Charlotte Brontë

by Claire Harman

  the Ominous and Dangerous Vagaries of the Times…a restless disposition for change: PB to the editor of The Halifax Guardian, 29 July 1843, LPB, 144.

  with hanging head and lolling tongue…nobly stern…telling no one: Life, 214.

  [O]ne wear[ie]s from day to day: CB to BB, 1 May 1843, LCB 1, 317.

  mighty distance & reserve: CB to EN, ?late June 1843, LCB 1, 325.

  Je tiens ce morceau: the relic and its inscribed paper wrapper are at BPM (BS, 20a), “Fragment from the Coffin of Napoléon Bonaparte.”

  extreme whiteness and beauty: Frederika Macdonald, “The Brontës at Brussels,” Woman at Home (July 1894), 287.

  wild Jäger chorus: Villette, 454.

  It is the first time in my life…Alas I can hardly write: CB to EN, 6 August 1843, LCB 1, 327.

  I know you: CB to EN, ?late June 1843, LCB 1, 325.

  I flee the world: Lonoff, 196. Sue Lonoff, the editor of the Belgian essays, judges that “La But de la Vie,” which carries a date—24 August—but no year, was more likely to have been written in 1842 than in 1843, but I incline to think the opposite. Thematically it fits exactly with the utter solitude and depression that CB underwent in August 1843. See “Comments,” Lonoff, 200–203.

  Time—from 30 to 50 years ago…Mem. To be set about with proper spirit: BPM, Bonnell 118.

  There was once a large house called Gateshead: BPM, Bonnell, 118.

  [She] never now speaks to me: CB to EJB, 2 September 1843, LCB 1, 329.

  [When] people are by themselves…They do not go…It was a funny position…I felt precisely: CB to EJB, 2 September 1843, LCB 1, 329–30.

  The solitude and the stillness: Villette, 160.

  the mere outline of my experience: Villette, 161.

  pouring out of some portion: Villette, 162.

  They are at their idolatrous “Messe”…I have an idea: CB to EJB, 1 October 1843, LCB 1, 331.

  single out one or two of these slanderers: PB to ?Mr. Joseph Greenwood, 4 October 1843, LPB, 152.

  and they have ascribed: PB to ?Mr. Joseph Greenwood, 4 October 1843, LPB, 152.

  to be retained—semper: LPB, 177.

  Should any timid, over-scrupulous person: PB to the editor of The Leeds Intelligencer, 30 January 1841, LPB, 125.

  fallen into habits of intemperance…by C.B. herself…remedied the evil: EN in notes (now at BPM) to her own The Story of the Brontës: Their Home, Haunts, Friends and Works (1885–9), quoted in LCB 1, 504 n4.

  vehemence…I could not at that time: CB to EN, 13 October 1843, LCB 1, 334.

  Brussels—Saturday morning: written by CB upside down on the inside back cover of Russell’s General Atlas of Modern Geography (1836), Pierpont Morgan Library, Printed Books Collection, RB1, 129886.

  wholesome discipline: Jane Eyre, 162.

  faithfully; without softening one defect: Jane Eyre, 161.

  “You,” I said, “a favourite with Mr. Rochester?: Jane Eyre, 160–61.

  Do not be indignant at my presumption: CB, “Lettre d’un pauvre Peintre à un grand Seigneur” (Sue Lonoff’s translation), Lonoff, 360.

  I did not think: CB to EN, 23 January 1844, LCB 1, 341.

  I suffered much before I left Brussels: CB to EN, 23 January 1844, LCB 1, 341.

  I have talked, face to face: Jane Eyre, 252.

  he gently raised his hand: Villette, 487.

  Je me vengerai!: M. H. Spielmann, The Inner History of the Brontë–Heger Letters, 3.

  NINE Long-looked-for Tidings, 1844–5

  as my eyes, are very weak: PB to George Taylor Esqr., 29 February 1844, LPB, 169.

  [T]here are times now: CB to EN, 23 January 1844, LCB 1, 341.

  My dear little Victoire: CB to Victoire Dubois, 18 May 1844, LCB 1, 346.

  if it is only for a moment…Oh it is certain: CB to CH, 24 July 1844 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 359.

  I look on your letters…I shall wait patiently…a letter which was hardly rational: CB to CH, 24 July 1844 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 357.

  a record of romantic love: Frederika Macdonald, The Secret of Charlotte Brontë, 41.

  But all the same: CB to CH, 24 July 1844 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 357.

  chatting: “when I pronounce the French words I seem to be chatting with you,” CB to CH, 24 July 1844 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 358.

  for I am quite convinced: CB to CH, 24 July 1844 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 357.

