lean with hunger and ravenous with expectation. I finished the fourth volume last May in a huge garden at Fiesole, the nightingales and roses serving by way of salt and spice to the divine dish of battles and intrigues. I take greater delight in the hero, who was always a hero of mine and more comprehensible to my heathen mind than any Puritan, at every step the book 1 Miss Julia Swinburne (i 796-1 893), the eldest daughter of the poet's grandfather. 3^ SWINBURNE'S LETTERS takes. Trust in Providence somewhat spoils "^ heroism, to me at least. The letter at the end of vol. 4, coming where and when it does, is a sample of what I conceive and enjoy as the highest and most reasonable heroic temper. " A God-intoxicated man " of course can fight, but I prefer a man who fights sober. Whether he gets drunk on faith or on brandy, it is still V' " Dutch courage," as the sailors call it. I must say Frederick's clear, cold purity of pluck, look- ing neither upward nor around for any help or comfort, seems to me a much more wholesome and more admirable state of mind than Cromwell's splendid pietism. And then who would not face all chances if he were convinced that the Gods were specially interested on his side and person- ally excited about his failure or success .? It is the old question between Jews and Greeks, and I, who can understand Leonidas better than Joshua, must prefer Marathon to Gilgal. Besides, as a king and a private man, Frederick is to me altogether complete and satisfactory, with nothing of what seems to me the perverse Puritan Christianity on the one hand, or on the other of the knaveries and cutpurse rascahties which I suspect were familiar at times to the greater, as always to the smaller, Buonaparte. I only draw the line at his verses ; and even they have almost a merit of their own by dint of their supreme demerits. As extremes meet, VOL. I. 2>2> D SWINBURNE'S LETTERS such portentous infamy in the metrical line becomes an inverted sign of genius. But was such a litter of doggrels whelped before by wise man or fool ? I am very glad to hear good accounts of Sir Walter and of your projects in the building way, which sound alluring. I only wish you were in London for Madox Brown's Exhibition of pictures, which is superb. I never knew till now how great and various and consistent a painter he is. If in spite of your neighbourhood to their arch enemy you still retain any charity for " the poor Fine Arts," there is plenty to see just now of a first-rate kind : but I will not tire you any further, unless I write again. We are all fairly well, though some of us feel this first English winter, after so many spent abroad, unpleasantly enough. I am staying just now at my father's temporary house in town taken for the winter, and am looking out in a vague, desolate way for chambers where I shall be able to shift for myself en permanence. My father, as you may have heard, has completed the purchase of his place in Oxfordshire, Holm Wood. They move in, I believe, next month. You must have seen Tennyson's book of Selections., and I hope agree with me that he might have made a better picking out of the lot. I say that Boddicea^ as the highest if not sweetest of all the notes he ever struck, should 34 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS y have served as prelude to the book. The yellow- ringleted Britoness is worth many score of revered Victorias. His volume of last summer struck me as a new triumph worth any of the old ^ ; I read it with a pleasure as single and complete as I might have done at thirteen. With best remembrances from all to yourself and Sir Walter, Believe me ever, Yours (in spite of ill-usage) most filially, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XIV To Charles Augustus Howell Jshburnham Place, Battle, Sussex. Tuesday, [1865]. InfAme Libertin, Write me a word according to promise. I shall be up in town in a day or two on my way from an uncle's to a father's, and between domestic life, rural gallops with cousins, study of Art and Illuminated Manuscripts and Caxton print, and proofs of a new edition of the virginal ^ Tennyson's "volume of last summer" was Enoch Arden.^ etc., originally printed under the tentative title, Idylh of the Hearth. SWINBURNE'S LETTERS poem Atalanta^ je menfonce dans des systemes qui menent a tout — oui^ chere fille^ absolument a tout. I have added yet four more jets of boiling and gushing infamy to the perennial and poisonous fountain of Dolores. O mon ami ! Tout a toi, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — I send you a fresh sample of Dolores. If you are amiable and write me something stimulating as the smell of firwoods, you shall have the rest : For the Lords in whose keeping the door is That opens on all who draw breath Gave the cypress to Love^ my Dolores^ The myrtle to Death. And they laughed^ changing hands in the measure^ And they mixed and made peace after strife ; Pain melted in tearsy and was Pleasure, Death tingled with bloody and was Life, Voila, mes amis., une verite que ne comprendront jamais les sots idolateurs de la vertu. P.S. — Since writing the above I have added ten verses to Dolores, — tres-infames et tr^s-bien tournes. " Oh ! Monsieur, peut-on prendre du plaisir a de telles horreurs ? " 36 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER XV Mr. Thomas Purnell Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, 2 a.m. [1865]. Dear Purnell, Sorry you should have waited in vain this evening — but you were warned. And when you know I have had to spend my time in leaving-taking with a friend 1 starting for Africa, you will excuse Yours ever, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XVI To Lord Houghton. 22a, Dorset St. Friday [August 1865]. My dear Lord Houghton, I was about to write you a word of thanks for your article 2 when I received the copy you sent me this morning. Nothing yet said or written about the book has given me nearly as much pleasure. Especially I have to thank you for the tone in which you refer to my ^ Sir Richard Burton. ^ Or Atalanta in Calydon in the Edinburgh Review. 37 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS regard for Landor. As to the praise of myself, a poet more drunk with vanity than with wine could wish for no more. I only regret that in justly attacking my Charenton you have wil- fully misrepresented its source. I should have bowed to the judicial sentence if instead of " Byron with a difference " you had said " De Bade with a difference." The poet, thinker, and man of the world from whom the theology of my poem is derived was a greater than Byron. He indeed, fatalist or not, saw to the bottom of gods and men. As to anything you have fished (how I say not) out of Mrs. Burton to the dis- credit of my innocence, how can she who believes in the excellence of " Richard " fail to disbelieve in the virtues of any other man 1 En moi vous voyez Les Malheurs de la Vertu ; en lui Les Prosperites du Vice. In effect it is not given to all his juniors to tenir tete a Burton — but I deny that his hospitality ever succeeded in upsetting me — as he himself on the morrow of a latish seance admitted with approbation, allowing that he had thought to get me off my legs, but my native virtue and circumspection were too much for him. See now the consequences. J'etais vertueux — je devais suffrir. Accomplis tes decrets, Etre Supreme ! Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. 38 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER XVII To Lord Houghton Thornfold Park, Frant, Tunbridge Wells. October i^th, [1865]. My dear Lord Houghton, Mr. Maurice,^ you may remember, considers Atalanta a complement to the hitherto imperfect Evidences of Christianity. As the second Paley, I expect at least a lay archi- diaconate. Have you read your friend and philanthropic colleague Mr. T. Hughes's ad- dress on public schools ? It was to me (as Mr. Pecksniff says) "very soothing." Ever yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XVIII To Lord Houghton. 22 Dorset Street. Friday evening [Dec. 1865]. My dear Lord Houghton, As I do not doubt your kind intention, I will only ask Why ? Where ? How ? Last ^ The Rev. Frederick Denison Maurice (i 805-1 872). 39 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS time we met I had been spending the soberest of evenings here before starting to pick you up at 1 1 o'clock, which I understood was the order of the day. You as we returned seemed con- siderably infuriated with my unpunctuality — which I did not attribute to any influence of Bacchus on yourself. I am not aware of having retorted by any discourtesy. As the rest of the evening had been spent, after the few words of civility that passed between Mr. Tennyson and me, in discussing Blake and Flaxman in the next room with Palgrave and Lewes, I am at a loss to guess what has called down such an avalanche of advice. I have probably no vocation and doubt- less no ambition for the service of Bacchus ; in proof of which if you like I will undertake to repeat the conversation of Wednesday evening throughout with the accuracy of a reporter, as it happens to be fixed in my memory. I don't doubt your ability to do likewise, any more than the friendliness of your feeling towards me, of which I have proofs in plenty. Otherwise I should not care to defend myself against an ad- monition which if not "discourteous " is certainly not " common." I remain, yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. 40 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER XIX To Paulina, Lady Trevelyan 2 2, Dorset Street, W. December \oth, 1865. My dear Lady Trevelyan, I would have written two days since in answer to your last and most kind letter, but that I wanted to take time and reply as fully as I could. I must first, and once again, thank both yourself and Sir Walter alike for your great kindness. You will both, I hope, believe that I know how much I am indebted to the friendship and the courage which made you defend me against the villainy of fools and knaves. I wish I could better express my gratitude to him or to you. But I tried to express it in my second letter written and posted on the same day as that which you answered. I know I must have failed — but I did what I could. Since writing to you, I have been reminded of things as infamous and as ridiculous inflicted upon others as undeserving as ever I am. Two years ago, for instance, I was informed (of course on the best and most direct authority) that a friend of yours as of mine had boasted 41 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS aloud of murdering his own illegitimate child- ren. That they never had existed was of course nothing to the purpose. Fortunately, in this case, I was cited as a witness — and did pretty well, I believe, knock that rumour on the head. I cannot but suppose that all these agreeable traditions arise from one infamous source. When it is found out, we may hope to suppress it once for all. Meantime, upon the double suspicion, I have refused to meet in public a person whom I conceive to be possibly mixed up in the matter. At all events, I know that I have done the man no wrong — for a more venomous backbiter, I believe, never existed. The difficulty in all such cases is to come for- ward, collar your man morally or physically, and say " I am told you accuse me of having confessed to something disgraceful. Give me your reasons for this lie ! " Of course no one could wish to see his name dragged into and through the dirt of such a quarrel : and there- fore any gentleman is at the mercy of any blackguard — for a time. As to my poems, my perplexity is this ; that no two friends have ever given me the same advice. Now more than ever I would rather take yours than another's ; but I see neither where to begin nor when to stop. I have written nothing to be ashamed or afraid of. I have been advised to suppress Atalanta, to cancel 42 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Chastelard^ and so on till not a line of mv work would have been left. Two days ago Ruskin called on me and stayed for a long evening, during which he heard a great part of my forth- coming volume of poems, selected with a view to secure his advice as to publication and the verdict of the world of readers and writers. It was impossible to have a fairer judge. I have not known him long or intimately ; and he is neither a rival nor a reviewer. I can only say that I was sincerely surprised by the enjoyment he seemed to derive from my work, and the frankness with which he accepted it. Any poem which all my friends for whose opinion I care had advised me to omit, should be omitted. But I never have written such an one. Some for example which you have told me were favourites of yours, such as the Hymn to Proserpine of the " Last Pagan " — I have been advised to omit as likely to hurt the feeling of a religious public. I cannot but see that whatever I do will be assailed and misconstrued by those who can do nothing and who detest their betters. I can only lay to heart the words of Shake- speare — even he never uttered any truer — " Be thou as pure as ice, as chaste as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny." And I can- not, as Hamlet advises, betake myself " to a nunnery." 43 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I believe my aunt Julia is now with my father and mother at Holm Wood, Shiplake, Henley-on-Thames, where I mean to spend this Christmas, not having seen them for some months. Meantime you will I am sure be glad to hear that my luck is looking up in the beautiful literary world of publishers and readers. I have already the wildest offers made me for anything I will do : and expect soon to have in effect the control of a magazine which I shall be able to mould as I please. This has always been a dream of mine ; and very likely I shall come to grief, as Byron did on a similar occasion. Have you seen Moxon's series of " poets " .? There are new things (as of course you know) in the Tennyson which are worth looking up — and I don't remember seeing it this year at Wallington. I am doing Byron for the series, as well as Landor : and I am to meet my partners in the serial work, Tennyson and Browning, at a publishers' feast some time this week. I am sorry you don't like Chastelard person- ally, as I meant him for a nice sort of fellow. I send you the proof of a review which the writer sent to me, as evidence that some people 44 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS like him. I must say I thought I had made him behave in a rather chivalrous way — notamment in the 3rd and 5th acts. I think it was George Meredith who once told me that considering his conduct to the Queen, I had produced in him the most perfect gentleman possible. It is rather a " trap " to send you these proofs at the end of a long letter — but I didn't mean to entrap you into writing or returning them till you have nothing better to do ; and then you know what pleasure you will have given me. Yours most sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XX To Sir Edward Lytton-Bulwer (Afterwards Lord Lytton) Holm'wood, Zhiplake, Henky-on- Thames. January ijth, 1866. Sir, I should have written before to thank you for a double kindness, had your book^ and letter been sooner sent on to my present address. As it is, you will no doubt understand how difficult I feel it to express my thanks for your ^ The Lost Tales 0/ Miletus. 45 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS gift, and for the letter, to me even more valu- able, which accompanied it. To receive from your hands a book which I had only waited to read till I should have time to enjoy it at ease as a pleasure long expected, and deferred for a little (on the principle of children and philo- sophers) was, I should have thought till now, gratification enough for once. But you con- trived at the same time to confer a greater pleasure ; the knowledge that my first work ^ written since mere boyhood had obtained your approval. Of the enjoyment and admiration with which I have read your book, I need not say anything. Pleasure such as this you have given to too many thousands to care to receive the acknowledgment of one. Such thanks as these I have owed you, in common with all others of my age, since I first read your works as a child ; the other delegation is my own and prized accordingly as a private debt, impossible to pay, and from which I would not be relieved. Believe me. Yours very sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 1 Atalanta in Calydon. 46 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER XXI To Paulina, Lady Trevelyan 2 2a, Dorset St., W. \March 1866.] My dear Lady Trevelyan, I am very glad you approve of my rough notes on Byron. Of course when I wrote them I hoped you would, and the essay is honest so far as it goes, but was of course curtailed and confined in the dismallest way. I am going to " do " Keats as soon as my own book is out. I hope Sir Walter will join the Cruikshank com- mittee. I am told by a personal friend of his that the poor old great man is very hard up^ and could not if he died tomorrow leave his wife enough to live upon after so long a life of such hard work. I daresay Scotus will have told you all this much better than I can. I was very sorry to hear of your having been again so ill. I hope and trust that you are well now. My mother has been going on in the same way, which is most improper, but is now beginning to pick up strength after a severe illness, and can at least sit up and write to me. That both my maternal relatives should be so ill at once is too much for a filial heart. Pray set a better example in future. 47 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Ruskin and Meredith, among others, both write to me about the Byron in a most satisfactory- way : but your note has given me more pleasure than theirs. As to the forthcoming magazine, having declined any share in the business work for myself, I was in hopes it would have fallen into the hands of Wm. Rossetti, who would have done the necessary work better than any one I can think of. As it is, if I contribute, it will be on the old terms that anything I sign shall go in, anything (in reason) I wish admitted or excluded shall be, and generally that when I please I may have a finger or ten fingers in the editorial pie. This is really all I know of the project. I met the working editor (as is to be) yesterday, and he seemed sensible and well disposed. I hope soon to send you my own Poems and am, yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. 48 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER XXII To Lord Houghton. [Jpril, 1866.] Dear Lord Houghton, I got a note yesterday about the dinner, and will say my say as I can.-"- Of course, I shall blow a small trumpet before Hugo, I thought something might be said of the new mutual influence of contemporary French and English literature, e.g. the French studies of Arnold and the English of Baudelaire. Yours aff'^ A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XXIII To J. Bertrand Payne 2 [iVo place nor date. April, 1866.] My dear Sir, I write at once to thank you for your prompt answer to my note. The man's negli- ^ This refers to the Royal Literary Fund Dinner of May 2, 1866, at which Swinburne made his only pubHc speech. 2 J. Bertrand Payne was the successor of Edward Moxon, who died in 1858. He was the responsible manager of Messrs. Edward Moxon & Co. during the whole period covered by Swinburne's dealings with that firm. VOL. I. 49 E SWINBURNE'S LETTERS gence was the more vexatious to me as it made me necessarily appear neglectful of my friends, but I trust it is remedied by this time. I wrote about the advertisements in consequence of hear- ing so many people remark that they had seen none or few, which looked as if the book were not yet ready. In a day or two I hope to send you the missing pages of my Blake MS. Mean- while, would it not save time if the printers were to put in type, and send me in slips, the remain- der of the MS. for correction, and insert what is wanting when the book was paged ? I am in a hurry to have done with it at last. Yours very truly, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — Excuse my scrawl, I cannot get a decent pen. I wish you could recommend me where to deal. I reopen this to add that the two copies^ sent to my father's at Holmwood did arrive safe: as also one sent to Mr. Powell at Lee. 1 Of Poems and Ballads. 50 / SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER XXIV To Lord Lytton 2 2th, [1870]. My dear Howell, I was so glad to get your letter, and to find you had been to my solicitors and told them of Hotten's evasions of his agreement with you. I got one from them by this same post to say that Hotten had proposed Tuesday next for the long evaded day of reckoning, and also proposed that if you and his man cannot agree then, an ultimate umpire shall be chosen whose decision shall be final. I have told them in answer that the matter, as far as I am concerned, rests in your hands as my representative, and in this as in other points I will be guided by your opinion. But my own opinion is that it is merely a fresh device for the shuffling off the final day of settlement, as he has already evaded his previous engagements. I trust to you to do what you think right as to his proposal, and whatever that may be shall be quite content to accept it. I have told Ellis to send me the last proofs,^ and how I want the contents arranged. I don't think he will consent to issue the book ^ Of Sotigs before Sunrise. 88 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS without legal sanction. The lawyers have ad- vised him not^ while the arbitration is still pending. But I hope that will soon be settled now. I shall be anxious to hear of the event on Tuesday. Ever yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LIV To Lord Morley The British Hotel, Cocksfur Street. Dec. zSth, 1870, Dear Mr. Morley, I should have answered your letter of 20 days since long before but have been for days laid up with influenza that held me fast in bed, blind, deaf, exuding, with eyes that could but water and hands that could but blow the lament- able nose. For the time before, when I was about and alive, I was utterly occupied with my book, — in the last agonies of childbirth — and rent in twain between two midwives or publishers — as it might be Mrs. Gamp and Mrs. Prig — contending over me prostrate. Now — thank Something — all 89 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS that is settled, Mrs. Gamp dismissed as (meta- phorically) drunk and incapable — and in ten days I hope a book if not a man " will be born into the world." ^ I am ashamed about Ford ^ — but could I be sure of three days' health and leisure and spirits I would send you a study of his and the other Elizabethan's relation to each other (starting from a view of his special qualities) which should be a decent piece of work. A thing of shreds and patches I couldn't write and wouldn't send. I thoroughly admire and agree with your " Byron." Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. ^ Songs before Sunrise was published by F, S. Ellis early in 1 87 1. But H often had put forward an impudent claim to the right of publishing not only the volumes already under his charge, but any future work written by Swinburne. The settlement of this claim delayed the appearance of the book, and caused its author a considerable amount of annoj^ance. 2 "John Ford." The monograph first appeared in the Fortnightly Review, July 1871, and was reprinted in Essays and Studies, 1875, pp. 276-313. 90 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LV To Thomas Purnell Saturday Evening, March \th, [1871]. My dear Purnell, By an accident which it would be gross flattery to call a damned one, I have omitted to appeal to your good offices till I fear it may be too late. I had to write to my friend Bayard Taylor about seeing to the American issue of my forthcoming book Songs before Sunrise (he having offered his services on any such occasion) — but finding I could not lay hand on his address I yesterday asked Ellis in despair to do what he could for it. I had quite forgotten how admirably you had managed the Song of Italy (which belongs to the same cycle) for me. Now, to-day, I go to Ellis and find he has authorised (as I gave him carte blanche — indeed, requested him to do anything he could) the correspondent of a firm " Robert Brothers " of — Hell for aught I know — to see what they would say to the offer of the book. Then — by the devil's too late illumination of a blind soul that wakes and is damned — I saw that I ought to have asked you to offer it for me to Ticknor and Fields (wasn't it ?) as a companion to the Song — or rather as the steamer of which that 91 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS was the tug. For this is hitherto my ripest and carefullest — and out of sight my most per- sonal and individual work. Now — is it too late to do anything properly.? Ellis says in twenty days we shall have the answer to his offer, which he wishes to recall only less than I do. Meantime — could nothing be done .? In any case I would so much rather have it out in America under the same auspices as the S. of I. — for a dozen reasons. But as soon as my brains and fingers — both hard at work — can manage, out it shall and must come here this season — if only because it is infiltrated and permeated with Mazzini — and I see this day and yesterday the beginning of one of the periodical evacuations of menstruous and mon- strous obliquy from the British press on the solar track of his name and I should like my best book to appear, lovingly and humbly laid at his feet, just when the mangy mongrels of British journalism were yelping behind and beneath his heels. Ever yours truly, A. C. Swinburne. 92 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LVI To William Michael Rossetti Holmwood, Shiflake, Henley-on-Thames. June 1st, [1871]. Dear Rossetti, I see in yesterday's Guardian an an- nouncement that "Miss Christina Rossetti is recovering from her late severe illness." I hope it has not been such as to cause serious anxiety to you and yours, but I cannot help writing a line on the spot to say so. Having myself been more than once reduced to the last extremity by newspapers (by this one repeatedly) when in a state of robust health, I am not always alarmed at their death-warrants, but one would always like to be reassured. If you have really had to pass through any such time of distress, I need not try to put in words any expression of my deep sympathy, or of relief in learning of it as past, as I hope you and all yours are well enough assured of it. Now that one has time to breathe and think after the unspeakable shocks of last week, I have one idea on which I should like to consult you. If Victor Hugo comes straight over here and to London, in consequence of the vile act of the Belgian government, I think it 93 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS would be well and timely to offer him some token of recognition and homage on the part of his believers. It need neither be an exclusively republican nor a merely artistic demonstration ; it ought, in my mind, to comprise the names of all such as would be glad at such a time as this to pay tribute either to the convictions and con- duct of the exile or to the work and position of the artist. I have written to Knight in reply to a note asking mc to make one of a committee for giving a dinner to the Comedie Fran^aise — which of course I shall be happy to do — to see if he thinks that truly British form of reception would be the likeliest to succeed in this case, or whether a simple address or deputation would be the best tribute. Under the circumstances my one desire would be to make it as emphatic and public as possible, both as a recognition and as a protest. For the rest, I may say to you as frankly as I would say to Hugo that so far from objecting to the infliction of death on the in- cendiaries of the Louvre I should wish to have them proclaimed (to use a phrase of his own) not merely " hors la loi " but " hors I'humanite," and a law passed throughout the world authoris- ing any citizen of any nation to take their lives with impunity and assurance of national thanks — to shoot them down wherever met like dogs. A political crime is a national crime and punish- able only by the nation sinned against ; France 94 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS alone has the right to punish the shedding of French blood by putting to death on that charge a Bonaparte or a Thiers, a Rigault or a Gallifet ; but it is the whole world's right and duty to take vengeance on men who should strike at the whole world such a blow as to inflict an everlasting in- curable wound by the attempted destruction of Rome, Venice, Paris, London — of the Vatican, Ducal Palace, Louvre, or Museum. But this my deep and earnest conviction in no degree alters my view of the case as it stands between Victor Hugo on this side and the Belgian government on that. Ever yours affctly., A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LVII To Joseph Knight Holmwood, Shiflake, Henley-on-Thames. June 1st, [1871]. My dear Knight, I am much obliged to you for thinking of me in connection with your project and shall take it as a great compliment to be rated as one of your committee. I must come to London 95 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS before the Comedie Fran9alse leaves it, but I want to stay here quiet as long as I can for pecuniary, sanitary and other reasons : so I did not think of moving for a month yet. You must let me know when your affair comes off, and I must find a temporary shelter for my roof- less head (which is now, as Shelley says, " like Cain's or Christ's," so far as lodging goes) in some furnished room for a week or so when I come up. It would be a great kindness if any one could find me one, however remote, from which I could look out for " a permanency " : otherwise the son of man hath not where to lay his head or any other part of him. If Victor Hugo comes to London at once in consequence of the base cowardice of the Belgian government in denying him shelter, I wish very much that some other reception could be offered him on the part of those who at once admire his devotion to conscience in this matter at all costs, and recognise the greatest poet of our age in the man who gives this proof of faith. It need not be confined, surely, to men who agree in every point and detail with every article of his social and political creed : but as a protest, a tribute and a recognition, it would reflect on those who should offer it under the circumstances the honour which it cannot pretend to confer on the most illustrious among living men's names. If you can suggest any way of putting this 96 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS idea in practice by any means — address, deputa- tion, dinner (your note put that in my head) — I am sure that many men of high mark and various eminence would join whether for art's sake or principle's. Your help would be a great favour done to yours ever afFect'>' A. C. Swinburne. I hope you are not suffering from illness at present. I am very well, though the black cold weather has affected my throat, etc., these two months. LETTER LVIII To Joseph Knight Holmzvood, Shiplake, Henley-on- Thames. June 28th, [1871]. My dear Knight, I have received two papers from the Committee, but the meetings announced were over before return of post, if not before the circulars reached me. I see in to-day's Times that the 8th of July is named for the day. If I am expected to be there I must have where to lay my head the night before and after. If you can find me a harbour of refuge to be taken by VOL. I. ^y H SWINBURNE'S LETTERS the week in any reasonable quarter — I don't care where — it will be very kind ; also if you will tell me anything I ought to know about the arrange- ments, tickets, etc. Does your own ticket admit two friends also ? or do you purchase theirs separately ? or what ? I hope it will go off pleasantly and I should like to see the great folk of the C.F. as large as life and no larger. I want to see one of their performances first, though, at least ; so if you can manage for me 1 mean to come up early next week — say Monday. I shall only want a short month's lodging, as I am going to Scotland on Aug. ist. Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LIX To Joseph Knight Holmwood, Shiflake, Henley -on- Thames. July znd, [1871]. My dear Knight, I am so much obliged for your kind- ness in looking me out a place of rest when you are so awfully busy and tired as you must be. Salisbury St. would suit me beautifully, and though the terms would be more than twice as 98 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS high as I could afford for a "permanency," I may venture on them for a fortnight or three weeks without fear of a financial crisis. I hope to- morrow to call on you in the flesh and hear all that has to be heard further ; I shall leave by a morning train if I can conveniently, and drive to you from the station, taking my chance of finding you in then or later. I have asked my friend George Powell to the Saturday affair and he has accepted. I suppose that it is to you that I should "nominate " him .? I hope to heaven I may be in time for at least one evening of the Comedie Fran^aise. I did not know this was their last week, and here have I been all this time out of town and dying to see them act. Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LX To Frederick Locker Hohnzvood, Henley-on-Thames. August \th, [1871]. My dear Locker, A thousand thanks for the bit of Both- well'^ just arrived. It seems admirably correct considering the state of the MS. 1 The First Act of Bothwell., privately printed as an octavo pamphlet of 69 pages by Frederick Locker. 