1541. RB to Richard Hengist Horne
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 219–220.
[London]
[late February 1844] [1]
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Wordsworth. (Gregory, remember thy swashing blow!) [2]
He, thro’ the midst unmarked,
In slow plebeian angel militant
Of lowest order, passed: and from the door
Ascended his high throne which, under state
Of richest texture spread, at the upper end
Was placed in regal lustre. Down awhile
He sat, and round about him saw unseen.
At last, as from a cloud, his fulgent head
And shape star-bright appeared, or brighter; claid
With what permissive glory since his Fall
Was left him, or false glitter. All amazed
At that so sudden blaze, the Stygian throng
Bent their aspect. [3] (As Jeffrey does in the reprint
of his review of the Excursion: [4] this is too good a
bit, I fear: take the kinder side of the matter and
give him some or all of your own fine Sonnet.)
Leigh Hunt, really deserves one of the many characters he has got already from those best able to judge him—for instance, Shelley’s
“one of those happy souls
Which are the salt of the earth, & without whom
This world would smell like what it is—a tomb:
Who is, what others seem– Or he will look
Things wiser than were ever said in book,
Except in Shakespeare’s wisest tenderness.”
Letter to —. [5]
Or, one line, ending “meekest of the wise”, in the stanza whose second line is, “Athwart what brow is that dark mantle thrown?” in Adonais— which I have not by me. [6] Incidentally of Keats, what think for Tennyson of—
A haunting music, sole perhaps and lone
Supportress of the faery roof, made moan
Throughout, as fearful the whole charm might fade.
(Lamia.) [7]
The Wits.
Hard words that have been
So nimble and so full of subtle flame
As if that every one from whom they came
Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest …
Wit, able enough to justify the Town
For three days past. &c &c &c Beaumont’s Ep. to Jonson [8]
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Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Letter 1524 (8 February) contained Horne’s request to EBB for assistance in finding appropriate mottoes; it seems probable that he would have approached RB at about the same time. The tone of this letter places it after no. 1533, conjecturally dated mid-February.
2. This phrase does not appear in Horne’s Gregory VII. The word “Gregory” is underscored three times.
3. Paradise Lost, X, 441–454. Horne did not use these lines.
4. Francis Jeffrey (1773–1850), one of the founders of The Edinburgh Review, published a critique of Wordsworth’s The Excursion in the issue of November 1814, in the course of which he held that “the chief characteristics of the style are, that it is prolix, and very frequently unintelligible” (p. 245). A collection of his essays, under the title Contributions to the Edinburgh Review, appeared in four volumes in 1844, the reprint of The Excursion article being in vol. III, pp. 233–268.
5. “Letter to Maria Gisborne” (Posthumous Poems, 1824), lines 209–212 and 223–225. Horne used the first three lines to introduce his chapter on Wordsworth and Hunt (I, 306).
6. Stanza xxxv. Shelley has “gentlest,” not “meekest.”
7. Pt. II, lines 122–124. Horne used them to introduce the chapter on Tennyson (II, 2).
8. “Mr. Francis Beaumont’s Letter to Ben Jonson,” lines 44–47 and 50–51. Horne used the first four lines for the chapter on Smith, Fonblanque and Jerrold (I, 278). Horne drew a vertical line through this passage, as he did with the quotations from Lamia and “Letter to Maria Gisborne.”
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