The Press.
London, England, 1857-04-04 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

and acquired the French language. Her sister
Emily accompanied her part of the time.
The sisters, at the commencement of 1844,
decided on an attempt to establish a school.
The effort was, however, unsuccessful. No
pupils could be obtained, and the mind of
Charlotte reverted more strongly than ever to
literary hopes. She collected Home poems by
her tw) sisters and herself, and opened a cor-
respondence with Messrs. Aylott and Jones
for their issue in a small volume. The pub-
lishers required thirty guineas for the ex-
penses of the volume ; this sum was made up
and sent, and a small volume of poems
appeared by Currer, Ellis, and Acton

We have a distinct recollection of this
volume. It was marked by great originality.
The poem which struck us most was one in
which the ghost of a deserted girl appeared to
her lover after his prosperous marriage. She
had died by drowning ; and there was singular
power in the description of her appearance
veiled in a rush of waters. The reviews of the
day gave most praise to some verses by Ellis;
but certainly the piece we have mentioned by
Currer was by far the most powerful in the
volume. It attracted little notice, and the
sisters must have been disappointed by their
venture. Still they were nut discouraged.
Charlotte, and Emily, and Anne, each resolved
to send a novel to London. The productions
of the two first, " Wutheriug Heights" and
" Agnes Grey," were accepted. Charlotte's pro-
duction was less fortunate; it was called " The
Professor," and we see is now announced for
publication. It was offered to many houses
and rejected. She has said herself, " Currer
"Bell's book found acceptance nowhere, nor any
" acknowledgment of merit, so that something
" like the chill of despair began to invade his
"heart." Yet at this time she began "Jane
Eyre," and wrote so rapidly that she threw her-
self into a fever which compelled her to pause
when she had carried her heroine to Thorn-
field. The story originated, it is said, in a
conversation which she had held with her
sisters. She told them they were morally
wrong in always making their heroines
beautiful. They said it was impossible to
make them interesting other ,vise. She replied,
" I will prove to you that you are wrong. I
" will show you a heroine as plain and as
" small as myself, who shall be as interesting as
" any of yours " This was the key-note of the
story.

While working at it, " The Professor " had
been sent to the house of Smith and Elder.
It was courteously declined for reasons given,
and Miss Bront.e was encouraged to finish
" Jane Eyre," and send it to the same firm. It
was despatched on the 24th of August, 1847,
little more than a fortnight after " The Pro-
fessor " had been declined.

On the eve of her great success we pause
for a moment to view her domestic position.
It was gloomy enough. Tier father was nearly
blind by cataract, and had been compelled to
submit to an operation for relief. Her sisters
and herself had no other hope of achieving
independence than by their literary labours,
and they had yet received little encourage•
ment. The heaviest of their troubles has to
be mentioned.

Their brother Patrick was finely gifted. He
had attained considerable skill as an artist,
and a group by his hand of the sisters yet re-
mains to attest his proficiency. It was first
proposed that he should go to London and
study as an artist, but funds were wanting.
He became a railway clerk, and afterwards a
private tutor. His facile disposition rendered
him peculiarly open to temptation ; the story
of his degradation is that of many young m-n.
Some retrieve their error, but his fall was irre-
coverable.

In the house, as we understand, where he
resided as tutor, the lady, a married woman
of double his own age, made advances to him
which ho wanted strength to resist. When
once ensnared, he became her unresisting
captive. She was insensible to shame, and
did with hint as she pleased. His family
wondered at the change which had come over
him when he visited his home. He was rest-
less and unhappy, but they had no snspicion
of the truth, until a letter came to him from the
husband of his paramour, full of angry and bitter

