3878. EBB to William Cox Bennett

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 81.

London–

October 9– [1856] [1]

Dear Sir

Your kind communication reaches me in the midst of our last preparations for a return to Italy. I am glad to recognize your name, and to thank you for the kindness of your feeling towards me. You have taken the other side of my tragic situation very dramatically– [2] Let me venture to observe that “coming to” is not a refined abbreviation of ‘coming to herself’ .. in the last line of the poem,—& that if there is yet time, it would be advisable to make some change– [3] Forgive this impertinence—will you?

Both my husband & myself wish you prosperity in your new poetical venture—yes, most cordially we do.

Very faithfully yours

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Wellesley College.

1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to Bennett’s new work (see the end of note 2 below).

2. In “A Character,” a verse drama in two scenes that turns on the character of Lina Merton, who has lost her betrothed to her younger sister, Helen—told mainly from the elder sister’s point of view. A similar story occurs in EBB’s “Bertha in the Lane” (1844), also told from the elder sister’s point of view, though as she lies dying. In the second scene of “A Character,” Lina discusses EBB’s poem at length, juxtaposing the self-sacrifice of Bertha’s elder sister with her own feelings of bitterness and vengeance. Bennett’s poem appeared in his Queen Eleanor’s Vengeance. and Other Poems (1857), published by Chapman and Hall on 19 November 1856 (see the book’s advertisement in The Athenæum, 15 November 1856, no. 1516, p. 1411). Evidently, Bennett had sent EBB a proof of the poem.

3. Apparently it was too late, or Bennett ignored EBB’s suggestion. The final line of “A Character” reads: “By myself, au revoir! see—she’s coming to.”

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