the difficulty that presented itself most strongly to me, when i first had the honour of being requested to write this biography, was how i could show what a noble, true, and tender woman charlotte brontë really was, without mingling up with her life too much of the personal history of her nearest and most intimate friends. after much consideration of this point, i came to the resolution of writing truly, if i wrote at all; of withholding nothing, though some things, from their very nature, could not be spoken of so fully as others.
one of the deepest interests of her life centres naturally round her marriage, and the preceding circumstances; but more than all other events (because of more recent date, and concerning another as intimately as herself), it requires delicate handling on my part, lest i intrude too roughly on what is most sacred to memory. yet i have two reasons, which seem to me good and valid ones, for giving some particulars of the course of events which led to her few months of wedded life—that short spell of exceeding happiness. the first is my desire to call attention to the fact that mr. nicholls was one who had seen her almost daily for years; seen her as a daughter, a sister, a mistress and a friend. he was not a man to be attracted by any kind of literary fame. i imagine that this, by itself, would rather repel him when he saw it in the possession of a woman. he was a grave, reserved, conscientious man, with a deep sense of religion, and of his duties as one of its ministers.
in silence he had watched her, and loved her long. the love of such a man—a daily spectator of her manner of life for years—is a great testimony to her character as a woman.
how deep his affection was i scarcely dare to tell, even if i could in words. she did not know—she had hardly begun to suspect—that she was the object of any peculiar regard on his part, when, in this very december, he came one evening to tea. after tea, she returned from the study to her own sitting-room, as was her custom, leaving her father and his curate together. presently she heard the study-door open, and expected to hear the succeeding clash of the front door. instead, came a tap; and, "like lightning, it flashed upon me what was coming. he entered. he stood before me. what his words were you can imagine; his manner you can hardly realise, nor can i forget it. he made me, for the first time, feel what it costs a man to declare affection when he doubts response. . . . the spectacle of one, ordinarily so statue-like, thus trembling, stirred, and overcome, gave me a strange shock. i could only entreat him to leave me then, and promise a reply on the morrow. i asked if he had spoken to papa. he said he dared not. i think i half led, half put him out of the room."
so deep, so fervent, and so enduring was the affection miss brontë had inspired in the heart of this good man! it is an honour to her; and, as such, i have thought it my duty to speak thus much, and quote thus fully from her letter about it. and now i pass to my second reason for dwelling on a subject which may possibly be considered by some, at first sight, of too private a nature for publication. when mr. nicholls had left her, charlotte went immediately to her father and told him all. he always disapproved of marriages, and constantly talked against them. but he more than disapproved at this time; he could not bear the idea of this attachment of mr. nicholls to his daughter. fearing the consequences of agitation to one so recently an invalid, she made haste to give her father a promise that, on the morrow, mr. nicholls should have a distinct refusal. thus quietly and modestly did she, on whom such hard judgments had been passed by ignorant reviewers, receive this vehement, passionate declaration of love,—thus thoughtfully for her father, and unselfishly for herself, put aside all consideration of how she should reply, excepting as he wished!
the immediate result of mr. nicholls' declaration of attachment was, that he sent in his resignation of the curacy of haworth; and that miss brontë held herself simply passive, as far as words and actions went, while she suffered acute pain from the strong expressions which her father used in speaking of mr. nicholls, and from the too evident distress and failure of health on the part of the latter. under these circumstances she, more gladly than ever, availed herself of mrs. smith's proposal, that she should again visit them in london; and thither she accordingly went in the first week of the year 1853.
from thence i received the following letter. it is with a sad, proud pleasure i copy her words of friendship now.
"january 12th, 1853.
"it is with you the ball rests. i have not heard from you since i wrote last; but i thought i knew the reason of your silence, viz. application to work,—and therefore i accept it, not merely with resignation, but with satisfaction.
"i am now in london, as the date above will show; staying very quietly at my publisher's, and correcting proofs, etc. before receiving yours, i had felt, and expressed to mr. smith, reluctance to come in the way of 'ruth;' not that i think she would suffer from contact with 'villette'—we know not but that the damage might be the other way; but i have ever held comparisons to be odious, and would fain that neither i nor my friends should be made subjects for the same. mr. smith proposes, accordingly, to defer the publication of my book till the 24th inst.; he says that will give 'ruth' the start in the papers daily and weekly, and also will leave free to her all the february magazines. should this delay appear to you insufficient, speak! and it shall be protracted.
