5051. RB to William Wetmore Story, Emelyn Story & Edith Story
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 65–67.
1. Chichester Road,
Upper Westbourne Terrace.
Apr. 10. ’62.
Dearest Friends,
I got the second of the letters this morning, & will answer it at once, if but by a word. I will try earnestly & do anything that may be possible: I seem powerless however in this great place. Last night I was dining with a friend in Parliament (Grant Duff) [1] with two strangers, who were similarly dignified, & one of them asked my opinion (for he was on a committee obliged to make up its mind on that point) as to who was the best English Sculptor—whereupon, turning Irish for the good occasion, I told him & the rest what I thought of the Cleopatra & the Sibyl—ending by formally asking the whole table “How can I get to help the proper placing these statues?” Whereupon said one & all,—[“]There’s no way: a contributor may advocate his own claims, if he’s present—but nobody else.” Don’t think my zeal is quenched—especially by the receipt of that second letter—but I want you to hope very little except from the merits of the statue. Write to me a letter, referring to Mr Adams’ & his presumed power,—I’ll send it with enforcement of my own, which will be only a repetition of what I told him a fortnight ago when I sate by him at Emerson Tennents. [2] Don’t let me forget a curious thing last night,—a Lady something-or-other turned to me & said “I know you are a great friend of the Storys”—(then came the proper tribute to you)—“I knew them when they lived at the Porta Pinciana [3] —& saw the sketch for the Cleopatra—& am happy indeed to hear that it is so realized–” In my stupid way, though I talked to her on that hint, I never asked who she was—(rather large, with an aquiline nose,—I’ll find out.) All my interest in the Exhibition will go to the works you send, & a few more—there is an order to go & see the Interior lying unused on the table since a fortnight– I pass the building without lifting my head to see—though its prodigious ugliness has not quite escaped me. [4] I go out every night to dine in a cold-blooded way, and have had the occasion often to say what I thought about those works—did so the night before last at John Murray’s, [5] —at breakfast last Sunday with Milnes,—always indeed, because the matter goes to my “genio,” [6] & I enjoy doing it. To-night I dine at the Milmans [7] & meet people (the Ashburtons [8] I believe)—& shall be ready to plant a word. But burn this letter, I entreat, for it’s too sub-editorial in character. And there! You surely never thought for a moment that I meant to accept Thackeray’s glories whether discarded by him or subtracted by the Firm? I was simply amused at the notion of their coming to me—and a little flattered: I at once, however, told the messenger that there was no chance of my accepting—but he bade me think it over for a week: I coasted the week out, & then wrote that I had no sort of inclination to do anything of the kind, but that it was due to the politeness of the Publishers to give every attention to their proposal, & if, therefore, they would put it into black & white, stating explicitly what they wanted of me & what they would give me in return, my answer should soon follow. Since then,—silence!—as I expected: tho’, from something I heard, they seem to have wanted the thing more than one would have fancied possible. All’s as well with me now as it ever can be, and, as you say, what has Editorship to do with me?
I never told of that quartiere [9] to anybody—(of where it was)—and am sure the indication to it never came from Miss Blagden. They wanted to let it, I suppose, at bottom of their hearts, & took the next offer: I should have liked to go there one day,—whenever Pen’s education is over—but never mind. I will send the book [10] —I hesitated at first, as I thought yourselves might be coming—but you are not—that is clear!
Take my love, all three of you– I will write again very soon: tell Lady William how happy her recovery makes me,—and the hope of seeing her here. Pen is wonderfully well. Yours affectionately ever,
Robert Browning
The Lodwicks, [11] with whom I dined last week enquired most warmly about you, & charged me, if you came over, not to let you forget them. I dined with Bulwer, [12] tête-à-tête last Monday & found him very pleasant & friendly—& so strangely like Lytton in many respects,—only younger, really!
Burn all this rubbish, I pray you—that I may be encouraged to write more.
Address: Etats Pontificaux / Mrs Story, / Palazzo Barberini, / Rome.
Publication: BAF, pp. 105–108.
Manuscript: Keats-Shelley Memorial Association.
1. Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff (1829–1906), Scottish politician and writer, was at this time Liberal M.P. for Elgin Burghs. In a diary entry dated 28 March 1862, Grant Duff recorded: “Met Browning for the first time at Reeve’s” (see SD2565).
2. On 19 March. See letter 5040.
3. In early March 1849, the Storys took lodgings in the Porta Pinciana (see Henry James, William Wetmore Story and His Friends, Edinburgh, 1903, I, 121).
4. The main building of the International Exhibition of 1862 (see letter 5001, note 8) was constructed of “glass and iron” from a design by “Captain Fowke of the Royal Engineers. It was larger than the Crystal Palace and stood at the southern end of the gardens of the Royal Horticultural Society in Kensington” (The London Encyclopædia, ed. Ben Weinreb and Christopher Hibbert, 1983, p. 411).
5. John Murray (1808–1892), publisher.
6. “Talent.”
7. Henry Hart Milman (1791–1868), Dean of St. Paul’s, and his wife, Mary Anne (née Cockell, 1804–71).
8. William Bingham Baring, 2nd Baron Ashburton (1799–1864), and his second wife, Louisa Caroline (née Stewart-Mackenzie, 1827–1903).
9. “Apartment”; i.e., the one the Brownings were hoping to take in Palazzo Barberini (see letter 4908, note 4).
10. The presentation copy of Last Poems that RB sent to the Storys is inscribed: “The dear friends at Palazzo Barberini, from their affectionate RB. London, 1862” (see Reconstruction, C58).
11. Peter Lodwick (1784–1873) and his second wife, Elizabeth Mary (née Eastwick, formerly Ford, 1802–73).
12. Edward George Bulwer Lytton (1803–73), on 7 April.
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