SATURDAY,

reproach, and forbidding him ever to enter the
house again. The youth, ardently attached to
the guilty woman, and overwhelmed with
shame at the discovery, was almost frantic.
He drank freely, and, when deprived of spirits,
succeeded in procuring opium. Scarcely a
rational being, he was jealously guarded by
his father, for the family were not without
apprehensions of a frightful catastrophe. At
length one chance of redemption seemed to
present itself to him. The husband he had
injured died. His wife was left free. Young
Bronto hastened to see her, and to offer her
his hand. A messenger from the woman met
him on the way. The injured husband had
left a considerable fortune to his wife, but de-
pendent on the condition that she never saw
Brunte more. Preferring money to the youth
she had seduced, she forbade him her pre-
sence, and desired that they might never meet
more. From this time he never held up his
head. At the time the little volume of poems
was published by the sisters, June, 1848, Char-
lotte wrote :

13ranwell declares that he neither can nor will do any-
thing for himself ; good situations have been offered him,
for which, by a fortnight's work, he might have qualified
himself ; but he will do uothing, except drink and make us
all wretched.

He lived in a state of frightful degradation
and misery two years longer.
The success of "Jane Byre" came oppor-
tunely to cheer the family. The publishers
felt confident of its merit:—
When the manuscript of "Jane Eyre" had been re-
ceived by the future publishers of that remarkable novel,
it fell to the share of a gentleman connected with the firm
to read it first. He was so powerfully struck by the elm-
ra3ter of the tale, that he reported his impression in very
strong terms to Mr. Smith, who appears to have been
much amused by the admiration excited. " You seem to
have been so enchanted, that I do not know how to believe
you," he laughingly said. But when a second reader, in
the person of a clear-headed Scotchtnan, not given to
enthusiasm, had taken the MS. borne in the evening, and
became so deeply interested in it, as to sit up half the
night to finish it, Mr. Smith's curiosity was sufficiently
excited to prompt him to read it for himself; and great as
were the praises which had been bestowed upon it, he
found that they had not exceeded the truth.
Yet success was not immediate. The reviews
spoke of the new novel doubtfully. But a few
weeks after publication thera was a run for the
book, and its success was assured. Unfortu-
nately, " there is little record remaining of the
" manner in which the first news of its wonder-
" ful success reached and affected the heart of
" the three sisters." As Miss Bronte had
constantly corresponded with Messrs. Smith
as " Currer Bell," under cover to Miss Bronte,
they were ignorant of the real author. A
rumour was circulated that all the novels of the
sisters were by one hand. Messrs. Smith wrote
to state the report, and to say that it affected
the character, not of the authors only, but of
themselves. Charlotte and Anne, conse-
quently, determined to start for London. The
date to which the following extract refers is
June, 1840 :
About eight o'clock on Saturday morning they arrived at
the Chapter Coffeehouse, Paternoster-row—a strange
place, but they did not know where else to go. They re-
freshed themselves by washing, and had some breakfast.
Then they sat still fur a few minutes to consider what next
should be done.

•
• • •
•
On reaching Mr. Smith's, Charlotte put his own letter
into his hands ; the same letter which had excited so
much disturbance at Haworth I'arsonage only twenty four
hours before. " Where did you get this ?" said he—as if
he could not believe that the two young ladies dressed in
black, of slight figures and diminutive stature, looking
pleased yet agitated, could be the embodied Currer and
Acton Bell, for whom curiosity had been hunting so
eagerly in vain. An explanation ensued, and Mr. Smith
at once began to form plans for their amusement and
pleasure during their stay in London. He urged them to
meet a few literary friends at his house ; and this was a
strong temptaLon to Charlotte, as amongst them were one
or two of the writers whom she particularly wished ti,
see ; but her resolution to remain unknown induced her
firmly to put it aside.
The sisters were equally persevering [in declining Mr
Smith's invitations to stay at his house. They refused to
leave their quarters, saying they were not prepared for a
long stay.

They saw London in the height of the
fashionable season, went to the Opera, to the
Royal Academy, and dined twice at L. Smith's.
On the following Tuesday they left for their
Yorkshire home, thoroughly exhausted by their
visit.

