Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/225

 ii s. in. MAR. is, 1911.] NOTES AND QU ERIES.

219

Such a letter, I have reason to believe, did appear in The London Journal, but it came out two years earlier than the date men- tioned, that is, in 1731, not 1733. It was one of a series of letters, afterwards pub- lished under the general title 'Letters as printed in The London Journal on Various Political and other Subjects.' The date of publication of the collection was 1731.

3. The last question is, Was any Letter on Superstition in The London Journal signed by Pitt ?

Decidedly not, I think. The Letter on Superstition was, I understand, signed " Atticus." And this brings me back to my vague recollections. To the best of my belief a question something like " Was Pitt the author of the Letters of Atticus ? " was discussed in literary circles some time during the last century. The answer given in most quarters was, I think, a decided nega- tive. It may be recalled ^in this connexion that Almon the publisher issued in 1769 'A Collection of the Letters of Atticus, Lucius, Junius, and others ; with Observations and Notes.' No certainty as regards any of these anonymous writers has ever been arrived at ; and it is as unlikely that Pitt was the author of the ' Letters of Atticus ' as that he wrote the ' Letters of Junius.' W. SCOTT.

The Complete Poems of Emily Bronle. Edited by Clement Shorter. With Introductory Essay by W. Robertson Nicoll. (Hodder & Stough- ton.)

The Athenceum of the 4th of July, 1846, in a short notice of the little volume ' Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell,' places Ellis (Emily Bronte) first ; next Currer ; and lastly Acton. Of Ellis the critic writes : "A fine quaint spirit with an evident power of irony that may reach heights not here attempted."

Mr. Clement Shorter in his biographical note quotes Currer Bell's letter in which she states that " in the space of a year our publisher has disposed of but two copies," and with good- natured humour adds, " By what painful efforts he succeeded in getting rid of these two, himself only knows." Mr. Shorter well remarks : " It is a curious irony of circumstance that this little volume which so failed of recognition when that would have heartened its authors beyond measure, now sells, on the rare occasions that it turns up in the sale-rooms, for more money than the whole issue cost." The amount paid by " Charlotte Bronte and her sisters, when they had it published at their own expense," was 311. 10s. Mr. Shorter once told us that he is the happy possessor of this rare volume with the Aylott & Jones imprint.

In the little volume there were twenty-two of Emily Bronte's poems ; in the posthumous

poems that Charlotte Bronte printed after Emily's death there were another seventeen and, thanks to the industry of Mr. Clement Shorter, no fewer than one hundred and thirty-eight additional poems are included in this new volume. The introductory essay by Sir W. Robertson Nicoll is of value, as he gives a brief chrono- logical account of her thirty years ; and as Mr. Shorter has, where possible, dated the poems, one is able to trace the influence under which they were written. He states that : " We now see the extraordinary conditions under which this woman of genius did her work. Outside her own circle she had not a single friend. She never had a lover or any one who came near to be her lover. She was never outside of Yorkshire save during the Brussels experience, where she paid so dearly for the education which she hoped to turn into money. She had practically no acquaintances. The only people in Haworth she talked to were the servants and the visitors forced upon the home by the brother. Yet she loved life and shrank

from death She did the work of a servant in

the house, apparently with the greatest cheerful- ness and efficiency. In the exercise of her imagina- tion and in her love of nature she found peace. She refused to complain, and turned a front now calm, now defiant, to the most threatening circum- stances."

All these moods are shown in her poems at times full of bright cheerfulness, as when she asks what is the

feeling of delight, All vague and undefined ?

and she feels assured that it is because her Redeemer lives, and that she shall " rise again to immortality." But the mood all too frequently becomes despondent, when the moon is

A dreary moon, A dark October moon to me ; and she feels that

No star will light my coming night, No morn of hope for me will shine. And she is " the foster-child of sore distress." Hope has fled :

Hope, whose whisper would have given Balm to all my frenzied pain, Stretched her wings, and soared to heaven Went, and ne'er returned again. While the palm is given to Emily of the three sisters, yet, as Mr. Birrell mentions in his life of Charlotte Bronte (pp. 92-3), Anne Bronte's last composition,

I hoped that with the brave and strong, " has found its way into popular hymnbooks, and is perhaps at this moment the widest-known work of the three sisters " ; and he quotes in full Anne's poem,

O God, if this indeed be all That life can show to me.

As is evident in her verses to Cowper, whose poems she read " o'er and o'er again," the despon- dency of the poet exercised great influence upon her sisters ; and added to this was the gloom which over-shadowed their lives.

Sir Robertson Nicoll asks : " What would Emily have been if life had been kind ? " and gives Charlotte's answer to be found in ' Shirley ' : " Shirley Keeldar was, Charlotte Bronte said, what Emily might have been had she been blessed in health and prosperity."