"DIARY OF AN ENNUYÈE.”

33

towards the study of the law. He had, besides, a love for music, and could play well on the guitar. One evening, at the Jamesons, Mrs. Jameson's visit to the Continent was spoken of, and, by her husband's wish, the green-covered volumes of the Diary were brought out, and parts of it were read aloud. Thomas asked for the MS., and declared that he was ready to run the risk of publishing it. The idea was new and amusing. "You may print it if you like," said Mrs. Jameson," and if it sells for anything more than will pay the expenses, you shall give me a Spanish guitar for my share of the profits." Thomas accepted the condition, and the MS., somewhat altered, was given into his hands. It was to be published anonymously, and a final fictitious paragraph was added, which stated that the writer died on the way home at Autun, in her twenty-sixth year, and had been buried in the garden of the Capuchin monastery near that city. Thomas advertised the work as A Lady's Diary, and Mr. Colburn bought the copyright of it from him for £50, so a ten-guinea guitar was duly handed over to Mrs. Jameson. As The Diary of an Ennuyée the book met with great success, and was followed by two more, The Loves of the Poets and Celebrated Female Sovereigns, both now out of print. The Diary gained its author many friends; among them were Mr. and Mrs. Basil Montagu and their daughter, Mrs. Procter, wife of the poet usually known as Barry Cornwall. At the Montagus' house at Bedford Square Fanny Kemble met Mrs. Jameson, and says: "While under the spell of the fascinating Diary it was of course very delightful to me to make Mrs. Jameson's acquaintance, which I did at the house of our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Montague. At an evening party there I first saw Mrs. Jameson. The Ennuyée,' one is given to understand, dies, and it was a little vexatious to behold her sitting on a sofa in a very becoming state of blooming plumpitude, but it was some compensation to be introduced to her." And so began a close and friendly intimacy. Fanny Kemble

describes Mrs. Jameson as an "attractive-looking young woman, with skin of that dazzling whiteness which generally accompanies reddish hair such as hers was. Her face, which was habitually refined and spirituelle in its expression, was capable of a marvellous power of concentrated feeling, such as is seldom seen in any woman's face, and is peculiarly rare in the countenance of a fair, small, delicately-featured woman, all whose characteristics were extremely pretty. Her hands and arms might have been those of Madame de Warens" (Rousseau's love).

After five years of matrimony Mr. Jameson looked out for a colonial appointment, and in 1829 was made puisne judge in the Island of Dominica. His success was uncertain, the climate was unhealthy, and there never seems to have been a thought of his wife going with him. The two parted amicably, and Mrs. Jameson returned to her father's house. Not exultantly happy had been her life, but still not utterly wasted with melancholy, and her buoyant spirit kept her up and promised better things. Shortly after her husband's departure she went to the Continent with her father and his friend and patron, Sir Gerard Noel. She was not now playing the Ennuyée; she abandoned herself to the quickening influence of new objects. Not now self-engrossed or looking for sympathy, she was keen to observe with all the strength of an awakening mind. The party consisted of two ladies and two gentlemen. "We travelled comme un milor Anglais," Mrs. Jameson says, "a artie-carrée in a barouche hung on the most approved principles, double cushioned, rising and sinking on its springs like a swan

wave.

on the

In 1832 Mrs. Jameson published her Characteristics of Women. The object of this book was to illustrate, by Shakespeare's women, what various modifications the female character is capable of. Mrs. Jameson thought that women of the present age did not rise to their higher destinies, did

VISIT TO WEIMAR.

35

not recognise what they might be. Madame de Staël defines vulgarity as the reverse of poetical, "so vulgarity," says Mrs. Jameson, "is the negative of all things. In literature, it is the total absence of elevation and depth of ideas, and of elegance and delicacy in the expression of them; in character, it is the absence of truth, sensibility, and reflection. The vulgar in manner is the result of vulgarity of character; it is grossness, hardness, or affectation." In contrast to this low standard she brings forward characters of intellect-Portia, Isabella, Beatrice, Rosalind; characters of passion and imagination-Juliet, Viola, Helena, Perdita, Ophelia, Miranda; and characters of the affections -Hermione, Desdemona, Imogen, Cordelia. "A woman's affections," says Mrs. Jameson," however strong, are sentiments when they run smooth, and become passions when opposed. In Juliet and Helena, love is depicted as a passion properly so called, there is a natural impulse throbbing in the heart's blood and mingling with the very sources of life, a sentiment more or less modified by the imagination, a strong abiding principle and motive, excited by resistance, acting upon the will, animating the other faculties, and again influenced by them." The book shows a great amount of thought and study, much beauty of language, and a deep appreciation of Shakespeare. It was dedicated to Fanny Kemble-"her dearest Fanny”—and the frontispiece was designed by Mrs. Jameson herself. It represents a female figure seated dejectedly beneath a tall lily, a tiny bark vanishing away into a stormy distance.

