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82. CB, The Foundling, 31 May–27 June 1833: MS Ashley 159 p.5, BL [CA, ii, pt i, 75–6]; PBB, Real Life in Verdopolis, vol ii, 17 Aug–21 Sept 1833: MS in Brotherton [Neufeldt, i, 302–4].
83. CB, The Foundling, p.6 [CA, ii, pt i, 85–6]; PBB, Real Life in Verdopolis, vol i, 13–15, vol ii, 10, 13–14 [Neufeldt, i, 291–5]; CB, ‘The Post Office’, 27 Sept 1833: MS MA 29 p.1, PM [CA, ii, pt i, 209].
84. PBB, The Monthly Intelligencer, 27 Mar–26 Apr 1833: MS BS 117 p.1, BPM [Neufeldt, i, 250].
85. EN, Reminiscences, MS pp.52–3, opp. p.62, KSC [LCB, i, 597, 599–600].
86. Ibid., 53–4 [LCB, i, 597]. In the MS Ellen includes the deleted phrase ‘She probably had been pretty.’
87. Ibid., 54–6, 65–6[LCB, i, 597–8, 601].
88. Ibid., 55–6[LCB, i, 598].
89. AB plait of hair, with PB autograph note, 22 May 1833: MS BS 171, BPM. Anne’s hair had been fair as a baby: see above, p.155.
90. EN, Reminiscences, MS p.56, KSC [LCB, i, 598].
91. PBB, The Wool is Rising, 26 June 1834: MS Ashley 2469 p.12, BL [Neufeldt, ii, 60]. See also Branwell’s self-portraits in both ‘The Pillar Portrait’ and ‘The Gun Group’ [A&S nos.224–5] and below, pp.242, 373, 641 for the various caricatures of his appearance.
92. Leyland, i, 87–9. Leyland does not identify Branwell’s companion: it is usually assumed to be Michael Merrall (1811–81) but Robin Greenwood posits his younger brother Hartley (1819–95) on the grounds that he was ‘a youth’ at the time and was still alive when Leyland was gathering materials for his book.
93. Ibid., 117–8; PBB, Real Life in Verdopolis, vol i, 15 [Neufeldt, i, 293–5].There was even a series on boxing called ‘Boxiana; or Sketches of Pugilism’, BM, v-xii (1819–22).
94. EN, Reminiscences, MS pp.54–60, 62, KSC [LCB, i, 597–600]. Oatmeal porridge was the staple diet of the working class, hence Ellen’s politely concealed surprise. The dog, the first to be mentioned at the parsonage, was probably Grasper: EJB, pencil drawing, ‘Grasper – from life’, Jan 1834: HAOBP: P.Br E10, BPM [A&S no.313]. I suspect that Ellen conflated this visit with other, later ones: it seems extremely unlikely that Patrick, still without a curate in 1833, would have had the leisure to spend his afternoons with the newspapers.
95. EN, Reminiscences, MS pp.1–3, KSC [LCB, i, 601–2]. Typically Ellen claimed this was the first time the Brontës had entertained the Sunday school teachers, but this had been one of Charlotte’s first duties on her return from Roe Head: see above, p.215.
96. [Benjamin Binns], BO, 17 Feb 1894 p.6; Haworth Parsonage, Bill of Sale for 1 Oct 1861: MS BS x, H, BPM; PBB, watercolour, ‘Qeen Esther – Painted by Martin – and copied by P.B- Bront¯e – Dec. 1830 –’, Dec 1830: HAOBP:P.Br. B8, BPM [A&S no.207].
97. EN, Reminiscences, MS pp.3–16, KSC [LCB, i, 602–3].
98. CB to EN, 11 Sept 1833: MS HM 24405 p.3, Huntington [LCB, i, 124].
99. Ibid., pp.2–3.
100. ECG, Life, 214; CB, Shirley, 497–513.
101. CB, Characters of the Celebrated Men of the Present Time, 17 Dec 1829: MS in Law [CA, i, 124–5].
102. PBB, Real Life in Verdopolis, vol ii, 14–15, ii, 13–14 [Neufeldt, i, 291–4; ii, 322–4]; PBB, An Historical Narrative of the ‘War of Encroachment’, 17 Nov–17 Dec 1833: MS Eng 869(1) pp.6–7, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 380–5]; PBB, An Historical Narrative of the War of Aggression, [Dec 1833–Jan 1834]: MS Eng 869(2) pp.8–10, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 425ff].
