William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. VIII. 1811-1814
William Wordsworth to William Godwin, 9 March 1811
“Grasmere, March 9, 1811.
“Dear Sir,—I received your
letter and the accompanying booklet yesterday. Some one recommended to
Gainsborough a subject for a
picture: it pleased him much, but he immediately said with a sigh,
‘What a pity I did not think of it myself!’ Had I been
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| LETTER FROM WORDSWORTH. | 219 |
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as much delighted with
the story of the Beauty and the Beast as you appear
to have been, and as much struck with its fitness for verse, still your
proposal would have occasioned in me a similar regret. I have ever had the same
sort of perverseness: I cannot work upon the suggestion of others, however
eagerly I might have addressed myself to the proposed subject, if it had come
to me of its own accord. You will therefore attribute my declining the task of
versifying the tale to this infirmity, rather than to an indisposition to serve
you. Having stated this, it is unnecessary to add that it could not, in my
opinion, be ever decently done without great labour, especially in our
language. Fontaine acknowledges that he
found ‘les narrations en vers très
mal-aisées,’ yet he allowed himself, in
point of metre and versification, every kind of liberty, and only chose such
subjects as (to the disgrace of his country be it spoken) the French language
is peculiarly fitted for. This tale, I judge from its name, is of French
origin; it is not, however, found in a little collection which I have in that
tongue: mine only includes Puss in Boots, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood,
and two or three more. I think the shape in which it appears in the little book
you have sent me has much injured the story, and Mrs. Wordsworth and my sister both have an impression of its being told differently,
and to them much more pleasantly, though they do not distinctly recollect the
deviations. I confess there is to me something disgusting in the notion of a
human being consenting to meet with a beast, however amiable his qualities of
heart. There is a line and a half in the Paradise Lost upon this subject, which
always shocked me,— ‘. . . . . . for which cause Among the beasts no mate for thee was found.’” |
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“These are objects to which the attention of the mind
ought not to be turned even as things in possibility. I have never seen the
tale in French, but, as every one knows, the word Bête in French conversation perpetually occurs as
applied to a stupid, senseless, half-idiotic person. Bêtise in like manner stands for stupidity. With us,
beast and bestial excite loathsome and disgusting ideas—I mean when applied in
a metaphorical manner: ![]()
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and consequently something of
the same hangs about the literal sense of the words. Brute is the word employed
when we contrast the intellectual qualities of the inferior animals with our
own, the brute creation, &c. ‘Ye of brutes human, we of human
gods.’ Brute, metaphorically used, with us designates ill manners
of a coarse kind, or insolent and ferocious cruelty. I make these remarks with
a view to the difficulty attending the treatment of this story in our tongue, I
mean in verse, where the utmost delicacy, that is, true, philosophic, permanent
delicacy, is required.
“Wm. Taylor of
Norwich took the trouble of versifying ‘Blue Beard’ some years ago, and
might perhaps not decline to assist you in the present case, if you are
acquainted with him, or could get at him. He is a man personally unknown to me,
and in his literary character doubtless an egregious coxcomb, but he is
ingenious enough to do this, if he could be prevailed upon to undertake it.
“Permit me to add one particular. You live, and have
lived, long in London, and therefore may not know at what rate parcels are
conveyed by coach. Judging from the size, you probably thought the expense of
yours would be trifling. You remember the story of the poor girl who, being
reproached with having brought forth an illegitimate child, said it was true,
but added that it was a very little one, insinuating thereby that her offence
was small in proportion. But the plea does not hold good, as it is in these
cases of immorality, so it is with the rules of the coach-offices. To be brief,
I had to pay for your tiny parcel 4/9, and should have to pay no more if it had
been twenty times as large. . . . . I deem you, therefore, my debtor, and will
put you in the way of being quits with me. If you can command a copy of your
book upon burial,
which I have never seen, let it be sent to Lamb’s for my use, who in the course of this spring will
be able to forward it to me.—Believe me, my dear Sir, to be yours sincerely,
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
English portrait and landscape painter whose popularity rivalled that of Joshua
Reynolds.
Jean de La Fontaine (1621-1695)
French poet whose
Fables were first translated into English in
1734.
Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834)
English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of
Essays of Elia published in the
London
Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.
William Taylor of Norwich (1765-1836)
Translator, poet, and essayist; he was a pupil of Anna Letitia Barbauld and correspondent
of Robert Southey who contributed to the
Monthly Magazine, the
Monthly Review, the
Critical Review, and
other periodicals.
Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855)
The sister of William Wordsworth who transcribed his poems and kept his house; her
journals and letters were belatedly published after her death.
