3926. Bryan Waller Procter to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 137–138.
32 Weymouth St
Portland Place
Nov. 27. 1856.
My dear Browning
I wrote to you a few days ago—hurriedly—& with my first imperfect impressions of your wife’s poem. I have now read nearly all, and my admiration far exceeds what I had even anticipated from the outset. It is a fine manly (if I dare use the word—but it is our poor masculine way of complimenting)—a fine manly & original poem,—deep thoughted too.
But why embalm in heroic verse, which ought to be permanent, the fleeting gossip of 1856?—which is temporary only?
The poem has sold exceedingly well. 900 have been disposed of—& Chapman must go to press again in a fortnight. [1] I do trust that Mrs Browning will give the subject some reconsideration—& I trust that you will induce her to do so.
Why not put in the shape of narrative the pith of that drawing room talk, which in the opinion of almost every body, detracts from the high Character of the poem?
If I were by her side I would kiss her hand & beg her to relent—as it is I feel that she will do me the kindness to suppose that my meddling is not from a love of meddling—but from a desire that she should know what almost every body thinks. By striking out certain passages she will disarm the malignants & give her poem fair play.– My book [2] has just been subscribed & has gone so far very well.
Always my dear Browning
You & your wife[’]s sincere
B. W. Procter
You have of course heard of our poor friend Kenyon’s loss. [3]
P.S. I am told (for I have not seen the paper) that some Critics have extracted the parts that strike me as objectionable only (i.e. nothing but these) as fair specimens of the poem—omitting the—so to speak—heroical & meditative parts. [4]
Address: Robert Browning Esqre / Casa Guidi / Florence / Italy.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Huntington Library.
2. Dramatic Scenes, with Other Poems (1857).
3. The death of his brother, Edward Kenyon (1786?–1856), on 20 November at Vienna.
4. Procter may have in mind the notice of Aurora Leigh that appeared in The Athenæum of 22 November 1856 (no. 1517, pp. 1425–27). The reviewer, given as Henry Chorley in the marked file copy of The Athenæum now at City University (London), complained that he had “no experience of such a mingling of what is precious with what is mean … of the grandeur of passion and the pettiness of modes and manners.” Chorley cited as an example of “pettiness” the beginning of the wedding scene in Book IV, lines 608–658, which is filled with gossip and small talk. For the full text of this review, see pp. 275–279.
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