The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-01 00:00:00

They were conscious of unusual powers acid desirous
of einploying them to advantage, but were ignorant

how to do so-:

Their literary fabours for-a
long

time brought them neither profit nor fame, but they
were a source of interest, and were resolutely pur-

sued notwithstanding all discouragements. Their
united poems were first pat lished ; afterwards each
prepared a tale and endeavoured to find a pub-
lisher. Charlotte's story, " The Professor," is
now announced for publication. Of this tale Mrs.
Gaskell speaks as follows :

"4Th5 plot in itself is of no great interest ; but it is a
poor kind of interest that depends upon startling incidents
rather than upon dramatic development of character ; and
Charlotte Bronto never excelled one or two sketches of

portraits which she has given in " The Professor," nor, in
grace of womanhood ever surpassed one of the female
characters there described. By the time she wrote this
tale, her taste and judgment had revolted against the ex-
aggerated idealisms of her early girlhood, and she went to
tho extreme of reality, closely depicting characters as they
had shown theuuselve, to her in actual life : if there they

were strong even to coarseness—as was the case with some
that she had met with in flesh and blood existence—she
' wrote them down an ass if the scenery of such life as
she saw was for the most part wild and grothsque, instead
. .

of pleasant or picturesque, she described it line for lbw.
The grace of the one or two scenes and characters, whicn
are drawn ra,her from her own imagination than from
abs,dute fact, stand out in exquisite relief from the deep
shadows and wayward lines of others, which call to mind
some of the portraits of Rembrandt."

" Wuthering Heights" and "Agnes Grey" were
the companions of " The Professor," and the three

stories were despatched to London together.
Meanwhile, a heavier anxiety was pressing on the
writers, for their father's sight, which had long

been failing, had left him; and it • was at lids
period that, accompanied by his eldest daughter, he
went to Manchester, to submit to an operation on
his eyes. A strm4, proof of the firmness and per-
severance of Miss Bronte's disposition is afforded in

the fo lowing :
" The three tales had tried their fate in vain together,
at length they were sent forth separately. and for many
months with still-continued ill-success. I have mentioned
this here, because, among the dispiriting circumstances
connected with her anxious visit to Manchester, Charlotte
told me that her tale came back upon her hands, curtly
rejected by some publisher, on the very day when her
father was to submit to his operation. But she had the
heart of Robert Bruce within her, and failure upon failure
daunted her no more than him. Not only did " The
Professor" return again to try his chance among the
London publishers, but she beg an, in this time of care
and depressing inquietude—in those grey, weary, uniform
streets, where all faces, save that of her kind doctor, were
strange and untouched with sunlight to her—there and
then, did the brave genius begin " Jane Eyre." Read
what she herself says :—" Omni. Bell's book found accept-
ance nowhere, nor any acknowledgment of merit, so that
something like the chill of despair began to invade his
heart." And, remember, it was not the heart of a person
who, disappointed iu one hope, can turn with redoubled
affection to the many certain blessings that remain. Think
of her home, and theblack shadow of remorse lying over
one in it, till his very brain was imaged, and his gifts and
his life were lost ; think of her father's sight hanging on a
thread ;—of her sister's delicate health, and dependence
on her care ; —and then admire it as it deserves to be ad-
mired, the steady courage which could work away at
' Jane Eyre,' all the time ' that the one-volume was
plodding its weary round in London."'
In Vie composition of her next book sho was stil
more unfortunate :
-

