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diff --git a/40655-0.txt b/40655-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5d52e8c --- /dev/null +++ b/40655-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8418 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40655 *** + + THE KEY TO THE + BRONTË WORKS. + + + + + THE KEY TO THE + BRONTË WORKS + + THE KEY TO CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S "WUTHERING HEIGHTS," + "JANE EYRE," AND HER OTHER WORKS. + + SHOWING THE METHOD OF THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND THEIR + RELATION TO THE FACTS AND PEOPLE OF HER LIFE. + + + BY + JOHN MALHAM-DEMBLEBY. + + + London and Felling-on-Tyne: + THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD. + NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE. + 1911. + + _All Rights Reserved._ + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + CHAP. PAGE + + I. OUTLINE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S LIFE 13 + + II. ORIGIN OF THE CANDLE-BEARING BEDSIDE VISITANT AND + THE UNCOUTH SERVANT IN "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" AND + "JANE EYRE" 20 + + III. ORIGIN OF THE FOUNDLING HEATHCLIFFE AND HIS NAME + IN "WUTHERING HEIGHTS"--ORIGIN OF THE INSANE + LADY AND THE WHITE VEIL SCENE IN "JANE EYRE" 33 + + IV. A RAINY DAY IN CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S CHILDHOOD: + THE OPENING INCIDENT IN THE AUTOBIOGRAPHIES + OF THE HEROINES OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" AND + "JANE EYRE" 37 + + V. CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S FRIEND, TABITHA AYKROYD, THE + BRONTËS' SERVANT, AS MRS. DEAN OF "WUTHERING + HEIGHTS," AND AS BESSIE AND HANNAH OF "JANE EYRE" 43 + + VI. CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S CHILD APPARITION IN "THE + PROFESSOR," "WUTHERING HEIGHTS," AND "JANE EYRE" 52 + + VII. THE ORIGINALS OF GIMMERTON, GIMMERDEN, GIMMERTON + KIRK AND CHAPEL, PENISTON CRAGS, THE FAIRY CAVE, + ETC., IN "WUTHERING HEIGHTS," AND OF THE FAIRY + CAVE AND THE FAIRY JANET IN "JANE EYRE" 57 + + VIII. THE RIVERS OR BRONTË FAMILY IN "JANE EYRE" 69 + + IX. ORIGIN OF THE YORKSHIRE ELEMENT IN CHARLOTTE + BRONTË'S HUNSDEN OF "THE PROFESSOR"; HEATHCLIFFE + OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS"; ROCHESTER OF "JANE EYRE"; + AND YORKE OF "SHIRLEY" 83 + + X. HEATHCLIFFE OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" AND ROCHESTER + OF "JANE EYRE" ONE AND THE SAME 90 + + XI. CATHERINE AND HEATHCLIFFE OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" + AS JANE AND ROCHESTER OF "JANE EYRE" 93 + + XII. EUGÈNE SUE AND CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S BRUSSELS LIFE. + I. MDLLE. LAGRANGE AND HER MANUSCRIPT + "CATHERINE BELL, THE ORPHAN" 104 + + XIII. EUGÈNE SUE AND CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S BRUSSELS LIFE. + II. ACCUSATIONS AND PROTESTATIONS! 120 + + XIV. THE RECOIL, I. 130 + + XV. THE RECOIL, II. 143 + + XVI. THE BRONTË POEMS 156 + + +APPENDIX. + + MINOR IDENTIFICATIONS OF PERSONS AND PLACES IN THE + BRONTË WORKS 159 + + THE HÉGER PORTRAIT OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË IN THE + NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY 162 + + INDEX 169 + + LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS TO THE FIRST EDITION 179 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +_The Key to the Brontë Works_ is the absolutely necessary companion +volume to Charlotte Brontë's _Wuthering Heights_, _Jane Eyre_, +_Shirley_, _The Professor_, and _Villette_. Without it the reader cannot +know the real Currer Bell and her people, or see her works as they were +to herself. Great indeed and continuous has been the task of writing +this volume: a comprehension of my duty to law and literature, to +posterity and to Charlotte Brontë, set aside any other consideration. It +could be no compliment to my learned and distinguished subscribers to +assume importance would attach to _The Key to the Brontë Works_ were the +volume a mere skimming of extant Brontë biography, albeit that has its +province of interest. _The Key to the Brontë Works_, I repeat, is the +only book which shows us the life and works of Charlotte Brontë as +intimately known to herself. Herein is my task accomplished; herewith is +my reward. To quote my words from a private correspondence with Sir +Charles Holroyd, Kt., Director of the National Gallery, London:-- + + "After her return from Brussels in 1844, Charlotte Brontë + conceived the idea of perpetuating the drama of her life. Again + and again, true artist as she was, she cleared her presentations, + till finally the world had those great works which stand as a + signal testimony to the high value of the true artist, and as + testimony to the divine origin of real inspiration. And now + priest, statesman, writer--whatsoever a man may be, he will + discover in the works of Charlotte Brontë salutary instruction, + and at the same time will perceive with thrilling admiration the + greatness of Art when she is at one with Genius. As I pen these + lines to you, Sir Charles, I am reminded of the evanescence of the + halo of romance round so many historic characters and personages + when sober history speaks apart; but Charlotte Brontë we find to + be a greater luminary the closer we approach her." + +The utmost possible interest attaches to my sensational evidence, now +first showing Charlotte Brontë to be the author and heroine of +_Wuthering Heights_, a book many have declared "the finest work of +genius written by a woman," and some look upon as "one of the greatest +novels in our or any other literature." In view of my evidence it will +be impossible hereafter to convince the world that Charlotte Brontë did +not write _Wuthering Heights_. _The Key to the Brontë Works_ in his +hands, every reader is an expert upon the subject. By resort to each +indexed reference to Charlotte Brontë's methods I have discovered, and +named Methods I. and II., sensational ratification of all I say hereon +will be found. + +It will presently seem incredible the chief argument hitherto advanced +against my assertion that Charlotte Brontë wrote _Wuthering Heights_ was +that _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ are "totally dissimilar in +style, thought, etc.," for my evidence is proof absolute to the +opposite. A recent writer on the Brontës[1] says _Wuthering Heights_ +contains nothing whatsoever biographically, or in any way, suggestive of +Emily Brontë and her personality, and admits upon the other hand that +the characteristic of Charlotte Brontë's writing is her full and +intimate self-revelation of the incidents of her own life. Nothing can +recall these words. They are a frank, or an ingenuous, statement of +irrefutable fact; and though the writer did not journey to the logical +conclusion, it is well he is associated with this fundamental admission. +The same significant truth is voiced still more recently by another +writer, who says: "_Wuthering Heights_ reveals nothing of Emily Brontë. +Not one of the characters thought or felt as did the quiet, retiring" +Emily[2]. + +Much detached yet valuable and interesting evidence I have omitted for +the sake of clearness, but it has aided me in regard to the final +discoveries I now present, and is ready further to substantiate my +conclusions. One of these detached pieces of evidence shows that the +younger Catherine and Hareton Earnshaw--the two lovers who at the close +of _Wuthering Heights_ become teacher and pupil--latterly were to +Charlotte Brontë herself and M. Héger. Apparently she did not wish to +end _Wuthering Heights_ without a picture of reconciled relations +between two characters who could present a phase of M. Héger and +herself. The teacher and pupil relations between Miss Brontë and M. +Héger were most dear and gladdening to her memory. We have a glimpse of +them in _Villette_, _Shirley_, and in _The Professor_, Chapter XIX., +where Crimsworth is reading a book with Francis Evans Henri, whom he is +teaching to read and pronounce English. These two characters represent +M. Héger and Charlotte Brontë; and Miss Brontë taught M. Héger to read +and pronounce English out of her own favourite old books, "consecrated +to her by other associations," to quote her own words in _Wuthering +Heights_, Chapter XXXI., though often in _The Professor_ she alternates +the position of the characters by an interchange of the sexes, a method +of Miss Brontë I have discovered and termed her Method I. Let the reader +peruse carefully the scene in _The Professor_ in the light of my +reference to Eugène Sue and Charlotte Brontë's old copy in English of +_The Imitation of Christ_ at Brussels, and in the light of the "reading +and pronouncing" scenes in Chapters XXX., XXXI., and XXXII., of +_Wuthering Heights_; + +also:-- + + Charlotte Brontë in a letter:-- _Wuthering Heights_, + Chapter XXXI.:-- + + "If you could see and hear "I heard him trying to read to + the efforts I make to teach himself, and pretty blunders he + [M. Héger] to pronounce ... and makes!... it was extremely funny + [his] unavailing attempts to ... still, he has no right to + imitate you would laugh to all appropriate what is mine, and + eternity."--Mrs. GASKELL'S make it ridiculous to me with + _Life of Charlotte Brontë_. his vile mistakes and + mispronunciations! Those books, + both prose and verse, are + consecrated to me by other + associations, and I hate to have + them debased and profaned in his + mouth." + +Note how in _The Professor_ and _Wuthering Heights_ the male lover is +unable to devote himself to the reading lesson because of the +distraction of the heroine's interesting physiognomy. In this connection +we may glance at the following little parallel of the hen-killing +figure, with which, like the foregoing, I do not deal in the course of +_The Key to the Brontë Works_. Again we perceive Charlotte Brontë's +Method I.:-- + + _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + Chapter XXX. Chapter XIV. + + Hareton contented himself with Mr. Rochester had been looking + ... looking at Catherine instead ... at the fire, and I had been + of the book. She continued looking at him, when, turning + reading. His attention became suddenly, he caught my gaze + ... quite centred in the study fastened on his physiognomy. + of her ... curls ... and perhaps + not quite aware to what he did "You examine me, Miss Eyre," + ... he put out his hand and said he; "do you think me + stroked one curl as gently as if handsome?" + it were a bird. He might have + stuck a knife into her neck, she "No sir." + started with such a taking.... + "And so under the pretence of + stroking and soothing me into + placidity, you stick a sly + penknife under my ear." + +Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre were of course M. Héger and Miss Brontë. It +is indeed important and interesting to find at the old farmstead of +Wuthering Heights scenes reminiscent of the intimately pedagogic +relations that existed between Charlotte Brontë and M. Héger of the +school at Brussels. + +Discovering _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ are practically as the +same book, I have disclosed their relationship in parallel columns--the +most satisfactory and conclusive evidence in the world. Herewith we see +both volumes agree in scenes and chapters virtually word for word, and +from beginning to end. Both works we now find are one in origin, each +containing not less than four identical characters portrayed by +Charlotte Brontë from her own life, she herself being the original of +the heroine in each book, and her friend M. Héger in the main the +original of the hero thereof. Charlotte Brontë's brother, Branwell +Brontë, in agreement with her estimate of him as a wreck of selfishness, +is the unhappy fool of both books; while her life-long companion, +Tabitha Aykroyd, who was to her as nurse, mother, and friend, is therein +the indispensable domestic servant and motherly good woman of the humble +class. + +I will not occupy my preface with an enumeration of the many important +and interesting Brontë discoveries I have been enabled to make and +present herewith in _The Key to the Brontë Works_. I may briefly +indicate my chief sensational discoveries:--The discovery of the origin +of _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_; the discovery that in _Jane +Eyre_ Charlotte Brontë immortalized not only herself and M. Héger, but +also her father, the Rev. Patrick Brontë, her brother, four sisters, her +aunt and a cousin, and Tabitha Aykroyd, the Brontë servant or +housekeeper; the discovery first revealing the history of Charlotte +Brontë's life at Brussels and friendship with M. Héger, the original of +her chief heroes; and the discovery of the most sensational fact that +Charlotte Brontë and not Emily wrote _Wuthering Heights_, and was +herself the original of the heroine and M. Héger that of the hero, as I +have mentioned. + +My warm thanks are due to Mr. Harold Hodge, who commissioned me to write +my article "The Key to _Jane Eyre_" for _The Saturday Review_;[3] and to +Mr. W. L. Courtney, M.A., LL.D., the editor of _The Fortnightly Review_, +who commissioned me to write my article "The Lifting of the Brontë Veil: +A New Study of the Brontë Family."[4] Mr. Courtney's words of +encouragement--those of a true gentleman and an eminent literary scholar +and author--have made bright to me the accomplishment of this work. + +I thank Lady Ritchie--the gifted author-daughter of Thackeray the writer +of _Vanity Fair_ to whom Charlotte Brontë in her second edition +dedicated _Jane Eyre_--for her kind permission to use in _The Key to the +Brontë Works_ what her ladyship had written me privately in regard to +her sitting at dinner beside Charlotte Brontë on June 12th, 1850, with +Mr. Thackeray and Mr. George Smith the publisher, when Miss Brontë was +wearing a light green dress, an incident that has relation to the green +dress in the interesting Héger portrait of Charlotte Brontë drawn in +1850, now the property of the nation and in the National Portrait +Gallery, London. + +I desire to express my gratitude to Miss Catherine Galbraith Welch, who +introduced an outline of my Brontë discoveries to the readers of _The +New York Times Saturday Review of Books_. I thank _The Spectator_, _The +Outlook_, and other organs for their open acknowledgment of the fact +that I have made a discovery at last throwing light upon Charlotte +Brontë's Brussels experiences and her relations with the Hégers at +Brussels. And I wish also to thank the anonymous and scholarly writer +who penned the long and careful article in _The Dundee Advertiser_ under +the heading "The Original of Jane Eyre," containing an encouraging +appreciation of the importance of my discovery I dealt with in my +article "The Key to _Jane Eyre_" in _The Saturday Review_. + +I would like to give a pressure of the hand to my subscribers for the +first edition of _The Key to the Brontë Works_. Your kind letters to me +and your active interest in _The Key to the Brontë Works_ will ever +dwell among my pleasant memories. One I grieve will never see on earth +these pages--the late Most Honourable Marquis of Ripon, K.G., who +numbered with my earliest subscribers. + +The readers of _The Key to the Brontë Works_ will love Charlotte Brontë +more and know her better than ever they have loved or known her in the +past. They will see her books are rich with new-found treasures, and +will recognize her to be a world's writer--a character of signal +eminence, one of the most illustrious of women. + +Truth will out, and facts have their appointed day of revelation; thus I +cannot help it that more than sixty years of writing on the Brontës is +placed out of date by my discoveries. + + JOHN MALHAM-DEMBLEBY. + + + + +THE KEY TO THE BRONTË WORKS. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +OUTLINE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S LIFE. + + +St. Michael the Prince of Messengers--to him was dedicated the little +church on the hill at Haworth, in the Parish of Bradford, Yorkshire, +whose living gave sustenance to the family of the restless, ambitious +son of Erin, Patrick Brontë.[5] Is it for nothing that a spiritual +banner is raised by man and appeal made for the beneficent influence of +a conception of definite personal character? Within this sacred +circumscription came to be written the works of Charlotte Brontë, and +herefrom the words of a Messenger went out to the uttermost parts of the +world. + +The mystery of impulse! The servant is not master, nor is the messenger +he that sendeth. Behind the lives of the great was ever an influence to +do: blind may be the early groping of Genius, stumbling her feet on the +rugged road of a darksome journey begun in the veiling mist of life's +dawn, but onward and ever onward is she impelled to the journey's end. +Ere Night blots out Genius her Message has accomplished. Glancing back +to the literary strivings of Charlotte Brontë's childhood, and upon +those quaint little efforts [Greek: peri tôn apistôn], which her young +brother and sisters sought to emulate,[6] we see her responsive to some +inward prompting that told her she must write. + +Born on April 21st, 1816, at Thornton, near Bradford, during her +father's curacy of that parish, Charlotte Brontë was one of a family of +six, whose mother died in 1821. The story of her literary beginnings +shows them to have been of the kind known to many aspirants. There were +the rebuffs of editors and of at least one famous author; and, in +addition, was the divertisement of her life as teacher and governess. +Her correspondence is voluminous. It was ever written down to the +intended recipient. As to the somewhat commonplace Ellen Nussey, whose +friendship, begun at Roe Head, near Dewsbury, the school of a Miss +Margaret Wooler, lasted to the end: she invariably discussed the +domestic and social happenings of the acquaintances known by or of +interest to them. Thus her letters[7] are commonly circumstantial and +seldom soared beyond the capacity, or exceeded the limits of the +departmental interests, of those for whom they were written. + +This was primarily the result of Charlotte Brontë's nervous perception +of character and recognition of the want of a truly psychical +reciprocity with her friends. She tells us that of all living beings +only "Rochester" understood her, and her letters to M. Héger, of her +Brussels school--the original of this character--were not preserved. In +the day of high fame, when she corresponded with literary folk, she +felt herself as on parade, rushed to make opinions, as say, on Miss +Austen, whom she criticized somewhat adversely. Obviously she hated to +be at the service of bookish letter-writers. Erratically she responded +to their promptings, trying not to be ruffled, but she could not reveal +her heart. From these letters, and the epistles of the class I have +previously mentioned, Mrs. Gaskell in the main wrote her famous +biography. The Charlotte Brontë known of the recipients of this +correspondence her biographer presented, backed with the necessary local +colour. She had enjoyed in the days of Miss Brontë's popularity a short +acquaintance with her; and when, at the death of Currer Bell, Mr. Brontë +requested her to write his daughter's "life," she was eminently fitted +to give the world Charlotte Brontë as known by her acquaintances. + +But of the intimate Charlotte Brontë, and the origin of the Brontë +works, the method of their construction, and their relation to the facts +and people of her life, Mrs. Gaskell could tell us virtually nothing. +Neither could she, nor any succeeding biographer, throw light upon Miss +Brontë's Brussels life, or upon the subject of her friendship with M. +Héger, who is discovered by internal evidence to be the original of +Currer Bell's chief heroes. Charlotte Brontë's was an intensely reserved +nature. She built to herself a universe which she peopled in secret. Her +real life she lived out again in her books. Therein appeared the real +Charlotte Brontë, and see we her life and its people as known to +herself. Whether she thought the secrets of her works would be revealed +I cannot tell; but as the traveller who in far distant lands inscribes +on some lonely rock the relation of his experience, conscious that a +future explorer will read the tale, so does Genius, with the faith which +gave her being, leave her message in the hope of an early day of +revelation, and in the secure knowledge of the final penetration of +truth. + +We now, sixty years after, find by aid of the many discoveries I have +made and present my readers in the pages of this, _The Key to the Brontë +Works_, that Charlotte Brontë, penning in her connective works the story +of her life, gave us the spectacle of a living drama wherein she was +herself a leading actor. Herein we see the imperfections and +shortcomings of human nature, and Charlotte Brontë herself is shown +standing in the slippery places. Before our eyes flits the procession of +the people who moved about her, and the air is filled with the +atmosphere through which her genius saw the world. In this new light of +revelation we perceive her great message is--the Martyrdom of Virtue. A +more poignant message I know not! And Charlotte Brontë was martyr in +this moving drama--nay, I believe there also was another. Spending two +years at a Brussels _pensionnat_ she gained the friendship of Monsieur +Héger, a devout Roman Catholic and a man of intellect who, himself once +a teacher at the establishment, as was M. Pelet in _The Professor_ at a +similar school, came to marry the mistress. Miss Brontë went twice to +Brussels, on the first occasion being accompanied by her sister Emily. +Finally, Charlotte Brontë left Brussels abruptly on account, it has been +said, of the harsh attitude of Madame Héger, who even forbade her +husband to correspond with Miss Brontë. Concerning this period and the +incidents associated therewith, I have been enabled to lift the veil. We +have thus, for the first time, external evidence that shows Charlotte +Brontë, at Brussels, endured the greatest ordeal through which it is the +lot of a woman to pass. We see how she and M. Héger emerged triumphantly +from dangerous temptation, and how they were aided, the one by her +Christian upbringing, the other by the influence of his Church. + +It was in January 1844 when Charlotte Brontë returned finally from +Brussels; and she and her sisters printed a circular in connection with +a project of starting a private school at Haworth, but no progress was +made. Charlotte Brontë's life at this period will be better understood +by a reference to the chapters on "The Recoil" in this work--it was her +darkest time: when the human in her cried out--as it has, alas! in so +many at the bitter hour. She rebelled. Not violently; but by reproach. +Only her own pen can tell how cruelly she suffered mentally. She had +done no wrong and had resisted a great evil, but the recoil found her +weak: it was the martyrdom of virtue. She was suffering for the sake of +right; and that she cried aloud as in an agony showed her suffering was +intense. The storm left the world _Wuthering Heights_. The tone of +ribald caricature in dealing with the Pharisee Joseph; the impatient, +vindictive pilloring of her own nervous and physical infirmities as +"Catherine"; the ruthless baring of the flesh to show "Heathcliffe's" +heart was stone; the wilful plunging into an atmosphere of harsh levity, +crude animalism, and repulsive hypochondria, all contributed to a sombre +and powerful work of art grand in its perpetration, standing alone in +solemn majesty like the black rack that stretches low athwart a clear +sky--the rearward of the storm. But it bears the story of a sad Night, +and Charlotte Brontë's subsequent works were written in repentance: for +in Heathcliffe and Catherine of _Wuthering Heights_ she had portrayed M. +Héger and herself. + +In this dark hour of Charlotte Brontë's life, Emily Brontë, to whom she +afterwards gave _Wuthering Heights_, was writing, on July 30th, 1845,[8] +that she, Emily, was "contented and undesponding," and was engaged upon +and intended to continue some puerile compositions called _The Gondal +Chronicles_, which she spoke of as "delighting" her and Anne. She and +Anne had been engaged upon this effort three and a half years, and it +was yet unfinished. + +While making comparison between Emily's and Charlotte's standpoint at +this time--and Charlotte obtained for herself the names of Currer Bell +from Montagu's book which, as I show, contained the "plot," etc., of +_Wuthering Heights_, for her own use in the Brontë poem publishing +project of 1845-46--it is most important to note that but some months +after Emily's diary entry _Wuthering Heights_ was offered by Charlotte +to Messrs. Aylott and Jones, with _The Professor_ and _Agnes Grey_--on +April 6th, 1846. The literal evidence of _The Key to the Brontë Works_ +does not require that we ask by what miracle the "contented" Emily +Brontë, who had collaborated three and a half years with Anne on _The +Gondal Chronicles_, and declared an intention at the end of July 1845 to +"stick firmly" to their composition, could come, in addition to +preparing her poems for the press, to begin and to finish _Wuthering +Heights_ by or before April 6th, 1846.[9] + +After Charlotte Brontë's return from Brussels the degeneracy of her only +brother, Patrick Branwell Brontë, a young man ambitious, but not +successful, as an artist, made him an object of her disgust and +antipathy, and we find she portrayed him unflinchingly as Hindley +Earnshaw of _Wuthering Heights_, and again as John Reed of _Jane Eyre_. +Emily, we have been told, liked her brother, though an attempt was made +somewhat recently to dissipate the tradition.[10] But Charlotte, after +the deaths of her elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, the eldest of the +family, obviously was piqued from childhood by the advantage Branwell's +sex gave him over her seniority, more especially as he seems to have +been brutal to her:--See "A Rainy Day in Charlotte Brontë's Childhood," +in _The Key to the Brontë Works_. + +It may be observed Charlotte Brontë went to three schools, and that each +had a remarkable influence upon her life and literature. The first was +the Clergy Daughters' School in the Kendal locality, to which her +sisters Maria, Elizabeth, and Emily also went upon the death of the +ailing Mrs. Brontë at Haworth. The second was Miss Wooler's school +already mentioned, and the third the Brussels _pensionnat_. The fact +that _Jane Eyre_ virtually opens with the Clergy Daughters' School +incidents--incidents drawn from her child-memory regarding the temporary +mismanagement of an establishment which subsequently has proved a most +useful foundation--shows she began _Jane Eyre_ with the utmost possible +fidelity to truth in so far as regarded herself and her associations. +The story of how this famous work was sent in 1847 to a firm of +publishers who had just declined her novel _The Professor_ is well known +history, as is the relation of the subsequent success of the book and +the elevation of Charlotte Brontë to the highest recognition. + +_Wuthering Heights_ had been published as Ellis Bell's work, a _nom de +guerre_ that also had appeared over Emily Brontë's poems. It was issued +under the condition that the next book by its author went to the same +publisher, a Mr. Newby, which, of course, made impossible thereafter +Charlotte Brontë's acknowledging her authorship of this work, as the +next book by the author of _Wuthering Heights_, her _Jane Eyre_, was +published by another house. But there are evidences in _Shirley_ that +despite her nervous apprehensions, and her letters show she was very +much afraid of this Mr. Newby, who afterwards asserted she wrote +_Wuthering Heights_, she therein carefully placed significations of her +authorship of _Wuthering Heights_. + +_Villette_ was published in January 1853, and in the June of 1854 Currer +Bell married her father's curate, the Rev. A. B. Nicholls, whom she +previously had refused. She married him, it may be, as a final +immolation of herself on the altar of Right and Duty. Her married life +was but for some few months--it was so short we yet call her Charlotte +Brontë. Her father outlived her by six years. The last survivor of the +young Brontës, she died in March 1855, within a month of old Tabitha +Aykroyd, her best loved woman friend and companion apart from her own +kinsfolk. Charlotte Brontë, with other members of her family, rests in +the grey fabric which is the modern representative of that early +described as the church of St. Michael the Archangel de Haworth. Her +message is yet with us; the tablets of her life she has bequeathed to +posterity, and the key to open the way to their repository is now in our +hands. Her genius has shown the price of right-doing and the grim and +dangerous valley through which Virtue must go ere break of Day. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE ORIGIN OF THE CANDLE-BEARING BEDSIDE VISITANT AND THE UNCOUTH +SERVANT IN "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" AND "JANE EYRE." + + +My evidence shows that between 1837 and 1847 Charlotte Brontë was +perusing very attentively a little volume entitled _Gleanings in Craven, +or the Tourist's Guide_, by one Frederic Montagu of Lincoln's Inn, son +of Basil Montagu, second (natural) son of John Montagu, fourth Earl of +Sandwich, whose ancestor brought Charles II. over from Holland on the +Restoration in 1660 and therefor received his earldom.[11] The book, +which had never been associated by any person with the name or works of +Charlotte Brontë till I wrote my article, "The Key to _Jane Eyre_," upon +it for _The Saturday Review_, was in the form of "Six letters to a +friend in India," addressed as, "My dear Howard ... now at Bombay," and +was dedicated by special permission to the Duke of Devonshire, a fact +not mentioned save in the early editions. It was printed at Briggate, +Leeds, by A. Pickard, and published at Skipton-in-Craven in 1838. +Messrs. Simpkin, Marshall & Co. were the London publishers. + +Frederick Montagu was a gentleman travelling in Yorkshire for his +health's sake it seems, and it occurred to him to relate in epistolary +form the story of his adventures. He had read the local writers, but it +is most clear Charlotte Brontë was particularly influenced in the +construction of her great masterpieces, _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane +Eyre_, by his purely personal contributions. It was not only as a +gleaner of local hearsay that Montagu wrote the long panegyric upon Miss +Currer which obviously resulted in Charlotte Brontë's choosing the name, +but as one whose attention had been drawn to her literary eminence. +Thomas Frognall Dibdin, who in his _Reminiscences of a Literary Life_ +(1836) spoke so good a word for Basil Montagu, Frederic's father,[12] +under whom he had studied for the bar, also devoted in those +_Reminiscences_ many pages to Miss Currer and Eshton Hall. Thus we read +in Montagu's _Gleanings in Craven_:-- + + And now as to literature ... Miss Currer is the head of all the + female bibliopolists (_sic_) in Europe, the library of Eshton Hall + fully bearing out this truth.... In taking my leave of Eshton + Hall, there is a subject upon which I must say a word: it is only + the repetition of the echo I have heard about Eshton.... There was + one name connected by every person with worth and excellence--one + who in the continual performance of charity, like a pure but + imbedded stream, silently pursues her kind course, nourishing all + within her sweet influence:--I believe it may be truly said no + person is more deservedly loved and respected than Miss Currer. + +As to "Bell," which like "Currer," came to be chosen by Charlotte Brontë +from Montagu's book for her pen-name in the poem publishing project of +autumn 1845--only some months before _Wuthering Heights_ was supposed to +have been written--Montagu says:-- + + Kirkby-Lonsdale is a neat, stone-built town, and has a free + Grammar School.... It was at this school that the celebrated + lawyer, and one of his late Majesty's Counsels, the late John + Bell, Esq., received his education. + +And three lines before this Montagu has described the views of the Lune, +"and the prospect from the churchyard, taking in Casterton Hall."[13] +This is the very background of the early chapters of _Jane Eyre_. +Indeed, Casterton Hall was the original of Brocklehurst Hall in _Jane +Eyre_, and here resided the Rev. W. Carus-Wilson, the original of Mr. +Brocklehurst, "the black marble clergyman" of the school at Lowood; +while Kirkby-Lonsdale was the original of Lowton of _Jane Eyre_. These +facts compel us to perceive that Charlotte Brontë would naturally be led +by Montagu's words, to recall she too as regards her education had been +associated with the locality mentioned. These references seem to have +made Currer Bell relate in _Jane Eyre_ her experiences in that district. +Neither Miss Brontë nor Mrs. Gaskell, her biographer, gave any +information as to the origin of the "Currer" and "Bell" of Currer Bell, +but it is known the "Bell" was not chosen from the name of the Rev. A. +Bell Nicholls whom she afterwards married.[14] + +A further personal contribution by Montagu, one he based on gossip +rather than on tradition, was the story of a foundling who, he says, was +discovered by a shepherd on a rocky elevation. This I find Charlotte +Brontë evolved into "a cuckoo story." The circumstance that this male +child was found on the craggy summit of a hill may have dictated to her +the name of the foundling Heathcliffe of _Wuthering Heights_. + +I moreover find that, influenced by Montagu's quaint descriptions of the +wild and remote neighbourhood, Charlotte Brontë made Malham and the +valley of Malham the background of her story, _Wuthering Heights_. With +Malham, Montagu associated the names of Linton and Airton (Hareton); the +Fairy Cave, the Crags, glens, mists; a grey old church in the valley, +the "Kirk" by Malham, Kirkby Malham Church, which Charlotte Brontë calls +in _Wuthering Heights_ Gimmerton Kirk; a rapid stream and a Methodist +chapel. And he draws attention to Malham, being at the foot of a range +of steep mountains--"the Heights," and having an annual sheep fair, when +over one hundred thousand sheep are shown at one time, the which +observation was, we now discover, responsible for Charlotte Brontë's +choice of "Gimmerton" and "Gimmerden," from "gimmer," a female sheep, +and meaning respectively the village of sheep and the valley of sheep, a +characteristic of hers being that she often chose her names on what she +termed the _lucus a non lucendo_ principle.[15] + +Having in _Wuthering Heights_ made so pointed a reference to the Fairy +Cave in the neighbourhood of Gimmerton, and having therein associated +with it the names of Airton (Hareton) and Linton, which Montagu +connected with Gimmerton or Malham, Charlotte Brontë had not openly +mentioned in that work the Fairy Janet referred to by Montagu, though +she hinted at "the mysteries of the Fairy Cave." But I find that her +"elfish" imagination induced her later, in _Jane Eyre_, to appropriate +for herself the rôle of the Fairy Janet, the Queen of the Malhamdale or +Gimmerden elves, who ruled in the neighbourhood of Gimmerton and of +Wuthering Heights, the home of Catherine Earnshaw. Thus we see Charlotte +Brontë primarily associated both Catherine Earnshaw, the heroine of +_Wuthering Heights_, and Jane Eyre, the heroine of _Jane Eyre_, with +Malham. And discovering the impetuosity of her imaginative nature and +its romantic turn, I doubt not she was impatient to begin the tale of +the "fairy-born and human-bred" heroine whose surname she took from the +River Aire or Ayre, which sprang, as Montagu carefully indicates, from +Malham, or Gimmerton, as Charlotte Brontë would say in her _Wuthering +Heights_. From this came the suggestion of the "Rivers" family, with +which I deal later, the names employed by Charlotte Brontë being +River(s), Burn(s), Aire or Eyre, Severn, Reed, and Keeldar. + +Another of Montagu's personal contributions which greatly influenced +Charlotte Brontë was on the leaf before the mention of John Bell, Esq., +and on the same leaf as the mention of Casterton Hall, headed "A Night's +Repose." This was the narration of a night's adventure, Montagu telling +how he went to a lonely hostelry and found an unwillingness in the +hostess to give him bed and shelter. He also discovered a mystery +surrounded the hostess and a peculiar, harsh-voiced country-bred +man-servant--who came to be the original of Joseph of _Wuthering +Heights_. At night the apparition of the hostess appears at Montagu's +bedside, white-faced and lighted candle in hand. It is plain the +peculiar man-servant appealed very strongly to Charlotte Brontë, and +thus in both her _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ transcriptions of +the midnight incident this characteristic is marked and recognizable: in +Joseph; and in Grace Poole, by what I have termed Charlotte Brontë's +Method I., interchange of the sexes of characters. In _Wuthering +Heights_, by her same Method I., Montagu's inhospitable hostess became +the inhospitable host Heathcliffe; but in each of Charlotte Brontë's +versions--_Wuthering Heights_ or _Jane Eyre_--a central figure of the +incidents she based upon Montagu's story of "A Night's Repose" was the +uncouth, coarse-voiced country-bred servant. + +We also shall see that Montagu's reference to lunacy being an exception +to his objection against the separation of husband and wife, and the use +he made of a verse in his Malham letter, likening the moon to + + "A ... lady lean and pale + Who totters forth wrapt in a gauzy veil, + Out of her chamber led by the insane + And feeble wanderings of her fading brain," + +were responsible for the "plot" of _Jane Eyre_ including an insane lady +who wanders out of her chamber at night and dons a vapoury veil. + +And evidence of the enthusiasm with which Charlotte Brontë applied +herself to _Jane Eyre_ is the fact that she at once took from Montagu's +little volume for this her second story based upon the book's +suggestions, the names of + + Broughton, Poole (from Pooley), Eshton, Georgiana, Lynn (from + Linton), Lowood (from Low-wood), Mason, Ingram, Helen,[16] and + possibly Millcote (from Weathercote). + +Thus far we see Charlotte Brontë drew _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane +Eyre_ from the same source; that in a word, _Jane Eyre_, was Charlotte's +second attempt to utilize and amplify the suggestions in Montagu's work +which had appealed to her when she began _Wuthering Heights_, and we see +the suggestions she utilized in _Jane Eyre_ always bear unmistakable +relationship to those she had utilized in her _Wuthering Heights_. But +the use Charlotte Brontë made of Montagu's book was not in the nature of +literary theft; that volume simply afforded suggestions which she +enlarged upon. + +I shall presently show how I find _Jane Eyre_ is the second attempt of +Currer Bell to enlarge upon suggestions that had appealed to her when +she first read Montagu. For a commencement I will refer to the early +construction of her _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_. As simple +stories they both are based upon the description Montagu gives of an +isolated hostelry with an inhospitable hostess, a midnight apparition, +and an air of mystery that surrounds the hostess and a peculiar, uncouth +servant, to whom I have already alluded. The stage properties of this +narrative, the characters, and the "action" or plot, I will give side by +side, as they appear severally, first in Montagu, next in _Wuthering +Heights_, and finally in _Jane Eyre_. Herewith the reader will have +excellent examples of the two chief methods I find Charlotte Brontë +employed often when she drew from a character in more than one work or +instance, or when she desired to veil the identity of her originals. +Charlotte Brontë's Methods I. and II., being discovered equally in +_Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ show, as conclusively as any other +evidence, that she was the author of both works. No consideration +whatsoever can alter the iron fact or depreciate from its significance, +that it was absolutely my discovery of Charlotte Brontë's Methods I. and +II., which revealed to me the sensational verbal and other parallels +between _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ I give in _The Key to the +Brontë Works_:-- + +Read carefully:-- + +Charlotte Brontë's Method I.--The interchange of sexes. Thus the +original of A may be a woman, and the original of B a man; but A may be +represented as a man, and B as a woman. + +Charlotte Brontë's Method II.--Altering the age of a character +portrayed. Thus the original of C may be young, and the original of D +old; but C may be represented as old, and D as young. + +The literal extracts to which I have referred I print as occurring in +the three works:--Montagu the original, _Wuthering Heights_, and _Jane +Eyre_. I will first give the substance, or subject matter, side by +side:-- + + MONTAGU. _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + Montagu goes on Lockwood, of whom Jane (Method I., + horseback to a Montagu was palpably interchange of the + solitary house at a the original, goes sexes) goes to a + distance from any on horseback to a solitary house, + habitable dwelling, solitary house at a alone. Comfort is all + alone, and seeks a distance from any around, but an air of + night's repose. But habitable dwelling, mystery surrounds + though comfort is all alone, and seeks a the master's wife and + around, he finds an night's repose. But a peculiar + air of mystery he finds an air of harsh-voiced female + surrounds the mystery surrounds the servant (Method I., + inhospitable hostess inhospitable host interchange of the + and her deep-voiced, (Charlotte Brontë's sexes). + Yorkshire Method I., + dialect-speaking, interchange of the + country-bred sexes) and his + man-servant. harsh-voiced, + Yorkshire + dialect-speaking, + country-bred + man-servant. + + Montagu is shown to Lockwood is shown to Jane, in bed one + bed up a step-ladder bed, and sleeps only night, sleeps only + that leads through a fitfully, dreaming. fitfully, dreaming. + trap, and sleeps only He hears noises and She hears noises and + fitfully, dreaming. perceives a gleam of perceives a gleam of + He hears noises and light. He starts to light. She starts to + perceives a gleam of find the white-faced find the apparition + light He starts to apparition of his of her master's wife + find the white-faced host standing at his standing at her + apparition of his bedside, lighted bedside, lighted + hostess standing at candle in hand, his candle in hand, her + his bedside, lighted features convulsed features convulsed + candle in hand, her with diabolical rage. with diabolical rage. + features convulsed The harsh-voiced, The harsh-voiced, + with diabolical rage. Yorkshire peculiar female + The deep-voiced, dialect-speaking servant Jane first + Yorkshire man-servant, a sour encountered after + dialect-speaking old man (Charlotte having gone to the + peculiar man-servant Brontë's Method II., attics and through a + he sees by looking the altering of the trap-door to the + down the step-ladder age of a character roof. + through the trap. portrayed), comes + down a step-ladder + that vanished through + a trap. + +In the literal extracts I now give the reader will perceive that in the +description of the bedside, candle-bearing apparition in _Jane Eyre_, +Charlotte Brontë followed Montagu almost word for word, and in the whole +staging of the midnight episode at the house of the inhospitable host in +_Wuthering Heights_ followed him entirely in outlining the story. Both +the _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ versions give unequivocal +evidence of being refractions from Montagu conveyed through one brain +alone, the peculiar idiosyncrasy and elective sensitiveness of which are +undeniably recognizable as Charlotte Brontë's:-- + + MONTAGU. _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + A Night's Repose. A Night's Repose. A Night's Repose. + + My servant having Heathcliffe, when he Jane is shown the + lamed his steed ... saw my horse's breast bedrooms of the + I arrived alone at a fairly pushing the secluded Thornfield + small hostelry in a barrier, did put out Hall:-- + secluded part of his hand to unchain + the country, and it ... calling as we "Do the servants + apparently at some entered the court, sleep in these + distance from any "Joseph, take Mr. rooms?" + habitable dwelling. Lockwood's horse; and + Having determined to bring some wine." "No ... no one sleeps + rest for the night, here. One would ... + I discovered in the Joseph was an say that if there + woman who seemed to elderly, nay an old were a ghost at + be the hostess an man, very old Thornfield Hall this + anxiety to get rid perhaps, though hale would be its haunt." + of me; but with the and sinewy. "The Lord + usual obstinacy of help us!" he ... I followed ... to + curiosity caused soliloquised in an the attics, and + by this apparent undertone of peevish thence by a trap-door + anxiety, I determined displeasure, while to the roof of the + not to be thwarted; relieving me of my hall ... a laugh + so, putting up my horse, looking ... in struck my ear ... + horse, I entered the my face so sourly "Who is it?" + house, and sat down that I charitably + to a humble but conjectured he must ... the laugh was as + substantial meal, have need of Divine preternatural ... as + prepared during aid to digest his any I ever heard.... + my absence in the dinner, and his pious + stable; and though ejaculation had no The ... door opened, + comfort had sway with reference to my and a servant came + all around me, yet unexpected advent. out--a woman of + there was an evident between thirty and + air of profound "Guests are so forty; a set, + mystery between my exceedingly rare in square-made figure + hostess and her this house that I and ... and with a hard, + boy-of-all-work, a my dogs hardly know plain face.... + thick-set son of the how to receive them," + north, with a deep says Heathcliffe. One day Jane, out for + voice and a sturdy a walk, sees a + manner; whilst I, Resuming his horseman approaching + with all the narrative in Chapter who, in sympathy with + malignant pleasure of II., Lockwood tells Montagu's story of + counteracting any us he goes again to laming a horse, has + mystery, secretly Wuthering Heights and an accident. + enjoyed the hope of gains admittance with + discovering the difficulty, after "Did the horse fall + reason of wishing my muttering, "Wretched in Hay Lane?" Jane + absence.... I was not inmates, you deserve asks later of a + at all disconcerted, perpetual isolation servant. + but philosophically ... for your churlish + finished my meal ... inhospitality. I "Yes, it slipped." + and at an early hour don't care, I will + requested to be shown get in." Thus Jane learns the + where I was to rest horseman is the + for the night. "As to staying here," master of Thornfield + Refusing to listen cries Heathcliffe, "I Hall. She discovers + to any excuse, I was don't keep an air of mystery + shown up a ladder accommodations for surrounds the master + into a small room.... visitors: you must of the house; and a + I thanked my guide, share a bed with thick-set woman + and ... laid down Joseph [the servant is involved. + with the expectation country-bred servant] + of sleeping hard, an if you do." + expectation which was Chapter XV. + not realized, for + thoughts obtruded Chapter III. Though I had now + themselves upon me, extinguished my + wholly preventing Lockwood at last is candle and was laid + repose. Midnight had guided to bed by a down in bed, I could + scarcely fallen when servant. While not sleep for + I heard voices in the leading the way, she thinking of the + room below, and by a recommended ... "I [mystery that seemed + light which grew should hide the to surround Mr. + stronger every moment candle, ... for her Rochester].... I + I felt some person master had an odd hardly knew whether I + was about to ascend notion about the had slept or not + the ladder. chamber ... and never after this musing; at + let anybody lodge any rate I started + Before Charlotte there willingly."