Love Letters Of Some Famous Men

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 416, 28 December 1932, Page 3

Love Letters Of Some Famous Men

W , :j BURNS' EPISTLES INCONGRUOUS WITH PASSIONATE NATURE

THE revelation of the late Lord Oxford's love-letters to Margot Tennant has lit with a new be- ; coming radiance one of the fine flgures ! In the gallery of statesmen. | For a devotion and a nobility invest his prose so that his pleadings cornj niand an almost reverent reading. j "As keys do open Chests, so Letters ; Dpeh Brests" runs an old eouplet, and R all the world loves a lover the world and his wife are ready to read in eagerness when great men write Df love. And yet sometimes their intimate epistles are quaintly incongruous. One expects an almost lyrical eloquence from the passionate and never tongue-tied Burns. Not always does ; It appear. j [ In a letter to Ellison Begbie he folI Ilows a protestation against dissimula- ' tion and falsehood with deep avowals in tone no more tender than miglit be sounded in many a modern saies letter. ''No, my dear E.," he writes, "I sliall never endeavour to gain your favour such detestable practices. If you will be so good and so* generous as to adfnit me for your partner, your companion, your bosom friend througli life, thfire is nothing on this, side of eternity shall give me greater transport; but I shall never think of pur- ' chasing your hand by any acts unKvorthy of a man, and, I will add, of'a Christian. "There is one thiug, my dear, wliicb tt qarnestly request of you, and it is pxlS, that you should soon either put [an end to my hopes by a peremptory gefusal or cure me of my fears by a jgenerous consent." Burns supplemepts this restrained epistle by a business-like appeal that Ellison "would oblige me much if you Would send me a line or two when convenient." Compare that with Keats, who behched beyond the passion of his pnest poem when he wrote to Fanny pfawne; # "X have no limit now to my love. i . , f have been astonished that Men pould die Martyrs of religion. I have ^hudder'd at it. I shudder no more Ht could be marytr'd for my Religion t— Love is my Religion — I could die for vpu, My Creed is Love and you are its ptlly Tenet. You have ravish'd me ; h^ay by a Power I cannot resist. . . . My Ipve is selfish. I cannot breathe withoilf you. — Yours for ever, Jolin j Keats," ! But poets cannot claim monopoly of | ©I5lUeilce in love, writes Cecil Hunt in I [the "Daily Mail." Love holds in fee |h6 famdus of all times and lends them itfle immortal graces of the muses. • Beethoven was no stranger to the jenchanting music of the written word. i ''Beford I was up," he once penned, |"my thoughts flew to you, my everlastbeloved: sometimes hopefully, then hgaih inxiously to see if fate will cfavour ps. I cannot exist unless I am absoiuteiy yours. ... I have resolved t) Wander about at a distance until I jcan fiee to your#arms, call myself kours, and send my soul enwrapt in yours into the infinite." Captain Scott, the explorer whose "expfoits flred the imagination of the

world, liad a sensitive, poetic spirit behind his steel nerve and indomifable courage. How else could he have written tp his future wife, as she has revealed in his biography: "Amongst uncertainties, this is ceftain — I love the open air, the trees, the fields and the seas, the open spaces of life and thought. "You are the spirit of all this to me, though we have loved each other fh erowded places. I want you to be wi£|!. me when the sun shines free of fogi t How difference that from ,the fullblooded letters of Nelson to Ladjr Hamilton, who was so often "My evef

dearest" or "My dearest belovod." Little wonder that when his last letter, found open upon his desk after Ttfa falgar, began "My dearest beloy^cl Emma, and the dear friend of jpy bosom," Lady Hamilton wrote upon, its. final page: "O miserable, wrefchsd Emma! O glorious and happy Nelson!" And here is an exquisite letter |rom Warren Hastings to his wife. Writt^h from Calcutta in 1784, it included tlieSe noble sentiments and moving worcis: "My Marian, I love ytm far mot'p than my life, for that is only valuablp as you mahe it so, nor have I pnp gratification which could tempt me to retain the burtlien of it, but fox4 thh hope of being agaiu united to you, "May God grant it, and bless a.nd support you. I am ever, my deateSt and most beloved of all women, "Your most faithful and most affectionate husband." B Against this noble passion can bf placed the almost deferential rbyefence of Prince Albert to Queen [Vlctoria. "How often are my thoughts ^itK you!" he wrote. "The hours 1 privileged to pass with you in your dear little room are the radiant points of my life and I cannot even © ypt clearly picture to myself that I am to be indeed so happy as to be always near you, always your protectojv" Truly when great men write of love the world stands by in admiration, fo: "this is the very ecstasy of love."