15 - Life Of Charlotte Brontë Volume 1 by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Delve into the fascinating life of Charlotte Brontë, the eldest among the renowned Brontë sisters, recognized as pillars of English literature. Her most celebrated work, Jane Eyre, stands as an everlasting classic. Just two years post her demise, her close friend Elizabeth Gaskell penned down her biography. This compelling biography invites you to discover more about the extraordinary Charlotte Brontë. Please note that Volume 2 of this work is also available as a separate recording.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Volume one, section fifteen, of the Life of Charlotte Bronte.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
visit LibriVox dot org. The Life of Charlotte Bronte by
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, Volume one, section fifteen, Chapter eleven. I

(00:28):
am not aware of all the circumstances which led to
the relinquishment of the Leal Plan. Brussels had had from
the first a strong attraction for Charlotte, and the idea
of going there in preference to any other place, had
only been given up in consequence of the information received
of the second rate character of its schools. In one

(00:48):
of her letters, reference had been made to missus Jenkins,
the wife of the chaplain of the British Embassy, at
the request of his brother, a clergyman living not many
miles from Haworth, and an acquaintance of mister Bronte's. She
made much inquiry, and at length, after some discouragement in
her search, heard of a school which seemed in every
respect desirable. There was an English lady who had long

(01:12):
lived in the Orleans family amidst the various fluctuations of
their fortunes and who when the Princess Louise was married
to King Leopold, accompanied her to Brussels in the capacity
of reader. This lady's granddaughter was receiving her education at
the Ponciona of Madame eger And so satisfied was the

(01:35):
grandmother with the kind of instruction given that she named
the establishment with high encomiums to missus Jenkins. And in
consequence it was decided that, if the term suited Miss
Bronte and Emily should proceed thither. Monsieur Egier informs me that,
on receipt of a letter from Charlotte making very particular

(01:55):
inquiries as to the possible amount of what are usually
termed extra he and his wife were so much struck
by the simple, earnest tone of the letter that they
said to each other, these are the daughters of an
English pastor of moderate means, anxious to learn with an
ulterior view of instructing others, and to whom the risk

(02:16):
of additional expense is of great consequence. Let us name
a specific sum within which all the expenses shall be included.
This was accordingly done. The agreement was concluded and the
Brontis prepared to leave their native county for the first time.
If we accept the melancholy and memorable residence at Cowan Bridge,

(02:41):
mister Bronte determined to accompany his daughters. Mary and her brother,
who were experienced in foreign traveling, were also of the party.
Charlotte first saw London in the day or two they
now stopped there, and from an expression in one of
her subsequent letters, they all I believe stayed at the
check coffee house Pater Noster Rowe, a strange old fashioned

(03:04):
tavern of which I shall have more to stay hereafter.
Mary's account of their journey is thus given. In passing
through London, she seemed to think our business was and
ought to be to see all the pictures and statues
we could. She knew the artists and knew where other
productions of theirs were to be found. I don't remember

(03:25):
what we saw, except Saint Paul's. Emily was like her
in these habits of mind, but certainly never took her opinions,
but always had one to offer. I don't know what
Charlotte thought of Brussels. We arrived in the dark and
went next morning to our respective schools. To see them.
We were, of course much preoccupied, and our prospects gloomy.

(03:49):
Charlotte used to like the country round Brussels, at the
top of every hill you see something. She took long
solitary walks. On the occasional holidays, Mister Bronte took his
daughters to the Rue Dizabel Brussels, remained one night at
mister Jenkins's, and straight returned to his wild Yorkshire village.

(04:13):
What a contrast to that must the Belgian capital have
presented to those two young women thus left behind, suffering
acutely from every strange and unaccustomed contact, far away from
their beloved home and the dear moors beyond their indomitable
will was their great support. Charlotte's own words with regard

(04:34):
to Emily are after the age of twenty, having meantime
studied alone with diligence and perseverance, she went with me
to an establishment on the continent. The same suffering and
conflict ensued, heightened by the strong recoil of her upright,
heretic and English spirit from the gentle jesuitry of the

(04:56):
foreign and Romish system. One once more she seemed sinking,
but this time she rallied through the mere force of resolution.
With inward remorse and shame. She looked back on her
former failure and resolved to conquer. But the victory cost
her dear. She was never happy till she carried her

(05:17):
hard won knowledge back to the remote English village, the
old parsonage house, and desolate Yorkshire hills. They wanted learning.
They came for learning. They would learn where they had
a distinct purpose to be achieved. In intercourse with their fellows,
they forgot themselves at all other times they were miserably shy.

