Letters of Edward FitzGerald to Fanny Kemble (1871-1883) Part 22

You are at Leamington for this day, I expect: but, as I am not sure of your address there, I direct to Queen Anne as usual. This very morning I had a letter from my dear George Crabbe, telling me that he has met your friend Mr. H. Aide at Lord Walsingham's, the Lord of G. C.'s parish: and that Mr. Aide had asked him (G. C.) for his copy of my Crabbe. I should have been very glad to give him one had he, or you, mentioned to me that he had any wish for the book: I am only somewhat disappointed that so few do care to ask for it.

I am here all alone for my Christmas: which is not quite my own fault. A Nephew, and a young London clerk, were to have come, but prevented; even my little Reader is gone to London for his Holyday, and left me with Eyes more out of _Kelter_ {202} than usual to entertain myself with. 'These are my troubles, Mr. Wesley,' as a rich man complained to him when his Servant put too many Coals on the fire. {203a} On Friday, Aldis Wright comes for two days, on his road to his old home Beccles: and I shall leave him to himself with Books and a Cigar most part of the Day, and make him read Shakespeare of a night. He is now editing Henry V. for what they call the Clarendon Press. He still knows nothing of Mr.

Furness, who, he thinks, must be home in America long ago.

Spedding writes me that Carlyle is now so feeble as to be carried up and down stairs. But very 'quiet,' which is considered a bad sign; but, as Spedding says, surely much better than the other alternative, into which one of Carlyle's temperament might so probably have fallen. Nay, were it not better for all of us? Mr. Froude is most constantly with him.

If this Letter is forwarded you, I know that it will not be long before I hear from you. And you know that I wish to hear that all is well with you, and that I am always yours

E. F.G.

How is Mr. Sartoris? And I see a Book of _hers_ advertised. {203b}

Lx.x.xV.

WOODBRIDGE: _Jan._ 17, [1881.]

DEAR MRS. KEMBLE,

The Moon has pa.s.sed her Full: but my Eyes have become so troubled since Christmas that I have not written before. All Christmas I was alone: Aldis Wright came to me on New Year's Day, and read to me, among many other things, 'Winter's Tale' which we could not take much delight in. No Play more undoubtedly, nor altogether, Shakespeare's, but seeming to me written off for some 'occasion' theatrical, and then, I suppose that Mrs.

Siddons made much of the Statue Scene.

I cannot write much, and I fancy that you will not care to read much, if you are indeed about to leave Queen Anne. That is a very vexatious business. You will probably be less inclined to write an answer to my letter, than to read it: but answer it you will: and you need trouble yourself to say no more than how you are, and where, and when, you are going, if indeed you leave where you are. And do not cross your letter, pray: and believe me always your sincere old friend

E. F.G.

Lx.x.xVI.

[_Feb._, 1881.]

MY DEAR LADY:

I expected to send you a piece of Print as well as a Letter this Full Moon. {205} But the Print is not come from the Printer's: and perhaps that is as well: for now you can thank me for it beforehand when you reply (as I know you will) to this Letter--and no more needs to be said.

For I do [not] need your Advice as to Publication in this case; no such Design is in my head: on the contrary, not even a Friend will know of it except yourself, Mr. Norton, and Aldis Wright: the latter of whom would not be of the party but that he happened to be here when I was too purblind to correct the few Proofs, and very kindly did so for me. As for Mr. Norton (America), he it was for whom it was printed at all--at his wish, he knowing the MS. had been lying by me unfinisht for years. It is a Version of the two OEdipus Plays of Sophocles united as two Parts of one Drama. I should not send it to you but that I feel sure that, if you are in fair health and spirits, you will be considerably interested in it, and probably give me more credit for my share in it than I deserve.

As I make sure of this you see there will be no need to say anything more about it. The Chorus part is not mine, as you will see; but probably quite as good. Quite enough on that score.

I really want to know how you like your new Quarters in dear _old_ London: how you are; and whether relieved from Anxiety concerning Mr.

Leigh. It was a Gale indeed, such as the oldest hereabout say they do not remember: but it was all from the East: and I do not see why it should have travelled over the Atlantic.