  I fear nothing so much as idleness: CB to CH, 24 July 1844 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 358.

  This weakness of sight: CB to CH, 24 July 1844 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 358.

  I am not going to write a long letter: CB to CH, 24 October 1844 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 370.

  from all parts: Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory and Topography of the Counties of Chester, Cumberland, Durham, Lancaster, Northumberland, Westmoreland and York (Manchester, 1848) includes the following entry: “POST OFFICE, Haworth, William Hartley, Post Master.—Letters from all parts arrive (from BRADFORD) daily, Sunday excepted, at twelve noon, and are despatched thereto at three in the afternoon.” I am grateful to Steven Wood for providing this information.

  in “Passing Events”: when the Duchess of Zamorna is incredulous at getting no message from her husband, for whom she is pining. “ ‘And—and—’ continued the Duchess, throwing off restraint & writhing with impatience as she spoke, ‘Have you no letter for me, Mr. Warner? do you bring me no message, no word of his welfare & no inquiry after mine?’ ” Gérin (ed.), Five Novelettes, 57.

  long-looked-for tidings: Jane Eyre, 399.

  My hour of torment was the post-hour: Villette, 267–8.

  I did my utmost: CB to CH, 8 January 1845 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 379.

  I said to myself…But when one does not complain: CB to CH, 8 January 1845 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 379.

  all I know—is that I cannot: CB to CH, 8 January 1845 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 379.

  self-suppression: Mary Taylor articulated her views on the subject very strikingly in an exchange between young Maria Bell and her elderly spinster friend Miss Everard in Miss Miles: “ ‘is it not a very wretched position to have to please unreasonable people—to fawn and flatter in order to get something given—especially if you think you have a right to it all the time, and owe no obligation at all?’ ‘I think it the worst curse we women have to bear,’ the old lady said, and Maria looked up surprised. ‘We go to the borders of falsehood, we keep our opinion secret, when we should speak out; and all to keep friends with the wrong-doer, because he is the bread-giver. We get a great deal of praise for doing so, but the world would be better if we had not to do it’ ” (Miss Miles, 328).

  [S]he thought that there must be some possibility: Mary Taylor to ECG, January 1856, quoted in SHB 2, 26.

  selfish old man…gloomy anger: quoted in Bellamy, “More precious than rubies,” 3.

  The Misses Brontë’s Establishment: a copy of the prospectus is in BPM; a reproduction of it appears in the photograph section.

  retired situation: CB to EN, ?c. 22 August 1844, LCB 1, 364.

  those girls were all off to the Misses Cockills: as reported by CB to EN, ?10 August 1844, LCB 1, 363.

  donations to keep it afloat: see PB’s correspondence with the National Society and notes on “the Haworth Case” in the section of LPB titled “Mainly Education.”

  Every one wishes us well: CB to EN, ?2 October 1844, LCB 1, 368.

  We have no present intention: CB to EN, ?2 October 1844, LCB 1, 368.

  occasional home…silently aware…distressing rumours: Life, 218.

  toujours malade: CB to CH, 24 October 1844, LCB 1, 369.

  This lady: BB to Francis H. Grundy, October 1845, SHB 2, 64.

  ill…he is so very often: CB to EN, 31 July 1845, LCB 1, 412.

  proceedings which he characterised…on pain of expos
ure: CB to EN, 31 July 1845, LCB 1, 412.

  Mr. Robinson even bought his wife a necklace: Juliet Barker has pointed out this detail.

  spoke freely: contained in a dossier of evidence, much of it hearsay, which the publisher George Smith drew up after the publication of ECG’s Life in 1857 in connection with Lady Scott’s (Mrs. Robinson’s) threats of libel: “[PB’s] conversations with his son, who frequently spoke freely with him, left no doubt as to the nature of the intimacy,” George Smith, “Recollections of a Long and Busy Life,” National Library of Scotland, MS 23191–2, quoted in Barker, 458 and 925 n55.

  diabolical seducer: PB to ECG, 2 April 1857, LPB, 252.

  romantic domestic treachery: The Professor, 157.

  a name which can’t have failed to strike a chord: in her essay on Napoleon for Monsieur Heger (Lonoff, 278), Charlotte compares Wellington’s glory to “one of the ancient oaks that shade the mansion of his fathers on the banks of the Shannon.”

  appears a respectable young man: CB to Mrs. Rand, 26 May 1845, LCB 1, 393.

