Sonnets from the Portuguese

Carolina Portuguese

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David Lee Stewart and Emily Bond Anderson certainly knew each other in 1936.

Emily was 22 that year and her David was 34. Census records show Emily Bond Anderson born 23 October 1914 in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, and David Lee Stewart born 14 February, 1902 in Edgecombe County, North Carolina. Our prose prone Carolina gentleman was born on Valentine’s Day!

On Wednesday, August 12, 1936 at 1:00am, when David wrote his 5-page sonnet for Emily, he had already celebrated his birthday in February, and his Emily was waiting to turn 22 that upcoming October. David Lee was 12 years and 8 months older than Emily Bond.

David’s neatly written, tidily folded, 5-page sonnet was safely tucked inside of a copy of Sonnets from the Portuguese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. This particular edition is believed to have been published around 1932.

On page 14 of the book’s introduction, Mr. David Stewart has underlined in red:

  • “There is, of course, no Portuguese original for them.”
  • “had called her his ‘little Portuguese.’ It has been suggested that this may have been the origin of the purposely misleading title.”
  • “the finest Sonnets written in any language since Shakespeare’s.”

The book was given by David Stewart to Emily Bond Anderson with “Best Wishes for Valentine’s Day.” This might suggest that Dave, Davey, David, Dada diddle cheeks is underlining these phrases in red to emphasize his admiration for Emily, Em, Emsters, Eba darling’s talents as well as his devoted love for her. Perhaps like Robert Browning’s for Elizabeth Bennett.

Then again, he did only send “Best Wishes,” and not, “all my love,” or some other gooey sentiment.

Using red pen might be due to Valentine’s Day, or might also be an emphasis on 1930’s mansplaining to settle a point or disagreement.

Either way, I think that Mr. Stewart went to a lot of trouble to get attention from Miss Bond Anderson. I prefer to think that our pal David was nervously attempting to express his deep regard for beautiful Emily.

He uses full names in the inscription:

TO Emily Bond Anderson
FROM David Stewart
WITH Best Wishes for Valentine's Day

He uses red pen on Valentine’s Day for “TO,” “FROM,” and “WITH.” His writing is very straight, cursive, neat and precise. His cursive capital letters at the beginning of the proper nouns are just textbook lovely.

I bet David wore a tie, matching vest, and pleated ballooned out in the frontage area pants when he delivered the book. I bet she had on a well-appointed dressed-for-work outfit of matching untucked belted blouse/skirt when she answered the door. I bet they had a lot of fun and trying times figuring each other out but never reaching the thankfully elusive I-know-everything-about-you times of boredom. I bet they had days they wished could last forever and days they wished they could forget. I hope that they mostly had ultimately satisfactory lives full of love.

Let’s choose mischievous green eyes for both. Darker brown hair for our David and reddish brown hair for our Emily.

Census records show both David and Emily coming from farming families with neighbors like Hill, Crickmore, Pittman, Bryan, Pope, Gavin, Price, and the Hunters. The Hunters are listed as a black family with a grandmother and granddaughter (6 years younger than David) named “Nellie.”

to be continued…

Love, Ms. Herisme xoxo

I tear up every time I look at this inscription. Is it tear worthy? Is it the intention or mandala-type impermanence that hits me? Fleeting feelings? Teeny tiny moments of a sparkle of life? Most likely my imagination gone rogue once again.

Also, today is MotherHerisme’s birthday! She is 77!

The EBB

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It is believed that sometime between 1845-1846 Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a collection of 44 sonnets. These sonnets eventually came to be published in 1850 under the title Sonnets From the Portuguese at the encouragement of her husband, the poet playwright Robert Browning. Elizabeth is known for wanting to keep these love sonnets private, since they were written only for her husband’s eyes. Robert claimed her sonnets comparable to Shakespeare and pushed Elizabeth into publishing them. Elizabeth agreed as long as they were published with the deceptive title Sonnets From the Portuguese, which were never written by a Portuguese person or translated from Portuguese. “My little Portuguese,” is a pet name Bobby used for Ba, or Bette (pronounced bet-TEA for reasons). Or so the story of the Barrett Browning couple goes…

A Taurus born 6 March 1806, Elizabeth's world saw:
 
Anglo-Spanish and Napoleonic Wars
transatlantic slave trade about to be outlawed from anywhere in the British Empire 
Lewis and Clark on their journey home after reaching the Pacific Ocean
Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire's death
the Holy Roman Empire collapse after almost a millennium 
Webster publish his first dictionary 
the birth of the man who was later to create the concord grape (Ephraim Wales Bull)
and George III (yes, THAT George III) as king
At age 39/40, Elizabeth's world saw:

her first meeting with Robert Browning
Edgar Allen Poe publishes The Raven
the United States annexes Texas
cholera pandemic
the Great famine in Ireland
Wagner's Tannhäuser opera debut
first Anglo-Sikh war
the saxophone is patented by Adolphe Sax
Victoria is queen
Elizabeth and Robert marry on September 12, 1846
At age 44, Elizabeth's world saw:

the Britannia Bridge open across the Menai Straights in Wales
a hippopotamus arrive to the London Zoo (not seen in England since Roman times)
Taiping Rebellion
Rudolf Clausius publishes the basic ideas of second law of thermodynamics
Great Famine in Ireland begins to subside
British Raj transfer monies to Persian Shia Islamic holy cities
historic Pacific Highway begins development in Washington State
Cesár Ritz born
William Wordsworth's death
her little boy, Pen, turn 1-year-old
Sonnets from the Portuguese published

82 years later, in 1932, Grosset & Dunlap (now part of Penguin Random House) of New York City published a Cameo Classics edition of Sonnets from the Portuguese. The Cameo Classics books, according to an unattributed faculty blog from Ohio Weslyan University, this series of books started out being sold for $.69 each (about $14 value today). The Cameo Classics edition measures 8.5×5.5inches, 110 pages with silhouette illustrations. The book is hard-bound in blue fabric with gold gilt lettering on the spine and a Guttenberg medal inset on the front cover. The black slipcase for the book has a blue printed graphic glued to the front showcasing an illustration from the book, with an alligator skin treatment to the back of the case.

Sometime between 1932 and 1936, David Stewart purchased this book and gifted it to Emily Bond Anderson with “Best Wishes for Valentine’s Day.”

On Wednesday, August 12, 1936 at 1:00am, “In the Country,” David penned a “Series to E.” titled: Meditations. This took David 5 pages to write in precise 30 paragraphed flowing handwriting, finishing with the word, “END.” David has used some red pen for emphasis on the words, “TO,” “FROM,” “WITH,” and underlining a few phrases on page 14 of the book.

85 years later, on a sweet Montessori Mafia at the park playground afternoon, I picked up the Cameo Classics 1932 edition of Sonnets from The Portuguese at our little community bookswap on the worn picnic table underneath the green topped timber-pitched shelter. I found this copy from David to Emily with David’s 5 page note tucked inside. Nobody at the park knows who David or Emily are.

What I know so far is that the book looks to have been moved about multiple times with wearing on the spine and book case as if it’s been pulled on and off of many shelves many, many times with a careless coffee/teacup stain on the case illustration. But the book inside appears to have hardly been opened or read at all. There are no creases. The gluing and spine are intact like a new book. The 5 page note from David to E. also appears to have never been opened or read.

It feels like… magic

Love, Ms Herisme xoxo

to be continued…