172.5. EBB to Edward & Samuel Moulton-Barrett (brothers)
Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 1.
[?Hope End]
[ca. 1823] [1]
Oh mi frater! Amice charissime salve! Te saluto et ut ait Virgilius “Te veniente die, te decedente” amabo!– Spero chare te me salutantem admittere epistolamque hanc. Non dic “Timeo Danaas et dona ferentes”!
Dixisti te amavisse sororem tuam et si me ames de hac epistola gaudes!– “Heu me miserum” dicas “miserabile rerum! quid ita”—? Quia id puto frater mi, et dicere volo quod ait Terentius
“Suo sibi gladio hunc jugulo”
Mi charissime vale!–
Tua Soror dilectissima–
<Puero eruditissimo et elegantissimo, Bro, a manu stultissimi. Sam, de puella impudentissima!–
“Scribimus docti indoctique”
Horace
“O tempora, o mores.”
Cicero> [2]
Publication; None traced.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
Translation:
Oh my brother! Hail my dearest friend! I greet you, and as Virgil says “Since the day comes, until it dies” I will love you. I hope, my dear, that you will accept my greetings and this letter. Don’t say “I fear Greeks and those bringing gifts”!
You said that you love your sister, and if you love me, enjoy this letter! “Oh unhappy me” you say “Miserable thing! Why so?”. Because it’s what I think, my brother, and I want to say as Terence says
“Fight him with his own weapons”
Farewell my dearest!–
Your most beloved Sister–
To a most erudite and elegant young man, Bro, from the hand of most foolish one. Sam, from a most impudent girl.
“We’ll write for scholar and non-scholar”
Horace
“What times, what morals”
Cicero.
1. Probably written after both brothers had entered Charterhouse. Bro entered in 1820, Sam in 1822.
2. Passage in angle brackets is positioned on integral page as though meant as an address.
___________________