"i dare say, arrange as we may, we shall not be able wholly to prevent comparisons; it is the nature of some critics to be invidious; but we need not care we can set them at defiance; they shall not make us foes, they shall not mingle with our mutual feelings one taint of jealousy there is my hand on that; i know you will give clasp for clasp.
"'villette' has indeed no right to push itself before 'ruth.' there is a goodness, a philanthropic purpose, a social use in the latter to which the former cannot for an instant pretend; nor can it claim precedence on the ground of surpassing power i think it much quieter than 'jane eyre.'
* * * * *
"i wish to see you, probably at least as much as you can wish to see me, and therefore shall consider your invitation for march as an engagement; about the close of that month, then, i hope to pay you a brief visit. with kindest remembrances to mr. gaskell and all your precious circle, i am," etc.
this visit at mrs. smith's was passed more quietly than any previous one, and was consequently more in accordance with her own tastes. she saw things rather than persons; and being allowed to have her own choice of sights, she selected the "real in preference to the decorative side of life." she went over two prisons,—one ancient, the other modern,—newgate and pentonville; over two hospitals, the foundling and bethlehem. she was also taken, at her own request, to see several of the great city sights; the bank, the exchange, rothschild's, etc.
the power of vast yet minute organisation, always called out her respect and admiration. she appreciated it more fully than most women are able to do. all that she saw during this last visit to london impressed her deeply—so much so as to render her incapable of the immediate expression of her feelings, or of reasoning upon her impressions while they were so vivid. if she had lived, her deep heart would sooner or later have spoken out on these things.
what she saw dwelt in her thoughts, and lay heavy on her spirits. she received the utmost kindness from her hosts, and had the old, warm, and grateful regard for them. but looking back, with the knowledge of what was then the future, which time has given, one cannot but imagine that there was a toning-down in preparation for the final farewell to these kind friends, whom she saw for the last time on a wednesday morning in february. she met her friend e—— at keighley, on her return, and the two proceeded to haworth together.
"villette"—which, if less interesting as a mere story than "jane eyre," displays yet more of the extraordinary genius of the author—was received with one burst of acclamation. out of so small a circle of characters, dwelling in so dull and monotonous an area as a "pension," this wonderful tale was evolved!
see how she receives the good tidings of her success!
"feb. 15th, 1853.
"i got a budget of no less than seven papers yesterday and to-day. the import of all the notices is such as to make my heart swell with thankfulness to him, who takes note both of suffering, and work, and motives. papa is pleased too. as to friends in general, i believe i can love them still, without expecting them to take any large share in this sort of gratification. the longer i live, the more plainly i see that gentle must be the strain on fragile human nature; it will not bear much."
i suspect that the touch of slight disappointment, perceptible in the last few lines, arose from her great susceptibility to an opinion she valued much,—that of miss martineau, who, both in an article on 'villette' in the daily news, and in a private letter to miss brontë, wounded her to the quick by expressions of censure which she believed to be unjust and unfounded, but which, if correct and true, went deeper than any merely artistic fault. an author may bring himself to believe that he can bear blame with equanimity, from whatever quarter it comes; but its force is derived altogether from the character of this. to the public, one reviewer may be the same impersonal being as another; but an author has frequently a far deeper significance to attach to opinions. they are the verdicts of those whom he respects and admires, or the mere words of those for whose judgment he cares not a jot. it is this knowledge of the individual worth of the reviewer's opinion, which makes the censures of some sink so deep, and prey so heavily upon an author's heart. and thus, in proportion to her true, firm regard for miss martineau, did miss brontë suffer under what she considered her misjudgment not merely of writing, but of character.
she had long before asked miss martineau to tell her whether she considered that any want of womanly delicacy or propriety was betrayed in "jane eyre". and on receiving miss martineau's assurance that she did not, miss brontë entreated her to declare it frankly if she thought there was any failure of this description in any future work of "currer bell's." the promise then given of faithful truth-speaking, miss martineau fulfilled when "villette" appeared. miss brontë writhed under what she felt to be injustice.
this seems a fitting place to state how utterly unconscious she was of what was, by some, esteemed coarse in her writings. one day, during that visit at the briery when i first met her, the conversation turned upon the subject of women's writing fiction; and some one remarked on the fact that, in certain instances, authoresses had much outstepped the line which men felt to be proper in works of this kind. miss brontë said she wondered how far this was a natural consequence of allowing the imagination to work too constantly; sir james and lady kay shuttleworth and i expressed our belief that such violations of propriety were altogether unconscious on the part of those to whom reference had been made. i remember her grave, earnest way of saying, "i trust god will take from me whatever power of invention or expression i may have, before he lets me become blind to the sense of what is fitting or unfitting to be said!"
again, she was invariably shocked and distressed when she heard of any disapproval of "jane eyre" on the ground above-mentioned. some one said to her in london, "you know, you and i, miss brontë, have both written naughty books!" she dwelt much on this; and, as if it weighed on her mind, took an opportunity to ask mrs. smith, as she would have asked a mother—if she had not been motherless from earliest childhood—whether, indeed, there was anything so wrong in "jane eyre."
