3668. RB to Dante Gabriel Rossetti
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 330–331.
Paris, 102 Rue de Grenelle, Faub. St Gern
Oct. 29. ’55.
My dear Rossetti,
I have taken you at your word—you will receive my portrait forthwith. You must put it in the sun,—for I seem to fear it will come but blackly out of its three months’ case-hardening—so it fares with Page’s pictures for the most part: [1] but they are like Flatman the Poet’s famous “Kings” in a great line he wrote– “Kings do not die—they only disappear!”– [2] You must tell me your whole mind on its merits—I am anxious to have it—and more, to know what you think of Bailey’s Poem, [3] and anybody else’s Poem, & other delights—as promised—and as I hungrily expect.
We are in little, inconvenient rooms here, and I have been in continual hot water,—the landlady, a “Baronne,” [4] profitting by the blunder of an over-zealous friend [5] who took the apartment against my direct orders—but the water is getting tepid now, and we shall do well enough in time, it is hoped– I supposed, I should find myself in a blessed quietude here, after the London worry—but it’s much such an improvement as one specified in the case of a Beato [6] —my servant was telling me, yesterday, he heard a sermon about, in Naples: the Beato went into a swoon from sheer misery,—to begin with—& then, “riavuto si un poco il sant’ uomo,—che ha [sic, for ho] visto, tutt’ intorno, fratelli miei? Figuratevi! Otto cento-mila Demoni!”– [7] That’s nearly my case. The first comfort came in the shape of a dear, too dear & good letter from Mr Ruskin: he spoke befittingly of you in it, too. I have lain perdue & seen nobody. By the way, let me tell you something. I perceive some blunders in my poems—which I shall not, I think, draw attention to, but quietly correct hereafter—but it happens unluckily that the worst of them occur just in a thing I would have you like if it might be: [8] so, please alter the following in your copy, before you begin it,—won’t you?
Vol II. Page 9 — line 8—For you—read—I [9]
34 — 3—all their work is—their work is [10]
—— 7 That an [11] —dele That
35 — 4. there’s its [12] transit—then sic transit! [13]
36 — 3. Change the line to “(Earth here, rebuked by Olympus there)” [14]
—— 4. You grew—And grew [15]
39 — 6. His face—Man’s face [16]
—— 13 The Hopes—new hopes [17]
40 — 6. which if on the earth—dele the [18]
— — 1. Give these, I exhort, their guerdon &c [19]
44 — 11. Rot or are left—The pictures are left [20]
46 — 11. A kind of sober Witan-agemot [21]
46 — 13. to ponder, Freedom &c [22]
47 — 12. alt to altissimo [23]
188 — 18. one called him called [24]
189 — 3. one circumcised—and circumcised [25]
231 — 4. with it––cried too [26]
I have left myself no room but to wish myself cordially kind remembrances to your Brother.
R. Browning.
Publication: LRB, pp. 41–42.
Manuscript: Yale University.
2. Cf. Thomas Flatman (1635–88), “On the much lamented Death of Our Late Sovereign Lord King Charles II” (1686), lines 21–25.
3. The Mystic (1855).
5. Louisa Corkran.
6. “Holy man.”
7. “As he recovered a little the saintly man [said],—what did I see, all around, my brothers? Imagine! Eight hundred thousand Demons!”
8. RB refers to “Old Pictures in Florence” (see below).
10. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 59.
11. Sic, for a. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 63.
14. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 91.
15. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 92.
16. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 142.
18. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 158.
19. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 153.
20. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 227.
22. Cf. “Old Pictures in Florence,” line 261. RB is adding a comma.
23. Replacing “Altaltissimo”; see letter 3665, note 27.
24. Cf. “Cleon,” line 340.
25. Cf. “Cleon,” line 344.
26. Cf. “One Word More,” line 30.
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