1665. EBB to Edward Moxon
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 70–71.
50 Wimpole Street
Thursday morng. [Postmark: 1 August 1844]
My dear Sir,
I am almost ashamed to have another kindness from your hands, to thank you for most cordially. You are too kind & liberal,—and as it is your wish to give me pleasure, it remains for me to say besides, that you cd scarcely have taken a more effectual means, than in this gift of a work of Mrs Shelley’s, [1] in whom I am interested (as we all must be!) for reasons still stronger than her own eloquence as a writer. Pray believe me, dear Sir,
your obliged & sincere
Elizabeth B Barrett.
It has been suggested to me by my friend Miss Mitford, that “New Poems” wd be a more comprehensive, & on some accounts a less hazardous title for my volumes, than ‘The Drama of Exile’ &c. She advises the ‘swamping’ of the Drama in the title page. I am reluctant, as I explained to Mr Jones, [2] to give you unnecessary trouble, .. but perhaps if you have a suggestion to make on this point or others, you wd be good enough to do so. In the meantime I am afraid that I have given more trouble with my books & employed more time than you contemplated in the first instance, & that you will be heartily glad to have done with me. The “Home Library,” the publication at New York which undertook the American edition, came to an untimely end just in time for me, .. that is, before my proof sheets reached America, .. where they have been undertaken by another publisher, a Mr Cayley or Layley, in a manner very satisfactory to me. [3]
You will perhaps forgive me for troubling you with this short note & long post[s]cript.
Address: Edward Moxon Esqr / Dovor [sic] Street.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Smith College.
1. Rambles in Germany and Italy in 1840, 1842 and 1843, 2 vols. (1844). Inscribed by EBB in each volume: “Elizabeth B Barrett From Mr. Moxon.” The volumes sold as lot 1092 in Browning Collections and are now in the Berg Collection (Reconstruction, A2091).
2. Probably one of Moxon’s associates.
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