Having now the key to this method of Charlotte Brontë, we also discover portrayed in Jane Eyre an utterly neglected sister of Currer Bell in Julia Severn, called after a river. Remembering that Emily Brontë would be younger than Charlotte, we perceive Julia must mean Elizabeth Brontë, born, like Emily, in July. We almost had forgotten this sister was at the Clergy Daughters' School. One of two things was responsible, it seems, for the choice of "Julia": either her natal month or her going to the above school in July. Elizabeth Brontë, the second sister of Charlotte Brontë, was born at Hartshead, near Dewsbury.
"Miss Temple," cries Mr. Brocklehurst, "... what—what is that girl with curled hair—red hair, ma'am, curled—curled all over?"
"It is Julia Severn," replies Miss Temple quietly, ... "Julia's hair curls naturally."
Thus from this discovery the world learns for the first time that Diana Rivers represents Emily Brontë, afterwards Shirley Keeldar;[44] Mary Rivers, Annie or Anne Brontë; St. John Eyre Rivers, the Rev. Patrick Brontë; and the elderly Hannah, the old, dialect-speaking Tabitha Aykroyd—the original of Charlotte Brontë's Mrs. Dean and Bessie; that Aunt Reed represents Aunt Branwell; Cousin Eliza Reed, Cousin Eliza Branwell; John Reed, Charlotte Brontë's brother Branwell; and Julia Severn, her sister Elizabeth Brontë, all of whom but for The Key to the Brontë Works would have remained for ever hidden and unrecognized in Jane Eyre.
I have refrained from extending this volume with full extracts from the Brontë books, once having indicated the place and nature of my references. I must emphasize, however, that in dealing with the Rivers family Charlotte Brontë gives most appealing portrayals of the various phases of the life at Haworth Parsonage:—The studying, the painting,[45] the minor interesting domestic incidents dear to her memory, the parting of the Brontë sisters with St. John (Mr. Brontë), the "house-cleaning"—so very "Yorkshire"!—the preparations for Christmas, the return home of the Brontë girls, and many other facts and associations that render Jane Eyre in the light of The Key to the Brontë Works the surpassing of all Brontë biographies. Presented for posterity by her own sure hand, Charlotte Brontë's picture is bright and exhilarating; and as we glance uneasily again to Mrs. Gaskell's sombre portrayal, we on a sudden remember that biographer wrote in the shadow of death. But it is with life we have to do.
CHAPTER IX.
THE ORIGIN OF THE YORKSHIRE ELEMENT IN CHARLOTTE BRONTË'S HUNSDEN OF "THE PROFESSOR"; HEATHCLIFFE OF "WUTHERING HEIGHTS"; ROCHESTER OF "JANE EYRE"; AND YORKE OF "SHIRLEY."
M. Héger, Miss Brontë's Brussels friend, by the showing of all evidence was essentially the original of her leading male characters.[46] M. Sue's Miss Mary and its "Manuscript of Mdlle. Lagrange," which I present farther on, are sufficient testimony that M. Héger was the original of the inner Heathcliffe and Rochester, and Charlotte Brontë's other chief male characters. An inquiry, therefore, is at once required as to the significance of Mrs. Gaskell's statement that she suspected Charlotte Brontë drew from the sons of the Taylor family[47] "all that was of truth in the characters of the heroes of her first two works." That the Yorkshire element of her heroes was provided by a living model or models from one family, is proved by a consistency of the characterization in this regard. I find, truly enough, that male members of the Taylor family were indeed the originals to which she referred in the composition of a Yorkshire-Héger.[48] The Taylors, of the Red House, Gomersall, (obviously the Briarmains of the Yorkes), and of Hunsworth, were mill-owner friends, and Independents, with whom Charlotte Brontë visited. In Shirley Miss Brontë ostensibly portrayed Mr. Taylor and his two daughters, her friends Mary and Martha, as Mr. Yorke and Rose and Jessie. Mary and Martha Taylor were at school with Charlotte at Roe Head, near Dewsbury and Huddersfield. They were also at Brussels with Charlotte, though not at the Hégers'. Martha was taken ill and died at Brussels; a touching reference to her death is made where she is portrayed as Jessie Yorke, in Shirley, Chapter XXIII. Mary Taylor (Rose Yorke) was in New Zealand when Charlotte Brontë died. Her fondness for travel is mentioned in the Shirley chapter named. The male members of this family were thought by Currer Bell most characteristic Yorkshire folk, hence the name of Yorke. I mention Yorke Hunsden as one of the Yorkshire-Hégers of Miss Brontë's method of dual portraiture. I believe this important character in The Professor will be found, like his fellows, to be entirely a Taylor-Héger. The name for Hunsden was apparently dictated by the Taylors' connection with Hunsworth, and it may be noted his Christian name of Yorke came to be later the surname of Mr. Taylor as portrayed in Shirley.