" Miss Bronte took extreme pains with ' Shirley.' She
felt that the fame she had acquired imposed upon her a
double responsibility. She tried to make her novel like
a piece of actual life—feeling sure that, if she but repre-
sented the product of personal experience and observation
truly, good would come out of it in the long run. She
carefully studied the different reviews and criticisms that
had appeared on ' Jane Eyre,' in hopes of extracting
precepts and advice from which to profit.
" Down into the very midst of her writing cams the
bolts of death. She had nearly finished the second volume
of her tale when Branwell died—after him Emily—after
her Anne—the pen, laid down when there were three
sisters living and loving, was taken up when one alone re-
mained. Well might she call the first chapter that she
wrote after this, ' The Valley of the Shadow of Death."'
The character of Shirley Keeldar was drawn
from her sister Emily. It was intended to repre-
sent what she would have been in health and pros-
perity. It is difficult to reconcile what we learn of
Emily Monte's stern reserved nature with the
frank decision of Shirley. Mrs. Gaskell remarks,
" I mention this, because all that I, a stranger,
have been able to' learn about her, has
not tended to give either me or my readers a
pleasant impression of her. But we must reinem-
how little we know of her compared to that sister
who out of her more intimate knowledge says that
" she was genuinely good and truly great." The
passage in Shirley in which she is bitten by a mad
dog, and, wall: fug into the laundry, herself cauterises
the wound with a hot iron, was drawn from life.
The accident really occurred to Emily with a simi-
lar result. In alluding to Mias Bronte's life after
her first success, Mrs. Gaskell writes as follows
with that true feeling and core eat judgment that
distingui,h the biographer no less than the subject
of the memoirs.
" Ilerceforward Charlotte Bronte's existence becomes
divided into two parallel currents—her life as Currer Bell,
the author; her life as Charlotte Bronte, the woman.
There wore separate duties belonging to each character—
not opposing each other ; not impossible, but difficult to
to be reconciled. When a man becomes an author, it is
probably merely a change of employment to him. He
takes a portion of that time which has hitherto been de-
voted to sO/110 other study or pursuit; he gives no swot .
thing of the legal or medical profession, in which he has
hitherto endeavoured to serve others, or relinquishes part
of the trade or business by which he has been stris log to
gain a livelihood ; and another merchant or lawyer, or
doctor, steps into his vacant place, and probably does as
well as he. But no other can take up the quiet, regular
duties'of the daughter, the wife, or the mother, as well as
she ‘lliorn Cod has appointed to fill that particular piece;
rt woman's principal work in life is hardly left to her own
choke; nor can she drop the domestic charges devolving
on her as an individual, for- the exercise of the most splen-
did talents that were ever bestowed. And yet she must
not shrink from the esti a, responsibility implied by the
' very fact of her possessing such talents. She mus tnot
Ihide her gift in a napkin ; it was meant for the use and
service of others. In an humble and faithful spirit must
she labour to do what is not impossible, or God would not
have sot her to do it.
" I put into words what Charlotte Bronte put into
actions.
s' The year 1848 opened with sad domestic distrela, It

is necessary, however painful, to remind the reader con-
stantly of what was always present to the hearts of father
and sisters at this time. It is well that the thoughtless
critics who spoke of the sad and gloomy views of life pre-
sented by the Brontes in their tales, should know how
such words ware wrurg out of them by the living recollec-
tion of the long agony they suffered. It is well, too, that
they who have objected to the representation of coarse-
ness and shrank from it with repugnance, as if such con-
ceptions arose out of the writers, should learn, that, not

. _
' from tho imagination—but hrn o the hard cruel facts,
pressed down, by external life, upon their very senses, for
Ilong months and years together, did they write out what
they saw, obeying the stern dictates of their consciences.
They might be mistaken. They might err in writing at
all, when their afflictions were so great that they could
not write otherwise than they did of life. It is possible
that it would have been better to have described only
good and pleasant people, doing only good and pleasant
things (in which case they could hardly have written at
any time) : all I Fay is, that never, 1 believe, did women,
possessed of such wonderful gifts, exercise them with a
fuller feeling of responsibility for their use. As to mis-
takes, they stand now—as authors as well as women—
before the judgment-soat of God."

The composition of Vißette was delayed by fre-
quent att icks of ill-health and depreß,siou of spirits.
The witt2r, succeeding her brother's and sisters'
d, aths was very trying to lYti>s Bronte. Her fa-
tlrn's age and secluded habits left her almost con-
stintly alone, and the monotony of her solitude
bad become overwhelming to her exhausted nerves
and excitable ima:zination. She had no longer the
physical strength to resist it and an alarming attack
of illness resulted. At an earlier period of her life
she had found the lone!iness almost unendurable.
Her active faculties longed for the means of exer-
cie, but with the resolution of a strong mind she
forced herself to becontent with her narrow sphere,
and so long as duty called her nothing could induce
her to seek -a more congenial life. A friend of
bees was going to the colonies, and thus describes
their final interview :

" When I last saw Charlotte (January, 180), she told
me she bad quite decided to stay at home. She owned she
did not like it. Her health was weak. She said she should
like any change at fiat, as she had liked Brussels at first,
and she thought that there must be some possibility for
some people of having a life of more variety and more
communion with human kind, but she saw none for her.
I told ber very warmly, that she ought not to stay at
home ; that to spend the next five years at home, in soli-
tu le and weak health, would ruin her; that she would
never recover it. Such a dark shadow came over her face
when I said, Think of what you'll be five years hence !'
that I stopped, and said, 'Don't cry, Charlotte!' She
did not cry, but went on walking up and down the
room, and said in a little while, But I intend to stay,
Polly."

