3665. RB to James Thomas Fields
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 319–322.
Paris, 102 Rue de Grenelle, Faubourg St Germain.
October 26. ’55.
My dear Mr Fields,
Many thanks for your kind note of the 7th Oct. which I receive here,—having left London a week ago. I hope that by this time you are in possession of the parcel sent by Steamer, October 12th containing the Two volumes complete, & a letter accepting your handsome terms and begging that you would transmit the £60 to Chapman on my account: he has at once paid me the money, and I may repeat my cordial acknowledgements & hopes that you will be no loser by your bargain. He deferred publication at my request till the 10th Novr—tho’ he had announced the book for the end of the current month,—begging you, of course, not to begin operations before him. I was very attentive to the proofs, and hoped to find the printing as faultless as one can expect: but on giving the thing a final supervision here I perceive so many little-or-nothings as amount to something I would remedy if it were possible—as it is not, in the English copies,—but may be, perhaps, in your American edition: I therefore subjoin a list of errata, and leave the matter to your discretion—if they don’t come too late, [1] your book will beat the first delivery of ours, you see. Should any other trifle occur to me, you shall hear of it in like manner. I am now going seriously to work on “Sordello”—which I wrote to you about; & will report progress in due time.
Now, for my wife’s business—we are wholly indebted to you for these increased terms on the part of Mr Francis. Will you have the goodness so far to act for us in the matter as to accept them with becoming thanks. The poem, of about 8000 lines, [2] shall be delivered at least three or four weeks before any other copy can reach the U.S.—whereupon we are to get our £75. I have to apologise—(I feel contritely)—to Mr Gray [3] for having delayed so long writing to express our sense of obligation to him for his great kindness in moving the question of pay in the first instance. I thought it would be better to wait & decide—but it would have been best to assure him promptly of our gratitude in any case: perhaps he will accept this tardy amends even now. I will certainly write soon.
We are settled here, presumably, for the next eight months (—in Paris, that is,—for a friend has mistaken our requirements and put us in an “appartement” we must extricate ourselves from.) We carry away some pleasant memories of London; the best, I think, was when Alfred Tennyson gave us two long days out of three or four he spent there, and read us his “Maud” to heart’s content: (don’t mind the gabble about that fine poem,—it will be finer than ever, when the gabblers’ mouths are stuffed with the dirt of their graves.) Here, we have plenty of friends & acquaintance, when I find time to look them up—to say the truth, we get into this un-English-haunted quarter just to avoid people. The Bulwers, father & son, are coming to us to-night—& Dickens spends the winter here. [4] I shall expect of your goodnature an account of how my poems “take,” with my American readers,—whose sympathy I am very anxious to keep. My wife thanks you heartily for all your trouble and kindness. You will be pleased to hear she is in excellent health,—the fine weather permitting it. My errata must go on the other side—so I can only assure you, My dear Mr Fields, how much I am Yours faithfully, Robert Browning.
Errata.
Vol. 1. Page 10. Line 7 — for—finger tips [5] —read finger-tips
19. — 1. after—dead——insert Illus. [6]
23. (Print the half-lines nearer the end, as is done in “Galuppi” or, still better, in “Saul”:—they would be read more easily) [7]
100. — 3. for—balk——read baulk [8]
247. [9] — 4.—analyzed——analysed [10]
251. — 15.—so much——so well [11]
_________
Vol 2. 9 —8 You painting—I painting [12]
34 — 3. all their work is—their work is all [13]
—— 7 That a younger—A younger [14]
35 — 4 there’s its [15] transit—then sic transit! [16]
36 — 3. and bringing &c—(Earth here rebuked by Olympus there) [17]
—— 4 You grew—And grew [18]
39 — 6 His face—Man’s face [19]
—— 13 Make the hopes—Make new hopes [20]
40 — 1. I say, full honour & glory—I exhort, their guerdon & glory [21]
—— 6. Which if on the earth—Which if on earth [22]
44 — 11. Rot or are left—The pictures are left [23]
46 — 11 a kind of Witan—a kind of sober Witan [24]
—— 12. Quod videas ante [25] —(in italics)
—— 13 to ponder Freedom—to ponder, Freedom [26]
47 — 12. Altaltissimo—alt to altissimo [27]
62 — 12 What love will do—what love can do [28]
91 — 14—my heart lies?—my heart lies: [29]
107 — 2. jests break up? jests break up, [30]
115 — 5. to have fed—they have fed [31]
154 — 11. ministra—ministrant. [32]
188 — 18 To one called—To him called [33]
189 — 3—one circumcised—and circumcised [34]
231 — 4 the world with it—the world cried too [35]
239 — 14. chrystals—chrystal [36]
_________
Return the punctuation in the above passages, except where it is specially corrected.
