2710. RB to Dante Gabriel Rossetti
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 14, 329.
Florence,
Nov 10, 1847
My dear Sir
I hope you will have attributed the delay in answering your very kind & flattering letter, [1] to the only cause which could occasion it,—my absence from England. You are quite right in your guess: I wrote the little poem you treat so goodnaturedly, in pursuance of a boyish plan, of which I soon found out the impracticability: the few copies printed have been long withdrawn from the publishers—& I believe that at the present moment scarcely half a dozen of my friends are aware that such a literary sin is chargeable to me—among these last it will be pleasant for me henceforth to consider one whose indulgent sympathy removes much of the irksomeness with which I usually revert to that poor little book. I may add, that, beside the faults for which the author is directly answerable, the misprints are portentous—I having made my first essay at the business of correcting the proof sheets, over Messrs Saunders & Otley’s parlour-table, to avoid breaking my incognito by giving my address & receiving the copy at home! However, there is compensation in all things, and but little to regret in having written “Pauline,” since I am indebted to that circumstance for the honor & pleasure of your note, & for the right which it gives me of esteeming myself,
My dear Sir,
Yours very truly
R _______ B _______
G .... R .... Esqr
Publication: Rossetti, 1, 46–47.
Source: Transcript in William Allingham’s commonplace book, in the possession of Mark Samuels Lasner.
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