Thursday / But aren't you witty? / I didnt know - I never / miss anything in you - no one / ever had such power of sympathy in you. / and unless you told me May, I should / think you wise & witty - but I dont / store so much wit really - could / very soon get tired of it - it keeps / people from being pedants or bores I / think, & there lies its chief use - but / some of the greatest beings ever born / had none - nor humour wither - / and I often reflect that the books / I most worship are as devoid / of it as the paintings I worship - none in Homer - or ? less, or Dante / - none in the Morte dAthur - it isnt / necessary - but it betters a second / rate creature very much - & makes / a first rate one better company / for the passing hour - but it affects / great work I think very little into / - as for you I never measure you ? / sum you up - it would seem so / horrible a thing to do - no one is / at all like you - & I find all good / and all lovely / - / Tonight - by express request of Georgie / we go to see the new play where / Mrs. Patrick Campbell is to be - and / somehow I have no mind to go - / but she asked me to do it - and / has a reason, & I am persuaded / & shall go. / Last night I abode in - such a / storm of rain came about 6 and / lasted with such violence that / I dared not go out - for I always / get a sore throat in rain. / so I was good & stopped at home / and was polite - & had my reward / for as I had just given up the / evening post as beyond hope - & / had many times gone to the hall / door to see if any postman was / near - and was really on my way / upstairs - Lo! a fat letter from / Ireland, and a beast's exaltation / - / Friday. / Too dog tired & dispirited to be / able to write a little line to you / last night - & the moment I lay / down I fell asleep - I think / most plays put me into a discadent / mood - as a rule the ground plan / of them is on a level with / one of the fifty poor novels published / every month - what there is to remember / has to made of out of such / stuff by the wits of the actors. / Last nights play at the Haymarket / ought never to have been given to / the public - nor read by anyone / - there was not one line in it / that was not the commonest / stuff, rubbish and sometimes / rant - I think Beerbohm / Tree can have no judgment or / brains at all - I have long / suspected it - ever to have accepted / such a thing - There it is / however & what could be / made of such garbage / Mrs. Patrick Campbell made / 2 / She was touching and interesting / I need not say she had been a / "fallen woman" that / is settled that she must / always be since Mrs. Tanqueray. / by & bye fallen women will be as / quite a bore as unfallen ones - I / see the prospect of a reaction against / these though. / I wish I could see her in some / romantic well written piece - / I dont know who wrote this - / wrote! it isnt written - not one / line of it is written. / Oh post in & a letter from you. / bless you for thinking of me - indeed / often you do feel to me to be / very far off - in such an unknown / land and amongst your ancient / friends whom I do not know at / all - but then I say "she is happy / with them, and is comforting them - / & how she can comfort & charm / & brighten! and it is a sacred kind / of visit, of which the memory will be / precious to the end of life, & she is / well there - is anyhow very very much / better" all these things I keep / saying to myself - but I am hungry / for a sight of you - beyond anything you / could believe, as indeed need k? / ? yet I know you should be that / if you think so - for I do ? / you always do what is best & most right - so ordain the life as / you think best - only dont forget / me in this long time. / Oh yes I can easily send the / pencil letters - I send you / all the others I have of that / darkness - only three - but I can / always get them for you - shall I / send you a fresh set? I always / draw with the for I love knives / so amazingly. / To-day I am very tired - and / eyes weak because of the gas / last night - but Georgie wanted / us to go - & it was well thought / of - for all the children love / Stella dearly - only Angela / won't & said the other day / "mother I want to say at / once I dont like to say at / once I dont like her and / you will be angry" fancy / that thing not five yet ?ing age her to? ? - / so Djacq & Margaret were pl? / & Margaret went back to sleep / into her (Stella's) house to soothe / and comfort her. I need seldom / go to any play - I grow angry / as I think of the waste of ? / in bringing into the world such / rubbish - but nature loves / waste, & herself sets the / most immoral example - I hate / it - God bless thee, day & night / I send that pamphlet thing since / you ask me to - but I wish they / would say nothing till I am / dead - indeed I do. / Always yours - & / more than you can guess / E
