984. RB to Alfred Domett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 32–34,
New Cross, Hatcham, Surrey.
July 13. 1842.
My Dear Domett,
“I hope you are well”—how one discovers the sense of our elders at every turn! I begin writing so, naturally. I do hope & trust you are well– Here is a ship just off you-wards & I write at night—nothing about what you are sure to have newspapers full of—but such small talk as we used to have once here or at Limehouse [1] —the true charm of which … there, there! Enough of that– Best & first news, all I know that you know are well,—from your father & brother John, who, I am told, looked well last Sunday at Chapel .. to Chris. Dowson and your Sister—who, I can pleasantly testify, are well– I & Sarianna passed a happy friendly day with them at Woodford [2] (S., two or three days, indeed) walking & talking in a bowery flowery place on wood’s edge—& did not we just drink your good fortunes after dinner!– Chris. & I—(Last Friday, was all this pleasure.) I send with this Tennyson’s new vol—&, alas, the old with it .. that is, what he calls old .. you will see, and groan! [3] The alterations are insane. Whatever is touched is spoiled. There is some woeful mental infirmity in the man—he was months buried in correcting the press of the last volume and in that time began spoiling the new poems (in proof) as hard as he could: Locksley Hall is shorn of two or three couplets I will copy out from the book of somebody who luckily transcribed from the proof-sheet—meantime one line, you will see, I have restored—see & wonder! [4] I have been with Moxon this morning, who tells me that he is miserably thin-skinned, sensitive to criticism (foolish criticism)—wishes to see no notices that contain the least possible depreciatory expressions—poor fellow! But how good when good he is—that noble Locksley Hall, for instance—& the St. Simeon Stylites—which I think perfect– [5] Do you (yes)—remember our day on the water last year? To think that he had omitted the musical “Forget-me-not” song, & “the Hesperides”—& the Deserted House [6] —& “every thing that is his”—as distinguished from what is everybodys!– Sir L. Bulwer has published a set of sing-songs—I read two, or one, in a Review—& thought them abominable. [7] Mr Taylor’s affected unreal putting-together, called “Edwin the Fair,” is the flattest of fallen– [8] I don’t remember anything else since your time.
Dickens is back, and busy in “doing” America for his next numbers—sad work– [9] But here is a pleasant circumstance—Sir J. Hanmer—(you know his pretty poems)—an interesting person––in Parliament this session for the first time, as a Tory (Born so, & bred so—) has, two nights ago, most resolutely recanted on better advisement, & voted against Peel in the matter of the Corn Laws—with a good energetic half dozen words, beside;—so that even political convertites may not be despaired of! [10]
I shall print nothing till October—the Book season has been, says Moxon, no season at all—the trade flourishing—(same authority)—more in one month, January, last year—than in the whole of these present six months. (Same cry in Town & Country;)– [11] I then hope to go on with my plays, & to get out, what I call, some dramatic Lyrics, which I shall make part of the series [12] —more of this in my next.
I cannot say how much a letter from you will delight me—here, every thing goes flatly on, except the fierce political reality (as it begins to be)—our poems &c are poor child’s play—& I do, without affectation, very often think of you, and your progress, and welfare, & return one—not very distant day .. so, that, (I mean to say)—while, out of the myriad things that could be written of, scarcely one seems worthier note than another, … you cannot write about acorn-planting or house-building or bird-shooting without interesting me. There is much, everything, to <be> done in England just now—& I have certain plans which shall either fail or succeed, but not lie dor<mant.> —But all my heart’s interest goes to your tree-planting life .. Yet I don’t know–
And now God bless you, my dear Domett. My head turns and I must leave off .. to write more & better soon. Give my cordial greeting to Young. [13] I had meant to have written to him, but will not miss next ship’s opportunity. My Father, Mother, & Sister are one & all well—and remember you staunchly! Tell me what you have done in the voyage—written—thought of writing, at least—and try me with commissions &c[.] You must have so much to get done, & Chris. Dowson has work of his own, & here am I idle & wanting employ, and Yours ever
Robert Browning.
Address, on integral page: Alfred Domett Esq / Port Nelson, / New Zealand.
Publication: RB-AD, pp. 39–43.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. The Dowsons and the Youngs lived in Limehouse, and it was at the Youngs’ house in Church Row that RB and Domett and the other members of the set used to meet (Maynard, pp. 100 and 411).
2. The younger members of the Dowson family had a summer cottage at Woodford, a few miles N.E. of London, in the years 1837–44 (Maynard, p. 411).
3. Tennyson’s 1842 Poems comprised two volumes, one containing revised versions of previously-published works, the other being new material.
4. This presumed enclosure is no longer with the letter.
5. St. Simeon Stylites (390–459) spent some 30 years on the top of a pillar. The Quarterly Review (September 1842, pp. 385–416), in its notice of Tennyson’s volumes, did not agree with RB’s estimation of “St. Simeon Stylites,” considering it “a kind of monological personation of a filthy and mad ascetic.... This is no topic for Poetry: she has better tasks than to wrap her mantle round a sordid, greedy lunatic” (p. 402).
6. The “Forget-me-not” song appeared at the end of “The Miller’s Daughter,” first published in 1832 at the same time as “Hesperides.” “The Deserted House” had been published in 1830. The Athenæum (no. 771, 6 August 1842, pp. 700–702) also lamented its omission, calling it “one of the most simply impressive of the author’s minor poems.” It was restored in the edition of 1848. Tennyson later regretted the exclusion of “Hesperides” (Life, I, 6); it was included in the 1900 edition.
7. Eva; the Ill-omened Marriage, and Other Tales and Poems (1842). The Athenæum (no. 767, 9 July 1842, pp. 608–609) abstained from criticism, giving only extracts from the book; the first of these had a notation indicating that it was intended to be set to music.
8. Edwin the Fair: an Historical Drama, by Henry Taylor, was reviewed in The Athenæum of 30 July (no. 770, pp. 675–677). Adverting to Taylor’s earlier work, Philip van Artevelde (1834), the reviewer thought it “destitute of spontaneous graces, and bearing evident signs of labour” and found similar features in Edwin the Fair.
9. Dickens and his wife had recently returned from a visit of several months to the United States. Disappointed in his hopes of achieving agreement on international copyright, he was also “shocked by the sight of slavery, and disgusted by the general desire … to suppress any discussion of the dangerous topic.” He became increasingly aware of the “obvious weaknesses of the republic … [and] returned disillusioned and heartily disliking the country” (DNB). His American Notes for General Circulation (1842) and his depiction of American stereotypes in Martin Chuzzlewit (1843–44) reflected his feelings, and gave much offence in America.
10. John Hanmer (1809–81), later (1872) 1st Baron Hanmer, sat in the Commons from 1832 to 1837 and from 1841 to 1872, where he advocated free trade and religious liberty. The Times of 12 July 1842 reported his speech in support of a motion to repeal the Corn Laws and his advocacy of “a moderate fixed duty for the purpose of revenue” in their place.
11. RB may have had in mind an article in the February 1842 issue of Fraser’s Magazine for Town and Country (pp. 208–215); it contained some observations on the financial prospects of authors and publishers.
12. Published in November, as the third in the Bells and Pomegranates series.
13. Young drowned before Domett reached New Zealand (see letter 964, note 8).
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