Correspondence

2764.  George Burges to EBB

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 15, 198.

[?Cambridge]

[?1849] [1]

Mr Burges presents his Compts to Mrs Browning & begs her acceptance of the accompanying translation of the Aias of Sophocles, [2] in which she will perhaps feel some interest, as being connected with a language of which she was & it is hoped is still an ardent admirer.

As a composition, in which the poetry of diction is the chief point of attraction Mr Burges is well aware it can claim not the least merit. But if Mrs Browning should consider it a faithful representation of the soul of Sophocles Mr Burges will be perfectly satisfied with that praise, for to nothing beyond has he the vanity to aspire.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Conjectural dating based on the 1849 publication date of Burges’s translation of Sophocles, a copy of which sold, with this letter tipped in, as part of lot 931 in Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A2167.1).

2. The Aias of Sophocles, translated from an improved text into English verse (1849), by George Burges.

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