BRONTE, Patrick Branwell (1817-1848). Important and partly unpublished autograph letter signed ('P.B. Bronte') to Francis Grundy ('Dear Sir'), Haworth, n.d. [October 1845], writing 'after a silence of nearly three (for me) eventful years' to confess his disastrous passion for Mrs. Robinson, wife of his former employer, 'This lady (though her husband detested me) shewed toward me a degree of kindness which - when I was deeply grieved one day at her husband's conduct [towards me] opened into an unexpected declaration of more than ordinary feeling. My admiration of her mental and personal attractions which, though she is 17 years older than myself, are both very great, my knowledge of her totally unselfish generosity, sweet temper and unwearied care for all others with ill requital in return ... all combined to make me reciprocate an attachment I had little dared to look for', describing his dismissal by 'a furious letter from my employer threatening to shoot me if I returned from the vacation', and showing his hatred for Mr. Robinson, dwelling on his distraught state of mind, 'I have lain during nine long weeks utterly shattered in body and broken down with mental despair', and the impossibility of writing something 'deserving of being read', for 'one line of poetry like one note of music produces in my frame a sickening trill of despair', expressing the wish to see Grundy again with an apology for 'what will seem whining egotism', and explaining that 'The crumpled appearance of the sheet is owing to my having kept it unfinished for so long', finally recalling their earlier friendship, 4 pages, 4to (235 x 185mm), on a bifolium, the year '1848' written on the last page above the subscription, and altered to '1845', with an annotation by Grundy 'Must be 1845 F.H.G. 19.3.78' (discoloured, splitting at folds).The letter includes over 35 unpublished lines, and numerous words and phrases censored or altered by Francis Grundy before publication in his autobiographical reminiscences, Pictures of the Past, (1879). It gives an emotional and agitated account of Branwell Bronte's affair with Lydia Robinson, wife of the Reverend Edmund Robinson of Thorp Green, who had engaged him as tutor to his son at the end of 1842. Anne Bronte was at the same time governess to the younger children. The affair was discovered after two years. Branwell was dismissed by letter, on 17 July 1845, falling at once into a state of uncontrollable grief, exacerbated by drink and opiates. Charlotte wrote to Ellen Nussey that 'he thought of nothing but stunning or drowning his distress of mind'. It was generally held to be the traumatic episode which precipitated the decline leading to his early death.The letter leaves no room for doubt as to the precise nature of his relationship with Mrs. Robinson, 'that mature and wicked woman' as Mrs. Gaskell was to call her. In an unpublished passage Branwell refers to her husband as 'an eunuch like fellow who though possessed of such a treasure never even occupied the same apartment with her', and Grundy also censored a significant phrase of 13 words, 'During nearly three years years I had daily "troubled pleasure soon chastised by fear" in the society of one whom I must till death call my wife. His scathing references, mingled with bravado, to her 'bloodless mock husband' echo the sentiments in the letter to John Brown, quoted by Monckton Milnes in his commonplace book, (Juliet Barker, The Brontes, 1994, pp.459-461).While in this frenzied mood at his banishment from Thorp Green it was arranged for John Brown, the Haworth sexton who was his close friend, to take him to the coast, to which he refers, 'While taken into Wales to rouse me the sweet scenery, the sea, the sound of music only caused fits of unspeakable distress and irrepressible tears'. The letter concludes with a page of mingled self-pity and apology, and allusion to 'days when in your company I could sometimes laugh and smile'.The Reverend Edmund Robinson died in May the following year (1846). Any expectation that Branwell had that he would be reunited with Lydia were cruelly disappointed. He claimed to have been told (incorrectly) that Mr. Robinson had prevented this by stipulating that his widow should be cut out of his will if she re-opened communication with him. In fact she seems to have preferred to keep him at a distance. She married Sir Edward Scott in the summer of 1848, and Branwell died in the following September. The Bronte family's opinion of Lydia Robinson was summed up by Charlotee, in a letter to Ellen Nussey, 'a worse woman, I believe, hardly existed'.Francis Grundy edited this letter for publication by removing the names that would have identified Mrs. Robinson, those of her brother, Thomas Gisburne, and sister, Mrs. Evans, also altering or omitting several place names, and amending one passage so as to imply that it was Branwell who initiated the affair. His confusion, over 30 years later, about the date of the letter is probably due to a reference in it to a letter which Branwell describes as having been 'begun in the spring of 1848', presumably a slip of the pen. Grundy has also re-ordered sentences, and amended or omitted words and phrases, including some referring to himself in the first page of the letter.Provenance: by descent from Francis Grundy.

