5081. RB to William Frederick Pollock

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 89.

19. Warwick Crescent, Harrow Road.

Saturday Mg [ca. June 1862] [1]

Dear Pollock, [2]

I much fear I cannot go to you on Friday as you so kindly propose: it is the breathing-time (panting & puffing-time) of the day with me & my Boy just then. If I see an escape, however, I will profit by it—you may depend on

Yours very faithfully

Robert Browning.

Publication: None traced.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. This letter is written on black-edged stationery with RB’s crest embossed in black. He was using such stationery from late May to early August 1862.

2. William Frederick Pollock (1815–88), later 2nd Baronet, was a barrister with literary sensibilities, who published a translation of the Divine Comedy (1854).

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