The archive, which has remained with May Gaskell’s descendants, consists of more than 200 letters dating from 1892 up to the year of Burne-Jones’s death: three albums of intimate letters from the artist to Mrs Gaskell; two albums of illustrated letters to Mrs Gaskell and her daughter, Daphne; and other ephemera such as the artist’s brushes which he used when painting his famous portrait of Amy Gaskell. The letters are one of the most endearing records of all Burne-Jones’s friendships. They recount both his innermost thoughts and feelings and feature a cast of humorous characters, fictitious and real. They have been acquired for £200,000 with major support from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF); the Art Fund; the Arts Council England/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund; the Friends of the National Libraries; and numerous private donations. Two of the albums are on display in the Museum for its Great British Drawings exhibition where they can be seen until 31 August. They will now enter the Ashmolean’s permanent collection. Following conservation, they will be made available as an invaluable resource to students and scholars of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and they will be published online. The letters will add to the collection of drawings by Burne-Jones bequeathed to the Ashmolean in 1939 by Mrs Gaskell, forming one of the richest Pre-Raphaelite archives in the country. Many of the letters were published by Josceline Dimbleby, May Gaskell’s great-granddaughter, in her acclaimed book, A Profound Secret (2004), which recounts the author’s research into her family’s history. On the occasion of this major acquisition, Josceline Dimbleby will give a Saturday Talk on 8 August at the Ashmolean, in conversation with the curator of Great British Drawings, Colin Harrison. Josceline Dimbleby says: "My discovery of so many intimate and often witty letters from Burne-Jones to my great grandmother May Gaskell, forgotten for decades in an old chest of drawers, was one of the most exciting moments in my life, together with finding, wrapped in old paper and string at the back of one drawer, the paintbrushes he used for his famous portrait of my doomed great aunt Amy Gaskell, still with paint sticking to them. The letters revealed a passion that made it hard to think of this friendship as platonic and I spent a fascinating and happy three years piecing together and writing the story of what was A Profound Secret, feeling that I was getting to know my ancestors, and a very private side of Burne- Jones." Burne- Jones met May Gaskell in 1892, and she became the last in the succession of women with whom he enjoyed especially close, but platonic, friendships. She was the wife of a dull cavalry officer, and, in an unfulfilling marriage, she corresponded with Burne- Jones up to five times a day. The letters include a series of cartoon-like tales featuring characters such as the ‘fat lady’ and the artist himself, caught in mishap and misadventure. Beneath the surface lies the black humour endemic to Burne-Jones’s frequent moods of depression and insecurity. There is, for example, a superb sequence of caricatures of the artist suffering from flu. In the course of their friendship, Burne-Jones became dependent on May, confessing to her that she ‘reached the well of loneliness that is in me’. He also sent whimsical letters to the infant Daphne Gaskell (1887–1966). She was only six when she met Burne-Jones and he took an affectionate and fatherly interest in her, his own children having grown up. His letters to Daphne, written in phonetic spelling, include birds and animals familiar from his other letters to children, and several fantastic inventions such as the ‘Phlumbudge’ and ‘Flapdabble’. The archive also includes some letters to May’s elder daughter, Amy (1874–1910), whom Burne-Jones painted in 1893 in one of the greatest Pre-Raphaelite portraits (collection of Lord Lloyd-Webber). Colin Harrison, Senior Curator of European Art, Ashmolean Museum, says: "May Gaskell was Burne- Jones’s closest friend in his last years. He gave her a selection of his finest drawings, which she in turn gave to the Ashmolean in 1939. The opportunity to acquire the albums of intimate and humorous letters that he sent to May and to her daughter, Daphne, was unmissable; and we are most grateful for the support from the NHMF, the Art Fund, and other bodies, as well as numerous private donors. Their generosity has ensured that the letters have ended up in their rightful home, and that the Ashmolean now has one of the most representative, as well as distinguished, collections of Burne-Jones’s work in the world." Sir Peter Luff, Chair of NHMF, says: “Sir Edward Burne-Jones was the most prominent of the second generation Pre-Raphaelites and his work had an enormous influence. This exceptional collection of letters, which throws light on the last years of his life, was the most important part of his collection in private hands. I'm delighted that National Heritage Memorial Fund investment will mean they can be available for everyone to explore and enjoy.” Stephen Deuchar, Director of the Art Fund, says: "The Ashmolean owns one of the finest collections of works by Burne-Jones in the world, which will be greatly enriched by this important and delightful collection of letters."