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 before 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 acquainted 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 out-spoken people among whom she lived,—remember her strong feeling of the duty of representing life as it really is, not as it ought to be,—and then do her justice for all that she was, and all that she would have been (had god spared her), rather than censure her because circumstances forced her to touch pitch, as it were, 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!"
the misunderstanding with miss martineau on account of "villette," was the cause of bitter regret to miss brontë. her woman's nature had been touched, as she thought, with insulting misconception; and she had dearly loved the person who had thus unconsciously wounded her. it was but in the january just past that she had written as follows, in reply to a friend, the tenor of whose letter we may guess from this answer:—
"i read attentively all you say about miss martineau; the sincerity and constancy of your solicitude touch me very much; i should grieve to neglect or oppose your advice, and yet i do not feel it would be right to give miss martineau up entirely. there is in her nature much that is very noble; hundreds have forsaken her, more, i fear, in the apprehension that their fair names may suffer, if seen in connection with hers, than from any pure convictions, such as you suggest, of harm consequent on her fatal tenets. with these fair-weather friends i cannot bear to rank; and for her sin, is it not one of those of which god and not man must judge?
"to speak the truth, my dear miss ——, i believe, if you were in my place, and knew miss martineau as i do,—if you had shared with me the proofs of her genuine kindliness, and had seen how she secretly suffers from abandonment,—you would be the last to give her up; you would separate the sinner from the sin, and feel as if the right lay rather in quietly adhering to her in her strait, while that adherence is unfashionable and unpopular, than in turning on her your back when the world sets the example. i believe she is one of those whom opposition and desertion make obstinate in error; while patience and tolerance touch her deeply and keenly, and incline her to ask of her own heart whether the course she has been pursuing may not possibly be a faulty course."
kindly and faithful words! which miss martineau never knew of; to be repaid in words more grand and tender, when charlotte lay deaf and cold by her dead sisters. in spite of their short sorrowful misunderstanding, they were a pair of noble women and faithful friends.
i turn to a pleasanter subject. while she was in london, miss brontë had seen lawrence's portrait of mr. thackeray, and admired it extremely. her first words, after she had stood before it some time in silence, were, "and there came up a lion out of judah!" the likeness was by this time engraved, and mr. smith sent her a copy of it.
to g. smith, esq.
"haworth, feb. 26th, 1853.
"my dear sir,—at a late hour yesterday evening, i had the honour of receiving, at haworth parsonage, a distinguished guest, none other than w. m. thackeray, esq. mindful of the rites of hospitality, i hung him up in state this morning. he looks superb in his beautiful, tasteful gilded gibbet. for companion he has the duke of wellington, (do you remember giving me that picture?) and for contrast and foil richmond's portrait of an unworthy individual, who, in such society, must be name-less. thackeray looks away from the latter character with a grand scorn, edifying to witness. i wonder if the giver of these gifts will ever see them on the walls where they now hang; it pleases me to fancy that one day he may. my father stood for a quarter of an hour this morning examining the great man's picture. the conclusion of his survey was, that he thought it a puzzling head; if he had known nothing previously of the original's character; he could not have read it in his features. i wonder at this. to me the broad brow seems to express intellect. certain lines about the nose and cheek, betray the satirist and cynic; the mouth indicates a child-like simplicity—perhaps even a degree of irresoluteness, inconsistency—weakness in short, but a weakness not unamiable. the engraving seems to me very good. a certain not quite christian expression—'not to put too fine a point upon it'—an expression of spite, most vividly marked in the original, is here softened, and perhaps a little—a very little—of the power has escaped in this ameliorating process. did it strike you thus?"
miss brontë was in much better health during this winter of 1852-3, than she had been the year before.