103. CB, Arthuriana, 1Oct–20 Nov 1833: MS MA 29, PM [CA, ii, pt i, 207–67]; PBB, The Politics of Verdopolis, 23 Oct–15 Nov 1833: MS Bon 141, BPM [Neufeldt, i, 333–64].
104. Ibid., p.1. Charlotte quotes a passage from this book before beginning a long poem on the death of Ellrington’s wife: CB, ‘Captain Flower’s Last Novel’, Arthuriana, 20 Nov 1833: MS MA 29, PM [CA, ii, pt i, 262–7]. Later she says of Percy Hall ‘The picture of the splendid & venerable pile of buildings that constitute the hall, the slopes of sunny verdure that surround it, the noble trees principally elms of the grandest dimensions, that cover those slopes with trembling gloom interlaced by continual bursts of light, must be imprinted in the heart of every one who has read
105. PBB, An Historical Narrative of the ‘War of Encroachment’, 17 Nov–17 Dec 1833: MS Eng 869(1) pp.6–7, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 365–405]; PBB, An Historical Narrative of the War of Aggression, [Dec 1833–Jan 1834]: MS Eng 869(2) pp.8–10, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 406–46]. Angria is first mentioned in the first of these stories, p.4, the villages of Northangerland and Zamorna, the site of the last great battle, in the second p.16.
106. PBB, An Historical Narrative of the ‘War of Encroachment’, 17 Nov–17 Dec 1833: MS Eng 869(1) p.6, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 381].
107. Ibid., p.12 [Neufeldt, i, 397].
108. PBB, An Historical Narrative of the War of Aggression, [Dec 1833–Jan 1834]: MS Eng 869(2) p.16, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 443].
CHAPTER EIGHT: ANGRIANS ARISE!
Title: Battlecry of the Angrians: PBB [Angria and the Angrians I(e)], 7 January 1836: MS p.14, Princeton [VN PBB, ii, 441].
1. PB to ECG, 24 July 1855: MS EL B121 pp.4–5, Rylands [LRPB, 238].
2. CB, Richard Coeur de Lion & Blondel, 27 Dec 1833: MS Ashley 170, BL [VN CB, 124–8]. Patrick’s note is written above the title of this poem in the ms. The poem purports to be the song sung by Blondel outside the castle where his master, Richard I, is imprisoned and the king’s response. CB, Death of Darius Codomanus, 2 May 1834: MS Bon 90, BPM [VN CB, 137–42]. Codomanus was a Persian king treacherously murdered in 331 BC as he tried to withstand an attack by Alexander the Great. CB, Saul, 7Oct 1834: MS in Berg [VN CB, 154–5] depicts Saul on the battlefield, sunk in depression and calling David to come and sing for him. Though now separated, these poems were all part of one notebook with distinctive lined paper: it is reconstructed in VN CB, xxxvi-xxxxvii, 408. Patrick may have given Branwell a similar notebook as his heroic poem ‘Thermopylae’ was also written on lined paper in cursive hand: PBB, Thermopylae, 9 Aug 1834: MS Bon 142, BPM [VN PBB, 90–5].
3. PBB, The Wool is Rising, 26 June 1834: MS Ashley 2469 p.3, BL [Neufeldt, ii, 31–2].
4. Ibid., p.5 [Neufeldt, ii, 35].
5. CB, Last Will & Testament of Florence Marian Wellesley, 5Jan 1834: MS MA 2696 R-V, PM [CA, ii, pt i, 317–20]. Marian’s death from a broken heart is alluded to, for instance, in CB, High Life in Verdopolis, 20 Feb–20 Mar 1834: MS Add 34255 pp.4, 6, BL [CA, ii, pt ii, 17–26]. Mary Percy was about to marry Sir Robert Pelham – and to be given away by Douro – at the end of PBB, Politics of Verdopolis, 23 Oct–13 Nov 1833: MS Bon 141 p.18, BPM [Neufeldt, i, 363–4]. Mary is Zamorna’s wife in CB, A Leaf from an Unopened Volume, 17 Jan 1834: MS BS 13.2, BPM [CA, ii, pt i, 321–78] though this purports to be many years in the future. She is his bride of 3 months in CB, High Life in Verdopolis, 20 Feb–20 Mar 1834: MS Add 34255 pp.4, 6, BL [CA, ii, pt ii, 3–81].
