The Key to the Bronte Works Part 30

John Rivers as a phase of Charlotte's Brussels _Fenelon_.

[70] See M. Paul and Lucy Snowe (M. Heger and Charlotte Bronte) in the close of Chapter XXI. of _Villette_.

[71] Mrs. Humphry Ward in her "Introductions" to the Haworth Edition of the Bronte novels instanced this pa.s.sage as showing Emily Bronte's extravagant love for the moors, inferring she preferred the heath to heaven. But Mrs. Ward in these same "Introductions" even argued that _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ were dissimilar in characterization and style. Catherine's reference herewith in _Wuthering Heights_, to a "subliminal" existence in a lover and to the notion that the absence or loss of such a love (and hence, limiting of the bounds of existence,) would make the universe a blank, having no sympathy or relation--a stranger, is at one with Charlotte Bronte's further words in her poem, "Frances":--

"Unloved--I love; unwept--I weep; . . . . . . . . . . . .

Vain is this anguish--fixed and deep; . . . . . . . . . . . .

"For me the universe is dumb, Stone-deaf, and blank, and wholly blind; Life I must bound, existence sum In the strait limits of one mind;

"That mind my own. Oh! narrow cell; Dark--imageless--a living tomb!"

[72] _Charlotte Bronte and Her Circle._

[73] Mentor's advice to Telemachus when tempted and miserable on the island of Calypso is that given by the spirit of Jane Eyre's mother--"Flee temptation!" "Virtue," argues Mentor, "now calls you back to your country ... and forbids you to give up your heart to an unworthy pa.s.sion.... Fly, fly, ... for love is conquered only by flight ... in retreat without deliberation, and ... looking back." "Neither Calypso nor Eucharis cared to fascinate Mentor" (_s.h.i.+rley_, Chapter XXVII.).

Evidently M. Sue knew Charlotte Bronte had read this book at Brussels, for he makes play upon it in "Lagrange's Ma.n.u.script," wherein "Telemaque" is subst.i.tuted for "Ra.s.selas" in the equivalent scene in _Jane Eyre_.

[74] See chapter on the Yorks.h.i.+re element in Charlotte Bronte's heroes.

[75] "Religion called----Angels beckoned!----"

[76] See my reference to Catherine of _Wuthering Heights_ and Caroline of _s.h.i.+rley_, and their crying aloud when ill and delirious for "a way"

to the absent lover, pp. 147-8.

[77] See the reproach of the dying Catherine to Heathcliffe I quote in the next chapter. See also Crimsworth's words in the beginning of Chapter XIX. of _The Professor_.

[78] See close of Chapter XXIV. of _Jane Eyre_.

[79] See my footnote on "the trodden way" on p. 136.

[80] See my reference to "the barriers" in "Apostasy."

[81] "I called myself your brother," says M. Paul to Lucy Snowe, the originals of whom were M. Heger and Charlotte Bronte. "... I know I think of you--I feel I wish you well--but I must check myself; you are to be feared. My best friends point out danger and whisper caution."--_Villette_, Chap. x.x.xvi.

[82] Mr. Angus Mackay, in _The Brontes: Fact and Fiction_, identifies Charlotte Bronte as the original of "Frances" of Charlotte's poem.

[83] _Charlotte Bronte and Her Sisters_, pp. 181-3.

[84] See pages 136 and 140.

[85] See my remarks on Mrs. Pryor in Appendix on _s.h.i.+rley_.

[86] Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Bronte_.

[87] See footnote on page 97.

[88] _Sydney Dobell: Life and Letters_; 1878.

[89] Of course Mr. Dobell did not know that by the terms of arrangement with Mr. Newby, the publisher of _Wuthering Heights_, it was virtually impossible for Charlotte Bronte, after the success of _Jane Eyre_, to admit her authors.h.i.+p of _Wuthering Heights_ publicly. See my remarks hereon in Chapter I.

[90] For this see Leyland's _The Bronte Family_.

[91] See footnote, page 13.

[92] _Charlotte Bronte and her Sisters_, page 162.

[93] Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Bronte_.

[94] The fact that towards the end great affection sprang up between the Rev. Patrick Bronte and his only surviving daughter cannot be too strongly emphasized. A most touching narration of him and the dying Currer Bell, related by Martha Brown, the Bronte servant, and herself the eye-witness, is given by Mr. William Scruton, in _Thornton and The Brontes_, page 133 (1898):--"When Charlotte heard her father coming upstairs to her, she would strain every nerve to give him a pleasing reception. On his entering the room she would greet him with, 'See, papa, I am looking a little better.'" Mr. Home was "papa" to Paulina.

