The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 1Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
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The Life of Charlotte Brontë — Volume 1
Gaskell, Elizabeth Cleghorn
Brontë, Charlotte, 1816-1855; Novelists, English -- 19th century -- Biography
"I positively have nothing more to say to you, for I am in a stupid
humour. You must excuse this letter not being quite as long as your
own. I have written to you soon, that you might not look after the
postman in vain. Preserve this writing as a curiosity in caligraphy--I
think it is exquisite--all brilliant black blots, and utterly
illegible letters. 'CALIBAN.'
"'The wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.' That, I
believe, is Scripture, though in what chapter or book, or whether it
be correctly quoted, I can't possibly say. However, it behoves me to
write a letter to a young woman of the name of E., with whom I was
once acquainted, 'in life's morning march, when my spirit was young.'
This young woman wished me to write to her some time since, though I
have nothing to say--I e'en put it off, day by day, till at last,
fearing that she will 'curse me by her gods,' I feel constrained to
sit down and tack a few lines together, which she may call a letter or
not as she pleases. Now if the young woman expects sense in this
production, she will find herself miserably disappointed. I shall
dress her a dish of salmagundi--I shall cook a hash--compound a
stew--toss up an _omelette soufflee a la Francaise_, and send it her
with my respects. The wind, which is very high up in our hills of
Judea, though, I suppose, down in the Philistine flats of B. parish it
is nothing to speak of, has produced the same effects on the contents
of my knowledge-box that a quaigh of usquebaugh does upon those of
most other bipeds. I see everything _couleur de rose_, and am
strongly inclined to dance a jig, if I knew how. I think I must
partake of the nature of a pig or an ass--both which animals are
strongly affected by a high wind. From what quarter the wind blows I
cannot tell, for I never could in my life; but I should very much like
to know how the great brewing-tub of Bridlington Bay works, and what
sort of yeasty froth rises just now on the waves.
"A woman of the name of Mrs. B., it seems, wants a teacher. I wish
she would have me; and I have written to Miss W. to tell her so.
Verily, it is a delightful thing to live here at home, at full liberty
to do just what one pleases. But I recollect some scrubby old fable
about grasshoppers and ants, by a scrubby old knave yclept AEsop; the
grasshoppers sang all the summer, and starved all the winter.
"A distant relation of mine, one Patrick Branwell, has set off to seek
his fortune in the wild, wandering, adventurous, romantic,
knight-errant-like capacity of clerk on the Leeds and Manchester
Railroad. Leeds and Manchester--where are they? Cities in the
wilderness, like Tadmor, alias Palmyra--are they not?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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