BRONTE, Patrick Branwell (1817-1848). Important and partly unpublished autograph letter signed ('P.B. Bronte') to Francis Grundy ('Dear Sir'), Haworth, n.d. [October 1845], writing 'after a silence of nearly three (for me) eventful years' to confess his disastrous passion for Mrs. Robinson, wife of his former employer, 'This lady (though her husband detested me) shewed toward me a degree of kindness which - when I was deeply grieved one day at her husband's conduct [towards me] opened into an unexpected declaration of more than ordinary feeling. My admiration of her mental and personal attractions which, though she is 17 years older than myself, are both very great, my knowledge of her totally unselfish generosity, sweet temper and unwearied care for all others with ill requital in return ... all combined to make me reciprocate an attachment I had little dared to look for', describing his dismissal by 'a furious letter from my employer threatening to shoot me if I returned from the vacation', and showing his hatred for Mr. Robinson, dwelling on his distraught state of mind, 'I have lain during nine long weeks utterly shattered in body and broken down with mental despair', and the impossibility of writing something 'deserving of being read', for 'one line of poetry like one note of music produces in my frame a sickening trill of despair', expressing the wish to see Grundy again with an apology for 'what will seem whining egotism', and explaining that 'The crumpled appearance of the sheet is owing to my having kept it unfinished for so long', finally recalling their earlier friendship, 4 pages, 4to (235 x 185mm), on a bifolium, the year '1848' written on the last page above the subscription, and altered to '1845', with an annotation by Grundy 'Must be 1845 F.H.G. 19.3.78' (discoloured, splitting at folds). The letter includes over 35 unpublished lines, and numerous words and phrases censored or altered by Francis Grundy before publication in his autobiographical reminiscences, Pictures of the Past, (1879). It gives an emotional and agitated account of Branwell Bronte's affair with Lydia Robinson, wife of the Reverend Edmund Robinson of Thorp Green, who had engaged him as tutor to his son at the end of 1842. Anne Bronte was at the same time governess to the younger children. The affair was discovered after two years. Branwell was dismissed by letter, on 17 July 1845, falling at once into a state of uncontrollable grief, exacerbated by drink and opiates. Charlotte wrote to Ellen Nussey that 'he thought of nothing but stunning or drowning his distress of mind'. It was generally held to be the traumatic episode which precipitated the decline leading to his early death. The letter leaves no room for doubt as to the precise nature of his relationship with Mrs. Robinson, 'that mature and wicked woman' as Mrs. Gaskell was to call her. In an unpublished passage Branwell refers to her husband as 'an eunuch like fellow who though possessed of such a treasure never even occupied the same apartment with her', and Grundy also censored a significant phrase of 13 words, 'During nearly three years years I had daily "troubled pleasure soon chastised by fear" in the society of one whom I must till death call my wife. His scathing references, mingled with bravado, to her 'bloodless mock husband' echo the sentiments in the letter to John Brown, quoted by Monckton Milnes in his commonplace book, (Juliet Barker, The Brontes, 1994, pp.459-461). While in this frenzied mood at his banishment from Thorp Green it was arranged for John Brown, the Haworth sexton who was his close friend, to take him to the coast, to which he refers, 'While taken into Wales to rouse me the sweet scenery, the sea, the sound of music only caused fits of unspeakable distress and irrepressible tears'. The letter concludes with a page of mingled self-pity and apology, and allusion to 'days when in your company I could sometimes laugh and smile'. The Reverend Edmund Robinson died in May the following year (1846). Any expectation that Branwell had that he would be reunited with Lydia were cruelly disappointed. He claimed to have been told (incorrectly) that Mr. Robinson had prevented this by stipulating that his widow should be cut out of his will if she re-opened communication with him. In fact she seems to have preferred to keep him at a distance. She married Sir Edward Scott in the summer of 1848, and Branwell died in the following September. The Bronte family's opinion of Lydia Robinson was summed up by Charlotee, in a letter to Ellen Nussey, 'a worse woman, I believe, hardly existed'. Francis Grundy edited this letter for publication by removing the names that would have identified Mrs. Robinson, those of her brother, Thomas Gisburne, and sister, Mrs. Evans, also altering or omitting several place names, and amending one passage so as to imply that it was Branwell who initiated the affair. His confusion, over 30 years later, about the date of the letter is probably due to a reference in it to a letter which Branwell describes as having been 'begun in the spring of 1848', presumably a slip of the pen. Grundy has also re-ordered sentences, and amended or omitted words and phrases, including some referring to himself in the first page of the letter. Provenance: by descent from Francis Grundy.

