509. RB to André Victor Amédée de Ripert-Monclar
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 3, 142–145.
London,
July 30. 1835.
Is not your allowance of letters to your friend .. one in two months or thereabout … une belle gueuserie, mon bien cher Amédée? [1] Dii meliora piis! [2] and nothing but the famous quality of the Godsend when it does come, could make me tolerate such an evasion of my lawful rights: you are lucky in finding me in a hurry; or I would say a sharp thing or two: au fait—voici le fait– [3]
1mo Do me the honor to accept the accompanying poem, & the justice to believe that it is no vain compliment to assure you that I consider it adorned by your name at the beginning: I have other works in progress & will send them as soon as published .. indeed you must know that this present is not yet fairly published, but is an early copy received this morning … I ought to have waited, perhaps, & have presented it properly bound & burnished, [4] but I was unwilling to miss the opportunity which occurs of forwarding it at once. As for the work itself, I have only to beseech you to criticize it as a whole & not in detail: I shall be glad to have your opinion about it, as the effect of this production will have an influence on its successors: can you review it in the “Nouveau Conservateur”?—your article on Martin is charming. [5]
2o I have to thank you exceedingly for the aforesaid “Nouveau Conservateur,” (which seems a very well got-up affair)—for a number of the Quotidienne, wherein is honorable but deserved mention made of yourself [5] —for some very clever books by the Marquis de Fortia which I have read with the greatest interest, not only from the authors connection with you, but on account of their intrinsic merits, which are of a high order. I happen to have met with a work of his, since writing to you last, on the passage of Hannibal over the Alps, [6] which delighted me. His learning appears to be as profound as multifarious. Some lithographs which accompanied the books are yours I think & are beautiful I am sure. They have reached, after a passage thro’ unnumbered hands, & experiencing the most admiring comments, into the “ultima Thule” [7] of my Sisters portfolio, [8] where, enshrined amid other carefully-preserved relics of your taste & talents, they await the arrival of a certain portrait of a certain friend of ours .. let them not wait long!
3/ The affair of the advertisement is cleared up completely by your explanation: as you may conceive, the undue importance I attributed to it was an effect of my ignorance of the way in which my name had been introduced: I am glad the concern goes prosperously on: but in England “law is law” & gloriously incertain, & privileged & guarded & “hedged round about” [9] &, in short, not to be meddled with: I gave some account of your institution to a clever friend of mine, a barrister in extensive practice; & he assured me that any person introducing such a thing in England would be indicted in a week or less: “Tis plain “barretry” [sic] [10] [”] (or some such barbarous name) said he: but “they manage these matters better in France” [11] it seems. So I can only offer the Society [12] my best wishes for the success of its carreer [sic] .. impleat orbem! [13]
4/. Your compliments on my French Letter open my eyes: quelle bévue—quelle indiscrétion! [14] —is it not to my advantage that you should keep up your knowledge of English .. are you not to read my books, & criticize my works .. & suppose you let slip your former acquisitions! No, no: write to me in English, & I will do my best to keep pace with you in French .. otherwise, not a word do you get. C’est résolu, décidé, arrété, arrangé. Ça vous va-t-il? pas plus de mes lettres que dessus ma main: je n’ai pas le tem[p]s [15] de faire des phrases, autrement, ma foi, je vous dirais de fort jolies. [16]
Seriously, can you understand my letters in a foreign Language .. because if you cannot, altho’ much against my will, I will do my best to put them in French–
5o “Angelo” is having a run at one of our minor theatres: [17] I have not seen it: thank you for your bit of literary-gossip– I don’t know Balzac as well as I could wish: Delamartine’s Travels in Palestine [18] are making a noise here just now.
We have Leontine Fay [19] —diva! mais Malibran, l’andalouse aux yeux noirs, tra tutti [sic, for tutte] l’altre donne del mondo bellissima e valorosa! [20]
Do write to me soon, dear Amédee; My father, mother & sister send their very best remembrances .. tho’ absent in body you are assuredly present in spirit with us: come over & see us if you can, but if that may not be, believe us all to be your true & faithful friends, & myself particularly (though I have no right to say it)—dear Amédée,
Yours most affectionately
Robert Browning.
P.S. We have just got the news of Louis Philippe’s escape [21] .. & a great fuss it makes.
Address, on integral page: A Monsieur / M. le Cte de Ripert-Monclar. / Ancien Magistrat / &c &c &c / No 12. Rue de Larochefoucauld.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Yale University.
1. “A poor show.”
3. “Incidentally—this is the situation.”
4. The formal publication date of Paracelsus was 15 August; as RB indicates, he was sending a preliminary copy (see Reconstruction, C437).
5. Not having been able to study Le Nouveau Conservateur, we have not traced this article. It is possible that Monclar had reviewed the just-published Livre du Cœur of Louis Aimé Martin (1786–1847).
6. Dissertation sur le Passage du Rhone et des Alpes par Annibal (1821). RB’s copy, with an inscription dated 16 June 1835, formed lot 627 of Browning Collections (see Reconstruction, A991). One of the books given by Monclar earlier was Fortia d’Urban’s Essai sur l’Origine de l’Écriture (1832), inscribed by Monclar on 21 August 1834 (see Reconstruction, A992). There is no record of RB’s owning any other of the many works by Fortia d’Urban, but the books RB now thanks Monclar for might have included Chronologie de Jésus Christ (1830), Homère et ses Ecrits (1832) and Principes de Morale Naturelle (4th edn., 1834).
7. “Farthest Thule” (Vergil, Georgics, I, 30).
8. Several portfolios are included in Reconstruction (H156–163).
9. Cf. Hamlet, IV, 5, 124.
10. Barratry is the sale of offices of state (OED).
11. Cf. the first line of Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy (1768).
12. The subject of this paragraph is L’Institut Historique, which RB and Monclar had joined in 1834.
13. “May it fill the globe” (Ovid, Metamorphoses, XI, 453).
14. “What a blunder, what an indiscretion!”
15. Although we have amended RB’s spelling to conform to current usage, it should be pointed out that, when he learned French, the rules promulgated by l’Académie Française in the 3rd edition (1740) of the authorized dictionary were still in force; these rules suppressed superfluous letters in some 5,000 words, including forms such as sentiments, enfants, maistre, sçavoir. It was not until the 6th edition (1835) that some of the suppressed consonants were re-introduced, e.g., the final t in sentiments, the p in temps. Monclar, of course, would have been bound by the same rules.
16. “It is resolved, decided, settled, arranged. Is this all right with you? No more of my letters but what’s to hand: I don’t have time to make set phrases, otherwise, to be sure, I would say some clever ones.”
17. Hugo’s play, Angelo; or, The Tyrant of Padua, had been given earlier in July at the Royal Victoria Theatre.
18. A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land (1835), by Marie Louis Alphonse de Prat de Lamartine (1790–1869).
19. One of the actresses in the company presenting a series of French plays at the Royal Olympic Theatre.
20. Marie Félicité Malibran (1808–36), French singer and actress, had been performing at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Her ballet, “Nina,” had been given at the King’s Theatre on 16 July. RB’s sentence reads: “But Malibran, the dark-eyed Andalusian, of all the women in the world the most beautiful and gifted!”
21. An attempt had been made to assassinate Louis Philippe. The Times of 20 July had reported a “traitorous attack” the previous Tuesday, while Louis Philippe was reviewing troops. The King and his three sons were unhurt, although the King’s horse was killed, but the Duke of Treviso and others were killed or wounded.
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