Robert Lytton to GHL, Sintra, 11 February 1866
Title
Robert Lytton to GHL, Sintra, 11 February 1866
Title
Robert Lytton to GHL, Sintra, 11 February 1866
Sender
Robert Lytton
Recipient
M
Date(s)
- 1866-02-11
Place
Sintra
Letter Content
Robert Lytton to GHL, Sintra, 11 February 1866
MS: Yale.
Cintra. 11 February 1866.
My dear Lewes
I am ashamed of having left so long unanswered your very kind letter of some months ago about my verses in the Fortnightly. The cause of my silence, however, is so bad a one, that it constitutes a very good excuse. I have for some months past been suffering from a strange diminution of sight almost amounting to total blindness of one eye, which the occulists have attributed to congestion of the nerve of the retina. It came on suddenly with the appearance of a small circular cloud about the size of a sixpence between the right eye and all objects, -- black by day and blood red by night. For many months I have in consequence of this been under Doctor's orders to abstain altogether from either reading or writing. But I am now conscious of rapid progress towards complete recovery, and have already regained almost the full strength of the eye affected. I hasten to apologize, and account for these tardy thanks for your welcome letter.
I assure you my dear Lewes that I am exceedingly flattered by your wish for further contributions from me to the F[ortnightly]. It is impossible for me to overstate the peculiar interest which, for a host of reasons, I feel in the success of your hitherto most successful undertaking. To contribute however feebly towards the existence of the Fortnightly I should have worked con amore: and I may mention that when my sight was first attacked I was about the preparation of some historical sketches, in prose, as well as some reflections on the elements of Tragedy and a paper upon Mr. Hare's electoral theory, in the hope that I might be able to make them available for the F. But the Doctors still enjoin upon me abstinence from brain work of any kind for some time to come, and the little which I can do in that way I am constrained to confine to the completion of a new book of verse which has been dawdling at the end of my pen for more than six years, and which for many reasons I am anxious to complete if possible by next Autumn. I cannot therefore -- for the present at any rate -- attempt to prove my good will in the way I should wish -- by Contributions.
I wish to heavens I could enjoy the privilege of more frequent intercourse with you, and if I could move just now I would make a journey on the chance of seeing you at the end of it. You will not understand, and I don't think I could explain, if I tried to do so, the strength of this wish: but there has been much in my mind of late, that shapes itself more and more into strong yearnings for reference to your opinion. I shall certainly be here till latish into the Autumn months of this year. I daresay you will be passing a holiday somewhere abroad between this and then. How I wish I could tempt you to pass it, while we are yet here, at Cintra which is one of the loveliest spots I have yet seen in Europe! If yourself and Mrs. Lewes were travelling without your little ones, and would be our guests, we could put you up at our Villa here: and anyhow as I shall during the whole of the summer be in charge of the Mission at Lisbon, I should have the means of making myself serviceable to you if you came this way.
I should take it as exceedingly kind of you if you could at any time spare ten minutes to makr and send me those corrections of the [Apple of Life] which your absence from England prevented your making on the text of those verses. I may print the verses again; and should be grateful for the benefit of your suggestions for the improvement of them. My wife is in ecstacies with your paper on Comte, 697 which has deeply interested and delighted us both. When I was in Holland, years ago, I found there a large colony of his religious disciples and taxpayers.
Ever faithfully yours
R. Lytton.
MS: Yale.
Cintra. 11 February 1866.
My dear Lewes
I am ashamed of having left so long unanswered your very kind letter of some months ago about my verses in the Fortnightly. The cause of my silence, however, is so bad a one, that it constitutes a very good excuse. I have for some months past been suffering from a strange diminution of sight almost amounting to total blindness of one eye, which the occulists have attributed to congestion of the nerve of the retina. It came on suddenly with the appearance of a small circular cloud about the size of a sixpence between the right eye and all objects, -- black by day and blood red by night. For many months I have in consequence of this been under Doctor's orders to abstain altogether from either reading or writing. But I am now conscious of rapid progress towards complete recovery, and have already regained almost the full strength of the eye affected. I hasten to apologize, and account for these tardy thanks for your welcome letter.
I assure you my dear Lewes that I am exceedingly flattered by your wish for further contributions from me to the F[ortnightly]. It is impossible for me to overstate the peculiar interest which, for a host of reasons, I feel in the success of your hitherto most successful undertaking. To contribute however feebly towards the existence of the Fortnightly I should have worked con amore: and I may mention that when my sight was first attacked I was about the preparation of some historical sketches, in prose, as well as some reflections on the elements of Tragedy and a paper upon Mr. Hare's electoral theory, in the hope that I might be able to make them available for the F. But the Doctors still enjoin upon me abstinence from brain work of any kind for some time to come, and the little which I can do in that way I am constrained to confine to the completion of a new book of verse which has been dawdling at the end of my pen for more than six years, and which for many reasons I am anxious to complete if possible by next Autumn. I cannot therefore -- for the present at any rate -- attempt to prove my good will in the way I should wish -- by Contributions.
I wish to heavens I could enjoy the privilege of more frequent intercourse with you, and if I could move just now I would make a journey on the chance of seeing you at the end of it. You will not understand, and I don't think I could explain, if I tried to do so, the strength of this wish: but there has been much in my mind of late, that shapes itself more and more into strong yearnings for reference to your opinion. I shall certainly be here till latish into the Autumn months of this year. I daresay you will be passing a holiday somewhere abroad between this and then. How I wish I could tempt you to pass it, while we are yet here, at Cintra which is one of the loveliest spots I have yet seen in Europe! If yourself and Mrs. Lewes were travelling without your little ones, and would be our guests, we could put you up at our Villa here: and anyhow as I shall during the whole of the summer be in charge of the Mission at Lisbon, I should have the means of making myself serviceable to you if you came this way.
I should take it as exceedingly kind of you if you could at any time spare ten minutes to makr and send me those corrections of the [Apple of Life] which your absence from England prevented your making on the text of those verses. I may print the verses again; and should be grateful for the benefit of your suggestions for the improvement of them. My wife is in ecstacies with your paper on Comte, 697 which has deeply interested and delighted us both. When I was in Holland, years ago, I found there a large colony of his religious disciples and taxpayers.
Ever faithfully yours
R. Lytton.
Signature
R. Lytton.
Citation
Robert Lytton, Robert Lytton to GHL, Sintra, 11 February 1866, 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/95590