Letters of Edward FitzGerald to Fanny Kemble | Page 7

fresh) so fair? Ye little Birds how can ye sing, And I so (weary) full of care! Thou'lt break my heart, thou little Bird, That sings (singest so) upon the Thorn: Thou minds me of departed days That never shall return (Departed never to) return.'
Now I shall tell you two things which my last Quotation has recalled to me.
Some thirty years ago A. Tennyson went over Burns' Ground in Dumfries. When he was one day by Doon-side--'I can't tell how it was, Fitz, but I fell into a Passion of Tears'--And A. T. not given to the melting mood at all.
No. 2. My friend old Childs of the romantic town of Bungay (if you can believe in it!) told me that one day he started outside the Coach in company with a poor Woman who had just lost Husband or Child. She talked of her Loss and Sorrow with some Resignation; till the Coach happened to pull up by a roadside Inn. A 'little Bird' was singing somewhere; the poor Woman then broke into Tears, and said--'I could bear anything but that.' I dare say she had never even heard of Burns: but he had heard the little Bird that he knew would go to all Hearts in Sorrow.
Beranger's Morals are Virtue as compared to what have followed him in France. Yet I am afraid he partly led the way. Burns' very Passion half excused him; so far from its being Refinement which Burke thought deprived Vice of half its Mischief!
Here is a Sermon for you, you see, which you did not compound for: nor I neither when I began my Letter. But I think I have told you the two Stories aforesaid which will almost deprive my sermon of half its Dulness. And I am now going to transcribe you a Vau-de-vire of old Olivier de Basselin, {23a} which will show you something of that which I miss in Beranger. But I think I had better write it on a separate Paper. Till which, what think you of these lines of Clement Marot on the Death of some French Princess who desired to be buried among the Poor? {23b}
[P.S.--These also must go on the Fly-leaf: being too long, Alexandrine, for these Pages.]
What a Letter! But if you are still at your Vicarage, you can read it in the Intervals of Church. I was surprised at your coming so early from Italy: the famous Holy Week there is now, I suppose, somewhat shorn of its Glory.--If you were not so sincere I should think you were persiflaging me about the Photo, as applied to myself, and yourself. Some years ago I said--and now say--I wanted one of you; and if this letter were not so long, would tell you a little how to sit. Which you would not attend to; but I should be all the same, your long-winded
Friend E. F.G.

X.
WOODBRIDGE, May 1, [1873.]
DEAR MRS. KEMBLE,
I am very glad that you will be Photographed: though not by the Ipswich Man who did me, there are no doubt many much better in London.
Of course the whole Figure is best, if it can be artistically arranged. But certainly the safe plan is to venture as little as possible when an Artist's hand cannot harmonize the Lines and the Lights, as in a Picture. And as the Face is the Chief Object, I say the safest thing is to sit for the Face, neck, and Shoulders only. By this, one not only avoids any conflict about Arms and Hands (which generally disturb the Photo), but also the Lines and Lights of Chair, Table, etc.
For the same reason, I vote for nothing but a plain Background, like a Curtain, or sober-coloured Wall.
I think also that there should be no White in the Dress, which is apt to be too positive for the Face. Nothing nearer White than such material as (I think) Brussels Lace (?) of a yellowish or even dirty hue; of which there may be a Fringe between Dress and Skin. I have advised Men Friends to sit in a--dirty Shirt!
I think a three-quarter face is better that a Full; for one reason, that I think the Sitter feels more at ease looking somewhat away, rather than direct at the luminous Machine. This will suit you, who have a finely turned Head, which is finely placed on Neck and Shoulders. But, as your Eyes are fine also, don't let them be turned too much aside, nor at all downcast: but simply looking as to a Door or Window a little on one side.
Lastly (!) I advise sitting in a lightly clouded Day; not in a bright Sunlight at all.
You will think that I am preaching my own Photo to you. And it is true that, though I did not sit with any