GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 30 July 1861
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 30 July 1861
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 30 July 1861
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1861-07-30
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 30 July 1861
MS: Yale. Mostly published: Cross, II, 311-312.
Blandford Square, | N.W.
July 30. 61.
Dear Sara
Since I make my moan to you about my griefs, I ought to tell you when they are at an end, lest you should have the least bit of a causeless ache for me. Mr. Lewes has been much better, and in fair working order, for the last ten days or a fortnight, and I might have written to you cheerfully and thanked you for your suggestion of the aerated bread sooner than this, if I had not been preoccupied with various little affairs.
Thornie, our second boy is at home from Edinburgh, 823 for his holidays, and I am apt to give more thought than is necessary to any little change in our routine.
We had a treat the other night which I wish you could have shared with us: we saw Fechter in Hamlet. 824 His conception of the part is very nearly that indicated by the critical observations in Wilhelm Meister, and the result is deeply interesting -- the naturalness and sensibility of the Wesen overcoming in most cases the defective intonation. And even the intonation is occasionally admirable; for example, "and for my soul, what can he do to that etc." 825 is given by Fechter with perfect simplicity, whereas the herd of English actors imagine themselves in a pulpit when they are saying it.
Apropos of the pulpit, I had another failure in my search for edification last Sunday. Mrs. Bodichon and I went to Little Portland St. Chapel, and lo, instead of James Martineau there was a respectable old Unitarian gentleman preaching about the dangers of ignorance and the satisfaction of a good conscience in a tone of amiable propriety which seemed to belong to a period when brains were untroubled by difficulties and the lacteals 826 of all good Christians were in perfect order. I enjoyed the fine selection of Collects he read from the Liturgy. What an age of earnest faith, grasping a noble conception of life and determined to bring all things into harmony with it, has recorded itself in the simple pregnant, rhythmical English of those Collects and of the Bible! The contrast when the good man got into the pulpit and began to pray in a borrowed washy lingo -- ex tempore in more senses than one!
Ever yours
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Mostly published: Cross, II, 311-312.
Blandford Square, | N.W.
July 30. 61.
Dear Sara
Since I make my moan to you about my griefs, I ought to tell you when they are at an end, lest you should have the least bit of a causeless ache for me. Mr. Lewes has been much better, and in fair working order, for the last ten days or a fortnight, and I might have written to you cheerfully and thanked you for your suggestion of the aerated bread sooner than this, if I had not been preoccupied with various little affairs.
Thornie, our second boy is at home from Edinburgh, 823 for his holidays, and I am apt to give more thought than is necessary to any little change in our routine.
We had a treat the other night which I wish you could have shared with us: we saw Fechter in Hamlet. 824 His conception of the part is very nearly that indicated by the critical observations in Wilhelm Meister, and the result is deeply interesting -- the naturalness and sensibility of the Wesen overcoming in most cases the defective intonation. And even the intonation is occasionally admirable; for example, "and for my soul, what can he do to that etc." 825 is given by Fechter with perfect simplicity, whereas the herd of English actors imagine themselves in a pulpit when they are saying it.
Apropos of the pulpit, I had another failure in my search for edification last Sunday. Mrs. Bodichon and I went to Little Portland St. Chapel, and lo, instead of James Martineau there was a respectable old Unitarian gentleman preaching about the dangers of ignorance and the satisfaction of a good conscience in a tone of amiable propriety which seemed to belong to a period when brains were untroubled by difficulties and the lacteals 826 of all good Christians were in perfect order. I enjoyed the fine selection of Collects he read from the Liturgy. What an age of earnest faith, grasping a noble conception of life and determined to bring all things into harmony with it, has recorded itself in the simple pregnant, rhythmical English of those Collects and of the Bible! The contrast when the good man got into the pulpit and began to pray in a borrowed washy lingo -- ex tempore in more senses than one!
Ever yours
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 30 July 1861, 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/94050