... wide awake on hearing + Brontë proceeds I sank back in bed a vague murmur.... I + with the dramatic and fell asleep.... wished I had kept my + experiences of this Alas! what could it candle burning; the + terrible night she be that made me pass night was drearily + provides entirely such a terrible dark.... I rose and + original matter night? I don't sat up in bed + independent of remember another that listening;... I was + Montagu, as a I can compare with it chilled with fear.... + preface. I will give since I was capable I began to feel the + Montagu his space, of suffering. return of slumber. + however, for we But it was not fated + have here a duet in ... I began to ... I should sleep + unison, so to speak, dream.... I had set that night. A dream + between _Wuthering out on my way home, had scarcely + Heights_ and _Jane with Joseph for a approached my ear + Eyre_. The trio will guide. The snow lay when it fled + be resumed in perfect yards deep in our affrighted.... There + sequence after road. We came to a was a demonia laugh + Montagu has rested a chapel.... Presently ... at my chamber + few bars in the the whole chapel door.... I thought + introduction. My resounded with the goblin laughter + reader will note with rappings and stood at my + sensational interest, counter-rappings; ... bedside.... Something + I am sure, that in at last, to my ... moaned. "Was that + both of Charlotte unspeakable relief, Grace Poole?" [the + Brontë's they awoke me.... thick-set servant] + introductions to the What ... had thought I.... There + appearance of the suggested the tumult? was a candle burning + candle-bearing, ... the branch of a outside. + frenzied, bedside fir-tree that touched + apparition, the my lattice as the + separate narrators blast wailed by.... Chapter XXV. + tell us that a gale + is blowing; that I dreamt again, if ... After I went to + they dreamed most possible still more bed I could not + disagreeably twice. disagreeably than sleep--a sense of + The first dream being before.... I heard anxious excitement + in each instance that the gusty wind, ... I depressed me. The + of journeying upon an thought I rose ... to gale still rising + unknown road, and the unhasp the casement. seemed to my ear to + second dream that of "I must stop [the fir muffle a ... doleful + an unknown ice-cold bough's teasing undersound.... During + little child (always sound]," I muttered, my first sleep I was + referred to in the knocking my hand following the + neuter "it"), which through the glass and windings of an + "wailed piteously" stretching an arm out unknown road; ... + and "clung" to the to seize the ... rain pelted me; I was + narrators in branch; instead of burdened with the + "terror," intense which my fingers charge of a little + horror being closed on the fingers child--a very small + accentuated by their of an ice-cold hand! creature, ... which + being unable to rid The intense horror of shivered in my cold + themselves of the nightmare came over arms and wailed + clinging, shivering me: I tried to draw piteously in my ear. + small "creature," as back my arm, but the + Charlotte Brontë hand clung to it, and I dreamt another + calls "it." The a most melancholy dream.... I still + "doleful" moaning and voice sobbed.... I carried the unknown + the "blast" play discerned ... a little child: I might + their part in each child's face looking not lay it down + version, and in both through the window. anywhere, however + a "branch" is duly Terror made me cruel, tired were my + grasped or seized by and finding it arms--however its + the dreamer. For the useless to attempt weight impeded my + origin of this shaking the creature progress, I must + wailing little off, I pulled its retain it.... I + creature see my wrist on to the climbed the thin + chapter, "Charlotte broken pane, ... wall [of the house] + Brontë's Child rubbing it to and fro with frantic, + Apparition." till the blood ran perilous haste, ... + down; ... still it the stones rolled + Further, the reader wailed ... and from under my feet, + will observe that in maintained its the ivy branches I + both _Wuthering tenacious gripe, grasped gave way, the + Heights_ and _Jane almost maddening me child clung round my + Eyre_ Montagu's with fear. neck in terror, and + bedside, almost strangled + candle-bearing I said, "Let me go!" me.... The blast blew + apparition is not a The fingers relaxed, so strong.... I sat + dream, but a I snatched mine ... down on the narrow + candlelit reality, and stopped my ledge; I hushed the + immediately sequent ears.... Yet the scared infant, ... + to the dream of the instant I listened the wall crumbled; I + tenacious child again, there was the was shaken; the child + phantom. doleful cry, rolled from my knee; + moaning;... I tried I lost my balance, + I will here resume to jump up, but could fell, and awoke. + Montagu's narrative: not stir a limb.... + ... By a light which + grew stronger every Hasty footsteps "Now, Jane, that is + moment, I felt some approached my chamber all," put in + person was about to door, ... a light Rochester. To which + ascend the ladder. At glimmered ... at the Jane Eyre replies, + this moment every top of the bed. I sat "All the preface; the + murder ... I had shuddering yet, and tale is yet to come." + heard of crowded upon wiping the On waking a gleam + my brain, and I perspiration from my dazzled my eyes; ... + instantly determined forehead. The it was candle + to make the best intruder appeared to light.... A form + fight I could, ... hesitate.... emerged from the + and with my partially closet; it took the + closed eyes turned ... Heathcliffe stood light and held it + towards the near the entrance, in aloft.... I had risen + trap-door. I had only his shirt and up in bed, I bent + just time to make my trousers, with a forward, ... then my + arrangements when, candle dripping over blood crept cold + clad in a white gown, his fingers and his through my veins.... + fastened close up to face white.... The It was not even that + her neck, with her first creak of the strange woman Grace + black hair, matted by oak startled him, ... Poole [the thick-set + carelessness, hanging the light leaped from servant].... It + over her collar, and his hold.... seemed ... a woman + as pale as death, ... with thick and + ascended my hostess. "It is only your dark hair hanging + Never shall I forget guest, sir," I called long down her back. I + her dreadfully out. "I had the know not what dress + hideous expression. nightmare." she had on: it was + She came up to the white and straight; + bedside and looked at "Mr. Lockwood ... who but whether gown, + me for a full minute, showed you up to this sheet or shroud I + and after passing the room?" grinding his cannot tell. The + candle carefully teeth to control the features were fearful + before my eyes, left maxillary and ghastly to me; + me, and carefully convulsions. ... it was a savage + descended the ladder. face. I wish I could + "It was your servant, forget ... the + Montagu arises, and, Zillah," I replied, lineaments.... Just + looking down the flinging myself on to at my bedside the + ladder, finds the the floor, and ... figure stopped: the + thick-set servant is resuming my fiery eye glared upon + also astir with the garments.... "The me--she thrust up her + mysterious, hideous place ... is swarming candle close to my + visitant. Then with ghosts and face, and + Montagu hears his goblins." extinguished it under + trap-door replaced; my eyes. + and he wakes to learn "What do you mean?" + he has had the asked Heathcliffe.... "Now," says + nightmare. "Lie down and finish Rochester. "I'll + out the night since explain to you all + you _are_ here...." about it. It was half + dream, half reality: + I descended; ... a woman did, I doubt + nothing was stirring not, enter your room; + ... and then Joseph and that woman + [shuffled] down a was--must have + wooden ladder that been--Grace Poole + vanished through a [the thick-set + trap--the ascent to servant]. You call + his garret, I her a strange being + suppose. yourself." + +Truly Montagu's description of the coarse-voiced, thick-set, +country-bred servant, and his implication with the mystery of the lonely +house had impressed Charlotte Brontë considerably. Whether she portrayed +him as the Joseph of _Wuthering Heights_ or, by her Method I., as the +Grace Poole of _Jane Eyre_, Charlotte Brontë respects the original +associations of this character as they were figured to her by Frederic +Montagu's little fiction of "A Night's Repose." Herewith have we +evidence as to mental idiosyncrasy and elective-sensitiveness +recognizable as Charlotte Brontë's--proof that her brain and none other +was responsible for both the _Wuthering Heights_ and the _Jane Eyre_ +versions of the midnight incident from Montagu. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ORIGIN OF THE FOUNDLING HEATHCLIFFE AND HIS NAME IN "WUTHERING +HEIGHTS"--ORIGIN OF THE INSANE LADY AND THE WHITE VEIL SCENE IN +"JANE EYRE." + + +We have now seen that Montagu's book provided Charlotte Brontë with the +idea for a lonely house of mystery--a mystery which should surround a +host with a peculiar, harsh-voiced, uncouth, north-country servant, and +I have shown how that idea was adopted by her for _Wuthering Heights_ +and afterwards for _Jane Eyre_. At one time Charlotte Brontë wrote the +_Tale of a Foundling_, and she certainly read with interest a remarkable +story told by Montagu of a foundling who, he tells us in the letter next +before the Malham letter, was discovered by a shepherd on the top of a +craggy "mountain," a circumstance which perhaps led her in making use of +this foundling story to name the child Heathcliffe. I will place the +substance of the two stories side by side:-- + + MONTAGU. _Wuthering Heights._ + + On the top of a craggy height In a wild, hilly country, a male + a male infant "was found by a infant was brought home by a + shepherd, who took it to his farmer who had found it + home, and after feeding and homeless. He brought up the + clothing it he had the child child, and the rest of its + named Simon; being himself but career is the obvious "cuckoo + a poor man he was unable to story": the child ousts the poor + maintain the foundling," when farmer's family. It was called + was agreed to by his friends Heathcliffe. + that the child should be kept + "ameng 'em." The child was + called Simon Amenghem. + +The cuckoo story derived obviously from the history Montagu gives of the +foundling became thus the backbone of _Wuthering Heights_; but it is +possible that the cuckoo story requiring the foundling should be painted +with all the viciousness and cruelty of character necessary to his part, +Charlotte Brontë found herself dissatisfied with the story. And +portraying herself in the narrative as Catherine Earnshaw, her hero +became M. Héger. This naturally led to an awkward clashing. Whether the +extreme "demonism" of Heathcliffe must be understood as being in the +main due to his rôle as the "cuckoo," who was to oust the poor farmer's +offspring "like unfledged dunnocks," to quote Mrs. Dean, I will not in +this chapter inquire. + +Turning again to Montagu's book, Charlotte saw a further suggestion that +contained excellent "plot" possibilities. This was the question of +lunacy being an exception to the objection against the separation of +husband and wife, Montagu's relation being Barry Cornwall (to whom, by +the way, Thackeray dedicated _Vanity Fair_), who was a Metropolitan +Commissioner in Lunacy. To Charlotte Brontë, however, the subject came +simply as a useful suggestion. She had no views upon it, and she desired +only that her heroine would marry Rochester, the hero with an insane +wife. At heart Charlotte was indifferent as to the vital point, even +nullifying the very theme of the plot by making Rochester aver that if +Jane Eyre had been the mad wife, he would still have loved and cherished +her. + +It would appear that in conjunction with Montagu's remarks on lunacy and +the separation of husband and wife, an extract he gives from Shelley is +also responsible for a wife's lunacy being the theme of the plot of +_Jane Eyre_. The extract which Montagu quotes in the Malham letter is +where the poet speaks of "The Waning Moon" as like-- + + "A ... lady lean and pale + Who totters forth wrapt in a gauzy veil + Out of her chamber led by the insane + And feeble wanderings of her fading brain." + +Thus was evidently suggested to Charlotte Brontë the hanging up in the +closet of the "vapoury veil" for the stage purposes of the "insane +lady"; and in _Jane Eyre_ Montagu's night-wandering, candle-bearing +hostess became a lady who passed, after the manner of the lines he +quoted,-- + + Out of her chamber led by the insane + And feeble wanderings of her fading brain-- + +became Mrs. Rochester. Norton Conyers, a house near Ripon, it is said, +is associated with the story that a mad woman was once confined +there.[17] If Charlotte Brontë was familiar with this story, and we are +told the interior is somewhat similar to the descriptions of Thornfield, +we can understand that, perusing Montagu's book at the time when she was +utilizing his narrative of the candle-bearing, hideous-faced, white-clad +midnight visitant in a house of mystery, she would the more readily +appropriate the further suggestions his work contained in regard to a +wife's insanity, and the "veil-clad" apparition of a night-roaming +insane lady. It is important to note, however, that the evidence of my +preceding chapter proves indubitably the "mad woman" was but a secondary +suggestion--the primary suggestion responsible for the plot of _Jane +Eyre_ being that of Montagu's midnight apparition. And just as the +thick-set country-bred servant denotes in the question as to the origin +and author of the candle-bearing bedside visitant in _Wuthering Heights_ +and _Jane Eyre_, the "gauzy veil" likewise denotes as to the origin of +the mad woman of _Jane Eyre_. So we read in the beginning of Chapter +XXV. of _Jane Eyre_, that Jane leaves the vapoury veil in the closet:-- + + To conceal the strange, wraith-like apparel it contained; which, + at this evening hour ... gave out certainly a most ghostly shimmer + through the shadow of my apartment. "I will leave you by yourself, + white dream," I said. + +Then farther on we read that:-- + + The moon shut herself wholly within her chamber, and drew close + her curtain of cloud, + +which is simply an antithetical paraphrase of Montagu's quoted verse on +"The Waning Moon" which, like + + A ... lady ... pale ... totters forth wrapt in a gauzy veil, out + of her chamber. + +And in the same chapter of _Jane Eyre_ we read finally that the insane +lady, who has come out of her chamber, + + "... took my veil from its place; she held it up, gazed at it + long, and then she threw it over her head, and turned to the + mirror ... it removed my veil from its gaunt head, rent it in two + parts, and flinging both on the floor, trampled on them." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A RAINY DAY IN CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S CHILDHOOD: THE OPENING INCIDENT IN THE +AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF THE HEROINES OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" AND "JANE EYRE." + + +Seeing Catherine Earnshaw, the heroine of _Wuthering Heights_, was +drawn, as I find, by Charlotte Brontë for her autobiographical self, the +real commencement of that work, in so far as personal narrative was +concerned, is the diary extract she wrote of herself in her earliest +childhood.[18] In _Jane Eyre_ she placed her earliest childhood memories +at the beginning of the story. I will give extracts side by side, when +it will be seen they agree practically word for word. It is of course +undeniable that none but Charlotte Brontë herself would or could have +penned these incidents of her own childhood. + + _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + Chapter III. Chapter I. + + A rainy day in the early A rainy day in the early + childhood of Catherine childhood of Jane Eyre, + Earnshaw, as told by herself. as told by herself. + + -------- -------- + + ... All day had been flooding There was no possibility of + with rain; we could not go to taking a walk that day, ... + church. the cold winter wind had + brought with it a rain so + penetrating that further + outdoor exercise was out of + the question. + + Hindley [Branwell Brontë] and Eliza, John [Branwell Brontë], + his wife [? Sister Maria] basked and Georgiana were now clustered + downstairs before a comfortable round their mamma [Aunt + fire. Branwell] in the drawing-room + ... by the fireside ... looking + perfectly happy. + + Heathcliffe [Method I., Me she had dispensed from + interchange of the sexes. In joining the group.... A small + the childhood of Heathcliffe breakfast-room adjoined the + Charlotte often portrays drawing-room; I slipped in + herself], myself, and the ... there, ... I possessed myself of + ploughboy were commanded to take a volume, ... I mounted into the + our prayer-books and mount ... window-seat, ... and having + on a sack ... [in the garret. drawn the ... curtain nearly + They go downstairs again]. close, I was shrined in ... + retirement.... With ... [a book] + "You forget you have a master in on my knee I was ... happy; ... + me," says the tyrant [Hindley: but interruption ... came too + Branwell Brontë]. soon. The ... door opened: + "Boh!" cried the voice of John + ... We made ourselves ... snug Reed [Branwell Brontë]. + ... in the arch of the dresser. + I had just fastened our "It is well I drew the curtain," + pinafores together and hung them thought I, ... but Eliza ... + up for a curtain, when in comes said: "She is in the + Joseph.[19]... He tears down my window-seat, ... Jack + handiwork [the curtain], boxes [Branwell]." + my ears, and ... thrust [a book] + upon us.... I took my ... volume + ... and hurled it into the + dog-kennel, vowing I hated a + good book. + + Hindley [Branwell Brontë] I came out immediately, for I + hurried up from his paradise on trembled at the idea of being + the hearth, and seizing ... us dragged forth by the said Jack + ... hurled both into the [Branwell Brontë]. + back-kitchen. + "What were you doing behind the + curtain?" he asked. "I'll teach + you to rummage my bookshelves, + for they _are_ mine; all the + house belongs to me, or soon + will do.... Go ... by the door." + + I did so, ... but ... I saw him + lift the book and stand in the + act to hurl it.... The volume + was flung.... He ran ... at + me.... I saw in him a tyrant.... + Then Mrs. Reed [Aunt Branwell] + subjoined: "Take her to the + red-room."... + + ... How little did I dream that ... All John Reed's [Branwell + Hindley [Branwell Brontë] would Brontë's] violent tyrannies ... + ever make me cry so.... My head turned in my disturbed mind.... + aches, till I cannot keep it on My head still ached ... no one + the pillow; and still I can't reproved John [Branwell].... How + give over. all my brain was in tumult.... I + could not answer the question + _why_ I thus suffered; now at + the distance of--I will not say + how many years--I see it clearly. + +Thus we see the "volume-hurling" incident with which John Reed is +associated had its origin in some incident connected with Charlotte +Brontë's childhood and her brother Branwell. As Catherine, Charlotte +Brontë calls Hindley "a tyrant" in this connection, and as Jane Eyre she +calls John Reed "a tyrant" here. Branwell, as John Reed, is made to tell +Jane in connection with this incident that "all this house belongs to +me, or will do"; and as Hindley Earnshaw he tells his sister Catherine, +"You forget you have a master here." By Charlotte Brontë's Method II., +altering the age of a character portrayed, Branwell is represented in +the _Wuthering Heights_ scene as a man in years. Without further appeal +it was likely enough that Hindley Earnshaw, Catherine's brother, was +drawn for Charlotte Brontë's brother, seeing Catherine was Charlotte. +Herewith we find an explanation for a fact Mr. Francis A. Leyland has +strongly emphasized in his work _The Brontë Family_, that in _Wuthering +Heights_ incidents (the carving-knife incident, etc.) and epithets known +by his intimates to have been common to Branwell Brontë are associated +with Hindley Earnshaw in the days of his moral deterioration. That +deterioration is reflected in the portrayal of the latter end of John +Reed in _Jane Eyre_; in _Wuthering Heights_ it is given in detail. As +for Emily Brontë, she always liked and commiserated with Branwell +Brontë.[20] + +I hope the attempt to interfere with this tradition recently has no +relation to the fact that I briefly stated in my _Fortnightly Review_ +article that John Reed and Hindley Earnshaw were one and the same. It is +plain to see that if Emily really liked Branwell, as people stated who +gleaned from hearsay, she could not have portrayed him as Hindley +Earnshaw. But a wrong estimate of the nature of the evidence I promised +to bring has been formed if it were thought I should base my book upon +such a point. It is enough that Charlotte Brontë's private letters +regarding Branwell are quite in agreement with her own harsh portrayals +of him in her _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_. + +It is interesting to recall Branwell avowed he, and not Emily, wrote +_Wuthering Heights_. This fact and the association of Branwell Brontë +incidents and epithets with the book induced Mr. Leyland to advocate +Branwell's authorship. _The Key to the Brontë Works_ shows the +absurdness of such a claim. Mr. Leyland suggested Branwell may have +collaborated with Emily; and he professed to discover a break in the +style. I find, however, that though there were violent psychical +fluctuations in the mood of the writer of _Wuthering Heights_, the book +is throughout the work of Charlotte Brontë. This may be proved alone by +the Chapter III., with which I now deal: it is the "key" chapter, and +is, so to speak, a microcosm of _Wuthering Heights_, as the reader will +perceive by help of my index. Whosoever was the writer of this third +chapter wrote the whole of _Wuthering Heights_, and we see it was Currer +Bell. + +By Charlotte Brontë's Method I., interchange of the sexes, the +interloper Jane in the early chapters of _Jane Eyre_ and the interloper +Heathcliffe in the early chapters of _Wuthering Heights_ become one and +the same; and Hindley's tyrannizing over Heathcliffe is John Reed's +(Branwell Brontë's) tyrannizing over Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë). +Again, by Method I., interchange of the sexes, old Joseph, in +Charlotte's _Wuthering Heights_ version of the rainy day incident in her +childhood, serves the part of the servant Tabitha Aykroyd, for whom +Bessie in the _Jane Eyre_ version of the rainy day incident was drawn. +(See "Joseph" and his bit of garden, _Wuthering Heights_, Chapter +XXXIII.; also my footnote on page 47.) Thus Charlotte Brontë as +Catherine tells us that when she was banished from the comfortable fire +"Joseph" sermonizes, and that she hoped he might give "a short homily +for his own sake"; and in the scene in _Jane Eyre_ drawn from the same +incident Jane was left to Bessie, who "supplied the hiatus by a homily +of an hour's length, in which she proved beyond a doubt that I was the +most wicked and abandoned child ever reared under a roof." + +Catherine's story of the rainy day in _Wuthering Heights_ was written by +her in childhood on "a 'red-hot' Methodist's tract." Hence it is +interesting to read Charlotte Brontë's words in _Villette_, where as +Lucy Snowe she says she had "once read when a child certain Wesleyan +Methodist tracts seasoned with ... excitation to fanaticism." As +Caroline Helstone[21] in _Shirley_, Charlotte tells us she had read +"some mad Methodist magazines, full of miracles and apparitions, of +preternatural warnings, ominous dreams, and frenzied fanaticism; ... +from these faded flowers Caroline had in her childhood extracted the +honey--they were tasteless to her now." Let the reader compare Charlotte +Brontë's reference to Briar Chapel and the shouts, yells, ejaculations, +frantic cries of "the assembly" in Chapter IX. of _Shirley_ with the +references in Chapter III. of _Wuthering Heights_ to the frantic zeal of +"the assembly" of the chapel of Gimmerden Sough. It will be at once +recognized that the former is but the extension of the other, amplified +by the same hand. + +Thus, in the light of the name Branderham ("Brander'em," from "brander," +a hot iron over a fire) for the name of the zealous Rev. Jabes +Branderham,[22] of the chapel of Gimmerden Sough, of _Wuthering +Heights_, we see a connection with the play Charlotte Brontë makes upon +"burning and fire" in the hymn sung at Briar Chapel in Chapter IX. of +_Shirley_:-- + + "For every fight + Is dreadful and loud-- + The warrior's delight + Is slaughter and blood; + His foes overturning + Till all shall expire-- + And this is with burning + And fuel and fire." + +In the rainy day incident Charlotte Brontë as Catherine vowed "she hated +a good book," and this rebellion against the thrusting upon her of +religious "lumber," as she calls it in _Wuthering Heights_, was a +characteristic of her childhood shown also in the "Jane Eyre and Mr. +Brocklehurst" incident, where the latter asks-- + + "And the Psalms? I hope you like them?" + + "No, sir," replied Jane. + + "No? Oh, shocking!" + +At heart, however, Charlotte Brontë was a true Christian, though +disliking excessive zealousness in the demonstrations of the members of +any church. Read what M. Emanuel says in Chap. XXXVI. of _Villette_; the +last paragraph. Lockwood tells us in the incident connected with +Catherine's diary that "a glare of white letters started from the dark +as vivid as spectres--the air swarmed with Catherines." This, Charlotte +Brontë's idea of spectral writing running in the air, occurs in Chap. +XV. of _Jane Eyre_, where Rochester speaks of a phantom hag (see +Charlotte Brontë's phantom hag in Chap. XII. of _Wuthering Heights_), +who "wrote in the air a memento which ran in lurid hieroglyphics all +along the house-front." Says Lockwood in _Wuthering Heights_, +continuing:--"An immediate interest kindled within me for the unknown +Catherine, and I began ... to decipher her hieroglyphics"--the diary. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S FRIEND, TABITHA AYKROYD, THE BRONTËS' SERVANT, +AS MRS. DEAN OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS," AND AS BESSIE AND HANNAH OF +"JANE EYRE." + + +It is a remarkable fact that of all the members of Charlotte Brontë's +home circle the one to whom, excepting herself, she gave most prominence +in her works was Tabitha Aykroyd, the Brontës' servant or housekeeper. +For I find this good woman was portrayed by Charlotte Brontë as Mrs. +Dean of _Wuthering Heights_, Bessie and Hannah of _Jane Eyre_, and, on +occasion, as Mrs. Pryor of _Shirley_. Indeed, strange though it may +sound to say, my discovery that Tabitha Aykroyd, as she appealed to +Currer Bell, was the original of these characters, alone explains the +chief mystery of _Wuthering Heights_, and shows clearly enough Charlotte +Brontë was its heroine and its author. In a word, we see by this +discovery that _Wuthering Heights_ is book the first of Charlotte +Brontë's life as told by herself from old Tabitha's standpoint, and +_Jane Eyre_ book the second, giving her life's story and confession as +related by herself entirely from her own point of view. + +Never in _Wuthering Heights_ did Nelly Dean really understand Catherine, +and "the honest but inflexible servant," as Currer Bell calls Tabitha as +Hannah of _Jane Eyre_, never yielded herself to a surrender of her +rough-hearted but genuine nature wherein Charlotte was concerned. + +"Tabby," said Mrs. Gaskell, "had a Yorkshire keenness of perception into +character, and it was not everybody she liked." That Tabitha Aykroyd +would readily appeal to Charlotte Brontë as fitted for the narrator of +the histories in _Wuthering Heights_ we may easily perceive by reading +Mrs. Gaskell's further words on this Brontë servant:-- + +"When Charlotte was little more than nine years old ... an elderly woman +of the village came to live as servant at the parsonage. She remained +there, as a member of the household, thirty years [Hannah was thirty +years with the Rivers family in _Jane Eyre_--an approximate date, of +course, when that work was written] and from the length of her faithful +service, and the attachment and respect she inspired is deserving of +mention. Tabby was a thorough specimen of a Yorkshire woman of her +class, in dialect, in character. She abounded in strong, practical sense +and shrewdness. Her words were far from flattering, but she would spare +no deeds in the cause of those whom she kindly regarded. She ruled the +children pretty sharply; and yet never grudged a little extra trouble to +provide them with such small treats as came within her power. In return +she claimed to be looked upon as a humble friend.... Tabby had lived in +Haworth in the days when the pack-horses went through once a week.... +What is more, she had known the 'bottom' or valley in those primitive +days when the fairies frequented the margin of the 'beck' on moonlight +nights, and had known folk who had seen them. [See references to +'Bessie's' fairy tales in _Jane Eyre_, Chaps. I., II., and IV.].... No +doubt she had many a tale to tell of bygone days of the countryside: old +ways of living, former inhabitants, decayed gentry, who had melted away, +and whose places knew them no more; family tragedies and dark +superstitious dooms; and in telling these things, without the least +consciousness that there might ever be anything requiring to be softened +down, would give at full length the bare and simple details." + +Says Mrs. Dean, the Yorkshire servant who narrates the family tragedies +of _Wuthering Heights_ just after the manner of Tabitha Aykroyd:-- + + "But, Mr. Lockwood, I forget these tales cannot divert you, ... I + could have told Heathcliffe's history, all that you need hear, in + half-a-dozen words." + + "Sit still, Mrs. Dean," cried Lockwood, "... you've done just + right to tell the story leisurely. That is the method I like.... + Excepting a few provincialisms, ... you have no marks of the + manners ... peculiar to your class; ... you have been compelled to + cultivate your reflective faculties for want of occasions for + frittering your life away in silly trifles." + + Mrs. Dean laughed. "I certainly esteem myself a steady, reasonable + kind of body," she said; "not exactly from living among the hills + and seeing one set of faces, and one series of actions, from + year's end to year's end; but I have undergone sharp discipline + which has taught me wisdom." + +"Jane" says of Mrs. Dean as "Bessie" of _Jane Eyre_, Chap. IV., Method +II., altering the age of characters portrayed:-- + + When gentle, Bessie seemed to me the ... kindest being in the + world;... I wished ... intensely ... she would always be so + pleasant and amiable, and never push about or scold, or task me + unreasonably, as she was ... wont to do. Bessie Lee[23] must, I + think, have been a girl of good natural capacity, for she was + smart in all she did, and had a remarkable knack of narrative; so, + at least, I judge from the impression made upon me by her nursery + tales.... But she had a capricious and hasty temper and + indifferent ideas of principle or justice ["Hannah" would have + driven off the destitute Jane Eyre], still, such as she was, I + preferred her to any one else at Gateshead Hall. + +"Mrs. Dean"[24] in her turn says of "Catherine"--Charlotte Brontë:-- + + "She was never so happy as when we were all scolding her at once + and she defying us.... I vexed her frequently by trying to bring + down her arrogance; she never took an aversion to me though." + +In Chap. IV. of _Jane Eyre_ Bessie says to Jane Eyre, after the latter +has asked her not to scold:-- + + "Well, I will, but mind you are a very good girl, and don't be + afraid of me. Don't start when I chance to speak sharply." + + "I don't think I shall ever be afraid of you again, Bessie, + because I have got used to you." + +Jane suggests Bessie dislikes her, to which is replied:-- + + "I don't dislike you.... I believe I am fonder of you than of all + the others." + + "You don't show it." + + "You sharp little thing!... What makes you so venturesome and + hardy?" + +The idiosyncratic appeal Tabitha Aykroyd made to Charlotte is related +identically wherever she is portrayed. That Charlotte Brontë had been +initially entranced by her fairy tales, and the old songs she sang, is +shown more especially in the phases she gives of Tabitha as Bessie and +as Ellen Dean. Thus we read in _Jane Eyre_, Chap. IV., in the close of +the scene just given:-- + +"That afternoon lapsed in peace and harmony; ... in the evening Bessie +told me some of her most enchaining stories, and sang me some of her +sweetest songs. Even for me life had its gleams of sunshine." And in +_Wuthering Heights_, Chap. XXII., Ellen Dean says of Miss Catherine +Linton (see my reference to this character as a phase of Charlotte +Brontë, in my preface):--"From dinner to tea she would lie doing nothing +except singing old songs--my nursery lore--to herself, ... half +thinking, half dreaming, happier than words can express." So in the same +work, Chap. XXIV., the same Catherine says:--"He was charmed with two or +three pretty songs [I sang]--_your_ songs, Ellen." The italics are +Charlotte Brontë's. + +_Jane Eyre_, Chap. III., says:-- + + Bessie had now finished ... tidying the room ... she sang:-- + + "In the days we went agipsying + A long time ago." + + I had often heard the song before, and always with lively delight; + for Bessie had a sweet voice--at least I thought so. But now, + though her voice was still sweet, I found in its melody an + indescribable sadness. Sometimes, preoccupied with her work, she + sang the refrain very low, very lingeringly: "a long time ago," + came like the saddest cadence of a funeral hymn. She passed into + another ballad. + +Tabby Aykroyd going to the Parsonage when the motherless Charlotte +Brontë was but nine, Charlotte seems to have been drawn to look upon +her as a new-found friend, and afterwards she idealized those memories +associated with her. It is noticeable she had been impressed in +childhood by her singing and the sympathetic sweetness of her voice. +There is a world of meaning--a gracious waiving aside of qualifying fact +in the sentence, "Bessie had a sweet voice--at least I thought so." +Charlotte was fond of Scottish ballads, and in _Villette_, Chapter XXV., +she identifies herself in her phase as Paulina (see my further reference +to this phase of Charlotte Brontë) with a a love for a Scottish song. +With Tabitha Aykroyd she loved to associate the singing of her favourite +ballads, as we have seen in her reference to the songs of Tabitha in her +phases as Bessie of _Jane Eyre_ and Mrs. Dean of _Wuthering Heights_. +And so it is we find Mrs. Dean telling us in Chapter IX. of _Wuthering +Heights_, 'I was rocking Hareton on my knee, and humming a song that +began:-- + + "It was far in the night and the bairnies grat, + The mither beneath the mools heard that."' + +Whether traits of Nancy Garrs or her sister, or Martha Brown, the other +Brontë servants, contributed to Charlotte's portrayal is doubtful. I +think they did not. We see in this chapter the original of Bessie of +_Jane Eyre_ was certainly the original of Mrs. Dean of _Wuthering +Heights_--Tabitha Aykroyd; and as Charlotte Brontë portrayed Mrs. Dean +as an elderly woman servant, before she began _Jane Eyre_, we must +decide the question of the real age of the original of Bessie by that +fact. Confirming is the portrayal of the same character by Charlotte as +the elderly Hannah in _Jane Eyre_. See my chapter on "The Rivers or +Brontë Family."[25] + +Of "Dean" or Tabitha Aykroyd in the rôle of Hannah of the family "Jane" +says:--"I had a feeling that she did not understand me, ... that she was +prejudiced against me." Nevertheless she says to her: "You ... have been +an honest and faithful servant, I will say so much for you." + +Much stress is placed by Tabitha Aykroyd, as Nelly Dean, and Bessie, on +Charlotte Brontë's passionateness. Says Mrs. Dean of Catherine in +_Wuthering Heights_: + + "The doctor had said that she would not bear crossing much, she + ought to have her own way; and it was nothing less than murder in + his eyes, for any one to presume to stand up and contradict her, + ... serious threats of a fit ... often attended her rages." + +Thus I find there is a connection between Catherine's "fit of frenzy" +and delirium in _Wuthering Heights_, Chapters XI. and XII., and the +scenes attendant upon Jane's fit of frenzy in _Jane Eyre_, Chapters I., +II., III. The one is told by Charlotte as from Tabitha Aykroyd's +(Bessie's) standpoint, the other from Catherine's (Charlotte Brontë's), +an inversion of attitude which proves Charlotte Brontë to be the author +and heroine of _Wuthering Heights_. + + _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + Charlotte Brontë in the locked Charlotte Brontë in the locked + chamber, and Tabitha Aykroyd, chamber, and Tabitha Aykroyd, + the Brontë servant, told by the Brontë servant, told by + Tabitha, as it were. Charlotte. + + -------- -------- + + She [Catherine--Charlotte I [Jane--Charlotte Brontë] sat + Brontë] rang the bell till it looking at the white bed, ... + broke.... I [Tabitha--Nelly occasionally turning a + Dean] entered leisurely. It was fascinated eye towards the ... + enough to try the temper of a mirror ... I hushed my sobs, + saint, such senseless, wicked fearful lest ... signs of grief + rages! There she lay dashing her might waken a preternatural + head against the ... sofa and voice ... or elicit from the + grinding her teeth.... I brought gloom some haloed face.... This + a glass of water; and as she ... I felt would be terrible.... + would not drink, I sprinkled it At this moment a light gleamed + on her face. In a few seconds on the wall; ... shaken as my + she stretched herself out stiff, nerves were by agitation, I + and ... assumed the aspect of thought the swift-darting beam + death. was a herald of some coming + vision from another world. My + Linton [? Mr. Brontë] looked heart beat thick, my head grew + terrified. "There is nothing the hot; a sound filled my ears + matter," ... and I which I deemed the rushing of + [Tabitha--Mrs. Dean] told him wings: something seemed near me; + how she had resolved ... on I was oppressed, suffocated; + exhibiting a fit of frenzy. I endurance broke down; I rushed + incautiously gave the account to the door and shook the lock + aloud, ... she [Charlotte in desperate effort. Steps came + Brontë] started up ... and then running along the ... passage, + rushed from the room. The master ... Bessie and Abbot entered. + directed me to follow; I did to + her chamber door; she ... "Miss Eyre, are you ill?" said + secured it against me.... On the Bessie [Tabitha Aykroyd]. + third day Catherine [Charlotte + Brontë] un-barred her door, ... "What a dreadful noise! It went + desired a basin of gruel, for through me!" exclaimed Abbot. + she believed she was dying. + "Take me out!" was my cry. + "These ... awful nights; I've + never closed my lids--and oh!... "... Are you hurt? Have you seen + I've been ... haunted, Nelly! something?" demanded Bessie + [Tabitha]. But I begin to fancy [Tabitha]. + you don't like me.... They have + all turned to enemies; ... "Oh! I ... thought a ghost would + _they_ have, the people _here_." come." + + Tossing about, she increased her "She has screamed on purpose," + feverish bewilderment of declared Abbot [?].... "And what + madness.... "Don't you see that a scream! If she had been in + face?" she inquired, gazing pain one would have excused it, + nervously at the mirror.... "Oh! but she only wanted to bring us + Nelly [Tabitha], the room is all here: I know her naughty + haunted! I'm afraid of being tricks." + left alone...." + ... Mrs. Reed [Aunt Branwell] + I [Nelly Dean--Tabitha] came.... "Silence!" she + attempted to steal to the door exclaimed; "this scene is + ... but I was summoned back by a repulsive." I was a precocious + piercing scream. actor in her eyes. She sincerely + looked upon me [Charlotte] as a + ... "As soon as ever I barred compound of virulent passions, + the door," proceeded Catherine mean spirit, and dangerous + [Charlotte Brontë], "utter duplicity.... I suppose I had a + darkness overwhelmed me, and I species of fit: unconsciousness + fell on the floor. I couldn't closed the scene.... The next + explain ... how certain I felt thing I remembered is waking ... + of having a fit, or going mad." with a feeling as if I had had a + frightful nightmare ... + "A sound sleep would do you agitation, uncertainty, and a + good," said Nelly Dean--Tabitha predominant sense of terror + Aykroyd. confused my faculties.... Bessie + [Tabby] stood at the bed-foot + with a basin in her hand. + + "Do you feel as if you could + sleep, Miss?" asked Bessie + [Tabitha Aykroyd] rather softly. + + For me [Charlotte] the watches + of that long night passed in + ghostly watchfulness; ear, eye, + and mind were alike strained by + dread, such dread as children + only can feel. + +By her Method II.: altering the age of a character portrayed, Charlotte +Brontë gives us Tabitha Aykroyd as a young woman in Bessie; and by the +same Method II, in the scene just read from _Wuthering Heights_, we have +an instance of her presenting, as an incident in womanhood, an incident +which the testimony of _Jane Eyre_ and other evidences show occurred +really in Charlotte's own childhood. As she relates in _Jane Eyre_, her +dread was "such dread as children only can feel"; and she goes on to say +"this incident [of the locked room] gave my nerves a shock of which I +feel the reverberation to this day." Thus in both _Wuthering Heights_ +and _Jane Eyre_ Charlotte paints an excellent picture of the +matter-of-fact but good-hearted Tabitha Aykroyd going to the room in +response to her, Charlotte Brontë's, frantic appeal, sceptical and +certainly unsympathetic. + +The part played by the wild summoning of Tabitha to the room, the +references to "a fit," the ghost and haunted chamber, the dread of the +mirror, the suggestion that the frenzy of fear was wilfully assumed, the +piercing scream, Tabitha Aykroyd with her basin and her final suggestion +of sleep, are in themselves ample evidence that Charlotte Brontë in both +_Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ drew this scene from an experience +of the kind in her own childhood. In each work stress is laid by her +upon her own hypersensitiveness, and we learn how the Brontë household +misunderstood her excessive passionateness and misread it as wicked +acting[26]. + +We see Tabitha best in Mrs. Dean of _Wuthering Heights_, as Hannah of +the Rivers family of _Jane Eyre_, and by Currer Bell's Method II., +alteration of age of the character portrayed, as Bessie of that work. +Tabitha Aykroyd lives and breathes her life through the pages of +Charlotte Brontë's _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ to-day, and ever +will she remain in literature, a real Yorkshire woman amazingly +translated from the wide Yorkshire hearth with its great, wind-whitened +fire and smell of hot cakes, to the pages of two of the finest examples +of the English novel. Her portrayal I declare to be one of the most +admirable achievements in the works of Charlotte Brontë. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S CHILD APPARITION IN "THE PROFESSOR," "WUTHERING +HEIGHTS," AND "JANE EYRE." + + +Mrs. Gaskell, the Brontë biographer, relates that a friend of Charlotte +Brontë said Charlotte had told her "a misfortune was often preceded by +the dream which she gives to Jane Eyre of carrying a wailing child. She, +Charlotte Brontë, described herself as having the most painful sense of +pity for the little thing.... The misfortunes she mentioned were not +always to herself. She thought such sensitiveness to omens was ... +present to susceptible people...." This in the main explains the origin +of the child-apparition as an omen of disaster in Charlotte Brontë's +works. + +It would seem by Charlotte's statement in _Jane Eyre_ that Tabitha +Aykroyd, as "Bessie," was responsible for the origin of this little +superstition; and it is instructive to find the child-apparition as an +ill-omen in connection with Tabitha Aykroyd as Mrs. Dean in _Wuthering +Heights_. I have shown John Reed and Hindley Earnshaw represent Branwell +Brontë; we may notice, therefore, that the child-apparition is given +equally in _Wuthering Heights_ and in _Jane Eyre_ as coming before +disaster or disgrace to Branwell Brontë. + + _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + Chapter XI. Chapter XXI. + + Tabitha Aykroyd's child-apparition Tabitha Aykroyd's child-apparition + as a token of calamity to Branwell as a token of calamity to Branwell + Brontë. Brontë. + + -------- -------- + + Says Mrs. Dean [Tabitha]: "I Presentiments are strange + came to a stone which serves as things! ... and so are signs.... + a guide-post to ... the Heights Sympathies I believe exist (for + and the village.... Hindley instance, between far-distant + [Branwell Brontë] and I held it ... wholly estranged relatives). + a favourite spot twenty years When I was a ... girl I heard + before, ... and ... it appeared Bessie [Tabitha Aykroyd] say + that I beheld my ... playmate that to dream of children was a + seated on the ... turf, ... his sure sign of trouble.... During + little hand scooping out the the last week scarcely a night + earth."[27] had gone ... that had not + brought ... the dream of an + "Poor Hindley!" [Branwell infant which I ... watched + Brontë] I exclaimed playing with daisies on a lawn + involuntarily. I started--my or ... dabbling its hands in + bodily eye was cheated in the running water.