1599. EBB to Cornelius Mathews
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 8, 302–303.
[London]
April 18. 1844
My dear Mr Mathews,
I send you, in great haste, four proofsheets or revises, of the early part of my ‘Drama of Exile’ which will be the longest poem in my collection, & therefore leads the van .. & I will send you by the next opportunity, a m∙s. preface appropriate to the American edition. I thought at first of keeping these sheets for the preface,—but being very pressed for time, & seeing from a reperusal of your letter, that you recommend haste, it appears to me as well that your printers, who undertake my poems, shd be set to work at once. You will be supplied with more printed sheets, together with the preface.
I say “you”—& write to the point without apology or expressed gratitude. But the last I feel .. & having embraced your proposition, I throw myself upon your active kindness, with full faith that I cannot do so vainly.
Or .. ought I to communicate directly with the publisher in New York? & is it after all too much, to address these things to your hands & care?
You are very kind—but I wd not seem to take advantage of a kindness by reason of its own excess. Tell me how it must be for the future.
For the rest I suppose there is the same technicality for corrections of the press in America as here, & that your printers will correctly interpret these blotted sheets.
I hope you received my last letter. I have not a moment to write today anymore.
Ever most truly yours
Elizabeth B Barrett
Wd it be consistent with the plan of the Home Library, to print this “Drama of Exile” in one number? [1] It wd be so much better than separating it—& the poem wd not occupy much more than a hundred pages of this English edition size.
You will observe that it approximates in plan .. that is, in form, .. to the Greek drama. Oh! such a hurry—I am writing in!–
The English edition of my poems is to consist of two volumes .. about 200 pages in each.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Yale University.
1. As previously noted (letter 1572, note 3), the projected inclusion of EBB’s poem in The Home Library series did not occur; the title poem was printed in the July and August numbers of The United States Magazine, and Democratic Review, prior to the publication of the full edition.
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