1014. RB to Alfred Domett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 88–90.
New Cross, Hatcham, Surrey.
September 31 [sic, for 30]. 1842.
Dear Domett,
A ship sails your way tomorrow or soon, so I hear; & tho’ I have nothing new to tell, I cannot let the occasion pass of saying a little to—instead of thinking much of—you. When shall I know something .. read something in your hand, about Port Nelson and your way of life?
Did you ever read some verses—Sonnets—two books-full—by Sir John Hanmer? I think—am sure, indeed, that I heard you mention them once. I have passed a pleasant week, this month, at his seat in Flintshire [1] —and, to my pleasure more than surprise, he knew you well—(we talked of books and bookmakers)– I said there would be a rare Godsend by some New Zealand Packet soon!—and will there not?
See what I send you! the last notice of Tennyson—by—guess! I will write his name .. that is, the author’s .. at the end of his article, [2] so that you may read and divine and applaud your own penetration. And there is an estimate of me & mine—by I can’t guess whom—which some wiseacre of a sub-editor has been allowed to travel over & spoil, [3] in as many points as he has touched—for you must know, the M∙S was forwarded to me, by a friend of the un-named penman,—to assay my good nature––which is virgin-gold when these matters are concerned—and I,—not being “offended” (the friend’s word!) at the sharp bits .. or what are meant for such, here & there––have furnished some third party with a pretext for softening the soft-bits the wrong way—so that instead of flaring heaven-high, as Carlyle would say, [4] —I only range with the gas-lamps in ordinary. Read & laugh—for thereto I send it! In a week or two I will send some lyrics I think of printing [5] —“but the time of figs is not yet”– [6]
I have seen nobody this long time—not Cris. Dowson even & Arnold [sic] never since our parting-night—but I will see both soon. Carlyle I saw some weeks since: a crazy .. or sound asleep, .. not dreaming .. American was with him—a ‘special friend’ of Emersons [7] —and talked! I have since heard, to my solace, that my outrageous laughters have made him ponder seriously of the hopelessness of England—which he would convert to something or other. Milnes, who avouched this, is gone to Constantinople, Jerusalem & Cairo as we say the Elephant & Castle—& Charing Cross [8] —I saw the last of him: you would like him.
And now, dear Domett, Good be with you .. for I can’t contract the words .. and with me, too, in hearing soon of it. God bless you! Give my best regards to Young.
Robt Browning.
Publication: RB-AD, pp. 44–46.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. Sir John Hanmer (1809–81) was M.P for Shrewsbury 1832–37, Hull 1841–47 and then Flint until 1872, when he was created Baron Hanmer. Two volumes of his works were presented to RB during the visit to Hanmer Hall: Fra Cipolla, and Other Poems (1839) and Sonnets (1840); the inscription in the latter being dated 8 September 1842 (see Reconstruction, A1131 and A1132). In a letter dated 5 June 1888, RB said that it was while staying with Hanmer that he paid his first visit to Llangollen in the company of his host and the historian Alexander William Kinglake (1809–91).
2. Leigh Hunt contributed an unsigned review of Tennyson’s Poems (1842) to The Church of England Quarterly Review (October 1842).
3. In the same issue was a long review of RB’s works. As letter 1017 shows, its author was Horne. (For the full text of the review, see pp. 381–388.)
4. We have not traced this phrase in Carlyle’s writings. Perhaps RB, quoting from memory, had in mind “flamed aloft, heaven-kissing,” found on p. 13 of the August 1832 issue of The Foreign Quarterly Review in the course of an unsigned article on Goethe’s works (reprinted in Carlyle’s Critical and Miscellaneous Essays, 1839). Alternatively, he may just have been thinking of “Himmel-hoch,” having in mind Carlyle’s fondness for Germanisms.
5. Dramatic Lyrics, the third in the Bells and Pomegranates series, published in November 1842.
6. Mark, 11:13.
7. In a letter to Emerson dated 29 August 1842, Carlyle identified this “special friend” as Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888), the philosopher, educator and writer, the father of novelist Louisa May Alcott. For Carlyle’s comments on the meeting with RB, see SD1178 and 1179.
8. Implying that Milnes set off for distant parts with as little concern as a Londoner travelling only locally.
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