3196. EBB to Mary Elizabeth Wormeley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 80.
Casa Guidi. Florence
May– 1853.
My dear Miss Wormeley, [1]
I received both your letters & waited to answer the first only until I could thank you properly for book & letter together .. which I cant do even now, for I have not read the book. It is difficult to get at one’s books in England, & ‘Amabel’ [2] has not yet reached me. In the meantime, however, I cant allow of your ‘punishing me’ with all sorts of ‘hard thoughts’ [3] of human ingratitude. It would be too hard on me, when I feel so grateful. Let me thank you then for the kindness of your gift, & the more than kindness of the words that came with it & after it, .. I do thank you, dear Miss Wormeley, affectionately & truly for the affectionate sympathy & feeling you have expressed towards me. Better than most things upon earth, are such words on pure lips! Next best to love––because most like love–
I am very glad to hear that the author of Forest Hill [4] has justified her earlier promise & prospects, in the success of ‘Amabel’. May the road grow wider & the light brighter as you advance & ascend!– And may whatever good falls out to you in literature be half forgotten .. a little despised .. in your own sight, (which has happened to me) through a more near-touching & absorbing domestic happiness. And that means simply .. May God bless you.
My husband & I intend to read ‘Amabel’ together.
Most truly yours, always,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Address: Miss Wormeley / 15. Winter Street / Boston. / U.S.A.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Newberry Library.
1. Mary Elizabeth Wormeley (afterwards Latimer, 1822–1904), London-born novelist and historian, was the second of three daughters of Ralph Randolph Wormeley (1785–1852), Rear Admiral, R.N., and his wife Caroline (née Preble, 1798–1872). Her father, born in America, became a naturalized British citizen. The Wormeleys lived in England and on the continent until the late 1840’s, at which time they settled in Boston.
2. Amabel; or, The Victory of Love (1853). We have been unable to trace this presentation copy.
3. Cf. As You Like it, I, 2, 183–184.
4. Forest Hill; A Tale of Social Life in 1830–1831 was published anonymously in 1846. EBB discusses it briefly in letter 2337.
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