3947. John Ruskin to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 23, 171–173.
[London]
28th December 1856
Dear <Mr> [1] Browning
Out goes the Mr—for I love you, & you know how much I honour you besides so I need’nt be respectful. I do hope, however, you have got my letter about Aurora. [2] I sent one, ever so long ago—declaring my entire faith in it as the greatest poem in the English language– It has turned my head altogether—and I can’t talk of any thing else– Last week—I chanced to be sitting at dinner next Lord Byron’s granddaughter [3] —and—quite forgetting who she was, I must needs come out with this energetic confession of faith in Aurora Leigh—the moment it was named—to my great discomfiture the moment after, when I recollected whom I was talking to. But it’s no use saying how magnificent it is—for you know, & the world is acceptant to the best of its ability. I have not seen—nor heard a single bad word or sneer about it—and all the best people shout, with me, rapturously[.] I merely send this line—to bid you good New Year—and to say how thankful I was to see a statement in the Athenaeum the other day [4] —and that you can now buy a Giotto or two when they come in your way—and I am sure Giotto’s Spirit will send them. Though I doubt not, you are both of you sorrier for your friends loss than glad of anything else.
—I am well, thank God, & getting into work. The trustees of the National Gallery have opened a Circumlocution office [5] correspondence with me—and we are just in the first whorl of the shell– Whether any Blue is at the Murex bottom I know not yet. [6] The Pudding Pause of Xmas has stopped us for the present.
Please send me a single line to say how you are—both.
If Mrs Browning wants to know what I like best, I like the mice on the scarlet thread, [7] and the dog watching Aurora [8] (when, my mother says, she only wanted a good shaking) and the aunt[’]s death, [9] and the child[’]s life of Marian, [10] and the madness, [11] (the Christ wading through the corn) [12] and all the Italian part [13] but chiefly “peak pushing peak they stood” &c. [14] and the bats, [15] and the Frogs [16] and the lizards: [17] and the prayer about the lottery, [18] and Marian Crying (the leaping back bit) [19] and Aurora’s confession. [20]
There–
and Aurora’s scolding letter to lady W. [21] which made me cry & laugh till I had to give up, for that day.
Ever affectionately yours & hers,
J Ruskin.
Address, on integral page: Robert Browning Esq. / Poste Restante / Florence. / Italy.
Publication: Cook, pp. 252–254.
Manuscript: University of Texas.
1. Ruskin crossed through the word “Mr.”
3. Anne Isabella Noel King (afterwards Blunt, 1837–1917), only daughter of William King (1805–93), 1st Earl of Lovelace, and his wife, Augusta Ada (née Byron), only child of Lord Byron and his wife, Anne Isabella Noel (née Milbanke).
4. A reference to the item concerning Kenyon’s bequest; see letter 3931, note 10.
5. A government department in Bleak House (1853), which Dickens uses to satirize bureaucratic inefficiency and indifference.
6. Cf. RB, “Popularity” (1855), lines 26–65. Ruskin had questioned RB extensively about the meaning of this poem in letter 3685.
7. Cf. Aurora Leigh, I, 613–614.
8. Cf. Aurora Leigh, II, 886–887.
9. Cf. Aurora Leigh, II, 911–955.
10. Aurora Leigh, III, 827ff.
11. Aurora Leigh, VI, 1235–74.
12. Cf. Aurora Leigh, VI, 1247–51.
13. Aurora Leigh, VII, 467ff.
14. Aurora Leigh, VII, 472–473.
15. Aurora Leigh, VII, 1067–70.
16. Aurora Leigh, VII, 1078–79.
17. Aurora Leigh, VII, 1080–84.
18. Aurora Leigh, VII, 1247–49.
19. Aurora Leigh, IX, 286–300.
20. Aurora Leigh, IX, 601ff.
21. Aurora Leigh, VII, 278–374.
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