1097. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 6, 238-239.

[London]

[24 December 1842] [1]

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Crown her the queen of the hops

In her sweet eyes’ right divine–

With the only crown which bringeth down

The slumber light & fine

Still sounder than it fell before, across

their chrystalline.

Swear her the queen of the hops,

By the deep brown ale to come,—

To be true of soul at crib & pole, ..

To be very kind, to some;

And to outlaugh all the merriest kings that

have laughed in Christendom. [2]

EBB–

It is dark as Erebus [3] I do believe—but my head is distracted.

Why shd you object to giving your name? They want it, be sure.

Publication: EBB-MRM, II, 131.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Dated by the reference in letter 1099 to the sending of these lines.

2. The postscript to letter 1099 indicates that William Frederick Witherington (1785–1865), had asked Miss Mitford to write lines for an engraving of “The Hop Garland,” also called “The Crown of Hops.” The painting was on view at the Royal Academy’s 1843 Summer Exhibition (no. 104), but there is no record of the work being reproduced prior to an 1851 engraving.

3. Erebus was that part of Hell where virtuous souls tarried before being admitted to the Elysian Fields.

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