3175. RB to Edward Chapman
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 6–7.
Florence,
March 5. ’53.
My dear Sir,
Many thanks for your note duly delivered by Mr Lever. [1] The account can’t be otherwise than right, and I shall draw on you for the balance whenever we want any thing rather pleasant. With this, you receive one vol. of the “Poems”—the second—and the First shall follow as soon as possible. [2] You can begin at once, I suppose,—indeed it would be a pity to keep such judicious book-buyers waiting a minute more than must needs be. There are very few & trifling alterations, you will see—changes of punctuation for the most part—and these are so obvious, to a careful printer, that we won’t put you to the trouble of sending proofs—throwing ourselves wholly on your people’s kindness & intelligence—only let them stick scrupulously to what is done. I condole with you about my own bad job. I’ll be bound you haven’t sold a copy of “Christmas Eve” [3] —yet I heard only last week about its success in America .. things may mend, however. Have you heard from Mrs Martin? (—Helen Faucit—) She is going to bring out one of my things, “Colombe’s Birthday,” at the Haymarket next month. I told her to get a copy of it (in the Poems) from you, if she wanted one. [4] Theatrical matters chop & change, & this may come to nothing sooner than something—but if there were to be any sort of success, it would help the poems to fetch up their lee-way, I suppose. Hadn’t you better advertise, in that case? [5] You know best, of course. Meantime, I shall give you something saleable, one of these days,—see if I don’t.
Poor Forster is indeed attacked, I hear, as you feared he might be. [6] I shall try & get news of him directly. We have cold weather, snow on the mountains, rain in the streets, & the Arno all but over his bounds every now & then. There is a warm sun out today however. “The same to you!”—from my wife as well as, my dear Sir,
Yours ever faithfully,
Robert Browning.
After all, we think that as there are some alterations, in the poems,—unless you have some person in your eye on whom you & we may altogether depend, it will be safer to send the proofs to Miss Barrett, 50 Wimpole St– She will overlook them carefully—& you must not mind any unscientific “ Illus. = sm. caps. run on.” [7] & the like! But if you can safely save yourself the trouble & us the danger,—do so.
Address: E. Chapman Esqre / 193 Piccadilly.
Publication: NL, pp. 58–59.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Charles Lever (1806–72), the Irish novelist.
2. Chapman and Hall intended to publish a third edition of EBB’s Poems and had asked for corrected copy; see letter 3172.
3. Sales of Christmas-Eve and Easter-Day had been initially brisk: 200 copies “in the first fortnight” (letter 2847). RB had previously lamented the subsequent poor sales in letter 2951. By 1864, Chapman and Hall still had a number of copies in stock. We have been unable to trace an American publication of the work during this period.
4. RB had recommended that she “follow the corrections in the last edition”; see letter 3166, note 1.
5. Evidently, nothing came of RB’s suggestion. We have been unable to trace an advertisement for Poems (1849) in any of the major newspapers or journals published from March through November 1853.
6. John Forster suffered periodically from attacks of rheumatism that could leave him bedridden. In the winter of 1853, “rheumatic fever immobilized him for two months” (James A. Davies, John Forster: A Literary Life, 1983, p. 81).
7. Proofreading marks. From left to right, RB has included a delete sign, the symbol for a hyphen, the abbreviation for small capitals, and the indicator for making text elements continuous.
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