"for my part," (she wrote to me in february) "i have thus far borne the cold weather well. i have taken long walks on the crackling snow, and felt the frosty air bracing. this winter has, for me, not been like last winter. december, january, february, '51-2, passed like a long stormy night, conscious of one painful dream) all solitary grief and sickness. the corresponding l in '52-3 have gone over my head quietly and not uncheerfully. thank god for the change and the repose! how welcome it has been he only knows! my father too has borne the season well; and my book, and its reception thus far, have pleased and cheered him."
in march the quiet parsonage had the honour of receiving a visit from the then bishop of ripon. he remained one night with mr. brontë. in the evening, some of the neighbouring clergy were invited to meet him at tea and supper; and during the latter meal, some of the "curates" began merrily to upbraid miss brontë with "putting them into a book;" and she, shrinking from thus having her character as authoress thrust upon her at her own table, and in the presence of a stranger, pleasantly appealed to the bishop as to whether it was quite fair thus to drive her, into a corner. his lordship, i have been told, was agreeably impressed with the gentle unassuming manners of his hostess, and with the perfect propriety and consistency of the arrangements in the modest household. so much for the bishop's recollection of his visit. now we will turn to hers.
"march 4th.
"the bishop has been, and is gone. he is certainly a most charming bishop; the most benignant gentleman that ever put on lawn sleeves; yet stately too, and quite competent to check encroachments. his visit passed capitally well; and at its close, as he was going away, he expressed himself thoroughly gratified with all he had seen. the inspector has been also in the course of the past week; so that i have had a somewhat busy time of it. if you could have been at haworth to share the pleasures of the company, without having been inconvenienced by the little bustle of the preparation, i should have been very glad. but the house was a good deal put out of its way, as you may suppose; all passed, however, orderly, quietly, and well. martha waited very nicely, and i had a person to help her in the kitchen. papa kept up, too, fully as well as i expected, though i doubt whether he could have borne another day of it. my penalty came on in a strong headache as soon as the bishop was gone: how thankful i was that it had patiently waited his departure. i continue stupid to-day: of course, it is the reaction consequent on several days of extra exertion and excitement. it is very well to talk of receiving a bishop without trouble, but you must prepare for him."
by this time some of the reviews had began to find fault with
"villette." miss brontë made her old request.
to w. s. williams, esq.
"my dear sir,—were a review to appear, inspired with treble their animus, pray do not withhold it from me. i like to see the satisfactory notices,—especially i like to carry them to my father; but i must see such as are unsatisfactory and hostile; these are for my own especial edification;—it is in these i best read public feeling and opinion. to shun examination into the dangerous and disagreeable seems to me cowardly. i long always to know what really is, and am only unnerved when kept in the dark. . . . . . .
"as to the character of 'lucy snowe,' my intention from the first was that she should not occupy the pedestal to which 'jane eyre' was raised by some injudicious admirers. she is where i meant her to be, and where no charge of self-laudation can touch her.
"the note you sent this morning from lady harriette st. clair, is precisely to the same purport as miss muloch's request,—an application for exact and authentic information respecting the fate of m. paul emanuel! you see how much the ladies think of this little man, whom you none of you like. i had a letter the other day; announcing that a lady of some note, who had always determined that whenever she married, her husband should be the counterpart of 'mr. knightly' in miss austen's 'emma,' had now changed her mind, and vowed that she would either find the duplicate of professor emanuel, or remain for ever single! i have sent lady harriette an answer so worded as to leave the matter pretty much where it was. since the little puzzle amuses the ladies, it would be a pity to spoil their sport by giving them the key."
when easter, with its duties arising out of sermons to be preached by strange clergymen who had afterwards to be entertained at the parsonage,—with mechanics' institute meetings, and school tea-drinkings, was over and gone; she came, at the close of april, to visit us in manchester. we had a friend, a young lady, staying with us. miss brontë had expected to find us alone; and although our friend was gentle and sensible after miss brontë's own heart, yet her presence was enough to create a nervous tremour. i was aware that both of our guests were unusually silent; and i saw a little shiver run from time to time over miss brontë's frame. i could account for the modest reserve of the young lady; and the next day miss brontë told me how the unexpected sight of a strange face had affected her.