(05:42):
Missus Jenkins told me that she used to ask them
to spend Sundays and holidays with her, until she found
that they felt more pain than pleasure from such visits.
Emily hardly ever uttered more than a monosyllable Charlotte was
sometimes excited sufficiently to speak eloquently and well on certain subjects,

(06:02):
But before her tongue was thus loosened, she had a
habit of gradually wheeling round on her chair, so as
almost to conceal her face from the person to whom
she was speaking. And yet there was much in Brussels
to strike a responsive chord in her powerful imagination. At
length she was seeing somewhat of that grand old world

(06:25):
of which she had dreamed, as the gay crowds passed
by her. So had gay crowds paced those streets for centuries.
In all their varying costumes, every spot told an historic
tale extending back into the fabulous ages. When yan and Yanica,
the Aboriginal giant and Giantess, looked over the wall forty

(06:46):
feet high of what is now the rue Villa Hermosa,
and peered down upon the new settlers who were to
turn them out of the country in which they had
lived since the deluge. The great solemn cathedral of Sas
Saint Gudule, the religious paintings, the striking forms and ceremonies
of the Romish Church all made a deep impression on

(07:07):
the girls fresh from the bare walls and simple worship
of Haworth Church. And then they were indignant with themselves
for having been susceptible of this impression, and their stout
Protestant hearts arrayed themselves against the false duessa that have
thus imposed upon them the very building they occupied as pupils.

(07:31):
In Madame Ege's Poncionna had its own ghostly train of
splendid associations, marching forever in shadowy procession through and through
the ancient rooms and shaded alleys of the gardens from
the splendor of to day. In the Rue Royale, if
you turn aside near the statue of the General Belliard,

(07:52):
you will look down four flights of broad stone steps
upon the Rue Dizabel. The chimneys of the houses in
it are below your feet. Opposite to the lowest flight
of steps there is a large old mansion facing you,
with a spacious walled garden behind and to the right

(08:12):
of it. In front of this garden, on the same
side as the mansion, and with great boughs of trees
sweeping over their lowly roofs, is a row of small,
picturesque old fashioned cottages, not unlike in degree and uniformity
to the almshouses so often seen in an English country town.

(08:33):
The Rue Diasabel looks as though it had been untouched
by the innovations of the builder for the last three centuries,
and yet anyone might drop a stone into it from
the back windows of the grand modern hotels in the
Rue Royale, built and furnished in the newest Parisian fashion
in the thirteenth century, the Rue Diasabel was called the

(08:56):
foss Ocean, and the kennels for the ducal hounds occupied
the place where Madame Ege's Ponciona now stands. A hospital
in the ancient large meaning of the word succeeded to
the kennel. The houseless and the poor, perhaps the lepros
were received by the brethren of a religious order in

(09:17):
the building on this sheltered site, and what had been
a foss for defense was filled up with herb gardens
and orchards for upwards of a hundred years. Then came
the aristocratic Guild of the cross bow Men. That company,
the members whereof were required to prove their noble descent
untainted for so many generations before they could be admitted

(09:40):
into the guild, and being admitted, were required to swear
a solemn oath that no other path, time, or exercise
should take up any part of their leisure, the whole
of which was to be devoted to the practice of
the noble art of shooting with the crossbow. Once a
year a grand match was held under the pa atronage
of some saint to whose church steeple was a fixed

(10:05):
the bird or semblance of a bird to be hit
by the victor. Footnote. Scott describes the sport shooting at
the Popinjay as an ancient game, formerly practiced with archery,
but at this period sixteen seventy nine with fire arms.
This was the figure of a bird decked with parti
colored feathers so as to resemble a popinjay or parrot.

