3 (pp 97-98) “mad Methodist Magazines”: The Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine (founded 1778) and The Lady’s Magazine, or Entertaining Companion for the Fair Sex (1770-1848) were publications Mrs. Brontë brought with her from Cornwall when she married. Gaskell includes these examples to show the imaginative legacy Brontë received from her mother.
4 (p. 100) “British Essayists” ... ”The Lounger”: British Essayists (1807-1808) was a compilation by the biographer and prolific editor Alexander Chalmers. Essays of Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) appeared in the periodical The Rambler (1750-1752). Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) was editor and chief contributor to the Scottish periodicals The Mirrour (1779-1780) and The Lounger (1785-1787).
5 (p. 103) “read the rest fearlessly”: Brontë’s course of reading for Nussey contains some books that were thought inappropriate for young women, such as Lord Byron’s Cain (1821) and Don Juan (1819-1824), and Shakespeare’s bawdier comedies. This list is a testimony to Patrick Brontë’s liberal attitude toward his daughter’s education, whether from benign neglect, as Gaskell posits, or other motives.
CHAPTER VIII
1 (p. 109) in her place at Miss Wooler’s: The quoted paragraph that follows is taken from Brontë prefatory remarks to the selection of her sisters’ poetry appended to the second edition of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey (1850).
2 (p. 110) duties of the day... tedious and monotonous: Brontë’s fragmentary“ Roe Head Journal,” which Gaskell does not quote from, is more expressive than are her letters to Nussey about her frustration with her current employment and her consequent depression. Brontë registers her anger at being interrupted by a student in a moment of inspiration: “I felt as if I could have written gloriously.... But just then a Dolt came up with a lesson. I thought I should have vomited” (Barker, ed. The Brontës: A Life in Letters, p. 39).
3 (p. 110) an event happened... good deal of interest: This anecdote detailing the supposed genesis of Jane Eyre is omitted in the third edition.
4 (p. 112) any other poet: In the third edition Gaskell adds Mary Taylor’s comment that Cowper’s popular poem “The Castaway” was a favorite in the Brontë household. Gaskell’s insistence on the affinity between Brontë and Cowper stems from her desire to find an analogue for Brontë in the mainstream Christian poet who struggled with depression and religious doubt. Brontë does not include Cowper among the “first-rate” poets in the reading list she prepares for Ellen Nussey (see note 4 to volume I, chapter VII).
5 (p. 112) “they fly from my lips as if I were Tantalus:” Tantalus is the Greek mythological figure punished with eternal thirst and hunger for transgressing against the gods; he is thus an emblem of thwarted desire.
6 (p. 117) Coleridge: Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849), a minor poet and critic, was the son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (endnote 1 to volume I, chapter VII).
7 (p. 117) given by the poet to Mr. Quillinan : Edward Quillinan was Wordsworth’s son-in-law. Gaskell is mistaken about Wordsworth’s estimation of Branwell’s letter. In fact, according to Southey, Wordsworth was “disgusted” by the letter’s “gross flattery” and “abuse of other poets“” and declined to answer it. Why he preserved it is unclear (Southey to Caroline Bowles, March 27, 1837; in The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, vol. 1, p. 171, note 1).
8 (p. 132) some one having a slight resemblance... in holy orders: Ellen Nussey’s brother, Henry, proposed to Brontë in the spring of 1839. He received a prompt rejection: ”I am not the serious, grave, cool-headed individual you suppose—you would think me romantic and eccentric.... I will never for the sake of... escaping the stigma of an old maid take a worthy man whom I am conscious I cannot render happy“ (Charlotte Brontë to Henry Nussey, March 5, 1839; in The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, vol. 1, pp. 185-186).
9 (p. 134) “Anne’s departure”: This refers to Anne’s leaving to be a governess to the Inghams at Blake Hall. She was dismissed within the year
10 (p. 135) engaged as a governess: Charlotte was employed by the Sidgwicks of Stonegappe, near Lothersdale, from May to July 1839. She was responsible for two children aged four and six. Charlotte complained to her sister Emily that Mrs. Sidgwick cared “nothing in the world about me except how to contrive the greatest possible quantity of labour may be squeezed out of me” (Charlotte Brontë to Emily Brontë, June 8, 1839; in The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, vol. 1, p. 191).
11 (p. 139) the assistance of a curate: William Weightman (1814-1842) was the curate at Haworth for three years (1839-1842). Although Weightman was an integral and beloved member of the parsonage while he served there, Gaskell suppresses almost all information about him, presumably because, in letters Gaskell omits, Charlotte Brontë and Nussey both manifest signs of infatuation with the young curate.
12 (p. 140) his own curate: Brontë’s second proposal of marriage came from David Pryce (sometimes Bryce; 1811-1840), curate to William Hodgson, who was formerly Patrick Brontë’s curate.
13 (p. 143) “drop my subscription to the Jews”: “The Jews” is shorthand for the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, founded in 1809.
CHAPTER IX
1 (p. 146) the “Spectator”: A periodical published by Joseph Addison (1672-1719) and Richard Steele (1672-1729), the Spectator (1711-1712) satirized the mores of its times.
2 (p. 148) employed her leisure hours in writing a story: Brontë was writing “Ashworth,” an untitled and incomplete novel. See Christine Alexander, ed., Early Writings of Charlotte Brontë (Oxford: Blackwell, 1983), p. 204.
3 (p. 149) “whether his ‘C.T.’ meant Charles Timms or Charlotte Tomkins”: Gaskell, anxious about the letter’s irreverent tone, liberally edits out material without using ellipses, as she does elsewhere, to indicate missing text. Among the comments Gaskell censors is Brontë’s taunting remark on gender anonymity: “Several young gentlemen curl their hair and wear corsets—and several young ladies are excellent whips and by no means despicable jockies,” and her facetious wonder that Hartley Coleridge deigned to read her “demi-semi” novelette (Charlotte Brontë, draft letter to H. Coleridge, December 1840; in The Letters of Charlotte Brontë, vol. 1, p. 237).
4 (p. 151) “Puseyite or a Hookist:” This is a reference to the followers of Edward Bouverie Pusey and Walter Farquhar Hook, important figures of the Oxford Movement, which advocated a return to formalism in the Anglican Church.
5 (p. 155) “Mr. and Mrs. —?”: Mr. and Mrs. Collins are possibly the models for the abusive marriage portrayed by Anne Brontë in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848).