99 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I send the Sestina, Rizzio's first song, sung in Scene I, when the Queen asks for one ; if it was left here as I supposed. I should like very much to have the whole Poem printed as you suggest, but you know it may be years before I finish it on the scale designed. I feel at times crushed under the Tarpeian weight of my materials. At the least computation there must be 20 Scenes in Act II. If the thing is to be done it must be done on a great scale in every sense. Its motto must be Caesar Borgia's — Aut Caesar^ aut Nullus. When it is finally printed, I should like the printer to put the names prefixed to the speeches in full, instead of mere initials like " Q," " R," etc., both for sightliness and convenience. Till then I don't think it worth while to have the corrections made, especially as I may alter and add again and again, tho' on the whole I think this will do as it stands. When they send me the MS. back I can correct these proofs, and that will be enough en attendant to do for the text. I wrote a bit of a scene yesterday between Murray and the Queen ; it is the drier political details that bother me, but without some refer- ence to them the action (and consequently the passion) is unintelligible. I study Shakespeare constantly, Antony and Cleopatra^ especially, to try if I can learn and catch the trick of condens- ing all this, and cramming a great mass of public 100 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS events into the compass of a few scenes or speeches without deforming or defacing the poem. I am quite well now, and think of going to Scotland in a week on my promised visit to the Master of Balliol — (who would have told me so ID years ago when I was rusticated and all but expelled ?), but I was very unwell for days after I saw you. My father came that night and brought me down here next morning. Of course I was very much vexed with my own folly in having made myself ill, and ashamed to think of my friends knowing it was my own fault ; but I trust to keep as I am now in good health and sense. Give mv kind regards to Lady Charlotte and " the young lady," ■*■ and believe me. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 1 Miss Eleanor Locker, afterwards Mrs. Lionel Tennyson and later Mrs. Birrell. lOI SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LXI To Frederick Locker Holmwood, Shiplake, Henley-on-Thames. August gth, [1871]. My dear Locker, I have just a minute before post time to acknowledge the receipt of my second proofs and MS., with many thanks. I hope they will be able to let me have the rest by the end of the week, as on Monday I must be off for the High- lands, and it vv^ould be a relief to have the ist Act done with. I will keep the MS. safe for you, as you say you would like to have it. I hope you will have a good time out of town. Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — A thousand thanks for the beautiful copy of my Prelude} which is like enough to prove the whole Poem and Epilogue. I never thought of your having the trouble yourself, and am very much obliged. — A. C. S. ^ Tristram and Iseult : Prelude of an Unfinished Poem, which was included in Pleasure : A Holiday Book of Prose and Verse, London, 187 1, pp. 45-52. 102 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LXII To Thomas Purnell Tumniel Bridge, Pitlochry, Jug. 2\th, 1871. My dear Purnell, I shall be much honoured by the dedication of your book, and am very much pleased at your having thought of me on the occasion. I will see that you get back the book you lent me — I had, in fact, forgotten whence or how it came into my hands. I have some thoughts of publishing separately, in some maga- zine, the Prelude to my unfinished poem of 'Tristram and Iseult — itself a separate poem of some considerable length and importance, being several hundred lines long, I think 1 should ask not less than ^50 from the English Magazine in which it would appear ; and I should like it to appear simultaneously in America, so as to secure the profits there, whatever they might be. Could you manage this for me } And if so, what do you think I ought to expect from the Yankees ? Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. 103 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I am staying here for two or three weeks in the Highlands with the Master of BaUiol, and find it very refreshing and good for the heahh, having a good river to swim in and good heights to cHmb. Browning is our near neighbour, and within distance of exchanging visits. LETTER LXIII To Thomas Purnell Private. Holmwood, October loth, [1871]. Dear Purnell, I was obliged to come down here more hastily than I had expected, having been very unwell for a day or two, and some fool and rascal having (unknown to me) agai?j terrified my people here with news that I was risking health, etc., in town, and must be looked after — so my father came up and carried me off, literally out of bed, having a doctor's word that I wanted country air. I told him I had busi- ness (meaning with you) of immediate import- ance to keep me in town or bring me back at once. So if I am wanted I must try — being 104 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS now pretty well — to see you : but I suppose we can in fact arrange by letter quite as well ? I have only to repeat that I leave the choice of magazine entirely in your hands, and am very glad to hear you have settled with America. Any cheque or other missive will be sure (as usual) to find me here. Yours ever, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXIV To Frederick Locker Holmwood, Shiflake, H enley-on-T havies. November jth, 1871. My dear Locker, If the printer wants the type 1 suppose he must have it. I have carefully corrected the revise ; but, of course, as you must see, it would be preposterous to think of publishing a frag- ment of a Play. Also I may not improbably recast and rewrite part of it. I said before that I had no view of finishing it soon. It will be taken up when I am "so dispoged," as Mrs. Gamp says, and continued slowly at my leisure. Very likely, as I told you, it may be years in 105 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS hand before it is (if ever it be) completed to my liking and satisfaction. I have put the MS. by carefully for you, and you shall have it when you please ; but as yet I may want it for refer- ence on revising.^ Many thanks for your offer of Baudelaire's letter. Of course I should like to see it very much, but I should hardly like to rob your collection of it. I have his inscription to me of a copy of his pamphlet on Wagner. With best remembrances from my father. Ever yours truly, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXV To Frederick S. Ellis Tiimmel Bridge, Pitlochry, N.B. July iSth, [1872]. Dear Sir, Thanks for your note received to-day. I write now to tell you that Mr. Jowett has just pointed out to me a frightful slip of the pen in the Greek verses at p. 61 of my pamphlet.^ 1 Swinburne duly preserved the MS., but Locker never received it. It remained at The Pines vuitil the poet's death, w^hen it was sold by Watts-Dunton to Mr. Wise. 2 Under the Microscope^ 1872. 106 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS The very first word, ttoAAo?, ought of course to be 7roXv9. It is a slip for which a schoolboy- would be flogged, and how it came to escape not only my eye, but yours, Mr. Burne Jones's, and Mr. Gibson's, both good Greek scholars, who saw the passage before publication, I can- not imagine. Now, though (as the Professor of Greek says) it is too late to hope for escape from the comments of T/ie Saturday Review (for instance), if that esteemed journal should notice the pamphlet, or my solecism, I must beg that a slip of errata may be at once inserted in all remaining copies, and that when the second batch of copies is made up and the misprints at pp. 32 and 72 removed by cancelling those pages as we agreed on, this page also may be cancelled ; meantime, at any rate I must have the errata inserted in every copy to be sold henceforward. The list should run thus : Page 32, last line but one, for monslcurs read messieurs. „ 61, line 19, for noXloQ read noXvg. „ 72, „ 18, for Hugos' read Hugo's. „ do. „ 19, for Brownings' read Browning's. It seems a very small thing, but coming where it does, it is very vexatious to me ; and Pro- fessor Jowett is of opinion with me that the best and indeed the only thing to be done is, though late, to correct it at once by this the only means left. So I must beg you to see that it is done 107 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS with all the copies in hand, whether at your place or at the nominal publisher's.^ I remain, Yours very truly, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXVI To Lord Morley Holmzvood, Henley-on-Thames, November 21st, 1872. My dear Morley, I have sent off my notice of Nichol's poem^ to the printer by to-day's post, so I trust it may be in time for the December number. I ^ The "nominal publisher" of Under the Microscope was Mr. David White. The actual publishers were Messrs. Ellis and White. Mr. Ellis had been asked to publish the pamphlet by, or at the suggestion of, D. G. Rossetti. But for some reason (probably because of his objection to the afterwards- cancelled passage regarding Tennyson) Mr. Ellis did not wish to assume the responsibility of issuing the pamphlet. Just at that time the negociations for a partnership between Mr. Ellis and Mr. White had been completed ; but, yielding to the strongly expressed wish of the former gentleman, the latter consented to the appearance of his own name alone upon the title-page. ^ Swinburne's Review of John Nichol's Hannibal appeared in The Fortnightly Review for December, 1872. 108 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS am much flattered by what you tell me about the Princess Orloff, and still more interested. She must be a person of most commendable tend- encies, and deserving of every encouragement. The cheque you speak of, whatever its amount may be, will be most welcome when paid into Hoare's, as I am at present in a fair way to be pressed to death (like the contumacious com- prachico in VHomme qui Rit) by unpaid bills, which really worry me out of power to work at all regularly or comfortably, and so earn where- with to discharge them. My poem on Gautier is in a metre which I may call " quarta rima " ; in corresponsive quatrains like those of my Laus Veneris^ except that there the 3rd line of the ist quatrain rhymes with the 3rd of the 2nd, and so on to the end, whereas here the musical scheme is at once more connected and more complicated ; for the 3rd line of every quatrain rhymes with the I St, 2nd, and 4th lines of the next. The metrical effect is, I think, not bad, but the danger of such metres is difiriseness and flaccidity. I perceive this one to have a tendency to the dulcet and luscious form of verbosity which has to be guarded against, lest the poem lose its foothold and be swept off its legs, sense and all, down a flood of effeminate and monotonous music, or lost and split in a maze of what I call draggle-tailed melody. I have written T09 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS 1 08 lines, 27 quatrains ; I expect it will be about 200 lines long in all. I am going over the part already thrown off to brace up the verses — tighten the snaffle, and shorten the girths of the Heliconian jade.-^ I hope to have it off my hands in a day or two. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXVII To Thomas Purnell Holmzvood, Henley-on-Thames. November zStht [1872]. My dear Purnell, Since I got your note asking for a " Stanza " for the Athenceum I have fallen in with one 2 among my unpublished MS. which I send you. As a rule I do not care to send any verse to newspapers or magazines under ^ Memorial Verses on the Death of Theophile Gautler, printed in The Fortnightly Review for January, 1873, and afterwards included in Le Tombeau de Theophile Gautier^ Paris, 1 873, pp. 156-164. 2 Before Sunset^ printed in The Athenceum Nov. 30, 1872. I 10 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS ^lo or jTao, not finding it worth while, and not wishing to have my name hawked about like that of a Close, Buchanan, or any other hack rhymester ; and I am not yet at all in good humour with the Athencewn for joining in the marked and utter neglect of a pamphlet ^ which I see they now find convenient to quote and borrow from, and on which, as a piece of critical prose, I value myself more than I usually do on any other improvisations in that line. But as the application comes through you I send what I have. I am in very great want of tin just now, having overdrawn my account by half a year's allowance, and being overwhelmed by bills and dunning notes : particularly objectionable when one is ;f2oo worse than penniless. I am at least that much behind the world, and must soon raise it somehow. Can you suggest any way .? Say by publishing somewhere the first canto of 'Tristram separately ? If the Prelude was worth fifty pounds, this ought to be worth at least three times as much. I must have a little money at once — a hundred or two — and surely my name must be worth something in the market. Give me what help or advice you can. I see with disgust that King of Cornhill, who I was told was reputable, announces an edition 1 Under the Microscope^ 1872. Ill SWINBURNE'S LETTERS of R. Buchanan's works ! Faugh — it will be impossible for men of honour and character to publish with him afterwards. Yours ever, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXVIII To Thomas Purnell Holmwood, December izth, [1872]. My dear Purnell, I write again to ask a little favour of you in the way of business which I hope it will not give you too much trouble to grant ; if you cannot conveniently, I will ask Knight ; but it is only to call for me on a legal friend who is now settling my affairs with Hotten either at his office, 18, Bedford Row, or at the hotel where he puts up, The Old Bell, Holborn, some evening after seven — or to make an appoint- ment to meet him at any place convenient to yourself at the same time of day. You may probably know Mr. Watts, as several of our common friends are friends of his. He and I were introduced by Madox Brown, and he has 1 12 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS been most kind and serviceable to me. He says in a letter just received : A discussion between a practical literary man and myself of your affairs with Hotten, would I think be advan- tageous — especially as the question is so mixed up with that of selecting the best publisher for you. This discussion would be sure to run to some length — indeed, to be satisfactory, it must be so, and had better be done after business hours. Now you and Knight are about the only practical literary men I call my friends — and I write first to you because you kindly managed for me last year about the Prelude with Mr. King — who now seems disposed to undertake negotiations with me or my repre- sentative : and Mr. Watts seems to think, in spite of his purchase of Strahan's stock, he will be altogether the most desirable man to come to terms with. Send me one line to say if you can do this for me, and in that case write a line to Mr. Watts, giving him two days' notice. Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — Many thanks for the despatch of the verses ^ — I suppose there is no fear of their 1 North and South^ printed in The Fortnightly Review^ May, 1873- VOL. I. II n I SWINBURNE'S LETTERS being befor^e their time and ante-dating the ap- pearance of the Fortnightly F I would not, on any account, have any dispute or misunder- standing in that quarter, but what I can get of American profit I cannot afford to throw away. LETTER LXIX To Sir Sidney Colvin Holmwood, Henley-on-Thames. January iSth, 1 873. My dear Colvin, Will you pardon the trouble I give if I apply to you about the enclosed dedicatory sonnet which I propose to prefix to my Both- well when completed ? I want before issuing it to have the opinion of some Frenchman who shall be qualified to judge of a matter of poetic execution, and I know none such to whom I wish to apply as I do not care to have it seen by Hugo himself or circulated among his set before the appearance of the poem ; whereas I know that you have among your acquaintance just such ' Parnassiens ' as might do me the service of giving sentence. I think it on the 114 SWINBURNE^S LETTERS whole one of the best sonnets I have written ; but wanting to make it as good as I can, I am not quite certain which to prefer of several readings in different lines. In the second line, is the phrase — ' vos mains d'ou le vers tonne et luit ' — the right one, in your opinion ? I like it myself, but in so short a poem and on such an occasion I do not want any phrase to have a look of oddity or audacity. In the next line, is ' Tout ce que mon livre a de,' etc., not better than ' Tout ce qu'a mon esprit,' as I had thought of writing .? ' Drame ' might be better than * livre' but for the jar and jingle with the word ' flamme ' at the end of the line. In the 7th verse I like ' Son jour — qui luit comme une lame ' better than ' brilliant comme,' etc., in spite of the repetition from line 2 of the word 'luit' which does not I think jar on the ear with the preceding rhymes in -uit, coming just where it does in the verse : but if objected to, it might be supplanted as above. I suppose * apparue ' may pass as a tolerable rhyme to * abattue ' ; any better rhyme that I can think of (such as * vetue ') could not be substituted without more sacrifice of idea than gain in sound. In the penultimate line T am not sure which of these two readings is preferable — *■ Fleur 6close au sommet du si^cle ' ' Fleur rouge eclose au sein du siecle ' SWINBURNE'S LETTERS or for ' au sein ' one might read either ' au bord ' or ' au fond.' I fear you can hardly say — or can you ? — ' eclose en haut du siecle.' It looks and sounds wrong, but I know that in writing prose or verse good grammar sometimes seems to me for the minute bad, and bad good (I don't know if you ever feel this in passing, or are too good a scholar), though I am not conscious of being capable like Shelley of writing 'the verdure which embrac^j"/' ! ■"■ I am afraid these verbal frivolities will tax your patience, but I want a word of counsel as to the execu- tion of the sonnet. I wrote it last night before going to bed, and have just copied it out. I have had a very courteous note from the pub- lisher M. Lemerre, who tells me he hopes to have the ' Tombeau ' out by the end of this month. I hope to heaven they will not make such pie of the Greek accents as I find English printers usually do. Meantime I am not minded — I wonder whether the Master will be, as he was in the case of Saint Arnaud ? — to bestrew with any funeral flowers the new tomb at Chislehurst. Yours very truly, A. C. Swinburne. ^ " To the trunk thou interlacest Art the verdure which emhracest . . ." [Scenes from Calderon, iii, lines 58-59]. 116 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I have just thought of another variation for verse 8 — r a ^ fmontants aux Hots { , (^numains * La mer ^ aux mille flots qui t'ongc, brise et fuit,' >au flot fatal but I don't know w^hether if in any of these forms it is an improvement or not. LETTER LXX To Charles Augustus Howell Holmzvood, Henley-on-7 hames. January loth, 1873. My dear Howell, I am in want once more of your friendly help in re Hotten. You will see by the two sheets of letter from Mr. W. T. Watts (who is now acting for me as my lawyer, and whom I believe you know as a friend common to us two and the Rossettis), which I enclose, that he is still endeavouring to put obstacles in the way of my transferring my hooks to Chapman and Hall on the plea that 117 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I made over to him my copyrights in perpetuity by verbal contract. I have sent Watts the notes referred to, taken by W. M. Rossetti, with an an extract from a letter in which W. M. R. mentions the agreement drawn up by you for me in 1866, and sent to me at Lord Lytton's (I was sorry to hear of the poor man's death, though I had not heard from him for years). But you who managed for me about the Songs before Sunrise know all about it better than I do, and can assure Watts of the non-existence of any contract, verbal or written, binding me in any way to Hotten. This is of course confi- dential, between ourselves, and T send you Watts' own writing that you may see exactly what is our immediate difhculty. Please return his letter at once. I do not send the last sheet as it refers to other matters, except that he says " Hotten means fight if he can fight. These minutes will shew whether he can or not " — referring I suppose to W. M. Rossetti's notes which I have sent him by this post, though they only refer to financial matters — what should be the profit due to me on the number of copies sold ? I do hope you will be able to call. Make an appointment at 1 5 Great James Street without delay, and give us what help you can in the way of verification of statements. You see without my telling, by Watts' own expressions, how urgent 118 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS it is on all accounts that no time should be lost in extricating me from these impediments. There are also other matters connected with Hotten about which I want your advice — books of mine in his hands, and papers not relating to this matter. I always look to you in need to manage for me, and have never found you want- ing. But this matter of publishing rights is all-important to me, and must be settled with no more of this most harassing and expensive delay. I adjure you to come to the rescue of suffer- ing virtue in my person against prosperous vice in Hotten's. And am ever, Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXI To Charles Augustus Howell Holmwood, Henley-on-Thames. February 6th, 1873. My dear Howell, A thousand thanks for your most prompt and kind help, which was the more necessary as 119 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I must confess to you in confidence that I had utterly forgotten till you mentioned it the very name of Thomas, and have yet but the haziest possible idea as to his intervention in the matter of my qualified "reconciliation" with Hotten. The matter in all its details has so utterly dropped or been washed and wiped out of my memory that I retain merely the assured conviction that never did I at any time in any way give to Hotten the hold upon my copyrights which he ventures to claim. I wish you would write me a word reminding me of the circumstances referred to. Partly from constant ill-health and suffering when in London of late years, partly from other multiplying and distracting subjects for occupation, my recollection on such points is now quite misty. I never did take the pains I might have done to engrave on my mind and retain in my memory such details of business or other matters as would not naturally fix them- selves there ; and consequently mind and memory want rubbing and refreshing from without before they can see clearly. As to books of mine in Hotten's possession I have no difficulty in remembering. When he told me he meant to publish Chapman's Works if I would prefix to his edition a Critical Essay, which I undertook to do, I lent him for that purpose, purely to save him trouble and facili- tate the issue of an accurate text, all the early 1 20 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS copies in my possession of any of that poet's works — some of these of great rarity and value — which otherwise he could only have procured a sight of at the British Museum. For years I have neither seen nor heard anything of the projected edition, or of my books, for which I now wish that I had taken security from Hotten, as Lord Houghton did before lending him his Blake. I want to know whether the necessary transcripts are not now made, and in any case to reclaim my property, which I certainly did not contemplate parting with for five or six years without either consideration or security, when out of pure goodwill to his undertaking I freely offered him the loan of it. I may add that I am more than willing, I am desirous, to remain on amicable terms with Hotten in the act of withdrawing from my business connection with him, in spite of the considerable trouble and expense to which he has put me by advancing and supporting utterly groundless and unjustifiable claims on my property in my own writings. As I have never had to bring, and assuredly never have brought, any charge against him of dishonest deaHng during the date of that connection, I see no reason why we should part on hostile terms, or why, for instance, I should cease to deal with him as of old in his bookselling capacity because I see fit to put an end to my relations with him 121 t) SWINBURNE'S LETTERS as a publisher. It is probably not worth while to touch at all on so small a matter, but in full confidence I may do so to a friend with whom I have been for years on such intimate and brotherly terms as yourself. I think he may have some papers relating to me in the mass of his collection, of which an unscrupulous man might possibly make some annoying use. You know that we have all of us — and most especi- ally myself — no lack of verminous enemies who would be glad of any secret handle, though never so slight, for the throwing of fresh dirt. I am as indifferent to this as any man, and to all who know me I think I may flatter myself that I have given tolerably good proof of my indiffer- ence and equanimity on such points ; but I should of course not like any scrap signed with my name, which, in the dirty hands of a Grub Street libeller, might be turned to ridicule, or to any calumnious or vexatious purpose, to fall into such hands if such an accident could be avoided. Neither Hotten, nor for that matter any man alive, has in his possession anything from my hand for which I need feel shame or serious regret or apprehension, even should it be exposed to public view ; but without any such cause for fear or shame, we may all agree that we shrink, and that reasonably, from the notion that all our private papers, thrown off in moments of chaff or Rabelaisian exchange of 122 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS burlesque correspondence between friends who understand the fun, and have the watchword, as it were, under which a jest passes and circulates in the right quarter, should ever be liable to the inspection of common or unfriendly eyes. I am making gradual way with Bothweii^ but am yet far from sight of harbour. My comfort is that if ever accomplished according to my design the book must either be an utter failure, and still-born, or else not merely by far the greatest work I have done (being for proportion and conception out of all comparison with Atalatita, in weight and importance as well as width and variety of work), but a really great poem, and fit to live as a typical and representa- tive piece of work. But for Hotten I should have been at work on it all the time I have now spent on this long scrawl. Pardon the trouble it will have given you, and believe me, Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — I hope I may conclude from your note that you have left Watts fully satisfied, not merely of the justice, but also of the complete security and easy proofs by irrefutable evidence of the justice of our view of the business, without need or possibility of litigation to establish or to impugn it .? 123 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LXXII To Lord Morley Holmwood, April nth, [1873]. My dear Morley, As you like the last poem I sent you,i can you suggest any better name for it, or does the one already given satisfy you ? I can think of nothing better, but I don't much like it. The names of the flowers would make far too pon- derous and polysyllabic a title for anything under a South Sea Idyl or epic. By the by, do you spell the first name laurwstinus or laurfstinus ? I thought it was the first, and in the only verse where I remember ever to have seen the shrub mentioned I am sure that Browning writes " arbute and laurz/stine " ; but the ladies of my family insist that it is laurfstinus or -tine. Grande certamen ! I admire and enjoy Pater's work 2 so heartily that I am somewhat shy of saying how much, ^ North and Southy printed in The Fortnightly Review for May, 1873. ^ This refers to Pater's Studies in the History of the Renaissance^ 1873- 124 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS ever since on my telling him once at Oxford how highly Rossetti (D. G.) as well as myself estimated his first papers in the Fortnightly^ he replied to the effect that he considered them as owing their inspiration entirely to the example of my own work in the same line ; and though of course no one else would dream of attributing the merit to a study of my style of writing on such matters, I suppose, as Rossetti said, that something of the same influence was perceptible in them to him, there is just such a grain of truth in the pound of compliment as to impede the free expression of all my opinion as to their excellence. But in effect they seem to me throughout as full of original character and power as of grace and truth. The unconsciously theological sound of those last words — inspired perhaps by the natural influences of this sacred season — reminds me to ask what you think of Arnold's Literature and Dogma t (by the by I should have said there was more of his style than of mine traceable in Pater's). I am personally delighted that a critic hitherto regarded as so safe and moderate a free thinker, when compared with " such as this republican," should, while dwelling so warmly on the value and significance of the Bible, have so distinctly repudiated that most objectionable " Person," the moral and intelligent governor of the universe. I do not despair of seeing the day when any reference to 125 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS the Bible as an authority will be equivalent, in the eyes of all respectable persons, to an open avowal of atheism. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXIII To John Churton Collins 3, Great James Street. October i\th, [1873]. My dear Sir, I am rejoiced to hear that you think of editing Cyril Tourneur, and shall look eagerly for the book, as I have done, since we met, for your intended article — in The Gentleman s Magazine, if I rightly remember. My own idea of doing anything in the matter was nipped in the bud by the refusal of the Society, under whose auspices Furnivall thought it possibly might appear, to reprint anything which had been previously reprinted, this being against their rule, so that both Reve/iger's and Atheist' s Tragedies stood excluded. Do you know the rather scarce reprint of the latter in a volume of miscellaneous plays earlier (I think) than the first edition of Dodsley ? But in any case, nothing would be more shocking to me than 126 1 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS the notion of any act or purpose of mine standing in your way when employed in so good a work. I hope that, of course, your edition will include not merely the two already known tragedies, but the newly unearthed comedy with the wonderful title ^ which I cannot exactly remember. Furnivall gave me to understand that the proprietor was quite ready to allow his priceless unique to be at once reprinted — as it assuredly should have been before now. I would give something to see old Cyril's conception of a comedy — I can almost as easily imagine one from the pen of his sainted Alexandrian namefather. I suppose you can tell me nothing — I never met the man who could — of the other comedv attributed to C. T. by Lowndes, with the charming title of Laugh and Lie Down} I was so delighted with the name that in my last Oxford year I wrote, in three days, three acts of a comedy, after (a long way after) the later manner of Fletcher, under that title ; but I shall take good care that this one never sees the light I ^ I suppose Lowndes must have had some authority ^ The Transformed Metamorphosis (l6oo) : it proved not to be a comedy, but a gnomic satire in stanzas. ^ This also proved not to be a comedy, nor by Cyril Tourneur. Laugh and Lie Down ; or, The World's Folly (1605) is a prose tract. ^ The MS. of this comedy is still extant, and is in the possession of Mr. Wise. It is accompanied by the MSS. of two other unpublished plays by Swinburne belonging to the same period, — The Loyal Servant^ a Tragi-Comedy in five Acts, and The Laws of Corinth ^ in two Acts. 127 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS - — though I am not sure that he was never capable of entering (say) a pamphlet by Taylor the water poet as a play by Tourneur, on the Macedon-Monmouth principle. I suppose, of course, you will reprint Cyril's single poem ? I did read years ago at the British Museum this " Monumental Column " of an elegy published together with Webster's and Heywood's, and think I thought it rather a good sample of that sort of official poetry, — but this may have been because I tried to think so. I am troubling you with various "supposes" and suggestions which are probably officious and superfluous, but you will set it down to my interest in your subject. I heartily congratulate you on being the man chosen to revive — or as he seems to have had little enough in his own day, I ought perhaps to say confer for the first time his proper fame on one of the most original and keenly inspired among our dramatic poets. I suppose you will have all the old editions to collate, but if a copy of The Revenger s T'ragedy, 1608, in my possession would be of real service to you I will gladly lend it on such an occasion. I suspect, however, that there may turn out to be but one edition, with the title-pages variously dated 1607— 8— 9.^ ^ Swinburne's conjecture was not correct. The editions of 1607 and 1608 are distinct. No 1609 edition seems to be known. The Revenger s Tragedie was reprinted in 1744 and 1780. 