Correspondence

764.  EBB to Miss Hooker

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 4, 283.

Torquay.

June 12th 1840–

In consequence of sudden affliction & increased illness, Miss Barrett has not been able to receive Miss Hooker’s pleasing verses [1] until some time after they were written, nor to acknowledge them until some time after they were received. May she now express, in imperfect words yet a true gratitude, her sense of the kindness & sympathy with which the face of the unknown has been turned towards her? That before the face so turned, all the goodness of God may pass, remains her prayer.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Unless anonymously published, these verses must have been either in manuscript or privately printed, as there is no formal record of any publication by Miss Hooker at this date. It is assumed that the recipient was Mary Ann Hooker, the author of Sketches from the Bible (1842).

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