1650.5. RB to Frederick Oldfield Ward

Addendum to The Brownings’ Correspondence, vol. 9.

[London]

[mid-July 1844] [1]

My dear Ward,

I must throw myself on your mercy this time: I have been planning & plotting at a great rate, and the Magazine got out of my thoughts—and now, look over my scraps as I may, nothing can I find. You should have one of my longer stories, Romances, or whatever they are—but they are “longer” and too long, I fear, by a good deal for your purpose– I shall be very sorry indeed if you are put to any inconvenience by this defalcation of mine.– That work you allude to, and, to my delight, seem interested in—gets firmer & firmer hold of

Yours ever faithfully,

R Browning.

Another thing: that “Theocrite” is withdrawn,—I have a notion of including it in a larger exemplification of the same idea—but I must call on you and tell you what there is no writing

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Approximately dated based on RB’s reference to “Theocrite” and by the stationery edged in black for his uncle William Oliver Silverthorne, who died 16 June 1844. RB refers to his uncle’s death in letter 1637 to Ward ([?24] June 1844]) and gives permission for Ward to use “Theocrite” (“The Boy and the Angel”) in letter 1660 ([?26] [July 1844]). This letter would probably precede letter 1660 by a few days.

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