  [He] must be like all the other curates…I pronounced a few sentences: CB to EN, ?18 June 1845, LCB 1, 399.

  a very funny but feeling description: Shirley, Chapter 1.

  a tall cabinet decorated with heads of the twelve apostles: the cabinet is now at BPM. The Eyre brasses and connections between North Lees Hall and CB’s “Thornfield” and the history of the Vicarage are discussed in M. F. H. Hulbert, Jane Eyre and Hathersage [n.d.] and Discovering Hathersage Old Vicarage (1985), both published by Hathersage Parochial Church Council.

  I am quite contented for myself: EJB Diary Paper, [31] July 1845, LCB 1, 408.

  a work on the First Wars…The Gondals still flo[u]rish…our first long Journey: EJB Diary Paper, [31] July 1845, LCB 1, 408.

  hers was naturally: CB, “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), LCB 2, 745.

  [Charlotte] is now sitting sewing in the Dining-Room: AB Diary Paper, 31 July 1845, LCB 1, 410–11.

  My hopes ebb low…It is only absolute want of means: CB to EN, 18 August 1845, LCB 1, 418.

  In procuring it: Life, 227.

  He gave a start of surprise: CB to EN, 31 July 1845, LCB 1, 412.

  sounded like music in my ears…Every word was most precious to me: CB to CH, 18 November 1845, LCB 1, 435.

  a brief translation of some French verses: CB to WSW, 15 December 1847, LCB 1, 576 and 577 n6.

  I have no other way: BB to J. B. Leyland, ?25 November 1845, LCB 1, 439.

  “I gave, at first, Attention close”: PCB, 333. The poem, called originally “At first I did attention give” (PCB, 274), became one Charlotte wrote and rewrote—and then, in her novels, published and republished. Having been incorporated into “The Master” (The Professor), and that novel having failed to find a publisher, it was modified once more for inclusion in Jane Eyre. It appears there in part, incongruously enough, as the song Rochester sings to his fian cée in the idyll between his proposal and their calamitous wedding day. But there Brontë changes all the pronouns from male to female, and the ending from one of anguished separation to love triumphant.

  ornamented and redundant…work his way through life: CB, “Preface,” The Professor, 3.

  as good as I can write: CB to WSW, 14 December 1847, LCB 1, 574.

  whose verdure: The Professor, 215.

  Come to England and see: The Professor, 197–8.

  in her eyes…almost triumphant…I am glad you have been forced to discover: The Professor, 114.

  The summer and autumn have seemed very long: CB to CH, 18 November 1845 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 435–6.

  I wish I could write to you…Farewell my dear Master: CB to CH, 18 November 1845 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 435.

  What happened to the letters: documented by M. H. Spielmann in The Inner History of the Brontë–Heger Letters, using information from Louise Heger.

  deprecate anything leading to the publication: ECG to GS, 1 August 1856, ECG Letters, 400–401.

  I am in a fever: CB to CH, 18 November 1845 (Margaret Smith’s translation), LCB 1, 437.

  the address of a cobbler: the pencilled words are barely legible. Margaret Smith comments in her notes to this letter (LCB 1, 438 n15) “they may refer to a M. Talairier or Talavrier, shoemaker (‘cordonnier’) in the Rue des Trois Têtes off the Montagne de la Cour in Brussels, and to someone else, possibly another tradesman, in the Rue de la Caserne.”

  and he asked her therefore: SHB 1, 289.

  She said [it] with the sincerity of manner: SHB 1, 289, apparently quoting from a letter of Laetitia Wheelwright.

  put away, out of sight: Villette, 294.

  old Jew broker…In all this I had a dreary something: Villette, 295.

  I was not only going to hide a treasure: Villette, 296.

  TEN Walking Invisible, 1845–6

  hence it ensued: CB, “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), LCB 2, 742.

  Riches I hold in light esteem: EJB Poems, 120.

  [The poems] stirred my heart like the sound of a trumpet: CB to WSW, ?early September 1848, LCB 2, 119.

  not common effusions…To my ear: CB, “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), LCB 2, 742.

  no woman that ever lived: CB to WSW, ?early September 1848, LCB 2, 119.

  one, on the recesses of whose mind…it took hours: CB, “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), LCB 2, 742.

  We had very early cherished: CB, “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), LCB 2, 743.

  The bringing out of our little book: CB, “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), LCB 2, 743.

  Chambers’ Edinburgh Journal: I am indebted to Margaret Smith’s notes in LCB 2, 46 n6, for this information.

  civil and sensible reply: CB, “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), LCB 2, 743.

  a Collection of short poems: CB to Messrs Aylott and Jones, 28 January 1846, LCB 1, 445.