[27] It was a + belief that the child lifted its wailing child this night, ... a + face and stared straight into laughing one the next, ... but + mine! It vanished in a whatever mood the apparition + twinkling; but immediately I evinced ... it failed not ... to + felt an irresistible yearning to meet me.... I grew nervous.... + be at the Heights. Superstition It was from companionship with + urged me to comply with this this baby-phantom I had been + impulse--"Suppose he were dead! roused ... when I heard the cry: + ... supposing it were a sign of and on the ... day following ... + death!" I found a man [Bessie's husband] + waiting for me; ... he was ... + in deep mourning, and the hat in + his hand was surrounded with a + crape band. + + "I hope no one is dead," I said. + And the man replies that John + Reed [Branwell Brontë] had got + into great trouble and was dead. + +Branwell Brontë was not dead when Charlotte Brontë wrote those two +versions, but it seems certain that an apparition of a child in some +period of Charlotte's life preceded a further debasement of Branwell, +the original of Hindley Earnshaw and John Reed. We may note Charlotte +Brontë's Method II., in regard to Hindley. + +In Charlotte Brontë's _The Professor_ we find reference to her +child-phantom wailing outside, and to the eerie, premonitory signal made +against a lattice, as in her _Wuthering Heights_:-- + + _Wuthering Heights._ _The Professor._ + + Chapter III. Chapter XVI. + + Scene: An isolated homestead on Scene: An isolated homestead on + a winter's night, snow-wind a winter's night, snow-wind + blowing, storm threatening. blowing, storm threatening. + + -------- -------- + + While leading me upstairs she Take care, young man + [Zillah, the stout housewife] [recommended "the herdsman's + recommended that I should hide wife"], that you fasten the door + the candle and not make a noise, well, ... whatever sound you + ... they had so many queer hear stir not and look not out. + goings-on. The night will soon fall, ... + strange noises are often heard + He sleeps and is awakened by-- ... you might chance to hear, as + it were, a child cry, and on + The branch of a fir that touched opening the door to give it + my lattice.... I listened succour ... a shadowy goblin dog + doubtingly, ... I heard the might rush over the threshold; + gusty wind and the driving of or more awful still, if + the snow;... I heard also the something flapped, as with + firbough repeat its teasing wings, against the lattice, and + sound.... I ... endeavoured to then a raven or a white dove + unhasp the casement, ... flew in and settled on the + knocking my knuckles through the hearth, such a visitor would be + glass, and stretching an arm out a sure sign of misfortune. + to seize the ... branch; instead + of which my fingers closed on The stranger, left alone, + the fingers of a little ice-cold listens awhile to the muffled + hand.[28]... I tried to draw snow-wind. + back my arm, but the hand clung + to it and a melancholy voice + sobbed--"Let me in--let me in!" + + ... As it spoke, I discerned + obscurely a child's face looking + through the window.... Still it + wailed "Let me in!" and it + maintained its tenacious gripe, + almost maddening me with fear. + + "How can I?" I said.... "Let + _me_ go, if you want me to let + you in." I stopped my ears to + exclude the lamentable prayer, + ... yet the instant I listened + again, there was the doleful cry + moaning on! + + "Begone!" I shouted; "I'll never + let you in, not if you beg for + twenty years." + +In _Wuthering Heights_ Charlotte Brontë has worked the child-phantom +into the story proper, setting it for the spirit of the departed +Catherine, who as a child again (Method II., altering age of the +character portrayed) seeks Heathcliffe. The building of the +child-phantom in the plot of _Wuthering Heights_ created a peculiar +state of affairs; but as we have seen by Charlotte Brontë's reference to +it in the extract from _The Professor_, she was impressed by its +possibilities of giving a weird spiritual atmosphere, and she did not +extend the idea in _The Professor_. The substance of Charlotte Brontë's +two versions of the child-phantom wailing outside a house for admittance +is identical:-- + + _The Professor._ _Wuthering Heights._ + + Scene: An isolated homestead on a Scene: An isolated homestead on a + winter's night, snow-wind blowing, winter's night, snow-wind blowing, + storm threatening. Young stranger storm threatening. Young stranger + admonished by the good housewife admonished by the good housewife + that there are queer goings-on that there are queer goings-on + thereabouts. thereabouts. + + Subjunctive Mood. Indicative Mood. + + Something might brush against Something brushes against the + the lattice, and a phantom-child lattice, and a phantom-child + might wail outside for succour. wails outside for succour. + On opening to admit it an awful, On opening to admit it an awful, + supernatural incident might occur. supernatural incident occurs. + +Thus we perceive the famous child-phantom incident in Chapter III. of +_Wuthering Heights_ had its origin (1) in Montagu's lonely-house +incident; (2) in Charlotte Brontë's awe of a child-apparition; (3) in +Charlotte Brontë's Method II., alteration of age of character portrayed, +by which Catherine the woman becomes a child again; and (4) in Charlotte +Brontë's notion, as evidenced in _Shirley_, Chapter XXIV., that a loved +dead one can "revisit those they leave"; can "come in the elements"; +that "wind" could give "a path to Moor(e)"--Heath(cliffe), "passing the +casement sobbing"; that the loved dead one could "haunt" the wind. +These, then, we see were the notions in Charlotte Brontë's head +responsible for Catherine's returning so sensationally to the abode of +her lover as a child-spectre. For Catherine's love for Wuthering Heights +was not simply because of the place and its moors, as so many writers +have wrongly contended, but because it was associated with +Heathcliffe.[29] Let my reader peruse again the "wailing child" passages +I quote from _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ in Chapter II. of _The +Key to the Brontë Works_. + +Truly the testimony of Charlotte Brontë's child-phantom were alone the +sign-manual that she and none other wrote _Wuthering Heights_. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE ORIGINALS OF GIMMERTON, GIMMERDEN, GIMMERTON KIRK AND CHAPEL, +PENISTON CRAGS, THE FAIRY CAVE, ETC., IN "WUTHERING HEIGHTS," AND OF THE +FAIRY CAVE AND THE FAIRY JANET IN "JANE EYRE." + + +The uncommon stress Charlotte Brontë has laid upon the outlandishness of +the _Wuthering Heights_ country and its solitudes assuredly would have +been absent from that work had she drawn her background from the +comparatively characterless Haworth moors on the skirts of manufacturing +towns, and not from impressions created in her mind by Montagu's +description in his _Gleanings in Craven_ of the wildest and weirdest +scenery in Yorkshire. There has been a noticeable tendency on the part +of town-bred, and also of romantic, biographers to be awed by the +ordinary moorland surroundings of Haworth, and to associate with them +all the wildness of the Craven or Scottish Highlands, though Miss Mary +Robinson, whose work entitled _Emily Brontë_ is in effect an +"appreciation" of _Wuthering Heights_, says frankly regarding the house +standing beyond the street on the summit of Haworth Hill, shown as the +original of _Wuthering Heights_, that to her thinking "this fine old +farm of the Sowdens is far too near the mills of Haworth to represent +the God-forsaken, lonely house." But of course an author can place a +given abode against any background. Wuthering Heights has been connected +by some people with a locality called Withins--how wrongly a reference +to the origin of Gimmerton and Gimmerden alone shows. The primary origin +of the name and title of "Wuthering Heights" I reveal in the final +chapter on "The Recoil." + +The following passage from _Wuthering Heights_ tells that Charlotte +Brontë's imagination was enjoying the latitude of a half-realized, +suggested background. It reads just like the traveller Montagu with his +horse, attendant servant on horseback, roadside inns, hostlers, and +description of country. But the connection of Montagu with Lockwood of +_Wuthering Heights_ we have already seen in the early chapters of _The +Key to the Brontë Works_:-- + + 1802--This September I was invited to devastate the moors of a + friend in the North, and on my journey ... I unexpectedly came + within fifteen miles of Gimmerton. The hostler at a roadside + public-house was holding a pail of water to refresh my horses when + a cart of very green oats ... passed by, and he remarked-- + + "Yon's frough Gimmerton, nah! They're allus three wick after other + folk wi' ther harvest." + + "Gimmerton?" I repeated; my residence in that locality had already + grown dim and dreamy. "Ah, I know. How far is it from this?" + + "Happen fourteen mile o'er th' hills; and a rough road." A sudden + impulse seized me to visit Thrushcross Grange. It was scarcely + noon, and I conceived that I might as well pass the night under my + own roof as in an inn.... Having rested a while, I directed my + servant to inquire the way to the village; and, with great fatigue + to our beasts, we managed the distance in some three hours. I left + him there, and proceeded ... down the valley alone. The grey + church looked greyer, and the churchyard lonelier. I + distinguished a moor sheep cropping the short turf on the + graves.... The heat did not hinder me from enjoying the delightful + scenery above and below; had I seen it nearer August, I'm sure it + would have tempted me to waste a month among its solitudes. [Be it + observed he would rather have done so than have gone to "the + moors" of his friend.] In winter nothing more dreary than those + glens shut in by hills,[30] and those bluff, bold swells of heath. + +So we too would imagine, judging by Montagu's description of the +district in his little work. + +Throughout _Wuthering Heights_ we hear mention of Gimmerton, but it is +apparent the village was "dim and dreamy" to Charlotte Brontë--somewhere +about the little valley we should imagine, to conclude by general +observations. However, clear it is that Gimmerton and Gimmerden were +drawn by Charlotte Brontë merely from impressions created in her mind by +other than a personal acquaintance with the district. Where then, and in +what peculiar circumstances, did Charlotte receive these +suggestions--suggestions that must have appealed to her at a time +immediately coincident with her commencing this foundling story with +the house of mystery, the inhospitable host, the uncouth man-servant, +and the candle-bearing bedside visitant--all from Montagu's book? My +evidence declares these suggestions also came from Montagu's little +work, and that the originals of Gimmerton in _Wuthering Heights_, and +Gimmerden, or the valley of Gimmerton, were Malham and Malhamdale, or +the valley of Malham. This district Montagu describes as being "most +interesting ... in its own variety of wildness." + +I believe Kilnsey Crags, which Montagu describes on the last page of the +letter next to that written from Malham, figured in Charlotte Brontë's +mind as the originals of Peniston Crags ("Peniston" may have been +suggested by Montagu's mention of Pennigent). Montagu's description of +Kilnsey Crags I will place side by side with the reference to Peniston +Crags in _Wuthering Heights_:-- + + MONTAGU. _Wuthering Heights._ + Chapter XVIII. + + KILNSEY CRAGS. PENISTON CRAGS. + + A lofty range of limestone rocks The abrupt descent of Peniston + ... stretching nearly half a Crags particularly attracted her + mile along the valley, and notice; especially when the + rendered perhaps, more striking setting sun shone on it and the + by contrasting with the vale topmost heights, and the whole + immediately at its base. extent of the landscape, besides + [by contrasting] lay in shadow. + +Clearly Joseph's "leading of lime" from Peniston Crags in _Wuthering +Heights_ was suggested to Charlotte Brontë by the "Kiln" of Kilnsea +Crags, and Montagu's reference to the crags being limestone. Dean +describes them to Cathy, and her words are simply Montagu's +description--treated antithetically--of Gordale Scar in the Malham +letter:-- + + MONTAGU. _Wuthering Heights._ + Chapter XVIII. + + In the clefts in the rocks' They were bare masses of stone, + sides, or wherever a lodgement with hardly enough earth in + of earth appears [is] the ... their clefts to nourish ... a + yew. tree.... One of the maids + mentioning the Fairy Cave, quite + turned her head.... + +In his Malham letter Montagu describes a Fairy Cave, and of course +Gimmerton has the Fairy Cave in its neighbourhood. It is placed under +the Crags, but we have no description in _Wuthering Heights_:-- + + MONTAGU. _Wuthering Heights._ + Chapter XVIII. + + Montagu has a boy-guide "adapted Says Catherine Linton to the boy + to show the prominent features Hareton:--"I want ... to hear + to strangers." He takes Montagu about the _fairishes_, as you + on to Malham, where Montagu sees call them.".... Hareton opened + the Fairy Cave. This boy-guide the mysteries of the Fairy Cave + was called Robert Airton, and he and twenty other queer places. + was aged twelve.[31] But ... I was not favoured with + a description of the interesting + objects she saw. I could gather, + however, that her guide had been + a favourite. + +The name of Linton appears in Montagu in the letter next that in which +he describes the Fairy Cave. We may understand that Charlotte Brontë's +romantic imagination was entranced, as she says Catherine Linton's was, +with the mention of the Fairy Cave; and _Jane Eyre_ is testimony that +after writing _Wuthering Heights_ she turned again to consider its +possibilities of suggestion. + +In fact, I find that Charlotte Brontë when she chose the name of Janet +Eyre for herself was also calling herself the Fairy Janet. And where, +then, read Charlotte Brontë of the fairy Janet Eyre? The evidence of +Montagu's work proves that when she wrote the name Eyre, she was +implying by this Derbyshire variant the name Aire or Ayre, meaning the +river Ayre. Where acquired Charlotte Brontë so intimate an acquaintance +with the history of the Fairy Janet of the Aire as to take upon herself +poetically, the rôle of that Craven elf and her name? + +Mr. Harry Speight recently, in _The Craven Highlands_, told us "the +Fairy Jennet or Janet was queen of the Malhamdale elves" who frequented +the enchanted ground round the source of the Aire. But prior to +Montagu's dealing with Janet's Cave, the home of the Malhamdale fays, +the queen-elf had been referred to as Gennet. Montagu spelt the name +Jannet, and later writers having referred to him, the fairy cave now +bears the name Janet's Cave. A Malham writer prior to Montagu referred +only briefly to the Fairy Cave, and quite prosily. In his Malham letter +Montagu says:-- + +"Leaving a farmhouse at the entrance of the vale to the left, we [he and +his boy-guide] proceeded over two fields, then ascended about twenty +yards, suddenly turned an acute angle, and penetrating some bushes we +stood at the entrance of a deep and narrow glen, before a perpendicular +fall of water. At the foot of this cascade is + + JANNET'S CAVE. + +It is so called from the queen or governess of a numerous tribe of +faeries, which tradition assures us anciently held their court here; and +as there may be some of my readers who may like at the moonlit hour to +be entertained at one of Jannet's banquets, I will give an idea as to +the mode of obtaining admission into such society.... On the evening +when I first learned the mystic lore, the golden sun had kissed every +flower, even unto the retiring lily, and was gliding westward when, from +the heart's couch of a moss rose, there came the eldest daughter of +faeryland, probably the self-same Jannet's daughter, saying:-- + + 'I have come from whence + Peace with white sceptre wafting to and fro, + Smooths the wide bosom of the Elysian world,' + +and who, upon being informed that I was desirous of swearing allegiance +to her sweet mother, said that she would bring intelligence whether I +might be admitted to her pretty vassalage; she then bade her attendants +bring her car, which was a leaf of a favourite hyacinth, drawn by two +lady-birds who were guided by reins of gossamer; the mellow horn of the +herald bee summoned her attendants, who, to the number of twenty, obeyed +the call; and taking the coronets from off their brows, made low +obeisance to their young princess, which she pleasingly acknowledged. +Then they each captured a sphere of thistle-down, and seating themselves +thereon, followed their princess; who, attended by her guards, each +armed with a maiden's eye-lash, journeyed onwards towards the realms of +enchanted ground. I should think that not many minutes elapsed when the +cavalcade returned, and the charter written upon the leaf of a +'forget-me-not,' with the gold from a butterfly's wing, was placed into +my hand by 'a fay,' with injunctions not to divulge the secrets of the +order. I would have promised but awoke from this pleasant dream." + +We will now read Montagu's description of the Fairy Janet, and a fairy +coming to him at sundown when adapted by Charlotte Brontë in _Jane +Eyre_. + +Adèle asks Rochester whether she is to go to school without her +governess, Jane Eyre:-- + + "Yes," he replied; ... "for I am to take mademoiselle to the moon, + and there I shall seek a cave in one of the white valleys among + the volcano tops, and mademoiselle shall live with me there, and + only me." + + "... But you can't get her there...." + + "Adèle ... late one evening ... I sat down to rest me on a stile + ... when something came up the path.... Our speechless colloquy + was to this effect-- + + "It was a fairy, and come from Elf-land, it said.... It told me of + the alabaster cave and silver vale.... I said I should like to + go.... 'Oh,' returned the fairy.... 'Here is a talisman which will + remove all difficulties' and she held out a pretty gold ring...." + + "But what has mademoiselle [Jane Eyre] to do with it? I don't care + for the fairy...." + + "Mademoiselle [Jane Eyre] is a fairy," he said, whispering + mysteriously. + +But Adèle assures him she made no account of his "_contes de fée_." + +For the present it is enough to know that in the main and ostensibly the +Fairy Janet Eyre was Charlotte Brontë's adaptation of Montagu's Fairy +Janet, the queen-elf of the Malhamdale fairies, said to frequent the +enchanted land round the source of the Aire. + +The fairy idea, Charlotte discovered, served well to give a certain +gallantry to Rochester's bestowing of epithets. These the reader may +have interest in finding in _Jane Eyre_. For instance, when Jane, +returning from her visit to a dead relative, informs Rochester, he +says:-- + + "A true _Janian_ reply! [italics mine]. Good angels be my guard! + She comes from the other world--from the abode of people who are + dead, and tells me so when she meets me alone here in the + gloaming! If I dared, I'd touch you, to see if you are substance + or shadow, you elf!--but I'd as soon offer to take hold of a blue + _ignis-fatuus_ light in the marsh." + +A few lines lower Rochester asks:-- + + "Tell me, now, fairy as you are--can't you give a charm?" + +And then farther down: + + "Pass, Janet: go up home and stay your weary little wandering feet + at a friend's threshold." + +When Rochester's bed is in flames, and he awakes to find Janet has +thrown water upon it, he demands:-- + + "In the name of all the elves in Christendom, is that Jane Eyre?" + +And so I might continue. It is observable Charlotte Brontë never allows +Rochester to call Jane Eyre "Janet" and "fairy" in the same breath. She +permits the use of Janet, however, when the fairy notion is concealed, +as when Rochester says: + + "Just put your hand in mine, Janet, that I may have the evidence + of touch as well as sight, to prove you are near me." + +Certain it is that in Charlotte Brontë's inmost heart her +autobiographical self was called Janet Aire.[32] + +Charlotte Brontë's conceptions, when she let her imagination have play +and forgot the world of readers were, like Jane Eyre's thoughts, +"elfish." See the fairy tale, _The Adventures of Ernest Alembert_ +(attributed by Charlotte Brontë to her pen in her fifteenth year). It +has been remarked this story is not in the handwriting Charlotte Brontë +affected at this period, and that the manuscript has not Charlotte's +customary title-page.[33] In view of the evidence of _The Key to the +Brontë Works_, it is of interest to make a comparison between _Alembert_ +and Montagu's _Gleanings in Craven_, published eight years later than +the date Charlotte Brontë ascribed to its completion. The association of +the family of Lambert with hypothetical high treason and with being +extinct; with the Malham country as described by Montagu--the +references, so frequent in his pages, to the awe inspired by the +wildness of the scenery, to the underground torrent, the contrasting +range of crags, the lake, the fairy cave, the fairy and the admittance +into faerydom; to "the mellow hum of the bee," etc., are interesting in +the extreme, seeing by aid of Montagu that Malham as presented by him +became Gimmerton of _Wuthering Heights_. Whether "coincidence" has to do +with this matter of _Alembert_ and Montagu, or Charlotte Brontë has for +some reason ante-dated _Alembert_, I leave to the reader to decide. + + MONTAGU. _The Adventures of Ernest + Alembert._ + + Montagu, speaking of the church Charlotte Brontë begins by + of Kirkby-Malham, "in the ... relating that there once lived + vale of Malham," says:--"Some of an Ernest Alembert. One of the + the Lamberts are buried Alemberts having been "beheaded" + here--here is a monument to ... for "high treason,"[34] "the + John Lambert, who aided Cromwell family had decayed" until the + in his murder of Charles the only survivor was Ernest + First (as all did who were Alembert. We are told that he + implicated in Cromwell's beside a valley; and the river + rebellion)[34]--after the became a lake. A stranger + Restoration lived he died putting him under a spell, + banished and forgotten at [A]lembert accepts him for a + Guernsey. The family is now guide, and they wend their way + extinct." up the valley. + + In the chapter on Malham, [A]lembert finds himself at a + Montagu accepts a guide who place where the torrent goes + takes him up the vale of Malham. underground. + He mentions Malham Lake, or + Tarn, and says of the River Aire + in the connection that the water + "delves into the mountain, and + does not appear again until it + reaches the village of Airton, + below Malham." + + We have descriptions of wild We have descriptions of wild + moor, "tremendous" precipices, moors and precipices, and + and "grand and terrific foaming cataracts. When they + cataracts":--"At last we stopped to rest after a climb + attained the summit of the "the scene was grand and awful + mountain, when, looking down in in the extreme.... The mellow + the chasm beneath, horror and hum of the bee was no longer + immensity were defined with heard.... Above rose tremendous + thrilling truth." precipices, whose vast shadows + blackened all that portion of + the moor [see "Peniston Crags," + page 59], and deepened the frown + on the face of unpropitious + nature." + + Montagu and his guide go to a [A]lembert and his guide go to a + cave--the cave of the Fairy cave. Farther on the guide + Janet. Montagu falling asleep as vanishes, but [A]lembert wakes + it were, a fairy comes to his to find him by his side as a + side and tells him he is in the fairy [Charlotte Brontë, Method + realm of fairies. She promises I., interchange of the sexes], + to induct him into the wonders who addresses [A]lembert as + of faeryland, and "the mellow follows:-- + horn of the herald bee" summoned + her attendants. And so on. See "I am a fairy. You have been, + Charlotte Brontë's mention in and still are, in the land of + _Alembert_ of "the mellow hum of fairies. Some wonders you have + the bee." seen; many more you shall see if + you choose to follow me." And so + on in extension. + +I have often wondered why no one has ever observed before that the hand +which wrote _The Adventures of Ernest Alembert_ must assuredly have +written every line of _Wuthering Heights_. We may well understand why +Charlotte Brontë in _Wuthering Heights_ wrote of Catherine Linton that +"the mentioning the Fairy Cave quite turned her head" with interest. And +that the original of the Fairy Cave in _Wuthering Heights_ was the Fairy +Cave of Malhamdale Montagu mentions at such length in his Malham +letter, the use of the names Linton and Airton in the connection +irrefutably proves without other appeal: Hareton--that variant of Aire, +cannot be associated with Derbyshire like "Eyre"; and despite the use of +"Eyre," Aire was the name in Charlotte Brontë's mind, just as "Airton" +was when she wrote "Hareton." + +Both the "boy-guide" and "Gimmerton's mist" were obviously suggested to +Charlotte Brontë for _Wuthering Heights_ by Montagu, the original, as I +have shown, of Lockwood:-- + + MONTAGU. _Wuthering Heights._ + + I ... took leave of my host and Says Heathcliffe:--"People + followed the youthful steps of familiar with these moors often + my guide whose services I had miss their road on such an + accepted.... Upon the summit of evening." + the mountain is Kilnsea Moor, + over which it is impossible to "Perhaps I can get a guide among + find a route to Malham Water your lads, ... could you spare + without a guide, more one?" asks Lockwood of his host. + particularly as a mist creates a + difficulty, even to a person + well acquainted with the + locality. + +Montagu's frequent references to the mountainous character of the Malham +country were doubtless responsible for Charlotte Brontë's choice of the +word "heights" used in her title. Why the name of Gimmer, from "gimmer" +a female sheep, and signifying with "ton" the place of sheep, was chosen +by her for Gimmerton, is clear when we read the etymology Montagu gives +of Skipton. He mentions Skibden and Skipton, proceeding to explain that +"Skipton, or Sceptown (from the Saxon word 'scep,' a sheep)" meant "the +town of sheep"; and Montagu tells us a native spoke of the village as +"the town of Malham." Hence we perceive why Charlotte Brontë coined +"Gimmerton," the village of sheep, and "Gimmerden," the valley of sheep, +for Malham and Malhamdale with the source of the Aire, the Fairy Cave, +the Sough, the adjacent crags, the heights, the glens, the rising mists, +the Methodist chapel and kirk in the lonely vale, when in the light of +all the foregoing we read in Montagu's work that:-- + +"Here [at Malham] there is an annual fair held on the 15th of October, +appropriated entirely for the sale of sheep.[35] I am within the limit +of fact when I say that upwards of one hundred thousand [sheep] have +been shown at one time. [Joseph takes cattle to "Gimmerton Fair," of +course not in October.] The houses are mostly built of limestone, and +covered with grit slates, and irregularly situated at the base of a +range of steep mountains"--"the Heights." + +Malham he describes as "a small township, divided into east and west +portions by a rapid stream"--"the beck down Gimmerton." "There is a +Methodist chapel at Malham," he states, and says that the old church of +Kirkby-Malham "is in the very bosom of the vale of Malham." Thus +Gimmerton Kirk, in the lonely valley of Gimmerton,[36] was Charlotte +Brontë's name in _Wuthering Heights_ for the kirk by Malham, in the +lonely vale of Malham. This insight into the origin of the name of +"kirk" for a Yorkshire church excuses what, without it, would have been +an anachronistic misnomer. As for the Nonconformists' place of worship, +Dean is made to remark:--"They call the Methodists' or Baptists' +place--I can't say which it is at Gimmerton--a chapel." + +In the light of the foregoing evidence it is impossible to ignore the +reference Montagu makes to "the sinks," where the water from Malham Tarn +sinks underground for a considerable distance. Whether Charlotte Brontë +thought this would produce a quag in the neighbourhood I cannot tell; +but if she has used the word "sough" (pronounced _suff_) in its ordinary +acceptance in Yorkshire, she originally meant "a subterranean passage or +tunnel, draining water as from a sink," if I may quote a definition in +Dr. Joseph Wright's _English Dialect Dictionary_. There is every sign in +her writings of a loose, composite adaptation of Montagu's topography, +etc., yet Charlotte Brontë was ever jealous of associations, and under a +guise or not she frequently preserved carefully recognizable +characteristics necessary to locality and to personality; and we see +Montagu had associated a sough with Malham. We have mention of Gimmerton +Sough in Chapter III. of _Wuthering Heights_, and in Chapter X.:--"... +the valley of Gimmerton, with a long list of mist winding nearly to its +top (for very soon after you pass the chapel ... the sough that runs +from the marshes joins a beck which follows the bend of the glen). +Wuthering Heights rose above this silvery vapour." And we have read what +Montagu says about the mists of Malham. + +The influence of Montagu's descriptions of this wild locality is +likewise observable in the scenery and the background of _Jane +Eyre_,[37] as I mentioned in the article "The Key to _Jane Eyre_" I +wrote in _The Saturday Review_. The yews and evergreens, mentioned by +Montagu in connection with Malham, and introduced by Charlotte Brontë, +with other trees of the fir-tribe, in descriptions of Morton in _Jane +Eyre_, Chap. XXX., etc., and in _Wuthering Heights_, are not common to +Haworth. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE RIVERS OR BRONTË FAMILY IN "JANE EYRE." + + +Charlotte Brontë, while she often portrayed the main characters of her +stories from people in her own life, was quite at home with them in +whatsoever condition or surroundings she placed them.[38] She loved the +memory of Tabitha Aykroyd--that faithful servant, companion, and friend; +hated the vices of her brother Branwell Brontë, and was obsessed by +thoughts of M. Héger, her Brussels friend. So she placed the good old +housekeeper of the parsonage--under an ecclesiastical cognomen truly--as +Mrs. Dean at Wuthering Heights; set up her brother Branwell on the same +premises as Hindley Earnshaw, and put her Brussels friend in the +position of master of that abode. + +In _Jane Eyre_ Tabitha Aykroyd is Bessie of Mrs. Reed's household, and +Hannah of the Rivers family; Branwell is among better surroundings as +John Reed, and M. Héger is portrayed more proportionately as the master +of Thornfield; while in the same work Charlotte Brontë portrays her own +sister Maria Brontë, and makes her say she is a native of Northumberland +and describe the scenery round her birthplace there! + +In _Shirley_ Charlotte admits to having placed Emily Brontë as "Shirley +Keeldar," surrounded by the environment of a wealthy woman--a landed +proprietress in the Dewsbury neighbourhood; and she gives us phases of +M. Héger as a resident of Yorkshire, in the two Moores. + +_Villette_ contains in Dr. John, towards the close, a portrait of the +Rev. Mr. Nicholls, who became her husband, as a resident of the foreign +town Villette--for I find the character Dr. John was a portrait not +wholly drawn, as is supposed, from Mr. Smith of Messrs. Smith & Elder, +the Brontë publishers; and glimpses of Mr. Thackeray as a Villette +lecturer appear in a flitting usurpation of M. Héger's rights as the +original of M. Paul. + +Charlotte Brontë's thus placing given characters against any background +is doubtless responsible for the fact that when I wrote the _Fortnightly +Review_ article, "The Lifting of the Brontë Veil: A New Study of the +Brontë Family," in March, 1907, nigh on sixty years of readers of the +Brontë works had failed to recognize Charlotte Brontë had portrayed in +_Jane Eyre_ not only herself and her sister, Maria Brontë, as was +commonly known, but also her brother, Branwell Brontë; her Aunt +Branwell; her cousin, Eliza Branwell; her sister, Elizabeth Brontë; her +sister, Emily Brontë; her sister, Anne Brontë; her father, the Rev. +Patrick Brontë; and also Tabitha Aykroyd, the Brontë servant. Perhaps it +was because readers believed Morton was Hathersage, Derbyshire, that a +suspicion of the Rivers family being the Brontë family at Haworth never +had been entertained. + +I found, however, that all the above-mentioned members of the Brontë +family were placed in _Jane Eyre_ under a "Rivers" surname; and +proceeding into the inquiry as to their identity, I perceived this +discovery of the Brontë family in _Jane Eyre_ numbered with the more +important of my Brontë discoveries, and that despite her purposed and +reasonable cross-scents--the spired church, the mention of +knife-grinders, and the hinting at the proximity of Sheffield, all so +necessary in her day to permit the portrayal of phases of the life at +Haworth Parsonage--Morton to Charlotte Brontë was in the main Haworth. +What importance would attach to a discovery of an unknown portrait group +of his family deliberately painted from life by an old master! Such is +the importance of this discovery of the Brontë family drawn by the pen +of Charlotte Brontë herself in _Jane Eyre_. Currer Bell portrayed with +unvarying truth; and with cunning artistry she brought forward in her +literary legacy to the English novel the sure characteristics--the very +soul, the shallowness, the pretty affectionateness, the cooing +"dove-like voice," the "blue steel glance," of those she had watched and +loved and feared. + +Now, in the selection of a Christian name for the heroine Jane Eyre, in +whom she had portrayed herself, there was every reason why Charlotte +Brontë would be unlikely to adopt the second name of her sister, Emily +Jane. We have seen, however, that Charlotte Brontë had been led by +Montagu's mention of the Fairy Jannet, or Janet, poetically to make her +heroine a Fairy Janet. This evidence shows, therefore, that "Jane" was +really only secondary. The Fairy Cave which this fairy was supposed to +frequent is near Malham or Gimmerton, and, as I have said, the Fairy +Janet is termed "the queen of the Malhamdale elves that frequent the +enchanted land round the source of the Aire." Montagu mentions the fact +that the river Ayre takes its rise at Malham--at Malham Tarn, and hence +Charlotte Brontë seems to have named her heroine originally Janet Aire. +Obvious it is she would be led, naturally, to use later some variant of +Aire or Ayre; and the fact that she visited in the summer of 1845 +(evidence shows she had read Montagu at the time)[39] her friend Miss +Nussey, then at Hathersage in Derbyshire, where Eyre is a common name, +would suggest she was led to adopt this variant through her visit there. +We already have seen Charlotte Brontë used the variant of "Hare" for +"Air" in _Wuthering Heights_ for the boy Hareton from Montagu's +boy-guide, Robert Airton. And that she wished in _Jane Eyre_ to break +through the confines of the variant she had chosen for Aire, and give +open expression to her original and poetic idea, is seen plainly enough +where Adèle asks:-- + + "And Mademoiselle--what is your name?" + + "Eyre--Jane Eyre." + + "Aire? bah, I cannot say it." + +Having made this interesting discovery, I further found that, not +satisfied with appropriating for herself the "stream" surname, she +placed such a surname upon those who were related to her and whom she +had portrayed in _Jane Eyre_. So she used Burns from "burn," a stream +spelt with an "s," for Maria Brontë; Rivers, from a river also spelt +with an "s," for Emily Brontë, Anne Brontë, and the Rev. Patrick Brontë, +with Tabitha Aykroyd in attendance as Hannah; Reed, from the river of +that name for Charlotte's Aunt Branwell, her cousin Eliza Branwell, and +her brother, Branwell Brontë; Severn, from the river of that name for +her sister Elizabeth Brontë--just as she used Aire from the river of +that name for herself, as Janet Aire. + +A reference to Mrs. Gaskell's Brontë _Life_ were sufficient to establish +the identifications, when I say that by Charlotte Brontë's Method II. +(the alteration of the age of a character portrayed) the Rev. Patrick +Brontë is represented as a young man in the Rev. St. John Eyre +Rivers--certainly a very necessary obfuscation, for it is to be seen the +home at Morton gives a most enlightening insight into the life at the +Haworth Parsonage. A death is supposed to have occurred in the Rivers +family; and when it is remembered Thornfield to Charlotte Brontë +represented the Hégers' establishment at Brussels, and that she left +Brussels the first time on account of the death of her aunt, Miss +Elizabeth Branwell who, after being the female head of the parsonage +some years, died there in the close of 1842, we may know for whom the +Rivers family were really in mourning. Charlotte Brontë tells us that, +looking through the window of Moor House--Haworth Parsonage:-- + + I could see ... an elderly woman [Tabitha Aykroyd--the Mrs. Dean + of _Wuthering Heights_], somewhat rough-looking, but scrupulously + clean, like all about her, ... knitting a stocking.... Two young, + graceful women [Emily and Anne Brontë]--ladies in every + point--sat, one in a low rocking-chair, the other on a lower + stool; both wore deep mourning, ... which sombre garb singularly + set off very fair necks and faces: a large old ... dog [Emily had + a favourite dog] rested his massive head on the knee of one + girl--in the lap of the other was cushioned a black cat. A strange + place was this humble kitchen for such occupants [but they were + ever fond of it]. Who were they? They could not be the daughters + of the elderly person at the table [Tabitha]; for she looked like + a rustic, and they were all delicacy and cultivation. I had + nowhere seen such faces as theirs; and yet, as I gazed on them I + seemed intimate with every lineament. I cannot call them + handsome--they were too pale and grave for the word: as they each + bent over a book they looked thoughtful almost to severity. A + stand between them supported a second candle and two great volumes + to which they frequently referred; comparing them ... with the + smaller books they held in their hands like people consulting a + dictionary to aid ... in the task of translation. This scene was + as silent as if all the figures had been shadows and the fire-lit + apartment a picture. + + "Listen, Diana [Emily Brontë]", said one of the absorbed students, + ... and in a low voice she read ... in German.... The other girl, + who had lifted her head to listen to her sister, repeated, while + she gazed at the fire, a line.... "Good!" ... she exclaimed, while + her dark and deep eyes sparkled, ... "I like it!" + + "Is there ony country where they talk i' that way?" asked the old + woman [Tabitha, using her Haworth Yorkshire dialect], and being + told there is:--"Well, for sure case, I knawn't how they can + understand t'one t'other: and if either o' ye went there, ye could + tell what they said, I guess?" + + "... Not all--for we are not as clever as you think us, Hannah. We + don't speak German...." + + "And what good does it do you?" + + "We mean to teach it some time--or at least the elements, as they + say; and then we shall get more money than we do now." + + "Varry like; but give ower studying: ye've done enough for + to-night." + + "I think we have.... I wonder when St. John [the Rev. Patrick + Brontë] will come home." + + "Surely he will not be long now: it is just ten" (looking at a + little gold watch she drew from her girdle). "It rains fast. + Hannah, will you have the goodness to look at the fire in the + parlour?" + +Charlotte seems to have portrayed particularly those happy months at +home in 1842, when, after the death of their aunt, all three sisters +were together and their brother Branwell was away. It is Anne Brontë +who, as Mary Rivers, consults her watch. For the circumstances in which +she acquired this gold watch see the will of Miss Elizabeth Branwell, +her aunt.[40] + + The woman [Tabitha] rose: she opened a door, ... soon I heard her + stir the fire in an inner room. She presently came back: "Ah + childer!" said she, "it fair troubles me to go into yond room now: + it looks so lonesome wi' the chair empty and set back in a + corner." + +The Brontë sisters were "always children in the eyes of Tabitha." +Continuing her description of her sisters, Charlotte as Jane says:-- + + Both were fair complexioned and slenderly made; both possessed + faces full of distinction and intelligence. One [Emily Brontë] to + be sure had hair a shade darker than the other, and there was a + difference in their style of wearing it: Mary's [Anne Brontë's] + pale brown locks were parted and braided smooth; Diana's [Emily + Brontë's] duskier tresses covered her neck with thick curls.... + [She] had a voice toned to my ear, like the cooing of a dove. She + possessed eyes whose gaze I delighted to encounter. Her whole face + seemed to me full of charm, Mary's [Anne Brontë's] countenance was + equally intelligent--her features equally pretty; but her + expression was more reserved; and her manner, though gentle, more + distant. Diana looked and spoke with a certain authority [it was + Emily Brontë's manner]: she had a will.... It was my nature to + feel pleasure in yielding to an authority supported like hers; and + to bend, where my conscience and self-respect permitted, to an + active will. + +The following is the portrait of Charlotte Brontë's father (Method II., +the altering the age of the character portrayed) as her imagination +pictured him to have been in his young days. St. John's was the Rev. +Patrick Brontë's college at Cambridge:-- + + Mr. St. John ... had he been a statue instead of a man ... could + not have been easier. He was ... tall, slender; his face riveted + the eye; it was like a Greek face, very pure in outline; quite a + straight classic nose, quite an Athenian mouth and chin. It is + seldom indeed an English face comes so near the antique models as + did his.... His eyes were large and blue, ... his high forehead, + colourless as ivory, was partially streaked over by careless locks + of fair hair.... He ... scarcely impressed one with the idea of a + gentle ... or even of a placid nature; ... there was something + about his nostril, his mouth, his brow, which ... indicated + elements within either restless, or hard or eager. + +Charlotte Brontë's references herewith, and in other instances, to the +passionate nature of her father are interesting reading, especially in +view of the fact that this point has been the subject of controversy. To +return to _Jane Eyre_:-- + + Mr. Rivers [Mr. Brontë] now closed his book, approached the table, + and, as he took a seat, fixed his pictorial-looking eyes full upon + me. There was an unceremonious directness, a searching, decided + steadfastness in his gaze now which told that intention ... had + hitherto kept it averted ... St. John's eyes, though clear enough + in a literal sense, in a figurative one were difficult to fathom. + He seemed to use them rather as instruments to search other + people's thoughts, than as agents to reveal his own: the which + combination of keenness and reserve was considerably more + calculated to embarrass than to encourage. + +Mrs. Gaskell states that even in his old age Mr. Brontë[41] was a tall +and a striking-looking man, with a nobly shaped head and erect carriage, +and that in youth he must have been unusually handsome. And to use the +words of Hannah, "Mr. St. John when he grew up would go to college and +be a parson." Continuing, Mrs. Gaskell further says:-- + + The course of his life shows a powerful and remarkable character, + originating and pursuing a purpose in a resolute and independent + manner--separating himself from his family. There was no trace of + his Irish origin in his speech; he never could have shown his + Celtic origin in the straight Greek lines and long oval of his + face. + +Another writer accentuating this says Mr. Brontë was "proud of his Greek +profile," and we have now seen that Charlotte Brontë herself says his +(St. John's) face was "like a Greek face, pure in outline." Mr. Brontë +had also "fine blue eyes," like Mr. St. John. "His (Mr. Brontë's) +passionate nature was compressed down with stoicism, but it was there, +notwithstanding all his philosophic calm and dignity of demeanour, +though he did not speak when displeased. He was an active walker, +stretching away over the moors for many miles. He dined alone, and did +not require companionship." + +Which is, of course, all consonant with what we read of St. John Eyre +Rivers. Charlotte Brontë continues:-- + + As to Mr. St. John, the intimacy which had arisen so naturally ... + between me and ... [my] sisters did not extend to him. One reason + of the distance ... observed between us was, that he was + comparatively seldom at home: a large proportion of his time + appeared devoted to visiting the sick and poor among the scattered + population of his parish. No weather seemed to hinder him in these + pastoral excursions: rain or fair, he would, when his hours of + morning study were over, take his hat and ... go out on his + mission of love and duty.... But, besides his frequent absences, + there was another barrier to friendship with him: he seemed of a + reserved, an abstracted, and even a brooding nature. Zealous in + his ministerial labours, blameless in his life and habits, he yet + did not appear to enjoy that mental serenity, that inward content + which should be the reward of every sincere Christian and + practical philanthropist. Often of an evening, when he sat at the + window, his desk and papers before him, he would cease reading or + writing, rest his chin on his hand, and deliver himself up to I + know not what course of thought; but that it was perturbed and + exciting might be seen in the frequent dilation of his eye. + + I think, moreover, that Nature was not to him that treasury of + delight it was to his [my] sisters. He once expressed, and but + once in my hearing, a strong sense of the rugged charm of the + hills, and an inborn affection for the dark roof and hoary walls + he called his home; but there was more of gloom than pleasure in + the tone and words in which the sentiment was manifested; and + never did he roam the moors for the sake of their soothing + silence--never to seek out or dwell upon the thousand peaceful + delights they could yield. + + Incommunicative as he was, some time elapsed before I had an + opportunity of gauging his mind. I first got an idea of its + calibre when I heard him preach in his own church.... I wish I + could describe that sermon; but it is past my power. I cannot even + render faithfully the effect it produced on me. + + It began calm, and indeed, as far as delivery and pitch of voice + went, it was calm to the end: an earnestly felt, yet strictly + restrained zeal breathed soon in the distinct accents, and + prompted the nervous language. This grew to force--compressed, + condensed, controlled.... Throughout there was a strange + bitterness; an absence of consolatory gentleness; stern allusions + to Calvinistic doctrines--election, predestination, + reprobation--were frequent.... It seemed to me ... that the + eloquence to which I had been listening had sprung from a depth + where lay turbid dregs of disappointment--where moved troubling + impulses of insatiable yearnings and disquieting aspirations. I + was sure St. John Rivers, pure-lived, conscientious, zealous as he + was--had not yet found that peace of God which passeth all + understanding: he had no more found it ... than had I: with my + concealed and racking regrets for my broken idol and lost elysium. + +"Charlotte Brontë," says Miss Laura C. Holloway, "early exhibited +antagonistic feelings towards the Calvinistic views of her father." And +so I might continue at great length. Excluding the love passages +necessary to "story" and the missionary suggestions for which it seems +that Brussels priest whom I may call Charlotte Brontë's Fénelon was +originally responsible, the portrayal of the Rev. Patrick Brontë, like +that of Charlotte's sisters, is absolutely true to prototype and +fact.