128 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I returned to London a fortnight since, and am likely to be in town some little time. Is there any likelihood, if you should run up from Oxford, of my having the pleasure of seeing you or our friend Anderson in these rooms ? In any case believe me Yours very faithfully, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXIV To Lord Morley Holmwoodf December \6th, [1873]. My dear Morley, Many thanks for the cheque for ^(^20 just received. I am, as you have heard, negoti- ating through a legal friend whom perhaps you know, Mr. Watts, a friend of Rossetti and others of my near friends, for the future publi- cation of my works by Chapman and Hall. The terms offered by Mr. Chapman, he writes, are "the most liberal he has heard of"; the details I have not yet received, as he writes to know first of all whether I am " open to negotiate " with that firm. Mr. Chapman pro- poses to issue a cheap edition of my entire poems VOL. I. 129 K SWINBURNE'S LETTERS in the same form as his cheap edition of Carlyle. I have written at once in reply, expressing my readiness to that. You might be of the greatest service to me in arranging terms as you kindly suggest — more I dare say even than Forster was to Dickens, who cannot have had worse luck than I have hitherto had with publishers. (By the by I am wroth with Forster for having as he says in his id. vol. mislaid a letter in which Dickens made mention of my infant self, as I should like to know what remarks he did make on me as a small and not usually good boy of 9 or lo !) I don't know at all what sort of price I ought, as you say, to fix, and certainly do not want to be " too modest." When they have bought the stock now in the hands of others, which has to be done first, and accounts squared in those quarters, what should you say are about the terms I ought fairly to ask and expect in justice to receive ? My ideas are still vague, and any help in the matter would be very valuable to me. I am working hard and steadily at my gigantic enterprise of Bothwell, which dilates in bulk and material at every step. If ever accom- plished, the drama will certainly be a great work in one sense, for except that translation from the Spanish of an improperly named comedy in 25 acts published in 1 631, it will be the biggest I fear in the language. But having made a careful analysis of historical 130 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS events from the day of Rizzio's murder to that of Mary's flight into England, I find that to cast into dramatic mould the events of those eighteen months it is necessary to omit no detail, drop no link in the chain, if the work is to be either dramatically coherent or historic- ally intelligible ; while every stage of the action is a tragic drama of itself which cries aloud for representation. The enormity of the subject together with its incomparable capability (if only the strength of hand requisite were there) for dramatic poetry assures me, as I proceed, more and more forcibly of the truth which I suspected from the first, that Shakespeare alone could have grappled with it satisfactorily, and wrung the final prize of the tragedy from the clutch of historic fact. But having taken up the enterprise I will not at least drop it till I have wrestled my best with it. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 131 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LXXV To Edmund Clarence Stedman Holnizvood, H enley-oti-T hames. January zist, 1874 My dear Mr. Stedman, I have just received your letter with the very graceful stanzas for music enclosed in it, announcing and accompanying the gift of the beautiful volume of selections from Landor ; for all vv^hich I thank you at once most sincerely, as also for what I have not received — possibly through some misdirection or miscarriage which may yet be rectified — the note of two or three months since containing your article on Landor, which I should much like to see. I congratulate you with all my heart at having done that article Fate disappointed my once cherished hope of doing. As the property of Landor's works is vested (I understand) in his friend and biographer Mr. Forster, who told me a good many years ago that he designed himself to edit a selection from the verse as well as the prose, it is of course impossible for me to intrude on his ground, and would be 132 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS improper to solicit as a favour the leave which Mr. Browning has more than once, since he was informed of my original intention and the only reason which compelled me to resign it, kindly offered to procure for me from Mr. Forster ; whose selection, when it does appear, will, I hope, be an improvement on the system of extracts given in his biography of Landor : which was not, I think, a very judicious ex- ample of the representation of a great writer by specimens and excerpts. I am truly and deeply gratified by the great honour which you have done me in prefixing to your selection verses which I only wish were worthier of the high place assigned to them than I can honestly hope or believe them to be. I never thought them adequate to the subject in any way except perhaps as an expression of per- sonal feeling, which may be thought to give them their only worth to which they can pretend ; but their inadequacy is now more potent and flagrant in my own eyes than ever : though this does not diminish my pleasure in seeing them, or my sense of obligation to you for placing them, at the head of your beautiful anthology ; from which I only regret to miss two or three of my especial favourites among the glorious multitude of flowers from which you have chosen so many and so well : for example, the " one white violet" (on E. Arundell), a fit companion 133 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS to Rose Aylmer^ as a flower of life might be to one of death; the "cistus" — Smoothen thy petals now Her Floral Fates allow; the two on the deaths of Ternissa and Epicurus (" Ternissa ! you are jied ! " and " Behold, behold me, whether thou,'' etc.) ; the quatrain beginning " To my ninth decade I have tottered on " — unless rejected as too painful to students who love his memory ; the palinode or recantation (so to call it) of the Epitaph at Fiesole — Never must my bones be laid Under the mimosa'' s shade ,• and the lofty and pathetic " expostulation " of Sappho — " Forget thee ? When ? thou biddest me ? dost thou ? " But, above all, I wonder to find wanting the very brightest (in my eyes at least) of all the jewels in Landor's crown of song ; the divine four lines on Dirce, which hold the place in my affections that those on Rose Aylmer did in Lamb's — ^tand close around, ye Stygian iet, IVith Dirce in one boat conveyed Or Charon, seeing, may forget That he is old and she a shade. If ever verses besides her own were, in Sappho's phrase, " more golden than gold," surely these 134 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS are. I looked again and again through your book in search of them, unable to believe that I had not at first accidentally passed over the page which they should have glorified. There is the w^hole Anthology — all of it, I mean w^hat is really composed of flowers — distilled in its essence into that one quatrain. These too, I think, might have found a place among their followers : — " The leaves are falling ; so am 1 " ; " Te little household gods, that make,''' etc. " Twenty years hence " ; I think I am not wrong in saying that they are not among your Cameos, but I have not time to look again before the post goes out, and I do not wish to let one day pass without thanking you for the gift of them. I should like to send you in return, if the publisher had sent me any copies as I expected and as he hitherto has not, a book of memorial verses — Le Tombeau de Theophile Gautier — to which I have contributed ten little poems of the elegiac or eiriTVfjifiLSiov order — two in English, two in French, one in Latin, and five " Epigrams " in Greek after the Anthologic pattern — a polyglot freak which has not been emulated by the other contributors in French, English, Italian, German, and Provencal and other dialects. Lemerre has published it in a very pretty form, and Victor Hugo heads our list superbly. (I should like to have seen in your selection Landor's late verses to him, and those earliest of all, which 135 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I have just remembered, written at school on Godiva, and worth all that have been written on her since, however exquisite — In every hour, in every mood.) I trust you will prosper in the good and enviable work of diffusing among Americans the knowledge and love of Landor — they must be one with all readers worthy to know him. Pray remember me very kindly to Mr. Stoddard, and believe me, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXVI To Edmund Gosse 3, Great James Street^ W.C. February 21st, [1874]. My dear Gosse, I have received the enclosed somewhat impertinent reply to my application.^ As you know, it is the first time I have applied for a new Print-room ticket, and the second time for a reader's. What may be the meaning of an irregular renewal I cannot imagine. This inso- lent and vexatious system of petty annoyances (for precautions they are not) is beyond all 1 To the British Museum. 136 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS endurance, and, as Dante said of Florence, if I can only get in by such a door as this I must remain outside. Your review yesterday was excellent towards me, but I do think very unjust to Chapman — above all to the great cycle of French " His- tories " which overflows with genius. Still, you gave me real and great pleasure (not for the first time) and I thank you sincerely. Can I hope to see you in a day or so ? I have a dozen things to talk to you about : but my eyes are sore with sleeplessness, and I have endless letters, etc., to answer. I am very well, very busy, and very cross. Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXVII To Edmund Clarence Stedman Holmtvood, Henley on Thames. February z^rd, 1874. My dear Mr. Stedman, I have so much to say in answer to your last despatches that I fear I may be tempted to exceed at once the bounds of the post and the limits of your patience if I write 137 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS at such length as I wish we could talk together. First of all, even before Thanksgiving, let me say that in my opinion you have written ^ the very best study containing the very truest estimate of Landor's genius that has ever yet been achieved. The only drop of qualifying bitterness in the pleasure with which I read and re-read it rises from the regret that it could not have come nine years before instead of after he went back to the Olympians ; for I remember well how pleasant and how precious, for all his high self-reliance and conscious avrapKeia, the sincere tribute of genuine and studious admiration was even at the last to the old demigod with the head and the heart of a lion. I have often ardently wished I could have been born (say but five years) earlier, that my affection and reverence might have been of some use and their expression found some echo while he was yet alive beyond the rooms in which he was to die. The end was very lonely, and I fear the last echo of any public voice that reached him from England must have been of obloquy and insult. It is true that the lion at whom those asses' kicks were aimed was by no means maimed or clipped as to the claws and teeth. Did you ever see his vindication printed, but I believe not published, after the wretched affair which ended in his angry departure from 1 In Victorian Poets^ pp. 33-71 of the edition of 1887. SWINBURNE'S LETTERS England ? It was trenchant and conclusive, including as it did a letter addressed to himself from the father of the young lady to whom his fatherly goodness and charity had been made the pretext for abuse and slander, thanking him in the most fervent terms of gratitude for the res- cue of his daughter from the society of the swindlers among whom she had fallen, and the restoration to her own family through Landor's generous kindness. This (as perhaps you know) was the upshot of the whole matter ; only after this the dear old Titan could not contain his divine wrath within the limits of Latin verse, but must needs burst into English to express his opinion of the woman who had first solicited his charity on behalf of a young lady cruelly persecuted and cast off by her own parents — and, having found that charity ready as ever, had appropriated it to her own use ; and lastly, on being detected and disgraced, had responded to the charge of fraud alternately by tears and prayers to be let off without public exposure and infamy, and by threats to make the charity of a man of eighty-three the ground of a charge almost more absurd than it was villainous. After such an experience of more than a thief's treachery supported by more than a strumpet's impudence, a milder temper than that of the victim whose pockets had been picked and whose character had been defamed, might have 139 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS been expected I think to explode to some purpose — above all, at the last rascally attempt to terrify " one who never feared the face of man " into silence and acquiescence in the robbery through dread of a lying imputation. Possibly you may know all this as well as I, but I have found very few even among the professed friends of Landor's memory who either knew or cared to remember the exact facts of the case ; and Forster in his biography has slurred the question over, as I cannot but think, with caution something more than legal and less than friendly. It is a shame that the most faithful and generous in his friendships of all men should have none to speak out for him now without shakings of heads or bushings of voice, as though to lament the existence of some deplorable and unmentionable thing, when, as I do most truly believe, the only point in his conduct regrettable and possibly blamable was the substitution of English for Latin and print for manuscript in the expression of a just and honourable anger. If he could but have been content this time also, as so often before, with the sufficiently copious and vigorous reper- tory of terms to be found in the language of Martial and Catullus ! I did not mean to write so much on this matter, but if you do not know the details it is well that you should, and even if you do you will excuse the unpleasant 140 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS repetition for the love of Landor's memory which I know that you share with me. I send you his Itahan dialogue of Savonarola ^ which had never been published ; it was prohibited in Italy I believe through priestly influence, and the edition remained on his hands in sheets. This is one of the copies of which he gave me as many as I wished to take away ; so that you receive it, as it were, at one remove from his own hand, having only passed through mine. You will be amused to see his unquenchable prejudice (if prejudice it be, in which I confess to some share, though without knowledge enough to go upon) against Plato breaking out in the most quaintly incongruous time and place ; but it is a noble " last fruit " of the Italian branch of that mighty tree. He told me that he thought he wrote Italian quite as well as English ; I should not presume to say that I thought he did or did not. Browning has some of Landor's unpublished MSB. that he has promised to show me some day, of which one must be especially interesting ; an " Imaginary Conversation " on the personal immortality of the soul between themselves and two other friends, in which the interlocutors take up different grounds for attack or defence of a doctrine of a future state. As I have not seen it I cannot say what sides are taken by ^ Privately printed (8vo, pp. 7) in i860. 141 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS what interlocutors ; but of course I presume that Browning is not made to forsake the support of his cherished dogma. (This is, of course, merely my own conjecture expressed in con- fidence.) Landor himself, I know from his own lips, had no belief or opinion whatever on the subject ; "" was sure of one thing," he said, " that whatever was to come was best — the right thing, or the thing that ought to come " ; I give the exact sense, if not the exact phrase. I think I may say that he would have agreed with me that any matter so utterly incognizable is one on which it is equally unreasonable to have or to wish to have an opinion. Browning is also the happy possessor of a copy of The Phocaans} which I have never seen and want to read. You are wrong, by the bye, about the date of the first collected edition of Landor's English poems ; a volume including Gebh\ Count Julian^ Lies de Castro^ Ippolito di Este^ and Miscellaneous Poems^ was published by Moxon in 1837 — five years before the first collected edition of Tenny- son. I have his first volume, for which I gave two guineas. Poems ^ English and Latin, 1795 ; it contains a good deal besides satire, tho' that is perhaps its best part, and the Epistle to Lord 1 From the Phoccsans was printed in Poetry by the Author of Gebir, i8o2, pp. 12—36, a scarce book, of which Browning possessed a fine copy which had been given to him by Landor. 142 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Stafihope, which I have also, w, I think, " some- thing remarkable for a boy of nineteen," singularly polished and vigorous. You see by my cavillings how carefully I have looked into your essay from all points. I have barely room to thank you for the others, both of which I have read with much interest, and to add that I send you by this post my own copy of the Tombeau de Theophile Gautier^ as I should like my share in that book to come under the eyes of an American poet and scholar with at least some of the mispunctuations, &c., corrected which would have drawn some thunder and lightning from Landor on the head of the French printer and all his nation. As among so many contributors there is of course great inequality, I have taken on myself to mark the best among the contents ; there are pretty verses elsewhere, but those I have marked are really fine pieces of workmanship. Against one ex- pression I could not resist setting a note of admiration as the most hopelessly unintelligible piece of jargon I ever saw in any language, and written on the most luminous of all poets ! I see you share the general opinion as to the " utter uselessness " of modern Latin (and a portion I suppose of modern Greek) verses ; I think it depends on the execution. Good verse of any kind at any time is a good thing, and a change of instrument now and then I H3 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS think is good practice for the performer's hand. I certainly care very little about the matter, and should never think seriously of claiming place or notice for any but my English or French poems (the latter I do consider part of my serious work) ; but Landor was so much pleased with my first copy of elegiacs addressed to him that I might have some excuse if I were vainer of them than I think I am ; and my friend and former tutor Mr. Jowett, the Oxford Professor of Greek and Master of the leading college there, has expressed a very gracious and flatter- ing approval of these on Gautier, and notably of the Latin choriambics. I confess that I take a delight in the metrical forms of any language of which I know anything whatever, simply for the metre's sake, as a new musical instru- ment ; and as soon as I can am tempted to try my hand or my voice at a new mode of verse, like a child trying to sing before it can speak plain. This is why without much scholarship I venture to dabble in classic verse and manage to keep afloat when in shallow water. I hope the book (with Landor's pamphlet inside it) will reach you safely ; I shall be curious to know what you think of it ; and if there should be any notice taken of it in any American journal or magazine I should very much like to see it. (This really is not a hint or insinuated petition begging for such notice 144 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS at your hands or any one's, and must not be taken as such ; but I am curious about the fate of this book as a unique sort of production in these days, and take certainly a quite unselfish interest in its fortunes.) I am very glad you like my elegy on Baudelaire ; I wrote it with very sincere feelings of regret for the poor fellow's untimely loss, which gave it a tone of deeper thought or emotion than was called forth by the death of Gautier, with whom (though from boyhood almost his ardent admirer) I never had any correspondence ; but in spite of your kind mention of it in this month's Scribners Magazine^ which I have just seen, I cannot believe it worthy to tie the shoes (so to speak) of the least, whichever may be the least, of the great English triad or trinity of elegies — Milton's, Shelley's and Arnold's. I am content if it may be allowed to take its stand below the lowest of them, or to sit meekly at their feet. I have just finished and am about at once to publish the longest and most important poem I have yet attempted — a historic drama of almost epic proportion ; but I have no time or room to try your patience further, and remain, Yours very faithfully, A. C. Swinburne. VOL I. 145 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LXXVIII To John H. Ingram Holmzvood, Shiplake, Henley -on- Thames. March 6th, 1874. Dear Sir, I shall be glad to do what little I can to assist your project, and if my name is of any use to you it is at your service. But I know nothing practically of committees, and heartily agree with the disgust you express for the vulgar and fashionable parade of worthless pretensions for which they usually form an excuse.^ I fell in by chance with your first article some weeks ago, and must try to get the series when complete.^ You will have done an im- mense service, not only to the memory of an 1 Miss Rosalie Poe, the sister of the poet, being in great distress, had appealed to Mr. Ingram for aid. Mr. Ingram suggested the formation of a strong committee of literary men and women, under the shelter of whose names sufficient money might be ob- tained to provide a permanent endowment for the lady. Mr. (afterwards Lord) Tennyson, Mr. W. M. Rossetti, and others, promised assistance. However, before any practical steps could be taken, Miss Poe died. 2 A series of articles on Edgar Poe, refuting the slanders of Griswold, his first biographer. They appeared in The Mirror (London), in 1873-4. 146 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS admirable poet, but to the consciousness of every one among the multitude of his admirers, which has hitherto perforce been harassed and fretted by the involuntary recollection, however tempered with contempt and loathing, of the villainous calumnies of Griswold. The dog is dead, I believe, is he not ? or I should like to see combined with the immediate object of your committee, the scarcely less praiseworthy object of getting him cudgelled to death in default of a rope and gibbet. Among all his poisonous assertions there was but one — I hardly like to allude to it — which has always seemed to me, if one were compelled to believe it, inexplicable and intolerable, the rest even if true would not be damning accusations, or, however lamentable, beyond all excuse or comprehension of charity ; I refer of course to the foul allegation of an attempt to extort money from a woman by threats of defamation in return for relief re- ceived, which were afterwards retracted under a counter threat of chastisement. Incredible as this vile story is, I have looked eagerly for a full and unanswerable refutation of it point by point, which I hope you will be able to give. I do not find it touched upon in your present or first article, indeed one is loath to touch such filth, but as long as what that polecat biographer has left behind him is not swept or shovelled away finally from the grave H7 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS of Poe, it must offend the nostrils of those who would come thither with offerings of another kind. I cannot undertake to offer any suggestion as to the business part of your plans, but no doubt, as you have Mr. W. Rossetti with you, you will not want for more efficient help and alliance than mine. I wish indeed that poor Baudelaire were alive to see his own and in- stinctive contradiction of Griswold's villainies confirmed by evidence, and to give the help it would have rejoiced him to offer to the poor lady who remains to represent the name which he honoured and made famous throughout France by his own labours. Or, if Theophile Gautier were but alive, I daresay he might have answered to the appeal. I should think something might be raised among the admirers of Poe in Paris, if anything is left of the old set of artists and authors who learned of Baudelaire to enjoy the genius of his favourite. I should think Mr. Frederick Locker might like to be of service ; have you applied to him .? I don't know whether he is in town ; if he were I would look him up, and Mr. Whistler, who might also help us for the sake of a fellow Southerner. With best wishes for your success, and sincere congratulations on the good work you have already done for the long and grievously out- 148 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS raged memory of the first true and great genius of America. Believe me, Yours very truly, A. C. Sv^INBURNE. I am writing by this post to Mr. Morris, and have commended the matter to him as to one of Poe's truest and warmest admirers. LETTER LXXIX To John H. Ingram Holmwood, Shiplake, Henley-on-Thames. March loth, 1874. Dear Sir, I send you a line to convey my thanks for the great satisfaction given me by your answer to my question. The explanation both as to the nymphomaniac habit of body or mind which seems to have regulated the relations of the literary ladies with Poe, and (of course) as to the villainous mendacity of Griswold, is precisely such as I always looked for and hoped one day to obtain, as thanks to^ your kindness 149 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I now have. I shall look forward with all the more interest to your forthcoming article in "Temple Bar. I am also much obliged for the poem^ you enclose, which reads to me more like the work of a disciple of Poe's than of his own hand. It has pretty lines, but none which have that peculiar melody scarcely ever wanting to even his crudest juvenile work. A third reason for troubling you with this note is that I only remembered when too late an omission in my last letter. I think you ought to be secure of any help that may be in the power of Mr. R. H. Home to give you, in recollection of Poe's most generous if most ex- travagant praise of him as a poet in the review of his Orion. I don't know the address of Mr. Home, whom I met but once at Dr. Westland Marston's on one of the very rare occasions when I found myself in " literary " society. Of the " world of letters " I know personally so much less than little, that I can think of no further name known in it which might be suggested as useful for your purpose except Lord Houghton's, who, having just lost his wife, may not be in tune at present for any project of the kind ; otherwise this is certainly one in which he ought and might be expected to take interest. Do not trouble yourself, if too busy, to 1 Some lines by A. Ide, an American writer, which had been attributed to Poe. 150 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS acknowledge this note of thanks, and beheve me, Yours very truly, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXX To Lord Morley 3, Great James Street, Bedford Row, W.C. March zStk, [1874]. My dear Morley, It is so long since I wrote to or heard from you that, as I cannot be sure of finding you at " Puttenham, Guildford " as of yore, I address to Chapman and Hall, who of course know where you are. My Bothwell is now finished, and I should like you to see something of it before I ask you for counsel as to the arrangements about its publica- tion. I don't know if it would be convenient for you to come here some evening early and hear as much of the mass of MS. as may be conveniently read out ; but if it is, I would ask you to come and meet a few friends (of mine, and probably some of yours) to whom I should like to give a recitation, next week or that after. 151 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS The size of the book is as far as I can calculate almost exactly the length of Philip van Artevelde — /. f., two average five-act plays in verse. This is the calculation of the Master of Balliol, the only person who has heard it or read it right through (except the 2 or 3 last scenes.) I want to have the proofs in readiness in order to send to him — as he has been a very close and useful critic of it in the rough ; and I should like to have his last suggestion, as I am sure the poem owes much to his former corrections. (It is difficult not to get weedy in a field of such size.) I would apologise for bothering you about my concerns, but that you were good enough, as was Jowett, to express an interest in the project of the work which has been for some years my chief occupation ; and without knowing something of it you could hardly know what to suggest as to the disposal — and since receiving your friendly note on the matter I have always looked forward to your assistance at the ultimate issue — so far as an opinion given of what I ought to ask (style Prudhomme) and how. But if you are too busy, don't let it trouble you for a minute, and say you can't, and I shall be not the least vexed ; only on good terms or bad for myself I will have the book out this spring and have it off my mind, and be able to apply that again to something else than Mary Stuart — who, if her sex were satiable, might I think, have been content with ruining 152 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS my ancestors by the simple process of making them give land and life for her, and not have exacted the best work of my brains as well as the last sacrifice of their heads. I have just received from the Master (V. H.^) his photograph of this month by Carjat — very fine, but how much older he looks ! I read your January article on Mill's Autobio- graphy with great care and great pleasure. I never had the honour to meet him, but ever since his Liberty came out it has been the text- book of my creed as to public morals and political faith. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXXI To John H. Ingram Holmwood, Shiplake, Henley-on-T hames. April list, 1874. My dear Sir, I do not know any one to whom I can advise you to apply on behalf of the Poe memorial volume. M. Mallarme wrote to me some time ago in acknowledgment of the reference to ^ Victor Hugo. SWINBURNE'S LETTERS himself in my letter to Miss Rice, who has also written again and sent me a photograph of the singularly horrible monument. The only one durable and precious is that which I am sincerely delighted to hear that we may expect from you — a full and faithful memoir. Memoirs are generally as hateful to me as monuments, and both among the darkest terrors of death ; but in this case the poison already written on Poe's grave demands the full antidote which you have yet to supply. I congratulate you on the coming honour which must accrue from the completion of your noble task. Have you seen the admirable version ^ of some of Poe's Marginalia appearing in the Re- publique des Lettres ? I saw some verses headed Alone'^ which seemed to me not unworthy on the whole of the parentage claimed for them. The " handwriting paper," you mention and your article on Politia??^ I have never received, and should much like to see — the article on Poiitian^ especially, of which I only saw the advertisement which announced it as forthcoming — I forget where.^ I am glad Mr. Tennyson has sent a letter of sympathy to the Committee, it is a just and 1 By Mallarm^. 2 A juvenile poem attributed to Poe. ^ Mr. Ingram's article on Pol'itian appeared in The London Magazine^ 1874. 154 \ SWINBURNE'S LETTERS graceful act of recognition on his part of one who was eager in doing homage to him. As to the Byron monument I had from the first silently declined (though repeatedly solicited) to take part in an " inauguration " of which the present ruler of this Empire was to figure as the principal aruspex ; not considering that what- ever might be the defects or demerits of Byron's genius or character, they were grave enough on the whole to deserve that his memory should be subjected to the patronage of the author of the Kevolutioruiry Epic ; and had the memory thus oppressed been Shelley's, or any other of the very greatest poets — Milton's for instance, or Shake- speare's — nothing would have induced me to reconsider my point of view, considering what at best is like to be the upshot of such a plan. But when the one man who has been the friend of Shelley and Byron and is now on friendly terms with me had seen fit of his own accord, and moved merely by a sense of what was fitting or seemed so to him, to propose my name without my knowledge for election into the committee, of which the first intimation that I received was the announcement that (subject to my consent) I had already been elected a member, I could not of course reject the courtesy ofi^ered ; but I accepted it wholly out of respect for Mr. Trelawny and in acknowledgment of the regard expressed by his proposal of my name — a regard which I SWINBURNE'S LETTERS naturally would on no account have appeared to slight. Yours very truly, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXXII To Lord Morley 3 Great James Street. May 12th, [1874]. My dear Morley, I believe Chatto has sent you the proofs ^ as desired before this, and I have told him to send you as soon as possible an early copy of the corrected text, which he tells me will be ready on Friday (not for publication till a week later, but for the reviewers, to the num- ber of 50 copies) that if you make any quotation it may not appear with the printers' punctuation &c. instead of mine. I am half blind and half dead with correcting all these proofs in a space of four days. Was not that (in schoolboy parlance) a grind .? Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 1 The " proofs " of Bothwell. 156 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LXXXIII To Lord Morley 3 Great James Street. May 2yd, [1874]. My dear Morley, I was rather disappointed at first to sec that Bothwell was not to have a notice in The Fortnightly Review for June, as I thought it was in your own hands, and was naturally eager to read what you would say about it ; but I could wait with the most perfect equanimity till Doomsday or the twilight of the gods for the lucubrations of the " worthy peer " into whose hands you have consigned it ; for though of course I should really agreeably value the public (as I do the private) expression of your estimate of my work, I must confess that for Lord Houghton's opinion, and the private or public expression of it, I care rather less than nothing ; though you need not tell him so ! at least till his article is finished. I need not repeat, to speak seriously again, how much satisfaction it gives me to know what you think of the work to which I have given my best powers and my most earnest labour of many months, during which I have resolutely kept my hand from any other task. If you speak of it in public anywhere, my satisfaction 157 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS will of course be all the greater. But meantime I cannot resist the temptation to say that I wish I had known before that you thought of giving Lord Houghton the position of my reviewer in the Fortnightly ; as I should then, in defiance I doubt not of all etiquette, have requested you as a personal favour to me to give it in preference to any other writer alive — say Mr. Robert Buchanan. I have never shrunk from attack or from blame deserved or undeserved ; but I must confess that I do shrink from the rancid unction of that man's adulation or patronage or criticism. There is a M. Th. Michaelis just come to London as " representative of M. Victor Hugo " (I quote from the pencilling on his card left on me yesterday) with a letter from him to me which he very properly declined to leave on finding me gone out, and which of course when I have breakfasted I mean to rush after on the wings of a hansom. Do you know anything of T. M. ? Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 158 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LXXXIV To Richard Herne Shepherd The Orchard, Niton, Isle of Wight. July loth, [1874]. Dear Sir, I am very far from under-rating either the difficulties of your task, or the devotion to your author which must have impelled and sustained you in its discharge ; but I still think, having now before my eyes the revised copy of your text of Chapman's Plays as now published, that in the case of an author so obscure and difficult as Chapman at his best must always remain, even when all has been done that care and judgment can do, the corruptions and im- perfections of the text should have been more fully noted (I do not say except in the more palpable cases corrected by the always hazardous method of conjectural emendation) and the patent and crying want of intelligible stage directions and lists of characters in some degree supplied. In the second play in the volume it is frequently impossible even for a careful reader to make out the speaker, the scene, or the sense, 159 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS and on these points at least we are accustomed to look for some help from a modern editor who aims at something higher than a mere reproduc- tion in facsimile of the old text. I readily and gratefully admit that you have done much for Chapman ; but I cannot but think that much remains to be done. Meantime I sincerely con- gratulate you on the valuable and important discovery of the new text of Hero and Leander, of which I yesterday received the proofs from Mr. Chatto ; who, however, has not sent me the pages of the volume of Poems from 48 to ^y, including, I suppose, the last part of 'The Conten- tion of Phillis and Flora. Perhaps if you see him you will be kind enough to ask him to let me have these missing pages as soon as he can. I am very sorry to hear of your disappointment about Eugenia. I suppose of course you have tried the Bodleian and other public libraries ; have you enquired at Cambridge ? I do not know if they are rich in books of that kind and period, but it might be worth looking after. It would be a great pity to leave the edition avowedly imperfect. Could — and would — Mr. Grosart, who I hear had thoughts of publishing Chapman's Poems on his own account before the present edition was announced as forth- coming, lend any help in the matter ? I observe three other items wanting in your list which seem to me desirable if not necessary for a com- 160 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS plete and critical edition of Chapman ; two plays attributed on very early (if not contemporary) authority to his hand — (i) The Second Maiden'' s Tr^^d"^', printed in The Old English Drama (1820), but ought not to be reprinted from this text, but if possible from the original MS., which would add greatly to the critical and poetical value of your edition ; (2) Two Wise Men and all the rest Fools ; omitted by Pearson as doubtful ; the more reason why it should appear now, at least in an appendix ; (3) A Satire on Ben Jonson^ quoted by GifFord (I think from the Ashmolean MSS.) in a note to his life of B.J., beginning " Great, learned, witty, Ben, be pleased to light," etc. Yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXXV To Lord Houghton The Orchard, Niton, Isle of Wight. July 12, [1874]. Dear Lord Houghton, At the request (as you will see on reading it) of the writer, I forward to you this VOL. I. 161 M SWINBURNE'S LETTERS letter just received from Mrs. Burton ... I hope the next " bulletin " will announce an im- provement in poor Burton's condition ; the news startled as much as it pained me, who had heard no rumour of his illness. ... I read your article [on " Bothwell " ] in the Fortnightly with plea- sure, but am not prepared to admit the superfluity of the part of Jane Gordon, which has been very considerably curtailed in order not to make the poem any longer than was absolutely necessary jFor the development of the general design ; in which however the total omission of this short part would have made, I think, a sensible gap. Nor (like my brother dramatist, Sir Fretful Plagiary) can I subscribe to your objection raised against the parting menaces of the Queen as she embarks. This valediction was intended to mark the close of the last serious personal passion or private interest of the heart in all her life, and to enforce the position indicated throughout the poem which she holds as representative of the past — of monarchy and Catholicism — at Knox, the only person then living of courage and intel- ligence equal to her own, is in effect, beneath the outer shell of Protestant bigotry, the prophet or at least the precursor of democracy and the popular spirit of the future. Yours very truly, A. C. Swinburne. 162 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LXXXVI To Richard Herne Shepherd ^he Orchard, Niton. July iph, [1874]. Dear Sir, Many thanks for sending me the proof of pp. 48-54. I have now the volume complete up to p. 177. I am very glad to hear there is a chance of Eugenm turning up. I quite agree with you that the Homeric margination ought to be most carefully preserved. I have just purchased a beautiful copy of the small folio, without date, containing twelve books of the I/iad in Italic type ; to which I am glad to see you have reprinted the noble Epist/e Dedicatory, but not (to my regret) the curious metrical Address to the Reader, which follows it, nor the various Sonnets at the end of the volume, nor that to Queen Anne immediately prefixed to the translation. I should wish myself to see all the various versions of the liiad published in parts before the completion of the work reprinted side by side, or at least all the different readings given and dated. This would add greatly to the value of the edition in the eyes of all serious students of English poetry ; and to none others, 163 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I suspect, will any edition of Chapman ever be likely to address itself with any chance of success. I remain, Your sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER LXXXVII To Richard Herne Shepherd The Orchard, Niton, Isle of Wight. July i^th, [1874]. Dear Sir, Thanks for the additional proofs. I see you (or the printer, is it ?) put a query to the word renowwed, which is right, being a genuine older form of renow/;ed. I shall be obliged if you would send me the actual words of the contemporary account given of the offensive passage cancelled in Act 2 of Byron's Tragedy} 1 The most interesting, and by no means unimportant, textual variant to which Swinburne refers, may be observed upon making a comparison of different copies of the First, 1608, Quarto of The Conspiracie and Tragedie of Charles Duke of Byron. The first of the two plays, Byrons Conspiracies was with- drawn from the stage at the instance of the French Ambassador, and, together with the second play, Byrons Tragedie^ underwent a compulsory emendation before being committed to the Press. Hence Chapman's plaintive reference to them as ' these poore dismembered Poems ' in his Dedication to the Walsinghams. 164 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS The fact and the reason for it I remember, but your note which takes for granted that all readers will have the story at their fingers' ends will be unintelligible as it stands to all but special students. I am happy to hear that you will give entire the first partial versions of the Iliad ; it will add greatly to the value of the edition. I shall not attempt anything like a memoir of Chapman ; my design is simply to write a short critical essay on his genius and works, such as I have written before now on Byron and Coleridge (whose admirable remarks on the Homer, to which you advert, I know from of old, and shall probably refer to). With renewed thanks. Believe me, yours faithfully, A. C. Swinburne. In the first issued copies of the Quarto of 1608, at Sig. H 2 recto, the fifth line of Byron's speech reads : So long as idle and ridiciilus King\_s]. In later issued copies of this Quarto the line reads : So long as such as he. The earlier and longer line, which is far more forcible, and is moreover metrically correct, is of course the true reading. Doubtless some nervous individual in the printer's office ob- served the line, and perceived the danger of its being stupidly regarded as a reference to His Sacred Majesty King James. Hence its removal, and the substitution of the weak half-line in its stead. When reprinting his two tragedies in the Second Quarto of 1625, Chapman replaced the original reading [Sig. H i recto]. 165 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER LXXXVIII To Lord Morley The Orchard, Niton, Isle of Wight. July 20th, 1874. My dear Morley, I have read at last, under the right auspices of sea and sun and flowers and solitude, Quatrevingt-T'reize^ and am disposed to agree with you that it is (at least from some points of view) the most divinely beautiful work of the great Master, who has written me since I last heard from you such a letter in acknowledgment of the Dedication of Bothweli as I should like to shew you, but have not the face to transcribe or quote. Perhaps you know that we are promised Les Qiiatre Vents de F Esprit for the autumn ; if you can spare the post to anybody, I put in my appeal to be given (in default of yourself) the office of reviewing it — as far as may be possible. I was on the whole agreeably surprised on reading Lord Houghton's notice of Bothweli. Tho' he writes to me that he wanted time and power to do it justice, I found it more thorough and careful (in a sort) than I expected. But if 166 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS you still retain any intention of noticing it, that will of course be a matter of very different interest and satisfaction to me. I direct to Chapman and Hall to make sure of you, tho' J suppose " Puttenham, Guildford" would do as well ? My own address is as above for two months to come. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — Apropos de bottes — have you read, and if so what do you think of, G. Flaubert's St. Antony^ I have been reading it with very considerable interest and admiration. LETTER LXXXIX To Mackenzie The Orchard., Niton, Isle of Wight. July SI St, [1874]. My dear Mackenzie, Messrs. Chatto and Windus have for- warded to me here your note of the 22nd. I need not tell you how much I shall value the MS. you were kind enough to promise me. If you think it safe to send so far — and it is cer- tainly too precious a thing to be lightly allowed 167 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS to run any risk — my address will be as above for the next six weeks. But, in the name of our common reverence and affection for Landor, let me conjure you not to inflict on me the discredit by anticipation implied in the title of future Laureate ; an office for which I expect to see all the poeticules of New Grub Street pulling caps after the death of Tennyson, till the laurel (or cabbage wreath) shall descend on the deserving brows of the Poet Close or the Bard Buchanan. For myself, I can only say of that office what Landor said — That inexpert was always I To toss the litter of Westphalian swine From under human to above divine. With many thanks, Yours ever sincerely in the faith, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XC To Richard Herne Shepherd The Orchard, Niton. Aug. sth, [1874]. Dear Sir, I am very much obliged by your kindness in forwarding to me your Memoir of 168 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Chapman with the various prefaces of Messrs. Hooper and Elze. Of the latter editor's preface to Alphonsus^ the pages 23, 24, have sHpt out ; perhaps you have the leaf by you : the gap occurs at an interesting point of this curious essay, which I should like to read in full. I merely mentioned to Mr. Chatto that I did not know the date of Chapman's death, and thought it hardly worth while to trouble you with an express note on the matter. I am all the more grateful for the copious help you have sent me in reply. My acknowledgment of the leaf out of the Memoir sent before, I desired Chatto to make to you in my name. I shall be very happy to meet you if you have an oppor- tunity of calling here this or next week, when I hope we make acquaintance in person over the text of the poet on whom we are at work in common. Believe me, yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 169 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER XCl To Lord Morley The Orchard, Niton, Isle of Wight. Aug. igth, [1874]. My dear Morley, Many thanks for your cheque and accompanying letter. I am like you enjoying sea and sun (though the latter has been capricious of late, and allowed such gusts and swells of bad weather that last week bathing off an unsafe shore I could hardly regain it, and even had I been drowned, as I reflected on regaining land in rather a spent condition, could not have enjoyed the diversion of reading the notices of my death in the papers, which is an unreasonable dispensa- tion of an ungracious Providence). As for the sun's heat I bask in it, swimming or sitting ; it is never too hot for me in summer and seldom too cold in winter ; what I hate is the autumnal halfway house, brumeux et suicidal. Certainly I will send you copies of the Master's three letters to me since last spring (I received another here a week or two since in reply to one in which I told him of my design to complete the history of Mary Stuart) ; the first two I have not by me here. I have just written in much perturbation 170 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS as you will suppose to Paris for an account of his health, being much shocked and alarmed by- yesterday's telegram of his accident. I trust as it seems he was able to walk home there can be no serious or dangerous injury. His man of business, Michaelis, has written to ask an odd thing of me as a favour — to write a preface to a forthcoming novel of a M. Cadol i — did you ever hear of him ? It is flattering to the credit of one's name in Paris, but otherwise embarrassing. I am busy with an elaborate essay on the poems and plays of Chapman to be prefixed to a forthcoming edition,^ the first in which the poems have ever been collected ; they have (even more than his translations) grievous faults & striking beauties. Also since I came here I have (for the first time I am ashamed to say) read the Iliad (Homer's, not Chapman's) fairly through with- out stopping from a to w: I found it and the sea keep time together perfectly in my mind's ear. I have written some fresh parcels of my " Tristram and Iseult " and hope to grapple with it steadily before long. I shall look impatiently for the October Macmillan. Thanks for the promise as to " Les Quatre Vents " ; I can but do my ^ Victor £douard Cadol, born in 1831, was an abundant novelist and dramatist. He wrote also under the pseudonym of Paul de Margoliers. The novel Swinburne was asked to introduce was Le Cheveu du D'lable. 2 Edited by R. H. Shepherd, and published in 3 vols, in 1875. 171 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS best, but for what I expect in that book I fear it will be but a beggarly best. From what I hear it ought to have at least four articles in each review, one to each division. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XCII To Richard Herne Shepherd The Orchard, Niton. Aug. igth, [1874]. Dear Sir, Many thanks for your kind present of books, and also for Mr. Collier's list. I am delighted to find that with one exception he has failed to trace any of those extracts which I could not verify, and surprised to find that he has failed to trace two or three which I have verified in no more recondite poem than Hero and Leander. I would send you my corrections of the text of the poems, to which I made sundry additions only this morning ; but the trouble is that it would be useless to send the proofs as they stand, as I have only had time to correct one error of punctuation in a thousand. No page is free from misplaced, omitted, or super- fluous stops, commas, parentheses, etc. To make 172 I SWINBURNE'S LETTERS the text readable the pointing would have to be remodelled throughout. If I have time to finish doing this for The Shadow of Nighty I will send you that sheet as an example. I shall be glad to see the T^wo Wise Men and will let you know at once what I think of it. As to The Second Maiden s Tragedy^ my verdict is decidedly for insertion. Faithfully yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XCIII To Richard Herne Shepherd The Orchard, Niton. Aug. 2Sth, [1874]. Dear Sir, I have, as you will perceive, carefully read through the voluminous MS. you were good enough to send me, correcting one or two slips and adding one or two queries and con- jectures : and my final opinion is that you will do well to include this curious quasi-dramatic tract or pamphlet in the Appendix., and that you did well to exclude it from the list of Chapman's Plays. I think your suggestion that a confusion of the title with that of All Fools may have originated the attribution of it to Chapman is 173 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS very probably as correct as it is certainly inge- nious. But in any case the book, never having been reprinted, has a double value as a curious study of manners, and as having been attributed to Chapman by such early tradition (Langbaine writing but 57 years after his death). I think therefore that most readers will agree with me that its insertion cannot but add to the value of your edition. I observe a curious detail, that several names in it are anagrams merely spelt backwards ; Mr.Eloc = Cole,Sir Retlaw = Walter, Pohssib = Bisshop, Boc = Cob, and others. Does this point to a personal attack ? The attack on female Puritanism (which has some humour, though exaggerated and too much spun out) is in spirit not unlike Chapman. But I cannot easily believe that it was written by a dramatist ; (to be sure. Chapman can be very i/;;dramatic when he pleases ; ) it seems rather the work of some Conservative pamphleteer, perhaps a Catho- lic, at least High Anglican. I am glad to have read it, but must be excused from believing that it was divers ti?nes (or ever, acted on any stage before any merely human audience with simply mortal powers of patience. There are several historical and social allusions worth nothing. I return also The Second Maiden s Tragedy, which I have kept for a final reading, and marked in pencil some few errors in the punctuation and distribution of lines. It has much beauty, but 174 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS is more like Middleton in style than Chapman or any one else I know. I enclose your paper received to-day, with the two extracts verified by me crossed out as you desired. Many thanks for the passage from Marlowe (and for Cole- ridge's notes and the Langbaine extract sent before) and for your information. I will look over the proofs again at my leisure, and send you any corrections or conjectures I think worth while. I shall be curious to know how you thrive in the Bodleian, and if you find all of the poems you expected, though not the Parnassian extracts. I wish we could trace the two last. Yours faithfully, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XCIV To Richard Herne Shepherd The Orchard, Niton. Aug. 31st, [1874]. Dear Sir, I have just received your very valuable present of the three dramatists. With your editions of Dekker and Heywood I was already in part acquainted ; I hope now to complete the acquaintance. The Glapthorne is a very pretty book, and I mean to try the author's 175 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS metal at once. This morning also arrived the first detachment of the Two Wise Men whom I hope shortly to tackle. I write first of all to repeat my thanks for both remissions, and to ask one or two questions regarding Chapman, my Essay having made considerable progress since I had the pleasure of seeing you here, (i) P. 174 of the Poems, 2 lines from bottom of second column : Is the word " freres " rightly tran- scribed ? and had it any known meaning ? I possess a copy of the original edition of the Epicede, as also of the Tears of Peace, but they are at my chambers in London. I have care- fully corrected the pointing of the former in this edition throughout, and suggested one or two marginal emendations of apparent misprints ; I will send you this proof if you like, and you can put it into Mr. Chatto's hands, or if you please into the printer's. If too late to be made use of, I should like to have it back. (2) Can you tell me if the lines subjoined to the Epicede ("Thy tomb, arms, statue," etc.) belong to the same publication .? or are these the " verses beneath the portraits of Prince Henry, in H. Holland's Heroologia, 1620, pp. 48-51".? I copy from the MS. list of contents to this volume which Mr. Chatto sent me with the first proofs : and I see no such verses elsewhere as those above de- scribed. I should be much obliged if you would send me a transcript of the famous passage on 176 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS poetry in Marlowe's T'amburlaine^ Part /., Act 3 (I think), from the Hne, "If all the pens that ever poets held " to " Which into words no virtue can digest." I have occasion to quote it in the course of my Essay, and I cannot remem- ber all the intervening lines. It occurs midway in the soliloquy beginning " Ah fair Zenocrate ! divine Zenocrate ! " ^ Believe me, yours most sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — I find that a leaf (pp. 267, 268) has slipped out of the second Vol. of Glapthorne, leaving your interesting notes on A. Gill and Lovelace both imperfect, one (p. 266) at the end, the other (p. 269) at the beginning. If you have the leaf missing by you, perhaps you will add to your kindness by sending it to com- plete the copy. 1 The passage is in The First Part of Tamhurlaine the Great^ Act v., Sc. 2. VOL I. 177 N 177 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER XCV To Richard Herne Shepherd The Orchard, Niton. Sept. ^th, [1874]. Dear Sir, I should have acknowledged at once the receipt of the transcribed MSS. a few days since ; but I put off writing for a day or two till I had time to study them with care before returning them, as I do by this post, with many thanks. At the first glance I recognized as old friends the two poems on T/ie Body and T/ie Mind., which, unless I am much mistaken, you will find in any edition of Ben Jonson's minor poems. That they are his and not Chapman's I presume there can be no manner of doubt. They are far too good in style, too simple and intelligible in idea, to be the work of Chapman, unless by some miracle. The absence of bar- barism and bombast is conclusive against his authorship ; and the metrical structure and turn of language are thoroughly Jonsonian. I have done my best to make sense of the "malicious trash," of which in spite of GifFord's unwilling- ness I fear we must believe Chapman guilty ; but great part of it is evidently one chaotic mass 178 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS of corruption. Some readings, however (as "petards" and "Furens"), I have restored or substituted as evidently right ; others I have suggested as plausible. It is such a disgusting piece of spiteful rubbish, and written in such an infernal jargon, that I am sorry for our old poet's credit it should ever have been taken down by some officious pickthank who probably waylaid the old man's weaker hours and perpetuated the memory of what in a healthier mood the author would have thrown into the fire. I am delighted to hear of the recovery of Eugenia, and sincerely hope she may do more credit to her parentage than this ugliest of all metrical abortions. I have made a note of three questions which you will doubtless be able to solve for me. (i) I find in a paper on Marlowe in this month's Cornhill a statement which I think is not new to me, that Marlowe at his death left behind him, besides the two first sestiads of Hero and Leauder, a fragment of 200 lines which was worked up by Chapman into the text of his sequel. There is strong internal evidence of this ; can you tell me what external evidence there is of the fact, and when it was first stated in print .? (2) What was Marlowe's exact age at his death, 30 or 33 ? (3) In the prefatory note of The Second Maiden s Tragedy^ does the writer say that " Thomas Goughe " was substituted for " William " or vice versa in the 179 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS first alteration of names inscribed on the MS. ? I forgot to make a note of this. I shall be curious to hear in what condition you find the MS. of this play, and if it supplies any correc- tions of the text. I have given a careful account of its history and analysis of the probabilities of authorship in my Essay. There is a remarkable passage on the subject in Btddots' Correspondence. I am sorry that my delay in acknovs^ledging the receipt of the MS. you v^^ere kind enough to send should have given you a moment's uneasi- ness ; the delay was undesigned, and I meant to have written as soon as I had deciphered the text, which proved a harder task than I expected. The original transcriber of the Invective did not, I suspect, himself understand more than half or a quarter of the execrable trash he was copying. The brutal allusions (among others) to the destruction of Jonson's papers by fire are curious ; so would other passages probably be, however worthless in themselves, if reducible to rhyme or reason, grammar or metre or sense. Yours faithfully, A. C. Swinburne. i8o SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER XCVI To Richard Herne Shepherd The Orchardy Niton. Sep. Sth [1874]. Dear Sir, If I had seen anywhere the newly unearthed copy of verses signed " G. C." with- out any such initials or other indication of authorship, I think I should have exclaimed " Aut Georgius Chapmannus aut Diabolus." I congratulate you once more, on this little wind- fall as an authentic curiosity. Many thanks for the other papers which I herewith return, having solved all my doubt by their help ; and more for your very full and sufficient account of the origin of the report as to Hero and heander. This day week (Tuesday, Sept. 15th) I return for a short time to London, where my address is 3, Great James Street, Bedford Row, W.C., so that we shall be at need within hail of each other for awhile. Yours faithfully, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — I quite agree with you that the un- verified fragments (not, however, this last copy of commendatory verses — by the by what is 181 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS this History of Hipolito and Isabella ? has it any connexion with the underplot of Middleton's Women beware Women^ the names of hero and heroine being identical ?) should be relegated to an Appendix as doubtful. I find on a second or third careful revision of the poem that (as I thought) Mr. Collier^s reference of the fragment in England's Parnassus beginning " Their virtues mount like billows," etc., to Ovid's Banquet of Sense is wrong ; there is no such passage in that production. — A. C. S. LETTER XCVIl To Richard Herne Shepherd Oct. IZth, [1874]. Dear Sir, I am much obliged for the proofs of Eugenia. Do you want them back at once or may I keep them till the next come in .? It is a curious and very characteristic poem, so far. Most of my MS. is now in Chatto's hands or I should have been happy to show you any part of it. I will tell him, if you like, to let you see the proofs when ready. I must add a note some- where on Eugefiia, which seems quite a long 182 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS affair. I [have] not been well enough to make or receive visits, besides being very busy, or should have hoped to see you last week. Yours faithfully, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XCVIII To Richard Herne Shepherd 3, Great James St., Bedford Row, w.c. Oct. igth, [1874]. Dear Sir, In an Appendix of which I shall to-day place the MS. in the publisher's hands, I have seized an opportunity of doing such justice to the " energy and enthusiasm " displayed by you as editor of Chapman as must, I think, be taken to counterbalance any passing stricture on the state of the text which may occur in the body of my essay. As Chatto has not yet sent me the proofs I cannot recall the terms I may have used ; but I am certain they can contain or imply no disparagement of your unmistakeable " goodwill," however I may have felt it neces- sary to remark on the extreme confusion of the 183 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS pointing which too generally prevails, to the infinite perplexity (as I know to my cost) of the reader : commas, periods, and semicolons being often shaken out over the page to light where they may in the middle of a sentence, which is then left to run on into the next without any note or stop to indicate where the sense breaks off or the sentence pauses. Such mispunctuation would make any author difficult to read ; in the case of one who is already the most difficult and obscure writer I ever tried to tackle, it is an almost fatal impediment added to the many which Chapman had already cast in his reader's way. You will observe by the corrected proofs, which, as you wish to see them, I will send you through Mr. Chatto, that this reckless punctua- tion is the main and real ground of complaint. We expect it in the old editions, and must put up with it in a " facsimile " reprint, but in a modern edition we may reasonably expect to find it rectified. Assuredly I can have no wish to say or do anything that might possibly be hurtful to you with the publisher or the public ; on the contrary, I have taken every occasion to express my gratitude for your help and my sense of your energy and goodwill as editor ; nor should I have thought of taking upon myself unsolicited to read you a lecture on the imperfections of the text ; but as you have thought my passing remark on the matter worth notice or appeal, I 184 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS must say that I find my opinion more than shared — considerably exceeded — by other students who have examined it. But if I have seemed to dis- parage or depreciate your " goodwill " as editor, that phrase I will certainly rescind or alter. I finished reading Eugefiia last night, and made a few corrections and suggestions, but the most important (" mouths " for the absurd reading "months" and "of" substituted for "called" as a supplementary word) I find you have made already. However, I will send these with the other proofs on the chance that they may be of use to you. Yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER XCIX To Edmund Gosse 3, Great James Street, W.C. October ^oth, [1874]. My dear Gosse, My time and mind have been for the last three days too entirely occupied with W. Rossetti's memoir and edition of Blake to think, 185 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS much less talk or write, on any other subject — let alone myself. Now having written to him twelve pages of thanks, and remarks on that and other matters, I write at once to tell you that, of course, if you like to write anything on me I shall be pleased and flattered, and all the more obliged if I am allowed to see it in English, as in Dr. Brandes' language it will be lost to me.i My birthday is April ^th — don't make it the 1st. I think you are unjust to Chapman, and (in your article last Saturday on Minto's book,2 which I have not yet seen) to the real and splendid though limited talents of Randolph — but of this we will talk when we next meet. Those damned proofs of my " Chapman " will drive me mad, or blind, or both — but while I retain my wits and eyes I shall remain ever Affectionately yours, A. C. Swinburne. 1 It appeared in Det Nittende Aarhimdrede^ a literary and political review, conducted in Danish, by Dr. Georg Brandes. 2 Characteristics of English Poets from Chaucergto Shirley. Hy William Minto, 1874. 186 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER C To Edmund Gosse 3, Great James Street, W.C. December l^th, [1874]. My dear Gosse, I was very sorry when I saw your card that I could not come to you last Thursday. Horrible and hellish as the weather was, I would have tried to make my way thither if I had been able to go out at all. But next Thursday I hope we may meet at the [W.B.] Scotts, and on Saturday evening I intend to read my new poem to a few friends — beginning at 8 sharp. I shall be very glad if you can come ; and I want to get Philip Marston, but I have mislaid his present address, and I don't know whom to ask to accompany him. I should like to ask O'Shaugh- nessy and Marzials if I knew their addresses, only I have eight guests engaged already, and too many in one room on such an occasion would make it more difficult to read ; and for more than twelve I really have not house-room. Send a line to say if you can come. Yours ever, A. C. Swinburne. 187 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CI To John H. Ingram Holmzvood, Shiplake, Henley-on-T hames. December ^ist, 1874. My dear Mr. Ingram, Many thanks for your first volume of Poe.^ I had already glanced over your invaluable vindication, which I am happy to see is already bearing fruit ; and I congratulate you sincerely on the good work you have so well done for the memory of a great and maligned poet. My friend Edmund Gosse had an excellent article on it which I suppose you saw. Believe me. Yours very sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 1 The first volume of the 4 Vol. collected edition of Poe's Works, published by Messrs. A. Sc C. Black, of Edinburgh, This collection was edited by Mr. Ingram, and contains his biographical vindication of the poet. 188 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CII To John H. Ingram Holmzvood, Shiplake, Henley-on-T hames . January <)ih, 1875. My dear Mr. Ingram, Many thanks for the second and third volumes of your beautiful edition.