1467. EBB to Richard Hengist Horne
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 102–103.
[London]
Friday. Dec 22. 1843.
Just ten minutes before your note came, I held Mr Mon[c]kton Milnes’s volumes in my hands,—the two first at least,—having bethought me of taking an opportunity of borrowing them from Mr Kenyon. So now, if you please, I will make a few notes on them, which you will “improve” (literally) to the edification of your readers afterwards. And in the meantime .. (.. I am very patient you know ..) but in the meantime, I should like to hear what you want me to do, & what this great subject to come, is. I confess to being moderately curious about it. Not Dr Pusey– Thank you for the “not.” And not a political economist I hope—nor a mathematician nor a man of science—such a one as Babbage [1] for instance to undo me! My dear Mr Horne, certainly I am a little beset with business just now, being on the verge of getting another volume into print,—with one or two long poems struggling for completion at my hands, in order to a subsequent falling upon the printer’s. But if there shd be nothing likely to take much time, in the work you meditate for me, I shall be very happy, at present, & always, to be of use to you by doing or trying to do it,—which, as I say it honestly, I hope you will act as if you believed. Thank you much for the promise of proofs– And you will tell me what the new subject is—?– Not that I am impatient. Oh no–
I cannot answer specifically & accurately in respect to the ‘Village’—but I think it is certainly translated into Spanish,—and for the rest, I only know that I recognized several of the separate stories as not merely translated but kindly adopted by Madame Amable Tastu, in a collection of tales by that French lady. [2] Probably the whole Village is to be found in french—I should think so!– But I dare say Miss Mitford knows herself– Why not ask her? She told me of the Spanish translation.
And so you heard of “Tennyson & Mr Sterling.” Well!. There is no accounting for taste, as you say with proverbial wisdom—and, what is quite as certain, there is no accounting for want of taste– Mr Sterling is admired by some, I am aware—and I would rather that you had your impressions of him from reading his book, uncoloured by hearing what I say. He was a contributor to Blackwood,—& some two or three years ago, published his contributed poems in an independent form—just as Mr Simmons has done. [3] By the way there are persons who think highly of Mr Simmons—for instance even Miss Mitford does, praising him for terseness & vigour. To return to Mr Sterling, I never saw his book, although I have read many of his poems in Blackwood. He falls to my apprehension, into the class of respectable poets: good sense & good feeling, somewhat dry & cold, and very level smooth writing, being what I discern in him– There are Mr Sterling, Mr Simmons, Lord Leigh [4] & one or two others, who have education & natural ability enough to be anything in the world except poets—& who choose to be poets ‘in spite of nature & their stars,’ to say nothing of Gods men & columns. [5] Moreover all these men, [6] by a curious consistency, take up & use the Gallic-Drydeny corruption of versification [7] —so at least the passing glances I have had of their proceedings lead me to suppose. Now you will judge for yourself, Mr Horne; & I shall not be uneasy lest you shd fall into prejudices in consequence of my hasty impressions.
Dear Mr Horne, I hope you will <***>
Address: R H Horne Esqr / 5. Fortess Terrace / Kentish Town.
Publication: EBB-RHH, I, 205–208 (in part).
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Charles Babbage (1791–1871) was the inventor of an elaborate calculating machine.
3. John Sterling published his Poetical Works in 1842; Bartholomew Simmons (1804–50) brought out Legends, Lyrics, and Other Poems in 1843.
4. Chandos Leigh, 1st Baron Leigh (1791–1850), a school-fellow of Byron at Harrow, published The Spirit of the Age (1832) in addition to other earlier titles. “His poems, though never widely known … were much prized by the scholarly few” (DNB).
5. Byron, “Hints from Horace” (1831), line 588. At some point, Horne inserted “(critical)” before the word “columns,” and it appeared thus, but without the parentheses, in EBB-RHH.
6. Horne added “(writers)” over the word “men,” and this substitution, without the parentheses, appeared in EBB-RHH.
7. This is taken to be a reference to the extensive use of blank verse by Dryden and some French writers.
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