[42] We discover that at heart Charlotte Brontë loved her father, +hence she honoured him--the head of the "Rivers" family--by giving him +the final word in her autobiography, speaking of him as he appeared to +her: an old man whose days were drawing to a close. Jane relates of +Morton:-- + + Near the churchyard, and in the middle of the garden, stood a + well-built though small house, which I had no doubt was the + parsonage. + +In Charlotte Brontë's mind this was Haworth Parsonage; but it is clear +that, despite the church "spire" and other efforts at obfuscation, she +did not dare to portray her sisters and father in the parsonage. Thus +she placed the family in another house. And now we will have another +glimpse of Tabitha Aykroyd, this time as "Hannah," speaking her Haworth +Yorkshire dialect:-- + + "Have you been with the family long?" + + "I've lived here thirty year. I nursed them all three.... I thowt + more o' th' childer nor of mysel'.... They've like nobody to tak' + care on 'em but me ... I'm like to look sharpish." + + Hannah was evidently fond of talking [see my chapter on Tabitha + Aykroyd]. While I picked the fruit and she made the paste for the + pies, she proceeded to give me sundry details about ... her + deceased ... mistress, and "the childer," as she called the young + people.... There was nothing like them in these parts, nor ever + had been; they had liked learning, all three, almost from the time + they could speak; and they had always been "of a mak" of their own + [had individual character]. They had lived very little at home for + a long while, and were only come now to stay a few weeks on + account of their father's [aunt's] death: but they did so like + Marsh End and Morton [Haworth] and all these moors and hills + about. They had been in ... many grand towns, but they always said + there was no place like home; and then they were so agreeable with + each other--never fell out nor "threaped" [asserted beyond the + argumentative point]. She did not know where there was such a + family for being united. + +Emily Brontë as Diana says it is "a privilege we exercise in our home to +prepare our own meals when ... so inclined, or when Hannah [Tabby] is +baking, brewing, washing or ironing," which of course was true at +Haworth Parsonage. To give yet another description:-- + + The Rivers [Brontës] clung to the purple moors behind and around + their dwelling with a perfect enthusiasm of attachment. I could + comprehend the feeling, and share both its strength and truth. I + saw the fascination of the locality, ... my eye feasted on the + outline of swell and sweep.... The strong blast and the soft + breeze; the rough and the halcyon day; the hours of sunrise and + sunset ... developed for me ... the same attraction as for + them--wound round my faculties the same spell that entranced + theirs. + +Then follow pictures of the life at Haworth Parsonage, which tell us how +Charlotte Brontë adored her sisters; and with the modesty of true genius +she places herself at their feet, as it were. We have a sketch of +Tabitha Aykroyd ironing Aunt Branwell's lace frills and crimping her +nightcap borders in _Jane Eyre_, Chapter I., wherein both figure as +Bessie and Aunt Reed. Years ago it came to be thought the original of +Jane Eyre's Aunt Reed was Miss Branwell, the aunt of the Brontë +children, though one writer identified her with a certain Mrs. Sidgwick +whose son threw a book at Miss Brontë in her governess days, because +"the son of Mrs. Reed" threw a Bible at Jane Eyre. The fact the +rainy-day narrations in _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ establish, +that Charlotte Brontë associated a "volume-hurling" incident with her +childhood and Branwell Brontë's "tyranny," disposed finally of the +Sidgwick identifications. John Reed we have now seen was, like Hindley +Earnshaw, Catherine's brother, drawn by Charlotte Brontë from her +brother Branwell Brontë. Always she wrote of him vindictively, and with +a retributive justice, her strong characteristic. At about the period +when Currer Bell was penning _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ +Branwell was a source of considerable distress to her. He was disgraced; +his habits were the reverse of temperate, and it was daily feared that +in a fit of delirium he might make an attempt upon his own life. Indeed +Charlotte Brontë palpably writes of Branwell Brontë and those miserable +associations which brought trouble upon Mrs. Gaskell's first edition of +the Brontë _Life_, in _The Professor_, Chapter XX., where she says:-- + + Limited as had yet been my experience of life, I had once had the + opportunity of contemplating, near at hand, an example of the + results produced by a course of ... domestic treachery.... I saw + it bare and real, and it was very loathsome. I saw a mind degraded + ... by the habit of perfidious deception, and a body depraved by + the infectious influence of the vice-polluted soul. I had suffered + much from the forced and prolonged view of this spectacle. + +Charlotte's letters also show she was ashamed of and losing patience +with him. John Reed is spoken of as "a dissipated young man; they will +never make much of him, I think.... Some people call him a fine-looking +young man; but he has such thick lips." For obfuscation's sake he is +"tall," and Mrs. Gaskell in speaking of Branwell's profile says:--"There +are coarse lines about the mouth, and the lips, though handsome in +shape, are loose and thick, indicating self-indulgence." Aunt Reed +exclaims at the last of her favourite:--"John is sunken and degraded, +his look is frightful--I feel ashamed for him when I see him." It was +near the time that Aunt Branwell died at Haworth there was this decided +degradation of her favourite nephew Branwell. For story purposes +Charlotte Brontë makes her aunt a married woman in _Jane Eyre_, and +places her nephew Branwell and her niece Eliza Branwell in the relation +of children to her as John and Eliza Reed--Georgiana is no doubt a +Brontë relative of whom we have not heard, and Charlotte thought vain. +The fact that in _Jane Eyre_, Chapter XXI., her name is mentioned in +connection with "a title," would show Currer Bell early apportioned her +a place in the book by reason of Montagu's reference to a Lady +Georgiana. + +A child, sympathetic and intensely emotional, Charlotte Brontë, +evidently, felt injustices with an acuteness not easy to understand +without reading her _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ by aid of _The +Key to the Brontë Works_. It would be like Maria Brontë to protest with +her younger sister on her holding resentment against Aunt Branwell; and +with the inference that she herself had endured her harshness, she says +as Helen Burns:--"What a singularly deep impression her injustice seems +to have made on your heart! No ill-usage so brands its record on my +feelings. Would it not be happier if you tried to forget her severity, +together with the passionate emotions it excited?" + +Of Eliza Reed (Cousin Eliza Branwell), as seen by Jane at the death of +Aunt Reed, we are told: "she was now very thin, and there was something +ascetic in her look." She wore "a nun-like ornament of a string of ebony +beads and a crucifix. This I felt sure was Eliza, though I could trace +little resemblance to her former self in that elongated and colourless +visage." In 1840 Charlotte Brontë wrote of her "Cousin Eliza Branwell" +that she spoke of nothing but botany, her own conversion, Low Church, +Evangelical clergy, and the Millennium.[43] And thus in _Jane Eyre_ we +read of Cousin Eliza Reed, by way of emphasis on this side of her +character:-- + + Eliza ... had no time to talk, ... yet it was difficult to say + what she did.... Three times a day she studied a little book which + I found ... was a Common Prayer Book. I asked her once what was + the great attraction of that volume, and she said 'the Rubric.' + Three hours she gave to stitching, with gold thread, the border of + a square crimson cloth; ... she informed me it was ... for the + altar of a new church.... Two hours she devoted to ... working by + herself in the kitchen garden. [Cousin Eliza's parterre is also + referred to in Chapter IV. of _Jane Eyre_.] Eliza [attended] a + saint's-day service at ... church--for in matters of religion she + was a rigid formalist: no weather ever prevented the punctual + discharge of what she considered her devotional duties; fair or + foul she went to church thrice every Sunday, and as often on + week-days as there were prayers. And by way of climax, Jane Eyre + tells us that Cousin Eliza says:--"I shall devote myself ... to + the examination of the Roman Catholic dogmas, and to a careful + study of the workings of their system; if I find it to be, as I + half suspect it is, the one best calculated to ensure the doing of + all things decently and in order, I shall embrace the tenets of + Rome and probably take the veil." + +The river Reed, I may remark, has its rise close to the Cheviot Hills, +within about five miles of the source of the Keeldar Burn, which name +Charlotte Brontë used later in _Shirley_ for the surname of Shirley +Keeldar who, the world knows, is really Emily Brontë. To quote a ballad +of Leyden, + + "The heath-bell blows where Keeldar flows, + By Tyne the primrose pale." + +The Reed has a Rochester near, which doubtless provided a name for +Charlotte's hero. + +Having now the key to this method of Charlotte Brontë, we also discover +portrayed in _Jane Eyre_ an utterly neglected sister of Currer Bell in +Julia Severn, called after a river. Remembering that Emily Brontë would +be younger than Charlotte, we perceive Julia must mean Elizabeth Brontë, +born, like Emily, in July. We almost had forgotten this sister was at +the Clergy Daughters' School. One of two things was responsible, it +seems, for the choice of "Julia": either her natal month or her going to +the above school in July. Elizabeth Brontë, the second sister of +Charlotte Brontë, was born at Hartshead, near Dewsbury. + + "Miss Temple," cries Mr. Brocklehurst, "... what--_what_ is that + girl with curled hair--red hair, ma'am, curled--curled all over?" + + "It is Julia Severn," replies Miss Temple quietly, ... "Julia's + hair curls naturally." + +Thus from this discovery the world learns for the first time that Diana +Rivers represents Emily Brontë, afterwards Shirley Keeldar;[44] Mary +Rivers, Annie or Anne Brontë; St. John Eyre Rivers, the Rev. Patrick +Brontë; and the elderly Hannah, the old, dialect-speaking Tabitha +Aykroyd--the original of Charlotte Brontë's Mrs. Dean and Bessie; that +Aunt Reed represents Aunt Branwell; Cousin Eliza Reed, Cousin Eliza +Branwell; John Reed, Charlotte Brontë's brother Branwell; and Julia +Severn, her sister Elizabeth Brontë, all of whom but for _The Key to the +Brontë Works_ would have remained for ever hidden and unrecognized in +_Jane Eyre_. + +I have refrained from extending this volume with full extracts from the +Brontë books, once having indicated the place and nature of my +references. I must emphasize, however, that in dealing with the Rivers +family Charlotte Brontë gives most appealing portrayals of the various +phases of the life at Haworth Parsonage:--The studying, the +painting,[45] the minor interesting domestic incidents dear to her +memory, the parting of the Brontë sisters with St. John (Mr. Brontë), +the "house-cleaning"--so very "Yorkshire"!--the preparations for +Christmas, the return home of the Brontë girls, and many other facts and +associations that render _Jane Eyre_ in the light of _The Key to the +Brontë Works_ the surpassing of all Brontë biographies. Presented for +posterity by her own sure hand, Charlotte Brontë's picture is bright and +exhilarating; and as we glance uneasily again to Mrs. Gaskell's sombre +portrayal, we on a sudden remember that biographer wrote in the shadow +of death. But it is with life we have to do. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE ORIGIN OF THE YORKSHIRE ELEMENT IN CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S HUNSDEN OF +"THE PROFESSOR"; HEATHCLIFFE OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS"; ROCHESTER OF "JANE +EYRE"; AND YORKE OF "SHIRLEY." + + +M. Héger, Miss Brontë's Brussels friend, by the showing of all evidence +was essentially the original of her leading male characters.[46] M. +Sue's _Miss Mary_ and its "Manuscript of Mdlle. Lagrange," which I +present farther on, are sufficient testimony that M. Héger was the +original of the inner Heathcliffe and Rochester, and Charlotte Brontë's +other chief male characters. An inquiry, therefore, is at once required +as to the significance of Mrs. Gaskell's statement that she suspected +Charlotte Brontë drew from the sons of the Taylor family[47] "all that +was of truth in the characters of the heroes of her first two works." +That the Yorkshire element of her heroes was provided by a living model +or models from one family, is proved by a consistency of the +characterization in this regard. I find, truly enough, that male members +of the Taylor family were indeed the originals to which she referred in +the composition of a Yorkshire-Héger.[48] The Taylors, of the Red House, +Gomersall, (obviously the Briarmains of the Yorkes), and of Hunsworth, +were mill-owner friends, and Independents, with whom Charlotte Brontë +visited. In _Shirley_ Miss Brontë ostensibly portrayed Mr. Taylor and +his two daughters, her friends Mary and Martha, as Mr. Yorke and Rose +and Jessie. Mary and Martha Taylor were at school with Charlotte at Roe +Head, near Dewsbury and Huddersfield. They were also at Brussels with +Charlotte, though not at the Hégers'. Martha was taken ill and died at +Brussels; a touching reference to her death is made where she is +portrayed as Jessie Yorke, in _Shirley_, Chapter XXIII. Mary Taylor +(Rose Yorke) was in New Zealand when Charlotte Brontë died. Her fondness +for travel is mentioned in the _Shirley_ chapter named. The male members +of this family were thought by Currer Bell most characteristic Yorkshire +folk, hence the name of Yorke. I mention Yorke Hunsden as one of the +Yorkshire-Hégers of Miss Brontë's method of dual portraiture. I believe +this important character in _The Professor_ will be found, like his +fellows, to be entirely a Taylor-Héger. The name for Hunsden was +apparently dictated by the Taylors' connection with Hunsworth, and it +may be noted his Christian name of Yorke came to be later the surname of +Mr. Taylor as portrayed in _Shirley_. + +But the Héger element was always superior to the Yorkshire element in +Charlotte Brontë's heroes. The latter might provide useful and necessary +external characteristics, but the "intensitives" were the lines she drew +from her model, M. Héger. Of him as M. Pelet in _The Professor_, she +writes:-- + + His face was pale, his cheeks were sunk, and his eyes hollow; his + features ... had a French turn, ... the degree of harshness + softened by ... a melancholy, almost suffering expression of + countenance; his physiognomy was _fine et spirituelle_. + +This "melancholy almost suffering expression of countenance" she thus +described was evidently once a marked characteristic of M. Héger's +physiognomy. A reference to it occurs in M. Sue's _Miss Mary_, in the +French and "adapted" version, where we find M. de Morville, whom I +identify as a phase of M. Héger, sitting in a reverie:-- + + ... l'expression de légère souffrance habituelle à sa physionomie, + d'ailleurs si ouverte, s'est compliquée d'une sorte de contrainte + lorsqu'il se trouve au milieu de sa famille. Seul, et ne subissant + pas cette contrainte ... M. de Morville semble profondément + attristé. + +Thus, of Yorke Hunsden in _The Professor_, we read:-- + + His general bearing intimated complete ... satisfaction, ... yet, + at times, an indescribable shade passed like an eclipse over his + countenance, and seemed to me like the sign of a sudden and strong + inward doubt of himself, ... an energetic discontent, ... perhaps + ... it might only be a bilious caprice. + +And again of Hunsden, in the same vein:-- + + I discerned ... there would be contrasts between his inward and + outward man; contentions too.... Perhaps in these + incompatibilities of the "physique" with the "morale" lay the + secret of that fitful gloom; he _would_ but _could_ not, and the + athletic mind scowled scorn on its more fragile companion, ... his + features ... character had set a stamp upon ... expression re-cast + them at her pleasure, and strange metamorphoses she wrote, giving + him now the mien of a morose bull, and anon, that of an ... arch + girl. + +Regarding these facial metamorphoses Charlotte Brontë wrote similarly +concerning M. Héger.[49] + +I remark that M. Héger's harshness evidently had impressed Charlotte +Brontë considerably at first, and thus reflects her thoughts on this +point in the introduction of the phases she gives of him in her books. +So we read of Yorke Hunsden, of Heathcliffe, and of Rochester:-- + + _The Professor._ _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + I said to myself "his Heathcliffe's "walk There was something + rough freedom pleases in" expressed the in the forced, stiff + me not at all."... sentiment "Go to bow, in the + There was something the Deuce."[50]... impatient, yet formal + in Mr. Hunsden's I think that tone which seemed ... + point-blank mode of circumstance to express: "What the + speech which rather determined me Deuce is it to me + pleased me than to accept the whether Miss Eyre be + otherwise, because it invitation; I felt there or not?[50] At + set me at my ease. interested in a this moment I am not + I continued the man who seemed disposed to accost + conversation with more exaggeratedly her." I sat down, + a degree of reserved than quite disembarrassed. + interest.... myself. A reception of + Hunsden's manner now finished politeness + bordered on the would probably have + impertinent, still confused me, ... but + his manner did not harsh caprice laid me + offend me in the under no + slightest--it only obligation.... + piqued my curiosity; Besides, the + I wanted him to go eccentricity of the + on. proceeding was + piquant. I felt + interested to see how + he would go on. + +We read of Rochester:--"The frown, the roughness of the stranger +set me at my ease"; and in _Villette_, we read of M. Héger as M. +Paul:--"Once ... I held him harsh and strange, ... the darkness, the +manner displeased me. Now ... I preferred him before all humanity," +which explains why Charlotte Brontë wrote of Rochester:--"The sarcasm +that had repelled, the harshness that had startled me once, were only +like keen condiments in a choice dish," and explains why she admits to +the piquancy in exploiting the possibilities of Heathcliffe's startling +harshness. + +And again, as further evidence of the influence of M. Héger over her +Yorkshire Hunsden, we find this character in the close of _The +Professor_ implicated with a mysterious "Lucia," whom he would have +married but could not, which Lucia we discover to have meant really the +original of the Lucy Snowe of _Villette_--Charlotte Brontë herself. + +It is obvious that while Currer Bell, for "story" and other purposes, +made use of a composite method in presenting a portrait, she drew from +characters who possessed much in common: as with the composite character +of the Rev. Mr. Helstone, meant for her father, a clergyman, but +presenting also a phase of another clergyman, the Rev. Hammond Roberson; +and as with Dr. John Bretton, a composite character drawn from the two +Scotsmen, Mr. Smith her publisher, and the Rev. A. B. Nicholls, who +subsequently became her husband. Doubtless, characteristics in the +Taylors were similar to some of M. Héger's. Perhaps the fact that they +spoke French and sojourned on the Continent, accentuated to her these +characteristics. In a letter, Miss Brontë described all the Taylors as +"Republicans." And so of Yorke Hunsden in _The Professor_, Chap. XXIV., +we read, "republican, lord-hater, as he was, Hunsden was proud of his +old ----shire blood ... and family standing." Thus, in _Shirley_, Chap. +IV., in which work that character appears stripped of the Héger element, +as Mr. Yorke, we read of the latter:-- + + Kings and nobles and priests ... were to him an abomination.... + The want of ... benevolence made him very impatient of ... all + faults which grated on his strong, shrewd nature: it left no check + to his ... sarcasm. As he was not merciful, he would sometimes + wound ... without ... caring how deep he thrust.... Mr. Yorke's + family was the first and oldest in the district. + +_Viâ_ Yorke Hunsden of _The Professor_ and Mr. Yorke of _Shirley_ the +reader has returned to a character who typified more than any other of +Charlotte Brontë's Yorkshire-Héger portrayals the merciless, strong and +shrewd-natured Taylor--Heathcliffe of _Wuthering Heights_. But the +Yorkshire element in Heathcliffe was a caricature and an exaggeration +for the purposes of the "cuckoo story," resulting from the tale Montagu +tells of a foundling; and the emphasis laid upon his barbarity was +largely a result, too, of the consideration I mention in the chapters +entitled "The Recoil," which consideration had to do with the Héger +phase of Heathcliffe. The fact that evidence shows Heathcliffe to have +been, like Hunsden and Rochester, a composite character drawn from a +dual model--the Taylor-Héger model--traceable in origin absolutely to +Charlotte Brontë's idiosyncratic estimate of two male characters who are +shown to have seriously interested her, in itself sufficiently +demonstrates her authorship of _Wuthering Heights_, and is indeed of +great interest. + +If reference be made to a letter written by Charlotte Brontë in +1846, the year when she offered _Wuthering Heights_ to a publisher, +it will be found she mentioned that one of the Taylors had--like +Heathcliffe--suffered in the teens of years from hypochondria, "a most +dreadful doom," Charlotte called it, and related she herself had endured +it for a year.[51] + +Having herself suffered thus, there was a temptation--at what I +elsewhere call the dark season of Charlotte Brontë's inner life, at the +season of the recoil--to present in her work _Wuthering Heights_ the +Yorkshire-Héger with the hypochondria of her Yorkshire model, and let +his demon be the original of her Catherine Earnshaw--be herself. To this +temptation Charlotte Brontë gave no opposition, much to her regret +later. Herewith we have the origin of Heathcliffe's miserable +hypochondria and monomania--his digging for Catherine in the grave till +his spade scraped the coffin, in _Wuthering Heights_, Chap. XXIX., and +his saying because his "preternatural horror" always haunted, but never +abided with him:-- + + "She showed herself, ... a devil to me! And, since then ... I've + been the sport of that intolerable torture! Infernal--keeping my + nerves at such a stretch that, if they had not resembled catgut, + they would long ago have relaxed.... It racked me! I've groaned + aloud.... It was a strange way of killing! not by inches, but by + fractions of hairbreadths, ... through eighteen years!" Mr. + Heathcliffe paused, ... his hair wet with perspiration, ... the + brows not contracted, but raised next the temples; diminishing the + grim aspect of his countenance, but imparting a peculiar look of + trouble, and a painful appearance of mental tension towards one + absorbing subject. + +In the light of the foregoing, therefore, we may understand the truth of +Charlotte Brontë's narration in _The Professor_, Chap. XXIII.:-- + + My nerves ... jarred ... A horror of great darkness fell upon me; + I felt my chamber invaded by one I had known formerly, ... I was + ... a prey to hypochondria. She had been ... my guest ... before + ... for a year.... I had her to myself in secret; she lay with me, + she ate with me, showing me nooks in woods, hollows in hills, + where we could sit together, and where she could drop her drear + veil over me, and so hide sky and sun, grass and green tree; + taking me entirely to her death-cold bosom and holding me with + arms of bone. What tales she would tell me at such hours!... How + she would discourse to me of her own country--the grave.... I was + glad when ... I could ... sit ... freed from the dreadful tyranny + of my demon. + +Both by reason of Mrs. Gaskell's suspicion that she had drawn from them +in the portrayals of the heroes of her first books and by reason of the +undeniable evidence of her works, we must accept the Taylors as the +originals of most that was "Yorkshire" in Charlotte Brontë's Yorke +Hunsden, Heathcliffe, Rochester, and Yorke, understanding the term in +Currer Bell's implication of "independent," "hard," and "open-spoken." +But M. Héger contributed what Charlotte Brontë calls in Chap. XXVII. of +_Villette_, in speaking of him as M. Paul Emanuel--"that swart, sallow, +southern darkness which spoke his Spanish blood," and this gave colour +to the physiognomy of "the swart, sallow" Heathcliffe and Rochester.[52] + +In the succeeding chapters I deal more particularly with the relation of +Heathcliffe of _Wuthering Heights_, to Rochester of _Jane Eyre_, and I +promise my readers to present therein most important and sensational +revelations. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HEATHCLIFFE OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" AND ROCHESTER OF "JANE EYRE" ONE +AND THE SAME. + + +Without herewith further entering into the question as to the original +of the morose and harsh characters who were the heroes of Charlotte +Brontë's novels, I will at once show she had drawn from the same model +in both _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_. I have given in the +foregoing chapter the introduction of Lockwood to Heathcliffe and that +of Jane to Rochester side by side. Let us also read the following:-- + + _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + Heathcliffe. Rochester. + + With a stubborn countenance ... Most people would have thought + Heathcliffe is a dark-skinned Mr. Rochester an ugly man; yet + gipsy in aspect, in dress and there was an unconscious pride + manners a gentleman; ... rather in his port; so much ease in his + slovenly, perhaps, yet not demeanour; such a look of + looking amiss with his complete indifference to his own + negligence, because he has an appearance ... that ... one + erect and handsome figure; and inevitably shared the + rather morose. Possibly some indifference, and even in a + people might suspect him of a blind sense put faith in his + degree of under-bred pride; I confidence.... He was proud, + have a sympathetic cord within sardonic; ... in my secret soul + that tells me it is nothing of I knew his kindness to me was + the sort: I know by instinct his balanced by unjust severity to + reserve springs from an aversion others. He was moody, too, ... + to showy displays of feeling--to and when he looked up a morose, + manifestations of mutual almost a malignant, scowl + kindliness. He'll love and hate blackened his features. + equally under one cover, and + esteem it a species of + impertinence to be loved or + hated again. No, I am running on + too fast; I bestow my own + attributes over liberally on + him. + +Heathcliffe and Rochester are both black-avised, stubborn of +countenance, negligent as to external appearance, moody, proud in carry, +and morose. Charlotte Brontë tells us of one that on external judgment +"most people would have thought him" possessed of a disqualification, +and of the other that "some people might suspect him" of having a +disqualification. And in each case a similar offset--the internal +reading of the man's character--is brought forth by Charlotte Brontë as +Lockwood or Jane:--"A sympathetic cord within" tells the former that +Heathcliffe's reserve read as under-bred pride springs from an aversion +to "manifestations of mutual kindliness"; and Jane, commenting on +Rochester's being proud and sardonic, says, "In my secret heart I +knew ... his kindliness to me was balanced by unjust severity to +others." + +I find the singular expression indicated by the "hell's light" epithets +applied to Heathcliffe's eyes was an expression Charlotte Brontë had +apparently noticed in the original of this character. Rochester's eyes +in _Jane Eyre_ have "strange gleams," and we are told "his eye had a +tawny--nay, a bloody light in its gloom," and so forth. Indeed, +Heathcliffe's eyes, which were "clouded windows of hell" with +"black-fire in them," are seen in Rochester's clearly enough, and the +singular "hell's light" is associated with them at considerable length, +in + + _Jane Eyre_:-- + + And as for the vague something--was it a sinister or a sorrowful + ... expression?--that opened upon a careful observer ... in his + eye, and closed again before one could fathom the strange depth + partially disclosed; that something which used to make me fear and + shrink, as if I had been wandering amongst volcanic-looking hills, + and had suddenly felt the ground quiver and seen it gape. + +The following description of Heathcliffe could be read as of Rochester, +whose "olive cheek" and "deep eyes" Jane describes:-- + + _Wuthering Heights._ + + His cheeks were sallow and half-covered with black whiskers, the + brows were lowering, the eyes deep-set and singular. I remembered + the eyes. His upright carry suggested his having been in the army + [M. Héger had fought as a soldier] ... His countenance ... looked + intelligent. A half-civilized ferocity lurked in the depressed + brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued, and his + manner was even dignified, though too stern for grace. + +In view of the general evidence that Heathcliffe, like Rochester, was +drawn by Charlotte Brontë from M. Héger, her Brussels friend the +professor, it is not surprising that Heathcliffe's was "a deep voice and +foreign in sound." Her reference in _Wuthering Heights_ to his Spanish +extraction reminds us of M. Paul Emanuel's "jetty hair and Spanish face" +in _Villette_, and of course it is well known M. Paul Emanuel was drawn +by Currer Bell from M. Héger. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +CATHERINE AND HEATHCLIFFE OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS" AS JANE AND ROCHESTER +OF "JANE EYRE." + + +We have already seen Catherine in _Wuthering Heights_ represented +Charlotte Brontë as intimately portrayed by herself in the work, and +that Heathcliffe was drawn by her from the original of the Rochester of +_Jane Eyre_. So faithfully did Charlotte Brontë tell again in _Jane +Eyre_ the history of her life in relation to her family and M. Héger, +that she gives the main lines of her biography in both works. I will +show them side by side. + +For the literal parallels when not given in this chapter see the index. +My amazing discovery on the return of the runaway Heathcliffe to +Catherine and the return of the runaway Jane to Rochester I give +literally herewith. + + _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + Opening scene: A rainy day in Opening scene: A rainy day in + Catherine's (Charlotte Brontë's) Jane's (Charlotte Brontë's) + childhood. She is treated childhood. She is treated + unkindly by the rest of the unkindly by the rest of the + household. It is impossible to household. It is impossible to + go out on account of the rain. go out on account of the rain. + She had been commanded to keep She had been commanded to keep + aloof from the family group. aloof from the family group. + This group included in This group included in + particular, little Catherine particular, little Jane tells us + tells us with bitter feeling, with bitter feeling, John Reed + Hindley Earnshaw (Branwell (Branwell Brontë), who + Brontë), who luxuriated in the luxuriated in the warmth of the + warmth of the fire with other fire with other members of the + members of the family. family. + + Nevertheless, though banished, Nevertheless, though banished + Catherine (Charlotte Brontë) herself, Jane (Charlotte Brontë) + makes herself snug in a recess makes herself snug in a recess + behind a curtain, and believes behind a curtain, and believes + herself secure, when Hindley herself secure, when John Reed + Earnshaw (Branwell Brontë), (Branwell Brontë), coming up + coming up from his paradise on from his paradise on the hearth, + the hearth, makes her come out makes her come out of the recess + of the recess precipitantly, precipitantly. He hurls the book + after she has hurled the book she was reading. Little Jane + she was reading. Little (Charlotte Brontë) sees a tyrant + Catherine (Charlotte Brontë) in John Reed (Branwell Brontë). + sees a tyrant in Hindley He tells her that he is the + Earnshaw (Branwell Brontë). He master of the house, or soon + tells her that he is the master will be. + of the house. + + Later, Catherine complains to Later, Jane complains to herself + herself of her brother Hindley's of John Reed's (Branwell's) + (Branwell's) tyrannies. He has tyrannies. He has made her cry + made her cry and her head ached, and her head ached, she says, as + she says, as a result of his a result of his behaviour. + behaviour. + + Little Catherine (Charlotte Little Jane (Charlotte Brontë), + Brontë), although she was held although she was held to be + to be passionate, and was passionate, and was treated + treated harshly and almost as an harshly and almost an outsider + outsider by the rest of the by the rest of the household, + household, finds a kind, but finds a kind, but apparently + apparently unsympathetic, friend unsympathetic, friend in a + in a woman-servant, Nelly Dean, woman-servant, Bessie, who has a + who has a remarkable gift of remarkable gift of narrative, + narrative, like Tabitha Aykroyd, like Tabitha Aykroyd, whom + whom Charlotte Brontë loved, and Charlotte Brontë loved, and who + who came to the Haworth came to the Haworth parsonage + parsonage when Charlotte was when Charlotte was about nine + about nine years of age. But years of age. But even Bessie + even Nelly Dean (Tabitha (Tabitha Aykroyd) sometimes + Aykroyd) sometimes tasked and tasked and scolded Jane + scolded Catherine (Charlotte (Charlotte Brontë) unreasonably, + Brontë) unreasonably, and and mistrusted her. + mistrusted her. + + She even believes that Catherine She even believes that Jane + (Charlotte Brontë) is an actor (Charlotte) is an actor and + and feigns in regard to certain feigns in regard to certain fits + fits of frenzy. of frenzy. + + On the occasion of one of these On the occasion of one of these + bouts of frenzy, Catherine bouts of frenzy, Jane (Charlotte + (Charlotte Brontë) is in a room, Brontë) is in a room, the door + the door of which has been of which has been locked. + locked. + + In a paroxysm of alarm, In a paroxysm of alarm, Jane + Catherine (Charlotte Brontë) (Charlotte Brontë) summons + summons Mrs. Dean (Tabitha Bessie (Tabitha Aykroyd) + Aykroyd) frantically, and with a frantically, and with a piercing + piercing scream. The latter scream. The latter enters + enters annoyed, and quite annoyed, and quite + unsympathetic. unsympathetic. + + It is suggested Catherine was It is suggested Jane was only + only acting, and Catherine acting, and Jane overhears this. + overhears this. She had desired She finds Bessie (Tabitha + Mrs. Dean (Tabitha Aykroyd) to Aykroyd) at the foot of her bed + bring her a basin of gruel. with a basin in her hand. + + Catherine (Charlotte) relates Jane (Charlotte) relates her + her fears of the locked room: fears of the locked room: How + How she thought it haunted; she she thought it haunted; she + showed fear of the mirror, and showed fear of the mirror, and + describes excitedly to Mrs. Dean describes excitedly to Bessie + (Tabitha) her terrifying (Tabitha) her terrifying + sensations previous to her sensations previous to her + losing consciousness, and how losing consciousness. She + she supposed she must supposed she must immediately + immediately have had a species have had a species of fit. + of fit. + + Mrs. Dean (Tabitha) suggests Bessie (Tabitha) suggests sleep + sleep to Catherine (Charlotte to Jane (Charlotte Brontë). + Brontë). + + Mrs. Dean (Tabitha) believes Bessie (Tabitha) believes that + that to see the apparition of a the apparition of a child is a + child is a sign of calamity sign of calamity having befallen + having befallen some one near some one near akin. Jane dreams + akin. One day Mrs. Dean sees a of a child-apparition, and fears + child-apparition, and fears it it may be a sign of calamity, + may be a sign of calamity to and the day following Bessie's + Catherine's (Charlotte's) husband brings word of the + brother, Hindley Earnshaw disgrace of John Reed (Branwell + (Branwell Brontë). He is really Brontë, Charlotte's brother). + in disgrace. + + Catherine falls in love with Jane falls in love with a + a morose, "sallow-cheeked" morose, "olive-cheeked" + individual with deep eyes, that individual with deep eyes, that + have a singular expression, have a singular expression, + which makes the narrator which makes the narrator + associate "hell's light" with associate "hell's light" with + them. He has a handsome, erect them. He has a handsome, erect + carry, but is rather negligent carry, but is rather negligent + in his apparel. His speech is in his apparel. His speech is + abrupt. (His name is abrupt. (His name is Rochester.) + Heathcliffe.) + + But Catherine loved him, and he But Jane loved him, and he loved + loved Catherine. Indeed, Jane. Indeed, Jane likens + Catherine likens themselves to a themselves to a cloven tree, + cloven tree by saying that which is one at the root, but + whosoever would come between divided by storm. Thus she + them to divide them would meet believes in the "twin-soul" or + the fate of Mïlo, who, of the elective affinities, and + course, endeavoured to drive says of Rochester:-- + asunder a cloven tree held + firmly at its base, and was + himself trapped by it for his + pains. Thus she believes in the + "twin-soul" or the elective + affinities, and says:-- + + "It would degrade me to marry "I feel akin to him.... I have + Heathcliffe now; so he shall something in my brain and heart + never know how I love him; and that assimilates me mentally to + that not because he's handsome, him.... I know I must conceal my + ... but because he's more myself sentiments.... Yet, while I + than I am. Whatever our souls breathe and think, I must love + are made of, his and mine are him."[53] + the same."[53] + + However, Heathcliffe and However, Rochester and Jane + Catherine part, Heathcliffe part, Jane running away + running away unexpectedly. unexpectedly. + (Method I., interchange of + the sexes of characters.) + + Catherine dreams she is in Jane finds refuge with the + heaven, but broke her heart to Rivers family (the Brontë family + come to earth again, upon which at Haworth). She is tempted to + the angels flung her out near take to a religious + Heathcliffe's abode, where she life:--"Angels beckoned, and + awoke sobbing for joy: Catherine Heaven rolled together like a + preferred her lover to scroll," but she heard + heaven.[54] Rochester's voice calling, + though he was miles away. Jane + preferred her lover to + heaven.[54] + + The two parted lovers, however, The two parted lovers, however, + meet again, and by Charlotte meet again, and by Charlotte + Brontë's Method I., (interchange Brontë's Method I., (interchange + of the sexes of characters of the sexes of characters + portrayed), we arrive at another portrayed), we arrive at another + of my sensational and important of my sensational and important + Brontë discoveries. Brontë discoveries. + + + THE RETURN OF THE RUNAWAY LOVER THE RETURN OF THE RUNAWAY LOVER + HEATHCLIFFE TO CATHERINE.[55] JANE TO ROCHESTER.[55] + + _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + Chapter X. Chapter XXXVII. + + On [an] ... evening ... I was ... I came, just ere dark ... + coming from the garden.... It the darkness ... of dusk + had got dusk, ... the moon gathered.... I beheld the + causing ... shadows to lurk in house--scarce by this dim light + the corners of ... portions of distinguishable.... Entering a + the building. I set my burden on portal fastened by a latch, ... + the house steps by the ... door I stood.... The windows were + and lingered to rest ... my back latticed, ... the front door was + to the entrance, when I heard a narrow; ... one step led up to + voice behind me say:-- it.... I heard a movement--that + narrow front-door was unclosing, + "... Is that you?" and some shape was about to + issue from the grange. + It was a deep voice, and foreign [Charlotte Brontë's _Wuthering + in sound.... Something stirred Heights_ version of the returned + in the porch; and moving nearer runaway lover, is also staged at + I distinguished a tall man "the grange."] It opened slowly: + dressed in dark clothes, with a figure came out into the + dark face and hair. He leant twilight and stood on the step; + against the side, and held his a man, ... he stretched forth + fingers on the latch as if his hand.... Dusk as it was I + intending to open for had recognized him--it was my + himself.... A ray fell on his master ... Rochester. I stayed + features; the cheeks were my step, almost my breath.... + sallow, and half-covered with His form was of the same strong + black whiskers; the brows and stalwart contour as ever: + lowering, the eyes deep-set and his port was still erect, his + singular. I remembered the eyes. hair was still raven-black: nor + were his features altered or + sunk.... But in his countenance + I saw a change: that looked + desperate and brooding--that + reminded me of some wronged and + fettered wild beast or bird, + dangerous to approach in his + sullen woe.... He closed the + door. I now drew near and + knocked: John's wife opened for + me.... She started as if she had + seen a ghost: I calmed her. To + her hurried "Is it really you, + "What!" I cried, uncertain Miss, come at this late + whether to regard him as a hour...?" I answered by taking + worldly visitor, and raised my her hand. + hands in amazement. "What! you + come back? Is it really you? Is "... Tell your master ... a + it?" person wishes to speak to him." + + "Yes; Heathcliffe," he replied When she returned, I inquired + ... "where is she?... Is she what he had said. + here? Speak! I want to have one + word with her--your mistress "You are to send in your name + [Catherine]. Go, and say some and business," she replied. + person ... desires to see her." + She then proceeded to fill a + "... And you _are_ Heathcliffe. glass of water, and place it on + But altered!" a tray, together with candles. + + ... I could not persuade myself "Is that what he rang for?" I + to proceed. At length I resolved asked. + on making an excuse to ask if + ... [Catherine] would have the "Yes; he always has candles + candles lighted, and I opened brought in at dusk...." + the door. [She] sat ... by a + window whose lattice lay back. "Give the tray to me, I will + carry it in." + "What does he want?" asked + Catherine. ... Mary opened the door for + me.... Mr. Rochester turned + "I did not question him," I mechanically. + answered. + "This is you, Mary, is it not?" + ... Mr. Edgar inquired ... who + it was? "Mary is in the kitchen," I + answered. + "Some one mistress does not + expect," I replied. "That "_Who_ is it? _What_ is it? Who + Heathcliffe.... Hush! you must speaks?" + not call him ... names.... She'd + be sadly grieved to hear you. "... I came only this evening," + She was nearly heart-broken when I answered. + he ran off. I guess his return + will make a jubilee to her." "Great God!--what delusion has + come over me? What sweet madness + "Oh, ... Heathcliffe's come has seized me?... Oh! I _cannot_ + back--he is," panted Catherine. see.... Whatever--whoever you + "... I'll ... secure my guest. are--be perceptible to my touch + I'm afraid the joy is too great or I cannot live!" + to be real!" + I arrested his hand and prisoned + "... Catherine, try to be glad it in both mine. + without being absurd! The whole + household need not witness the "Is that Jane?" + sight of your welcoming a + runaway servant." "... This is her voice," I + added.... "My dear master, ... I + I ... found Heathcliffe ... and am Jane Eyre:... I am come back + ushered him into the presence of to you." + the master and mistress. + "In truth?--in the flesh? My + ... Now, I was amazed [by] the living Jane?" + transformation of + Heathcliffe;... A half-civilized "You touch me, sir--you hold me. + ferocity lurked yet in the I am not vacant like air, am I?" + depressed brows and eyes full of + black fire, but it was subdued, "... But I cannot be so blest + quite divested of roughness, after all my misery. It is a + though too stern for grace.... dream: such dreams I have + He took a seat opposite had.... But I always woke and + Catherine, who kept her gaze found it an empty mockery; and I + fixed on him, as if she feared was desolate and abandoned." + he would vanish were she to + remove it. He did not raise his ... I began ... to withdraw + to her often; a quick glance now myself from his arms--but he + and then sufficed; but it eagerly snatched me closer:-- + flashed back each time; ... the + undisguised delight he drank "No, you must not go. No--I have + from hers.... Catherine ... rose touched you, heard you; ... my + and seized Heathcliffe's hands very soul demands you.... Who + again, and laughed like one can tell what a dark, hopeless + beside herself. life I have dragged on for + months past? ... feeling but a + "I shall think it a dream ceaseless sorrow, and at times a + to-morrow!" she cried. "I shall very delirium of desire to + not be able to believe that I behold my Jane again. Yes; for + have seen and touched, and her restoration I longed.... + spoken to you once more.... Will she not depart as suddenly + Cruel Heathcliffe! You don't as she came? To-morrow ... I + deserve this welcome. To be shall find her no more.... + absent and silent for three Cruel, cruel deserter! O Jane, + years, and never to think of what did I feel when I + me!" discovered you had fled and left + Thornfield?" + "... I've fought through a + bitter life since I last heard "Jane! ... my heart swells + your voice, and you must forgive with gratitude to the beneficent + me, for I struggled only for God of this earth just now.... I + you!" did wrong: I would have sullied + my innocent flower: the + "... The event of this evening," Omnipotent snatched it from me. + said Catherine, "has reconciled I, in my stiff-necked rebellion, + me to God and humanity! I had almost cursed the dispensation: + risen in angry rebellion against instead of bending to the decree + Providence--oh, I've endured I defied it.... Of late, Jane, + very, very bitter misery.... I ... I began to experience + can afford to suffer anything remorse, repentance; the wish + hereafter! Should the meanest for reconciliation to my + thing alive slap me on the Maker.... Now I thank God." + cheek, I'd not only turn the + other, but I'd ask pardon for + provoking it.... I'm an angel!" + + (Later on in _Wuthering Heights_ + Charlotte Brontë, temporarily + neglecting her use of Method I., + interchange of the sexes, in + this connection, makes + Heathcliffe say to Catherine:-- + + "Why did you betray your own + heart, Cathy?... You loved me, + then what _right_ had you to + leave me?... Because misery and + degradation and death and + nothing that God or Satan could + inflict would have parted us, + _you_ of your own will did it."). + +The above parallel descriptions, it will be found, agree practically +word for word. I will now give the substance side by side, and let the +reader keep in mind Charlotte Brontë's Method I., interchange of the +sexes of characters:-- + + _Wuthering Heights._ _Jane Eyre._ + + Catherine and Heathcliffe love Jane and Rochester love each + each other, but Heathcliffe other, but Jane suddenly + suddenly disappears. disappears. + + One evening Heathcliffe as One evening Jane as suddenly + suddenly returns. The narrator returns. The narrator of the + of the return of the runaway return of the runaway Jane tells + Heathcliffe tells us that it is us that it is evening, and she + evening, and she is outside the is outside the house, when in + house, when in the dim light she the dim light she distinguishes + distinguishes the figure of a the figure of a man, a stranger + man, a stranger she has not seen she has not seen for some time. + for some time. Dusk as it is, Dusk as it is, she recognizes + she recognizes Heathcliffe. Rochester. + + In his countenance, however, In his countenance, however, + there is "a transformation, ... there is "a change--that looked + a half-civilized ferocity lurked desperate and brooding--that + yet in his eyes full of black reminded ... of ... some + fire, but was subdued." fettered wild beast ... + dangerous to approach in his + sullen woe." + + "What! you come back? Is it "Is it really you, Miss, come at + really you?" cries the servant, this late hour?" cries the + "raising her hands, uncertain servant, "starting as if she had + whether to regard him as a seen a ghost," addressing the + worldly visitor," addressing the runaway Jane. + runaway Heathcliffe. + + "I want to have one word with "... Tell your master a person + your mistress," says Heathcliffe wishes to see him," says Jane to + to the servant. "Go and tell her the servant. + some person ... desires to see + her." + + But there is a difficulty, and But there is a difficulty, and + eventually, to accomplish the eventually, to accomplish the + meeting of the parted lovers, meeting of the parted lovers, + the taking in of the candles is the taking in of the candles is + considered as a pretext. considered as a pretext. + + Catherine cries:--"Heathcliffe's Rochester cries:--"... What + come back--he is.... I'm afraid sweet delusion has come over me? + the joy is too great to be What sweet madness has seized + real!" me?" + + "I shall think it a dream "I am come back to you," says + to-morrow. I shall not be able Jane. + to believe I have seen and + touched and spoken to you once "I have touched you, heard + more," says Catherine to you.... To-morrow I fear I shall + Heathcliffe. And reproachfully find [you] no more," says + he exclaims:-- Rochester to Jane. And + reproachfully he exclaims:-- + "I've fought through a bitter + life since last I heard your "Who can tell what a dark, + voice, and you must forgive me, hopeless life I have dragged on + for I struggled only for you." for months past? ... feeling ... + but ... a ceaseless sorrow and + "Cruel Heathcliffe, you don't ... a very delirium of desire to + deserve this welcome," says behold my Jane again. Yes; for + Catherine; "to be absent ... and her restoration I longed.... + never think of me." Cruel, cruel, deserter! O Jane, + what did I feel when I + discovered you had fled from + Thornfield?" says Rochester. + + Catherine had risen in angry Rochester had risen in angry + rebellion against God because of rebellion against God because of + the cruel fate that had divided the cruel fate that had divided + her and Heathcliffe; but now him and Jane, but now that she + that he was restored to her, she was restored to him, he was + was reconciled, and was thankful reconciled, and was thankful of + of heart. heart. + + -------- -------- + + And thus, from the rainy day And thus, from the rainy day + incident in Catherine's early incident in Jane's early + childhood to the reconciliation childhood to the reconciliation + of Catherine and Heathcliffe, we of Jane and Rochester, we have + have the main narrative of the the main narrative of the + heroine and hero of _Wuthering heroine and hero of _Jane Eyre_, + Heights_, obviously written by obviously written by Charlotte + Charlotte Brontë from facts in Brontë from facts in her own + her own life. life. + +The absolute dependence of Charlotte Brontë's _Wuthering Heights_, _Jane +Eyre_, and _Villette_ upon her own inner life in relation to M. Héger is +proved by the evidence in the chapter on "The Rivers Family," in the +chapters on "Eugène Sue and Charlotte Brontë's Brussels Life," and in +those entitled "The Recoil." