3166. RB to Helena Faucit Martin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 18, 327–328.
Florence,
Jan. 31. ’53.
My dear Mrs Martin,
Thank you very heartily for such kind remembrances of me, & be assured that I, for my part, have been in no danger of forgetting my promises any more than your performances—which were admirable of all kinds. I shall be delighted if you can do anything for “Colombe”: do what you think best with it, & for me—it will be pleasant to be in such hands. Only, pray follow the corrections in the last edition [1] —(Chapman & Hall will give you a copy)—as they are important to the sense. As for the condensation into Three acts [2] —I shall leave that, and all “cuttings” & the like, to your own judgment [3] —and, come, what will, I shall have to be grateful to you as before. For the rest, you will play the part to heart’s content, I know.
Did you really find your way to this place—& was I unlucky enough to be away just then? I should have been happy to share in your first sights of the Galleries & the mountains, and to become acquainted with Mr Martin—all that may be for another time, may it not? Nobody goes to Italy once—unless to stay altogether—but I shall probably return to England this summer,—& how good it will be to see you again, and make my wife see you, too—she who “never saw a great actress” she says—unless it was Déjazet! [4]
Some one comes in here—but I will not lose the post. So take my best thanks again, and
believe me, as ever,
Dear Mrs Martin,
yours very faithfully,
Robert Browning.
Address: Angleterre viâ France. / Mrs. Martin, / 24 James Street, / Buckingham Gate. / London.
Publication: Theodore Martin, Helena Faucit (London, 1900), pp. 237–238.
Manuscript: National Library of Scotland.
1. Poems (1849). The acting copy of Colombe’s Birthday that was submitted to the Lord Chamberlain in 1852 reveals that the text of the play staged at the Haymarket theatre was based on Poems (1849); see the facsimile published in James Hogg, Robert Browning and the Victorian Theatre: Acting Versions of Strafford … and Colombe’s Birthday (Salzburg, 1977), pp. 201–268.
3. Numerous “cuttings” and textual alterations are evident when the acting copy submitted to the Lord Chamberlain is compared with the version in Poems (1849). In the latter, lines 130–131 from the first act read: “And, count us, will you? Count its residue, / This boasted convoy … .” These same lines in the acting copy (104–105) read: “But reckon up our numbers. Count what’s left / Of this brave convoy …” (Hogg, p. 208).
4. Pauline Virginie Déjazet (1798–1875), French comedienne, whose success in “breeches” parts led to their being called “Dejazets.” In 1859 she acquired the Folies theatre in the Boulevard du Temple and renamed it Théâtre Déjazet, by which it is still known today. We have been unable to determine when or where EBB saw the actress.
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