3059. EBB to George Ticknor
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 163–164.
Paris.
June 30th [1852] [1]
My dear Sir
Whether I ever met you at breakfast or not .. and oh, I am afraid I never did .. (I used not to breakfast out in those days, & I never breakfasted at Mr Kenyon’s in my life, ..) I have met you in the spirit at the Feast of souls, & am delighted to have your greeting & your gift. [2] Gratefully I thank you for both. You are indeed too generous with your books. Generous instincts are apt to go together with conscientious labours. We saw the work at Florence by the kindness of Mr Norton, & I wished to see it again, to hold it bodily in my hands, before thanking you for it in this letter. But “obliging opportunities” have been wanting for such a heavy treasure—it awaits us in England—and suddenly I am siezed with shame & can’t make up my mind to go, as we shall in a few days, & look it in the face, without having written one thankful word to the giver. So I thank you, I thank you– You hold on to fame by two literatures .. that is much.
Will you remember us warmly to Mr Norton? The only pleasant memory which he left with us was not that he lent us your book. Will he come back to Europe, I wonder, & try a little whether we have forgotten him? will not Italy draw him, as it draws me?
We are going to England now for two months, but we dream of Rome beyond. I wish in the meantime I had the least chance of meeting you in dear Mr Kenyon’s breakfast room. Do, when you breakfast next with me, let me know it—because, although you certainly lost nothing & probably gained a great deal, in that Double which you took for me, yet I lost everything, & cant resign myself patiently to breakfasting with Mr Ticknor by proxy–
Accept my husband’s regards & thanks joined to mine, & believe that we know the value of the kind words you send us–
Ever faithfully yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Dartmouth College.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to Rome, a future destination mentioned in other letters of this period.
2. History of Spanish Literature (New York, 1849); see letter 2893, note 3.
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