It is a testimony to the sterling worth of Miss
Bronte's character that, in spite of her reserve, the
friendships she formed were life-long. It is a satis-
faction to know that at least she met occasionally
with congenial minds and hearts, that their
sympathy cheered her hours of depression, and
their memories peopl ,d her solitude. It is a
greater satisfaction to know that the close of her
life was its happiest ; that affection and sympathy
solaced her dying hours, and that it was permitted
her to see one hope realised, to taste for a brief
period the cup of domestic happiness unembittered.
It is to be questioned, notwiths.anding the general
interest felt in the personal history of Miss Bronte,
whether the public should have been gratified by
the narrative of her domestic life. The dates are
so recent, she whom we regret has so lately pas3ed
from among us, leaving surviving friends to de-
plore her, that it seems scarcely fitting to expose
her troubles to the world. A few years hence we
might have learned them without the painful sense
of intrusion. The footsteps of years must tread
down the grave of the departed before we feel that
the dead ale a part of the past. But the task has
been committed to a worthy hand. With discri-
mination and feeling Mrs. Gaskell has discharged
the difficult duty ; and though she scarcely ever
alludes to the fact, it is impossible for the reader
to forget that she is also one of the foremost of our
writers. The volumes now before us, while they
point out the true source of all that was dark and
repulsive in the works of Ourrer Bell, show us the
authoress in be r nobler character as daughter, sister,
and friend. While re-awakening the regret felt by
the public that a great genius has passed from
among us, they lay the tribute of admiration and
reApect on the grave of a self-sacrificing and suffer-
ing woman.

The Eve of St. Mark : a Romance of Venice. By
Thomas Doubleday. 2 vole. Smith and Elder.

In these volumes Mr. Doubleday has given us
in every way a striking romance, presenting a pic-
ture of some of those remarkable passages of medi-
aeval history which so forcibly arrest the attention
and enchain the regard. It is very interesting to
trace the career of the young Raymond Delaney.
In consequence of the religious divisions that then
raged in England, he was compelled to reside in a
country and among a people, who were widely dif-
ferent from his own, and with whose habits and
manners be could not assimilate. He was not des-
tined to remain in obscurity, however. His talents
and his high birth, together with his natural gifts
and accomplishments, precluded the pcssibility of
such a chance. Be paid the price of celebrity in
its hardest form. He soon became surrounded with
enemies, and that word, in such a place, at such an
epoch, was one of terrible significance. His for-
tune would have been very different, notwithstand-
ing all these difficulties, Lad he possessed more
prudence and foresight, and not suffered himself
to be led away l.y any attraction, however dazzling,
till he had first ascertained its merits, nor listened
to arguments, Lowever specious and pkusinle,
without sounding their depths and weighing their
validity. The plot of the tale is very skilfully
constructed, and the startling events are intro-
duced in so dexterous a style, that they appear
not improbable, although of such a nature as
to render thetr recurrence in these days a
matter of impossibility. Ludolfo is one of
those marvellous beings whose whole existence
forms a puzzle to those who attempt to analyse
it. Though now not often met with in those
days to which this tale bears reference the earth
was walked by many who might have served for
his prototype. By the power of their in,ellects
they ruled kingdoms with a secret sway, influ-
enced the most mighty of potentates with their
irieiistihle volition, and in their macWn thong
were the hidden links that connected persons and
things apparently diametrically opposed to each
other. Great though they were, these individuals
generally failed in a signal manner, sooner or later,
and in their downfall involved the ruin of many.
Such was the case with Ludolfo, among the first
of whose sacrifices fell the hopes of the noble f
of the Delaney's, and the prospects of the Countess
of Lucfiesini, long one of the fairest ornaments of
Venice, whose talents rendered her at times an im-
portant member of society. The Princess of Santa
Croce serves to display the sad fate aprer;,ain. ing
to those gifted with sense and ressou to foresee the
course of human events and purposes, but who
are debarred from the privilege of using their ad-
vantages from the barriers by which a cruel con-
vention has hemmed them in. The padre Momoro
furnishes an instance of what craft and cunning
will descend to, in furtherance of their unchecked.
desires ; and it is curious to notice how the tortu-
ous course of his Machiavelian policy produced
results other than those he had expected. It may
be presumed that this episode of the " younger
ages, when St. Mark's fair city ran its race of
fame," will be welcomed by those who would gaze
into the past through the vistas of retrospective
romance.