6. CB, A Leaf from an Unopened Volume, 17 Jan 1834: MS BS 13.2, BPM [CA, ii, pt i, 321–78]. Zamorna calls Finic ‘misshapen abortion’ and executes him for plotting against him. The Negress, Sofala, also died of a broken heart when deserted by Douro, as he then was. On Charlotte’s own chronology the affair was adulterous as Douro was, at 18, already married to Marian Hume: ibid, pp.19–20 [CA, ii, pt i, 375–7]. Helen Victorine is first mentioned, though unnamed, in CB, High Life in Verdopolis, 20 Feb–20 Mar 1834: MS Add 34255 p.6, BL [CA, ii, pt ii, 26]; her son, Ernest fitzArthur, is cared for by Zamorna’s mistress Mina Laury. By October 1834 Charlotte suggests that this too was not a proper marriage and that Ernest is illegitimate: ‘his inheritance will be wide & rich … but, alas! alas! The broad bar sinister must be drawn through all’: CB, ‘A Brace of Characters’, The Scrap Book, 30 Oct 1834: MS Add 34255, BL [CA, ii, pt ii, 340].
7. CB, High Life in Verdopolis, 20 Feb–20 Mar 1834: MS Ad
d 34255 p.10, BL and CB, The Spell, An Extravaganza, 21 June–21 July 1834: MS Add 34255 p.7, BL [CA, ii, pt ii, 40, 171]. Zamorna’s implicitly adulterous affair with Mina Laury in High Life in Verdopolis, pp.14–18 [CA, ii, pt ii, 53–68] becomes explicit in CB, Mina Laury, 17 Jan 188: MS in Princeton [WG FN, 127–69].
8. CB, High Life in Verdopolis, 20 Feb–20 Mar 1834: MS Add 34255 p.1, BL [CA, ii, pt ii, 4]. This ‘quotation’ is from an article supposedly by Tree in the Verdopolitan Magazine which Charlotte tells us, on internal evidence was actually written by Zamorna. Charles Wellesley uses it to open his book because it is appropriate to a book about lords and ladies, not because he approves of its sentiments. The complexity of the authorial pedigree is evidence of Charlotte’s increasing sophistication in her use and awareness of the authorial voice.
9. PBB, The Wool is Rising, 26 June 1834: MS Ashley 2469 p.20, BL [Neufeldt, ii, 24–91 esp.84].
10. Ibid., pp.7–8 [Neufeldt, ii, 44–50]; CB, The Professor, 14–40.
11. CB, The Spell, An Extravaganza, 21 June–21 July 1834: MS Add 34255 pp.26–7, BL [CA, ii, pt ii, 234–7].
12. PBB, ‘The Life of feild Marshal the Right Honourable ALEXAN[D]ER PERCY, vol i, [Spring 1834]: MS p.2, Brotherton [Neufeldt, ii, 99]. This volume is undated but the poem ‘Augusta though Im far away’ is dated Spring 1834 in PBB, Fair Copy Book of Poems, compiled 9 Mar 1837–12 May 1838: MS BS 125 pp.8–9, BPM [JB SP, 23–4].
13. PBB, ‘The Life of feild Marshal the Right Honourable ALEXAN[D]ER PERCY, vol i, [Spring 1834]: MS pp.3–6, Brotherton [Neufeldt, ii, 110–11].
14. See, for instance, WG PBB, 294–7. Perhaps because atheism was so alien to their own beliefs, the Brontës interpreted it as a rejection of the idea of life after death, rather than a conviction that there is no God. It was actually Charlotte, not Branwell, who gave Percy his first explicit avowal of atheism, having him tell his daughter: ‘The Grave, Corruption, Annihilation, are the only followers of Death. Mary you see in Zamorna & myself the perfection of created things, man is the master-piece of nature or of/ him who commanded the existence of nature … Dreamers think otherwise but I say “the first dark day of nothingness” comes after the heart is still & the eye glazed for ever,’: CB, High Life in Verdopolis, 20 Feb–20 Mar 1834: MS Add 34255 p.8, BL [CA, ii, pt ii, 32].
15. PBB, An Historical Narrative of the War of Aggression, [Dec 1833–Jan 1834]: MS Eng 869(2) p.15, Harvard [Neufeldt, i, 442].
16. The Wool is Rising, 26 June 1834: MS Ashley 2469 p.8, BL [Neufeldt, ii, 48–9].
17. PBB, ‘The Life of feild Marshal the Right Honourable ALEXAN[D]ER PERCY, vol i, [Spring 1834]: MS p.7, Brotherton [Neufeldt, ii, 117].
