3930. RB to Edward Chapman
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 141–142.
Florence,
Dec. 2. ’56.
Dear Chapman,
I receive by to-day’s post “Aurora Leigh”—from you or yours, I conjecture—but no word of comment: there is always such a thing to fear in these parts as a letter’s miscarrying—has that been so? If not, it’s a shame of you, black and burning, not to have been at that trouble. But a letter from Mr Procter comes too, and speaks of your needing to go to press very soon with another edition—and the book we receive may be sent for presumeable corrections: in this case, print to-morrow, if you please—there is nothing whatever to correct, that we are able to see at present, [1] —the book having been settled for some time to come when we were in London for that purpose. My wife made up her mind to it as it is,—and for the present, as I say, cannot reconsider the subject: all the “modern” passages, illustrations, are vitally necessary, she thinks,—and I think quite as strongly,—and could not be detached without capital injury to the rest of the poem: & for the rest, there would seem to be no verbal errors to signify—however we will look to that, and let you know or not, as it may seem worth while,—but the principal thing is to pray you not to keep people waiting a moment in waiting for further notice from us– (Us—I am the church-organ-bellows’ blower that talked about our playing—but you know what I do in the looking after commas and dots to Is)
I saw the Athenæum, Globe & Daily News [2] —that’s all—hearing of eulogy from the Lit. Gaz. [3] and blackguardism from the “Press” [4] —all like those night-men [5] who are always emptying their cart at my door—and welcome when I remember that after all they don’t touch our bread with their beastly hands, as they used to do. Don’t you mind them, and leave me to rub their noses in their own filth some fine day.
Ever yours faithfully
Robert Browning.
Please send a copy of “Aurora Leigh” to Joseph Arnould Esq. 35 Westbourne Place, Eaton Square.
Publication: NL, pp. 96–98.
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Advertised as a “second edition” by Chapman and Hall, though it was nothing more than a reprint (per RB’s instructions), it was released on 12 January 1857 (see The Athenæum of 10 January 1857, no. 1524, p. 37). There was at least one correction made in this reprinting, however, as Margaret Reynolds points out in her edition of the poem, “one small and obvious substantive error (‘upom’ at 9.53 on page 371) corrected by the printer” (Aurora Leigh, Athens, Ohio, 1992, p. 117).
2. Reviews of Aurora Leigh appeared in The Daily News on 26 November 1856 (p. 2); in The Globe and Traveller on 20 November 1856 (p. 1); and in The Athenæum on 22 November 1856 (pp. 1425–27). For the full text of these reviews, see Appendix III.
3. The Literary Gazette of 22 November 1856 (pp. 917–918) carried an effusively positive notice of Aurora Leigh. In the opening paragraph, the anonymous reviewer wrote: “In the presence of so much power we can only be silent, and admire, and surrender ourselves wholly … to the influence of the noble soul that floods our own with its exuberant riches, and stirs it through all its deeps with the voice of inspiration.” For the full text of this review, see pp. 279–282.
4. The anonymous reviewer of Aurora Leigh in The Press, 22 November 1856 (pp. 1120–22) dismissed the work as “artificial and egotistical, both to an extreme degree. The book is no more a genuine poem than the antics of a master of the ceremonies are a ball. All is flourish and parade.” For the full text of this review, see pp. 282–286.
5. Men “employed during the night to empty cesspools, etc., and to convey away the night-soil” (OED).
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