Miss Bronte was now almost in the position
of Byron, She woko up ono morning, and

1

APRIL 4, 1857.

found herself famous. But the discovery
occasioned no change in her habits. What-
ever exultation she experienced was chastened
by the events that followed. " Will fortune
"never come with both ltitnds full?" How
often in life has that question been asked by
the sensitive when some fondly-cherished
wish has been granted, but granted with ac-
companying circumstances which render it
almost worthless ! There is profound truth in
the reflection of Rochefoucauld that though
our fondest desires are sometimes granted,
they aro never granted at the moment when
their realisation would give the highest plea-
sure. Charlotte Brame had achieved literary
fctne. She was independent. She had no
cause to fear the future. Alas! the sunshine
was but—
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
Which, e're a wan bath power to say—ttehohl
The jaws of darknes doth devour it up.
A few months after the publication of " Jane
Eyre," Miss Bronte wrote (July 28, 1848):

Branwell is the same in conduct as ever. His constitu-
tion seems much shattered. Papa, and sometimes all of us,
have sad nights with him. He sleeps most of the day, and
coAsequently will lie awake at night. But has not every
house its trial?

A month later and he was in his grave. We
are ',old

When his fatal attack came on his pockets were found
filled with old letters front the woman to whom he was
attached. He died! she lives still—iu May•fair.

TL►is trouble was quickly followed by one
heavier to bear. Two months later Charlotte
wrote that Emily was very ill. With a pecu-
liarity characteristic of the family, she would
see no "poisoning doctor." though her state
was most alarming and her sufferings serene.
Branwell had died Oct. 9, and on Dee. 21
Charlotte wrote :

There is no Emily in time or on earth now. Yesterday
we put her poor, wasted, mortal frame quietly tinder the
church pavement. We are very calm at present. Why
should we be otherwise ? The anguish of seeing her suffer
is over; the spectacle of the pains of death is gone by ; the
funeral day is past. We feel she is at peace.
The two sisters alone remained, and it was
in this time of her bereavement that Miss
lironte had to read the harshest criticisms
ever published on her works. One reviewer,
speculating on her personality, said :—" She
" must, be one who, for some sufficient reason,
" has long forfeited the society of her sex "
Remarks of this kind, in spite of affliction, of
pride, and of conscious goodness, forced tears
from her eyes.
Reviewers are really placed under a deeper
responsibility than they are inclined to recog-
nise. A book is often a living subject. It is
not merely a reflex of tile author's mind, it is
the author in propria persona. . To stretch it
on the rack, or to lay it out on a board as a
" subject " in a dissecting room, to probe its
weak places, to exercise the knife on its excre-
scences, is exquisite torture to the author.
When, tempted by the desire to pen a smart
article, or to point a sentence, the critic ven-
tures on censure or insinuation beyond what
the book itself warrants, he does unquestion-
ably abuse his power. When some cruel re.
views of "Jane Eyre" appeared, what was the
position of poor Jane Eyre herself? She was
an inmate of Haaorth Parsonage, made deso-
late by many deaths, mourning—the grief in
both cases most bitter over a brother
steeped in degradation before ho died, and
over a sister cut off in the finest bloom of
promise. She was tending an old stern father ;
she was watching with fearful anxiety the
only sister remaining of the four she had
known She was intent on the discharge of
household duties, and in her literary character
solely anxious to manifest truly the talent
intrusted to her charge. What a reed was
this, trembling in the wilderness, for the
severity of criticism to strike and blast !
Her sister Anne soon sickened after the
death of Emily. The year (1848) had not
closed before her illness assumed an alarming
form. The spring of the following scar came,
and Anne lingered on. In April she composed
some verses, before she closed her desk for
ever. The two first may serve as a speci-
men :

I hoped that with the brave and strong
My portioned task might lie ;
To toil amid the busy throng,
With purpose pure and high.

THE PRESS.

But God has fixed another part,
And He has fixed it well:
J said so wan my bleeding heart,
When first the anguish fell.
In the hope that a change might be beneficial,
Charlotte accompanied her sister to Scar-
borough. Remedies then came too late. She
calked out on the 27th of May, a Sunday,
and wished to go to church. On the 28th she
died, and Charlotte, save her aged father, was
alone in the world.
After the death of Anne in 1849, a period of
repose was given to Miss Bronte. We do not
propose to follow her literary life further.
" Shirley" and " Villette " were successfully
published ; and the Times distinguished itself
by a slashing review of the former. Miss
Bronte was more pained by some stinging
comments on the latter novel from the pea of
her friend, Miss Martineau. There is, we
cannot disguise it, an acrimonious jealousy in
the literary character, the consequence per-
haps of keen perception, which greatly detracts
from the regard which it may claim on other
accounts.