_________
Address: James T. Fields Esq / Messrs Ticknor & Fields / Boston. U.S.
Docket, in unidentified hand: Robt Browning Recd Nov. 23d / a/ Decr 3d
Publication: Ian Jack, “Browning on Sordello and Men and Women,” Huntington Library Quarterly, 45 (Summer 1982), 191–194.
Manuscript: Harvard University and Huntington Library.
1. The emendations RB lists below were not incorporated in the American edition of Men and Women (Boston, 1856). Presumably, they did not arrive in time.
2. Aurora Leigh, which would eventually reach about 11,000 lines.
4. In a letter to his wife, dated 16 October 1855, Dickens explained that he had taken an apartment at 49 Avenue de Champs Elysées “for 6 months” (Dickens, 7, 720).
5. Cf. “A Lovers’ Quarrel,” line 46.
6. Cf. “Evelyn Hope,” line 1.
7. The poem referred to here is “Up at a Villa—Down in the City.” As published in Men and Women (1855), the “half-lines” (i.e., carry-over lines) are indented only 2½ picas in order to accommodate the longer lines of the poem. Using the indent of “A Toccata of Galuppi’s” (9½ picas) or “Saul” (10½ picas) would have been impractical. In later editions of RB’s poetry, these three poems all feature the smaller indent.
8. Cf. “An Epistle Containing the Strange Medical Experience of Karshish, the Arab Physician,” line 190.
9. Sic, for 249.
10. Cf. “Bishop Blougram’s Apology,” line 834.
11. Cf. “Bishop Blougram’s Apology,” line 883.
12. Cf. “Andrea del Sarto,” line 157. “You” is identified as a misprint in The Poems of Robert Browning, vol. 3, ed. John Woolford, Daniel Karlin, and Joseph Phelan (Harlow, 2007, p. 305).
13. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 59.
14. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 63.
15. Identified as a misprint in The Poems of Robert Browning, 3, 322.
16. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 76. “The allusion is to a phrase used in the ceremony for the coronation of a new Pope; three bundles of tow are burned in front of him, and the Master of Ceremonies says: ‘Sancte Pater sic transit gloria mundi’ [‘Holy Father, thus passes away the glory of this world’]” (The Poems of Robert Browning, 3, 322.)
17. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 91.
18. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 92.
19. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 142.
20. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 149. The omission of “new” was a misprint (see The Poems of Robert Browning, 3, 328).
21. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 153.
22. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 158.
23. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 227.
24. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 259. In Men and Women (1855) the full line reads: “But a kind of Witan-agemot.” The omission of “sober” was a misprint (see The Poems of Robert Browning, 3, 337). Witan-agemot was “the national council in Anglo-Saxon times” (OED).
25. “For which see before.” The full line reads: “(‘Casa Guidi,’ quod videas ante),” referring to EBB’s Casa Guidi Windows (1851). Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 260.
26. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 261.
27. “High to extremely high”; cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 276. “Altaltissimo” is meaningless and an obvious misprint; see The Poems of Robert Browning, 3, 340.
28. Cf. “In a Balcony,” 1, 218.
29. Cf. “In a Balcony,” 3, 43.
30. Cf. “In a Balcony,” 3, 278.
31. Cf. “Saul,” line 38. Published as “they have fed” in Men and Women (1855).
32. Cf. “Protus,” line 11. Published as “ministrant” in Men and Women (1855).
33. Cf. “Cleon,” line 340.
34. Cf. “Cleon,” line 344.
35. Cf. “One Word More,” line 30.
36. Cf. “One Word More,” line 171.
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