it was now two or three years since i had witnessed a similar effect produced on her; in anticipation of a quiet evening at fox-how; and since then she had seen many and various people in london: but the physical sensations produced by shyness were still the same; and on the following day she laboured under severe headache. i had several opportunities of perceiving how this nervousness was ingrained in her constitution, and how acutely she suffered in striving to overcome it. one evening we had, among other guests, two sisters who sang scottish ballads exquisitely. miss brontë had been sitting quiet and constrained till they began "the bonnie house of airlie," but the effect of that and "carlisle yetts," which followed, was as irresistible as the playing of the piper of hamelin. the beautiful clear light came into her eyes; her lips quivered with emotion; she forgot herself, rose, and crossed the room to the piano, where she asked eagerly for song after song. the sisters begged her to come and see them the next morning, when they would sing as long as ever she liked; and she promised gladly and thankfully. but on reaching the house her courage failed. we walked some time up and down the street; she upbraiding herself all the while for folly, and trying to dwell on the sweet echoes in her memory rather than on the thought of a third sister who would have to be faced if we went in. but it was of no use; and dreading lest this struggle with herself might bring on one of her trying headaches, i entered at last and made the best apology i could for her non-appearance. much of this nervous dread of encountering strangers i ascribed to the idea of her personal ugliness, which had been strongly impressed upon her imagination early in life, and which she exaggerated to herself in a remarkable manner. "i notice," said she, "that after a stranger has once looked at my face, he is careful not to let his eyes wander to that part of the room again!" a more untrue idea never entered into any one's head. two gentlemen who saw her during this visit, without knowing at the time who she was, were singularly attracted by her appearance; and this feeling of attraction towards a pleasant countenance, sweet voice, and gentle timid manners, was so strong in one as to conquer a dislike he had previously entertained to her works.
there was another circumstance that came to my knowledge at this period which told secrets about the finely-strung frame. one night i was on the point of relating some dismal ghost story, just before bed-time. she shrank from hearing it, and confessed that she was superstitious, and, prone at all times to the involuntary recurrence of any thoughts of ominous gloom which might have been suggested to her. she said that on first coming to us, she had found a letter on her dressing-table from a friend in yorkshire, containing a story which had impressed her vividly ever since;—that it mingled with her dreams at night, and made her sleep restless and unrefreshing.
one day we asked two gentlemen to meet her at dinner; expecting that she and they would have a mutual pleasure in making each other's acquaintance. to our disappointment she drew back with timid reserve from all their advances, replying to their questions and remarks in the briefest manner possible; till at last they gave up their efforts to draw her into conversation in despair, and talked to each other and my husband on subjects of recent local interest. among these thackeray's lectures (which had lately been delivered in manchester) were spoken of and that on fielding especially dwelt upon. one gentleman objected to it strongly, as calculated to do moral harm, and regretted that a man having so great an influence over the tone of thought of the day, as thackeray, should not more carefully weigh his words. the other took the opposite view. he said that thackeray described men from the inside, as it were; through his strong power of dramatic sympathy, he identified himself with certain characters, felt their temptations, entered into their pleasures, etc. this roused miss brontë, who threw herself warmly into the discussion; the ice of her reserve was broken, and from that time she showed her interest in all that was said, and contributed her share to any conversation that was going on in the course of the evening.
what she said, and which part she took, in the dispute about thackeray's lecture, may be gathered from the following letter, referring to the same subject:—
"the lectures arrived safely; i have read them through twice. they must be studied to be appreciated. i thought well of them when i heard them delivered, but now i see their real power; and it is great. the lecture on swift was new to me; i thought it almost matchless. not that by any means i always agree with mr. thackeray's opinions, but his force, his penetration, his pithy simplicity, his eloquence—his manly sonorous eloquence,—command entire admiration. . . . against his errors i protest, were it treason to do so. i was present at the fielding lecture: the hour spent in listening to it was a painful hour. that thackeray was wrong in his way of treating fielding's character and vices, my conscience told me. after reading that lecture, i trebly felt that he was wrong—dangerously wrong. had thackeray owned a son, grown, or growing up, and a son, brilliant but reckless—would he have spoken in that light way of courses that lead to disgrace and the grave? he speaks of it all as if he theorised; as if he had never been called on, in the course of his life, to witness the actual consequences of such failings; as if he had never stood by and seen the issue, the final result of it all. i believe, if only once the prospect of a promising life blasted on the outset by wild ways had passed close under his eyes, he never could have spoken with such levity of what led to its piteous destruction. had i a brother yet living, i should tremble to let him read thackeray's lecture on fielding. i should hide it away from him. if, in spite of precaution, it should fall into his hands, i should earnestly pray him not to be misled by the voice of the charmer, let him charm never so wisely. not that for a moment i would have had thackeray to abuse fielding, or even pharisaically to condemn his life; but i do most deeply grieve that it never entered into his heart sadly and nearly to feel the peril of such a career, that he might have dedicated some of his great strength to a potent warning against its adoption by any young man. i believe temptation often assails the finest manly natures; as the pecking sparrow or destructive wasp attacks the sweetest and mellowest fruit, eschewing what is sour and crude. the true lover of his race ought to devote his vigour to guard and protect; he should sweep away every lure with a kind of rage at its treachery. you will think this far too serious, i dare say; but the subject is serious, and one cannot help feeling upon it earnestly."
