3715. RB to Edward Chapman
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 22, 79–80.
Paris, 3 Rue du Colisée.
Jan. 19. [1856] [1]
Dear Chapman,
I received your letter of letters yesterday—all about nothing or next to it. The “immediate” fellow won’t get an autograph out of me by his dodge, I can tell him.* [2] Fields says the book was to appear on the 10th December, [3] —sending some outrageous praises-preliminary from papers he had supplied with early copies. [4] He mentions having sent you the money, [5] & behaves handsomely altogether. This last phrase goes to somebody’s heart, I hope, who has left me these two months without a word about the well or ill doing of my poems. Now do, do pray, dear Chapman, let us have the Christmas account to put a little life & heart into the end of this black month. I have read heaps of critiques at Galignani’s, mostly stupid & spiteful, self-contradicting & contradictory of each other. [6] What effect such “rot” would have on me, in the case of the book being somebody else’s, I know exactly—but how it works with the reading public—you must tell me, if I am ever to know. I suppose we are not at the end of them, and the best comes last, it is to be hoped. Your four reviews arrived safely—many thanks for them. “The British Quarterly” was just what I had not seen and would have lost most by missing. [7] I am a little curious to know what thing that is in the “Rambler,”—a R. Catholic Mag. [8] I have not seen the “Spectator letters,” [9] & many others; if you ever like to snip out a column of these and post it hither, it will be kind in you– But kinder to ask forthwith your kind nephew [10] to make out our bill and post us that—so call, call, while the good thought is hot in you & take the thanks beforehand of, Dear Chapman
Yours faithfully,
Robert Browning
*Ask Mr Bailey if his experience confirms my surmise.
Publication: NL, pp. 86–88 (as 17 January 1856).
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address.
2. We have been unable to shed further light on RB’s comments.
3. Ticknor and Fields issued the American edition of Men and Women on 8 December 1855 with an 1856 imprint. As RB indicates in letter 3728, Fields’s letter, dated 3 December, and the American reviews were part of Chapman’s packet that arrived the day before.
4. Of the four American reviews of Men and Women that we have traced for the period prior to the date of Fields’s letter (3 December), two of them may be said to contain “outrageous praises-preliminary.” In Putnam’s Monthly Magazine for December 1855 (pp. 655–656), the reviewer declares: “Every lover of poetry must read this book; every man who likes to see that the world and human power do not grow old.” The reviewer in The Albion (1 December 1855, p. 573) writes: “Since Shakespeare, it may be doubted whether we have had any dramatist to compare with Robert Browning.” For the full text of these reviews, see Appendix III.
6. For the full text of the reviews of Men and Women, see Appendix III.
7. In the lengthy, positive notice of Men and Women that appeared in The British Quarterly Review of 1 January 1856 (pp. 151–180), the reviewer, David Masson, begins by declaring that “among the English authors of our day, very few, indeed, could be compared with Mr. Browning for power and originality of mind” (p. 151). For the full text of this review, see pp. 357–368.
8. The Rambler reviewed Men and Women in the January 1856 issue (pp. 54–71). The reviewer, Richard Simpson (1820–76), paid special attention to “Bishop Blougram’s Apology,” something RB was probably anticipating. For the full text of this review, see pp. 348–354. The Rambler (1848–62) was founded by liberal Catholic converts whose “aim was to unite an intelligent and hearty acceptance of Catholic dogma with free enquiry and discussion on questions which the Church left open to debate” (The Catholic Encyclopedia, New York, 1907–13).
9. Presumably, RB refers to the numerous letters to the editor concerning the Crimean War that appeared in The Spectator during this period.
10. Actually it was Edward Chapman’s cousin, Frederic Chapman (1823–95). He began working for Chapman and Hall as a clerk at the age of 18, was made a partner in 1858, and became sole proprietor when Edward retired in 1866 (see Appendix I).
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