Branwell Brontë: Difference between revisions

Branwell Brontë was the fourth of six children and the only son of [[Patrick Brontë]] (1777–1861) and his wife, [[Maria Branwell|Maria Branwell Brontë]] (1783–1821).<ref name=odnb>{{cite ODNB|first=Victor A. |last=Neufeldt|title=Brontë, (Patrick) Branwell (1817–1848)|year= 2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/3526 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3526 |access-date= 26 August 2012}}</ref><ref name="BarnardBarnard2013">{{cite book|first1=Robert |last1=Barnard|author-link=Robert Barnard|first2=Louise |last2=Barnard|title=A Brontë Encyclopedia|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QZ9hb9Uk54kC&pg=PT95|access-date=18 May 2013|chapter= Brontë, Patrick Branwell|date=29 March 2013|publisher=Wiley|isbn=978-1-118-66133-8|pages=53–57}}</ref> He was born in a house (now known as the [[Brontë Birthplace]]) in Market Street, [[Thornton, West Yorkshire|Thornton]], near [[Bradford]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]],<ref name=odnb/> and moved with his family to [[Haworth]] when his father was appointed to the perpetual curacy in 1821.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

While four of his five sisters were sent to [[Cowan Bridge]] boarding school, Branwell was educated at home by his father,<ref name=odnb/> who gave him a classical education. [[Elizabeth Gaskell]], biographer of his sister, [[Charlotte Brontë]], says of Branwell's schooling "Mr. Brontë's friends advised him to send his son to school; but, remembering both the strength of will of his own youth and his mode of employing it, he believed that Branwell was better at home, and that he himself could teach him well, as he had told others before."<ref name=Gaskell>Gaskell, Elizabeth; "The Life of Charlotte Brontë", Penguin Books, 1998, {{ISBN|978-0-14-043493-4}}.</ref> His two eldest sisters died just before his eighth birthday in 1825, and their loss affected him deeply.<ref name="Dinsdale2006">{{cite book|first=Ann |last=Dinsdale|title=The Brontës at Haworth|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GcV7-aSR8NEC&pg=PA43|access-date=27 May 2013|year=2006|publisher=Frances Lincoln ltd|isbn=978-0-7112-2572-5|pages=38–43}}{{Dead link|date=October 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Even as a young boy Brontë read extensively, and was especially fond of the "[[Noctes Ambrosianae]]", literary dialogues published in ''[[Blackwood's Magazine]]''.<ref name=odnb/> He took a leadership role with Charlotte in a series of fantasy role-playing games which the siblings wrote and performed about the "Young Men", characters based on a set of wooden soldiers. The plays evolved into an intricate saga based in West Africa about the fictitious [[Glass Town]] confederacy.<ref name=odnb/> From 1834, he both collaborated and competed with his sister Charlotte to describe another imaginary world, ''Angria''.<ref name=odnb/> Branwell's particular interest in these [[paracosm]]s were their politics and wars, including the destructive rivalry between their heroes, Charlotte's Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Zamorna, and his Alexander Percy, Earl of Northangerland.<ref name=odnb/> These writings impress by their virtuosity and scope, but are also repetitive when compared to Charlotte's contributions.<ref name="BarnardBarnard2013"/> Christine Alexander, a Brontë juvenilia historian at the [[University of New South Wales]],<ref name=":10">{{cite web|last=Plater|first=Diana|date=6 June 2016|title=Professor Christine Alexander and Charlotte Bronte's juvenilia|url=https://www.smh.com.au/business/workplace/professor-christine-alexander-and-charlotte-brontes-juvenilia-20160603-gpapss.html|access-date=7 June 2021|website=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref> wrote "Both Charlotte and Branwell ensured the consistency of their imaginary world. When Branwell exuberantly kills off important characters in his manuscripts, Charlotte comes to the rescue and, in effect, resurrects them for the next stories [...]; and when Branwell becomes bored with his inventions, such as the Glass Town magazine he edits, Charlotte takes over his initiative and keeps the publication going for several more years. It was Branwell, however, who took a pride in systematizing their private world and maintaining a consistent political structure, features typical of paracosmic play. He documented in encyclopaedic detail, in neat lists, footnotes, sketches, and maps, the geography, history, government, and social structure of the Glass Town Federation (and later, the new kingdom of Angria)—laying down the parameters of the imaginary world".<ref name=":0">{{cite journal|last=Alexander|first=Christine|date=4 July 2018|title=In Search of the Authorial Self: Branwell Brontë's Microcosmic World|url=https://journalofjuveniliastudies.com/index.php/jjs/article/view/17|journal=Journal of Juvenilia Studies|volume=1|pages=3–19|doi=10.29173/jjs126|issn=2561-8326|doi-access=free}}</ref>{{rp|6-76–7}} He often wrote under several pseudonyms, such as Captain John Bud, Sergeant Bud, and Chief Genius Bany, who were also characters in their world.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|10-1410–14}}

Aged 11 in January 1829 he began producing a magazine, later named ''Branwell's Blackwood's Magazine'' which included his poems, plays, criticisms, histories, and dialogues.<ref name="odnb" />