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +EUGÈNE SUE AND CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S BRUSSELS LIFE. + + +I. + +MDLLE. LAGRANGE AND HER MANUSCRIPT "CATHERINE BELL THE ORPHAN." + +When Mrs. Gaskell published her Brontë biography it was discovered that +while she had been enabled by aid of the mass of commonplace Brontë +correspondence to present an interesting picture of the domestic +conditions at the Haworth parsonage, she had yet been unable to throw +any light upon that episode in Charlotte Brontë's life which, it had +been suspected, was responsible for the extraordinary love passages in +the Brontë works and Miss Brontë's insistence in choosing the hero of +each of her books from the same model. + +It is therefore most miraculous and sensational that after having found +Montagu's _Gleanings in Craven_ was the key to _Wuthering Heights_ and +_Jane Eyre_, I should further come to discover, what the world had +thought would never be found: external evidence throwing light upon Miss +Brontë's real relations with the Hégers at Brussels, to whose +_pensionnat_ she went in the 'forties. This discovery was the subject of +my article "The Lifting of the Brontë Veil" Mr. W. L. Courtney +commissioned me to write in the _Fortnightly Review_. Therein I showed +Eugène Sue had presented the whole history of M. Héger's passion for +Charlotte Brontë, and Madame Héger's jealousy, in a work entitled _Miss +Mary ou l'Institutrice_, published in 1850-51--seven years before the +publication of Mrs. Gaskell's _Life_, and before the publication of +either _The Professor_ or _Villette_; and we saw that M. Héger knew all +Miss Brontë's literary secrets in 1850. + +Skilfully enough Eugène Sue in this story--the first version of which +was issued serially in September 1850, from _The Weekly Times_ Office, +London, whence were published many of M. Sue's serials;[56] the second, +an abridged and altered version for French readers, published in Paris +in March 1851--gave two phases of Charlotte Brontë, something after the +method we see Miss Brontë herself employed in _Jane Eyre_, wherein she +gave two phases of Tabitha Aykroyd, one in the beginning as Bessie, +another later on as Hannah of the Rivers family.[57] + +Indeed it will be found that in this work Eugène Sue also imitated +Charlotte Brontë's Method I., interchange of the sexes of characters +portrayed from life. + +The two phases of Miss Brontë in this romance are Miss Mary Lawson, an +Irish governess at the de Morville establishment; and Mademoiselle +Lagrange, a former governess at the same house. The Mademoiselle +Lagrange is, however, always referred to in the abstract, and serves to +illustrate, it appears, Miss Brontë before her first departure from and +return to Brussels, as well as after, for she was twice at the Hégers. +And it may be observed that Charlotte Brontë was called "Mademoiselle +Charlotte" at the Héger _pension_ when she was governess there in 1843. +Certainly the choice of Lagrange for Miss Brontë was pertinent: _la +grange_ is French for "the barn," and may have been suggested by the +Eyre of _Jane Eyre_, which to a French ear would recall _aire_--a barn +floor. Mdlle. Lagrange who had left the de Morville (_Anglicè_, Morton. +As we have seen, Morton of _Jane Eyre_ was Haworth to Charlotte Brontë) +establishment on account of the jealousy of Madame de Morville, whom I +identify as Madame Héger, is a plain-featured literary aspirant, and she +writes a manuscript entitled not exactly Currer Bell, but "Kitty Bell, +the Orphan." + +This manuscript has been sent by the author for an opinion of its merits +to M. de Morville, who reads it aloud to his family. It is a parody, as +it were, of _Jane Eyre_, with an imitation of Charlotte Brontë's methods +of introducing private biographical facts. For instance, in presenting +the Lowood school incidents it calls the school "the Kendall Institute," +named after "a Mr. Kendall, its founder." Evidently the writer had +heard, as only few indeed had at this early day, that the Lowood school +of _Jane Eyre_ was afterwards removed to Casterton in the Union of +Kendal, or had heard that in a wise it was connected with a place of +that name. + +Other extraordinary facts with which he shows acquaintance are, that +Charlotte Brontë had a sister Elizabeth at this school; that Helen Burns +was her sister; that there was a West Indian girl at the school; that +Charlotte Brontë was born on or about the 21st of April; that she might +be called Kitty (Currer) Bell at home, but she must be called Catherine +(Catherine Earnshaw); that Miss Brontë was the governess-daughter of an +Irishman; that the original of John Reed was her brother and was no +hero, and had shown strange signs of insanity during the last year or +two, as it is now known he had at the time; that a female relative had +provided Miss Brontë the money for the _pensionnat_; that skin disorders +as well as the typhus fever were prevalent at the Clergy Daughters' +School (it is in a private letter that Miss Brontë referred to scrofula +at this school); that the original of Mr. Rochester was a foreigner and +a resident abroad, an ex-soldier, and married to a lady who was not +pretty, albeit "la vivacité, l'agrément de sa physionomie expressive, +suppléaient à la beauté qui lui manquait"; that Charlotte Brontë had had +in her possession since her childhood an old copy in English of _The +Imitation of Christ_; that Miss Brontë was called a _bas bleu_ at the +_pensionnat_; that to form an opinion of her character by Madame Héger's +estimate of her disposition would be completely erroneous; that M. Héger +was accustomed to read _feuilletons_ aloud; that religious differences +existed between her and others at the establishment where Charlotte +Brontë was; that Catherine's (Catherine Earnshaw's) rival was Isabella +(Heathcliffe's wife--Madame Héger of the Rue d'Isabelle); that Miss +Brontë travelled alone to Brussels and was accosted by _deux jeunes +gens_--compare the opening chapters of _Miss Mary_ with Lucy Snowe's +arrival at Villette, evidently in some wise founded on fact, as to these +two young men. See also _The Professor_, Chapter VII. + +But to return to "Mdlle. Lagrange's Manuscript," the pseudo _Jane Eyre_, +which of course at once identifies its author, Mdlle. Lagrange, as +Charlotte Brontë, I find therein the whole Lowood school incidents--the +typhus fever, the hair-cutting incident, the death of the consumptive +Helen Burns, etc., amplified with biographical additions. For instance, +take the hair-cutting incident of _Jane Eyre_ as represented in +"Lagrange's Manuscript"-- + + The master called out:-- + + "Elizabeth----" + + ... Meanwhile all the Elizabeths in the school must have felt the + claws of the tiger in their necks, for who could tell which of them + it was?... + + "Superintendent of the Kendall Institute! you are aware, madam, one + of the rules of this establishment enjoins you to cut short the + hair of every new girl.... And yet what do I see? Six girls with + long hair...." + + The last of these had not been a week at the institution. She was a + girl of fourteen, very dark, ... with a fine tinge of the Creole in + her face. How well I thought did Isabella Hutchinson, with her + dark, West Indian head, look by the side of the fair Yorkshire + girl, Sophia Leigh, whose pale, straw-coloured locks, looked paler + still by the side of that dark heap of hair, blacker than a raven's + wing...[!] + +We have seen in the chapter on "The Rivers or Brontë Family in _Jane +Eyre_" that Charlotte Brontë portrayed in the character Julia Severn, +who is first mentioned in connection with the hair-cutting incident, her +sister Elizabeth, and it is most significant that M. Sue made play upon +the name Elizabeth in the connection. In regard to the mention of a West +Indian girl at the Lowood school and her being coupled with a +fair-haired Yorkshire girl, it is important to note that no reference is +made in _Jane Eyre_ to a West Indian girl at this school. It is indeed +astonishing how much M. Sue knew of Charlotte Brontë's private life. +Here we find him telling the world in 1850 of a West Indian girl being +with Charlotte Brontë at the Clergy Daughters' School, and not till +seven years later did Mrs. Gaskell learn of the Rev. Patrick +Brontë--Charlotte Brontë was then dead--that a girl from the West Indies +had been Charlotte's friend at this school. Her name, he thought, was +Mellany Hane, so far as he could remember to pronounce it. Mysteriously +enough, the words "West Indies" or "West Indian" in this connection have +been deleted from the later editions of Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of +Charlotte Brontë_. See the Second Edition. + +"Lagrange's Manuscript" is of considerable length and interest, and can +be drawn upon in future editions of _The Key to the Brontë Works_. +Frequently it follows in parallel to _Jane Eyre_, but as parody +interspersed with biographical details which must have been intended +chiefly for Charlotte Brontë herself, as scarcely any one else could at +that day have understood the pertinence of the references.[58] Take a +Helen Burns incident whereby M. Sue shows he is aware she was a Brontë +sister, older than Charlotte--Maria Brontë who died of consumption:-- + + But the inexorable hand ... was upon Agnes Jones [Helen Burns]. + Day by day I saw her pretty cheeks growing thinner and thinner, + her eyes sinking still more deeply into her head, her little mouth + becoming more blue and ashy, her long, thin fingers more + transparent. Her voice, at all times so meek and low, dwindled + away to that thin and tiny sound to which we listen as to + something absent--already gone--something that comes from above or + below us--that is not living amongst us--not breathing as we + breathe--a retreating echo, rather than a living voice--a sigh, + and not a sound.... It was not much I had learned from Agnes + [Helen] since I had been at the institution; but never till then + had I known her spirit so genial, her heart so lovingly + persuasive; the beneficent lessons of those days, burning like + candles within me, have since guided me well through life: _she + spoke to me like a prophet, and I listened to her like a + believer_. Oh, I could have lived for ever in that chamber, and + Agnes [Helen] might have been to me the world! How often, as our + cheeks lay against each other have I wished that I, too, had been + ill, so that I also might have died, as she was dying, in my + innocence!... One evening, ... just at that pleasant hour of + twilight when two of God's wonders--night and day--cross each + other like ships on the sea, Agnes [Helen] said:--'Life has its + holiness as well as death, Catherine [Jane]; and you may live in + the world as purely and justly as those who die in the cradle.' + + "The world is full of temptation?" + + "So it is, but there lies the merit, my dear; wrestle with + temptation and do what is right, ... you must not allow my death + to afflict you much, since I rejoice at it.... If you think of me, + think of me living, not dead. Think of your playfellow in the + garden; think of your elder sister who lived with you for six + years." + +Maria Brontë, Charlotte's eldest sister, and the original of Helen +Burns, died when Charlotte was eight or nine. It is sensational indeed, +that M. Sue thus identified Helen Burns seven years before the +publication of Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_. The death of +this character in "Lagrange's Manuscript" is in perfect agreement with +that of Helen Burns. I will place the two side by side:-- + + _Jane Eyre._ "Kitty Bell, the Orphan." + + Chapter IX. By the Mademoiselle Lagrange, of + Eugène Sue's _Miss Mary ou + By Currer Bell. L'Institutrice_. + + The death of Helen Burns. The death of Agnes Jones. + + That forest dell, where Lowood The Master of the Kendall + lay, was the cradle of ... Institution ... had ... been + fog-bred pestilence, which ... very much shocked by the ravages + crept into the Orphan Asylum, of typhus fever, and since the + breathed typhus through [it] ... reports of Agnes's health had + and transformed the seminary become serious, had sent several + into a hospital.... One evening times to ascertain how she + ... Mr. Bates came out, and ... was.... "Miss Bell, I am come to + a nurse.... I ran up to her. inquire after our friend, Miss + Jones." + "How is Helen Burns?" + "... Agnes is always calm and + "Very poorly," was the easy-minded.... This is very + answer.... Two hours later ... I kind of you." + reached ... Miss Temple's room, + ... I looked in. My eye sought ... As I was preparing to lie + Helen, and feared to find down in the room, Agnes called + death.... "Helen!" I whispered to me:-- + softly; "are you awake?" + "Catherine, my dear, I feel + ... I got on to her crib and rather cold to-night; will you + kissed her: her forehead was sleep with me?" + cold, and her cheek both cold + and thin, and so were her hand Of course I complied, and we lay + and wrist, but she smiled as of talking in each other's arms + old. until the sweet dove fell + asleep. Poor Agnes, she was + "Jane, ... lie down and cover indeed cold; a strange chill + yourself with the quilt." came through me as I lay by her + side.... I still heard my sister + I did so: she put her arm over orphan breathe and pant.... Why + me, and I nestled close to her. did I listen ... so greedily? + Why--when the poor thing turned + ... I clasped my arms closer round once in the night, and + round Helen; she seemed dearer said: "Another kiss, + to me than ever; I felt as if I Catherine!"--why did I feel in + could not let her go; I lay with giving it her, as if a hundred + my face hidden on her neck. steel arrows had gone through my + Presently she said:--"... Don't heart? How long I lay awake and + leave me, Jane; I like to have thinking--wondering at the cold + you near me." emerging from the pure body at + my side, I know not! I must have + "I'll stay with you, _dear_ slept, too; for I remember + Helen; no one shall take me opening my eyes with the first + away."... She kissed me, and I dawn, before the bells rang. + her; and we soon slumbered. When + I awoke it was day; an unusual "Agnes!" said I, softly; "are + movement roused me. you awake?" + + A day or two afterwards, I But there was no answer!... I + learned that Miss Temple, on called again--then a third, and + returning to her own room at a fourth time! But still ... no + dawn, had found me laid in a reply! Wondering at this + little crib; my face against silence, ... I listened for that + Helen Burn's shoulder, my arms hard breathing I knew so well. + round her neck. I was asleep, But nothing--not a sound could I + and Helen was--dead. hear! Alarmed, but unwilling to + trust my fears, I felt for her + hand. Oh, God! it was cold as + ice, and rigid as stone! Wild + with affright, ... I started up + ... and rushed out to call the + Superintendent [Miss Temple]. I + found her preparing to come to + us.... When we entered the + chamber, we found no Agnes + there! No; her spirit had fled, + and all we saw was the lifeless + body of a poor houseless girl. + +Another biographical passage occurs where Catherine Bell first sees the +Miss Temple of "Lagrange's Manuscript," who herself, under the name of +Ashton (Eshton),[59] is at times Miss Brontë, who took the name of the +original of Miss Temple (Evans) for herself in the phase of Frances +Evans Henri in _The Professor_, a work not published, we must note, till +after Charlotte Brontë's death:-- + + "I love you, madam," I said. + + "Your name, I believe, is Catherine Bell, is it not?" + + "Kitty Bell, if you please, madam," I answered. + + "Kitty Bell at home, my dear, but here we must call you Catherine; + for a school, you know, is where many forms must be observed. How + old are you?" + + "I shall be ten next birthday, madam." + + "And when will that be?" + + "On the 23rd of April." + + "Shakespeare's Day, I declare!" + +The above is, of course, not in _Jane Eyre_. There is a stroke of +sarcasm in the last sentence. It would appear that Currer Bell playfully +had moved her birthday forward two days, in her private conversation +with one from whom M. Sue had gleaned information--and this could be +only M. Héger himself. Charlotte Brontë, as Lucy Snowe, in _Villette_, +Chapter XLI., tells us that M. Paul Emanuel (M. Héger) said:-- + +"I wanted to prove to Miss Lucy that I _could_ keep a secret. How often +has she taunted me with lack of dignified reserve and needful caution! +How many times has she saucily insinuated that all my affairs are the +secret of Polichinelle!" And this had doubtless a reference to some such +indiscretions as resulted in M. Sue whilst at Brussels (and he was +publishing _L'Orgueil_ from Brussels in 1844, in the January of which +year Charlotte Brontë arrived home from the Belgian capital), learning +the literary secrets of _Jane Eyre_, and perhaps _Wuthering Heights_. + +A further reference to Currer Bell's literary aspirations--in the spirit +of Mdlle. Reuter's sneers, in _The Professor_, at Mdlle. Henri's +literary ambition--occurs in M. Sue's _feuilleton_ in another version of +the fortune-telling incident of _Jane Eyre_:-- + + "Here," said I, to a brown, sunburnt damsel, ... "take this + shilling and tell me when I shall be Empress of Morocco?" + + I held out my hand.... The young girl looked at it, ... then shook + her head doubtfully:-- + + "Your life, lady, will be a troubled one--full of hopes and + fears!" + + "So I suppose; most people's lives are pretty well divided in this + manner." + + "But not so much as yours will be.... First, you are without + father or mother?... Without fortune, too?" + + "True, what more?" + + "You will be married and not married." + + "That's impossible. What can you mean by married and not married?" + + "That deserves another shilling!" + + "No; I only want a shillingsworth, ... that will do for to-day." + +"Mdlle. Lagrange's Manuscript" was bound in blue morocco leather, and +the term "Empress of Morocco" may have a reference to a literary +ambition, as has the "Shakspeare's Day, I declare!" passage. + +For constructive purposes the West Indian girl, or Creole, in +"Lagrange's Manuscript," is made to take the place of the Mrs. Rochester +of _Jane Eyre_, who is therein represented as a Creole:-- + + I did my best [continues Catherine Bell] to make a friend of her, + but to no purpose. Whatever was the reason she disliked me from + the first. ["I am convinced she does not like me," wrote Charlotte + to Emily of Madame Héger.] I felt intuitively she was my enemy.... + Had we been thrown together when I was a child [!] I should + probably have suited her ... for at that time I was a little given + to flattery myself. But that was before I had learned how many + better things there are than mere beauty.... Perhaps ... I + preferred more solid advantages, because my vanity assured me that + I had them myself, whilst my personal appearance was insignificant + compared with hers. I was certainly fond of talking of what I + knew, which answered very well with those who knew as much, and + was rather pleasing to those who knew more. [M. Héger seems to + have found pleasure in his intellectual talks with Currer Bell], + but to Isabella [this, as I have said, is the name of Catherine's + rival in _Wuthering Heights_, who was married to Heathcliffe] it + was hateful. She imagined I wanted to expose her ignorance. + +I have given some of the biographical facts respecting Miss Brontë +embodied in Mdlle. Lagrange's story, and before closing this chapter +dealing with that extraordinary manuscript I will print a further +extract or so from it. The opening is as follows:-- + + "KITTY BELL, THE ORPHAN." + + I was not above four years old when my mother died, my father + having gone to his grave two years before.... Oh, it is a sad, sad + thing to be an orphan!... My little head has been cut with more + than one fall, and blood has flowed down my neck. But nobody + cared.... It was only Kitty Bell.... There was no loving heart to + take me to itself and soothe me.... I had been taken home by some + relation of my mother, ... a widow [Mrs. Burke], and though she + treated me with great rigour, she melted on her death-bed. + +She is locked in the room wherein Mrs. Burke died, after the manner of +the same incident in _Jane Eyre_, and the writer takes an opportunity of +inserting the most distinctive feature of _Jane Eyre_, the light-bearing +apparition, the original of which I have shown Charlotte Brontë found in +Montagu's _Gleanings in Craven_:-- + + Suddenly there came a gleam of light through the key-hole, ... and + now I could hear a short, heavy tread upon the stairs--it was + coming up.... The gleam shot through the key-hole a third time, + with treble radiance. But what had I seen?... Was it a vision? was + it a ghost? It was a tall figure in white, like a winding sheet, + with a hideous face and balls of gleaming fire where the eyes + should be. The sight had stunned and levelled me almost like a + blow on the temple.... I cannot say how long I continued in this + swoon, but when I began to recover myself I was in my own bed. + +She had received medical treatment, she learns as did Jane Eyre in the +similar incident. The "ghost," however, had been only George Burke--the +John Reed of _Jane Eyre_. Hence the choice of the name Burke by reason +of its connection with the Hare of the Burke and Hare association, the +writer by this choice showing his acquaintance with the fact that in +real life the Reeds and Jane Eyre were relations. After this incident +the story is for a while occupied with the petty happenings connected +with this orphan who "was not yet nine years old." An aunt of the Burkes +[? Aunt Branwell] comes to live with them, a "poor, quiet, elderly +spinster who paid a small stipend in order to preserve her independence +and keep up her dignity.... I must not attempt to describe her ... she +was fully six feet high." This is palpably antithetical: Miss Branwell +was not tall. And it is this aunt who provides the money for Catherine +Bell to go to school. Under the guise of presenting the Lowood school in +"Lagrange's Manuscript," M. Sue gives us often the Héger _pensionnat_. +Aunt Branwell provided Charlotte Brontë the money that enabled her to go +to the Hégers'. + +I will give in parallel columns the arrival of Charlotte Brontë at the +Clergy Daughters' Institute as it is described in "Mademoiselle +Lagrange's Manuscript," and in _Jane Eyre_ the original:-- + + _Jane Eyre._ "Kitty Bell, the Orphan." + + By the Mademoiselle Lagrange, + By Currer Bell. of Eugène Sue's _Miss Mary ou + L'Institutrice_. + + The first days at the The first days at the + Institution. Institution. + + The coach door was open and ... We got to Kendall House.... I + a servant was standing at it: I had been sitting near my trunk + saw her ... by the light of the on the outside of the coach, and + lamps. my legs were numb with cold. I + was quite unable to move, so the + "Is there a little girl called coachman lifted me down along + Jane Eyre here?" she asked. I with my box. The door was open + answered "Yes," and was lifted when the coach stopped; a + out, my trunk was handed down. servant was standing there with + a lamp. "Are you Catherine Bell + we expects down here to-day?" + she asked me. + + "My name is Kitty Bell, if you + please," replied I. + + The servant led me ... into a The girl returned no answer, but + room, with a fire, where she having ushered me into a + left me alone.... I stood and spacious room with a fire in it, + warmed my numbed fingers over she left me there by myself; ... + the blaze; ... there was no there was no candle. I stood ... + candle. warming my numb hands and limbs. + I heard the door open ... and I + The door opened, and an saw a face ... I never can + individual entered, ... a tall forget. My heart told me + lady with dark hair, dark eyes, directly it was Miss Ashton + and a pale and large forehead [Eshton]. Dear, noble girl! her + [Miss Temple. Her real name was face was rather large, but + Miss Evans], her countenance was accurately oval--just as you see + grave, her bearing erect. them in the fine sacred pictures + of Murillo--those pictures of + grand female beauty. + + She considered me attentively Everything in that face was + for a minute or two. great, open, frank, truthlike, + ... and yet there was a grave + ... "Are you tired?" she asked, ... melancholy overspreading + placing her hand on my shoulder. that regal countenance.... It + was singular to see a woman + ... "A little, ma'am." acting as the manager of a + benevolent institution and + living apart from the world who + might have shone in any court in + Europe and ... perhaps had no + equal on any throne ... [!] She + advanced towards me stately, but + kindly, touched my cheek with + her finger, and then seeing me + smile, she smiled in return, + and, after scanning my features + a moment, she lifted me up and + kissed me. + + "I love you, madam," I said. + Then she set me down ... and, + putting her hand upon my head, + she asked me:-- + + "Your name is Catherine Bell, is + it not?"... [Here follows the + "Shakespeare's Day" reference I + have already given.] + + I have not ... alluded to the I had been at the Kendall + visits of Mr. Brocklehurst [Rev. Institute about three weeks + Mr. Carus Wilson]; his absence without seeing Mr. King [Mr. + was a relief to me.... One Brocklehurst] the master or + afternoon (I had ... been three registrar.... One morning when I + weeks at Lowood) ... I woke up I heard the bells in the + recognized almost instinctively dormitories ringing louder than + that gaunt outline, ... it was ever.... + Mr. Brocklehurst. + I knew without being told this + After some lines we have the strange man was Mr. King. + hair-cutting incident I have + quoted already from "Lagrange's "Catherine Bell!" called out + Manuscript." This incident comes Miss Ashton. + after and not before Catherine + (Jane) has been commanded to + stand before the class. + + On hearing my name I left my + place in the rank, and + advanced.... + + "So! this is Catherine Bell, is + it?" cried Mr. King. "I have + heard her kind friends at home + speak of Catherine Bell, and + ... "Fetch that stool," said Mr. they tell me she is a naughty, + Brocklehurst.... "Place the vicious, headstrong child--very + child upon it." ungrateful to those for whose + generosity she ought to have so + And I was placed there. much respect and gratitude! Is + this true, Catherine Bell?" + "Miss Temple, ... children, it + becomes my duty to warn you that "No, sir; not a word of it." + this girl ... is a little + castaway, ... this girl is--a "What, child!... Are you a + liar!... Let her stand ... on little liar as well as an + that stool." ingrate? Stand here!" + + What my sensations were no The passions and feelings of a + language can describe.... I child are only known to + mastered the rising hysteria ... children. Grown-up people seem + and took a firm stand on the to have forgotten them.[60] I + stool. stood there with cheeks burning + with shame, indignation, and + anger.... My pride had been + savagely assailed. I did not + want pity. I wanted ... a + refutation of the cruel charge; + I was not a liar; and those who + taxed me with ingratitude had no + gratitude to claim from me. + Great God! what emotions there + were raging in my breast! and + how my little heart did swell! + +Often Mdlle. Lagrange's "Kitty Bell the Orphan" is mysterious in its +allusions. As when Catherine Bell says she does not like a French lady +teacher. The seed-cake incident of Chapter VIII. of _Jane Eyre_, which +is given at length in "Lagrange's Manuscript," is herewith worked in +again:-- + + "I don't like Madame Dubois...." + + "Why so? she is a very good sort of a woman." + + "That may be, but she takes snuff...." + + "What is that to you or me, Catherine Bell? Surely it is no + business of ours?" + + "Sometimes it is, though.... I gave her a slice of my seed-cake + yesterday, and she returned me half of it." + + "That showed a good disposition in poor Madame Dubois; did it + not?" + + "Yes; but when I was going to eat it myself I was seized with a + fit of sneezing, which I shall not forget in a hurry, I promise + you!" + + "You took snuff then, Catherine Bell, for the first time in your + life?" + + "ALL IN--ALL IN--FOR SCHOOL!" shouted the teachers and examples + that moment. + +The following is an extract dealing with the fever scenes of _Jane +Eyre_:-- + + Fever and consumption had fixed their abode under the large roof + of Kendall Institution, death was stealing along with its soft, + wolf-like tread, to feed upon these poor children. The first + symptoms I remember that startled me were certain cold shiverings + and sudden fits of perspiration without warmth, which seized upon + the younger children. Then sickness and nausea, followed + immediately by vomiting. [M. Sue had been a surgeon.] ... Oh, how + cruel, how bitter it was to us when we saw the first little coffin + borne out of the school!... And now we began to hear, for the + first time, the dismal word _typhus_ uttered here and there in + whispers through the school.... When we went to the church on + Sundays, and saw the many little mounds of fresh black earth lying + over our innocent playmates of yesterday, our heads sank upon our + bosoms and we wept most sorrowfully. + +Faithful to its model, "Lagrange's Manuscript" brings Isabella the +Creole as the rival of Catherine Bell, and thus of the Creole's husband +Catherine writes:-- + + Unwittingly, and quite unknown to myself, I became the object of + his admiration--nay, of his marked preference; but I rejected + indignantly the homage of an affection which he had sworn to + another, and which it was his sacred duty to preserve + undefiled.... In the hope of overcoming my persistency in refusing + his so often proffered and as often rejected love, he urged on by + every imaginable means the final decision, which in the eyes of + man were to permit a second marriage, guilty in the sight of God. + With the natural instinct of divination peculiar to female + jealousy, his wife had guessed who was the deity at whose altar + the captain was burning his incense.... Nor did she consider + whether I encouraged or rebuked him. She suspected, she spied, she + believed, and unscrupulously involved me in the hateful vengeance + she swore to take both on her husband and myself. + +For a portrait of Mdlle. Lagrange who, as the author of this version of +_Jane Eyre_, is of course meant for Charlotte Brontë, we turn to the +_feuilleton_ itself:-- + + Meanwhile we have lost sight of our blue-stocking friend, Mdlle. + Lagrange ['Madame herself deemed me a regular _bas bleu_,' says + Lucy Snowe of Madame Beck (Madame Héger) in _Villette_] ... her + character ... remains to be described. Now, to form any opinion of + it by Madame de Morville's [Madame Héger's] appreciation of that + girl's disposition, would be completely erroneous. Lagrange was + not devoid of intellectual faculties; she possessed an imaginative + mind, rather too fond of romance, and too little of practical + truths; but, above all, cunning and ambition formed the main basis + of her character: she had risen from nothing, and _would_ become + something. Imbued as she was with the ideas prevalent among the + lower rank [Had Charlotte Brontë related her father's history to + the Hégers? She had 'views' on money. M. Sue, however, never seems + to have forgotten the rank of his own god-parents], she deemed it + her right and duty to concentrate all the power of her faculties + towards the end she sighed for--wealth and a name. Thus it was she + displayed all the resources of her subtle nature to make every + circumstance serve to the gratifying of her ambition. What, then, + was to be her means of success? Marriage?--yes, that perpetual + dream of maidens, and a dream which too often ends in an + everlasting nightmare. But the task was not easy, for, it has been + said, beauty had been forgotten by Dame Nature among the few gifts + she had granted her.[61] What the appearance failed in, the mind + should, at any cost, supply [!]. This had become her ruling + desire. Thence the manuscript ['Catherine Bell, The Orphan'] we + have already read had been the first ponderous lucubration of her + fortune-seeking imagination: she had been praised for this first + attempt by her friends, and also by one two distinguished + critics.[62] This was already a point gained, and an encouragement + to her literary propensities. + +Thus far the Mdlle. Lagrange phase of Currer Bell according to Eugène +Sue, and before the publication of _The Professor_, _Villette_, and Mrs. +Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_. The next chapter shall deal with +Eugène Sue's relation of her as "Miss Mary," the leading character of +this extraordinary _feuilleton_, whereby it will be proved finally that +in her works Charlotte Brontë has written from her own life-story. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + +EUGÈNE SUE AND CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S BRUSSELS LIFE. + + +II. + +ACCUSATIONS AND PROTESTATIONS! + +I have said Eugène Sue, in _Miss Mary ou l'Institutrice_, gave two +phases of Charlotte Brontë. With the one as Mdlle. Lagrange I dealt in +the preceding chapter, and now I write concerning that wherein Miss +Brontë is openly represented as the Irish governess at the de Morville +establishment.[63] Easy it is to recognize this character is a phase of +Charlotte Brontë, but as her pupil Alphonsine puts it plainly in +describing her, she is "Mdlle. Lagrange, avec la beauté de +plus"--Charlotte Brontë, with beauty and virtues exaggerated. The +following incident I find only in the _feuilleton_ (not the extant +volume), the which circumstances support as history concerning the days +of Miss Brontë's dejection at the Brussels _pensionnat_. It should be +read in the light of the lines in Chapter XIX. of _The Professor_, where +she, as Frances Evans Henri, tells Crimsworth, obviously M. Héger, that +he remarked her _devoirs_ dwelt a great deal on fortitude in bearing +grief. In the evening Alphonsine, M. de Morville's daughter, who says +many things we know must have issued from M. Héger's lips--(this is in +palpable imitation of Charlotte Brontë's Method I., interchange of the +sexes of characters portrayed from life. For further use of this method +see also the close of Chapter XII. and elsewhere in _The Professor_, and +my writing on _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_)--pays a visit to the +chamber of the Irish governess:-- + + "Were you not reading?... I see a book on your work-table. May I + look?... _The Imitation of Christ!_" exclaimed Alphonsine, after + having read the title-page. "Oh! this is a beautiful book, is it + not?" + + "Truly beautiful!" answered Mary; "the cover is old, the pages + worn out in many places. You must not wonder at it: from the age I + began to read, I don't think I ever passed three nights without + reading at least one chapter of this admirable work." + +_The Imitation of Christ_ in English was a book Charlotte Brontë was +setting much store upon when she was but nine years of age.[64] Her copy +was then an old one. Evidently she took the book with her to Brussels +and read it at the _pensionnat_. It would seem M. Héger, whom she +instructed in English, requested to hear the work in this English +translation:-- + + "Pray what chapter were you reading?" continues Alphonsine. "I + should so much like to hear you read it to me: I have occasionally + read a page of _The Imitation_, but always in French; now, if you + would be so good as to read slowly and pronounce very distinctly, + I think I could understand this pious work in your language." + +She read:-- + + "THE NECESSITY OF HUMBLE SUBMISSION. + + "Let your conscience be pure, and surely God will know how to + defend you.... Learn to suffer in silence, without repining, and + you will ... receive assistance from Him." + + "What a truthful, becalming lesson!" observed Alphonsine; "you + will read to me every evening some passage of your _Imitation_, + will you not? English sounds so sweetly to my ear when spoken by + you. We will begin to-morrow evening, n'est ce pas?" + +Surely this is M. Héger and his sympathetic, depressed English teacher. + +There is in the opening chapter of _Miss Mary_ a long conversation +regarding the departed governess Lagrange, and Madame de Morville +(Madame Héger) avows she had been jealous of her, and that her harshness +towards the governess had resulted in her abruptly leaving on a false +plea of ill-health. Thus she says to M. de Morville:-- + + "I am speaking seriously to you of my foolish but most acute + sufferings ... tandis que tu restais seul ici avec tes livres. You + never suspected them;... I endeavoured to suppress them, to + suffer no part of what I felt to transpire; for I must confess + poor Lagrange was quite the lamb du bon Dieu, yet in spite of + myself I sometimes broke out into fits of petulance and absurd + irony, which wounded her. I saw it did by the sudden dejection of + that excellent young person. But even this was not all." + + "Louise! is it you who speaks thus? You whose kind, benevolent + heart I have so often admired." + + "Would you that I should avow something worse to you? What made me + tolerate that poor Lagrange is that she was as ugly as the seven + cardinal sins.... In fine, I cannot conceal from myself that the + result of all this was that Mdlle. Lagrange gave up her situation + on the plea of ill-health. ["Ah! she was not dismissed," said + Mdlle. Reuter (Madame Héger) in _The Professor_, Chapter XVIII., + when the Professor asked whether Mdlle. Frances Henri[65] (Miss + Brontë) had left voluntarily. "... No need to have recourse to + such extreme measures, I assure you."] Enfin, it faut bien me + l'avouer, le résultat de tout ceci a été que Mademoiselle Lagrange + a demandé à quitter la maison, sous prétexte de santé; véritable + prétexte. For the rest I will do myself this justice, I would have + suffered even to the end rather than have sent back that excellent + girl." + +The Hégers were surprised at Miss Brontë's sudden resolution to leave +them, but she is said to have had her father's failing eyesight as a +reason. "I suffered much before I left Brussels," wrote Charlotte, and +this was in mind, not body. + + "I have long concealed the greater part of these resentful + sentiments from you," continues Madame de Morville, + "notwithstanding the implicit trust reposed in you. I wish I alone + had suffered by them. But no, poor Lagrange doubtless could not + endure the thousand vexations and spites ('taquineries + sournoises') to which she was subjected, and was thereby driven + from our house." + +All this should be read as in connection with the departure of Miss +Mary, the other phase of Miss Brontë, towards the end of the book. "I +think, however long I live I shall not forget what the parting with M. +Héger cost me," said Charlotte Brontë.[66] + +Here is M. Sue's version:-- + + M. de Morville started, then regarding the governess with stupor, + for he could not believe what he heard, he cried:-- + + "Quoi! Miss Mary, vous dites?" + + "I say, monsieur, that I return to England, where I am recalled by + my family." + +The real reason why Miss Brontë left is given in the Lagrange passages +to which I have alluded. + + "Partir! but that is impossible! A departure so brusque, si peu + attendu!" + + "Pray do not perceive, monsieur," says the Irish governess, "in + this unlooked for departure any want of regard for you; ... il a + fallu des raisons graves, very grave, to compel me to such a + resolution." + + "Partir!" wailed M. de Morville. "What! that this should be the + last time that I should see you, that I should speak to you! But + this is not possible! They do not kill a man thus by a single + blow! For you well know that you kill me! You well know that I + love you! Oh! do not say you were unaware of my unhappy love," he + continues, "you know well enough what an irresistible charm has + drawn me towards you, what happiness I have had to tell you my + life, my secret thoughts, my wrongs even! A timid reserve followed + the first entrancement, but it was the struggle of respect, of + honour against a fatal passion. Ah! the traces of that struggle, + should they not have been too evident to your eyes! What! have + not you divined the cause of that sombre discouragement which made + me seek solitude where I isolated myself from all interests, from + all affection? And those nights without sleep passed in consuming + my tears, exaggerating more the consequences of that fatal + passion!... What! you have divined nothing, read nothing of mes + traits, in my eyes red with tears and sleeplessness? Mon Dieu! mon + Dieu! to have suffered so much ... suffered so much, and not to + have even the consolation of saying: She knows that I have + suffered." + +The reader of _Miss Mary_ will perceive throughout this scene in the +extant and apparently re-written French volume that M. de Morville's +unhappy love was that of an honourable and a loyal-hearted man, while +the governess was also without reproach. (These extracts do not occur in +the _feuilleton_ as published in English.) As he asks:-- + + "Is it my fault if in the monotony of my existence est tout à coup + apparue a person whose talents, education, and character have been + appreciated by all and by me.... Have I attempted to pervert your + mind, to seduce your heart? No, no! I have suffered, suffered in + silence [see my reference to the _Imitation of Christ_], suffered + alone, suffered always. And my crime, what is it?... It is to make + to you the avowal of suffering on the day when you go to leave me + for ever a prey to incurable despair!" + +Thus have we real insight into the state of affairs at Brussels when +Miss Brontë left. We see the divining, jealous Madame de +Morville--Madame Héger, of course--subjecting her to the "taquineries +sournoises"; we hear Madame saying of her: "Ce que me faisait tolérer +cette pauvre Mdlle. Lagrange, c'est qu'elle était laide comme les sept +péchés mortels," and sneering at the excuse she made to leave the +establishment, calling it a "véritable prétexte" when the real reason +was Madame's jealousy and its causes. Oh, the bitterness of it! And now +in this light read the carefully worded representation of Mrs Gaskell +that:-- + + Towards the end of 1843 various reasons conspired ... to make her + [Charlotte Brontë] feel that her presence was absolutely and + imperatively required at home, while she was ... no longer + regarded with the former kindliness of feeling by Madame Héger. In + consequence of this state of things working down with a sharp edge + into a sensitive mind, she suddenly announced to that lady her + immediate intention of returning to England. + +Something of the foregoing I gave in my article "The Lifting of the +Brontë Veil" in _The Fortnightly Review_, and I have to thank the press +generally for their kind acknowledgment of my important discovery. _The +Spectator_, in consonance with others, says:--"Mr. Malham-Dembleby has +found a _feuilleton_ by Eugène Sue which is curious, as it certainly +indicates a knowledge of Charlotte Brontë and of Monsieur and Madame +Héger at Brussels." + +In the extant French copy Eugène Sue has given a dramatic version of the +parting scene between "Miss Mary" and "Madame de Morville"--Charlotte +Brontë and Madame Héger. The latter had surprised her husband and the +Irish governess, _tête-à-tête_ in the lonely pavilion, late in the +evening. Monsieur protests:-- + + "Madame," he cries, "... I will not permit you, in my presence, to + dare to calumniate and outrage Mademoiselle Lawson." + + Miss Mary asks him not to defend her, as she does not wish to be a + cause of irritating discussion between them. + + "That is charming!" cried Madame de Morville, with a burst of + sardonic laughter--"Grâce au bon accord du ménage, mademoiselle + would desire to continue in perfect tranquillity the undignified + rôle she has played at my house!" + +Her husband protests that she outrages one of the purest characters in +the world, but the governess interrupts by addressing the wife:-- + + "Madam, suspicions so odious, so senseless, are unable to wound an + honourable soul.... I reply nothing to these words, which you will + soon regret. The two years that I have been here [Charlotte Brontë + was two years with the Hégers] I have learned to know you, madam; + and if sometimes I have without complaint [see the Lagrange + passages] suffered from the vivacité de vos premiers mouvements, I + have also often been able to appreciate your goodness of heart." + + "Enough, mademoiselle, enough! Believe you that you can dupe me by + your hypocrisies and base flatteries? Do you think you can impose + my silence by that pretended resignation?" + +So the scene continues until Madame de Morville accuses the other of +wishing to take the affections of her husband. To this, the governess +retorts:-- + + "You accuse me, madam, of wishing to win the affections of M. de + Morville, and of desiring to dominate at your house? Here is my + reply." + +And her reply is that she is returning to England. + + "You go away!" cried Madame de Morville.... "No, no, that is a lie + or a trick!"