If you are easy on that account, and otherwise pretty well in mind and Body, tell me if you have been to see the Lyceum 'Cup' {206a} and what you make of it. Somebody sent me a Macmillan {206b} with an Article about it by Lady Pollock; the extracts she gave seemed to me a somewhat lame imitation of Shakespeare.

I venture to think--and what is more daring--to write, that my Eyes are better, after six weeks' rest and Blue Gla.s.ses. But I say so with due regard to my old Friend Nemesis.

I have heard nothing about my dear Donne since you wrote: and you only said that you had not _heard_ a good account of him. Since then you have, I doubt not, seen as well as heard. But, now that I see better (Absit Invidia!) I will ask Mowbray.

It is well, I think, that Carlyle desired to rest (as I am told he did) where he was born--at Ecclefechan, from which I have, or had, several Letters dated by him. His Niece, who had not replied to my note of Enquiry, of two months ago, wrote to me after his Death.

Now I have written enough for you as well as for myself: and am yours always the same

LITTLEGRANGE. *

* 'What foppery is this, sir?'--_Dr. Johnson_.

Lx.x.xVII.

[_Feb._, 1881.]

MY DEAR MRS. KEMBLE:--

As you generally return a Salute so directly, I began to be alarmed at not hearing from you sooner--either that you were ill, or your Daughter, or some ill news about Mr. Leigh. I had asked one who reads the Newspapers, and was told there had been much anxiety as to the Cunard s.h.i.+p, which indeed was only just saved from total Wreck. But all is well so far as you and yours are concerned; and I will sing 'Gratias' along with you.

Mowbray Donne wrote to tell me that he and his had provided for some man to accompany our dear old Friend in his walks; and, as he seems himself to like it, all is so far well in that quarter also.

I was touched with the account of Carlyle's simple Obsequies among his own Kinsfolk, in the place of his Birth--it was fine of him to settle that so it should be. I am glad also that Mr. Froude is charged with his Biography: a Gentleman, as well as a Scholar and 'Writer of Books,' who will know what to leave unsaid as well as what to say.

Your account of 'The Cup' is what I should have expected from you: and, if I may say so, from myself had I seen it.

And with this Letter comes my Sophocles, of which I have told you what I expect you will think also, and therefore need not say--unless of a different opinion. It came here I think the same Day on which I wrote to tell you it had not come: but I would not send it until a.s.sured that all was well with you. Such corrections as you will find are not meant as Poetical--or rather Versifying--improvements, but either to clear up obscurity, or to provide for some modifications of the two Plays when made, as it were, into one. Especially concerning the Age of OEdipus: whom I do not intend to be the _old_ man in Part II. as he appears in the original. For which, and some other things, I will, if Eyes hold, send you some printed reasons in an introductory Letter to Mr. Norton, at whose desire I finished what had been lying in my desk these dozen years.

As I said of my own AEschylus Choruses, I say of old Potter's now: better just to take a hint from them of what they are about--or imagine it for yourself--and then imagine, or remember, some grand Organ piece--as of Bach's Preludes--which will be far better Interlude than Potter--or I--or even (as I dare think) than Sophocles' self!

And so I remain your ancient Heretic,

LITTLE G.

The newly printed Part II. would not bear Ink.

Lx.x.xVIII.

[_Feb._, 1881.]

MY DEAR LADY,

Pray keep the Book: I always intended that you should do so if you liked it: and, as I believe I said, I was sure that like it you would. I did not antic.i.p.ate how much: but am all the more glad: and (were I twenty years younger) should be all the more proud; even making, as I do, a little allowance for your old and constant regard to the Englisher. The Drama is, however, very skilfully put together, and very well versified, although that not as an original man--such as Dryden--would have versified it: I will, by and by, send you a little introductory letter to Mr. Norton, explaining to him, a Greek Scholar, why I have departed from so much of the original: 'little' I call the Letter, but yet so long that I did not wish him, or you, to have as much trouble in reading, as I, with my bad Eyes, had in writing it: so, as I tell him--and you--it must go to the Printers along with the Play which it prates about.