Correspondence

3845.  RB to Edward Chapman

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 39.

39 Devonshire Place

[ca. 22 August 1856] [1]

Dear Chapman,

“Evelyn Hope” & “Two in the Campagna” are poems of mine, not my wife’s, and are to be found in “Men & Women”: in vols 1 & 2. I send the proofs [2] by the book-post: (keep going!)

Yours faithfully,

R Browning.

The poems are wanted for Mr Wilmot’s collection, no doubt. [3]

Publication: NL, p. 96.

Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.

1. Dating suggested by RB's references to “the proofs” and “Mr Wilmot’s collection” (see notes 2 and 3 below). In letter 3840 EBB wrote that she had received “the proofs of almost two” of the first books of Aurora Leigh and indicated that she had begun correcting them. We therefore place this letter a day or two after letter 3840 and on or before the Brownings’ 23 August departure for the Isle of Wight.

2. The proofs of Aurora Leigh rather than Poems (1856). The latter work was completed before 20 August (see letter 3841) and was “passing thro’ the press” prior to 18 June (see letter 3802).

3. The Poets of the Nineteenth Century (1857), edited by Rev. Robert Aris Willmott (1809–63), includes the two poems RB names, as well as EBB’s “Wine of Cypress” (pp. 326–336). Published by George Routledge & Co., the book appeared in The Athenæum’s “List of New Books” on 4 October 1856 (no. 1510, p. 1219).

___________________