GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 13 June 1845]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 13 June 1845]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 13 June 1845]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1845-06-13
Place
[FOLESHILL]
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 13 June 1845]
MS: Yale. Mostly published: Cross, 1, 132-133.
My dear Sara,
I have just been looking over some of the revise and reading again your sweet letter to me from Hastings, and an impulse of gratitude and love will not let me rest without writing you a little note though my head has almost done its possible for the day under this intense heat. You do not guess how much pleasure it gives me to look over your pencillings -- they prove so clearly that you have really entered into the meaning of every sentence, and it always gives one satisfaction to see the evidence of brain work. I am quite indebted to you for your care and I feel greatly the advantage of having a friend to undertake the office of critic. There is one word I must mention, -- Azazel is the word put in the original of the O.T. for the scape-goat. 570 Now I imagine there is some dubiousness about the meaning and that Strauss would not think it right to translate scape-goat, because from the tenor of his sentence he appears to include Azazel with the evil demons. I wonder if it be supposed by any one that Azazel is in any way a distinct being from the goat. I know no Hebrew Scholar, and have access to no Hebrew Lexicon. Have you asked Mr. Hennell about it?
It was sadly disappointing to me to have no more quiet intercourse with you in London 571 -- but we shall find time. Your letter describes what I have felt rather than what I feel. It seems as if my affections were quietly sinking down to temperate and I every day seem more and more to value thought rather than feeling. I do not think this is man's best estate, but it is better than what I have sometimes known.
Where do you think we, i.e. Mr. and Mrs. Bray and I, went last night, wishing that you were with us? To Birmingham to see Macready act Brutus! 572 I was not disappointed on the whole, and it was a real treat, notwithstanding a ranting Cassius and a fat, stumpy Caesar and a screeching Calpurnia. I am coughing myself into such heats that I cannot write any more. Ever, dear Sara,
Your affectionate
Pollian.
Friday.
MS: Yale. Mostly published: Cross, 1, 132-133.
My dear Sara,
I have just been looking over some of the revise and reading again your sweet letter to me from Hastings, and an impulse of gratitude and love will not let me rest without writing you a little note though my head has almost done its possible for the day under this intense heat. You do not guess how much pleasure it gives me to look over your pencillings -- they prove so clearly that you have really entered into the meaning of every sentence, and it always gives one satisfaction to see the evidence of brain work. I am quite indebted to you for your care and I feel greatly the advantage of having a friend to undertake the office of critic. There is one word I must mention, -- Azazel is the word put in the original of the O.T. for the scape-goat. 570 Now I imagine there is some dubiousness about the meaning and that Strauss would not think it right to translate scape-goat, because from the tenor of his sentence he appears to include Azazel with the evil demons. I wonder if it be supposed by any one that Azazel is in any way a distinct being from the goat. I know no Hebrew Scholar, and have access to no Hebrew Lexicon. Have you asked Mr. Hennell about it?
It was sadly disappointing to me to have no more quiet intercourse with you in London 571 -- but we shall find time. Your letter describes what I have felt rather than what I feel. It seems as if my affections were quietly sinking down to temperate and I every day seem more and more to value thought rather than feeling. I do not think this is man's best estate, but it is better than what I have sometimes known.
Where do you think we, i.e. Mr. and Mrs. Bray and I, went last night, wishing that you were with us? To Birmingham to see Macready act Brutus! 572 I was not disappointed on the whole, and it was a real treat, notwithstanding a ranting Cassius and a fat, stumpy Caesar and a screeching Calpurnia. I am coughing myself into such heats that I cannot write any more. Ever, dear Sara,
Your affectionate
Pollian.
Friday.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 13 June 1845], Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/93802