Correspondence

607.  EBB to John Kenyon

An amended version of the text that appeared in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 6–7.

74 Gloucester Place

Monday morning [ca. January 1838] [1]

Dear Mr Kenyon,

I believe I ought to return more books than I do return, were it only to make you think that I have not been asleep over Landor’s. It is easier to dream than to sleep over a volume of his: and perhaps very beautiful as these are in many parts, one of my dreams is, that they express coldly, & with a hard stiff stoney outline, what the Greeks were. There were living Greeks—were there not? as well as Greek statues. [2]

Thank you for Dr Channing .. and indeed for the rest of your kindness. I had seen the Essay on Milton, & much admired much of it. So much, that I must see it again. But I will not keep it, or the other books, very long.

Believe me

Truly yours

E B Barrett

How ungrateful it appears, that the acknowledgment of the beauty in Landor’s books, shd come in as an after thought—and the complaint stand at full length!– I am not so bad as my note is!——

Address: John Kenyon Esqr / 4 Harley Place.

Publication: BC, 4, 6–7 (in part).

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. This letter could have been written at any time during EBB’s residence at Gloucester Place (Summer 1835–April 1838). However, EBB’s having mentioned in the previous letter that Kenyon had lent her Landor’s latest work suggests that this may be one of the books she is now returning.

2. EBB’s comments about Landor’s Greeks make it probable that one of the volumes in question was his Pericles and Aspasia, published in March 1836.

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