18. Barnet and Fairservice both express a similar blend of pseudo-Calvinistic piety though spoken in Scots dialect. The emergence of the theme of religious hypocrisy in Branwell’s writings in late 1833–early 1834 may be a response to his father’s very public clash with John Winterbotham, minister of West Lane Baptist Chapel, which occurred at the same time: see below pp.253–4.
19. PBB, The Life of feild Marshal the Right Honourable ALEXAN[D]ER PERCY, vol i, [Spring 1834]: MS p.13, Brotherton [Neufeldt, ii, 135].
20. Ibid., p.15. See, for example, PBB, ‘Augusta though Im far away’, ‘The Doubter’s Hymn’ and ‘Thou art gone but I am here’, ibid., pp.13–14 and vol ii, pp.14, 16 [JB SP, 23–6; Neufeldt, ii, 137–9, 180–1, 183–4].
21. Branwell was writing several major works simultaneously in 1834. The mss were divided up and sold piecemeal by T.J. Wise, making it extremely difficult to follow their stories: they are reconstructed, transcribed and published in Neufeldt, ii (1999), which unfortunately appeared long after the first edition of my biography. It provides invaluable evidence of Branwell’s literary ability and influence on his sisters’ work.
22. CB, My Angria and the Angrians, 14 Oct 1834: MS in Law [CA, ii, pt ii, 245]. Wiggins had already appeared as a caricature of Branwell in CB, ‘A Day Abroad’, Corner Dishes, 28 May–16 June 1834: MS HM 2577 pp.4–5v, Huntington [CA, ii, pt ii, 104–15]. Branwell also caricatured himself as a colour grinder to Sir Edward de Lisle about this time: see above, p.227.
23. CB, My Angria and the Angrians, 14 Oct 1834: MS in Law [CA, ii, pt ii, 248–50].
24. CB to EN, 11 Feb 1834: MS HM 24406 pp.1, 3, Huntington [LCB, i, 125–6].
25. CB to EN, 20 Feb 1834: MS HM 24407 pp.1–3, Huntington [LCB, i, 126–7].
26. See, for example, Charlotte writing Ellen, as she had demanded, the sort of letter on politics and literature she wrote to Mary: see below, p.258–9.
27. [Benjamin Binns], BO, 17 Feb 1894 p.6. This is confirmed by the many local news-paper accounts of concerts in Haworth: the Brontës had many more opportunities to attend concerts than people in comparable towns today.
28. LM, 29 Mar 1834 p.7.For Parker’s concert appearances in Haworth see above p.194 and below, pp.247, 365, 479–80, 597, 960. The age of the Haworth Philharmonic Society is deduced from a review of a concert on 5 November 1834: ‘It has been customary with this Society for more than half a century to meet together on the 5th of November, to enjoy a festival of vocal and instrumental music.’: BO, 13 Nov 1834 p.325.
29. The band played, for instance, at Theodore Dury’s Sunday School treat at Keighley on 30 July 1832 and at a Masonic celebration in Haworth on 2 Sept 1833: LM, 4 Aug 1832 p.5; 7 Sept 1833 p.5. The new organ, built by Mr Nicholson of Rochdale, ‘is allowed by many of the best judges to be of exquisite tone, sweetness, and power’. Henry Heap, vicar of Bradford, and Charles Musgrave, archdeacon of Halifax, both preached on the opening day and collections amounting to nearly £30 were taken on behalf of the organ fund: LM, 29 Mar 1834 p.7; BO, 3 Apr 1834 p.69; 10 Apr 1834 p.77. Although a Baptist, Parker sang at the inauguration and reprised his performance with John Greenwood on 12 Apr 1835 in a concert for the organ fund which raised £15: LM, 18 Apr 1835 p.5.
30. [Benjamin Binns], BO, 17 Feb 1894 p.6.
31. CB, My Angria and the Angrians, 14 Oct 1834: MS in Law [CA, ii, pt ii, 251–2].
32. PBB, Music Book, 1 Nov 1831–Jan 1832: MS Bon 56, BPM. ‘Oh no, we never mention her’ by Thomas Bayly is used to allude to Marian Hume in CB, Something about Arthur, 1May 1833: MS p.24, Texas [CA, ii, pt i, 40] and in AB, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, 404, as a sly reference to Helen Huntingdon. I am grateful to Margaret Smith for the latter reference. For Branwell’s ability to play the organ and love of oratorio see Leyland, i, 119–20.
