5468. RB to Francis Turner Palgrave
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 31, 154–155.
19. Warwick Crescent,
Upper Westbourne Terrace,
Oct 19. ’64
My dear Palgrave,
Thank you indeed for your letter & the pleasant news of your return. We were not near each other in France– I went Southward to the Pyrenees and Biarritz—indeed I saw Fontarabia & St Sebastian. We’ll talk it all over soon, but, I much fear, not to-night, for I have a vile cold and cough and must care for my sweet self. If I can look in, I will, of course.
You write the article? [1] No, indeed! Were you minded to review me, you might only have much to say against the general cut of my coat, but would not—I fancy—go grubbing among my old wardrobe of thirty years’ accumulation, and, picking off here a quaint button, there a queer tag & lapel, exhibit them as my daily wear. Bless us, in the course of my musical exercises, and according to the moods of many a year, I may have treated myself to an occasional whistle, cherrup, and guffaw, besides the regular symphonies—and even in these, it’s not unlikely that “Strafford,” written twenty-eight years ago, is far from perfect: whereupon .. but see the Review and then smash it! I had supposed that the ramshackle old “Edinburg,” under a succession of sleepy Editors, [2] was cleaned in the crannies: but—body o’ me!—here’s a bug again!
Ever yours most truly
Robert Browning.
Publication: Gwenllian F. Palgrave, Francis Turner Palgrave, Journals and Memories of His Life (London, 1899), pp. 94–95.
Manuscript: British Library.
1. i.e., the notice of RB’s works in The Edinburgh Review (see letter 5463, note 7).
2. The current editor was Henry Reeve (see letter 4404, note 19), whom RB had known since 1838. The previous two editors were George Cornewall Lewis (1806–63) from 1852 to 1855 and William Empson (1789–52) from 1847 to 1852. The latter had moved the magazine’s offices to London, and during his tenure, according to the ODNB, “the influence of the review was waning.”
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