Letter from Dinah Mulock Craik to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 18 December 1856Vertical Tabs Reader Choose Stylesheet TAPAS GenericTEI BoilerplateXML ViewToggle Soft WrapToggle Invisibles<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <?xml-model href="http://www.tei-c.org/release/xml/tei/custom/schema/relaxng/tei_ms.rng" type="application/xml" schematypens="http://relaxng.org/ns/structure/1.0"?> <?xml-model href="http://www.tei-c.org/release/xml/tei/custom/schema/relaxng/tei_ms.rng" type="application/xml" schematypens="http://purl.oclc.org/dsdl/schematron"?> <!--<?xml-model href="file:/Users/kaileyfukushima/Desktop/Schematron/CraikValidate.sch" type="application/xml" schematypens="http://purl.oclc.org/dsdl/schematron"?>--> <TEI xmlns="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"> <teiHeader> <fileDesc> <titleStmt> <title> Letter from <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#DMC">Dinah Mulock Craik</persName> to <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#BrowningElizabethBarrett">Elizabeth Barrett Browning</persName>, <date when="1856-12-18">18 December 1856.</date> </title> <author ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#DMC">Dinah Mulock Craik</author> <editor ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#BourrierKaren">Karen Bourrier</editor> <sponsor> <orgName>Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive</orgName> </sponsor> <sponsor>University of Calgary</sponsor> <principal>Karen Bourrier</principal> <respStmt> <resp>Transcription <date when="2008-05">May 2008</date> by</resp> <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#BourrierKaren">Karen Bourrier</persName> </respStmt> <respStmt> <resp>Proofing of transcription <date from="2015-06" to="2015-07">June-July 2015</date> by</resp> <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#FukushimaKailey">Kailey Fukushima</persName> </respStmt> <respStmt> <resp>TEI encoding <date from="2015-06" to="2015-07">June-July 2015</date> by</resp> <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#FukushimaKailey">Kailey Fukushima</persName> </respStmt> <respStmt> <resp>Proofing of TEI encoding <date from="2015-06" to="2015-07">June-July 2015</date> by</resp> <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#BourrierKaren">Karen Bourrier</persName> </respStmt> </titleStmt> <editionStmt> <edition> First digital edition in TEI, date: 15 August 2015. P5. </edition> </editionStmt> <publicationStmt> <authority>Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive</authority> <pubPlace>Calgary, Alberta, Canada</pubPlace> <date>2015</date> <availability> <p>Reproduced by courtesy of the <placeName>Princeton University</placeName>.</p> <licence> Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.</licence> </availability> </publicationStmt> <seriesStmt> <title>Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive</title> </seriesStmt> <sourceDesc> <msDesc> <msIdentifier> <repository ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#Princeton">Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library.</repository> <collection>M. L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists</collection> <idno>AM20794</idno> </msIdentifier> <head>Letter from <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#DMC">Dinah Mulock Craik</persName> to <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#BrowningElizabethBarrett">Elizabeth Barrett Browning</persName>, <date when="1856-12-18">18 December 1856.</date> </head> <additional> <adminInfo> <note>Box 6, Folder 24</note> </adminInfo> </additional> </msDesc> </sourceDesc> </fileDesc> <encodingDesc> <editorialDecl> <p>Our aim in this edition has been to transcribe the content of the letters as accurately as possible without reproducing the physical appearance of the manuscript. Craik’s spelling, punctuation, underlining, superscripts, abbreviations, additions and deletions are retained, except for words which are hyphenated at the end of a line, which we have silently emended. Where Craik uses a non-standard spelling, we have encoded both her spelling and the standard Oxford English Dictionary spelling to faciliate searching. The long s is not encoded.