3419. EBB to Mary Brotherton
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 219–220.
43. Via Bocca di Leone–
Thursday– [18 May 1854] [1]
My dear Mrs Brotherton
Here is the Athenæum with a great many thanks! Which are returned, too, with the Guardian-extracts. [2] The Guardian has not much weight in literary matters happily, being of the closest sect of the High Church. Nobody minds it who is used to freer air than is breathed in Cloisters– Will you tell me? Did I return to you Mr Tennyson’s letter?—or have I put it away in my desk somewhere– I cant remember where or how–
I hope to be able to get to see you before you go– We talk of the early part of next week for our own setting out; & are still wholly undecided between diligence & vettura– We passed the St Goathard [sic, for Gotthard], dropped upon the lake Lucerne, saw the most wonderful scenery .. the only real sublime in nature, I ever looked upon. You will be right to make an effort & see the Alps–
My husband has gone pic-nic-ing today (I was not up to going with him) with Mrs Sartoris & Mrs Kemble who dislocated her shoulder two days ago & keeps her courage intact– What depressing weather it is! I am quite vanquished by it, though with my bones in their places.
Tom Tom reads excellently in print—but the extracts in general are not particularly well made– [3] By the way, I do remember that I have not yet returned to you the “Beautiful Poetry”– [4]
most truly yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Docket, in Mrs. Brotherton’s hand: (with review of F.T’s poems).
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: University of Texas.
1. Date based on EBB’s statement: “We talk of the early part of next week for our own setting out.” Although the Brownings left Rome on 26 May, they had intended at one point to leave on the 22nd (see letter 3413).
2. A review of Frederick Tennyson’s Days and Hours, with several extracts, appeared in The Guardian of 25 April (pp. 344–345). The reviewer was not overly negative in assessing the poems: “They want strength and clearness of purpose, but they are sweet and polished compositions. Indeed, the great refinement of the language, the melody, the taste of these poems, make them very agreeable, though not exciting reading” (p. 345).
3. Mrs. Brotherton’s “Tomtom,” a poem about a caged canary (given to her by Thomas Westwood) seen from a Roman street, was collected in her Poems (Brussels, 1855). From EBB’s comments, it would appear that she had first seen the poem in manuscript; then, a portion of it, in a periodical. We have been unable to trace the periodical.
4. Beautiful Poetry. Selected by the Editors of The Critic, London Literary Journal was published annually from 1853 to 1859. Volume 1 was issued in twenty-two numbers from January to December 1853 and appeared in book form for the Christmas market of that year. We presume Mrs. Brotherton lent EBB the book rather than the individual numbers. In 1854 the numbers of volume 2 did not begin to appear until July. Volume 1 contained eight poems by EBB, though one of them, given as “Eternity,” consisted of lines 1934–37 from “A Drama of Exile.” The other poems were: “On Power’s Statue of the Greek Slave” [sic, for “Hiram Powers’s Greek Slave”], “A Dead Rose,” “The Cry of the Children,” “Work and Contemplation,” “A Year’s Spinning,” “Patience Taught by Nature,” and “The Romance of the Swan’s Nest.”
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