During this employment he continued his literary work, including sending poems and translations to [[Thomas De Quincey]] and [[Hartley Coleridge]] who both lived in the [[Lake District]]. At Coleridge's invitation, he visited the poet at his cottage who encouraged him to pursue his translations of [[Horace]]'s [[Odes (Horace)|''Odes'']].<ref name=odnb/> In June 1840 he sent the translations to Coleridge, despiteafter having been dismissed by the Postlethwaites.<ref name=odnb/> According to [[Juliet Barker]]'s biography of the Brontës, he may have fathered an illegitimate child during time in the town, but others suspect that it may be more of Brontë's boasting.<ref name="BarnardBarnard2013"/> Coleridge began an encouraging letter about the quality of the translations in November–December 1840 but never finished it.<ref name=odnb/>

Later, on 1 April 1841, he was promoted to 'clerk in charge' at [[Luddendenfoot railway station]] in West Yorkshire,<ref name=odnb/> where his salary increased to £130.<ref name=Marshall52/> In 1842 he was dismissed due to a deficit in the accounts of £11–1s–7d (£11.1906) This had probably been stolen by Watson, the porter, who was left in charge when Brontë went drinking. This was attributed to incompetence rather than theft and the missing sum was deducted from his salary.<ref name=Marshall52/>

Brontë returned home to his family at the [[Brontë Parsonage Museum|Haworth parsonage]], where he looked for another job, wrote poetry and attempted to adapt Angrian material into a book called ''And the Weary are at Rest''.<ref name="BarnardBarnard2013"/> During the 1840s, several of his poems were published in local newspapers under the name of Northangerland, making him the first of the Brontës to be a published poet.<ref name="BarnardBarnard2013"/> Soon however, after Mr Robinson's death, Mrs Robinson made clear that she was not going to marry Branwell, who then "declined into chronic [[alcoholism]], [[opiates]] and debt".<ref name=odnb/><ref name=Gaskell/> Charlotte's letters from this time demonstrate that she was angered by his behaviour.<ref name="BarnardBarnard2013"/> In January 1847, he wrote to his friend Leyland about the easy existence he hoped for: "to try and make myself a name in the world of posterity, without being pestered by the small but countless botherments."<ref name="BarnardBarnard2013"/> His behaviour became increasingly impossible and embarrassing to the family.<ref name="BarnardBarnard2013"/><ref name="Dinsdale2006"/> He managed to set fire to his bed, after which his father had to sleep with him for the safety of the family.<ref name="BarnardBarnard2013"/> Towards the end of his life he was sending notes to a friend asking of "Five pence (5d) worth of Gin".<ref name="BarnardBarnard2013"/> Charlotte Brontë wrote to her publisher that Branwell died without "ever knowing that [[Brontë_familyBrontë family#First_publicationFirst publication:_Poems Poems,_by_Currer by Currer,_Ellis Ellis,_and_Acton_Bell and Acton Bell|his sisters had published a line]]." However, according to Juliet Barker's biography, Branwell may have known about his sisters' publication of their poetry, having been the accidental recipient of some proofs since their pseudonyms were thought to be male. Barker also states that Branwell's friends said he claimed authorship of ''Wuthering Heights'' (though they may have said this out of loyalty).<ref name="Gardiner1992">{{cite book|first=Juliet |last=Gardiner|title=The Brontës at Haworth: The World Within|url=https://www.google.com/search?tbm=bks&hl=en&q=%22ever%20knowing%20that%20his%20sisters%20had%20published%20a%20line%22|access-date=3 January 2021|year=1992|publisher=Clarkson N. Potter|isbn=0-517-59267-3|page=118}}</ref>

[[Blake Morrison]] wrote the play ''We are Three Sisters'' (2011), a re-working of [[Chekhov]]'s ''[[Three Sisters (play)|Three Sisters]]'' based on the lives of the Brontë sisters and featuring Branwell and Mrs Robinson, which premiered in Halifax on 9 September before touring.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Brennan|first=Clare|date=17 September 2011|title=We Are Three Sisters – review|url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/sep/17/three-sisters-blake-morrison-review|url-status=live|access-date=December 4, 2022|website=The Guardian}}</ref>

British novelist [[Robert Edric]] wrote ''Sanctuary'' (2014), a novel chronicling Branwell's final months, during which family secrets are revealed and he learns about the publication of his sisters' books.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wilson|first=Frances|date=12 February 2015|title=The phantom menace: in search of the real Branwell Brontë|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2015/02/phantom-menace-search-real-branwell-bront|url-status=live|website=The New Statesman}}</ref>

In [[Tim Powers’ latestPowers]]' novel ''My Brother’s Keeper'' (2023, Baen Books), Branwell is a major character, along with his sister Emily as the protagonist, as well as, to a lesser extent, the rest of the Brontë family. As with most of his fiction, Powers uses a great deal of historical facts, but interlaces them seamlessly with his particular brand of the supernatural with its ghosts, arcane rituals, otherworldly sources of power, and (in this case) werewolves. It is not the first title of his to involve poets and artists from around this period. ''The Stress of Her Regard'' had Byron, Shelly and Keats as main characters, and the related follow up ''Hide Me Among the Graves'' involved the siblings Christina and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Powers’ knowledge of the era and its literature is quite evident in this latest work.

*Battell Book<ref>{{cite web|title=Bronte juvenilia: 'Battell Book'|url=https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/bronte-juvenilia-battell-book|access-date=13 June 2021|website=The British Library}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite book|last=Brontë|first=Patrick Branwell|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1062294207|title=The works of Patrick Branwell Brontë. Volume 1|editor-last=Neufeldt|editor-first=Victor A.|date=2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-138-92911-1|oclc=1062294207}}</ref>

*''The Revenge A TradgedyTragedy''<ref name=":1" />

*''An Historical Narrative of the War of Encroachment'' <ref name=":1" />

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