5223. Walter Savage Landor to RB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 243.
[Florence]
[Postmark: 15 May 1863]
Dear Browning, today I have entrusted to the Spediorario [1] a case of books directed to you, carriage-paid. The box is filled up with a variety of trash—among it you will find some latin books which may be useful to the studious Robert, [2] and two or three copies of Translations from the arabic and persian, [3] which I ought to have placed in your friend Twistletons hands myself. Never have I seen any man who pleased me so greatly at first sight, and very few who have pleased me half so much[.]
Inadvertently I have packt up some Letters from a dear friend which, being so innocent you may read and burn–
Ever affectionately yours
W S Landor
Address: A<ng>leterre / Robert Browning Esq / 19. Warwick Crescent / Westbourne Terrace / London.
Publication: BBIS-5, p. 52.
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Sic, for Spedizioniere (“shipping agent”), named in letter 5227 as “M Ramaci.”
2. Approximately two dozen books listed in Reconstruction bear inscriptions (most in RB’s hand) that indicate they were given to Pen by Landor. Among these are works by Pindar (A1854), Pliny (A1870), and Seneca (A2067). Landor also included more modern works: Divina Commedia (A753); Don Quixote, trans. Tobias Smollett (A604); and Rousseau’s works in eleven volumes (A1977). The Cicero mentioned in letter 5108 has not been traced.
3. Although there are 25 copies of Landor’s Poems from the Arabic and Persian (1800) listed in the Reconstruction (see A1405–10), two that he sent at this time were probably A1405 and A1406, both of which bear inscriptions in the author’s hand. Present locations of any of the 25 copies are unknown.
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