Correspondence

4007.  EBB to Unidentified Correspondent

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 24, 79.

Casa Guidi, Florence

June 12th [?1857] [1]

Offered for sale by Alwin J. Scheuer, book seller, New York, Catalogue 2, 1926, item 389. 1 p., 8vo., with autograph poem “May’s Love,” signed in full. EBB writes: “Sir, / You ask me for a short unpublished poem, and I send you a very short one—a song. I hope it may not be unsuitable to your purpose, while wishing it were worthier, and I have the honour to remain / Sir, / Your obedient servant / Elizabeth Barrrett Browning.”

1. The earliest extant manuscript of “May’s Love” (1862) is a fair copy dated Paris, March 1856 (ms at ABL). After that date EBB was in Florence on 12 June every year from 1857 to 1861. We place this letter in the earliest of those years.

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