The Life of Charlotte Bronte (75 page)

3
(p. 69) “Wellington
and two sons”:
Charlotte’s lifelong hero was Arthur Wellesley (1769-1852), the Irish-born career soldier and Tory politician who was made duke of Wellington for his victories over Napoleon, which included the decisive Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Wellington later served as prime minister (1828-1830). The Marquis of Douro and Lord Charles Wellesley (Brontë’s favored persona in her younger years) were Wellington’s two sons.

4
(p. 70)
Blackwood’s Magazine:
The
Leeds Intelligencer
(founded 1754) and the
Leeds
Mercury (founded 1718) were regional newspapers. The character John Bull appeared in a series of satirical Tory pamphlets (1712).
Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine
(founded 1817) was a monthly magazine with a Tory bent that covered literary and political issues.

5
(p. 71)
“Friendship’s Offering
for 1829”: The reference is to an annual miscellany of poetry, prose, and engravings published by Smith, Elder and Company, later to be Brontë’s publisher.

6
(p. 72)
”the great Catholic
question”: The Catholic Emancipation Act (1829), the culmination of a series of laws passed beginning in the eighteenth century, lifted most civil restrictions imposed on Catholics and allowed them to stand for Parliament.

1
(p. 78)
Miss
Woolers,
who lived at Roe Head
: The four Wooler sisters ran the school Charlotte Brontë and her sisters attended at Roe Head. Charlotte was subsequently employed as a teacher there. The school relocated to Dewsbury Moor in 1837. Margaret Wooler became a lasting friend of Charlotte’s.

2
(p. 81) E.’s
home was five miles away:
Ellen Nussey (1817-1897), Brontë’s closest friend, lived at Brookroyd House, Birstall, Yorkshire. Some suggest that the Brontë—Nussey correspondence, which forms the basis for much of the
Life,
results in a one-dimensional portrait of Brontë, who notably did not discuss her literary affairs with Nussey. See the Introduction for a more detailed account of their relationship.

3
(p. 81)
(The Rose and Jessie Yorke of “Shirley”):
Mary (1817-1893) and Martha (1819-1842) Taylor. The Taylors lived in Gomersal and later at Hunsworth, both in Yorkshire. Brontë met them at Roe Head; they later attended school at the same time in Brussels, where Martha died. Mary was independent and outspoken, and she championed women’s rights. Dismayed by the employment opportunities available to women in England, Mary emigrated to New Zealand in 1845. She destroyed all of Brontë’s letters but the one describing her first visit to the offices of Smith, Elder and Company.

4
(p. 83)
“She knew the names of the two
ministries...
the Reform Bill”:
The Reform Bill of 1832 extended enfranchisement by lowering property qualifications for voters and redistributing parliamentary seats from rural areas (known as “rotten” or “pocket” boroughs) controlled by the gentry, to heavily populated urban areas that had previously been underrepresented.

5
(p. 84) ‘Frazer’s
Magazine’:
A Tory periodical founded in 1830, Fraser’s
Magazine
was a rival to Blackwood’s
Edinburgh Magazine.

6
(p. 88)
burning of
Cartwright’s Mill: In April 1812 more than one hundred Luddites attacked William Cartwright’s mill in Huddersfield, not far from Haworth. Cartwright defended his property with the aid of a few soldiers. Two Luddites were killed. Several weeks later the Luddites murdered local mill owner William Horsfall. Brontë dramatized this incident in Shirley.

7
(p. 89)
Mr. Roberson, of Heald’s Hall:
Reverend Hammond Roberson (1757-1841) functions almost as a foil for Patrick Brontë, who, though a Tory, was far more tolerant and less doctrinaire in his allegiances than Roberson was. Although Brontë supported the mill owners in the conflict with the Luddites, in other disputes he supported the workers.

1
(pp. 96-97) “J‘arrivait
d
Haworth... elles auront
ce plaisir”:
“I arrived at Haworth in perfect safety without the slightest accident or misfortune. My little sisters ran out of the house to meet me as soon as the carriage could be seen, and they embraced me with as much eagerness and pleasure as if I had been away for more than a year. My Papa, my aunt, and the gentleman of whom my brother had spoken, were all assembled in the parlor, and in a little while I went in as well. It is often Heaven’s order that when one loses a pleasure there is another ready to take its place. Just so, I had to leave very dear friends, but I returned to a family as dear and beloved. Likewise, as you were losing me (dare I believe that my departure caused you pain?) you awaited the arrival of your brother and sister. I gave my sisters the apples you kindly sent them; they said that they are certain Miss E. is very amiable and good; all are extremely impatient to see you; I hope that in very few months time they will have that pleasure” (translated by Anne Taranto) .

