GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 4 February 1849]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 4 February 1849]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 4 February 1849]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1849-02-04
Place
[FOLESHILL]
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 4 February 1849]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Feb. 4, 1849. Extracts published: Cross, I, 196-197.
Sunday Morning.
Out, hyperbolical fiend! talkest thou of nothing but music? 766 An exquisite little morceau of connubial torture, I suppose. Never tell me that thou knowest not -- at least the devil that prompts thee knows -- that I have not touched the piano for nearly two months until this morning when, Father being better, I was determined to play a mass before the piano is utterly baked out of tune again. Therefore avaunt! thou strumming and warbling devil -- get thee to some fat Quaker and torment him in the guise of a hurdy-gurdy boy.
Your letter, dear love, was brought to me in bed and I managed to read it in spite of unutterable headache. Every scrap of paper (out-taken the musical ones) is a little winged angel to me, seems to fondle me and fan me with its soft dove-like wings. Therefore write, asking for nothing again, 767 like a true disciple of Jesus. I am still feeling rather shattered in brain and limbs, but do not suppose that I lack inward peace and strength. My body is the defaulter -- consciously so. I triumph over all things in the spirit, but the flesh is weak and disgraces itself by headaches and backaches and vomitings.
I am delighted to find that you mention Macaulay, because that is an indication that Mr. Hennell has been reading him. 768 I thought of Mr. H. all through the book, as the only person I could be quite sure would enjoy it as much as I did myself. I did not know if it would interest you. Tell me more explicitly that it does.
Think of Babylon being unearthed in spite of the prophecies! 769 Truly we are looking before and after 770 au jour d'aujourd'hui, as Monsieur Bricolin says. 771 Send me the criticism of Jacques, 772 the morn's morning, 773 only beware there are not too many blasphemies against my divinity.
Paint soap bubbles -- and never fear but I will find a meaning though very likely not your meaning. Paint the crucifixion in a bubble, after Turner 774 and then the resurrection -- I see them now.
There has been a vulgar man sitting by while I have been writing and I have been saying parenthetical bits of civility to him to help out poor Father in his conversation, so I have not been quite sure what I have been saying to you. I have woful aches which take up half my nervous strength. Brothers and sisters coming this afternoon -- therefore believe that I love thee or I should not have written even this today.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Feb. 4, 1849. Extracts published: Cross, I, 196-197.
Sunday Morning.
Out, hyperbolical fiend! talkest thou of nothing but music? 766 An exquisite little morceau of connubial torture, I suppose. Never tell me that thou knowest not -- at least the devil that prompts thee knows -- that I have not touched the piano for nearly two months until this morning when, Father being better, I was determined to play a mass before the piano is utterly baked out of tune again. Therefore avaunt! thou strumming and warbling devil -- get thee to some fat Quaker and torment him in the guise of a hurdy-gurdy boy.
Your letter, dear love, was brought to me in bed and I managed to read it in spite of unutterable headache. Every scrap of paper (out-taken the musical ones) is a little winged angel to me, seems to fondle me and fan me with its soft dove-like wings. Therefore write, asking for nothing again, 767 like a true disciple of Jesus. I am still feeling rather shattered in brain and limbs, but do not suppose that I lack inward peace and strength. My body is the defaulter -- consciously so. I triumph over all things in the spirit, but the flesh is weak and disgraces itself by headaches and backaches and vomitings.
I am delighted to find that you mention Macaulay, because that is an indication that Mr. Hennell has been reading him. 768 I thought of Mr. H. all through the book, as the only person I could be quite sure would enjoy it as much as I did myself. I did not know if it would interest you. Tell me more explicitly that it does.
Think of Babylon being unearthed in spite of the prophecies! 769 Truly we are looking before and after 770 au jour d'aujourd'hui, as Monsieur Bricolin says. 771 Send me the criticism of Jacques, 772 the morn's morning, 773 only beware there are not too many blasphemies against my divinity.
Paint soap bubbles -- and never fear but I will find a meaning though very likely not your meaning. Paint the crucifixion in a bubble, after Turner 774 and then the resurrection -- I see them now.
There has been a vulgar man sitting by while I have been writing and I have been saying parenthetical bits of civility to him to help out poor Father in his conversation, so I have not been quite sure what I have been saying to you. I have woful aches which take up half my nervous strength. Brothers and sisters coming this afternoon -- therefore believe that I love thee or I should not have written even this today.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, [Foleshill, 4 February 1849], 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/93822