(10:28):
It was suspended to a pole and served for a
mark at which the competitors discharged their fusees and carbines
in rotation at the distance of seventy paces. He whose
ball brought down the mark held the proud title of
Captain of the Popinjay for the remainder of the day,
and was usually escorted in triumph to the most respectable

(10:48):
change house in the neighborhood, where the evening was closed
with conviviality, conducted under his auspices, and if he was
able to maintain it at his expense from old mortality
end a footnote. The conqueror in the game was Roois
des Arbaletriers for the coming year, and received a jeweled

(11:10):
decoration accordingly which he was entitled to wear for twelve months,
after which he restored it to the guild to be
again striven for the family of him, who died during
the year that he was king, was bound to present
the decoration to the church of the Patron Saint of
the Guild, and to furnish a similar prize to be
contended for afresh. These noble cross bow men of the

(11:33):
Middle Ages formed a sort of armed guard to the
powers in existence, and almost invariably took the aristocratic in
preference to the democratic side in the numerous civil discensions
of the Flemish towns. Hence they were protected by the
authorities and easily obtained favorable and sheltered sights for their

(11:54):
exercise ground, and thus they came to occupy the old
Foss took possession of the great orchard of the hospital,
lying tranquil and sunny in the hollow below the rampart.
But in the sixteenth century it became necessary to construct
a street through the exercise ground of the Arbealis Trier

(12:16):
du Comte Sermon, and after much delay, the company were
induced by the beloved Infanta Isabella to give up the
requisite plot of ground in recompense for this, Isabella, who
herself was a member of the guild and had even
shot down the bird and been queen in sixteen fifteen,

(12:36):
made many presents to the Arbealaistriers, and in return, the
grateful city, which had long wanted a nearer road to
Saint Gaudeau but been baffled by the noble archers, called
the street after her name. She, as a sort of
indemnification to the Arbealitrier, caused a great mansion to be
built for their accommodation in the new Rue Dizabel. This

(13:01):
mansion was placed in front of their exercise ground and
was of a square shape. On a remote part of
the walls may still be read Philippo quatuor Hispan Reggae, Isabella,
Clara Eugenia, Hispan infants, Magnai Guldai, Regina Guldai, fratrevas possuit.

(13:24):
In that mansion were held all the splendid feasts of
the Grand Serment des Arbelli Triers. The master archer lived
there constantly in order to be ever at hand to
render his services to the guild. The great saloon was
also used for the court balls and festivals when the
archers were not admitted. The Infanta caused other and smaller

(13:46):
houses to be built in her new street to serve
as residences for her guard noble and for her guard bourgeoise,
a small habitation each, some of which still remain to
remind us of English alms houses. The great Mansion with
its quadrangular form, the spacious saloon once used for the

(14:06):
archducal balls, where the dark grave Spaniards mixed with the
blonde nobility of Brabant and Flanders, now a school room
for Belgian girls. The crossbow men's archery ground. All are
there the poncienna of Madame Ege. This lady was assisted
in the work of instruction by her husband, a kindly, wise,

(14:30):
good and religious man, whose acquaintance I am glad to
have made, and who has furnished me with some interesting
details from his wife's recollections and his own. Of the
two miss Brontes during their residence in Brussels, he had
the better opportunities of watching them from his giving lessons
in the French language and literature in the school. A

(14:51):
short extract from a letter written to me by a
French lady resident in Brussels and well qualified to judge,
will help to show the estimation in which is held.

Speaker 2 (15:02):
Gen conepa personalleemo monsieur a j majescile, the character of
cnob O, the Admirable Colossian e let and de mon
rele pluele, the seid associated san Vancin de paul done
deja parle, and the contain pa de servie repav malad

(15:26):
meiler consacrer les soiree pre dejurnes absorbe to dontierre parle
de voirs place, Leuian pouds i, ray niles povre lesuvree
le don de cour caratui a true vancourt les moyen,

(15:46):
the les amuse and lessons triuison, sir de vousmont diira
asse commissier a profond more u vertemore religieux ilade mane
france avenante m the tu sir qui la proche a
c two des enfant i la la parol facil e

(16:11):
posaid de gre lello cours du bon sence a educere
inne point at m de zell, the conscience il beander
demitra defuncleve a lucrative kill exerce latne sell, the prive
deesitude parsqill ne pertis realize le bien qui la ved

(16:34):
sperre and roduire laan signemore relegier on the program Deseritude
Review in foir madame eg quilla calcos de froi de
compasse don sat mantia, a quean pur ensa favre gela
cra port ame a pressier parses elve.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
The There were from eighty to one hundred pupils in
the Poncionae when Charlotte and Emily Bronte entered in February
eighteen forty two. Monsieur Age's account is that they knew
nothing of French. I suspect they knew as much or
as little for all conversational purposes as any English girls
do who have never been abroad and have only learned

