Correspondence

5655. RB to John Montesquieu Bellew

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 32, 18.

19. Warwick Crescent,

Upper Westbourne Terrace, W.

Nov. 1. ’65

Dear Sir, [1]

May I beg your acceptance of a copy of the Poems, one or two of which you have been reciting so admirably? [2]

Yours very faithfully,

Robert Browning.

The Rev. J. M. Bellew.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. John Chippendall Montesquieu Bellew (né Higgin, 1823–74), Anglican priest, known for his preaching and public readings. “In 1868, Bellew converted to Roman Catholicism” and subsequently “relinquished Anglican holy orders” (ODNB).

2. Bellew had lately been giving recitals in the provinces. On 16 October at St. George’s Hall in Liverpool, he read, besides works from Tennyson, Thackeray, and Dickens, RB’s “How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix” (see The Liverpool Mercury, 30 September 1865, p. 1). On 31 October at the Victoria Rooms in Bristol, he recited “The Pied Piper of Hamelin,” among works by the same authors listed above (see the Western Daily Press, 1 November 1865, p. 2). Presumably, RB sent Bellew a copy of Poetical Works (3 vols., 1865).

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