Correspondence

3767.  EBB & RB to George William Curtis

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 22, 186–188.

April 21– [1856] [1]

My dear Mr Curtis

You pour cauldrons of fire on our heads [2] —we are scorched to the brains of us by your undeserved benefits. Books, [3] letters .. good & kind enough to move stones—and we who are “rolling stones” [4] by nature & habit, answering nothing!—what shall I say for ourselves in excuse, who said nothing in gratitude long ago? What but the truth, that we were wrong, very wrong? that we received your books & enjoyed your literary successes, & looked on for you to a still more distinguished future, & thanked you silently for remembering us in so much kindness, & always intended to do so by writing, one day, & put the day off till we felt ashamed of writing at all?– You see it has happened strangely that all your letters except this last, have been received about a year after date .. which is apt to throw one out into the Indefinite in regard to time– Now, however, you confront us– Here is your writing, warm almost with your hand, and accordingly I answer it with mine at once! Thank you for this review in which you have given my husband so much appreciation & justice, & which in every way is sympathetic with his poetry. [5] I should have had great pleasure from the paper if it had come to me anonymously, and it will not be straining a sentiment to say that this pleasure is greater from the connection with your name .. greater to both of us. For we remember Vallambrosa [sic], dear Mr Curtis, and you– [6] The mountains stand, & so do those recollections! What good days those were, though I had not my child, and you had not your reputation as a man of letters .. nor something which you hold much dearer, I know!

Which brings me to dear Mrs Shaw—you must forgive me for loving her better than Miss Shaw, [7] because I know her better. I have only had a vision of Miss Shaw, but the sun was on her face, and I can understand that you will be very happy. May God make & keep you both so for ever–

If I [8] thank you in this letter .. it is because the pleasure was of course most to me—the regard is not, certainly.

For we are most cordially yours

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

[Continued by RB]

and

Robert Browning with

some particular love & thanks of

his own, despite what may be

implied above.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Fruitlands Museums.

1. Year provided by reference to the return address.

2. Cf. Proverbs 25:22 and Romans 12:20.

3. By this time, Curtis had published four titles: Nile Notes of a Howadji (New York, 1851); The Howadji in Syria (New York, 1852); Lotus Eating: A Summer Book (New York, 1852)—all travel books; and The Potiphar Papers (New York, 1853), a collection of satires on New York Society that first ran in Putnam’s Monthly Magazine. We have been unable to trace any presentation copies of these volumes from Curtis to the Brownings.

4. Cf. the proverbial expression: “A rolling stone gathers no moss.”

5. Doubtless, the review of RB’s works that appeared in the April 1856 issue of Putnam’s Monthly Magazine, where Curtis had been an associate editor since 1853. After quoting from a powerful scene in Pippa Passes, he writes: “This is the poet who is called obscure, because he is not particularly easy reading; and immoral, because he recognizes every great fact of human development, but is never for a moment warped from the true vision of what is essentially true.” For the full text of this review, see pp. 392–400.

6. On their way to Vallombrosa in July 1847, the Brownings met Curtis by chance (see letter 2686).

7. Anna Blake Shaw (1836–1923), eldest child of Francis George Shaw and his wife, Sarah (see letter 3283, note 2), became engaged to Curtis in December 1855. They were married on 26 November 1856 at the Shaws’ home in West New Brighton, Staten Island, New York.

8. Underscored three times.

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