</p> </editorialDecl> </encodingDesc> </teiHeader> <text> <body> <div type="letter"> <dateline><date when="1856-12-18"><choice> <abbr>Dec</abbr> <expan>December</expan> </choice> 18. <hi rend="underdoubleline">1856</hi></date><lb/> <handShift corresp="CraikSiteIndex.xml#DMC"/><placeName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#Lynover">Lynover Cottage</placeName>, <placeName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#Kilburn">Kilburn</placeName>. <placeName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#London">London</placeName> <lb/><choice> <abbr><hi rend="underline">N. W.</hi></abbr> <expan>Northwest</expan> </choice> – <lb/>(Initials commanded by General Post Office)</dateline> <opener> <salute>My dear friend,</salute> </opener> <p>I may call you so? Knowing what you have been to me these many years.</p> <p>I wanted to write the day after I saw you – but did not. It was only to say that I had not said half I wished to say – that morning – feeling weak & nervous with being confined to the house for months: – that was the first day of my quitting it – almost. Also to tell the honest truth – mean confession for a woman of thirty! – I care for you so much that when I see you I feel frightened & shy like a girl of sixteen – Don’t let <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#BrowningRobert">Mr. <hi rend="underline" >Browning</hi></persName> laugh at <add place="above">this for</add> sentimentalism – you two are the last of my enthusias<unclear reason="illegible" ><mod type="subst"><del rend="overwrite">tic</del><add place="inline" >m</add></mod></unclear>s – you specially being a woman. – Honestly, that morning, I felt like a fool – But I will not be ashamed of my folly. – It’s something for any human being to owe as much to other human beings as I to both of you – And to love you in this sort of way – that it makes one feel foolish. – So – no more of this. I have said it out & am easy in my mind. – </p> <p><date when="1856-12-17">Last night</date> I finished <title corresp="CraikSiteIndex.xml#AuroraLeigh">Aurora Leigh</title>. – It seems to me the completest Poem, if not one of the grandest books, that any woman ever wrote – but many will have told you this, or the like. – I feel I have no right even to praise. I don’t <add place="above"><hi rend="underline" >praise</hi></add> I <hi rend="underline">love</hi> you. I love in you the womanhood that speaks out what we women are & want & feel. that is not afraid of, nor shrinks from, saying anything right to be said. – that walks with clean feet <choice> <abbr>thro’</abbr> <expan>through</expan> </choice> uncleanest ways & helps publicans & sinners – as <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#JesusChrist">Christ</persName> did. – I can’t tell you how thoroughly the book seems a <hi rend="underline">gospel</hi> – a message sent & needed – putting aside all the Poet in it – (you know what you are) – it is apostolic – striking through darkness & foulness & confusion with a clear ray of daylight – of the Light Himself. – Especially to us women. – <unclear reason="illegible">As</unclear> it’s worth any living, any suffering to have written for women a book like that – you may go out of life content – leaving that behind you. – Do I make clear – I’m afraid not – what I mean? that it is not the fame, nor the glory of it, that I feel about this book – it’s the <hi rend="underline">truth</hi> in it – the loss & love in it – the hope in it – hope that one almost loses, (in everything but the sermon on the mount) – concerning this our humanity that God seems so far away from, sometimes – In many a little half-line here & there you have put more of Him & His truth than one finds in <measure commodity="books" quantity="50">50 books</measure> or <measure commodity="sermons" quantity="100">100 sermons</measure>. Dear & Good & True! – I shall get foolish again if I think of you – Do you understand? It isn’t the fame – it’s <hi rend="underline">you</hi>. There’s something in <hi rend="underline">me</hi> which runs after & holds to & seems to understand <hi rend="underline" >you</hi> – Personally, it never may – in fact it is hardly possible – with lives so wide apart. Nevertheless I have you – quite close: – & always shall. – If you would now & then – as seldom as you like – let me have a word or two about yourself, <rs type="person" ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#BrowningRobert">your husband</rs> & <rs type="person" ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#BrowningPen">boy</rs> – it would be very pleasant. My life is almost as quiet as your own – I hardly ever know what it is to feel strong & well – & rarely or never visit – This winter not at all – so that the news I catch of you is <choice> <sic>meagre</sic> <reg resp="CraikSiteIndex.xml#FukushimaKailey">meager</reg> </choice> & seldom. – I hope you are well – at least as well as you are in winter time usually. – Where you are I have no idea – this comes <choice> <abbr>thro’</abbr> <expan>through</expan> </choice> <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#ChapmanFrederic">Mr. Chapman</persName>. – </p> <p>Dear friend God bless you – & give you a happy life – it must be happy, it is so good. And it <hi rend="underline">makes</hi> goodness – Forgive this wandering sort of letter – which utterly in vain tries to express what it means – I feel that – possibly because it is inexpressible. – </p> <closer>your affectionate <lb/><signed><persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#DMC">Dinah Mulock – </persName></signed> <dateline> <date when="1856-12-18"><choice> <abbr>Dec</abbr> <expan>December</expan> </choice> 18<hi rend="superscript">th</hi> – /<choice> <abbr>56</abbr> <expan>1856</expan> </choice></date> </dateline> </closer> <postscript> <p>Remember me to <rs type="person" ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#BrowningRobert">your husband</rs> – he is greater than you – even you could not have made some of the “men & women” – I stand in great “ho<unclear reason="illegible">n</unclear>” (as <persName ref="CraikSiteIndex.xml#ThackerayWilliamMakepeace">Thackeray</persName> spells it) even of the shadow of his shoe-tie. I adore him afar off!! – but then I <hi rend="underline">love</hi> you. – Here shall be an end – Not one word more – </p> </postscript> </div> </body> </text> </TEI> Hide page breaks Views diplomatic normalized Letter from Dinah Mulock Craik to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 18 December 1856. Dinah Mulock Craik Karen Bourrier Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive University of Calgary Karen Bourrier Transcription May 2008 by Karen Bourrier Proofing of transcription June-July 2015 by Kailey Fukushima TEI encoding June-July 2015 by Kailey Fukushima Proofing of TEI encoding June-July 2015 by Karen Bourrier First digital edition in TEI, date: 15 August 2015. P5. Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive Calgary, Alberta, Canada 2015 Reproduced by courtesy of the Princeton University. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. M. L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists AM20794 Letter from Dinah Mulock Craik to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 18 December 1856. Box 6, Folder 24 Our aim in this edition has been to transcribe the content of the letters as accurately as possible without reproducing the physical appearance of the manuscript. Craik’s spelling, punctuation, underlining, superscripts, abbreviations, additions and deletions are retained, except for words which are hyphenated at the end of a line, which we have silently emended. Where Craik uses a non-standard spelling, we have encoded both her spelling and the standard Oxford English Dictionary spelling to faciliate searching. The long s is not encoded. Dec December 18. 1856 Lynover Cottage, Kilburn. London N. W. Northwest – (Initials commanded by General Post Office) My dear friend, I may call you so? Knowing what you have been to me these many years. I wanted to write the day after I saw you – but did not. It was only to say that I had not said half I wished to say – that morning – feeling weak & nervous with being confined to the house for months: – that was the first day of my quitting it – almost. Also to tell the honest truth – mean confession for a woman of thirty! – I care for you so much that when I see you I feel frightened & shy like a girl of sixteen – Don’t let Mr. Browning laugh at this for sentimentalism – you two are the last of my enthusias tic m s – you specially being a woman. – Honestly, that morning, I felt like a fool – But I will not be ashamed of my folly. – It’s something for any human being to owe as much to other human beings as I to both of you – And to love you in this sort of way – that it makes one feel foolish. – So – no more of this. I have said it out & am easy in my mind. – Last night I finished Aurora Leigh. – It seems to me the completest Poem, if not one of the grandest books, that any woman ever wrote – but many will have told you this, or the like. – I feel I have no right even to praise. I don’t praise I love you. I love in you the womanhood that speaks out what we women are & want & feel. that is not afraid of, nor shrinks