960. EBB to Hugh Stuart Boyd
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 5, 349–350.
[London]
May 17. 1842–
My very dear friend,
Have you thought all unkindness out of my silence? Yet the inference is not a true one, however it may look in logic.
You do not like Silentiarius very much (that is my inference:) since you have kept him so short a time. And I quite agree with you that he is not a poet of the same interest as Gregory Nazianzen, however he may appear to me of more lofty cadence in his versification. My own impression is that John [Mauropus] of Euchaita is worth two of each of them as a poet– His poems strike me as standing in the very first class of the productions of the christian centuries. Synesius & John of Euchaita! I shall always think of those two together—not by their similarity but their dignity. [1]
I return you the books you lent me with true thanks—and also those which Mrs Smith, I believe, left in your hands for me. [2] I thank you for them—& you must be good enough to thank her. They were of use—although of a rather sublime indifference for poets generally.
Arabel will take this packet to your door—but she will not go in to see you because she is only just convalescent from the meazles, making the fourth victim within the last few weeks in this house. They are well now,—I thank God! But I have not seen Arabel for nearly a week,—& therefore I leave you to judge whether it wd be right to expose you to a hazard from which her carefulness has preserved me. She had had the meazles before this attack; & so had Alfred–
I shall send you soon the series of the Greek papers you asked for—& also perhaps, the first paper of a Survey of the English poets, under the pretence of a review of “The Book of the Poets” a bookseller-selection published lately. I begin from Langland of Piers Plowman & the Malvern Hills. The first paper went to the editor last week, & I have heard nothing as to whether it will appear on saturday or not [3] —& perhaps if it does, you wont care to have it sent to you. Tell me if you do or dont. I have suffered unpleasantly in the heart lately from this tyrannous dynasty of east winds, but have been well otherwise, & am better in that. Flushie means to bark the next time he sees you in revenge for what you say of him.
Good bye dear Mr Boyd. Think of me as
your ever affectionate
EBB
Address: H S Boyd Esqr
Publication: EBB-HSB, pp. 246–247.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. EBB commented on all the writers named in this paragraph in “Some Account of the Greek Christian Poets.”
2. EBB had borrowed A Concise View … of Sacred Literature, commenced by Mrs. Smith’s father and completed by her brother, and a copy of Synesius (see letter 894).
3. The first instalment of EBB’s review did not appear until the issue of 4 June.
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