(17:19):
the idioms and pronunciation from an englishwoman. The two sisters
clung together and kept apart from the herd of happy, boisterous,
well befriended Belgian girls, who, in their turn thought the
new English pupils wild and scared looking with strange, odd
insular ideas about dress. For Emily had taken a fancy

(17:41):
to the fashion ugly and preposterous even during its reign
of jigo sleeves, and persisted in wearing them long after
they were gone out. Her petticoats, too, had not a
curve or a wave in them, but hung down, straight
and long, clinging to her lank figure. The sisters spoke

(18:02):
to no one, but from necessity. They were too full
of earnest thought and of the exile's sick yearning to
be ready for careless conversation or merry game. Monsieur Agee,
who had done little but observe during the first few
weeks of their residence in the Rue de Isabel, perceived

(18:22):
that with their unusual characters and extraordinary talents, a different
mode must be adopted from that in which he generally
taught French to English girls. He seems to have rated
Emily's genius as something even higher than Charlotte's, and her
estimation of their relative powers was the same. Emily had

(18:43):
a head for logic and a capability of argument, unusual
in a man and rare indeed in a woman. According
to Monsieur age Impairing the force of this gift was
a stubborn tenacity of will, which rendered her obtuse to
all reasoning where her own wishes or her own sense
of right was concerned. She should have been a man,

(19:05):
a great navigator, said Monsieur Ager in speaking of her.
Her powerful reason would have deduced new spheres of discovery
from the knowledge of the old, and her strong imperious
will would never have been daunted by opposition or difficulty,
never have given way but with life. And yet moreover,

(19:25):
her faculty of imagination was such that if she had
written a history, her view of scenes and characters would
have been so vivid and so powerfully expressed and supported
by a show of argument, that it would have dominated
over the reader, whatever might have been his previous opinions
or his cooler perceptions of its truth. But she appeared

(19:48):
egotistical and exacting compared to Charlotte, who was always unselfish.
This is Monsieur Age's testimony, and in the anxiety of
the elder to make her younger say contented, she allowed
her to exercise a kind of unconscious tyranny over her.
After consulting with his wife, Monsieur Agie told them that

(20:10):
he meant to dispense with the old method of grounding
in grammar, vocabulary, et cetera, and to proceed on a
new plan, something similar to what he had occasionally adopted
with the elder. Among his French and Belgian pupils. He
proposed to read to them some of the masterpieces of
the most celebrated French authors, such as Casimir de la

(20:31):
Vine's poem on the Death of Joan of Arc, parts
of Bassuet, the admirable translation of the noble letter of
Saint Ignatius to the Roman Christians in the Bibliotechchoisie de
Pere del Glise, et cetera, and, after having thus impressed
the complete effect of the whole, to analyze the parts
with them, pointing out in what such or such an

(20:53):
author excelled and where there were blemishes. He believed that
he had to do with pupils capable from their ready
sympathy with the intellectual, the refined, the polished, or the noble,
of catching the echo of a style and so reproducing
their own thoughts in a somewhat similar manner. After explaining

(21:17):
his plan to them, he awaited their reply. Emily spoke
first and said that she saw no good to be
derived from it, and that by adopting it they should
lose all originality of thought and expression. She would have
entered into an argument on the subject, but for this
Monsieur Age had no time. Charlotte then spoke. She also

(21:37):
doubted the success of the plan, but she would follow
out monsieur Age's advice because she was bound to obey
him while she was his pupil. Before speaking of the results,
it may be desirable to give an extract from one
of her letters, which shows some of her first impressions
of her new life. Brussels, eighteen forty two May. I

(22:05):
was twenty six years old a week or two since,
and at this ripe time of life, I am a
school girl, and on the whole very happy in that capacity.
It felt very strange at first to submit to authority
instead of exercising it, to obey orders instead of giving them.
But I like that state of things. I return to

(22:26):
it with the same avidity that a cow that has
long been kept on dry hay returns to fresh grass.
Don't laugh at my simile. It is natural to me
to submit, and very unnatural to command. This is a
large school in which there are about forty externs or
day pupils, and twelve ponsionnaires or boarders. Madame Ejee the

(22:50):
head is a lady of precisely the same caste of mind,
degree of cultivation, and quality of intellect as miss blank
I I think the severe points are a little softened
because she has not been disappointed and consequently soured. In
a word, she is a married instead of a maiden lady.