... Madame ... fut complètement déroutée par + l'annonce du départ de Miss Mary. + +The latter says she profoundly regrets if she had caused "malheurs," for +she had been the involuntary cause. + + "Involuntary or not," cried Madame de Morville, "you are un + _porte-malheur_, and thus have been two years, since your arrival + here. I have said it to M. de Morville, who, par prévision without + doubt, took at once your part against me.... And on whom, then, + will that responsibility fall!... We were all happy and peaceful + before your advent here, and to-day, when you go you leave us dans + le chagrin." + + To which Miss Mary retorts:-- + + "Ah! madame, le jour le plus malheureux de ma vie serait celui où + je quitterais votre famille avec la douloureuse conviction que mon + nom y serait maudit." + +There were, we see, conflicting views in Brussels social and literary +circles, in the eighteen-forties, as to the degree of intimacy to which +Charlotte Brontë and M. Héger attained. It is when we perceive the +ambiguity of the relations existing between Miss Brontë and the +professor that we recognize the fidelity of Eugène Sue's portrayal of +Currer Bell's Brussels life. Even Charlotte Brontë herself, in +_Villette_, published after M. Sue's story, relates that M. Paul Emanuel +(M. Héger) said to her:--"I call myself your brother. I hardly know what +I am--brother--friend--I cannot tell. 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." In Mdlle. Lagrange and +Catherine Bell, Charlotte Brontë figures as represented by those who +said ill of her; as Miss Mary Lawson, the Irish governess, she has +"beauty, youth, and grace," which charms, Jane tells us, she possessed +in Rochester's eyes. Of her, in the phase of Catherine Bell, we have +many insinuations of a detractive character, the keynote to which is +found in the fortune-telling incident, wherein Catherine is foretold she +will be "married and not married"; while in Miss Mary Lawson we have a +portrayal of _un bon ange_[67] of whom Madame de Morville is jealous, +not without reason, though, to use Miss Mary's own words, she had been +"la cause involontaire." + +We must, therefore, set it to the credit of Eugène Sue that he placed +two versions in the balance; and his evidence for ever sweeps away the +illogical and unfair contention of some writers on the Brontës, that +Charlotte Brontë may have cared for M. Héger, but that he, in his turn, +had been only "intellectually" interested in her. M. Sue shows the +attitude of M. Héger was ever unequivocal as regards Charlotte Brontë; +whether in her phase as "Lagrange," as "Catherine Bell," or as "Miss +Mary Lawson"--she was loved by him. We now see Morton of _Jane Eyre_ was +Haworth to Charlotte Brontë, and Thornfield, the home of Mr. Rochester, +the Pensionnat Héger. And the flight from temptation at Thornfield and +seeking refuge with the Rivers family were really representative of her +leaving Brussels and returning home to her father and sisters. Obviously +M. Sue wrote his _feuilleton_ to aid, maliciously or not, in breaking +the dangerous friendship between M. Héger and Miss Brontë. Charlotte +Brontë's works are testimony it was not only Madame Héger's harsh +jealousy that led her to leave Brussels. In Chapter XX. of _The +Professor_, published years after M. Sue's work, but written before it, +she gives us the reason for this determination. By her Method I., +Interchange of the sexes of characters portrayed from life, Professor +Crimsworth, who is alternately Charlotte Brontë and M. Héger, in this +instance is Charlotte Brontë, while Mdlle. Reuter is M. Héger. +Crimsworth [Miss Brontë] says:-- + + I could not conceal ... that it would not do for me to remain.... + Her [his] present demeanour towards me was deficient neither in + dignity nor propriety; but I knew her [his] former feeling was + unchanged. Decorum now repressed, and Policy masked it, but + Opportunity would be too strong for either of these--Temptation + would shiver their restraints. I was no pope, ... in short, if I + stayed, the probability was that, in three months' time, a + practical modern French novel would be in full process of + concoction.... From all this resulted the conclusion that I must + leave, ... and that instantly.... The Spirit of Evil ... sought to + lead me astray.[68] Rough and steep was the path indicated by + divine suggestion; mossy and declining the green way along which + Temptation strewed flowers. + +And thus at last do we understand why Charlotte Brontë asks herself as +Jane Eyre when at home with the Rivers family--with her father, her +sisters, and Tabby at Haworth:-- + + Which is better? To have surrendered to temptation; listened to + passion; made no painful effort--no struggle; but to have sunk + down in the silken snare; fallen asleep on the flowers covering it + ... to have been now living in France, Mr. Rochester's mistress + ... I shall never more know the sweet homage given to beauty, + youth, and grace--for never to any one else shall I seem to + possess these charms.... Whether is it better, I ask, to be a + slave in a fool's paradise at Marseilles--fevered with delusive + bliss one hour--suffocating with the bitterest tears of remorse + and shame the next--or to be a village schoolmistress [The Brontë + school project was under contemplation in 1844], free and honest, + in a breezy mountain nook in the healthy heart of England? Yes, I + feel now that I was right when I adhered to principle and law, and + crushed the insane promptings of a frenzied moment. God directed + me to a correct choice: I thank His providence for the guidance. + +And her fervent gratitude is as sincere when in the same connection she +says in _Villette_ of her confessor--her Fénelon[69]:--"He was kind when +I needed kindness; he did me good. May Heaven bless him!" But we now see +Charlotte Brontë did not suffer alone. Eugène Sue has given us an +insight into the bitterness of M. de Morville's (M. Héger's) life, which +resulted from their unhappy love, and doubtless those words of +Heathcliffe to Catherine in _Wuthering Heights_ were uttered or written +by M. Héger in reproach to Charlotte Brontë:-- + + "_Why_ did you despise me? _Why_ did you betray your own heart, + Cathy?... You loved me--then what _right_ had you to leave me?... + Because misery and degradation and death, and nothing that God or + Satan could inflict would have parted us, _you_, of your own will + did it. I have not broken your heart--_you_ have broken it; and in + breaking it, you have broken mine. So much the worse for me that I + am strong." + +Charlotte Brontë tells us in _Jane Eyre_ she loved to imagine she and +Mr. Rochester had met under happier conditions; and if the meeting of +the runaway lovers Charlotte Brontë repeats so faithfully in _Wuthering +Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ did not refer to a private meeting subsequent +to the beginning of 1844, between her and M. Héger, or to their meeting +again when she returned to Brussels the second time, then have we +evidence of the fact that she at one time perhaps believed _Wuthering +Heights_ would be never published. Assuredly nothing was sweeter to +Currer Bell's fancy than a dream of the happiness that might have been +hers, and well may she have written in the last sentences of +_Villette_:-- + + Leave sunny imaginations hope. Let it be theirs to conceive the + delight of joy born again fresh out of great terror, the rapture + of rescue from peril, the wondrous reprieve from dread, the + fruition of return. Let them picture union and a happy succeeding + life. + +Charlotte Brontë and M. Constantin Gilles Romain Héger loved each other +as those who are worshippers of two high ideals, when one of these +ideals is love, the other honour. And this was tragedy. To the agonizing +nature of unrequitable affection endured for honour's sake do we owe +Charlotte Brontë's _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + +THE RECOIL. + + +I. + +The elements that conduce to reaction and recoil are sometimes fatal to +the best proposed and ablest evolved schemes of man. Priests and +counsellors may gravely devise; knight and maid may devoutly swear; the +pious neophyte and the exalted religionist may make solemn pledge, but +reaction often brings catastrophe. Thus the Christian Church is +rightfully a watchful Body, a militant Force, preaches the weakness of +man and cries "Ora continenter!" And herein lies the value of a +ponderous state procedure. Irritating in its slow gravity and +indifferent to the passionate appeals of emotionalism, such procedure +yet withstands the backward wave which comes as answer to courageous but +costly proposals. + +The unsupported and undisciplined individual, like communities, cannot +always safely stand alone, and finally resolves into an automaton at the +service of unlicensed and unconsidered impulse when the day of reaction +comes. The anthropologist and the pathologist relate how exacting +straitness suddenly has broken down with a lamentable demonstration of +most morbid prurience; and relentless history has chronicled grievous +moral declensions in the lives of men and women whose careers in the +greater part were records of generous and unselfish devotion to a noble +cause or an honourable work. Until the day of reaction is safely fought +through the battle is not won. + +Perhaps it was to prevent all possibility of a final and definite +reconciliation between M. Héger and Miss Brontë that M. Sue, aided by +his friends, ridiculed their attachment in his _feuilleton, Miss Mary_. +Not that Eugène Sue would do this necessarily for Virtue's sake, but the +position of moral reprehender gave him title to the rôle he had assumed. +M. Héger was sorely punished to lose Miss Brontë, as M. Sue has shown, +and as we have seen Charlotte Brontë herself tells us in a letter; and +the intensity of his affection for her is only further accentuated by +the light M. Sue throws upon the subject in a conversation which occurs +between Alphonsine and the jealous mother, concerning Mdlle. Lagrange in +the opening chapters of his _feuilleton_. As I have stated, evidence +compels us to perceive M. Sue often presented by imitation of Charlotte +Brontë's Method I., Interchange of the sexes for obfuscation's sake, M. +Héger in Alphonsine: Madame de Morville (Madame Héger) has just said +Mdlle. Lagrange (Miss Brontë) affected a little to speak of her humble +origin. + + "Elle affecter," replies Alphonsine, "... c'est une erreur. Quand, + par hasard, elle parlait de sa famille, c'est que la conversation + venait là-dessus. D'ailleurs, écoute donc, Mademoiselle Lagrange + eût été fière qu'elle en avait le droit." + + "Proud! what of? not of her face, poor girl." + + "No, that is true." + +Madame de Morville admits that Mdlle. Lagrange was endowed with +patience, learning, and fortitude; and says, "Tu le sais, nous avions +pour elle les plus grands égards." + +"Without doubt ... and myself, I loved her like a sister." + +To which Madame de Morville retorts: + + "A ce point que, pendant les premiers jours qui ont suivi son + départ je t'ai vue souvent pleurer, et que depuis je te trouve + triste." + + "Que veux-tu ... se quitter après plus de trois ans d'intimité, + cela vous laisse du chagrin." + + "This sensibility does credit to your heart, but after all it + seems to me that you and I shall be able by our mutual tenderness + to console each other for the loss d'une étrangère." + + "Une étrangère!" says Alphonsine, naïvely; "dis donc une amie, une + soeur.... Ainsi, toi ... tu es pour moi, n'est-ce pas, aussi + affectueuse que possible; pourtant tu m'imposes toujours; il y a + mille riens, mille folies, mille bêtises si tu veux, que je + n'oserais jamais te dire, et qui nous amusaient et nous faisaient + rire aux larmes avec cette pauvre Mademoiselle Lagrange; et puis + ces causeries sans fin pendant les récréations, nos jeux mêmes, + car elle était très enfant quand elle s'y mettait[70]; all this + made our temps de l'étude pass like a dream, and that of + recreation like a flash." + + "Without doubt," replied Madame de Morville, with a forced smile; + ... "and I, ... je ne jouissais de la société de ces demoiselles + que lors de notre promenade d'avant dîner, ou le soir jusqu'à + l'heure du thé." + +The irreparableness of the loss at first to M. Héger is herein clearly +shown. But whether he would confess himself to Miss Brontë afterwards is +not certain. The tone of Charlotte Brontë's successive writings suggests +he did not, as do many points of evidence and the reference in +_Villette_, Chapter XIX., to that "He was a religious little man, in his +way: the self-denying and self-sacrificing part of the Catholic religion +commanded the homage of his soul." + +Likely enough it is that M. Héger hailed, as do truly noble men, the day +of trial, and elevated by the very agony of great sacrifice the +personality which worshipped a conception of duty consonant with Divine +law. It seems, though, that then the battle was won; his day of reaction +was fought through. At the time of what M. Sue makes M. de Morville call +"ce premier entraînement" was the greatest danger, and abundant +testimony goes to prove he would have gone the length of indiscretion +but that Charlotte Brontë, herself innately honourable and influenced by +her Christian upbringing, checked the mad rush of impetuous passion. +Then the Church of M. Héger intervened. As Charlotte Brontë tells us in +_Villette_, Chapter XXXVI.: "We were under the surveillance of a +sleepless eye: Rome watched jealously her son through that mystic +lattice at which I had knelt once, and to which M. Emanuel drew nigh +month by month--the sliding panel of the confessional." She was much +gratified by M. Héger's fervent admiration, though she had perforce to +remember their circumstances. As M. Sue said of Lagrange so it had been +with Miss Brontë:-- + + The girl had never before known love, save by reading and hearing + of its magical influence. All the natural tenderness which lay in + her heart she had year after year suppressed. + +The references in her poems to a recognition of growing coldness in a +lover--see "Frances," "Preference," etc., if we may read them in the +biographical sense Mr. Mackay suggests, show there had been a day when +she perceived external influences were dictating to M. Héger a line of +moral procedure. Obviously, while she herself had held temptation at +bay she was strong; but once she discovered an ally was lessening the +necessity of her defence her woman's nature awoke. She doubted the +sincerity of the past protestations of passion; she saw in every eye a +sinister spy; she found in the Roman Church nothing but a partisan of +Madame Héger (see Madame Beck and the Roman Church in _Villette_), and +M. Héger became to her a very impersonation of insincerity and +treachery. Of the secret tempest which had begun to rage within herself +she would disclose nothing to M. Héger; and she would know that once the +storm slept the end might be the worst. But Charlotte Brontë was not yet +in the season of the recoil, though alone, wretched, and rapidly losing +faith in God and man. As for M. Héger, he was supported by the knowledge +that the ideal of the good and pious is glorified by sacrifice. That +"Hell holds no fury like a woman scorned" is a platitude, for a woman +scorned in the meaning of the writer is a woman with a shattered life. +In her fullest and native sense she ceases to exist thereafter. However, +as in many cases Nature provides a remedy for her maimed, woman has +given her dissimulation. But to quote Charlotte Brontë's poem, +"Frances":-- + + "Who can for ever crush the heart, + Restrain its throbbing, curb its life? + Dissemble truth with ceaseless art, + With outward calm mask inward strife?" + +It is a dangerous day when woman is her very self and thwarted. Then, +and only then, can she utter the distressing blasphemies Charlotte +Brontë places in the mouth of the speaker in her verses, "Apostasy":-- + + "Talk not of thy Last Sacrament, + Tell not thy beads for me; + Both rite and prayer are vainly spent, + As dews upon the sea. + Speak not one word of Heaven above + Rave not of Hell's alarms; + Give me but back my Walter's love, + Restore me to his arms! + + "Then will the bliss of Heaven be won; + Then will Hell shrink away; + As I have seen night's terrors shun + The conquering steps of day. + 'Tis my religion thus to love, + My creed thus fixed to be; + Not Death shall shake, nor Priestcraft break + My rock-like constancy!" + +And places in the mouth of Catherine of _Wuthering Heights_, Chapter +IX., in the same connection:-- + + "If I were in heaven ... I should be extremely miserable.... I + dreamt once ... I was there, ... heaven did not seem to be my + home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and + the angels were so angry that they flung me out ... on the top of + Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy.[71] ... I cannot + express it; but surely you ... have a notion that there is ... an + existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation if + I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world + have been Heathcliffe's miseries ... my great thought in living is + himself. If all else perished, and _he_ remained, I should still + continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, + the universe would turn to a mighty stranger. I should not seem a + part of it. [See my remarks on Charlotte Brontë's belief in the + elective affinities, page 96-7.] My love for Heathcliffe resembles + the eternal rocks beneath.... I _am_ Heathcliffe,--he's always, + always in my mind--not as a pleasure, any more than I am a + pleasure to myself--but as my own being--so don't talk of our + separation again." + +It is of the barriers which divided the woman of the verses "Apostasy" +from her lover that the priest has reminded her. Thus she says:-- + + "... Did I need that thou shouldst tell + What mighty barriers rise + To part me from that dungeon-cell + Where my loved Walter lies?" + +The whole history of Charlotte Brontë's Brussels life before us, the +fact that an insurmountable barrier--his marriage--separated her from M. +Héger, and the fact that she herself consulted[72] a Roman Catholic +priest whom I designate as her "Fénélon," advising, like the Mentor of +Télémaque,[73] the tempted one to "flee temptation," identify these +"barriers" as a covert reference to the circumstances unhappily existing +which made intimacy between Miss Brontë and M. Héger dangerous. To quote +my words in _The Fortnightly Review_:--"We see why Miss Brontë, herself +a Protestant, went to the confessional at Brussels.... We know this was +no freak, as also that it was impossible for Charlotte to mention the +subject to her sister without attributing it to a freak. More, we +perceive now the nature of her confession, and, the "Flee temptation!" +note of Fénélon's _Les Aventures de Télémaque_ fresh in our minds, we +see why she wrote of her father-confessor in _Villette_, Chapter XV.:-- + + There was something of Fénelon about that benign old priest; and + whatever ... I may think of his Church and creed, ... of himself I + must ever retain a grateful recollection. He was kind when I + needed kindness; he did me good. May heaven bless him! + +I mention that by her composite method of presenting characters, which +Charlotte Brontë admitted to have employed, Dr. John Bretton, while +often in the beginning representing Mr. Smith the publisher, becomes +finally a representation of the Rev. Mr. Nicholls who married Miss +Brontë.[74] So in _Jane Eyre_, St. John Rivers while in the main +representing the Rev. Patrick Brontë, becomes associated temporarily +with that priest I have called Charlotte Brontë's Brussels Fénélon. She +tells us in _Villette_ that she broke off the seduction of visiting this +priest and says:--"The probabilities are that had I visited ... at +the ... day appointed, I might just now ... have been counting my beads +in the cell of a ... convent...." Miss Brontë admits he had had great +influence with her, and this fact and the testimony of her poem +"Apostasy" just quoted show this priest and his admonitions were in her +mind when she wrote the final scene between herself and St. John Rivers +in _Jane Eyre_ (Chapter XXXV.). Therein, as in that poem and in +_Wuthering Heights_, "Religion" and "Angels"[75] are set as being less +to her than the vicinage of her lover. Indeed the India and the +missionary life of _Jane Eyre_, and the marriage with St. John (see +Chapter XXXIV.), may be said to have been in Miss Brontë's mind that +life of religious consecration which in _Villette_ she owns to have been +the likely result of her further listening to the advice of the priest, +to whom she had given "the ... outline of my experience," as she terms +it. + +Therefore it is interesting to observe that, as the woman in "Apostasy" +suddenly hears the voice of her lover calling and says:-- + + "He calls--I come--my pulse scarce beats, + My heart fails in my breast. + Again that voice--how far away, + How dreary sounds that tone! + And I, methinks, am gone astray + In trackless wastes and lone. + + "I fain would rest a little while: + Where can I find a stay, + Till dawn upon the hills shall smile, + And show some trodden way?[76] + I come! I come! in haste she said, + 'Twas Walter's voice I heard!" + Then up she sprang--but fell back, dead, + His name her latest word. + +so in the scene in _Jane Eyre_: St. John ejaculates-- + + 'My prayers are heard!' He pressed his hand firmer on my head, as + if he claimed me; he surrounded me with his arm, _almost_ as if he + loved me ["That priest had arms which could influence me; he was + naturally kind, with a sentimental French kindness, to whose + softness I knew myself not wholly impervious. Without respecting + some sorts of affection, there was hardly any sort having a fibre + of root in reality, which I could rely on my force wholly to + withstand."--Charlotte Brontë speaking of her Brussels Fénélon in + _Villette_, Chapter XV.], I say _almost_--I knew the + difference--for I had felt what it was to be loved; but, like him, + I now ... thought only of duty;... I sincerely, ... fervently + longed to do what was right.... 'Show me, show me the path!' I + entreated of Heaven.... My heart beat fast and thick.... I heard a + voice somewhere cry 'Jane! Jane! Jane!' nothing more.... I had + heard it--where or whence, for ever impossible to know! And it was + ... a known, loved, well-remembered voice--that of Edward Fairfax + Rochester.... 'I am coming!' I cried.... 'Wait for me! Oh, I will + come!' I broke from St. John, who would have detained me. It was + _my_ time to assume ascendency. _My_ powers were in play, and in + force. I told him to forbear question or remark.... I mounted to + my chamber ... fell on my knees, and prayed in my way--a different + way to St. John's, but effective in its own fashion.... I rose + from the thanksgiving--took a resolve--and lay down ... eager but + for the daylight. + +Mrs. Gaskell related that Charlotte Brontë in private conversation in +reference to this preternatural crying of a voice, replied with much +gravity and without further enlightenment that such an incident really +did occur in her experience. Whether it occurred in connection with her +Brussels Fénélon and immediately preceded a reconciliation between +herself and M. Héger I know not. As, however, Charlotte Brontë's +expression of gratitude to this priest and the whole fervent story of +thankfulness for the deliverance from dangerous temptation were written +subsequently to her return from Brussels, it is clear there was never a +reconciliation which cost either her or M. Héger honour. I do not urge +this as an advocate; I state it upon the strength of unmistakable +evidence. + +Miss Brontë believed it better to leave Brussels and avoid the +possibilities of the peculiar situation--a situation always fraught with +temptation. Hence her sudden resolve to return to England. + +Arrived at Haworth the full recoil came. She had won through a great +ordeal, and she knew that surrounded by his wife and family,[77] +comforted by piety and the knowledge of his happy issue from involution +in disastrous complications, M. Héger would resume tranquilly his +accustomed course of life. To Charlotte Brontë, who by the showing of +all evidence was initially responsible for a morally gratifying outcome +of their dangerous attachment, this was a galling picture. Knowing +nothing of the ecstatic delights of the pietist in the sacrificial sense +of M. Héger, who was a devoted member of the Society of St. Vincent de +Paul, and, as he is made to describe himself in _Villette_, "a sort of +lay Jesuit," she became just a woman living in the world of her primal +nature and conceiving but that she had lost. Miss Rigby--afterwards Lady +Eastlake--who wrote the remarkable article on _Jane Eyre_ in _The +Quarterly Review_ of 1849, perceived with a flash of real insight and +the instinct of womanhood that Currer Bell's pen had presented ungarbed, +vital relations of some man and woman identical in both _Wuthering +Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_. The circumstances were full difficult for the +reviewer; she was irritated and encompassed. _Wuthering Heights_, which +so soon had followed the appearance of _Jane Eyre_, she suddenly +recognized as the very storm-centre of this literary tornado of +passionate declamation; and she chastised that work in the name of _Jane +Eyre_, for she could not know all the cruel truth, and she feared to +popularize _Wuthering Heights_. Although Miss Rigby wrote:--"It is true +Jane does right, and exerts great moral strength," she added, "but it is +the strength of a mere heathenish mind which is a law unto itself." And +later, turning upon _Wuthering Heights_ she says with a final vehemency, +and most sensationally:-- + + There can be no interest attached to the writer of _Wuthering + Heights_--a novel succeeding _Jane Eyre_ ... and purporting [!] to + be written by Ellis Bell--unless it were for the sake of a more + individual reprobation. For though there is a decided family + likeness between the two [!], yet the aspect of the Jane and + Rochester animals in their native state as Catherine and + Heathcliffe [!], is abominably pagan. + +Miss Rigby thus excused herself a further consideration of _Wuthering +Heights_. In the days of the gratification of discovering the one she +loved in return loved her,[78] this recognition stood between Charlotte +Brontë and "every thought of religion, as an eclipse between man and the +broad sun," so in another sense truly did the contemplation of M. +Héger's self-pacification intervene in the time of reaction. The +doubtings and agonizing emotions of her equivocal season in Brussels +were now precipitated. Her poems "Gilbert," "Frances," and "Preference" +are testimony to her vengeful and retaliative instinct; as are her +portrayals of M. Héger as M. Pelet of _The Professor_ and as Heathcliffe +of _Wuthering Heights_. But as I show in the next chapter, Charlotte +Brontë afterwards regretted her human weakness and her vituperations of +the day of the recoil. She began to set forth the story of her ordeal +more sanely and proportionately in _Jane Eyre_. As one who soberly +rewrites of fact, she recited therein much that she already had given +detachedly; and consistently she presented by aid of the frame-work of +"plot" from Montagu's _Gleanings in Craven_ which already had given her +elemental suggestions for her _Wuthering Heights_, the history of her +life in _Jane Eyre_--a work that stands as testimony to Charlotte +Brontë's love of truth as to her heroic battling in the days of fiercest +temptation. + +A constant yearning to fine a presentation from untruthfulness is the +God-given attribute of the artist, and this was responsible for much +that is called harsh in Charlotte Brontë's character as a writer: she +would not even spare her own physical and nervous imperfections in her +self-portrayals. Emily Brontë would have presented Branwell Brontë as +viewed through _couleur de rose_, yet Charlotte Brontë immortalized him +as Hindley Earnshaw and John Reed--as she saw him: weak, tyrannical, a +moral wreck. So she presented M. Héger. She knew his faults--and they +were many; but she loved him though she hated them. Her sense of truth +and justice, albeit she had lost the rancour of the time of the +reaction, determined her in _Jane Eyre_, it is obvious, to show the +occultation of her life's happiness by the incidents of her Brussels +life. She would show there had been a day when the barriers between +them would have been rashly ignored by him. Thus Rochester is made to +sing in _Jane Eyre_, Chap. XXIV.:-- + + "I dreamed it would be nameless bliss, + As I loved, loved to be; + And to this object did I press + As blind as eagerly. + + But wide as pathless[79] was the space + That lay, our lives, between, + And dangerous as the foamy race + Of ocean-surges green. + + And haunted as a robber-path + Through wilderness or wood; + For Might and Right, and Woe and Wrath, + Between our spirits stood.[80] + + I dangers dared; I hindrance scorned; + I omens did defy: + Whatever menaced, harassed, warned,[81] + I passed impetuous by. + + On sped my rainbow, fast as light; + I flew as in a dream; + For glorious rose upon my sight + That child of Shower and Gleam. + + Still bright on clouds of suffering dim + Shines that soft, solemn joy; + Nor care I now, how dense and grim + Disasters gather nigh; + + I care not in this moment sweet, + Though all I have rushed o'er + Should come on pinion, strong and fleet, + Proclaiming vengeance sore." + +It is clear the impediment of M. Héger's marriage is suggested in these +verses. But undeniable evidence as to Charlotte Brontë's having escaped +by flight what she considered a most dangerous temptation, is the fact +that we find she was influenced to pen these lines, wherein M. Héger +(Rochester) is likened to a wild pursuer of a "shower and gleam" nymph +who sped before him "fast as light" and "glorious rose upon his sight," +by Montagu's reference, in _Gleanings in Craven_, to the story of a +Craven nymph a satyr pursued yet lost by her being changed into a +spring. Says Frederic Montagu:-- + + "In the _Polyolbion_, published in 1612, is the following + passage:-- + + In all my spacious tract let them (so wise) survey + Thy Ribble's rising banks, their worst and let them say; + At Giggleswick, where I a fountain can you show, + That eight times in a day is said to ebb and flow! + Who sometime was a Nymph, and in the mountains high + Of Craven, whose blue heads, for caps put on the sky, + Among the Oreads there, and Sylvans, made abode + (It was ere human foot upon these hills had trod), + Of all the mountain kind, and since she was most fair; + It was a Satyr's chance to see her silver hair + Flow loosely at her back, as up a cliff she clame, + Her beauties noting well, her features and her frame, + And after her he goes; which when she did espy, + Before him like the wind, the nimble Nymph did fly: + They hurry down the rocks, o'er hill and dale they drive, + To take her he doth strain, t' outstrip him she doth strive, + Like one his kind that knew, and greatly feared.... + And to the Topic Gods by praying to escape, + They turned her to a Spring, which as she then did pant, + When, wearied with her course, her breath grew wond'rous scant, + Even as the fearful Nymph, then thick and short did blow, + Now made by them a Spring, so doth she ebb and flow." + +This is not all. We know now the truth regarding Charlotte Brontë's +Brussels life, and seeing she discovered a pertinence in the state of +the Craven Nymph to her own--for it is undeniable Rochester's song was +modelled upon the lines Montagu quotes--it is likely that what I term +the "river" suggestion and the Craven Elf suggestion which resulted in +Charlotte Brontë's portraying herself in the rôle of the stream-named +Craven elf, Janet Aire or Eyre, had to do with Montagu's mention of this +nymph of Craven who escaped a dangerous persecution by becoming a +spring. It seems, indeed, that if she did not at first utilize the +parallel of this narrative in verse with her own experience, she yet in +_Wuthering Heights_ was influenced by it, in the days which I call the +period of the recoil, to represent her hero Heathcliffe as a +ruin-creating, semi-human being. Whether the lines-- + + "It was a Satyr's chance to see her silver hair + Flow loosely at her back as up a cliff she clame," + +had in the connection to do with the "cliffe" in "that ghoul +Heathcliffe's" name a reference to Charlotte Brontë's Preface to +_Wuthering Heights_, and her words on the creation of Heathcliffe, in my +next chapter, may declare. + +It is now impossible not to understand the origin of the Satyr and Nymph +passage and its implication in the chapter of _Jane Eyre_ containing +Rochester's song, when he says to Jane in the very same chapter:-- + + "You shall sojourn at Paris, Rome, and Naples: at Florence, + Venice, and Vienna: all the ground I've wandered over shall be + retrodden by you: wherever I stamped my hoof, your sylph's foot + shall step also." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + +THE RECOIL. + + +II. + + A ridge of lighted heath, alive, glancing, devouring, would have + been a meet emblem of my mind when I accused; ... the same ridge, + black and blasted after the flames are dead, would have + represented as meetly my subsequent condition when ... reflection + had shown me the madness of my conduct, and the dreariness of my + hated and hating position. Something of vengeance I had tasted.... + As aromatic wine it seemed, on swallowing, warm and racy; its + after-flavour, metallic and corroding, gave me a sensation as if I + had been poisoned.... I would fain exercise some better faculty + than that of fierce speaking--fain find nourishment for some less + fiendish feeling than that of sombre indignation. + +These words, written by Charlotte Brontë in _Jane Eyre_, Chapter IV., in +relation to herself and "Mrs. Reed," give us an insight into her +extraordinary alternations of mood. To inquire deeply into her +determining initially to disavow the authorship of _Wuthering Heights_ +requires a somewhat ruthless baring of the "fiendish" vindictiveness +against M. Héger between the dates of 1844-46, that was a characteristic +of the portrayals of him I have mentioned; but it also reveals her +active turn to a spirit of repentance for past vindictive feeling, the +which she acknowledges to have known. + +It seems that it was in a spirit of reproach Charlotte Brontë wrote the +vengeful scene between Heathcliffe and Catherine in _Wuthering Heights_, +harsh in threat almost as her poem "Gilbert," wherein the man, satisfied +with the affections of his wife and children, has banished the +remembrance of her of whom he boasted--"She loved me more than life," +and who is made to say, before her spirit in the form of a white-clad +spectre comes to him:-- + + "As I am busied now, + I could not turn from such pursuit + To weep a broken vow." + +Thus in _Wuthering Heights_, Chapter XV., when Catherine is embraced by +Heathcliffe, she says bitterly:-- + + "I wish I could hold you till we were both dead! I shouldn't care + what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why + shouldn't you suffer? I do! Will you forget me? Will you be happy + when I am in the earth? Will you say ... 'That's the grave of + Catherine Earnshaw. I loved her long ago, and was wretched to lose + her; but it is past. I've loved many others since: my children are + dearer to me than she was; and at death, I shall not rejoice that + I am going to her; I shall be sorry that I must lose them!' Will + you say so, Heathcliffe?" Well might Catherine deem that heaven + would be a land of exile to her, unless with her mortal body she + cast away her mortal character also. [See my footnote in the + foregoing chapter, on Catherine's dream that the angels flung her + out of heaven.] Her present countenance had a wild + vindictiveness.... + + "Are you possessed with a devil," he pursued savagely, "to talk in + that manner to me when you are dying?" + +And later, as though in answer to the apparent threat of the poem +"Gilbert," wherein, as I have said, the spectre of the woman who has +died broken-hearted through the neglect of her married lover haunts him +and drives him mad, Heathcliffe, in the words of that poem, "Wild as one +whom demons seize," cries:-- + + "Catherine Earnshaw ... you said I killed you--haunt me then! The + murdered _do_ haunt their murderers, I believe. I know that ghosts + _have_ wandered on earth. Be with me always--take any form--drive + me mad!" + +Charlotte Brontë's poems, "Frances,"[82] "Gilbert," and "Preference" +(wherein we have literature in allegory preferred to a lover), show +there had been to her a season of darkest misery when, to quote +_Villette_ concerning herself as Lucy Snowe, "all her life's hope was +torn by the roots out of her riven outraged heart." Whether this was the +time when, in the words of herself as Jane Eyre, "faith was blighted, +confidence destroyed": a time to her when Mr. Rochester (M. Héger) was +not to her "what she had thought him," the reader shall decide. But in +_Villette_ and _Jane Eyre_ she "would not ascribe vice to him; ... would +not say he had betrayed" her. She forgave him all: yet not in words, not +outwardly; only at [her] heart's core. See the phase of M. Pelet in the +_The Professor_. + +Evidence shows it was in her dark season when Charlotte Brontë wrote +_Wuthering Heights_, and that she portrayed M. Héger therein with all +the vindictiveness of a woman with "a riven outraged heart," the wounds +in which yet rankled sorely. Thus may we understand her saying in her +famous preface to _Wuthering Heights_:-- + + Heathcliffe betrays one solitary human feeling, and that is _not_ + his love for Catherine, which is a sentiment fierce and inhuman: a + passion such as might boil and glow in the bad essence of some + evil genius [see my reference to "Robin-a-Ree"; and to the Craven + Satyr, page 142]; a fire that might form the tormented centre--the + ever-suffering soul of a magnate of the infernal world: and by its + quenchless and ceaseless ravage effect the execution of the decree + which dooms him to carry Hell with him ... we should say he was a + man's shape animated by demon life.... Whether it is right or + advisable to create a being like Heathcliffe I do not know; I + scarcely think it is. + +Even in _Villette_ there were recurrences of the spasmodic spirit of +vindictiveness responsible for Charlotte Brontë's harsh portrayal of M. +Héger as Heathcliffe, though "at her heart's core she then forgave him." +In _Villette_, Chapter XX., she refers to M. Paul (M. Héger) +antithetically, and all the more significantly, in a comparison of him +with Dr. John Bretton, of whom she says:-- + + Who could help liking him? _He_ betrayed no weakness which + harassed all your feelings with considerations as to how its + faltering must be propped; from _him_ broke no irritability which + startled calm and quenched mirth; _his_ lips let fall no caustic + that burned to the bone; _his_ eye shot no morose shafts that went + cold, and rusty, and venomed through your heart. + +_Wuthering Heights_, however, containing too humiliating a story of +Charlotte Brontë's heart-thrall, her misery and her wild vindictiveness, +and also for the reasons stated in the beginning of this chapter--her +saving remorse--she seems early to have determined to repudiate her +authorship of it; indeed, so largely is she now found to have used the +work in _Jane Eyre_, we might say she once had contemplated destroying +the manuscript. The subsequent arrangement made in the name of Ellis +Bell that the work by the same author should go to Mr. Newby, the +publisher of _Wuthering Heights_, gave finality to this tragedy of +authorship which, but for the discoveries in this, _The Key to the +Brontë Works_, would have remained for ever unrevealed, and a reproach +to literature--a thing of untruth thickly hidden. + +Had Charlotte Brontë destroyed _Wuthering Heights_ before its +publication she would have saved this sensational disclosure. But she +hesitated to destroy the manuscript at once, and as an alternative to +identifying herself with its authorship, she sent forth her work under a +_nom de guerre_, part of which had been employed by her sister Emily. We +well know the difficulties that resulted; the judgment of scholars and +thinkers was impugned and their sane pronouncements were pilloried. To +cover Charlotte Brontë's regretful error were to connive against law and +literature. _Wuthering Heights_ being published, the work was the +world's property; it stood for public purposes, to submit to all +criticism and research, and it came neither in Charlotte Brontë's +province nor in that of any person to prevent its being subjected to the +final inquiry with which the cold light of truth exposes all things. + +Doubtless Charlotte Brontë perceived this, and regretting the facileness +of her pen and the vituperativeness of her mood of that past and hateful +night, she set herself, in her subsequent works, to make clear she had +overdrawn the bitterness of the relations which one time had existed +between herself and M. Héger. Perhaps she could not expect her +retractions would be understood of all men, but it pleased her inmost +soul, and having a final sense of justice, and a softening of her heart +for her vehement passionateness, she continued in all her works +subsequent to her _Wuthering Heights_ to reconstruct this her early +version. Thus Charlotte Brontë as Caroline Helstone of _Shirley_ is +Catherine Earnshaw of _Wuthering Heights_, with the distinction I +mention. Moore is admitted, as I have said, to have been drawn from M. +Héger[83]:-- + + _Wuthering Heights._ _Shirley._ + + Chapter XII. Chapter XXIV. + + Catherine's illness, and her Caroline's illness, and her + doubting the absent lover, doubting the absent lover, + Heath(cliffe). Mrs. Dean in Moor(e). Mrs Pryor in + attendance. attendance. + + -------- -------- + + "And I dying!" exclaimed "Am I ill?" asked Caroline of + Catherine to Mrs. Dean. "I on Mrs. Pryor, and looked at + the brink of the grave! My God! herself in the glass; ... she + does he know how I'm altered?" felt ... her brain in strange + continued she, staring at her activity.... Now followed a hot, + reflection in a mirror.... How parched, restless night ... one + dreary to meet death surrounded terrible dream seized her like a + by their cold faces.... Edgar [? tiger ... a fever of mental + Mr. Brontë] standing solemnly by excitement, and a languor of + to see it over; then offering long conflict and habitual + prayers of thanks to God for sadness had fanned the flame ... + restoring peace to his house, and left a well-lit fire behind + and going back to his _books_. it.... + Tossing about, she increased her + feverish bewilderment of "Oh!" exclaimed Caroline, "God + madness, ... then, raising grant me a little comfort before + herself, desired that ... [Mrs. I die!... But he [Moor(e)] will + Dean] would open the window. come when I am senseless, cold, + and stiff. What can my departed + And farther on, in delirium, as soul feel then? Can it see or + though her lover were present:-- know what happens to the clay? + Can spirits through any medium + "Heath(cliffe) ... they may bury communicate with living flesh? + me twelve feet deep, and throw Can the dead at all re-visit + the church down over me, and I those they leave? Can they come + won't rest till you are with in the elements? Will wind, + me!" ["Heath(cliffe), I only water, fire, lend me a path to + wish us never to be parted, and Moor(e)? Is it for nothing the + should a word of mine distress wind ... passes the casement + you hereafter, think I feel the sobbing?... Does nothing haunt + same distress underground," says it?" + Catherine, in a further chapter] + "I never will." She paused and When Catherine dies Heathcliffe + resumed ... [Heath(cliffe's)] says:--"Catherine ... you said I + considering--"He'd rather I'd killed you--haunt me then!" And + come to him! Find a way haunt him she does. In the words + then![84] not through that of Caroline Helstone of + kirkyard. You are slow! Be _Shirley_ she "revisits him she + content, you always followed has left." She "goes in the + me!" elements," "the wind lends her a + path[84] to her lover," and it + Mrs. Dean perceived it vain "to is not "for nothing the wind + argue against her insanity." passes the casement of + _Wuthering Heights_ + sobbing"--she "haunts it" as the + wailing phantom that cries as a + child [Method II., altering the + age of character portrayed], + "Let me in--let me in!" outside + "the lattice." And Heathcliffe, + wrenching open "the lattice," + sobs, "Come in!... Cathy, do + come.... Catherine at last!" The + spectre gives no sign of being; + but the snow and wind whirled + ... through ... blowing out the + light. + + Chapter XIII. + + Mrs. Dean continues:-- Convalescent, Caroline + whispers:-- + In those two months [Catherine] + encountered and conquered the "... I am better now.... I feel + worst shock of what was where I am: this is Mrs. Pryor + denominated as brain fever. The near me.... I was dreaming.... + first time she left the chamber Does the churchyard look + ... on her pillow [was] a peaceful?... Can you see many + handful of golden crocuses; her long weeds and nettles among the + eye, long stranger to any gleam graves, or do they look turfy or + of pleasure, caught them in flowery?" + waking. + "I see closed daisy-heads, + "These are the earliest flowers gleaming like pearls on some + at the Heights!... Is there not mounds," replied Mrs. Pryor.[85] + a south wind, and is not the + snow gone?" + +It is in _Shirley_ that Charlotte Brontë gives, inadvertently +or purposely, the origin of the title of _Wuthering Heights_, +and we see therewith why she came afterwards to choose for her +autobiographical-self in _Villette_, the name of Lucy Snowe. We perceive +she had been singularly impressed by an old Scottish ballad, entitled, +"Puir Mary Lee," and it is important and interesting to note that Dr. +Joseph Wright's _English Dialect Dictionary_ refers readers to this very +same poem in connection with the origin of the northern word +"wuthering," in the form of the verb "whudder," or "wuther." And so, in +a letter to Mr. W. S. Williams, of November 6th, 1852, Miss Brontë wrote +of Lucy Snowe[86]:-- + + As to the name of the heroine, I can hardly express what subtlety + of thought made me decide upon giving her a cold name; but at + first I called her 'Lucy Snowe' (spelt with an 'e'), which 'Snowe' + I afterwards changed to 'Frost.' Subsequently I rather regretted + the change, and wished it 'Snowe' again. If not too late, I should + like the alteration to be made now throughout the MS. A _cold_ + name she must have; partly, perhaps on the _lucus a non lucendo_ + principle--partly on that of the 'fitness of things,' for she has + about her an external coldness. + +Thus we understand Charlotte Brontë was anxious that her +autobiographical-self in _Villette_ should be called Snowe. While, in +mentioning the matter to her publishers, she endeavoured to show a +superficial and commonplace reason for her singular choice, the truth +underlies her words wherein she says she "can hardly express what +subtlety of thought" made her decide upon "a cold name." + +The subtlety of thought that dictated the choice of the "cold name" +Snowe had, we shall see, a connection with the old Scottish ballad, +"Puir Mary Lee," which evidence shows was responsible at the dark season +to which I have referred for Charlotte Brontë's choice of the title of +_Wuthering Heights_--for her identifying her own bitterness with that of +"Puir Mary Lee." + +It is in _Shirley_, Chapter VII., that Charlotte Brontë writes:-- + + Nature ... is an excellent friend, sealing the lips, interdicting + utterance, commanding a placid dissimulation; a dissimulation + often wearing an easy and gay mien at first, settling down to + sorrow and paleness in time, then passing away, and leaving a + convenient stoicism, not the less fortifying because half-bitter. + [As Lucy Snowe, Charlotte Brontë writes in _Villette_ in perfect + sympathy with this: "If I feel, may I never express? I groaned + under her (Reason's) bitter sternness ... she could not rest + unless I were altogether crushed, cowed, broken-in, and + broken-down. According to her, I was born only to work for a piece + of bread, to await the pains of death, and steadily through all + life to despond. Reason might be right."] Who has read the ballad + of 'Puir Mary Lee'?