2
(p. 97)
Wordsworth’s and
Southey’s
poems:
Robert Southey (1774-1843) was poet laureate from 1813 until his death. William Wordsworth (1770-1850) was considered the founder, along with Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834), of the Romantic movement in poetry; Wordsworth became poet laureate upon Southey’s death.

3
(pp 97-98)
“mad Methodist Magazines”: The
Wesleyan-Methodist
Magazine
(founded 1778) and
The Lady’s Magazine, or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex
(1770-1848) were publications Mrs. Brontë brought with her from Cornwall when she married. Gaskell includes these examples to show the imaginative legacy Brontë received from her mother.

4
(p. 100)
“British
Essayists”
...
”The
Lounger”: British Essayists
(1807-1808) was a compilation by the biographer and prolific editor Alexander Chalmers. Essays of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) appeared in the periodical
The Rambler
(1750-1752). Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) was editor and chief contributor to the Scottish periodicals The
Mirrour
(1779-1780) and
The Lounger
(1785-1787).

5
(p. 103)
“read the rest fearlessly”:
Brontë’s course of reading for Nussey contains some books that were thought inappropriate for young women, such as Lord Byron’s Cain (1821) and Don Juan (1819-1824), and Shakespeare’s bawdier comedies. This list is a testimony to Patrick Brontë’s liberal attitude toward his daughter’s education, whether from benign neglect, as Gaskell posits, or other motives.

1
(p. 109)
in her place
at
Miss Wooler’s:
The quoted paragraph that follows is taken from Brontë prefatory remarks to the selection of her sisters’ poetry appended to the second edition of Wuthering
Heights and
Agnes
Grey
(1850).

2
(p. 110)
duties of the day... tedious and monotonous:
Brontë’s fragmentary“ Roe Head Journal,” which Gaskell does not quote from, is more expressive than are her letters to Nussey about her frustration with her current employment and her consequent depression. Brontë registers her anger at being interrupted by a student in a moment of inspiration: “I felt as if I could have written gloriously.... But just then a Dolt came up with a lesson. I thought I should have vomited” (Barker, ed. The Brontës: A Life in Letters, p. 39).

3
(p. 110) an
event
happened...
good deal of interest:
This anecdote detailing the supposed genesis of Jane Eyre is omitted in the third edition.

4
(p. 112)
any other poet:
In the third edition Gaskell adds Mary Taylor’s comment that Cowper’s popular poem “The Castaway” was a favorite in the Brontë household. Gaskell’s insistence on the affinity between Brontë and Cowper stems from her desire to find an analogue for Brontë in the mainstream Christian poet who struggled with depression and religious doubt. Brontë does not include Cowper among the “first-rate” poets in the reading list she prepares for Ellen Nussey (see note 4 to volume I, chapter VII).

5
(p. 112)
“they fly from my lips
as
if I were Tantalus:”
Tantalus is the Greek mythological figure punished with eternal thirst and hunger for transgressing against the gods; he is thus an emblem of thwarted desire.

6
(p. 117)
Coleridge:
Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849), a minor poet and critic, was the son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (endnote 1 to volume I, chapter VII).

7
(p. 117)
given by the poet to Mr.
Quillinan : Edward Quillinan was Wordsworth’s son-in-law. Gaskell is mistaken about Wordsworth’s estimation of Branwell’s letter. In fact, according to Southey, Wordsworth was “disgusted” by the letter’s “gross flattery” and “abuse of other poets“” and declined to answer it. Why he preserved it is unclear (Southey to Caroline Bowles, March 27, 1837; in
The Letters of Charlotte
Brontë, vol. 1, p. 171, note 1).