Compare the lightsome Paulina with the younger Catherine of _Wuthering Heights_; and Mrs. Home's death, _Villette_, chap, xxiv., with Mrs.

Helstone's _s.h.i.+rley_, chap. iv.

[95] The letters in _The Times_ in the close of 1906, and in the early part of 1907, attacking the authenticity of the Heger portrait, were written by Mr. Shorter. My footnote in _The Fortnightly_ ran:--"In attacking the water-colour portrait of Charlotte Bronte purchased by the Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, the discovery of which, signed 'Paul Heger, 1850,' was inimical to Mr. Clement Shorter's contention that Charlotte Bronte had but distantly interested M. Heger, Mr. Shorter said, 'M. Heger certainly did not know even in 1850 that Miss Bronte, his old pupil, and Currer Bell were identical,' and with another a.s.serted M. Heger and Charlotte Bronte never met after 1844. We shall see here, however, that M. Heger knew all Miss Bronte's literary secrets in 1850, and that they must have met after 1844, for M. Heger could have acquired these secrets only in most intimate conversation with Currer Bell herself: to none other would she have revealed them."

[96] In this connection it is of interest to read the remarks of one of the jealous de Morville women on this portrait of the Irish governess:--"Patience! ... qui vivra verra. Je garde ce portrait de mademoiselle miss Mary, ca me fera souvent penser a elle--ca m'empechera de l'oublier. Je vais la clouer a quatre epingles sur le papier de ma chambre".... She threatens to stick pins in it.... "Oui, oui, la belle Anglais!" she afterwards exclaims; "ce n'est pas seulement ton portrait que je perce a coups d'epingle, c'est toi-meme!" Which would suggest that a portrait of Charlotte Bronte could have remained at the Heger establishment but at risk of being destroyed. I may observe these mysterious references occur only in the 1851 volume; not in the 1850 _feuilleton_.

[97] See my footnote on p. 82.

[98] Mr. Greenwood Dyson, born in 1830 in the Fold opposite the White Lion Hotel, in the house now a blacksmith's shop. "I was married in 1850," he stated to me, "and was living about twenty yards from Haworth Church when Charlotte Bronte gave a black silk dress to my wife." The Rev. Patrick Bronte signed a testimonial saying he well knew Mr. Dyson as being reliable and trustworthy, as also did the Rev. A. B. Nicholls, Miss Bronte's husband. I have examined the doc.u.ment. An interesting glimpse of Charlotte Bronte I have not seen in any work is one of Mr.

Dyson's reminiscences. He tells me that "there was a draw-well situated in the kitchen of the Rectory from which we boys used to draw water for domestic purposes." He added that often he drew water for Charlotte Bronte or others of the Bronte household before drawing for himself. "In one of the upper windows," he once wrote me, "a board had been placed instead of one of the panes of gla.s.s, in the centre of which was bored a hole in which Miss Bronte inserted a telescope to take observations."

Perceiving in conversation with him the genuine pleasure the sight of the Heger portrait of Charlotte Bronte gave Mr. Dyson, I later forwarded him a large photograph, taken direct from the original Heger drawing of Charlotte Bronte in the National Portrait Gallery. I print his reply to me written on March 2, 1907:--

"DEAR SIR,--I received the likeness of Charlotte Bronte (which you were kind enough to send me) this morning, for which I should like to express my appreciation. It really is a very nice portrait. I think it is very much like her. With sincerest thanks, I remain, very truly yours, J. MALHAM-DEMBLEBY, Esq. (Signed) G. DYSON."

[99] Through the courtesy of Professor Charles J. Holmes, the present Director of the National Portrait Gallery, I am able to print herewith the N.P.G. references to this portrait.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY TABLET ON PICTURE:--

CHARLOTTE BRONTe (Mrs. Arthur Bell Nicholls).

1816-1855.

Novelist. Author of _Jane Eyre_ and other works.

Painted in 1850 by "Paul Heger."

Purchased, July 1906.

(1444)

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY CATALOGUE:--

Painted in water-colours in 1850, and stated to be by "Paul"

(or Constantin) Heger, after an earlier portrait by her brother Branwell Bronte.

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY ILl.u.s.tRATED CATALOGUE:--

Water-colour drawing stated to be by "Paul" (or Constantin) Heger, after Branwell Bronte.

(1444)

I may add that the inverted commas used in regard to M. Heger's name are employed because "Paul" was not his common name. He was an active member of the Society of S. Vincent de Paul, and Charlotte Bronte portrayed him as M. Paul in her novel, _Villette_, commenced not later than the close of 1850 or the beginning of 1851.

[100] Italics mine.