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Two Autobiographical Essays by Elizabeth Barrett†

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

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Extract

“Sure I am that all the light we can let in upon our own minds, all the acquaintance we can make with our own understandings, will not only be very pleasant, but bring us great advantage in directing our thoughts to the search of other things.” Locke/— Under the authority of so great a man, I proceed to the investigation of myself with no small anxiety— Hitherto I have forgotten myself, I have thought neither of my few perfections or my many failings— I have endeavoured to insinuate myself into the windings of other souls, of other characters— I have endeavoured, I may say, to seek truth with an ardent eye, a sincere heart—of that I can boast—but I have never, even in imagination looked into my own heart— How few indeed know themselves! The investigation of oneself is an anxious employment— The heart may appear corrupted by vanity, exalted by pride, soured by ill temper, & then that brilliant phantom, so dear to every soul, self estimation, fades for ever, & those shining clouds, on which you have soared so often to fame, sink under self-debasement—but shall such weakness prevent us from looking into ourselves? No.— I am not vain, but I have some tincture of pride about me, which I fear not to own, on the contrary which I like to boast of— I am not at all insensible to flattery, when in a proportionate degree, but when outraged, I am conscious of it— I prefer praise most when seasoned with censure, as it then appears in the light of truth— I detest flattery when offered by those whom I feel unworthy, I detest flattery when carried, as I said before, beyond just limits— I confess that I enjoy fame more than any worldly pleasure; I know it is transient, & yet I worship it as such— I am fond of reading & of all literary occupations— I hate needlework & drawing because I never feel occupied whilst I work or draw— I know not why, but I always am fatigued— Dancing I consider mere idleness— I abhor music.— I am told it is the trouble of learning that I dislike— It is not so— I have no desire to learn— I always feel weary, full of ennui at the Piano— I sit down discontented, and I rise disgusted.

Type
Research Article
Information
Victorian Literature and Culture , Volume 2 , Spring 1974 , pp. 119 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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References

NOTES

1. Locke, John, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)Google Scholar, Introduction. In a notebook recording EBB's reading during the period 1823–25, the lengthiest analysis is devoted to Locke's Essay (Taplin, Gardner B., The Life of Elizabeth Barrett Browning [New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1957], pp. 20–21).Google Scholar

2. Alexander Pope translated the Iliad (1715–20) and the Odyssey (1725–26).

3. William Artaud (1763–1823), English painter, stayed at Hope End for several months in 1818 doing portraits of the Moulton-Barrett family (Sewter, A. C., “The Barrets at Hope End,” Connoisseur, 13 [05 1958], 179).Google Scholar

4. Gray, Thomas, “Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard” (1751), l. 44Google Scholar, slightly misquoted.

5. The Famous Historie of the Seven Champions of Christendom (1579), a romance by Richard Johnson, does not appear in Maria Edgeworth's Popular Tales (1804), but it was frequently reprinted (often in simplified versions for children) in the early nineteenth century.

6. Henrietta Barrett Moulton-Barrett (1809–60), EBB's younger sister.

7. Edward Barrett Moulton-Barrett (1807–40), EBB's oldest brother, whose death by drowning at Torquay had a traumatic effect upon her.

8. Emma is the heroine and “the Fop” the villain of a three-volume novel by MrsOpie, Amelia, Temper, or Domestic Scenes (1812).Google Scholar

9. “The Minstrel” (1771–74), an uncompleted poem by James Beattie about the education of a poet.

10. EBB studied Greek and Latin under Bro's tucor, Daniel McSwiney.

11. “The Battle of Marathon,” a Homeric epic, was privately printed at the expense of EBB's father in March 1820.

12. Queen Caroline of Brunswick (1768–1821; DNB) had been separated from the Prince of Wales (later George IV) since 1876. In July 1820 a parliamentary bill was introduced “to deprive her Majesty, Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, of the Title, Prerogatives, Rights, Privileges, and Exemptions of this Realm, and to dissolve the Marriage between his Majesty and the said Caroline Amelia Elizabeth,” but she was subsequently acquitted of the charges brought against her. During 1820 EBB wrote a poetic drama about the Queen's departure from England in 1817, printed in EBB, Hitherto Unpublished Poems and Stories, ed. Forman, Harry Buxton (Boston: Bibliophile Society, 1914), I, 149–61.Google Scholar

13. Perhaps Marianne Dashwood in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (1811).

14. Milton, , Paradise Lost (1667) I.254–55Google Scholar, misquoted.

15. “That laughs and weeps, and all but with a breath” (Shakespeare, “Venus and Adonis” [1593], l. 414). The line is not found in As You Like It (1600), as EBB's reference to Rosalind might suggest.