^ I sincerely hope that you will carry out, and that soon, your project of writing a full biography of Poe. I agree with you entirely as to the less than little worth of ordinary reviews from whatever point of view ; and I do not think I shall ever undertake a review of Poe, if only because Baude- laire has been before me, and made a study of the poet certainly unsurpassable and probably unapproachable for depth, subtlety, sympathy, and truth. I do not choose to go on any man's trail, and in writing a purely critical (not biographical) essay on Poe, one cannot now keep clear of ground preoccupied by the great French lyrist and critic. But I was nearly tempted the other day, on reading some imbecile remarks on the two men (giving, of course, the preference to the smaller), to write a rapid parallel or 1 The 4 Vol. edition of Poe's Works, edited by Mr. Ingram. 189 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS contrast between Hawthorne — the half man of genius who never could carry out an idea or work it through to the full result — and Poe, the complete man of genius (however flawed and clouded at times) who always worked out his ideas thoroughly, and made something solid, rounded, and durable of them — not a mist-wreath or a waterfall. It is the difference between a poet and a quasi-poet. If you should ever find occasion or wish to quote this expression of my opinion, you are quite welcome to do so.^ I hope I shall have a sight of your letters to the American papers in re Poe i;. Stoddard or others. As to the character of the Americans generally, my own impression (confirmed by experience) is that they are either delightful or detestable — the best or the worst company possible — there is no medium. Believe me. Yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 1 It is understood that this opinion of Hawthorne was much modified by Swinburne in after years. 190 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER cm To Edmund Gosse Holmwood, Shiplake, Henley-on-Thames. January 3ijf, [1875]. My dear Gosse, I must confess that I had quite for- gotten what anniversary ^ was yesterday, though oddly enough I had been thinking of it in passing, and (not having the date at hand to look up) had come to the conclusion that the centenary must have been over a year or two since. I am vexed to have let it slip. Had I known it a week earlier I should have proposed to you, and such friends as might have liked to join us, a meeting in honour of the day. If — as proposed in The Athenceum, — any commemora- tion of Lamb's centenary is to take place next week (Feb. loth) I hope to take part in it, and come up to-morrow week for a few days only to London. There ought to be among our own friends and acquaintances enough lovers of Lamb to make at least a pleasant private party. Would Scott join it, do you think .? I wrote to Watts ^ Walter Savage Landor was born on the 30th of January, 1775 i Charles Lamb on the loth of February following. iqi SWINBURNE'S LETTERS about it yesterday. There being but ten days between the two dates, we might commemorate with the same Hbations both the two great men who loved and admired each other in Hfe, and whose memories might fitly and grace- fully be mingled after death in our affectionate recollection. I read your article of yesterday with great pleasure, and with thorough sympathy of opinion, except as to one expression which startled me considerably. You speak of the " laborious versification " of Catullus, whom I should have called the least laborious, and the most spon- taneous in his godlike and birdlike melody, of all lyrists known to me except Sappho and Shelley : I should as soon call a lark's note laboured as his. And with all my loving admira- tion of Landor as a poet, I cannot consider him as belonging to the same class, or even to the same kind, as Catullus ; though you have very justly pointed out the many and noble personal qualities they had in common. Landor's verse, as a rule, without ever being harsh or weak, yet wants the contrary characteristic of subtle and simple sweetness ; while no poet ever had more of this than the Veronese : few ever had so much. This has been noted by Landor himself, who, (perhaps under the influence of Catullus,) has sometimes touched in his Latin verse a string of more exquisite and spontaneous melody than 192 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS was often struck in his English poems. As to the wholly unequalled if not unapproached and unapproachable excellence of his prose, you know how thoroughly I am at one with you. Indeed, it is always a thorn in my flesh when writing prose, and a check to any satisfaction I might feel in it, to reflect that probably I never liave written or shall write a page that Landor might have signed. Nothing of the sort (or of any sort) ever troubles me in writing verse, but this always haunts me when at work on prose. As to my own intercourse with the divine old man, I shall never have more to tell the world than I have already made public in verse ; for there is nothing to tell except such things as cannot be told ; slight personal matters, not the less precious that they must be private. My article in The Fortnightly is, of course, that on Wells, recast from the thirteen or fourteen year old sketch written when I was hardly quit of college. Anyhow I can write better prose than I could at twenty-one or so. I am curious to read the first review of my book on Chapman. There are some passages which I rather hope may attract notice of one kind or another ; e.g. (i) the excursus on Browning, which I do think the truest criticism, and most to the point, that has appeared on the subject, though I don't expect it to convert those (for such I know there are !) who prefer his earlier works (/. e. those VOL I. I^J o SWINBURNE'S LETTERS which he was pleased to consider dramatic or lyrical) to those later studies on which his genuine and peculiar fame depends. (2) The summary of evidence (internal and external) as to the authorship of the Second Maiden s Tragedy, which I consider rather a good bit of exhaustive criticism on a debateable subject. (3) Certain passages of a somewhat Landorian nature (when the old lion was using his teeth and claws), or, so I flatter myself, at pp. 54, ^c^^ and 71. (4) The lash applied to stage licensers and the English censorial system on pp. 97, 98. (5) The critical and historical review of the tragedies based on contemporary French annals. (6) The final " discourse " on the nature and the end of our art, and on the two kinds of poets — the Shakespeares and Marlowes who stand on the right among the gods, the Jonsons and Chapmans who stand on the left among the giants ; a dis- tinction which I mean some day to examine and work out at greater length. These, if any, are points in the book which I think deserve some attention. I am now at work on my long-designed essay or study on the metrical progress or development of Shakespeare as traceable by ear and tiot by finger, and the general changes of tone and stages of mind expressed or involved in this change or progress of style. I need hardly say that I begin with a massacre of the pedants worthy of 194 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS celebration, an Icelandic saga — " a murder grim and great." I leave the " finger-counters and finger-casters " without a finger to count on or an (ass's) ear to wag. Which do you think would be the best title for this essay — The Three Stages of Shakespeare^ or Tie Progress of Shakespeare ? If not (as I fear it is) too pretentious, the latter would perhaps be — or sound — best. Also, if you can, do for my sake help me to a comprehensive title for my forthcoming collec- tion of reprinted verse, which comprises the Song of Italy, Ode on the French Republic, and the Dirc^ (sonnets mostly printed in The Exammer, ^^ '73)- ''Political Poems,'' which Chatto has put on the (proof) title-page, would probably sink any book at once. I want some title which may express the mixture in the volume of blessing and cursing — two-thirds of the first to one-third of the second. Under this main title I should put the separate sub-titles of the three parts, so as to avoid all appearance of the Grub Street jockeyship of passing ofF old wares under a new name. The last name I have thought of is Songs in time of Change — but I don't much like it — or Poems of Revolution ! I have written you a long and egoistic letter, but, as you say, it is long since we had a talk, and I have been thinking repeatedly of writing to you lately about these and other matters — notably about Blake and Poe — which there is 195 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS no room to do here or now. My volume of Essays and Studies is going rapidly through the press. I have added a preface and sundry notes to the original text, which is otherwise almost unaltered in any way. Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CIV To Edmund Gosse Holmwood, Shiplake, H enley-on-7 hatnes. February ^th, [1875]. My dear Gosse, I mean to come up to London on Monday morning (8///) and hope to see you at once and arrange our little affair for Wednesday. Could we lunch or dine anywhere together on Monday and talk it over.? A line dropt at my rooms that morning would be sure to catch me on arriving, and we could meet when and where you pleased. I have at last hit on a passable name for my unchristened and unchristian offspring — Songs of 196 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Two Nations. All the poems in the book, great and small, deal with French or Italian matters — Republican, Papal, or Imperial. I shall be de- lighted if you ^/o review " Chapman," and cer- tainly none the less if you find debateable points which we may discuss in private or in public — it gives a zest to the expression of sympathy to have some points of amicable disagreement. Apropos, would Minto not like to partake of our Passover feast in honour of a Lamb quite other than Paschal (as Carlyle might word it) .? I should be delighted to meet him there — or anywhere. Yours affectionately A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CV To Thomas Purnell 3 Great James Street. February 20th, 1875. My dear Purnell, For the sake of Heaven, of History, and of Truth, let me see or hear from you as soon as possible. The return of Dr. Kenealy for Stoke has at last given me courage to make public as much as I dare of the case of that 197 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Royal Claimant yesterday mentioned in the Daily News. I have every reason to believe that the injured lady still lives — that the rightful Queen of England is at this moment a prisoner in Newgate. Here is a case for the truly honourable member for Stoke. What was the Tichborne case to this .? Why, the man that should right her might aspire to share her throne. I have spent hours, really., in writing a letter on the subject (suppressing the secret of her existence which I now confide as yet to your ear alone) which under the signature of Historicus I must and will get published and you must and shall help me. The Daily News would be best, as they first have dared (most honourably) to mention it in public — but a slight verbal alteration would fit it for any paper. The case must stir the heart alike of Whig and Tory. I trust this address will chance to catch you to-night — I know no likelier. Ever yours, 198 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CVI To Edmund Clarence Stedman \Holmwood, Henley-on-Thames.^^ February 20th, 1875, My dear Mr. Stedman, I have just received your letter and the kindly and able article accompanying it. First of all, accept my cordial thanks for both, and my assurance that I consider the latter the most pov^erful as well as the most gratifying to me personally I ever read on the subject. Then I must say how glad I am that you have done me the justice not to attribute my long neglect in writing to graceless and discourteous ingratitude. The enforced delay began through inability to write at the time with the proper fulness, being frequently too unwell to apply my hand or mind to writing, and constantly distracted by various calls on my time and attention. Then, leaving London for change of air, I put by as far and as long as possible all correspondence of business or of pleasure. These together do, I hope, make up a real and sufhcient excuse to any one who will take into friendly account the general human experience how a duty put off for a day by neces- sity is sure to be put off by accident for months. 199 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Then, very unluckily for me, the mere physical act of writing, which to some men, e.g. to Rossetti, seems a positive enjoyment, is to me usually a positive and often a painful effort. I have often wished to have lived my life and sung my song in the times of unwritten and purely oral poetry. But I must resign myself to the curse of penmanship — and mine, I fear, is a curse to my friends also. How Shakespeare must have hated it ! Look at his villainous and laborious pothooks, and Ben Jonson's, or Milton's, copperplate and vigorous perfection of hand. Now let me at last tell you how truly and how much I have enjoyed the beautiful book of poems which you must long since have thought of as thrown away on the most thankless and un- gracious of recipients. Your rebuke on the subject of American poetry is doubtless as well deserved as it is kindly and gently expressed. Yet I must say that while I appreciate (I hope) the respective excellence of Mr. Bryant's Thana- topsis and of Mr. Lowell's Commemoration Ode., I cannot say that either of them leaves in my ear the echo of a single note of song. It is excellent good speech, but if given us as song its first and last duty is to sing. The one is most august meditation, the other a noble expression of deep and grave patriotic feeling on a supreme national occasion ; but the thing more necessary, though it may be less noble than these, is the pulse, the 200 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS fire, the passion of music — the quality of a singer, not of a solitary philosopher or a patriotic orator. Now, when Whitman is not speaking bad prose he sings, and when he sings at all he sings well. Mr. Longfellow has a pretty little pipe of his own, but surely it is very thin and reedy. Again, whatever may be Mr. Emerson's merits, to talk of his poetry seems to me like talking of the scholarship of a child who has not learnt its letters. Even Browning's verse always goes to a recognisable tune (I say not to a good one), but in the name of all bagpipes what is the tune of Emerson's? Now it is a poor thing to have nothing but melody and be unable to rise above it into harmony, but one or the other, the less if not the greater, you must have. Imagine a man full of great thoughts and emotions and resolved to express them in painting who has absolutely no power upon either form or colour. Wain- wright the murderer, who never had any thought or emotion above those of a pig or of a butcher, will be a better man for us than he. But (as Blake says) " Enough ! or too much." I have no love of talking of my own or other men's personal or family matters, uninvited, but there can hardly be egotism or self-conceit in complying with the direct request of a friend (as I understood you to ask for some account of my "birth and career" — I think you said in your last) ; so for once I will begin to prate (as Byron 20I SWINBURNE'S LETTERS loved and I do not love to do — though now my letter [or essay !] is finished I fear it must look as if I did — and very much) of my parentage and personality. The application of a stranger like the editor of the Men of the Time I long ago civilly declined to entertain, conceiving that the public had no concern but with my published works, and leaving him to find out what he could or to invent what he pleased ; with the happy result, that in his first two lines I found myself, to my great delight, born some years out of my time at a place which I never heard of till I was between 20 and 30. My father. Admiral Swinburne, is the second son of Sir John Swinburne, a person whose life would be better worth writing than mine. Born and brought up in France, his father (I believe) a naturalised Frenchman (we were all Catholic and Jacobite rebels and exiles) and his mother a lady of the house of Polignac (a quaint political relationship for me, as you will admit), my grandfather never left France till called away at 25 on the falling in of such English estates (about half the original quantity) as confiscation had left to a family which in every Catholic rebellion from the days of my own Queen Mary to those of Charles Edward had given their blood like water and their lands like dust for the Stuarts. I assume that his Catholicism sat lightly upon a young man who in the age of 202 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Voltaire had enjoyed the personal friendship of Mirabeau ; anyhow he had the sense to throw it to the dogs and enter the political life from which in those days it would have excluded him. He was (of course on the ultra-Liberal side) one of the most extreme politicians as well as one of the hardest riders and the best art patrons of his time. Take these instances : (i) He used to tell us that he and Lord Grey had by the law of the land repeatedly made themselves liable to be impeached and executed for high treason, and certainly I have read a speech of his on the Prince of Wales, which, if delivered with reference to the present bearer of that title, would considerablv astonish the existino; House of Commons. (2) It was said that the two maddest things in the north country were his horse and himself ; but I don't think the horse can have been the madder, or at least the harder to kill ; for once when out shooting he happened to blow away his right eye with a good bit of the skull, but was trepanned and lived to see his children's children (and a good many of them), and after more than ninety-eight years of health and strength to die quietly of a week's illness. We all naturally hoped to see him fill up his century, but the Fate said no. (3) He was the friend of the great Turner, of Mulready, and of many lesser artists ; I wish to God he had dis- covered Blake, but that no man did till our own 203 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS day — for the rest, he was most kind and affec- tionate to me always as child, boy and youth. To the last he was far liker in appearance and manners to an old French nobleman (I have heard my mother remark it) than to any type of the average English gentleman. He said that Mirabeau as far excelled as a companion and a talker one other man as that other man did all men else he had ever known in his life, of any kind or station ; the man thus distancing all the world beside and distanced as immeasurably by Mirabeau alone, was Wilkes. This I always remembered with interest, and I thought it would interest you ; considering how many famous and splendid persons an able and active public man must have seen and known, who all but completes his century, and whose clearness and activity of mind never fails him to his last hour. An ancestress of his (i.e. a Lady Swin- burne) bore 30 children to one husband, people thronged about her carriage in the streets to see the living and thriving mother of thirty sons and daughters. I think you will allow that when this race chose at last to produce a poet, it would have been at least remarkable if he had been content to write nothing but hymns and idyls for clergymen and young ladies to read out in chapels and drawing rooms. My mother is daughter of (the late) Earl of Ashburnham, whose family, though one of them 204 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS was the closest follower of Charles I. to his death, afterwards held sensibly aloof from the cause of the later Stuarts, and increased in wealth and titles (there was a Swinburne peerage, but it has been dormant or forfeit since the 13th or 14th century). So much for family history ; which may be a stupid matter, but to write about my personality is to me yet more so. My life has been eventless and monotonous ; like other boys of my class, I was five years at school at Eton, four years at college at Oxford ; I never cared for any pursuit, sport, or study as a youngster, except poetry, riding, and swimming ; and, though as a boy my verses were bad enough, I believe I may say I was far from bad at the two latter. Also, being bred by the sea, I was a good cragsman, and am vain to this day of having scaled a well-known clifF on the South Coast ; ever before and ever since reputed to be inaccessible. Perhaps I may be forgiven for referring to such puerilities having read (in cuttings from more than one American journal) bitterly contemptuous remarks on my physical debility and puny proportions. I am much afraid this looks like an echo of poor great Byron's notorious and very natural soreness about his personal defect ; but, really, if I were actually of powerless or deformed body I am certain I should not care though all men (and women) on earth knew and remarked on it. I write all this 205 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS rubbish because I really don't know what to tell you about myself, and having begun to egotise I go on in pure stupidity. I suppose you do not require a Rousseau-like record of my experiences in spiritual or material emotions ; and knowing as you do the dates and sequence of my published books you know every event of my life. {Note. The order of composition is not always that of publication. Atalanta was begun the very day after I had given the last touch to Chastelard.) February zist. Here I left off last night, being very tired and feeling myself getting stupid. I see I have already done much more than answer such of your questions as I could ; and as you have induced me for the very first time in my life to write about myself, I am tempted, considering that I have probably been more be-written and belied than any man since Byron, to pour myself out to a sincere (distant) friend a little more, telling any small thing that may come into my head to mention. I have heard that Goethe, Victor Hugo, and myself were all born in the same condition — all but dead, and certainly not expected to live an hour. Yet I grew up a healthy boy enough and fond of the open air, though slightly built, and have never had a serious touch of illness in my life. As for the sea, its salt must have been 206 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS in my blood before I was born. I can remember no earlier enjoyment than being held up naked in my father's arms and brandished between his hands, then shot like a stone from a sling through the air, shouting and laughing with delight, head foremost into the coming wave — which could only have been the pleasure of a very little fellow. I remember being afraid of other things, but never of the sea. But this is enough of infancy ; only it shows the truth of my endless passionate returns to the sea in all my verse. To make a long leap — for to be egoistic one must be desultory, and jump from little-boy- hood into young-manhood — I was about to tell you last night that I had once an opening into that public life which alone (I think) authorises public curiosity into the details of a man's bio- graphy. Several years ago the Reform League (a body of extreme reformers not now extant, I believe, but of some note and power for a time) solicited me to sit in Parhament (offering to insure my seat and pay all expenses) as representative of more advanced democratic or republican opinions than were represented there. Now I never in my life felt any ambition for any work or fame but a poet's (except, indeed, while yet a boy, for a soldier's, but my father resolutely stamped that out), and I appealed to the man I most loved and revered on earth 207 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS (Mazzini being then luckily in London) to know if he thought it was my duty to forego my own likings on the chance of being of truer use to the cause, and Mazzini told me I need not — I was doing my natural kind of service as it was, and in Parliament I should of course be wasting my time and strength for a year on the chance of being of service by one speech or vote on some great and remote occasion. I never was more relieved in my life than when I felt I could dismiss the application with a wholly clear conscience. (I have seen a report of this in print, but not quite accurate.) As my Antitheism has been so much babbled about, perhaps I may here say what I really do think on religious matters. Having been as child and boy brought up a giiasi-C3.tho\ic, of course I went in for that as passionately as for other things {^-g. well-nigh to unaffected and unshamed ecstasies of adoration when receiving the Sacrament), then when this was naturally stark dead and buried, it left nothing to me but a turbid Nihilism ; for a Theist I never was ; I always felt by instinct and perceived by reason that no man could conceive of a personal God except by crude superstition or else by true supernatural revelation ; that a natural God was the absurdest of all human figments ; because no man could by other than apocalyptic means — i.e. by other means than a violation of the laws 208 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS and order of nature — conceive of any other sort of Divine person than man with a difference — man with some quah'ties intensified and some quahties suppressed — man with the good in him exaggerated and the evil excised. This, I say, I have always seen and avowed since my mind was ripe enough to think freely. Now, of course, this is the exact definition of every god that has ever been worshipped under any revelation. Men give Him the qualities they prefer in themselves or about them — e.g. the God of the Christians is good for domestic virtue, bad for patriotic. A consistently good Christian cannot, or certainly need not, love his country. Again, the god of the Greeks and Romans is not good for the domestic (or personal in the Christian sense) virtues, but gloriously good for the patriotic. But we who worship no material incarnation of any qualities, no person may worship the Divine humanity, the ideal of human perfection and aspiration, with- out worshipping any god, any person, any fetish at all. Therefore I might call myself, if I wished, a kind of Christian ^ (of the Church of Blake and Shelley), but assuredly in no sense a Theist. Perhaps you will think this is only ^ That is, taking the semi-legendary Christ as type of human aspiration and perfection and supposing (if you like) that Jesus may have been the highest and purest sample of man on record. — [A. C. S.] VOL. I. 209 P SWINBURNE'S LETTERS clarified Nihilism, but at least it is no longer turbid. There is something of this, with much other matter, in Matthew Arnold's Literature and Dogma — a book from which I cannot say that I learnt anything, since it left me much as it found me, not far from the point to which he tries to bring his reader ; so that I was more than once struck by coming on phrases and definitions about " God " almost verbally coin- cident with those such as I had myself used, though not in public print, years before his book appeared. But it is a very good and fine book, and has done, I believe, great good already, especially, of course, among the younger sort. (Has it found any echo in America .?) I think and hope that among the younger Englishmen who think at all just now that Theism is tottering ; Theism, which I feel to be sillier (if less dangerous) even than theology. To return to personality (by no means a Divine one), I need not say that you are most welcome to show any part or all of this huge epistle to any one you please, but if you wish to make use of any facts in it in a public way, please do so in the third person, as I really have told you more than you could have learnt from any intimate old friend of my family or myself, and I should loathe to appear in print talking either about myself or it, and I am sure you would do nothing to pain or to make me feel 2IO SWINBURNE'S LETTERS or look absurd, in revenge for the long babble you have brought on yourself, which, after all, you need never read unless you like. Wishing to make up for my long and unseemly silence, I have now probably erred on the other side. You will soon see the Poems and Ballads in a new edition, and all those written at college removed into the same volume with my two early plays and labelled all together as 'Early Poems. Your guess at some among them is quite right, but of course there are more. It was good of you to find anything in that first book praiseworthy and notable ; I had forgotten the verses you quote from it, and rather liked them. Of all I have done I rate Hertha highest as a single piece, finding in it the most of lyric force and music combined with the most of condensed and clarified thought. I think there really is a good deal compressed and concentrated into that poem. I shall send you when ready two volumes of reprinted and now first collected prose and verse respectively, with something new in each, to- gether with my essay on old Chapman, in which I hope you will like the panegyric on Marlowe, introducing the final passage on the two kinds of great poets. I am now writing in the form of an essay a sort of history of the style of Shakespeare and its progress through various stages of growth. This I hope to do well, as 21 I SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I have been studying Shakespeare ever since I was six years old. When I tell you that I never was in France or Italy for more than a few weeks together, and that not more than three or four times in my life, and never was out of England at all till I was eighteen, I think I shall have told you about all you want to know, and answered your questions about as well as I can. There is a misprint, I feel sure, in the words of mine you cite, in your article (p. 592) thanks to my damnable autograph — I must have talked of " taking delight in the metrical forms," not poems," which is meaningless, or nearly so, " of any language," etc. I should think Mr. Conway (whom I know slightly) would be an excellent man to edit your book in London. Possibly you might be able to give me some hint as to his dealings of my own with American publishers. When Atalanta appeared in 1865, I received (I think, from Messrs. Osgood, but am not sure) a cheque for ^20 with a courteous note proposing arrangements for any future books. My political poems brought in a very little, and Bothwell it seems nobody would take at any price. Pardon my intruding on you these financial matters, but Mr. Longfellow, whom I once met in London, asked me what I had received from America, and on hearing told me I had been robbed of a sum which 212 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS sounded to me incredible (it was much more than I ever had at once in my life — though that is not saying much) ; so, perhaps, you may be able to do me a kindness in the matter. I did mean to tell you about my present poetical projects, but being by this time as weary of the subject of myself as you must be I will give you instead the name of one more friend. All my friends know and joke about my lifelong fondness (I am happy to say I have always found it naturally reciprocated) for very little children and very old persons. Of the latter I had known already two sublime ex- amples in my grandfather and Mr. Landor, and last summer I made and enjoyed the acquaint- ance of Mr. Trelawny (the friend of Shelley, of Byron, and of Greece) ; a triad of Titans, of whom one was a giant of genius. The present piratical old hero calls me the last of the poets, who he thought all died with Byron. To hear him speak of Shelley is most beautiful and touching ; at that name his voice (usually that of an old sea-king, as he is) always changes and softens unconsciously. " There," he said to me, "was the very best of men, and he was treated as the very worst." He professes fierce general misanthropy, but is as ardent a republican (and atheist) as Shelley was at twenty ; a magnificent old Viking to look at. Of the three Landor must have been less handsome and noble-looking 213 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS in youth than in age ; my grandfather and Trelawny probably even more. At last I have done. If you ev^er get thus far, please let me know that this has reached you safely. Ever yours faithfully, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CVII To Lord Morley 3 Great James Street. Mar. sth, [1875]. My dear Morley, Many thanks for your note which ought to have been acknowledged by return of post. I can't say to what proportions my etiit^e on Shakespeare may dilate, but I fancy to that of 3 or 4 consecutive instalments in the form of articles.^ (I hope by the by your Diderot pro- gresses, I read the too-short first article with great interest.) I am still engaged on the period where the influence of rhyme and the influence of Marlowe were fighting — or throwing dice — for the (dramatic) soul of Shakespeare. No one 1 A Study of Shakespeare did not appear complete in volume form until 1880. 214 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I believe has yet noted how long and hard the fight or the game was. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CVIII To Lord Morley 3, Great James St. March gth, [1875]. My dear Morley, Would you like to have my Vision of Spring in Winter'^ (which came too late once before) in the next number ? I think myself April and not autumn or winter would be the time of the year for its birth — especially as it begins and ends with a reference to the " birth- month." I am well on with the first division of my essay on Shakespeare. Having touched on Romeo and the two Richards as his first at- tempts in tragedy (apart from the recasts of other men^s work) I am now discussing the early comedies written mainly or partly in rhyme. This discussion and a short digression on the " rifacimenti " will bring me to an end of the 1 Printed in The Fortnightly Review for April, 1875. Re- printed in Poems and Ballads^ Second Series^ 1878, pp. 135-140. 215 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS first epoch, which I hope to finish this month — but not in time for April. Do you think Thi Progress of Shakespeare a permissible title — not too presumptuous in sound ? I had called my essay The Three Stages of Shakespeare — but neither I nor any one else liked that title. ^ I have just had a letter of acknowledgment from the venerable author of Joseph,'^ written in an almost crazy style of " chaff." He says the book found favour in its day, but he always thought and still thinks nothing of it ; com- plimentary to my judgment, certainly, and that of its few other friends. But as he goes on to say he is carefully revising it, and is evidently excited by the hope of its republication, I suspect this merely a vulpine view of the grapes of popular success. