GE to John Blackwood, Torquay, [4? April 1868]
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Torquay, [4? April 1868]
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Torquay, [4? April 1868]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1868-04-04
Place
Torquay
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Torquay, [4? April 1868]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Mostly published: Cross, III, 35-36.
Carclew | Hesketh Road | Torquay.
My dear Sir
Mr. Lewes quite agrees with you that it is desirable to announce the poem. His suggestion is, that it should be simply announced as "a poem" first, and then a little later as "The Spanish Gypsy," in order to give a new detail for observation in the second announcement. I chose the title "The Spanish Gypsy" a long time ago, because it is a little in the fashion of the elder dramatists with whom I have perhaps more cousinship than with recent poets. Fedalma might be mistaken for an Italian name, which would create a definite expectation of a mistaken kind, and is on other grounds less to my taste than "The Spanish Gypsy." If you have any preference for the plan of advertising the title at once, let that preference decide.
This place is becoming a little London or London suburb. Everywhere houses and streets are being built and Babbacombe will soon be joined to Torquay.
I almost envy you the excitement of golf which helps the fresh air to exhilarate, and gives variety of exercise. Walking can never be so good as a game -- if one loves the game. But when a friend of Mr. Lewes's urges him angrily to play at "racket" 736 for his health, the prospect seems dreary.
We are afraid of being entangled in excursion trains or crowds of Easter holiday-makers in Easter week, and may possibly be driven back next Wednesday. 737 But we are loth to have our stay so curtailed.
Mr. Lewes sends his kind regards -- and pities all of us who are less interested in ganglionic cells. He is in a state of beatitude about the poem.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
A sudden consciousness makes me ashamed -- namely in a moment of stupidity I somewhere in the proof corrected Fedalma into Fidalma which of course is wrong. It was dreamy muddleheadedness of mine.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Mostly published: Cross, III, 35-36.
Carclew | Hesketh Road | Torquay.
My dear Sir
Mr. Lewes quite agrees with you that it is desirable to announce the poem. His suggestion is, that it should be simply announced as "a poem" first, and then a little later as "The Spanish Gypsy," in order to give a new detail for observation in the second announcement. I chose the title "The Spanish Gypsy" a long time ago, because it is a little in the fashion of the elder dramatists with whom I have perhaps more cousinship than with recent poets. Fedalma might be mistaken for an Italian name, which would create a definite expectation of a mistaken kind, and is on other grounds less to my taste than "The Spanish Gypsy." If you have any preference for the plan of advertising the title at once, let that preference decide.
This place is becoming a little London or London suburb. Everywhere houses and streets are being built and Babbacombe will soon be joined to Torquay.
I almost envy you the excitement of golf which helps the fresh air to exhilarate, and gives variety of exercise. Walking can never be so good as a game -- if one loves the game. But when a friend of Mr. Lewes's urges him angrily to play at "racket" 736 for his health, the prospect seems dreary.
We are afraid of being entangled in excursion trains or crowds of Easter holiday-makers in Easter week, and may possibly be driven back next Wednesday. 737 But we are loth to have our stay so curtailed.
Mr. Lewes sends his kind regards -- and pities all of us who are less interested in ganglionic cells. He is in a state of beatitude about the poem.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
A sudden consciousness makes me ashamed -- namely in a moment of stupidity I somewhere in the proof corrected Fedalma into Fidalma which of course is wrong. It was dreamy muddleheadedness of mine.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Torquay, [4? April 1868], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/92729