'I have just got Festus - order it and read. You will most likely find it a great bore, but there are really very grand [both words underlined] things in festus... I have these last two days been reading 'Festus'... This sublimity is Michael-Angelic.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 9 June 1843:
'A gentleman, a poet, a correspondent, at large intervals, of mine [...] wrote to me, praising
[John] Sterling extravagantly. [italics]I[end italics], .. who never cd see much in Sterling, ..
was sincere & cold about him in reply, .. & begged the praiser to read Festus, which I was
reading at the moment. Well! -- Presently I had another letter. My correspondent was
astounded at me! Upon my praise, he had procured Festus, & looked at one or two pages, ..
when he was driven back in convulsive fits, by the hot blast of Indecency & Blasphemy
emitted from the leaves -- he found it impossible to read such a book!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, 9 June 1843:
'A gentleman, a poet, a correspondent, at large intervals, of mine [...] wrote to me, praising
[John] Sterling extravagantly. [italics]I[end italics], .. who never cd see much in Sterling, ..
was sincere & cold about him in reply, .. & begged the praiser to read Festus, which I was
reading at the moment. Well! -- Presently I had another letter. My correspondent was
astounded at me! Upon my praise, he had procured Festus, & looked at one or two pages, ..
when he was driven back in convulsive fits, by the hot blast of Indecency & Blasphemy
emitted from the leaves -- he found it impossible to read such a book!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: anon Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, letter postmarked 21 February 1844:
'[italics]Have[end italics] I read "Festus"? Certainly I have [...] Oh yes! I was much struck by
"Festus" [...] Both the "Festus" & the supplement apologetic to it, which appeared in the
Monthly Repository (I think) filled me with admiration [...] Its [italics]fault[end italics] is an
extraordinary inequality -- so really one falls down precipices continually; & from pinnacles of
grandeur, into profundities of badness. Parts of the poem are as bad, & as weak as is well
possible to be conceived of: and moreover [...] there is an occasional coarseness & gratuitous
indelicacy [...] Also, I will not say that there is not some over-daring in relation to divine
things [...] But when all is said, what poet-stuff remains!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett to Richard Hengist Horne, letter postmarked 21 February 1844:
'[italics]Have[end italics] I read "Festus"? Certainly I have [...] Oh yes! I was much struck by
"Festus" [...] Both the "Festus" & the supplement apologetic to it, which appeared in the
Monthly Repository (I think) filled me with admiration [...] Its [italics]fault[end italics] is an
extraordinary inequality -- so really one falls down precipices continually; & from pinnacles of
grandeur, into profundities of badness. Parts of the poem are as bad, & as weak as is well
possible to be conceived of: and moreover [...] there is an occasional coarseness & gratuitous
indelicacy [...] Also, I will not say that there is not some over-daring in relation to divine
things [...] But when all is said, what poet-stuff remains!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Print: Serial / periodical
'[quotation from Maurice Bowra's Memoirs] The first time I met him [John Betjeman] he talked fluently about half forgotten authors of the nineteenth century - Sir Henry Taylor, Ebeneezer Elliott, Philip James Bailey, and Sir Lewis Morris'.
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Betjeman Print: Book