Mr. Jameson returned from Dominica early in 1833 and rejoined his wife; then, having procured a better appointment in Canada, through the influence of his wife's friends, he set off there, intending to make a home for her. Meanwhile she went to Germany, and found that her book had made her welcome with many literary people. Her acquaintance with Mr. Noel, Lady Byron's cousin, was the means of introducing her to the family of Goethe at

Weimar and to the great poet himself. The friendship between Ottalie, Goethe's fascinating daughter-in-law, and the "liebe Anna," lasted for thirty years. These pleasant German wanderings, which extended to Munich, were put a stop to by a severe paralytic seizure which attacked Mr. Murphy. His daughter hurried to London, fearing she might not find him alive; but his speech had returned, and "Such a gleam of joy came over his face," she says, when he saw me." He was never restored to health, but lingered for years in a semi-paralysed condition, partly dependent on his daughter's earnings. She made her home with her sister Louisa, now Mrs. Bate, the wife of an artist, and lavished all a mother's tenderness on her niece Gerardine. Her Essays on various subjects were collected, revised, and published in four volumes. Topics of all kinds were touched upon in them, sketches of German society alternating with dissertations on the genius of Mrs. Siddons. Amongst Mrs. Jameson's friends were now numbered Mrs. Opie, Joanna Baillie, and Lady Byron, who seemed to have exerted an extraordinary power of attraction over some minds. After Mrs. Jameson's first interview with her, she was asked what impression Lady Byron had made on her. "Implacability," was her answer, and she afterwards found the truth of her remark.

From Toronto letters now came from Mr. Jameson urging his wife to go out to him. He complained that he had not heard from his dearest Anna for months, and as he prunes his tree he feeds his fancy with the idea that before the leaves disappear she will be walking by his side." The relations between this couple seem to have been of the most peculiar kind. Mrs. Jameson, on her part, sometimes says that" she never hears a word from Jameson. In the last sixteen months I have had two letters." This complaint was made during her Weimar visit; and then followed a letter addressed to Mr. Jameson himself, in which she says, "A union such as ours is a real mockery of the laws of God

ARRIVAL A1 TORONTO.

37

and man." Yet, if summoned, she expresses herself willing to go to Canada.

Early in August, 1836, the summons came, and in September she set off for Toronto, further urged by pressing letters from her husband, who seemed all impatience to welcome her. The puzzle was to reconcile his words and his actions. When she arrived at New York early in November she found no sign that she was expected. Neither her husband nor his friend were there to meet her; not even a letter to tell her how she was to travel. For nearly three weeks she was alone in a New York hotel, while her usually buoyant spirits sank down to zero. At last a letter from Mr. Jameson, telling her to proceed to Toronto, arrived. A winter journey to Canada was then beset with horrors. In November the roads were smothered with snow, the navigation was frozen, and there was only a night boat on the Hudson. However, she set out, and the spectacle of the Catskill Mountains, "left behind in the night, robed in a misty purple light," astonished her as something new and beautiful. The steamer, its prow armed with a sharp iron sheath, crashed its way through solid ice four inches thick. Six days and nights of such travelling made the poor lonely wanderer sink with fatigue. She at length arrived at the ferry of the Niagara River at Queenstown, about seven miles below the Falls. The little boat was tossed in the darkness along the foaming waters, guided by a light on the opposite shore, while the deep roar of the cataract filled and shook the atmosphere around. Mrs. Jameson found, contrary to expectation, a steamer on Lake Ontario. Once on board she fell into an exhausted sleep. When the steamer reached Toronto she hurried on deck, and when she stepped out of the boat she sank ankle-deep in ice. Half blinded by sleet driven into her face and by the tears that filled her eyes, she walked through the "dreary, miry ways of the unknown town, never much thronged, and now by reason of the impending snowstorm