Details

BRONTE, Patrick Branwell (1817-1848). Important and partly unpublished autograph letter signed ('P.B. Bronte') to Francis Grundy ('Dear Sir'), Haworth, n.d. [October 1845], writing 'after a silence of nearly three (for me) eventful years' to confess his disastrous passion for Mrs. Robinson, wife of his former employer, 'This lady (though her husband detested me) shewed toward me a degree of kindness which - when I was deeply grieved one day at her husband's conduct [towards me] opened into an unexpected declaration of more than ordinary feeling. My admiration of her mental and personal attractions which, though she is 17 years older than myself, are both very great, my knowledge of her totally unselfish generosity, sweet temper and unwearied care for all others with ill requital in return ... all combined to make me reciprocate an attachment I had little dared to look for', describing his dismissal by 'a furious letter from my employer threatening to shoot me if I returned from the vacation', and showing his hatred for Mr. Robinson, dwelling on his distraught state of mind, 'I have lain during nine long weeks utterly shattered in body and broken down with mental despair', and the impossibility of writing something 'deserving of being read', for 'one line of poetry like one note of music produces in my frame a sickening trill of despair', expressing the wish to see Grundy again with an apology for 'what will seem whining egotism', and explaining that 'The crumpled appearance of the sheet is owing to my having kept it unfinished for so long', finally recalling their earlier friendship, 4 pages, 4to (235 x 185mm), on a bifolium, the year '1848' written on the last page above the subscription, and altered to '1845', with an annotation by Grundy 'Must be 1845 F.H.G. 19.3.78' (discoloured, splitting at folds).

The letter includes over 35 unpublished lines, and numerous words and phrases censored or altered by Francis Grundy before publication in his autobiographical reminiscences, Pictures of the Past, (1879). It gives an emotional and agitated account of Branwell Bronte's affair with Lydia Robinson, wife of the Reverend Edmund Robinson of Thorp Green, who had engaged him as tutor to his son at the end of 1842. Anne Bronte was at the same time governess to the younger children. The affair was discovered after two years. Branwell was dismissed by letter, on 17 July 1845, falling at once into a state of uncontrollable grief, exacerbated by drink and opiates. Charlotte wrote to Ellen Nussey that 'he thought of nothing but stunning or drowning his distress of mind'. It was generally held to be the traumatic episode which precipitated the decline leading to his early death.

The letter leaves no room for doubt as to the precise nature of his relationship with Mrs. Robinson, 'that mature and wicked woman' as Mrs. Gaskell was to call her. In an unpublished passage Branwell refers to her husband as 'an eunuch like fellow who though possessed of such a treasure never even occupied the same apartment with her', and Grundy also censored a significant phrase of 13 words, 'During nearly three years years I had daily "troubled pleasure soon chastised by fear" in the society of one whom I must till death call my wife. His scathing references, mingled with bravado, to her 'bloodless mock husband' echo the sentiments in the letter to John Brown, quoted by Monckton Milnes in his commonplace book, (Juliet Barker, The Brontes, 1994, pp.459-461).

While in this frenzied mood at his banishment from Thorp Green it was arranged for John Brown, the Haworth sexton who was his close friend, to take him to the coast, to which he refers, 'While taken into Wales to rouse me the sweet scenery, the sea, the sound of music only caused fits of unspeakable distress and irrepressible tears'. The letter concludes with a page of mingled self-pity and apology, and allusion to 'days when in your company I could sometimes laugh and smile'.

The Reverend Edmund Robinson died in May the following year (1846). Any expectation that Branwell had that he would be reunited with Lydia were cruelly disappointed. He claimed to have been told (incorrectly) that Mr. Robinson had prevented this by stipulating that his widow should be cut out of his will if she re-opened communication with him. In fact she seems to have preferred to keep him at a distance. She married Sir Edward Scott in the summer of 1848, and Branwell died in the following September. The Bronte family's opinion of Lydia Robinson was summed up by Charlotee, in a letter to Ellen Nussey, 'a worse woman, I believe, hardly existed'.

Francis Grundy edited this letter for publication by removing the names that would have identified Mrs. Robinson, those of her brother, Thomas Gisburne, and sister, Mrs. Evans, also altering or omitting several place names, and amending one passage so as to imply that it was Branwell who initiated the affair. His confusion, over 30 years later, about the date of the letter is probably due to a reference in it to a letter which Branwell describes as having been 'begun in the spring of 1848', presumably a slip of the pen. Grundy has also re-ordered sentences, and amended or omitted words and phrases, including some referring to himself in the first page of the letter.

Provenance: by descent from Francis Grundy.

More from Books

View All