from, saying anything right to be said. – that walks with clean feet thro’ through uncleanest ways & helps publicans & sinners – as Christ did. – I can’t tell you how thoroughly the book seems a gospel – a message sent & needed – putting aside all the Poet in it – (you know what you are) – it is apostolic – striking through darkness & foulness & confusion with a clear ray of daylight – of the Light Himself. – Especially to us women. – As it’s worth any living, any suffering to have written for women a book like that – you may go out of life content – leaving that behind you. – Do I make clear – I’m afraid not – what I mean? that it is not the fame, nor the glory of it, that I feel about this book – it’s the truth in it – the loss & love in it – the hope in it – hope that one almost loses, (in everything but the sermon on the mount) – concerning this our humanity that God seems so far away from, sometimes – In many a little half-line here & there you have put more of Him & His truth than one finds in 50 books or 100 sermons. Dear & Good & True! – I shall get foolish again if I think of you – Do you understand? It isn’t the fame – it’s you. There’s something in me which runs after & holds to & seems to understand you – Personally, it never may – in fact it is hardly possible – with lives so wide apart. Nevertheless I have you – quite close: – & always shall. – If you would now & then – as seldom as you like – let me have a word or two about yourself, your husband & boy – it would be very pleasant. My life is almost as quiet as your own – I hardly ever know what it is to feel strong & well – & rarely or never visit – This winter not at all – so that the news I catch of you is meagre meager & seldom. – I hope you are well – at least as well as you are in winter time usually. – Where you are I have no idea – this comes thro’ through Mr. Chapman. – Dear friend God bless you – & give you a happy life – it must be happy, it is so good. And it makes goodness – Forgive this wandering sort of letter – which utterly in vain tries to express what it means – I feel that – possibly because it is inexpressible. – your affectionate Dinah Mulock – Dec December 18th – /56 1856 Remember me to your husband – he is greater than you – even you could not have made some of the “men & women” – I stand in great “hon” (as Thackeray spells it) even of the shadow of his shoe-tie. I adore him afar off!! – but then I love you. – Here shall be an end – Not one word more – ToolboxHide page breaks Themes: Default Sleepy Time Terminal Letter from Dinah Mulock Craik to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 18 December 1856. Dinah Mulock Craik Karen Bourrier Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive University of Calgary Karen Bourrier Transcription May 2008 by Karen Bourrier Proofing of transcription June-July 2015 by Kailey Fukushima TEI encoding June-July 2015 by Kailey Fukushima Proofing of TEI encoding June-July 2015 by Karen Bourrier First digital edition in TEI, date: 15 August 2015. P5. Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive Calgary, Alberta, Canada 2015 Reproduced by courtesy of the Princeton University. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive Manuscripts Division, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library. M. L. Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists AM20794 Letter from Dinah Mulock Craik to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 18 December 1856. Box 6, Folder 24 Our aim in this edition has been to transcribe the content of the letters as accurately as possible without reproducing the physical appearance of the manuscript. Craik’s spelling, punctuation, underlining, superscripts, abbreviations, additions and deletions are retained, except for words which are hyphenated at the end of a line, which we have silently emended. Where Craik uses a non-standard spelling, we have encoded both her spelling and the standard Oxford English Dictionary spelling to faciliate searching. The long s is not encoded. Dec December 18. 