Correspondence

1238.  EBB to John Kenyon

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 117.

[London]

May 10. 1843.

My dear cousin,

My translation of Miss Mitford’s letter is, that she wants, … not Mr Eagles’s address, (which I sent to her long ago from your dictation) but his acquaintance– You know she could not very well call upon him, & he might (that is, if you asked him he might) call upon her. I could’nt ask him to call upon her—though by your maneuvering you seem to say so! [1]

I am so glad that I dont stand alone in my maneuvering!!–

I return those letters which you left with me & which have much interested me—keeping the other, in all obedience & discretion, as a guarantee that you will soon come & see me– Pan goes again to you– In writing him out, .. may I not have disgraced myself by “immorality!”.–

By the way, .. I have read every word, except one word, of Miss Mitford’s letter!! [2]

Affectionately yours

EBB.

She is at 11 Sion Row, Clifton, for a week–

Address, on integral page: John Kenyon Esqr

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Cf. Hamlet, II, 2, 309–310.

2. The double exclamation mark underscores EBB’s triumph at reading Miss Mitford’s notoriously difficult handwriting (for an example, see the illustration in vol. 6, facing p. 102).

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