Brixton Letter 93
BR to Constance Malleson
September 3, 1918
- AL
- McMaster
- Edited by
Kenneth Blackwell
Andrew G. Bone
Nicholas Griffin
Sheila Turcon
Cite The Collected Letters of Bertrand Russell, https://russell-letters.mcmaster.ca/brixton-letter-93
BRACERS 19357
<Brixton Prison>1
Tuesday Sp. 3. ’18.
Tomorrow, blessed day when I see2 my Darling. How I long to see you on your pillow, with your hair all round you — lovely moments when I sit by the fire and talk to you in your bed, and behind the talk is the thought of joy to come — and you look so lovely, innocent sometimes and childlike so that my heart is wrung. And there are the times when you are sad, and in those times I love you beyond all words. O Colette, Love, I feel in my hands the feeling of your neck, so soft and lovely — half my love goes out through my hands, and they want you my soft one. I love all sorts of funny little characteristic things in you — the way you will be talking and go to sleep in the middle of a sentence quite suddenly — your way of running upstairs — your way of saying “oh Dee oh Dee” — “fudd” — all kinds of tiny things, because they are you. And Infant Samuel.3 I love you the way one loves a child as well as the way one loves a woman: that is why jealousy does not conquer. And that is the most passionate part of my love, because it is helpless and has no outlet: it wants to be protective, and it can’t be.
Our love must grow as we grow: if it became fixed at any point, you would soon have passed beyond it. I will grow towards freedom more and more. And the rough impulses will diminish steadily. And whatever new wisdom time may bring to either of us we must share, so as to grow together, not apart.
O my dearest Darling, how I shall want tomorrow to take you in my arms, to feel your lips, to hear words of love. But perhaps there will be moments when love can look out of the eyes — and you will be there, I shall see you, I shall hear your dear voice, and I shall know the love that can’t be told yet. Four weeks more — and then I shall feel your arms about me. O my Dear, O my Heart’s Comrade, I love you.
- 1
[document] The letter was edited from the unsigned, twice-folded, single-sheet original in BR’s hand in the Malleson papers in the Russell Archives.
- 2
when I see She would be visiting him at Brixton.
- 3
Infant Samuel Possibly an allusion to Infant Samuel, the painting done in 1776 by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792) and housed in the Tate Gallery. Another painting, called The Infant Samuel, by James Sant (1820–1916), was done in 1853 and was popularized through an engraving; its original is in the Bury Art Gallery and Museum, Lancs. Or a nickname for something else.
Brixton Prison
Located in southwest London Brixton is the capital’s oldest prison. It opened in 1820 as the Surrey House of Correction for minor offenders of both sexes, but became a women-only convict prison in the 1850s. Brixton was a military prison from 1882 until 1898, after which it served as a “local” prison for male offenders sentenced to two years or less, and as London’s main remand centre for those in custody awaiting trial. The prison could hold up to 800 inmates. Originally under local authority jurisdiction, local prisons were transferred to Home Office control in 1878 in an attempt to establish uniform conditions of confinement. These facilities were distinct from “convict” prisons reserved for more serious or repeat offenders sentenced to longer terms of penal servitude.
Heart’s Comrade
Colette first called BR her “heart’s comrade” in her letter of 17 November 1916 (BRACERS 112964). On 9 December (BRACERS 112977), she explained: “I want you as comrade as well as lover.” On 9 April 1917 (BRACERS 19145), he reciprocated the sentiment for the first time. In a letter of 1 January 1918 (BRACERS 19260), BR was so upset with her that he could no longer call her “heart’s comrade”. After their relationship was patched up, he wrote on 16 February 1918 (BRACERS 19290): “I do really feel you now again my Heart’s Comrade.” The last time that BR expressed the sentiment in a letter to her was 26 August 1921 (BRACERS 19742).
Constance Malleson
Lady Constance Malleson (1895–1975), actress and author, was the daughter of Hugh Annesley, 5th Earl Annesley, and his second wife, Priscilla. “Colette” (as she was known to BR) was raised at the family home, Castlewellan Castle, County Down, Northern Ireland. Becoming an actress was an unusual path for a woman of her class. She studied at Tree’s (later the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art), debuting in 1914 with the stage name of Colette O’Niel at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London, in a student production. She married fellow actor Miles Malleson (1888–1969) in 1915 because her family would not allow them to live together. In 1916 Colette met BR through the No-Conscription Fellowship and began a love affair with him that lasted until 1920. The affair was rekindled twice, in 1929 and 1948; they remained friends for the rest of his life. She had a great talent for making and keeping friends. Colette acted in London and the provinces. She toured South Africa in 1928–29 and the Middle East, Greece and Italy in 1932 in Lewis Casson and Sybil Thorndike’s company. She acted in two films, both in 1918, Hindle Wakes and The Admirable Crichton, each now lost. With BR’s encouragement she began a writing career, publishing a short story in The English Review in 1919. She published other short stories as well as hundreds of articles and book reviews. Colette wrote two novels — The Coming Back (1933) and Fear in the Heart (1936) — as well as two autobiographies — After Ten Years (1931) and In the North (1946). She was a fierce defender of Finland, where she had lived before the outbreak of World War II. Letters from her appeared in The Times and The Manchester Guardian. Another of her causes was mental health. She died five years after BR in Lavenham, Suffolk, where she spent her final years. See S. Turcon, “A Bibliography of Constance Malleson”, Russell 32 (2012): 175–90.