1856 Lynover Cottage, Kilburn. London N. W. Northwest – (Initials commanded by General Post Office) My dear friend, I may call you so? Knowing what you have been to me these many years. I wanted to write the day after I saw you – but did not. It was only to say that I had not said half I wished to say – that morning – feeling weak & nervous with being confined to the house for months: – that was the first day of my quitting it – almost. Also to tell the honest truth – mean confession for a woman of thirty! – I care for you so much that when I see you I feel frightened & shy like a girl of sixteen – Don’t let Mr. Browning laugh at this for sentimentalism – you two are the last of my enthusias tic m s – you specially being a woman. – Honestly, that morning, I felt like a fool – But I will not be ashamed of my folly. – It’s something for any human being to owe as much to other human beings as I to both of you – And to love you in this sort of way – that it makes one feel foolish. – So – no more of this. I have said it out & am easy in my mind. – Last night I finished Aurora Leigh. – It seems to me the completest Poem, if not one of the grandest books, that any woman ever wrote – but many will have told you this, or the like. – I feel I have no right even to praise. I don’t praise I love you. I love in you the womanhood that speaks out what we women are & want & feel. that is not afraid of, nor shrinks from, saying anything right to be said. – that walks with clean feet thro’ through uncleanest ways & helps publicans & sinners – as Christ did. – I can’t tell you how thoroughly the book seems a gospel – a message sent & needed – putting aside all the Poet in it – (you know what you are) – it is apostolic – striking through darkness & foulness & confusion with a clear ray of daylight – of the Light Himself. – Especially to us women. – As it’s worth any living, any suffering to have written for women a book like that – you may go out of life content – leaving that behind you. – Do I make clear – I’m afraid not – what I mean? that it is not the fame, nor the glory of it, that I feel about this book – it’s the truth in it – the loss & love in it – the hope in it – hope that one almost loses, (in everything but the sermon on the mount) – concerning this our humanity that God seems so far away from, sometimes – In many a little half-line here & there you have put more of Him & His truth than one finds in 50 books or 100 sermons. Dear & Good & True! – I shall get foolish again if I think of you – Do you understand? It isn’t the fame – it’s you. There’s something in me which runs after & holds to & seems to understand you – Personally, it never may – in fact it is hardly possible – with lives so wide apart. Nevertheless I have you – quite close: – & always shall. – If you would now & then – as seldom as you like – let me have a word or two about yourself, your husband & boy – it would be very pleasant. My life is almost as quiet as your own – I hardly ever know what it is to feel strong & well – & rarely or never visit – This winter not at all – so that the news I catch of you is meagre meager & seldom. – I hope you are well – at least as well as you are in winter time usually. – Where you are I have no idea – this comes thro’ through Mr. Chapman. – Dear friend God bless you – & give you a happy life – it must be happy, it is so good. And it makes goodness – Forgive this wandering sort of letter – which utterly in vain tries to express what it means – I feel that – possibly because it is inexpressible. – your affectionate Dinah Mulock – Dec December 18th – / 56 1856 Remember me to your husband – he is greater than you – even you could not have made some of the “men & women” – I stand in great “hon” (as Thackeray spells it) even of the shadow of his shoe-tie. I adore him afar off!! – but then I love you. – Here shall be an end – Not one word more – Metadata TAPAS Title:Letter from Dinah Mulock Craik to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 18 December 1856Title:Letter from Dinah Mulock Craik to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 18 December 1856.TAPAS Author:Dinah Mulock Craik (Author)TAPAS Contributor:Karen Bourrier (Contributor)Author/Creator:Dinah Mulock Craik (Author)Contributor:Karen Bourrier (Editor)Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive (Sponsor)University of Calgary (Sponsor)Karen Bourrier (Research team head)Karen Bourrier (Transcription May 2008 by)Kailey Fukushima (Proofing of transcription June-July 2015 by)Kailey Fukushima (TEI encoding June-July 2015 by)Karen Bourrier (Proofing of TEI encoding June-July 2015 by)Imprint:First digital edition in TEI, date: 15 August 2015. P5. - Calgary, Alberta, Canada : Dinah Mulock Craik: A Digital Archive, 2015Type of resource:TextGenre:Texts (document genres) Files TEI File: PU05.xml Project Details Project: Digital Dinah CraikCollection: Parrish Collection of Victorian Novelists at Princeton University
