Correspondence

5267.  RB to George Eliot

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 30, 282–283.

19. Warwick Crescent,

Upper Westbourne Terrace,

Aug. 2. ’63. 5. a.m.

My dear Mrs Lewes,

I had hoped that the last thing I should do before going away would be, on shutting “Romola’s” last volume, to use pen & paper in at least an attempt to express my gratitude for the noblest & most heroic prose-poem that I have ever read: but I go miserably away at the end of the chapter—“on San Miniato.”– [1] Well, if I had just read all—going up to the height I expect—I probably could not have said even this poor word—which you must take for what it is worth: thank you once more heartily.

All regard to your Husband from

his & yours affectionately

Robert Browning.

Publication: The George Eliot Letters, ed. Gordon S. Haight (New Haven, Conn., 1954–78), 4, 96.

Manuscript: Yale University.

1. Chapter VII (pp. 67–75) in volume 3 of Eliot’s Romola (1863).

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