Letter from Jane Welsh Carlyle to Charlotte Cushman, Jan 31, 1862

Letter from Jane Welsh Carlyle to Charlotte Cushman, Jan 31, 1862

Carlyle tells Cushman about her illness and how happy she was to hear from Cushman in a letter. Carlyle is very fond of Cushman. She also had a "fearful row with Geraldine Jewsbury" which she tells Cushman about.

Credit

Library of Congress, Charlotte Cushman Papers, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Carlyle, Jane Welsh, 1801-1866

LoC, CCP 16

Carlyle, Jane Welsh. Jane Carlyle: Newly Selected Letters. Edited by K. J. Fielding and David R. Sorensen. Ashgate, 2004, pp. 268-271.

1862-01-31

Reference

[page 1] My Dear! My Dear! I want to put my arms round your neck, and give you–oh! such a good kiss And then, if you can stand that sort of thing, once in a way, –I should like to lay my head on
your shoulder and take a good cry! That is how nature prompts me to acknowledge your dear letter, and dear newyear's tokens,–with a good kiss and a good cry; rather than with any
written sentences that my poor nearly extinct Brain can cobble together in these Hard Times! (I am so worn out and disheartened with long illness and confinement to two rooms!) But alas Dear! The 'gods', however entreated, will not 'annihilate Time and Space, to make two Lovers happy'! That has been clearly ascertained some time since! And so, faute de mieux, I must have recourse to writing 'under difficulties', and that without further delay, on penalty of passing for both fickle and ungrateful; when-God bless you!–I am far as possible from being either! and as unwilling as possible that such an idea should be entertained of me-by you!
Mrs Dilberoglue, being the precisest and faithfulest of dear little 'Goods', would do infallibly what she promised, nay volunteered to do, namely 'explain to Miss Cushman all about it'–'lt' meaning my happiness at having a letter from you, my true Scotch woman impatience to make 'a suitable
return,' –and then my illness–the extreme weakness and nervousness which

[page 2] made any–the least–use of my head
intolerably irksome besides being especially prohibited by my Doctor;–all that the little Good was to 'explain'! and trusting that she did so with her accustomed accuracy and lucidity, I will not go back upon the causes of my long silence. It is enough to have been four months ill and shut up in two rooms; without 'renewing grief' by details of one's fit-for-nothingness; so soon as ever one has recovered a certain use of one's tongue and pen!
But if I shut down the lid and turn the key on my sick room tribulations; what is there left out of these weary four months to tell you? This–first and foremost; that I am not a bit cooled on the sudden affection I took for you; and believe it to be one of those Elective Affinities on which one does not cool–ever! I have seen you twice-that's all! and already you are mixed up with my life like an old friend! Something new and good in my life–not outside it! I look forward with pleasure to seeing you again; but, without seeing you without interchanging words with you, it is a pleasure to know of you in the same world with me.The influence of a strong, brave, loving true woman may be felt at any distance, I firmly believe, without outward visible sign. And then, Dear, you are come to me just at the right time-to be a consolation as well as a possession! For, of late years, it had been all loss, loss with me! never again! One Friend after another out of 'dear old Long ago,' that had cared for me and that I had cared for all my Life,

[page 3] had gone to their rest, leaving me so lonely on the Earth! Playing at Friendship with the new people I was thrown amongst; and so discouraged in my secret heart that I despaired of both my chances and my ability to ever make myself a new real Friend!–My Heavens! when I went to Barnsbury Park that day to see you; how very very little I dreamt of jumping into your arms! and 'swearing eternal Friendship,' like any Boarding-school Girl! But it was all right! After so many months and after a severe fit of illness (which I take to be the best possible test of realities and shams) I feel no misgivings about that somewhat German-looking transaction! rather compliment myself on having so much Life left in me after all! and on having turned it to such account! My Life has been making another pronunciomento with
which I could throw you into fits of laughter if I had you beside me! My Dear! I have had a fearful row with Geraldine Jewsburyl which has made 'pigs and whistles' of that everlasting friendship! and 'Like cliffs that have been rent as under A dreary sea now flows between!' I should be more overpowered with grief than I am (in fact I have shown an insensibility unexampled!) had the cliffs been rent by one explosion; but the rent has been the gradual work of many years. And the cliffs were only of Land or some very loose Material to begin with! I do think that sort of emotional woman, all 'finer sensibilities' and no feeling,