--that old Scotch ballad, written I know not in + what generation nor by what hand. Mary had been ill-used--probably + in being made to believe that truth which is falsehood; she is not + complaining, but she is sitting alone in the snow-storm, and you + hear her thoughts ... those of a deeply feeling, strongly + resentful peasant girl. Anguish has driven her from the ingle-nook + of home, to the white-shrouded and icy hills: crouched under the + 'cauld drift,' she recalls every image of horror, ... she hates + these, but 'waur' she hates 'Robin-a-Ree!' + + "Oh! ance I lived happily by yon bonny burn-- + The warld was in love wi' me; + But now I maun sit 'neath the cauld drift and mourn, + And curse black Robin-a-Ree! + + "Then whudder awa' thou bitter biting blast, + And sough through the scrunty tree, + And smoor me up in the snaw fu' fast + And ne'er let the sun me see! + + "Oh, never melt awa' thou wreath o' snaw, + That's sae kind in graving me; + But hide me frae the scorn and guffaw + O' villains like Robin-a-Ree!" + +Thus internal evidence proves that the name of _Wuthering Heights_ for +the abode of the "deeply feeling, strongly resentful peasant girl," +Catherine Earnshaw, was primarily chosen by Charlotte Brontë because of +its special appeal to her own mood at a given period, in relation to the +ballad of "Puir Mary Lee," and proves that the choice of the name of +Snowe for her "cold and altered" autobiographical self in _Villette_ was +dictated by its connection therewith. + +In this light glance at Charlotte Brontë's poem "Mementos," and at the +following verses from her "Frances":-- + + "And when thy opening eyes shall see + Mementos, on the chamber wall, + Of one who has forgotten thee, + Shed not the tear of acrid gall. + + * * * * * + + "Vain as the passing gale, my crying; + Though lightning-struck,[87] I must live on; + I know, at heart, there is no dying + Of love and ruined hope alone. + + * * * * * + + "The very wildness of my sorrow + Tells me I yet have innate force; + My track of life has been too narrow, + Effort shall trace a broader course." + +There is an apparent relationship of this last verse with the remarks in +Chapter XXV. of _The Professor_, on Hunsden's "Lucia," of whom he +says:--"I should ... have liked to marry her, and that I _have_ not done +so is a proof that I _could_ not." Lucia's (Miss Brontë's) "faculty" was +literature: the physiognomy was obviously an obfuscation. It is +significant that Charlotte Brontë again took "Lucia," for the Christian +name of Lucia or Lucy Snowe. See my references to Hunsden as a phase of +M. Héger. + +Perceiving, therefore, that Charlotte Brontë had likened herself to the +heroine of "Puir Mary Lee," in so far as to be influenced by it to give +the title of _Wuthering Heights_ to one of her works, and to take the +name of Snowe later for her autobiographical self, we understand why she +wrote in _Jane Eyre_, Chapter XXVI.:-- + + Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent, expectant woman, ... was a + cold, solitary girl again: her life was pale; her prospects were + desolate. A Christmas frost [see my reference to the name of Lucy + Frost] had come at midsummer; a white December storm had whirled + over June; ice glazed the ripe apples, drifts crushed the blowing + roses; on hayfield and cornfield lay a frozen shroud [see "the + snow-storm, the white-shrouded and frosty hills," the "cauld + drift," the "whuddering blast," etc., of "Puir Mary Lee" in + _Shirley_], lanes which last night blushed full of flowers to-day + were pathless with untrodden snow; and the woods, ... now spread + waste, wild, and white as pine forests in wintry Norway. My hopes + were all dead--struck with a subtle doom.... I looked at my love: + that feeling which was my master's--which he had created; it + shivered in my heart like a suffering child in a cold cradle; + sickness and anguish had seized it; it could not seek Mr. + Rochester's arms--it could not derive warmth from his breast. Oh, + never more could it turn to him; for faith was + blighted--confidence destroyed! Mr. Rochester was not to me what + he had been.... I would not say he had betrayed me: but the + attribute of stainless truth was gone from his idea [see + "Robin-a-Ree"], and from his presence I must go; _that_ I + perceived well.... That bitter hour cannot be described: in truth, + 'the waters came into my soul; I sank in deep mire; I felt no + standing; I came into deep waters; the floods overflowed me.' + +The inclusion in _Shirley_ of the ballad of "Puir Mary Lee" and the +remarks anent it were apparently digressive, but they are followed by +the "subtle" disclaimer:-- + + But what has been said in the last page or two is not germane to + Caroline Helstone's feelings, or to the state of things between + her and Robert Moore. Robert had done her no wrong; he had told + her no lie; it was she that was to blame, if any one was; what + bitterness her mind distilled should and would be poured on her + own head. + +Indeed, there is evidence of a reconciliation between M. Héger and +Charlotte Brontë, this being most marked in _Jane Eyre_ and _Shirley_. +In connection with the reasons responsible for Charlotte Brontë's choice +of the title of _Wuthering Heights_, it is interesting to note some +"subtlety of thought" dictated Charlotte's telling us in _Shirley_, +Chapter XXXIII., of Caroline and her lover that:-- + + The air was now dark with snow; an Iceland blast was driving it + wildly. This pair neither heard the long "wuthering" rush, nor saw + the white burden it drifted; each seemed conscious but of one + thing--the presence of the other. + +After the close of 1850, Charlotte Brontë resolved into the mood which +was an earlier characteristic; and the choice of the name of Snowe for +herself and the extraordinary tenacity with which she held to the name, +having it re-inscribed in _Villette_ by the printers though she had +herself changed it, show she had returned somewhat to that state in +regard to her affection for M. Héger responsible for the passionateness +of her _Wuthering Heights_. And as following the completion of +_Villette_ she decided to marry a man she did not really love, I would +say her mood was honestly in sympathy with that in which she wrote +_Wuthering Heights_ through bitter, adverse circumstances and the +warping of destiny, and did not result from Sydney Dobell's advice to +her when, having read _Shirley_ and _Jane Eyre_, and despite her +disclaimer in a preface, thinking she was the author of _Wuthering +Heights_, he advised her to resume the frame of mind in which she had +penned her _Wuthering Heights_.[88] + +Dobell's supposition that she wrote the book had no connection +whatsoever with my discovering Charlotte Brontë was the author of +_Wuthering Heights_; neither had the fact that Miss Rigby--Lady +Eastlake--in _The Quarterly Review_, spoke of _Wuthering Heights_ as +"purporting to be written by Ellis Bell" but having "a decided family +likeness to _Jane Eyre_," and with still more point, identified +"Catherine and Heathcliffe of _Wuthering Heights_ as Jane and Rochester +of _Jane Eyre_ in their native state." For I early found I must credit +only the internal evidence of the Brontë works as my interpretative +guide. Having written "The Key to _Jane Eyre_" nothing could prevent my +discovery of that novel's kinship with _Wuthering Heights_; and so far +back as August 29, 1902, I penned in a private letter enclosed with the +proof sheets of my article to Mr. Harold Hodge, the editor of _The +Saturday Review_, a confession that I was finding a strong kinship +between the two novels. I owe to my persistent consciousness of this +close kinship the fact that I finally discovered the amazing secrets of +_Wuthering Heights_, and was enabled to state publicly in my +_Fortnightly Review_ article of March 1907, Charlotte Brontë and none +other wrote _Wuthering Heights_. It was then I turned with interest to +the remarks of Sydney Dobell, the author of _Balder_, and "a notable +figure in the history of English thought" as he has been named, whose +review of Charlotte Brontë's works had resulted in her being acclaimed a +leading author and a genius. It was in _The Palladium_ of September 1850 +Sydney Dobell said:-- + + That any hand but that which shaped _Jane Eyre_ and _Shirley_ cut + out the rougher earlier statues [in _Wuthering Heights_] we should + require more than the evidence of our senses to believe; ... the + author of _Jane Eyre_ need fear nothing in acknowledging these ... + immature creations.[89]... When Currer Bell writes her next novel, + let her remember ... the frame of mind in which she sat down to + write her first [_Wuthering Heights_]. She will never sin so much + against consistent drawing as to draw another Heathcliffe.... In + _Jane Eyre_ we find ... only further evidence of the same + producing qualities to which _Wuthering Heights_ bears testimony. + +Charlotte Brontë warmly thanked him and protested. With eager honesty he +again and again begged her to visit him and discuss the authorship of +_Wuthering Heights_. Could Sidney Dobell but have been told the secret +tragedy of Currer Bell's life and the bitterness of her cup, how he +would have shrunk from inflicting her with an intrusive personal +inquiry. And in all innocence he had asked her to revive the frame of +mind in which, to use the words in _Jane Eyre_, her heart had been +"weeping blood"! + +_Wuthering Heights_ was wrought near the furnace of Charlotte Brontë's +fiery ordeal, and gives at its intensest that which glows through her +other works, finally to flash up and smoulder out in _Villette_. By +reason of its clear portrayal of woman when she is very woman _Wuthering +Heights_ towers above all common literary artistry, one of the finest +novels in the world, an abiding monument to the vital genius of +Charlotte Brontë. After her return from Brussels her life was a long +human conflict, with vain regrets, vindictive recriminations, and luring +memories opposing heroic commandings in the name of right and virtue. +All honour to her that she fought to win! + +Had Charlotte Brontë and M. Héger been characterless individuals of the +common type who, knowing nothing of self-sacrifice and nobleness of +life, yield to the call of immediate and unlicensed impulse, we could +never have had these most vital representations, these most poignant +revelations of the Martyrdom of Virtue--the works of our immortal Currer +Bell. Her vehicle of confession--her dialect, was what men have termed +fiction. But her heart was satisfied that truth has its ultimate appeal; +and in the way of those sententious writers of old who garbed in an +attractive vesture veritable and momentous records which would be +preserved because they entertained, she gave the history of her life in +a series of dramas we call the Brontë novels. For sixty years these have +been read only as the creations of a brain that spun interesting +fiction! Now, by aid of _The Key to the Brontë Works_, it is revealed +they are more than this, and we discover the real greatness of Currer +Bell and the high rank of her genius. Like that which creates the +noblest and most enduring of the world's literature, the genius of +Charlotte Brontë truthfully preserves the past, while it will intimately +appeal to and have a salient lesson and an inspiring message for any one +so ever who shall read, be it here and now, or in the time to come. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + +THE BRONTË POEMS. + + +Charlotte Brontë loved her sisters Emily and Anne, but in her +introduction to the poetical selections from their literary remains she +says little concerning their verse, preferring to give of each sister a +kind of short biographical memoir. In dealing with Emily she dwelt +poetically upon the features of the Yorkshire moors, and thus extended +to Emily's verses that atmosphere and charm which she (Charlotte) had +fixed in _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_; and in writing upon Anne +she complained her verse gave evidence of a too melancholy religious +feeling. The eldest surviving child in the Brontë family, after the +deaths of Maria and Elizabeth, it was Charlotte Brontë who would first +set the ideal of literary composition before the Brontë children. To her +initial impulse, therefore, owe we the literary compositions that came +from the pens of Emily, Anne, and Branwell. Evidence of this truth is +the fact that Emily, Anne, and Branwell, in their writing, never got +"right away," as the hunting phrase has it. + +There are many definitions of genius: may I define it as a message? +Charlotte Brontë had a message. Emily had none. _Wuthering Heights_ and +all the other works of Charlotte Brontë, prose and verse, had a vital +message. Ellis Bell had no message. In a sort of idle, ruminative +contemplation Emily Brontë constructed verse unburdened with +purpose--verse that became involved at the moment it should have soared. + +I believe we have the secret of what I may call Emily's "involved +moments" in Charlotte Brontë's description of her as Shirley Keeldar in +_Shirley_, Chapter XXII., wherein we are told Emily saw visions, as it +were, "faster than Thought can effect his combinations." We feel +something of the clouded chaos of her moment of writing in her more +impassioned or laboured verses; their illogic and incoherence fix it +distressfully. Charlotte, to resume her reference to Emily in _Shirley_ +above quoted, further tells us that "so long as she is calm, indolence, +indulgence, humour, and tenderness possess" her eye; "incense her, ... +it instantly quickens to flame." And with her verse, so long as it was +unburdened, indolent, it ran smoothly and pleasantly along with the +simplicity of the _insouciant_; but confronted with magnitude the +imagination flamed, reason and logic were involved, and there was an end +of art. In her excited combativeness she hit out rashly. Thus in her +last verses, considered her masterpiece, she says the "thousand creeds" +which move men's hearts were "vain" to "waken doubt" in her creed, blind +to the fact that truth and worship finally converge to one point, +howsoever diverse their starting-places. The very unbeliever is a +witness to man's innate seeking for truth and right: he is a +non-believer in this or that because he conceives truth to be remote +from it. He seeks truth albeit he is a wide wanderer. + +In "The Old Stoic" we have a "stoic" in Emily's rôle of bold challenger +of chimera. "Courage to endure" and "a chainless soul" are what this old +stoic would ask for! The poet was ignorant of or indifferent to the fact +that a true stoic, according to the rule of Epictetus, seeks to be not +other than he is, and is content wheresoever he be, whatsoever his lot. +The words of this poem are those of a bold neophyte, and they are +interesting chiefly because we see advanced in them the hypothesis of +punishment common to Emily's chimera-creating imagination. To repeat: so +long as her mood was calm her verse ran pleasantly and smoothly along. +But the saying tells us, "The good seaman is known in bad weather"; and +so with the poet. Life is not a placid lake: the lethal lightnings play, +and faith and happiness are threatened continually and on the whole +horizon. + +Charlotte Brontë, with memory of her own life-storm which has left us +her _Wuthering Heights_, _Jane Eyre_, and her other great prose works, +wrote her introduction to Emily's poems in the spirit of one who looked +upon her pieces as the reflections of an uneventful life in the inner +sense of vital soul-conflict. + +Anne Brontë's gentle poems, like Emily's, will appeal particularly to +such readers as have sympathetic temperaments; they will not call to the +human heart like the clarion notes of Charlotte Brontë's poem "Passion," +but mayhap their low whisperings may waken sadly pleasant memories. +With Currer Bell's poems I deal in various chapters, wherein we perceive +their relationship to _Wuthering Heights_ and her other books which +resulted from the harsh rigours of her tempest-bestormed night. + +And shall we not say a word for Branwell Brontë? He too wrote verse.[90] +He was not a genius in the sense of my definition, but his verse is such +as might appear in a member of a family a generation or a degree of kin +removed from the genius of the house. Him we must remember +compassionately as one physically weak, an unhappy victim of +circumstances against which he had not the moral force to fight. Nor +shall we forget that the Rev. Patrick Brontë, the father, wrote and +published verse. His productions were printed in pamphlet form, and have +been collected and republished.[91] As literature they are unimportant, +but to the curious they may have a sort of interest. + + + + +APPENDIX. + +MINOR IDENTIFICATIONS OF PERSONS AND PLACES IN THE BRONTË WORKS. + + +"WUTHERING HEIGHTS." + +There is not satisfactory evidence to enable the identification of the +originals of Wuthering Heights the abode, and Thrushcross Grange. +Similar homesteads are found anywhere near the Yorkshire moors. +Architectural peculiarities and appointments are ever accretive +properties with the novelist of imagination and latitude. This +observation should be kept in mind also in regard to Charlotte Brontë's +other works. See my remarks on page 57. + + +"JANE EYRE." + +The interior of Thornfield Hall, as I mention on page 35, has been +identified with that of "Norton Conyers," near Ripon; externally it has +been associated with "The Rydings," near Birstall. Ferndean Manor has +been identified with Wycollar Hall, near Colne. A Brontë biographer says +this place was set on fire by a mad woman,[92] but the story finds no +mention in _The Annals of Colne_, 1878, or in _Lancashire Legends_, +1873, though "Wyecoller Hall" is dealt with at length in each work. + + +"SHIRLEY." + +Gomersall and Birstall, near Batley, Yorkshire, contribute to the +background of this story. "Field Head" has been identified with +Oakwell Hall, an Elizabethan mansion. Evidence shows that intimately the +Rectory in _Shirley_ was in the main Haworth Parsonage to Charlotte +Brontë. In _The Dictionary of National Biography_ Leslie Stephen +says:--"Brontë, ... a strong Churchman and a man of imperious and +passionate character, ... is partly represented by Mr. Helstone in +_Shirley_, though a [Rev.] Mr. Roberson ... supplied ... characteristic +traits." And Mr. Francis Leyland, who drew much of his information from +Nancy Garrs, a Brontë servant, says that the fourth chapter of +_Shirley_, wherein Charlotte speaks of the grossly untrue reports of +Mr. Helstone's dry-eyed mourning, etc., for his wife, is a defence +really of Mr. Brontë. Helstone was a composite character, as also was +Mrs. Pryor, to whom, without doubt, Miss Wooler contributed, though +Charlotte Brontë once had a grave difference with her. Miss Nussey, who +pathetically and wrongly believed herself Caroline Helstone, proclaimed +Miss Wooler, her schoolmistress, as the prototype of Mrs. Pryor. +Evidence declares, however, that in many regards this character was also +drawn from Tabitha Aykroyd. And we see that Charlotte Brontë, years +before, in her _Wuthering Heights_, had given an ecclesiastical +name--that of Dean--to her portrayal of the one woman who alone ever +took up the part of mother for her--Tabitha Aykroyd. Nevertheless Mrs. +Pryor was in the main a composite character, largely at the service of +"story" requirements. Sometimes she is Tabitha, sometimes Miss Wooler; +elsewhile she is neither. Mr. Macarthey is said to represent the Rev. +Arthur Bell Nicholls, who became Charlotte Brontë's husband. + +The references in _Shirley_, Chapters XII. and XXVII., to Robin Hood's +connection with Nunnwood and to the ruins of a nunnery, identify Nunnely +in the circumstances, with Hartshead, near Brighouse and Dewsbury; +Nunnely Church with Hartshead Church (Mr. Brontë was once vicar here), +and the Priory with Kirklees Hall or Priory--Kirklees Park, as we may +see by turning to Dr. Whitaker's _Loidis and Elmete_, pages 306-9 +(1816), wherein we find mention of Robin Hood and an old Cistercian +nunnery in connection with Kirklees, appropriately now the residence of +Sir George J. Armytage, Bart., one of the founders of the Harleian +Society. Whinbury has been identified with Dewsbury; but I do not know +that it has been remarked the name Dewsbury may have suggested to +Charlotte Brontë the dewberry, bramble, or blackberry, thus leading her +to adopt "whinberry" and, finally, Whinbury. The attack on Hollow's Mill +is said to have been founded on an attempt in 1812, when an assault was +made on the factory of Mr. Cartwright near Dewsbury. + + +"THE PROFESSOR" AND "VILLETTE." + +_The Professor_, Charlotte Brontë offered to Messrs. Aylott & Jones in +April 1846, was not published till after her death. It is related to +_Villette_ in something of the way, though not so verbally and +intimately, that _Wuthering Heights_ is to _Jane Eyre_. The early +chapters deal vaguely with a West Riding of Yorkshire town, but the +scene quickly changes to Brussels. The Héger _pension_ is recognized as +the original of the schools in both novels, but in _Villette_ the place +Villette occasionally becomes London as Charlotte Brontë knew it on her +visits. Mr. George Smith, the Brontë publisher, and his mother, are +portrayed as the Brettons. Mr. Smith showed Charlotte Brontë the sights +of London: the theatres, picture galleries, churches, etc.; and we have +reflected in _Villette_ incidents associated with her seeing these +places.[93] The reader will find a phase of Currer Bell in Paulina--Miss +de Bassompierre, and a sympathetic phase of Mr. Brontë in her father, +for after the deaths of Emily, Anne, and Branwell, Charlotte and her +father were brought closer to each other. And like Mr. "Home" de +Bassompierre, he had "no more daughters and no son."[94] Towards the +close of _Villette_ we may find a phase of the Rev. Mr. Nicholls, +Charlotte Brontë's husband, in Dr. John Bretton, my previous remarks +upon whom observe. It was shortly after the completion of _Villette_ Mr. +Nicholls proposed successfully, but it would seem by the concluding +chapters Miss Brontë expected this. The picture of the disappointment of +the old father that his popular daughter would marry a plain character +in life suggests to us the disappointment of the Rev. Patrick Brontë in +regard to his daughter's marrying a curate. See Chapter XXXVII. Paulina, +of course, is the feminine of Paul; and the original of M. Paul of this +work we now well know. See footnote on page 120. + +The chronological sequences in Charlotte Brontë's novels are seldom +carefully ordered: this should be remembered in reference to her record +of events in her own life. + + +"AGNES GREY" AND "THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL." + +_Agnes Grey_ contains simple and natural portrayals of governess life in +the eighteen-forties; and the following _Wildfell Hall_, we may +conjecture, is built from evolved incidents founded on hearsay and +experience. Whether Miss Brontë had assisted Anne or not, it is certain +_Wildfell Hall_ has something in common with Currer Bell's novels. The +books connected with the name of Acton Bell, however, are not important +as literature in the higher sense of the word; and though a member of +Messrs. Smith & Elder remarked to Miss Brontë upon a similarity in the +leading male characters of _Wildfell Hall_ to Rochester, interest in it +is merely dependent upon its association with the greater Brontë works, +and the book does not call for sedulous inquiry. + + + + +THE HÉGER PORTRAIT OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË IN THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY. + + +The Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, London, purchased in July +1906, a hitherto unheard of portrait of Charlotte Brontë, painted in +water-colours in 1850, and stated to be by M. Héger. A reproduction of +the portrait was given in _The Cornhill Magazine_ for October 1906, Mr. +Reginald J. Smith, K.C., of Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., the Brontë +publishers, having to do with its discovery. + +In the early autumn of 1906, Mr. Lionel Cust, M.V.O., Surveyor of the +King's Pictures and Works of Art, then Director of the National Portrait +Gallery, was busily corresponding with me in regard to this portrait of +Charlotte Brontë, the authenticity of which became sensationally +attacked. At once I pointed out the importance and significance of the +portrait's being signed "Paul Héger," instead of "Constantin Héger"; and +other matters. In March 1907, I appended a footnote[95] to my article, +"The Lifting of the Brontë Veil," in _The Fortnightly Review_, and on +May 16th, 1907, the literary editor of _The Tribune_, Mr. E. G. Hawke, +having placed space at my disposal, I wrote as follows:-- + + CHARLOTTE BRONTË. + THE HÉGER PORTRAIT. + + To the Editor of _The Tribune_. + + SIR,--As the water-colour drawing by M. Héger is now a valuable + property of the nation, and gives a more intimately faithful and + characteristic likeness of Charlotte Brontë than the Richmond + portrait of "Currer Bell," now also hung in the National Portrait + Gallery, kindly permit me publicly to present some of the many + interesting facts connected with it. The portrait is signed "Paul + Héger, 1850" (the accent is correct), and it represents Miss Brontë + with curls, and reading _Shirley_, on one leaf of which is a heart + transfixed with an arrow. The dress that she wears is light green, + and on the back of the drawing is inscribed: + + The Wearin' of the Green; First since Emily's death; that being + the first occasion on which Miss Brontë wore colours after + the death of her sister. + + And below: + + This drawing is by P. Hegér (accent thus), done from life in 1850. + The pose was suggested first by a sketch done by her brother + Branwell many years previous. + + The Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery acquired the portrait + from a lady whose family obtained it nigh on forty years ago from + Mr. Thomas Baylis, a personal friend of Lord Lytton. Mr. Baylis + stated that he himself had acquired the portrait from the Héger + family at Brussels. The children of the Mme. Héger who refused to + see Mrs. Gaskell because of her dislike to Miss Brontë, aver that + M. Héger never drew or painted. The statement, however, is directly + opposed by indisputable evidence: + + (1.) The portrait is authentic, and was drawn from life in 1850, and + the inscriptions that it bears it is proved could have been + inspired by none other than Charlotte Brontë herself or + M. Héger. + + (2.) The statement of Mr. Thomas Baylis, a well-connected gentleman. + + (3.) Eugène Sue, in his 1851 volume of _Miss Mary ou + l'Institutrice_, gives, with a clouding of mystery, + a lover--Gérard de Morville--drawing a portrait of Miss + Mary "d'après nature;" and M. Sue's _feuilleton_, as + I showed in _The Fortnightly Review_ for March, identifies + Miss Mary and the de Morvilles as phases of Charlotte + Brontë and the Hégers.[96] + + (4.) Miss Brontë, in _Shirley_, herself presents M. Héger--Louis + Gérard Moore--as an artist, and refers to past drawing + episodes.[97] + + The authenticity of the inscriptions is not involved in the + question as to whether Charlotte Brontë would use careless + spelling, for, if she had written them, couching them in the third + person, it is clear that she had not desired to be known as the + writer. Upon the other hand, it is discovered to be utterly + impossible for any one but Charlotte Brontë or M. Héger to have + inspired the inscriptions, whosoever wrote them. + + SIGNIFICANT PIECES OF EVIDENCE. + + I find that M. Héger was Paul to none but Charlotte Brontë in 1850, + and that before the publication, two years ago, of _Charlotte + Brontë and Her Sisters_, by Mr. Clement Shorter, who, for reasons + which he should explain, calls M. Constantin Gilles Romain Héger + "M. Paul Héger," [Throughout that writer's correspondence in _The + Times_, etc., and in _Charlotte Brontë and Her Sisters_: beneath + the portrait of M. Héger, facing page 198, and bearing the + inscription:--M. Paul Héger: The Hero of _Villette_ and _The + Professor_; and on page 161 of that work] no reference in print had + been made to M. Héger but as Constantin. The Hégers state that M. + Héger was not called Paul, and that Dr. Paul Héger, his son, was + the first member of the family named Paul. + + A native of Haworth[98] who lived from 1830 till after the death + of Charlotte Brontë in 1855, "within twenty yards of the Haworth + Parsonage," her home, has pronounced the Héger portrait of Miss + Brontë to be a correct likeness and "just like her." He says that + it reminds him of her as he knew her and as she was in her younger + days, and he pointed out to me particularly that he had seen her + with her hair as in the Héger likeness, "scores of times before she + went away"--this giving the clue to the reference in the + inscription to a pose in a portrait by Branwell "many years + previous" to 1850; and I have seen a reproduction of a sketch by + Branwell wherein the Brontë sisters have curls. Moreover, I find + that Miss Brontë really liked curls and disliked the other styles, + though she conformed to the fashion. + + I also find that the paper on which the Héger portrait of Miss + Brontë was drawn was that used in 1850 by the house where she was a + guest in London in the early June of 1850, at the very time to + within a day when, as there is indisputable evidence--despite + assertions that she "never under any circumstances during the later + period of her life wore a green dress"--Charlotte Brontë was + wearing a light green dress. That was "the first occasion on which + Miss Brontë wore colours," as the inscription tells us, and fact + substantiates, after she had concluded the remarkably long mourning + period for her sisters, which began with "the death of Emily" and + did not end till twelve months after the death of Anne, who died on + May 28th, 1849. + + (Signed) J. MALHAM-DEMBLEBY. + Scarr Hill, Eccleshill, Bradford, May 16th, 1907. + +The publication of this letter ended the controversy.[99] Since it was +published Mrs. Gaskell's daughters, who well knew Miss Brontë, have +declared themselves fully satisfied as to the authenticity of the Héger +portrait of Charlotte Brontë and the faithfulness of the likeness. The +testimony of Lady Ritchie, Thackeray's daughter, also supports this +portrait. See my further references to my correspondence with her +ladyship herewith. As regards the green dress, apart from the +indisputable external evidence I referred to in the printed letter, I +believe Charlotte Brontë speaks of it in _Villette_, though therein it +is for obfuscation's sake (necessary indeed, since _Villette_ was +published only a short time after her London visit) made "pink" and +"flounceless." In Chapter XXVIII. we find M. Paul saying--and it is +interesting thus to have connected with the green dress a character +whose prototype was M. Héger--that: + + "Pink or scarlet, yellow or crimson, _pea-green_ or sky-blue, [the + dress] was all one."[100] + +As I stated to Lady Ritchie in 1907, I believe that in Chapter XX. of +_Villette_ we undoubtedly have a real glimpse of incidents connected +with the wearing of the green dress; and it should be remembered that +Mrs. Bretton and Dr. John Graham Bretton in this chapter represent Mrs. +Smith, and her son Mr. George Smith, the publisher, whose guest +Charlotte Brontë was in 1850, when she first wore the green dress:-- + + One morning, Mrs. Bretton ... desired me to ... show her my + dresses; which I did, without a word. + + "That will do," said she.... "You must have a new one." + + ... She returned presently with a dressmaker. She had me measured. + "I mean," said she, "to follow my own taste, and to have my own + way in this little matter." + + Two days after came home--a pink [green] dress! "That is not for + me," I said hurriedly, feeling that I would ... as soon clothe + myself in the costume of a Chinese lady of rank. + + ... "You will wear it this ... evening." + + I thought I should not; I thought no human force should avail to + put me into it.... I knew it not. It knew not me. I had not proved + it. + +But wear it she did; and when Graham [Mr. George Smith] stood in the +doorway looking at her, she tells us her uneasy aspiration was:-- + + "I _do_ hope he will not think I have been decking myself out to + draw attention." + +Clearly Charlotte Brontë wished posterity to learn how it came about she +was garbed in "light fabric and bright tint," because the green dress +was a page in her life's history. In a green dress she sat down to dine, +as Mr. Thackeray's daughter, Lady Ritchie has written me she well +remembers, when Charlotte Brontë dined at Thackeray's house on June 12, +1850--not the event of the distinguished party, when Carlyle, Miss +Perry, Mrs. Procter, and others were present, though Lady Ritchie had +once confounded the two in writing upon the subject[101]. Mr. +Thackeray's daughter was a young girl at the time to which she referred, +but she has made clear to me she saw Miss Brontë three times; that the +chief occasion was when Charlotte Brontë wore the light green dress. +This, to quote her ladyship's words to me, was "not Mrs. Brookfield's +party, when neither my sister and I nor our governess dined--though we +came down in the evening. The second occasion was just casually at my +father's lecture-room, when she did not speak to me, and the third, +finally, at the Brookfield evening party, which seems to have been such +a solemn affair[102]." + +These facts fix the wearing of the light green dress by Miss Brontë as +June 12, 1850. Lady Ritchie tells me that "It was at an early family +dinner by daylight with Charlotte Brontë, my father, Mr. George Smith, +my sister and our governess, that I remember sitting next Miss Brontë at +dinner and gazing at her _sleeve_ and mittens. Her dress was of some +texture like one I had had myself, which I suppose impressed it upon me, +and it had a little moss or coral pattern in green on a white ground. I +only remember the sleeve, the straight look, and the smooth Victorian +bandeaux of hair. I am sure she was _differently_ dressed at the +Brookfield evening party." + +On June 12, 1850, Charlotte Brontë wrote to her friend, Miss Nussey, +from the Smiths' in London, saying:-- + + Thackeray made a call.... If all be well, I am to dine at his + house this evening.[103] + +And this was when Miss Brontë sat in a light green dress at the +Thackeray dinner-table. + +The Richmond portrait of Charlotte Brontë being now also in the National +Portrait Gallery, I may remark that Mrs. Gaskell herself says of this +portrait:--"Those best acquainted with the original were least satisfied +with the resemblance.... Mr. Brontë thought ... it looked good and +lifelike." Charlotte Brontë herself said her father thought the portrait +looked older than she. In view of the new interest now attaching to +Tabitha Aykroyd and Charlotte, it is instructive to find the latter +telling us Tabitha "maintains that it is not like," and also, that +Tabitha thought it "too old looking." Then she apologized for the old +servant in a sentence that pathetically recalls Mrs. Dean and Bessie of +"Catherine's" and "Jane's" childhood--"Doubtless she confuses her +recollections of me as I was in childhood, with present +impressions."[104] We discover, therefore, that in the main there was +really dissatisfaction at the "old looking" presentation, and we see +Charlotte Brontë from the beginning must have wished she had had her +hair arrangement in that portrait as was common to her at home and in +her younger days. Hence do we get a further insight into the origin of +the different pose in the more characteristic and intimately faithful +Héger portrait of Charlotte Brontë. + + + + +INDEX. + +INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL KEY INDEX. + + +I stated in a letter to _The Academy_, August 1st, 1908, that "were it +possible by application of a cipher code to discover the words 'Emily +Brontë' in every sentence of _Wuthering Heights_, I could not even then +say any one wrote the book but Charlotte Brontë." If people write before +they think, then importance can be attached to clerical testimony and +external associations to the disadvantage of internal and literal +evidence. But inspiration, thought, and fact denote in questions of +authorship, and therefore that is author of a work whose thoughts and +words are expressed and inmost life revealed therein. _Wuthering +Heights_, we now see, is Charlotte Brontë, and it matters not what +amanuensis dealt with the relation--what sequence of complications +resulted from her first day of handing over the work to her sister, and +of conspiring to conceal her authorship. + +Had not my own two sisters died, I might have been tempted to make them +novelists: out of my bottom drawer I could have provided them with a +novel each and one for a "follow-on," and yet have left myself some +maturer works in hand. But _my_ sisters would have had to copy out the +manuscripts for the printers from my first drafts, and in every way +possible to merit and to establish association with the books as +authors. And how indignant we would have been--nay, alarmed, had there +been a "Newby arrangement," at some daring critic, like Lady Eastlake +and Sydney Dobell, imputing they were the work of one mind! Would we not +have appealed to clerical testimony? With a more practised hand +Charlotte Brontë in her days of fame corrected and edited _Wuthering +Heights_. Emily was dead. Well might Charlotte say the labour left her +"prostrate and entombed." What memories had it recalled!--what a +history! It is obvious to all who consider carefully the letter +Charlotte Brontë penned Wordsworth, to which I refer in the footnote on +page 17 of _The Key to the Brontë Works_, that she wrote her books +rapidly; and a review of the fact that the Brontë school project was +renounced in favour of literary projects suggests Currer Bell in 1845-46 +revealed to her sisters the advantages of having a bottom drawer. Let +any reader use what I have termed the Key Index to the works of +Charlotte Brontë, and it will be perceived quite easily that _Wuthering +Heights_ is irrefutably at one with Currer Bell and all her other +books--that the works of Charlotte Brontë are all related to each other, +to Charlotte Brontë, and to the facts and people of her life as seen and +known by herself. The reader of a given Brontë work will glance down the +list in the Key Index under the heading of the particular book in hand +to find these very important and intensely interesting connections, now +first shown to exist:-- + + + + +THE KEY INDEX + +TO THE LIFE AND WORKS OF CHARLOTTE BRONTË. + + +WUTHERING HEIGHTS. + + Its relation to Charlotte Brontë's life, vii.-xi.[105], 16-19, 32-3, + 37-53, 55-7, 69, 78-9, 83, 85-103, 106, 108-112, 114-8, 120-1, + 126-9, 130-155, 156-8, 160-1, 168 + + In relation to Branwell Brontë, x., 18, 37-40, 52-3, 78-9, 93-5, 139 + + ---- Tabby Aykroyd, x., 38, 40-1, 43-53, 77, 94-5, 147-8, 160, 168 + + ---- M. Héger, viii., xi., 16, 17, 34, 56, 87, 89, 91-3, 96-103, 106, + 111, 120-1, 128-9, 134-154, 157 + + ---- Madame Héger, 106-7, 117 + + ---- Taylor of Hunsworth, 83-9 + + ---- Rev. Patrick Brontë, 49, 147; + the younger Cathy's father, 161 + + ---- Maria Brontë, 37 + + ---- Emily Brontë, viii., 17, 18, 40, 138, 146, 153, 156, 169 + + ---- M. Sue, ix., 103-4, 106-112, 114, 121, 128, 132-142 + + ---- Charlotte Brontë's _Poems_, 56, 97, 128, 132-7, 139, 140-5, + 150-1, 157-8 + + ---- Montagu, x., 17, 20-35, 55, 57-68, 71, 141-5 + + ---- _Jane Eyre_, vii., viii., x., 18, 20, 22-56, 58-68, 71-2, 79, 83, + 85-103, 106, 108-112, 114-119, 121, 128-9, 134-146, 151-4, 157, + 168 + + ---- _Shirley_, ix., 18-9, 41, 43, 55-6, 83, 85-9, 136, 146-153, 160-1 + + ---- _The Professor_, ix., x., 53-6, 78-9, 84-9, 121, 127-9, 138-9, + 145, 151 + + ---- _Villette_, ix., 92, 96-7, 103, 111, 121, 128-9, 136-8, 143-5, + 148-154, 161 + + ---- Charlotte Brontë's Method I., viii.-x., 23-4, 25-31, 38, 40, 47, + 97-103 + + ---- ---- Method II., viii., 25-31, 38-9, 48-51, 53, 55 + + +JANE EYRE. + + Its relation to Charlotte Brontë's life, vii., viii., x.,[105] 15, 18, + 21-2, 30, 37-56, 69-119, 121-154, 157, 168 + + In relation to Branwell Brontë, x., xi., 18, 37-40, 52-3, 78-9, 93-5, + 106, 139 + + ---- Tabby Aykroyd, x., 40, 43-53, 77-8, 94-5, 105, 128, 168 + + ---- M. Héger, x., 14, 82-9, 92-3, 96-107, 111, 120, 126-9, 136-146, + 148-154 + + ---- Madame Héger, 106-7, 112, 117 + + ---- Taylor of Hunsworth, 83-9 + + ---- Rev. Patrick Brontë, xi., 70-2, 74-7, 81-2, 128, 136 + + ---- Maria Brontë, xi., 24, 70-1, 80-1, 106, 108-110 + + ---- Anne Brontë, xi., 70-4, 77-8, 81-2; + Elizabeth Brontë, xi., 72, 81, 106-7 + + ---- Emily Brontë, xi., 70-4, 78, 81 + + ---- Aunt Branwell, xi., 70-3, 77-81 + + ---- Cousin Eliza Branwell, xi., 69, 70-2, 79-81 + + ---- M. Sue, ix., x., 82-3, 103-121, 126-9, 135 + + ---- Charlotte Brontë's _Poems_, 97, 128, 135-8, 140-5, 150-1, 157-8 + + ---- Montagu, x., 20-36, 60-8, 71-2, 140-5 + + ---- _Wuthering Heights_, same as opposite + + ---- _Shirley_, 81, 83-9, 136, 147-153 + + ---- _The Professor_, 79, 83-9, 111, 127-9, 139-142, 145, 151 + + ---- _Villette_, 42, 86, 89, 92, 103, 118-9, 126, 128-9, 132-154 + + ---- Charlotte Brontë's Method I., x., 23-4, 25-31, 97-103, 105 + + ---- ---- Method II., 25-31, 45, 48-51, 72, 74 + + +SHIRLEY. + + Its relation to Charlotte Brontë's life, vii., ix., 41, 43, 69, 75, + 81, 83-4, 87-9, 120, 136, 146-153, 156-7, 159, 160, 163 + + In relation to Tabby Aykroyd, 43, 160 + + ---- M. Héger, ix., 69, 81, 83-4, 120, 136, 146-153, 163 + + ---- Taylor of Hunsworth, 83-9; + Martha and Mary, 83-4 + + ---- Rev. Patrick Brontë, 41, 75, 159-161; + Mrs. Brontë, 41, 159-161; + Emily Brontë, 69, 81, 156-7 + + ---- Rev. A. B. Nicholls, 160; + M. Sue, 163; + Miss Wooler, 160 + + ---- Charlotte Brontë's _Poems_, 136 + + ---- _Wuthering Heights._ See Key Index for that work + + ---- _Jane Eyre._ " " " + + ---- _The Professor_, 83-9, 150-3 + + ---- _Villette_, 41, 86, 89, 136-142, 146-154, 160-1 + + +THE PROFESSOR. + + Its relation to Charlotte Brontë's life, vii., ix., 16, 18, 53-5, 63, + 71, 79, 83-9, 111, 120-9, 138-9, 145, 150-2, 160 + + In relation to M. Héger, ix., 16, 63, 83-9, 111, 120-9, 138-9, 145, + 150-2, 160, 164 + + ---- Madame Héger, 16, 111, 122-8, 131-3 + + ---- Taylor of Hunsworth, 83-9 + + ---- M. Sue, ix., 63, 84, 104, 107, 111, 120-9 + + ---- Branwell Brontë, 79 + + ---- Montagu, 63, 71 + + ---- Charlotte Brontë's _Poems_, 63, 71, 128, 139, 151, 158 + + ---- _Wuthering Heights_, _Jane Eyre_, and _Shirley_. See Key Index + for those works + + ---- _Villette_, ix., 86, 107, 111, 126-9, 139, 144-5, 149-151, 160 + + ---- Charlotte Brontë's Method I., ix., 121, 127-8, 131 + + +VILLETTE. + + Its relation to Charlotte Brontë's life, vii., ix., 41, 47, 86, 89, + 92, 97, 103, 107, 111, 118, 126, 128-9, 132-7, 140, 144-5, + 148-154, 160-1, 166-7 + + In relation to M. Héger, ix., 70, 86, 89, 92, 97, 103, 111, 118, 126, + 128-9, 132-40, 145, 150-4, 166 + + ---- Madame Héger, 106, 118, 133 + + ---- Taylor of Hunsworth, 89 + + ---- M. Sue, ix., 103-4, 111, 118, 120-9, 130-5 + + ---- Lady Ritchie, xi., 165-8 + + ---- Mr. George Smith, 69, 160-1, 166-8; Mrs. Smith, 161, 166-8 + + ---- Thackeray, 70, 165-8 + + ---- Rev. Patrick Brontë, 77, 136, 161 + + ---- Rev. A. B. Nicholls, 69, 86, 161 + + ---- Charlotte Brontë's _Poems_, 128, 132-7, 140-5, 149-152 + + ---- _Wuthering Heights_, _Jane Eyre_, _Shirley_, and _The Professor_. + See Key Index for those works + +END OF THE KEY INDEX TO CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S WORKS. + + +WUTHERING HEIGHTS. + + Brontë, Charlotte, her life:--37-53, 93-103, 138-9, 153, 169; + _Frances_ and Catherine, 133-4; + throughout the work of, 18, 40; + drawn by her from Montagu, 22-36, 57-68, 141-2; + _Tale of a Foundling_, 33; + _Alembert_, 65; + as the younger Catherine, viii., 46, 161; + as the two Cathys, 16, 17, 34, 106-118, 161; + Authoritative evidence of her Methods I. and II.:--viii., 25-6, + 98-103, and of Key Index to the Brontë Works, 169, 170; + gives it Emily, 17, 18, 169; + offers it publishers, 17; + story of a sad Night, 17; + why she disavowed authorship of, 143-6; + unable to admit authorship of, 18, 146, 153, 169; + preface to, 142, 145; + rainy day in her childhood, 37-42; + fit of frenzy, 48-51; + spectral writing, 42; + phantom hag, 42; + her childhood reading, 41; + Rev. Jabez Bunting, 41; + her cold, wailing child apparition, 28-30, 52-6; + cloven tree, 96-7; + and Heathcliffe's hypochondria, 16, 55-6, 87-8, 144; + Isabella's rival, 106, 117-8; + as Catherine of Malham, 23, 57-68; + her mood in writing, 150-3; + fears publisher, 18-9, 153, 169 + + Brontë, Emily, + unimportance of her corrected copy of, and implication, 17, 169, + 170; + purporting to be by, 18, 138, 153, 169; + _Wuthering Heights_, no internal evidence of, viii., 169, 170 + + Brontë, Branwell, and authorship of, 40; + as Hindley, 18, 37-40, 52-3, 69; + carving knife incident, 39 + + Brontë, Rev. Patrick, as Mr. Linton, 49, 147, 161 + + Aykroyd, Tabitha, as Mrs. Dean, 43-51, 59, 69, 72, 78, 81, 160, 168; + her old songs, 46-7; + her fairy tales, 44-5; + as Joseph, 38, 40, 47-8 + + Héger, M., in, 16, 17, 34. Also, see Key Index for foregoing names + + Earnshaw, Catherine, and Heathcliffe, as Jane and Rochester, 93-103, + 139 + + Heathcliffe, as Rochester, 89-92, 138-9, 153; + as "that ghoul," 140-6; + and Taylor, 83-9; + return of the runaway, 93, 97-103; + expression of eyes, 90-1; + the foundling, 22; + origin of name, 22, 142 + + Hareton, origin of name, 22-3, 60, 64, 66; + and M. Héger, viii.