(23:13):
There are three teachers in the school, Mademoiselle Blanche, Mademoiselle Sophie,
and Mademoiselle Marie. The two first have no particular character.
One is an old maid and the other will be one.
Mademoiselle Marie is talented and original, but of repulsive and
arbitrary manners, which have made the whole school, except myself

(23:34):
and Emily her bitter enemies. No less than seven masters
attend to teach the different branches of education French, drawing, music, singing, writing, arithmetic,
and German. All in the house are Catholics, except ourselves,
one other girl, and the gouvenant of Madame's children, an
englishwoman in rank something between a lady's maid and a

(23:56):
nursery governess. The difference in country and religion makes a
broad line of demarcation between us and all the rest.
We are completely isolated in the midst of numbers. Yet
I think I am never unhappy. My present life is
so delightful, so congenial to my own nature compared to
that of a governess. My time constantly occupied, passes too rapidly.

(24:23):
Hitherto both Emily and I have had good health, and
therefore we have been able to work well. There is
one individual of whom I have not yet spoken, Monsieur Agier,
the husband of Madame. He is a professor of rhetoric,
a man of power as to mind, but very choleric
and irritable in temperament. He is very angry with me

(24:45):
just at present, because I have written a translation which
she chose to stigmatize as poor correct. He did not
tell me so, but wrote the word on the margin
of my book and asked, in brief, stern phrase, how
it happened that my composition were always better than my translations,
adding that the thing seemed to him inexplicable. The fact is,

(25:08):
some weeks ago, in a high flown humor, he forbade
me to use either dictionary or grammar in translating the
most difficult English compositions into French. This makes the task
rather arduous, and compels me every now and then to
introduce an English word which nearly plucks the eyes out
of his head. When he sees it Emily, and he

(25:29):
don't draw well together at all. Emily works like a horse,
and she has had great difficulties to contend with, far
greater than I have had. Indeed, those who come to
a French school for instruction ought previously to have acquired
a considerable knowledge of the French language. Otherwise they will
lose a great deal of time. For the course of

(25:49):
instruction is adapted to natives and not to foreigners. And
in these large establishments they will not change their ordinary
course for one or two strangers. A few private lessons
that Monsieur Agier has vouchsafed to give us are I
suppose to be considered a great favor that I can
perceive that they have already excited much spite and jealousy

(26:09):
in the school. You will abuse this letter for being
short and dreary. And there are a hundred things which
I want to tell you, but I have not time.
Brussels is a beautiful city. The Belgians hate the English.
Their external morality is more rigid than ours. To lace
the stays without a handkerchief on the neck is considered

(26:30):
a disgusting piece of indelicacy. The passage in this letter,
where Monsieur Agier is represented as prohibiting the use of
dictionary or grammar, refers, I imagine to the time I
have mentioned when he determined to adopt a new method
of instruction in the French language, of which they were

(26:51):
to catch the spirit and the rhythm rather from the
ear and the heart as its noblest accents fell upon them,
than by over careful and anxious study of its grammatical rules.
It seems to me a daring experiment on the part
of their teacher, but doubtless he knew his ground, and
that it answered is evident in the composition of some

(27:13):
of Charlotte's devoirs written about this time. I am tempted,
in illustration of this season of mental culture, to recur
to a conversation which I had with Monsieur age on
the manner in which he formed his pupil's style, and
to give a proof of his success by copying a
devoir of Charlotte's with his remarks upon it. He told

(27:37):
me that one day this summer, when the Brontes had
been for about four months receiving instruction from him, he
read to them Victor Hugo's celebrated portrait of Mirabeau met
dome Lessen Jumbonnet as succi concern mira Beau o'rataire set
apres la nalise de sous morceaux concider raiser to du

(28:00):
point de vue de du font de la dispositionent de
su compourire apples la charpont conte te fe les d'uur
portrait couguvous dun. He went on to say that he
had pointed out to them the fault in Victor Hugo's
style as being exaggeration in conception, and at the same

(28:21):
time he had made them notice the extreme beauty of
his nuances of expression. They were then dismissed to choose
the subject of a similar kind of portrait. This selection,
Monsieur Ager always left to them, for it is necessary,
he observed, before sitting down to write on a subject,
to have thoughts and feelings about it. I cannot tell

(28:45):
you on what subject your heart and mind have been excited.
I must leave that to you. The marginal comments I
need hardly say are monsieur ages. The words in italics
are Charlotte's, for which he substitutes a better form of expression,
which is placed between brackets end of Section fifteen,