[page 4] all smoke and no flame is one of the most intolerable inventions of Civilization, should be put down by act of Parliament, and prayed against in all Churches! You asked for Mrs Hawks's (Madame Venturi's) address after the 1st of January (she wrote to me) I was to address Emelia Venturi nata Ashurst poste restante Milan–She had been living up to that date in some rooms of an old chateau, near Bresica [Brescia], dismantled and unfurnished, in the midst of all sorts of inconveniences and discomforts; waited on by a girl of the Country whom she named Bare legs (as Mr Carlyle would say) 'significative of much!' But caring for none of these things! very fond of her new Husband (I think, and very happy with him) happy as a young girl!–and with a touching air of consciousness
that not being a young girl she has no claim to that sort of happiness and no sure hold of it! She writes to me 'I am so glad you like Charlotte Cushman. She is a dear good noble soul!'

[page 4 right margin] Aren't you glad that we are not to be natural enemies? It would have been so absurd that war as well as so vexatious!! When will you come? And how long will you stay? I cannot put into words how touched I was by your new years bouquet, and the little scarfs! I took them not only as tokens from you but as omens of a fortunate year; and–next day I had a relapse and was thrown into bed again for a fortnight!!

[page 1 top margin] Does your friend remember me? I do her-and offer her my kind regards and just one word more and the paper is full. Please love me ever so much but don't flatter me for it
makes me 'think shame'! Yours faithfully and affectionately/
Jane Carlyle

Carlyle, Jane Welsh, 1801-1866

Cushman, Charlotte Saunders, 1816-1876

5 Cheyne Row, Chelsea, London, UK

51.4837173

-0.169603

38 Via Gregoriana, Roma, Italy

41.9039977

12.485448

Fielding and Sorensen comment on the following letetrs that addressed the correspondence between Jane Carlyle and Cushman:
"It is, perhaps, of this letter that Sarah Dilberoglue wrote on 19 December that 'the note for Mrs Carlyle, too, came at a good time; she was
confined to her room by illness, and it was quite comforting to her to receive it, indeed, she has been ill ftJr more than a month: during part of
the time in her bed'. Charlotte Cushman then wrote, 28 January 1862: 'How shall I tell you, dear, that I have been sad to death over your illness that
I have wanted to write to you, but could not for many reasons? ... Tell me how can I serve you? Mrs. Dilberoglue says that you have been ill too ill to send me a note & I have been longing for some word ... & I have the Sorrow to love you, & not be able to help you.' She mentions having sent 'a little Roman scarf' as a new year gift, Emilie Ashhurst, the Italian question and English sympathy with the South in the civil war. Feeling was running high. 'When we do come to blows I shall choose my English for fighting with you & shall be.first. Could I be content to be whipped by you & kiss your hands. Oh how long before I shall see you' (NLS 177 4.227). According to Stebbins, Charlotte seems also to have written to a friend on 8 February, mentioning Jane's letter of 31 January in which she said that they had met 'just at the right time' (Letters and Memories 181-2). Charlotte adds that there comes a time when nations and individuals
must recognize and meet their 'real needs'. Sarah Dilberoglue reported, on 4 March, that she and her husband had recently had tea with Jane, 'who
was much better-I found she had written to you the very day before she got the note ... and she had your answer before I saw her-I must get to see her this week for I know she is feeling me a recreant'. Of the same visit, she adds that the Carlyles were 'going out at night to Lord Ashburton's, and Mrs. C: was more like herself than I have seen her for months'. Jane clearly liked her new friend, but it is not clear who could claim the 'conquest' of the other, and Charlotte was to grow discouraged.As noted in the Introduction (xxvii), she told her niece (19 February 1863) that she was wrong to think that she was 'prevented from writing' to Jane 'by any outward influence .... My not writing is purely in interior difficulty.'" (Jane Carlyle: Newly Selected Letters 271)