Happy birthday Patrick
Art Neuendorffer
Bronte, (Patrick) Branwell (1817-1848), writer and painter
by Victor A. Neufeldt
<<Bronte, (Patrick) Branwell (1817-1848), writer and painter, was born on
26 June 1817 at Thornton in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the fourth of six
children of the Revd Patrick Bronte (1777-1861), Church of England
clergyman, and Maria Branwell (1783-1821), daughter of Thomas and Anne
Branwell of Penzance. In April 1820, having accepted the position of
perpetual curate, Patrick Bronte moved his family-Maria (1814-1825),
Elizabeth (1815-1825), Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), Branwell,
Emily Jane Bronte (1818-1848), and Anne Bronte (1820-1849)
-to Haworth, where his wife died in September 1821.
Branwell was educated at home by his father. Like his sisters, he read
widely from an early age, being particularly fond of Blackwood's Magazine,
especially the 'Noctes Ambrosianae'. After the deaths of their mother in
1821 and their two eldest sisters in 1825, he and his remaining sisters,
stimulated by their reading, began to make up and act out plays. These
'Young Men' plays, under the leadership of Charlotte and Branwell,
evolved into the complex saga of the imaginary Glasstown confederacy,
situated in the Asante country of west Africa.
Bronte's earliest known piece of writing dates from March 1827, but with the
production in January 1829 of his Magazine, which quickly became Branwell's
Blackwood's Magazine, he revealed his literary aspirations-pre-eminently as
poet, but also as dramatist, critic, historian, conversationalist, editor,
and publisher-in short as the man of letters he saw exemplified by
Christopher North and James Hogg in the 'Noctes Ambrosianae'. Between 1835
and 1842 Bronte wrote six times to Blackwood's, offering his services and
samples of his poetry, and in December 1835 putting himself forward to
replace the late James Hogg. Most of his hundreds of manuscript pages up to
the end of 1837, chronicling events and activities in Glasstown, and later
in Angria, were works 'published' in Glasstown (later Verdopolis); in 1832
he embarked on the first manuscript volume of his 'collected' poems, to be
followed by others in 1835 and 1837. In his competitive/collaborative
chronicling of the worlds of Glasstown and Angria with Charlotte, Bronte's
particular interest lay in the politics, civil wars, and military campaigns
that led to the emergence of Arthur Wellesley, Marquis of Douro and Duke of
Zamorna (Charlotte's hero), and Alexander Percy, earl of Northangerland
(Bronte's protagonist); to the creation in 1834 of the kingdom of Angria,
with Zamorna as king and Percy as his premier and father-in-law; and to
their subsequent self-destructive rivalry.
Meanwhile, and probably as early as 1834, Bronte was also receiving
instruction in painting from the portrait painter William Robinson. It was
about 1834 that he completed his portrait of the Bronte sisters, having
painted over the original representation of himself in the portrait.
Although he drafted a letter in 1835 seeking admission to the Royal Academy,
recent evidence suggests that the letter was never sent and that Bronte
never made the infamous trip to London described by earlier biographers
(Barker, 226-31). In July 1838 he set up as a portrait painter in Bradford,
but the venture was unsuccessful, and his career as painter came to an end.
In the course of it, however, he had made numerous literary and artistic
acquaintances, including the sculptor J. B. Leyland and his brother Francis,
both of whom remained Bronte's lifelong friends.
In June 1839 Bronte embarked on a review of the classics with his father to
prepare for employment as a tutor. On 1 January 1840 he took up a position
in the home of Robert Postlethwaite in Broughton in Furness. Proximity to
the Lake District inspired a return to literary activity. In April 1840 he
sent a long poem and his translations of five of Horace's Odes to Thomas De
Quincey at Dove Cottage, Grasmere. Five days later he sent another poem and
two translations to Hartley Coleridge at Nab Cottage, Rydal Water, to
solicit his opinion on whether it would 'be possible to obtain remuneration
for translations ... such as these' (Barker, 333). A visit to Nab Cottage
on 1 May, at Coleridge's invitation, encouraged Bronte to undertake a
complete translation of book I of the Odes, which Coleridge promised to read
on completion. Despite his dismissal as tutor, Bronte sent the completed
translations to Coleridge in June 1840. Because the translations were of a
high quality and would probably have found a ready market (Barker, 336), it
is unfortunate that Coleridge never completed the very positive and
encouraging reply he began to draft in November-December 1840.
In October 1840 Bronte was employed as assistant clerk-in-charge at Sowerby
Bridge on the new Leeds and Manchester Railway, and promoted to
clerk-in-charge at Luddenden Foot on 1 April 1841. Contrary to the
traditional view of Bronte's dissipation during this employment, the
proximity to the literary and artistic circles of Halifax, which included
not only the Leyland brothers, but also poets such as William Dearden, John
Nicholson, and Thomas Crossley, provided new impetus for literary activity.
Within a month of his promotion, Bronte published his first poem, 'Heaven
and Earth', in the Halifax Guardian. Despite being dismissed from his
railway post in March 1842 because of a discrepancy in the accounts for
which he was held responsible, though not suspected of theft or fraud, by
the end of 1842 Bronte published seven further poems and an article on
Thomas Bewick in The Guardian, eight in the Bradford Herald (six of which
appeared simultaneously in The Guardian), and one in the Leeds
Intelligencer, all but one under the pseudonym 'Northangerland'. Publication
in The Guardian was no mean achievement; the paper was proud of the original
poetry it featured and the high standards it set. Bronte also tried
Blackwell's once more, unsuccessfully, and sent lines to Caroline Bowles,
James and Harriet Martineau, and Leigh Hunt for criticism and advice.
Employed as tutor with the Robinsons at Thorp Green, near York, from January
1843 to July 1845, Bronte continued to write, publishing two more poems in
The Guardian in 1845, four in the Yorkshire Gazette (one a repeat from the
Bradford Herald), and commencing work on a novel, never completed.
After his dismissal from Thorp Green because of an affair with Mrs Robinson,
and the subsequent realization in 1846, on the death of her husband, that
she had no intention of marrying him, Bronte declined into chronic
alcoholism, opiates, and debt. His behaviour after his dismissal from Thorp
Green caused the family much distress, embarrassment, and on the part of
Charlotte, bitterness over talent wasted (Barker, 568-9). Yet even in his
decline Bronte published two further poems in The Guardian, in 1846 and 1847
respectively. He died at Haworth parsonage on 24 September 1848, most likely
of tuberculosis aggravated by delirium tremens (Barker, 564, 569), although
his death certificate gives the cause as 'chronic bronchitis-marasmus'. He
was buried in the family vault on 28 September, having much more nearly
realized his literary aspirations than has been traditionally
acknowledged.>>
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We'd like to know a little bit about your for our files
We'd like to help you learn to help yourself.
Look around you all you see are sympathetic eyes,
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home.
And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know.
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson.
Heaven holds a place for those who pray,
Hey, hey, hey
Hide in the hiding place where no one ever goes.
Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes.
It's a little secret just the Robinsons' affair.
Most of all you've got to hide it from the kids.
Koo-koo-ka-choo, Mrs. Robinson,
Jesus loves you more than you will know.
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson.
Heaven holds a place for those who pray,
Hey, hey, hey
Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon.
Going to the candidate's debate.
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at this you lose.
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio,
Our nation turns it's lonely eyes to you.
What's that you say, Mrs. Robinson.
Jolting Joe has left and gone away,
Hey hey hey.
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Art Neuendorffer