1479. RB to Thomas Powell

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 126.

New Cross

Thursday [ca. 1844] [1]

Offered for sale in Sotheby’s Catalogue, 24 June 1897, lot 478. 1 p., 4to oblong. RB writes: “I enclose your proofs. [2] I don’t know how to improve them. I meant to call this evening, but it is an ugly one, and I am unwell, besides I hoped to see you soon, meantime accept my rhymes.... Did I understand you aright that you have got a copy of the reprint of Hamlet, editio prime? [3] If not, I will send you one.”

1. Dating based on the return of Powell’s proofs.

2. Powell had asked for RB’s comments on compositions intended for Powell’s Poems (1844). One such proof page, with RB’s corrections, is now at Yale (see Reconstruction, E565).

3. A facsimile of the 1603 edition of The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet Prince of Denmark was published in 1825. RB’s copy formed lot 1074 of Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A2078).

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