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. ^ The Three Stages of Shakespeare, printed in The Fortnightly Review for May, 1875, and January, 1876. ^ Charles Jeremiah Wells, author of Joseph and his Brethren, published in 1824, and reissued, under Swinburne's auspices, in 1876. 216 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CIX To John Churton Collins 3, Great James Street. March gth, [1875]. My dear Mr. Collins, [puisque Monsieur yd)! don't see why you should Mr. me unless you esteem my friendship less than I do yours. Basta. I shall be in town till after Easter ; the fortnight following that holy anniversary I shall spend in the country — so I hope to see you before. I am, of course, much interested and delighted to hear of your discoveries, but it is disap- pointing to find there is no comedy of St. Cyril's forthcoming after all. I really did want to hear what V. Hugo (speaking of Aeschylus) calls " le rire de ce genie farouche," tho' I must say I should as soon have expected a comedy from his patron saint, the murderer of Hypatia. I am hard at work on my history of the metrical progress of Shakespeare ; you are one of the few whom I really want to like it, and I look forward to showing you the MS. as far as it has gone. I am still in the first or rhyming period, but have, I think, thrown some new light, or at least made some new remarks, on the influences which affected that stage of his work. 217 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Did you read my article on Wells' Joseph in the Feby. Fortnightly ? I have just had the oddest and most " cracked " letter from the author that ever was written by a man of genius. Hoping to see you soon. Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CX To Lord Morley 3 Great James Street. Mar. izth, [1875]. My dear Morley, Many thanks for the cheque just re- ceived and very acceptable as a sop to Cerberus in the form of duns — would God that Cerberus had but three heads ! I have sent the poem^ to Virtue & Co., but have just remembered (too late) that the MS. was without address or signa- ture. I presume they must know my hand and my address, however, by this time, and that I shall have received and returned the proof before the Christian world is again singing hallelujahs over " the sacrifice of God to God's own wrath," as 1 A Vision of Spring in Winter^ which first appeared in the Fortnightly Review in April 1875, and was afterwards included in Poems and Ballads^ Second Series, 1878. 218 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Shelley defines the means of the redemption of mankind in a suppressed verse of the cancelled edition of Laon and Cythna, of which I have a copy by me — or must the printers be told by letter where to send the proof and MS. ? I hope to be able to send you a fair instalment of the " Shakespeare " in good time for May. I have put aside for a day or two my direct work on the plays of the first period to grapple with Mr. Spedding's theory of the authorship of Henry VIII. It is as fine and subtle a piece of criticism as it ought to be, coming from the " champion editor " of Bacon., but I demur to the conclusion — inevitable if you accept any part of his premises — that Fletcher was the author of the death-scene of Katherine. Being fresh from a first examination of his essay, I turned aside to analyse it (to answer it as far as I can) at once. If you have read his essay, what do you think of the case he has made out ? As you like it best I think I shall stick to my old title of " Three Stages " — I don't quite like " growth." Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 219 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXI To Edmund Gosse 3, Great James Street, w.c. March lT,th, [1875]. My dear Gosse, I am always glad to see you, and shall be on Wednesday. I am engaged that day among the Philistines to " lunch " and all that follows, but shall be disengaged — though pro- bably imbecile — by 8 p.m. I was going to write to you this morning — it is now 1 1^ p.m. — to tell you that I had yesterday an interview with Chatto, and of course mooted the question of the transference of your poems — in such fashion as, if our ages were reversed, I should have liked you to do for me — saying " 1 had reason to believe " you would not be sorry to withdraw your book from King's hands, and transfer it to his — whereon (as Meinhold would say) Hie — " Oh, yes — he would be happy to take your book from Mr. King." Of course I told him — what was the simple truth — how well I thought of your work, and that it would be a distinction to him to become your publisher — but there was no need of that, as far as I could see. Of course, you and he must arrange about terms ; even if I had known anything about your views 220 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS in that matter, I could not have arranged with him for you ; and I strongly advise you to con- sult Watts thereupon — but as far as my own experience goes, I must say I don't think you will find Chatto a bad sort of man to deal with. But of my own or my friends' finances I never professed to be a judge (God — or something better — help my friends if I did !) and as to your position as a poet, I told Chatto yesterday —what I thought, and need not repeat. But one thing I have made certain — the minute you wish to pass from King to Chatto you can — and will be welcome.^ Yours affectionately, A, C. Swinburne. LETTER CXII To William Smith Williams ^ , 3, Great James St., London. March 15//;, 1875. My dear Sir, I ought to have thanked you before now for the letter which you forwarded to me ^ The second edition of Mr. Gosse's On Viol and Flute was accordingly transferred to Messrs. Chatto & Windus. 2 Mr. Williams was the brother-in-law of Wells, and reader to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., for whom he discovered and secured Charlotte Bronte. 221 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS from Mr. Wells, to whom I must also write a word of acknowledgment, and also for the very kind expressions of your note accompanying it. I am sincerely glad if I have been able to do any little service to the fame of a noble poem which I have admired for many years, and which I am happy to hear is at last about to have a fresh start with the public. I consider it a great honour to be in any way associated with its revival, and as it were to act as outrider or usher to what I hope will prove the triumphal car of a poet too long defrauded of his just crown of praise. I remain. My dear Sir, Yours very sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXIII To Charles Jeremiah Wells Holmwood, Shiplake, Henley-on-Thames. June 22nd, 1875. My dear Mr. Wells, It is rather late in the day to answer a letter dated 5 March, but I hope you will be- lieve that it was from no intentional negligence 222 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS that I have so long delayed the expression of my thanks for your kind and friendly recognition of my slight services. The fact is that I hoped and intended to be out of the fog and filth of London three months since, and then to w^rite to you, our veteran poet, out of the midst of spring sights and sounds, from a quiet country house. But first publisher's business, engage- ments thick and threefold, and then ill-health, tied me fast till the middle of this month ; but as soon as I am able to write, being safe here among woods and gardens, I do write to say- how glad I was to get your letter, and to think (in spite of your assumed depreciation of your own glorious work) that my modest tribute may have given you some little satisfaction. I can honestly assure you that I am but one of many who wait impatiently for the pleasure of seeing your great poem reissued, and holding in their hands, not the fragments I have chipped off to exhibit as specimens, but the '* one entire and perfect chrysolite." And surely, however much you may despise fame, it is something to be able to give to others the noblest of all kinds of pleasure. Believe me, yours very sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. 223 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS [The following communication from Wells is endorsed upon the back of Swinburne's letter.] My dear Williams, ^ I have no time to write. After thanks equal to the pains you have taken, I have nothing to add that you will not be able to gather from my letter to Swinburne, which you will be good enough to post to his sure address, as that on his letter seems rather vague — at least to me (after having read it, of course). I shall send the MSS. by post, as they say it is sure, as papier d'affaires. It would be a coup mortel if it miscarried, for I have had no time to recopy the heavy additions I have made. Send me a newspaper in acknowledgment as soon as you receive it. It will leave here Sunday the nth. Yours affect'ly, Charley. LETTER CXIV To Edmund Gosse Holmwood, Shiflake, Henley-on- Thames. June soth, 1875, My dear Gosse, Thanks for your note and its enclosure. I think I must ask you to forward the book (or 224 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS let Chatto do so), as I can't answer M. Mallarme until I have seen it, and his letter ought to be answered at once, and I don't know when I shall return to town. I was naturally delighted with your equally able and friendly article on my essays. Very likely I have said some extravagant things about Rossetti, but, as a translator, I do still dehberately regard him as unparalleled. Shelley is, no doubt, fully as beautiful a workman in that line, but as inaccurate as R. is accurate. Ever yours truly, A. C. Swinburne. I am writing in bed, being laid up with a lame foot which I sprained very badly four days since, and have been (and am still) unable all this time to put it to the ground without awful pain — so excuse pothooks. — A. C. S. VOL. I. 225 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXV To Stephane Mallarme Holmwood, Henley-on- Thames, Mercredi, 7 Juillet, i^JS- Monsieur et cher confrere (permettez que je vous adresse de cette fa9on mes remercie- ments). Je viens de recevoir a I'instant le livre mag- nifique-^ que, vous et M. Manet, vous avez bien voulu m'envoyer par les mains de M. Bonaparte- Wyse, qui I'a remis a un jeune poete de mes amis, M. Edmund Gosse ; celui-ci de son cote s'est charge de me le transmettre de Londres en province, et je viens de parcourir avec le plus vif interet ces pages merveilleuses ou le premier poete americain se trouve deux fois si parfaite- ment traduit, grace a la collaboration de deux grands artistes. II y a maintenant douze ans — c'etait au printemps de 1863 — que je fus conduit chez M. Manet par mes amis MM. Whistler et Fantin ; lui sans doute ne s'en souvient pas, mais moi, alors tres jeune et tout a fait inconnu (sinon a quelques amis intimes) comme poete ou du moins comme aspirant a ce nom, vous croyez 1 Les Poemes d' Edgar Poe^ illustr6 de 5 dessins de Manet texte anglais et fran^ais. Paris : Librairie de I'eau forte, 1874. 226 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS bien que ce fut pour moi un souvenir qui ne s'envolerait pas facilement. Je suis heureux de voir Fannonce de la traduction complete des poesies de Poe que vous devez accompagner d'une preface de votre main. Vous avez peut- etre deja vu I'excellent travail de M. John Ingram, un des plus fideles admirateurs d'Edgar Poe, qui vient enfin de reduire en poudre tout le tas de mensonges et de calomnies forgees ou rassemblees par cet infame Griswold,^ " Dont le nom n'est plus qu'un vomitif." II n'a pas laisse debout une seule des charges portees contre le poete mort par ce reverend coquin que Baudelaire avait si bien qualifie de " pedagogue-vampire." Veuillez agreer, vous et M. Manet, I'expres- sion de ma reconnaissance et de mon admiration. Algernon Ch. Swinburne. ^ In 1850, a minor writer of America, Rufus W. Griswold, who had a personal spite against Poe, published a Memoir of Edgar Poe^ which was full of malignity and untruth. His malicious misrepresentations were not exposed for many years. 227 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXVI To Joseph Knight Holmwood, Henley-on-T hames. July 8th, [1875.] My dear Knight, Not having any stray song on hand I have just sat down and thrown off the enclosed. I pique myself on its moral tone ; in an age when all other lyrists, from Tennyson to Rossetti, go in (metrically) for constancy and eternity of attachment and reunion in future lives, etc., etc., etc., I limit love, honestly and candidly, to 24 hours ; and quite enough too in all conscience. When I last took the trouble to write a song for present use (it was for HoUingshed^s revival of " The Merry Wives of Windsor " ^) I priced it by advice of Sandys, who acted as common friend on the occasion, at jT^o ; I don't expect to sell my songs usually at that rate, not being (thank Phoebus) a Laureate ; but of course you know I can't afford to give my name and my verses for nothing. 1 Love laid his sleepless head^ printed in The Examiner^ Dec. 26, 1874. Reprinted in Poems and Ballads^ Second Series^ 1878, pp. 133, 134. The lines were sung by Miss Furtado at a revival of The Merry Wives of Windsor produced at the Gaiety Theatre, London, Dec. 19, 1874. 228 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I should like of all things to meet Sir C. Dilke, and especially under your auspices ; there are few men whose acquaintance I should be so glad to make. But I don't know when I shall be in London again. At present I am a close prisoner with a badly sprained foot, and have to work against tides to get my biographical and critical article on Beaumont and Fletcher for the Encyciopcedia Britannic a ready in time. Yours ever, A. C. Swinburne. [I had sooner print the letter than the poem ! It's a charming bit, tho'. — Note by Sir C. Di/ke.] LETTER CXVII To William Smith Williams Holmzvood, Shiplake, Henley-on-Thames. July ijth, 1875. Dear Sir, Many thanks for your note enclosing another from Mr, Wells, to whom I shall be much obliged if you will convey my thanks and acknowledgment. I shall count it as great an honour as it will 229 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS be a pleasure to me if any use is to be made of my article in The Fortnightly Review on his great poem, or my name to be in any way con- nected with its reissue. The article as it stands would of course not do for an Introduction or Preface to the book from which it gives such copious extracts ; but if these were simply omitted, and references substituted to each pas- sage as it appeared in the new edition, I think all purposes would be served, and the discrepancy mentioned by Mr. Wells between at least one passage as cited by me from the text of the manuscript since lost, and the same passage as now rewritten, would be obviated by the disap- pearance of the quotation from my text. I wish the Introduction were worthier of the poem introduced ; but having carefully revised and corrected it both by excision and amplifica- tion before its appearance in print — for in its original state it was written long ago, I think about the year I left college, and being doubtless juvenile enough in style, needed some recasting throughout — I think it is now as good as I could make it without further expansion ; and certainly it is quite long enough for the prologue or proclamation of a mere outsider or heraldic satellite. It is therefore at the publisher's service for reproduction, either in part or altogether (the long excerpts, as aforesaid, being cancelled or 230 J SWINBURNE'S LETTERS curtailed, and no other alteration being necessary, unless it might be thought well that a few lines should be added at the end), if Mr. Wells and yourself really think it worthy of the honour, and worth while reprinting at the head of so noble a poem. Yours very sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXVIII To Paul H. Hayne Holmwood, Henley-on-Thames. July 22nd, 1875. Dear Sir, I received your letter with pleasure, and am sincerely obliged by your kind offer of Poe's autograph, which I should much value. Let me heartily congratulate you on the honour of having been the first to set on foot the project of a monument to that wonderful, exquisite poet. It was time that America should do something to show public reverence for the only one (as yet) among her men of genius who has won not merely English but European fame. As perhaps you know, Poe is even more popular and in general more highly rated, in France 231 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS than in England ; thanks to the long, arduous, and faithful labour of his brother-poet and translator, my poor friend, Charles Baudelaire. On your very flattering estimate of my own work I have, of course, no remark to offer ; but you may be sure that the sympathy expressed in your letter was not lost upon me, and that the knowledge that I have made myself friends in the backwoods (as you say) of America, is much more to me than any average laudatory review. Mr. Stedman's article, which you sent me some time since, is very far above such average ; I read it with much genuine pleasure and admiration of his fine critical faculty and ex- cellent style. One passage only renews a sense of disappointment, which I have felt before now, both in the writing and the conversation of American friends and authors ; the lack of sympathy with us of the republican party in Europe, who are struggling to win what you have won. To use the old CathoHc phrase, applied to the Church on earth and the Church in heaven : the Republic militant has surely some right to the good-will at least and fellow- feehng of the Republic triumphant. But of all your eminent men I know none but Whitman who has said a good word for us, sent us a mes- sage of sympathy nobly conceived and worthily expressed, paid in a memorial tribute to the countless heroes and martyrs of our cause. You 232 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS see, therefore, that Mr. Stedman's comparative depreciation of my Songs before Sunrise, at least his preference of my other books to this one, could not but somewhat disappoint me. For my other books are books ; that one is myself. You must excuse this opinion, as you have brought it upon yourself, and believe me, Very sincerely yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXIX To Edmund Gosse Holtnwood, Shiplakf, Henley -on- Thames. August yd, 1875. My dear Gosse, I cannot wait for the arrival of your article on Herrick (to which I look forward with great satisfaction, and send my thanks for it in advance) to offer you my most sincere con- gratulations and most cordial good wishes on and for your wedding day. I hope before the year is out I may have the pleasure of meeting for the first time Mrs. Gosse, and thereby of renewing my acquaintance with a lady whose previous name will then be non-existent. I wish you all the joy and good fortune that can 233 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS be wished, and without admixture of envy of that particular form of happiness which I am now never likely to share. I suppose it must be the best thing that can befall a man, to win and keep the woman that he loves while yet young ; at any rate I can congratulate my friend on his good hap, without any too jealous afterthought of the reverse experience which left my own young manhood " a barren stock " — if I may cite that phrase without seeming to liken myself to a male Queen Elizabeth. The prints came quite safe, and I wrote a letter of due acknowledgment to M. Mallarme (whose translation^ is very exquisite) recalling the fact that twelve years since I visited Manet's studio in Paris with our common friends Whistler and Fantin. I shall anticipate with real pleasure as well as with high hope the advent of your tragedy,^ To whom have you sent it ? I am much honoured by the prospect of a translation into Danish of the Songs, which were cut off from their prospect of a fuller Italian version by the sudden death of the translator (Pr. Maggi of Milan) when he had only done into the verse of their second mother-country, and by adoption my own, one or two of the shorter among them. 1 The Poems of Poe, translated into French prose by Stephane Mallarme, with illustrations by Manet. 2 King Erik. 234 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I was very much pleased by the article on Campbell in T^he 'Examiner^ though not quite agreeing with your high estimate of some of his minor ballads and songs : but that is the right side on which to exceed, and with the tone of the whole I most heartily sympathise. It did one good to read it, after W. Rossetti's and other depreciations of our great (if not only) national lyric poet. Of his two master-pieces I should have spoken even more passionately than yourself ; for the simple fact is that I know nothing like them at all — " simile aut secundum " — in their own line, which is one of the very highest in the highest range of poetry. What little of national verse is as good patrioti- cally, is far inferior poetically — witness Burns and Rouget de I'lsle ; and what little in that line might satisfy us better as poetry than the Marseillaise or Scots wha liae^ is pitifully wanting in the nerve which thrills by contact all the blood of all their hearers, boys and men, students and soldiers, poets and dullards, with one common and divine touch of unquenchable fire. Next to Campbell of course is Callicles, but even the old Attic song of tyrannicide is to me not quite so triumphant a proof of the worth and weight of poetry in national matters. All this and many things more I should myself have liked to say in public ; but I could not have held myself in if I had 235 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS reviewed the new edition ; I must have smitten AUingham hip and thigh, and made him as the princes " who perished at Endor, and became as" — " poeticules who decompose into criti- casters " (I have mentioned *' the dung of the earth "). Vale et me ama — after marrias^e as before. It was very good of you to think of writing at such a time. Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXX To Raphael P£ri6 Ashfleld House, West Malvern, Vendredi, 27 ao&t, 1875. Monsieur, Je regrette vivement de ne pas me trouver en cc moment a Londres, afin de pouvoir vous rcmercier de vive voix des beaux vers que vous avez eu la bonte de m'envoyer et que j'ai lus avcc un grand interet et une veritable sym- pathie. Prive de ce plaisir par une absence malencontreuse, je ne saurais mieux vous ex- priiner mes remerciments qu'en rcpondant de mon mieux aux demandes que vous m'adressez. 236 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Je Grains neanmoins que mes renseignements assez imparfaits ne vous soient que d'une mediocre utilite. 1° Les seules photographies que je connaisse de Walt Whitman sont celles qu'on a pubHees en Amerique et que le vieux poete m'a lui-meme expediees. Je crois cependant due mon editeur actuel, M. A. Chatto (Piccadilly, y^), pourrait vous renseigner a ce sujet. II a public en Angleterre les poesies completes de Whitman, et il doit sans doute savoir si Ton pent se procurer de ces photographies a Londres ; 2° Je crois que Whitman a public depuis 1872 une petite brochure poetique As a strong bird on p'mions free qui n'a point reparu en Angleterre, mais que Chatto pourrait probable- ment vous procurer ; 3° Les ceuvres d'Emerson me sont tres peu connues, et, je dois vous I'avouer, assez peu sympathiques : je ne sais seulement pas ce qu'en comprend I'edition de Bohn. J'ai entendu dire qu'il se propose de faire paraitre un nouveau travail sur la litterature ; 4° Parmi les livres qui ont r^cemment paru en Angleterre je n'en connais aucun de tres remarquable ; mais quant aux revues, je crois pouvoir vous donner meilleurs renseignements. Pour le mouvement litteraire, P Academy me parait la meilleure de nos revues actuelles ; elle est fort bien dirigee du cote artistique ct 237 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS scientifique, et en tout ce qui regarde les ques- tions purement litteraires elle depasse facilement ses emules en journalisme. UExaminer^ organe du parti radical ou plutot de la minorite republicaine en Angleterre, vous tiendra mieux que tout autre journal au courant du mouvement social : redige par des democrates, il envisage ces questions au point de vue de la democratie, tandis que les feuilles soi-disant " liberales " ne sont pour la plupart que les organes de quelque petite clique religieuse et politique, moitie doctrinaire, moitie clericale. Ce journal est aussi fort bien redige du cote litteraire, mais ce n'est point la son metier special ; toutefois son redacteur actuel i est un des meilleurs et des plus savants parmi nos jeunes litterateurs ; il a public une etude remarquable sur la vieille poesie anglaise, depuis ses commencements, jusqu'a I'ere de Shakespeare et de ses grandes camarades en art. Ces deux revues sont hebdomadaires ; La Fortnightly Review paraissait a son commencement a la quinzaine, ainsi que I'annonce toujours son titre depuis longtemps menteur ; c'est maintenant une revue mensuelle, libre penseuse et democra- tique de son naturel, mais se tenant ouverte aux debats politiques et litteraires. Son editeur, M. John Morley, ajoute a ce moment a ses admirables etudes sur Voltaire et Rousseau un nouveau 1 William Minto (1845-93) edited The Examiner from 1874 to 1878. 238 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS travail non moins remarquable sur Diderot, qui, je I'esp^re, fera connaitre pour la premiere fois en Angleterre ce grand homme. Voila, monsieur, les meilleurs avis que je saurais vous donner a cet dgard : je voudrais pouvoir aussi vous envoyer un serrement de main en temoignage de reconnaissance et d'amitie. Merci encore une fois de votre lettre fraternelle et de vos belles et puissantes stances. A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXXI To Edmund Clarence Stedman Holmwood, Henley on Thames. September Sth, 1875. My dear Mr. Stedman, Many thanks for both your letters^ the first received about a month since, the second just arrived enclosing the friendly notice com- municated to the Tribune. I am sincerely grate- ful for this and all your good offices, and look forward with even more interest than before to the appearance of your book in its final state. I read your former letter very carefully and have since re-read a good deal of Emerson's first 239 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS volume of poems therein mentioned, which certainly contains noble verses and passages well worth remembering. I hope that no personal feeling or consideration will ever prevent or impair my recognition of any man's higher qualities. In Whittier the power and pathos and righteousness (to use a great old word which should not be left to the pulpiteers) of noble emotion would be more enjoyable and admirable if he were not so deplorably ready to put up with the first word, good or bad, that comes to hand, and to run on long after he is out of breath. For Mr. Lowell's verse when out of the Biglow costume, I could never bring myself to care at all. I believe you know my theory that nothing which can possibly be as well said in prose ought ever to be said in verse. I sincerely hope that your own health and affairs will enable you to pursue our common art with full freedom and success for many years to come. I may confess to you, what I could not gracefully or properly say in public, that I think but little of Tennyson's play,i though it has one good song and one good scene at least. I am writing a Greek tragedy,^ which I mean to be more purely Hellenic and perhaps more universal (so to speak) in its relation to human thought and emotion than was Atalanta. The fusion of lyric with dramatic form gives the highest type ^ Queen Mary. ^ Erechtheus. 240 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS of poetry I know ; and I always feel the Greek history and mythology (in its deeper sense and wider bearing) much nearer to us even yet than those of the Jews, alien from us in blood and character. Even the poet of Job is a Semitic alien, while the poet of Prometheus is an Aryan kinsman of our own : his national history of far more real importance to us, his poetry far closer to our own thought, passion, speculation, conscience, than the Hebrew. This argument, if necessary, I may perhaps expand into a vindication of my choice in taking up what may seem, but is not and should not be, a remote and obsolete theme to work upon. It may interest you, as it gratified me, to read the following excerpt from a letter of Wm. Rossetti, who with a rare generosity has forgiven my too sincere but I must think deserved strictures on some of his misdemeanours as editor of Shelley. " (6 Aug.) Old Trelawny is extraordinarily delighted with your Essay on Shelley — indeed with your book ^ generally ; vows that nobody ever did justice to or understood S. before you ; — he has enlarged on these matters to me any number of times these two months, and yesterday he specially asked me to let you know and convey his thanks for the book. He has written down various additional reminiscences of Shelley and ^ Essays and Studies. VOL. I. 241 R SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Byron, and seems really disposed to reissue his book/ with these additions included." With which piece of good news I will leave off, and remain Ever faithfully yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXXII To Edmund Gosse South House, Southwold, Wangford. October 1st, [1875]. My dear Gosse, I was very glad to get your note and the Danish translation of my study, which latter has only just reached me. I enclose as you sug- gest a word of acknowledgment to the translator ^ (as you only mention his surname, I don't know how to address it), though it is rather a task to say anything when you cannot read a word of the language in which an offering of the kind is couched. But I must try to borrow somewhat 1 Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron^ 1858 [one vol.]. Enlarged and reissued as Records of Shelley^ ByroUy and the Author^ 1878 [two vols.], 2 Dr. Adolf Hansen. 242 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS of the divine daring of our mighty master, and respond as frankly as Hugo does to tributes of Enghsh verse and prose. I presume that you received some two months since my letter of congratulation in answer to that announcing your marriage. I am very glad to hear of your return from the honeymoon, and congratulate you afresh on your new appoint- ment which I saw with great pleasure announced in the newspapers, and am happy to hear it is so good a thing for you in the way of time saved as well as increase of income. I read your Herrick with interest and pleasure, and thought it very well and gracefully done, and as fresh as perhaps anything can now be on the subject. I shall have a good deal to show my friends when I next return to town (I leave this place in a fortnight), and hope to hear that you too have got some good work done. I am always interested to hear of the progress of your play. Remember me to Mrs. Gosse, and believe me ever, Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne. 243 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXXIII To Sara Sigourney Rice November gth, [1875]. Dear Madame, I have heard with much pleasure of the memorial at length to be raised to your illustrious fellow-citizen. The genius of Edgar Poe has won on this side of the Atlantic such wide and warm recognition that the sympathy which I cannot hope fitly or fully to express in adequate words is undoubtedly shared at this moment by hundreds as far as the news may have spread throughout not England only but France as well ; where as I need not remind you the most beautiful and durable of monuments has been reared to the genius of Poe by the laborious devotion of a genius equal and akin to his own ; and where the admirable translation of his prose works by a fellow-poet, whom also we have now to lament before his time, is even now being perfected by a careful and exquisite version of his poems, with illustrations full of the subtle and tragic force which impelled and moulded the original song ; a double homage due to the loyal and loving co-operation of one of the most remarkable younger poets and one of the most powerful leading painters in France — M. Mallarme and M, Manet. 244 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS It is not for me to offer any tribute here to the fame of your great countryman, or to dilate with superfluous and intrusive admiration on the special quality of his strong and delicate genius, so sure of aim and faultless of touch in all the better and finer points of work he has left us. I would only, in conveying to the members of the Poe Memorial Committee my sincere acknow- ledgment of the honour they have done me in recalling my name on such an occasion, take leave to express my firm conviction that widely as the fame of Poe has already spread, and deeply as it is already rooted in Europe, it is even now growing wider and striking deeper as time ad- vances ; the surest presage that time, the eternal enemy of small and shallow reputations, will prove in this case also the constant and trusty friend and keeper of a true poet's full-grown fame. I remain, Dear Madame, Yours very truly, A. C. Swinburne. 245 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXXIV To Joseph Knight Holmwood, Shi-plake, Henley-on-Thames. Nov. xUh, Ijs. My dear Knight, I return the enclosed as you desire. I am not sure whether I shall have leisure or inclination to treat of so great a subject within the space and under the circumstances proffered, but if I should I trust that whatever I sent would be " a good letter," in your correspon- dent's phrase. I have several shorter or longer lyrics in MS., which I should not mind disposing of in the Athenceum or elsewhere before they are gathered into a volume. There is no " secret " about my forthcoming poem, which I hope will be in print by next month's end. It is a play on the Greek model, more regular than Atalarita ; the title Erec/it/ieus, the length a little over 1,700 lines. I mean to read it before publication to a few friends, and shall be very glad if you can make one of the party. I come to town to- morrow (Monday) for some three weeks at least. I see the Athenceum gives high praise to Browning's new " sensation novel." It is a fine 246 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS study in the later manner of Balzac, and I always think the great English analyst greatest as he comes nearest in matter and procedure to the still greater Frenchman. Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXXV To Edmund Gosse Holmtvood, Shiplake, Henley -on- Thames. January 2nd, 1876. My dear Gosse, I must send back a word of acknowledg- ment for your New Year's note, with all good wishes for 1876 to both of you. I am glad you find Erec/it/ieus hold his own on further acquaintance. Is he and am I to have the pleasure of any public recognition at your hands ? " A question which I never asked before," like Sir Christopher Hatton : but you are one of the very few critics whose reviews I care to read for any other reason than the amuse- ment to be derived from such well-meant articles 247 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS as that in yesterday's Athencenm. " A translation from Euripides "!!!!!!! when a fourth form boy could see that as far as it can be said to be modelled after anybody, it is modelled throughout after the earliest style of ^Eschylus — the simple, three-parts-epic style of the Suppliants^ Persians^ and Seven against Thebes : the most radically contrary style to that of the scenic sophist (with his " droppings," as Mrs. Browning aptly rather than delicately puts it ^) that could possibly be conceived. I should very much like to see the play of Euripides which contains 500 consecutive lines that could be set against as many of mine. I did introduce (instead of a hint and a verse or two acknowledged in my Notes) a good deal of the *' long and noble fragment " referred to, into Praxithea's first long speech — but the translated verses (I must say it) were so palpably and pitiably inferior both in thought and expression to the rest that the first persons I read that part of the play to in MS., knowing nothing of Greek (and not being reviewers they made no pretence to the knowledge) remarked the falling off at once — the discrepancy, and blot on the ^ Our Euripides^ the human — With his droppings of warm tears ; And his touches of things common^ Till they rose to touch the spheres ! [Wine of Cyprus, 1844, Stanza 12.] 248 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS face of my work — so 1 excised the sophist — wiped up and carted off his " droppings " — only keeping a hint or two, and one or two of his best lines. If this sounds " outrecuidant " or savouring of " surquedry," you may remember that I always have maintained it is far easier to overtop Euripides by the head and shoulders than to come up to the waist of Sophocles or the knee of iEschylus. " Sympathetic touch which distinguishes the sophist from the two — there are but two — tragic poets " ! Have such critics neither eyes nor ears ? Or is there really a human reader who does actually find Phcedra^ Hecuba^ Medea, Iphi- genia, niovt pathetic than Antigone, or the Oresteia ? To prefer Bonduca to Hamlet, or The False Otje to Othello, is (I had almost said) a venial absurdity in comparison ; at least, the one folly is the precise counterpart of the other. And then — the " prodigality of splendid imagery such as finds no place " (heavens and earth !) " in Greek literature " ! ! ! Well, it certainly doesn't in Euripides, who was troubled with a dysentery of feeble imagination and a diarrhoea of rhetorical sophistry : but has the man never looked into a " crib " of Pindar ? say, Bohn's crib, in which Mr. Emerson gets up his Plato ? Why, Isaiah and Ezekiel were timid, reserved, costive, hide- bound, in the way of " imagery," compared to Pindar and ^schylus — the two Greeks whom, if 249 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I must not say I have tried to follow, I must say I always read with the most passionate sympathy and magnetic attraction to the thought and utter- ance alike that any poet ever puts into me. Take any great ode of Pindar's, and in the way of wealth and profusion and oppression of inexhaustible imagery, I greatly fear my battle Chorus will read as flat and tame after it as Longfellow after Shelley. That chorus seems to have produced on The Spectator the exact effect I intended ; but isn't it characteristic to fasten on the one word " awe- less," assume that it means " irreverent," and pin to it a screed of doctrine enlarging on the incom- patibility of such an epilogue to such a poem ? The fact that the poem is throughout (as he admits) imbued with awe and reverence towards the moral and religious law of nature (not of theology) I should have thought enough to prove that this one word could not be used in a sense so inconsistent with all the rest. But, of course, a sermon was necessary. I did not mean to trouble you with so long and certainly not with so egoistic an epistle : but it is the fault of your sympathy with my work, and I must count upon that to excuse it, even though I add that I hope you will like (what I think you have not seen or heard) my little poem in two sonnets on Newman and Carlyle (as you will, of course, at once perceive, though no 250 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS names are mentioned), in the next Athenaum. " Childless " they certainly are : for the Church or the God of the Past is not likely ever again to enlist such a recruit as Newman, and any possible heir to the theories, would assuredly not be heir to the genius, of Carlyle. I should like to know what you think of my study on King John ^ now published in The Fort- nightly ; of the companion study on Henry Sth, I remember that I once read you the greater part. Observe that there are four damnable misprints in the article : p. 28 " comic or prosaic sense alone " for scenes ; p. 29 " equally — as to a poet" instead of " cr to a poet," etc.; p. 30 (two lines from bottom) ^"^ forms of accent " for turns; and p. 44 "tedious and traceless verse" instead of timeless, (I know I corrected this in the proof !) Yours affectionately, A. C. Swinburne 1 The Three Stages of Shakespeare, in The Fortnightly Review^ January, 1876. 251 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXXVIi To St^phane Mallarme Holmwood, Henley-on-Thames. 13 Janvier, 1876. Cher Monsieur, Voici deja dix jours que je differe les remerciements que j'aurais du vous adresser le jour meme de I'an, en recevant comme etrennes vos paroles cordiales et chargees d'une invitation si flatteuse qu'elle caresse en moi quelque chose de meilleur, je I'espere, qu'un vain orgueil. J'ai toujours senti que les liens de race et de recon- naissance qui rattachent a la France les rejetons d'une famille autrefois proscrite par nos guerres civiles, qui a deux fois et pendant des generations entieres trouve en elle une nouvelle mere-patrie, me donnaient le droit de reclamer ma part de joie ou de douleur dans toutes ses gloires et dans tous ses malheurs ; mais jamais je n'aurais songe a reclamer la place que vous voulez bien m'accorder parmi ses ^ poetes contemporains. C'est vous dire combien je serai fier de me trouver votre 1 This letter, together with the Nocturne which accompanied it, was published in La Republique des Lettres^ 20 Fhrier^ 1876. The Nocturne itself was reprinted in Poems and Ballads^ Second Series, 1 878, pp. 227-229. 2 Mallarme altered " parmi " to " aupres de." 252 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS collaborateur, et combien je suis heureux de vous adresser, comme a M. Mendes, les graces que je vous dois d'avoir songe a moi en fondant votre revue. ^ On m'a dit que M. Mendes avait public il y a quelques ans une etude sur mes poesies que je n'ai pu jusqu'ici me procurer par le moyen des libraires ; je n'ai pas besoin de vous dire combien cette defaite m'a chagrine, et combien j'ose encore esperer aussi bien que souhaiter de lire un jour ce qu'un poete dont j'admire ardemment le talent exquis ^ a bien voulu dire de moi a notre France — permettez-moi le mot, en faveur de la parente dont j'ai deja eu I'egoisme de me vanter. Je vous envoie un petit poeme d'un genre que je croyais nouveau quand je I'ai fait, mais dont je crois avoir depuis vu des echantillons en fran^ais comme en italien. Apres avoir introduit dans la poesie anglaise cette forme qui m'avait plu surtout dans la traduction faite par M. Rossetti d'un poeme apocryphe de Dante — en y ajoutant I'entrecroisement des rimes a chaque strophe, ce qui m'a paru de toute necessite pour une sextine^ ecrite dans une langue moins douce que celle de ses inventeurs — je me suis hasarde a tenter cette meme entreprise en fran^ais. Main- tenant, j'ai a vous demander une faveur ; c'est de ^ " En fondant votre revue " w^as printed by Mallarm^ " quand se fonda la Repuhlique des Lettres." ^ The word " exquis " was omitted by Mallarm6. ^ Mallarm6 altered this word to sestbie. SWINBURNE'S LETTERS me faire savoir s'il n'y a pas par hasard dans mes vers fran9ais quelque anglicisme, quelque phrase louche ou dure, quelque chose enfin qu'un poete ne en France ne se serait point permis ou bien qu'il aurait tout de suite efface de son texte. Pour rien au monde je ne voudrais encourir la juste peine du ridicule qui chatierait une faute pareille. Un ami m'a fait voir autrefois une lettre, d'ailleurs fort bienveillante a mon egard, dans laquelle un eminent critique fran^ais quali- fiait quelques vers de moi qu'on lui avait montres d' efforts d'un geant bar bare. Cette phrase ne froissa point en moi une vanite ridicule, mais elle eveilla une juste mefiance de moi-meme ; c'est pourquoi je vous prie instamment de m'indi- quer la moindre faute qui pourrait frapper vos yeux. Ce n'est qu'a cette condition que je pour- rais ecrire ou depecher avec confiance les con- tributions que je voudrais ofFrir a la Revue, dont j'attends impatiemment le premier numero, et plus impatiemment encore I'arrivee des deux livres que vous voulez bien m'adresser. J'espere que vous aurez deja re^u des mains de mon editeur I'offrande du poeme hellenique ■'• que je viens de publier, et que je I'ai prie de vous envoyer en mon nom ? Croyez, cher Monsieur, a toutes mes sympa- thies et a toute ma reconnaissance. A. C. Swinburne. 1 Erechthem. 254 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS NOCTURNE La nuit ecoute et se penche sur Ponde Pour recueillir ^ rien qiiun souffle d' amour ; Pas de lueur^ pas de musique au mofide^ Pas de sommeil pour moi nt de sejour. O mere, o Nuit, de ta source profonde Verse-nous, verse enjin Foubli du jour. Verse Poubli de Pangoisse et du jour ; Chante ; ton chant assoupit Fame et Ponde : Pais de ton sein pour mon cime un sejour. Pile est bien lasse, 6 mere, de ce monde. Oil le baiser ne veut pas dire amour, Ou rdme aimee est moins que toi profonde. Car toute chose aimee est moins profonde, O Nuit, que toi, Jille et inere du jour ; Toi dont Pattente est le repit du monde, Toi dont le souffle est plein de mots d' amour, Toi dont Phaleine enfle et reprime Ponde, Toi dont P ombre a tout le del pour sejour. Pa misere humble et lasse, sans sejour, S'abrite et dort sous ton aile profonde ; Tu fais a tons Paumone de P amour ; Toute s les soifs viennent boire a ton onde. Tout ce qui pleure et se derobe au jour, Toutes les f aims et tous les maux du monde. ^ In the published text, y cueiUir. 255 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Moi seul je veille et ne vois dans ce motide Que ma douleur qui liait point de sejour Oil s'ahriter sur ta rive profonde 'Et s'endormir sous tes yeiix loin du jour ; Je vais toujour s cherchant au hard de Fonde Uorme ^ du beau pied blesse de V amour. La mer est sombre oil tu naquis^ Amour, Pleine des pkurs et des sanglots du monde ; On ne voit plus les gou^res loin du jour ^ Luire et frhnir sous ta lueur profonde ; Mais dans les cceurs d'homme oil tu fais sejour La douleur tnonte et haisse comme une onde. ENVOI Fille de Ponde et mere de Fajnour, Du haut sejour plein de ta paix profonde , Sur ce has mojide epands un peu de jour. j Algernon Charles Swinburne. " 1 It was impossible to conjecture what Swinburne meant by the word orme, and Mallarme substituted Le sang. * Mallarme altered this to le gouffre ou nait le jour. 256 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXXVII To Edmund Gosse Holmwood, Shiflake, Henley-on-Thames. January l^th, [1876]. My dear Gosse, I have read your fine poem ^ through from beginning to end, almost at a sitting, with unbroken and unflagging interest. I congratu- late you heartily on the accomplishment of a noble work. It must raise your name at once into a higher and clearer celebrity. The story seems to me in the highest degree and in the noblest sense tragic and pathetic. If the pretty tho' certainly cumbersome old fashion of com- mendatory verses had been retained or revived (but what would New Grub Street not say, in such a case, concerning " mutual admiration " ? I shudder to think) I should have liked to prefix a line or two to your tragedy. Excellently as the leading characters are con- ceived and sustained throughout, I am especially struck by the admirable instinct and intuitive sense of right with which you have kept down the part of Grimur beneath any danger of 1 King Erik [i^^b]. VOL. 1. 257 S SWINBURNE'S LETTERS interference with the interest which should be (as it is without break or flaw) concentrated on the figure of the King. Erik's two pubUc speeches — the latter more especially, as king, delivered under more tragic circumstances — seem to me models of poetic oratory, just enough and not too much raised above mere rhetorical elo- quence. Once or twice the terse keen clearness, the point and weight of a line or phrase, reminded me not unworthily of Landor : and you know how much in my case that implies. I should like to know what Browning thinks of your book. I was much interested by the extracts you sent me from Newman's letter,^ which you once 1 The reference is to a letter from Cardinal Newman, still unpublished, dated December i, 1873, ^^ which the following passage occurs : — I am likely to use strong words for two reasons, because I do not know familiarly the poets of this day, and because I do know those of my own youth. Those poets were accus- tomed to write in a style which, so far from hurting, would benefit their readers ; as, for instance, Scott, Wordsworth, Southey, Crabbe, Campbell — nay, I will add Byron and Moore, for though they both wrote immoral works, yet it was definite volumes which incurred that disgrace, and one might put them aside, yet read with interest and pleasure, other works of those authors, as Childe Harold^ and (as far as I recollect) Lalla Rookh. (There are one or two sceptical stanzas in Childe Harold^ but they are accidental.) As far as I can make out from reviews, etc., the case is quite different as regards Swinburne and Rosetti [.f?V] ; their poems are soaked in an ethical quality, whatever it is to be called, which would have made it im- possible in the last generation for a brother to read them to a sister. . . . Protestants do not understand, as Catholics do, I SWINBURNE'S LETTERS mentioned to me before : and amused beyond measure at a Catholic leader finding " amorous- ness " and " religion such irreconcilable ele- ments." (Well, at any rate, / can hardly be accused of trying to reconcile Venus and Mary, or Jesus and Priapus.) But has he never heard of the last goddess of his Church, Marie Alacoque, the type and incarnation of furor uterinus ? It may be convenient, but it is at least cool, for a priest of that faith to forget that his Church has always naturally and ne- cessarily been the nursing mother of " pale religious lechery " (as Blake w^ith such grand scorn labels the special quality of celibate sanctity "that wishes but acts not"), of holy priapism and virginal nymphomania. Not to speak of the filthy visions of the rampant and rabid nun who founded " the worship of the Sacred Heart " (she called it heart ; in the phallic processions they called it by a more and less proper name), he might have found passages from St. Theresa which certainly justify from a carnal point of view her surname of the Christian Sappho. There is as much detail, if I mistake not (judging by extracts), in her invocation of her Phaon — ^Jesus Christ — as in the Ode to Anactoria itself — which, as Byron that not only grave sins of impurity, but that everything which savours of or tends towards impurity, is wrong too. 259 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS justly observes, is not " a good example." As for my poor paraphrase, it (with Dolores and the rest) is too mild and maidenly for mention in the same year. I read your article on Erechtheus with pleasure but cannot judge of your comparison of the plot with that of Euripides, as I know only one of the fragments — or " droppings " — of his play. Ever affectionately yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXXVIII To Lord Morley Holmwood, Henley -on- Thames. February 1st, 1876. My dear Morley, I have just finished a poem^ which I should like to see in the Fortnightly^ but, -sit is " of first necessity " to trouble you and myself with the base consideration of the question of finance ; so I plunge at once into that miry ^ '•'•The Last Oracle^ A.D. 361." The poem did not appear in The Fortnightly Review, but was published in Poems and Ba lla ds^ Second Series ^ 1878. 260 \ SWINBURNE'S LETTERS subject, to be done with it the quicker. You see when I send a little thing, sonnet or song of but a dozen lines, elsewhere, I never get less than jTio down, reserving any profits by music or such like that may accrue, and though of course I don't (I wish I could !) expect to have my work paid for according to that tariff on a regularly ascending scale still I have to expect more, in some reasonable proportion, for a poem nine or ten times the length of such a piece, as the present poem is. I hope you know that I don't make more of a trade of my work than I can help ; only the other day I sent a thing by preference to a paper to which I wished well which could only afford to give a quarter exactly of the sum offered for a like amount of work by another paper just before, which offer was not accepted — not out of any objection, I ought to say, to the latter equally respectable but not equally " advanced " and consequently richer journal. Still, as we know on higher than mere human authority, the labourer is worthy of his hire ; and it seems to me simpler and more straightforward to lay the question before you at once and so leave it ; under which circum- stances I shall of course not be hurt, disap- pointed, or offended, if you find it better to decline dealing at my shop on the average terms of the market. So much for the Grub Street side of the 261 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS matter ; and I will not press my wares by any further advertisement than a mention of the subject, which starts from the message sent back (to the effect that there was none) from Delphi to Julian when he sent to consult the oracle the year of his accession, and passes into an invoca- tion of the healing and destroying God of song and of the sun, taken as the type of the " light of thought " and spirit of speech which makes and unmakes gods within the soul that it makes vocal and articulate from age to age ; not really therefore son of Zeus the son of Chronos, but older than all time we can take count of, and father of all possible gods fashioned by the human spirit out of itself for types of worship. This sounds rather metaphysical, but I don't think the verse is obscure or turbid — the form of a hymn or choral chant, and the alternate metre of twelve long trochaic lines and twelve shorter anapaestic, carry the thought on and carry off the symbolic or allegoric ambiguity ; at least so I flatter myself. But I must not be recommending this superior article now in stock by putting my own price on it in the style of the poets of T^he Dunciad. I need hardly warn you that it is not exactly qualified by its tone to conciliate a Christian public ; tho' I have some- what softened the anti-Galilean fervour of my first conceptions. Have you seen the new edition of my old 262 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS friend Phraxanor ? ^ I am anxious she should have more success with the pubHc than with Joseph of old, and that her old poet should have a parting round of long-deferred applause to cheer his own exit from the stage — for a man of his age must be considered as having got into his fifth act. I have just been reading Meredith's book ^ which I only tried by fits and starts as it was coming out in the Fortnightly . Full of power and beauty and fine truthfulness as it is, what a noble book it might and should have been, if he would but have foregone his lust of epigram and habit of trying to tell a story by means of riddles that hardly excite the curiosity they are certain to baffle ! By dint of revulsion from TroUope on this hand and Braddon on that, he seems to have persuaded himself that limpidity of style must mean shallowness, lucidity of narrative must imply triviality, and simplicity of direct interest or positive incident must in- volve ^' sensationalism." It is a constant irrita- tion to see a man of such rarely strong and subtle genius, such various and splendid forces of mind, do so much to justify the general neglect he provokes. But what noble powers there are visible in almost all parts of his work. ^ Joseph and his Brethren^ 1 876. ^ Beauchamp's Career. 263 SVv^INBURNE'S LETTERS I hear he has written a very fine poem on the death of Attila. Have you seen a new magazine started in Paris — La Republique des Lettres ? I, as a French poet of the day, have been soHcited to help in setting it on foot, together with Leconte de Lisle (do you know his works ? I have but lately begun to read them, often with the highest admiration and enjoyment), Flaubert, and younger men of note. The editor is Catulle Mendes, Th. Gautier's son-in-law. I have just had an ecstatic letter acknowledging a poem I sent — an attempt to adapt to French verse the complex metre of an Italian sestina. I hope this long letter will not find you over- whelmed with graver work and disposed to receive it with an execration ; but in any case I am, Yours very sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — Can you tell me whether the text of that glorious little black masterpiece the Neveu de Rameau, published last year (1875) by Jouaust (Libraires des Bibliophiles) is trustworthy, and as correct as it is pretty ? And have you detected (not in that quarter) Browning's whole- sale plagiarism from Diderot of a plot which he has completely spoilt ? 264 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXXIX To St^phane Mallarm^ Holmwood, Henley-on- Thames. 5 Fivrier, 1876. Cher Monsieur, et trop g^nereux confrere, Je prends pour vous repondre le revers d'une feuille qui vient de me servir pour y griffonner une traduction de la fameuse ballade- epitaphe de Villon " pour luy et ses compaig- nons " que j'ai essaye de mettre en vers anglais je ne sais combien de fois depuis Ic jour ou je suis sorti de college, c'est a dire depuis bientot seize ans ; enfin je crois y avoir reussi tout d'un trait, en conservant I'ordre des rimes ; seulement j'ai cru pouvoir me permettre de changer — peut-etre de defigurer — ce vers : " Plus becquetez d'oyseaulx, que dez a couldre " — ce qui me parait intraduisible, a moins de faire une faute plus grave encore que cette infidelite, c'est a dire d'attribuer a ce grand maitre un vers faible ou dur. Que Villon me pardonne ! et je crois qu'il le doit, puisque j'ai beaucoup travaille a la reproduction de plusicurs de ses meilleures pieces. Mais en ce pays vertueux il n'est point 265 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS encore permis de faire imprimer les louanges de la belle Heaulrniere et de la grosse Margot. Rossetti et moi nous avions autrefois I'idee de traduire en entier I'oeuvre de ce grand poete, qui complete selon moi la trinite poetique du moyen age ou se trouvent representees trois nations et trois couches sociales. Dante, type de I'ltalie et de I'aristocratie ; Chaucer, type de I'Angleterre et de la haute bourgeoisie ; Villon, type de la France et du peuple, que je mets apres Dante et (malgre toute mon admiration pour ce grand conteur humoristique et chevaleresque) avant Chaucer. Vous devez sans doute connaitre les trois admirables traductions de Rossetti, a cette epoque mon frere aine en poesie, qui a mis en anglais la ballade a la Vierge, celle des " neiges d'antan " et le rondeau sur la Mort. Je ne saurais vraiment vous dire, cher Mon- sieur, combien je suis ravi que ma Sextine ait trouve chez vous un si favorable accueil. Vous avez sans doute raison de preferer " Pour y cueillir rien qu'un souffle d'amour " a la lecture originale qui entraine un tel concours de r — " la lettrc des chiens," comme dit la nour- rice de Juliette a Romeo. Sans cela, je crois que j'aurais prefere a cet endroit le mot " recueillir " au mot " cueillir '' puisque " cueillir " un souffle comme si c'etait une fleur ou quelque chose de pareil me parait une phrase plus hasardee et 266 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS pcut-etre moins propre que celle dc recueillir, de ramasser et d'emporter le souffle fugitif de I'haleine de la mer, pris dans les ailes ou la robe trainante de la Nuit. Mais je dois vous de- mander pardon d'avoir exprime un avis quel- conque a ce sujet, puisqu' apres tout cette langue si cherie n'est pas ma langue natale. Cependant je ne comprends plus par quel hasard j'ai pu ecrire ce malheureux mot orme au vers sixieme de la cinquieme stance ; il y avait d'abord ce vers que j'ai rejete, je ne sais plus pourquoi : " Ou s'est pos6 le pied nu de ramour." On pourrait lire aussi : " La trace en feu du pied nu de I'amour," ou bien : "Les pas perdus {ou sanglants) du fugitif amour." Je crois, si cela ne vous deplaisait point, que je prefererais cette derniere variante. II ne semble maintenant qu'en transcrivant cette stance j'ai du songer sans y prendre garde, au mot italien orma^ et qu'egare par le son des mots j'ai ecrit par etourderie orme au lieu de trace. Evidemment ce mot malencontreux s'est trouve par megarde sous ma plume et je ne m'etonne point qu'il vous ait donne de la peine. Le lendemain du jour ou je vous ai ecrit j'ai re9u le premier numero de la Republiqtie des 267 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Lettres que j'ai lu avec beaucoup d'interet et de plaisir. J'ai ete surtout frappe de votre belle et sombre idee du phenomene fiitur et des vers exquis que vous a dedies M. Leon Dierx, qui m'ont rappele une esquisse merveilleuse de Leonardo da Vinci que j'ai vue autrefois a Florence. J'attends avec une reconnaissance impatiente la lecture dc votre "paraphe" a propos de mon Erec- theus^ poeme assez bien accueilli en Angleterrc, et que je crois un de mes meilleurs. On m'a transmis d'Amerique il y a quelques jours un bout de journal ou se trouvait imprimee ma Icttre sur Poe. Je suis heureux que le petit mot que j'ai pu dire en passant sur votre ceuvre admirable vous ait plu, a vous et a M. Manet, a qui je vous prie de faire parvenir I'expression de mon sentiment. Vous devez tous les deux rece- voir bientot — je Ic crains, du moins — une photo- graphic a faire dresser les cheveux du monument qu'on vient d'infliger a ce pauvre mort, monument d'une laideur impossible et transatlantique. Au revoir, chcr Monsieur, et mille remercie- ments dc votre lettrc charmente. Algernon Charles Swinburne. Excusez ce mauvais bout dc feuille et cc grif- fonnage tout barbouille de ratures ; je vous ecris en ami, c'est a dire a la hate et librement. 268 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS J'allais oublier de vous demander un conseil sur le premier vers de la quatrieme stance (a propos, je ne tiens pas du tout a la conservation dcs chiffres, dont vous avez bien voulu vous occuper) de ma sextine. J'avais ecrit d'abord : " Sous le soleil qui n'a pas de s^jour S'abrite et dort sous ton aile profonde," ce qui me parait valoir mieux que la variante : " La misdre humble et lasse, sans sejour," etc.^ mais on y avait trouve quelque chose comme un quiproquo, quoique pour moi je ne vois ^ rien d'equivoque a cette phrase, que je serais bien aise de retablir au texte si vous ne la trouvez point inadmissible. Pardon de cette nouvelle peine que j'inflige a votre bienveillance, mais vous comprenez bien que je tiens a paraitre devant le public fran9ais ajuste de mon mieux. J'a commence un petit travail que je me pro- pose d'ofFrir a la Republique des Lettres^ sur le grand peintre-poete, William Blake, que je crois a peu pres inconnu en France. J'ai public sur lui il y a sept ans une assez longue etude et j'ai cru pouvoir donner un abrege de sa vie, avec quelques extraits de ses poesies qui peut-etre ne ^ It has been suggested that this word should read "voie," and it is true that the " quoique " is usually followed by a subjunctive. But it does not seem certain that Swinburne did not prefer to use the indicative here, and in any case his orthography must be respected. 269 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS seraient pas sans interet pour les poetes frangais. Mais depuis que nous avons perdu Baudelaire il n'y a qui vous qu pourriez dignement entre- prendre cette tache glorieuse dont j'ose a peine me charger, mais dont je compte avant peu vous envoyer quelques echantillons. LETTER CXXX To Lord Morley Holmwood, Henley on Thames. Feb. iph, 1876. My dear Morley, I send herewith my poem^ direct to your address. As to the question of fee, you understand that I did not Uke to "put a price upon it " myself, nor yet to address you in the phrase of Mrs. Gamp, with " Give it a name, I beg " ; but that though I certainly do not (as I said before) expect to be paid for a poem of this length in proportion to what I should get elsewhere for a poem of 12 lines or so, which would make the cost of the present article a Httle over >Cio°5 ^ ^^"^ which you possibly might not be disposed to offer for a contribution not signed by the hallowed and official name of a Laureate, 1 The Last Oracle. 270 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS still I don't want or can't afford to sell the first fruits of it for less than what may seem a reason- able advance on the minimum of ^lo which I receive for the shortest metrical contributions elsewhere, however modest a multiple of that minimum might be the sum you might care to offer or I to accept. As your note does not " give it a name," and as it is (alas !) necessary to refer to the sordid subject in a world where (for one thing) tradesmen actually have the audacity to expect payment for goods which they have the honour of supplying to their betters, I am obliged, before going further in the matter, to return to this point in the briefest and frankest terms I can find ; though at the same time, con- sidering the relations in which we stand to each other, I see no reason for not sending you the poem by the same post which takes this letter, instead of waiting to send it till I get an answer. As I have not made a second copy of it I shall be glad to hear of its safe arrival. Many thanks for answering my query about " Rameau." I read your remarks on it lately, while the impression of it was fresh on my mind after a first study, and heartily agreed with them — except perhaps that I might feel inclined to think it would be highly desirable that the dia- logue should be generally or universally circulated and studied as a drastic remedy which might kill or cure the bastard brood of New Grub Street, 271 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS creatures " of no woman born," but monstrously begotten by Thersites on Trimalchio. Certainly Diderot's lesson is not out of date in an age and country which produces and maintains such phenomena as the World newspaper. If Browning did not consciously steal, and unconsciously and unconsionably spoil in the stealing, the episode of Jules the sculptor's marriage in " Pippa Passes " from the " Histoire de Mme. de la Pommeraye et du marquis des Arcis," in Jacques le Fataiiste, then all incredible coincidences must henceforth be held credible. The minute I saw the gist of Diderot's story I recognised the admirable original of a decidedly unadmirable copy. As the work of a slighted woman's revenge, the conception seems to me most terribly and almost grandly natural ; as the device of a male crew of jealous rival artists, absurdly false, and repulsive by reason of its ab- surdity. I am sure you will agree with me, but I should like to hear that you did. I have only seen the episodes from Jacques extracted in the Oeuvres Choisies de Diderot (ed. 1874) which I find to be also oeuvres chatrees a la Bowdler, giving the mere husk shell of " La Religeuse " for instance. I shall have to invest, as I foresaw, in Assezat's edition ; I bought this one thinking it would give the select works but not the garbled works of Diderot, and that what it gave would be given 272 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS entire ; and there is at least one of Diderot's works, of which, having once opened and instantly- shut it again before I had read the first page on which I lighted (which happened to be in Eng- lish, with polyglot accompaniments), I hope I need not say that I did not " desire the further acquaintance." But for all that I cannot put up with castrations ; I say of every book, what I do not by any means say of every author, " Tout ou rien. I have just been correcting the proof of a French poem ^ ; I hope to heaven the cabalistic printer's signs which I never feel sure about are the same (do you know if they are ?) in French as in English ; if not, God knows what sort of " pie " will be the result, unless my editor looks to it. My last published notes on Shakespeare in the Fortnightly Review have procured me another good thing besides the enmity of the scholiasts (on whom I am writing a burlesque " Report of the proceedings of the Newest Shake- speare Society"),^ in the shape of a gift from Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps of his splendid folio on matters connected with the life and work of Shakespeare, with which I have as yet only ^ Nocturne^ first published in La Republique des Lettres^ February 20, 1876, and afterwards included in Poems and Ballads^ Second Series, 1878, pp. 79-80. '^ Printed in the Examiner^ April i, 1876, and reprinted in A Study of Shakespeare^ 1880, pp. 276-300. VOT.. I. 273 T SWINBURNE'S LETTERS played, not grappled, but see much of real interest in it. Do you see how the Saturday walks into my poor old friend Phraxanor ? I hope the critics generally will follow rather in the wake of the Athenaum in this matter ; I am really anxious to get some little pubUc recognition at last for our oldest living poet. Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXXXI To St^phane Mallarme Holmwood, Henley-on- Thames. 14 Fevrier, 1876. Cher Monsieur, Un mot de remerciement pour vos deux lettres, celle de Vendredi et celle d'hier. Je suis heureux que la derniere variante vous ait plu. Sans attendre votre reponse, j'avais deja pris sur moi de substituer dans I'epreuve cette le9on a la precedente. J'ai aussi adresse un mot a M. Mendes pour indiquer ou pour cxpliquer les changements faits selon votre conseil aussi bien que ceux que je lui soumettais en renvoyant I'epreuve. II va sans dire qu'en recevant votre 274 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS premiere lettrc, qui est heureusement arrivee a I'instant meme ou j'allais depecher cette epreuve, jc me suis empresse de suivre vos conseils et sur le mot cueillir et sur le pied de F amour. Sans vous c'est le poeme qui ce trouverait boiteux de ce pied-la. Je ne sais si vous preferez ou non le vers " Sous le soleil," etc.^ mais je m'en suis rapporte au jugement de M. Mendes. Merci encore une fois de vos bons conseils et de la peine que vous avez bien voulu vous donner a mon egard au moment meme ou vous etiez preoccupe d'affaires personnelles d'une bien plus grande importance. Je suis ravi d'entendre que vous devez nous donner un drame.^ Moi-meme en ce moment je travaille a poser pour ainsi dire les fondements de I'oeuvre qui doit completer ma trilogie de Marie Stuart. Pas une scene de cette troisieme et derniere partie n'est encore ecrite, mais je m'occupe deja d'en etablir les trues et d'en lier Taction tragique. J'attendrai avec im- patience des nouvelles de votre drame. A propos, il faudrait mettre sur I'adresse des lettres le nom de la ville de ce canton, Henley-on-Thames ^ apres ^ Mallarm^, who had no genius for play-writing, was always dreaming of an ideal theatre. Perhaps what is referred to here is Herodiade, the fragment of which, in dialogue, was at this time much occupying his thoughts. SWINBURNE'S LETTERS et non avant celui de la maison de compagne, Holmwood, sans quoi les courriers pourront se tromper et les lettres s'egarer. Pardon de ce detail ; je crois que votre lettre de Vendredi a du etre retardee par cet accident ou bien par la betise des courriers. Tout a vous, Algernon Ch. Swinburne. LETTER CXXXII To Lord Houghton 3 Great James Street. March 13, [1876 ?]. My dear Lord Houghton, I shall be very happy to accompany you to lunch at Mrs. Greville's. . . . On which day and at what hour shall I call for you in Clifford St. } If there is a chance of seeing Mr. Irving, I shall be all the more happy, as, having ex- changed hospitalities of club and chambers with him last autumn, I have had occasion to find him one of the nicest fellows I have met for a long time. Indeed, I liked him so much that I never would go — and never yet have been — to see him act Hamlet. Yours ever, A. C. Swinburne. 276 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXXXIII To John Churton Collins Holmwood, March zjth, [1876]. My dear Collins, Your letter gave me great pleasure and a sense of something, in the rather dull mono- tonous puppet-show of my life, which often strikes me as too barren of action or enjoyment to be much worth holding on to, better than nothingness, or at least seeming better for a minute. As I don't myself know any pleasure physical or spiritual (except what comes of the sea) comparable to that which comes of verse in its higher moods, I am certainly glad to know that I can give this to others as others again have given it to me. Your letter in its fullness of generous enthusiasm makes me look over my battle chorus ^ again and I confess I am con- tent with it. But it is odd how a book once published goes out of my head — drops as it were out of one's life or thought, not to be taken up again for many days. Till it is in print, it is still part of oneself, and concerns one's thoughts, and one takes a personal interest in it which vanishes on publication ; so at least I find. E.g. I am 1 In Erechtheus. 277 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS still interested about my Delphic poem which I should like to read to you, as I should also like to run up as you propose, whether to throw myself on your hospitality or not. But I want to get a little work done this spring, and London living disagrees with my work. Watts has got my poem on a dead garden ^ — I believe it is booked for The Athenceum. On Saturday you will see a Report'^ of mine in The Examiner^ which I hope may waken some echo in the Press, and do some service to the cause of Shake- speare by brushing off his pedestal the most pestilent swarm of parasites that ever settled there. Did you see The Academy letter (Jan. 29th) in which the head of the crew exhorted me " to try and learn " of him^ " educate my ears and eyes " to the understanding of metre, poetic style, English rhythm, and the text of Shakespeare ! I am very glad to hear of the great Cyril coming on. Mr. Grosart in his correspondence asks after it persistently. Do take the oppor- tunity of giving a stripe — or many stripes — to the damnable incompetence and impudence with which the new editor of Dodsley (W. C. Haz- litt) has mangled and defaced beyond recognition 1 A Forsaken Garden^ printed in The Athenceum for July 22nd, 1876, p. 112. 2 Report of the First Anniversary Meeting of the Newest Shakespeare Society^ April i, 1876. 278 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS in many of its finest passages the text of Ihe Reve?jgers Tragedy. The sight of it put me into such a rage ten days ago that I wanted to write to you on the subject on the spot, but knew not where to have you. Is the present address *' perdurably " safe ? Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXXXIV To Lord Houghton Holmzvood, March z^th, [1876]. Dear Lord Houghton, I have written to the Hon. Sec. of the Byron Committee that I should not be in town on the next day of meeting. Even if I were, I should not be much disposed to attend, as though I grudge neither my name nor my subscription, I did not join the movement till Mr. Trelawny's nomination of me made it (of course) impossible for me to decline ; tho' I certainly do not expect anything very creditable to result from the con- signment of Byron's memory and memorial to the tender mercies of the British image-maker, and the patronage of the illustrious author of the 279 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Revoiutiona?j Epic — who might I think be con- tent with unmaking a queen in the process of making an empress, and leave us others alone dead or alive. However, his last move is all in our favour, such of us as are good republicans. Have you seen a magazine conducted by A. V[acquerie], and other French poets, — La Re- publique des Lettres ? It is the second time I have been solicited to let myself be enrolled as contributor to a Paris periodical, and this time I have consented so far as to give them a poem for the third number, which has been acclaimed as the best of its kind in the language, and a half promise of scribbling more in prose and verse. The Lamb was sent for from London, and came safe. I was rather amazed yesterday on seeing the direction of an American journal forwarded through your hands, as your note just received explains. ... I am sorry to see poor old Whitman seems to be in such a bad way as to health and means (also, if one may judge by extracts, to be writing such damned and damnable rubbish !). I hoped one might infer the contrary from the pleasant little word you sent me con- cerning him in a former letter. I hope (though The Saturday Review and Daily News be unpro- pitious) that something may come of the move- ment here in his favour. If you look into this week's Examiner you will see an attempt on my part to do something towards brushing away the 280 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS most pestilent swarm of parasites that ever yet settled on the name and the text of Shakespeare.^ I am ever yours truly, A. C. Sv^INBURNE. LETTER CXXXV To St^phane Mallarme Holmwood, HenUy-on-T hames. I Jutn [1876]. Cher Monsieur, Merci mille fois de votre merveilleux petit joyau de poesie ^ si dignement et si delicate- ment enchasse comme un diamant dans un ecrin de perles. Vous etes bien heureux d'avoir a Paris des editeurs ou des bijoutiers capables de ce travail exquis et parfait. Une chose si belle de toutes parts doit bien faire crier les imbeciles plus haut encore qu'ils ne hurlent a Londres contre le " poeme pai'en et degoutant " du Last Oracle. J'ai re^u le votre il y a deux jours seulement au retour d'un voyage a Guernsey 1 Report of the First Anniversary of the Newest Shakespeare Society, printed in The Examiner, April I, 1876. Reprinted in J Study of Shakespeare, 1880, pp. 276-300. 2 No doubt the first edition of U Apris-Midi d'un Faune, 1876. 281 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS (I'ile veuve) et a Sark, qui depasse meme les eloges d'Auguste Vacquerie. Moi, nourri aux bords de la mer, je n'ai jamais rien vu de si charmant. Grace aux bons soins de M. Payne votre livre n'est parvenu sans tache ni froissement. Je suis a present tres occupe, mais j'espere pouvoir terminer (je ne sais pas quand) mes notes sur Blake, dont on s'occupe fort ici en ce moment. Une societe d'artistes ou d'amateurs vient de donner une exposition de ses oeuvres.^ II s'y trouve quelque nudites assez innocentes, quelquefois un peu gauches ; aussi un article de journal, ecrit a ce qu'on pretend par un clergy- man et dicte par sa femme, ne manqua-t-il pas de crier a I'indecence. Depuis ce jour-la, comme vous pensez, la petite salle d'exposition est telle- ment encombree de femmes et surtout de jeunes lilies accompagnees de leurs peres, etc., que Ton ne voit presque les tableaux mystiques qui m'ont paru derouter tant soit peu I'attente et meme I'intelligence de ces dames. Mille amities, A. C. Sw^INBURNE. 1 This was the very important exhibition of William Blake's pictures and other works, opened in the Burlington Club (17, Savile Row) in March, 1876, and kept open for three or four months. This " extraordinary and splendid spectacle," as Rossetti called it, produced a deep sensation in English art circles. 282 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXXXVI To Edmund Gosse Holmwood, H enley-on-T hames . October ijth, [1876]. My dear Gosse, I am very much obliged by your kind offer of a relic ^ which I shall value very much on all accounts. I am very sorry to hear that Mrs. Gosse has been so ill. It seems to have been a bad season for health. I have been very ill myself for some time. (I don't know whether you heard from any quarter of my being acci- dentally poisoned some months since by the perfume of Indian lilies in a close bed-room — which sounds romantic, but was horrible in experience, and I have not yet wholly recovered the results, or regained my strength.) I have not yet seen a copy of Grosart's Herrick — rather to my surprise. I suppose the delay lies at Chatto's door. When well enough to write I shall review his Barnjield in the Athenaeum} I am very sorry the text of his ^ An unpublished copy of verses by W, S. Landor, in his own handwriting. 2 Swinburne failed to carry this project into execution. 283 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS introduction to Herrick is so full of misprints. His texts usually are very accurate, are they not ? With best regards and renewed thanks to you both, Believe me. Ever sincerely yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXXXVII To Edmund Gosse Holmwood, October zgth, [1876]. My dear Gosse, A New T'rick to Cheat the Devil (pub- lished 1639) is by Robt. Davenport, author of l^he City Nightcap and King John and Matilda. I have not read it, but I remember an article on R. D. in the Retrospective Review (ist series) which praises it briefly but warmly. I need not say that Marzials is most welcome to publish his music to (and with) any words of mine. What are his four chosen pieces ? I should like to see and hear them. I am better, but hardly strong yet, and fear my Encyclopsdic article on Congreve, just accom- 284 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS plished with painful labour, will prove wretchedly inadequate. With best regards to you both. Ever sincerely yours, A. C. Swinburne. This is badly enough written to pass for an autograph of Shakespeare. I have to catch the early and only " Sabbath " post. LETTER CXXXVIII To John Churton Collins Holmwood, Henley-on-Thames. December nth, 1876. My Dear Collins, Thank you sincerely [ex imo corde, as my master Victor Hugo once began a letter to me unworthy, with a most tremendous dash under the words) for so high a compliment and one that I shall always prize so highly as the dedication of Tourneur. Nothing could have given mc more pleasure, whether on private grounds as your friend, or on public grounds as a lover and student of Cyril Tourner and all his kind from the ripe age of twelve, at which I first read The Revenger s 285 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Tragedy in my tutor's Dodsley at Eton (which he was actually kind enough to entrust to such a small boy) with infinite edification, and such profit that to the utter neglect of my school work, to say nothing of my duties as a fag, I forthwith wrote a tragedy of which I have utterly forgotten the very name (having had the sense at sixteen to burn it together with every other scrap of MS. I had in the world), but into which I do remember that, with ingenuity worthy of a better cause, I had contrived to pack twice as many rapes and about three times as many murders as are contained in the model, which is not noticeably or ex- ceptionally deficient in such incidents. It must have been a sweet work, and full of the tender and visionary innocence of childhood's unsullied fancy. I am sorry my good friend Mr. Grosart's annotations have proved on revision so barren of good results — but, of course, I knew he was much more of an enthusiast and bookworm than a critic. But his good will and ardour are (as Ruskin would say) very precious to me. I have sent (but this is a dead secret, which I confided as yet to no soul alive) a ballad of Chivalry to T^he Pall Mall Gazette without my name — subject " The Quest of Sir Bright de Brummagem " against the heathen dogs who worship Mahomet and Termagaunt, and pollute 286 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS the Holy Sepulchre of his (Sir B.'s) Blessed Lord. I wonder if they will put it in ! ^ Ever yours sincerely, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXXXIX To John H. Ingram Holmwood, Shiplake, Henley-on-Thames. December 22nd, 1876. My dear Sir, Many thanks for the excellent photo- graph I have just received and slipped into my copy of the French Kaven^ according to your happy suggestion. I shall be anxious to see the Baltimore volume.^ That of New York I should also for other reasons be curious to see, on account, namely, of the very blunders you mention. 1 The Editor of The Pall Mall Gazette did not " put it in." This Ballad of Bulgar'ie remained in manuscript until 1893, when it was privately printed, in an edition of twenty-five copies, with a prefatory note by Mr. Edmund Gosse. ^ The Raven., translated into French by Mallarm^, and illustrated by Manet. ^ The Edgar Poe Baltimore Memorial Volume, 1877, for which Tennyson, Swinburne, and others, wrote letters of sympathy. 287 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I do not remember either my own remark on " horrors of death," or your comment on it — certainly nothing whatever on your part can I remember which could have offended one by any note of flippancy. I have only seen the first volume of Mr. Forman's Shelley^ which was sent to me with- out a word of explanation, and re-demanded in a no less inexplicable fashion, by that seemingly rather singular person the editor of The Acadefny?- I was equally obliged by the gift and interested by the perusal of your article on " Politian." Ever yours truly, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXL To Thomas Purnell Holmzvoody Henley-on-Thames. December zjth, 1876. My dear Purnell, On receipt of your letter this morning I regret to say our mutual friend of past years, Mrs. H. Manners, was taken with strong hysterics. Her 'owls, like those of the late Mr. Harris when his first was shown him in the arms of ^ The late Dr. Appleton. 288 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS Mrs. Gamp, was organs. " If," she said, " if poor Horace her lamented lord had lived to see this day, he would have been a proud and happy- man. He^" ^ht said, with acrimonious emphasis, " always believed in my genius as a novelist, the others " (too evidently and pointedly alluding to my unoffending self) " never did.^' Nevertheless our fair friend wishes to know what, if anything she would under the circumstances get for her immortal work, for the mere fame which might accrue to her from its publication I have her own authority for saying that she does not care a damn. She wishes to know the name and something more of the nature and style of the proposed magazine. She added some allusions to editors of journals, publishers, and others, couched in terms more familiar to the tongue or pen of Mr. Gladstone than (I am happy to say) to mine. Suffice it to say the adjectives generally had some reference to blood, and the substantives to the interesting natives of the suffering Christian province of Bulgaria. " No B.B.," she was pleased to assert [not I believe meaning Bashi Bazouk) " should have the first fruits of her youth and early married life, except for Cash paid down on the Nail, and on the delivery or the appearance of each division of the work." As an honest woman she cannot think at her age of giving herself for nothing to a total stranger, even tho' introduced by so VOL. I. 289 u SWINBURNE'S LETTERS old a friend as yourself ; nor, as a moral man, can I conscientiously recommend her to do so.-^ I send you a Ballad ^ (anonymous) which was sent some three weeks since to the Fall Mall Gazette^ and has received no notice. If the Globe^ or any other respectable Anti-Russian paper that you know of, would care to publish it without the author's name, I am at liberty to say it is at the service of such papers. Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXLI To John H. Ingram Holtnzvood, Shiplake, Henley-on- Thames. December 28th, 1876. My dear Sir, A thousand thanks for the Baltimore Memorial, which you have been kind enough to accept the trouble of forwarding to me. Too ^ This amusing letter refers to the terms suggested for the publication of j^ Tear's Letters^ by Mrs. Horace Manners. The novel duly appeared in The Tatler^ Vol. 2, from August to December, 1877. In 1905 it was republished in volume form under the amended title Love''s Cross-Currents. The Tatler was edited by Robert Francillon. 2 The Ballad of Bulgarie. 290 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS much of your name the book cannot possibly contain ; for too much of thanks cannot be paid by Poe's admirers to the first adequate and thoroughly serviceable champion of his character and memory. Ever yours truly, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXLII To Thomas Purnell Holmwood. January Sth, [1877]. My dear Purnell, You hardly make such allowance as might be expected from a chivalrous gentleman for the weakness of sex, and the naturally tremulous susceptibilities of a desolate widow who has to consider at once the credit of her late lord's name and the prospects of her orphan child. I must await at least the reply of a friend whose advice in the matter I have asked on her behalf ; but as soon as ever I receive his opinion I will let you know my decision without a day's avoidable delay. Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. 291 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXLIII To Thomas Purnell 'January 2Jth, [1877]. I hesitate to express my full feeling about the book {Mrs. H. M's Letters), lest the simplest expression would seem inflated. To me it appears an almost consummate piece of art, among English analytical novels of our age only rivalled by The Scarlet Letter. The surface is a sparkling picture of a phase of society with which the writer is evidently familiar. But how many will detect the darts of satire in every page, and the lurid scorn that runs through the whole ? — its subtlety, humour, and intense pathos are out of the ken of the British public — your leading characters and plot, which seems a very natural one, are wholly original. Lady Midhurst is as strikingly English as Madame de Merteuil is French. The boys are both good fellows. Clara is sui generis — but [ shall not say what I think of that young woman. As for the Professor I only hope some five or six readers may see the book with such eyes as his. You must desire the printers to be very care- ful to return the manuscript without erasing the pencilled notes and marks in green, made by Nichol on the margins — as I particularly 292 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS want to keep them for my own reference. Of course they will not be stupid enough either to print them or to rule them out. The same caution applies to the passages crossed out or otherwise marked for omission — but on no account, if you please, to be destroyed or obli- terated. And, as aforesaid, the MS., sheet for sheet, must accompany each proof. Hoping to hear from you by return of post, I remain with all good wishes for your under- taking and yourself. Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. P.S. — Before I see Mrs. Horace into the London express I must ask you to return my ballad of Bulgaria, which I want for my own immediate use and present satisfaction — as there is apparently no place for it in London. As soon as you have sent it, with a word of reply to this note, Mrs. H. M. (as aforesaid) will have the honour, etc. As to T^he Ballad of Bulgarie, if truth must be told, having of course resigned all expectation of seeing it in London type, I wanted to send it to Nichol for his private reading — and as I have not another copy of course I want the only one extant returned for that purpose. I am delighted to hear that Dilke liked it. If 293 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS nothing else will do, I must print it on a fly- sheet in the old black letter ballad fashion by- way of appendix to my Note on the Muscovite Crusade. I wonder if this could really be done with a comic head and tail piece, and whether if so published it would pay ? I can't get you here a copy of Nichol's Tables,^ nor spare my own, but no doubt you can easily borrow one ; if you can you will really do me and him a good turn by striking a stroke in their defence. The publisher is James Maclehose, 6i, Vincent Street, Glasgow, publisher to the University. A propos — of course there will be no illustra- tions to the Letters. I don't think Mrs. H. M.'s life or reason could be counted on to withstand the shock of seeing her text adorned by the devices of the comic British Artist. Indeed, between ourselves, she has mentioned to me in confidence that she will be damned if she stands it ; and indeed I think she will be. ^ Tables of European History^ Literature^ Science^ and Art. A fifth edition was published by Dr. W. R. Jack in 1909. 294 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXLIV / To Thomas Purnell Holmzvood, Henley-on- Thames. Feb. 2nd, l8jj. My dear Purnell, Mrs. H. Manners desires me to say that having returned from a business excursion from Scotland with renewed health and greatly forti- fied (thank God !) in spirits, she will do herself the honour of waiting on you in person (that is, not in the flesh, but in the spirit — and in MS.) at any time you may appoint. I have only one thing in the way of business to say, and that seriously, which I am sure you will take as it is meant, in earnest, and with- out offence. I need not say what, on sending the MS. for his revision to the oldest friend I have, I said concerning your proposal, that it would give me real pleasure if I could by joining your enterprise thus under the rose be of any service to an undertaking presided over by a friend like yourself, to whose good offices with Karl Blind I am directly indebted for the highest honour of my life and one of its greatest and purest pleasures, my presentation to Mazzini. At the same time, it implies no impeachment to my confidence in your own good taste and 295 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS sense if I say as between ourselves that but for my personal knowledge of you I should certainly hesitate — or rather, to be quite frank, I should at once decline — to be concerned in any way with anything in the nature of a *' satirical journal " especially if there was any breath or hint in the matter of any such connection or reference as you mention, in earnest or in fun, for satirical or for social purposes, with the name or shadow of the name of any " scion of royalty." From the Tomahawk down to the Hornet, I understand such papers of late years have always sooner or later gone into ways on which I should feel it impossible for a gentle- man to keep them company without forfeiting his self-respect. As my friend Watts knows, I was urgently solicited to send some (or any) contribution to Vanity Fair and name (if I remember right) my own terms. I never did, or thought of doing so ; and was very glad I had not, when there appeared in its columns a most infamously insolent attack on one of my best friends, the Master of Balliol. Nothing I then felt, could have been more painful or injurious to me than the consciousness of ever having had the very slightest connection with such a paper, however popular or profitable the connection might have been ; and Watts was most strongly of the same mind. I should think it must be very difficult for the conductor 296 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS of such an enterprise to be so perfectly sure of all his contributors, or to keep so close and constant a watch on them as to feel absolutely- certain that nothing unworthy (in any sense) of a gentleman can ever creep or slip into his columns. It would be a mere impertinence to reassure you of my confidence in yourself ; but I think it necessary to say this much before signing myself in haste Ever yours, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXLV To Thomas Purnell Holmwood, Henley -on-Thames . February jth, [1877] My dear Purnell, I would, as you desire, send Mrs. Horace by this post, but my regard for appear- ance forbids me to let a lady with whom I was once on terms of some intimacy — need I add that such terms were purely Platonic ? — travel by rail en deshabille. In other words I must finish reading the MS. through and correcting 297 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS the transcriber's errors, cancelling or adding a word or two when necessary, etc., before sending it on. It will save time in the long run not to leave all revision and correction to the last minute. In a day or two more I hope to finish this task, and will then direct the parcel to the new address you give me. I was sure you would receive my last note in the same friendly spirit and sense as I wrote it. As to the poor little invalid R. H.^ I hear everybody I know who knows him, among them the most ferocious and thorough-going young republicans at Oxford, who have succeeded to my place and that of my contemporary revolu- tionists there, speak well of him as a thoroughly nice boy, modest and simple and gentle, devoted to books and poetry, without pretence or affec- tation. So don't you, being yourself a gentle- man, be a party in any private or public way to any taking of his poor little innocent name in vain, which would be a very blackguardly and stupid proceeding, worthy only of Yates and Co. When I was at Oxford, on a visit to the Master of Balliol, Prince Leopold hearing of it posted off at once to call on him, for the chance (as afterwards came out) of meeting me. But the Fates crossed his aspirations, for I was out, and when I returned the call — as of course was 1 H.R.H. Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany. 298 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS necessary, in Mr. Jowett's company — he was out. Considering what the boy must have known of my opinions, it shewed a genuine honest youth- ful interest in Art and Letters to go out of his way on the chance of meeting a poet who has as little claim to friendly advances on the part of a Prince Royal, as even to the reversion of the post of Poet Laureate. Mind when I send Mrs. H. M. you acknow- ledge her safe arrival by return of post, and of course the MS. must always accompany the proofs sent to me in due progress. Yours ever, A. C. Swinburne. LETTER CXLVI To Thomas Purnell Holmtvood, H enley-on-T hatnes. February nth, [1877]. My dear Purnell, Mrs. Horace having returned from her trip and been carefully revised — a few specks brushed from her garments, and a drop or two of strengthening medicine administered to the 299 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS fair traveller — she will do herself the distin- guished honour of waiting on you without further delay — awaiting only a line to acknowledge the receipt of this note and also of my last in re H.R.H. etc., etc. The vanity so natural and pardonable to her sex cannot refrain from the indulgence of sending you by my hands this extract from the remarks made on her MS. by the oldest and best friend I have in the world, Professor Nichol of Glasgow (to whose Historic Tables — a great monument of general research and the scholarlike faculties of harmonising order and masterly composition, most viciously and with deliberate unfairness attacked and miscriti- cised in the Saturday Review and the Academy — it would give me infinite satisfaction if I could be the means of getting any modicum of justice done through the press — a task in which I should feel truly obliged and very grateful for any furtherance). 300 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXLVII To Thomas Purnell Holmwood. February iSth, 1877, My dear Purnell, By the same post which brings you this note the rehct of the late H. Manners, Esq. (Attache to the Mesopotamian Embassy at the time of the overthrow of the Gladstonian dynasty in Bulgaria), will have the honour of waiting on her early friend and patron — a word from whom, in acknowledgment of her safe arrival, will much relieve my mind. I will not trouble you or myself with any " damnable iteration " of my former remarks on the conduct of your project, but I think it as well to give you a hint of the light in which, after so many ventures of (seemingly) the same kind have been of late years made, not by gentle- men and men of honour as well as of letters, but by blackguards who feed on the filth they make and the droppings of their own foul pens, any new enterprise of this nature is inevitably liable to be looked upon by perfectly unprejudiced and honourable men, unless and until full proof is given by the practical conduct of it that its coh- ductors and contributors are men with whom a gentleman need be neither afraid nor ashamed to 301 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS associate. A friend, who (I must premise) writes of yourself personally in a thoroughly friendly tone and spirit and without a word or hint that could give pain or offence, mentions that you have been asking whether I would send you something for a " comic " print a la Hornet which you are starting ; and of course, very naturally under the circumstances, goes on to say that he knows I shall not — cannot — dream of connecting myself in any way with such a venture. And with such a venture most assuredly I should not and could not dream of connecting myself in any way. But I will not allow myself to fear that I run any risk of such degradation by giving my hand to an old friend to whose good offices I am, and have always been, glad and proud to acknowledge myself indebted for the highest honour and the purest happiness of my whole life — that of having been presented by Carl Blind to Joseph Mazzini. In remembrance of which occasion I am, and must always be, as I remember anything on earth. My dear Purnell, Truly and most gratefully yours, A. C. Swinburne. 302 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS LETTER CXLVIII To Mr. Thomas Purnell Holmzvood, February z^rd, [1877]. My dear Purnell, Thanks for your note which is re- assuring so far. As I told you before, I have full confidence in your good feeling and sense of the right thing — but the report implied (or so understood — perhaps misunderstood — by me, tho' by no fault of mine) as to the title, was to say the least, startling. But you should know better than I, having more years experience how false reports get about, and that the one sure way to meet and suppress them is to go straight to the root of the matter and enquire at the foun- tain head (excuse the mixture of metaphor, in which I do not usually indulge). Having done so, I am quite reassured at your title — only it implies no scandalous connection with Royalty, as Mrs. Manners (who you know is something of a prude — as Balzac said of George Sand !!!!!!) could not think of allowing her daughters — if she had any — to be presented at Marlborough House after the disclosures in the Mordaunt divorce case long ago. Indeed she has never set foot there herself since then. You don't mention one thing (or rather two) which 303 SWINBURNE'S LETTERS I am anxious to know — what is to be the shape, cost, and date of recurrence — weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. Tenth-daily would be something new, and you might call it the Decade (French Revolutionary or the 'Tithe (clerical). The Marlborough would not be a bad name if it didn't suggest to me the old, old song of Marlbro s'en va-t- en guerre ? I You must excuse the reminiscence and believe me Yours ever, A. C. Swinburne. By this time I dare say you will have received my friend Nichol's Tables — as I told him of your friendly purpose — and he responded in warm terms — saying he should send them to you direct, and at once. I hope some time this year — if the gods are decently propitious he may meet you (as he wishes) in my chambers (we may all have a friendly and jocund evening together). END OF VOL. I. Printed in Great Britain bv Richard Clay & Sons, Limited, brunswick st., stamford st., s.e. i, and bungay, suffolk. .^ v,> v^ UC SOUTHtRN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY I iiiii III II III III II 111 n II I I nil nil II III ll'li I'l I. 11. Ill . .' ,1 . lii 'n! I : AA 000 624 507 ^^ ^'^ERSITV OF CA , R ^pSIDE LIBRARY 3 12l0 011ftRQ POyl