Correspondence

3412.  EBB to Mary Brotherton

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 213.

[Rome]

[ca. 5 May 1854] [1]

Offered for sale by Swann Galleries, auctioneers, New York, 13 January 1949, lot 9. 2½ pp., 16mo. EBB writes: “Thank you for your kindness in letting me see Mr Tennyson’s letter … not knowing he was a letter-writing biped … I can’t accept names for things, nor put away any number of facts because the myth doesn’t run so.”

1. Approximate dating suggested by EBB’s references to seeing “Tennyson’s letter” and to “any number of facts.” Mrs. Brotherton wrote to Frederick Tennyson on 12 May 1854, mentioning that she had shown his letter “to the Brownings” and that EBB thought he had not argued “on facts” (see SD1745). Further, in the 4 May section of letter 3411, EBB writes that she and RB “had just been to Mrs. Brotherton.” The Brownings were probably shown Tennyson’s letter during that visit.

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