8
(p. 132)
some one having
a
slight
resemblance... in
holy orders:
Ellen Nussey’s brother, Henry, proposed to Brontë in the spring of 1839. He received a prompt rejection: ”I am not the serious, grave, cool-headed individual you suppose—you would think me romantic and eccentric.... I will never for the sake of... escaping the stigma of an old maid take a worthy man whom I am conscious I cannot render happy“ (Charlotte Brontë to Henry Nussey, March 5, 1839; in
The Letters of Charlotte
Brontë, vol. 1, pp. 185-186).

9
(p. 134)
“Anne’s departure”:
This refers to Anne’s leaving to be a governess to the Inghams at Blake Hall. She was dismissed within the year

10
(p. 135)
engaged as
a
governess:
Charlotte was employed by the Sidgwicks of Stonegappe, near Lothersdale, from May to July 1839. She was responsible for two children aged four and six. Charlotte complained to her sister Emily that Mrs. Sidgwick cared “nothing in the world about me except how to contrive the greatest possible quantity of labour may be squeezed out of me” (Charlotte Brontë to Emily Brontë, June 8, 1839; in
The Letters of Charlotte
Brontë, vol. 1, p. 191).

11
(p. 139)
the assistance of
a
curate:
William Weightman (1814-1842) was the curate at Haworth for three years (1839-1842). Although Weightman was an integral and beloved member of the parsonage while he served there, Gaskell suppresses almost all information about him, presumably because, in letters Gaskell omits, Charlotte Brontë and Nussey both manifest signs of infatuation with the young curate.

12
(p. 140)
his own curate:
Brontë’s second proposal of marriage came from David Pryce (sometimes Bryce; 1811-1840), curate to William Hodgson, who was formerly Patrick Brontë’s curate.

13
(p. 143)
“drop my subscription to the Jews”:
“The Jews” is shorthand for the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, founded in 1809.

1
(p. 146) the
“Spectator”:
A periodical published by Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and Richard Steele (1672-1729), the
Spectator
(1711-1712) satirized the mores of its times.

2
(p. 148)
employed her leisure hours in writing
a
story:
Brontë was writing “Ashworth,” an untitled and incomplete novel. See Christine Alexander, ed.,
Early Writings of Charlotte
Brontë (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), p. 204.

3
(p. 149) “
whether
his ‘C.T.’ meant
Charles Timms or Charlotte Tomkins
”: Gaskell, anxious about the letter’s irreverent tone, liberally edits out material without using ellipses, as she does elsewhere, to indicate missing text. Among the comments Gaskell censors is Brontë’s taunting remark on gender anonymity: “Several young gentlemen curl their hair and wear corsets—and several young ladies are excellent whips and by no means despicable jockies,” and her facetious wonder that Hartley Coleridge deigned to read her “demi-semi” novelette (Charlotte Brontë, draft letter to H. Coleridge, December 1840; in
The Letters of Charlotte
Brontë, vol. 1, p. 237).

4
(p. 151)
“Puseyite or
a
Hookist:”
This is a reference to the followers of Edward Bouverie Pusey and Walter Farquhar Hook, important figures of the Oxford Movement, which advocated a return to formalism in the Anglican Church.

5
(p. 155)
“Mr. and Mrs.
—?”
: Mr. and Mrs. Collins are possibly the models for the abusive marriage portrayed by Anne Brontë in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).

1
(p. 158) “Mr. and Mrs.—”: Brontë was governess to the White family, Upperwood House, from March to December 1841. She was responsible for two children, aged six and eight. Of her charges Brontë observed: “The children are not such little devils incarnate as the Sidgwicks, but they are over-indulged, and at times hard to manage” (Charlotte Brontë to Ellen Nussey, March 21, 1841; in The
Letters of Charlotte
Brontë, vol. 1, p. 248).

1
(p. 170) pensionnat
of Madame
Héger: Claire Zöe Heger (1804-1890), later fictionalized as Mme. Beck in Villette (1853), was the director of the school Brontë and her sister Emily attended in Brussels. Her husband, Constantin Heger (1809-1896), the model for Paul Emanuel in Villette, was a rhetoric professor at the Athénée Royale, an upper school for boys. In addition to teaching at his wife’s boarding school, he also conducted evening classes for factory workers.

2
(p. 171)
and straight returned to his wild Yorkshire
village: Actually, Patrick Brontë visited the battlefield at Waterloo and toured Brussels before returning home.