  If you object: CB to Messrs Aylott and Jones, 28 January 1846, LCB 1, 445.

  exclusively of a religious character…but I presume: CB to Messrs Aylott and Jones, 31 January 1846, LCB 1, 449.

  yielded some harmless pleasure: CB, “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), LCB 2, 742.

  dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple…we had noticed: CB, “Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell” (1850), LCB 2, 743.

  three persons—relatives: CB to Messrs Aylott and Jones, 6 February 1846, LCB 1, 451.

  Eden sunshine…sank to dregs: “Frances,” PCB, 306.

  to linger o’er the past…He says: “She loved me more than life: “Gilbert,” PCB, 280–81.

  And we might meet: “Frances,” PCB, 308. Victor Neufeldt points out in his notes (PCB, 446) that the origins of this poem were Angrian, “perhaps an expression of Mary [Percy]’s despair over the loss of Zamorna.” However, “the final version of the poem was undoubtedly shaped by Charlotte’s feelings about Heger.”

  employed it as was to be expected…[It] was very forced work…a hopeless being…it is scarcely possible: CB to EN, 3 March 1846, LCB 1, 495.

  we shall be most thankful: CB to Eliza Jane Kingston, 8 May 1846, LCB 1, 472.

  three distinct and unconnected tales…a work of 3 vols.: CB to Messrs Aylott and Jones, 6 April 1846, LCB 1, 461.

  light literature: Aylott’s daughter, Mrs. Martyn, said her father “was rather old-fashioned and had very narrow views regarding light literature,” SHB 2, 80.

  Tom Winnifrith and Edward Chitham: Winnifrith suggested it first, in Brontë Facts and Brontë Problems (1983), and Chitham has written at length on the subject in The Birth of Wuthering Heights: Emily Brontë at Work (Basingstoke, 1998).

  because he’s more myself than I am: EJB, Wuthering Heights, 71.

  my love for Heathcliff: EJB, Wuthering Heights, 73.

  heaven did not seem to be my home: EJB, Wuthering Heights, 71.

  If t
he auditor of her work: CB, “Editor’s Preface to the New Edition of Wuthering Heights” (1850), LCB 2, 749.

  carefully copied from the life: AB, “Preface to the Second Edition,” The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Oxford, 1992), xxxviii.

  incapacitated from deceiving and injuring others: AB, Agnes Grey, 124.

  as vain, as selfish, and as heartless: AB, Agnes Grey, 111.

  it is foolish to wish for beauty…instinctive dislike: AB, Agnes Grey, 122.

  Yes! at least, they could not deprive me: AB, Agnes Grey, 129–30.

  I sometimes thought they contributed…much different to anybody else: Life, 229.

  The sisters retained the old habit…At this time: Life, 247.

  I never interfer’d with them: PB to ECG, 20 June 1855, LPB, 234.

  admitted to Elizabeth Gaskell: see Life, 247.

  once told her sisters that they were wrong: ECG, quoting Harriet Martineau, Life, 247.

  possessed…with the feeling…great and stirring interest: ECG, quoting Harriet Martineau, Life, 247.

  how can we be more comfortable…He refuses to make an effort: CB to EN, 14 April 1846, LCB 1, 463.

  the inability to make my family aware: BB to J. B. Leyland, ?28 April 1846, LCB 1, 467.

  never knew…what his sisters had done: CB to WSW, 2 October 1848, LCB 2, 123.

  if we rarely taste the fulness of joy: The Professor, 133.

  a little mistake: CB to Messrs Aylott and Jones, 28 March 1846, LCB 1, 459.

  had all been opened: CB to Messrs Aylott and Jones, 7 May 1846, LCB 1, 470.

  upon their own merits: unsigned review, Critic, 4 July 1846, Critical Heritage, 59.

  be in truth but one master spirit: unsigned notice, Dublin University Magazine, October 1846, Critical Heritage, 63.

  a fine quaint spirit: unsigned notice, Athenaeum, 4 July 1846, Critical Heritage, 61.

  the presence of more genius: unsigned review, Critic, 4 July 1846, Critical Heritage, 60.

  rhymes…never alludes to them: CB to WSW, ?early September 1848, LCB 2, 119.

  a dreadful state of health…the account which [Allison] gave: BB to J. B. Leyland, June 1846, LCB 1, 475.

  in bitter tears and prayers…worn…out in attendance: BB to J. B. Leyland, June 1846, LCB 1, 476.