-x., 120-1 + + Joseph, original of, 23; + as Poole of _Jane Eyre_ and Montagu's uncouth servant, 23-8, 30-1 + + Lockwood as Montagu, 23-32, 57-60, 66; + his boy guide, 60, 66 + + Newby, Mr. Thomas, publisher of, 19, 146, 153, 169 + + Malham as Gimmerton, and Gimmerden; + Malhamdale as the valley of Gimmerton, 22-3, 57-68, 71; + Glens, 58, 66, 68; + Peniston Crags, 22-3, 59, 60, 65-6; + Fairy Cave, 22-3, 59-66; + Chapel, 22, 66-8, and Briar Chapel of _Shirley_, 41; + Kirk in the lonely valley, 22, 64, 66-8; + Fair, 22, 66-7; + mists, 68; + stream, 22, 68; + sough, 66-68; + Heights, 22, 66-7; + Catherine, of, 23, 71 + + Montagu and, 20; + Airton, 22-3; + Airton, Robert, 60, 64, 71; + Mrs., 60; + lonely house of mystery and uncouth servant, 17, 23-32; + cuckoo story or foundling "plot," 22-3, 33-4, 87; + a night's repose and the candle-bearing bedside apparition, 21-32, + 30-2 + + Brunty foundling controversy, 13; + the key chapter, 40; + origin of title, 56-7, 148-152; + Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange, the abodes--originals not + known, 159; + Lady Eastlake and Dobell, 138-9, 153-4 + + Published later than _Jane Eyre_, 118, 138, 169 + + +JANE EYRE. + + Brontë, Charlotte, + her life, 37-53, 69-103, 106-119, 123-155, 168, 169-170; + her second work based on Montagu, 23-36, 60-6, 68-72, 140-2; + Rivers family, 23, 69-82; + Burns, Helen, 23-4, 69-71, 80, + and Charles I., 64, + as Agnes Jones (death of), 106-110, + and M. Sue, 108-110. + "Rivers," origin of suggestion, 23, 71-2, 141-2, + Diana and Mary, 70-8, 81-2, + St. John as Mr. Brontë, 70-8, 81-2, + as Charlotte's Brussels priest, 77, 132, 136-7, + not Rev. Mr. Nussey, 77; + Hannah, and Bessie (Tabitha Aykroyd), 40, 43-53, 69-73, 78, 81, + fairy tales and old songs, 44-7; + Reed, name (and Keeldar), 23, 81; + aunt, 38, 70-1; + John (and Hindley), 37-40, 52-3, 71, 79, 113; + Eliza and Georgiana, 69, 79-82; + Severn Julia, 23, 81, 107; + Lowood school, 18, 21-2; + fever, etc., at, 106-110, 117; + Miss Temple of, 81, 110-1; + Brocklehurst, 21, 81, 115; + Morton (Haworth), Moor House, 70-82, 105; + Charlotte as Jane Eyre and Catherine Earnshaw (also see Key Index), + 37-42, 93-103, 150-2; + rainy day in her childhood, 37-42; + fit of frenzy, 48-51; + spectral writing, 42; + phantom hag, 42; + cold, wailing child apparition, 28-30, 52-6, 151; + cloven tree, 96-7; + the Sidgwicks, 78; + Gateshead Hall, 37-9, 45; + her Thornfield, 72, 127-8; + as Jane Eyre and Lucia Snowe, 148-152; + as Jane Eyre, and Crimsworth of _The Professor_, ix.-x., 127-8; + as Janet Aire or Jane Eyre of Malham, 22-3, 60-6, 70-2, 142; + "Jane," a secondary adaptation, 71; + Fairy Janet, Queen of the Malhamdale Elves, 23, 60-4; + no views on lunacy, 34-6; + Rochester's song, 140-2; + the miraculous voice, 136-7; + nymph and satyr, 141-2; + missionary life and priest, 136-7; + the runaway, 93, 97-103, 129; + hen-killing figure in _Wuthering Heights_ and, ix.-x; + "Rydings," "Norton Conyers," and "Thornfield," 35, 159; + Wycollar Hall, 159 + + ---- Rochester (see Key Index for M. Héger and the Taylors), x., 14, + 145, and _Wildfell Hall_, 161; + _Jane Eyre_ the surpassing of all Brontë biographies, 82; + "Key to _Jane Eyre_" The, xi., 20, 68, 153 + + Malham or Gimmerton, background of _Jane Eyre_, 22-3, 58-68; + source of river Aire or Ayre, 23, 60-71; + Jane of, 22-3, 60-6, 70-2; + see Fairy Janet Aire or Eyre of Malham + + Montagu, and opening of _Jane Eyre_, 21-2; + lonely house of mystery, and uncouth servant (Grace Poole and + Joseph), 17, 23-32 + --Jane Eyre's and Lockwood's two dreams in, 28-30 + --a night's repose and candle-bearing apparition in, 21, 23-32; + origin of plot of insane lady, and of the white veil + scene (Shelley), 24, 34-6; + insane lady a secondary suggestion; suggests names, Aire or Eyre, + Burns, Rivers, Reed, Keeldar, Broughton, Eshton, Georgiana, + Helen, Ingram, Lowood, Lynn, Mason, Millcote, Poole, recalling + perhaps a Rev. Mr. Pool, and Currer Bell, 21, 23-4 + + +SHIRLEY. + + Brontë, Charlotte, + as Shirley Keeldar, 81, 120; + as Caroline Helstone (and Catherine Earnshaw), 41, 146-8, 152; + her home the Rectory, 159; + childhood reading, 41-2; + Keeldar, name, 23; + Shirley as Emily Brontë, 69, 156-7. + Helstone, Mr., 86; + original of, 75, 159-161; + name, 41; + and Rev. H. Roberson, 86, 159-160. + Héger, M., and the Moores, 89, 146-8; + Louis, 163; + Robert, 152. + Cartwright, Mr., 89, 160. + Mr. Macarthey, 160. + Mrs. Pryor, 147-8; + a composite character, 160; + and Mrs. Dean and Tabby, 43; + Miss Wooler, 160. + Yorke (Taylor), Hiram, 83-4; + Matthew, 83; + Rose, 83-4; + Jessie, death of, 84 + + Birstall, Batley, 159; + "Briarmains," 83; + "Field Head," 159; + The Red House, Gomersall, 83, 159; + Oakwell House, 159. + Hartshead, Brighouse, 160; + Nunnwood, Nunnerly and church, Robin Hood, Kirklees Park, + Priory, 160; + Hollows Mill, 160; + Whinbury (Dewsbury), 160. + Published in 1849 + + +THE PROFESSOR. + + Brontë, Charlotte, as Henri Frances Evans, 71, 122; + as Crimsworth, ix., 127-8; + Fairy Janet, 63, 71; + wailing child apparition, 53-5; + Lucia, 86, 151 + + Héger, M., as Crimsworth, 63, 127, 138; + Hunsden, 83-9, 151; + origin of name, 84; + Pelet, 16, 84, 139, 145 + + Héger, Madame, as Mdlle. Reuter, 111, 122 + + Offered to publishers, 17; + published, 160 + + +VILLETTE. + + Brontë, Charlotte, as Lucy Snowe, 86, 131, 144, 120, 148-152; + origin of name, 22, 56, 149, 151; + childhood reading, 41; + and Father Confessor, 77, 132, 136-7; + as Paulina, 47, 120, + and Cathy Linton, 161; + Paulina and Mr. Home--Charlotte and Rev. Patrick Brontë, 161; + final words in, 129 + + Bretton, Dr. John, Paulina's lover, 69, 161; + as Mr. George Smith and Rev. A. B. Nicholls, 69, 86, 145, 160-1. + Mrs. Bretton, 166 + + Héger, M., as Paul Emanuel, 42, 96-7, 126, 131, 145; + his harshness, 85-6; + and Thackeray, 70 + + Héger, Madame, as Madame Beck, 118, 133 + + Ritchie, Lady, and green dress, xi., 165-8 + + Villette as London and Brussels, 160-1 + + Published, 19; + inception, 166 + + _Agnes Grey_ and _Wildfell Hall_, 17, 161. + + + + +GENERAL INDEX. + + + Aire, or Ayre, Malham, source of the, 23, 60-1, 71 + + Armytage, Bart., Sir Geo. J., 160 + + Aykroyd, Tabby. See Brontë servants + + + Branwell, Maria, of Penzance, marries Patrick Brontë, 75; + death of, 14, 159-161 + + ---- Aunt (Elizabeth), and the Hégers, 113-4; + Branwell Brontë her favourite, 37, 78-9; + in mourning for, 72-3 + + ---- Cousin Eliza, 68, 80 + + Brontë, Annie or Anne (Acton Bell), + as understudy to Charlotte, 17, 169; + _Gondal Chronicles_, 17; + _Agnes Grey_ and _Wildfell Hall_, 17, 161; + appearance and life, 70-4, 77-8, 81-2; + Poems, 156-8; + death of, 161-5 + + ---- Charlotte, birthplace, 14; + birthday, 14, 106; + appearance, 118, 131, 165, 168. + Childhood: + a rainy day, 18, 37-42, 78; + curtain incident, 38; + Branwell as "tyrant" makes her head ache, 18, 37-42; + "volume-hurling," 38-9, 78; + Methodist literature, 40-2; + writings and Mrs. Gaskell, 14; + Tabby, 38, 40-1, 43-51, 168 + --her homily, 40 + --old songs and fairy tales (Charlotte's love of Scottish + ballads), 47, 149, 150; + the locked chamber, 48-51; + passionateness, 45-6, 48-51, 116. + Elfish imagination, 23; + schools, 14, 16, 18, 21-2, 81, 104, 106-117 + --Clergy Daughters' School, 18, 21-2, 81, 106-117, + Roe Head, 14, 16, 83, + Héger _pension_, 16, 18, 72, 104; + drawings, 82; + her life from childhood to womanhood, 93-103; + no psychical reciprocity with friends, 14; + Wordsworth and her facility in writing novels, 17, 169; + at Brussels (the Hégers), + teacher and pupil, viii.-x., 63, 82, 120-2, 131, 138, + dejection at, 120-1, 124; + M. Héger, viii.-xi., 14-17, 93, 96-107, 111-2, 120-154, 162-8, + and her literary secrets, 104, 162; + Madame Héger, 16, 104-7, 111-2, 117-9, 122-7, 133, + forbids corresponding, 16; + Charlotte as Mdlle., 105, + as M. Sue's Mdlle. Lagrange and Miss Mary, ix., 82, 103-132, 163; + _Imitation of Christ_, ix., 121-2; + her priest, 77, 132-8; + departure from Brussels, 16, 127; + flight from temptation, 105, 141-2, 122-9, 151-2; + the fiery ordeal, 154; + parting with the Hégers, 122-132; + origin of her works, vii., 15, 20-36, 138; + Montagu, see Key Index for _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_; + _Alembert_, 64-5; + Currer Bell, 17, 21-2; + perpetuates drama of her life, vii., 15, 16, 154; + Branwell, 18, + and his aunt, 79; + at Haworth Parsonage, 69-82; + school project given up, 16, 169. + Poems publishing, 17: + "Apostasy" and "Regret," 96-7, 133-7; + "Frances," 132, 134, 144, 150-1; + "Gilbert," 139, 143-4; + "The Letter," 105; + "Mementos," 150; + "Apostasy," 133-7; + "Preference," 132; + "Passion," 157. + Her hypochondria, 16, 87-8; + "Puir Mary Lee," 45, 149, 150; + the storm, 16, 17, 130-154, 157-8; + vindictiveness against M. Héger, 16, 17, 143-6, 152; + Ghoul and Satyr notion, 140-6; + Héger and her heroes (see also the Taylors, 83-9), 83-92; + heaven undesired by lover, 97, 133-4, 139; + elective affinities, cloven tree, and "twin-soul," 96-7, 147-8; + supernatural "way" to "twin-soul" lover (and the haunted wind), + 55-6, 136-7, 140, 147-8; + eerie signal against lattice, 28-30, 53-6, 147-8; + dual portraiture, 69, 70, 77, 83-9, 120, 159, 160, 161; + ice-cold wailing child apparition, 28-30, 52-6, 151; + her two dreams preface to "bedside apparition," 28-30; + name selection method, 22, 68; + chronological sequences in her works, 161; + character of her correspondence, 14, 15; + Héger portrait of, in National Portrait Gallery, xi., 162-8; + Richmond Portrait in N.P.G., 168; + _Wuthering Heights_ complications (conspires to accredit and sustain + Emily as author), 17, 146, 169; + her fear of Mr. Newby, 19, 153, 169; + limitations of Mrs. Gaskell's _Life_, 15 + --disappointment of, 104; + last survivor of the young Brontës, 19, 161; + Introduction to her sisters' poems, 156-7; + Miss Austen, 15; + Rev. A. B. Nicholls, marriage with, 19, 96-7, 161 + --Catherine Winkworth on, 96; + _Wildfell Hall_, 17, 161; + at Thackeray's and the Smiths', xi., 166-8; + dedicates _Jane Eyre_ to Thackeray, xi.; + Greenwood Dyson and, 164. + Last days: + father and daughter, 161; + her resting-place, 19; + her Message and high rank of her genius, 16, 155. + Also see the Key Index to her works + + ---- Elizabeth, 18, 71-2, 106-7 + + ---- Emily (Ellis Bell), as understudy to Charlotte, 17, 169; + conspires with her to sustain rôle of author of _Wuthering Heights_, + 17, 138, 146, 169; + no internal evidence of her in _Wuthering Heights_, viii.; + her life contrasted with Charlotte's, 17, 18, 156-7; + relations with Branwell, 18, 39, 40, 139; + appearance and life, 17, 72-4, 78, 81-2, 156-7; + Poems, "Old Stoic," "Last Lines," 157; + her literary limitations, 17, 156-7; + death of, 161-5. + See Key Index of _Shirley_ + + ---- Maria (Helen Burns), 18, 41, 71. + See Key Index; also M. Sue + + ---- Patrick Branwell, appearance, 79; + artist, 18, 165-6; + his verse, 158; + enjoys the hearth, 37-8; + a sign of trouble for, 52-3; + evil days, 39, 78-9, 158; + and Aunt Branwell, 78-9; + and M. Sue, 106, 110. + As Hindley and John Reed, x., 18, 37-8, 52-3, 69, 78-9, 139. + See also Key Index for _Wuthering Heights_, _Jane Eyre_, and + _The Professor_ + + ---- Rev. Patrick, parents, Hugh Brunty and Alice M'Clory, 13; + at Ballynaskeagh and Drumballyroney, 13; + at Cambridge, 13, 74-5; + Wethersfield, 75, and Mary Burder; + Dewsbury, 75; + Vicar of Hartshead, 160; + marries Maria Branwell, 18, 75, 159-161; + Vicar of Thornton, 14; + of Haworth, 13; + appearance and life, 13, 70-7, 82, 147, 159-161, 167-8; + verse, 13, 158; + and Mrs. Gaskell's Life, 15. + Also see Key Index + + ---- Poems, 156-8; + Aylott and Jones, 17, 105, 160 + + ---- servants: + Aykroyd Tabitha, x.; + as Nelly Dean and Bessie, 43-53, 168; + does not understand Charlotte Brontë, 43, 45-6; + and old songs, 45-7; + also, 72, 77-8, 147-8, 160, 168; + her homily, 40; + her gift of narrative and fairy tales, 44-5; + death of, 19, 96-7. + Also see Key Index for _Wuthering Heights_, _Jane Eyre_, and + _Shirley_. + Brown, Martha, 47, 96, 161; + Brown, Tabitha (Mrs. Ratcliffe), and Charlotte Brontë's married + life, 96; + Garrs, Nancy, and sister, 47, 159 + + Brookfield, Mrs., 167-8 + + + Carlisle, William, 167 + + Carus-Wilson, Rev. Mr., 115 + + Casterton Hall, 23; + Clergy Daughters' School, 18, 81, 106, 108-111, 114-117 + + Cornwall, Barry, 34 + + Courtney, William Leonard, xi., 104 + + Cust, Lionel, 162 + + + Devonshire, Duke of, 20 + + Dewsbury, 14, 83, 160; + Hartshead, 81, 160 + + Dobell, Sydney, 153-4, 169 + + Dyson, Greenwood, and Charlotte Brontë, 164 + + + Elf, of Craven, The, 60, 141-2 + + Evans, Miss (Miss Temple), 110, 114 + + + Fairy Cave, The, and Fairy Janet: see Malham + + + Gaskell, Mrs., and M. Héger, 15, 96, 104; + Madame Héger, 163; + West Indian girl mystery, 108 + + ---- Misses, 165 + + + Hathersage, 70-1, 77 + + Haworth, 68, 70, 138, 164; + Church, 13, 19, 164; + Parsonage, 69, 72-82, 159, 161, 164 + + Héger, M., as Charlotte Brontë's pupil, viii.-x., 120, 122; + original of her chief heroes, 14, 16-17, 83-6, 89-93, 96-7, etc.; + not secretive, 111, 162; + and Roman Catholic Church, 16, 132, 138; + a great and religious personality, 121, 124, 126-9, 132-3, 137-8, + 154, 166; + Charlotte Brontë's harsh portrayals of, 143-6; + facial metamorphoses, 85; + the bitterness of his life, 128-9, 130-2; + "Paul," 162-6; + as M. de Morville, 82, 104-6, 120-9, 132, 163. + See Key Index for M. Héger + + ---- Madame, 16; + her jealousy, 104, 112, 117-8, 122-3, 121-2; + appearance of, 106; + as Madame de Morville, 106-133. + See Key Index for Madame Héger + + Hawke, E. G., 163 + + Hodge, Harold, xi., 153 + + Holloway, Laura C., 77 + + Holmes, Professor Charles J., 165 + + Holroyd, Kt., Sir Charles, vii. + + + Kendal, 106; + Kendall Institution, 114-7 + + Kirkby Malham Church, 64, 66-8 + + + Lagrange's Manuscript "Catherine Bell," 104-119 + + Lambert family, 64 + + Lucan's "Pharsalia," 14 + + Lytton, Lord, 163 + + + M'Clory, Alice, 13 + + Malham, original of Gimmerton of _Wuthering Heights_: + home of Catherine Earnshaw, and of Janet Aire of _Jane Eyre_, 22-3, + 57-68, 71; + source of the Aire or Ayre, 71. + See Key Index of _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ for Malham in + Montagu + + Malham, or Malam, origin of family, 67 + + Malham and _Kalderworth_, 67 + + Malhamdale, enchanted land, 60, 71 + + Montagu or Mountagu, Admiral, and Charles II., 20, 64; + De Ruyter, 20 + + Montagu, Basil, 20-1 + + Montagu, Frederic, his _Gleanings in Craven_ provides the Malham + background, and the plots of _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane + Eyre_, and Charlotte Brontë's _nom de guerre_, Currer Bell, + 20-36, 57-68, 141-2, 145. See Montagu in the Key Index for + those works + + Montagu, John, fourth Earl of Sandwich, 20 + + Morville de, M., Alphonsine, and Gérard, see M. Héger; + Madame, see Madame Héger + + + National Portrait Gallery, + and Héger Portrait of Charlotte Brontë, xi., 162-8; + Thomas Baylis, 163; + and Richmond portrait, 168 + + Newby, Thomas, 19, 153, 169 + + Nicholls, Rev. A. B., see Charlotte Brontë; + also Key Index for _Villette_ + + Nussey, Ellen or Nelly, 14, 45, 71, 77, 160, 168; + Rev. Henry, 77 + + + Procter, Mrs., and Miss Perry, 167 + + + Rigby, Miss (Lady Eastlake), 138-9, 153, 169 + + Ripon, K.G., Marquis of, xii. + + Ritchie, Lady, xi., 165-8 + + + Shorter, Clement K., viii., 22, 77, 83, 147, 162, 164 + + Smith, George, xi., 86, 160-1, 166-8; + Mrs. Smith, 166-7. + See Key Index for _Villette_; + Reginald John, K.C., 162; + Smith Elder & Co., 161-2, 168 + + Sue, Eugène, ix., 16, 103-129. + See Key Index to the Brontë works. + + + Taylor family of Hunsworth, 83-9 (see Key Index); + Mary and Martha, 83-4 + + Thackeray, W. M., xi., 34, 167-8. + See Key Index, _Villette_ + + + Welch, Catherine Galbraith, xi. + + West Indian Girl, mystery of, 106-8, 112 + + Winkworth, Catherine, 96 + + Wise, Thomas J., 64 + + Wooler, Margaret, 18, 160 + + + Yates, W. W., 75 + + + + +WORKS. + + + _Key to the Brontë Works_, John Malham-Dembleby:-- + Its place and importance, vii.-xii., 15, 17-19, 25, 58, 64, 80-2, + 104, 108, 146, 154. + Importance of its Key Index, 169-171 + + _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, Mrs. Gaskell, 15, 22, 43-4, 52, 72, 83, + 118, 123, 149, 161, 168; + cause of its sombreness, 82; + disappointment, and limitations, of, 15, 104; + and Branwell Brontë, 121. + Haworth Edition, 14, 17, 85, 121 + + _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, Augustine Birrell, 75 + + _Brontës: Life and Letters_, Clement K. Shorter, 14, 73, 80, 87 + + _Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle_, Clement K. Shorter, 17, 135 + + _Charlotte Brontë and Her Sisters_, Clement K. Shorter, viii., 22, 77, + 147, 159, 164 + + _Brontë Country_, Dr. Erskine Stuart, 35 + + _Life of Emily Brontë_, Miss Mary Robinson, 39; + character of work, 57 + + _Brontë Family_, Francis Leyland, 39-40, 158 + + _Brontës, Fact and Fiction_, Rev. Angus Mackay, 13, 41, 132, 144 + + _Brontë Homeland_, J. Ramsden, 13 + + _Brontës in Ireland_, Dr. William Wright, 13 + + _Charlotte Brontë: Monograph_, Sir T. Wemyss Reid, 14 + + _Father of the Brontës_, W. W. Yates, 75 + + _Rev. Patrick Brontë's Collected Works_, Horsfall Turner, 13, 158 + + _Thornton and the Brontës_, William Scruton, 161 + + _Chapters from Some Memories_, Lady Ritchie, 167 + + _Craven Highlands_, Harry Speight, 60 + + _Dictionary of National Biography_, Leslie Stephen, 21, 159 + + _English Dialect Dictionary_, Dr. Joseph Wright, 68, 149 + + _Gleanings in Craven_, Frederic Montagu, 20-36, 57-68; 141-2, 145; + Leeds and Skipton, 20; + dedicated to Duke of Devonshire, printed by A. Pickard, published by + Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 20. Also see under _Wuthering Heights_ + and _Jane Eyre_, for Malham and Montagu, and Key Index to those + works + + _Kalderworth, or Lawyer Vavasor's Secret_, John Malham-Dembleby, + Malham background of, 67; + when written, and origin of title, 67; + published by Joseph Cooke, Sir Edward Russell, Kt., and A. G. + Jeans, 67 + + _Memorials of Two Sisters: Susanna and Catherine Winkworth_, 96 + + _Miss Mary ou L'Institutrice_, Eugène Sue, 82, 84, 105-6, 120, 126-7, + 130, 163. See Key Index for M. Sue + + _Mrs. Brookfield and Her Circle_, 167 + + _Sydney Dobell's Life and Letters_, 153-4 + + _Woman's Work in English Fiction_, Clara H. Whitmore, A.M., viii. + + + + +MAGAZINES, ETC. + + + _Academy_, 169 + + _Cornhill Magazine_, 162 + + _Dundee Advertiser_, xi. + + _Fortnightly Review_, xi., 39, 70, 104, 125, 162-3 + + _Liverpool Post_, 67 + + _London and Paris Courier_, G. W. MacArthur Reynolds and M. Sue, 105 + + _London Journal_; _Weekly Times_, 105 + + _New York Times Saturday Review_, xi. + + _Outlook_, xi. + + _Palladium_, 153-4, 169 + + _Quarterly Review_, 138-9, 153, 169 + + _Saturday Review_, xi., xii., 20, 68, 153 + + _Sheffield Independent_, 67 + + _Spectator_, xi., 125 + + _Times_, 162, 164 + + _Tribune_, 162-5 + + + + +SUBSCRIBERS TO THE FIRST EDITION. + +_The address is as a rule that from which the book was subscribed. A +star is placed when the special leather-bound edition has been ordered._ + + + *His Grace the Lord Archbishop of York, Rt. Hon. and Most Rev. + Cosmo Gordon Lang, D.D., Primate of England and Metropolitan, + Bishopthorpe, York. + + *Rt. Hon. 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Truslove & Hanson, Ltd. 153 Oxford Street, W. + Manchester: Messrs. J. E. Cornish, Ltd. + Oxford: Mr. B. H. Blackwell. + + +PRINTED BY THE WALTER SCOTT PUBLISHING CO., LTD., FELLING-ON-TYNE. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[1] Clement Shorter in _Charlotte Brontë and her Sisters_, p. 236; 1905. + +[2] Clara H. Whitmore, A.M., in _Woman's Work in English Fiction_; 1910. + +[3] _The Saturday Review_, September 6, 1902. A correspondence followed. + +[4] _The Fortnightly Review_, March 1907. + +[5] _The Brontës in Ireland_, by Dr. William Wright, 1893, and _The +Brontë Homeland_, by J. Ramsden, 1897, though they conflict, deal +interestingly with Patrick Brunty's, or Brontë's, relations. +"Patrick ... after being a linen weaver secured the post of teacher in +the Glascar School, Ballynaskeagh, then that of teacher at +Drumballyroney." Eventually he got a scholarship and entered St. John's +College, Cambridge, where he graduated and took Holy Orders. His father +was a Hugh Brunty, who married a Roman Catholic, Alice McClory, or +M'Clory. She is said to have become a Protestant, as was her husband. Of +this marriage there were ten children, the eldest being Charlotte +Brontë's father, who early took to "larnin'," to quote the Irish +hearsay. _The Brontës in Ireland_ has been challenged as presenting many +statements impossible of verification. The assertion that an Irish +Brunty foundling story suggested the foundling of _Wuthering Heights_ +raised a harsh and voluminous controversy. The Rev. Angus Mackay, in his +little brochure _The Brontës--Fact and Fiction_, 1897, controverted Dr. +Wright, as did others elsewhere. The matter is summed up succinctly by +Mr. Horsfall Turner, the Yorkshire genealogist, in _The Rev. Patrick +Brontë's Collected Works_, 1898, where, speaking of the Irish Brontës +and the foundling story, he says:--"The only one who could transmit this +story was Hugh Brunty, and not one of his descendants ever heard of it +before Dr. Wright's book was issued, not even the vaguest tradition." + +[6] The "wild, weird writings" of her childhood, which awed homely Mrs. +Gaskell, were merely badly, or I may say, childishly, assimilated +fragments from English adaptations found in Dryden, Rowe, etc., of Lucan +(Pharsalia, lib. 1, 73), and of other ancient writers. + +[7] Her correspondence is given in Sir Wemyss Reid's _Monograph on +Charlotte Brontë_, in Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, Haworth +Edition, and in Mr. Clement Shorter's _The Brontës: Life and Letters_, +1908. + +[8] _Charlotte Brontë and Her Circle_, by Clement Shorter. + +[9] Charlotte Brontë, upon the other hand, was a most fluent writer of +prose. She sent Wordsworth a story in 1840, and spoke of her facility in +writing novels. (Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, pages +189-190, Haworth Edition.) It is said Emily corrected misprints, etc., +in her printed volume of _Wuthering Heights_; but whether or not she did +this at Charlotte Brontë's instigation is of little interest and no +importance in view of the literal evidence in _The Key to the Brontë +Works_. It may be Emily turned Charlotte's amanuensis; and it would not +be difficult to show Anne Brontë also had been Charlotte's understudy. +See my remarks on _Wildfell Hall_ in Appendix. + +[10] See my remarks, page 39. + +[11] When King Charles II. was crowned, Montagu carried the sceptre. A +historian states that the Admiral--who, I may say, had been a great +friend of Richard Cromwell--perished in the sea-fight with De Ruyter, +because he would not leave his ship by a piece of obstinate courage, +provoked by a reflection that he took care more of himself than of the +king's honour. + +[12] For Basil Montagu see _Dictionary of National Biography_. + +[13] On the other side of the same page Montagu concluded the narration +of his "A Night's Repose," with which I deal later. + +[14] Clement Shorter's _Charlotte Brontë and Her Sisters_, p. 164. + +[15] See my observations on the name of Lucy Snowe. + +[16] The name of "Helen Burns," that saintly sister of Charlotte Brontë, +may have been suggested by the St. Helen's Well which Montagu states was +near Miss Currer's home, Eshton Hall. + +[17] _The Brontë Country_, by Dr. Erskine Stuart. + +[18] A recognizable idiosyncrasy of Charlotte Brontë's genius is the +vivid minuteness with which she paints and records apparently +unimportant details and happenings connected with her early childhood. +(See footnote on page 41.) + +[19] See footnote page 47. + +[20] _Emily Brontë_, Miss Mary Robinson; 1883. + +[21] Angus Mackay, in _The Brontës: Fact and Fiction_ (1897), identifies +Miss Brontë with Caroline Helstone. Charlotte Brontë's mother was a +native of Penzance, near Helston. + +[22] Catherine's diary was written on the margin of a printed sermon by +the Rev. Jabes Branderham. Lockwood's "dream" in the connection was +evidently a travesty on a sermon of the famous Rev. Jabes Bunting, a +Wesleyan Methodist, and the zealousness of his hearers, concerning which +preacher stories were possibly gathered by Charlotte Brontë from old +Tabitha, who doubtless did occasional service as the old +dialect-speaking Joseph. The Rev. Jabes Bunting was on the Halifax +Circuit in the eighteen-twenties, and his sermons were printed in +pamphlet form. Note the extract I have given from _Villette_ on Lucy +Snowe's having read as a child certain Wesleyan Methodist tracts. + +[23] "Lee" may have been suggested by the name of the heroine of "Puir +Mary Lee," a Scottish ballad, which I find influenced Charlotte Brontë +greatly when she began to write _Wuthering Heights_. + +[24] Called Nelly or Ellen Dean, perhaps because of Charlotte Brontë's +affection for her friend Nelly or Ellen Nussey. + +[25] Of course Tabitha Aykroyd was twenty years younger when Charlotte +was a child. Thus the early references to the more active Ellen Dean and +Bessie in the main imply Tabby in the eighteen-twenties; those to her as +the sedate and glum Mrs. Dean and Hannah, as Tabby in the +eighteen-forties. We see Tabby quite in the caricature of Joseph in +Charlotte's half-humorous references to her in the diary-like +descriptions of the Brontë kitchen fireside life of her childhood in +1829, etc.--of which the rainy day incident in the childhood of little +Catherine and Jane is so reminiscent--quoted by Mrs. Gaskell in the +Brontë _Life_:-- + + "June the 21st, 1829. + + "One night, about the time when the cold sleet of November [is] + succeeded by the snowstorms and the high, piercing night winds + of winter, we were all sitting round the warm, blazing kitchen + fire, having just concluded a quarrel with Tabby concerning + the propriety of lighting a candle, from which she came off + victorious, no candle having been produced. A long pause + succeeded, which was at last broken by Branwell saying, in a lazy + manner, 'I don't know what to do.' This was echoed by Emily and + Anne. + + "Tabby: 'Wha ya may go t' bed.' + + "Charlotte: 'Why are you so glum to-night, Tabby?'" + +As time progressed Charlotte Brontë viewed more sentimentally the +associations of her early childhood. Whenever Tabby was "Joseph" of +_Wuthering Heights_ Charlotte humorously caricatured her. + +[26] See footnote on page 37. + +[27] A remarkably recognizable idiosyncrasy of this child-phantom of +Charlotte Brontë's brain is the part the little hands of the child play. +In Charlotte Brontë's child-phantom of _Wuthering Heights_, Chapter +III., the hand of the child takes a principal part, as in her above two +versions. + +[28] See note on "the hand" of Charlotte Brontë's child-phantom, page +53. + +[29] See the chapters on "The Recoil" for the origin of the title of +_Wuthering Heights_, and of the name Lucy Snowe; also my remarks on +Charlotte Brontë's poem "Apostasy." + +[30] "The breeze was sweet with scent of heath and rush, ... the hills +shut us quite in; for the glen towards its head wound to their very +core."--_Jane Eyre_, Chapter XXXIV. + +[31] I have known for many years the wife and children of this Robert +Airton. His father was, I believe, parish clerk for Coniston. Mrs. +Airton once told me that when she first met her husband he was playing a +violin in the entrance of a cave, under a crag in Malhamdale. + +[32] It will be observed that in Chapter XXIII. of _The Professor_ +Charlotte Brontë practically calls Frances the heroine, "Jane." Of +course she is the elf Janet (see Chapter XXV. of _The Professor_), and +this sprite was also Jane Eyre--Charlotte Brontë herself. Read the +verses in Chapter XXIII. in the light of my writing on "Eugène Sue and +Charlotte Brontë's Brussels Life" and "The Recoil." + +[33] Mr. Thomas J. Wise has published and edited a valuable edition of +this story, 1896. + +[34] "I like Charles the First," says Helen Burns in _Jane Eyre_, +Chapter VI.; "I respect him--I pity him, poor murdered king! Yes, his +enemies were the worst: they shed blood they had no right to shed. How +dared they kill him!" Montagu of course would know that his own ancestor +brought over Charles the Second on the Restoration. Hence his warmth. We +now understand the origin of the detached fragment in _Jane Eyre_. + +[35] It is a remarkable coincidence that Malham was the background of my +first novel, a work of the substantial number of 160,000 words, which I +wrote in my teens. It was published serially in _The Sheffield +Independent_ by Mr. Joseph Cooke, beginning in May 1896 and running till +September, under the title of _Kalderworth_, a name I had compounded +from the Yorkshire river Calder. Afterwards the serial rights were also +purchased by Sir Edward Russell and Mr. A. G. Jeans, of _The Liverpool +Post_, wherein the story ran serially as _Lawyer Vavasor's Secret_. I +did not choose Malham by reason of its being, as it is, the place from +which our family of Malham, or Malam, sprung: I had cycled over to the +remote village with my father. I was unaware that October 15 was an +especial day at Malham, nevertheless I began my story--_Kalderworth_:-- + + "On the evening of the 15th of October, in the latter end of the + Eighteen Hundred and Eighties, as the sun sank greyly behind the + distant skyline of those wild hills that stretch from Malham and + away into the North of Yorkshire, a solitary horseman pushed his + way over a hard moorland road to a little deserted hamlet, where + only one soul lived, and that a hag whose fame had spread as a + dabbler in the black art and the mischievous doctrines." + +I did not know of Montagu's book at the time; and of all the Brontë +novels I had only read _Jane Eyre_. I remember once reflecting--while +_Kalderworth_ was being published--that Charlotte Brontë must have +called her character Jane Eyre after the river Aire, just as I had +called my loosely composite village up in Malhamdale Kalderworth, from +the river Calder; and I thought Currer Bell, in her choice of the name +"Jane Eyre," had been actuated poetically by the fact of the adjacency +of the Yorkshire river Aire, or Ayre, and had changed the "A" in Aire, +just as I the "C" in Calder. Nor was it till years later that I knew +Charlotte Brontë had written in _Shirley_, Chapter XIX., of "Calder or +Aire thundering in flood." + +[36] That Gimmerton in _Wuthering Heights_ means "the village of sheep" +was admitted years ago. The etymology is very obvious. We now have the +circumstances in which Charlotte Brontë chose the name. + +[37] See my footnote, page 58. + +[38] Thus she put her cousin Eliza Branwell under the same roof as +herself and Branwell Brontë in _Jane Eyre_. + +[39] The Poems prepared for publication in the autumn of 1845 bear +evidence of the influence of Montagu's work. It was at this time +Montagu's work provided Charlotte Brontë's _nom de guerre_ of Currer +Bell. See my foot-note on Frances of _The Professor_ as the Fairy Jane, +page 63. + +[40] A copy of this will is printed in _The Brontës: Life and Letters_. + +[41] Mr. Augustine Birrell in his _Life of Charlotte Brontë_ (1887), +gives a very interesting insight into a love episode of Mr. Brontë, +during his first curacy, at Wethersfield, near Braintree, Essex. Mr. +Brontë found a home with a Miss Mildred Davy, with whose niece, a +"comely damsel of eighteen--a Miss Mary Mildred Davy Burder--with brown +curls and blue eyes" he fell in love. A plotting guardian uncle, +however, removed Miss Burder and wrongly intercepted all Mr. Brontë's +letters. Subsequently Mr. Brontë married Miss Maria Branwell, of +Penzance, visiting in Yorkshire, whom he married at St. Oswald's Church, +Guiseley, near Leeds. After the death of his wife, Mr. Brontë offered to +marry Miss Burder, but was refused. She became the wife of the Rev. +Peter Sibree, of Wethersfield. Mr. W. W. Yates' book, _The Father of the +Brontës_, 1897, shows us Mr. Brontë as a curate at Dewsbury. Mr. Yates, +who is the originator of the Brontë Society and Museum, rightly +associated Mr. Brontë with Mr. Helstone of _Shirley_, supporting his +contention by evidence. + +[42] For story and other purposes Miss Brontë makes St. John Rivers ask +Jane's hand in marriage; and of course as the original of Moor House has +been supposed to be at Hathersage in Derbyshire, and it was there the +Rev. Henry Nussey lived--Miss Nussey's brother--who had offered to marry +Charlotte Brontë, Mrs. Gaskell's Brontë's _Life_ and a following +(including even a recent catalogue of the Brontë Museum, wherein +reference is made to Mr. Nussey's portrait!) have given it forth that +Mr. Nussey was the original of St. John Rivers--notwithstanding that Mr. +Nussey was a married man when Charlotte was visiting at Hathersage. That +Mr. Nussey and St. John Rivers are wholly dissimilar is contended at +length in _Charlotte Brontë and Her Sisters_, pp. 166-170. + +[43] _The Brontës: Life and Letters._ + +[44] In the love relations of Shirley Keeldar, however, we must expect +to find phases of circumstances associated with Charlotte Brontë +herself. Thus Shirley Keeldar is at times Currer Bell. + +[45] Mr. Rochester's remarks in _Jane Eyre_, Chapter XII., on Jane's +drawings would seem to show that though M. Héger, the original of this +character, was interested in Charlotte Brontë's gift as an artist (and +we know she sent M. Héger a drawing of hers as late as August 1845), he +spoke of them in disparagement--a fact that alone argues he was her +superior in art, and understood drawing. Indeed, after seeing the +various water-colour and other drawings of Charlotte Brontë, some thirty +of which, including "a pencil drawing of Louis Philippe of France, drawn +by C. Brontë during her stay in Brussels," are numbered with the Brontë +relics, I may say we can take it as really the expression of M. Héger +concerning her sketches when Mr. Rochester observes of Jane's efforts in +drawing:--"You have secured the shadow of your thought, but no more +probably. You had not enough of the artist's skill and science to give +it being," for this is the truth concerning Charlotte Brontë's efforts +of the kind. Nevertheless, I find evidence of a Brussels tradition in +the eighteen-fifties that she was clever as a painter, M. Sue giving +ability to his Miss Mary in this direction. It is more emphasized in his +_feuilleton_ than volume portrayal of this "Institutrice," both of which +works we shall see presented phases of Miss Brontë as she was known. +Hence we read, "Eh bien! monsieur, trouvez-vous _qu'elle sait un peu +dessiner_, MA _Miss Mary_?" The italics, etc., are M. Sue's. + +[46] _Charlotte Brontë and Her Sisters_, page 181. + +[47] The James Taylor in the firm of her publishers, who corresponded +with Miss Brontë, was not related to this Hunsworth family. + +[48] See Matthew Yorke, Hiram Yorke's son, a character who has several +traits in common with Heathcliffe of _Wuthering Heights_.--_Shirley_, +Chap. IX. + +[49] Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, Haworth edition, p. 230. + +[50] Note that in both _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_ it is assumed +this character made silent reference to "the Deuce"; though he never +uttered the name, his words seemed to "express" the sentiment. + +[51] _The Brontës: Life and Letters_, p. 340, vol. i. + +[52] The Moores of _Shirley_ were mainly drawn from M. Héger, and though +a Mr. Cartwright, supposed to have had foreign blood in his veins, is +conjectured to have contributed to their creation because his mill was +attacked with rioters, I find that the Yorkshire, or rather, "Taylor" +element, as conceived by Charlotte Brontë, also entered into their +composition. + +[53] It is sad indeed to find Charlotte Brontë confessed, shortly before +her marriage to the Rev Mr. Nicholls, that there was no such sympathy +between herself and her prospective husband. See letters of Miss +Catherine Winkworth in _Memorials of Two Sisters: Susanna and Catherine +Winkworth_ (1908). Miss Winkworth and Miss Brontë discussed the matter +personally. Miss Catherine Winkworth wrote of Mr. Nicholls and Charlotte +Brontë:--"I am sure she will be really good to him. But I guess the true +love was Paul Emanuel [of _Villette_] after all ... but I don't know, +and don't think that Lily [Mrs. Gaskell] knows." I should say that Mrs. +Ratcliffe of Haworth--Tabitha Brown: her sister, Martha Brown, was one +of the Brontë servants--at whose house Tabitha Aykroyd breathed her +last, stated to me on February 21st, 1907, that as to Charlotte Brontë's +"wedded life, they lived happily together." Often do we discover +references to the elective affinities in regard to M. Héger and +Charlotte Brontë in Currer Bell's works. Thus we did not need that +Rochester should say in the last chapter but one of _Jane Eyre_:--"I am +not better than the old lightning-struck chestnut," for we had +understood by the touching apostrophe in _Jane Eyre_, Chapter XXV., that +he and Jane were implied. The words were:--"The cloven halves were not +broken from each other, for the firm base and strong roots kept them +unsundered below; ... they might be said to form one tree--a ruin, but +an entire ruin. 'You did right to hold fast to each other,' I said, as +if the monster splinters were living things; ... 'the time of pleasure +and love is over with you; but ... each of you has a comrade to +sympathize with.'" And Rochester tells Jane:--"You are my sympathy--my +better self; ... a fervent ... passion ... wraps; my existence about +you--and kindling in ... powerful flame, fuses you and me in one." M. +Héger as M. Paul in _Villette_ strikes the same note we hear in +_Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_:--"We are alike--there is affinity +between us.... Tremble! for where that is the case with mortals, the +threads of their destinies are difficult to entangle." + +[54] See Charlotte Brontë's poems "Regret" and "Apostasy." + +[55] I discovered these most remarkable parallelisms by my knowledge and +application of Charlotte Brontë's Method I., a fact that finally +declares her the author of both _Wuthering Heights_ and _Jane Eyre_. + +[56] Mr. G. W. MacArthur Reynolds, the editor of _The London Journal_ +issued from _The Weekly Times_ Office, which ran M. Sue's _feuilleton_, +was well-known in French literary circles in the eighteen-forties. He +founded in Paris _The London and Paris Courier_, and was likely enough a +friend of M. Sue. It may be, indeed, there was some sort of +understanding between him and Eugène Sue to set before the world an +interpretation of _Jane Eyre_, with the extraordinary information come +privily to M. Sue. Some time after its publication, Mr. Reynolds stated +that "the main incidents in 'Mary Lawson' were founded on actual +realities." This we shall find. It is a remarkable fact in the +circumstances that _The London Journal_ for August 1, 1846--a year +before _Jane Eyre_ was published, printed on one page the opening +instalment of M. Sue's _Martin the Foundling_, and Charlotte Brontë's +poem "The Letter," with a footnote--"From a volume entitled _Poems by +Cuvier (sic), Ellis and Acton Bell_; London, Aylott & Jones." The reader +may perhaps recognize the original of Mr. Rochester in the person to +whom the letter is being written. + +[57] See my footnote, page 120. + +[58] It may be relative to this fact that "Lagrange's Manuscript" is not +printed in the extant French edition of _Miss Mary_. + +[59] Great stress is laid in this _feuilleton_ by M. Sue upon the fact +that the trouble of this teacher is her dissolute brother. See my +footnote on p. 24. + +[60] See my footnote, p. 37. + +[61] Mrs. Gaskell dwelt much on Charlotte Brontë's plainness in her +_Life_, published seven years after the above. + +[62] _Wuthering Heights_ with _Agnes Grey_ had been accepted by Mr. +Newby, its publisher, before Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. saw the +manuscript of _Jane Eyre_, but _Jane Eyre_ was published first. + +[63] This artifice of presenting more than one phase of a character in +the same work is equivalent to that practised by the portrait-painter +who uses mirror effects to reveal some feature of his subject not in the +ordinary line of vision. It was as difficult for M. Sue to present a +complete portrait of the successful, fêted Miss Brontë in poor Lagrange +as it was for Charlotte Brontë to present a complete portrait of herself +in the unhappy Lucy Snowe of _Villette_. So M. Sue also used the phase +of Miss Mary, and Charlotte Brontë that of Paulina--just as she gave us +M. Héger as Crimsworth and occasionally as M. Pelet of _The Professor_, +and just as she gave us herself in _Shirley_ as Caroline Helstone and +again (in regard only to her relations with M. Héger) as Shirley +Keeldar. Methods which were responsible for her first portraying herself +as the elder Catherine of _Wuthering Heights_ and then as the younger +Catherine, in which work M. Héger was portrayed by her often as +Heathcliffe and finally as Hareton Earnshaw. With Charlotte Brontë, +however, her secondary adaptations as portrayals, perhaps on account of +their improvization, frequently give evidence of being unprepared. Thus +the childhood of Paulina of _Villette_ is scarcely Charlotte Brontë's; +and Hareton Earnshaw of _Wuthering Heights_, save for the lover and +pupil phase, was never M. Héger. + +[64] Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_, Haworth Edition, p. 55. +See my reference to Catherine teaching Hareton of _Wuthering Heights_, +in the Preface. + +[65] Instead of "Swiss" pastor's daughter, read Irish. + +[66] Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_. + +[67] As Rochester calls Jane his beneficent spirit, it is interesting to +read that M. de Morville says to his wife:--"Je crois aux bons génies, +aux bons anges." + +"Aux bons anges?" + +"Miss Mary, par exemple." + +"Eh bien, Louise?" + +"N'est-ce pas un bon génie, un bon ange, une bonne magicienne, enfin? Ne +m'a-t-elle pas jeté un _sort_?" + +[68] See my reference to Charlotte's Preface to _Wuthering Heights_ in +the second chapter of "The Recoil." + +[69] See my references to Charlotte Brontë's poem "Apostasy"; and to St. +John Rivers as a phase of Charlotte's Brussels _Fénelon_. + +[70] See M. Paul and Lucy Snowe (M. Héger and Charlotte Brontë) in the +close of Chapter XXI. of _Villette_. + +[71] Mrs. Humphry Ward in her "Introductions" to the Haworth Edition of +the Brontë novels instanced this passage as showing Emily Brontë'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 Brontë'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 Brontë 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 +passion.... Fly, fly, ... for love is conquered only by flight ... in +retreat without deliberation, and ... looking back." "Neither Calypso +nor Eucharis cared to fascinate Mentor" (_Shirley_, Chapter XXVII.). +Evidently M. Sue knew Charlotte Brontë had read this book at Brussels, +for he makes play upon it in "Lagrange's Manuscript," wherein +"Télémaque" is substituted for "Rasselas" in the equivalent scene in +_Jane Eyre_. + +[74] See chapter on the Yorkshire element in Charlotte Brontë's heroes. + +[75] "Religion called----Angels beckoned!----" + +[76] See my reference to Catherine of _Wuthering Heights_ and Caroline +of _Shirley_, 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. Héger and Charlotte Brontë. "... 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. xxxvi. + +[82] Mr. Angus Mackay, in _The Brontës: Fact and Fiction_, identifies +Charlotte Brontë as the original of "Frances" of Charlotte's poem. + +[83] _Charlotte Brontë and Her Sisters_, pp. 181-3. + +[84] See pages 136 and 140. + +[85] See my remarks on Mrs. Pryor in Appendix on _Shirley_. + +[86] Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_. + +[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 Brontë, after the success of _Jane Eyre_, to +admit her authorship of _Wuthering Heights_ publicly. See my remarks +hereon in Chapter I. + +[90] For this see Leyland's _The Brontë Family_. + +[91] See footnote, page 13. + +[92] _Charlotte Brontë and her Sisters_, page 162. + +[93] Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_. + +[94] The fact that towards the end great affection sprang up between the +Rev. Patrick Brontë 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 Brontë servant, and herself +the eye-witness, is given by Mr. William Scruton, in _Thornton and The +Brontës_, 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 _Shirley_, 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 Héger portrait, were +written by Mr. Shorter. My footnote in _The Fortnightly_ ran:--"In +attacking the water-colour portrait of Charlotte Brontë purchased by the +Trustees of the National Portrait Gallery, the discovery of which, +signed 'Paul Héger, 1850,' was inimical to Mr. Clement Shorter's +contention that Charlotte Brontë had but distantly interested M. Héger, +Mr. Shorter said, 'M. Héger certainly did not know even in 1850 that +Miss Brontë, his old pupil, and Currer Bell were identical,' and with +another asserted M. Héger and Charlotte Brontë never met after 1844. We +shall see here, however, that M. Héger knew all Miss Brontë's literary +secrets in 1850, and that they must have met after 1844, for M. Héger +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, ça me fera souvent penser à elle--ça m'empêchera +de l'oublier. Je vais la clouer à quatre épingles 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 à coups d'épingle, c'est toi-même!" Which would suggest +that a portrait of Charlotte Brontë could have remained at the Héger +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 Brontë gave a black silk dress to my wife." The +Rev. Patrick Brontë signed a testimonial saying he well knew Mr. Dyson +as being reliable and trustworthy, as also did the Rev. A. B. Nicholls, +Miss Brontë's husband. I have examined the document. An interesting +glimpse of Charlotte Brontë 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 +Brontë or others of the Brontë 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 glass, in the centre of which was bored a +hole in which Miss Brontë inserted a telescope to take observations." +Perceiving in conversation with him the genuine pleasure the sight of +the Héger portrait of Charlotte Brontë gave Mr. Dyson, I later forwarded +him a large photograph, taken direct from the original Héger drawing of +Charlotte Brontë in the National Portrait Gallery. I print his reply to +me written on March 2, 1907:-- + + "DEAR SIR,--I received the likeness of Charlotte Brontë (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 BRONTË + (Mrs. Arthur Bell Nicholls). + 1816-1855. + Novelist. Author of _Jane Eyre_ and other works. + Painted in 1850 by "Paul Héger." + Purchased, July 1906. + (1444) + + NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY CATALOGUE:-- + + Painted in water-colours in 1850, and stated to be by "Paul" + (or Constantin) Héger, after an earlier portrait by her brother + Branwell Brontë. + + NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE:-- + + Water-colour drawing stated to be by "Paul" (or Constantin) + Héger, after Branwell Brontë. + (1444) + +I may add that the inverted commas used in regard to M. Héger'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 Brontë 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. + +[101] In _Chapters from Some Memories_, by Anne Thackeray Ritchie. + +[102] By "Mrs. Brookfield's party" Lady Ritchie means the later +distinguished party. In _Mrs. Brookfield and her Circle_, page 305, vol +ii. (1905), a first dinner given by Mr. Thackeray for Charlotte Brontë +in November 1849, is spoken of by Mrs. Brookfield as not having been a +success; and the second great party at which some clever women were +present, to meet Miss Brontë in 1851, is mentioned with the fact of the +non-success of the 1849 party, on pages 355-6. All this now leaves clear +the occasion of the 1850 private family dinner at Mr. Thackeray's house, +when Charlotte Brontë sat next Lady Ritchie in a light green dress. + +[103] Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Brontë_. + +[104] _Ibid._ + +[105] The Roman numerals refer to the Preface. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Key to the Brontë Works, by +John Malham-Dembleby + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40655 *** |