33. The piano is HAOBP: F13, BPM. For its provenance and a detailed description see JB ST, no.23. Gawkroger’s, the music shop in Halifax, sold cheap mahogany pianofortes, both second-hand and new, ranging in price from £14 to £38: HG, 13 June 1840 p.2. EJB/AB, Diary Paper, 24 Nov 1834 notes that Sunderland is expected and that she and Anne have not yet done their music lessons: see below, p.257–8.
34. Paganini’s concert, enthusiastically reviewed the following week, was advertised in LM, 4Feb 1832 p.3; for juvenilia references to him see, for example, CB, ‘A Day Abroad’, Corner Dishes, 15 June 1834: MS HM 2577 p.5, Huntington [CA, ii, pt ii, 110–11]. For the concerts by Strauss and Liszt see HG, 20 Oct 1838, pp.2, 3; 30 Jan 1841 p.3. Mendelssohn had a particularly close relationship with the Halifax Choral Society which premiered many of his works in this country: in gratitude he dedicated his setting of the 95th Psalm to the Society, which gave its first performance in 1846: BO, 30 Apr 1846 p.5.
35. LM, 30 Nov 1833 p.5; 11 Jan 1834 p.8; 10 Jan 1835 p.3.
36. LI, 27 July 1833 p.3. A new court house was opened on 12 Aug 1833 and the first stone of Keighley Church Sunday School, which was also a National and Infant School, was laid on 19 May 1834: LM, 17 Aug 1833 p.5; LI, 24 May 1834 p.3. The opening of the new Keighley Mechanics’ Institute was celebrated with a concert on 29 December 1834: LM, 11 Jan 1835 p.8.
37. List of Members no.213 in Keighley Mechanics’ Institute, Annual Report for year ending 8 Apr 1833, Keighley. In January 1833 Dearden was given a silver medal inscribed ‘Presented to W S De
arden, by the Committee of the Keighley Mechanics’ Institute as a testimonial of their estimation of his highly interesting course of lectures on Ancient British Poetry’: LM, 12 Jan 1835 p.5. For a brief biography see ‘Warley Worthies’, THAS (1916), 105–8. For the other lectures see BO, 10 Dec 1835, 357; Ian Dewhirst, ‘The Rev. Patrick Brontë and the Keighley Mechanics’ Institute’, BST: 14:75:36.
38. See above, p.174. Bradley emigrated to Philadelphia, USA, in 1831. It is not clear whether the Brontës resumed their lessons with him when he returned permanently to Keighley in 1833.
39. CB, pencil drawing of Lord Byron entitled ‘Alexander Soult’, 15 Oct 1833: original in private hands; CB, pencil drawings of the Countess of Blessington entitled ‘Zenobia Marchioness Ellrington’, 15 Oct [1833] and Lady Jersey entitled ‘English Lady’, 15 Oct 1834 and watercolour of the Maid of Saragoza, [c.1834] [E.2009.5, HAOBP: P.Br. Bon 2 and Bon 25, BPM] [A&S pp.18–19, nos. 102, 100, 128 and 127]. The portraits of Lady Jersey (in a book recommended by Charlotte to Ellen Nussey) and the Maid of Saragoza were both copied from engravings by William Finden.
40. ECG to unidentified, [Sept 1853] [C&P, 249]; CB, pencil drawing, ‘Santa Maura’, 23 Sept 1833: Princeton; CB, pencil drawing,‘Geneva’, 23 Aug 1834: HAOBP: P. Br. Bon 14, BPM [A&S nos. 96, 125]. Edward Finden was William’s brother.
41. CB, pencil drawings ‘Cockermouth’, [c. Jan 1833], ‘Bolton Abbey’, [c. May 1834] and ‘Kirkstall Abbey’, [c. May 1834]: HAOBP P.Br. C33, C73 and C72, BPM [A&S nos. 90, 116, 117, pp. 25–6, 52].
42. A Catalogue of the Works of British Artists, in the Gallery of the Royal Northern Society, for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts, 1834 (Leeds, 1834), 24, items 430 and 437 [A&S, 52]; Leyland, i, 129–31; LI, 28 June 1834 p.3, 19 July 1834 p.4, 16 Aug 1834 p.3; LM, 28 June 1834 p.5, 19 July 1834 p.5. Leyland also exhibited a well-received sculpture of a life-size group of grey-hounds: a study for one of the heads is at BPM.