1942. EBB to John Kenyon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 261–262.
[London]
Saturday morning. [?14 June] [1845] [1]
I send back some of your books, dearest Mr Kenyon, & keep the Camden society a little longer with your kind permission. [2] Mr Best you certainly will not like better than I do—but his self[-]complacency will not wait for our opinions, yours or mine. Then he has a name so provocative of punning, & the antithesis of a ‘worst natured muse’ [3] is standing so in sight, that it is best, three times over, to get away from him. And now, just see what impertinence he writes about modern poets & poet-asses, [4] & see if either .. you or I can be called upon to bear with it? If you had found me alone the other day I should have told you that I had had a very courteous letter from Mrs Milner .. the editor, you will remember, of the Christian mother’s magazine, .. asking for a sonnet or other m∙s. poem, for the use of her periodical, [5] —& relying, she says, on my desire to support principles held in common &c &c. Now the magazine in question is (did you look at it at all?) one of the weakest of its race .. which is speaking strongly,—& narrowly contracted, it appeared to me, in scope & intention. Still I suppose I must send something out of gratitude & goodwill——only I shall try to do it so as not to provoke a renewal of the invitation. You wont tell Mr Burges that good resolution! And shall I see you (I ask myself) today or tomorrow, or when?—which is being too insolent altogether. Or I might even go further & protest against being called “Miss Barrett” by such as you, even in the presence of ‘persons unknown’ or known. Now is it right & natural of you to be as formal as Flush, who knows no better? & am I not always
your affectionate & grateful cousin
EBB .. commonly called Ba
or is it fair that Henrietta shd be called Henrietta one moment, & I be ‘set down’ as a ‘Miss Barrett’ the moment after?–
What hot weather!——
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Dated by reference to “hot weather” (also mentioned in letter 1945) and to “Mr. Best,” doubtless referring to The Beggar’s Coin; or Love in Italy, by John Richard Digby Best, which had been published in May 1845.
2. Perhaps The Early English Metrical Romances of Perceval, Isumbras, Eglamour, and Degrevant (1845) edited by J.O. Halliwell; it was published for The Camden Society and reviewed in The Athenæum of 18 January 1845 (no. 899, pp. 64–65). See letter 1305 where EBB had previously borrowed publications of The Camden Society from Kenyon.
3. John Wilmot, “An Allusion to Horace, the Tenth Satyr of the First Book” (1680), line 60.
4. Perhaps a reference to “Modern Poets: A Satire” in Beste’s volume mentioned above.
5. Mary Milner (fl. 1842–52) the niece of Isaac Milner, Dean of Carlisle, edited the The Christian Mother’s Magazine (1844–45). EBB submitted two poems: “Sonnet: A Sketch” and “Wisdom Unapplied,” both of which were published in the October 1845 issue (p. 635 and p. 645, respectively).
___________________