The remainder of her domestic history may
be soon told. Her father's curate, Mr.
Nicholls, who had known her " as a daughter,
" a sister, a mistress, and a friend," had con
ceived the deepest attachment for her. He
spoke at the close of 1852. Miss Bronte
favoured his suit, but her father was averse to
it. Her resolution was instantly taken. She
conformed to her father's will, and Mr.
Nicholls resigned the curacy of Haworth. A
year later her father relented, and it seemed
that Charlotte had the prospect of a happy
married life before her. On the 29th of June,
1851, she became a bride. She was quietly
wed in Haworth Church, and made a wedding
tour with her husband to tho lakes of Killar-
ney. Early in the new year, 1855, she caught
cold, and sickened. We read :
Martha tenderly waited on her mistress, and from time
to time tried tc cheer her with the thought of the baby that
was coming. " I dare say 1 shall be glad sometime," she
would say ; " but lam so ill—so weary—" Then the took
to her bed, too weak to sit up.

The progress of her fatal malady was rapid.
On the Christmas-day of 1854 she had made
glad the hearts of the poor of her parish by
her gifts and visits ; and

About the third week in March there was a change; a
low wandering delirium came on Wakening
fin• an instant, from this stupor of intelligence, she saw her
husband's woe•worn face, and caught the sound of some
murmured words of prayer that God would spare her.
" Oh," she whispered forth, " am not going to die, cm 1 ?
He will not separate us, we have been so happy."
She died on the 31st of March ; and her father
and her husband were left together in the
lonely parsonage•house.
The memoir closes rapidly, as befits the
end of so sad a story. There is a hint that
the close vicinity of the crowded churchyard
may have contributed to the untimely death
of the sisters and their brother. A more
dreary situation for a dwelling cannot be
imagined ; yet Miss Bronte never for a mo-
ment seems to have thought of quitting it.
The parsonage was her home : and she seems
to have been too heedless of the world beyond.
It is said that from an early age—as if the
shadows of the future overhung her she
never• knew what hope was.
A hectic flush pervaded the family ; and un-
fortunately it was strengthened by their mode
of life. It is perceptible in all Miss Bronte's
writings We never thought them healthy
reading. They want a wider range of view
and thought than Haworth Parsonage could
give. In an eloquent passage Mrs. Gaskell
excuses the peculiarities which have been
most censured in Charlotte Bronte's novels :

I do not deny for myself the existence of coarseness
here and there in her works, otherwise so entirely noble.
I only ask those who read them to consider her• life—
which has been openly laid bare befote them—and to say
how it could be otherwise. She saw few men ; and among
these few were one or two with whom she had been nc-
quainted since early girlhood—who had shown her much
friendliness and kindness—through whose family she had
received many pleasures—for whose intellect she had a
great respect—but who talked before her, if not to her,
with as little reticence as Rochester talked to Jane Eyre.
Take this in connection with her poor brother's sad life,
and the outspoken people among whom she lived—re•
member her strong feeling of the duty of representing life
as it really is, not as it ought to be—and then do her
just►ce fur all that she wai, and all that she would have
been (had God spared her), rather than censure her be-
cause circumstauoes forcel her to touch pitch, as it were

341

and by it her hand was for a moment defiled. It was but
skin deep. Every change in her life was purifying her;
it hardly could raise her. Again I cry, "If she had but
lived "

We do not think that either mind or character
required " purifying." Her intellect wowed
only more expansive exercise, and more com-
munion with society. Like her biographer,
we refrain from criticising ner ‘vorks. bidet d
their interest fades before the infinitely
stronger interest of her strange and pathetio
story.